Dinosaurs & Cars: Together!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of VTechKids. All opinions are 100% mine.

 

The boys received these cool toys from VTech the other day. They couldn't [and still can't] put them down.

I'm so thrilled with this. Why? Because its something other than tractors for once! Yes, it's still another 'thing that goes'... but it's also a dinosaur! Something completely new to the boys! Not new, but not something they generally play with regularly.

Check these out! We got Horns the Triceratops and Sliver the T-Rex.

Henry immediately called green, of course. He had no idea what they even were yet. But it was green and that's all that mattered.

They're transformer cars! And they're not dinky ones like from our childhood. They're big, sturdy and plastic, they're not gonna break!

Henry was just engrossed in it. Trying to figure out what it all does. I didn't show him. I let him figure out what moved and where it went. It was a puzzle to him to figure out.

See that? Henry was actually much more interested in the blue one! The triceratops must be much more interesting to him.

George played with whatever Henry wasn't. Figuring it out just as much as Henry was. Moving parts. Driving the car. And roaring like a dinosaur!

I loved seeing the boys in this new element for them. Henry found the buttons. The entire time they were playing, the buttons were going off, making car sounds when it was a car, and roaring when it was a dinosaur. It also shouts out dinosaur facts, but the buttons were pushed so fast, you never had time to hear them completely! [Now that they're not so completely over the top excited, they have taken the time to listen to what they say. Learning about dinosaurs while they're playing!]

Henry finally realized that the LCD screen on the front changed. When it was a dinosaur, there were eyes. And there was a button that can change the eyes! How cool! Henry thought so. [It does the same for a driver when it's transformed to a car.]

Mid-transformation, Henry decided his 'car' was going to be an airplane for a while. Zooming it around. Another 'out-of-element' discovery for him. Love that!

With this new-found discovery for dinosaurs, I've been on the lookout for some dino activities for the boys to do!

10 Dinosaur Activities to do:

1. Dinosaur small world play, The Imagination Tree
2. Sing dinosaur songs, Carrots are Orange
3. Go on a dinosaur excavation, Motherhood on a Dime
4. Create dinosaur fossils, Our Crafts ~n~ Things
5. Match dinosaur tracks, Mom Endeavors
6. Measuring how big dinosaurs are, Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational
7. Go on a dinosaur hunt, Make Do & Friend
8. Make a dinosaur skeleton from pasta, Busy Bee Kids Crafts
9. Paint a dinosaur T-shirt, Happy Whimsical Hearts
10. Make dinosaurs in play dough, Happy Whimsical Hearts

We're also breaking out an old favorite book, The Dinosaur, by Anna Milbourne. That's about as far as we've ever gotten with dinosaurs before!

 

Do you have a dinosaur lover? Or a car lover?

There's four Switch & Go Dinos, and they're are just out! Literally, just. You can Buy today on Amazon [just since the 21st!] and on sale now for $15.99. You can also get the Switch & Go Dinos from VTech Kids starting on June 18th, also on sale then too for $15.99!

It's Playtime is Learning Time!

I love to find fun ways to teach new concepts to the boys.

Henry's been really into counting lately, so we've been doing a lot of things with numbers. [He's even adding and subtracting, and even sometimes dividing without even knowing it!]

Here's 4 learning activities for the kids from last week's It's Playtime!

Above, clockwise from top-left:

• Mama's Little Muse had fun mixing primary colors with Shamrock Color Viewer!
• Adventures at Home with Mom matched shapes! Match little shapes to their big shape and make a collage!
• A number game from Mummy Mummy Mum has had me thinking of how to make this perfect for Henry! Roll the ball through a tunnel and add [or subtract!] the number above the tunnel to your score!
• Compare, predict and test. Play Create Explore set up a WAY to learn about WEIGHT!

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It's Playtime is a community for play loving bloggers to share ways to play.

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Sand Sensory Art: 100th Day of Preschool

Henry had his first homework assignment for preschool.
To create the number 100 out of something.
[Not 100 of something, but to make the numbers themselves.]

We discussed it together to decide what to make.
[Henry told me his teacher made one out of corn!]

We decided we wanted to make one with dirt.
Well, its February in Iowa and it just snowed about six inches, so dirt wasn't to be found.
We settled on sand. [Thankfully, our sandbox has a lid!]

Henry created the number 100 while playing with sand, inside!
It was fun and George even joined in.

First, I had Henry write the number 100 on a piece of scrapbook paper.
I was amazed at how easy this was for him.
His writing skills have really taken off, even if they aren't correctly done all the time, I'm still impressed. [He often starts at the bottom of letters and numbers, instead of the top.]

I then traced over it to thicken up the lines.

Henry painted the numbers with glue. 

And then the real fun began.

The sand came out.

Henry decided to dig in it with his backhoe.

Loading it up and hauling it to his paper.

This literally took him well over an hour to do.

He covered his numbers with sand, as well as pushing the sand around to make piles and spread it out. He was pretty busy.

When all the numbers were completely covered, he picked up the paper and shook it off.

Ta-da! 

The number 100 was still there where he painted his glue! 

What's your opinion?

Does he get an E for effort?

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Kid Activity: Crayon Color Sorting

The kids and I were out shopping, actually doing it to waste time to pick up Dad.

And I came across these crayon shaped paint sample cards. 

I had no plan for them, but I've been seeing a million ideas for sample cards lately, and thought there must be something I could do with them. It seems I'm starting to hoard things without a plan lately. Yesterday's activity was with colored tape that I had no plan for either!

I did come up with a learning activity for the paint sample cards.

Fittingly, we sorted crayons!

I taped the crayon shaped sample cards inside the holes of a muffin tin.

I set out our box of mixed up crayons and Henry sorted them!

We found out very soon that the color of the crayon, or the paper on the crayon is sometimes misleading.

A black crayon has a very light gray paper.

Sometimes a burnt orange crayon looks brown.

Henry learned to test his crayons before deciding what color it was. 

A sneaky way for me to have him practice scribbling, drawing, writing... as well as his pencil grip!

[tee hee hee]

Henry went through each and every crayon we had.

Placing it in the corresponding muffin tin.

Henry observed that there were a lot of orange crayons!

And blues!

[We counted them then to see which had more, turns out orange did!]

A fun color learning activity, and a piece of art in the process! 

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Fun Kid Activity: Lines of Colored Tape

I finally got some colored tape!

I didn't even have plans for it, but I felt the need to have it for some fun kid activities!

We got to it right away.

I taped some fun lines on the floor in three different colors.

A blue zig zag line.

A red curvy line.

And one straight line in green.

We ended up with two activities with this one setup with colored tape.

1. Walk the line of colored tape.
2. Blow pom poms along the coordinating color line.

Fun Kid Activity #1: Walk the Line
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Painting, Activities, Experiments & Learning

1. Some edible yogurt finger paint, let George participate in a painting activity with us!
2. Another way to get George involved in painting? Put it in a baggy! Add something to roll around and let him have at it.
3. A super fun, messy [but yet clean] sensory activity for both the boys! Making foam from dish soap!
4. Some tape as roads and add blocks to build a city! Have fun!
5. Paint a rainbow with a sponge, all at once!
6. Tape down a maze, add some numbers and 'connect the dots'. A fun learning activity.
7. Henry made up his own experiment, with tractors and wagons of course! How much will the wagons hold?
8. And save your recycling! There's 34 recyclables that you must save to upcycle with the kids!

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I'm Proud: Writing his Name

Trying to get Henry focused on writing, or really anything fine-motor related, has been a struggle. He was always about movement, full of energy. Too much energy to sit still and take time to learn such a thing as writing. 

Yes, it worried me. He didn't seem to be 'up to par' in this area. But I let it go. He's 3 and I know writing isn't something they should be able to do, it was just the fine motor area in general that worried me. 

So, when Henry started preschool this fall, the teachers had poked me about his hand grip and handedness. Once again. Worry struck. One day it was that he held his pencil too loosely, and the next it was too tight of a grip. But I let it go, thinking there wasn't much I could do about it anyway. Just modeled it correctly when I got the opportunity.

Finally, in just the last couple of months, Henry's been more and more interested in doing 'the little things'. Don't get me wrong, he's still completely full of energy and moves a lot. But he now takes time to work with his hands too. 

We still haven't really worked on writing at home [although they do at school], but a couple weeks ago, we moved our chalkboard into our office area [it previously had been hung out in the garage, inaccessible]. 

Henry completely surprised me when he picked up the chalk.

He wrote his name.

Completely on his own.

Left to right.

Correct order.

I'm proud.

He did start directly in the middle of the chalkboard, with the biggest H he could make. There's a conversation on the hands on : as we grow Facebook page regarding this for suggestions on how to help when they're frustration from the child when they run out of room.

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The Last Sneak Peek of The Heart Book

Only a few days left to get The Heart Book. Its only available with a donation to The American Heart Association through the end of February. Get the ebook or the printed book!

What's in the book?

See a couple of the Heart sneak peeks I've given this month.

• The first sneak peek of the book gives four of the Heart Projects.
• Some of the It's Playtime playdates shared some of their Heart Projects they contributed to the book. Take a look!
• And the last sneak peek gave a sample of each of the sections of the book: Create, Play, Display and Cook with Hearts.

Over 100 heart projects are in the book!

And here's a couple more of the brilliant ideas you'll find there.

Clockwise from top-left:

• Angelique Felix: I Love You Massage
• Mum Paints Lives: Play dough Heart Tree
• A Little Learning for Two: Felt Heart Bag
• Dinosaurs & Octopuses: I Spy Toy Heart Collage

Make a donation of $5 to the American Heart Association

and receive The Heart Project ebook!

US $5.00 Donation to AHA

US $20.00 Order the Printed Version [$5 of every sale of the printed book will go to the AHA]

Please say "Thanks!" to CraftProjectIdeas.com for donating $1 for every book sold!

Or you can make a donation to the American Heart Association, without purchasing the book.

 

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Current sponsors :  Fudoo Boards  :  A Mom with a Lesson Plan  :  CraftProjectIdeas.com : My Toy Smart

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