Wow! What a great way to pass the time! Not only does it keep the conversation focused, but I swear he learns 5 new things every time we get in the car. It has introduced him to new vocabulary, helped him practice his phonics, and improved his cognitive and problem solving skills. I can almost hear his little brain cranking away when we play. Now, he initiates the game more than I do which is pretty cool.

This is how my preschooler and I play…

One of us starts off by saying, “I am thinking of something that starts with the letter [A LETTER].” We follow it up with a few general clues like, “It is purple”, “It is a person in my school”, or whatever.

There is no limit to the number of hints we can ask for. We just keep asking questions until we figure it out. Then we switch sides and the other person gets to start.

Yes…Sounds kind-of lame, but it can actually be pretty challenging. Sometimes, when it is Edison’s turn, he does not get the first letter right (especially with C’s and K’s), so it makes it extra tough. Plus, he occasionally will come up with such crazy things that no amount of hints will lead me to the right answer.

Case in point…

Edison: I am thinking of something that starts with the letter F.

Me: Is it a person?

Edison: No.

Me: Is it a place?

Edison: No.

Me: Is it a thing?

Edison: No.

(Um…Maybe he does not understand what a “thing” is.)

Me: Is it a food?

Edison: No.

(I list other categories of things, and he says “No” to each one.)

Me: What color is it?

Edison: Um…No color.

Me: How big is it? Is it bigger than the car?

Edison: Um…It isn’t big.

(I list a bunch of “F” words and he says “No” to each one.)

Me: Are you sure it starts with “F”?

(Edison makes the “F” sound quietly to himself before answering, “Yes”.)

Me: I give up.

Edison: It’s “Friction”!!!

—

Seriously? He could have given me a million hints and I never would have guessed that.

Now, in case you are thinking that my preschooler is some kind of amazing genius who reads Physics books alone by candlelight before he goes to sleep, I should probably tell you how he learned the word.

At school, he was doing something that was the exact opposite of genius…Crawling around with his head on the floor. Afterwards, he looked up at his teacher and said his head hurt. By the time we picked him up, a giant welt had formed on his forehead. You guessed it…Rug burn.

So, we gave him a nice demonstration of friction by rubbing our hands together really fast and feeling how they got warm. We explained that the welt on his head was actually a burn because the friction made it so hot.

Apparently, the conversation made an impression because it came up over 2 months later in our little game…Crazy kid.

The post Great Preschool Activity for Expanding Vocabulary and Practicing Phonics appeared first on Wild Edisons.

Last night, I set out to teach my son how to play UNO. Before we started, I removed all of the Skips, Draw 2’s, and other funky cards as well as all cards that were higher than 5. This left us with a more manageable deck and a lot less to teach/learn.

So, we played…

Dealing 7 cards is different than counting 7 cards. So, as I dealt, I said, “One for Edison…One for Mommy…Two for Edison…Two for Mommy…”

I explained the deck, the discard pile, and the basics of how to play. He picked it up pretty quickly. Without a doubt, his favorite part was yelling, “UNO!” each time he got down to one card.

The advantage of playing UNO with a preschooler is that their hands are too little to hold the cards in such a way that no one can see them. When I had the opportunity to play a card that would help him out, I did. But, I never held back a card that I could play or let him “accidentally” play the wrong card. Letting a child win leads to false expectations and poor losers. Plus, they can’t get better if they always win.

We played 2 games. The first game, he won. You would have thought that the sky had opened up and rained fruit-juice lollipops and Transformers. He was ecstatic. We high-fived and he asked to play again.

The second game was a different story…It took him a moment to realize that he hadn’t won. Then, the waterworks started.

I hate to say it, but that is exactly what I was hoping would happen. It presented the perfect opportunity to talk about good sportsmanship. After he calmed down, we had a nice little talk about how it is nice to win but not winning is fine too.

“That’s how we learn,” I said.

He will have to lose a lot more before he learns how to be OK with it, but last night was a great start. This morning, he wanted to play UNO first thing. He won, fair and square. Afterwards, we shook hands and said, “good game.”

Great job, Little Man!

The post Is it wrong that I am happy my preschooler lost at UNO? appeared first on Wild Edisons.

Go online and perform a basic search for ‘toddler classes’ or ‘kids activities’. The amount of available classes and events can be surprising for moms and difficult to sort out. In many cases, these businesses appearing in the search results rely solely on their websites to convince viewers to utilize that business’s service for their kids. Needless to say, the competition online to gain these moms as customers is immense.

In our competitive world, moms demand the best for their kids even from early ages. Many times these moms choose to enroll their children in a number of classes such as tumbling, music learning, arts and crafts and more to enhance their exposure to movement and artistic skills. While this could be difficult to manage for these moms, the increased number of classes and activities along with available online discussions and reviews of these offerings allow moms to not only be selective but also efficient. Having all of this information allows moms to schedule classes and events that mesh into their personal schedules.

Websites including TotActivities.com offer moms a simple option to not only find local activities and classes but also pinpoint their exact locations via Google Maps as well as view other moms’ opinions of those businesses. As Mr. Roth pointed out earlier, parents can choose to have both quantity as well as quality in the activity choices for their kids by utilizing available website tools to bring all of the desired information together in an efficient manner. The internet kids business marketplace is expanding rapidly and moms can greatly benefit from this expansion by keenly utilizing the available free tools and website services to manage their family schedule.

Best of Luck in your Kids Activity Searching!

The post Find Local Baby Yoga Classes & Toddler Tumbling Class w/ Gymnastics appeared first on Wild Edisons.