Teaching Numbers, Shapes & Colors

It is such a fun role as a parent to teach our children all about the exciting world of numbers, shapes and colors.

I love teaching Annabelle & Scarlett new things and seeing the excitement and enjoyment they get as they grasp something or learn something new.

And one of the tools I use to show them about numbers, shapes and colors is the learning train on YouTube which reinforces the everyday learning we do such as counting the light poles on our walks, naming colors of the clothes as I fold the washing or reading the Sesame Street shapes book.

I have embedded the numbers, shapes and colors video below for you to review and show your youngster if you choose as part of their learning.

Happy Play Times :-)

NUMBERS TRAIN

SHAPES TRAIN

COLORS TRAIN

Doctor, Doctor - Childhood Imaginary Play

Cough, Cough goes Annabelle & Scarlett as we jokingly say to them 'oh that's a terrible cough do you need to see Dr Wong' who is our family pediatrician they giggle and tell me yes - I swear these children love the doctor :-)

But one of the reasons why is from the age of one onwards our doctor said to buy them a doctors kit and doctor dress up. The reason for this is it made them more positive about seeing the doctor because it becomes a normal part of their play which in turn is also great for setting up the imaginary play skills children need to develop.

And then just this recent weekend I saw a little boy at the playground who was 4 wearing a full doctors scrub outfit trying to play doctor with all the kids around and proudly declared to me he WOULD BE a doctor when he got big :-) 

Playing doctors, policeman, fireman etc... really is wonderful for little ones as it is something they see in their everyday life and can relate to and it is also important to remember it is never to early to encourage this type of play and to make tools accessible to them to get lost in another role and world.

What are your thoughts? What do your little ones love imagining they are and at what ages? 

Happy Play Times :-)

Weekend Watching - How To Make a Paper Plate Fish

This weekend's watching clip is a fun simple craft project for your youngster to make their own fish.

And as I am learning fish are a great favorite of toddlers!

If your children are old enough let them practice with kid safe scissors (a skill from the kindergarten readiness list we posted about earlier in the week) for the mouth and then let their creativity run wild making the scales. 

We have everything in the house needed to do this so I for one am going to try this out during the week with the girls.

Happy Play Times :-)

Learning New Words

A quick post today about toddlers and pre schooler's learning new words.

And it is to have a copy of books such as 'My First 100 Words' or a 'Big Book of First Words' truly they are a must in any home of toddlers and pre schoolers.

We use this version and it is a well loved, favorite activity for the girls to go through - if we ask them for a book they drag this out currently nine times out of ten.

Children love to pick out familiar pictures, name objects and pointing out objects they don't know for you to name so they can learn new words all important components of developing speech and learning to read.

Does your house have a similar book? Did your little ones benefit from them?

Happy Play Times :-)

Similar One Hundred Word Books From Amazon That Your Little One May Love

Free Style Drawing with some Learning Included for Pre Schooler's

My children love to draw it is actually something that at just 21 months of age they will participate in for almost 30 minutes amazing!

And pre schoolers need to draw to hone their fine motor skills and eventually as a form of communication through drawing pictures to tell a story as was listed in our previous post about kindergarten readiness.

So getting your children into drawing is great pre school development and it is important to give little ones ample opportunity to get scribbling.

Here is a creation by my girls during our freestyle drawing and Mummy's efforts as they near the end of it where I get involved and we have some additional fun learning by showing them things such as their name, letters of the alphabet, the first letter of the crayon colors and shapes.

I like to use large sheets of butchers paper I pick them up at a local stationary store and get 5 large pieces for 50 cents my favorite crayons are the washable easy grip my first Crayola set.

We encourage you to let your young ones have several opportunities a week to get lost in the world of drawing it is great for them and great for you to share this together.

Happy Play Times :-)

What Your Pre Schooler Needs to Know before Starting Kindergarten

I read an interesting article over at I Can Teach My Child on "71 Things My Child Needs to Know Before Kindergarten"

They broad key areas for development are based around:-

• Personal & Social Development
• Language & Literacy
• Mathematical Thinking
• Physical Development
• The Arts

As a parent of toddlers soon pre school age children the list seemed somewhat comprehensive. And whilst we have a couple of years to go it made me think about how we can play with fun and purpose to help prepare our children for this milestone while they are pre school age.

I thought it would be great to develop a series around activities that are fun, develop a love of play and learning in your pre schooler that will benefit these key development milestones.

We have even begun to map out the start of a book of play ideas for pre schoolers so stay tuned for that in the future.

Keep your eyes posted Monday when we launch our first in the pre schooler play series.

Happy Play Times :-)

Yoga for Kids

At Happy Play Happy Children we were very privileged to recently be invited by CBeebies Asia to attend their CBeebies Club Yoga in the Park morning at our local Singapore Botanic Gardens.

The girls had a wonderful time learning about Yoga which is a big part of one of their favorite shows The Waybuloo's on CBeebies - so you can imagine my delight at being invited to attend this event with them!

I was amazed to learn all about how much fun and health benefits children can derive from participating in Yoga such as:-

• It gets them moving and helps with their flexibility and bone development so important to their young little bodies.
• Improves concentration those little minds have to work hard in getting those poses down. They also have to focus on the task at hand and be in the moment.
• A children's yoga class integrates many aspects of learning such as storytelling and music in our class we worked through a story taking place in the forest with various animals.

And whilst Annabelle & Scarlett could not get all the moves you can see them in action below and how happy they were and us as Mum & Dad in spending this fun quality time together....

Perhaps you may want to introduce your child to the fun of Yoga to do this I have included a video from our friendly Waybuloo's to show you and your little ones how to do it!

For more you can visit the Waybuloo's channel on You Tube here.

And if you would like a copy of the sheet that outlines three pages of Yoga moves for your little ones that I received please send me an email to laurambrookesmith@gmail.com or leave your details in the comment sections below and I would be happy to send along.

Happy Play Times :-)

Happy Play Happy Children publisher Laura Brooke-Smith was not financially remunerated for this post but did receive a morning of Yoga and CBeebies goodies for her two children all opinions and sharing are her own.

Let's Jump like Little Bunnies!

Do you know one of my favorite things I love seeing my daughters trying to master currently?

Jumping! It is more a bounce but gosh they love to do it and they practice with such diligence :-)

One of the games I am playing with them at the moment to help them jump but also to help them listen to instructions is 'Hop Little Bunny'

The premise is they lay down on the ground and pretend they are sleeping while I sing...

See the little bunnies sleeping till it’s nearly noon
Come and let us gently wake them with a merry tune
Oh how still, are they ill, wake up soon

Then we start with a great gusto in waking up to ...

Hop little bunnies, hop, hop, hop
Hop little bunnies, hop, hop, hop
Hop little bunnies, hop, hop, hopHop little bunnies, hop, hop, hop 

There are other actions to this song such as birds and alligators but we currently just do bunny however all the words can be found at Bus Songs.

And believe me this is also great exercise for the little ones another added bonus.

What are some of your favorite action songs to do with your children. We would love to hear!

Happy Play Times :-)

Get Your Groove On

Who doesn't love a good dance off?
I can tell you your little ones certainly do.
We have had a lot of dance-a-thons in this house recently!

Children have a natural urge to move and dance so it is a great way for you to spend some fun playtime together by putting on a favorite playlist and grooving away together keeping you both fit and moving.

Did you also know that dancing helps your child with body control, creativity and mood enhancements all great reasons to participate in this form of play. 

And because we couldn't resist check out this little cutie pie doing the Paso Doble to his adoring crowd look at how much joy dancing brings him.

Happy Play Times :-)

Green Light Red Light Playtime Fun

A fun game to play with your older toddler or pre schooler is the traffic light game.

My girls are a little young to understand the concept fully but we did this the other week at one of our playgroups and they understood the older children moved and stopped so if you have younger ones it can still work if they have an example to follow.

Essentially the concept is you stand at a point in a room where your children have space to move so a lounge room, hallway or entrance is probably good - or better yet get them outside to play it!

You call green light they move forward, when you say red light they must freeze in the spot, then again call green light etc... until they reach you and then you chase them back to the beginning and start all over again.

It is a great energy burner and a fun way to help listening skills and learn instructions.

We hope you have fun with this one.

Happy Play Times :-)

Playing "ROCKS"

We play outside a lot in our household!! I believe outdoor play is essential in a healthy active lifestyle that I want the girls to have.

I will be posting a lot about the types of activities we are participating in at the moment outside which will be great in time for Summer in the northern hemisphere.

But today I just wanted to post this picture of my daughter Scarlett enjoying her rock garden - like mother like daughter apparently I was obsessed with a rock garden I had as a child, that my parents even got me a garden gnome so I had company :-)

(Scarlett Loves to Play & Explore with Rocks)

Playing with rocks is great for exploring different sizes and textures and it is a fun way to develop fine motor skills as the children tend to pick up and move the rocks around into an intricate toddler pattern. I also teach them cleaning up skills as we use the broom to sweep the rocks back into the garden.

Happy Play Times :-)

Our Favorite Old MacDonald Clip

So we are currently in the throws of loving animals, learning their sounds and imitating them.

I searched through You Tube trying to find an appropriate Old MacDonald clip but they were either to cartoony, to boring and the kids wouldn't be interested.

Then I cam across the Fox Pail version and it has everything you could want, cartoons, but real life animals on the farm and realistic sounds they also love Jack the dog who makes an appearance.

They are giggling, clapping and mimicking along with it and I feel it has helped their understanding and development in addition to the other animal activities we do.

We have embedded it here if you want to check it out and show your little ones.

Happy Play Times :-)

Delayed Weekend Watching Clip - Kids Crafts : Simple Art Projects for Children

We hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day this past weekend.

I certainly did and I also put down the technology to focus on family activities.

So hence our weekend watching clip was delayed but we still wanted to share something with you and hope you enjoy these great art project ideas you can try with your kid's this week.

Happy Play Times :-)

Taking the Time to 'Just Be' in Play

I am a big one for giving my children the time to enjoy the simple things.

Children need stimulation and engagement but sometimes they just need to stop and watch the world go by.

So this is a just a quick post to remind us of taking things back to basics with children's play.

One of our favorite quiet play times is to just sit and look out the window and see what is happening below us. I point out interesting sights or name objects but we are taking the time to just be...

What simple quiet activities do you like to do with your children?

Happy Play Times :-)

Weekend Watching - Water Play and Music

My children LOVE water play and they LOVE music!

So when I came across this weekend watching clip I could not resist.

We will be trying out some of the ideas during one our afternoon water play sessions this weekend.

Perhaps if the weather is right where you are you may want to give it a go?

We can compare notes on how the children found it.

To get you started with how to incorporate water play and music play together see the You Tube video from Child's Play Music.



Happy Play Times :-)

Show and Tell with Your Pre Schoolers

Some of you may have children that already do this who are of school age. Others like me may just remember the fun it was to do at school as you took something or someone of great love to school and told everyone about it.

Children between 3-6 love this activity and it is great for building confidence, learning to communicate and developing a deeper understanding in the world around them.

But does it just need to be done in the classroom? No you can be a captive audience for your little one at home and have them pick various objects to conduct show and tell for Mum’s, Dad’s, grandparents, the postman ;-)

It’s a perfect indoor activity for those cooler months coming up in the Northern Hemisphere and the scorchers to occur in the Southern Hemisphere.

Weekend Watching - Thanksgiving Day Activities & Games : Turkey Stories for Thanksgiving Games

Learn about a fun way to implement play and games into your Thanksgiving holiday this year!

Also if you are looking for more ideas You Tube is full of great fun and creative games to get your children into the holiday spirit and have loads of fun.

Happy Play Times :-)

Weekend Watching - How to Make a Thanksgiving Kids Craft: Thanksgiving Gratitude Tree

I have noticed many people on Facebook are doing a month of giving thanks status updates for November in readiness for celebrating thanksgiving.

It got me thinking how you could get your children involved in this activity. So we went searching and have found this clip for our weekend watching series where it shows how your children can build a tree of gratitude. Such a lovely idea and a great way to have kids learn what they are grateful for and have fun doing so.

Please Watch, Enjoy and Share 

We would love to hear what you are grateful for and what your children are grateful for when doing this activity.

Happy Play Times :-)

Dress Up Play for Toddlers and Pre Schoolers

With Halloween just gone and your children having had dress up fun remember it is not time to shelve the fun for another year - dress up for young ones is fun all year round rain or shine.

Dressing up is an important component of role play for children and helps them to learn important skills like:-

• Using Imagination
• Thinking Abstractly  
• Problem Solving

It doesn't have to be expensive, children will find the most simplest things fun and see the potential to dress up in almost anything.

Take the example of my young niece who took a washcloth tucked it into her skirt, then grabbed another one and walked around the house cleaning - was she a cleaner as we thought? No she was in fact Cinderella before the ball!! Abstract, imagination and problem solving all at work there.

As a child we had a dress up box we played with and ours had my Mum's wedding dress in it - do you think my sister & I fought over that....

So you may not want to put your wedding dress in a box but what type of affordable ways and what can you use to build a dress up box with?

Here are a few suggestions:-

• Visit thrift shops or yard sales to pick up vintage clothes, shoes, hats and accessories children love it being big on them.
• Go to the dollar stores for goodies like beads, pirate patches, watches, glasses, plastic fire, police hats etc...
• Get an old tie of Daddy's and make a permanent knot at a safe age appropriate level to be slipped on.
• Have old handbags, purses, wallets, phones and alike laying around the place will make great additions.
• I also read that many stores put out Halloween costumes very cheap in the days after the event so you may soon pick up some bargains that way.

Your only limit is your imagination in building the box and the more creative you get the more creative your children can be in creating their outfits and roles.

What role does dress up have in your house as a regular play activity? We are always keen to hear your thoughts.

Happy Play Times :-)