The Appreciated, Unappreciated Gift

Puzzle play is an important skill to build!

Common toddler puzzles are found at most toy stores and book stores. But there are puzzles that can be very beneficial that we do not always think to turn to! One of these toys was a Christmas gift this year.

Jacob received three puzzle trucks for Christmas. When I first saw them I thought they were super cute but I could only imagine the disaster they would turn into having them in my home! All these little pieces that would never be put together. I thought they would be cute on a shelf in his room or out of the way somewhere! I did not think that they would be a toy that Jake would be able to play with or would even want to play with, boy was I wrong!

I ended up putting the trucks in our Structured Play space on a little desk along with his new wooden beads. I just set them up against the wall. Jake saw them there the first day and wanted to play with them. I let him thinking he would quickly lose interest. That did NOT happen! Everyday he starts and ends our Structured Play time by playing with the trucks. He has really learned how to put them together (as have I) just by playing with them and guessing and checking. I swear he could sit for an hour and play with these trucks! I absolutely love watching him!

He studies each piece and thinks about it very thoroughly before he places it on the little peg. If he cannot get the piece to fit properly he shakes his head and tries it somewhere else. He is teaching himself to turn, flip and push the pieces to get them to fit, something he does not do with the standard Doug and Melissa puzzles.

He also plays with the trucks, here he is saying, "up, up, up" as he lifts the bulldozer's bucket. These puzzle trucks help with logistical thinking, problem solving, and facilitates imagination. This unappreciated gift surely turned into a valuable learning tool!

Have you every received a gift that you thought you should return or give away only to quickly see the value it could bring? Tell us about it!

Comments

Play to Write- Week 3

We participating in a Wednesday Play Group called Play to Write over at Cherrios and Lattes . This is week 3- Write/Spell Your Name. We started this week's practice with some name tracing. Cherrios and Lattes provides the printable for some dotted letters. She suggested doing rainbow writing with this sheet. I showed Jacob but he was more interested in writing all the Jacobs. I started by modeling on the first name. Then I held his hand and we did it together. Finally I let him do the last three on his own with only my verbal prompts. He took this very seriously and was very proud of himself! I was surprised at how much he liked doing this activity. He has a long way to go but he did pretty well! One thing I had to repeat was not to go around the o and a more than once. He wanted to go around and around. This is an activity that I think he will want to do again! The next activity was Missing Letter Name Practice. We started by singing a little song I sing for Jak

Name Writing Practice

Jacob did a little name writing practice today. He was asked to trace the dotted lines to write letters for his name. This is good practice with spelling as well. I had him say each letter as he wrote the letter. As you can see he is very choppy and not exactly on the dotted lines. His motor skills are not quite sharp enough yet to be able to hold the crayon and he especially loses control as he works on towards the end. We also did a Missing Letter Name Practice. Both of these ideas came from Cherrios and Lattes ' Play to Write, Write to Read. These are good ways to practice names and writing. He gets very angry if he thinks he made a mistake. See the scribbling. I have to reinforce that it is ok to make a mistake and that everyone makes mistakes but we just keep trying. Practice is the only way to get better. When this happens I cannot help but think of my former students that did the very same thing and proceeded to throw fits and give up. I hope to help Jacob ge

Building Good Readers

"Your boys are such good readers! I wish mine loved to read like yours do! How did you do that?" Can parents build good readers? How do parents build good readers? This might seem like a daunting question, a task too difficult to tackle. But truly, it does not have to be. As our children grow and become readers on their own accord they often feel that they do not need or want parents to read to them. It is very common for this to happen, but as their parents, it is our job to push back. Readers are not born, they are made. We must find times to read to our children. That might mean reading aloud looks different as they get older. Maybe instead of before bed; you are reading at the dinner table, as they are playing, or during snack time. The point is to share books that will pique their interest and hold their attention. You might have to choose books you might not otherwise choose. The key to reading aloud is to m odel reading for them and to show them th

Structured Play

Search This Blog