Shape board for toddlers

The time has come when Little L. started to have great interest in shapes.

She enjoys playing with the shape sorting cube or the Tomy’s shape and colour sorting eggs:

Her favourite shapes (the ones that she can also say):

  • star
  • crescent moon
  • circle
  • heart (although she always says “szívecske” in Hungarian in the first place)

So I made a shape board for her with some basic shapes and, of course, her favourites.

What you need:

  • a bigger piece of cardboard (mine is a side of a big box)
  • sticky Velcro
  • felt and/or foam sheets
  • shape template (if you can’t draw like me)
  • scissors
  • black marker
  • envelope (optional)
  • If you have an elder child, they can also help with the preparation (mine was too busy watching Alphablocks I wouldn’t have disturbed her for all the world.

How to make it:

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  1. I cut out the template shapes printed from the internet.
  2. I drew the shapes on the cardboard (add strong contours with a thick-tip black marker), then on foam and felt pieces.
  3. I cut out the shapes from felt and foam.
  4. I stuck the velcro on the shapes and on the cardboard (in the middle of the shapes).
  5. I glued an envelope on the back where we can store the shapes when we’re not playing with them.20170903_115817

Ever since I finished it she’s been loving to play with it.

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Checking the rough surface of the Velcro
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Starting the matching
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Busy working

Finished!

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If you want to read about what other shape activities we do or did with E. when she was a little toddler checki it our on the link above.

August 2017 read-alouds

As I’m writing this post with E. I’ll start with the book I’ve read with her this month (She is 5 years and 3 months old).
(E.’s favourite, L.’s favourite, both loved it)

  1. Shark-mad Stanley by Griff
    It’s a book about a little boy, who loves animals (like E.) and he’s got a gold-fish. But he wants to have a shark too. He compares her goldfish and a shark. What’s his conclusion? Well, read this funny story.51TfUT7j0yL.jpg
  2. The Glow in the Dark Book of Space by Nicholas Harris
    It’s a general book about space BUT there are pages that you can read in the dark because they glow. The new things she enjoyed the most: moon phases, constellation and how the black hole sucks in a star.9780760783139_p0_v2_s550x406.jpg
  3. The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl
    I don’t think I need to say much about the story as it is a classic. Actually, RD is MY favourite author and I was really anxious to find out if E. would like it or not. And she did like it.  I read it to her one morning when she didn’t want to get out of bed. As the story got more exciting she got more and more out of bed.covers_59482
  4. Monkey Puzzle by Julia Donaldson
    A traditional story of a lost child (monkey) looking for her mum. The rhymes are great and the illustrations make the story come true. According to E. the best part is when the butterfly shows the monkey her children and they look very different from their Mommy. (This is the reason why the butterfly shows wrong Mommies to the monkey.)letöltés.jpg
  5. Miss! Miss! by Julia Donaldson
    A short story of a poor teacher solving problems with a child in school and when she returns home everything starts all over again with her own children.
    9780198466673.jpg

L. is 20 months old and surprisingly she enjoys books for older children too. Here are the books for her:

  1. We’re going on a bear hunt by Michael Rosen
    This was a hit with both kids. They love it and ask for it every day. I’ve trying to read it out in the same way as Michael Rosen reads it out in this youtube video.maxresdefault.jpg
  2. Maisy plays football by Lucy Cousins
    Another hit. You’ll know your kids enjoy a book to a great extent if they scream GOAAAAAAL! whenever you just touch the book. (E. can read the book to L. and L. can say the names of the characters: Maisy, Cyril, Eddie, Dotty, Tallulah, Charley.)
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  3. Surprise Surprise! Animals by Jeanette Rowe
    There’s a short rhyme on every page, which describes an animal hiding behind a flap. There are 6 animals altogether. Cute! L. can neigh like a horse and say seal and bat and croaks like a frog.6.jpeg
  4. I love my  Mum by Anna Walker
    A short story about what fun mommy and baby do together. The pictures are lovely the words on each page are scarce. My daughters favourite page in the book is full of butterflies.10959141._UY200_.jpg
  5. Feeling great! Just like me! by Jess Stockham
    This is also a fold-out flap book like Surprise! Suprise! Animals! but about feelings. The emotions covered are shy, frightened, excited, grumpy, sleepy.P09-FeelingGreat.jpg

This month we could cover only 5 books for each child as they got really crazy about Maisy and the bear hunt books.

If you want to check out our earlier monthly book lists, click on the links below:
June2017
July2017

Language developement for L.

I really need to catch up with Baby L.’s vocabulary for the 19th and 20th months as she is getting closer and closer to her 2nd birthday.

 

In the 19th month she started babbling A LOT but with more and more resemblance to real words could clearly be noticed:

English expressions                              Hungarian expressions

cheese                                                                                     sajt

Ok                                                                                             –

bus                                                                                           busz

pigeon (pronounced as ˈpɪdʒi )                                           –

(to)mato                                                                                  –

windy                                                                                     –

sit down                                                                                –

cake                                                                                       –

happy                                                                                   –

pushing (the button on the lift)                                      –

knife                                                                                     –

–                                                                                             nemakami (I don’t want to)

–                                                                                             nemtud (I don’t know)

–                                                                                             puszi (kiss)

–                                                                                             tessék (here you are)

–                                                                                             bicicli (bicycle)

–                                                                                             azta! (wow)

– choo-choo t(r)ain                                                            vonat

– money                                                                              pínz (pénz)

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Favourite activity

With the 20th month her utterances were more and more understandable. She started chanting songs in both languages, counting, imitating animal sounds, making her first word combinations, to mention a few of her fantastic speech development. It’s fantastic to see that even her grammar is slowly developing (She can say Mommy’s, E.’s, L.’s or the plural of the Hungarian greeting word sziasztok).

English expressions                                 Hungarian expressions

Sit down, Mommy!                                                                      –

naughty                                                                                         –

Sorry (sounds like sorray)                                                  bocsi

tap                                                                                                  –

cold                                                                                         (h)ideg

broken                                                                                    eltört

second                                                                                         –

come/coming                                                                            –

Hi/Hello                                                                                    szia, szia(sz)tok

wait                                                                                             –

banana(nana)                                                                        banán

fork                                                                                          villa

(s)nake                                                                                      –

miaow                                                                                    miáú

Mommy’s                                                                                 –

he(l)p                                                                                        –

other                                                                                       másik/másikat

mine (from Spot goes to the Circus)                                enyém

I’m hot, I’m sick (from Doctor duck)                                 –

dirty                                                                                        –

head                                                                                        –

fall down                                                                               leesik a maci

yes                                                                                          igen

back                                                                                       vissza

man                                                                                        bácsi

lady                                                                                        néni

–                                                                                               pici (tiny)/ kicsi (small)

–                                                                                              nagy (big)

–                                                                                              pecsét (stamp)

–                                                                                              telcsi (mobile phone)

–                                                                                             Ne sírjál! (Don’t cry)

–                                                                                             kész-passz (finished)

knife (last month’s word)                                                kés (this month word)

girl                                                                                        kislány

boy                                                                                        –

–                                                                                             pancsi (bath)

–                                                                                             vacsi (dinner)

–                                                                                             nyaka (his neck)

–                                                                                            fakanál (wooden spoon)

–                                                                                             feldőlt (fall over)

–                                                                                             pukkan (burst)

–                                                                                             tapéta

–  nice                                                                                   szíp (szép)

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The Hungarian rhymes and songs she is chanting or singing (not perfectly, but it’s recognisable and some words a really clear):

Pont, pont vesszőcske (this was E.’s first Hungarian chant, too)
Boci, boci, tarka (and this was the second)
Hinta, palinta hintázik a tickle, tickle tickle (a little bit of mixing languages)

English rhymes and songs:

Incy-wincy spider
Wheels on the bus (she knows the end of the lines, like swish, open and shut, beep-beep, up and down and the last line of each verse: all day loooooong)
1-2-3 I’m L. who are you? (the Helen Doron lesson beginning greeting part)

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She loves music and dancing

E. taught her funny words or word combinations in Hungarian like “kicsi pecsét” (small stamp) and “kis próba” (small rehearsal) and they have fun time when L. repeats these expressions.

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She learns everything from her big sister

She is very communicative and social with everyone. She says hello on the street to EVERYone, identifies the people: man, lady, girl, boy, doggie, miaow, pigeon, bus, truck etc. Sometimes it feels she talks from the moment she opens her eyes in the morning till she closes them in the evening.

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The three of us on a choo-choo train ride

Sometimes she stops me in whatever I’m doing because she wants to say something. She talks for minimum a minute or two. Here and there I catch a few words but I don’t really understand what she’s talking about. But she’s dead serious about her message. She’s just too cute and loveable.

 

Our summer nanny

It’s always been very difficult to find a friendly and dedicated NATIVE English speaker nanny. Either they’re too busy to come to us and/or would charge unreasonably high.

This summer we had bilingual Nanny E. with us for few weeks. First, she came to play with E. only, later on she visited Baby L. too.

Both girls enjoyed spending time with her, so I was quite sad from the very beginning as I knew she was available for July and August only. (She went to be an au pair in France.)

She brought fishy colouring sheets for E. and when she talked about the funny masks she ‘d seen at the gift shop of Tropicarium, our new nanny printed some masks that they cut out and coloured together.

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Baby L. was looking forward to her arrival every time. They were reading books together, went through her sister’s jewellery box, played with balls and dolls, but the pouring activity was the one L. adored the most.

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Baby L. is checking the green box with our summer nanny

Unfortunately, at the beginning of August Nanny E. just realised she had a lot to do before leaving for France and also had some family issues. She wrote me an email in which she gave voice to her displeasure concerning her visits (long travelling, unbearable heat, the low hourly fee and me! taking her granted and speaking rudely to her). Well, I do not need to say how taken-aback I was, but I accepted her dissatisfaction and we said good-bye to each other.

Now I’m in search of a new NATIVE English nanny/babysitter/playmate for my girls. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Baby Days for L.

While E. was having fun in her summer camp at our Helen Doron School, Baby L. took part in her very first Baby Days. There are 6 days this year (3 + 2 day within 2 weeks) but we could go to only 5. The days are organised around topics and the teaching materials are made up of HD (Helen Doron) course material and the teacher’s own ideas.

Day 1 – Vehicles
There were a great variety of vehicles during our 45 min lesson:

car, bus, plane, helicopter, police car, sailing boat, paddle boat, bicycle, train, submarine (!) backhoe (wow), ambulance, canoe and some I forgot…

I found it a little too many for such small kids, but they didn’t mind at all, what’s more ever since the lesson L. is pointing at every vehicle and says: “auto” (car) or shows the sign of the train. On the way home she wanted to get on the bus. So I can say she was captivated with vehicles.

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There were plenty of fun activities:
-what’s missing
-match the vehicle to the place it belongs (bus-road, train-tracks, ambulance-hospital, backhoe-building site etc.)
-drive a car yourself
-drive your car on the road (road carpet and many matchboxes)
-what’s in my bag? (pulling out a lot of toy vehicles)
-ship in the water
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-make the frog sit in the vehicle
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-fit in the vehicle in the wooden puzzle
-place your vehicle in the city
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And of course, bubble blowing and dancing couldn’t have been left out.

Day 2 – Fruits, colours (painting)

Again an action packed day with fruits and colours.

Pulling things out of a bag or a hat is always fun for little hands.

Putting the the fruit on the right colours was a challenge for everyone.
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A big tray of fruit to tastes. An array of colours. L. was attracted to the banana slices only. What a pity!
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Painting is a messy business with such tiny kids. But our teacher took the risk and it was real entertainment for the little ones.
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Day 3 – Animals

There was quite a lot of revision at the beginning of the lesson: colours, fruits and vehicles. The best revision game was when different fruits were stuck on the IKEA peg and hammer toy. Kids needed to choose a fruit and hammer it, naturally with the help of an adult. But the main focus for today was animals, mainly forest animals.
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We started with some well-known animal flashcards (dog, frog, kangaroo, cat etc.) then Z., our teacher, introduced the new ones (owl, raccoon, bear, fox, deer) together with some plants (mushroom, flower, tree). The bingo card was acute way to practice them but L. was more interested in the bead manipulatives.

Next, we had a little colour revisions with mushrooms, then we got some really colourful, fluffy and thick pipe cleaners to tickle different body parts.

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Some more matching of rabbits and foxes and the Goodbye song started… too soon.

Day 4 – Family
There was a change in the teacher (our teacher was taking a break) so the lesson was little different but still fun. The focus was on revision rather than the main topic: family members.
The following activities took place:

  • puzzles with colours and fruit/veggies
    20170726_092738
  • pulling and identifying soft fruit and veggies from a hat
  • sorting vehicles according to their colours
  • stamping on coloured paper
  • swinging with family members
  • adding the missing family members to the right family
    20170726_100557

Of course, there were a lot of singing and dancing as usual. Our little group mates changed a bit but L. didn’t mind it the least bit. It’s true that she was a little more interested in other things, like pillows and cars she’d found than some of the activities.

Day 5 – Feelings (and body parts on the face)
On our last day we had plenty of funny, smiley and sad faces to L.’s great delight. There was very little revision, which we did not mind at all.
We started with the element of surprise 🙂

Our teacher, Sz., pulled out some surprising objects from a bag. A ball that could be extended, a plush hammer that said “bang” when kids hit with it, a cat that said miaow, a singing monkey, a very bouncy ball, 2 surprise eggs and a jack-in the box kinda cow. All the children’s jaws dropped open.

Next, we got some paper plate faces the mouth of which could be turned round showing either a happy or a sad face. Our teacher used glad and unhappy instead of saying happy or sad.

A mirror appeared and the kids could look at themselves, which they really enjoyed. They could place kissy lips or a moustache in front of their mouths. They didn’t really want to, though. Two eyebrows could be drawn on kids’ forehead, whoever wanted. L. got some heat rash on her face so we rather stayed away from the face-paint.

The following game was a puzzle made out of paper plate. Everybody got a different emotion.
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Then came the funniest part. Sticking eyes, nose, lips, moustache, ears, hair, on a head shaped image. We really had fun making funny faces. I made one sleeping face as L. is fascinated by a sleeping face.
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After that a little counting. Counters (beads) needed to be places on the jumping monkeys.

Some revision of family members. Kids placed the missing animal from the given family sheet.

We finished the session with some grapes tasting and black pepper smelling (these two are connected to a HD song that we, of course, sang afterwards). I wasn’t very happy with this activity. The grapes were not cut in half and after sniffing into black pepper L. kept on sneezing. Just for your information, no kids were harmed during our session 😉

We’ve had lots of fun nicely spread throughout 2 weeks. If you have a chance to try baby days at a HD school I encourage you to give it a try.