Make your own matching cards

(Goblin is 4 years old)

WARNING: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click through to Amazon and buy the product I get a teeny bit of finanical reward

There are lots of wonderful blogs that offer printables to help your child with learning. Goblin and I like doing matching and I have scoured the internet looking for good printables over the last 4 years. However I have come to the conclusion that finding a good printable that fits your child's interests and ability is probably about as time consuming as making your own.

Matching cards really aren't that hard to make.

Step 1: choose a subject
Step 2: Use google images to find decent pictures and save to your computer.
Step 3: Use Picmonkey (or Picasa) to upload inmages and make a collage
Step 4: If you used Picmonkey collage you need to save the collage and reopen in edit picture to add text
Step 5: print out 2 sets (laminate if you have a laminator - they last longer) and cut one of them into single images

When Goblin was younger we did colour matching with tractors and counting with rescue vehicles. His latest interest is marine animals so we made matching cards for sharks. I ordered a selection of plastic shark from Amazon, then looked them up on wikipedia. I used a selection of images saved from Google images and Wikipedia to make the cards. Because the images are someone else's property I can't share the matching cards as printables for others, but making them for my own child is perfectly within acceptable use for other people's photos.

Happy making!

Number recognition

(Goblin is nearly 4)

Goblin has never shown much interest in numbers, so he still doesn't know what number symbols correspond to which quantity. I've been trying to help him with this by playing a simple number game with him. 

We are using some needle felt gnomes I made (I have a tutorial here) and a big foam die. The game is really simple. We take turns to roll the die and take the gnome that corresponds to the number on it. I only have 5 gnomes (at the moment) so 6 is miss a go (as is rolling one that's already been taken).

I reinforce the numbers by either saying the number as its rolled, or asking Goblin what number he has rolled and what number gnome he is looking for. The winner is the one with the most gnomes.
Goblin really likes this game. He has decided the gnomes are a family, Mummy, Daddy, baby and Granny and Grandpa. If he gets upset about losing, I get the gnomes I have to talk to the gnomes he has and ask if they can come and play. This always turns his frown upside down.

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On our shelves

(Goblin is 28 weeks)

I switched out some of the stuff on our shelves this week and added the following:

Number pegs - These are great for strengthening pincer grip while learning numbers: number recognition and number order. Goblin needs a lot of help with the number bit but he's good at the pincer grip and attaching them to the shoe lace.

Leapfrog Fridge Phonics  - as Goblin has been singing the alphabet song a lot, I thought I'd bring this out again. If you hit the note button at the top it plays the alphabet song, and if you put a letter in the hole it tells you the name of the letter and the phonic - although I think some of the pronunciation is very questionable - for example its phonic for L is "ull" as in "pull" rather than "leh" and in "leg"

Letter matching cards (M, D and S) - I made these using Picassa and google images - they took about 15 minutes each (mainly sourcing the pictures). I printed off two copies, Laminated one and chopped up the other.

As you can see I have an upper case and lower case letter and then four things that begin with the letter M. I used stuff Goblin already knows the name of because the idea is to get him to learn the letter through the things he's familiar with - thats why I am on the M card - M is for Mummy.

Here is the S card. I added velcro coins to the back of each matching card and the back of the sheet, this is to enable me to store the cards with the sheet. It also lifts the cards slightly off the ground which makes it easier for your toddler to pick them up.

Tonging bells - This was originally a Christmas activity but the bells make such a lovely noise that I brought it out again. This was Goblin's first choice activity this morning.

Hammering corn crisps - This may sound like an odd activity but its really good for practicing accuracy and its really fun. And it stopped Goblin using the hammer to smash anything else.

Goblin really concentrated on getting every last crisp smashed. We both squealed with delight as pieces of crisp flew across the room. Then he ate most of the smashed pieces.

Although Goblin ate a lot of the crisps this activity did still make a huge mess. But fortunately Goblin decided he wanted to hoover up the mess. He's usually terrified of the hoover so I was quite surprised that he volunteered. Lovely bit of practical life activity there. 

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On our shelves

(Goblin is 27 months)

 I started thinking about the phrase 'use it or lose it' and wondered whether it might apply to toddler's skills. So to be on the safe side I decided to pull out some of the things Goblin did when he was younger.

I brought down his egg box, tongs and pingpong balls. This was a huge favourite about six months ago. And true to form it was the first thing Goblin pulled off the shelves this morning - even before I managed to take a photo of it on the shelves (you can see the hole where it is supposed to sit on the top shelf). 

 I was inspired by a picture I saw this week at Our Montessori home. Look at the beautiful wooden eggs that they have - I have toy envy!

Also on our shelves this week is a big box of musical toys. I used to take Goblin to a Kodaly music class every week. He'd spend a lot of the time running around but occasionally he'd come and join in and clap or play a shaker. But last term the teacher, venue and students changed and it wasn't working for us any more so we stopped going. Since then I haven't really been doing much music with Goblin except for singing nursery rhymes (when Goblin lets me - he often tells me to stop) and playing them for him on You Tube - he likes "Wheels on the bus" and the "A B C song" -  My favourite is "In the big blue sea"

Anyway I thought I'd try getting Goblin to play some rhythms. We used to play a game called "play and play and play and stop" where you play the instrument until the teacher says 'stop' - its great for getting toddlers to learn about following instructions. Goblin used to laugh every time we had to 'stop'.

On the shelves we also have his Montessori mini knob cylinders. I love watching him play with these. He'll put a cylinder in the wrong hole, look at me, smile and say "nooooo", and then move it to the right hole. He's good at self checking with this activity.

 I though I'd include some number activities, so I brought out his magnetic felt fish,  I'll try and encourage him to fish for specific numbers. We haven't really worked ion number recognition much yet.

I also brought out his number gnomes, and again I will try and encourage him to put a specific number through the hole.

And I put out his number flash cards. He's been enjoying matching robots and digger cards (Usborne have some great stuff) so I was hoping he might also be interested in playing a game with numbers.

And finally I put out his upper and lower case magnetic letters. I'll do a separate post on the fun we are having with those.

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Jigsaws

(Goblin is 27 months)

Goblin has started to enjoy jigsaws. He has had knob puzzles, like this Melissa and Doug one below, since he was quite young. But he has never really shown much interest in them. If I took one out and encourage him, he'd do it once. But even then he would only match the pictures, he wouldn't take any time to manipulate the pieces into the holes. If they didn't go in first time he just wasn't interested. 

But recently he has shown a great deal of interest in jigsaw puzzles. It started with some two piece puzzles that Bubble's mum bought from Orchard toys. Goblin sat down and did every single one. And he took time to manipulate the pieces into place. 

He also enjoyed Bubble's giant bus floor puzzle. The two of them did it together. Then he started doing them at home as well. We have a Hungry Caterpillar puzzle and he started getting it down off the shelf and asking for help to match the pieces. So we bought him a couple more. He now has a digger and an underwater one.

I got an excited email from Hublet the other day to say that Goblin had done a significant section of digger puzzle all on his own. When he has finished the puzzle he says "found the digger". I realised that the reason he likes the jigsaws is because there is an extra achievement. 

What I mean is, the knob puzzles simply require the child to do a skill - match and manipulate the pieces into place. The only satisfaction is the fact that they can do the skill. I think Goblin needs a bit more than that sometimes. And he gets that with the jigsaws. By manipulating the pieces and fitting them together he gets a reward beyond the satisfaction of being able to do it, he gets to see the final picture. I think thats why he persisted so long with a very intricate wooden fire engine he was given for Christmas. The chunkiness of the wooden pieces made it really difficult to slot the pieces together.

And the edges weren't obvious to use as clues. But he still managed with a bit of help to complete it. He 'found the fire engine' and then played with it as if it was a toy - zooming it round the floor. Then he broke it up and did it all again. Jigsaws are great for so many different skills - manipulation, fine motor, observation, and our fire engine has an alphabet on it so there is letter recognition too. I just have to resist going and buying a ton more, there are so many really great ones out there.