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Teaching Tots

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It’s been a long time,
but I finally have another TOT in the house.

Monkey is 2 1/2 and in full on TOT mode.

Which means he wants to do “school” like his older siblings,
but he has the attention span of a…

Well…….

of a Monkey

But he absolutely MUST be keep busy.

As we all know
That if we don’t keep little Monkey busy,

He’ll keep himself busy…..

and then we’ll all be busy

So here is one way that we keep little Monkey busy:

I made the game using Jolanthe’s beautiful Color Matching Cards
and then laminating pieces of colored paper onto which I wrote the color names.
In hindsight, I should have written the Spanish words on the back as well.

We play by drawing a card and matching it to the correct pile.

Simple. But Busy.

Very, Very Busy.

Magnetic Grid Games!

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I’ve been Ooogling Mama Jenn’s Puff Ball Magnets for MONTHS

(Remember Mama Jenn is the genius behind Education Cubes)

Well she also has TONS of fantastic learning game ideas
throughout her blog too….puff ball magnets being just one of many!

They look so colorful and fun, and best of all Hands-On,
but I never made them because I was waiting for Monkey
to get a bit older……somewhere past the age of the
“Everything goes into my mouth” stage.

Well, the time is here, and Monkey is now progressing
to the next developmental stage of learning:

He’s now in the “Everything goes into my mouth but I realize that somethings shouldn’t, and I should quickly take them out and exclaim, ‘yuck‘ stage.”

That is a real stage….Dr. Spock Says So.

That and Mama Jenn’s new Grid Games
just sent me over the edge!

I had to make them now,
because they will be so handy for Sissy and Bubba too!

So I followed her tutorial, using a Glue Gun because I too, am completely impatient.

(TIP: In case you are a sleep deprived Mom like me, be sure and put the glue on the magnet part first, and not the fuzzy puff ball part. Trust me.)

They turned out wonderfully didn’t they!

Then I printed out Mama Jenn’s Crown Grid game, and wrote each number 1-9 on the crowns three times each. There were three squares left over so I wrote 8, 2, 10 on each of them.

Then I slid the game into a page protector, and covered up the numbers with the Pom-pom’s.

To Play: Children take turns turning over two pom-pom’s at a time, with the goal of making 10. If a child makes 10, then they get to keep the pom-poms, if not, then they are recovered. Child with the most pom-poms wins. (I did write a 10 on one crown for a bonus pom)

The kids loved playing this game today, and we’re looking forward to more grid games! What Fun! Thanks Mama Jenn!