Coupons, scissors, oh my!

Here’s a trick we just discovered today! This morning I was sitting at the kitchen table clipping my coupons and my almost 4-year-old son asked if he could help. I handed him the stack I’d already cut from (which still contained plenty of coupons we wouldn’t use), we got his scissors out, and he went to town!

Those coupons are perfect for kids to cut up (not to mention they’re free)! The coupons themselves are outlined by short, straight lines, perfect for learning how to cut along a line, and the pages are full of other things that kids love to try to cut out… food items they like, people, letters, etc.

One of the skills that kids should learn before kindergarten is how to use scissors. It is not only good for manual dexterity and hand-eye coordination, but it is a pre-writing activity too.

Before you know it, you’ll have a coupon-clipping, bargain-hunting child on your hands!

Alphabet BINGO for car trips

Ah, the fun of car trips with little kids… “Are we there yet?” “I have to go to the bathroom!” “I’m hungry.” “She’s crossing the line!” “No, that’s mine!”

We’re about to pack up and trek across several states to visit some extended family. This is our first road trip with children that will be longer than 6 hours in transit, so I’m brainstorming things to do in the car with them aside from turning on the DVD player.

Here’s one I came up with that will be easy to make and fun to do, and your kiddos will learn something along the way!

Using any paper you have handy (be resourceful and use the backs of scratch paper!), draw a BINGO board – a 5×5 square with 5 rows of 5 squares each. You don’t have to measure or be precise — this isn’t going to be graded. Write one letter in each square. Find a washable crayon or a sheet of small stickers (those garage sale dots would be good or the really inexpensive sheets of “Way to Go!” stickers that teachers use). Toss it all in a big ziploc bag or envelope, and pack it in your bag of car activities.

You can play Alphabet BINGO any way you’d like. You can have your kids look for any letters they see, specify billboards, signs, or license plates, or even identify real things they see that start with the letters on their boards. Have them call out the letters they see and say out loud the sound(s) the letter makes. Be sure to bring along some extra paper because they’ll have so much fun playing this that you may need to make more boards while on the road.

This can extend further for kids who can write their letters. Let them help make the boards!

When you’re on that road trip this summer, or even just a short drive across town, whip out the BINGO boards and start playing!

Hand-washing tips

One crucial skill for kiddos to learn is how to properly wash their hands (especially with that nasty flu out there). A few techniques I’ve found to be helpful include:

• Remind your child to wash the “fronts and backs and in-betweens.”
• After soaping up, sing the “ABC’s” with your child before rinsing off. This serves a double purpose — it gets those hands squeaky clean, and works on the alphabet!
• Make sure the sink and soap are accessible to your child. Obvious, I know, but if there is a safe step-stool at the sink, your child is more likely to get the job done.
• Ask your child to help you wash YOUR hands. Intentionally do it incorrectly so that he/she gets the chance to correct you!

Writing & remembering the alphabet

My friend Jade passed along these techniques for teaching your little one how to write the letters:

There are a ton of wipe-off books you can buy to help with writing skills, etc, but I just resorted to having [my 3.5-yr-old daughter] watch me write the alphabet on a blank piece of paper and then she traced over the letters herself. We did this repeatedly and she was writing her letters and numbers in no time!

I also make up cute ways of describing to her how to write the letters if she forgets. For example, to make a capital P, I tell her to make a straight line down and a little loop-di-doop on the top. A capital B is a straight line down and two loop-di-doops. That works for us!

Thanks, Jade!

License Plates

Early this morning my kiddos and I sat outside at Starbucks and watched the mile-long drive-thru line of cars go by. We turned it into a game. My son would try to read the license plates to me before each car went past. It was great for quick recognition of numbers & letters… pre-reading skills!