As a way for children to express their creativity in a different way you can use plastic eggs as a fun tool to paint with! This plastic egg painting activity makes circles on paper.

You will need:

Children can dip the eggs in the paint and get creative! Toddlers can learn more about circles while preschool children can talk about colors!

You can also expand your creativity and use other items to paint with like toy cars or toy animals!

Are You My Mother?

Written and Illustrated by P. D. Eastman

When a baby bird hatches early and finds that his mother is gone, he goes looking for her. He asks everyone—a kitten, a hen, a dog, and a cow—if they are his mother. He then moves on to a car, a boat, a plane, and finally, a power shovel, which helps him find his mother.

Show your child the cover of the book, tell her the title, author and illustrator. Ask your child what she sees and what she thinks the story will be about. Look at the front cover of this book. What do you see? What do you think the bird is saying to the dog? What do you think this story will be about?

Read the story with expression or give the characters voices. For example, when  reading the baby bird’s voice sound like a baby bird.

Language Development

Try to ask questions that require more than yes or no answers.   For example:

You can ask the questions, wait several seconds to see if your child responds, and then provide the answer. You are modeling for your child what a question and answer dialogue sounds like. Over time, as your child hears more questions and answers, she will begin to answer questions spontaneously. 

Beginning Writing

Create your own book using a mixture of photographs, pictures of faces from magazines, or computer-generated images .  Create a four- to five-page book using images of other family members or unfamiliar faces. On the last page, place the picture of Mommy, Daddy or another family member. As you look through the book, ask your child, “Is this your Mother?” or “is this your Daddy?” See what happens when she gets to the last page.

Eggs-Periments: Squishy Egg

It only takes three ingredients to make a hard egg shell squishy!

YOU WILL NEED

STEP 1

Put a raw egg (in its shell) into a bowl and cover it completely with vinegar.

STEP 2

Wait two days, then drain off the vinegar. When you touch the egg, it will feel rubbery. Be careful not to break the membrane, and wash your hands after you touch the egg. (Throw it away after a few days.)

WHY?

Vinegar, an acid, dissolves the calcium in the eggshell. It's calcium that makes the shell hard. But a thin, flexible membrane just under the shell still holds the egg's shape.

How We Can Teach Respectful Behavior



Making Eye Contact

By giving other adults your full attention, they will see that this is a respectful behavior and will eventually do the same. Model this by making eye contact with your children over meals and any time they ask you a question.

Talk about looking each other in the eye – make it a fun game for little ones. You can say things like, “I love it when I can see your pretty blue eyes when we’re talking!”

Engaging in polite conversation

Conversation is hard for little ones with few words, but a simple, “how are you” warrants a response.

An activity I learned a few years ago is “The Ball is in Your Court”. You can play this at home as a learning exercise. It’s really simple: You toss a ball back and forth with your child (preschool age) and when you have the ball, you ask a question. Then you toss it to them, which is the prompt that it’s their turn to say something.

It’s a fun way to model the art of conversation and also being inquisitive about others in a respectful way.

Saying please and thank you

At home, it’s easy to gently remind our children to ask for things in a nice manner, and to acknowledge kindness from others with a “thank you”.

Egg Races!

You will need

This activity will work on balance, Hand eye coordination, movement, and of course fun!

Try this number recognition game with your eggs!

What you need:  

plastic eggs ~ sharpie ~ paper

Start with 10 eggs, on the outside of each egg write a number. 1, 2, 3, 4. . .10. Also, write the numbers on a sheet of white paper, then cut the paper into small squares.

You can ask your child, “Have we seen the number 5 before?” 

Tips  (to maximize learning): 

1 . If your children have already mastered 1-10, add in 11-20. If you have older children make it more challenging. Wouldn’t it be fun to try 1- 50? 

2.  Use this game as a memory sharpener. When your child comes to an egg that doesn’t match the one they are looking for, say the number out loud. Then encourage them to think about where they might have seen the number. By the end they should have seen all of the numbers at least once. 

3 . This one works for fine motor too! Have your children help stuff the eggs, putting plastic eggs together takes quite a bit of concentration!

5 Ways to Play & Learn With Emotions Cards

1. Making Faces

Place a set of cards face down on a stack. Turn over the top card. Have your child name the emotion and make a face to match.

2. Guess the Emotion

Spread out a set of cards face up. Take turns to choose a card but don’t tell the other players which you have chosen. Make a face and see if the other players can guess which card you chose.

3. The Way I Feel Story Game 

Spread out a set of cards face up. Take turns to choose a card but don’t tell the other players which you have chosen. Tell a short story about a time you felt like that and see if the other players can guess which card you chose.

4. Matching Emotions

Print two sets of the cards (complete with the backing pattern on the reverse side) to make your own Concentration style matching game. To play, spread out all cards face down. Take turns turning over two cards at a time. If you find a match, you keep that pair of cards.

5. Story Emotions

Lay out 3-4 cards. Using a small figurine, tell a short story about the toy. For example – “Peppa’s balloon popped.” Ask your child to put the figurine on the card that shows how Peppa would feel if this happened.