Play for All! [Part 3 of COVID Series]

Hello readers! I've been a bit behind with writing up blog posts these past 2 weeks, but we have a really special treat for you this week! My dear friend Jamie, who is also a mother of 2 and an elementary educator, agreed to be a guest blogger to share some wonderful, accessible ideas for all of you! Hope you're all encouraged by her creativity and resourcefulness to use things at home for play and learning 😀

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Hello! Jamie here, guest blogging this week to share some easy play ideas for your little one that’s: 1) Free 2) Easy to set up and clean up and 3) Open ended. Open ended meaning the “toy” can be used in multiple ways, leaving it up to the child to decide how to play.

These three qualifications are important because this pandemic has, if anything, heightened the imbalances and inequities of time, energy and resources for parents. Amiright? Flashback to when Justin Timberlake complained he had it rough when he fled to his multi million dollar home in Montana with his family and parents around the world rolled their eyes at him.

Idea 1: Pillow tower

My son M one day decided to collect all the couch cushions around our home and build towers with them. Each pillow is of varying sizes, plumness and flatness. It was fun to watch him solve which pillow worked best as a foundation and which didn’t. He quickly learned that using the cylinder cushion was a bad idea. The best part of this activity for him was jumping on the tower as it fell down. He did this all. Day. Long. The best part for me was how tired he was by bedtime. Win win.

Idea 2: Playing with loose parts 

M is a huge fan of loose parts play. Loose parts are defined as “Materials that can be moved, carried, combined, redesigned, lined up, and taken apart and put back together in multiple ways. Loose parts can be used alone or combined with other materials. There is no set of specific directions for materials that are considered loose parts. The child is the direction.” (Penn state, Early learning Extension)  

M almost always plays longer, more independently and more imaginatively with open ended loose parts than with expensive, fancy toys (Unless they are trucks. Trucks will always win in his mind.) There are some gorgeous, wooden loose parts sets out there. I particularly love anything that Grapat makes, but they are super pricey. These fancy loose parts are wonderful, but I personally think the best loose parts can be anything around the home-collections of buttons, shells, cut up straws, marbles. M and I love collecting loose parts in nature on our walks-rocks, acorns, leaves, etc..

Today M played with a collection of extra sponges that I had. Here’s a quick summary of the evolution of his play:

1. He first used them as bricks to build a building

2. Then they became cakes that he served to me. 

3. Then they were stones to build a road. 

4. Lastly he used these sponges later to “wash” his muddy trucks in his sensory bin. 
   
   

That’s a lot of mileage for some sponges just laying around the house!

Idea 3: Upcycling

Upcycling is very near and dear to my heart because 1) I’m Asian. I hate waste. 2) I’m an early educator. Every elementary school teacher has a collection of recyclables that they’re saving for an exciting project. 3) I love the challenge of trying to figure how to reuse items. A huge shout out to my husband Rob who puts up with my growing recyclables collection. 

A few days ago, I saved our yogurt containers from Trader Joes (I love the design on these!) and laid them out on the table before I went to bed. The next morning M immediately went to the yogurt containers and began to pretend to serve them to Raffi his lovey. Then he made a structure for his monster trucks to jump over.  

I’d love to hear if your child loves playing with garbage as much as mine. Give it a try-wash out the recyclables, put it on a confined play like a tray, bin or crate and see what happens and how your child will use it. You might be surprise.  :) Thanks for reading!

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Jamie is currently a literacy consultant for early educators and a former 1st, 2nd, 3rd grade teacher. She’s a mom of two-Momo(3) and Ella (3 months).

3 goals for homeschool preschool + a special giveaway!! [Part 2 of COVID Educational Inequality Series]

do the paper decorations look familiar? we just recycled them from Silly Bean's birthday decor!

Welcome to Little Mouse's Colors Homeschool! We decided to call our preschool year "homeschooling" and Silly Bean even decided on this cute little name for it, but we are basically doing what we've been doing and not necessarily doing any lesson planning or anything, just more of the same 😅

Here are 3 goals we are going to be focusing on this year, and most things we'll be doing will likely fall into one or more of these categories!

1. Cultivate curiosity, wonder, and a love for learning: aka asking questions about anything and everything, figuring out how to research to find out the answers (whether it's the library or asking a friend who knows a lot about it, etc.), noticing things in the world around us.
2. Read tons: whether it's me reading books out loud, audio books, story podcasts, or Silly Bean practicing his reading, whether it's in English or in Chinese, or telling our own stories.
3. Create opportunities for social interactions: meeting up with friends (socially distanced, outdoors), talking to new neighbors, trying to talk to some kids we see at the playground, etc.

As I've been talking with friends with similar aged kids, I also wanted to share 3 things to keep in mind if you're trying to "homeschool" your preschooler this year:

1. Homeschool doesn't have to be fancy like what you see on Pinterest. Truly. I'm a part of a few homeschool and toddler groups on Facebook, and I keep seeing posts from some parents who do really amazing things with their learning spaces, learning activities, etc. but to be honest, you don't need all of that to do a great job with your child. What I think matters the most is your presence and your interaction with your kid(s)!
2. Don't take our "schedule" as the authority of what a preschool schedule "should" look like! While routine is important for kids to feel secure and know what's coming, every kid is just so different. You are the one who knows your child best, what their ups and downs are throughout the day, when they get hangry (it's really a thing!). There really isn't a right or wrong schedule, whatever works best for your family. Plus at this age, they should be playing the majority of the time! Apparently "teaching time" for preschool aged kids should only be 15 to 30 minutes a day anyway so if you are planning lessons, make them short and don't get too frustrated if your kid's attention span is short! (the activities I shared above only lasted about 15 minutes tops before Silly Bean got disinterested and walked away!).
3. It's totally okay if your kid wants to do the same thing every day. Yes, they are still learning, and yes it's totally fine! Silly Bean got an Africa puzzle for his birthday a few weeks ago, and has still been doing the puzzle at least 20 times a day since then, and always says he is looking forward to playing the puzzle again tomorrow. You don't need to force your child to do all these other activities because you think they are supposed to be doing it. You can use that as an opportunity to extend their learning with that particular interest. So for example, we asked Silly Bean which African countries he was interested in learning about, and borrowed some books from the library about them. We thought about what friends we have who have been to Africa or who have lived there or currently live there, and are planning to do mini "interviews" with them (still trying to figure out what that looks like for a 3-year-old!). 

I'm not much of a systematic planner when it comes to all of this so you won't see any spreadsheets or worksheets here, just some activities we come up with here and there. Again, with COVID, I think a lot of inequalities are being exposed with the whole homeschooling/schooling from home bit. Some families may not have access to materials or toys that you see on other blog posts or articles about homeschool or learning-from-home ideas, or don't have the time to search Pinterest or prep an activity because they are working one or two jobs, or maybe are raising multiple kids and just don't have the time. We want to share some ideas in this post that should be easy, low or no prep, and the materials should be easy to come by.

The other day, Silly Bean refused to go outside. I really try to get him out for at least an hour a day, so I quickly came up with this idea that we should go collect sticks to make Little Mouse a house. Silly Bean loved the idea so much we were out the door in a jiffy! Little Mouse is this little finger puppet that Nanny and Grampy gave Silly Bean a while ago but he has recently liked it a lot. This was the end result!

I just glued the sticks together in a triangular prism shape (it was supposed to be more cube-like but we ran out of sticks, oh well), glued a bunch of leaves on the top and the front to make a door, found a little rock outside and stuck it on, and voila! It only took about 15 minutes or so to put it together, and now it sits on our little table.

Another quick and easy activity that we introduced today as a part of "choice time" is beading.

I guess this is what you'd call our learning time--I give Silly Bean a choice of 2 activities where I assist him in practicing a skill; so far I've come up with beading and cutting practice (just cut up some strips of scrap paper and put it in a jar with scissors). I think the materials should be accessible for most--I just got a bag of pipe cleaners and a bag of pony beads from a local craft store across the street, but I'd imagine they'd have it at the dollar store as well!

Lastly, we wanted to do a special giveaway of a mini preschool kit to either parents/caregivers in need (however you define that)-- whether that's for yourself, a neighbor or friend you know who could be blessed by this, or maybe a friend faraway who you're thinking about! To enter the giveaway:

• share this post (either by sharing the Facebook post or by copying and pasting the post link) to your social media and tag a friend who could be encouraged by this blog post
• and subscribe to the blog (on the main page, there is a sidebar on the right where you can enter your e-mail address)

Silly Bean will pick a number at random and we'll announce the winners on Friday!

Talking, Drawing, Writing [Part 1 of the COVID Educational Inequality Series, Silly Bean Style]

Happy September, everyone! How many of you have kids going back to school this/next week? How many of have districts doing hybrid or completely remote learning for the time being? Are any of you going to opt for homeschooling for the year instead?

Today we're going to kick off a series that highlights the inequalities that this pandemic is bringing to light with regard to education, but also provides some simple ideas that should be more accessible to all (with materials you probably have at home, minimal time spent preparing, etc). As I've been reflecting on our family's situation, I'm really grateful that we can even afford for me to be a SAHM working part-time, and that our situation in that regard has been the same as pre-pandemic. I have the ability to give Silly Bean my undivided attention during the day, and we also don't have to worry about whether he is doing virtual learning or not, whether he is meeting in person or not.

But this isn't the case for everyone. For parents, single parents, people who are working full time from home and have littles at home, people who don't speak English, people who are working a job or several jobs outside the home--the whole education system in this season isn't set up for them. It makes me think about how homeschooling really is a privilege. But it shouldn't have to be, because every parent cares about giving their kids the best education, giving them the attention they need, but our current system doesn't necessarily make that possible. 

There are still others who aren't in this boat but are still wondering what to do to fill the hours when their kid (or multiple kids) aren't doing remote learning since the virtual school day is "shorter" than if they had been in school. If you fall into either of these groups, or anywhere in between, this series is for you! We want to share some easy peasy low-prep activites you can do with your toddlers/preschoolers!

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One of my favorite memories growing up is lying in bed with my mom and making up little stories together before going to sleep. We would tell them orally and unfortunately I don't remember any of them, but what I do remember is that magical feeling of painting a world with our words for our characters and co-creating it with my mom. It was probably then that I knew I wanted to be a writer.

For one of my early childhood education classes, we read a book called "Talking, Drawing, Writing," which is about how storytelling, or basically talking, is essential to children learning to write later on beyond kindergarten.

Foremost, though, is valuing the child through storytelling: "Because inviting children to talk about themselves and about what they know honors who they are. They don't need a picture. They don't even need to know how to write letters. They don't need a spectacular event to share. They are valued for themselves, for using the words they have to say what they know." (p. 15) In these times with our kids at home, storytelling can give us an opportunity to affirm our children for who they are and the things they understand (or think they understand!) about the world, and to build relationship. It doesn't take any prep, really--only a listening ear, some open ended questions, and some affirmation!   You don't even need to write anything down--just take a few minutes to really be present with your toddler/preschooler!

Silly Bean and I have been enjoying telling little stories about his stuffed animals (his Elmo in particular, who he calls "Mo Baby"), and it's been really fun. Similar to pretend play, I see how Silly Bean is processing the world around him and his understanding of how things work.  We don't usually record many of the stories because he is still young and I don't want Silly Bean to focus too much on product, just the process, but here is a story we captured in writing and drawing so that we could read it over and over again, and so Silly Bean could feel proud about his story and be encouraged to create many more!

And of course, read tons with your kid! I understand that may also be cause for access issues if you're in a town where your library isn't currently open... in which case, tell your kid tons of stories! Make up stories about their favorite stuffed animal or character. Tell your kids stories of when you were their age. Anything--the sky's the limit :D 

Just for fun, here's a picture just for fun of Silly Bean in me in our once-nursing-chair-now-reading-and-storytelling-chair! Silly Bean thought it was hysterical that his legs were hidden and my legs look like they belong to him in this photo ;P

What stories does your child enjoy? What stories do you like telling your kids? Would love to hear!

Bibliography:

Horn, Martha and Mary Ellen Giacobbe. Talking, Writing, Drawing: Lessons from Our Youngest Writers. Stenhouse Publishers, 2007.