2 - 4 Years SEL

As you explore the world of letters and language this week, it’s important to understand the different ages and stages milestones that your little learners will build upon as they grow into amazing readers. With that in mind, we’ve collected some of the common development milestones associated with reading skills that you can use to track your kids’ progress. Debbie Kruse, a kindergarten teacher from Illinois, says that these kinds of checklists are valuable for understanding each individual child’s learning needs.     

 “By paying close attention to your kids’ development, you can get an early sense of their emerging skills,” Debbie said. “When you have an accurate picture of your kid's strengths and weaknesses, it makes it even easier to get them the focused support and enrichment they need to succeed going forward.” 

The Building Blocks for 18-month-olds 

At the beginning of their reading journey, there are a few important milestones that indicate your toddlers have a good grasp on early language skills. By 18 months, your toddlers should be:  

• Demonstrating a familiarity with connecting ideas and images with words; for example, identifying at least two body parts or pointing to an object, picture, or person when they hear the names of those things.  
• Toddlers should also be experimenting with their own verbal communication skills, hitting milestones like speaking phrases or sentences with two to four words or repeating words they’ve overheard from others.  
• Your toddler should be enthused about reading; toddlers should request story time by bringing you books, or even pretend to read to parents, siblings, or imaginary friends.  

The Building Blocks for 2-year-olds 

As they grow into inquisitive 2-year-olds, your kids should begin showing more refined versions of the skills they started with six months ago.  

• They’ll start to scribble and draw with more purpose, with lines and circles that seem to imitate words and letters and be able to answer simple questions.  
• They’ll also become more engaged with their favorite stories, retelling the plot or repeating favorite phrases as well as noticing and correcting you if you make changes to familiar books.   

The Building Blocks for 3-year-olds 

At 3, your kids should start understanding the nuances of what makes language dynamic and interesting.  

• They should start exhibiting an understanding of the concepts of “same” and “different,” as well as simple prepositions like “on,” “in,” and “under.”  
• They’ll also take an increased interest in letters, showing off skills like recognizing the letters that make up their initials or understanding the difference between writing and drawing.  
• Your kids should also be able to put these new skills to work in their verbal communication, speaking in simple sentences that are at least 75% understandable by strangers and singing along to the alphabet song when prompted. 

The Building Blocks for 4-year-olds 

As your kids leave their toddler years, they’ll bring their existing skills with them as they develop an even finer understanding of reading and language.  

• They’ll start to understand things like future tense and recognize rhyming words.  
• They’ll be able to name and identify most capital letters in the alphabet, follow along with writing from right to left, and take steps towards writing their own names.  
• Once again, you’ll see these new skills in the way your kids communicate. By now, they should be able to share phrases and sentences that are 100% understandable to strangers; they’ll also practice retelling stories they’ve heard or telling even longer stories that they’ve made up themselves.  

The Building Blocks for 5-year-olds 

By the time your kids reach kindergarten age, they should be well-positioned to take their first steps toward the more academic side of reading and language.  

• They’ll be able to pair letters with the sounds they make, make rhymes of their own, demonstrate understandings of vowels and consonants as they sound out simple words, and recognize words they know when they appear in books.  
• When it comes to story time, your kids will also demonstrate an increased level of sophistication; they’ll be able to read simple words on their own, describe the characters and plot sequencing (beginning, middle, and end) of stories that they know, and use these skills to retell accurate stories about things they’ve done. 

Counters are a great way to encourage toddlers and preschoolers to develop their sorting skills. In this blog we are sharing four quick and easy ways to set up sorting activities with just a few basic materials.

• Set of counters (we used our favorite Learning Resources All About Me Family Counters)
• A4 white paper or card
• Markers (black, red, blue, yellow, green, purple and orange)
• Dot markers (red, blue, yellow, green, purple and orange)
• Ruler

Why is Sorting Important?

Before we get into the details about the activities, it’s important to point out that sorting activities offer a huge host of learning opportunities for toddlers and preschoolers. They may seem simple, but your little one is developing a range of skills when working with counters. For example, their little hands are constantly moving which is helping their fine motor skills to develop (these skills are key for writing as they get older). They will also have the opportunity to explore counting and use number vocabulary, as well as color recognition and vocabulary development. For my 3 year old, sorting activities often also lead to imaginative play, especially when she uses her family counters. 

How to Set Up the Activities

The great thing about making DIY sorting activities is that they take a matter of minutes to set up. Be sure to prep the sorting sheets before inviting your child to take part or else you risk them losing interest waiting for the activity to be ready. Simply use markers to draw out sorting sheets like the ones in the photo. Carefully consider your child’s passions and try to incorporate them into your sorting sheets. My toddler loves putting the family counters into homes, hence I made the houses sheet. She also really enjoys sorting by color and lining up her toys.  

Activity 1: Walk the Line to Meet a Friend

Whenever my little one plays with these counters she always likes to make them be friends. I drew some dotted lines in black marker and put the same kind of counter at each end of the line. I invited her to walk one of the counters along the line to meet their friend. This was great for her fine motor skills as she had to manipulate the counters around the different shapes of the lines. She also demonstrated color vocabulary, chatting away about how the red cat was walking along to meet the yellow cat. There was lots of imagination creating little personalities for the characters in her play too. 

Activity 2: Family Homes

For this one, I drew six different colored houses and then gave each house a number. My daughter enjoyed sorting the correct number of family counters into the correct colored home. There was an element of problem-solving for this one too because the houses were not big enough to fit too many large counters in. She carefully had to figure out the best combination of counters to fit in the house. I was sure to encourage as much talking as she did to support her vocabulary development. Once she had finished sorting, she then wanted to enjoy sending some of the counters to different houses for playdates. 

Activity 3: Colorful Stepping Stones

Dot markers are a great way to quickly add colorful sorting marks to a piece of paper. Here I added different colored dots to the page and told my toddler that they were colorful stepping stones. She added the correct counters onto the stepping stones (she would make them jump on, with ‘boing’ sound effects of course). I intentionally also worked in some numeracy by adding 1-6 dots instead of all the same number of dots for each color. That way my daughter could count as she placed the family counters on the dots and each time she was reaching a different number.  

Activity 4: Color Lines

This one is super simple but is always enjoyed. Just draw outlines in the different colored markers and invite your little one to line up the counters on the correct color of the line. I didn’t give my daughter specific instructions as I wanted her to have some choice. I thought she would try and line them up standing along the line, but she chose to make them lie down. This was another great way to work on her fine motor skills, as well as getting her to think about the size. She realized that the ‘Mummy and Daddy’ counters were much bigger than the ‘baby’ counters. She started to plan which order she would add them in and enjoyed trying to get them perfectly lined up. 

A Few Tips

I always find that my toddler responds better to activities like these when she has some choice. I presented her with the four sorting sheets and let her choose which order to do them in. I also provided her with all of the counters so that she had the freedom to choose which counters to use. If you are doing these with a younger child try to just focus on one simple aspect when sorting, for example color or size. If working with an older child you can make the activity more challenging by combining several aspects of sorting, for example, color and number, or size and color.My final tip is to encourage your child to also enjoy making their own sorting sheets. I always leave out the art supplies to allow my daughter the opportunity to make her own sorting sheet. This encourages engagement, and also introduces more creativity and fine motor skill work as well. Do you have a favorite way to sort counters? We’d love to hear all about it in the comments! Explore other Learning Resources counting toys and counting ideas as well.

No better phrase fits the 2020-2021 school year than "different strokes for different folks"! Whether your family has chosen in-person, virtual or homeschool learning, we know that it wasn't an easy decision for your family. If you have chosen home-schooling for this year, this post may help provide some organization inspiration as your kitchen table becomes the classroom.

Whether you are new to homeschooling or are looking to up your organization skills, we've pulled together a few of our favorite tips that we hope will help you ease into this school year feeling prepared.

Find a consistent spot for homeschool.

Consistency is key! Studies show that having a place dedicated to working helps the brain focus its attention to the task at hand. While it may not be feasible to convert an entire room to homeschooling, creating a workstation at the kitchen or dining room table will help your child focus on schoolwork with limited distraction. The Create-a-Space Bundle is a great all--in-one way to easily store all of your homeschool supplies. The magnetic, sealable pouches can store manipulatives for counting or letter practice while the circular tray can house writing utensils, markers, glue sticks and any other items needed quickly and easily. The circular tray can also be picked up quickly at the end of your school day so your table can serve dinner. Pulling these items out at the beginning of each school day will create a routine and help your child's brain switch from kitchen table to desk.

Color code.

Easily track and locate different work by color coding. Not only will this help make your home school a bit more colorful and fun, it will help both you and your child to organize work by color. The Write & Wipe Pockets are great for being eco-friendly too! Reuse worksheets by sliding them into these dry-erase pockets and fit in with your color coordination. Color coding is also really helpful if you have more than one child learning at home. Having a distinction between work for different children, subjects or days can help you as an educator and parent locate work or items more easily.

Make sure everything has a place.

Just like socks and shoes have a designated spot in your home, so should school work. Rather than letting papers pile up and get lost, figure out a filing system that works for you that ensures everything school-related has a place. Repurposing plastic bins, bookshelves or magazine holders are a great way to get started with figuring out a system using items you already have in your home. Don't forget about items like  dry erase markers and your supplies! This Magnetic Whiteboard Storage Pocket is easy to stick on your dry erase board so that your items don't always end up in your child's supply bin.

Get creative with how you store items.

You don't have to dedicate an entire room in your house to homeschooling to make it work! Think of creative ways to store items that will not be used after your school day ends. Are there places you can hang items, rather than lay them down? What can be folded up and tucked away? Are there items in your house that can be repurposed for storing homeschool material? While it can be daunting to think about, we promise that homeschool materials do not have to take over your life! One recommendation is adding zip ties to the end of pointers, rulers or other items that have a hole to them. Hang these up using magnetic hooks to make them easy to locate while still being out of the way.

Similar to how we all faced quarantine, we're all in this new and likely challenging school year together, even if that looks different to everyone! What are your tips for home school organization?

Sensory Play: Plant a Veggie Patch!

Looking for a way to freshen up your little one’s play food adventures? We had an absolute blast teaming up our Farmer’s Market Color Sorting Set with some homemade ‘soil’ for this awesome hands on vegetable planting activity.

What you need:

• Learning Resources Farmer’s Market Color Sorting Set
• 2 batches of cocoa cloud dough (to make one batch mix 2 cups all purpose flour, ¼ cup cocoa and ¼ cup vegetable oil and then crumble the mixture together by hand)
• Measuring cups
• Spoons
• Muffin tins

Making the Soil

It can be tempting to make the sensory base ahead of time to avoid too much mess but I promise you it is such an enriching part of the activity to get your kiddo involved with the making process. My 3 year old loves getting to measure and pour out the ingredients! We made two batches of the cocoa cloud dough. For each batch we mixed 2 cups of all purpose flour with ¼ cup cocoa powder.

Then we added ¼ cup vegetable oil and stirred it with a spoon. The next part is really important to make sure you get a good consistency. Use your fingertips to squish and crumble the mixture together. My daughter loved doing this and she kept commenting on how soft and smooth it felt.

You want to end up with the cloud dough looking nice and brown. It should hold together when formed into balls, but when you apply pressure or poke it, the mixture will crumble apart.

Let’s get Planting

Once we had our ‘soil’ we picked out our favorite vegetables from the Farmer’s Market set. This was a great opportunity for my daughter to recognize which pieces of the set were fruit and which were vegetables. So much descriptive language and vocabulary being shared! To plant the chosen veggies we had two muffin tins ready, along with a spoon and our cloud dough ‘soil’.

My little one carefully added some ‘soil’ to each of the muffin tin compartments. This was great for fine motor skills and we even linked it to some early numeracy by using simple volume words such as empty, full, more and less.

Next my daughter got to choose which veggies to plant where. You would not believe the delicate thought process that went into choosing each one. She was so careful to make sure that her precious veggies were planted in the middle of the soil, sometimes even making a little hole for them to perch in.

It was fantastic to see my toddler so hands on with the sensory material. It is important to give your children opportunities to build their confidence when using different sensory materials. I love that she confidently touches materials and asks questions / makes descriptive comments about them.

Each time she added a new vegetable she was working her fine and gross motor skills hard. She regularly crossed the midline to place and plant the vegetables which is an important skill for children to develop because it helps to promote the coordination and communication between the two sides of the brain.

Ways to Extend the Play

The main event here was most definitely getting to plant the vegetables in the cloud dough, but there are so many great ways to extend the play. Here’s a few ways we continued to enjoy this set up:

• Numeracy links - simple counting questions such as how many green vegetables did you plant? Or how many vegetables are in each muffin tin?
• What’s missing - with just one muffin tin in front of them, ask your child to carefully study what’s in front of them. Then ask them to close their eyes while you remove one of the vegetables. Can they tell you which one is missing? Let them remove one while you close your eyes too, they will think they are being so sneaky!
• Guess which veggie - a simplified version of Guess Who where your child can ask you questions about the vegetable you have in mind to try and narrow down the answer.
• Re-planting - yup it’s as simple as that, take all the vegetables out, pour out the ‘soil’ and re-plant those vegetables in a different container. You could use a large storage container to make it more like a farmer’s field.

We truly had so much fun with this set up. It allowed for my toddler to be hands on at all times and there are so many great links to numeracy and literacy learning, as well as fine and gross motor development. The great news is that you can store the cloud dough in an airtight container or bag for use months later too. Don’t worry if you don’t have our Farmer’s Market Color Sorting Set, you can enjoy this activity with many different toys such as mini dinos, insects or even making muddy pools for people counters. Happy learning!