The kids love the Super Sorting Pie. It's been a versatile toy since Christmas (2011) and great for learning colors, sorting, counting, fine motor practice with tongs, and even pretend play.
Three 2-sided cardboard inserts come with the pie and provides a good visual for the kids to remember how I am asking them to sort the fruits. The inserts are easily interchangeable by simply lifting the sectioned-off part of the pie.
Elizabeth enjoys sorting by color and by type of fruit.
I've even used it for simple addition and subtraction practice with Matthew.
When not sorting or counting, the kids play with it many days in the week pretending to bake a fruit pie in their play kitchen. Today, they were so cute playing together. Matthew was telling Elizabeth what fruit he needed and how many and Elizabeth listened, understood him (she usually always does despite his struggle with articulating some words), and played along. I would've taken a longer video but stopped right after Elizabeth announced, "I'm pooping." Thankfully, she still wears diapers.
As of today, it's selling on amazon.com for less than $20. It's also available on the Learning Resources website but it costs more.
The Melissa & Doug Pattern Blocks & Boards comes with 6 wooden shapes and colors - white diamonds, blue diamonds, yellow hexagons, red trapezoids, green triangles, orange squares - and 10 geometric patterns on wooden boards. The shapes can also be used to create more unique patterns without the pattern boards but for a 2-year old and 4-1/2 year old, it was simpler to start with a ready visual.
Not surprisingly, 2-year old Elizabeth can easily scan the box of mixed shapes to find all the needed pieces by herself. She can finish a pattern mostly by herself, with just a little help to reposition the pieces if they move out of place. They move very easily on the board and it may be frustrating for some.
Matthew's visual scanning abilities aren't as strong as his younger sister's and it doesn't help that he gets distracted easily. It was puzzling to me that he couldn't find the pieces he needed for the pattern he was working on even when I told him what shapes (and colors) he needed. Then I remembered that some activities weren't as overwhelming for Matthew if they were broken down into simpler steps.
To simplify the shape search for him, I had both kids sort all the pieces by shape/ color in separate piles. With all the like pieces together, he could now concentrate on counting how many he needed for the pattern he was completing instead of losing focus when digging through a jumbled pile of shapes.
We like to bring out this toy during queiter times in the day or when waiting for lunch to be ready. Elizabeth enjoys sorting the pieces by color as well as helping Matthew locate the pieces he needs.
Great for promoting mathematical thinking, creativity, visual scanning, shape and color recognition, and in our family, teamwork.
Birthdays are a fun time for kids. Birthdays can also be a difficult concept especially for kids who may think it's their birthday at every party or kids who may be overwhelmed with all the activity and excitement and people.
The time-honored birthday cake ritual of singing "Happy Birthday" and blowing out the candles was a perplexing for Matthew when he was younger. He wasn't quite sure what to do about the candles until he was 3. And people singing the happy birthday song around him brought forth his lower lip with a downward curve. (Maybe he just thought everyone was off-key and that was upsetting to him??)
With many birthdays to celebrate in our family (with nearby relatives), playing with the Melissa & Doug Birthday Cake has completely helped him warm up to the birthday ritual. Both kids even like to turn the lights off after the candles are put on the cake. Then we sing the birthday song. The lights come back on for cake cutting and eating.
We like this birthday cake set because it is fun and durable. It also nice for counting, sorting, learning to follow directions, and imaginative play. I can see it used for simple sequencing also but we haven't tried it yet.
Integrating some more fine motor work into our birthday cake play, Matthew picks up candles and pieces with tongs.
Spontaneous speech is one of the areas we are focused on developing at home and at school. Early number concepts is another area. Matthew likes numbers. This week at school, Matthew spontaneously demonstrated that he could do simple math too.
Working on counting objects (I forgot what was used) at preschool, Matthew's teacher asks him to put 4 in a container. He counts 4 into the container.
Then 3. He counts 3 into the container.
Then 2. He counts 2 into the container.
Then 3 again. But there are only 2 left on the table. He counts 1, 2... pauses and scans the table. Then without any prompting he slowly says, "I need 1 more."
Teacher: Yes, you do need 1 more, Matthew.
Matthew (speaking slowly): I can't find any.
Teacher: What should we do?
(Matthew pauses thoughtfully).
Matthew: Get more in here (pointing to full container).
Dried beans are proving to be quite a versatile toy at our house, especially since Elizabeth doesn't mouth toys anymore. In addition to putting them in a plastic container for a Homemade Tactile Sensory box (from an earlier toy review) to practice scooping and pouring and to provide sensory input, we are re-discovering the many fun and educational ways to play with beans.
Beans can be used for counting. One-to-one correspondence counting and other early number concepts like "more" or "less" or "few" or "many".
Beans can be used to make sock bean bags, which is something I learned recently from Elizabeth's visit with our local Parents as Teachers group. Elizabeth enjoys fine motor activities. Usually, whatever Elizabeth is doing, Matthew wants to try too (and vice versa). This activity hits many areas: fine motor control and coordination, pincer grasp, sharing and cooperation between siblings, and attention span.
The only materials needed are dried beans and socks. We used Daddy's socks. (He won't realize they're missing anyway - not until he reads this).
After filling the socks, make a knot so the beans don't fall out.
Then fold over to form a bean back sock ball.
Bean bag socks are great for:
- tossing overhand or underhand into laundry baskets (for a wider target) or small containers (for a smaller, more challenging target).
- a quick game of catch.
- balancing on various parts of the body like the head, arm, knee, and so on.
Our bean bag making activity then turned into a pretend cooking game. Matthew was handing Elizabeth pots and pans and plates as she filled them with beans and stirred with the spoon.
We also made egg shakers filling plastic eggs from last Easter with beans and sealing with glue.
Other good fillers for the egg shaker are uncooked rice and small uncooked pasta.
Using felt board pieces are one way I am able to make stories or rhymes more tangible. Matthew and Elizabeth enjoy putting the felt pieces on our modified garage sale-bought (for $5) easel. It's "modified" because I covered the chalkboard side with 4 sheets of adhesive felt ($1 per 8" x 10" sheet).
Beyond Play sells magnetic felt boards and felt boards with cardboard backing. I didn't want to spend $20 to $30 on a felt board for our purposes. I suppose I could've also made one using a flat panel of wood from the hardware store and covered that with adhesive felt sheets. Hmmm...
We have several felt story sets. So far, we have "5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed", which is pre-cut and store-bought (online from Beyond Play). Matthew enjoys pulling the monkeys off the felt board and dropping them on the floor. Then he says, "No, no" while shaking his head when we get to the part "No more monkeys jumping on the bed."
The rest I made using felt board templates from an educational resource website called DLTK's Growing Together. There is an option to print in color or black and white - with the idea that the kids will color the pieces. Then I cut out the pieces, laminated them (I use a Scotch Thermal laminator. It is so easy to use and does the job very well.), and put adhesive felt on the backs so they'd stick to the felt board. I tried using cut up pieces of sandpaper but the glue wouldn't hold the sandpaper and plastic together.
We have Baa, Baa Black Sheep, 5 Little Ducks, and Itsy Bitsy Spider.
I also made a fish tank felt set (with stiffer felt) just for fun. It's been good for counting and colors. I only made 10 fish though.
Our latest homemade felt story set is "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" since that is the book that Matthew's preschool class is reading at school this week. I also made separate pieces with just the words "brown bear", "yellow duck", "blue horse", and so on for all the animals in that book.
Play time with the felt stories isn't consistent though. The kids' staying power largely depends on their moods and how interesting I make it. Sometimes they'll be into the felt stories for 5-10 minutes at a time. Sometimes I am only able to hold their interest for 2 minutes. But that's ok. With most activities I do with them, I go for repetition and fun instead of length of time. Repetition has always been one of the important keys to Matthew's learning. And of course, it has to be fun!
Overall, they've been great to have for my visual learner (Matthew) and my quick study (Elizabeth). They are another simple tool to encourage speech, language, cognition, and reading.
Almost like popping bubble wrap, the Poke-A-Dot Old MacDonald's Farm book is addictive as much as it is educational. We bought it on amazon.com.
It can also encourage index finger isolation while counting animals and being rewarded with the plastic bubble popping. This book can keep Matthew and Elizabeth busy for a few minutes. Actually, Elizabeth has more staying power than Matthew.
This chunky board book makes for easy page-turning, but it is also heavy - at least for Elizabeth, who is 15 months old. The only flaw I have noticed is that sometimes the plastic dots like to pop more to one side than the other. Maybe a little more use will help fix that issue.
And as fun as it is to pop the plastic dots over and over and over, I must say that I don't let Matthew have this book unsupervised too often. Poke-A-Dot is fun and for Matthew, it can encourage unwanted sensory addictive behavior, when he acts like he's under a "poking spell." It is at that time when I personally feel that the educational value of the book is negated.
Otherwise, it's a neat book. I just have to look through it with Matthew and make it as interactive and engaging as possible without him going into a semi-trance.
There are many varieties of wooden number puzzles. We have the Melissa & Doug wooden number puzzle.
Matthew can rote count from 1 to 10, which is an early number concept - a pre-math skill. This wooden puzzle serves three primary purposes for him:
1. learn to rote count from 1 to 20
2. learn to recognize numerals 1 to 20
3. learn to put written numerals in the correct order.
I give Matthew the pieces, one at a time, in the correct order so he gets accustomed to the sequence. As he lays the pieces on the puzzle board, he sees that they go from left to right, which is good practice for reading since the English language is read from left to right.
Our next step is to teach him to arrange the numbers in the correct order without the board to match. However, this activity is only meant to teach sequence, not the concept of big or small numbers or quantities.
Note: Some 3-1/2 year olds may find this to be the most boring activity ever. Matthew thinks it's quite fun. It helps that he is currently highly interested in numbers and counting.
We improvised fine motor, learning activities using leftover alphabet craft beads, ice cube trays, and small containers. There are many possible activities with these materials. So far, we've used them for:
- putting beads into the various containers using a pincer grasp. - letter identification - articulation - words that start with the letter on the bead - one-to-one correspondence and other basic counting skills - pulling beads off a pipe cleaner using a pincer grasp. When he's older (and if he's interested), we can string these beads on pipe cleaners or small diameter string and make bracelets.
Simple. Great for concentration building. "Fun" is relative. Matthew enjoys it when he's in the mood for alphabet beads. Otherwise, I have to make it "extra gamey" to spark his interest.
How do I teach my 3-year old the value of money? I don't. Not yet anyway.
But I can use loose change for an easy fine motor activity and counting coins. My latest home counting lesson with Matthew is counting to 20. So we lay up to 20 coins on a baking tray or any hard flat surface and count them.
Next, we pull out Bill's favorite coin bank and Matthew picks up the coins from the tray and drops them into the bank.
We'll learn to count money and understanding the value of money when he's older.
Just two months ago, Matthew didn't have a good grasp of early number concepts. I had been teaching him to count up to 3. I hadn't taught him to count from 1 to 10. I had been showing him the difference between big and small as well as same and different, which are prenumber concepts. But I hadn't been doing it as often as I feel I should have. I had been reading counting books to him like "Very Hungry Caterpillar" but he was more interested in other books two months ago.
If I asked him to give me 1 block, he would give me whatever he could hold in his hand. He was excellent at matching and sorting shapes and colors though.
In an effort to teach Matthew the concept of counting, identifying and naming numerals, and sight reading number words zero to ten, we counted everything of high interest to him like crackers, toys, steps, and many other things. We read more counting books. We sang more counting songs. I made number word flashcards since I was also teaching him sight words.
I also made a "Counting Crackers" video for him using my photos of goldfish crackers and Windows Movie Maker. He loves goldfish crackers, looking at photos, learning to sight read new words and watching videos. It was a huge hit and he evidently learned from it.
Progress He can now count from 1 to 10 in the correct order and without prompting, also known as rote counting. He is also beginning to count objects by pointing to them one to one. He can now recognize numerals and number words zero to ten. He says "two" and "eight" the clearest.
The other day, while eating goldfish crackers, I asked him to give me two crackers. I held my hand out and he put two crackers in my hand, one cracker at a time.
Early Math Resources The Down Syndrome Foundation of Orange County's (DSFOC) "The Learning Program" offers materials for free on their website. Registration required. They have an "Everyday Math" handout with plenty of activity ideas for prenumber concepts and early number concepts. Prenumber concepts include sorting, comparing objects and patterning. Early number concepts include rote counting, counting with meaning and number symbol (numeral) recognition.
For a more multi-sensory approach to learning math using manipulatives, there are teaching resources like Numicon, which was developed in the UK and is available at downsed USA's online store, or Math-U-See, which was designed by a math teacher and father of a child with Down syndrome. It looks like the DSFOC's Learning Program uses Numicon.
We decided to try Numicon so I ordered the Firm Foundations kit and the book to adapt it specifically for kids with Down syndrome. Beth at Hannah's Shenanigans shares her daughter's experience using Numicon in several blog entries. At this time, I have no blog links to share for personal experiences with Math-U-See.
The book "Teaching Math to People with Down Syndrome and Other Hands-On Learners" by DeAnna Horstmeier also has many activities for learning prenumber and early number concepts.
