Thursday, October 4, 2012

Adventures in Crafting: Alphabet Week-Day 2

In the wake of Monday's failed events, I went into Tuesday with lowered expectations.  My schedule was already planned out, but as I have been noticing since I had began creating these MS Excel based schedules they serve merely as a guide and nothing more.  It keeps me focused and less scattered brained than I would be without one.  CJ woke up around 7:00 am and since the Valley is blazing hot, we try to get him outside as soon as possible.  I then decided to skip pushing the picture match game and let him play out back for a little longer.  By 11:30 am I busted out the craft box.  This was insanely exciting to me as this is our first home craft and I actually have a craft box for my son.



This day was letter A so I used the craft from an online website, I will post the link later, where they suggested making alligators by painting clothes pins green.  I thought this was an awesome idea and it was only partly because I already had clothespins in my personal craft box.  Well, to my surprise this one went well.  By well I mean I coaxed CJ into painting a little, but he was more excited about stacking the paint strips.  I had pipe cleaners in one of the boxes and ended up shaping the letter "A" and he loved that.  I took this as a win and it took up way more time than I expected and I even threw in teaching how to clean up.  Aside from letting him play only alphabet apps on my phone and playing all alphabet songs for a few minutes, those were the only alphabet activities that took for the day.







Things I Learned:  Go with the flow
                                Make up as you go along, it's more fun and organic
                                Any acknowledgement of the craft is considered
                                participation



Adventures In Crafting: Alphabet Week Day 1

So it's day one of my attempt to introduce a curriculum into my two year old's daily life.  This week is alphabet week.  The plan is to do alphabets and crafts relating to the alphabet all week.  I began shopping for the crafts on Sunday after I spent all of Saturday evening coming up with ideas and man was it stressful.  I also had to stick to a budget and couldn't just go buy anything my heart desired.

The plan was to start with an activity which I feel was an original creation but, as I have learned, I am sure it was an idea that I came across at some point in my research that penetrated my  brain and hid.  I made up a game where I was going to collect pictures from the internet that cover the whole alphabet and post them on a board.  CJ would then use alphabet blocks to connect with each picture.  Keep in mind.  This was the plan so I stayed up pretty late using a book to make a grid on the poster board because apparently in my shopping haste and excitement I forgot I would need a ruler at some point.  I then used a marker to make the lines pop and make the board more exciting and colorful my munchkin.  Before I knew it, it was too late and I was exhausted so I never got the pictures glued onto the board and I hadn't bought the Woodsie blocks for  to paste on the letters.



The next morning, when it was almost time (on the schedule) to play "Match the Picture with The Letter", I realized I didn't have a lot of time to glue the pictures on so I came up with writing the letters in the spots where the pictures go (I wanted to keep them in alpha order to reduce confusion) so I can be more efficient in my pasting.  Well that led to a new game, "Help Mommy Paste The Pictures On Their Corresponding Letter".  Well I wouldn't use the word corresponding with my two year old. Ha Ha.

As you can see from the picture, CJ found it more enjoyable to get on top of the board and point out the letters.  After a few minutes of coming up with creative ways to coax my son into playing the game with no luck.  I put the board away. Maybe we can try again later, I thought.

I was not prepared with my planned alligator craft so the day ended with me having to go to Wal-Mart to get more crafts, finding alphabet music and playing that for him, and his usual free play apps on my phone and sesame street.  I did continue to make attempts to play my picture letter game to no avail.  At the end of the day I felt defeated, but with the drive to do better next time and some valuable lessens learned

Things I Learned:  Know that all crafts and games will not take, be patient.
                                You can actually come up with multiple ways to play with crafts based on how the child              
                                 reacts or their interests.
                                 Be prepared ahead of time