Egg Hunt in September?

It's cold outside, but the four year old needed a jump around, fun,  game to play.  I remembered a movement game using plastic Easter eggs.

I wrote movement ideas, like tag, jump, and kiss Mommy :), on little slips of paper.  I hid the eggs around the kitchen and living room. Bam, a movement game!

My Son, ran around the house, opening eggs.  He can't read the directions, so he told me the first letter, and I read them.  We followed each direction.   He put the slips of paper back in the eggs, and returned them to their place.

To clean up, he grabbed the egg carton we use to store the eggs,  and put the toys back in the eggs.  Here, we worked on the beginning and ending  sounds of the toys.  You can also work on categories, colors, prepositions,  etc. 

We had a friend fun time learning,  and  getting our wiggles out, at the same time. 

Physical Activity and Speech/Language Development

My two year old, Son, and I spent went to the Idaho Falls Recreation Center's Open Gym in the morning, and to a community park in the afternoon.  Three cheers for the weather!  Movement helps encourage speech and language at all levels of development.  I have listed examples below.

Slides!

*Caregiver/child can say "up, up, up" as your child climbs the slide's ladder, and "down" as he/she goes down the slide

* Caregiver/child can count the steps as your child goes up.

*Caregiver/child can say, "ready, set, go" to encourage him/her to go down the slide.

*Say, "1,2,3, go"

*Sliding provides a great opportunity for taking turns with other children.  Taking turns is essential in learning how to participate in conversation.

*My Son said "I want more slide,please."

Tunnels

*Some words that can be taught/said with tunnels include: in, out, through, tunnel, crawl...

* This tunnel provided a great opportunity for peek-a-boo.  "Where are you, Mama?"

Balls

* Examples of receptive language/understanding skills that can be taught with balls: colors, size, following directions

*Examples of expressive language skills that can be taught with balls: naming colors, naming size, words like up and down.

*"I want to play basketball, please." How could I resist him!  We enjoyed playing "hoops" for part of our time at the Rec Center.

Steering Wheels

*The list of words are endless, and obviously so much fun:

Car sounds, go, stop, circle, round, fast, slow...

*My Son initiated the tune " The Wheels on the Bus" while 'driving.'

What a fun day!!!