Possible present ideas / useful learning tools....any one else got some to add?

[The Nappy Lady]

As Christmas is coming I thought I'd share a couple of toys we have that are really proving useful now DD1 is at school, and explain why they are proving to be so good;

DD1 is in Year 2 now and came home with her first list of spellings to learn for a test at the end of last week. We've been going over them each day at breakfast time, but last night came up with a new idea - we have a set of those foam letters for the bath, which stick to the wall when wet. DD1 started spelling out the hardest of the words from the list using the foam letters on the walls and really enjoyed it.

I thought what a great way to fit homework into the routine (often hard to do), and make it into a bit more of a game at the same time. We've actually had these foam letters for at least a couple of years now and both girls love playing with them, so I'd highly recommend them - our set was only about ?2 from Tescos!

Also, we've got a bag mini alphabet beanbags (upper case on one side and lower case on the other), and another that are numbers 1-20 (numbers on one side and the written version of the number on the other). These have been really useful over the past school year when she was learning to put numbers 1-10 in order, or learning her letters. We played games where I threw her a beanbag and she had to catch it and tell me what the letter or number was (or a word that starts/ends with that letter), or I would hide them around the room and she had to find them and again tell me what the letter or number was. Also making words with them, though only 1 of each letter(!), or the various phonics sounds, and then thinking of words that use that particular sound.

At the moment we've got a "GOOD/HAPPY" bag and a "SAD" bag, and we are using the beanbags to record her good behaviour, with the option to put them into the SAD bag if she does something naughty. We've agreed she will get a prize at the end of each week if the Happy Bag has more beanbags in than the Sad Bag. It seems to be working really well, though may wear off.....I will keep you posted!

The beanbags were a bit more expensive, but I think they've been worth it as a great learning tool. As Christmas is coming I thought they might be good ideas for stocking fillers.

Molly

[Moos]

Thanks Molly - the alphabet beanbags sound lots of fun, where were they from?

[The Nappy Lady]

I got mine at The Baby Show at Olympia - but they are the same as these;

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Alphabet-Bean-Bags--Little-Bags-of-Fun--Great-Resource!_W0QQitemZ330452218797QQcmdZViewItem?rvr_id=149418926644&rvr_id=149418926644&cguid=1ea779cc1290a0aad3e5baa5ffccb865

Just did a Google to find them. I got mine on an offer - buy 1 bag and get the other bag half price, you may find something similar on line if you hunt around.

Molly

x