From the Toy Box

The photos for this week's post were taken about a year ago. I can't believe how little Addie looks! We will be looking at two toys and one everyday item that we used to help Addie learn and develop.

Nesting cups: For those of you who have been following for a while now, you know how dear my friend Cathy is to me. Just before Addie turned one, Cathy and her daughter Kenberly (Ken-Ken to Addie) brought us tons of toys and learning tools. For a while, Addie's favorite thing was a set of nesting cups. These nesting cups not only brought hours of entertainment to our girl, but also helped her to develop a critical thinking mind (she had to figure out which cup fit properly into the next in order for the cups to stack correctly). Just after she turned one, Addie was nesting all ten cups on her own. We also used them to review colors with Addie. Once she developed more controlled motor skills, Addie learned how to stack the cups to make a tower. Addie has not outgrown the nesting cups, and they are wonderful for developing her critical thinking and motor skills.

Jumbo Alphabet: Another gift from Miss Cathy was the set of jumbo alphabets and numbers. These are wonderful for reenforcing the alphabet sounds and letter and number recognition. They are also great for stacking! I can't even begin to tell you about the "towers" Addie has made out of these. Clean up is also easy for little ones with these because they are able to group like items in order to put them away.

Magazines: These are not usually seen as a toy or learning tool, but they can be. In the afternoons, after my work was done, Addie was up from her last nap of the day, and we were just waiting for Daddy to come home from work, I would pull out some magazines. I left them accessiible to Addie. She would flip through the pages and look at the pictures, but it taught her how to handle books with finer pages. If a page tore, it was no big deal, but I would use that opportunity to teach her how to treat a book, "We don't tear pages. We have to be nice to the book." Addie is now allowed to look at pretty much any book we have. She gently turns pages and doesn't harm the books in any way. In the pictures from last week's book club post, Addie was looking through The Confident Woman book. She gently turned the pages and looked at the letters, pronouncing them and pointing out her favorites. The magazine pages helped her to see the amount of force needed in turning these lighter pages compared to the amount needed with board books.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!