Learn New Concepts

Have some of your child's Christmas gifts seemed to have "lost their luster"? Maybe you can help your child enjoy the toys by looking at other ways to use it, and at the same time learn new concepts.

If your child has a lot of cars, trucks, and construction vehicles, have you child gather them into one place. On a piece of paper or with plastic alphabet letters, spell out the word "vehicles". Tell your child that is a word you can use fro all the toys that are use to move people or things.

Try to think together (you might even make a list on a piece of paper) of all the things different vehicles can move. A car moves people. An ambulance moves sick or injured people. A bus moves people (school children) and packages and suitcases. A dump truck moves dirt, sand, gravel, scrap metal. A construction vehicle moves lumber, steel, bricks, cement. A transportation truck moves cars, trailers, boats.

Have your child sort the vehicles by colors, sizes, number of wheels or other things you notice that could be used as a category.

If you have any books about vehicles, read them to your child and ask if they have a toy like the one in the book.

Let your child draw a story about vehicles, drawing different kinds, or drawing where the vehicles might be going, i.e. ambulance to a hospital, school bus to a school, dump truck full of sand to a new road being built, farm truck full of pigs to a farm, gas truck to the filling station.

What other toys does your child have that you can do these kinds of activities with?  I'd love to hear your ideas and what you did with your child's toys!

Another great way to make toys "new" is by rotating your toys every few weeks. Get some plastic bins and store most of your toys in the bins out of sight and reach of your child.  Leave our 10-12 toys.  Every few weeks, get "new" ones out and put the "old" ones away.

posted by:
Cara Retz
Team Leader
http://www.playsmartstore.com/
playsmartstore@gmail.com