Dinosaurs!

My son absolutely loves Dinosaurs.  I am not sure why but it seems all boys just automatically love Dinos!

Today we received a big package from my Mother and it had some awesome stuff in it. One of the coolest things was the Velcro crafts! These where $5.00 each and my Mom found them on clearance for $.50. (she is so savvy) They are really neat they are felt cutouts with an adhesive on the back. They come with clips with Velcro on them. The idea is to put them on the wall and turn them into hooks to hold pictures and so on. One of the packages had dinosaurs. There are 12 dinosaurs total, but only 4 types. As soon as I seen them my "craft  brain" got to working.  I decided to make a game for Dominic to learn matching, colors and the dinosaurs names.

 

Supplies:

*Velcro Crafts-Dinosaurs

*Card Stock for background

*Create and print out Name and Color Cards

*Sheet protector for keeping the game nice while put up

*Zip lock baggies to hold the Dinosaurs and Cards

How I created the game:

 

First: After checking out the Velcro crafts contents I picked out 8 of the dinosaurs to mount onto the cardstock.  One page had 4 dinosaurs each a different color, the second page had the same 4 dinos in a different order. These dinos where facing the opposite direction.  I thought this would be a good way for him to learn matching by thinking and not just holding them over each other and matching the perfect ones. I then created Name, and Color cards and print them out on cardstock for durability.

Next: I took the 4 remaining dinos and added the clips to them. These will be the dinosaurs we use to Match to the dinos mounted on the paper.

Dominic really enjoyed playing the matching game.  I would tell him the name of the dinosaurs and tell him details about each of them. Example the T-Rex has a really big mouth and short arms. I was really impressed how well he did matching each of the dinosaurs!!

After we matching the dinosaurs a couple rounds we decided to work on color identification. I placed the clips on the color name cards and told him what each said. 

Dominic is only 2 and doesn't recognize colors by their names just yet so I got out some of our color flash cards so I could show the colors we were working on.  Again Dominic did a great job.  He matching Red and green perfectly every time!

We worked on colors for a little bit and then I showed him the Name cards. They are a bit too old for him but I figured he would learn the dinos names if we worked on it. I would read him the name on the card and describe the Dinosaur to him.  He would then look for that dino and match the name card to the correct dinosaur. He now knows that a brontosaurus has a long neck, a T-Rex has a big mouth and short arms, the Triceratops has 3 horns, and the Pterodactyl has wings and looks like a bird.

 

 We Had a great time playing the Dinosaur Game!  

We are having Dino cakes (rice cakes) and watching We're back for our snack time.  Dinosaur day is so much fun.  After his nap we are going to Paint the Dinosaur plates (more clearance goodies my Mom found!) and after dinner we are going Dinosaur Hunting! (I will gather his dinosaur toys and hide them outside, we search the yard looking for them.  The best part of this is Dominic calls the fallen walnuts "Dinosaur poop" so I will use them as clues to find the dinos! )

Toddlers are so much fun, check back often to see what other learning adventures this Proud Mommy and her Amazing 2 Year Old will share!!

January 19th- Building blocks

I absolutely enjoy Dominic at this age! I have always enjoyed him but it's so interesting and fun to experience each new day of learning. Every single day Dominic learns something new whether good or bad haha. He has new sounds, words, abilities and intelligence. Just today I was playing with him on the floor and was showing how to place his stacking blocks inside each other. I showed him a few times with a blue circle block placing it inside the hole of his ring stackers. He loved this and picked up on the concept very quickly. He would try blocks that were too big and I would show him the correct ones and after only a few short tries he figured it out. I then showed him how his stacker cups would fit inside of each other. He did excellent as this!

When his Daddy got home we showed him while we were making dinner that Dominic could put the cup inside the rings. Dominic knows he got it right because he would look up at Mommy and smile knowing I would praise him for getting it right. That alone was amazing!! Mommy and Daddy got curious later while playing on the floor if Dominic could stack a set of three objects. We had a blue circle block and 2 sizes of cups. We placed them in front of him in ascending size order. I showed Dominic a few times how the they fit inside each other. After I would show him I would say" It's your turn can you do it?" I would then point to the blue block then the yellow cup as I would say" Put the blue block into the yellow cup" Dominic proceded to do just these. Then as I had done before pointing to the correct object" Put the yellow cup into the red cup" and he did it as well!!! Each time he would look up with a smile and we would praise him. We did this several times before I thought I need to take a video of this, but unfortunately by this time he was bored with the game and wanted to play with his other toys.

This learning experience was so exciting to all of us. I am so thankful the whole family got to be apart of teaching Dominic the basics of stacking. I can't wait to play again tomorrow and hopefully get a video or two!!

Your Baby Can Read: Start of DVD 2

Today we started the second DVD in Your Baby Can Read series. We were suppose to start it about a week ago but with the holidays and all the traveling we didn't get to watch it as much as I felt he needed and after some advice from some fellow YBCR forum reader I decided to push back the start of the second DVD.

This morning I got out the corresponding books for the Second DVD and went over them with Dominic. I then put in the DVD while Dominic was just playing on the floor. Normally I put him in his high chair with some snack because he is so active he gets sidetracked easily. I did it differently this morning mostly so I could watch it through and see all the words that will be reviewed and to see what songs will be played so we can do them while the video isn't on.

To my surprise as soon as Dominic heard the ignition what is known as the YBCR Music he looked up at the TV and just stared (Dominic doesn't pay much attention to the TV by the way) He then crawled in my lap and watched the video. Just as he had done before he would watch the word and as soon as he saw it he would look back at me expecting me to repeat the word and make a sound or do an action. I was so excited that he was really into watching the DVD. The 2 songs for this video are "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and " If your Happy and you Know It" I am happy they are doing the Head and Shoulders song because I have shown that to Dominic before and he gets a kick out of me doing it. I can't wait til he starts doing the actions as well!!

While watching the video I decided I would get out the toys he has that match the words reviewed. For example one of the words is Giraffe and he has a toy giraffe. A couple more are bucket and blanket that I can physically show him. I think that will be just an added stimuli to learning if he can physically see and item and be told what it is then link that to his "Words" as we call it here in the stack house.

Later on this afternoon during snack time I will show him the video again and of course go over the books a few times with him. He still loves the books. I am curious if I should periodically put in the first DVD for a review of the past words? I plan to continue to show him the books to keep the words fresh, and a few of them are repeated in the second DVD such as the body parts and hi, and wave.

So far we are enjoying the program, or course I am not sure if he is learning because he doesn't talk but I have a feeling he will surprise us one day by repeated a word or two or properly naming his toys!

Your Baby Can Read- One Week In

Dominic was not interested in the video at all but after talking to some very helpful ladies on a YBCR forum about how to get active children to get interested things are going well. Today I put Dominic in his high chair gave him some vanilla wafers and his sippie and stood by him to watch the video. He watched the word and as soon as they said it he would look at me ready for me to do the action or make the animal sound. I was surprised but it's how I have been watching the video with him, I would repeat the world and do the action and after only a few showings of the video dominic picked up on that fact. Another new thing today was while twinkle twinkle little star song was on he was talking the whole time almost as if he was singing with it!! When itsy bitsy spider came one I did all the actions and he laughed the whole time!

We are only watching the video once a day but are working on getting up to the recommended 2 times or more. We do go over the pull cards and flip book several times a day because Dominic really enjoys them.

Your Baby Can Read- The Begining

I am terrible with keeping up with Naps and Nipples I have several I need to post as soon as I put the pics with them... so sorry. When Daddy is off this weekend Mommy is going to get his updated I promise!

Ok so here is an addition to Naps and Nipples, Your Baby Can Read Updates. Recently Dominic and I started the Your Baby Can Read program and have been updating friends and family through notes on facebook. It just dawned on me, "Um Shelli you need to do updates on Naps and Nipples too!"

So here is the start of YBCR updates:

Today I got in the Your Baby Can Read program in the mail. Right away I put in the parents starter DVD and much to my surprise found out I knew more about teaching my child then I thought. According to Dr. Bob theories and methods I have done a good job so far with Dominic. Some of the keys concepts are repeating a word and showing the word. Also questioning. For instance when the child wants something don't just go get it ask them about it give them a few choices to choose from also narrating your day. We are going to take a bath, going for a walk an so forth. We have always done that which is why Dominic knows what I mean when I say do you want to take a bath, would you like some cereal, wheres doggie. Another key point in child development is getting excited when your child makes a sound that resembles a word. Dr. Bob said that when you get excited about when your child makes a word like sound for example Ba ( he said bottle!) you are giving that sound a value which tells the child what he did is important and makes them want to do it more and try new sounds. I am one of those overly excited parents who gets excited about his new "word" all the time.

I am super excited to read through my parents starter guide book and watch the first DVD with Dominic. This program may not work for us but I already think the $14.95 trial fee is well worth the money because I feel better about my parenting skills and am more confident that I can teach my child properly. I honestly believe if I stick with this program it will work for us but we will have to give it a try to see pig I am right. I am going to try to keep y'all updated on our progress because I know several of my parent friends have been wondering about this program.

Well we are off to eat some cereal and then will start the program wish us luck and stay tuned...

Nov 12th & Nov 13th

November 12th:

Dominic was a very good boy today. He sat and played while Mommy cleaned up the Livingroom. Unfortunately Dominic is still scared to death of the vacuum cleaner. We are working on getting him over that. At first he was scared of the food processor, the sound bothered him. We broke this by picking him up and taking him over to the processor and showing him it wasn't hurting him. I tried with the vacuum but it didn't work. He did touch it when it was off so that is a start.

Unlike yesterday Dominic would not give us kisses. Not even his Mommy. He wouldn't let us kiss him he would turn his head away. I guess he got too many yesterday!



November 13th:

While Mommy was doing laundry Dominic was being a very good little helper... well he thought he was. He took the clothes out of the basket and tried to give them back to me. He also took all my hangers and moved them out of my way haha so he thought. He was very entertained with the hangers.

Today for solid foods all Dominic wanted was Squash and Vanilla wafers. He had them for lunch, dinner and as one of his snacks!!

Speaking of snacks today Mommy made Dominic his own trail mix. Mommy put mini vanilla wafers, whole grain cheerios, veggie baby cheetos, and 2 flavors of yogurt drops. Dominic likes each of these snacks and I try to change what I give him each day so he doesn't get bored with an particular snack. With the trail mix he picks out what he wants eats it and goes back for more. It was fun to watch him pick and choose and get excited by what he eats!

Nov 11th: My Dorky Boy

Check out Nov 10th for picture updates: Click Here

November 11th: My Dorky Boy

During Lunch Mommy made her some fries. When it was time to take them out of the deep fryer I put Dominic in his PNP which made him very mad. I went ahead and took out my fries and while getting everything together I noticed Dominic stopped crying and laughing. I looked over to find the strangest and funnest thing! Dominic was standing up and had come out of his pants!!!

I laughed so hard grabbed my phone and hollered at Dominic was able to snap this super cute picture!!

Later in the evening Dominic was being a little sweetheart. When Mommy kisses him on the cheek I say kiss. Today when I did this he turned his head opened his mouth wide and stuck it on my check. This is how he kisses. Mommy told him "Thank You," and kissed his other cheek. Once again he kissed me back. He repeated this 3 times before he got sidetracked by a toy. I told Daddy all about the kisses when he got home. He sat down kissed Dominic and just as I had done said Kiss when he did so. I was expecting him to kiss his Daddy back but that little monster turned his head away from his Daddy and had the biggest smile on his face. Daddy tried again and Dominic turned his head away again with that goofy grin. Sometimes our little man is quite the stinker!!!