Dramatic Play Props

Everything about Mother Goose Time is a positive experience for the child that is participating. All of the subjects are included and delivered in a fun way that is exciting. Music and dance through instrument crafts, the Dance n Beats dvd or the music cds. Language Arts through the I Can Read booklets, hands-on letters, board games and more. Science through experiment cards. Math through board games, manipulatives, More Math & Literacy books and more. We love everything we do with MGT. Especially the crafts. The boys love them more and more with each one that we do. Their favorites this month have been the crafts that also encourage real-life dramatic play... their phones and computers!

These two crafts in particular have given them a relate-able source to play and connect with the world. They have their real tablets and play or watch on it a bit, but for the most part they don't use the real thing too much. They have toy phones too, but these they're drawn too... maybe because they made them. They put in the work and enjoy it more? But, I love watching and listening to them use props to make up their own games and scenarios.

Mr Z picked up his phone to have a conversation about his new computer.

Beep boop beep beep... Hi Nana. I have my 'puter. See Nana. What you doing? Ok Nana. Love you. Bye!

Then he starred at his screen for a bit.

I asked him where a few letters and numbers were and he tried to find them. He mostly guessed. Then started tapping the 'keys' with his fingers like he was typing something.

Mr A spent quite awhile adding more buttons to his computer and mouse. There's a mommy button, a happy face button, popcorn button and pizza buttons and more.

I need to charge my computer. It doesn't work anymore. Mr A flipped his photos around to make a blank screen and set the mouse neatly beside his computer.
After his computer was charged, they played quite well together just talking and doing various things on their computers.
Dramatic play offers a lot for children: Imagination, creative freedom, cooperation with others. If the boys would play nicely all the time together, I could listen to them all day long make up their own games. =)

Being Unique with MGT

We talked about phones today and how each one has a special number that has to be used in just the right order for the phone to call the person we want.

I helped Mr Z make his play phone, just by gluing the number pad to the cardboard. Then he colored his telephone book. It is neat watching him color something. He starts out nicely with lines going side to side. This time he even drew circles around each person on his sheet.

Then, he just scribbles all over everything! It's funny. Mr Z sits nicely to color for a few minutes, but when he's done, he just goes crazy on his paper. I'll admit, I do get sad when he messes up his nice circles and lines... but it's his creative freedom.

Mr A cut all the numbers apart for his phone. He told me he was allowed to do whatever he wants with art projects. People do things different. My brain tells me how to do things.

I asked him if he remembered what it's called when you choose how you want things done while doing a craft. Decisions was his answer after he thought a minute. I reminded him it's also called creative freedom. Yeah, I can make things how I want.

We then got into how each person is unique. Their decisions make them who they are and no one looks like Mr A either. I told him that he was the only him. With my voice sound? and my hair? Yep, nobody has the same voice, eye color, hair or skin. Mr A was so excited that he is unique... just like phone's with their unique phone numbers.

Mr Z cut his phone into a few pieces for some reason... ? Sometimes you just have to let the little ones do what they want and he wanted to cut up his phone. Luckily we had an extra... he was able to use the extra while they were playing.

I love how Mr A decided to draw a smiling face on an extra piece of paper. H needed a screen for his picture and it had to be happy. That's perfect. Its just right.

The science experiment provided by Mother Goose Time was to make your own telephone using cups and string. I demonstrated using it first. The boys didn't use it together because Mr A had gotten into a mood. Mr Z had fun yelling into it though. I used a paperclip to hold the string in place in the cup. When I yelled into one of the cups, you could hear and feel the paperclip vibrate. The other cup didn't work so well. Besides hearing and feeling the paperclip vibrate, the cup and string telephone didn't do much else. I'm not sure if was supposed to but Mr Z had a good time though.

We also played a fun little math game... that I didn't get any pictures of. But, I wrote my phone number on plastic cups... one number for each cup. I set them up in a line and had my whole phone number written on a separate piece of paper. Mr A had to figure out if the phone number was in the correct order first. I had also put an unknown number of counters into each cup. Mr A had to then figure out if the number of counters matched the number on the cup and what to do to make them match. He was very quick to figure out each cup. I was surprised he only really needed to look into the cup and would tell me right away if he needed to remove or add counters because it was wrong.
He is so good with numbers. I am amazed every time he blows through an activity.
Later, the boys went outside to play. They both brought their MGT phones. It is so fun listening to their conversations. Both of them were yelling into their phones and only a few feet away from each other. Mr Z actually found a large smooth rock that he preferred to use as a phone. A-B-A-B-8 he said while pushing pretend buttons on his rock phone. Mr A had dropped his phone in the sand... Oh no! There's sand on it and it doesn't work anymore. I need to charge it over here with this stick. He brushed off his phone, blew it off too and shoved it into a bush for a few seconds. Somehow Mr Z's rock phone was also a Power Ranger morpher tool and he was fighting imaginary bad guys in the grass. I was laughing the entire time and amazed at how quickly games can change.

Sign Language

We received another school desk recently and Mr A is so excited about it. He loves that the new one has the chair attached to the desk. He moved his things from the other desk to arrange and organize them inside the new one. We love doing our activities and lessons at the desks. He calls it his "real-school learning desk".

Mr Z found his 'My Little Journal' from Mother Goose Time in his desk and drew some lines for awhile. Mr A had set in there so that he would have something in his desk.

Mr A practiced the alphabet in sign language. This great little poster came in the daily packet from Mother Goose Time.

We talked about body language and why some people have to talk with their hands and body. Mr A thought it was interesting that there are people that cannot hear anything with their ears. He had a look of shock and interest on his face at the same time. I guess he was trying to process not being able to hear. (I should have found our noise-cancelling headphones and had him wear them for awhile to see what it's like to not be able to hear very well. Oh well, good ideas don't come right away all the time... maybe we'll do it later.)

I hang the craft instructions near the desks for Mr A to look at as a guide while he's doing his project... also so I remember what to talk about while we do it.

The boys started with their punch-out hearts: adding too much glue and dumping on the green sand.

Mr A traced his hand all by himself and I was happy about that. It's the little things like this that make homeschooling so fun. You get to see their improvements first hand. Before, he's always asked for help with tracing his hands... not this time.

Mr Z did a great job dumping too much of the runny glue onto his paper hearts too.

I asked Mr A what the craft was that we did. It means I Love You with your hands.

Board Games with MGT

This week with Mother Goose Time, we've played a few games with the lessons. These games are always a hit. The main playing board is printed on a cardstock type of paper. Then the playing pieces are all included too. 

The first game focused on the word family "-ad", using the words dad, glad, sad and mad. Colored heart cards were what each 'dad-player' had to collect. Mr A focused on learning the words and Mr Z worked on his colors with this game. 

After rolling a die and moving your piece that many places on the board, you either collected a heart card or said the word you landed on. Mr A would keep rolling the die until he landed on the number he wanted. But, we talked about how this was a type of cheating. He just wanted to get certain numbers every time to land on a heart.

The second board game we played was Keys to Friendship. I laminated the keys, just in case. We sorted them into piles and used the bus counters as our game pieces. Mr Z loved driving his bus around the loop while Mr A and I played. We took turns rolling the die to see how many number of spaces to move. Each time we landed on a different color house, we had to say the name of the letter, the sound it makes and then find the word on the key that starts with that letter. Sometimes Mr A got the sound of the letter before the name of it. Consistent practice is helping him with this arena. He's picking letters up at his own pace, and that's okay.

The values written on the keys included: generosity, kindness, patience, respect, helpfulness, forgiveness. A few of the words, Mr A was confused about and would ask what they meant. So, we talked about the words for a few minutes each... but I don't know if any of that stuck.

After we had collected all of the different friendship keys, we could drive around the block to the park. The boys played with their buses in the center of the board and pretended to make them go down the slide and swing on the swings.

A few days later, after playing these games, a worksheet game was introduced as an activity. We rolled a die and whatever number it landed on the boys had to trace the item in that row. One side had different patterns of lines: diagonal, curved, straight.

Mr Z just scribbled all over his paper. But, he did attempt to trace a few of the lines properly at first.

While Mr A was tracing some of the sightwords on the opposite side, he said This one says mad. My brain telled it to me. Sometimes my brain tells me everything I need to know. I was excited that he remembered a new word. I'd like to think that it was the -ad family game we played a few days before.

Focusing On What They're Into

I know I've been talking about the manipulatives and crafts a lot lately. But, these are what the boys have really been into. I've found that its easier to focus more on what interests the boys. Mr A and Mr Z have been loving making crafts, especially since Mr A is realizing he can have creative freedom. They have been the greatest time with the manipulatives too and have literally played with them everyday! Its fantastic.
One of the games focusing on the shape manipulatives was to make faces. One side of the spinner had faces already made that you tried to copy on your face card. The other had the different shapes separate that you had to put anywhere on the face that you wish to create your own.

We took a break and experimented with putting the shapes on our own faces to see if they would stay without holding. Mr A got one circle to stay, I got both circles to stay on my eyes and the triangles hurt with the sharp points. So, don't try that.

The boys always like the headband crafts. Mr Z had to make just because he wanted to put stickers on. After I helped them put them together, Mr Z tried his on with the droopy dog ears pointing down. They instantly bothered him and flipped his band over. Need bunny ears he mentioned. So the boys had polka dotted bunny ears instead of dalmatian ears. After a few minutes, Mr A decided he needed to blow up a balloon to try to catch it inside of the hat/ears. The boys tossed the balloon high and bent over to try to catch it on top of their heads. Mr A found it to be much ore difficult to gauge where the balloon was if he wasn't looking since he was bent over.

Mr A loved the unit Its a Small World back in the spring. We learned all about natural and man-made landmarks. He found the passport he got from Mother Goose Time in the box of crafts we've been keeping over the months. He found the Leaning Tower of Pisa page in the passport and drew some more leaning towers. He talks all the time about going to Italy to visit the tower. He wants to see where his daddy's family is from. We talk about this unit all the time and I've noticed he mentions things he remembers from Its a Small World more than the other units we've done.

Surprised Bunnies

We started the morning with blocks. Mr Z had dragged them out of the toy room. Mr A helped Mr Z make this house. Then they lined up the school bus counters from MGT in and around the house they built.

Our new focus letter for the month is P. So, I threw some magnetic letters in a bin with popcorn kernels. The boys dug around for letters for quite some time and Mr A found the letter P. He flipped it around and noticed that it could also be the lowercase letter B.
He is getting better at his letter identification and the sounds they make. I'll be honest it was stressing me out that he has no interest in Language Arts and learning the phonetics of the alphabet. But, then I decided that he has plenty of time! He'll learn it eventually and it doesn't need to be forced upon him at this point. I'm okay with letting him have more fun playing, doing crafts and working with numbers. Interest in letters will come... in the meantime, I ask simple questions like "What letter is that?" or "What sound does it make?" Now his curiosity comes naturally. He sounds words out to pick out the first letter he hears. Its becoming more frequent although, he still prefers other subjects. He wonders and questions on his own, especially while driving in the car. (That's where he has the most time to think about things because there's nothing else to really do. There and in the bathroom... If your child likes company that is. I've learned so much about Mr A from just having conversations with him in the car and the bathroom. Take time to listen when they really want to know something or just talk to you.)
Anway, I've decided to let him take the lead on the Language Arts subject. If I force this subject, he will not enjoy it... ever.

The tractor helped dig out the letters and deliver them to the sight word cards from MGT.

Mr A made his Clown Shaker craft in the evening. He says his favorite part was just putting the beans inside of the plates and stapling it together. That made me laugh. He got lots of glue stuck on his fingers this time around. I showed him what I used to do all the time at school and at home when I was a kid... put a thin layer of glue on my finger tips and let it dry then peel it off. I made a perfect glue fingerprint. Mr A thought it was fantastic and made his own. It was nice to have him sitting in silence waiting for his glue to dry. Then he sat in silent concentration while peeling it all off. I added that it did feel a little funny pulling the glue off. I imagined it would feel something like a reptile shedding its skin. Mr A agreed.

Nailed it. I love his super huge clown mouth. I guess its a clown with a lion mane.

So, the one activity we did from Mother Goose Time that I didn't get any pictures of, was a dramatic play game. I was actually busy participating and playing with the boys. This was one activity I wish I had gotten some kind of picture or video, but I'm glad that I didn't because we were having so much fun together.
We were given two different cubes from MGT. One with the picture and word of different animals and the other had pictures and words of feelings. We rolled both at the same time. Mr A rolled 'mad' and 'cat' first. He didn't really know what to do at first. So I made the noise of what I think a mad cat sounds like while making a scratching motion with my hands. The boys mimicked what I had done. They thought it was hilarious. So we kept rolling the Dramatic Cube Dice for different combinations: sleepy snake, mad dog, scared fish. My favorite was the 'surprised bunny'. We crouched down low like a bunny, then sprang into the air and hopped to the other side of the room. The boys hopped all around the house. Animals can have different emotions too and sometimes. What fun!