DIY Sensory Cards for Baby

I created these sensory cards for Zoey and she absolutely loved them. In fact, even Zeke enjoyed feeling the different textures! They were really simple to make and I think they'll last for a while. I may even make a few more with some different textures.

I used some wood squares that Silas uses with his wood burning kit. These were purchased on Amazon in bulk, but you can also buy them in smaller packages. 

I cut a piece of felt, a piece of bubble wrap, a piece of sandpaper, and a piece of foil to fit the squares. I hot glued them to the wood squares, but you could also use wood glue. That's it! It was a quick and easy craft and Zoey spent a good ten minutes playing with the cards, which is a long time for a 9-month old.

Have you ever made sensory cards? What other textures should I make?

Zeke's Tot School Resources

Zeke is 18-months old and I started Tot School with him a few weeks ago. I'm using Bible ABCs for Ones, Twos, and Threes for his curriculum. We have a Bible story each week that goes with a letter of the alphabet. He also has a color or shape each week, a Bible Big Idea, a song, a themed snack, crafts, and developmental activities that all tie in to the Bible story of the week.

I have some resources left from my older kids that I saved, but I did donate quite a bit of our educational toys and puzzles a few years ago. I gave myself a $100 budget for Zeke to order him a few fun resources that he can use throughout this year and more to come.

I think these color bean bags will be great for games and for learning his colors! At less than $20, this is a pretty good deal.

These simple shape puzzles from Imagimake are less than $10 and will be great for teaching colors, shapes, and puzzle skills. 

I love Larui Toys! These shape stackers will be fun for Zeke! I had this set for Titus years ago, but I gave it away. For $15, this set comes with 25 peg stackers and the shape puzzle. This is great for fine motor skills! Toddlers love stacking the pegs.

This puzzle from Melissa and Doug feature all of the shapes he will be learning this year. It's only $10 and such a pretty, bright puzzle. I love wooden puzzles.

I have a bag of random counting bears in various sizes and colors and am missing a few of the sorting cups, so I decided to get Zeke these jumbo counting bears and sorting cups for $22.

This set of 12 apples from Skoolzy have many ways to play! Zeke will learn numbers, counting, matching, colors, and more. These will be used for many different games. And they're on sale from $40 to $21! 

This stacking toy from Melissa and Doug will be a fun fine-motor challenge for Zeke, as well as help with colors and shapes. It's only $10 and I'm sure will be used many times.

And I've reached my $100 budget for Zeke! There are so many more toys and resources I'd love to get him, but I'm just putting them on a wish list for his birthday and Christmas. These should keep him busy until then! What would you add to my list?

Tot Learning Mats

I have been creating these really neat Tot Learning Mats for my 18-month old, Zeke. He really likes to use them! They are great for matching practice, increasing vocabulary, and speech therapy. They're also really simple - print two copies of each mat, laminate them both, and cut out the pictures from one of them to match to the corresponding mat! I store the loose pieces in envelopes with the title of the Tot Learning Mat written on the outside.

I have created two sets so far, but have plans for many, many more!

The Tot Learning Mat - Colors contains 10 mats with the colors: red, blue, green, orange, yellow, pink, purple, black, brown, and white.

The Old Testament Bible Stories A-Z includes 26 Bible stories from the Old Testament, such as Daniel in the Lion's Den and Noah's Ark. These are great for retelling Bible stories with your toddler!

I also have some play-dough shape mats!

Visit my Etsy shop and check them out!

ABC Jesus Loves Me: Year One, Week Three

This week Zeke completed week three in ABC Jesus Loves Me, Year One. His color this week was yellow. In his basket we put some yellow construction trucks, a big yellow car, a yellow Magformer, a yellow chicken, yellow lizards, and a yellow giraffe. He always enjoys this "color basket" as we call it. He likes taking the things out and putting them back in. He colored his train yellow, but it's really hard to see because he colored very softly this week.

 

 

His Bible story was Jesus Loves the Children. He placed yellow foam star stickers on a picture of a boy. I then glued it to a piece of yellow cardstock. He really likes putting stickers on! We sang "Jesus Loves Me" and "Jesus Loves the Little Children".

 

His book of the week was "When the Elephant Walks". He wasn't as in to this book as I thought he would be, but he did enjoy "counting" the bumble bees on the bear page. His animal this week was an elephant. He used a yellow dot marker to dot the elephant.

 

His song this week was "Jesus Loves Me", and his poem was "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star". He learned to point to his ears - he actually pulls on them. He wouldn't do the sign language this week of "more". He has a mind of his own!

His favorite activity by far was the pom-pom transfer. I put five large pom poms in a clear plastic container, and he had to move them to the other plastic container. He stayed interested in this activity for about ten or fifteen minutes! I'll definitely do this again with him.

I really enjoy having these structured times with Zeke each day. It does ensure that he doesn't get lost in the mix while we do school. Although, he is very vocal when he isn't getting the attention he desires! We also read dozens of books a day to him because he loves books, especially lift-the-flap books!

ABC Jesus Loves Me: Year 1, Weeks 1 and 2

My youngest, Zeke, is almost 14 months old. I started ABC Jesus Loves Me with him a few weeks ago, mainly to give him some structured time to practice skills and maybe learn a few things. It takes us around 15 minutes a day, not all at once, to do what we do. We are using Year One, the free curriculum.

I have been making a simple "lesson plan" each week. It's really just a chart that lists the activities and learning objectives. I have it organized into three days, but sometimes we do something different on a different day. I try to have all the boxes checked off by the end of the week.

Week One

His Bible story was Noah's Ark. I have a Bible storybook with very short stories (5 sentences or so!) and beautiful illustrations. We read the story, and he made his ABC Book page by placing animal stickers on an ark. He loved the way the stickers were sticking to his fingers!

His color of the week was black. He colored his black train for his Color Train. He enjoys coloring.

I also have been making him a basket each week with his book of the week and some different toys and objects from around the house in his color of the week. This week, he had black cars, horses, a bull, a cat, an airplane, and a black ribbon. His book this week was "A Color Game for Chester Raccoon", because his animal of the week was a raccoon. I pointed out the raccoons in the book and he colored a raccoon with a black crayon.

He worked on a few fine motor skills like playing Peek-A-Boo, waving Bye-Bye, and learning where his head is. His song was "The B I B L E" and his poem was "Row, Row, Row Your Boat."

Week Two

His Bible story was Baby Moses, and he colored the baby and basket with a brown crayon. I cut them out and helped him glue them to a piece of brown paper.

His color of the week was brown, and he colored his train with a brown crayon.

He had brown horses, a cow, a dinosaur, brown felt, and a brown puppy in his basket this week. His book of the week was "Brown Bear, Brown Bear", which he loved reading! His animal this week was, of course, a bear. He dotted a bear with a brown dot marker. He also enjoyed dotting his hands!

 

He played with a sorting toy this week, and he loves it. He knows right where the circles go, but he needs help with the other shapes. He will do this over and over again!

His song was "Oh Be Careful Little Eyes" and his poem was "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". He was supposed to learn how to blow kisses, but he refuses to do it! He also learned where his mouth was, but he doesn't like to point to it when I ask.

All in all, we had a fun two weeks, and I am looking forward to next week. Linking up with Littles Learning Link Up!