Imaginets

I am starting to put together ideas for my youngest one during next years school season. Right now I set our table up with mini-stations for him to work through while I do lessons with my daughter. He has enjoyed these stations but as we re-use the same materials over and over his attention span is slowly dwindling. He is getting a bit older to where I will put our a bit more art, basic science exploration and letter work this year -- he is ready for it.

One new learning activity I recently picked up is called Imaginets. It is a wooden case with a magnetic white board and colorful wooden shapes that are magnets. He can free play with it or use the cards included to create shapes, things or animals. There are very easy cards that we will use to start and much more challenging cards he can work up to. I have let him try this out a couple of times now and he loves it! I love that it is very well made, thin for storage, age appropriate but will grow with him and can even work for travel in our trailer. It should make for a great addition to our home and learning table!

Origami Stars

Holly got a couple of origami kits for her birthday, one of which is a star making kit - this is something that has caught her eye many times and she has wanted to learn. Today she created one... it was pretty simple to do and it turned out beautiful!!! I made one with her... I could easily find these addictive to make! They are so, so pretty in the window - a real treat to enjoy and make someone feel happy!!! I see more stars in her future.

Lego Fun

One of Holly's favorite toys is her Lego collection! She has a nice little collection of various styles.... silo/farm set, several tractors, some cars, a camper and a set that is three things in one - an alligator, a dinosaur and a sea creature.

The camper set is brand new, we just picked this up about a week ago. She broke it open and had it pretty much completed within the hour - with no help! She can sit down with a Lego manual on her own and create the project with little or no help at all. I admire her ability to do this (she is better than I am ), as she has been doing this for some time but now with more ease than before.

Building these Lego Sets offers her a chance to enjoy some independent play, direction following, reading and planning as well as some free creativity with her general set of Lego's. As well, in our homeschooling group we have started a Lego Club. Last month was our first meeting, today is our second. We are fortunate that a member owns a really large collection and she shares them all with us at our meet up. The kids are encouraged to build something either at club or from home and we finish up our get together with a circle time in which they can share their creation. Holly is excited to bring along her camper to share today... I am excited that she gets these small chances to share and gets a chance to speak in front of a group. Legos have been pure enjoyment and have offered so much to our learning, I am glad we incorporate these into her toy collection as they offer so much!!! ,

This is the set she is currently working on.

Finished camper -- right up her alley!