Learning to Listen

Listening is as important as reading, talking or writing. Everyone can hear, but to be a skilled listener you have to practice. Education requires good communication skills from an early age. See here and here for some facts. Children who listen well often do better in school, and of course being a good listener means being a good friend.

Learning to listen well takes only a few minutes of focussed practice. Try some of these:

1. Stand still. Stop talking. Close your eyes for 10 seconds. What can you hear?
This is a great one to do if you go to a park or a beach but is just as interesting in the street or shopping center (you can always find a corner to do this for a few seconds). A busy street might have too many sounds, especially for small children.

2. Put some music on. Move your body to match the sounds you hear.
Some children just have to move and this actually helps them focus. Once they have practiced listening a little with movement, they will be able to sit still better at school.

3. Collect different substances such as rice, oats, beans, beads etc. Put each in a paper bag. Hold closed and shake. Listen to the differences in sound.
This can provide lots of opportunity for conversation about different materials and how sound is made.

I’m planning to post a listening activity every week, so come back and visit if you find this useful. Please comment with suggestions or thoughts.

Painting in a Tub

We got more than we bargained for with this project, all mixed up with a lot of fun.We played with paint yet didn't get too messy, we talked a lot about colours and what we expected to happen, and we moved around all over the place.

I saw some great pictures on teaching 2 and 3 year olds of kids rolling a huge can around the room. Inside was paint and golf balls. We get yogurt in one litre plastic tubs from the supermarket and always have too many table tennis balls lying around, add paper and paint, then I just had to hunt down the scissors to cut the paper down to size. We quickly had a mini version of the one I had seen. I love anything with such simple preparation.

He chose blue and white for the first colours. Once everything was sealed tightly in the tub, we rolled it around the floor. Then we threw it, kicked it, bounced it (this got lots of giggles), spun it, and he sat on it before opening it up to see the surprise.

The balls matched the paper with an interesting mottled pattern which impressed us both. He immediately wanted to have another go. We ended up with all the colours in the tub and beautifully decorated table tennis balls.

These are things we did that B benefited from:

• Measuring the paper to make it fit in the tub
• Choosing which colours to squeeze in and what effect the might have
• Pushing the lid on tightly
• Moving the tub around in different ways and talking about what it was doing
• Expectation of a result and comparing that to what we saw
• Experiencing transference of liquid onto different surfaces
• Practicing handling tricky objects (paint covered ping pong balls)

So what I thought was just going to be throwing around a tub full of paint actually turned out to be an opportunity for extended conversation and practicing numerous movements. And we loved the final products.

Breaded Rabbit

I enjoy looking for new activities for us to do. There are so many creative ideas and fun activities. Recently we found our own - at the dinner table.

We were eating salad and bread. B held up a half eaten slice of bread.

"Rabbit" he said "Hopping rabbit". And he hopped it around the table, let it eat some lettuce and have a nap. Then he took a big bite from it!

Throughout the meal he made a swimming turtle, slithering snake and little pig. We talked about how they moved and ate. It made dinner very lively.

So although I love finding new activities to try out, it is even more enjoyable to watch B create his own games. We had a long conversation with lots of new words, ate lots and lots of healthy food and gave his imagination a little work out. Never say don't play with your food!