This article will be about the present your child would LOVE to receive, independently of her/his age.
Children’s Day is almost here, so it’s worth starting to look for interesting gifts.
My children, when asked what they would like to get, often say THIS. I’m not surprised because it’s always a great hit!
Recently, I’ve asked my Instagram followers what your child would like to get for a Children’s Day?
Did you guess it right?
The most popular answer was DUPLO! Check out this new eco-friendly BIOBUDDI.
We will speak today about the unusual uses of DUPLO: from speech therapy, to learning math!
1. DUPLO
It’s interesting how many different forms and functions DUPLO could take if you consider it differently. I’m sure you’ll like these alternative purposes that DUPLO has and you may not have thought about before. Let’s start!
Did you know that:
- arranging blocks with parents or siblings are great for building relationships and developing cooperation skills? (and sometimes even stimulates negotiating skills if children want the same block;)
- by arranging blocks children practice hand-eye coordination, which is the first step for writing skills,
- children improve spatial perception skills and learn planning,
- with DUPLO bricks, you can support speech development and even teach foreign languages!
- playing with DUPLO bricks could also start discussing various educational problems, such as household chores, or to determine the evening routine.
2. DUPLO and speech therapy
Did you know, you can use simple DUPLO construction to build a huge vocabulary of your child?
- During play, the child can develop passive speech, i.e. understanding – each request to put or pass a specific block develops this skill, for example: “Give me this massive purple triangular window, please”,
- Thanks to the variety of blocks we can expand the vocabulary and add new ones,
- Learning colors – my children learned colors just while playing DUPLO,
- Learning prepositions – “put the kettle on the table”, “put the dog behind the house” etc.
- We can also practice compound commands – “attach two blocks and open the door”.
Nowadays, the production of safe, eco-friendly, and high-quality products, is as much important as the fact they have to provide with fun and joy. BIOBUDDI, from its bio-based materials to manufacturing in the Netherlands, is raising awareness about sustainability while delivering unquestionably safe products. They believe that the best way to encourage environmental change is through goods people buy and use every day.
The world’s first eco-friendly toy blocks for children, BiOBUDDi is committed to making toys that do not harm the environment, are safe and educational.
Moreover, building with BIOBUDDI DUPLO can have many different courses and we can adapt it to the child’s skills. What’s secure, we will have a great time all together!
3. Another use of DUPLO –learning MATHS!
Numeracy. Rote Counting. One to One Correspondence. Such big words for such little people.
Our preschoolers and kindergartners are laying the foundation for every math skill they will ever learn.
Most likely, they are deciding whether or not they are “good at math”. Or if math is ‘hard’.
Approaching early mathematics skills through workbooks, worksheets, and straight-up memorization is not developmentally appropriate. And it is not a way to build a love for learning math skills.
So, how do we teach math skills to preschoolers and kindergartners in a way that meets the required standards AND engages the kids? Something that helps them to fall in love with the process of learning…
Through play of course!
The best way to teach math skills is to let kids play and get involved in the process. Almost all beginning math skills can be learned through conversation, observations, and suggestions related to play.
But the school won’t let us play all day!
And that is a very sad reality.
So when we can’t let our kids play all day, we do the next best thing.
We use learning games that help the kids have so much fun that they forget that it’s supposed to be a ‘learning activity’.
While there is much foundational math skills that are important for preschoolers and kindergartners to learn, many people think that being able to say the numbers 1-20 or 1-1,000,000 is “good enough”.
Sorry to tell you, it’s not.
Understanding what those numbers mean through counting and one to one correspondence is essential. Recognizing the written numeral and the number word are also essential skills for children.
The printable I’m sharing with you today, will make it easy to fit those needs wherever your preschoolers and kindergartners may be on their math journey!
Just click here to download!
Download your number Duplo pintables, now from this link!
4. Using a DUPLO board to stretch elastics – development of small motor skills by playing with elastics.
Gather three blocks of the same color and next put elastics around it. Contrary to appearances, such work is not easy for little hands. But it’s great for practicing hand-eye coordination effectively.
This activity’s extension can be to sort elastics on color DUPLO blocks.
5. Using a DUPLO to make patterns.
Patterns are arrangements of things that repeat. These arrangements are a crucial concept for young kids and contribute heavily to their early math understanding. And they are so easy to do.
All you need to do is to take DUPLO bricks, and arrange them in a pattern AA sequence, ABAB, ABC, ABC to the more extended once.
6. Learning colors – my children learned colors just while playing DUPLO.
I found the best practice by adopting the Montessori’s most famous Three Period Lesson. This is the structure through which most nomenclature is adopted in Montessori classrooms, broken into an introduction to new vocabulary, abundant opportunity to practice that vocabulary, and then a demonstration of mastery.
How to do it?
- First Period: Introduction (“This is”) –Show the red block to the child and say: This block is red.
- Second Period: Association – Recognition (“Show me”) –Ask the child – Show me where is the red block? Or “Which of these 2 blocks is red?” without asking him to say anything.
- Third Period: Recall (“What is this?”) –Ask the child – What color is this block?
In this way, you can teach at a very young age colors, numbers, shapes, and so on.
As you know, I love learning through play and I repeat it at every possible opportunity. And I say this to remind myself that learning and fun can be combined and enjoyable for both children and parents.
I hope that the above activities may bring joy and happiness to your home as you and your child spend quality time together. All we have to do is deliver them to your children.
As simple as the click @lillypop.store
You can buy BIOBUDDI DUPLO BLOCKS from LILLYPOP Kids Concept Store
HAPPY CHILDREN’S DAY!!!
Joanna
xxx
