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This page features my latest article for new moms. Enjoy!
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Milestones: My Daughter's Early Learning, Part 4
This month I continue to repeat my 'Milestones' series with Part 4 to, once again, give new parents ideas about how to play with your 1 year old. In addition, I share with new parents the toys and games I that introduced as part of the 'Milestones' series from 2013.
Colors
I knew that at some point I would need to begin focusing on introducing my daughter to lots of different colors in a creative and fun way in hopes that she could enjoy exploring colors beyond just the usual colored markers and finger paint.
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| Clothes by Ann Taylor, end of summer 2012 |
When my daughter was 13 months old, I decided that I needed her to pay closer attention to colors. As mentioned in my earlier post "Milestones...(Part 1, October 2012)", I bought clothes that were much brighter in color that drew her attention to me and helped her to become more familiar with colors. She really enjoyed seeing me in these bright, happy colors and is familiar with her Mom's wardrobe. She now treats her Mom's wardrobe as a bright spot in our home.
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| Mommy's bright new wardrobe! |
The outfits were bought from H&M, Ann Taylor, Gap and Old Navy. We had a lot of fun buying these outfits and I was always able to keep my daughter's attention and encourage her to focus on these bright and happy colors!
At 14 months old, I decided to use a different, attractive color nail polish on each finger and on one hand (my left hand) in order to expose my daughter to a different color every time I played with her or picked her up. She liked the combination seen below of the nail polishes that I arranged. I decided to keep the nail polishes on for 2 weeks. This gave her the opportunity to see these colors every day for a good amount of time. In this way, I could always have the same 5 colors on display for her to see all of the time, especially if I was pushing her stroller (baby facing me, she always saw my hands).
Pinky finger:Red "Red Carpet" by Revlon Colorstay #120
Ring finger:Orange"Congaline" by Confetti #027
Middle finger:Green "My Favorite Martian" by Confetti #007
Index finger:Blue "Mesmerize" by Confetti #170
Thumb:Yellow"Margarita Senorita" by Confetti #008
In addition, at 14 months old, I introduced her to the book
"Colors" by bright baby. I love the richness of the colors and the accuracy of the pictures. She loves this little book, many times she would sit with this book, holding it open and begin a dialogue of her own. It was so sweet and adorable to watch her enjoying her Colors book. You can purchase Colors for @$5.00 at any Walmart, here is the link:http://www.walmart.com/ip/2673943
If for some reason this book is sold out at Walmart.com, here it is for @$5.00 w/ FREE SHIPPING!:http://www.bookdepository.com/Colors-Priddy-Books/9780312492472
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| My husband showing our daughter her favorite book, 'Colors', 5-20-13 |
Creative play
I really enjoyed watching my daughter use her toys in a creative way. In the video below, my daughter enjoys using her stroller toy's flower link as a bracelet. She had been using the flower link in this way for one week before I recorded this video.
Putting on flower link as bracelet, 11-7-12, 00:01:12
Below is a video of my daughter at 16 months and 2 days old stacking her blocks. She stacks the blocks multiple times, including an attempt to stack a block onto a round-shaped block. I enjoyed observing her use as many blocks as she could to construct her different sized block creations.
Stacking blocks, 12-28-12, 00:01:00
Baby understands!
Below are a few videos of my daughter at 14 months old understanding how to use certain non-toys correctly. I was very proud to see how far her understanding of the world around her had come since she turned 1 year old.
Taking puffs out of the container, 11-19-12, 00:03:00
Blowing her nose with a tissue, 11-4-12, 00:00:54
Play and Direction Activity
When my daughter was 15 months old, I created an activity that involved playing a game with the Fisher Price Baby's First Blocks (Pink) (there is also a boy version here-*link*) by using the shapes as glasses on my eyes and having my daughter remove them and place the shapes into the bucket (without the lid on), see the video below.
This was a different use of this toy from what it was originally designed to do, but all toys can be played with in many creative ways - this is just one of those ways. My video below shows myself and my daughter engaging in this activity. I came up with this idea one evening when my husband and I were playing with our daughter and I wanted to peek through the small holes in the shapes - I immediately grabbed my camera and recorded the video below. As you will see, this activity turned into a very fun game between us.
You will notice how incredibly happy my daughter is while pulling the shapes from my eyes and putting them back into the container (with the pink lid removed). Here is the link to the Fisher Price Baby's First Blocks (Pink) for @ $19: http://www.amazon.com/Babys-First-N6231-Blocks-Pink/dp/B001GKF4N6
At 15 months old, I introduced the Hape Zoo Animals Block Puzzle (http://www.hapetoys.com/us/en/p/happy-puzzle/zoo-animals-block-puzzle/1595). I sat with my daughter and set up the giraffe design first (as shown in the picture below) because it had a unique shape once completed.After the set up, I realized that the best way to have my daughter play with this toy was to have her concentrate on one aspect of the puzzle first. I tapped my finger twice on each corner block of the puzzle: I did this to identify the corner pieces and help her understand how to start the puzzle using the corner pieces first.
My daughter typically reached for a corner block of the giraffe design and would turn over a few of the blocks to view the other sides of them. Watching her explore this puzzle and enjoy the friendly animal characters was a very interesting and delightful experience for both of us.
For a list of the other toys shown in this picture, see my post"Toys for Babies and Children" (October 2012)”: http://networkformoms.blogspot.com/2012/10/a-resource-website-created-for-new-moms_17.html
The Problem with "Clean-Up Time"
I hope my fellow moms and NetworkforMoms.org buddies have enjoyed this latest installment of the 'Milestones' series. Just as a recap, here is my list of the categories of my activities and ideas shown above:
1. Colors
2. Creative Play
3. Baby Understands!
4. Play and Direction Activity
5. The Problem with "Clean-Up Time"
The final installment of this series ('Milestones, Part 5')
will follow along with more of my ideas, activities
and pictures. Have a great time this summer and have fun
wearing those bright colors!
Happy play time everyone!
Joy E.
Posted August 10, 2016
JoyE@NetworkforMoms.org
http://joyfrankevelyn.bellawangphotography.com/#/the-images/
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| Our family at the MFA's Memorial Day Family Weekend, 5-27-13 |
**Please do not use my articles, photos or videos without permission from me.
Children's Museum Visit
My Gym Class!
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