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Printable Activities and Education Resources for young children and kids.
You will find lots here to keep your children busy and entertained, including hundreds of free printable activities, worksheets and resources.

Pop on over and have a look guys. Really great ideas from babies up to 11 years covers communication and literacy, personal, social and emotional development and much more.

More on story cube's...

Here are some links to other great sites where you can download some printable cubes or have a go at making your own with a dice template:

Www.communication4all.co.uk

Www.brainpop.co.uk

Www.senteacher.org

And there's many more on line.  You can find a link to a dice template to make your own in a recent previous post which I use from sparklebox.

Have fun....Sarah x

Story cubes

Story cubes are fabulous! A great way to develop communication skills, imagination  and creativity. I use these a lot within my work as I can use them with all age groups from babies upwards.

The whole point of them is that they can be shaken like die and stories developed from the pictures.  The child and adult can take turns in telling the story or children can use them to tell the whole story.

With babies I use the same kind of idea but add pictures of family members and pets to talk to them using the pictures through play.

The cubes I use with older children consist of character, background, animal or item pictures in order for them to mix their story up.

You can find some great printable story cube ideas or make your own from the dice template.

Here's a few pictures of the ones I have made up from www.sparklebox.co.uk

The use of mirrors with babies (accompanied)

Babies love mirrors.  Watch their reactions to how they see themselves in the mirror.  
If you have a large mirror on a wall, lift older babies up so that they can see themselves.

Playing with mirrors helps children to:

• Try out different expressions and movements
• Look at themselves very carefully
• Explore their own body language
• Try out different moods and feelings in a playful way
• enjoy pretending

And that's just from an everyday mirror......which provides a whole lot of learning.

CHILDREN should not be left unattended with the mirror.  This activity is for children and parents to try together while interacting an communicating through play.

Visi bottles

Visi bottles are very similar to sensory bottles and are designed to stimulate a babies eye sight.  They help babies to:

• Look and think about what they see and hear
• See what happens when they shake, move and wiggle things

If you want to make one you will need:

• An empty washed out small drinks bottle (which can either be held or rolled depending on the age)
• Food colouring  - optional (depending on whether you want your water to be coloured)
• Glitter, coconut or similar for movement
• Glue gun (to make the lid stick tight to the bottle) or masking tape to seal around the top of the bottle

REMEMBER: Close the lid tightly.  Do not leave your baby alone with this bottle as small parts can cause a baby to choke. 

These ones are from 'you'll thank me one day'.  You will find more really great ideas here so pop on over to have a look:

http://youllthankmeoneday.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/rainbow-sensory-bottles.html

What can babies hear?

Babies can hear from the moment they are born.  Even before birth they are aware of sound vibrations from both in side and outside their mother.  When we gently pat a baby on their back to soothe them, this can remind them of the thud of the heartbeat the baby used to hear when they were in the womb.

Babies can be startled by sudden sounds but sometimes like the background noise of a whirring washing machine or vacuum cleaner.

What babies really listen to is our voices.  Even in the early weeks when the baby can't turn their head towards you, they are still listening.  As they are dependent on you they learn to tune into your voice very quickly.

It is really important for your baby to have time with you everyday without the background noise of the television or radio to help them to do this.  As they get older, even as a young child this is important to help their listening skills develop and to help them to be able to tell the difference between the sounds that make up different words.

Image from www.bbc.co.uk

Babies and black and white images

Young babies see close up objects clearly when the ideal distance is about 20 - 25cm, which is about the distance from your face to your baby in your arms.  Babies are fascinated by faces and study them with great interest.

Young babies also prefer black and white, high contrast images to colour graphics.  You can now buy lots of black and white baby books, mobiles for the cot and other black and white contrasting play items.  

The following link is a great resource which I use lots within my baby groups when working with parents and babies together developing early language skills through play.  The pictures are so striking that I use them on home made building blocks.

http://baby.zorger.com/baby.zorger.com.newborn.pdf

Watch your little ones reactions while you talk to them : )

My building blocks are made from a dice template.  A3 versions make great dice for babies.  This one is from www.sparklebox.co.uk.  Make sure you round the corners to make them safe.  Fill with shredded paper.

If you want to make a different variety when they get older try making a set with family members and pets, favourite characters etc.