Learning at Home with Lakeshore

Now that Harry is almost 2, he is ready for fine motor practice…and we do this through play!  This month we used some of Lakeshore Learning’s toddler activities to work on his coordination and vocabulary.

Forest Friends Playset is just about the cutest little activity to practice fine motor skills.  This introductory puzzle was perfect for him to practice squeezing the little animals to fit inside the tree.  The animals are squishy which allowed Harry to get a firm grasp while he tried to place each animal in a spot.  

The best part is, all of the animals can fit in all of the holes, so the goal is to practice making each animal stick.  We practiced saying the animal names as he was interacting with them.  I highly recommend this product as a first puzzle game!

Harry’s favorite activity was the Stack and Roll Wooden Race Cars.  These cars were fun for him to stack, push, roll, and race all over the house.  We practiced saying the colors and position words (first, seconds, last, etc.)

Some of the sentences I would say were:

-Push the red car to me.

-Stack the blue car on the red car.

-Can you find the yellow car?

-Find the small car.

I was able to sneak new vocabulary words in without him even knowing just by talking while we were playing.

The teacher in me loved the Lakeshore Alphabet Rockets.  If you teach Kindergarten this would be a great item to invest in for center time or small group instruction.  There is a rocket for each letter, which contains two pictures with the same beginning sound.  These rockets are great for phonemic awareness!

Harry had a great time matching the rockets by color (I only placed 4 rockets out at a time for him).  Once he stacked one, we would say the picture names, I would emphasize the beginning sound and letter.  The more he can be exposed to letters and sounds before preschool, the better!

As a Lakeshore blog ambassador, I have been compensated for this blog post, but all thoughts are my own! 🙂