Cognitive Development Archives

Toilet Paper Roll Book (with pull tabs)

An amazing scrapbooking friend of mine (who has known me my entire life) made some adorable miniature scrapbooks for all of my little sister’s friends for their graduation a few years ago. I had completely forgotten about them until…

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The "Why do we need sunscreen?" Experiment

If your kids are like mine, they can’t stand it when you put sunscreen on them. I was so excited to find this activity from Sid the Science Kid to illustrate to kids exactly why they need to wear sunscreen! We…

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Make Your Own Tornado

We were under a tornado warning for almost 2 straight hours last night with the sirens blaring about a half-dozen times. Living in tornado alley, this isn’t an uncommon occurrence during spring evenings. But after seeing the devastation in Joplin…

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Caterpillar Counting

Those foam pool noodles are quickly becoming my favorite “manipulative”. For just $1, we’ve gotten three different uses out of one noodle (the rest of which I’ll share later this week). For this activity, we created a number game that…

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Recommended By You: Family-Friendly Board Games

Board games are an excellent learning tool for preschoolers. Not only do many of them include aspects of cognitive development (one-to-one correspondence, number recognition, etc), but they also teach social skills like taking turns and being a good sport when…

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People, Places, Things Farm Sort

Big Brother has been sick for the last three days, so we have been stuck in the house (again). I decided we needed an easy brain-stimulating activity (and a few minutes with the television turned off), so I came up…

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Counting Kisses Game

I know this is a silly thing to post, but it is a fun and sweet game that Big Brother and I made up before he goes to bed at night. But it also goes to show how learning takes…

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Toddler Time: Matching Animals to Pictures

After our visit to the Dairy Farm yesterday, I figured this would be a great activity for Little Brother. I just printed off pictures of 3 animals (cow, pig, and sheep) that I found online and then used our “Little…

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Chicken Beak Counting and Guessing Game

This “game” incorporates both fine motor and cognitive development and emphasizes number recognition, counting, one-to-one correspondence, and hypothesizing. Talk about packing a punch! We pretended that the tweezer was a chicken beak and Big Brother practiced putting the corresponding number…

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Toddler Time: Building Towers

Blocks are a childhood staple, but did you know that learning to build a tower of blocks is also somewhat of a developmental milestone? Toddlers must use cognition and fine motor skills to stack one block on top of another…the…

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Shape Chick

One of my biggest pet peeves is “kid’s crafts” that look perfect…because I know that the child was not really one doing the craft, the parent/caregiver/teacher was. As you can tell right off the bat, this sweet chick was 100%…

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Toddler Time: Pots & Pans "Puzzles"

If your kids are anything like mine, they don’t really play with toys a whole lot. They’d rather play with household items or demand my constant, undivided attention (I’m particularly thinking of one of my children). That’s why I love any…

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Green Fizzy Fun

Welcome to Tot Chemistry 101! This fun and fizzy activity combines Science and St. Patrick’s Day! I first saw the idea on Grains of Rice and knew Big Brother would love it so much, he would go crazy (which, of…

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Rainbow Mosaic

I love using paint samples for learning activities! They are a great resource for teaching colors (and shades of various colors) and best of all, they’re free. Just don’t go overboard…Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Benjamin Moore might not like that…

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Please Try to Remember The First of Octember: Calendar Introduction

Please Try to Remember the First of Octember! was another Dr. Seuss first for me! I had no idea he had even written this book until I was searching for “Dr. Seuss” on our library’s database. I’m so glad I found…

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Teaching Hot and Cold (for toddlers)

Not only is teaching your toddler “hot” and “cold” great for learning opposites, there is a huge safety incentive as well. For this activity, I just used 2 of those Pyrex gel pack thingys that came with my Pyrex travel…

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Do-A-Dot Number Activity

These Do-A-Dot Markers are so cool…and they’re especially wonderful for pre-writers. Big Brother got a set for Valentines Day and has played with them for at least a couple hours already. I apologize this is sideways…I changed the orientation and…

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"Heart Breaker" Number Game

I’m finally accepting the fact that scrapbooking is not for me. Not in this phase of life, anyway. So, I’ve decided to use some of my scrapbooking “stuff” for our activities. This fun “Valentine-themed” game was so easy to make!…

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