The Simplest Activity can have a Huge Impact

I've been wanting to write this post for a long time now, 

but diapers have needed to be changed, toys have needed to be picked up, 

bottles have needed to be made, and babies have needed to be rocked.

I guess life as a momma of two babies has gotten in the way, 

and I'm okay with that.  I would put anything on hold for my incredible kids.

But right now, both of my loves are asleep so I thought I would get this done,

or at least started.  We'll see how far I get until one of them wakes up.

A couple months ago I really started to work with Emma on her shapes.

I started with some really basic activities (drawing different shapes on her chalkboard table

and saying what they were and then over exaggerating as she played with her shape sorter.)

Pause...

Husband called and is giving me a Dave Matthews Band lesson

and if you know my husband then you know there's a lot that goes into this lesson.

Okay, back to Emma and shapes.

She was catching on to the concept and was beginning to identify circles, 

but she didn't seem all that interested.

I knew I needed to come up with a new, more interactive way for her to learn 

her shapes and have fun with it at the same time.

Lucky for me, Emma had just discovered the white board and was fascinated by it.

I decided to use her excitement and her love for her Little People princesses to my advantage.

I asked Emma to pick out four of her princesses and I drew a different shape in each corner

of the white board.  Emma's job was to put a princess inside whatever shape I called out.

She was amazed by this simple activity and had so much fun with it.

She quickly mastered the first four shapes I drew 

so I erased the board and drew four different ones.  Like before, 

she caught on to these shapes right away.  She was very proud of herself.

She gave out a lot of "up tops" (which are high fives) to both me and the princesses.

Soon the princesses even began to dance inside the shapes.

I didn't anticipate the amount of smiles, squeals, laughter, and clapping 

that ended up coming along with this activity, but I am glad she loved it so much.

My baby girl was having the time of her life and learning at the same time.

It doesn't get much better than that.

The possibilities are endless when you incorporate a child's interests into learning activities.