Author: S. J. Little

Clean Up – 1.9 – Add A Little

Posted on by S. J. Little

 

Add A Little – 1 Year Old Curriculum – Unit 9

Clean Up

Vocabulary: Find, Pick Up, Container, Put In

Tent, Blanket, Build, Knock Over

Disclaimer: All activities require adult supervision and discretion. Read more…

Want to learn more about Add A Little Curriculum? Check out the Parent / Teacher Guide

Let’s Wiggle

Pick Them Up Game

Supplies:

  • A set of 8-15 small to medium toys. Could be almost anything. Consider:
    • Bean bags
    • Balls
    • Pompoms
    • Cars
    • Stuffies
  • A basket or box that holds all the toys

Time to Play:

  • Show your child the basket of toys and explain that you are going to play a pick them up game.
  • Dump the toys on the floor. Work together to pick up all the toys.
  • Consider singing the Clean Up Song while you pick them up (see video below).
  • Optional: for children who have a solid grasp of colours, consider challenging them to pick up the toys by colour: “Can you pick up all the yellow ones?” “Now pick up the red ones.”

Let’s Explore

Toy Insert

Supplies:

  • 10-20 small items. Consider:
    • Plastic chain links
    • Q-tips
    • Standard playing cards
    • Washable markers (if your child cannot open them yet)
  • A container to hold the items. Consider:
    • A yogurt container (clean)
    • A cardboard box

Prep:

  • Cut a slot in lid of the container that is a bit bigger than the items you are using.
  • If your cardboard box has a handle hole, consider using that as your slot by setting the box on its side.

Time to Play:

  • Model for your child how to insert the items into the container.
  • Encourage them to try.
  • Optional: Extend the fun by setting the container at one end of a hallway while you stand at the other end with the items. Hand one item to your child at a time. Encourage them to run to the container to insert the item.

Let’s Sing

The Clean Up Song

Let’s Sing

Christian Song

Jesus Loves Me

Let’s Read

Clean-Up Time

Author: Elizabeth Verdick
Illustrator: Marieka Heinlen

Move Please!

Posted on by S. J. Little

 

I shuffled through the items on the desk, trying to determine which ones to set aside for longer-term storage and which would be better suited to keep available on the living room shelf.

My toddler puttered around my feet with her toy doll. “I’m helping Emi walk.”

“I see that. Just like how Auntie was helping your cousin walk when we saw them last week.”

I picked up a roll of tape. That should stay readily available. I scanned the shelf and found a spot for it.

“Mama, I’m going there.”

I stepped out of the way so my toddler could walk past.

I reached for a stack of unused notebooks. My current notebook still had space so I wouldn’t need these for a while. I stashed them in a box to be put into storage, then jotted them down on the list of contents on the box.

“Uh oh…”

I glanced down at my toddler. She was trying to move past my big packing box.

Her little voice piped up again, “Move please.”

Normally the space would be empty, but since I was actively working on this box, I didn’t want to move it. Beside the box was a clear space, plenty wide enough for her and her doll to walk through.

“I’m using this box right now, but you can go around it.”

My toddler pushed her shoulder against the box. “Move please!”

“I will move it when I’m done with it.”

“Mama, move please!”

I crouched down beside her and pointed, “Look, there is lots of room to go around the box. You don’t have to be stuck here.”

She started to pout as she pushed against the heavy box again. “Move please!”

I tried to meet her gaze. “Mommy is busy using this box. I will move it when I am done. You can go around it. See, I’ll show you.”

Straightening, I stepped around the box through the clear area.

My toddler pouted and pushed against the box with two hands. “Move please!”

With a sigh, I returned to my organizing. If I couldn’t explain to her that she could go around the box, maybe she would figure it out on her own.

She continued pushing against the box as her frustration mounted. She began to cry.

After a time, I picked her up and walked around the box with her.

“See, you can go around.”

She wasn’t comforted in the least.

I carried her to the couch and picked up a book. Maybe a complete change of activity would help take her mind off that box.

This encounter with my toddler was not the first of its kind, and surely won’t be the last. Her stubborn determination that she must go exactly in the one place she cannot go, is nearly impossible to distract her from. Once she has decided she wants to go somewhere, her mind is set on it.

After multiple such interactions, I began to wonder if I am ever like that.

In my walk with God, are there times that I stubbornly try to go somewhere or do something that He has said no to?

When God closes a door, or says wait, do I push forward anyways?

There are many times in the Bible when God told His people to wait. Sometimes they obeyed, but other times they pushed forward stubbornly and paid the consequences.

I think of Saul and the sacrifice (1 Samuel 13), and the disciples waiting for Pentecost (Luke 24:49 & Acts 1-2). The nation of Israel’s first attempt to enter the Promised Land also comes to mind. At first, they said no when God said go, but then they tried to force their way in when God said no (Deuteronomy 1:19-46).

Can you think of other examples in the Bible?

So what do we do when we find a heavy box where we want to walk? The apostle Paul set a good example for us.

“Concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it would leave me. But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.’

Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me. So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and in difficulties, for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”  2 Corinthians 12:8-10 CSB

What did Paul do when he came to an unwanted roadblock? He took the matter straight to God. That is the critical first step.

After praying about it a few times, Paul understood God’s answer to be “no”.

Did Paul throw himself on the floor in a toddler temper tantrum?

No. Paul accepted God’s answer, and turned his attention away from that box onto God. Instead of growing persistently angry, he chose to follow the path God had opened and to live his life for God’s glory rather than Paul’s own desires.

Surely there were days that it felt impossible for Paul to have this attitude of setting his focus on God rather than on his own desires. Thankfully, he didn’t have to do it on his own. God is a God of mercy and a God who willingly helps His children.

Next time I stumble across a box in my path, may I bring it straight to God in prayer. Then, if He says “no” or “wait”, may I move on following His lead and setting my focus on Him so that my life may be for His glory, not my own. And on those days, when I am stuck and it seems impossible, may I cry out to God to help me shift my eyes onto Jesus. God will help me.

Buildings – 1.8 – Add A Little

Posted on by S. J. Little

 

Add A Little – 1 Year Old Curriculum – Unit 8

Buildings

Vocabulary: Tent, Blanket, Build, Knock Over

Tent, Blanket, Build, Knock Over

Disclaimer: All activities require adult supervision and discretion. Read more…

Want to learn more about Add A Little Curriculum? Check out the Parent / Teacher Guide

Let’s Wiggle

Blanket Tent

Supplies:

  • Large, but not heavy blankets
  • Soft blankets
  • Pillows
  • Furniture that can move but won’t tip, such as a side table, couch or chair.

Prep:

  • Create tent or fort using what you have available.
    • Consider pulling your couch a foot or two away from a chair and draping a blanket over both.
    • Consider pulling a side table to the middle of the room and draping a blanket over it.
    • If you have two couches, consider moving them back to back leaving a crawl space between.
  • Optional: use pillows or a small blanket to create a bed for stuffed animals inside the tent.
  • Test your tent to be sure nothing heavy will fall on your child.
  • Be sure to supervise your child to ensure the blanket does not smother them.

Time to Play:

  • Show your child the tent and encourage them to try going inside. 
  • If needed model by crawling inside yourself.

Let’s Explore

Tower Tumble

Supplies:

  • Blocks – try to use something other than what your child typically uses.
    • Alternatives to standard blocks could include:
      • Small cardboard boxes
      • Small unopened cans
      • Other clean containers

Time to Play:

  • Model how to build a tower with the blocks.
  • Encourage your child to help.
  • Talk about the colours and shapes on the blocks as you build.
  • Invite your child to knock over the tower.
  • Celebrate when they fall down.
  • Work together to build the tower again.
  • Consider counting how many blocks you’ve used.

Let’s Sing

London Bridge is Falling Down

Let’s Sing

Christian Song

Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock

Let’s Read

Biscuit Visits the Big City

Author: Alyssa Satin Capucilli
Illustrator: Pat Schories

Note: This is not a board book, but the simply told story is excellent for 1 year olds.

Coat Flip Trick

Posted on by S. J. Little

 

Getting a toddler or preschooler ready to go outside can be quite the hassle. This is even more the case when one or two teachers must prepare a whole class of children to go outside.

Here’s a simple trick your child can learn to enable them to independently put their coat on.

How young is too young? I learned this trick from a preschooler whose parents taught him to put on his coat this way. Then, when my daughter was one and a half years old and desiring independence, I tried teaching her. Within a few days she was happily putting on her coat all by herself (though I still had to do the zipper).

 

 

The Coat Flip Trick

 

  1. Place the unzipped coat on the floor or a low ottoman with the hood towards your child.
  2. Direct your child to put their arms into the sleeves of the coat.
  3. Help your child lift their arms straight in the air, flipping their coat over their head.
  4. Assist your child with doing up the coat zipper or buttons as needed.

 

There you have it. A simple little trick to make your day go so much smoother.

Faithfully Working In Me

Posted on by S. J. Little

 

While my husband finished his breakfast, I let our toddler cuddle up on my lap, or what was left of it. At 36 weeks pregnant there’s not a lot of room left on my lap for her.

We chatted about the plan for the day.

I gave my daughter a little squeeze. “You get to stay with Grandma today while I go to a doctor’s appointment for baby.”

My toddler rested her head against me. “Strong and healthy.”

“That’s right. The doctor is checking to make sure baby is strong and healthy.”

I glanced across the table at my husband. “It’s a routine appointment. They’ll likely want me to book another one for next week since I’m so far along now. What are you up to today?”

My husband launched into a description of his expected meetings and the project he had on the go at work.

His words trailed off when our daughter sat bolt upright, shock covering her face.

I laughed. “Baby just kicked you.” I had felt the strong movement too.

Her shock turned to a grin, as she shifted to rest a hand on my belly.

“You really felt that didn’t you?”

“More?”

“He might kick you again, but I don’t know if he will. Sometimes he kicks a lot, but sometimes he is sleeping. I think he was sleeping just a minute ago, but then he kicked you.”

It wasn’t until the next morning that I found myself thinking about how the movements of my soon-to-be-born baby can stand as a meaningful reminder to me of how God works in my life.

Let me explain.

The kicks of an unborn baby are a wonderful, reassuring thing (though sometimes uncomfortable). Each kick is a reminder that he is alive and active. At checkups, the doctor asks if I’ve been feeling the baby kick because it is an important indicator that the baby is doing well.

Yet the baby isn’t always kicking. Sometimes he is sleeping.

More often than not, it is when I am busy or walking about that he sleeps. Then, within minutes of my sitting down or lying down to relax, I feel him start kicking.

His movements aren’t always the same either. Sometimes I feel his kicks on the right side, sometimes on the left. Sometimes he jabs at my ribs (those aren’t so comfortable), while other times he kicks deep within me. At times his movements are big and pronounced, visible to those sitting beside me. At other times, they are subtle and easy to miss. Still other times his movements are not kicks at all. Instead they are the steady rhythm of hiccups.

When I don’t feel him actively moving, does it mean there is a problem? No, unless the stillness lasts too long. He is most likely taking a nap while he continues to grow and develop.

Similar can be said of my relationship with God.

Sometimes I can see and feel that God is actively at work in my life. I know that I am walking with Him and He is growing me closer to Him.

Other times, I can’t feel Him. I sometimes start to worry – am I still following God? Have I become distant? Is He still at work in my life?

Just because I can’t feel God at the moment, doesn’t mean there is something wrong. God can still be at work in my life, even when I don’t feel it.

Often it is in the seasons of busyness that I feel Him less – such as the season I’m about to step into as the mom of a newborn.

That said, to help my baby’s growth and development be at an optimum, I must continue to eat a reasonably healthy diet, take my prenatal vitamins, and drink water – lots and lots of water.

Regardless of whether I have felt my baby kicking in the past while, I continue to eat for his optimum growth.

The same should be the case in my walk with Jesus. Regardless of whether I feel super close to God at the moment, it is still critical to be ingesting a healthy spiritual diet – Bible reading, worship songs, prayer, and times of fellowship with other Christians.

These elements will help keep me growing and learning more about God whether I feel it or not.

Today, whether I feel it or not, may I trust that, “He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6 CSB)