Poodlums

Let me preface this by saying I bought a CD nothing was given to me to write this post. I enjoyed it so much I want to share with you all.

Anne E. Howard and Jason Wright are poodle owners with aspirations of their poodles, Murry & Dina, being service dogs hence the name The Poodlums. They are married musicians but also board certified music therapists. Better than any child music group on tv (in my opinion). I actually cried (yep thank goodness for sun glasses) it was so beautiful and touching & Ava was listening, following direction and having fun. I hope to see them in person a few more times while I'm in California & I hope they come out with a DVD.

 Yeah yeah Ava enjoyed watching & singing along but more importantly ::snicker:: I loved it too. They are fun, funny, expressive, engaging oh I could go on. They sing about numbers, letters, science & etc in Spanish & English. These two NEED to have their own show I would so watch them. Ava (and I) had so much fun singing along that when it was over she made up a song about them it goes like this "Poodlums are people, people who like animals, they are good guitar players and know the alphabet, they are fun" ::clap clap clap::

Visit their website http://www.thepoodlums.com/ for cd & upcoming shows. To share a bit from their "about you" page:   

MISSION STATEMENT: The Poodlums aim to provide high quality, educational music experiences to children with and without special needs and their families, and to educate the community on the benefits and importance of music as a tool to optimize learning, and as a means of creative artistic expression that connects each of us to our own humanity and thus to one another. 

iPhone App Of The Moment - Endless Alphabet

Stickman is still a big favorite in this house but we found a new favorite app today its so seriously cute, totally engaging, and addicting. You can put that mommy/parent/caregiver guilt away because its also educational. Called Endless Alphabet from Callaway Digital Arts, little ones can learn the alphabet, spelling, and vocabulary but most importantly they have fun, fun and FUN.

A word comes up and a voice says the word. Then hilarious interesting creatures come knock them off so the word then is in grey & the letters are mixed around in color.

Click on a letter and it animates with creature like features then says and repeats the sound of the letter. When you match it to the correct spot, the letter is said. Then the creatures act out the word and a definition of the word is spoken. Its sometimes a funny definition. For example, the definition of tangle is "A tangle is a mess of rope or strings. Hair gets tangled all the time."

Callaway Digital Arts adds new words weekly. So letter sounds, definition, spellings, matching, oh I couldn't be more happy with this app but wait there are no advertisements or in app purchases (see this post to learn how to turn off auto in app purchases for other apps that may have it).

OH its FREE so go get it NOW!!

Do you have any other favorites from Callaway? I'm tempted to try all their other apps since I'm super impressed by this one

Pete And Repeat Were Sitting In A Boat

Pete fell out, who was left REPEAT          All. Day. Long.

Kids a little older than my 2 year old are usually repeating because they don't think you heard them. The toddler age totally WANTS to talk about something with you and the ONLY thing they can think of is "I like dirt" 5,000 times an hour. So I've found that expanding on what they are repeating helps them learn plus slows down the number of repetitions. So ask some questions to get that toddler mind rolling like

• What grows in dirt? 
• What else do you like? Do you like grass?
• Is dirt soft or squishy or hard?
• What happens to dirt if you add water?

Another one of my toddler's example is "I like to jump" ask questions like

• How many times can you jump in a row? Lets count!
• Can you Hop? (Skip, Twirl, etc)
• What animals jump? (hop)
• Can you jump high, can you jump low?

I have a friend who told me today of her daughter saying "The stove is hot" because the stove is hot and hey did you know its hot? So expand with

• Why is it hot?
• What else is hot?
• Is your drink hot?
• Is an ice cube hot or cold?

I could go on & on but you get the idea. :) Have fun! 

Pick Me Up Tuesday

Snake and Sassy begins with S

When Learning Becomes Play

Ava has known her shapes and colors for a while so I decided it was time to work on the alphabet. She calls lowercase g and any case s a snake so that got me thinking. I busted out some sidewalk chalk and went to town drawing out an alphabet snake.  What started as a learning activity became the most fun we've had in a while.  

Ways to mix it up:

• Have the child trace the letters
• Draw upper and lowercase letters
• Sound them out  
• Throw a rock on a letter like Hopscotch then have them hop to the letter and  yell it out
• Have the child come up with words that start with the cooresponding letter
• Make it a shape or number day instead of alphabet 

We had so much fun!