Colour Sorting with Shiny Gems
Colour Sorting with Shiny Gems.
The terrible twos have definitely hit in this house. I’ve decided to get through this stage I need to kick my educator’s brain back into gear and take each day as it comes….tantrums, fighting, laughs and all. But first I needed some resources. I did a quick run around a discount store and stumbled across some bits and pieces. The first experience I set up for the twins was Colour Sorting with Shiny Gems.
Terrible Twos x 2
We expected the terrible twos. I mean after all, we did celebrate their second birthday just over a month ago. I say I expected it, but I’m not sure how prepared I really was. I worked as an early learning educator for 14 years and more than 10 0f those years were in the babies’ room. 0-2 years of age. I’ve written before that I was waiting for 2 special toddlers to get me ready for the 2 year old stage. Cole and Norah they are those special toddlers.
The thing is there’s two of them! I mean obviously there’s two of them, they’re twins, but two twins outnumber one Mummy. It often means that if I’m redirecting one child, the other one has to join in.
When I worked in childcare we would have up to 20 toddlers a day. Terrible twos x 20! That’s a lot more tantrums and chaos than I’m dealing with here everyday. However; a childcare centre is set up for children. Everything that is the rooms that they can reach, is for the children. There are other educators in the room with you and you work together to educate and care for the children. While you mop the floor or set up an experience there is someone else there with the children, keeping them occupied. At home, it’s different. I’m not saying in any way that it is bad different, but it is different.
Easy to set up Experiences that keep the Children Engaged.
While I walked around the discount shop, I kept in the back of mind that being at home by myself with the kids is different to working with them in a childcare centre. I was looking for bits and pieces that I could use in many ways, but also things that I could set up quickly and easily that would keep the children engaged. Things that I could use with little involvement from me, but thing I could still structure and encourage learning through play (for all my educators out there, sorry I can’t help it!)
Setting it up.
I hadn’t even planned to do this experience this morning, but I was trying to do the dishes (if you want a bit of a relatable laugh, check out my post on Why it takes Hours to do the Dishes!?) and the twins needed something to occupy them without my help.
As soon as I say, “I have an idea” the kids come running, or stop crying and follow me around to see what I’m going to do. I had the gems ready and I knew I wanted to use them for colour sorting, so some quick thinking on my feet the kids were doing Colour Sorting with Shiny Gems into matching coloured circles.
I traced the edge of a plastic cup to get the circles using coloured pencils that matched the gems as close as possible.
Success!
The twins were waiting eagerly at the table as I put the sheets of paper down in front of them. Immediately they started putting the gems onto the paper, without looking at what I had set up for them. I held out a gem to Cole and asked him what colour it was. “Red” he said. Then I asked him if he could find a red circle. “There!” He said enthusiastically. I told him to put the red gem into the red circle. Norah was watching on from the other side of the table. She picked up a pink gem and placed her’s straight into the pink circle. That was it! They were off. They quickly asked for more gems. I found some ice block trays and filled them up with the gems so they didn’t fall off the table and so that they each had their own.
I did the dishes and they stayed at the table with their gems, the whole time!
Funnily enough, when it came to storing the gems, I found a little case that has the same coloured dots on them. When I put it on the table, Norah started to place the gems on top of the dots. This kept the experience going even longer.
Give it a go.
Why not give it a go. You don’t necessarily need to use gems and circles, use whatever you have in the house or craft box. Pom poms and buttons would work great too. The twins loved doing the Colour Sorting with Shiny Gems, because the gems were new and interesting. The gems easily give me other follow on experiences too. Keep a look out for what we use them for next!
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