CLEVELAND — Home schooling is tough. Sitting and crafting with the kids is time consuming. But – I have to admit – the toughest part of my day is figuring out how to entertain my young toddler.
She is just over 1 and a half years old, which means she doesn’t sit and color for very long. She doesn’t have a workbook from school to concentrate on. She doesn’t understand why we aren’t going out to the places we usually go. And I don’t want to expose her to a lot of screen time.
So, I was trying to figure out how to keep her entertained on her educational level.
How about building a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree?
We took blocks, some crafting letters and old green fabric (felt or construction paper would work, too). My older two had fun cutting the leaves of the trees and helping me find every letter in the alphabet. We taped the fabric leaves to two blocks to put at the top of the tree.
Then we sat down in the playroom to start our activity.
My 1 year old, Etta, had fun building the tree, stacking the blocks….then she had a blast knocking them to the ground.
So, we would build it again. We started to read the book and put the letters on the tree…and then she would knock the tree down.
OK. So, she wasn’t catching on and holding the attention I had hoped for. But it kept her entertained for a while and her big sisters were involved in showing her the alphabet.
We showed her the letters and Etta would repeat them back. We showed her the letters in her name. We read the book and got through it with her running around and pointing at the pictures.
After trying it out, I think if you have a 2, 3 or even young 4 year old, this little activity with the book will be a huge hit!
Speaking of hit, I did get hit in the head with a block. So, consider this your small print warning.