Playing is learning!

My motto when trying to teach Stefan is that "playing is learning." With a toddler there is so much to learn just by playing. Really, nearly anything can be a learning experience if you are in tune to seeing it and maybe just a little imaginative/creative. What I love is that Stefan is learning without even realizing he is.

The other day we did this great activity/game together. We were given these mini-vehicles (along with some other pre-school type materials--yeah!) from another Mom who no longer needs them. Stefan loves them! Stefan already knows his colors, and is really good at sorting by color or type (airplanes, firetrucks, cars, boats, trains, buses) so we made this into a French game.

On one end of our living room we had the bucket of beans with all the vehicles. On the other end of the room we had a table with the same color bowls. He would reach in and get a vehicle and then run (and I mean run!) across the room to the correct bowl. Before he could go get another one, he had to say the color/vehicle in french. He had a blast! Before we knew it we had spent over an hour together and had not spoken a word of english. Of course many other french words were used besides just the colors and vehicles so this was a great activity. He then spent almost another hour just playing in the beans. Playing in beans or rice is a great sensory activity for toddlers.