Extend your child's interest in trucks using the 4E's
What You Need:
- Books about: the garbage truck, the landfill/transfer station, and/or recycling
- A blank monthly calendar and markers or crayons
What To Do:
- Join your child in watching the garbage truck collect your trash, allowing her to watch for several days while commenting on your observations. You might say, “Today he is collecting our recycled waste.”
- Listen carefully to the questions your child asks. Read books or show her children’s videos about the garbage truck.
- Keep a monthly calendar to tally: the days the garbage truck collected your family’s trash, the color of the bin, and the time the trash was collected. At the end of the month, talk about her findings.
- If possible, take your child to your community dump or transfer station so she can see first-hand where the trash goes and what the workers do with it. Talk about what she sees, hears, and smells.
- Have her draw a picture or act out her experience using toy vehicles, roads, and newspaper/recyclables to represent trash, and have her explain it to you.
- Talk about things she learned and listen for questions she may still have. For example, if she is curious about recycling, give her hands-on opportunities to explore this topic further.
Use this local food to make a sweet treat
What You Need:
- ¼ cup cooked and mashed Okinawan sweet potato
- 2 cups half and half
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
What To Do:
- Mix ingredients until well blended and pour mixture into a quart-size plastic freezer bag. Release air, seal the bag, and reinforce the seal with masking tape.
- Fill a 3 lb. coffee can 1/3 full with ice.
- Add ¼ cup rock salt, the sealed freezer bag, and another ¼ cup of rock salt on top.
- Place the lid tightly on the can and reinforce the seal with masking tape.
- Sit on the floor with your child and roll the can to each other for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, empty the can. Then, repeat steps #2 - #5.
- Now your ice cream is ready to eat! Yum! (Note: if the ice cream is not hard enough, place the bag in the freezer until it hardens).
Adapted from
Hawaiian Electric
Draw on your child's interest by extending her learning
What You Need:
- A non-fiction picture book about birds
What To Do:
- Take your child on a walk outdoors and take the bird book with you. As you walk together, look for a bird.
- When you see a bird say, point it out to her, and ask questions like, “I wonder where that bird is flying to? Where do you think it’s going?”
- Safely follow the bird and watch/point out where it lands.
- Pique her curiosity by commenting on what you see. Say, “It landed on that tree! Do you think that’s where it lives?”
- Take out the bird book and read it to her to find out where birds build nests.
- Say, “Now we know that some birds build their home in trees!”
Place your baby on a soft blanket, futon, or towel on the floor to give her a chance to look at new things.
What You Need:
• A soft blanket, futon, or a beach towel
What To Do:
- Place your baby on a soft blanket, futon, or towel on the floor to give her a chance to look at new things.
- Change her position or the position of the blanket, futon, or towel on the floor after a few minutes.
- Notice what your baby is interested in. If she looks at something, talk about it. For example, “Do you see the fan? I’ll turn it on. It spins. Do you feel the cool air?”
- If she looks at you, talk about your facial features (eyes, nose, hair, etc.). As you name them, guide her hand to touch your eyes, nose, hair, etc. Then, gently touch her facial features saying, “You have a nose just like mommy!”
- Wiggle your hand to get your baby’s attention.
- Slowly “walk” your fingers up and around her leg.
- End the “walk” with a gently tickle or a soft poke on her tummy.
Variation:
Sit on the floor and hold your baby upright on your lap. Talk about things that you both see. For example, “Are you looking at the anthurium on the table? The authurium is red.”
