Learning How to Read Next Steps: Disney's Adventures in Reading

In my April 15 post, Learning How to Read First Books, I listed websites that featured simple 1-page stories that my daughter could follow. While she was happy to finally read on her own, the novelty of these simple, repetitive tales soon wore off and she started looking for real books with real stories. Unfortunately, a lot of the Level 1 learn-to-read type books were still too complicated for her and frustrated her to no end.

Disney came to our rescue with their new Reading Adventures Pre-Level 1 set. Each boxed set contains 10 illustrated books, stickers, achievement certificate, and parent letter. The stories, while simple, are engaging to the little ones due to their familiar characters and themes like friendship, feelings, seasons, etc. I bought the Mickey Mouse set to start with. My daughter read through the whole set in two days and loves the books! It also gave her the confidence to try reading other, more complicated books using similar sight words. I'm looking forward to trying the Winnie the Pooh version next.

Both boxed sets are available locally, at National Bookstore.

Playhouse Disney Magazine - Still A Fan!

First day of school and my toddler had her biggest battle yet - against a bottle of glue :P It was her first time to handle glue and she didn't count on how sticky it was; particularly on her little fingers! She refused to finish the activity on account of wanting desperately to wash her hands. I dropped by National Bookstore to buy her her own glue to practice at home. I was also hoping to buy the Kumon workbook for pasting. Unfortunately, it was all sold out. Only the Pasting book for 3-4 years old remained. I bought the glue nonetheless and rummaged through old magazines when I got home, intent on cutting out pictures she could paste on a blank sheet of paper. I came upon her back issues of Playhouse Disney and realized that each issue has a cut and paste exercise! I buy these magazines for the tracing, counting, and coloring exercies (and the read aloud stories), so this is a bonus treat for me. My daughter had a blast pasting in pictures of Mickey Mouse, Pooh Bear, and Handy Manny. Each activity differs from the rest so it never gets boring. Now I'm eagerly awaiting the next issue of Playhouse Disney...soon to be Disney Junior!

Toddler's First Puzzles: The Next Step

So your toddler's mastered 3pc, 4pc, 5pc, and 6pc puzzles - what's next? Don't make that eager trip to Hobbes just yet! 24 pc puzzles and beyond may still be too much to handle for your little puzzle master. Thankfully, there is a puzzle between 6pc and 24pc - a 15 pc puzzle! I discovered this type of puzzle at the toy section of Landmark Department Store. It comes in three types - Justice League, Disney Princess, and Winnie The Pooh. The puzzle pieces are large and well suited for toddler's hands. There's also a picture at the righthand corner to serve as a guide. My daughter enjoyed  the feeling that she's now able to work on "big" puzzles! We helped her build the puzzle for the first couple of weeks and now she's able to build it on her own.

Another alternative is to get a 24pc puzzle with large pieces and set up all the corner/edge pieces on the frame. That way, your toddler will only need to figure out the remaining 8-piece puzzle in the middle.

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