Poisson Rouge: Interactive discovery for Pre-K

Poissonrouge (Redfish) is like a treasure trove of educational games.  It's rare to find one that is actually well done, amusing and not so blatantly educational and baby-like that you actually don't mind playing it with your kids. You won't find text or lists of instructions for one way to use the site. The interactive content is designed to be intuitively discovered through activity just as small children naturally learn through the exploration of the objects before them. Discovery and amusement, cause and effect are all key to learning how to learn.  There are over 200 games and new ones seem to be added each time I visit, which is amazing for a free site. Originally in French, you can now discover and play with the alphabet in the following languages: French, English, Spanish, Greek and Italian. And it is even available on the ipad (click for demo).  Check out Poissonrouge and help support their site if you like it.  

Let it rain. Another grey week in Paris.

My son loves the rain, must be his Seattle side.  Actually, I think it's because he gets to use an umbrella.  Real Seattleites would never use one - that's for tourists.  But, how I love these kid-sized umbrellas by Bobo Choses.

Unwrapping with Kids

My kids and I have been practicing unwrapping gifts all month with their advent calendar. I am glad that this has given us the opportunity to "learn" how to unwrap and ultimately receive a gift - especially amongst siblings. We've followed a few simple steps:

1. Each sibling takes turns handing the gift to the other to open and or they agree to open it together.

2. Smile and act pleased.

3. Thank the person who gave it to you and mention something you like about the gift. (For our 17 month-old a simple "Wow" sufficed.

4. Make a thank you card (or something equivalent). Yes, you can even send one to Santa. Even Santa needs to be appreciated.

Bis. Give a gift to someone else. This was just simple role play.