Our family recently visited some U-Pick Farms in Central Florida. Whenever we go somewhere or do something, I like to bring in some type of educational aspect to it. After our visits, I found this awesome sorting toy by Learning Resources.
In this blog, I'll share a few ideas on how you can engage with your child during playtime and make learning happen simultaneously. My goal is for you learn an idea or two in order to help your child be the smartest kid on the block!
📹 Check out this video demonstrating multiple ways to play with the Farmer's Market Sorting Toy by Learning Resources! 📹
Learning Resources' Farmer's Market is a multi-functional toy that can be used with an 18+month old all the way up to a preschooler. I absolutely love finding toys that will last for a few developmental stages. The company includes a few ideas to try out within the box as well. Here are a few others:
- For the 18 month old, allowing her to put the fruit in and out of the basket may seem too simple for learning, but learning actually is going on! She is using her fingers to grab the toy food and coordinating her fingers to release into the buckets. As you play together, you can model and say out loud "inside" and "outside" the bucket.
- Use one color bucket and say the color of each object. Take out all five objects, and put one back inside at a time and say the same color and food type all five times. For example, using the orange bucket, pick up the pumpkin and say "Orange Pumpkin". Then say, "orange orange" etc with all five. Start with just one color for a little bit until you can get tell your baby is ready for two colors.
- Using two colors, have all ten objects on the floor and then model how to sort the two color buckets. For example, pick up a purple fruit and put it in the purple bucket and say, "Purple plum." Then using the orange bucket, pick up the pumpkin and say "Orange pumpkin." Give your toddler one of the purple objects and say, "purple" and guide your toddler's hand to drop it in the purple bucket. Repeat this with all ten objects. Don't stress if you're only able to get through a few objects before your toddler loses interest. Try this each day and her focus will increase. Soon you'll be at ten before you know it!
- Eventually you'll incorporate all five colors and allow your toddler to sort all five buckets. Try have her saying the colors, the food names and counting. Each time you do this, you need to model it first. "One yellow, two yellow etc".
- At some point you can mix some of the objects and ask your toddler to put all the same colors together.
- You can teach your preschooler to count from 1-25 and then count by 5s.
- You can teach a single vs multiple. "There is one single banana. Look at the blueberries. There are multiple blueberries, which means more than one."
- You can create a meal you're going to prepare by allowing your child to pick a couple of options to make the menu. This helps match the object to what the food actually is and what it tastes like.
- My seven-year-old niece turned these buckets into a tossing game! They earned points for making the fruit/veggie into the correct color bucket.
- And for my last idea, this would be a great opportunity for sparking their imagination. Make up a story about the food. It can be a fictional one where the fruit/veggie have personalities. Or a factual encounter of finding the food at the farm, store or your own garden. Asking your child to verbalize sentences is a great way for them to process what they are learning. Plus, it allows you to hear what they are thinking too!
