Studies at Home for Twos: Week Four
This is the last post of a five-part series, Studies at Home for Twos. Each Monday, for a total of four weeks, Erin Seagraves, author of many resources in The Creative Curriculum®, has shared guidance to engage your child in a hands-on study of containers at home.
Welcome to the last week of Studies at Home for Twos! This week, we will investigate the question How do people use containers? to discover the many practical and creative ways people use containers to store, carry, create, and play.
Time to Celebrate!
Now that it’s the last week of the study, it’s time to celebrate what you and your child have learned about containers. The small ways your child changes and grows each week add up to big steps in their development and learning. During this week, take some time to reflect on how your child engaged in the study activities. What skills did they practice or master? What new words did they say? How did they engage and persist throughout activities? What were they curious and excited about?
Week 4 Activities: How do people use containers?
Outlined below are four activities and a special celebration to explore with your child. You may choose to do one or a few activities each day––whatever works best for you and your child! If you notice your child losing interest in an activity, take a break and try again later. Repetition is an important element in young children’s learning, because each time they engage with the materials they are building on what they know. Additionally, if you do not have the suggested material for an activity, feel free to swap it out for something you already have on hand.
Activity 3: People Use Containers to Carry Things Activity 5: Celebrating Learning Thank you for taking part in our Studies at Home for Twos! It has been a joy to share these activities with you and to support the meaningful and important work that you do as your child’s first and best teacher. If you have any stories or picture from the study, share them in the comments below or via social media using the #studiesathome—don’t forget to tag us!
In this activity, I shared an example of self-talk, which is a strategy where you describe what you are doing, thinking, or observing as you do it. When children listen to your words and watch what you are doing, they make important connections between the meaning of the words you say and your actions. Talking through each step as you model an activity also helps keep children interested and engaged.
Throughout the study, you have given your child many opportunities to engage in practical life skills and help complete daily tasks such as cooking, cleaning, and organizing. These activities are important for young children to engage in because they give children opportunities to contribute to taking care of their home environment and take pride in completing useful tasks. Continue to look for opportunities to allow your child to practice his growing independence and help with household tasks.
One way that two-year-old children learn is from observing and imitating how others use materials. By modeling new ways to play with the containers, you are helping your child learn problem-solving strategies and supporting their creativity and inventiveness as they learn that there are many ways to use a material.
When the study ends, it is important to reflect on and celebrate your child’s learning. Below is a suggestion of how to celebrate, but you can choose to celebrate in any way that is meaningful to you and your child.
Want to continue to nurture children’s curiosity and support their development and learning?
For nearly two decades, The Creative Curriculum for Infants, Toddlers & Twos has supported teachers and caregivers as they create responsive daily routines and meaningful learning experiences for the youngest learners. Now, with Expanded Daily Resources for Twos, teachers can nurture children’s innate curiosity and interests by promoting engaging hands-on investigative learning.