Jumble House Fun Learning for Young Children

Spooky

It’s fun making videos especially spooky ones and even more fun making your own sound effects.

It’s so easy to buy costumes and props and soundtracks and even laser shows to project onto walls and buildings. But to support and encourage a child to create their own is so rewarding. There are some ideas for sounds effects in this video but we need some more. What can we use for a clock striking midnight? Or a witches cackle? The clap of thunder?

Have fun. We’ll be back with a spooky ghost in a day or two.

Spooky Sounds.

Jumble House Early Learning, Learning through Play, parenting, Parents

Letter recognition and pre-reading skills


Young  children are so ‘open’ to learning. They are creative, inquisitive and just love learning new things.  In the preschool days their learning is at a level they will never experience again as is their enthusiasm to learn. They are learning new concepts with every turn of their heads, to them learning  is play and learning through play is fun not just for them but for parents too.

There’s no need to buy expensive equipment. No need to enlist them in special playgroups.

Just a small amount of time spent making a few resources and playing together is sufficient. They will learn so much and will be content to play on their own afterwards.

Letter recognition is an important pre-reading skill and one that can be acquired through play. There are so many fun activities to help with this. The old traditional game ‘I Spy with my Little Eye’  remains one of the best and requires no preparation or resources. It is great on shopping trips and journeys and children love it!  With very young children beginning to learn sounds it is best to say ‘ ……something beginning with the sound ‘a’ or ‘d’ rather than the letter name.

The way the sound is said is very important. We tend to add an ‘rrr’ to our letter sounds which makes for confused soekking later. You know what I mean? We should say b.b.b.bor. baby but it sort of comes out like bur.bur.for baby! Cur.cur.cur for cat! Etc.. it’s a good idea to visit a good phonic site where you can practice the correct sounds. Here is one I recommend: 

Sound pronunciation

When my eldest was two I decorated the walls of her bedroom in lower case letters in pastel colours of paint.  I don’t remember how this started but I do remember that her bedtime routine, in addition to a story, was to recite the letters painted on the walls.  She refused to go to sleep till this had been done!  We started with just three letters and when she knew these a new one was added. I guess it’s not everyone’s idea of good decor although it did look pretty and was cheap.and easy too!
Other less permanent ways of learning letter sounds and names are explained on my video which you can find by following the link below:

Letter Recognition Activities
I really hope you find the video useful.
Please take a look at the others in the same playlist.  They are all for parents of young  children.

Your children may enjoy the art and craft and science programmes. Everything is free.

Thanks for taking the time for reading this.

Judi Brereton.

Jumble House Fun Learning for Young Children

Let’s Rub!

Kids love rubbing. It’s a great family activity because Rubbings can be simple or sophisticated depending on age and experience.

Leaves are a great starter activity and the Rubbings produced can be used in so many ways.

Rubbing is a great activity to improve hand-eye coordination and strengthens little hand muscles thus improving fine motor skills.

Jumble House Creativity, Halloween

Halloween!  Make a super cool Lizzie Witch Lamp!!

Alfie shares the secret of his fir-cone weather station  and Georgie shows you how to make this super cool Lizzie Witch Lamp.

The Lizzie Witch Lamp

This is SO much fun to make. Quick, cheap and easy.

Don’t blow up the balloon too much if you are making it for the table but a large balloon is great for outside.

The instructions are on video. Click on the link below:
The video showing how to make a Lizzie Witch Lamp

Jumble House Crafts for kids, Creativity, Festivals, Halloween

The March of the Spiders! 


Another fun craft for Halloween.

These spiders are quick and easy to make and are great for decoration and for giving to children at the end of a Halloween party.

They are a bit bottom heavy so don’t hang well but look great on a web!

I made the web below from a hoop .  You could spray the hoop silver or wrap it in fabric or crepe paper before making the web but I  didn’t bother because it won’t be noticeable by the time I’ve filled it with spiders!


It’s better to make the web from string or a strong wool.  A flimsy web will not secure the spiders. The hoop can then be placed on a wall but I think it’s more effective hung from the ceiling or a doorway. That way you can fill both sides with spiders and it will look really cool spinning round.

Do secure with a dab of glue, the points where the wool wraps round the diagonals otherwise your web will very quickly deteriorate!  I need to do this with mine before I put any more spiders on!

What do you need?

Very little! Each spider uses four pipe cleaners, two eyes and a Chupa Chups lolly. That’s all.

It’s so easy that’s there’s really no need for instructions. The only thing you need to remember is to lie all four pipe cleaners together side by side and wrap then round the lolly stick together tightly. If you try to do it one at a time it’s fiddly  and you will probably get in a mess! You can use a blob of glue to secure.  The eyes are stuck on with glue too. It is possible to cut the sticks a little shorter if you feel they protrude too much.

Jumble House Fun Learning for Young Children, Recipes

Fruits of the Forest Dessert

Warning: this contains alcohol.

A quick, easy and delicious fruity dessert.

Click on this link for the recipe: Fruits of the Forest Dessert Recipe and instructions.

Jumble House Fun Learning for Young Children

Bring back Board Games!

I make simple board games like this to reinforce the learning of vocabulary!counting and number recognition when I’m teaching English as a second language.

They are also a fun and inexpensive way to support the learning of preschool children. The topics are endless, Colours, animals, Time, parts of the body etc. Board games teach counting, number recognition in addition to social skills such as turn taking and FairPlay. Unfortunately they have gone out of fashion which is a shame because kids really love them especially if they have been involved in the making.

Jumble House Autumn, Crafts for kids, Fun Learning for Young Children, Learning through Play, nature

Autumn Garden

Kids love gardens and one like this is so fun to make and takes virtually no maintenance apart from watering. They will really enjoy making new items for the garden and changing the theme as the seasons change.

It is a very good way of teaching about plants and germination and seasons plus they will hopefully develop a sense of responsibility caring for their little garden.

We don’t have a garden so I created this on a patch of tarmac at the bottom of the steps.

I simply laid a sheet of plastic over the tarmac raised up around the borders on bricks. This made a hollow in the centre which I filled with compost.

I planted a mixture of real and artificial plants . Some planted directly into the compost. Others in small plant pots.

The garden was made in the spring and has survived high winds, rain, drought and temps. of 40+

Last week I changed the theme to Autumn by adding lots of fir cones, dry leaves and little Veggie characters.

Jumble House celebrations, Fun Learning for Young Children, Halloween

Halloween Fun and Crafts

There’s no time like the present to start preparing for Halloween!

The shops are already bulging at the seams with, often overpriced, costumes and decorations. So why not make your own! It’s much cheaper and much more fun!

I don’t like the commercialism but I do love the build up to Halloween because i love making witches and ghouls and lamps and spiders and ….. there are so many great projects linked to this theme!

We have always held Halloween Parties but not the ‘Trick or Treating’ kind. Just good harmless fun!

Games like ‘Bob Apple’ , spooky music and spooky stories and themed food. We always include a fun craft activity which is usually to make an item for the ‘party bag’ like a tiny Ghost or Witch or Spider made from CHUPPA CHUPS lollies! These take only about ten minutes to make and Kids L O V É them!

Whether you love Halloween or hate it this Festival presents a great opportunity for introducing lots of fun crafts to your children. Have a look at the Halloween Playlist on my channel. Some of the videos are presented by my ‘Jumbles’ puppets

to encourage young children to ‘have a go’ and be creative! They will get so much more satisfaction and enjoyment out of making the decorations and props than from buying them AND save you lots of money.

LINK TO HALLOWEEN CRAFTS PLAYLIST

Jumble House crafts, Crafts for kids, Fun Learning for Young Children, Halloween

Make a Fun Spider Decoration

Here’s a fun activity for families. Please note that the finished ‘Spider’ does contain small parts and so is not suitable for small children.

This spider can be dangled from a thread or used as a magnet!! It is incredibly resilient . I know that because I still have one hung outside from last year’s Halloween!

It’s quick, easy, cheap and fun to make. Kids love them and I have groups of 6 and 7 year olds making them easily by just watching me or this video. A great idea for a Halloween Party activity.

Please remember that Jumble Fun does advise adult supervision for all its activities..