We are using the Practica program and will be working through the activities with Koko.
The activities are split into six categories, as follows:
Group 1: Major Muscles and Coordination
Group 2: Fine Muscles and Art
Group 3: Visual Perception
Group 4: Auditory Perception
Group 5: Mathematical
Group 6: Language and Thinking
var linkwithin_site_id = 127273;
Fifi is 9 months old
Practica Activities: Age 9 months
This week we will be doing the following (from the Practica Parent’s Manual) over the next few weeks. This will be done during the course of the next few weeks. Fifi will not have “formal” tot school at this stage.
1. Intellectual Development
2. Curiosity
3. Play
4. Awareness of Self
5. Sensory Perception
6. Emotional Development
7. Physical Development
8. Independence
9. Manual Dexterity and eye-hand Coordination
10. Social Development
11. Listening Skills
12. Language comprehension
13. Speech Development
14. Communication
Koko is 31 months old
Practica Activities: Age Range – 2 – 3 years
This week we will be doing the following (from the Practica Parent’s Manual)
1. Major Muscles and Co-ordination
Balance and Laterality (Chapter 7.1.6, 10 & 29)
2. Fine muscles and Art
Hand-eye coordination (drawing & threading)
Manual dexterity/Creativity (play-dough & sand play)
3. Visual Perception
Colour Consistancy/perception (Colour of the day)
Visual Closure (shapes)
4. Auditory Perception
Auditory discrimination/conceptualising/association (loud/soft, object sounds)
5. Mathematical
Counting to 10
6. Language and Thinking
Classification (Chapter 7.6.2)
Active Language Development (Chapter 7.6.6 & 24)
Practica is a completely comprehensive programme, which offers parents more than 4000 age-appropriate games and activities to play with their child from birth to 7 years old. These games focus specifically on the balanced development of all 50 the skills needed for school readiness, while providing unlimited family fun times. The programme is available in English and Afrikaans.
I bought the Practica system when Noo was 3 years old and instantly fell in love with it and when I was pregnant with Koko I bought their Pre-Birth Programme and subsequently used it in my pregnancy with Fifi.
Practica can be used from pregnancy right up to 7 years old. The manual is the heart of the Practica programme and contains thousands of ready-to-play games. All you need do is page to the age of your child and start playing! Games are described practically and easily, informing parents which skill is being developed or practiced in each game.
The whole programme is packed in an attractive, durable wooden toy box (Approx 81x32x44cm – size of old army trunks). Apparatus are of a high quality and most are packed in durable wooden boxes with sliding lids and plastic bottles. Many of the items and all of the cards are unique to Practica and not available elsewhere. Cards are all laminated and will not tear or become dirty. The activities in the Parents’ Manual make use of all the apparatus over the whole 7-year period that Practica is used, ensuring maximum value for money and overall balance in development which is not achieved by buying ‘loose’ toys.
I’ve been terrible at keeping this blog updated.
Today I packed out the Practica Wooden Blocks Set. Koko had a ball building towers and then knocking them over. After spending an hour on his blocks, we played a little with the xylophone and then built a puzzle. I’m chuffed that his attention and concentration spans have improved from 10 to 15 minutes.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVY4vw8kEl0]
I bought the Practica Program when Noo was 4 years old and have worked on it with him. I started Koko on this a while ago and today we took out the balance beams and played a little. He loved walking up and down the beams. I will slowly but surely start introducing more challenging activities with the puzzles and blocks as he grows a more interested.
“The Practica Program provides parents with thousands of ideas on how to STIMULATE and discover their children as they develop through all their MILESTONES from BIRTH TO SEVEN years of age.”