a pattern train

In addition to the Venn diagram project, another craft/educational project I found on the I Can Teach My Child! blog was this train that teaches patterns.  I was taking Callan over to a friend's house for a playdate, so I took all the supplies along for the two of them to do this project together.  I was really excited about it, because he had been so excited to do the Venn Diagram the day before.  Of course you can imagine what happened.  Callan was too interested in playing with his friend's toys to pay any attention to his train.  I set all the stickers and crayons out in front of him and asked him what stickers he wanted to use.  "You do it, Mommy" was his reply.

I've come to realize (from doing previous "school" projects with him) that I can't force him into doing a project with me or else it will end up being a tug-of-war between the two of us.  So, after we came home from our playdate, I asked him if he wanted to finish his train project and he excitedly did.

Here's some pictures of his train.  I made some adjustments to the project (I printed an engine and caboose off of google images and typed his name on the caboose).  And instead of using colored dot stickers like the blog suggests, I allowed him to choose whatever stickers he wanted to use to create the patterns.

  

He's been funny with coloring lately.  It's not his favorite thing to do.  He asked me to help him color some parts of his train. 

Each segment of the train was a different color and a different pattern.  Here's his "AABB" pattern.  (The blog recommended not using the terms "AABB" with kids this young and instead just say "We're going to do a fish, fish, bunny, bunny pattern.")

 Here's his tree, frog, frog pattern ("ABB").

 His favorite, of course...moose, raccoon, moose, raccoon ("AB").

shamrock, music note, shamrock, music note ("AB")

computer, ant, face, computer, ant, face ("ABC")

 butterfly, butterfly, dinosaur ("AAB")...I see one of the butterflies already fell off

 ...and the caboose!

Also, we just happened to pick up the book I'm Taking a Trip on my Train by Shirley Neitzel at the library last week, which is a great add-on to this activity.