A few months ago, I shared a project to help teach children their address. It ended up being a fun and creative way to get my 5 year old to memorize the specifics about where we live. Because the hands-on activity was enjoyable for him, he caught on quick and I thought it would be a great strategy to implement similarly when teaching him other life skills, like learning important phone numbers!
These days we’re likely to just tap on a name in our phone without needing to remember any numbers, but theres no denying that learning and memorizing important phone numbers is a great life skill to have. By teaching your child important phone numbers, you are helping them to be self-sufficient and confident – and it could possibly be life-saving.
Here are 3 easy ways you can teach kids important phone numbers
1. Make a bracelet!
This simple project was a hit with my son! Wearing a bracelet with an important phone number is a great reminder for you child and they’ll easily be able to recognize and recite it after repeatedly seeing it. Additionally, wearing a bracelet with an important phone number can be a smart safety plan for family outings, such as an amusement park and (god forbid) you were to get separated.
Creating the bracelet is simple: Just use an assortment of bead colors, number beads and some elastic string. If you want your child to learn multiple phone numbers, you can even use alphabet beads to include the persons name in the bracelet. Besides being a helpful learning activity, creating the phone number bracelet strengthens fine motor skills as well.
2. Play a match game
With two common household items, you can create this craft stick phone number activity. Using a popsicle stick, write your important phone number down and write numbers 0-9 on clothespins. Play a matching game and see if you child can match up the numbers. If you have multiple numbers you would like them to practice learning, label the popsicle sticks on the opposite side (i.e. “Mimi’s Phone,” “Police,” etc). You can even test your child, like flash cards, to see if they can match the contact to the phone number.
3. Practice dialing important numbers (free worksheets below)
Practice makes perfect – and we created a free worksheet bundle that you can use with your child to encourage phone number memorization. The worksheets are a great visual for your child to see what exact numbers in sequence they need to plug in and includes a pretend phone sheet to practice dialing those numbers.
Download the FREE printable for this activity below!
If you liked this project, you might enjoy this post where we share teaching your kids their addresses!
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Give the gift of sensory stimulation for baby’s first Christmas with this brightly colored and super durable toy! Babies will love poking and grabbing the colorful silicon bubbles while developing fine motor skills. Easy to take on the go and a fascinating attention keeper, this Dimpl is a wonderful gift for baby’s first Christmas!
You can’t go wrong with a classic! This multi-purpose radio flyer is a gift for babies and parents alike, as it is fun to ride in and easy to pull. It’s compact design folds for simple storage and it includes the UV protective canopy (for rainy days too). Plenty of room for 2, the radio flyer 3-in-1 can also be used as bench for seating. Buy it now!
It is never too early to instill a love for reading in a child, which makes this board book boxset the perfect gift for baby’s first Christmas. These brightly colored reads cover all the basics, including numbers, the alphabet and animals. Great for language development and an awesome introduction to the wonderful world of literature. Baby needs this set like yesterday!
Just look at this adorable spike the Hedgehog in all of it’s colorful, fine motor glory! Watch as baby’s skills grow with this super cute peg-in-the-hole toy. The quills are easy to grasp and simple to store when play time is over. Spike is highly educational with it’s sorting, counting and color recognition building features. Exceptional!
What’s not to love about this interactive learning baby walker that features a removable toddler play panel and pretend telephone handset? Help babies learn to walk with this light up, musical push toy that sings songs and spouts fun phrases. Durable wheels work on carpet and hard floors. Intended for babies and toddlers from 9 months to 3 years old, it is also available in pink!
Bath time just got more fun with these awesome waterproof books and squeeze toys! This gift is not only educational but unique and guaranteed to keep baby entertained. The first page even squeaks when you press it! Tough but bendable, the books’ smooth edges are safety checked and mold resistant. Great value for everything included. Blub Blub gift these bath toys for baby’s first Christmas and enjoy some fun in the tub!
Personalized learning, 40+ melodies and lullabies, and night time soothing are just a few of the incredible features to this multi-faceted, educational cuddle toy. Sync with a smartphone or tablet, and Scout will say your child’s name and favorite things. Bedtime just got a lot easier!
A beautifully crafted childhood classic, the Battat wooden activity cube is a must have for babies and toddlers. With 5 sides of fun and rounded corners, this child favorite will keep baby safely entertained. Playtime with this toy encourages hand-eye coordination, imaginative play and cause-and-effect. Winning gift right here!
What can’t we say about Melissa & Doug? Their products are amazing. Get back to the basics with these stackable blocks with eye catching alphabet letters and animals. And when baby is finished they store away seamlessly. This toy is an incredible value under $10 and is guaranteed by Melissa & Doug. Talk about a no brainer!
Kids have a mental, emotional and physical need to learn how to explore by investigating their physical environments. What better place to do it than in this stimulating and safe ball pit? They can learn depth perception and to differentiate colors. It folds up quick and easy and comes with a handy storage bag so you can take just about anywhere!
We hope you found the PERFECT Baby’s First Birthday Gift!
Give the gift of sensory stimulation for baby’s first Christmas with this brightly colored and super durable toy! Babies will love poking and grabbing the colorful silicon bubbles while developing fine motor skills. Easy to take on the go and a fascinating attention keeper, this Dimpl is a wonderful gift for baby’s first Christmas!
You can’t go wrong with a classic! This multi-purpose radio flyer is a gift for babies and parents alike, as it is fun to ride in and easy to pull. It’s compact design folds for simple storage and it includes the UV protective canopy (for rainy days too). Plenty of room for 2, the radio flyer 3-in-1 can also be used as bench for seating. Buy it now!
It is never too early to instill a love for reading in a child, which makes this board book boxset the perfect gift for baby’s first Christmas. These brightly colored reads cover all the basics, including numbers, the alphabet and animals. Great for language development and an awesome introduction to the wonderful world of literature. Baby needs this set like yesterday!
Just look at this adorable spike the Hedgehog in all of it’s colorful, fine motor glory! Watch as baby’s skills grow with this super cute peg-in-the-hole toy. The quills are easy to grasp and simple to store when play time is over. Spike is highly educational with it’s sorting, counting and color recognition building features. Exceptional!
What’s not to love about this interactive learning baby walker that features a removable toddler play panel and pretend telephone handset? Help babies learn to walk with this light up, musical push toy that sings songs and spouts fun phrases. Durable wheels work on carpet and hard floors. Intended for babies and toddlers from 9 months to 3 years old, it is also available in pink!
Bath time just got more fun with these awesome waterproof books and squeeze toys! This gift is not only educational but unique and guaranteed to keep baby entertained. The first page even squeaks when you press it! Tough but bendable, the books’ smooth edges are safety checked and mold resistant. Great value for everything included. Blub Blub gift these bath toys for baby’s first Christmas and enjoy some fun in the tub!
Personalized learning, 40+ melodies and lullabies, and night time soothing are just a few of the incredible features to this multi-faceted, educational cuddle toy. Sync with a smartphone or tablet, and Scout will say your child’s name and favorite things. Bedtime just got a lot easier!
A beautifully crafted childhood classic, the Battat wooden activity cube is a must have for babies and toddlers. With 5 sides of fun and rounded corners, this child favorite will keep baby safely entertained. Playtime with this toy encourages hand-eye coordination, imaginative play and cause-and-effect. Winning gift right here!
What can’t we say about Melissa & Doug? Their products are amazing. Get back to the basics with these stackable blocks with eye catching alphabet letters and animals. And when baby is finished they store away seamlessly. This toy is an incredible value under $10 and is guaranteed by Melissa & Doug. Talk about a no brainer!
Kids have a mental, emotional and physical need to learn how to explore by investigating their physical environments. What better place to do it than in this stimulating and safe ball pit? They can learn depth perception and to differentiate colors. It folds up quick and easy and comes with a handy storage bag so you can take just about anywhere!
As a mom let me just say: you can prepare yourself all you can for parenthood, but when it really comes down to it…we’re all just winging it, right? Even with my second child, there were times I felt left in the dark, googling WebMD or reaching out to fellow moms or my pediatrician for advice.
Thankfully with today’s technology, there is a plethora of phone apps available at our fingertips to help make this whole parenting journey A LOT easier. And to make this easier on you, we’ve put together some of our favorite parenting apps that are worth checking out!
See our list of our top 10 favorite parenting apps below!
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Baby Center is actually the very first parenting app I ever downloaded. Initially, I used it to track my pregnancy, but as I was a first-time mom with barely any close mom-friends, I ended up using the community forums quite a bit and relied heavily on my birth groups for questions and advice. I used it again years later and found solace in the PCOS and TTC support groups I found. That being said, the Baby Center app is not just for pregnancy and labor! To this day, I frequently use the app as a source of guidance and insight on growth and development as my children get older.
Baby Tracker is a useful app for tracking your baby’s daily activities. You can log diaper changes, feedings (how many ounces they had, what side they nursed on, how often you pumped) and their sleeping habits; all great ways track your babies activity trends. There are even options for inputing all their medical information – like immunizations, wellness visits and more. An added feature is the ability to sync data across multiple devices – so getting updates from your partner or sitter is even easier!
You can’t deny the immediate effects of white noise! When we don’t have the ceiling fan on or we are traveling and need a soothing background noise, this app has been great! From the classic monotonous white noise, to nature sounds and lullabies, this app has a good history of calming down my boys and helping them get a good nights sleep.
Do you love to share photos of your little ones? I do too! And with Tiny Beans, you can safely share your photos immediately with friends and family without having to post constantly to your Facebook or other social media, where everyone can see. Tiny Beans is also a great way of backing up all those photos you have of your littles and acts as a photo journal, tracking milestones, awarding stickers for special moments and allowing you to set up photo sharing and commenting. Also if you want hardcopies, you have the option to order prints or custom albums through the app – for an added fee of course!
I’m all about planning and organizing, but there are some things that can be so tedious with a physical planner, that it just does not suffice. The Cozi Family Organizer is helpful if your family has a lot going on. Personally, I have found it to be necessary as our family has grown and we are all over the place during the week. You can create to-do lists, shopping lists, add family member appointments and special dates using color codes to keep it easy to read. You can even designate family members involved in the activities you create in the organizer and sync all members devices to the app so they can keep track of everything themselves!
So this is technically isn’t just an app – it works in conjunction with the Wyze Cam baby monitor! So while I recommend getting the app, I really mean the baby monitor for this one. We have used ours at family and friends places, hotels and even replaced our overpriced baby monitor with the Wzye Cam. Not only is it significantly cheaper, the photo quality is top-notch (1080 full HD), there is two-way audio and you are able to log-in and view the video footage from anywhere! Also – when your babies no longer need a monitor, consider using the Wyze Cam as an indoor home-security camera. You can find the Wyze Cam on Amazon here.
With Huckleberry, you can track and monitor your baby’s sleep patterns and from there, predict their sleep schedule using expert algorithms. Huckleberry even let’s you know when baby is sleepy – but not overtired; that is a lifesaver.
When your babies are a bit older, you will begin to find a tremendous amount of apps for your littles. And even though limiting screen time is very important (you can read our recent post here), there are those instances where digging out the iPhone to entertain your child is enough for you to snag some bites at a restaurant. The Fischer Price Laugh & Learn is one of my favorites because it’s educational – teaching colors, shapes and numbers through songs!
Based off of the original Wonder Weeks book, the Wonder Weeks app keeps you informed about the 10 predictable and age-based “mental leaps” and bounds of your baby. Sometimes I have found myself wondering, What is going on? when my baby seems like he is not himself. With the Wonder Weeks app, I am able to refer to science-proven information about what developmental changes he might be going through.
You might be scratching your head saying, “Why Netflix?”, but hear me out. There have been so many times where I needed to slip away from the crowd or find an empty room to nurse and just sat in silence. Until I started utilizing Netflix. Maternity leave provided a lot of opportunities for sitting around and therefore left me with a good amount of time to binge a show or two; and in those moments of backseat nursing or late night rocking, Netflix proved to be really entertaining to pass the time.
We hope these apps help you in your parenting journey, Mama! If there are any apps that you feel didn’t make the list, please share in the comments below!
One thing I have focused on teaching my son since starting homeschool, is where he lives. Yet teaching geographical concepts and answering “Where Do I Live?” to a 5-year-old is a lot more complicated than it seems.
After all, we live in a city, in a state, in a country and a continent. That’s a lot to remember!
After attempting to explain it all (to the best of my ability!) Rylan is still left thinking there are 7 continents in Virginia and we live in the state of South America. Now you see my dilemma…
I understand that in time he will grasp the vastness of the Earth and then be able to put it all into perspective, but I definitely feel there are better ways to visually make this easier for him.
So today when his school had a “snow” day, I wanted to break out the craft supplies and do something fun and educational that might just answer “Where do I live?”
I came across this project by 123 Home School 4 Me and decided it was perfect. Not only would it help with address memorization, but it scales from the bigger picture (Earth) to the smaller picture (home) and gives children a better understanding of ALL the locations they live, right down to the street and house number.
And as Rylan is learning about maps in school, I figured it would be a great addition to his general education as well. Follow along to see how we made ours!
This “Where Do I Live?” project gives children a better understanding of ALL the locations they live, right down to the street and house number.
1. Gather your supplies!
Construction Paper (I cut these into squares, starting with 3″x3″ and then marking the others 1″ larger than the previous one)
Coloring Supplies
Hole Puncher
Glue Stick
Self-Adhesive Laminating Sheets (optional)
Printer Paper for the images (I cut these into squares, starting with 2″x2″ and then marking the others 1″ larger than the previous one)
Binder Ring or String to put it all together
2. Print out pictures of your country, state, city, etc.
The following images were specific to us, but I am happy to share them with you. You can easily google “_____ clip art” and find the images that apply to you.
Cut your construction paper into different sizes. As the sizes get smaller, the more concentrated the geographical areas are. Then label them, starting with the largest paper:
Planet
Continent
Country
State
City
Street
House Number
4. Get creative!
It’s key to give your child a lot of freedom with this project – to encourage learning, creativity and fine motor skills.
I asked Rylan to look at the pictures and color land vs. bodies of water, the different countries and even the state of Virginia in a different color.
When they are done, have them use the glue stick and place the images to the corresponding construction papers (this is a good way to test if they understand geography locations as well).
It’s key to give your child a lot of freedom with this project, while encouraging learning too. See if your child can put the squares in order from biggest to smallest.
5. Tie it all together!
Optional: Use self-adhesive laminate on your sheets to make them last longer.
Punch holes in the top left corner and encourage your child to string and tie together the sheets (we used a spare binder ring). Your “Where Do I Live?” project is done!
The project was super easy and although it required a little digging for images, I feel confident it is going to help teach him more about where we live in the world – a vital life skill to prepare your child with. It’s also a good source of reference as he continues to memorize our address!
Have you tried this project? Has another one worked for your child? Please feel free to share your thoughts!
If you enjoyed this blog post, you might want to teach your child their phone number too! Check out this blog post to see our 3 fun and engaging activities to help your child memorize important phone numbers!
More Rockitmama learning activities:
PPS. Luckily the snow didn’t last, so Auntie Anne’s date it is!
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See if your child can put the squares in order from biggest to smallest.
