Orla's current obsession is animals. She's mad about them - she has a Baby Einstein World Animals DVD which she wants to watch endlessly, and I've found a way of luring her away from the goggle box while still embracing her chief passion!
Following recent visits to the zoo, a bird park and a butterfly farm, all of which enthralled her, I decided to go through the photographs on my laptop to find animal pictures - I found dozens from lots of different holidays and day trips. I copied them all into one folder and put them on the 'slideshow' setting... The screen of my laptop is now a mass of little fingerprints after multiple excited viewings!
Phase Two was a trip to the developers. We printed off about 40 photos and have put them into a simple slip-in album which is Orla-sized for easy carriage! If she ever lets it go, I'll customise the album with labels for the animals' names and some animal stickers that I found for pennies in a stationer's. We have looked at the album together; I ask her questions about which animals they are, what sounds they make, etc, and we have watched the DVD with the album, too, looking for the photo of each creature as it appears on screen. We're even creating our own signs for some of the animals!
It took about an hour to find the photos I wanted while I was relaxing after dinner one evening. Obviously, the album content can be adapted to accommodate your little one's particular passion.
Because we live overseas and far from family, we've also put together a mini album of family pictures so that Orla can identify and talk about her grandparents, aunties, uncles and cousins... She can also find the image of the person she wants to talk to on Skype!
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