Sometimes learning new skills can be very difficult for children. Up until now my girls haven’t really struggled with anything in school. That all changed when my oldest daughter was learning multiplication and division. She was having a hard time memorizing the multiplication facts. For whatever reason she just couldn’t get it. We tried everything. We tried … [Read more...]
Hands-On Division Activity
My second grader has been learning more about multiplication and division. I wanted to give him a hands-on division activity to explore. I was teaching him that multiplication and division are opposites. They are both focused on how we group numbers together. As a former teacher, it is exciting when I get to use activities I once created for my students at home with my own … [Read more...]
Practicing Addition Busy Bag
This practicing addition busy bag gets the process of addition into the hands of school age children and even preschoolers. The more hands on a learning activity is, the younger the child is who can explore it. I truly believe our kids can learn big concepts-or begin to explore them-from a much earlier age than most people think. As long as we use age-appropriate learning … [Read more...]
Number Path Learning to Count Activity
Children are capable of learning so much through play and their everyday interactions with you at home. I love working in learning activities into our daily life to encourage my children to learn and explore at their pace in a low-stress way. This number path learning to count activity can be used for crawling infants, walking toddlers and preschoolers. It is one of those kids … [Read more...]
Learning to Tell Time: Hands-On Clock
Create a hands-on clock to help school age kids learning to tell time. Whether your child is home-schooled or learning common core math, a hands-on math manipulative turns worksheet-based lessons into math games. When we can get the learning into our child's hands it can help them think about more complex problems with a much more clear view. This hands-on clock for learning … [Read more...]
Learn Numbers with Don’t Break the Ice
Do you have the game Don't Break the Ice®? We have had it for a while and take it out during the winter months especially for a little fine motor fun. I modified our Don't Break the Ice game to create a simple preschool activity for learning numbers. My preschooler enjoyed this the first few times we played and when we recently pulled it out again I was so amazed at how her … [Read more...]
40+ Activities for Preschool at Home
This back to school season is an exciting one for me. My husband and I have made the choice to homeschool our preschooler rather than send her to preschool 2 days a week. We did send our oldest to preschool for two mornings a week when he was 4 ½, but our situation is different now-where we live, how much preschool costs in our area, and the needs of our children. Each of us … [Read more...]
Cotton Ball Snowball Math and Art Activities for Kids
We had a lot of snow last year in northern Virginia allowing for some snowy fun outdoors, but if you live in a snow-free area (like we do now in southern California), use cotton balls to learn and create with these cotton ball snowball math and art activities for some fun, indoor learning. My then 3-year old and 6-year old completed these and had a great time (and a full … [Read more...]
Activities with Cardboard Tube Apple Trees
It can be tough to combine learning activities for multiple ages of children. As a mom of 4 where my kids ages spans from kindergarten to infants, we have to get creative to make learning time successful. You can make seven learning activities with cardboard tube apple trees. From shapes to basic math, this Fall themed kids activity grows with your child. Learning … [Read more...]
Flowers and Butterflies Preschool Counting Activity
Michael's recently had a 50% off sale on pretty much everything in the store-at least the items I happened to be looking at that day! (Woo hoo!) So, I grabbed a few extra things because I knew I could create some learning games for my daughter from the items. Two of the items I grabbed were cutout flowers and small butterfly embellishments like you would use on cards or in a … [Read more...]
Patterns for Infants, Toddlers, and Preschool
Creating patterns can be taught to infants, toddlers and preschoolers. Clapping your hands and encouraging your infant to mimic your claps is exposing him/her to patterns. If your toddler falls down, stands up and does not cry, and you applaud them saying, "Yay!" (and they do it again to get the same response), they have recognized a pattern. Children are never too young to … [Read more...]