Wednesday, June 30, 2021

4th of July Cuisenaire Templates

Patriotic templates for using Cuisenaire Rods
As part of trying to do a lot of hands on math with Archer, we've been using our Cuisenaire Rods a lot. He's great at comparing their relatives sizes and enjoys using them. To keep encouraging him and provide some variety, I made these 4th of July templates for him.

Each page also has a place to count up the number of each rod used.
While I made a version of each with patriotic colors, Archer prefers the blank ones.

 

Tuesday, June 29, 2021

4th of July Addition Roll and Cover


 Math activities are always a hit around here, so I made this roll and cover game for my little guy. I wanted him to add two dice, so the numbers are 2-12.




Friday, June 25, 2021

Letter W - Walrus Week

These are our homeschool preschool activities for the Letter W and Walrus week. Archer was 36 months. You can see our full "curriculum" post here, but we will only use some activities each week. The majority of his time is still unstructured play. 

This week and the remainder of the letter weeks will be pretty light. He's outgrowing a lot of the activities (but still asks for them) and we're remodeling our basement, which makes toy rotation and accessing material storage difficult.
This was his shelf setup above his desk. I hung some bulletin board letters, a sign language card (from And Next Comes L) and his work from the week. The shelf had an Alphabet Reader, a Meet the Phonics Letter Reader, and a peg letter.
We moved some things around in the playroom and now our shelves are in this corner instead of under the window. It still needs some adjusting. I used Magnatiles to make an s on his white board and added some magnetic letters and fridge phonics.


Shelves on the left had castle blocks, popsicle stick puzzles, a bin of magnets and felt shapes with a die for practicing colors in Spanish. Shelves on the right had giant large playing cardsgeometric buildersColor CodeUltraDashMagna-Qubix and a bin of vehicles.

Building a W with Cuisenaire Rods (template here)
Playdough with cookie cutters and a letter stamper (similar to these) and see and stamps
Using Dot Markers to decorate a W
Letter maze (free to print here).
Making castle block towers
Using resin letters and wooden numbers to make me "lunch."
Playing with Happy Atoms
Reading books outside. Elephant and Piggie has been a favorite series for a while.
I found him trying to spell arsenic the other day. 😲
Since games are everywhere right now, he found Kingdomino and wanted to put all the tiles in order.
 

See other Alphabet Posts:

Thursday, June 24, 2021

Magna-Qubix Number Templates

Visual Discrimination Magna-Quibix Number  Building Templates

My toddler has loved our Magna-Qubix ever since we got them. They are one of those sets of toys I'm not really allowed to rotate out. I think it may be because they're easy to build with and they remind him of the NumberBlocks. Anyway, since he also loves numbers, I made some number building templates.
Playing with printable Manga-Qubix Number Templates
He also decided to just play with the cards.



Wednesday, June 23, 2021

How To Keep Kids Interested In Learning At Home

Photo: Pixabay CC0 License


I often focus my content on the benefits of teaching kids to learn at home. Whether you have preschoolers or teens, a positive relationship with home learning is hugely rewarding. It will aid their academic studies while also teaching discipline and valuable life skills.


However, the full benefits can only be seen when kids are engaged with the idea of home learning. While all children are unique, several tips are shown to have great success rates. Here are five of the best.


  1. Find non-taxing activities


Kids don’t always want to be challenged with difficult tasks, especially when their current school work is tough. So, finding easy activities that still encourage them to learn in a more relaxed manner can work wonders. Check out https://www.pennydellpuzzles.com/fill-ins/books/ for some great options. The simple fill-in books encourage kids to maintain active minds without feeling overwhelmed. This is a particularly good option to keep them occupied on car journeys or get them back in the mood as they return to school after a break. Board games and single player logic puzzles (like Thinkfun or SmartGames) are other great examples.


2. Find age-appropriate tasks


All kids learn at their own pace. They may be strong in some subjects and weak in others. Good communication links with your child’s school lets you work together to provide a consistent and suitable approach. However, the idea of setting age and skill-appropriate tasks can start even earlier. This guide to teaching maths to preschoolers should come in useful for parents of youngsters. After all, it can be very easy to overlook numeracy in favor of literacy. If nothing else, embracing both aspects will provide the variety needed to prevent boredom.


Photo: Pixabay CC0 License


3, Find engaging ways to learn


Keeping kids interested in learning is a lot easier when the work is actually fun. Is it possible to relate math equations to their favorite sport? Would computer games with subtitles aid their reading? Could you turn it into a physical game by writing vocabulary words or math answers in sidewalk chalk and jumping between them? Could you shoot answers with Nerf guns? Not everything has to be a dedicated lesson to provide educational benefits. The sooner you appreciate this fact, the better. It will also promote a better relationship with learning. This is because schoolwork and home-based learning won’t feel overly repetitive. 


4. Reward them


Kids respond well to rewards and ideas that reinforce positive behavior. This could mean using reward charts for young children. You can find some great templates at https://templatelab.com/reward-charts/. When my oldest was younger I wrote about "Hiring my 4 Year Old." Or it could mean rewarding teens with pocket money or extra time for playing video games. You know your children better than anyone else, so will have no problem getting this right. Once you find a plan that works, stick to it. Consistency shows that their hard work will continue to gain the rewards they deserve time and time again.


5. Remember it’s only one part of their upbringing


As parents, we all want to see our kids flourish with their schoolwork. However, this is only one part of their overall development. It is equally crucial to consider their social skills, physical cognitive growth, and emotions. Likewise, you should remember that these previous years will pass in the blink of an eye. Therefore, creating magical moments together should be considered just as important as education. While learning will open many doors in life, none of them matter more than the door to happiness. 


This is a contributed post


Friday, June 18, 2021

Letter V - Vulture Week

These are our homeschool preschool activities for the Letter V and Vulture week. Archer was 36 months. You can see our full "curriculum" post here, but we will only use some activities each week. The majority of his time is still unstructured play. 
This was his shelf setup above his desk. I hung some bulletin board letters, a sign language card (from And Next Comes L) and his work from the week. The shelf had an Alphabet Reader, a Meet the Phonics Letter Reader, and a peg letter.
We moved some things around in the playroom and now our shelves are in this corner instead of under the window. It still needs some adjusting. I used Magnatiles to make an s on his white board and added some magnetic letters and fridge phonics.

Shelves on the left had castle blocks, popsicle stick puzzles, a bin of magnets and felt shapes with a die for practicing colors in Spanish. Shelves on the right had giant large playing cards, geometric builders, Color Code, UltraDashMagna-Qubix and a bin of vehicles.
Tracing cards and line tracing (free to print here).
Letter V dot to dot (from education.com)
Lacing letters
V coloring page
Painting some Vs and other paper.
Letter maze (free to print here).
Playdough with cookie cutters and a  letter stamper (similar to these) and see and stamps He also did his  alphabet dough mat.
Building a V with Cuisenaire Rods (template here)
Playing with his coding fox.
Playing with Fraction Formula. We don't actually play the game, but he enjoys the pieces.
Teaching his monkey about the elements in his Periodic Table Book
Wooden letter magnets on the magna doodle.
Just a little reading. 😆
Bin of magnets for exploring. There were more ball magnets, but they took a few adventures during the week and we are still getting them back.
Lining up letters.
He wanted to use the paper cutter.

See other Alphabet Posts:
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