Easter Egg Addition

Apr. 17, 2014

We're currently working on cementing Seth's addition and subtraction facts. I try to throw in a bunch of different games to keep things interesting. Since it was a few days away from Easter, I thought I'd try having him match Easter Egg equations.

I wrote one equation on the top half of an egg and another (different equation, same sum) on the bottom half. For example: 5+5=? on the top and 7+3=? on the bottom. Then I separated all the pieces and had him match up the correct equations.

He actually caught two eggs that I somehow messed up (they didn't have matches--not sure what I did).  And yes, he enjoyed this activity about as much as it appears in this picture. Eggs or not, he still knows "work" when he sees it!

St. Patrick's Day Fun

Mar. 17, 2014

I'm not usually a big holiday person, but it's kind of fun to have a holiday theme to plan school around! I decided to put together a treasure hunt for Seth (to find a leprechaun's treasure, of course!).

Here's what I threw together that morning (yes, I plan REALLY far in advance):

(Note Seth found in his school drawer):

A leprechaun left his treasure somewhere here.

I can't tell you where, but it's very, very near.

To find where he hid it, a rainbow we must make.

We'll figure out the clues and then his treasure we will take!

You must solve a problem before you get a clue.

Here is problem #1, let's see how you do!

Problem #1: If you have 1 dime and three pennies, how much money do you have?
Clue #1: Mine is the color of a bright stoplight. I'm something Catherine takes a drink from every night. (Catherine's red waterbottle)

Problem #2: Count to 100 by 2s, 5s, and 10s.
Clue #2: There are five of us together, so yummy & so sweet. You'll find us near the mixer in the room where we eat. (5 orange Clementines)

Problem #3: Set a clock to 10:30 and 7:15
Clue #3: I'm squishy and foamy and float in the tub. I'm big enough to hold a baby Chub-a-lub.  (Aaron's yellow bath mat)

Problem #4: Find a sphere, cube & cylinder
Clue #4: Mom always brings me when she goes to the store. I hold her keys, wallet, phone & more. (My green purse)

Problem #5: What is 20+20?
Clue #5: Here is where you put your clothes at the end of the day. They always get so dirty when you jump & run & play. (Their blue laundry hamper)

Problem #6: What is 15-4?
Clue #6: Mom uses me to exercise because she wants to be strong. I live by the fireplace down where it's cold all day long. (Purple handweight)

Problem #7: Write '37' in tally marks.
Clue #7: Did you make a gorgeous rainbow, with six colors oh, so bright?
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple--that's right?
Because you made a rainbow, to the treasure you'll be led.
It's hidden in a treasure box under Catherine's bed!

The completed rainbow:

red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple (all items from around our house)

Enjoying the leprechaun's"treasure": green ring pops and gold (yellow M&Ms)

For fun, we also wrote our own St. Patrick's Day story. Seth dictated, I wrote, and then he illustrated. Who knew leprechauns had access to so many tanks, guns and explosives? I put it with our other St. Patrick's Day books so we can enjoy it for years to come: 

Tribulation Math Board Game

Feb. 28, 2014

Jon grew up playing this game and decided to find it for Seth (had to look on Ebay). We don't play by the rules yet, but we'll play by calling out a number and having Seth find two adjacent numbers that add to that number. I can see how it's going to be useful for lots of different math skills in the future!

Airplane Sight Words

Feb. 6, 2014

Another sight word game--this time I scattered them around the room and Seth used his jet to swoop down and pick up the correct word. 

Bead & Magnet Writing, and Math Games

November 14-21st, 2013

We tried this game called "Outside, Inside" for math, but it wasn't as big of a hit as I was hoping. Maybe next time I can make it more dramatic with a drop from a higher height. Either way, Seth got some practice with addition and writing equations. 

We also reviewed what we've learned about money and played another store game. This time instead of using amounts that directly corresponded to a coin (.01 for a penny), I used different amounts so Seth would have to add different coins together. He was confused at first but quickly caught on and even surprised me with his ability to break the amounts down into different coin amounts. 

We also had some fun doing some writing with magnets. Seth wrote this all by himself. It says, "I can go to gymnastics." 

This one says "The ball bounced."

(stupid sideways Blogger again)

"Gab lix to play with me"= "Gabe likes to play with me"

I love seeing Seth figure things out for himself!

Turkey Math

November 12th, 2013

I made this super easy number line to help Seth recognize what addition and subtraction looks like. He had a great time playing with it and mastered the concept quickly. I let him use the number line to do the problems I made for him in this turkey math game: 

Each turkey has a number written on it. Seth had to do the equations on the feathers and then match them to the correct turkey. He actually had a lot of fun doing this! 

Can't leave the toddler out, of course! Once Seth was done Catherine had her turn--she sorted the turkeys and feathers into piles by color (and did a most excellent job, too). 

Co-op Sick Day

October 28th, 2013

Our kids came down with a mild case of Hand, Foot & Mouth which we decided not to share with our co-op. Since we were missing a day of learning about plants, we headed outside for a nature scavenger hunt.

We saw lots of great plants, leaves, rocks and bugs, but this was the highlight: we now have TWO Catherine the Wooley Bear Caterpillars. One for each hunter. 

For Halloween I changed up the "Roll a Pumpkin Game" we played last year. Instead of one die, we used two. Seth would have to add the two dice together to find out what to draw. Great addition practice and fun watching Seth's pumpkin get covered with all kids of crazy things. 

I decided to use the white board to help Seth practice reading some of his sight words in context. He's really good at reading them off a list but tends to stumble over a few of them when they're in a sentence. I tried to make it fun for him, but he still doesn't really enjoy reading for school. I'm learning to kind of back off and just give him lots of chances to pick things up on his own. Comic books are great for that (we love Tiny Titans), and we also love the Fly Guy books. 

What Time is It?

September 24th, 2013

A very simple game I threw together in the midst of life with a newborn! A friend gave us these clock flashcards years ago and I finally put them to use.

I laid all the cards out on the table (I only used ones telling time to the hour or half-hour), then would announce a time and he would have to find the correct flashcard and place a Lego on it. This was a breeze for him.

Set the Clock Game

September 9th, 2013

I made up this game to help Seth learn to tell time. We used this awesome clock my mom gave us (I know they sell them at Barnes and Noble) and I made three dice: one with the numbers 1-6, one with the numbers 7-12, and one with various times (like :00, :30, :15, :45). 

Seth would roll one of the number dice (we alternated so he got practice with all 12 hours) and the time dice to get a time to set the clock to. For example, this is what he rolled at one point: 

He had to set the clock to 6:00 and then got to roll again. We played until he got bored! He's mastered telling time to the hour, is pretty good to the half-hour, and needs help with the rest (which is absolutely great for a kindergartner!). 

Squirt Gun Sight Words

August 7th, 2013

Possibly Seth's favorite way to practice sight words!

First, get a squirt gun:

Then write your sight words all over the sidewalk: 

When Mom calls out a sight word, find it and shoot it!: 

Making Change

August 7th, 2013

We played another money game (which also involved counting to 100).

First, Seth counted out 100 pennies:

Then he counted out 20 nickels and swapped me his pennies for the nickels: 

Then he counted out ten dimes and swapped me nickels for dimes.

Eventually he ended up with 4 quarters, which he swapped me for one dollar bill.

If nothing else, he got the idea that some coins were worth a lot more than others!

Jump On It!

June 26th, 2013

I found this idea on Pinterest and adapted it for Seth.

First, I placed his sight word cards on various foam blocks on the floor:

(I actually made a second copy of his sight words for this game because I knew they'd get mangled)

Then I called out a word, and he had to jump on it:

Action shot:

I think we ended up playing this for about 40 minutes (his choice), which meant he went through all his sight words at least four times. This game would be really easy to adapt for lots of different kinds of practice (math facts, etc.). 

Creative Writing

June 19th and 26th, 2013

Two more ideas for kids who are less than thrilled about writing:

Shaving cream in the bathtub

(hard to tell, but it says "SETH!")

ABC BINGO (Pinterest find!--she has a lowercase version, too)

It's amazing what I can get him to do if I can somehow turn it into a game!

Money Games

June 18-19th, 2013

Still working on our money identification! I thought Seth would like this coin sorting game I found on Pinterest: he had four bags, labelled A, B, C and D, and had to sort and count the coins in each bag:

An accurate summary of his feelings: Seth is not impressed.

Probably because it involved writing...

After some re-evaluating, I ditched the worksheets and came up with a game for Seth to play. Once he heard there were cars involved, he was VERY excited for school to start. 

The game was very simple: One of us was the car salesman, the other was someone trying to buy a car.

The salesman would put a label by each car (we used labels both with the names ("penny") as well as the money amount ("1 cent")). Once the "salesroom" was all set up, the customer would come with a bucket of coins to try to buy cars.

He loved being the salesman, so I would be the customer and pretend I was confused about what coin I needed. That way he still got to practice identifying coins, plus feel like he was smarter than me. And what kid doesn't like that? 

This was one of his favorite school activities ever--he's actually requested it several times since then! 

Flashlight Sight Word Hunt

June 13th, 2013

I found this awesome idea on Pinterest and figured Seth would love it. I was right! He was so excited to see the flashlights in his school drawer. 

Heading to the basement for the hunt

VERY excited to find all the words

Shining the flashlight on the word.

Once he found the word, I removed it to make things easier (and to keep track of what we'd already done). But for more of a challenge you could leave them all up!

Coin Sorting Game--Mining

June 11th, 2013

 It took all of three days before Seth announced, "I hate school!" It's a rough transition from complete free time to mandated structure (as loose as that structure may be). But in an effort to make school more fun, I came up with a game that ended up being a big hit.

Anything with automobiles gets Seth excited, so I came up with a way to involve a dump truck into his money sorting.

I told him he was working in a mine. He had to drive the truck over and mine all the pennies (put them in the dump truck), then drive over to the containers and put them in the correct spots.

"Mining" the coins--distinguishing by sight

Containers with labels (he can't read these, but he can figure it out by the first letter--I help if he needs it)

Dumping the pennies into the penny container

I didn't get a picture of this, but after all the coins were sorted, I had him use the sorting cards from the game I made up to match the coin value to each container. 

Catherine also got in on the sorting action. I was skeptical this would hold her attention, but I was wrong! 

First Day of Kindergarten!

June 3rd, 2013

Here's what we did on Seth's first day of kindergarten!

We started by putting his phonics flashcards into alphabetical order. No issues here besides the classic mistake of thinking "LMNO" is all one letter (note to self: work on that one):

Then we played one of his awesome Happy Phonics games: I Can Spell!

(This is my favorite learn-to-read program ever. HIGHLY recommended).

This was the original plan:

Pick a picture, use the cards to spell the word.

(Sorry for the weird stretchiness--Blogger is being stupid at the moment).

But he decided that was too much effort and took to writing the words instead.

No complaints here:

And since we were already writing, I threw in some lines for practicing writing on:

Not bad for a boy who hates writing because it "makes my hands hot."

Then it was on to money identification!

(I found the money posters here, and the poem here--I edited the poem slightly to fit my needs)

I also made up my own little sorting game, where he had to use the posters (now up on the wall) to sort the coins correctly by name. Once he had sorted them all, he had to match the cards with the correct values to each pile. He had to check the posters several times, but he seemed to enjoy the whole thing!

After a short break, we headed outside to practice writing upper-case letters in the sandbox. We made it through half the alphabet. He still needs some work on B, D, F, G, I, J, K, but he's in much better shape than I expected.  

Then it was on to piano practicing (which he can't do independently--I sit by him and give him a mini-lesson every time). For the record, Seth was the one who wanted to start lessons. I would have waited another couple of years! 

We ended the day by having Seth read aloud some BOB Books, and then listening to me read some books about children around the world (social studies) and magnets (science--we'll be playing with magnets later in the week).

He would still rather play with cars all day, but I'm hoping to help him understand that school is not optional now. I'm just glad I've done enough research on teaching little people (especially boys) to realize that he needs to take breaks from school in order to process everything. 

Day one, done!