Label Fun

Lillian had a ball today with my labeller.  She started off typing in words she knew and could spell on her own.  A little while later she progressed to asking me how to spell words.  After typing in each word she printed it out.  After awhile she started going back through her words sounding out the letters and decoding the word.  She made up some name tags for us.  Later in the evening she noticed I had mine on still and she came over and sounded out my name.  Using the labeller was something new so it made learning phonics, letter recognition, and decoding fun!  When done the words can be used to make a collage type of picture or put in a journal for them to refer to when they want.

Cupcake Game

I had problems getting a good picture of this game, so I hope I can explain it well enough that you can follow along.  Here goes.   Someone had given me a large plastic cupcake container from the store.  I put a dollop of paint in each hole (one color at a time as we had to rinse our paint brushes in between each color) and the kids painted the bottom of each cupcake circle (don't skimp on the paint or it will flake off).  Next, I used a hot glue gun and glued the plastic cup cake carrier to the base of the container (its black in the picture).  After it was dry I used a permanent marker and to write a number in between the cup cakes.  Then I put in two rubber bouncy balls.  I chose a larger one and a smaller one, but you could use two different colored ones instead, but they must be different.  Lastly, I hot glued the lid on. 

How the game is played:  The youngest child decided which ball he will use and then the older child goes first.  She shakes the game thus moving the balls around.  Each player must then decided which number they want to use (because some of the holes have 4 numbers around it; touching it) and then the second player decides which number he will use.  The person with the highest number wins that round and the game proceeds on.  

My kids really enjoyed this game because of the fun of shaking the container (movement) and the noise it made!  My kids needed help reading the numbers and knowing their options but older kids will figure it out and be able to do it on their own.

Time Game

I went on line to find pictures of clock faces and digital time clocks.  I decided to do an assortment of clock faces since not all clocks look the same in the real world.  One of them (8:00) was blank and I drew hands for the time I wanted.  Since Lillian is new to telling time I followed a few guild lines: All the clocks have numbers for every hour, there are no extra marks for the other minutes, and all the times I chose are on the hour.  Later, when she's mastered this skill, I will do some time to the half hour.  Cole enjoyed helping us play the matching game.  He would choose the clock face and Lillian would find the digital time that matched it. 

Placemats

When the kids were younger I used place mats with the ABC's or shapes on them.  Last week I found one with addition facts on it.  Lillian has enjoyed using it.  I just leave it sitting in the middle of the table.  When she's in the mood she'll quiz us on the math facts, other times she'll read us the problem, and sometimes she wants us to ask her some of them.  This exposes her to addition facts, how to read a table, and how to read the equations.  We don't push it at all; its her instigating it and choosing to play with it.  If you have a play kitchen the kids enjoy using the place mats in there also.  In addition, sometimes when Lillian is wanting to write a word and has asked how to make a letter, I will get out our letter place mat so I can show her the letter on the place mat, model how it is written, and then she writes the letter.  The mats are a good learning tool and are usually only about $3.

Addition Dice Game

This evening Lillian and I played a very simple dice game together.  I got out two regular dice for us to use.  We took turns rolling the dice and then adding the dots on the two dice up.  Sometimes she knew the answer by looking, other times she counted on her fingers, and sometimes she counted the dots on the dice to come up with the answer.  All of these solutions are perfectly fine.  A couple times we rolled two even numbers, so after coming up with the answer, I pointed out that we could count by two's and still come up with the same answer. She enjoyed the game and we played it for about 10 minutes.  At this age (5 years old now), most activities will be short due to their short attention span and that is ok too!  I loved that their wasn't any prep required and that the only supplies needed were two dice.    An idea for an extension or older child: after playing the game a few times so they could get the hang of it, they could make a tally sheet/graph as the game is played so they could see what sum came up the most!

Marbles, Marbles everywhere

Cole has been especially interested in playing with marbles lately.  Obviously you wouldn't give marbles to someone young or a child who puts things in his mouth, but luckily I don't have that problem with him.  As he's playing with them he is learning. For instance, he hauls them around in his semi and likes to stop and start quickly and move the semi quickly to see how they roll and the noises they make.  He also likes to put them in his dump truck; however, since it doesn't have a tailgate the marbles wouldn't stay in.  So  1 row of duct tape on the back of the truck was added to hold the marbles in.  He discovered that most the marbles stayed in but if he was going fast he lost some, so a second row of duct tape was added - problem solved!  Other times the marbles are used in the play kitchen and they are discovering that different size containers hold different amounts.  Granted, at times I get tired of finding a marble here and there and sometimes they get dumped and are everywhere.  When I get tired of them they will disappear for awhile!

A is for Animals

This was an activity I did with both children at the same time.  I have some animal magnets that I used, but you wouldn't have to use magnets; even just pictures of animals would work fine.  After putting all the animals on the refrigerator we took turns asking questions about them.  For instance:  "each of you find an animal that has stripes, what is the tallest/smallest/biggest animal, what animal lives in water".  We also talked about the sounds they make and how they move.  From the age of 4 or 5 your child can also tell you the letter each animals name starts with and write it down.