Preschool Days

When I think of preschool, I think of fun. I have boy/girl twins that are preschool age and they couldn't be more different from each other than sugar and salt. My girl loves to learn and is always exited to do something knew. My boy isn't really interested in learning anything new and would really love it if nothing ever changed. My girl can sit for hours enjoying one type of activity whereas my boy gets bored within minutes. I have had to get creative and find/create several activities to teach the same concept. You will find many posts that share ideas for teaching the same concept over and over again. 

I found a fantastic idea on a this blog. She made word strips with the names of bugs on them and included a picture. She then  wrote letters on clothespins and had the children spell out the word by clipping it to the word strip and matching up the letters. She only had names of bugs because they were working on a unit about bugs. I made some word strips of my own with some words that have the same endings because I like to teach reading with phonics. I wrote the uppercase letters on one side of the clothespin and the lowercase letters on the other side. I did two clothespins per letter except for the letters least used. The strips were printed on colored card stock and the clip art was found for free on the internet and printed on regular paper and glued to the word strips. The word strips were then laminated. You can find this document here. You can use the clip art I found or you can find your own. I did make sure that there weren't any restrictions on the use of the clip art I found and that it was completely free. 

Leia was quite proud of herself for completing her first word strip.  

Children this age usually need to work on fine motor skills as well as counting. I thought combining the two would make a fun activity. I know I have seen something similar on a blog somewhere but I can't seem to find it. I made this activity to be used with numbered clothespins or paperclips. I like the paperclips because it takes a little more concentration to get them onto the card the right way. The number cards were also laminated. You can print them here.

Luke had to really think through this activity because he wanted to slide the paperclips on sideways. It took some concentration and coordination to get them on there right but he enjoyed the activity and didn't get frustrated. 

The next two bumblebee activities can be found on this blog. I can't seem to get enough of it. Her ideas and cute printables are fantastic and suit our preschool needs right now. The first one is a bumblebee paper plate sort. 

I found small plastic plates at Dollar Tree. There are a few things I did differently: Instead of gluing the bees to the plate, I put magnet tape on the back of each bee and magnet tape in the center of 6 plates. This makes the plates interchangeable and 6 is more manageable than 26. When using the uppercase bees the child matches the lowercase letters to them by placing them on the plate and just the opposite when using the lowercase bees. I thought pictures of things that start with that letter would be a fun addition to this game. I found free clip art online and created little cards that can be placed on the plate that has the corresponding letter. You can print A-Q here and the other half of Q-Z here. After creating these documents and printing them out for my children, I noticed that I only had three pictures for the letter F. I hope to find time later to create more for that letter. There are also fewer pictures for those letters that are not as common. 

Bumblebee pick and say is a fun activity to play with your preschool age child. Luke and Leia love it! The idea is that the child picks a letter and then tells you what it is and I like them to say the sound it makes. The file includes uppercase and lowercase letters. 

I found some great deals at Michaels. I used a 25% off total purchase and a 40% off one regular priced item. Don't forget to use coupons, they can save you so much money on teaching tools. I found some wooden magnetic letters in both upper and lowercase. They came in a nifty wooden box with a clear hard plastic cover for storage. I love it when things come with their own storage. 

School supplies are on sale right now. I found this little white board, which is also magnetic, at Walmart for only $2.00. 

My little ones love flannel boards so when I found flannel boards with numbers and letters, I had to get it. 

While at Michael's I also found these great wooden lace cards. They also came in a wooden box and had several shoelaces to go with them. This box, however, didn't have a cover. I store mine in a pencil pouch that I was able to purchase for $1.00 at Walmart. My twins get fine motor skills practice and my 18 mos. old can join in. 

I love finding new ways to teach my children and creating activities that teach while playing. 

I know most of my posts are for preschool kids. I will be posting more for older children when we get a little closer to the beginning of the school year and as they complete projects. 

Letters and Early Writing Skills

There are so many ways to teach our young children their letters. I will be sharing several ideas on this blog. Some will be creations of my own and others will be the amazing creations of others. There are so many great blogs that have so many wonderful ideas and printables. The ideas I am sharing in this post all come from this awesome blog. Scroll down to see a long list of free printables. Because these activities will be handled a lot by little hands, I print all activities on card stock and laminate them with my laminating machine and laminate pouches. It is not only more durable than contact paper but the final product looks nicer. 

Alphabet cover up is a fun activity that my little ones enjoy. The printable has uppercase and lowercase cards and mats. There are mats with the letters in alphabetical order and mats with the letters scrambled. We like to play this two different ways. First, I like to call out different letters and my kids find that letter on the mat and place a marker on it. The second way we like to play it is the child has a stack of letters, uppercase or lowercase, face down. They turn over the one on top of the pile and find the letter on that card on the mat and cover it with a marker. You can use the markers provided in the printable or any other manipulative you would like. Sometimes we like to use pom poms, candy, grapes, crackers, buttons, play dough, or beads. I like to have my children say the letter and it's sound when they cover it with the marker. We also talk about things that start with that letter. 

There is usually a lot of celebration when the task is completed. 

A popular activity, at my house, is the alphabet mix and match puzzle. I only give my preschoolers about six letters at a time, otherwise, it's gets a little confusing with so many pieces. With this activity the child has to match the top of the letter with the bottom. I like to have them put them in order after they have matched the pieces. We also say the letter and sound and things that begin with that letter as we play this game. The printable comes with upper and lower case letters. The artwork is so cute and very inviting to you a young child. 

Writing these letters is going to take a lot of patience and practice. I have found that pre-writing sheets and mats are very helpful. They help a young child learn how to control their pencil or pen while writing or drawing. This is a good time to teach them how told hold their pencil properly. It will pay off in the end with nice handwriting. We use washable dry erase markers by Crayola to write on these laminated mats and strips. We also use old socks or dry erase erasers to wipe them clean. I like the old socks because it's easy to just throw them in the wash when they get too dirty. 

I also like to use the alphabet and number tracing mats. Even though they are still working on their pre-writing skills, my twins like to attempt the letters and numbers. While learning to write they can also learn their letters and numbers. These mats come with the upper case and lower case letters and a numbers mat. 

Childcareland.com is a great resource for these types of activities and many others. They also have even more activities available for purchase on CD for a reasonable cost. There are even videos with ideas on how to use each activity.  I'm sure I will posting more of the activities from their blog, in the future. Be sure to check out their website and look around. I think you will be pleasantly surprised with what you find. 

Fun With Math

Math can be a frustration, especially for little ones still learning to count. There are many ways to make math fun. I'm only going to share a few with you in this post and I will revisit this topic in the future. 

The first is a counting game I found on this amazing blog. This is called Apple Roll and Pick. The child rolls the die then picks the number of apples shown on the die. They continue until all the apples are picked. This is a great way to help children with counting objects and recognizing numbers on dice. You could also use pom poms, buttons or another fun manipulative. 

I created this simple counting game. Please excuse my amateur abilities. I am not good with art or computers, but sometimes simplicity is a good thing. If you would like to print this counting mat, you can get it here.

I have been collecting lids from our milk jugs. I wrote numbers on the top with a permanent marker and now they can be used for counting games such as this. 

I also created a flower petal counting game done very much the same way. I made numbered petals to use as manipulatives but you could use anything. Feel free to print this Flower mat and petals for your own use. 

This train counting game is used the same way the caterpillar counting game is used. It can also be used to teach colors. This can be printed here.

This is a fishbowl counting game. It can be used in the same way the apple one is used or in anyway you feel would help your children learn. Fish crackers or Swedish Fish would be fun manipulatives for this one. 

Sequencing is a lot more fun when a puzzle is involved. My preschool age twins love these puzzles.

The sequencing puzzles and fishbowl can be found at the same link as the apple tree game found at the beginning of this post.

My sister gave me this equation book when her children had mastered simple addition and subtraction. I apologize, I'm not sure if it's available anymore but you can probably find something like it at a store that carries education supplies or even online. 

I don't remember where I found the cover to this math game. If I find the correct blog or website, I will be sure to post the link and give the creator credit.  I made the game several years ago. It's a fun way to review math skills. At least two players are required. We use pawns from an old game that had missing pieces and one or two dice depending on how long we want the game to last. The first player rolls the dice and moves their pawn. If they land on a chalkboard they have to complete a math problem, (ie multiplication tables, division or whatever concept they are working on at the time). The other player has flash cards or an assignment with the correct answers on it. They give the opposite player a math problem and let them know if they have the correct answer. If they do they get to move on their next turn. If the answer is incorrect, the player has to stay on that space until they can correctly answer a math problem. The players go back and forth until some one lands on the finish space. I used dot stickers for the spaces and free clipart for the chalkboards and rules sheet. The game is made of two file folders and laminated with contact paper. 

I found some super cute multiplication posters on this blog and turned them into flash cards. My children use them for the math file folder game. 

We also use Life of Fred math curriculum. My kids have gone from hating math to loving it. Check out their website here. They also have samples of their lessons. 

Math can be fun for anyone. I have worked with our children to find their learning styles and create lessons and games that work with them. I also believe in strengthening their weaknesses so that they can learn in any environment. 

Responsibility and Reward

My family has been working on ways to be more organized and responsible. As my children have grown we have changed the way we do our chore charts and rotate chores. I decided it was time to switch it up again. I found a really cute and fun system on this blog. I changed a few things to fit with our family and our lifestyle. Because I don't have a lot of wall space or really any kind of space, I decided personalized chore folders with pockets would be best for our family. I also decided that, instead of printing off a set of chore cards for every day of the week, we would just use one set of chore cards for each child and move them to the next day at the end of each day. I like this system because it combines rewards with learning responsibility. In my house, privileges have to be earned. My kids don't get to watch TV just because it sounds like a good thing to do. They have to earn their time on the TV and all other electronics. They also have to earn time with friends and basically anything they want to do outside of reading, schoolwork and chores. I know this sounds harsh but it really isn't any different than telling your children they can't do anything until their chores are completed. My children just get to earn time and use it how they see fit. 

Here are some examples of the chore folders. I have whited out my children's names because I use their nicknames on this blog and the folders have their real names on them. I used the small pocket templates from this website. I found the clipart by searching the web and made sure that all of the clipart I used was available and free to the public for printing. 

I also put a some clipart on the back of the folder just to make it recognizable no matter which way it's facing. The chores to be completed for the day are in that day's pocket. When each task is completed, the card is turned around and placed back into the pocket behind the other cards. 

For each chore completed they are rewarded with 1 ticket. Each ticket is worth 15 min. of time enjoying a privilege. At the end of the day I go through the folder and place the tickets earned in that day's pocket. Then I move the chores to the next day's pocket. My children can earn up to 12 tickets a day which is 3 hrs of privilege time. They also have the opportunity to earn extra tickets by doing extra tasks without being asked. They can use their tickets right away or they can save them and store them in the pocket labeled "Tickets."

When extra effort is put forth and a child is on their best behavior all day, they can earn a "Best Bee-havior" card. This card is worth an extra special privilege like a friend day even if they don't have enough tickets for the time spent, they can also be traded in for prizes from the prize bag. The prize bag is filled with items that are not expensive but are also valuable to my children, such as crayons, gift certificates to spend at the store, etc. If a child wants something that takes a bit more time or money they can collect a few cards and turn them all in at once to get that item or time. (Of course this is discussed with parents ahead of time to make sure it is reasonable.)

Rewards cards are great for earning a special date with Mom or Dad or even both. For each day all chores are completed, without complaint, a sticker or an "X" is put in one of the boxes. When all boxes are filled, the child has earned the date with Mom or Dad. When they have completely filled two "Rewards" cards, they have earned a free day. The free day means they don't have to do any chores or schoolwork. They can have a day to do whatever they want, within reason. 

For organization purposes, I keep all of the reward cards and tickets in a separate folder. I also keep the extra chores, not in use, in a storage baggie and placed in the same magazine file as the chore folders. Because the pockets are small and there are many tickets and cards, I have several pockets for each card and the tickets are separated by color. 

This system was created by a homeschooling mom. There chore cards include a card for schoolwork, reading for 20 mins, tidying up the school area and blank cards for you to create a chore that fits in your family's routine. You can create your own rewards and make the system work for your family in your circumstances. There are times when my children want to earn money instead of privileges. I believe being flexible allows my children to set goals and earn the things important to them. 

Instead of only having chores for five days of the week, I have a pocket for all seven days of the week even though Sunday is a day of rest for our family. However, there are still certain things that have to be done on Sunday such as making dinner and doing the dishes. I also include the cards that have them do their daily routines for getting ready for the day such as getting dressed, brushing teeth, making bed and so forth. Saturday is our day to get ready for Sunday, so I have included that in our work week and Saturday chores will be placed in that pocket. 

I believe that a child who is taught responsibility and the value of hard work at an early age, is a child who will succeed outside the home when they are grown. We can teach our children how to earn the things they want and to set goals by teaching them to work and rewarding that hard work.