Learning ideas, games, activities, books, and concepts for the child too young for school!
I am becoming more creative at noticing ways to use items destined for the trash as learning tools and games in our homeschool. One rescue from the garbage was an empty tissue box. My daughter and I made it into one of our alphabet recognition activities by creating upcycled boxes monsters that likes eating ABCs. Our ABC
My children have amazing imaginations. My older kids still love to join my youngest in imagination play. As I consider our toys and accessories, I appreciate the fact that many of them are ones that encourage them to further develop their imagination. Here are some of the best toys for imaginative play. What gift ideas
My son and I enjoy playing Scrabble and other word-building games. But while we are playing, I needed to find a way to keep my 2-year-old happy, without her grabbing our tiles! To keep her busy, I created some word templates for her to enjoy building words too. ABC Letters Tiles are fun for all letter
I mentioned previously that one of my favorite books about snow is about Snowflake Bentley, the first person to photograph the intricate designs of snowflakes. Here are some videos to correspond with the book Snowflake Bentley, and lessons about snowflakes in general.
In my writing class, we read a few of these snow day books and then create a chronological story about a snow day of our own. The following snow day books helped us get our ideas flowing as we brainstormed and wrote our own snow day stories.
It’s poetry month! I love poetry, and I’ve found some wonderful resources for children that my son also loves. Here are a few of the best poetry anthologies for kids. Find more of my favorites on my Amazon page!
After our participation in the Chicago Wildlife Watch project, I decided to use woodland animals as our nonfiction topic for my story times at our homeschool co-op this week! We began with some great books (both fiction and nonfiction) and then jumped in to forest animals activities in science stations!
The other evening, as we were eating our dinner, I looked up and saw an opossum sauntering through our backyard. To say I was surprised would be an understatement. I wanted to catch it on camera but I knew I had just moments to either find my camera or point the creature out to my
I simply love reading Christmas picture books with my kids. Sometimes huge, long lists are overwhelming, so here are some of my absolute favorite picture books of the season. On my list, I start with a few religious-themed books and then branch to other parts of the Christmas tradition.
We created our own mail center in our schoolroom and play room because my kids love getting the mail. They love to send letters to friends, teachers, and grandparents. They love to send and receive mail. I made some monster post cards to help us practice writing, addressing, and sending mail. Of course, these aren’t
We have frequently studied the moon and space a when my kids are starting his kindergarten year. One year, grandma sent my son a solar system set that we painted, and we read a lot of books about space. We will be doing space again this year for our science at co-op and I look
My daughter is only 2 and a half, but she loves ABCs! I’m planning ahead to the coming months and year of school as I look for awesome books to read to her. Raisin and I loved these ABC books, so this is where we will start!
