Patterns

Hair Ties, on a steek ;o)
Borrowed from Amanda


We have a dowel rod 'rolling pen' from one of those hand print sets. It's about 1" in diameter. Right now we're using her pony tail holders, but Amanda got a something like 1,000 in a bag at her dollar store. All she has to do for now it get the pony holders on the cylinder. She's getting that down pretty well though. So soon I'll make some cards w/ color patterns on them so she can choose a card to duplicate and then move on to the next.

All these 'games' are great for keeping her occupied while I do school w/ my older kids. Since my 2nd started Kindergarten this year she really wants 'school work' to do. And she doesn't need much direction from me! :oD

Numbers

Number Bead
Thanks again Amanda!

We used another caf. stye tray. This time put cards w/ #'s 1-5 on them. Each card also has corresponding number of dots. I have some large wooden beads from a garage sale a while back. We put these in the silverware compartment. Again, we started w/ her doing this by hand, but when I let her older brother get the kitchen tongs, that was the end of doing it by hand. It amazes my how well they can grab those slippery little bead w/ large metal tongs!

Sorting

Color Sorting
Thanks Amanda!

I put cards w/ colored squares into the trays of a typical caf. food style tray. Then a bunch of laminated construction paper squares in the entree hole. She originally sorted them by hand. I pulled out the tweezers for my big kids and she asked to use them. She has to use two hands to load the tweezers often, but she loves it!

For an added challenge we time it and then try to beat our previous time.

Geography

The Continents & Oceans Song
(please forgive my singing ;o)



I updated the song changing Australia to Oceania. I also added the oceans to the end. Apparently, a Southern ocean, surrounding Antarctica and extending to 60°S was defined in the year 2000. But my song only includes the 4 my daughters lessons call for.

Calendar related lessons

The days of the week:

I love my 6 year old (videographer) whisper singing along! ;o)

To the tune O My Darlin'
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. (in case you forgot your days ;o)
-Thanks to Mandy H:

The Calendar Song

Song found on youtube by Mathew Vaughn. Rerecorded by me, and the kids.

Fun learning ideas

So, I keep finding these great ideas for things to help my kids learn and memorize stuff. But they're all over the web etc. So, I'm trying to collect things here a) so I can find them, and b) to hopefully help others find fun strategies for learning otherwise boring stuff. :o)

Like the saying says, if you copy one it's plagiarism, if you copy a bunch it's research! ;o)