Make some "Number Cans" to teach numeric concepts to your kids.
Cover empty vegetable tins with construction paper. Number the cans from 1 to 10 and draw dots on with a marker or crayon. Set out craft sticks or drinking straws. Help your child count the number of dots on the cans and place the right number of sticks inside them.
These are good "mini-rhymes" to use when your child is learning how to print their numbers.
1-A straight line, one is fun.
2-Around and back on the railroad track-two,two,two.
3-Around the tree and around the tree, that's the way we make a three.
4-Down and over, down some more. That's the way we make a four.
5-Fat old five goes down and around. Put a flag on top and see what you've
found.
6-Down to a loop, six rolls a hoop.
7-Across the sky and down from heaven, that's the way we make a seven.
8-Make an "s" but do not wait -- go right back up to make an eight.
9-A loop and a line--that's a nine.
10-A one first, a zero then, that's the way we make a ten!
My children had a map of the world posted on the back of a bedroom door for years. It became a super reference tool. Make a map of your neighborhood with your children, talking about directions and how to get to their favorite places. Display a map of your area, state, country or the world. Refer to it when questions come up.
A good vocabulary will help your child throughout life. Being able to express themselves is key to succeeding both in their social lives, their academic lives and later in life in the "real world". Reading to and with your child daily takes only minutes a day and will pay back in volumes. Don't underestimate the value of books on tape, occasionally substituting these for the radio on a longer car trip. Encourage them to read to you. Keep a variety of reading materials at home magazines, books and newspapers. Act out their favorite stories, or put together a puppet show. Teach them that writing is fun. Encourage them to write from the time they can sound out words and have toddlers and preschool children dictate to you "writing" a letter to a favorite relative or friend. Have them make their own cards to give on birthdays or holidays.
Get a small handful of mixed coins, pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. Make a rubbing of each type of coin across the bottom of the page. Then, pick a coin from your pile. Decide which coin it is like. Keep track of how many of each coin you have. And use this opportunity to teach counting skills. An older child may want to learn how to make change.
A good project that teaches your child how to follow through with something. Each night for a week (or once or twice a week for a month), Give your child a few pieces of paper. Have him draw a picture and write a sentence. At the end of the week have them put their pages together and see if you can make a story book This is a good activity for a group of children. Each child would make one or two pages of their own then together they can develop a story using all the pages together. Younger children can each draw an animal and cut them apart. Each child putting a part together with the rest. One head, one body, various limbs. The combination animals are very funny, but the most fun of all is naming the animal you have created. ( a monkeypotamus!)
Take a word with 7 - 9 letters and have the kids find as many little words as possible. When they get good at it have them find as many as they can before the time runs out, say 3 - 5 minutes.
Example- toothpick
Words- tooth, pick, thick, to, pit, kit, hit, hoot, toot, tick… etc.
This is another way to re use your daily paper before you send it to the recycle bin.
Give your children sections of a newspaper and felt tip markers. Have them look for a letter his or her name begins with. Or if your child is bigger, have them look for specific words, letters or numbers.
* From Theme a saurus
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