Save/make change for math practice, then roll it up together. This is one of the easiest ways to initiate the differences & similarities in the coins and their value. Banks often supply coin wrappers free of charge.
Look for great educational material at the local flea markets, thrift stores and library sales.
An old calendar makes a great number line. The squares are perfect for gluing on, drawing on and just marking numbers. Piper did one with popcorn kernels. She had so much fun adding! This is also a great repetitive work exercise.
One easy way to keep track of all the days’ triumphs is to keep a calendar handy. Instead of writing down only meetings and appointments, remember to jot down the student's accomplishments. Piper does her own with the special calendar pages I made. She can use them as feeling squares to symbolize how she was feeling that day, or write & draw a picture of her favorite thing that she did or ate. She could also use them as a moon & weather track, or even keep track of her favorite movies, shows & their times.
Plastic page protectors are great to use in their bookmaking. Just clip on shower curtain rings to each of the holes and insert your pages!
Make a letter writing station. I have gotten so many letters from Piper it's not even funny. I have gotten many contracts, ballet class parent form, hate mail, love letters etc.
This is what it needs:
Envelopes
Paper
Pens
It is important for emotional development to properly learn this type of communication skill early in life. Also remember that this is not an art station; there doesn't need to be pencils which need sharpening, scissors or glue.
Color regular white school glue with food coloring. This is a great thing for the youngest students because it is like one great big paint tube which won't squeeze out too fast. It also makes cut and glue activities a little funner.
Use active play as a way to remember basic facts. This worked especially well for Piper when she learned how to count by two and five. Some ideas that worked for us: swinging on the swing while saying each number as she goes up and rolling the ball back and fourth, saying each number when we roll. She picked up on ten by watching the speedometer. Two hours of driving a day can do that to a child.
Join a childrens book club. I joined Baby's First Book Club, Dr. Suess's and Brighter Visions Learning Adventures, while Piper was still a toddler. It is a great way to stay focused on reading and teaching your child. You get books as a reminder on a regular basis!
Use sand play or sand box time as a healthy way to introduce phonics. Bury your word strips and as your student pulls them up they will automatically see the words in parts as they remove the sand.
A quart mix and measure plastic cup is great for project time, pencil/marker storage and also sandbox time. These cups are found in the paint department at Walmart and most hardware stores.
Make potatoe stamps. This is a fun low supply project. All you need is paint, a potatoe and a knife for carving the design. One book that I've found with a section on this craft is Papercrafts & Paper Fun.
Don't forget to scan a selection of your student's work into your computer.
Press fresh flowers and other leafy nature walk collectibles. We put ours in between paper towels and encyclopedia books. You can also buy a nice press at some craft stores or make one yourself.
Designate a file cabinet just for organizing work, workbooks & paper supplies throughout the year.
Use sand play as fun writing practice time. They can use their fingers or other tools for sand writing without lines and boundaries.
Make the cardboard caterpillar from Sing! Play! Create! You basically cut the cardboard tube into parts and punch holes in them for stringing. Piper wrote numbers by two on hers, then we had a verbal quiz.
Make a craft foam book. It is easy to glue on, cut up, punch with holes and decorate. It is also a fun texture which makes bookmaking a little more exciting.
Make an alphabet book! Make letters out of fun items that can easily be glued down. We've done leaves, beads, tissue, glitter etc. I also have my circle letters for a small round book. Those letters can also just be colored, for good letter formation skill practice.
Sticker floor tiles with large boat/mailbox number stickers. I have 1-10 on one row and 11-20 underneath. She could easily associate the number (8) with the number (18) because it was right under it! It was also a lot of fun for her to walk up and down the number line to do math! This was one of the first ways I taught Piper about adding and subtracting. Imagining stairs worked so well, I thought we would try the tiles.
Decorate toilet tissue tubes to make counting tubes. Use number stickers, pictures, color and designs or decorate paper sleeves to cover the tubes. We count popcorn kernels, but soft pom poms in different colors, or anything that your student can relate to (candy) would work. You can count the items into the tubes, then add the number tubes together, or subtract by sliding the tube(s) away. When the tubes are lifted the answers can be tallied. The first thing Piper did when I made hers, was to order the tubes into a number line. She made a regular line and seperated the odd and even numbers to form two rows.
Basic Cards 1 has the large number squares we used.
Make wall words, numbers or shapes from strips of
construction paper. Piper assembled her name!
Shower curtain rings can also be a good way to demonstrate addition and subtracton; hook together then take apart. Piper came up with this one!
Make Counting Beads. A flour bead baked at a low heat works well. We strung ours on skewers. Aleene's Big Book of Crafts has a recipe using white bread mixed with tacky glue. Plastic straws cut & wrapped with embroidery thread, using glue to adhere was also a good project.
As a cheap & semi easy way to laminate small things:
use clear packing tape.
Use a turntable (one example) for boxes of crayons and supplies.
Topping the reading list:
2) The Lorax
4) Spaghetti and Meatballs for All!
A Mathematical Story
5) Crinkleroot's Guide to Knowing the
Use regular vocabulary & even new words when talking normally to your child student. It's worth the extra time that explaining the new words cost.
Decorate by hanging wood puzzles. I applied adhesive velcro to my pieces and board; now I can hang it! This works especially great for early learning number & shape puzzles.
Candles can be great projects. We also used Gulf Wax to make a sand hand. We used a decorative sand and Piper made her handprint! Don't forget to wet the sand, make a sturdy print mould, pour a thick layer and let it dry overnight.
Piper first noticed this as a rainbow was being cast from a blank C.D. sitting on the windowsill. I found another project for making C.D. suncatchers here. For one window hang:
1) I cut up a couple C.D.'s into various sizes and shapes.
2) Then Piper glued them on two separate pieces of cardboard (allow for hanging holes).
3) We attached the pieces and strung thread through the holes to hang.
You can experiment with which hanging style casts which designs where. For another window hang:
1) I left the C.D.'s whole.
2) Then we strung them on green plastic produce containers. These containers have plenty of already made slots, perfect for stringing things through, hanging and experimenting.
Have spelling bee time. We use two sets (one lower case & one upper case) of laminated letters with attached Velcro for sticking. Piper sticks onto strips of craft foam (with Velcro also attached). They can also make their own letter squares; letters on magnet sheeting is fun and black or gold mailbox letters (on cardboard) are easy to handle.
Make mailbox letter words. Piper's first word lists (kindergarten) were ones she made herself with mailbox stickers.
Custom make letters, phonic chunks & words by cutting them from magazines & newspapers. Then adhere them to magnet sheeting & secure a magnet "fishing pole" for a fun game.
Do UNO math. Put down two (or more) cards to be added (subtracted etc.). Add another card to either pile and keep going.
Start with consumer math by using cupons. Piper cut out food item cupons advertised at various restaurants and added their prices up. There is also alot of percentage practice that can get done this way.
Start a coin collection. The state quarters are a great way to keep geography exciting and any coin collecting is a great way to learn about the coin values.
Piper had the good idea to use extra cash register (calculator) paper to make a great long number line scroll. You could also make a picture or story scroll.
Turn on the T.V.'s closed caption option.
The Joy of Cooking was my first learning to read book when I was young. Candy making, soft pretzels and cookie making are some of Piper's favorite recipes.
Grow sprouts. This is one of the easiest, funnest and most enriching projects. We sprouted Lentil beans from the grocery store and used a large jar & pantyhose top.
Supply a fabric measuring tape or adhere one in your student area.
Make magnets from old Scrabble game pieces.
Compost. This is another great and practically free project. Here are a few good sites I've found.
Site #2 How to Build an Outdoor Composter
Site #4 thriftyfun
Have daily nature walks or talks.
Keep a daily log, either on-line or on paper of the main subjects addressed and the corresponding work.
Make a giant poster board maze.
Create Origami. Doing Origami is a great geometrical lesson project and attention and direction building exercise. Origami is also a great project because the student can see the many uses behind their work. Some of our examples: creating table settings and decorations, 3-D art projects, hand made paper along with directions make a lovely gift idea and I'm sure there are more! Here are some sites I've found:
Origami-Instructions.com has a nice selection of simple projects.
Tammy Yee's Origami Page has some great printable Origami project pages and more!
Timed drills doing various mental activities is a good way to stimulate quick thinking or a proper situational response.
When asked for the spelling of a word: use the sound structure or sound spelling to aid the student.
Wait until your student is done reading the page before correcting.
Don't forget to say please and thank you when addressing your student(s).
Buy fresh pre-made dough from your local bakery.
Write in squares. We went over the letters with me verbalizing while demonstrating each letter's individual design. Similar to what a T.V. artist would do. The squares were a compromise between the crazy old fashion arrow system and free range writing.
For a comprehension skill exercise: cover over parts of a newspaper or book, then redraw or write.
Things To Do:
1) Have nature scavanger hunts.
2) Birdwatch
3) Dry apples & bananas in a dehydrator or oven.
4) Keep poster board on hand.
5) Learn in the kitchen.
6) Talk and think at the same time.
Make smoothies. One of Piper's favorite recipes: Fruit & Vanilla Yogurt. I used abt: 6 ice cubes, 2 bananas, 1 single size container of vanilla yogurt, 1/4 apple (peeled, chopped), 1/2 tangerine (peeled, seeded, & chopped) & abt. 1 cup fruit juice (strawberry-banana). After blending well, it also makes for great ice pops.
Have an ant farm. Don't forget to be careful collecting your ants. Fill the center of the jar with a solid that the ants will be forced to work around. This way they can be spotted through the glass.
This is not a gimmick site.
These ideas along with my Links List, O.K. Books and Printables are some things that I have been comprising over the course of our home schooling journey. They are all things that we do & have done thus far. Piper Black who is now seven years old is my daughter that we love home educating. We have been doing it as a happy, safe and positive alternative to traditional public preschool, kindergarten and now first grade.
Save clean food & product packaging to make your own store for dietary, money math & percentage practice.
Practice sequencing, skip counting & times tables by painting on large squares of cardboard and stringing.
Set daily standards. Writing, reading, & math take front stage, with the amount & complexity of each progressing over the course of time.
Do cartoon story boards, on large pieces of poster paper.
Design & make board games. The great part of making a game yourself is that you can customize it specifically to your student's needs.
Use positive reinforcement like clapping, cheering, & hugging.
For a great Life Science skill gardening exercise, Piper grew Cat Grass Oats. This is a great one because they can do it in a ceramic, it comes up quick, & the cats really do love it! This also makes for a lovely grandparent or other pet lover's gift.
For math & counting fun: Make toothpick Popsicles.
1) Color water using food coloring.
2) Pour into your ice cube trays.
3) Cover with plastic wrap.
4) Insert your toothpicks & freeze.
When your "Popsicles" are made, you can take them out & separate into bowls for math & counting fun.
