Transportation Counting Mats with Addition and Subtraction
| | | | | | |

Transportation Counting Mats with Addition and Subtraction

What do you do when you want to get your young kids excited about math?  You find a theme that resonates with them and find a way to incorporate math into that theme!  Last week we did dinosaurs, which was wildly popular at my house.  Transportation themes come in a close second.  And I just…

Duck & Truck ck Easy Reader Book For Beginning Readers
| | | | | | | | | |

Duck & Truck ck Easy Reader Book For Beginning Readers

Getting kids excited about reading by themselves can be tricky.  We spend years and years reading to them and they don’t want that to stop (and rightfully so) but sometimes that also means they resist reading by themselves.  My kids are not really motivated readers.  They take some prodding.  But with easy reader books that…

How to Teach Kids to Be Responsible without a Fight
| | | |

How to Teach Kids to Be Responsible without a Fight

Everyone has concerns when they start homeschooling or think about starting homeschooling.  Some concerns are covering all the material, keeping them engaging, socialization, etc.  My biggest concern is independence and responsibility. I grew up in public schools and my parents education philosophy was fairly hands off.  Don’t get me wrong – they cared immensely about…

Transportation CVC Sliders for Learning to Read Fun
| | | | |

Transportation CVC Sliders for Learning to Read Fun

It’s time for a new theme and one of my favorites – transportation!  All week long we will have a great assortment of transportation printables!  Don’t miss any by either signing up for the newsletter: Or by keeping an eye on the 31 Days of Printables page!   This is another printable I made just…

14 Ideas for Minimalist Gifts for the STEM Child
| | |

14 Ideas for Minimalist Gifts for the STEM Child

Did you know studies show that clutter actually had an affect on our brain chemistry?  That sounds crazy, doesn’t it?  Yet, when people adopt a minimalist attitude, they have overwhelmingly positive reports.  More time with family, less stress, more money, etc. We’ve been working on minimizing for a few months and oh my gosh, it…

Dinosaur Letter Sounds for Learning to Read the Fun way
| | | | | | | |

Dinosaur Letter Sounds for Learning to Read the Fun way

People all learn in different ways, right? I was the kid in school who pretty much always learned new concepts quickly.  I am the person the public school system is designed for.  My kids are not.  They’re not slow learners they just don’t learn that way.  Earlier this year I found Times Tales, which is…

No Prep Addition Booklets for Interactive Math Practice
| | | | | | |

No Prep Addition Booklets for Interactive Math Practice

What do you do for kids that are having trouble memorizing their math facts?  All of my boys are working on memorizing some facts and without motivation, it just seems like slow going.  We play games, watch math shows, and even do bedtime math. Sometimes though, I need something that I can just hand over…

Dinosaur CVC Word Mats for Beginning Readers
| | | | | | | | | | |

Dinosaur CVC Word Mats for Beginning Readers

How do you get your kids interested and invested in reading? I’ve mentioned it a million times now, but again, Logi-Bear is so close to reading.  He wants to read and happily works with me, but I feel like he still needs a bit more work with letter sounds before he’s truly ready.  But I…

LEGO Counting On for Learning to Start Counting Anywhere
| | | | | |

LEGO Counting On for Learning to Start Counting Anywhere

‘Counting on’ is one of those skills that I didn’t understand needed to be taught until Baloo was probably 4 or something.  I guess I just hadn’t thought of it and assumed kids would just pick up on the pattern of numbers.  And some kids pick up on that really well!  In fact, I noticed…

Dinosaur Syllable Challenge Cards for Kids
| | | | | | | | | |

Dinosaur Syllable Challenge Cards for Kids

Sometimes you discover an activity that is perfect for your child in every way.  It can be a very rare occasion, but when you find it, you have to just do it.  Logi-Bear loves dinosaurs, wants to learn to read, has been enjoying sorting into syllable “teams”, and really likes having little cards and booklets…

Dinosaur Handwriting Booklets for Learning to Write
| | | | | | | | | | |

Dinosaur Handwriting Booklets for Learning to Write

Handwriting isn’t really a big focus for us in homeschooling but I do want my kids to be able to write legibly.  I have horrible handwriting and always have.  In fact, my first bad grade was handwriting in 3rd grade.  I cried…a lot.  Some people have good handwriting and some people don’t.  So my goal…