I have two kids memorizing multiplication facts now and they have both improved by leaps and bounds since we started introducing fun and engaging ways for multiplication practice! The code breaker multiplication was probably the favorite, but the scratch off multiplication wasn’t far behind. I’ve been worked on games, activities, printables, and much more for multiplication….
I can not believe I am teaching addition and subtraction to my 3rd (and last) child. I still remember teaching Baloo how to add. It’s not possible that so much time has passed, right? Logi-Bear was probably not even born when we first started this journey in math! Ahh. Anyway, long long ago I made…
Kids learn best when they are interested in something, and my kids are no exception to this rule. In fact, I think we spend more time exploring random topics that seem to evolve throughout the day than we spend on all other subjects combined. I kind of love that though. The information they learn when…
My kids hate writing. I hear this from parents and teachers over and over and over. My kids hate writing. Typically people mean the physical act of writing, not the process of thinking of words to put on a paper. And this activity handles the physical act without the process part. My kids will dictate…
LEGO is the key to all learning. Okay, not literally, but my kids flip out when I grab the LEGO Bricks during school time. They get so excited. So of course we had to do LEGO Place Value when that topic came up! Let me back up a bit. I took a challenge to minimalize…
My kids hate analog clocks. Truly despise. We honestly just don’t even work on that anymore. While I can see it’s importance, the amount they dislike those clocks makes it not worth it. But we were working on calculating how much time has passed, and it’s just easier with these clocks. It’s so much easier…
Royal (7) hit multiplication in our math curriculum and shut down immediately. He thought it was too hard, too early, and he would never get it. I didn’t know someone could have such strong emotions over something they have never tried to do before! He’s even seen Times Tales and picked up some multiplication facts….
For the longest time, 10 Apples Up On Top has been one of Logi-Bear’s favorite books. I have it memorized (and then some. I could have memorized it in another language at this point). All in all, it’s not a bad story. Just very repetitive. I do believe in the importance of repetition in books…
Math practice, especially just rote math practice, can be very boring. But I’ve found that presenting math on new and interesting mediums can persuade a pretty reluctant child to practice their math. We regularly find new ways to practice. I remember the first time I saw a dry erase board. Vividly. It was Take Your…
I am a big fan of anything that makes learning to read a bit more fun and engaging. Reading is so challenging but so totally worth that, and many kids can see that from the beginning. Logi-Bear wants to read so so badly and he tries so so hard, but I still want him to…
Kids are naturally drawn to puzzles. Not all kids, of course, but there is something about puzzles that naturally draws in a lot of kids. And adults. Yes, I admit to putting together all of the puzzles when we’re cleaning. (I absolutely have to make sure all the pieces are there…). Puzzles are naturally great…
We got one of those amazing spy kits last year and there were a lot of fun activities in it for breaking codes and whatnot. I noticed a few that they came back to over and over and the red cellophane thing was one of them. It was almost like magic! So of course I…