May to August Educational Bridge

“Woo-hoo, schools out!” A time for cheer and adventure, but also a time for “what they don’t know won’t hurt them”. Sneaking in a little learning won’t hurt them. Learning should not stop just because the school doors close for a few months. A child’s mind needs constant “food” to grow. As parents, we need to figure out ways to keep the child learning without making it seem as if they were swooped from one school into another. Sometimes, when faced with a task such as this, parents become unnerved and don’t know where to start. The task becomes work when it should not. The main thing we need to remember is keep it simple and fun.

·         Read a favorite childhood book – My son had a “very favorite book in the whole wide world.” It was Fox and the Hound. I have discovered while reading this book to his son that I can interject stories of my reading it to his Dad. He loves knowing he is doing something that his Daddy loves and it brings excitement to an already fun-filled book.

·         Have a book themed event – Let’s say you want to pull out the old classic, Cinderella. Oh, what a wonderful theme for a day that could be and how exciting for the child. Have the child pick a character from the book that they would like to be. Don’t automatically assume the child will pick Cinderella. The mice in the story add a lot of enthusiasm and adventure. Now the fun begins: you can play dress-up, create masks, eat cheese, grow a pumpkin, or even do chores like Cinderella. Your book themed day is only limited by your imagination, so think fun and exciting.

·         On the road word search – Learning is not only limited to a brick and mortar foundation, but also can be a traveling school on wheels. Take your education to the road on that trip to the grocery store. Choose a word to search for on the way. How about the word “sale” for starters. This activity inspires the child to read every day words they see in the community. The child will be reading signs all over town in order to find the word “sale”. You make the rules of the game. One possibility would be to see how many times the word could be found and the winner gets a small prize. Another possibility could be to choose another word after “sale” has been found. The trick is to keep them reading.

What tricks do you have for keeping your child learning and bridging the gap from May to August?

Belinda @ Kids Matter

Monday Meanderings - Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss's birthday is celebrated on March 2, so I thought I would start posting some activities to celebrate the big day. As far as authors go, there is no more well known name, than that of Dr. Seuss! Children and adults love his work. I even have a poster of a Dr. Seuss quote framed and hanging on my office door!

First up is The Family Kitchen with an adorable Cat in the Hat marshmallow hat snack.

Here is a Cat in the Hat activity from Teaching Two. I love this stacking idea. If you do not have the Styrofoam discs, they could be made with red tape around pool noodles too.

I would not normally encourage my child to jump on his bed, but this is too cute to pass up. obSeussed drew a picture of Pop, from the book Hop on Pop, onto her child's bed sheet and they hopped on Pop while reading the book. What fun!

Last but not least, we have I Can Teach My Child showing a great activity for Ten Apples Up on Top.

Have fun with your kids and with Dr. Seuss. He is my favorite Dr.!

Storytelling - A gift for the whole family

Everyone has favorite stories that they love to tell. People tell fairy tales, folk tales, childhood memories, old family legends, stories from friends or family or even just what happened to them today. Many of these stories will become tales that are told over and over but many of them will be forgotten.

Tell lots of stories in your family to stimulate your children. There are several things that stories can help children with.

1) Background: Many people wander through life wondering where they are going but it can be easier if you know where you came from. If your family has special traditions explain to your child why you do these things. That is something your child will carry with them always. Do you eat certain foods at certain times? Do you have a special vacation spot that you go to time and again? Explain these things to your child. Also dig deeper, tell them about your heritage. Where does your family hail from? You may learn several new things yourself.

2) Imagination: When you tell a story instead of reading a book a child must visualize the pictures on their own. This will assist with their reading comprehension and when they begin to write, an imagination will make it easier to come up with ideas. It can be difficult as an adult to use our imagination but try hard to stimulate your child's imagination.

3) Language: Telling stories and reading books are a great way to stimulate a child's language skills. They will hear words that they have never heard before, they will hear the proper sequence of words and they will detect the punctuation of phrases. The more words a child hears, the larger their vocabulary as they age. Be ready to explain a word to a child if you think it is a new word to them or if they ask for an explanation.

4) Convenience: You do not need any supplies to tell a story. You can do it in the car, the bed, a doctor's office or anyplace else that you may be.

5) Reading skills: Telling stories teaches a child the nuances of plot, sequence and characters. They will begin to understand the concept of a story long before they can actually read.

6) Lessons: Many stories that we tell or read often teach a lesson. Whether the lesson is about sharing, not hitting or just being nice many stories teach many lessons. After you tell your child a story, take a few minutes to talk to them about it. Ask what they learned in the story.

Story Projects:
Ask family members near and far to record themselves telling stories. They can read books, tell stories from their childhood, make up stories or recite fairy tales. These will be great for your child to listen too. It not only helps with their development but it also keeps family that they may not see every day familiar to them. If they do not want to record their voice they can also write the stories and your family can read them.

Story Dice: Have you seen these yet? They are wooden blocks purchased from a craft store that you draw pictures on or decoupage pictures onto them. Then you roll a dice and start telling the story based on the picture that comes up. Some samples that you can purchase are below.

Muffin Baby Shop on Etsy - I love that these are in color.

Mama Mayl's Shop on Etsy - love the symbol key and book.

Fancy Fannie's Shop on Etsy - I love the variety on these.

Oh Sew Crafty Canada's Shop on Etsy - These also come with a book to write your stories.





The Grouchy Ladybug

We recently read The Grouchy Ladybug and decided to do an activity with the book. Once we read the book, I used the Cricut machine to cut out twelve ladybugs. I then proceeded to put the same number of dots on each ladybug as their order. The first ladybug got one dot, the second ladybug got two dots, etc.

Once they all had the appropriate number of dots, I laminated them for durability. We then re-read the book and used the appropriate ladybug for each page. We have also used the ladybugs for just general math/counting practice and it has worked out great.

This is a display table that we set up in our office lending library. If you are in the Lexington, KY area, come on by and see.