My kids love when we make little homemade "robots" that move and wiggle around. I've been wanting to make something more car or rover-like with wheels for awhile, but I wasn't exactly sure how to connect the motor to the wheels. This little propeller car kind of feels like cheating, since the ...
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Homemade Steady Hand Game
This site uses affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!Instead of having kids glued to hand-held devices this summer, why not have them make their own? A homemade, single-player, steady hand game is a fun, easy project for elementary-aged kids that teaches them a little bit about electricity. To play the game, kids try to follow a curved wire path with ...
Ancient Mesopotamian Cards
This site uses affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!The primary thing I've learned in studying Ancient Mesopotamia with my 6 year old is that I'm really glad I don't live in Ancient Mesopotamia. There doesn't seem to be anything warm, nurturing, or cradle-like about the cradle of civilization. Ancient Mesopotamian leaders seem to have been ...
What Time Is It? Material
This site uses affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!Being able to tell time is one of those abilities that I take for granted as an adult. Since my 6 year old is a pretty fast learner and good at math, I figured it was time for him to learn to read an analog clock. He's been able to "read" a digital clock for awhile, but he has no real understanding ...
Homemade Weather Vane and Compass Activity
This site uses affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!There's been a lot of weather in my life recently. We just had a couple weeks of awesome summer weather followed by some sleet, snow, and hail. (Unfortunately, I wasn't paying much attention to the changes in weather and my 4 year old dressed herself in shorts and flip flops during one of our ...
Dialogic Reading Cheat Sheet
This site uses affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!Everyone knows that reading picture books to children is good, but what you might not know is that NOT "reading" books might be even better. Don't worry...I’m not suggesting that you part with your child’s personal library quite yet. However, rather than simply reading the words on the page to your ...
Color Changing Acid-Base Experiment
This site uses affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!When most people think about a stereotypical scientist, they probably envision a white lab coat, goggles, and test tubes. (For good reason...chemical reactions are fun!) When two substances are mixed together and the result is unexpected, you feel like a real chemist. I think all kids should have a ...
Lined Paper for Young Writers
This site uses affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!I just started a "Charlotte Mason"-esque copywork program with my 6 year old that requires him to copy short passages from books we've read. (It's called A Quiver of Arrows (not sponsored) and so far we're loving it, in case you're interested.) Since he's never done copywork before, I thought it ...
Subtraction Strip Board
This site uses affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!I LOVE Montessori teaching tools, especially for math. They're so hands-on and they make learning so intuitive. My 6-year-old uses our homemade "golden" beads all the time. I feel like those beads combined with our number symbol cards are going to get us pretty far. However, constructing that set of ...
Ziplock Solar System I-Spy Busy Bag
This site uses affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!I'm a little ashamed to say, but I don't really worry about entertaining my preschooler and kindergartener. They are pretty good at entertaining themselves. However, if they start to melt down and I ABSOLUTELY need a minute, I can put on a movie and be confident they will leave me alone for at least ...