Situation · school subjects, played rather than taught · 10 activities
Learning That Does Not Feel Like School
Ten activities where the letters, the numbers and the map are inside a job a child wants to finish.
Pick by whatever they are meeting at the moment, not by the shelf. Letter sounds this term: the post office and sound drop, which is a cereal box with slots and a stack of picture cards. Counting: the egg carton counting grid, twelve cups, a number in each. Telling the time: the paper clock, where every card says what happens in his own day at that hour. Tens and hundreds: the bank game and then the bead chain snake.
One thing makes the difference between this and homework, and it is what you do with your mouth. Do not call it practice, do not test at the end, and do not correct in the moment. Several of these say play along on the line, which means take a turn yourself and get one wrong sometimes.
The reason it holds up is that the material is the teacher. The carton only takes twelve. The bank will only trade ten of one thing for one of the next. The continent map lets a piece drop in or it does not. A child finds out from the thing in her hands rather than from your face, which is why she will do it again tomorrow.
If one lands hard or bores instantly, our guide to too easy, too hard, or just right is the quickest fix, and it is nearly always one step rather than a different activity.
The ten
Ordered by the age each one suits best. Nine want nothing you would have to buy; the continent map is the exception and says so on its line.
- Cardboard Post Office and Sound Drop Your child holds a picture card, says the sound its word starts with, and posts it through the slot marked with that letter. 15 min, once · 10 to 20 min · household only
- Egg Carton Counting Grid Your child reads the number written in the bottom of an egg carton cup and drops in exactly that many beans, one at a time, twelve cups in a row. 15 min, once · 10 to 20 min · household only
- Shape Shadow Match Your child stands a solid shape in a beam of light and works out which of the outlines traced on the paper its shadow belongs to. 2 min · 10 to 20 min · household only
- Story Sequence Cards Your child puts four or five cards into the order the thing actually happened, and then tells you the story they make. 2 min · 5 to 10 min · household only
- Clock Face and Hands Match Your child sets the hands on a paper clock to match a card, and the card says what happens at that time in his own day. 15 min, once · 10 to 20 min · household only
- Continent Map Puzzle Your child lifts each continent out of a wooden map by its knob and puts it back where it came from. 1 min · 10 to 20 min · has to be bought
- Place Value Bead Bank Game Your child is sent to the bank for a number, comes back with loose beans, bundles of ten and bags of a hundred, and trades ten of anything for one of the next size up. 2 min · 20 min or more · household, or a bought set
- Bead Chain Addition Snake Your child lays a line of bead bars, counts off the first ten beads, swaps them for a single ten-bar, and keeps going until the snake is nothing but tens. 2 min · 20 min or more · household, or a bought set
- Maze Blueprint Mapping Your child tapes a maze onto the floor and then draws it on paper as a plan, or draws the plan first and builds to it. 2 min · 20 min or more · household only
- Plant Care and Growth Measuring Your child grows a bean from a dried one in the cupboard, waters it on a schedule that is hers, and cuts a paper strip to its height every morning. 2 min · 5 min a day, for weeks · household only
All ten are dry and tidy, and most pack into one tub between sittings.