Home Schooling Ideas for Week Two

I hope everyone is healthy and safe during this challenging time.  I know it has to be difficult to manage your jobs, home life and homeschooling all at the same time.  If you've started running out of ideas, here's something you may want to try this week.  Please keep in mind that this completely optional.

The children in our class absolutely love playing games.  I try to make them educational without them realizing which adds to the fun.  I had an idea which stems off of some of the suggestions from last week.  Let's try to play Scavenger Hunt 5 Days, 5 Ways!   & some extension ideas as well.

What you will need to supply:
* Two identical decks of "cards" for each day.  You can print them, write them, even use Post-its.
* Your child
* Your excitement

Day One:

Make two identical decks of cards with one upper case letter printed on each card A-R.  (You can reuse the cards from the Memory Game you may have made with last week's suggestions.) You will not use all the cards at the same time until your child gets used to the game and you need to occupy him/her for a longer period of time. :)

Keep the decks in two separate identical piles.

Without your child noticing, scatter one deck around the house, Easter Egg Hunt style.  Make sure each card is within your child's reach and the letters are visible

Now its time to play!

Turn the second set of cards upside down in an easily accessible drawing spot.

Have your child flip one card over, look at the letter, identify the letter name, and then search your house for its pair.

Once the set is made, have your child set it out on a table and then draw a second card.

Repeat until all sets have been made.

Praise your little one for a job well done!!

Day Two:

Repeat the above game with Numbers 0-7 printed on the individual cards.
Extension to the game:  Have your child draw a card and show you that number on their fingers.  Then reverse the game, you show a random number on your fingers and have your child identify the correct printed number card.

Day Three:

Repeat the game with Shapes and Colors:  Circle, Triangle, Square, Rectangle, Oval, Star, Heart.  Make each shape a different color.
Extension to the game:  Have your child draw a card and find a household object that is the same shape as the card.  Then repeat with colors.

Day Four:

Repeat the game with the letters in your child's name.  If your child has a short first name, introduce your child's last name as well.  Only this time, display your child's name written out as a whole as well as with the individual letter decks so they can see the letters strung together to form actual words... their names!
Extension to the game:  Have your child draw a card and find that letter anywhere in your home... books, magazines, cereal boxes, snack bags, toilet paper packaging (lol), etc...

Day Five:

Counting:  Repeat the game, only this time you will need three decks.  Two decks will be identical and one will not.  You can reuse the two decks of number cards from Day Two.  Hide the first deck around the house just as you did in the previous days.  The second deck, scatter and lay out face up on a table. Make a third deck with individual counting sets - can be dots, pictures of objects, drawn smiley faces, stickers, etc.  Each card should have a different number set 0-7.   Place a card with nothing on it towards the bottom of the deck to represent zero.  (THEY LOVE THE ZERO TRICK!!!)  This time, have your child flip one card over at a time, help them count the number of objects, identify the card with the correct number which is face up on the table and then find the hidden match.


SOCIALIZING is so crucial to your child's development!  Unfortunately, we need to make temporary adjustments.  I've been giving this a lot of thought and came up with a simple idea for this week.  In an effort to try to keep the children in our class connected, would you please try to send me a photo or two or even a few of your child doing something during our quarantine?  I will post the photos on my blog so you can show them to your little sweethearts.  Some of you have already shared some with me and they have made my day!!  I miss all my little munchkins sooooo much and have been so delighted to see them in your photographs.  I'm hoping that sharing the photos with our little classmates will have the same effect on them!  In the sharing of your photos with me going forward from now, I am asking that you are also giving me permission to post them on this blog.

I also appreciate any feed back or ideas you may have.  Please email me and I will be sure to get back to you in a timely manner.

ABCMouse.com is offering free subscriptions to students during the COVID-19 crisis.  Thank you  Mrs. Conover for bringing this to my attention.  Our class is registered and ready to go for anyone interested.

Lastly, I want to express my most sincere gratitude for all our parents who work in the medical field of whom we have quite a few in our classroom.  I am keeping your safety and health as well as that of your families forefront in my prayers.

May God Bless You All,
Paula Dobres