*Note: This post contains affiliate links

This book starts by focusing on the adult–how our thoughts, expectations, and attitudes affect how we parent. As a parent of a child with ADHD, it is important to understand that a lot of the behaviors your child may exhibit is part of an underlying problem with executive functioning. Understanding your child and understanding ADHD is essential for you to go about helping your child the best way you can. The more aware we are, the better we can react and respond to difficult behaviors. The way we parent will make a difference in our children’s lives.  This book reminds us that our actions impact our children and guides us towards a positive impact. The author suggests that we keep in mind how much positive versus negative feedback that a child with ADHD hears from us.  Because kids with ADHD often need a lot of behavioral correction, the child may be receiving too much negative feedback. Being mindful of this will help a parent balance the ratio between negative and positive feedback (p.89).

Your thoughts become your words,

Your words become your actions,

Your actions become your habitsGhandi

Once we have worked on controlling our own thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, we can begin to help our child do the same. The next few chapters give parents concrete ways they can help guide a child’s behavior and set clear limits with consistency.  After this, the focus turns to addressing a child’s needs in school. I can imagine that this will be very helpful for parents as they advocate for their child. The author gives insight into what type of instruction benefits children with ADHD and what level of organizational support may be required.

One weighty decision parents likely face is whether or not their child requires medication to help their executive functioning. It appears to me that the author’s goal in this chapter is to give parents researched-based information on medication, not to persuade parents that they should medicate their children.  The only way to make an informed decision is to gather information. I like how the author brings in the concept of mindfulness to this issue stating, “Don’t believe something only because someone else says it’s true” (p.162). This can be applied to any source of information (especially on the internet) and it is wise to seek out information sources that are credible. Even after reading this book, parents should continue their research on medications from other reliable sources.

In the final chapter, the author delves into mindfulness activities for children. He shares suggestions to help in areas such as: paying attention, responsiveness, awareness of thoughts, awareness of emotions, compassion and gratitude. In each of these areas, he shows us how we demonstrate these behaviors ourselves and how we can foster them in our children. Being a role model of mindfulness for our children is crucial. Social modeling is a powerful learning tool. To educate yourself more on the importance of social modeling, google “Albert Bandura” and “Social Learning Theory” to find reliable sources to read on the subject matter.

Keep up the good work moms and dads

To purchase a copy of this book, click on the picture below:

Need a book written for kids? I love this one:

The post The Book To Help You Mindfully Parent A Child With ADHD appeared first on Empowering Parents to Teach.

The choices we make every day affect our planet. Daily habits that we often don’t even think twice about can either help or harm the Earth. That is why is it important as a parent to teach our children good habits that are mindful of our impact. If we establish good habits now, we are helping both our children and our planet.

Essentially, every area of our lives can be analyzed for improvement when it comes to helping maintain a healthy environment. Today, I am going to focus on just one: our children’s school lunches. Every day many of us pack a lunch and send our kids off to school. Ever stop to think how much trash is produced from those lunches? Are we focusing more on convenience than nutrition? There are many things to consider when we choose what to put in our children’s lunch boxes. In efforts to reduce the amount of trash produced and provide our children with proper nutrition, focus on these five things:

*Note: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase from Amazon, I receive a very small fee at no extra cost to you.

1. Reusable Packaging

Ditch the little plastic bags! If you use plastic bags to hold a sandwich or snacks, count how many you use every day in your children’s lunches. Now multiply that by 180 (the typical number of school days in a year). How many plastic bags do your children throw away each year? For example, if you only use 2 every day then your children are throwing away 360 plastic bags! Do you use 4 a day? That’s 720 plastic bags a year! If you switched to a reusable source, you are now saving those 360 or 720 bags from ending up in a landfill.

What should you use instead?

Stainless steel containers

Stainless steel or glass is your most eco-friendly option. You may not want to send a very young child with a glass container, so stainless steel is a great choice. Some products available:

ECOlunchbox:

Lunchbots:

We have two Lunchbots that look similar to the one pictured. They have worked well for us and have held up for years. There are more types of these available with different numbers of divisions for food.

Washable food bags

We love these! This company has so many fun patterns to choose from so there is bound to be one that your child enjoys.

Plastic containers

Of course, there are always plastic containers to help you avoid disposable one time use bags.

Rubbermaid sandwich kit:

Ikea food containers:

We have both of these sets.  I use the cold pack from the Rubbermaid set every day. The Ikea set has so many sizes, that I can always find a container to fit what I want to pack! The extra small size has come in very handy.

2. Reusable or Compostable Utensils

To reduce waste even further, have your child stop throwing away plastic spoons, forks, and knives. Or, if they do throw them away, pick a better material that can be composted or biodegrades easily. Here are some choices:

To-Go Ware

This set of bamboo utensils has everything you may need: knife, fork, spoon, and chopsticks. The outer sleeve holds the pieces very tightly when closed preventing the utensils from spilling out and getting lost. We have a set of these, too!

Compostable utensils:

These utensils are made mostly from non-GMO corn and can turn into soil in 3-6 months when composted (according to the information on their packaging). Even though they are considered disposable, I still have my children bring them home every day to wash them and reuse them. When the time comes to dispose of them, I know that they will biodegrade much faster than plastic utensils would.

3. Cloth Napkins

An often overlooked place to reduce the amount of trash in your child’s lunch is his or her napkin. Simply giving your child a cloth napkin can take away one more piece of trash every day! You can easily find these in many stores, but if you prefer online shopping Amazon’s got you covered with this set below.

4. Fresh Food 

All of the things we put in our children’s lunches is meant to provide them with the best nutrition we can give them. It’s tempting to put convenience over nutritional value at times. It seems easier to buy prepackaged processed food and quickly throw it in a lunch box while we make a mad dash to school. Now matter how early you wake up, the morning seems hectic and lacking adequate time to get out of the door. Examine your child’s lunch. How many items in there are actually just empty calories that fill your child’s stomach but don’t really provide nutrition? What can you pack instead? Give yourself time to plan ahead of time what kinds of nutritious foods you can pack.  Develop a routine of preparing and packing those foods until it becomes second nature. Remember, it all begins at the grocery store. If you don’t buy junk, it won’t end up in a lunch box.

Looking for suggestions on what to pack? Parents magazine’s Lunch For a Month gives 30 healthy lunch ideas given by celebrity chefs (click here for the article).

5. Avoid Overpacking

One thing I noticed about my children’s lunches in the beginning of the school year was how much they actually ate. They came home with a lot of uneaten food. Of course, they claimed that they did not have enough time to eat. Which I do not think they are fibbing about, they have a short lunch (in my opinion). Knowing that they only have a certain amount of time to eat, I want every bite to count. I needed to pack less food, because over packing would result in more waste not more eating. If I packed too much they will naturally eat the things they like the most and the rest may end up in the trash. I do not want to waste food, so I pack only what they eat.

This brings me to a huge issue in schools: food waste. If your child buys lunch at school, they may be throwing away a lot of food. For example, in the Los Angeles Unified School District in 2014, they estimated that students threw away $100,000 worth of food a day. Perfectly edible food just thrown away! Click here to read the full article highlighting this problem. There are steps that a school can take to help alleviate this. Ask your child’s school if they participate in the U.S. Food Waste Challenge. Click here to learn more about the U.S. Food Waste Challenge and what schools can do to help.

Little changes can make a big impact if enough of us do it together!

The post Five Ways To “Green” Your Child’s School Lunch appeared first on Empowering Parents to Teach.

Let the race begin!

The race has four stations with an activity to complete at each one. Every activity reinforces the concept of Mardi Gras. To win the race, the kids will race each other to be the first one to complete all four stations.

I did this race with my own boys. Before we began, I walked the boys through each station explaining what they were supposed to do and the significance of the activity.

Station 1:  Put On Your Costume

We learned from our book that during Mardi Gras there is a big parade.  People often dress up as kings, queens, jesters, or clowns.  You often see people wearing masks.  The very first station had  jester hats in Mardi Gras colors (purple, gold, and green) and masks to put on.  Once they had their hats and masks on they rushed to the next station.

Station 2:  Find The “Baby”

I explained to my kids that during Mardi Gras people eat a special cake called a King Cake.  Hidden in the cake is a small plastic baby.   The person who finds the baby in their piece of cake has good luck and they have to buy the King Cake next year.

In this activity, the kids will have to find the “baby” hidden in Mardi Gras colored pasta.  I did not have a baby small enough to hide, so I thought of Lego figures.  To make it even more challenging, I actually only hid a Lego head in the pasta mixture.

The “babies”:

Hide the “babies” in colored pasta:

See the baby?

Now it’s hidden!

Ready to go:

Outside, ready to go!

Searching for the Lego head (a.k.a baby)

Station 3: Throw The Beads

It wouldn’t be Mardi Gras without those plastic beaded necklaces.  Parade goers excitedly try to catch beaded necklaces that are tossed out.  In this activity, the kids have to throw the beaded necklaces around the wooden posts (our parade goers).  This was the trickiest station.  It was very challenging for the boys and my youngest just ended up placing the beads on!

Each kid had three necklaces to throw.  They were told ahead of time who got green and who got purple.

Their attempts:

Station 4: Make Music

To finish the race, the boys had to pick one instrument and do three laps around the yard playing their instrument. This activity reinforced the importance of music!

That’s the end of the race!

To continue our Mardi Gras learning, we will read these books:

We will practice our French with these super cute cards:

We will also make our very own King Cake and hide a Lego minifigure in it (after baking of course!)

*This post contains affiliate links

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We’ve all been there. You’re tired, utterly exhausted, but you still have kids to feed. Especially when you have a new baby at home, getting dinner on the table sound like a monumental task. Running on empty with lack of sleep, the witching hour comes at dinner time. You are trying to prepare dinner while the preschooler (or toddler) melts down, the baby wants to be held, and you can’t leave the stove because your pot may boil over!

Or perhaps your nights are busy. Your kids get off the bus at 3:30, they have to get their homework done and eat before being at sports practice at 5:30. You really don’t want to get fast food, so you are looking for something quick and easy to prepare.

Sometimes, it’s both of those scenarios together!  It’s not easy getting dinner on the table when your attention is pulled in so many directions and time is tight.

After the birth of my second child I stopped saying that I cooked dinner, instead, I heated dinner. Buying things that were for the most part already made, I just needed to heat them up. While my youngest is now four and I’m out of the lack of sleep baby fog, there are still days where I need a quick dinner. Sometimes when I prepare these quick meals it reminds of the baby/toddler days and I thought I’d share my easy dinner ideas for those of you may need them

If you have a Trader Joe’s near you, it is a goldmine of products that are already made that you can just heat up.

Note: I cook primarily vegetarian meals. However, all the recipes that have “fake meat” can be substituted with real meat (the frozen kind that you just heat up)!

So here is my list of easy to prepare dinners for a tired or busy mom:

1. Orange Chicken, Peas, and Clementines

This is one of my family’s favorite easy dinners.  I have to thank my sister in law for sharing this idea with me! The rice (found in Trader Joe’s frozen section) cooks in the microwave for three minutes.  The “chicken” morsels bake in the oven just like chicken nuggets so you don’t have to stand by the stove keeping an eye on things. You easily heat the peas in the microwave for a minute or two. Simply defrost the orange sauce packets in warm water and top it on the chicken when it is done baking.  Plate your rice, add some delicious orange chicken and peas. It’s so good!!

If you grab a bag of clementines from the market, they make a great dessert!

2. Pierogies and Sweet Peas

This one is the quickest meal ever!

My boys love pierogies! It is actually my youngest favorite food.  My mother taught me how to make pierogies from scratch and of course those are always the best. However, when time is tight I go to Mrs.T! The pierogies only take five minutes to boil and they are done.  Heat the peas in the  microwave for a minute or two (depending on your microwave) and you are set! If you have the time, heat butter and chopped onions on the stove for the most “homemade” taste. Have some fresh fruit for dessert to round out this meal.

There are twelve pierogies in a box. My boys typically eat about four to five pierogies each, so depending on the size of your family you may need to purchase a couple of boxes

3. Chicken Parm and Broccoli

If you don’t have time to steam some broccoli or need gluten-free pasta:

Boil some of your favorite pasta- whole wheat, rice, corn, or quinoa pasta. Heat fresh broccoli in a steamer pot or buy the microwave kind to make it faster. Bake the chicken patties or Morning Star “chicken” according to the package. For the last five minutes of bake time add a little bit of pasta sauce and mozzarella cheese to let the cheese melt on top. As the chicken is baking, have your sauce heating on the stove, add the broccoli to the sauce. Once everything is done, plate your pasta and sauce, then top it off with the chicken patty!

4. Meatball Subs and Carrots

Ok, this is so easy! Heat the meatballs or meatless meatballs in pasta sauce according to the package.  Fill a bun with meatballs and top with parm or mozzarella cheese (or fake cheese). Heat up a side a carrots and you’ve got a quick, filling, dinner!

5. Black Bean Burgers, Mashed Potato, and Corn

Oh how I love Morning Star Black Bean Burgers! They are simply delicious and only take a few minutes to grill on the stove. Slice some veggies to top it- lettuce, tomato, yummy avocado, pickles, etc. Pair with the already made mashed potatoes you find at the deli department in your local grocery store (or instant potatoes) and some canned corn you’ve heated up and you’re golden!

I did not include corn in the picture because I’ve had the hardest time finding organic canned corn in our local grocery stores! Hopefully, your grocery stores still carry it!

6. Sloppy Joes and Salad

These are so easy! Brown some meat or “fake meat” from Morning Star.  Once the meat is fully cooked, pour the Sloppy Joe sauce into the pan, simmer until ready. Add them to a bun, sprinkle cheddar cheese on top and you’re done! On the side, grab some greens from one of those ready to go salad mixes and add veggies that you have in the fridge! Easy, simple meal

Leave a comment below and tell us what your favorite super easy dinner is to make when you are tired or busy!

The post Dinners For Tired (or Busy) Moms appeared first on Empowering Parents to Teach.

There are many easy ways you can use things you already have around your house to engage your child’s senses.  One simple sensory activity is to take some play-doh and add water!

As my kids played with play-doh one day, my son asked for a cup of water to pour over the dough. After that, both of my boys began exploring the water’s effect on the play-doh’s texture and consistency. Squishing it with their hands, cutting it with tools, and squashing it flat were highly enjoyable to them. Such a simple thing led to so much fun and a fantastic sensory play experience.

As a bonus, if you leave the play-doh partially submerged in water overnight, the colors will begin to run into the water.

So, if your little one is bored and looking for some fun, break out the play-doh and add some water!

The post Easy Sensory Play: Play-doh and Water appeared first on Empowering Parents to Teach.

Here’s the room from different angles:

The school room (which was formerly our playroom)

The living room is part of the schoolroom

I have to figure out how to hide all of those wires behind the desk!

Our kitchen will likely be another place that we work!

Organization was number one

The majority of our room set-up is focused on my oldest son’s needs.  I wanted things to have a place so that he knows where everything goes allowing him to get the things he needs and put things away by himself.  Having supplies easily accessible makes him more independent and frees me to focus on bigger things than finding supplies! This took a lot of thought as to what items were essential so that I can have those things ready to go. I had to imagine what a day might look like and what needs may arise.

Lack of clutter was my second goal

 It was very important to me that the room was not too “busy” and overrun with stuff.  I really believe that a cluttered room breeds a cluttered mind!  Don’t get me wrong, the room will get messy, used, and probably look like it is in shambles as we work, but as a starting point, I wanted the room to be a blank slate ready to be decorated with learning!

To achieve this I did a couple of things:

1. I have tons of stuff from my teaching days so I sorted through everything and determined what I may use this year and what I thought would not be used. The books, materials, and resources that I wanted available for this year were then organized by how often I thought we would use them.  Only things that we need on a daily basis needed to be in sight, the rest got put away in a closed cabinet.  That way it did not take up visual space but was put away in a place that made it easy to find!

2.  I purposefully did not but a bunch of stuff on the walls.  Currently, I have two posters at different heights, a US map, and one art project that my four year did. The posters I have hanging are a 100 chart for my preschooler and the scientific method chart for my oldest to use as a reference. The 100 chart will stay for a while (it’s been hanging in our house since little man was 2). The scientific method poster will only be there as needed. I know things will be added as we begin school, but I plan not to overload the wall space.

3.  The teacher desk that I found is small and very open.  I got this desk because it is not big and bulky taking up too much visual space. Although, all of the wires hanging down is driving me nuts.  I have to remedy that, suggestions are welcome

Comfort was important  

The most important thing about home school is you get to be at home where you live as a family!  The room should have all the comforts of home, not a sterile hospital like environment.  I love that our school room in located in the family room because my oldest LOVES sitting in the rocking chair and reading his books. Now he can do that whenever he wants!  We can sit on the couch to read or sit at our coffee table to learn math if we wanted to!  Our new room has the best of both worlds.  My son has a place to sit and focus at a desk or find a soft place to sit and spread out depending on what it is needed.  There is also a lot of floor space for puzzles, posters, or playing.

Putting all three of these things together resulted in this

Books, papers, science, and guided reading tools

The everyday materials:

Paper trays organized by paper type (lined paper, construction paper/colored paper, editing checklists, scrap paper & tracing paper)

Guided reading materials in the white basket (highlighter tape, thinkmarks, post-its, index cards,etc.)

Current science topic materials

Some of our rocks and gems have been here forever.  They will be moved as we explore different topics, changing this display regularly.  We are in the process of collecting seeds for our plant study coming up.  It will be used to study different characteristics of seeds and how they are dispersed. So for now, this is a work in progress

See this closed door in our school room?  It is the area under the stairs that we use for toy storage. Now, I’ve added some teaching supplies too.  This is where I store some of the things that don’t need to be used everyday.

Opens up to storage!

Here’s what’s inside:

Toys that can also be used for learning or keeping a preschooler occupied!

In the bins pictured below are puzzles, cars, play weapons (I have boys), card games, flashcards, foam letters, and small building toys. There are plastic animals on one shelf and activity books and coloring books on the bottom.

The next wall has my organizer that holds our large USA puzzle, musical instruments, and math manipulatives.

On the wall by the black organizer is some of our up dress clothes!

I love having our toys in the school room, because playing is learning! I also love that I can close the door and all of this is out of sight when we need to focus on an academic task.

In addition to our school room, I used our kitchen for storage of materials.

Notebooks, workbooks, books, binders, other school supplies

In our kitchen, which is attached to the school room:

In the small organizer–

Top drawer:  more post-its, index cards, bookmarks, small paper items

Middle drawer:  scissors (regular and craft), rulers, protractors, calculator, straight edge, small graph paper, rubber bands

Bottom drawer: scotch taper, colored pencils, glue

The items on top and on the side are from other countries.  My husband brought back the nesting dolls from Russia, the bearded dragon from Japan, and the Berlin magnet from Germany.  My sister gave me the statue from Greece.  I like to have them visible for my boys to explore and ask questions.  I also keep coins from many countries on top.  The boys actually really love playing with the nesting dolls.

Pencils, pens, highlighters, correction tape, erasers, small supplies

There is a drawer right under the counter where we can keep all of these items.

Teacher Materials, Craft Supplies, and Science

I used the bottom cabinets and one shelf in the upper cabinet located in the kitchen to hide some of the materials, but still have them within our reach. 

Upper cabinet:

On the left, I put extra office/school supplies and small sensory items.

One the right, I have some of our science supplies that we will use somewhat regularly.

Science supplies

The bottom cabinets:

Here, I have teaching books and materials, markers, crayons, craft supplies, preschool reading supplies, extra paper, paint and paint supplies.

Even when organized, it looks cluttered.  This is why it hides behind a cabinet

Why did I put this in the kitchen and not in the school room?  

It was important for me to use my house as efficiently as possible.  I did not want to bring in too many organizing tools such as bookshelves and large shelves if it could be avoided.  I’m the kind of person that tries to use what I have before buying more stuff.  Luckily, we have a lot of counter space in our kitchen so I used what I had available. And, I like where it is, because I know we won’t do all of our work in the school room.  The nice thing about home school is you can do it anywhere! If we work in the kitchen, the school room, or anywhere else, we still have the stuff nicely organized and easy to find to take with us.

To top it all off, we have the comforts of home

That hole in the wall has become our snuggle cubby with blankets, pillows, and books!

My oldest absolutely LOVES reading in that rocking chair.  On the coffee table are three ever present items– his current reading book, a big bowl of Legos, and our Magic the Gathering cards!

That’s our school room!  I hope you found our school room tour helpful

The post Our Homeschool Room 2014-2015 appeared first on Empowering Parents to Teach.

First, choose your manipulative.  Think about what your child would prefer, older children tend to like the linking cubes and younger ones enjoy the math bears.  You can use either one for this activity.  Anything small around your house would work if you have enough of them- pennies, buttons, crayons, peanuts, etc.  In this lesson, I will use math bears

A number is even if it is divisible by two.  If it is not divisible by two, then it is odd.  The hands-on way to demonstrate this to kids is simple!

1. Beforehand, make a pile of cards with odd and even numbers on them, one number per card.

2. Put the pile face down on a tray or table with your manipulatives.

3. You, the parent, turn over the first card and say the number aloud.  Take out the corresponding numbers of bears or cubes.  For example, if you got the number five, take out five bears.

Take out five bears

4. Show your child that you are going to match your bears with a buddy.  It helps to place the bears in two lines next to each other (see picture).  You are grouping them by twos.  I like using the math bears for this, because you can see how they look like they are holding a buddy’s hand! 

Orange bear does not have a buddy.

Notice that when you have five bears, one bear is left without a buddy.  You can even say, “That’s odd, one bear doesn’t have a buddy”, playing on the dual meaning of “odd”!   You can even call him the “odd man out”.  Whenever a bear is left without a buddy, we call that an odd number.

Teaching Tip: Some times if you have a catch phrase, it helps the child remember.  Anytime a bear is without a buddy you can say, “That’s odd!” The funnier you say it, the better

5. Explain to your child that if all the bears have a buddy, the number is even.  They may notice that the two lines both have the same number of bears in even numbers. Think about if you had to share the bears evenly between you and a friend; to be even, you each need the same number of bears.  If one bear is left without a buddy (as in the case with the number 5), it’s an odd number. For older kids that understand divisibility, explain that you can divide an even number by two, but not an odd one.

6. Let your child continue pairing up the bears to see what numbers are odd and what numbers are even.  Remember your catch phrase! With enough practice they should begin to notice a pattern.  Soon, they can do this in their head without the help of manipulatives.  But, because they had the hands-on practice, they have created a concrete framework to understand the concept!!

One of our favorite picture books to help reinforce this concept is One Odd Day by Doris Fisher!

To see more ways to use the math bears, check out: Math Manipulatives Must Haves

This post is linked to  

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Today, she shares how her son’s interest in oceanography led to some fun and educational science activities to do at home!  This week it’s all about waves

Oceanography Exploration– Week One

From our science mom:

I whole-heartedly believe in child-led learning and think my kids appreciate and understand better when we are discussing topics that they are interested in.  My son has been on an oceanography kick lately, so we decided to do a couple at home science experiments to learn more.  When I started thinking about what types of things we could explore, I realized we could have several weekends worth of material for our Science Saturday adventures.  For the first weekend, I decided we would deal with ocean water properties; specifically, wave dynamics.

We started our wave exploration by making our own wave bottle.

You can easily make a wave bottle at home, too.  We made ours in a smaller, individual sized water bottle so it would be easier for small hands to manipulate.  To make your own, fill any sized bottle 1/3 with water and add a few drops of food coloring.  My daughter really wanted to make a purple one, but we stuck with the usual blue.  Fill the rest of bottle most of the way with cooking oil.  I superglued the bottle cap back on, because you can’t be too careful!  Both of my children really enjoyed tipping the bottle and watching the waves.  My daughter also really liked shaking it up and watching the layers separate, but that’s a lesson for a different day!

After my son played awhile with the bottle we began discussing simple wave dynamics.

Using this figure, we defined these terms of simple wave dynamics:

 Crest:  The highest point of the wave.

Trough:  The lowest point of the wave.

Wave Height: The distance between the crest and trough of the wave.

Wavelength: The distance between successive crests or troughs.

Amplitude: One half the wave height; or the distance of either the crest or trough to the water line.

Seeing this diagram and discussing the definitions reminded my son of an episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy we watched recently that also discussed waves.  He asked if ocean waves are the same as sound waves.  I love when science concepts are applied across topics!  We only briefly discussed the frequency, vibration and volume of sound waves, but I promised we would delve further into sound waves in future experiments.

We all had a lot of fun playing with the wave bottle and learned a lot about wave dynamics.  I hope your family enjoys this activity as much as we did.

The post Oceanography Exploration– Waves appeared first on Empowering Parents to Teach.

My children are currently nine and four.  I have included toys and games that they either repeatedly play with or highly engage them.  To me, that is the sign of a great toy for a mind that craves mental stimulation!

FTC Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small percentage of a sale at no extra cost you.

Science Toys and Games

Snap Circuits Jr.-

Kids have fun building their own circuits!  My advice, don’t look at the pamphlet showing you all the circuits you can make.  Let the kids figure it out first.  There is so much learning in failed attempts.  It gives the child a chance to evaluate why the circuit isn’t working and determine how to fix it.

Attempting to build a circuit

Before I started lunch, I sat with my just-turned four year old and we tried to create a circuit at his request.  It took a couple of attempts, but we eventually did it together. As I was fixing lunch, he explored the toy on his own.  Some of the things I heard him say were, “…do this to complete the circuit” and “If I connect this one…”.  He was fully engaged in this toy and using it in an open ended fashion.  That’s why I love it!

Mad Science  Kit-

We got this kit free at an event at my oldest son’s school.  It’s from a franchise company called Mad Science.  In this kit, you receive three small magnets that you arrange so that they repel each other.  Since they are repelling, they appear to be floating on the small rod.  It is an awesome hands on way to learn about magnets and how they behave.  The child can test different ways of arranging the magnets to see what would happen.  If you don’t have a kit like this, it’s ok.  You may be able to make something similar at home with strong magnets from a store!

Human Body Game (from Lakeshore Learning)-

Even though this is a game, my kids have always used it like a puzzle.  They enjoy taking the body parts out and putting them back in.  In the process, the are learning some basics on where body parts are in the body, the names and general appearance of the parts.  I like the hands on nature of the toy as an introduction to human anatomy. My kids like the puzzle aspect of it!

Math Toys and Games

Equate-

This game is a lot like Scrabble, but instead of building words the child builds equations.  Kids get to create with all sorts of numbers, even fractions! This is the perfect game for a math loving child.  There are various levels of difficulty available.  They can build the equations mentally or use a paper and pencil to work it out before playing. It’s a very unique game. They might even make up their own way of playing!

 Pattern Play

This toy is essentially hands on geometry.  The child gets to create a pattern or picture using geometric shapes.  They can follow a given pattern or make their own design.  I like how open ended it can be and the combination of math and art.  Many kids don’t realize how much math is in art.  This would be a perfect way for a math focused child to delve into art.

Blokus

This is another game that my kids use as a toy.  Maybe once they’ve actually played this as a game.  My four year is the one who really loves this.  I refer to this as hands on Tetris.  My preschooler usually tries to fit the different shaped pieces so that they all fit into the board.  It is a wonderful spatial toy!  Just by attempting this challenge he created, he has to manipulate the pieces in a way that makes them fit together in just the right way.  Without realizing it, he is practicing sliding, turning, flipping, and area.

Logic & Reasoning Toys and Games

Stratego

This is the newest version. We actually have this one and the original. I personally prefer the original.

My son loves this capture the flag style game!  You have to devise a strategy to get past your opponents troops, avoid or diffuse their bombs, and capture their hidden flag!

Mancala

The goal is to get the most gems in your trough.  You have to plan your moves based on where your gems and your opponents gems are.  There is strategy involved in planning your move and anticipating your opponents move too!

Mastermind

This was one of my favorite games growing up.  My oldest is just now getting into it.  There is a lot of deductive reasoning involved as the player attempts to figure out a hidden color pattern.  The other player gives clues and the person solving the pattern needs to put those clues together.  It’s not as easy as it sounds sometimes.  It’s a pretty good challenge!

I hope this list helps you find a game that is just right for your little ones.  We have so many games in our house; our shelves are bursting with books and games.   I narrowed our selections down to three per category to make the list manageable.  But, I have throw in our honorable mention– Qwirkle!

Playing a fun game of Qwirkle

Update:

We got Q-Bitz as a Christmas gift and it is absolutely amazing. I have to mention this one!

Happy gaming

This post is part of the Gifted Homeschoolers Forum May 2014 Blog Hop: Special Tips, Toys, Tricks, and Tools For Parenting & Educating Gifted/2E kids. To read more amazing blog posts, click here!

The post Our Favorite Games and Toys for Gifted Kids appeared first on Empowering Parents to Teach.

Mixing colors is one of my preschooler’s favorite things to do.  It’s messy, he gets to play with water, and it’s fun to see what colors he can make!  However, it’s not just for preschoolers.  Older kids love color mixing too, probably for the same reasons!  They can explore the concept a little deeper by experimenting with shades of color.

We have done color mixing before and listened to the story Mouse Paint by Ellen Stohl Walsh at our library story time.  My son loves this book.  In the story you see the white mice hop into different color paints and they begin mixing colors, thus creating new ones. It is a great visual for color mixing.  Better yet, our librarian turned this into a felt story.  My son still thinks our librarian is magic because because she put a white felt mouse into a small box and he came out red!  If you have the time, making this into a felt story would be fantastic.  This book illustrates how the three primary colors create three secondary colors.

Kids tend to learn the three basics first:

• Red and yellow make orange
• Blue and yellow make green
• Red and blue make purple

Extending the basics of color mixing, Color Dance by Ann Jonas takes the concept a little deeper.  You start with the three dancers holding long scarves- red, yellow, and blue.  At first they dance together making orange, green, and purple.  After that, you see how they can make various shades of each color- such as marigold, vermilion, aquamarine.  A boy comes by holding a white scarf and we see the colors become paler.  He brings a gray scarf and the color become dark.  And lastly, he dances by with a black scarf and the colors are barely visible.  This is what inspired our latest color adventure.

First, I made a big circle with six pieces to make a color wheel.  I colored every other spot with a primary color- red, blue, and yellow.  We opened up to the first page of the book, Color Dance and matched the color of the dancers with the colors on our wheel. We looked at the page where the red dancer and the yellow dancer made the color orange.  My little one saw the orange and noted that red and yellow were the two colors that made orange.  He started looking for an orange crayon to add it to our color wheel.

I showed him how we color the orange between the two color that made it- red and yellow.  He attempted to do this himself, then asked me to color it in.

We continued using the book to figure out what colors go in our remaining spots.  We saw the yellow and blue dancers made green and the blue and red dancers made purple.  We added them to our color wheel.

Following along in the book, we learned that white makes colors appear pale.  So he grabbed a white crayon and rubbed it over the blue to see what would happen.   Next, he tried coloring over the blue with the black crayon since we learned from the story that black seems to block the color.  The difference was not that noticeable using crayons!

I hung the color wheel up on the wall and we began some hands on fun of color mixing.  We started out very orderly.  I added food coloring to three glass measuring bowls of water- red, blue, and yellow.  First, he tested the primary colors just as it was in the book.  He poured some yellow and blue together, yellow and red together, and some blue and red together.  As he did each one we predicted what color would be made by referring to the color wheel we had just completed.  He successfully made all three secondary colors.

After making purple, he mixed the blue and yellow to make green.

Checking out the green!

After that, he had a color mixing and pouring free for all!  He kept mixing all kinds of colors together, eventually ending with all the colors mixed together. It resulted in a very dark forest green.

Mixing red and orange

All the colors mixed together

For older kids, they can experiment with the shade of the colors.  What happens if you pour more red than yellow?  What of if you have more yellow than red?  The different amounts of each color affect the shade it creates.  They can compare this with the shades shown in the book Color Dance.

Color mixing is so much fun.  Your little one can explore science and art together!  Happy mixing

                             Mouse Paint Color Dance

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