Have you sent your kid a letter this summer? What a great thing to do! When you’re bored at work – instead of re-checking your e-mail for the tenth time, or surfing, do something that will help your kid… write her a letter. It takes, like, 10 minutes and it […]
Activities
License Plate Game
Our family recently took an 11-hour car trip. And guess what we did in the car? Played Julia’s License Plate Game. It was great! First of all, it took our son away from his DS video game (curse you, Pokemon!). Secondly, it did exactly what Julia said it would – […]
Literacy games for in the car
By Julia Mohamed Going on a road trip? Here are some great literacy games you can play in the car. THE LICENSE PLATE GAME● One person begins by spotting a license plate and announcing the letters (not the numbers) on it. ● Everyone else, in turn, must come up with […]
The "Air Mail" game
My son’s friend likes to play “air mail” whenever he comes over on a playdate. It’s a great game and I know that it works on their literacy skills because I’ve seen improvements. It involves a bit of the adult’s time, but it’s such a fun game that I indulge […]
Numeracy activities
A few posts ago, I listed some great literacy activities from our school board. Here are some numeracy activities to get kids doing math (same source, TDSB). Again, I’ve put in bold the ones I think are particularly interesting. Estimate speed/distance/time relationships while travelling with your family. What was the […]
Get involved in your child’s school
Enrich your child’s learning, help your teacher, get involved. I despair when parents complain that their kids aren’t getting what they need from their school. I despair, not because the children aren’t getting what they need from their school, but because we parents have been conditioned to accept those terms […]
Literacy Lava – excellent (free) resource
Literacy Lava 5 I’ve got an article in the latest edition of Susan Stephenson’s (The Book Chook) great e-newsletter, “Literacy Lava.” “Literacy Lava” is a free .pdf for parents and educators, and is basically a collection of great articles on helping kids to read. This is the 5th edition of […]
Current events
I’ve been doing current events at my son’s school. I approached my son’s teacher a few weeks ago, and proposed a weekly, half-hour current events discussion for the grade 3 / 4 class. My son’s teacher is very cool, and progressive and totally supported the idea. He also helped to […]
Quick and easy literacy activities
Our school board issued a list of great literacy activities. They’re simple and fun, and are great examples of what I like to call “guerilla literacy” – using tons of little tactics here and there that add up to… a kid who likes to read. You may want to print […]
Physical literacy games
It’s a good idea to link learning to physical activity. I was inspired this week by my son’s teacher, who was teaching them fractions by having them throw balls into various buckets marked 1/7, 1/3, 1/4, etc. They had to add them up and avoid making an improper fraction. I […]
