Days of Play: Wherein I Admit to Hating Bubbles

Bubbles seem like such harmless things but geeze they make a mess.  I have leather furniture and every time we blow bubbles I end up with this bubble-slick nonsense that isn't super easy to clean up. Of course they are bubbles which means the couch gets super clean but I don't always feel like cleaning the couch on a daily basis, which is about how often my kids want to play with bubbles.

In good weather I blow bubbles outside.  Problems still abound.  Like the wind blows the bubbles up too high and I can't convince my kids that I'm not in charge of the wind so they clearly think: 1.  I'm blowing the bubbles up, up, and away just to hurt their feelings and 2.  I'm in charge of the universe (I'm actually okay with this assumption except for where wind, tornadoes, and earthquakes are involved).

The other problem is that I get winded, er um, tired.  Blowing bubbles for 30 minutes is a lot ... and I'm in good shape.  I do not want a bubble machine.  Then I'd feel like a failure because what parent can't blow bubbles for their kids, I ask you?

So anyhow.

This is one of (many) places where I fail as a mom. I hate bubbles.  And I didn't even talk about the bath kind.

Then again, kids love bubbles.  I actually remember the first time I showed both my kids bubbles.  The look of wonderment was amazing.  It was like they had the whole world figured out and the BAM! I hit them with bubbles and suddenly everything was up in the air in the best way possible.  I mean they are round and floaty and rainbowy and delicate.  Bubbles are pretty amazing ... except for the part where I hate them.

Lucky for me, I found a way my kids can make bubbles that totally enthralls them, keeps the couch clean, saves my breath, and isn't affected by wind.

What you will need:

• 9x13 inch pan for each child
• water
• food coloring (optional)
• 1-2 drops dish soap
• straw

What you do:

• Put a couple of drops in each pan.
• Add food coloring.
• Add water.
• Take pan outside.
• Give your kids the straws
• Let them blow bubbles.

The end.

Finally, bubble magicalness I can handle.

Days of Play: Marshmallow Poppers (and a fun story)

So here's the story.

When M.E. was born my husband was a staff attorney for three judges, one of whom purchased this lamb/blanket toy for her arrival.  His grandson's favorite toy was the blanket lamb and the judge figured our daughter would love it.

She didn't.

When she was three I finally gave up trying to convince her of the cute cuddliness and passed it along to some lucky kid with better taste in blanket lambs.

While M.E. did not enjoy the toy, she always was fascinated with the box it came it.  The toy was from Red Envelope so of course it came in a red box.  6 years later, we still have that darn box.  Right now it serves as a baby bed/time out chair for our cat.

Funny how kids use the stuff we'd throw away and make great things out of it.

Lucky for me, I like to play with stuff to throw away too.  So when I read this Real Simple article on Toys You Can Make  (<--click the link to read the article and get popper directions) I was thrilled--especially with the marshmallow popper.  After all, I had just thrown a fiesta for Matt and had left over red solo cups (please sing the song ... NOW!).

Anyhow, I made two poppers for the kids and we ran around the house shooting each other with mini marshmallows.  Let me tell you, when you get to eat the weapon that "kills" you, it's a pretty good deal.

Photo from REAL SIMPLE 

Party cups + balloons + mini marshmallows=Big Fun (and an totally delicious but not at all healthy snack).

Days of Play: Shaving Cream

Shaving cream is one of those beautiful little things I love my children to play with.  When I put it on the table and they write letters and words in the squishiness, it ends up cleaning my table like nothing else can (WARNING: It might not be good for certain wood stains).

Obviously shaving cream is a perfect bathtub toy, too.  I like to get out a muffin tin, fill it with shaving cream, mix in some food coloring and hand it to the kids with a paint brush.  They'll spend 30 minutes "painting" my bath tub walls.  And when I wash of the artwork, my walls glimmer.

Child labor that's fun?  Winning!

Days of Play: Baking Soda and Vinegar

Baking soda and vinegar --- because sometimes children should be forced to clean.

Or not.

I'm sure you remember those great "make a volcano" days in middle school when you'd add baking soda to vinegar and it would bubble everywhere.

Wouldn't that be fun to do with little kids?  I mean, you'd have a gross bubbly mess everywhere.  And it would be great.

OR you can mix science and fun this way!

What you need:

• 1 cookie sheet per child with baking soda spread all over the bottom
• 1 old medicine dropper per child
• 1 mini-muffin tin--fill each slot with vinegar and a few drops of food coloring
• Newspaper for the table top
• Slop shirt (unless you aren't opposed to getting food coloring on your kids' clothing)

What to do:

• Put newspaper on the table
• Put cookie sheets with baking soda on the bottom on the table
• Put your kids in a chair
• Ask your kids what they think will happen if you put the vinegar on the baking soda
• Show them how to soak up vinegar into their droppers
• Drop (one at a time) colored vinegar onto the baking soda
• Watch and listen for the reaction
• Review their predictions to see how well they guessed

Keep doing this until the baking soda is soaked and no longer reacting or until kids are bored.

Days of Play: Sharpie Tie Dye

Are you on Pinterest?

Okay, I just hacked a line from You've Got Mail. You know when Kathleen Kelly's bookstore employee girl ask employee guy "are on online?" Don't remember it.  I swear some days I feel like the only person in the world who has watched that movie over a million times. Sheesh, people. You're making me look bad.

 I'm on Pinterest (you can follow me here). Sometimes I feel like I need a Pintervention. But I don't really want one because I generally find some brilliant ideas I can try and share (or laugh about if I ruin).

Anyhow, under my PLAY WITH THIS board there is a tutorial for Sharpie tie dye. It looks cute, though I must admit I missed the Sharpie craze. $16 for markers that don't smell like fruit?  You've got to be kidding.  All this anti-Sharpieness aside, I decided to give this project a go.

I got this idea off of Art and Craft Tutorials but I'm pretty sure she didn't invent the idea.

What you will need:

• a pre-washed white t-shirt
• Sharpies in a variety of colors
• small cups (we opted for Dixie cups)
• rubber bands
• rubbing alcohol (mine was 70%)
• piece of cardboard 
• old medicine dropper

What to do:

1. Slide a piece of cardboard between your shirt from and back (so it doesn't bleed through to the back).
2. Figure out your design.  Or, if you are like me and you are gonna go random or go home, just start putting little cups under the shirt and then put a rubber band around the top.
3. Now, draw small designs in the middle of the cup.  SMALL.  Do not fill up the white space.  Just 10-15 little dots and designs (we tried peace signs, hearts, smiley faces, and suns).  ***WARNING*** In each area do NOT use complimentary colors.  When complimentary colors run together they equal brown.  Brown is not a fun tie dye color.  
4. With your medicine dropper, slowly (and yes, I mean slowly.  Drip.  Drip.  Drip) drip 8-10 drops of rubbing alcohol into the center of each cup.  Watch the colors bleed out.  ***NOTICE*** if you do NOT want really defined edges, go ahead and put a bit of alcohol on the edges of the cup to help facilitate bleeding.
5. Let dry.
6. Remove cardboard.
7. Throw in dryer for 20 minutes to "set" colors.
8. Wear.

FAQ:

• What are complimentary colors? Complimentary colors are across from one another on the color wheel. Red and green, orange and blue, purple and yellow.  Avoid mixing these.  I had great luck mixing greens/blues/yellows, yellows/oranges/pinks, pinks/purples/blues, etc.
• Can you wash this shirt?  Yes.  I would never encourage you to make something you can't use/wear.  Wash, dry, wear.  It's all good.
• Can I use other alcohol?  If by this you mean 90% rubbing alcohol, then yes.  If you mean "can I substitute vodka or tequila?" Then no.  Although this is easy enough to make you could probably drink and still come up with something amazing.

My daughter and I did this activity.  I made a shirt for her and she made one for a friend's birthday.  She is 6 and found it fascinating.  I'm 30ish and was too afraid to let the 3 year old try this craft.  If you want to try with your 3 year old, go ahead (but I'm not accountable if Sharpie gets everywhere).

Our supplies

One of our shirts.  I forgot photos of the other one.  

Days of Play: Simon Says--the Cloud Edition

My daughter, you know, the one who wants to be a cheerleader {what?} is totally a science chick.  This little princess goes from dressed up to dirty in 2.0 seconds if it means capturing a moth or popping off a grasshopper head.

She's hands on but she's got brain smarts too.  Like she told me that Orca Whales are actually not whales but are in fact, related more closely to the snubfin dolphins.  I googled it.  She's right.

And today she told me, "I'm sweating.  I need to drink more water because that means I'm dehydrated."  Seriously, for 6 years old, she blows me away with her "hot air rises" and "plants eat by photosniffs" (I'm certain she meant photosynthesis) talk.  Smart little thing, isn't she?

Well, since I love to play purposeful games with my kids AND she loves science, I decided to combine the two.  I was telling her about the three kinds of clouds: cirrus, stratus, and cumulus and I came up with arm actions for them.

Cirrus clouds are the light, whispy, fair-weather clouds that are generally high in the sky.  I love how they look like feathers.  Our arm actions for cirrus clouds where to swing them back and forth very "featherishly" and daintily.

Stratus clouds are low lying clouds that can be dark and might signal snow or rain.  They often look flat.  Our arm actions for stratus clouds was to put our arms straight out at the shoulder and to turn back and forth at our waist to show how the flat clouds are often expansive.

Cumulus clouds tend to be puffy with flat bottoms.  When they sit low in the sky, this can mean fair weather.  When they grow tall, they can usher in thunderstorms.  Our arm actions for cumulus clouds was to make a big, puffy O over our heads with our arms.

Once we had the moves, we played Simon Says.  Simon says be a Cirrus cloud.  Be Cumulus.  You get it.

Honestly, the actual game only entertained my kids for about 5 minutes but coming up with the actions, showing them photos of clouds, telling them cloud names, and doing a "cloud check" in our back yard took about an hour.  An hour of fun science.  I declare this a win for momkind.

Days of Play: Cruising the Parking Lot

Cruising the parking lot.  That sounds like a blast, huh?

Seriously, this is waaaayyyyyy more fun if you have a road trip planned.  But if you don't, make a chart for your kids and head to the nearest parking lot and do some "scientific" research.

What is the most popular car color or body style where you live?  Find out.

Before you get in the car, have your children hypothesize what is the most popular color (or style) of car in their town. Write down these hypotheses. 

Make your children a chart.  You could just do color.  Down one side put in the colors--red, blue, white, black, silver, green, yellow, orange, gray.   (Or do the same things with body style: sedan, convertible, truck, van, SUV, motorcycle, etc.).

Now, get in the car and drive to the nearest big-box store parking lot and have your kids make tally marks for each color/style they see. 

When you get home, tally your results.  Count the total number of cars.  Then make a bar graph representing each color (or style).  If you feel really ambitious, figure out the percentages. 

Present your results really scientific like to another parent/partner/neighbor/unsuspecting stranger.

I love scientific fun :)  I'm nerdy like that.

Days of Play: Shape Museum

Shapes.  They are everywhere.  There are even shapes I can't remember the names of and some shape names I remember but have no idea what they look like.  Rhombus anyone?

Anyhow, sometimes pointing out shapes seems like a petty thing to "play" with children but I just want to remind you that acknowledging those octagons and parallelograms helps prepare children for geometry.  Sure that's a few years down the road but why not help them now?

Shape Museum is a fun little game we like to play at our house.  Or maybe I just like it and the kids feel like it is busy work but, being kids, it's their job to entertain me.  I don't know but it does entertain my children for 10-15 minutes WHILE teaching them about geometry.  And when I feel like I'm teaching someone, anyone, something about math, I feel brilliant.  Obviously.

So here is how you play.

Tell your kids that you are setting up a shape museum exhibit and you need their help.  Give them a pictorial check list of shapes to go "find" in the house.  Younger kids can find circles (quarter), squares (napkin), rectangles (blanket), ovals (rug from the Barbie house), etc.  Challenge older children to find three dimensional shapes like a sphere (ball), cube (dice), cylinder (can of black beans), cone (party hat), rectangular prism (cereal box), etc.

Set a time for 10-15 minutes and let your children go on a shape hunt.  You go on one, too. It's pretty lame if the museum curator doesn't bring anything to the table.

When you get all your "stuff," organize your museum exhibit.  Let your children decide how to classify.  Will they classify by shape?  By dimension?  Color?  Texture?  I'm always surprised at how my children see classification categories differently than I.

Days of Play {Summer Dreamin'}: S'more Solar Oven

Family Fun magazine has such great ideas that I almost want to get a subscription. Except, when I get magazine subscriptions I never read them because I can find what I want to find a lot easier by getting on the internet. So I get a build up of barely ever read magazine that I feel guilty recycling. So even though I love, love, love some of the ideas in Family Fun, I probably won't be subscribing.

Now that I've covered the topic of magazine subscription, I'll move on. S'more Solar Ovens. Yes, you heard me. Family Fun crafted a way to make a solar oven out of a pizza box, some aluminum foil, and s'more fixins.

I stole this photo from Family Fun.  Find it here.

The truth is, I probably won't be making this today because I live in WY and spring weather doesn't like to cooperate for fun crafts like this. But once June settles in, you can bet your biscuits I'll be trying this fun science/food activity with my kids!

If you want to try, please CLICK HERE to go to the Family Fun website for instructions.

Days of Play: Teacher Appreciation

It's Teacher Appreciation week!

This is a hard time because I never know what to get for my kids' teachers.  On the one hand, I think--a drawing, a card, a batch of cookies ... you can never go wrong with homemade.  But on the other hand, after being a teacher, I know there are only so many homemade cookies I can eat and still fit into the classroom.  And while those drawings are so amazing, most end up in the garbage because I get about 18 a day.

Oh, and a note on school supplies. Yes, teachers need school supplies but giving teachers crayons as a "gift" is sort of like being given a new broom on Mother's Day.  Seriously, celebrate the the teacher as a PERSON not as a profession.  Still give those crayons but do it on some random Tuesday in the middle of November.

Need some ideas?  I navigated through all the hideous Pinterest Spam and found the best of the best of teacher appreciation gifts.

Picture this: A home made, PURPOSEFUL gift.

No gift cards.  No craft supplies.  A gift.  For the teacher.  That the teacher can use.

Still need some ideas?  Lucky for you I've found some :)

How about a re-useable summer cup/straw with a fun saying, like "Thanks for quenching my thirst for knowledge"

Photo and idea from Lisa Storms

If teacher like hot drinks instead of cold drinks, you could always do this idea:

Photo from Skip to My Lou; printable from WITHMIM

Of course you could make an amazing caramel or chocolate dipped apple and send it to school with a note reading "an apple for the teacher."

Photo from Brown Paper Packages

If you simply feel you must give school supplies, here's a cute idea.  "I must ad-mitt you were a great teacher"

Photo and idea from Skip to my Lou

But really, here's the BEST idea for a school supply gift:

From Come Together Kids

I kind of want someone to make this summer relaxation tote bag for me!  "All year you made learning fun, now you can relax in the sun!"  Fill with sunglasses, sunscreen, flipflops, magazines, etc.

From Skip to my Lou

For a teacher who love flowers, I love the idea of a nice planter with seeds, gloves, etc.  Oh, and a cute card.

From Skip to my Lou

Of course you could just pot a nice gerbera Daisy and tell the teacher "thank you for helping NAME grow or bloom"

Source: lucypage189.tumblr.com via Sean on Pinterest

Days of Play: Memory

A couple of years ago at MOPs, a group of little kindergardeners came in and performed their version of the ABCs.  Rather than just doing the traditional song, the kids recited a verse for each letter they learned of the alphabet.

I was blown away.  Here were little 5 year olds with more verses memorized than I know!  Momentarily I was convinced I needed to send my children to the school that these kids went to.  But then I remembered that educating my children in the way of the Lord is MY part of my commission.

So, I did some internet searching on ABC verses and found some of my favorites and here is a list I came up with.

A

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23

B

Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10

C

Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Matt.11:28

D

Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Ps:37:4

E

Encourage one another, while it is still Today. Heb. 3:13

F

"For I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

G

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble." Psalm 46:1

H

"Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away." Matt.24:35

I

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except thru Me." John 14:6

J

Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever. Hebrews 13:8

K

"Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 1 Cor. 8:1

L

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." Deuteronomy 6:5

M

"Make music in your heart to the Lord...always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ." Ephesians 5:19

N

"No eye has seen, nor ear heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him." 1 Cor 2:9

O

O, God, you are my God: early will I seek you, for my soul thirsts for you. 
--- Psalm 63:1

P

"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." John 14:27

Q

Quench not the spirit; … hold fast what is good. 
--- 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21

R

"Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him." Psalm 37:7

S

"Surely, I am with you always." Matthew 28:20

T

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight." Proverbs 3:5-6

U

Understanding is a fountain of life to those who have it. Proverbs 16:22

V

Verily, verily, I say to you, He that 
believes in me has everlasting life.
--- John 6:47

W

"Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." Psalm 27:14

X

eXcept a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.  John 3:3

Y

Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep.  Psalm 36:5-6

Z

"....Zion, do not let your hands hang limp. The Lord, your God, is with you, he is mighty to save." Zephaniah 3:16, 17

I know that my children might not totally understand what they are memorizing (I feel this way about multiplication tables), but one day they will and these verses of hope, love, and encouragement will be burned on their hearts.

Days of Play--Spaghetti Monsters {Repost}

Tactile play is an amazing way to help your children explore and learn.  In this day of play, take 1/4 box of spaghetti noodles and cook them according to directions.  Drain and **cool** them.

Put the cooled noodles in a big bowl and let your kids squish around in them.

For Younger Children:

This is perfectly acceptable for little ones but you will need to watch for noodle pieces heading toward the mouth.

For Older Kids:

Give each child their own bowl.  Have them wash their hands.  Add pasta sauce and an art smock.  Presto! Lunch you can play with!

Days of Play: Money Jar

My daughter is learning about money in school and her progress report indicated she needed a bit more work in identifying coins by name and amounts.

So, being the good mom that I am, we played a game called "money jar."

To play, you need a money jar (with coins in it.  I know in this economy your money jar might be empty. I'm sorry), and a flat surface.

Dump all the coins onto your table and have your child sort the coins by size/shape.  Once the coins are in their right groups, go over the names and amounts.  M was having hard time with dimes.  Luckily she knows very rudimentary Spanish so I said, "what is ten in Spanish?"  She said, "Diez."  I said, "how much is this one (pointing to the dime) worth?" She said, "ten" to which I replied, that's right.  A dime has ten like diez is ten.  Dime Diez.  Dime Diez.

She totally gets dime now.

If you want to make this more difficult, pick a coin (for instance, a quarter) and have your child pick another stack of coins that equal that amount (5 nickels, 25 pennies, 2 dimes and 1 nickel).  M thought it was fun to group pennies in 10s and then "trade up" a stack of pennies for a dime or two nickels.

Now if you are feeling particularly adventurous, you could separate the coins into dollar stacks and take your kiddos for a treat; let your children pay in coins (use the quarters first--trust me).

Days of Play: Easter Stuff

We don't do anything Easter Bunny-ish but we sure do love a good egg hunt.  So this week while my daughter is home on Spring Break (yay!) we are going to try a few new crafts.

First up (and the one I'm most excited for.  Bring on the mess!) is Shaving Cream Painting.

Photo from Little Wonders' Days.

All you need is shaving cream, paints, card stock "eggs", a squeegee and a willingness to play!

I found this on Pinterest!  Please go to the blog Little Wonders' Days (<--click that link) for directions.

Next on our list is egg dying.  I've heard you can do this with Kool-Aid but I'm sticking with my good ol' reliable food coloring and vinegar.  I might try this though.  I saw this photo and thought ... duh!

Photo from Parent Hacks

Oh, and for dyeing, I'm excited to try this rubber band method from Inkspired Musings.

Photo from Inkspired Musings

Anyone have some awesome Easter-themed crafts they are working on this week?

Days of Play: Magic Numbers

I've been doing lots of math posts lately.  I'm not sure if this is to help my daughter with her math skills or if it is to help me brush up on my math skills before she starts to learn about fractions (which, by the way, happens before 2nd grade here.   What?!).

When I was a kid we played car games.  I know what you are thinking--we played car games because we didn't have dvd players in the car.  But you are wrong. My mom had this plush conversion van with a TV in it, captains seats, a bed in the back ... of course we moved about the van freely because in the early 80s no one cared about seat belts.  Seat belts, sheet belts ... psh.  One time, that TV fell out of its place and landed on my chest.  This might be why I need a boob job ...

Okay, car games.  Anyhow, today's intentional play is perfect for the car AND can be used with older and younger kids.

To play, pick a number any number.  That number is your "magic" number.  Now, give your child(ren) a clue.  "My magic number is between 1-10."  Let them guess.  If the guess is right, it is your kiddo's turn.  If the guess is wrong, give another clue.  "My number is even." Repeat process.

For little kids (like my nearly 3 year old), you can keep this simple, "My magic number is between 1 and three."

For older kids make it a bit more challenging: My number is a prime number.  My number is greater than 17 but less than 34.  My number is a multiple of 2.  My number is divisible by 9.  You catch my drift.

Have fun playing magic numbers :)

Days of Play: Card Math

Is anyone else a little freaked out by how much math kids know at a young age?  Seriously, I'm pretty sure math and subtraction started in first and second grade but my kindergartner is doing math problems like crazy.  At this rate I'll be teaching her about fractions by fonduing next year.  

A bit overwhelming.

As much as possible I like to compliment and support what my girl is doing at school.  Thus, card math.

What you need: A deck of cards with jokers and face cards removed and a large playing space.

To Play:

Spread the cards out all over a table.  Pick one card (for instance, a 7 of hearts).  Now, have your child find other cards whose sum would be seven (a 3 and a 4; a 6 and a 1; a 5 and a 2, etc.).  

With older kids you can modify this by using subtraction, division, multiplication, etc.  For instance, pick a 7 and a 2 and have them be 72.  What numbers multiplied equal 72?  If you can't remember it's okay.  You are a parent.  Kid fog takes away math abilities.  

To modify for younger children, have kids match numbers.  You pick a 2, they find another 2. 

Math can be fun. 

Days of Play: I Spy

What did the baby tree say to the mommy tree?

Geometry (gee, I'm a tree).

Sorry about that.  Sometimes junk like that just slips out.

Anyhow, it is really helpful for young children to be able to identify shapes.  To help your child learn (while playing), play I Spy: Geometry.

To play, simply find an object that is visible.  Give a clue about the shape.  The other person gets to guess what you are describing.

For example:

I see something oval.

I see something oval that is cushy.

I see something oval that is cushy, cream, and green.

(By the way, the answer is: the cat bed)

Take turns trying to stump each other!

Days of Play: Show me the money!

Learning about money is inevitable so you might as well start now.

Go on a coin hunt and find change from around the house.  Look in pockets, couch cushions, etc.  Give a high five to the person who finds a coin in the most random place.

Now, have your children sort the coins based on how they look (color and size).   Create a chart and make down how many of each coin you have.

Give your child a piece of paper and let him/her draw what the coins look like.

Tell your child what the coins names are and how much they are worth.

Now, put the coins in a bank :)

Days of Play: Patterns

Preschool and kindergarten children really work hard on creating, identifying, and extending patterns.  Even adults do this, to a great extent.  Think about the pattern you notice in your checkbook when you go to Starbucks too often or the pattern you notice when your child doesn't get enough sleep.

Patterns are everywhere.  Help your child recognize, create, and extend them.

Activity #1

Find patterns in your house.  Go on a "pattern hunt" and try to find patterns on clothing, blankets, painting, games, etc.

Activity #2

Create a pattern.  Gather objects of all sizes (buttons, coins, water/soda/juice lids, pasta shells, etc. and make a pattern.

Describe your pattern to your child and let your child describe his/her pattern to you.

Create a pattern and have your child extend it (or continue the pattern for you).

Extend your child's pattern.

Days of Play: More or Less

Number recognition is important for kids in preschool and elementary school.  This game helps children identify numbers AND determine if a number is "more" or "less".

All you need to play is a deck of cards with face cards removed.

Deal the cards so each person has the same amount.  Now, count to three and flip the cards over.  Have your child tell you what cards are faced up (a 6 and a 2, for example).  Once your child has identified the numbers, ask which is more (a 6) and which is less (a 2).

If you want this to be a competition, decide that whoever has the "more" card takes the pile.  At the end, count who has the most cards and that person "wins."

To make this easier for younger children:

• count together
• play red/black to help them identify colors

To make this harder for older children:

• Have children add the cards together 
• Have children subtract the cards
• Have children multiply/divide the cards
• Have children turn cards into fractions (add a 1 over the card so 2 becomes 1/2 and 8 becomes 1/8).  Then determine which card is more/less.

Whatever you do, have fun.  So many kids have math anxiety; this is a great way to encourage a love of math!