COVID has brought about unprecedented challenges to parents across the globe. One of the largest challenges and areas of debate has been the current role and duty of parents as homeschool teachers for their children. Every school district has been enacting different policies and routines for students to return to school safely, and every child has been put in a unique situation out of their control for how learning will take place this year. I am not a parent, and therefore I cannot frame a post writing from this perspective. I am baffled by how much this is to juggle. That’s why I decided to create this section on my webpage, offering advice, lessons, and tips to current parents struggling to find ideas for easy, hands-on, supplemental activities for their little ones at home. Preschool- 2nd grade is a critical time for development of baseline academic skills! I hope these posts can be helpful 🙂

As a certified elementary and special educator, currently homeschooling a 1st grader and preschooler, my goal is to post lesson ideas that are simple, logical, hands-on and play based for inspiring minds away from the formal classroom. This first post focuses on using things you already have at home to teach academic content more creatively, in a way that will excite your little learner.

1. Addition and Subtraction with Toys

When I told my 1st Grade student last week that it was time to work on some subtraction she groaned. “But I want to keep making bracelets” she countered. “Okay!” I said, “bring your bracelet stuff with you!” Learning addition and subtraction is already a part of your child’s everyday life, so look for ways you can use it 🙂 Beads are great because your child can easily count out and count on. I gave her subtraction problems and she counted out how many beads she needed to start with. 14-3= meant starting with 14. Since all her beads snapped together, she was quick to note that she needed to use counters that were all the same size to make it easier to count correctly. Each time she removed beads she was able to easily count the remainders. Also since her bead set had the unique feature of snapping together, we were able to end our play time by making groups of 2 out of our 20 beads. She discovered that 10 groups of 2 beads make 20 beads total. Nothing wrong with a little preview of multiplication in 1st Grade! We used her beads for subtraction problems between 1-20, but you could do the same thing for addition with your Kindergartener or multiplication with your Third grader, especially if you have a bead set that snaps together.

Don’t have beads at home? Don’t worry! Beads are simply what I used because it was of my student’s immediate interest. Maybe your child has a dog set at home with 20 dogs. Play doghouse and make it a game- Oh no, 6 dogs ran away, how many dogs are left at the house? Or to have your child practice subtraction by counting up- oh no! There are only 14 dogs at the house? How many are missing!! We used to have 20 dogs! Turning learning into a mystery or using hands-on materials is what kids LOVE and is the base to inquiry-based hands on learning techniques.

Other way to use toys as a counter-

• Marbles (how many of my 17 marbles went down the marble run?- subtraction/. How many green marbles are there?- Number sense/. How many total marbles are there if there are 3 pink marbles and 4 blue marbles?- addition.)
• Dominos (Have your child pick the a domino. Use the 2 numbers on the domino to practice addition or subtraction. Make it a game and see who can do the most number of domino subtraction problems in 1 minute!)

2. Transform Reading one of your child’s favorite books into a Sight Word Scavenger Hunt!

Not all kids love to read, but most kids at least have one book that they enjoy for one reason or another. Instead of introducing a new book to your child of which he or she has no interest in, instead use a book your child LOVES in a new way. (This is not suggesting you shouldn’t introduce new texts to your child, OF COURSE, you should be doing that! Instead this is suggesting that for certain literacy concepts, questions, or writing skills, it could be better to use a text your child already enjoys)

One thing I did with my 1st Grade Student is we used a sheet of common 1st Grade Sight words that she needed to know to go on a book scaveneger hunt. I read one of her favorite picture books to her and she sat with the list actively looking for words that matched what she had on her paper. (I had to help her a little to find all the words!) Once we found a word that matched we stopped where we were in the book. I asked her to repeat the word, and spell it looking at the spelling in the text. She then wrote down the word in her notebook. (Later in the year I would have had her also right down the phrase it came from, but we aren’t there yet). We then circled the word on her list so that we could keep track of how many words we found! By the end of the book, we had found, read, written, and circled 16 sight words- a huge accomplishment.

Other activities with your child’s favorite picture book-

• Read through pictures! Instead of reading the words to your child, have your child read the pictures to you. This will create a whole new interpretation of the text, and you both might discover something about the story you never knew existed. Make sure to ask clarifying questions to your child about the characters, setting, and major events based on what he or she “reads.” When you’re done reading the pictures, go back through the text together and discuss how the pictures compare to the words on the text. Ask your child- Why do you think the author included certain ideas in the pictures?
• Question brainstorm- Read your child their favorite story but go slow, stopping on each page. Ask your child to come up with as many questions they can about the story on each page (or each full-page spread). You could do this for the whole book, or only a couple favorite pages. Once you’re done with the book, go back through and see what questions you can answer! Maybe your child asked a plot question on page one that they now have the answer for! Maybe your child asked a scientific question about why the tree has orange leaves and it’s time for you to do some research together to learn about why leaves change colors. The options are endless for this activity 🙂

In conclusion, learning is about engagement. Unfortunately, with zoom calls and google classroom being the go to strategy for most remote learning school plans, it can be hard to get kids curious about learning and active in academics. My hope is that this blog post gave you some ideas as a power parent and educator about how remote learning can be something as simple as a bed-time book turned scavenger hunt 🙂 The goal is not to add more to your plate, but change your mindset around what learning looks like. So that any parent, full-time supermom or dad, will be able to add hands-on learning to their child’s day.