Educational Ideas

Here are a few ideas I am using at the preschool and kindergarten levels to get those kids reading, writing, and counting (At the bottom I give ideas for older children). This maybe a little disjointed or overwhelming to some, but you can look through and pick a few things that would work for you. Or maybe, it will just get your own creativity flowing to find what works for your kids.

First of all, here are the problems I am seeing with educating my Liberian children. Knowing what needs to be overcome is helpful, but I am no expert and am struggling with some of these things, especially retention!

*Exposure--or lack thereof--because the children were probably not properly nourished and were definitely not read to, or listened to classical music, or exposed to lots of different experiences, the children have a very narrow frame of reference. I always laughed at the studies that said you should start reading to your child at birth (actually now I think they say in the womb:), but I now realize there is something to this. So I try to take as many opportunities to give them a entirely new experiences to do or see things ranging across a large spectrum. Ex. zoos, circus, beach, swimming, water parks, buses, cars, dump trucks, trains, ballet, acrobats, farms, horses , cities, swamps (we just went to Okenfenokee Swamp with all the kids), rivers, etc., etc. This gives them more frame of reference for learning and retaining more information. Oh, and reading lots of books and picture books, my kids love to just look at the pictures in the kids' encyclopedia books and just ask me lots of questions.

*Rentention--or lack thereof--I think this goes back somewhat to exposure, maybe early malnourishment, but more lack of correctly structured learning--something we take for granted. We use a structured system of teaching even from when our kids are infants. I swear something will seem totally solid in their brains and then the next week it has completely fallen out like I never taught them in the first place. Somedays I feel like banging my head on cement would be more profitable for my efforts. Like, I said, I am not an expert educator, but here is what seems to work: High expectations. I expect them to think and work and open their mouths (no pouting silent treatment, or they go to their rooms and miss the fun parts of school.) I use rewards of one m&m for each answer correct for motivation. But often what happens is that when they miss one or two, they just quit trying. I don't let them off that easy. I put the number or the letter or shape they can't remember in front of them at the table and leave them there until they can think hard enough to remember it. If there is enough pressure, they somehow seem to pull it out of their brains. Then I make a big deal of how smart they really are when they try. I try to motivate by rewards more, but I have to use stricter measures occasionally because they go into that stupid Liberian pout (ahhhhh!!!!).

**Concepts--I think that teachers only know how to teach memorization and regurgitation in Liberia, not concepts. When my kids came home, they could count to 100, they could write their names, identify a good share of letters, and sing the alphabet. But, they had no idea what any of that meant. They didn't know the difference between numbers and letters. They only understood phonics to say that A was for apple, B for ball. They didn't get that A said aaaah, and could actually be used for more words than apples. The worst part is counting, associating written numbers with a quantity of goods. For this reason, I think it is important to really use a lot of visual teaching methods, manipulatives, etc, and go back to the beginning. There are a lot of holes in their learning that if not filled will end up causing them to fall behind later with more advanced concepts.


I start every day with learning games to get their brains going and to help improve conceptual & spatial learning and retention, and increase creativity. I rotate through these:
*Matching memory games
*Jigsaw puzzles
*Moon sand--lots of fun for kids, not so fun for mom
*Playdoh
*Building gears
*Tanagram shapes
*Puppets
*Building blocks
*Watercolor painting
*Cranium Hullaballoo
*sewing cards with shoe laces
*What's Missing Game (place many objects beginning with the letter of the week on the table, children close eyes, mom takes away one object, when the kids open eyes, must say what was taken).
*Hot and Cold (hide an object--letter of the week, kids search, if they are close you say "warmer, hot", if too far say, "colder, cold, freezing."

We do one number and one letter a week. I also teach a new concept each month (although I have to keep quizzing old concepts or they fall out of their brains) like shapes, seasons, opposites, etc. We only do two intense days of school, but the other days, we play games, do flashcards, and read. If someone wanted to move more quickly, you could introduce two letters/numbers per week, give each two days and then a review day on Friday. I am huge with flashcards, every single day, but once again, those are only for memorization and regurigitation and so they have to be coupled with other activities.

Teaching the Alphabet: Here are some ideas to introduce and solidify each letter, besides flashcards (but don't forget those:):
*Alphabet journal: each letter gets a page. I use letter stickers and foam letters. Put a capital and lowercase in the top corner, write a word starting with that letter at the bottom (I write this on a dry erase board and they copy into their book), then they draw, paint, or cut out from magazines a picture of that word.
*Alphabet Dictionary (Mine is called My Little Picture Dictionary--love it). Look up the new letter and read all the words.
*Dr. Seuss ABC's book. We reread every letter up to the new letter each week. By the end the kids have it memorized, but they love it.
*Other ABC books. I alternate the dictionary, Dr. Seuss and other ones each day.
*Letter search around the house--give the kids a marker and lots of boxes of food and tell them to highlight all the "A"s they see, or "R"s.
*Letter Blocks or Letter tiles--(my favorite thing is letter foam mats that hook together. I got a set of letters and 10 numbers in the "dollar" toy section at Walmart by the jacks and the recorders. They cost 88 cents per package. They are great.) I will see how fast the kids can find the letter "G", later I start saying, "Find me the letter that says HHHH"--and say the sound. Eventually, I start doing it by sound and say, "find me the sound "CCC", now AHHH, now TTT, put them together, what does that spell." You can also use these to teach alphabetical order.
*Decorated giant letters. I use an excellent set of books called Williamson Kids Can books for 6-12 yr olds and Williamson's Little Hands books for 2-6 yr olds. I love these so much. The Alphabet one is excellent (Alphabet Art) and is where I get a lot of my ideas along with several other of their books, although sometimes I alter our projects based on what is in the house. I draw a giant block letter on white/construction paper and the kids fill the inside of the letter with something beginning with that letter, then they cut it out (also important, look for every opportunity to teach scissor skills). For example, we did a giant K and I put lipstick on the kids and they had to kiss it 11 times--that was our number of the week. It was hilarious. For L, they did "letters", and used little sticky foam letters to put inside their giant L.
*Little Dry erase boards with lines on one side--available in the learning section at Walmart. The kids practice their handwriting, draw pictures of new words they learn for each letter on the blank side. As the kids get a little more familiar with the letters and sounds, I will say, what letter says "PPP" and instead of finding it, they have to write it. This is harder and is the 3rd step. 1st is identifying name and sound of each letter, 2nd, is hearing a sound and finding the letter, the third is to hear the sound and write the letter themselves.
*Letter Art Projects. For every letter we do a really fun art project on Thursday or Friday. Today we did Lion masks because it is L week. On "I" week we did wooden insect projects I got for a dollar each at Michael's craft store. Michael's has lots of dollar wood projects that are great. The kids paint them and get to keep them in their room and last longer than the paper projects. We make a lot of things out of toilet paper rolls like jets for "J" week.
*Alphabet poster. I forgot to say that we start the alphabet section of the day with singing the ABC's and I point to them. It helps with recognition immensely.
*Workbooks. There are all kinds of workbooks for every grade out there. I have probably used all of them. I just make packets for the letter and number and concepts we are working on each week. We only do one to two days of worksheets. I like supplementing with workbooks for all ages. Here are a list of ones I've used and like: Comprehensive Curriculum (all of these are available at Sam's, Costco, and Amazon.com), Ultimate Skillbuilders by Learning Horizons, Scholastic Success with (Grade level) by Scholastic. I use these all the way through 5th grade just to supplement and reinforce concepts. I also use a lot of American Education Publishing workbooks.


Numbers
I use a lot of the same ideas as above but with numbers. I will make them first identify the written number, then count.
*I use "My Little Counting Book" because it teaches numbers to twenty and eventually 100.
*I use a lot of manipulatives. Today, I would write a number on a dry erase board, the children then had to count that number of little beans into their little bucket I gave them.
*They have to be able to put written numbers in counting order. They must identify the written numbers out of order. But, most importantly they must be able to identify "how many" go with each written number. We are really struggling with this right now.
*We then count to 100 each day on a chart as I point to each number. After we reached 10,
*I am beginning to introduce counting by tens, by having everyone hold up all ten fingers. Sophie's ten plus Diamond's ten is twenty, plush Florence is thirty, etc.
*I also try to combine as many things as we can with letters/numbers/shapes etc. So "J" week was also "10" week so we got to work with 10 "Jelly beans". Or if we are focusing on triangles we will find the number of the week, say 8, triangles in the house.

For memory tricks, I give each number and letter a funny name to help the kids remember. For the most part it works, but sometimes they remember the funny name and not the letter/number name. Overall, though, I do think it works well. Examples: "Kicking K" because it looks like K is kicking his leg and kicking starts with k. "Lion Leg L" because it can be drawn to look like a leg. "Alligator A" because it can look like an alligator mouth, and if an alligator comes close you say "AHHHH". "Curly C", "Fish hook F", etc. For numbers, I have "Fat belly 5" "Silly 6" because it's head is on the bottom like a sommersault, "Nice 9" because he is sitting with his head on top like a good boy. I know it seems silly, but it can really help.

Another thing the kids love is the Brain Quest quiz books from Costco/Sam's/Amazon. We use these to pass time when we drive places. For each right answer they earn a jelly bean. These things are great and the kids respond very well to them. They have age 2-3 all the way up to 6th grade. We will use our Trivial pursuit game as a family and replace the questions with the questions from the quiz books.

READING--the best books I have found to teach my kids to read, and they have taught all my kids, are the BOB Books (5 sets $11.55 each set on Amazon.com). I begin having the kids read these by about letter F. But, you could teach the letters in accordance with the books. What I do is that I just help them with the sounds they don't know. They are so great. The pictures are simple and the text is handwritten so it isn't confusing to the kids because a typed a is different than a handwritten one. They learn three letter words and sound them out and learn to put the sounds together to make words. Diamond and Florence are slowly learning this. The problem is that in Liberia they don't put the last sound on their words so I am struggling trying to get the kids to read the last letter and include it in the word.

Older Kids:
*My kids use Oak Meadow which I love, but I supplement with lots of those cheap work books to solidify concepts. It is really easy to get these $10 work books for the younger grades and quickly catch your kids up.
*Reading with the kids every day, not too much, but everyday, is vital. *Flash cards for math facts and sight words are helpful. Although, I really think all the kids need the math manipulatives. I use Learning Resources Flip Over math with manipulatives to teach the CONCEPTS of add/subtracting and times/division. I am sure these are available on line. *The quiz books are fun and even though they won't know the answers, it will open up discussions to teach new concepts when they get them wrong.
*I also have the kids spell their spelling words using baby letter blocks, while jumping rope, run relay races while spelling. A lot of kids are kinesthetic learners which means they learn better when they are moving (boys especially). We do the same thing with math facts.
*We use soccer, hot potato, catching a ball, for things like "name a noun" or "name an adjective that starts with B". Then as you toss it quickly from one person to another everyone has to do it until you run out of words.
This works well for antonyms/synonyms/parts of speech.

Okay, I have written way too much. But, if you want any other ideas, you can ask me a direct concept that you want to help your kids with and I can tell you creative learning games/ideas that will help. But off there is so much that I can't remember what I have and haven't covered. If others of you have ideas, feel free to post them in the comments. The only reason I have this many ideas is because I have had lots of people share ideas with me, and I have done this for awhile with lots of kids:)!