Math Fun with Pick-Up Sticks

My sweet little boy is turning 8 this week.  

His older sister wanted to choose a gift for him that was unique.  

I was thrilled when she chose a set of jacks, an old fashioned balloon art set, and Pick-Up Sticks!

It wasn't until we started playing that I realized the HUGE math benefits of playing Pick-Up Sticks.   

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Have some FUN with Cards!

A simple deck of cards has been providing hours of fun.

On Easter afternoon my children invited some neighbor kids (also homeschooled!) over to play their favorite card game.

Salute The King is easy and hilarious.

You have to be quick and creative.

 We recommend a deck of LARGE FACED cards to make it easier to play.

My neighbor said her children have been playing it constantly since we taught them.... we also taught them how to play Garbage (some call it Trash) - which is great for big and little kids (it's super for teaching ordinal numbers, by the way.)

What's your favorite card game? 

Three Things I Love This Thursday

I have been wanting to share some fun little things we are using in our homeschool which I LOVE, so I thought I'd pick three of them today. The awesome thing is that one is FREE and one is $.99 (the other is $9.63 - oops!).

KANOODLE!

I bought this game at a toy store last weekend. Wow! The kids have played it a lot and it's fun for adults, too... it is awesome for spatial awareness and logical thinking. It can be alone or with two people, and it has levels from very easy to VERY hard. I've left it on the coffee table and when people walk by they play. Very fun. I found it for $9.63 on Amazon (see link above) ~ I was a sucker and paid $13.99 at the toy store. In my opinion, it is worth it.

Stack the States

is one of the most valuable apps we have purchased for our iPad at a whopping $.99! It's a fun geography game for all ages - teaching state location, capitals, trivia, etc... You can get the lite version for free to see if you like it. It was voted the Best iPad Kids App. of 2010 (how did I miss it in 2010?!?)

image courtesty iTunes

The Wonder Clock
by Howard Pyle - you can read this book FREE online. It is a book of 24 (one for each hour of the day) beautifully crafted fairy tales and exquisite illustrations. Pyle wrote and illustrated this book in 1887 and it really is a gem. Both of my children are enjoying this read-aloud. We are reading it on our iPad (I cannot tell you, by the way, how beneficial the iPad is to our homeschool... much more so than a laptop, in my opinion).

image courtesy Goodreads.com