Yearly Archives: 2015

Sight Word Activities

Sight Word Activities

Learning sight words is an important step to building speed and fluency while reading. Sight words are simply those that are frequently used, and are the foundation to building a strong vocabulary. Below are seven easy sight word games for kids to improve recognition: Bingo Simply print out a Bingo…
How to Teach Kids Upper and Lowercase Letters

How to Teach Kids Upper and Lowercase Letters

As most parents know, developing strong literacy skills starting at a young age is essential for future academic success. The first step in preparing your child to read and write is, of course, learning the alphabet. Extensive research has shown that a child’s grasp of the alphabet in addition to…
3 Fun Ways to Learn About the Butterfly Life Cycle

3 Fun Ways to Learn About the Butterfly Life Cycle

With their varying shapes, sizes, colors, and patterns, butterflies have long captured the interest of children. Equally as captivating is the transformation, or metamorphosis, each butterfly endures to become the delicate and graceful insects we love. The butterfly life cycle is comprised of four different stages, each of which differs…
Online Math Games To Keep Your Child Excited About Learning

Online Math Games To Keep Your Child Excited About Learning

Math has a bum rap in our society. Almost universally, students dread math in the upper grades, college, and beyond. But typically, preschool and elementary school kids don’t share that attitude. During these early years, they are wired to learn and are as excited about learning math as they are about…
Games to Help With Number Recognition

Games to Help With Number Recognition

Teachable moments in which we can help children learn popup at the most unexpected times. Our everyday world is constantly presenting opportunities to teach once we make the commitment to look for them. A great example is number recognition. Once you and your child start looking for numbers together, your child…
Kindergarten Word Searches to Begin Building Your Child’s Vocabulary

Kindergarten Word Searches to Begin Building Your Child’s Vocabulary

As most of us know, helping our children build strong language skills starting at a young age is incredibly important for their future academic success. One major component of these language skills is vocabulary. Among the many benefits to possessing a rich vocabulary are: improved comprehension when reading, the ability…
3 Unique Gravity Experiments to Try with Your Kids

3 Unique Gravity Experiments to Try with Your Kids

Simply put, gravity is the force of the earth that pulls objects towards its core, preventing them from floating off into space. For many adults, explaining the concept of gravity to a child can seem daunting. However, through the use of the following gravity experiments for kids, children will gain…
Using Pre-School Games to Help Kids Learn the Alphabet

Using Pre-School Games to Help Kids Learn the Alphabet

During pre-school, much of the focus for learning is on the alphabet. It takes time for a young mind to learn to identify all 26 letters — plus, they have to do it twice, once for capital letters and the other for small letters. That’s a tall order for a…
Exploring interactive nature science games

Exploring interactive nature science games

There’s nothing like being out in nature for hands-on learning. But on rainy days, sick days, or days when it’s just too busy to spend time together outdoors, children can learn a great deal about how our world works by playing science games for kids. In fact, that learning is…
Two Activities to Help Kids Understand the Solar System

Two Activities to Help Kids Understand the Solar System

Kids love learning about the solar system. It’s no coincidence that one of the most popular science fair entries is the solar system mobile made of paper mâché and coat hangers. There’s real value to this type of hands-on learning that is an effective supplement to textbooks, videos and interactive…
Teaching Kids the Steps of the Water Cycle Through Video

Teaching Kids the Steps of the Water Cycle Through Video

Learning about nature is something that is really exciting and fun for kids, and getting a good understanding of basic climate and biology principles is a fundamental part of science for any elementary school student. Using videos really makes the weather, climate and habitat information come alive for kids, giving…
Making Grammar Fun Through Simple Sentence Worksheets

Making Grammar Fun Through Simple Sentence Worksheets

Writing doesn’t have to be a struggle! Through the use of tools like a simple sentences worksheet, quizzes and games, kids can get the practice that they need to build a strong foundation in writing in a fun way. The reason that it’s so important for children to learn to…
Letter Recognition Games for Long Road Trips

Letter Recognition Games for Long Road Trips

Road trips offer a unique opportunity to visit national landmarks and natural wonders unique to a particular state or region. However, the travel time in between attractions can leave kids in need of entertainment. While movies and handheld video games serve as fun distractions, they don’t always offer the most…
150 Examples of Compound Words for Kids

150 Examples of Compound Words for Kids

What are Compound Words? Compound words are formed when two or more words are joined together to create a new word that has an entirely new meaning. Click here for Compound Words Games, Videos, Quizzes, Worksheets and Lessons. For example, “sun” and “flower” are two different words, but when fused…
5 Creative Ways to Make Rhyming Fun Through Games

5 Creative Ways to Make Rhyming Fun Through Games

Kids just love to tell stories, recite poems, and sing songs. Once they start, there’s no stopping them. Let them do it. It might seem to be just for fun but it can work to develop their skills too, especially phonetics and syllables. These two skills are an essential component…
Interactive Games to Teach The Water Cycle

Interactive Games to Teach The Water Cycle

  As a new school year begins, teachers and parents once again have the opportunity to introduce their students and children to new and exciting topics. Summer rain, hot days at the beach, and water sports on the lake make for an easy segue into one such topic on the…
5 Ways to Help Your Third Grader Master Verb Tense

5 Ways to Help Your Third Grader Master Verb Tense

Verb tenses might be the most difficult of all English grammar skills to master. And for good reason – there are so many rules to learn and so many guidelines to follow. Do you know that Chinese language doesn’t have any tenses? Seems incredible, right? But English grammar doesn’t offer…
Our 5 Favorite Math Games for Second Graders

Our 5 Favorite Math Games for Second Graders

Parents often claim that they have difficulty helping their kids with math. It’s no wonder – if you think back to the subjects that you had trouble with in school, chances are that math is at the forefront. You probably began experiencing problems as early on as second grade math.…
The Shapes All Kindergartners Must Learn

The Shapes All Kindergartners Must Learn

As kids get older, it’s important to start teaching them how to identify basic shapes. In real life, they’re going to see circles, squares, rectangles, hexagons, and more. There are several questions surrounding this topic. For instance, where do you start teaching basic shapes to your kindergartener? What’s the importance…
Homophone Challenges and Worksheets for Your Mastermind Kid

Homophone Challenges and Worksheets for Your Mastermind Kid

Teaching kids the importance of pronunciation is itself a difficult feat. Their young minds might not be able to comprehend the level of information you are teaching them. On the other hand, if the same information is disseminated in a fun and easy way, the kids will not only enjoy…
Creative Ideas for Teaching Children Nouns and Proper Nouns

Creative Ideas for Teaching Children Nouns and Proper Nouns

Nouns are used to designate people, places, things, objects, and concepts. They are, quite simply, the building blocks of our language. Children are sometimes confused as to how nouns are used, and if they’re very young, they may use nouns as substitutes for complete sentences. They may, for example, say…
5 Fun Ways to Work on Beginning Sounds With Your Pre-K Child

5 Fun Ways to Work on Beginning Sounds With Your Pre-K Child

If you have a young child, then you know it’s important that he or she learns the letters of the alphabet even before entering kindergarten. It’s quite simply the foundation for all words, both written and spoken. So, how do you help your child learn the sounds that apply to…
Long Summer Days? Interactive Educational Games to the Rescue

Long Summer Days? Interactive Educational Games to the Rescue

Although children are starting to head back to school, summer is still in full swing. The long summer days challenge parents of young children with the task of keeping them busy and involved. It can be difficult to find activities that are both enjoyable and entertaining while also constructive, beneficial and…
Four Exciting Ways to Teach Your Child about Animals

Four Exciting Ways to Teach Your Child about Animals

As summer winds down and school is around the corner, you may be looking for new topics to teach your kids to ease them into the new school year. Try stimulating their natural infinity for discovery with animals! Large or small, farm or wild, animals can be great objects of…
5 Fun Educational Games to Play Instead of Watching TV

5 Fun Educational Games to Play Instead of Watching TV

It’s summertime, and there is nothing more exciting than being a kid during the summer. However, no matter the number of pools and parks there are to play in, you may find during these summer months that your child is a magnet to the couch, finding relaxation in front of…
Must Read Online Short Stories for Kids

Must Read Online Short Stories for Kids

As a parent, you likely take pride in passing on the traditions of your youth. You smile when you see your child playing the same games you used to enjoy, vicariously reliving a fun-filled adolescence. Unfortunately, children do not play outside nearly as much as they used to, and I’ll…
Turtle Diary’s Recommended Math Games for Kindergarteners

Turtle Diary’s Recommended Math Games for Kindergarteners

The traditional class room learning styles are rapidly being replaced by ‘smart’ ways of teaching. Today’s technology has enabled us to enhance our child’s learning process through progressive and interactive programs. Research at John Hopkins University suggests that math skills are genetic and may be passed down by our ancestors.…
10 Difficult Spelling Words for Kindergarteners

10 Difficult Spelling Words for Kindergarteners

You may be looking at your 4 or 5 year old’s writing and wondering, as you attempt to decipher what resemble letters from a ransom note, if your child is developmentally on track to be a good speller. Not to worry, kindergarten is the time in which you will see…
Best English Worksheets for Practicing this Summer

Best English Worksheets for Practicing this Summer

With so many ways to use the skills learned in English class in real life, it‘s no wonder that we want our little ones to do well in this. If your child has been struggling with English throughout the year you may be looking for ways to boost their skills…
5 Lessons Color by Number Teaches Your Child

5 Lessons Color by Number Teaches Your Child

Kids love activities that allow them to be creative, and coloring is arguably one of the most popular artistic pastimes for young children. Research has shown that children enjoy numerous developmental benefits when they participate in arts and crafts, and while coloring on its own can lead to a variety…
5 Tips for Teaching Your Child Decomposing Numbers

5 Tips for Teaching Your Child Decomposing Numbers

From budgeting to determining a proper tip amount, numbers are relevant to our everyday lives. Though we now have technology to perform essentially every mathematical function, you will want your child to have a personal comprehensive understanding of numbers. As in any other concept, numbers must be broken down (or…