It's time to celebrate! 100th Day... Hoorah!

As a former classroom teacher, I remember the excitement and build up to the 100th Day of School.  Now as a parent, I get to see the excitement through my own child's eye.  The countdown to the day, decorated shirts, classroom projects, snacks, crafts, and story books.  There are so many fun activities to celebrate the day.  Here's to the 100th Day of School with some ideas we love at The Circle Connection using our Connecting 1-100 set. 

                                                             

Countdown - Start with the 100 card and count down each day until the 100th Day.  Remove the cards from the ring to display them or hang them up right on the ring.

Skip Counting - Practice skip counting forward or backward by 2's, 5's, and 10's

What's Next - Display a number and ask what comes next

Categorize - Organize the numbers by categories by numbers 2, 12, 22 etc, odd or even

Scrabble - Mix up all the numbers and try to put them in order

Place Value - Use our Connecting Your Way and make labels for "ones", "tens", and "hundreds".  Then try to put the numbers under the correct place value.

Number Grid - Make a number grid using Connecting 1-100.  Then flip over several cards.  See if your kids can determine what number is missing.

Play Top It - Mix up the cards.  Two players each get 50 cards.  Flip over one card at a time.  The larger card wins.  The player with the most cards at the ends wins.  You can also modify this game to practice addition or subtraction and flip over two cards the higher answer wins.

We'd love to hear your great ideas.  Please share your favorite 100th Day Activity.  Wishing you and your kids a Happy 100th Day!

                                                                    

Take the Stress out of homework

Has your child had a rough first half of the year when it comes to homework? Well, let's start 2012 with happy homework experiences.  It's never too late to introduce new ideas, feelings, and routines to your child's day.  Here are some helpful hints to make their homework routine stress free and more enjoyable...

• Be sure your attitude is positive: Homework time should not come across as "a chore" for the parent or something viewed as negative.  It should be quality time spent together after a long day apart.  Try not to rush them or make them feel pressured to complete quickly.  Keep it calm and relaxed.
• Eradicate distractions: I for one send my younger children to a separate floor/different room of the house with a quiet activity.  They understand that this special time of the day is respected and allow their sister to work with little to no sibling distractions. This will help them as they transition into the same daily homework routine.
• Do homework at the same time every day: It's a fact that the best time to complete homework is immediately after school, however some kids need a break.  Keep their break short (under 30 minutes) so they are able to refocus on the assigned tasks.
• As much as a consistent homework space is important, mixing it up every once and awhile and keeping it fun can do wonders for their motivation and excitement.  Who wouldn't love doing their homework in the bath tub or under the dining room table or outside in a tent?
• Join them in their homework: Be your child's homework helper. If you are assessable while your child does their homework, they are more likely to ask questions when they need help.  For us it's a wonderful way to have a conversation about their day, their every changing likes, dislikes, and school drama.  You can both share about your day. Often, just having a friendly, non competitive, face beside them with no stress involved, will allow them to have a clear head.  Therefore creating a stress free environment.
• Make snacks special: Children deserve a reward after a long day at school.  A little sugar motivation never hurt a soul! For those looking for creative healthy ideas, here's a link.... http://www.parenting.com/gallery/healthy-kids-snacks?pnid=365653
• Encourage them to talk and move while they work: Home is not school, they can talk, sing, sit on their legs, squiggle, and wiggle as long as they're focused and working. Give them an exercise ball to gently bounce on as they work.
• Last but not least....Smile a lot!!!: Be sure to tell them how proud of them you are and that you enjoy this "homework time" with them.  They are working hard and deserve a hug everyday!

Reading Resolution

Happy New Year from The Circle Connection

New Year's Eve has always been a time for looking back to the past, and more importantly, forward to the coming year. It's a time to reflect on the changes we want or need to make and resolve to follow through on those changes.  The Circle Connection purposes that your #1 resolution for 2012 should be to....

Read out loud to your children every single day!!!!

There comes a time when our children become more independent readers and begin reading mostly on their own.. this may happen in 1st, 2nd, or even 3rd grade.  It may be possible that you no longer sit down during the day or at the end of the day to read to them anymore?   We feel it is still extremely important to spend the time reading each and every day with your children of all ages.  The benefits of finding a cozy spot and cuddling with your child are ten fold...A stronger relationship with you, better communication skills, more logical thinking skills, better communication skills, and the knowledge that reading is fun!!! They are never too old to appreciate a good story, your time, your familiar soothing voice, and the warmth of your touch.

Reading research indicates that the single most important activity for building knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children. (Anderson et al., 1985)  According to Mem Fox, author of Reading Magic, "If parents understood the huge educational benefit and intense happiness brought about by reading aloud to their children, and if every parent—and every adult caring for a child—read aloud a minimum of three stories a day to the children in their lives, we could probably wipe out illiteracy within one generation."

 Wow just think of that possibility!!!

                                                             

Person, Place, or Thing?

It was a lazy, rainy, summer morning when we decided to try and squeeze in some fun academic time. All it took were 3 plates and our Connecting Nouns set (plus a bit of enthusiasm on our part). 

We asked the kids to tell us the definition of a noun and with some prompting they were able to explain it was a Person, Place, or Thing.  As you can see in the picture above, after labeling each plate the kids categorized their set of cards on the correct plate. It was fun watching their little brains process where to place their circles.  If they made an incorrect choice we talked through why this wouldn't work by using it in a sentence.  The same idea could be used for many of our products....using 2 plates your child could identify opposites, even and odd, adjective and noun, lower case and capital, month and their abbreviation, day of the week and their abbreviation, numeral and number word.  The list could go on and on, but we're sure you get the idea.  Make sure your academic time is still fun and stress free! After all... it is summer!  

Don't Stress....ideas are on the way!

My friend Renee called me yesterday after receiving her first set of Connecting Sight Words in the mail.  She was so excited to start utilizing them, that she neglected to read our set of tips, suggestions, and activities that are age appropriate.  She opened them up and bravely asked her 4 year old to....sound the word out!  Oh the drama and stress that occurred both for daughter and mommy. Teaching your child to read is not easy and you may wonder how to begin. Using our sight words is a great start! Sight words are pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and verbs that make up 65 percent of all written material. They are words that cannot be learned through the use of pictures or by sounding out.

 The first step of mastering sight words we have done for you, but here are some suggestions...

1.  We've divided the words into 5 groups. There are a certain number of words for each grade level.
2.  Begin by reading just a few to your child.  I started with 3 at a time and added to the list as he memorized them.

3.  Exercise your creativity and play games using the sight words. Some common games are bingo, word search puzzles, matching and memory games.

4.  Have your child read through them often. Encourage them to take the cards with them and read them in the car or while waiting at the doctor's office.

5.  Point out sight words in stories. When you read a story, ask them to point out the sight words. Choose books with sight words that they are learning.

6.  Offer rewards for learning sight words. Develop a rewards system. For example, for every set of 25 words that they learn reward them and move on to the next level.

7.  Create a sight word notebook. As they learn sight words have them write it in a notebook and develop a sentence using the word or tape them to the wall in their bedroom. This makes reviewing them a snap at bedtime.

8.  Most importantly....make sure you are having fun and that your child is feeling as sense of accomplishment and pride!!!

Infinity and Beyond

When children are able to count to infinity and beyond we often assume that's ALL they need to know. Although they may be able to verbally list numbers do they have the ability to understand and manipulate those numbers.  Can your child sequence numbers and do they understand number correlation?

In this simple activity, the boys are sequencing numbers 1- 20 using Connecting 1-100.  Another important math concept children need to master is Number Correlation. To practice his concept we asked the boys to find the appropriate number of Match Box cars to place on the circle. (ie.. the number 2 has 2 Match Box cars)   Here is yet another example of quick summertime activity to help prepare your child for school or to help retain the knowledge they've already learned.  We'd love to hear your ideas. What are some activities you might use for Connecting 1-100?

Tips for Telling Time

Often when children are learning to tell time the concept of minutes can be quite confusing. Make it easier for them by labeling your clock by 5's. Use either our Connecting Your Way or pull out from Connecting 1-100. This will give them the visual cue needed to learn to tell time. See the picture included for an example.... If YOU have a great idea for making tough concepts easier please feel free to share them here as well.  If you are interested in any of our educational flashcards you can go to The Circle Connection's website to see all our products or contact us at circleconnection@gmail.com.

For more activities and worksheets check out EdHelper's website.  Here you will find telling time worksheets organized by grade level.