Origami is art of folding paper into interesting shapes.  Most children are intrigued by this paper art.  Here are some interesting shapes you can fold with a simple piece of paper.

Find Origami Instructions here.

Origami is fun for the whole family. It helps your child learn patience and improves focus and concentration.  Origami is also good for mastering fine-motor skills.  You can even create origami gifts for your friends.  It is also a great stress reliever.

Related articles

• Origami Magic Circle

  ---

• Rainbow Origami Crane Mobile

  ---

• 3D Origami Illustrations of Wild Animals

  ---

Anagrams Can Help Your Child Improve in Reading

Anagrams are words with their letters rearranged.  Here is a game for the whole family play and learn.  It is set of printable flash cards of 3-, 4- and 5-letter word anagrams.  Print and cut out the cards.  Here are some examples of the anagrams.

Anagram Flash Cards

Get your FREE download of Anagram Flash Cards here and start playing.

After you download, print and cut out the cards, place them face down in a pile in the middle of the group.  One person picks up a card and turns it over.  The challenge is to make as many words as fast as you can.  When there are no more words to be made, the next person picks another card and turns it over.  The winner is the person with the most words.  This game can also help your child develop concentration and focus.

Example:   etlpa

Words: at, let, pat, plate, petal ……

This game helps to improve your child’s reading skills, builds vocabulary, help in sight recognition of words and builds self-confidence.

Variations of the game

• Use these Anagram Flash Cards to settle disputes between your children.  For example, if your children cannot decide what TV program to watch or who gets the cookie: the winner gets to choose.
• If your child refuses to do homework, make him or her play this game instead and write the meanings of the words as well.
• Motivate your child by making him or her beat you at the game before getting something he or she really wants.
• Motivate your child by getting him or her to make their own anagram flash cards using words from their textbooks and challenging the family.

Have fun with the game and leave me your feedback.

PROS

• Portable : The Leapfrog Leapster2 can go where your child goes. The battery-operated console has a comfortable, curved shape, a full-color touch screen, videogame-style D pad, volume control and a jack for headphones.

• Educational: It has built-in tutorials and different learning levels to suit your child. Your child can learn at his or her own pace. The Leapfrog Leapster2 comes with 2 pre-installed educational games – a “video game” type activity with four different levels and a simple art program. More games can be purchased via SD cards or game cartridges.  It is also compatible with all 15 original Leapster learning games

• Web Connectivity:  The Leapfrog Leapster2 connects to the Leapfrog Learning Path, a free online learning program.  This online program allows you to register and upload your children’s Leapster 2 profiles to show you their learning activities and their progress. Your children can play on the go, and then connect their handhelds to your home computer to collect fun rewards they’ve earned.  An online creativity studio also lets them upload art that they’ve created, embellish it or change it completely, and publish it to share.

• Wide Range of Subjects: Leapfrog Leapster2 games teach skills in a wide range of subjects, such as language arts, reading, mathematics and science.

• Ease of Use: The Leapfrog Leapster2 is so easy to use it is even suitable for a 2-year-old.

CONS

• Batteries: The Leapfrog Leapster2 needs 4 AA batteries so it can get expensive. A rechatging station or an AC adapter can be bought separately.

• Consoles: There are only 2 colours available, green and pink.

• Games: Some games are quite simplistic and only suitable for younger players. Skills include identifying numbers, identifying letters, and finding the next step in a sequence. Costs can add up quite a bit for additional games.

• Storage: An SD card, which is an additional purchase, is required for storing your child’s work and downloaded games.

• Screen Resolution: The screen resolution is bit lacking and can strain your child’s eyes. It is a good idea to take regular short breaks while playing.

A note of Advice:  Although it is a good idea to introduce young children to electronic and computer games, these must be used in moderation. As your young child is still developing physically, it is important for them to continue to use pencils, crayons and paints so they can develop muscles and coordination needed to write and draw. Although hand-held games are great, they do not teach your child to play in a give-and-take manner with other children.   There must be a proper balance of playing electronic games and normal interactions with people around them.  To get the most out of Leapfrog Leapster2, you can play with your child and then discuss what makes the game interesting or not and also come up with paper and pens ideas to improve on the games. You can also set up challenges such as rewarding your child with a favorite family activity when he or she shows improvement in their scores within a certain time.

You can help your child learn Math by adapting the popular children’s card game of Snap. Instead of matching pictures, you match Math problems.

Here is how you play it.

Materials:

• A pack of blank cards

• Marker pen

Write a Math problem on each card like this:

Notice that the answers all equal 24.

Create around 6 – 8 cards with the same answer. You can also have just the answer written on a few cards. Create around 40 cards in all. Then you play the game in the same way as you play Snap.

1. Deal out all the cards to 2 players.
2. Place the cards in a pile face down in front of you.
3. Each player opens the top card at the same time.
4. If the answers match then the first person to shout ‘Snap’ wins the cards.
5. The final winner is the person with the most cards.

Use your Math Snap cards to help your child learn multiplication, addition, subtraction and division. You can also use the game as a way for your kids to win points to earn favors from each other.

For more Math Fun ideas, go to this site:

Related articles

• Playing with Math(coopcatalyst.wordpress.com)

  ---

• The benefits of playing card games with children(examiner.com)

  ---

A major difficulty students have in school is writing compositions, essays and long, detailed answers. One reason for this is that their vocabulary is limited so they find it difficult to write well.

You can give your child a head start by helping him or her develop a wide vocabulary.  Here is a word game that will help you accomplish this. This game will also help your child spell and read better.

This is a pen and paper game. In this word game, words are formed from their building blocks of consonants and vowels, as shown in the diagram below. You can start with simpler words and building up to longer words. For more fun, make it a competition with prizes such as movie nights or extra computer time. Be creative with prizes for the whole family.

The aim of the game is to match a circle from the left column with a circle from the right column to form a word.

Examples from the game sheet above: file, late, rude

Use coins to cover the circles that make a word. The winner is the person who makes the last word. To extend the game, each word must be used in a sentence.

Get your template here to make your own words.

You can make it more complex. A variation to this game is to make as many words as possible from both columns. The winner is the one who makes the most words.

Examples from the game sheet above: fright, dip, cloud

Once your child has mastered this game, it is time to make it a little more challenging, as shown in the diagram below. The object now is to use a circle from each column to make a word.Examples: bark, cook, mean

Get your template here to make your own words.

Examples: black, fleet, food

This game and many others can be found here. This article contains affiliated links. To obtain free samples, you need to sign up for the newsletter in the affiliate site Rainbow Games.

When I first started tutoring, I was very impatient with my students.  Some students were easy to teach.  They understood the concepts easily and could apply them to the questions.  Other students just could not get the concepts no matter how many times I explained it to them.  It was these students that I became impatient with and I often scolded them.  I thought they were pretending not to understand just to frustrate me.

Gradually, I realized that the words I used affected their response.  If I said things like “This is so easy, why can’t you get it?” they would become sullen and refused to try.  But if I said things like “I know this is hard for you but if you keep trying I’m sure you’ll get it soon” they would try harder.  I recognized that words matter.  The words we use create an emotional response in the listener.  The response can be positive or negative.

Nowadays, I try to think before I speak.  Many times it is hard as we tend to just blurt out what’s on our mind.  It is good to think about the common phrases you use when you speak to your child and try to re-phrase them to produce a positive feeling.  I used to say to my daughter, “What’s the matter with you?” in a tone that implies she’s an imbecile when she does something I think is irresponsible.  Now I try to say, “Now we know that didn’t work!” in a milder tone of voice.

Instead of “Why are you always so slow/clumsy/disobedient” I will say “Please work a little faster/Be more careful/I want you to follow my instructions”.  The first way makes the child feel bad about herself as a person.  The second way teaches the child what to do.

If I tell my student, “You are so noisy, I want you to keep quiet” he probably won’t listen and he’ll feel resentful towards me.  But if I tell him “I know you are very excited but please lower your voice so the others can hear me” he’ll probably comply and he won’t feel belittled.

Think about the way you usually speak to others and see if you can improve the relationship by changing the words you use.  Talk to your child in a respectful manner and you’ll create a stronger bond.

Related articles

• How to Empower Your Child by Letting Them Know They Matter (angelamaiers.com)

You can help your child be a fluent reader. When children first start reading, they have to learn to recognize the shapes of the letters, the combination of letters that make up a word and the way to pronounce the word.

Some words like ‘table’ are easy to learn and remember because they refer to an object. Other words, like ‘the’ or ‘and’ are harder to remember because they are abstract in nature. These words occur very frequently and are necessary to master for your child to be a fluent reader. Learn what the common, high frequency words are by clicking here. High frequency words are also called ‘sight words’ because children have to learn to read them by sight as opposed to learning to sound out the words.

Here are some easy ways to help your child be a fluent reader.

• Teach high frequency sight words

Help your child to be a fluent reader by teaching high frequency words. Highlight these words wherever you find them. Learning just 100 high frequency words will enable your child to read fifty per cent of virtually any text, whether a children’s book or a newspaper report. When you combine immediate recognition of the high frequency sight words with a good knowledge of basic phonics, that’s when your child can be a fluent reader.

• Teach through games

One of the best ways to help your child is through interesting games that the whole family can play. Rainbow Board Games are a collection of 57 colorful, printable board games that give your child practice in identifying initial sounds and letters, reading high frequency words, rhyming and more. It also includes game board templates so that you can make your own board games.

• Read to your child daily

Reading to your child daily is an enjoyable way to help your child. It is also a superb way to develop a close bond with your child. You can also use classic stories to impart knowledge and values to your child. Better yet, make up your own family stories to inspire your child. Here are some stories your child might like.

• Write fun, personal notes to your child

All children love surprises. Leave notes under their pillow, in the lunchbox and in other unexpected places. You can also make your own family coupons like ‘One extra hour of playtime’ to give as rewards which your child can redeem.

• Play card games

Make colorful anagram cards to play with your child. This game will help your child realize that the order of the letters in a word is important. For example, cat and act are made up of the same letters but in a different order. You can assign points to each card and give simple rewards when your child hits a certain number of points. Or you can use pre-made printable cards from Rainbow Card Games.

These are just some ways to help your child be a fluent reader. I’m sure with these ideas to get you started, you’ll soon come up with lots more ideas.

Your child can solve Math problems easily when he or she has the thinking skills necessary to understand the question. Math problems consist of a series of clues which enable the student to work out the answer to the question. Let’s start with the basics.

A common type of Math question presents information in this way:

start –> change –> end

The easiest questions to answer are those which ask for the answer at the end.  They make it easy for the student to know which of the four operations (add, subtract, multiply or divide) to use.

Here is an example:  I have $21. I spent $4. How much do I have left?

Start: $21

Change: ‘spent’ which means reduced

End: after spending

Operation: 21 – 4

Sometimes students do not read the question fully. Instead they use a shortcut by associating certain words with specific operations. Be careful that your child does not associate the word ‘left’ as in ‘how much left’ with subtraction. Consider the next question.

Question: After spending $4, I have $20 left. How much money did I have at first?

start –> change –> end

Image via Wikipedia

Start: ? (need to work out)

Change: ‘spending’ which means reduced

End: $20

Thinking: start with an amount, the amount is reduced by $4 to become $20. Operation: the operation to use is the reverse of the usual operation. Instead of subtraction, we have to use addition: 20 + 4.

This is known as the ‘work backwards’ strategy. This type of question usually gives information in the middle and end but leaves out the beginning. Remember that the operation is reversed.

As Math problems get more complicated there are more changes between the start and the end. Let’s look at this example.

Question:

I have $43. I bought a shirt and a book. The book costs $6 and the shirt costs $21. How much money do I have left?

Start: $43

Change: bought shirt $21

Change: bought book $6

End: ?

Operation: 43 – 21 – 6

Each time there is a change, ask your child to determine if the change results in decrease or an increase. If it results in a decrease, the operation to use is either to add or to multiply.  If it results in an increase, the operation to use is either to subtract or to divide.

In the case of the ‘work backwards’ strategy, the operations have to be reversed.

Here is another more complicated example.

Question:

An empty city bus left the terminal and picked up some people at the first stop. At the second stop, 2 people got off and 4 people got on. At the third stop, 3 people got off and 5 got on. If there are 9 passengers now on the bus, how many people did the bus pick up at the first stop?

Although it takes more time to teach thinking skills compared to just solving each question without caring about the concepts, thinking skills help your child to build a solid foundation and an understanding of how Math problems work.

This will enable him/her to answer complicated problems by thinking the problem through, not just blindly following various methods or by guesswork.

Related articles

• Math Heuristics: A Powerful Tool in Solving Complex Elementary Math Problems
• Math Help: Patterns in Math

All children love to play games. A smart way to teach Math is to do it through games. This great Math game can be played anywhere – in the classroom, at home, on a car journey or while waiting for your food at a restaurant.  It can be played by as few as 3 players to as many as 20 players. It is a terrific way to teach the multiplication tables; it can also be used to improve your child’s power of concentration.

The game is described in Rafe Esquith’s book Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire.  It goes something like this:

The children stand and face the teacher or parent.

Suppose the buzz number is 3.  This means that any number that contains a 3 cannot be called out and must be replaced with the word ‘Buzz’.

The teacher points at a student who calls out ‘1’.

The teacher points to another student who says ‘2’.

The teacher points to another student who must say ‘Buzz’.

The teacher must point out the students at random order so this forces the students to pay attention and to keep count. Teach the students to be respectful of their classmates by waiting patiently while a student figures out whether to say Buzz or the number. Increase the fun by going faster once the kids have the hang of the game.

The buzz number can be multiples or prime numbers or any other variation you can think of.

For more Math Fun: Click Here!

Related articles:

• https://www.xtramath.org/

• http://jumpmath1.org/

• Will-power! Rafe Esquith and the Hobart Shakespeareans at TED2012 (ted.com)

I love teaching elementary school kids to solve Math problems, especially complex word problems. The key to solving complex Math problems is to break them down into simpler sections and then solving them step by step. A very powerful tool you can use is called the Heuristic Method. This method is actually a series of strategies that covers practically all types of elementary school Math problems. Heuristic means investigative or exploratory.

The Heuristic Method comprises various strategies such as:

Look for a Pattern

Draw it out

Make a Chart or Table

Guess and Check

Work Backwards

Draw Models

Let’s look at 3 examples of Math problem sums which can be solved using the guess and check method. These 3 questions can be solved by 10- to 12-year-olds.

First example:

John bought some mint sweets and some chocolates. Each mint sweet costs 30 cents and each chocolate costs 50 cents. He paid $3.60 for a total of 10 sweets and chocolates. How many chocolates did John buy?

Thinking:

This question is unusual because we do not know the individual number of sweets and the individual number of chocolates.  We only know the total number of both sweets and chocolates. So the best way to find out is to guess and check the answer. Let’s first guess 4 sweets and 6 chocolates. Since we know the cost per sweet and the cost per chocolate, we can compute the total cost of 4 sweets and 6 chocolates and compare it the $3.60 actually spent. We continue systematically to guess then check the answer till we come up with the correct combination of sweets and chocolates that costs $3.60.  This is how we will know the number of chocolates John bought. The answer is 3 chocolates.

Second example:

John bought some mint sweets and some chocolates.  The number of mint sweets is two-thirds of the number of chocolates. Each mint sweet costs 30 cents and each chocolate costs 50 cents. He paid $14.70 in all.  How many mint sweets did John buy?

Thinking:

This question is similar to the first. The difference is that we do not know the total number of sweets and chocolates but we do know the proportion of sweets to chocolates is 2:3. This knowledge involves changing fractions to ratio. When we guess the number of sweets and chocolates we must keep in mind the proportion.  Say we guess there are 5 sweets. When we try to match this to the number of chocolates, we see that it is impossible to stick to the 2:3 proportions of sweets and chocolates. Therefore the number of sweets must be an even number.

Continue to guess and check systematically till you come up with the correct combination of sweets and chocolates that costs a total of $14.70. The answer is 14 sweets and 21 chocolates.

Third example:

John bought some mint sweets and some chocolates.  He bought 10 more mint sweets than chocolates. Each mint sweet costs 30 cents and each chocolate costs 50 cents. He paid $15 in all.  How many mint sweets and chocolates did John buy altogether?

Thinking:

Again this question is similar to the other two. The difference is we do not know the total number of sweets and chocolates and we also do not know the proportion of sweets and chocolates. This means that we have to guess randomly which can make it almost impossible to get the correct set of combination we want.

The key information here is that John bought 10 more mint sweets than chocolates. If we remove this extra 10 mint sweets then the remainder consist of equal number of sweets and chocolates which make it easy for us to guess and check. Since we removed the 10 mint sweets, we must remember to reduce the total amount of money spent to $12 (10 mint sweets cost $3).

Now we can guess equal numbers of mint sweets and chocolates that total $12. Remember to add back the 10 mint sweets to give the final number of mint sweets and chocolates that John bought altogether. The answer is 40.

Let me know if you are interested in learning more about the Math Heuristic Method.

Many children struggle with Math in school.  They find the ideas hard to understand and the word problems confusing.  Math is actually an easy subject to ace because each problem has only one correct answer.  And there are many ways of arriving at the correct answer.

Once your child understands the main concept in Math, he or she will not struggle with Math anymore.  When we think of Math we think of numbers, counting, adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing.  The underlying rule of these Mathematical operations is repeated patterns.

Image via Wikipedia

In kindergarten, Math lessons start with learning to recognize numbers and to count.  They also include identifying different shapes and looking for patterns.

When a preschooler first learns to recite the numbers: 1, 2, 3… and so on, they have no idea of the meaning of these numbers.  When you ask them to count, they just reel off the numbers without caring about the quantity of the items they are counting.  It takes time for them to realize that counting is actually a repeated pattern of ‘one more’.

Here is another pattern that is very useful.  To help your child understand numbers bigger than ten, it would be very helpful to see the numbers as groups of tens with leftover singles or ones.  For example, fifteen is made up of one group of ten and five singles or ones; twenty-two is made up of two groups of tens and two singles or ones.  Teach them this when they learn to count money.

When your child understands this, it becomes much easier for him or her to add numbers mentally.  For example, fifteen and twenty-two added together would result in three groups of ten and seven ones to give thirty-seven.  Use actual items when adding this way so your child can see and feel the items instead of trying to understand abstract written symbols.

Another pattern to note when doing addition is when two numbers are added together, the answer is always bigger than either of the numbers.  This is a useful guide for children who are careless in their work.  They can check their own working by seeing whether the answer is bigger or smaller than it should be.

Other patterns would involve Math terms like ‘greater than’, ‘smaller than’, ‘increase’ and ‘decrease’.  If one number is greater than another, it means that the first number is bigger than the second.  When your child understands this, he or she will be able to answer questions like ’34 is 10 greater than what number?’

With this new understanding of Math, your child will no longer struggle with Math. What are the patterns you notice?

Related Articles

• Counting Worksheets and Printables (education.com)
• Math Worksheets and Printables (education.com)