Search Results for: great kids educational games

Preschool Educational Toy Round Up

Christmas is coming so the time to toy shop is sneaking up on us. Christmas gets closer every year to the adults. This year make your toy selections wisely. Chose toys this year that inspire curiosity, imagination and a love for learning. The following list of toys is some of my favorite preschool toys that are fun and educational. Educational Insights Geosafari Talking Microscope: Explore the wonder of getting 5x closer with this perfect first microscope. The microscope features 5x focusing magnifier and a light that makes viewing easy. It comes with a Talking Microscope Unit and 12 prepared interactive … Continue reading →

Three Games to Inspire a Love of Letters

Bananagrams is a fun, fast and portable game that appeals to wordsmiths and word strugglers alike. The genius of this game rests in its simplicity. To play you simply need a flat surface. A table, floor, or tray will do just fine. The entire game is kept in a banana shaped pouch with is easy to bring anywhere. The object of the game is to spell out words in a crossword style. The first person to use all his or her tiles is the winner. This game can be played in as few as five minutes. This is a great … Continue reading →

Educational Summer Fun

Here’s a fun way to put your kid’s high tech skills to good use: Computer Summer Camp. If you have a hard time prying your son or daughter away from the computer at breakfast time, bedtime and every hour in between, then you might consider sending him or her to Digital Media Academy. The award-winning camp accredited by Stanford University is one of the most popular media programs in North America and is ideal for teens looking to get their hands on the most relevant software used in the entertainment industry. The summer camp sessions run from mid-June through August … Continue reading →

Springtime Fun in the Great Outdoors

After two days of near 70-degree temps, reality hit, and our sleepy Wisconsin city got slammed with six inches of snow last week. Fortunately, the snow only stuck around for a couple days. Unfortunately, we got dumped on during my young daughter’s spring break from school. Despite the crazy weather pattern (a.k.a. spring in Wisconsin), we managed to salvage spring break with a few outdoor adventures that got my daughter itching for summer vacation. Spring has sprung in most states, and if you are looking for ways to take advantage of the seasonal temps with your kids, then consider the … Continue reading →

Fun Educational Games for the Whole Family

There are certainly many classic family games that are loads of fun no matter the age. Games like Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, Hi Ho Cherry O, Clue, Life and Monopoly are extremely popular in plenty of households. But have you gotten to know some of the new family entertainment out there? Apples to Apples This is probably one of our favorite games. It is a game of comparison and can be played by kids of all ages now that they have a junior version. It’s so much fun to play, and yet they are still learning plenty about adjectives and … Continue reading →

Kids Virtual Field Trips

Whether you home school, summer school, preschool or just like to have educational fun with your kids, you should be very interested in this blog post. Virtual field trips for kids (and in some cases by kids) are a great way to introduce children to places that are not feasible to physically visit. You can also encourage kids to chronicle their own real-life field trips and share them with others, whether through their own website, a YouTube video or through a website such as MeetMeAtTheCorner.org. Let’s start with MeetMeAtTheCorner.org. It is focused on the New York City area, but it … Continue reading →

Fun Egg Carton Learning Games

I’ve been asking my friends for creative ideas and here’s one from a Kindergarten teacher that I just love. It’s such an open ended craft with great learning potential. My friend uses this as an introduction to numbers. She takes empty egg cartons and labels each compartment with numbers 1 through 12. A permanent marker works, but you can get really fancy and do stickers or computer printouts. The children have to find one of something, two of something else and so on. She provides things like counting bears, paper clips, buttons, pennies, or small pebbles. She says it’s a … Continue reading →

Top 5 Homeschooling Resource: Online Learning Games

It has been awhile since I’ve posted a resource blog and I must apologize. My goal is to do resource blogs often during the week and yet somehow with the craziness of Christmas, it just didn’t happen. Today’s resource includes our favorite places to go for online learning games. I use online learning games as a means to keep one child busy while I’m working with another child. However, I know some homeschoolers that use them to teach and of course that’s great too! 1. I Know That I just discovered this site. It is simply full of online learning … Continue reading →

Encourage Noncompetitive Games Too

Kids are playing competitive sports and doing competitive activities at younger and younger ages. In my own home town, they have introduced “tot soccer” for 3 and 4-year-old children. With all of the increased focus on competition, I think it is important that parents try to balance that out with some noncompetitive games too. While I acknowledge that we live in a competitive, capitalistic society, I do think that there are plenty of people skills and self-esteem building that comes from noncompetitive games and play for children. It doesn’t always have to be about winning and beating out the opponent. … Continue reading →

The Joy of Found Toys and Made-Up Games

In chatting with my nearly-grown teenagers, we find ourselves talking about their memories from their childhood—different games they played and adventures they remember. It strikes me that some of their fondest memories are of games they made up themselves and toys they invented from found items. Despite thousands of dollars spent on the latest and greatest educational toys—their best moments were with found toys and made-up games. My son was the king of doing all sorts of creative things with sticks and rocks. He would spend all morning choosing just the right stick or I can remember coming home from … Continue reading →