Homeschoolingmama

I wanted to talk a little bit about our latest set of toys, and if you've been closely following me on instagram you will know that I have recently made the conscious decisions to switch to wooden toys from plastic. The obvious reason being, the planet is overrun with plastic and it is worrying how much plastic we are consuming through our own negligence.  The toys I purchased were intended for 3 year old, but I found 8 year old joined in and has enjoyed playing with these too.  In this post I will be talking about the following: Wooden rainbow learning toy   Melissa and Doug rainbow balance   Treasure toys Montessori sensory bin scoop and fill wooden starter set   Toys of Wood, Oxford wooden tangram puzzle for kids   I have found these toys have provided endless play, but more importantly they have offered a lot of learning throu...

Dekko comics  I wanted to share another  superb  resource  we've been using more recently - Dekko comics.  As a family that are structured during some months, semi structured during others and completely autonomous for some, Dekko comics have been a brilliant resource to have and use.  I saw these fab comics, and decided to order all 12 back issues, I knew they would be invaluable (so why waste time buying one at a time?!) What makes them so good? Each issue covers a variety of subjects, with  in-depth  explanations to  foreign   language  scripts. The layout is fun and exciting, a colourful comic, but full of facts. These comics  work so well,  because  children  enjoy  the idea of 'relaxing and reading a comic for fun', but at  the  same pick up information - without being bored and tied down to a desk! Little person has enjoyed reading ...

After thoroughly enjoying Bananagram, I was quite happy to read a comment on instagram mentioning a few number games of similar structure.  A read of reviews, views of pictures and a few hours of thinking, Numbalee won, and was swiftly purchased.  Numbalee is a 'fast paced numbers game', minimum number of players is 1 and maximum is 8. The absolute deciding factor for me, was the fact that Numbalee isn't just one game, there are 12 different games that can be played with the provided tiles, die and symbol pieces.  How it works The general rules for the game are quite simple, and these rules apply to a few of the games included (Numbalee, Numbalee solo, Numbalee colour run, Numbalee match). It's nice to see that the person who starts play isn't simply player 1, but referred to as 'Premier'. For Numbalee, the 'premier' is the person who has the highest number tile (all players t...

When little person started working on fractions, I was wary how I was going to make fractions, decimals and percentages fun. Without this topic being fun, I knew he wouldn’t understand, and without fun it automatically becomes ‘hard.’ So it was time to invest in books and other items to make this a more enjoyable. I have written a post about ‘Fraction towers’ so today I wanted to talk a little bit about ‘usborne Fractions And Decimals activity book.’ On my search for books, I found lots of generic books, and workbooks that were definitely good, but I needed a little bit more colour. However, when I read stickers were involved, I had to buy! I wasn’t too sure how good the stickers would work, and whether little person would even enjoy the concept, but I was very pleasantly surprised!   The book has three main sections, fractions, decimals and percentages. ‘Usborne Fractions And Decimals activity book’ covers all areas of each topic, so it would work well for prima...

Over the last few years, we have enjoyed an endless number of Orchard Toys games. I've always found every game to be an educational tool on our learning journey, and have always recommended the games to everyone.  Today, I want to talk a little bit about 'Money match cafe' . 7 year old has been playing this more frequently recently (since his confidence has increased when dealing with money).  How does it work?  The game is very simple to set up. Recommended ages for this game are 5-8, simply because younger children might find it a little bit of a struggle with money calculations. It is so important to work on what children are able to do, or what stage they are at, sometimes pushing too far can be destructive to their confidence. So, general age recommendations are 5-8, but that is entirely up to adults to decide, a 4 year old might take part with ease and I don't think there really is an upper age that wouldn't enjoy a game like this! The l...

Little person recently received his fab ‘First Wonder Box’, and as we loved it so much, I had to write a review! Both kids (3 year old loves to join in when and where she can)  were overwhelmed with the contents, and there were definitely lots of shrieks of happiness!  The theme of the box we have received is rainforests, which is perfect as little person has recently been focusing on rainforests as part of his research on endangered animals.  ‘First wonder box’ - ‘ the perfect mix of learning and fun, First wonder boxes are a great way to introduce 4-8 year old children to the world around them ’. These well thought out and excellently  designed boxes are created by the clever team behind First news , so undoubtedly  I knew it would be a great box!  What’s inside?  The kids enjoyed opening up the box, and eagerly awaited to get started. We had a look through the huge list of activities, and...

Gear, gears, gears, lights and action Even though we've owned our huge bucket of  Learning resources, gears, gears, gears, lights and action  for four years, I felt that a review was in order, as we have enjoyed this 'bucket of fun' for so long and continue to do so.  So the basics, the set is a huge 121 piece set, it comes with interlocking Gears, lights, connectors, springs, glow in the dark stickers and a easy to use motor. This superb toy is easy to handle and assemble by all (including 3 year old).  I love the storage bucket, for me the bucket has been a huge hit (lego has done a lot of damage to ones feet!), its also meant the kids have quickly and easily tidied up. The children design their structures on the flat 'plates', use the motor (or not), plus the lights. They have come up with endless designs and structures and continue to do so!  What's so good about it? I came across  gears, ge...

When I contemplated teaching little person fractions, I won't lie, I hesitated and wondered how I'd go about it. After all, aren't fractions really hard?  Well, that all came to an end when I found a product that helped us on our journey, and that was  Learning resources Deluxe Fractions tower.   How does it work? The fractions tower is a great concept, which enables the child to visualise what we mean by, for instance 1/8.  You have each tower representing a fraction, so the first tower is a whole, enabling a child to see that the full length of all the towers is exactly the same height, therefore equaling a whole. The second tower is 1/2, and it's nice that this comes next as it once again reinforces how simply dividing the whole by 2 leaves you with two halves. The third tower is 1/3, moving onto 1/4,1/5, 1/6, working through 1/8, 1/10 and finally 1/12.  We started with the basi...

Do you ever find yourself searching for activities you can carry out outdoors with the kids? Exciting activities that will be enjoyed by the younger ones as well as older ones? I definitely found a brilliant subscription box that both the 3 and 7 year old have enjoyed, and that box is, Tot bag/Tot Box. What is the box all about? It is a simple concept, the idea of the activities is to get the children out and about, exploring and learning from the outdoors. The activities provided are easy enough for younger children (approx 3 year olds) but also exciting enough for older children to enjoy them. Both the 3 and 7 year old have enjoyed the activities. Contents In this lovely winter theme box, we received our tot bag, activity booklet and all the items required to carry out the tasks.  The best thing about this box, is that I didn't even have to try and find a pencil!  Each activity comes with all the necessary items, therefo...