Peel Duct Tape: Place strips of duct tape onto surfaces like the sidewalk, garage walls, or the floor. Your child simply peels the tape!
Squishy Sponge: Give your child a sponge and bucket of water. Have them water plants by squeezing the water out from the sponge!
Tongs and tweezers: Give your child a pair of tongs, and egg carton, and a bin of small things (pom poms, beads, pasta, etc). Have them fish out objects with tweezers and sort them into the egg carton.

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Classic Games are the perfect way to sneak in Pincher Grasp Development

Don’t Spill the Beans

Medical schools are noticing a decline in students’ dexterity, possibly from spending time swiping screens rather than developing fine motor skills through woodworking and sewing.
The New York Times

The great news is Pincher Grasp Development is easy to weave into your child’s day. A Little less swiping of screens and a little more of old fashion fun and these intricate hand muscles can get a good work out!

For Older Kids

Crocheting and knitting

Embroidery

Tin Foil Art

Using a sock to improve pencil grip (Brilliant)

Print this free homeschool mom reminder.

This post comes with a free printable reminder list to help keep your heart focused on the heart of homeschooling. I always have the hardest staying focused. This printable simplifies it!

Here is a sneak preview…

Download Your Free Printable

Download the checklist. You’ll get the printable, plus join 9,000+ homeschool moms who receive my weekly parenting tips and ideas!
Print. Any paper will do the trick, but card stock would be ideal.
Place it on your refrigerator as a helpful reminder.

Dad’s Role in Homeschooling: The Powerful Man Behind the Scenes

Inside: Six homeschool lessons to glean from your kid’s dad. Even if he never picks up a red pen to help you grade a math test.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. But when the going gets tough in homeschool, moms across the globe search for answers.

We corner teachers to glean classroom management skills.
We laugh and cry with our girlfriends about our kids as we sip too much coffee.
We pick the brains of other homeschoolers we happen to bump into at the grocery store.
We Google in desperation. “Which curriculum is best for a dyslexic science-minded girl who refuses to wear matching socks on Tuesdays?”

But ask the man in our lives his opinion about how to teach his children or how to manage our lives, No way Jose….

Math with a Deck of Cards

Quick round up of all the math games I can find that you can play with a deck of cards.

Total of 10

Lay out 20 cards on the table (leave out face cards or change them to equal 0, while aces equal 1). Kids remove sets of cards that add up to 10, ultimately trying to remove all the cards from the table. It’s harder than you think! Learn more at First Grade Round up

Nifty 50

This game is great to develop logical thinking and problem solving, review two digit addition and subtraction regrouping, and is fun! The object is to come up with a math equation that has a sum or difference closest to the number 50. First player to five points is the winner! Learn more at Scholastic

21

This game is a simplified version played in casinos, with no gambling involved. Object: be the closest to 21 without going over! Learn more at Scholastic

Place Value War

Turn over 1, 2 or 3 cards. Place
them in any position to make the highest
number possible. The higher number wins all
of the cards for that turn. Learn more at Newark Schools

Once through the deck

Shuffle the deck and place it face down on the table in front of you. Flip the cards face up, one at a time.

For each card, say out loud the sum (or product) of that number plus (or times) the number you want to practice. Don’t say the whole equation, just the answer.

Go through the deck as fast as you can. Learn more at Denise Gaskins

Closest To

Starting with two digit numbers, deal out two cards per player. Each player takes the cards in their hand and rearranges the digits to create a number that is closest to 50. The players show each other their hands and the player who is closest to 50 wins the set of all of the players’ cards. Learn more at Math engaged

Math Memory

Lay all of the cards down on the table face-down in a grid. Players take turns flipping over three cards and seeing if they can make an equation with the face-up cards. Younger players can try using addition and subtraction, and older players can also try using multiplication and division. Players are challenged to remember what cards every player has flipped to help them create equations on their own turn. The player with the most amount of cards at the end of the game wins. Learn more at Math engaged

Here’s a game similar to the one described above, but this version allows students to compare fractions instead. You will need two pencils, one for each player, to serve as the fraction line. Learn more at Super Teacher Worksheets

Guess My Number

Place a student at the front of the room and give him or her two playing cards. The cards can be ordered any way the student wants. Be sure the cards cannot be seen by the class!

Take turns around the room guessing what the number is. The types of questions asked have to use math vocabulary, such as, “Is it even?” “Is it odd?” “Is it greater than 10?” “Is it a factor of 20?” and so on.

The student can only answer with a “Yes” or “No”, until the actual number is guessed at. Learn more at K5Chalkbox

More math with a deck of cards!

More math goodies

Math Picture Books Breath Life into Arithmetic!

97+ Ideas for Making Math FUN

Homeschool Math: Grab your Roadmap to Success

Rubik’s Cube (TM) Top Secret Mission

A reader asked if I could create her son an activity to add to the Rubik’s Cube she bought him.

Nothing excites kids like the words “Top Secret”.

These activities make the perfect pair with a Rubik’s Cube(TM) and make excellent math centers, bell work, party activities or just plain fun.
Included:

Top Secret instructions
18 Mission Cards
Mission foldable folders
Laughs and curiosity

*Rubik’s Cube sold separately

Rubik's Cube birthday parti — Get yours in my TpT Store

For Student: Prepare Top Secret Envelope and Mission Instruction cards.For longest life, copy onto cardstock paper and laminate.

Student comes to “Mission Commander” for 1-3 Missions to complete at a time. They must show the completed tasks to mission command before getting their next set of orders.

For Mission Command(YOU): Prepare Top Secret Envelope and Mission Instruction cards. For longest life, copy onto cardstock paper and laminate.

When Student comes to receive their secret mission give them 1-3 mission/tasks to complete. When they return with a successful mission they can receive a new set of “orders”.

These missions do not need to be completed in any particular order, but may be carefully selected by mission command to ensure success!

Make every day a Read Aloud Day

I’m here to remind us both of something very important.

There’s something more beneficial for our kids’ education than that curriculum we’re beginning to understand.

…

popular

Inside: Ways to inspire your late reader. {Plus free cheatsheet}

All FIVE of our sons were delayed Learners

Inside: Free boredom Buster Ideas {Printable}

“My homeschool year was a flop”.

Yes, kids need to read and write and solve basic math problems, but they don’t need school at home.

Instead, give them LESS.

Inside: The secret to surviving life with your hormonal 12-year old boy and 3 must reads if you’re raising boys. {PLUS Free Raising Sons Cheatsheet}

Fizzics Brings so many fun Chemistry Experiments right into your kitchen

The Chemistry of Pizza, by my son

Get Creative in the Kitchen!

Before you scroll, get your free gift

They hold up one of the boxes.

At this point, tell them to pause while you get another cup of tea or coffee and ask them to guess what’s inside.

How is this possible?

I polled hundreds of homeschool moms and compiled their favorites list of kits into a list for you.

MAGIC.

Check out all the AMAZING subscription boxes other Homeschool Moms love.

Here are some DELICIOUS ways to spice up learning.

8 Hands-on Toys to Help Kids Develop Pincher Muscles

Sewing Buttons!!

More Pincher Grasp Activities!

Simple Activities to Improve Pincher Grasp and Help Your child Hold a Pencil