Easy Ways to Get Ready for Back to School

August 14, 2016 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

I know different areas of the world are different in terms of when kids go back to school, and if you homeschool you could be on a completely different schedule, but where I live kids have been trickling back to school all month, and my daughter goes back on Thursday.

It seems like this time of year is perfect for getting your learning space organized (even if your space is just a corner of the kitchen table).

Kids Activities Blog has a great roundup of ideas for getting organized for back to school. From places to organize school supplies to ideas for storing all those papers that come home from school, this will get your years off on the right foot.

If you’re going to be helping kids with homework this year or are a homeschooling parent who could use a little extra help, these printable school “cheat sheets” from Princess Pinky Girl are something you’ll want to keep handy. There’s everything here from the parts of speech to algebra equations, multiplication tables, even cooking cheat sheets for homeschool home ec.

Speaking of homeschool, if you’re still trying to get organized for the year check out this free printable planner I shared earlier this summer.

And though it isn’t a free resource anymore, I absolutely love the printable desk mat from You Clever Monkey. My almost-7-year-old has one and it’s really helpful for writing common words, correct letter and number formation, even knowing left from right. There’s a lot of great information packed into one printable page (and it only costs $2, which is totally worth it).

Do you have any organization tips for back to school? We’d love to hear them!

[Photo via Kids Activities Blog.]

Have you read?

Gross Motor Math Ideas

With little kids especially, linking learning to physical activity really does help them learn. Movement can help kids focus, and it just keeps them from sitting still all day, which isn’t good for anyone.

The good news is lots of different learning activities can be adopted to get kids moving while they learn, so let’s look at some math and number activities that use gross motor skills.

Probably the most obvious thing would be hopscotch, which helps kids count while they hop. You can also mix up the numbers, do skip counting with the numbers, give kids a simple math problem and have them hop to the correct answer, and on and on.

This number hop game from Gift of Curiosity is a more chaotic version, with number flash cards on the floor that kids can hop, skip or jump to as you call them out (this one is more for individual number identification than counting). It’s a great indoor option if it’s too hot, cold or rainy out to do traditional hopscotch, too.

This painter’s tape number line idea from Days with Grey doesn’t involve quite as much movement, but kids can move around while they place things on the number line and work on learning about one to one correspondence. In the blog post they use shoes, but you can count anything you’ve got handy. (Be warned when I visited this website had an ad that continually took up the whole page, but you can get the idea pretty quickly.)

One of the important tasks of learning numbers is learning a parent’s phone number just in case it’s ever needed, or how to dial 911 in case on an emergency. Teaching Mama has a great way to practice telephone numbers and get some movement in with a giant telephone keypad made out of paper plates. You can also use this for counting practice, but it’s a great idea for learning phone numbers, too.

Have you read?

Leave a Reply