Summer Math Activities and {Learn & Play Link Up #8}

Welcome to another week of  Learn & Play Link Up!  I know that we are all enjoying summer, savouring the heat and everyone just wanted to play.  But because we are settled in a place where we barely have summer (because it rains all the time here in Ireland!), I made sure that we have activities  indoor to have that summer “feel”. 

For this week in The Pinay Homeschooler, I’m featuring our Summer Themed Grid Number Games.  Mavi and I had a great time playing this while it was gloomy for an entire week! Sure the weather spoilt our plan for outdoor play but our grid game kept us entertained!  To know more about it, click the image below or here.

Now I’m going to feature 4 awesome math post from our beloved readers!

• 25 Math Games for Kids from Study at Home Mama
• Ladybug Love Activities from A Kinder Gartens Vintage Homeschool
• Nautical Math Pack (activities) from Year Round Homeschooling
• DIY Math Peg Board from Child Led Life
• Fraction Activities w/ Printables from Every Star Is Different

Welcome to the Learn & Play Link Party!

Now it’s time for this week’s link party! This is a BRAND new link up for all blog posts that include learn and play activities and hands-on education for kids. We are excited to read your blog posts and to see what you have to share! Please link up below and grab our button to display on your blog.

If you are a blogger, share your family friendly posts here. We are looking for things which include:

• Montessori Education
• Homeschool
• Sensory Play
• Tot and Preschool Trays
• Fine and Gross Motor Activities
• Kids in the Kitchen
• Healthy Recipes for Kids
• Arts and Crafts
• Natural Living
• Free Educational Printables
• Family-Oriented Activities
• Healthy Living

Your post will be featured on each of our blogs where we will pick our favourite posts every other week. That means there is more of a chance that you will be featured!

Everyone, please meet our link party hosts:

Christian Montessori Blog ~ Please visit our CMN FB group ~ Pinterest

Vanessa from Mama’s Happy Hive~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Jennifer from Study at Home Mama~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Marie from Child Led Life~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Jae from Pinay Homeschooler~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Heather from Golden Reflections Blog~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Renae from Every Star is Different~FB~Pinterest

GUIDELINES FOR LINKING

• Please link up 1-3 posts
• Follow each of the hosts on social media
• When you link up, please add our button and place it at the bottom of your shared posts or link back with text link.
• By entering a link, you’re giving us permission to feature an image on our blogs. Proper credit & links will ALWAYS be given.
• Please visit a couple of shared posts and leave a comment for them
• Remember that you must link back in order to be featured

Grab This Button:

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Independence Day Giveaway!

Hello dear readers!! My homeland the Philippines is celebrating it’s Independence Day this June 12th. To commemorate, I’m having an Asia in a Nutshell giveaway for those lucky winners!

Use the Rafflecopter to enter this giveaway. 

Note,  I am asking to  leave your email address in this format ____[at]___[dot]com. So this is how it should be:  if your email address is testemail@gmail.com, then you should write it in this manner:  testemail[at]gmail[dot]com.

I will pick 5 winners by the end of this giveaway!  Goodluck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

FREE Summer Themed Grid Number Games

I love grid games! We used to play this a lot when Mavi was learning how to count. If you  haven't heard about it yet, the mechanics are pretty simple.

What you need:

• die/dice
• counters
• grid game board

How to play:

Roll the dice. Identify the number on the die.  Count  that amount of counters and place each one on the picture in the grid.  Continue playing until you fill out the grid.

Subtraction Game:

For a little challenge, I added a twist! Instead of the conventional one, we played a subtraction game. We used two dice.  To play, roll the dice and subtract the small number from the bigger number value in the dice. Say die[1] = 4 and die[2] = 6.  So 6 - 4 = 2.  Take 2 counters and place it on the grid.

If you have die[1] = 5 and die[2] = 5, you get 0.  Therefore you will not have any counter in the grid. Whoever fills the grid first wins!  So if you get lots of 0, you will mostly lose the game.

I love how Mavi easily memorizes the number combination and the answer!

Such a brilliant way to keep him engage and learn mathematics at the same time! And this can be played by multiple players as well how cool is that?!

Try it now! I've got 8 different grid games for 2 sizes (6x5 for older kids).

Download 5 x 4 Summer Themed Grid Games 

Download 6 x 5 Summer Themed Grid Games 

FREE Insect & Spider Silhouette Cards

FREE 16 silhouette cards for everyone! Click the image or here to download.

So many ways to use it!

• Print two copies and you can have a memory game!
• Match it with your animal figures
• Use it as a pattern for drawing.

Hope you like this card. Enjoy!

If you like this post, and would love to receive notifications for freebies, then it's time to connect with us!

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Insect Activities for Toddlers w/ Free Printable and {Learn & Play Link Up}

We are learning about insects this month! And because I'm exhausted most of the time doing separate activities for the boys, this time, I tried having a themed unit which both boys can enjoy.  So while Mavi is learning about insects, Vito is learning as well, but in a different level.  I will showcase Mavi's activities later on. In this post, allow me to present to you simple activities that will expose or introduce your little toddlers to insects.

So for Vito, I prepared 3 simple activities for him to enjoy. These are easy to prepare and I provided a printable file for the matching activity for your convenience.

Insect Sensory Bin
This is no-brainer.  I think all kids love sensory tubs!  The contents of my bin are:

• Safari Toob Insects
• Black Beans 
• Butterfly figures from Wild Republic

In less than a minute, I have a learning toy for Vito already!  Oh my, he was sooooo giddy when he saw this!

Allow your little ones to explore alll that there is in this bin. Make sure to prepare your vacuum cleaner for the mess!  But please, supervise your child all the time.  Vito mouths objects so I watch him like a hawk to make sure he won't swallow any of the beans.

Insect Matching Cards

 

This is matching the insect figures to that of an abstract material, like the cards.  I wanted to use picture books, to avoid printing. But I realized that Vito can match objects better if the pictures look exactly the same as those of the figures.  So what I did here was took photos of our insect figures and create a matching cards from it.

Yes, Vito can identify animals now, especially in books! So I experimented if he can do it with in matching cards.  Like the cards? You can download it from here.

I added spider even if it's NOT an insect because this is what Vito sees everyday outside our house.  He can identify spider and calls them "der".  So with an animal figure and a matching card, I tried if he can match them.... and he did!!

So my conclusion here is that, for his age, he can only match cards of those he is familiar with in real life.  Like the butterfly, the ladybird and the spider.  The rest, he ignored them.   That's a good start though.  We'll work on this step by step.  Three matching cards for a little toddler and I'll one card as he progress.

Bug Hunting
Of course, the best way to learn is to have a real life encounter with these creepy crawlers.  I took out the boys in the yard and we searched for bugs.  Unfortunately, the bugs decided to hibernate, so we only collected ants!

Even so, Vito was still happy observing the tiny creatures!

Welcome to the Learn & Play Link Party!
My favourites for this week's linky are:

Montessori Fine Motor Activities from Montessori Nature
Learning Begins at Home from Just Another Mom
Best DIY Light Table Tutorials and Ideas from Wonder Baby
Summer Sidewalk Chalk Kids from Child Led Life
 

Now it’s time for this week’s link party! This is a BRAND new link up for all blog posts that include learn and play activities and hands-on education for kids. We are excited to read your blog posts and to see what you have to share! Please link up below and grab our button to display on your blog.
If you are a blogger, share your family friendly posts here. We are looking for things which include:

• Montessori Education
• Homeschool
• Sensory Play
• Tot and Preschool Trays
• Fine and Gross Motor Activities
• Kids in the Kitchen
• Healthy Recipes for Kids
• Arts and Crafts
• Natural Living
• Free Educational Printables
• Family-Oriented Activities
• Healthy Living

Your post will be featured on each of our blogs where we will pick our favourite posts every other week. That means there is more of a chance that you will be featured!

Everyone, please meet our link party hosts:

Christian Montessori Blog ~ Please visit our CMN FB group ~ Pinterest

Vanessa from Mama’s Happy Hive~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Jennifer from Study at Home Mama~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Marie from Child Led Life~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Jae from Pinay Homeschooler~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Heather from Golden Reflections Blog~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Renae from Every Star is Different~FB~Pinterest

GUIDELINES FOR LINKINGPlease link up 1-3 posts
Follow each of the hosts on social media
When you link up, please add our button and place it at the bottom of your shared posts or link back with text link.
By entering a link, you’re giving us permission to feature an image on our blogs. Proper credit & links will ALWAYS be given.
Please visit a couple of shared posts and leave a comment for them
Remember that you must link back in order to be featured

Grab This Button:

<div align="center"><a href="http://christianmontessorinetwork.com/category/learn-and-play" title="Christian Montessori Network"><img src="http://www.christianmontessorinetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/learn-and-play-link-up-150-150.png" alt="Christian Montessori Network" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Please Follow
Follow Pinay Homeschooler's board Pinay Homeschooler on Pinterest.

An InLinkz Link-up

Summer Themed (6 x 5) Grid games

Download your FREE copy now!

For the mechanics, click here.

Enjoy!

DIY Animal Puzzle

I used to have these bundles of colouring books from friends.  Once Mavi is done colouring them, my tendency is to put the books away or practically speaking, throw them in the trash.  Yes, I don't keep those as we don't have enough storage space in the house.

But one time, I came across Montessori wooden puzzles that I really really want Mavi to have. My problem at that time is that I don't have access to Montessori shops. So what I did was I cut out each parts of the animal puzzle in the book as seen on the picture below, and made Mavi form it just like a puzzle.

Mavi working on a frog puzzle

It was actually a brilliant idea! Not only did he enjoy working it, I was able to make use of all the colouring book's pages for an educational activity!

Instead of just putting them together, I made him glue them on an outline which I made as a guide.

He was showing me the frog's face

No need to buy puzzles!