FREE Themed Addition Mats!

You are going to LOVE these addition mats!  My son has already learned his ones tables and is working on mastering those twos.  I also babysit a second grader who needs lots and lots of practice with addition.  These are a perfect way to help them learn!

Each page includes one large grid.  Really, it is two grids overlapping.  On the left are one set of tables, and on the right are a different set.  I went in order, meaning the 1's and 2's are on the same mat, 3's and 4's on another, 5's and 6's, and so on through 10.  Each mat (page) has a different theme.  The themes are Christmas/winter, beach, space, ocean animals, and superheros!  

Inside each square is a cute clipart with a sum.  On the page following each mat is another large grid with one image to match the theme and an addition problem.

There are MANY ways to use these.  First, if your child is just beginning to learn their addition facts, I recommend leaving the large grid in tact.  Just print (I did mine double sided) on cardstock and slip into a page protector.  Then, print (not double sided!), laminate, and cut out the addition problems.  Your student or child will then match the addition problems to the sums.

Once your child is a little more advanced, you can cut the mats down the middle- with one table on the left, and one on the right.  This way you can mix and match what facts they are reviewing.  This won't be too much of a challenge though, as the clipart gives away which mat it should go to. 

Another way your child can play is as a memory or matching game.  Print (not double sided), laminate, and cut out each square individually.  Lay face down, making sure the corresponding sums and addition problems are on the table. See if they can find the matches.  You could also lay only the sums down, and have them draw the addition problems from a pile or vice versa.  Use your imagination, as there are many ways to use these!

You can find these FREE addition mats here.  Also, these were designed to be printed in landscape, not portrait, so don't forget to check your settings!

I have made similar mats for subtraction and multiplication too (different themes!), so be sure to Subscribe by email to receive updates!

If you have been blessed in any way shape or form by the services I've offered on this blog, you may want to send a monetary gift my way.  If so, that would be most appreciated!  I love what I do and am looking forward to helping others educate their little ones.

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7 FREE B&W Winter Skip Counting Puzzles

I hope that you had a fantastic Thanksgiving!  This was one of my favorite years yet.  We usually stay home, as my husband is a fantastic cook, and I don't want to go anywhere else for a fine meal!  We always put up the Christmas tree on Thanksgiving, especially this year since the baby is due soon.  I had plans to take photos of the boys in their new Santa jammies. But after setting up the tree, we found that one of the string of lights doesn't work!  We were debating on spending $100 on a new tree (not ideal with lots of baby purchases and hospital bills coming up), or trying to find replacement bulbs and fixing the string of lights (too tedious for me!!).   Either way, we weren't about to run out to the store at 5pm on Thanksgiving.  

Our new tradition is to record us decorating the tree as a family.  The camera caught our disappointment, but it also caught a lot of laughter!  My husband is a clown!  We have a small white Christmas tree and he told the kids to decorate that one instead.  It was HILARIOUS watching them wrap the HUGE garland around, and around, around the tiny tree!  So even though this pregnant mama's plans were ruined, we had a blast making the best of it.  We then watched Ernest Saves Christmas and died laughing!  I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard!  I haven't been laughing a lot lately, not with pregnancy exhaustion and fog crowding my brain.  

But earlier in the day I did manage to take some maternity pictures, which is quite a feat when you are the photographer and the model.  Nothing like taking a bunch of pictures that look good on a tiny screen, only to find out later that they were underexposed!  :(  But thankfully, my computer is only one room away from the baby's room!  

Nothing fancy or overly creative, but treasures for me all the same.  It's almost over!  I have loved being pregnant the most this time around, although all 3 pregnancies were a pleasure.  

Now, on to today's freebie:

What a fun way to celebrate the Christmas/winter season! Download these free puzzles in my TpT store. Then, print! Have your children color the pictures, cut along the dotted lines, and glue their puzzles in the correct order onto a piece of construction paper.  These puzzles teach skip counting by 2's and 5's.  Kiddos are sure to love this activity!  Don't forget to comment below and as always, Subscribe by email so you're the first to get these and more!  

If you have been blessed in any way shape or form by the services I've offered on this blog, you may want to send a monetary gift my way.  If so, that would be most appreciated!  I love what I do and am looking forward to helping others educate their little ones.

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18 Race Car Counting and Skip Counting Puzzles!

If you liked my counting by 5's race car puzzles, you'll be glad to know that I made more . . . a total of 18 number puzzles! This time number puzzles counting by 1's, 2's, 5's, and 10's (to 100) are included in this download.  Some of the puzzle images do repeat, but your children will love putting these together!  I know my boys sure did, and it was so much more fun than drilling . . . and drilling . . . and quizzing.  Yes, those stressful boring drills were exactly how I taught my oldest son to skip count last year.  Sadly, he had forgotten quite a bit over the summer. 

Yet when I simply laid these puzzles out for him to complete, he miraculously remembered how to skip count!  There was no stress about that!  I just sat back and watched!

And my youngest (soon to be middle child) who turned THREE today, is mastering counting through the difficult teen family.  And he is getting it . . . effortlessly!  Now that's what I call a success!

These puzzles are only free on my blog, so be sure to grab them here.  Please let me know how your kiddos did with these! 

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If you have been blessed in any way shape or form by the services I've offered on this blog, you may want to send a monetary gift my way.  If so, that would be most appreciated!  I love what I do and am looking forward to helping others educate their little ones.

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FREE Roll and Add, Subtract, or Multiply to Build a Race Car Scene!

We absolutely love these kind of activities- especially because they cover several different levels with one easy download. Even if your child can't add, subtract, or multiply yet, you can print all of the different levels and save in your files for when they are ready!  And believe me, they'll be ready before you know it, and you'll wonder why you didn't hold onto those recording sheets!

Just print the pages you need, making sure to laminate spinners and race car pieces.  Everything else can easily slip into page protectors!  This download is FREE but only on the blog!  Be sure to Subscribe by email to receive first notice of these fun, educational resources!

If you have been blessed in any way shape or form by the services I've offered on this blog, you may want to send a monetary gift my way.  If so, that would be most appreciated!  I love what I do and am looking forward to helping others educate their little ones.

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FREE Thanksgiving Craft/Cutting Practice

I'll admit it.  I am a bit of a control freak (which is one of the reasons why I homeschool).  I didn't give my precious (ahem, more like impulsive and careless) firstborn scissor privileges until he was a preschooler.  I felt pretty guilty when his best friend, a child I babysit, could cut beautifully, while mine didn't even know how to properly hold the scissors!

I've loosened the reins quite a bit since then.  We paint, cut, and glue constantly now.  When Mama wants some quiet time to play on the computer, I give them a folder full of scraps and let them cut and glue until bedtime.  The living room looks like a tornado whipped through it, but I park the trashcan in the middle and they clean up every single solitary piece so I don't even have to vacuum!  No television?  No bickering?  No vacuuming!?!?  Yes!  Let's do this more often!

I created a fun cutting activity for little (or bigger) ones.  It also serves as a craft too, a cute one that you'll want to display or give to Grandma.  There are enough images on the sheet I created to make two Thanksgiving scenes. 

Either bag up the extras for another day, or split between two kids.  I also included a simple Thanksgiving border page.  While this can serve as an easy background page for your child to glue the clipart on, it doesn't have to be.  I wanted to provide something extra that involves no prep, just in case. 

I loved the results of this printable, so much so that you'll be seeing more just like this with different themes (race car, Christmas, winter).  You can find this for free in my TpT store!  

Speaking of loosening the reins and doing more cutting, gluing, and painting- we made some fun crafts this week as we gear up for Thanksgiving!  Are you like me and are tired of seeing 100 turkey crafts and few revolving around the Pilgrims and the Mayflower?  My oldest is 5, so this is the first year I've really taught him the first Thanksgiving!  I found 2 easy crafts from one really great site. 

First up- a paper plate Mayflower!

1) Paint paper plate blue (yes, it sure does look purple, doesn't it??)

2) Cut another paper plate in half and paint brown.

3) Cut another paper plate into fourths- making 2 sails.  The other half of the plate is extra or for a second child.  Glue a craft stick down the middle of the ocean and into the boat pocket.  Glue on sails.

4) Staple brown boat onto the blue ocean plate, but only around the edges so a pocket is formed.  This is where you'll put the pilgrims.

4) Color a picture or two of pilgrims, cut, and glue into the boat (pocket).

He's a messy one, ain't he?

Easy craft number 2- an Indian Corn with the colors of salvation.  I was thrilled to find this Christian craft!

1) Print worksheet.

2) Let children paint the Indian corn with q-tips.  We painted the husk green with a paintbrush.

These were cute, easy, and had such a great message.  My little guy walks by the fridge and says, "The red is for Jesus' blood."  I love to hear him say that.  A lot.

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If you have been blessed in any way shape or form by the services I've offered on this blog, you may want to send a monetary gift my way.  If so, that would be most appreciated!  I love what I do and am looking forward to helping others educate their little ones.

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3 FREE Christmas Roll and Cover Games!

If you're like me, you're tired of the same boring math homework that is sent home with kids.  One of the kids I watch after school has a sheet with a list of math activities to choose from.  Problem is, the activities don't change throughout the school year!  And the activities are not even challenging enough for him.  So why not replace one of those activities with something on their level?  Especially when the teacher (or me for that matter) doesn't even know whether or not the kid played the game listed?

Whether practicing math facts for homework, tutoring, or at a math center, here is a fun activity I'm sure you've seen- Roll and Cover games.  I made 3 different games for 3 different skill levels- basic addition, basic subtraction, and subitizing.  If you are teaching children on different skill levels, this is a great activity to pull out.  The younger ones (like my 2-yr old) won't know that older brother is playing a different game than he is, and vice versa.  

Playing is very simple.  For the addition and subtraction games, players simply roll 2 dice.  If they are adding, they add the numbers and cover the correct sum with a game marker (buttons, gems, etc.).  If they are subtracting, they subtract the smaller number from the larger one and cover their answer.  For the basic roll and cover game, child rolls one die and covers what they rolled.  Game is over when the page is filled.  These can be single or multi-player games.

Everything comes easy to this 5-year old, so I love challenging him.  While he knows the 0, 1 and some of the 2 addition tables, that's as far as we've gotten with addition. But who says he can't do this game?  All he has to do is count the dots!  And I have to say that he does need help counting those dots.  He likes to start from 1, but with this game I was able to teach him that you don't start counting with 1 if you already know there are 6 dots on that die!  He was getting the hang of that shortcut by the time we were done!  

He loved this game, and what makes this Mama proud is that hours later he told me when he has a 4 on one die, and 2 on the other, that makes 6!  So with little or no prep, and while having fun, your child can learn their math facts too!

I love adding color graphics to all of my printables, as it really makes learning so much more appealing!  Print in grayscale if you wish, but I think the cost of color ink is well worth it when a child learned something and had a good time doing it!

Find this download for free in my TpT store!

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If you have been blessed in any way shape or form by the services I've offered on this blog, you may want to send a monetary gift my way.  If so, that would be most appreciated!  I love what I do and am looking forward to helping others educate their little ones.

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8 Ways to Teach with a Felt Board

If you've seen any of my YouTube videos, you may have noticed the big blue board. That is my most valuable teaching tool- my felt board!  If you don't know what one is, it is a piece of wood covered with felt.  I use it daily and couldn't live without it! Here are 8 ways we use a felt board in our homeschool.

1) Bible

Bible Class

My children are taught the Bible daily, and I'll be honest- I need a little help in making the Scriptures come alive!  You can either purchase felt characters or make your own.  We are using a combination of both in this picture.  The kids love helping put up the people.  

2) Poetry

"The Swing" by Robert Louis Stevenson

We use the Abeka curriculum in our homeschool, and my kids have specific poems that they are supposed to learn.  I never had to memorize poetry as a child, so this was something I had to get used to.  I didn't really see a point, nor did I know how to make memorizing poetry fun for my kids.  Did I learn how to use poetry in my class in college?  Yes!  I love poetry, and wrote it for years during my childhood! But memorizing classic poems . . . ?

I needed help, so I decided to make visuals.  I found clipart online, colored them, and laminated them.  Then, I hot glued felt to the back so they would stick to the board.  My children get to see, touch, hear, say, and even act out the poems.  This is one of our favorite things to do!  What's fun is finding one of the poems we memorized in a poetry book from the library.  

3) Phonics

Teaching phonics can be boring and downright frustrating if you do it wrong.  I found these awesome free ice cream cones from TpT, printed, and laminated them. Then I wrote phonics blends on them and turned them into a matching game.  I've also done it with cupcakes . . .

"hot chocolate" and marshmallows . . .

popcorn . . .

and more!  Watch my Youtube video to see how we play!  

4) Math

In the above picture we are using our felt finger puppets for counting. Sometimes we count up, sometimes we count down, and sometimes we do both!  This particular poem goes like this:

5 baby owls learning to say who,

Flapped their wings and then they said, "Boo!"

Mama Owl cried, "No, no, not boo,

Please, oh please, say, "Who who who!"

You repeat the poem, changing the word "boo" to rhyming words- glue, shoe, moo, etc.  Although we aren't counting up or down, my 2-yr old is seeing 5 owls and memorizing what 5 actually looks like.  And this poem teaches rhyming too, which is a nice bonus!

I have also taught patterns with my felt board, and numbers.

Here, my 5-yr old had to create numbers I told him.  Sometimes I gave him a specific number.  Other times I told him to make any number from the 50's family.  

5) Music

I bet you can guess what song we are singing!  That's right- "One little, two little, three little Indians . . . "

The kids put up the Indians as we count up, and they take them down as we count down.  This gets a bit tricky, as they have to take turns.  We mess up a lot, but this is one of their favorite things to do!  This is a counting song, which covers two subjects at once.  

6) Classic Stories

I like to teach my children classic stories.  Although my 5-yr old can listen to stories and understand them even if they don't have visuals, my 2-yr old is not there yet.  This morning I told, "The Boy Who Cried Wolf," tying it into our Bible review of Adam and Eve.  Although Jesus is our Shepherd, the boy in this story was more like the serpent in the Garden of Eden because he lied.  This is a great story for little ones who love to tell lies, or even for children that think everything is an emergency!  I colored pictures to represent the different items in the story, laminated them, and then hot glued felt to the back to make them stick.  The kids love, LOVE, story time with the felt board!


7) Story telling

I created a Halloween felt set for the kids to play with.  I pulled it out and told them a fun story.  Then, it was their turn to make up stories!  I was shocked when my outgoing 5-yr old didn't want to tell a story at first, that is, until he saw his younger brother impress me!  Watch my 2-yr old tell a Halloween story!  

8) Free Play

Mix and Match Monsters

More Mix and Match Monsters

Race Car Fun

More race car fun with a homemade table top felt board

I love watching my boys create scenes and play with the felt pieces I made for them!  Sometimes they tell stories, other times they are designing a scene. I personally enjoy creating the monsters with them!  I have made lots of different playing sets- robots, frogs, etc.  All you need is a good coloring book for some inspiration!  Cut out whatever template you want, trace onto felt, cut out, and decorate using glitter glue, googly eyes, or more felt to add color and details.

Felt boards make a great addition to any family- whether homeschooling or not! And they are a lot of fun to create!  Do you use a felt board?  What are some ways you use yours?  Comment below!  

And as always, be sure to Subscribe so you don't miss any freebies or updates!