What if some of the best homeschooling tools aren’t sold in the school supply aisle? When you think about homeschool essentials, you probably picture textbooks, pencils, crayons, and notebooks. But over the years, I’ve found that some of our most valuable learning tools come from the most unexpected places. These 8 slightly unusual items we…
Here is a fun way to do addition and subtraction end-of-year reviews and tests. You can use this resource in a few different ways with your elementary students. First, you can use it as a review at the end of the school year. Second, you can isolate adding or subtracting each number to see where…
Learning colors is one of the first things a toddler picks up. You can do many fun activities with your toddler to encourage learning their colors. Colors are everywhere so the options are endless. A favorite color learning toy for toddlers of mine is this Color Counting Educational Montessori Toy. Why this is a favorite…
Fine motor skills are making small, precise movements with the hands, wrists, and fingers. They are skills all people learn, some with ease and some needing extra help. Kids with down syndrome usually fall into the group that needs some extra help. Low muscle tone in kids with down syndrome makes it harder for them…
My top 3 things to look for in an activity are purposeful, fun, and thematic. If an activity has those 3 characteristics, and it’s fairly easy to set up, there is a pretty good chance I’ll do it. This Snow Painting activity has all of the above. Purposeful, fun, thematic, and easy activities will always…
If you’re like me you have a lot of things you want to do and accomplish. And probably places you want to go and things you want to learn. Having one big life bucket list is great. But sometimes these goals are easier to accomplish if they are broken down into bite-size time frames. So…
Every child in the United States has a year in school where they learn about the states. They learn the state names, where they are located, their abbreviations and capitals, and other facts about them. Usually this happens around 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade. My two younger boys learned about the states this past school…
I took an adorable picture of my oldest son with my youngest child, his little sister. He was holding her and she gave him the biggest hug. I knew I had to capture the moment. This picture inspired me to right a poem about not just their bond but the fears that I had about…
I started working on puzzle skills with Ellie a long time ago. I began with the big chunky puzzles that have only 3 pieces. This was a great place to start because she had few choices. Also, the pieces had big knobs for her to grasp. She mastered these puzzles several months ago, even doing…
Ask most child experts and they will say there are great benefits to teaching babies and toddlers sign language. It helps reduce tantrums. It also increases their connection with their parents because they are able to communicate. Toddlers with down syndrome tend to take a little longer to learn new skills. Teaching them sign language…
