Some Fun for Little Ones From Sunflower Schoolhouse!

A while back, I happened to come across a neat blog called Sunflower Schoolhouse.

Honey Brown, the mommy blogger behind Sunflower Schoolhouse, had come up with an awesome unit all about Canada. Then, I was blessed to win some neat penguin games that she had made!

We used them this past winter and they were a hit in our homeschool!

Well, while trying to get things ready for this coming school year, I came across some neat freebies on Honey's website and made up two of them.

The first one is called The Army Alphabet Game - The Phonics version.

For this game, you print out and laminate the game board and cards made by Honey and then, head to a dollar section of your choice and buy some green plastic "Army guys"...we found our Plastic Soldier Playset in the dollar spot at Target.
There are extra cards for you to add additional cards. We added some so that both boys can play together. The cars Honey has provided in her freebie print out of the game go over the letter sounds and some rhyming word activities as well.
With the blank cards, I added in some activity cards for Big Bro:
Alphabetical order, parts of speech, synonyms and antonyms, and analogies.
Adding in these extra cards works for our family as then, both boys can play and have fun together while practicing some skills.
Little Bro seems to need a little extra time working on sounds.
He is progressing in his reading, but he struggles with "hearing the sounds" so this game is great in that it has him practice without it feeling like he is practicing.

The second game that I downloaded was for Brick Building Activities.
These are idea cards that can be used with any sort of brick type toy, in our home, that means Lego!
The boys love to build Lego structures!
For this, I added some additional cards to go with particular Lego themes that we have been doing here in our home: Pirates, City, Hero, Kingdom, and Star Wars.
Added in some challenging cards that went with these themes.
Then had Dear Hubby create a little Lego box with a hinged lid to store the cards.
If you want to make a similar box, you can usually find and then order the hinges from Brick Link.
They make it easy to build a structure with a hinged lid or door.

Had Dear Hubby glue the pieces together so that the box will stay in tact.
He used Krazy Glue and it worked very well...
The idea is that the cards can then stay in the box on the table and the boys can open the box and choose a card for themselves when they finish their school work or else just for fun when they feel like building something.

It is so nice that there are so many wonderful mommy bloggers who share their wonderful handmade homeschooling materials with fellow mommies.

Thanks so much to Honey Brown!

Please be sure to check out her Sunflower Schoolhouse blog and see the neat things she creates.
She also sells on Etsy  as well as Pinterest and Twitter.

Great Games that Get Kids to Think - Game # 1: Castle Logix

Decided that one topic that might be of interest to all of you whether you are a homeschool mama, a classroom teacher, a Montessori guide, a parent, or grandparent, or just someone who enjoys reading about cool things for children, is great games for children.

The first game is called Castle Logix.

It is made by Educational Insights.

Am not getting paid to write a review of this particular game, nor was I contacted to do a review.

Am simply doing it because it is a great game that both of my sons just love, especially Little Bro. 

If you have a child or children who love to work with blocks, this game is for you.

If you have a child or children who enjoy games involving logic and reasoning, this is for you.

If you like games that have a control for error, this game is for you.

If you like a game that could easily work in the Montessori environment as a shelf work, this game is for you.
To make into a shelf work, all that you would have to do is to remove the wooden buiding pieces and the guide and put them all on a nice wooden tray.
You could introduce the game as a work and as far as doing the presentation, you could show them how to start the first starter level and then, show them the solution page that works as a control of error on the reverse side of the page.

 If you like games that have a range of difficulty levels, this game is for you.

The box says that the game is for ages 5 and up.

The ranges of difficulty are:
Starter - fairly easy 6 piece puzzles 
Junior - 7 piece puzzles
Expert - Balancing puzzles
Master - Outline puzzles

If you like a game that is to have a child clean up and put away neatly, this game is for you.

If you like a well constructed game, this game is for you.

The game itself consists of seven wooden pieces (four wooden castle blocks and three wooden towers) and a game guide.

How a child plays this game:
First, choose a puzzle to build.
 (If a child is unsure, start at the starter level and then, move up. A child could move up to any of the four levels.)

The child then arranges the tower and block pieces to build the castle.

When the child has finished making their castle, they can check the back page of the guide to check their answer. There is only one possible solution to each puzzle.

As far as extensions, once the child has gone through and had done all of the various challenges from Starter to Master Level, they would easily be able to come up with extensions to go with these game.


The game is a keeper! 

We happened to find ours at a consignment store, which is where man of our games and books come from, so keep your eyes peeled when you go to consignment stores for this...but if you find it brand new at a store, it would be worth the money.

New Language Game for Circle Time - Goes with Montessori Noun & Verb Grammar Symbols

We came up with a game that works well if you do circle time...could also work as a game for family game time...my sons loved this game.

To play, you need:

A red ball, any sort of ball, but needs to be red  if you want it to go with the Montessori grammar symbol for verbs...

index cards and a black marker

On the cards, draw a black triangle to represent the black pyramid for the Montessori grammar symbol for noun...

For those who can write, have them write their name on the cards...for those who are still learning to write their names, have them draw themselves on their cards.

Sit in a circle and then explain how the game will work.
you could also use this time to review the idea of the grammar symbols for noun and verb...
If you have older ones who know about grammar symbols, then explain how the game ties in with that...
Then, explain that when the red ball (that represents the verbs) rolls to you, then you have to say your name (as the noun) and say the verb that you are going to do...
So, for example, the ball rolls to me and I would say Mommy hops...then I would get up and hop for a few seconds...then, I would sit back down and roll the ball to the next person, say Big Bro...Big Bro would say Big Bro twists and then, Big Bro would stand and twist and toll the ball to the next person, say Little Bro.
Then, Little Bro would say Little Bro jumps...and so on...
As each person say their name, they would hold up their noun card and show their noun card and then, stand and do the action.

To adapt this game for older children, have them find verbs in their reading. Then, have them write their verb words down on index cards.
Then, when they come to the circle, and the ball is rolled to them, they put all of their cards in a pile in a small basket in the middle of the circle...
When they roll the ball to a person, the person then has to select a card from the basket and do that action...ind of gives the game a bit of a mad libs effect if some of the verbs are funny.

This is a fun game and hopefully, your children will enjoy playing it.
In a classroom, would work best during circle time, but in the homeschool setting, you could do it either as part of the school time or else during the evening, as family time.
If parents play and add words from their reading, it makes it fun, as it increases the difficulty of the verbs used and also models that reading is great fro everyone, as if you have to go and get berbs from the books you are reading, it points out to your children that reading is something that everyone does, not just kids.

Hope that you will enjoy this game!

I have included some links to other websits and blogs about Grammar symbols, for those of you who might not know about these:

From Montessori for Everyone 

From Homemade Montessori


Here is a link to a Grammar Bingo game from AMC

Have a happy Wednesday!

Thank you to those of you who have posted nice comments this week. We have company in town so I am not writing as much, as we are doing the touristy things with our friends.