Cognitive Development Archives

Summer Math Fun for Preschoolers & Kindergarteners

Guest Post by Charity Hawkins, author of The Homeschool Experiment Teaching math to young children is easy. No worksheets, flashcards or apps are required. All that is required is a willing adult who will help explain how the…

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3 Simple Ways to Teach Children the Importance of Money

Big Brother recently made his first large purchase. And by “large”, I mean $35 for a Lightsaber that he has had his eye on for a while now. This isn’t just any lightsaber…this one lights up AND makes noise…

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Counting Robots

This simple activity is great for number recognition, one-to-one correspondence, and fine motor control! We used some robot stickers to make the activity even more appealing to Little Brother. Here’s what you’ll need: craft sticks, clothespins, robot stickers,…

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“April Showers” One-to-One Correspondence Activity

One-to-one correspondence is a very important concept for young children and is a basic foundation for all of mathematics. Simply put, one-to-one correspondence is the process of touching one object for each number that is counted aloud. Little Brother…

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Counting Up to Big Numbers with an Abacus

Another way to use an abacus is skip counting to higher numbers (and teaching place value in the process). If you don’t already have an abacus and don’t want to buy one, you can make your own! Write a two-digit…

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Skip Counting with an Abacus

Using an abacus is an excellent way to make skip counting tangible for young children. If you’re not familiar with the term “skip counting”, it is just another way to say counting by 10’s, 5’s, 2’s, etc. This is…

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Make Your Own Abacus

We stumbled upon an abacus at an antique store around Thanksgiving. Big Brother insisted that he needed it. When we reminded him that Christmas was coming up soon, he decided he would ask for the abacus. It was pretty humorous to…

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Melted Bead Rainbow Magnet

Our church is in the process of adopting a new workshop-model curriculum for our Children’s Ministry. Several of us traveled to a training a few hours away on Saturday at the church who originally wrote the curriculum we will…

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Rainbows for Little Hands

With St. Patrick’s Day coming up, Rainbows abound all around! I have to admit…rainbows are one of my favorite crafts to make with the boys. Not only are they beautiful, they also offer a great opportunity to teach about…

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Shiny Rainbow

After creating our One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish Fishbowls last week, I have been smitten with the corn syrup paint. Every time I walk by their fishbowls, I can’t help but run my fingers on the…

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Rainbow in the Snow

As I shared on my Facebook page yesterday, we recently got the second most snowfall ever on record where we live. The last total I heard was 14-16 inches! We have been enjoying playing together in the cold, white…

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Conversation Heart Graphing

If you’ve spent any time around children (or read any blogs with activities for kids), you know that this idea is certainly not anything new. In fact, I did this with my first graders every year when I was…

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Bottle Cap Sorting

This Bottle Cap Sorting activity is a great way to reuse caps while encouraging color recognition. Sorting is a beneficial cognitive development exercise because it requires a child to differentiate between colors and then group like colors together. …

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Number Pound

After doing the Pound-a-Sound activity with Big Brother, I knew I wanted to utilize our Pound-a-Peg toy to try and engage Little Brother in some learning as well. This is one of the most versatile toys we own…and has obviously gotten…

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Pumpkin Seed Puzzles

Happy Halloween! Use your leftover pumpkin seeds from jack-o-lantern making to make these pumpkin seed puzzles. This is great for number recognition and one-to-one correspondence. Here’s what you’ll need: orange construction paper, scissors, glue, marker, and pumpkin seeds…

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My First Game of Hide-and-Seek

Post by Contributing Writer Jennie Every child loves the game of hide-and-seek. This version is for your little ones who have reached the developmental milestone of understanding object permanence, which means that your baby knows that a person or object…

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Pushpin Numbers

The idea for Pushpin Numbers came from Big Brother’s preschool teacher, who has been using this method for one of the alphabet centers in her classroom. It is super simple, great for teaching letter and number formation, and helps your…

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Learning Walk

*This was originally posted 2 years ago, when Big Brother was the same age as Little Brother is now! Little Brother and I have been enjoying our “learning walks” whenever Big Brother is at preschool. I’ve peppered in a few…

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