Throw away the worksheets and the flash cards!

If I was a teacher, I would be very poor! I have always loved educational stores like The Learning Shop! But money should never stop anyone from using creative ideas to teach their children. So, do what I do- look at all the educational resources in the store and online, but then come up with a way to make it yourself- cheap! And then have fun with it! Kids remember 20% of what they hear, 70% of what they say and 90% of what they DO.

I get a lot of ideas from Dr. Jean's website. She had these linking cubes idea and I liked it! Very easy! She uses a lot of inexpensive materials to make very creative learning tools!


Milk caps for uppercase and lowercase matching. You can use them for letter recognition, word families, sight words, etc.





Clothespins! Clothespins! I love clothespins! They are inexpensive. Little ones get to 'do something' while learning. They practice fine motor skills. Their interest in learning increases when you use some object that they enjoy. Does your little guy love dinosaurs? Practice letter recognition or math with dinosaurs. How many spikes does the stegosaurus have? Well, if the T-rex attacks and bites off 2 spikes, how many spikes does he have left! Yum, Yum! While he is giggling as he removes 2 clothespins, he will remember!

How about math partners? Make little math partners on sticks. Hello, 5, how are you? I am 3. If we hang out together, how many do we have? :)Dress them up- girls, boys, etc.Checkout the MakingFriends website and look at all the friends they have to printout for free!