Disclaimer: I received a free copy of the book The Everything Kids’ Learning Activities Book for the purpose of this review. I have not been compensated for my thoughts. My words and views are my own.
I received a fun book not too long ago that I would like to share with you. The Everything Kids’ Learning Activities Book by Amanda Morin. This book lets kids discover some pretty cool stuff through a myriad of activities.
This book is not one of those supplemental texts where you give your kid extra homework each night. Instead, it is chock full of 145 activities (both indoor and outdoor) that entertains kids while introducing them to important skills in various academic areas – reading, writing, math, science, social studies. There is plenty of room for them to be artistic as well.
Before school started, I chose one of the activities to do with The Eldest. The great thing about these activities is that most of them use materials you already have in your house. Bonus! Ours was simple. It required an egg, a cup, and vinegar.
Why I loved the activity:
It was simple. We looked at the egg, put it in the cup, and poured the vinegar in the cup. Took all of 5 minutes.
Before we put the cup up, I asked The Eldest what she thought would happen. She didn’t know – which was fine. The questions came later.
The activity lasts for about 3 days. You check the egg each day and then dump the vinegar and pour more in. A very interesting thing happened on the third day…
Yep. That thing that looks like a wet napkin is the shell. At first, The Eldest was completely fascinated by this new phenomena. Then there was a flurry of questions – some of which I could not answer. We were able to tie this in to brushing her teeth (as suggested by the book), so it was a great visual of what can happen to her teeth if she doesn’t take care of them.
This book is recommended for kids 5-12, and there are a number of ways that you can adapt the activities to fit the skill level of your child.
What I really like about this book is that the activities are separated into categories by skill. Each activity tells you exactly what you need, what skill is being developed, and how to “play” or complete each activity.
The fun includes things like comic strip activities, glitter glue spelling words, earth mobiles, film canister rockets, things to learn at the zoo, multiplication magic, building your own stethoscope, and much more.
This book gives you a foundation – you can dress up or simplify each activity to fit the needs of your child. This is a great resource to beat summer boredom, or for homeschoolers, or for daycare providers of older kids. To tell the truth, there are some activities that The Captain may do even without any kids just for his own entertainment.
As a teacher, I think this book is a great one to promote fun, creative ways to learn. I look forward to sharing more of these fun adventures with The Eldest and The Diaper Dweller (when he gets older). Be sure to pay a visit to the Everything Kids Learning site and get your own copy!
For Now…Captain out!