Summer Learning Series: Learning With Easter Eggs

Every child loves summer. Summer is a time for playing outside, swimming in the pool, and hanging out with your friends. Unfortunately, summer is also a time when kids lose a lot of what they learned during the previous year of school. As an elementary school teacher, it was frustrating to watch my students struggle at the beginning of each year with objectives that they had mastered the previous year. As a parent, I want to make sure that this doesn’t happen to my children. This summer, I will be setting aside a little time each day for some fun learning activities for my kids. Starting in June, check in each Tuesday if you are looking for some activities for your kids. I will be posting a few things we did the previous week to share. Also if you are interested in doing the same thing, I would love to link up with all you creative moms out there! Just shoot me an email and let me know you are interested. (betweenthelines-kam@hotmail.com ) Let’s work together to help our children have a fun, but educational summer!

Last week, the girls and I played a new game with Easter eggs. This game helped them slow down for a bit and work on their concentration and memory. The first thing we did was divide the Easter eggs into two baskets. When you do this, make sure the color of the eggs are identical for each basket. I made it a little harder for my girls by using different colors and sizes. After the eggs are divided, put each basket on opposite sides of the room. Dump the baskets on the floor and you are ready to play.

While your child hides their eyes, hide 2-4 eggs under a basket. When they are ready, lift the basket and let them study the colors for 5 seconds (longer if you have younger kids). After the 5 seconds is done, recover the eggs with the basket. Next, let your kids run, hop, or skip to the other side of the room and grab the identical eggs. Once they’ve discovered the matching ones, have them race back to the basket and place them on top. Now you are ready for the big reveal! Uncover the hidden eggs and see if they match. If they get them all make it harder. If it was too tough, make it easier. Adjust the game to suit your child’s ability. If you are working on counting, have your child count the hidden eggs and retrieve the same amount. This is great for one to one association. You would be surprised at how difficult it is for a young child to count actual objects. Even if they can count to 20 for you, they may not be able to point and count to 10 objects. Happy Learning!