After School Linky Party (1-27)

Welcome to the After School Linky Party!

It might be cold here in the Midwest but the ideas are hot, hot, hot at this linky.

If you missed last week's party, check it out now.

Here are just a handful of the extraordinary blogs, ideas, and activities shared.

Simple Art Activity for Kids that Turns Out to be Brilliant at Playtivities

 {The Armor of God Series} The Belt of Truth at Play Eat Grow

Get Kids Reading - 12 Sure Fire Strategies that Worked for Me at Pragmatic Mom

 How to Read a Thermometer Printable & Practice at Kids Activities Blog

Making: Talking Puppets at MollyMoo

The Amazing Water Trick - Investigating Density at Navigating By Joy

Free Printables

3 Boys and a Dog: Dolch Sight Words Worksheets Week Three and Rosa Parks Handwriting Worksheets (Grades 1-2)

3 Dinosaurs: Free Busy Bag Printables, Early Reading Printables BOB Books Set 5 Books 3 & 4, Free Prewriting Dot Marker Printables, and Letter S Fine Motor Activities

Bible Fun for Kids: Ruth

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom: Hibernation Toss and Sort Game

Gift of Curiosity: Chinese New Year Do-A-Dot Printables and Valentine Printable Pack

Growing in God's Grace: Bible in a Year with Your Kids Week #16 FREE Activity Packet

Happy and Blessed Home: FREE Valentine's Day Cards Kids Can Make

JDaniel4's Mom: Kids Activities - Olympic Themed Graphs and Charts

KC Edventures: 6 Valentine's Activities to Do with Kids (Valentine Scavenger Hunt) and Treat the Kids to some Valentine's Fun (Printable Valentine's Coupons)

Kids Activities Blog: How to Read a Thermometer Printable & Practice and 3 {Non-Mushy} Valentines Day Coloring Pages

Learn and Grow Designs: Counting Objects to 10 Chinese New Year Math Freebie

Living Montessori Now: Free Mitten Printables and Montessori-Inspired Mitten Activities

Makeovers and Motherhood: Superhero Activity Pack Printable

Miss Panda Chinese: Chinese New Year Craft and Coloring Pages

Pink Stripey Socks: Two Chinese New Year Dragon Crafts

Play Dr. Mom: "If You Give A …" Mad Lib

Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational: Controlling Your Kid's Electronic Time and Put Your Hands Together for Conjunctions

Royal Baloo: Free Chinese New Year Printable Packs (Toddler, PreK, Kindergarten/1st)

School Time Snippets: Build a Snowflake Busy Bag and Workbox Labels

Wildflower Ramblings: Alphabet Lego Cards - Uppercase {free printable}

The After School Linky is cohosted by
The Educators' Spin On It 
Afterschool for Smarty Pants 
Boy Mama Teacher Mama
Coffee Cups and Crayons 
Little Wonders' Days 
Mama Smiles 
Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational
The Measured Mom 
This Reading Mama
What Do We Do All Day

We would love to have you link up your School-Age Post (Ages 5 and up) about your learning week after school including Crafts, Activities, Playtime and Adventures that you are doing to enrich your children's lives after their day at school, homeschool, or on the weekend! When linking up, please take a moment to comment on at least one post linked up before yours and grab our after school button to include a link on your post or site! By linking up you're giving permission for us to share on our After School Pinterest Board or Feature on our After School Party next week! Don't forget to follow along and join our After School Enrichment Community.

Multiplication AREA Dice Roll Game

Have you been over to Teach Beside Me? Karyn always has amazing ideas and this one is no exception. I give her total credit and am thankful that she, like so many other bloggers I follow, shares her educational activities online.

This game requires little to no prep. What you need is a piece of graph paper (I have some large scale paper available for free download here), two dice, and two markers in different colors.

Because I want to reuse the game, I laminated my graph paper and used fine-tip dry-erase markers.

Player 1 gives the dice a shake and using the numbers rolled, colors in the blocks on the graph paper, figuring out the area and multiplication problem. For example, if Player 1 rolls a 2 and a 3 then they color in an area 2 squares by 3 squares, and solve the multiplication problem by saying aloud, "6 is the area."

Player 2 does the same, and play continues to alternate between players.

When a player rolls but can no longer make the shape because there isn't enough free space on the page, count the colored areas up to see which player has the most. They're the winner!

This game is a great way to review multiplication problems for tables 1-6 and to introduce the difference between perimeter and area.

Simple Winter Sport Sudoku

Our family is psyched for the Winter Olympics. To familiarize our oldest son with some of the sports being played there, I made a simple hands-on Winter Sport Sudoku game with the following represented:

Ski Jump

Bobsled

Figure Skating

Curling

I printed one set of the game pieces with checked backgrounds and three sets of the solid background game pieces. I laminated them for durability.

Click the picture to download a free 2-page PDF from Google Drive with these game pieces.

Next I cut a large square piece of thick felt and added a grid out of washi tape (wider tape for the center cross and thinner tape for the other lines).

Now I took the four pieces with checked backgrounds and arranged them on the board. I handed my son the solid-colored pieces. I explained that the pieces I placed on the game board could not be moved. The solid-colored pieces in his hand could be rearranged as much as he liked.

The objective was to have only one of each sport represented in each row, column, and quadrant. No sport should be represented twice.

It took a little manipulating, but my son got it and, boy oh boy, was he excited.

I think he's ready for a more challenging board with nine different kinds of game pieces instead of just four. It looks like I have some more game pieces to make!

After School Linky Party (1-20)

Welcome to the After School Linky Party!

Each week it gets harder and harder to pick just a few activities and ideas to feature.

Rest assured, I'm up to the challenge though. (Truthfully, I love it!)

Simple Sewing ~ Constellations Wall Hanging at Creative Family Fun 

Sight Word Pop and Other Sight Word Activities at Mamas Like Me

Math Fun with Fraction Pie at B-Inspired Mama

Pocahontas Felt Necklace at Spoonful

Mastering Multiplication Math Facts at Pragmatic Mom

Free Printables

3 Boys and a Dog: Black History: MLK Cursive Worksheets (grades 3-5), Dolch Sight Words Worksheet: Week Two and FREE: Winter Woods Snow Flake Activity

3 Dinosaurs: Free Snow Learning Pack and Early Reading Printables BOB Books Set 5 Books 1 & 2

Bible Fun for Kids: Samson Part 2, The Good Samaritan

Buggy and Buddy: Plant and Seeds Homemade Valentines for Kids with Free Printables and Valentine Cards: Butterfly Pencil Valentine

Crystal & Co.: Free Printable for Heart Crayon Valentines

Every Star is Different: Extreme Weather Conditions Week 1

Growing in God's Grace: Series: Bible in a Year with Your Kids Week #15 FREE Pack

Living Montessori Now: Montessori-Inspired Arctic and Antarctic Unit

Measured Mom: Spelling ea words, Teach Measurement to Kids Using Yarn,

The Connection We Share: Sticky Valentines - How to Make DIY Window Clings

Trillium Montessori: More Winter Printables

The After School Linky is cohosted by
The Educators' Spin On It 
Afterschool for Smarty Pants 
Boy Mama Teacher Mama
Coffee Cups and Crayons 
Little Wonders' Days 
Mama Smiles 
Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational
The Measured Mom 
This Reading Mama
What Do We Do All Day

We would love to have you link up your School-Age Post (Ages 5 and up) about your learning week after school including Crafts, Activities, Playtime and Adventures that you are doing to enrich your children's lives after their day at school, homeschool, or on the weekend! When linking up, please take a moment to comment on at least one post linked up before yours and grab our after school button to include a link on your post or site! By linking up you're giving permission for us to share on our After School Pinterest Board or Feature on our After School Party next week! Don't forget to follow along and join our After School Enrichment Community.

Controlling Your Kid's Electronic Time

I am no parenting expert. I make mistakes. Sometimes I'm tough when my kids need nurturing. Sometimes I'm gentle when I should be strict.

But when my husband's iPad became my oldest son's infatuation, I knew an intervention was necessary. We've tried two strategies to limit my oldest son's time with electronic devices.

Click on either of the charts below to download them free from Google Drive.

Strategy #1

The first approach was to award him a set amount of minutes every day. We chose 35 minutes, with the occasional option for him to gain 10 extra minutes. I created a chart which (like mercury in a thermometer) depleted as minutes were used. Before he could use any electronic minutes he had to eat breakfast, get dressed, and do his chores. Time was deducted for any outbursts (throwing a fit or being hurtful).

Strategy #2

Our second approach was to have our oldest son earn minutes by completing chores, being a helper, and demonstrating positive behaviors toward others. The minutes he earns today, he can use tomorrow. Our chart is populated with a long list of ideas for him (e.g. get the mail, set the table, complete your homework without being asked, write 6 sentences about your day, make someone feel special by doing something, try a new food, etc.). Most of the activities are worth 5 minutes, but a select few are worth 10.

Whatever he does, we check on the list. At the end of the day, we add up the minutes earned and write the number at the bottom of the chart, clearing the checkmarks for the next day.

Each of these strategies has worked for us but I like Strategy #2 best right now because he's mature and responsible enough to determine his own fate by earning minutes.

Both charts were printed, slipped inside a heavyweight sleeve protector with adhesive magnet tape on the back, and hung on our refrigerator with a dry-erase marker clipped to it.