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Did you know that, in addition to being Autism Awareness month, April is also National FROG month, Mathematics Awareness Month, AND National Poetry Month? Put those three together and you can really have some fun ideas for educational activities for grandparents and their grandchildren! Here's a few ideas and resources to get us started. 🙂
Would you believe there is actually a site called mathFROG – how perfect is that to discover in April? It's a fun website full of free math resources, activities, and online games for grades 4, 5, and 6 kids, grandkids, teachers, parents and grandparents. It links to the games at another great resource my grandkids and I know and love, Cyberchase, which we can watch on their Netflix on their Wii channel, right along with their Leap Frog DVDs. That's a fun cartoon TV show for the kids and grandkids that incorporates superhero action adventure with useful math facts. It turns out they also have an interesting website for our grandchildren full of free math games to interest, intrigue, and educate them. It's from the PBS.org family – and there are links there to other educational games, not just math. 🙂 MathFROG also provides worksheets that supplement the lessons learned while playing the CyberChase games.
My grandkids and I enjoy rhyming words and sometimes make up little poems from rhyming words. I'll definitely have to work on that extra this month in honor of National Poetry Month. Poets.org has several fun ideas to help us incorporate poetry ideas and activities into our times with the grandkids, including writing a poem on the sidewalk with chalk. That sounds right up my alley and I even have the sidewalk chalk to do it. You could use your own poem, a poem from a book, or maybe this one I wrote:
Grandkids are fun,
Grandkids are sweet,
Helping them learn
Is a grandparents' treat!
🙂
Getting back to National Frog Month – my granddaughter and I had to study frogs together for one of her assignments last month. It was quite eye-opening for this granny nanny as well as for her. The most interesting to me was the Surinam Toad who hatches its eggs on its back. I found the coolest photo of one at the Honolulu Zoo where they also have some fun kids games like Zoo animal bingo!
For more fascinating facts about frogs for the kids and grandkids:
Or if frog crafts are more your cup of tea, here's a fun book full of easy paper plate frog and other crafts activities for kids that are also easy for us seniors helping them. 🙂
My grandkids' great-grandmother might even join in on the fun with some of these. It says ages 3-7 but I suspect many older kids might enjoy these as well. (And as our grandkids get old enough to babysit – be sure to share these types of ideas and resources with them to put to good use when babysitting. My oldest granddaughter is loving these kinds of ideas!)
So, in honor of National Frog, Math, and Poetry month – got any fun jokes, poems, or easy craft ideas about frogs, math or poetry to share with all of us in the Sandwich Generation? We'd love to hear about them!
P.S. Here's my favorite thing about FROGS – that they can help all of us grandparents teach our grandkids to FROG – Fully Rely On God! Grandgirls as well as grandboys! 🙂
Frogs + Math + Poetry = Fun Educational Activities for … http://bit.ly/jVInQ0