ofamily learning together

Basic addition worksheets

Posted on January 14, 2017 by ofamily

When my daughter was learning her basic addition I would often write out sums for her. But with my son I have taken to creating the worksheets on the computer. I find it easier to have an idea of what maths and english each child is going to do that week and I like to print it all out and get it ready over the weekend – not that we always stick to it or always get everything done.

I set up some sums for him in a mini-doc. I started with basic adding 1 in order (eg 1 +1, 2 +1, 3 +1 etc) then the next page is the same sums but mixed up and then it goes onto adding 2, again first in order and then mixed up, adding 3, adding 4 and adding 5. What I like about have the sums in the document is I can always reprint a page as revision later on. I also left some extra space at the bottom of each page so that he can write out a number line if he wants to.

addition practice page inside a write and wipe pocket ready to use

And I also added a few pages where all the sums are mixed up (so adding 2 and adding 3 sums combined on a page).

It is just straight forward addition practice. No bells and whistles. No cute pictures added or special colours. Just practice.

With my daughter I found that she worked best with a mix of the hands on more fun maths activities and then some straight forward practice pages. She needed both. As much as she loved doing the maths activities and maths games she also needed the straight forward practice so that she could build up her confidence and move onto more complicated sums.

So in case anyone would like to download it here it is. – addition practice for adding 1 to 5 (14 pages in total).

adding-sums-1-to-5

And at the end of the document is a page with the number words written out – just because my youngest is trying hard to learn the spelling and wanted to practice.

Once I got everything set up it was actually quite quick to do. So I am going to create a few more like this – more addition pages, some basic subtraction and a multiplication / division one for my daughter.

Here he is doing one of the pages while his sister was busy doing her maths (he loves getting his own pages that look similar to his sisters)

Practicing addition with home-made free to download pages

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Posted in free printable / worksheet | Tagged addition, free printables, home education, homeschooling, maths | Leave a comment

Activity Village Membership

Posted on January 10, 2017 by ofamily

We have used the Activity Village website a lot ever since we started our home-ed. I have written a number of posts sharing links of how we use the pages. At the time of writing those posts the pages were all FREE but due to circumstances the structure of the website has now changed. They are still offering some FREE pages but most of the pages which we have used in the past (and the pages I can see us using in the future) are now included in their membership deal. They are currently offering a £12 membership for 12 months – I do not when the price will increase or what the price will be after the initial offer stops.

Activity Village have kindly given me a membership so that I can continue sharing ideas on how we use their pages. So the question is would I pay £12 for a yearly membership ? As with all things I personally think it depends on your family and how often you use the printouts. For me £1 a month sounds really good but then I have used the website a fair bit in the past. To give you an idea of what pages we have used here is a list.

Autumn
Activity Village Home-ed pages version 1
Activity village Home-ed pages version 2
Bats
Butterfly doubling and Halving
Christmas – Hama Bead Christmas tree decorations
Christmas – Christmas tree fold out cards
Christmas – Home-made Christmas tree decorations for kids
Christmas – starting our Christmas cards
Christmas – colour Pop Cards
Drawing on windows and sliding doors
Finger painting Fun
Fish and Turtle Tissue Art
Four times table – froggy times table
Gingerbread Man
Person Template – Easy Template Art activity
Simple Daffodil Spring Wreath
Template and Paint dabbers (squirrel and haunted house)
Tulip Eggshell picture
Tumbling Monkey Word Fun

I use the pages from Activity Village as supplement activities. They have lots of creative ideas on lots of topics. We love the word searches and other puzzle pages and we often use their templates in our creative projects.

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Posted in reviews | Tagged activity village, home ed, home education, homeschooling | Leave a comment

Kids IKEA Desks

Posted on January 1, 2017 by ofamily

I have been saying for a number of months that I need to change the kids main table/ desk area. They use it for so many things and the blue set (Mammut from IKEA) which we have had for 4 years has been perfect but my oldest is just getting too tall for them and I can see that when she sits there she is not comfortable. I have battled to decide what to do. I kept going around in circles – should I get them desks or just a table and some chairs. They use the table/ desk area for lots of home-ed activities and we often move it around to suit us so I needed something that was not too heavy and that I could move by myself, something versatile and something that could last for a few years.

My husband spotted these adjustable desks at IKEA (Pahl Desk) but I admit I was hesitant at first. My two like working together and I was worried it would not be suitable for my youngest. Anyway I needed to go to IKEA to get something for my other work (I am an accountant) so we tested the adjustable desks and the swivel chairs with the kids. My youngest just manages (I did not want his feet dangling in the air when he sits on the chair) and my oldest is the perfect height. Both kids loved the swivel chairs and the desks so I finally took the plunge and bought some. (My daughter desperately wanted a pink set and my son was equally desperate for a blue set so we have one pink and one blue).

And putting them together – really easy and quick (in fact my daughter complained that it was too easy to build as she like helping us build the IKEA goodies). And yes they are easy enough for me to move around by myself but they are also very sturdy.

Both kids love them. They have already used them for a bunch of activities, lots of drawing and they are great as a counter for their “shop”.

On and I also got this add-on unit which sits on top of the desk – it is just a little storage area.

And in case you spotted the frames on the desks they are the IKEA Tolsby frames (£1 each). I bought some purely because I saw Twinkl had started making pages that fit into the frames. I love leaving learning bits and pieces out for the kids so the idea of using these frames really appealed to me. We have started using them with the times table and division pages – Tolsby Times and Division Resources Pack. ( The picture below is the 5 times table page from the pack – my youngest wanted his own times table frame.)

All the IKEA products were purchased by us for our kids to use as part of our home-education.

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Posted in Homeschooling | Tagged home ed, home education, home-education set up, homeschooling, IKEA, kids desks | 3 Comments

Colour Pop Christmas Cards

Posted on December 18, 2016 by ofamily

The kids like making Christmas cards so we try to make a mix each year, some are a bit crafty, some are hand-drawn pictures, or stickers and some are colouring cards. Last year we used a number of the activity village templates in our Christmas cards and they all turned out stunning (last years post – Starting our Christmas Cards). So this year I was very excited when I saw that Activity Village had added some Colour Pop Christmas cards to their collection. I like these cards as the backgrounds are already coloured in so the kids can focus on the detail in the pictures.

My daughter started off by chosing the Merry Christmas card again (last year she did a few of these) and she said she prefer the new coloured in background.

My son went all out and choose to do the very detailed Christmas Decoration Colour Pop card. I was very surprised that he choose a card with this much detail but it was for a very special person so he worked incredibly hard at it over a number of days.

I do think he did a brilliant job and love the end result (so did the person who he gave the card to).

My daughter also had a go at the Christmas Tree colour pop card. Again a detailed card and she also did hers in more than one sitting but the end result was also just stunning (and yes we have a multi-coloured Santa on the card – my kids like doing santa in all different colours).

Both kids really like the way the detailed colour pop cards have turned out and they have both asked to do the Christmas Stocking Colour Pop card this week.

I really do think Activity Village are onto something making these stunning cards with the coloured in backgrounds as both my kids have commented that it is nice not having to think about the background.

Update for 2017 – The kids are still loving the Colour Pop Christmas Cards and did a very colourful angel this year so I thought I would add the photo to the post

All the colouring card templates have been downloaded from the Activity Village website

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Posted in Art and Craft Ideas | Tagged activity village, children's art, Christmas, Christmas cards, colouring cards, home education | 2 Comments

Easy Train Stencil Art

Posted on December 13, 2016 by ofamily

We do quite a few arty/ crafty projects probably because they are something that comes naturally to me and also because my oldest has always enjoyed them but my youngest is sometimes a bit more reluctant. He often joins in once his sister has started but I really wanted to find more art/ crafting projects that are aimed at him. So I have been thinking more about the themes of what we do and on a recent Amazon search I spotted these train stencils (just over £2) so I thought it might be something for my little man (He Loves Trains).

I unpacked them and left them on the kitchen table along with some paper and oil pastels. And as soon as my son spotted them he wanted to try. We used a little bit of blu tack on the stencils to help keep them in place and he was off.

He found the stencils easy to use and happily sat and made train after train.

In fact for once the opposite happened. It was my youngest you really wanted to do the art activity and only after he had done a few did his big sister decide to join in.

His big sister did suggest to him that it would be fun to add some of their own details to the pictures and he agreed.

It is a very easy art activity – easy to set up, easy to clean up afterwards (we have only used the stencils once so can not comment on how long they last). We bought the train art stencils from Amazon for a little over 2 ponds, here is the link – Fun with Trains Stencils (Dover Stencils). We also just used colour paper that we had in the house and our existing oil pastels. When it comes to oil pastels I love using them with kids as they are soft and easy for the kids to draw with but they do smudge. My kids have been using oil pastels since they were about 4 years old so they are not fussed by them smudging, they enjoy the texture and like the bright colours.

I love that my youngest enjoyed this so much so I think I might add the Fun with Cars and Trucks Stencils (Dover Stencils) to his Christmas stocking and maybe the Fun with Flowers Stencils (Dover Stencils) to his sisters christmas stocking.

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