Today I am breaking from my usual kind of post, and sharing with all of you a guest post. It is about a cool activity and site I came across that I think can help Exceptional Parents and their Exceptional Children stay busy and have fun learning over the long summer months. Kids are officially on summer vacation and teachers are not far behind, but it’s never a bad idea to continue finding ways to work in learning during the summer holidays with your exceptional child! Many of our kids love to learn things like reading and math, and like activities that help them “think outside the box,” so to speak. These kinds of activities also may help curb some of the regression we tend to see with our kids over the summer month. On that note, I am happy to share the following guest post today.

Activity:

Estimation Breakfast

Remember that old carnival game where you had to guess how many jellybeans were in a jar? Well, guessing is more than pure fun, it’s also a key part of kindergarten math. Here’s how to bring it to the breakfast table!

What You Need:

Box of cereal with just one general shape and size (ex. Cheerios or Chex)
Bowl
Spoon
Baggie

What You Do:

The word estimation sounds a bit intimidating. Start by explaining to your child that when we estimate, we’re just making a good guess about how many of something we see.
Ask your child to scoop out a spoonful of cereal using the spoon. Then ask her to estimate how many pieces are on the spoon, without counting them.
Once she’s made her guess, count the cereal pieces together. Ask your child, “Was your estimate close?” and “Were there more or less pieces on the spoon than you thought?”
Dump the spoonful of cereal into the plastic baggie. Then scoop a few more spoonfuls into the bag (four is plenty) and ask your child to estimate the total. Once she’s guessed, count the cereal pieces in the baggie and ask the same two questions, “Was your estimate close?” and “Were there more or less pieces than you thought?”
Dump the contents of the baggie into a bowl and add some more cereal to it. Ask your child to estimate how many pieces are in the bowl. Now pour in some milk, and have her count as she eats them up to see how close she got!

Exceptional Parents, are you looking for more activities like these to keep your Exceptional Children busy during the summer months? Here is where you can find more activities just like the one above: www.education.com/resources/math/ . I’ll be checking out to see if I can work some of these activities in this summer as well. Happy summer learning! Until next time.

Disclosure: Just a short note to let my readers know that I was not compensated in any way, shape, or form by the company in the link above. Occasionally, I like to share information on products that I personally find interesting, and that I think can help parents help their children to the best of their ability. Thank you.