“Tell me and I will forget, teach me and I will remember, involve me and I will learn.”
– Benjamin Franklin
As a homeschooling mother of 15+ years, nothing satisfies me more than creating fun and excitement from something my children need to learn. When I see that spark of imagination and creativity open their minds to the joy of learning, my pleasure knows no bounds. It’s visible proof that education can be so much more than boring, rote memorization.
During this time of year, it takes creativity to educate without the tears. It’s often too cold to burn off energy outdoors, we’re just barely past the holidays, and with so many other things vying for a child’s attention, it’s no wonder they get frustrated. I encourage you to take a step back. Focus on one new concept, or something they might be struggling with, and think up a way to make it more enjoyable to tackle. Liven things up!
My youngest son is six, and in the 1st grade, so I completely understand how difficult it can be to get school done. He is currently learning that those pesky vowels can make both long and short sounds. Our English language can be challenging, at best. Sometimes the effort needed to master all the rules and exceptions can seem Herculean. I still have to look things up … good thing it’s my first language!
My son’s curriculum teaches him three rules to help identify the long vowels in a word.
Those three rules are:
- We have vowel-consonant-vowel with the last vowel being a silent “e” on the end.
- We see 2 vowels together.
- We see 1 vowel, and it’s at the end of the word.
To help him internalize these concepts, I decided to make a snowman sorting activity.
I designed three different snowmen, one for each rule. Using some white felt, I cut three different sized snowballs and made them into a snowman. 
The bottom part of each snowman needs to be a pocket, so make two snowballs of that size for each snowman. The two balls will need to be sewed together 3/4 of the way around, leaving the top open to insert snowball word cards as they are sorted. I folded the top part of the front of the pocket into the inside, but you could cut the top off the top snowball at the bottom to make your pocket as well.
Now, I decided to get fancy since I had to sew them together anyhow, and I put a blanket stitch around it. You can do this using yarn or embroidery thread. It’s not a very difficult technique; here’s how you do it:
It looked so adorable, I decided to do all three pieces to each snowman. This isn’t completely necessary though, and could be skipped. You could even glue the bottom part of the snowman at the edge three quarters of the way around and not have to sew anything.
Once you have completed the snowmen, go ahead and rob your craft drawers and snag buttons, pom poms, bells, pipe cleaners, ribbons, anything that might be fun to dress up a snowman. I used felt scraps to make scarves, hair, mustaches, and a variety of hats. Orange construction paper to cut out carrot noses of every size and shape, the more ludicrous the better. 
You might even find some tongs your kids can use to pick up the buttons, bells, or pom poms—it helps strengthen their fingers for pencil grasp control and is just plain fun to boot. I’ve found that dressing the snowmen is a great incentive to keep him playing.
Here are a few word list ideas:
Rule #1 (vowel-consonant-vowel with the last vowel being a silent “e” on the end) words: cube, mule, tube,tune, yule, fume, cute, duke, mute, tube, cure, fume, tune, same, bone, ride, tape, note, pine, vine.
Rule #2 (2 vowels together) words: doe, few, Lee, tea, goat, meek, wail, Jean, teeth, quail, show, coax, jail, sheet, gain, beam, toad, lied, new, peak, jeep, peak, row.
Rule #3 (1 vowel, at the end of the word) words: so, go, my, he, we, sky, by, hi, me, shy, fly.
Remind your child that while the “true” vowels are A-E-I-O-U, the letters Y and W can sometimes act like vowels in a word, as well.
I made 30 word cards out of white card stock, tracing circles so they would resemble a snowball. (I used the same size snowball as the head of my snowman.) 
On the snowballs, write the words you want your child to sort. How many you choose is up to you; I made 10 cards for each rule. 
When my son has sorted 10 cards, he gets to decorate a snowman. Once he sorts 10 more, he decorates the second snowman and so on. It keeps him laughing and working all at the same time. It’s playful education at its best … and that’s about all the motivation most kids need.
Do you have an educational game you love to play with your kids? We’d like to hear about it! Leave a comment below to share your favorites!
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