Making a Puzzle Activity Book

I used to buy activity books for my oldest (and then only) child when he first learned how to read. I'd get the books from Dollar General that contained activities like dot to dots, word searches, and secret messages. It really helped him become a fluent reader quickly because he enjoyed reading the instructions and then working through the activities on his own.

Today, my (latest) 5 year old picked up a coloring book and started working on a word search in it. He completed a lot of it by himself. He sounded out the words in the word list and then looked for the word in the puzzle. I helped him whenever he got stuck.

I had forgotten what a great learning tool these puzzles are. I was temporarily tempted to head out to the Dollar General and pick up a couple of the above mentioned books. But that would be going against my belief that most educational materials can be found for free online. So, I'm compiling some links to some good sites where I can print off some puzzles and put together a homemade activity book.



Free Printable Crossword Puzzles @

• DLTK-Teach- several themes and each theme has several levels of difficulty
• Free Printables - various levels
  

Free Printable Dot to Dots @

• Coloring Crafts
• Activity-Sheets.com - easy #'s 1-20
• PrintActivities.com
• Kids R Crafty - A-Z, by 2s, 5s, and 10s
• Coloring.ws - arranged by order of difficulty

Free Printable Hidden Pictures @

• Highlights Kids
  

Free Printable Mad Libs (ish) Word Games @

• Family Fun
  
• Classroom Jr
  

Mazes @

• Kids R Crafty - 3 different age levels: 3, 4, and 5 year olds
• DLTK-Bible - Bible mazes, varying levels of difficulty

Free Printable Word Scrambles (Anagrams) @

• DLTK-Bible - Bible anagrams
• DLTK-Kids - lots of themes and levels
  

Spot the Differences @

• Kids Front
  

Word Search Worksheets @

• DTK-Teach - lots of themes and you can choose either easy or hard puzzles in color or black and white
  

How to Tell Time: Free Resources

My 4 and 5 year old feel like they know how to tell time because they can read a digital clock. So, we will definitely be covering how to tell time this year. As a matter of fact, that subject and money are two of the first topics we will be covering.

Teaching Clocks
I am making two clocks using this clock template glued to a paper plate. That way each child can practice on his or her own while I'm working with the other individually.

I remember there being a fun teaching clock in class when I learned how to tell time in school. I like the fact that those clocks keep the hour and minute hands in the right relationship to each other. So I contemplated purchasing this teaching clock.

But in the end I opted for this real clock that we can use permanently as our classroom clock. This will allow me to get rid of the digital clock in our school room and replace it with one that the children can use to help them master telling time. When we are studying the clock during class time I will just take it off of the wall and use it during our lessons. And then I'll just set it to the correct time when we're done and place it back on the wall.
Free Telling Time Curriculum
Learning Page is an excellent resource for teaching basic skills in your homeschool. You have to register to use the printables but everything on the site is free. Once you sign up you can print out the telling time worksheets. I am printing out the entire set and placing the sheets in a pronged folder to make workbooks .

I think that covering just one page a day will be more than enough. I don't want to overwhelm or bore the children. So I'll take my time teaching the clock. Of course, if they are very enthusiastic about covering more than a page a day then we'll do that. But there's no rush.

Printable Telling Time Games
The children have a lot of fun when we play educational games. I try not to let on that the children are supposed to be learning. So, I'm looking forward to printing out the Telling Time Family Man Game and using it during math time. We'll be able to use the game once the children have completed their telling time workbooks. But we can start playing the Telling Time Bingo Game (scroll to the bottom of the page) after the first few lessons.

Online Clock Games
The following games look like something the children will enjoy. I think I might let them do the games a couple of times a week for a few minutes once they've completed the page in their workbooks.

• What Time is It?
• Interactive Clock
• Time Teller

School Songs for Little Ones

These are the songs we will be singing at the start of class this year. For some of my children it's review and for others singing these songs will present another opportunity to learn some more basics. Once everyone knows these pretty well (or we've tired of them) then I'll find a new set.

The Alphabet Song



A Counting Song



Days of the Week Song



Months of the Year Song



I'm also going to add a gospel "song of the week."