My little tot started his very first day of school today! He is in his second year of Early Education/Pre-K and we couldn’t be more proud of him! I have to give so many thanks for the opportunity to work with Art Skills who had supplied us with many fun activities and educational materials. We’ve had the greatest time building up the excitement these past few weeks and I wanted to share them with you! All of the new products that are listed in this review can be found at the Dollar Store and each for $1.00!
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| The shelf at our local Dollar Store with Art Skills products. |
Every morning when we woke up we would do an activity we called “My Day”. First we would make a list of items we were going to do that day on the Dry Erase Board, then we would choose what day it was on the Dry Erase Weekly Calendar and the last thing we would do is set the Dry Erase Clock to either the current time OR for when Daddy would come home after work.
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| My Day Activity – Dry Erase Board, Weekly Calender & Clock. |
The clock has helped tremendously with my son’s patience. Since my husband started a new job with a new schedule, it had been hard for him to understand when he was going to see his dad. We introduced the clock and started setting it for 2:00pm when my husband would get off work. He could look at the kitchen clock and then his clock to see how close they were and became very interested in learning time. Coupled with the Weekly Calender, he could tell how many days it was until the weekend when there was no work or school and knew all the time he could have to play with Daddy.
The Dry Erase Board is just a great way to teach him about planning and organizing things. He could pick out 3 things he wanted to do that day (within reason) and we would plan them into our activities! Sometimes I would have us pick one thing we HAD to do and one thing we WANTED to do, to teach him the difference.
We use these everyday and this past week we had a countdown till school began, what we would do at school and what time school started!
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| Sequence Puzzle, Caterpillar Puzzle, Foam Letters, Money & Coins, Stickers, Lacing and I-Spy Spinner. |
There are so many activities that it would be nearly impossible for me to include all of them, but I wanted to highlight some products I thought would be great for parents and children bridging education at school with home or homeschooling.
One of my personal favorite activities was the I Spy Spinner. You would take turns spinning the dial and then finding an object of that specific shape (or color if you like). This is also a great activity for on-the-go. You can encourage your little one to I Spy things on the road!
There are also Foam Letters, Numbers and Chips to help little learners figure out how to spell words and do simple math. One activity that we are currently working on is using the foam chips as a math visual and the foam numbers for the math problem. This way he can begin visualizing small addition and subtraction. You can also teach children the difference between More and Less.
Art Skills has many puzzles, but the small piece puzzles are my favorite. The Sequence 3-Piece Puzzles help children understand what comes first, second and last and the 2-Piece Shape Puzzles let them match everday objects to their compatible shape!
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| Make Your Own Scratch Off Coupons, Dry Erase Incentive Kit, Little Artist Work Frames and Big Erasers. |
There are many, many different ways to show children how proud of them you are. Art Skills has everything from a Dry Erase Incentive Kit where children get stars for Sharing, Helping and being generally “good”. I love this because it teaches children how to work towards goals and how being good is also something to be proud of.
I love the Little Artist Work Frames that give you borders for your child’s artwork and little ribbons! And the fill-in-the-blank Scratch Off Coupons are super fun! You can put whatever you want on the space and then apply a scratch off sticker over it. Just be ready when they want to cash in all the special prizes you made!
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| First Day of School! |
They also have a plethora of products for teachers and homeschooling parents, from ABC Decorations to Giant Paper Cookie Jar with Cookies! You could put together a gift bag of class products and teacher supplies from Art Skills as a Teachers Gift! Tot and I brought in a bag for his teacher at Open House and she loved it. Actually the other teachers were trying to sneak her gift bag!
Art Skills has not only given me a great many ways to inexpensively bridge education at school with home, but also many fun and exciting activities that we can all work together on.
Their products are affordable, engaging and imaginative with family as the focus. I absolutely love the new line of products and look forward to seeing what else they have in store in the future!
Connect: You can find out more about Art Skills on their Facebook Page and/or @ArtSkills on Twitter! Kids can also visit Art Skills for Brainstorming and Homework Help!
Purchase: You can purchase Art Skills products at Dollar General Stores nationwide. All the products featured and more for only $1.00.
