Teaching with Blueberries

This is especially important during the summer months when children are at home and not receiving regular instruction.  It is disheartening what kids lose when they aren’t continually using and practicing learned information. Take your own memory as an example.  How many of you took a foreign language in school and don’t regularly practice it?  How much do you actually remember?  You can probably muster up a few words and phrases, but not nearly the amount you learned in school while you were knee deep in conjugating verbs!

It isn’t hard to find these quick teachable moments. It just takes a little practice to make it a regular thing.  I’ll give you an example.  Just this week my children were having a snack of Georgia blueberries.  I asked Judah, my four year old, if he could line them up and count them.  He thought that was really fun!  Then, I showed him some simple addition problems placing one blueberry on one side of the plate and two blueberries on the other side of the plate.  I explained that one blueberry plus two more blueberries made 1, 2, 3 blueberries.  Then, I let him try other problems like 1+3, 2+2, and 2+3. You can also practice equal sharing problems.  I showed him six blueberries and asked him how we could share them equally.  I thought he would come up with the answer of 3 for me and 3 for you, but he said, 2 for me, 2 for you, and 2 for Eliana, his little sister. Made my heart melt. Now that’s a teachable moment I won’t soon forget.