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I love to watch his mind work. He furrows his brow and paces. Often he talks to himself too.
His favorite imaginary game is fort building. After he constructs his stronghold, he creates detailed plots as he wages war from behind his walls of furniture and blankets.
But I have to admit, sometimes it gets a little inconvenient to have the couch constantly torn apart and blankets strewn about the family room.
So when Education.com offered to send Jackson a Cranium Super Fort (and to sponsor a giveaway of course!) I jumped on it.
It’s a perfect way to keep Jackson dreaming up his own unique designs, but with less damage to my furniture.
To say that it was a hit with Jackson, is an understatement. He loves it. Loves it more than ice cream. (And my kid loves ice cream!)
Don’t believe me? Listen in…
“Jackson it is time to get going to the Ice Cream Party at Ready to Read.”
“This matters more than ice cream! I am not that into ice cream.”
“Umm… Jackson we gotta go…you know? Friends… ice cream… You have been talking about this party for days!”
“Uh uh – nothing is funner than this.”
“Come on Jackson, we gotta go…”
“Uh uh – I am not leaving my new toy.”
“Jackson we have to get to the party.”
“I don’t care about an ice cream party – it is not funner than this toy. Just look at my creation.”
Yes, creative play can even entice a six year old away from an ice cream party!
I finally did drag him away from his fort. Cruel mom forcing her child to go eat ice cream.
But when he came home, he was right back in there having a blast. Julia came over too and they had the best time making up stories in his fort.
I just love it when our kids have so much fun being kids. Play is their work. And I want to do all I can as a mom to encourage my kids to keep building their imaginations and challenging their minds. Do you need convincing? Just read this article from the experts at Education.com, “What’s the Case for Make Believe.”
Cranium Super Fort wasn’t the only great find that came out of this review for me. I am so excited to find Education.com. I am going to be using tons of their activities with my kids!
The next one I am going to do with Jackson is this Crack the Code! A Spelling Challenge. Jackson will have so much fun, he won’t even realize that he is learning!
UPDATE: I was so excited about the Crack the Code! A Spelling Challenge that today for Jackson’s play date I used the secret code game and made a treasure hunt with it. The boys had to crack the codes to find the next clues until they finally got to the “treasure” – a bag of microwave popcorn. (Jackson loves the microwave kind but I usually serve air popped. So for Jackson, microwave popcorn is exciting!)
The boys had a fantastic time, screaming with enthusiasm as they decoded each clue and then reached their treasure. What an easy, fun way to entertain six year old boys – and they were learning while they played. Thanks Education.com!
kathleen harris says
bounce that ball. i love math in action and this is great.
Cammie says
That would be so much fun! Would love to have this for my son!
dieMutti says
This site is great! Out of the activities I’ve looked at so far, I like the Go Label Crazy, Alphabet Photo Shoot, Lace the ABCs, and Making Rice Pictures. So many cool ideas, so little time! 🙂
cheri says
The outside the box life skills activities really interest me, like the middle school “filling out forms” and “middle school mumbles”
Kelly Ann T. says
I liked so many of the suggestions here, the fort, cookies and the summer solstice party.
Angelica says
What a great prize. I hope I win!
Laurie says
What great ideas. Always looking for a way to increase my kindergarten students and grandchildren’s creative play.
Angela Young says
My son would love this!
Jeannine says
Bake the ABC cookies looks like fun. My little one is not old enough to crack the code yet, but it looks like fun.
Elizabeth M. says
We’re definitely going to be making butter and we’ll try out that Bullseye card game too. This is such a wonderful resource. Thank you for letting us know all about it.
Shelly says
Baking a berry pie
LivingforGod says
We might try “Bring Ancient History to Life” because we will be studying Mystery of History this summer.
jenna says
I like all the Preschool activities – Bake a Batch of Krispy Kisses, Hopped Up Hide and Seek…
Yan says
My kids like imagination.
Diane says
What a great resource for educational items and items that make it fun to learn.
Michelle says
Oh how fun! Please enter me. 😀
Jessica T says
I’m gong to make homemade paper with my kids! That totally brought back memories of when I was a kid and my mom did it with me and my sister . . . I love those memories that you have totally forgotten about and then they pop up like it was yesterday!
Stacey says
Slime! Who doesn’t love slime?!
Heather J. says
Thanks for the great contest! Here are some of the ones I loved:
Pop Rocket, Crack the Code, Create A Fish Art Print, Balloon Science Experiments, and the city made of bags
sharingmystory AT yahoo dot com
Tanya Moyer says
What a great site! I love that they have very age/grade appropriate activities as I have a first and a fifth grader! I love the “Cut this Calendar” activity for my 1st grader – it looks like fun! Thanks for offering this – it’s a great giveaway!
~Tanya
the4moyers(at)msn(dot)com
Melissa says
My 2nd grader has been having lots of problems with learning her values of money, I love the counting mixed change activity. I would love to win the fort for my kids too!
Jennifer H. says
Baking words sounds fun! My nephew would really enjoy that! I’m bookmarking this site for future use. It has so many great ideas! Thanks for the chance to win!
valmg says
We could make an alphabet book and play bingo.
My son would LOVE that fort, and would probably stop tearing apart his bed to make one.
Shay says
I like the idea of A Dinner Table Study Game! My daughter maybe a little young for this, but we could start off easy.
Melissa Neece says
as a previous reading specialist, and gifted and talented teacher, i think a lot of these activities are fantastic. I greatly appreciate all the different types of early literacy activities for parents. Every little bit of reading practice at home really helps us at school. Thanks for the contest, and for letting people know about such a helpful site.
Melissa Neece
http://melissaneece.blogspot.com (lots of pregnancy and natural living links)
http://melissasreviews.blogspot.com (holistic reviews for the practical person)
http://bookretrospects.blogspot.com (book reviews by a voracious reader)
Katie says
We will Experiment with Splashy Science. Perfect for summer!
Janet F says
Make Your Own Rainbow sounds like a lot of fun
Nadia says
what a great site! and so much to do just under Kindergarten! Well our 3 soon to be K’s love to eat so I think we would be doing the baked words, or chocolate pretzles..but I think they would love the flapping butterflys too!
Trish says
The BUMP spelling game looks like a lot of fun! Even though my son is only six, he is obsessed with letters and words.
LadySnow says
I think we will make stained glass crayons. 😀
Jenn says
Wow! Amazing ideas and activities!! We’d love a chance at this! I’m already hearing the “I’m Bored’s”!
TheAngelForever says
What a great product for kids that they can grow with for years. Other products on Education.com that I really like and think my son going into kindergarten would enjoy this summer are:
– Bake some words
– Alphabet hunt
– ABC Treasure Hunt
– Toss & Blend
Thanks for the wonderful resource 🙂
Natalie says
I like the Guess My Word: Vocab Game for my second grader. Lots of great ideas.
kerri says
iI have bookmarked their site i have a girl going into pre school and one in kindigarden and one going in 6 th gr There is so much useful things for us and i am grateful for you posting the site thanks
Tara R. says
I love the treasure hunt!
Sandra says
I would love to check out 16 Ways to Bring Books Alive…That is the gift I would really love to give my son.
owatz (AT) telus (DOT) net
JenniferS. says
wow, what a great site. I love it! My daughter would LOVE that fort and we’ll be playing the newspaper alphabet hunting game and I’ll keep searching for more. Thanks!
Terri says
I love the bumpy letter activity. I have been trying to teach my daughter to recognize her letters, and she knows some of them, but not all. I can’t wait to try this.
Patty says
I think we are going to work on the teen studying this summer with Kelsey my oldest. But I also think I will check out the main ideas games for my class for the fall.
Lora says
Love that education.com site!! Awesome stuff! Thanks for sharing that little treasure.
I love all of their fun ways to practice the alphabet for preschoolers.
Toni says
With 2 boys and a little rambocous girl we could definetly put that too good use and the site is awesome!
Amber says
I will definitely use that site as a future resource! I saw many things I could use w/ my guy – the counting game, teaching the alphabet w/ dried glue, etc. Thanks for the resource! Boys and forts just go together! 🙂
Amanda says
With 2 boys, we’d need the fort! There’s lots of other cool stuff too. So many I need my own personal Santa LOL.
Amber (Bringing Good Home) says
My children would love the Super Fort.
I haven’t seen Education.com but I love it! Thanks for sharing this link. There are a ton of activities I can do with my second grader to help her improve her math. I’m sure we’ll do several of them.
I already plan on doing the Father’s Day time line for this weekend.
misty w says
Count and Catch, Bump, Makins Slime, Pop Rocket, and reading and the puppets. Wow. Lots of those are great. Thanks for the tip. And thanks for the opportunity to win.
Kristinia Clos says
My son loves exploring and crawling around in something like the Cranium fort so this would be very adventurous for him.
We checked out the game and activities and this summer we’d Make a Nonsense Book, my sons love me reading to them and Go pattern hopping, be able to use some chalk out on the sidewalk since we live in Apartments!
Ally says
What a neat site, I plan on making the silly putty listed in 1st grade activities. I am deffinetly going back to explore a little more and will probably try several other things.
I also like the ‘Is my child on track?’ option.
clenna in NH says
Wow – a great site
One grand son is very much into crafts – making books, etc. So I would love any of those activities. He also is practicing his cursive – so the fun way to practice cursive activity is a must here. The second grandson is learning integers, fractions and story telling – so many activities to choose from. This is great.
Elaine says
I love the idea of baking Alphabet Cookies for my daughter too. She knows some letters, but this would engage her even more.
jodi says
oops…I didn’t leave which one in post #77 – sorry! I am interested in trying the “bake alphabet cookies” activity – fun & yummy!
jodi says
how nifty! can’t wait to check out the education link too…we’re always on the lookout for neat activities! Thanks
Alexia says
I love the Alphabet Photo Shoot! I had actually planned on doing that with both of my boys when they are a little older and then create an alphabet book for them! And I bookmarked the finger paint recipe because that is something I will for sure do with my boys this summer – they will love it!
Heather says
We are working with teaching our 3yo to read, so lots of great resources there!
Suzanne B. (Crunchy Green Mom) says
I know this sounds silly but, with three teenagers, and then three more kids below the age of 7, I have a range that spans all over of kids.
However, the middle school project of “Filling out Applications” was something I realized I never taught my kids, until my oldest, now 16, started looking for a summer job.
Luckily, Old Navy took pity on her and gave her the job on her first interview, she starts this Saturday (YAY)
However, she was so scared and had no idea how to fill out forms or interview.
How could I have NOT taught her that?
It’s a mistake I won’t make again.
This site also has alot of great articles about college and entrance information, My daughter and I are going to start some scholarship letter now, so when she graduates, she has some grants. (If she doesn’t enlist, she’s leaning towards it right now)
As for the giveaway, I have the little ones who would lOVE to play in it. And a 13 year old son who would love to create it for his little sisters. He’s the only boy, and they look at him like he’s the greatest creator in the world!
Diana S says
Thanks for a great site to bookmark! My 2 yo would love the Bumpy Alphabet activity, but I know my 5 yo would be even more excited if I were to win the Cranium Super Fort– he and his sister love forts and dressing up lately!
Johanna says
16 Ways to Bring Books Alive
That is a GREAT site!!!!
jean says
The bulls eye math game looks like something we could definitely try and there’s a few more that look pretty interesting as well. I will be back to t visit the site.
Sheila at Dodging Raindrops says
The Kindergarten wind chime activity sounds like a winner for my son.
Channah says
Homemade fingerpaint sounds like a blast.
Marilyn says
Keep encouraging Jackson! He sound so much like my now 19 yr old who is a pre-engineering major. I believe allowing his creativity helped him so much. We homeschooled him and those afternoons were spent building around the farm or drawing plans. Creativity is important…yeah, I remember the messy living room, too. One day it’ll be clean and you’ll back on those days fondly. 😀
Now, I think that I’ll enter the contests for some goodies for my 16 yr old special needs guy. He needs it from a therapy angle.
Thanks for the giveaways!
SJ says
My son would love the treasure hunt activity! I bet he’d enjoy building a city out of bags too – what a very cool site. Thank you so much for sharing, and thanks for the opportunity to win!
Jenn says
I’m going to be busy on that website for a while now! My favorite would be the homemade sidewalk chalk. What a fun project with my kids!
mama4jc says
I love that baking alphabet cookies activity! Thanks for sharing this website! 🙂
Tessa says
I would love this for my sons! Thanks!
Mel says
The Cranium SuperFort wins out as being the coolest toy! My kids are constantly building forts with the couches, dining room table, bunk beds, etc and they would love to have one to build together. Thanks for such a fun giveaway!!
christel says
Shape Twister looks like fun. I think my daughter would love to play this with her daddy.
Stephanie V says
How big is your bedroom? (I still struggle with measurements as an adult!), start a words I know book.
Deb - Mom of 3 Girls says
There are so many great activities, but I like the Twenty Questions: The Fact or Fiction Edition, and the Make an Independence Day Word Puzzle! 🙂
kelleythejewelrylady says
We are going to do the Family Mailbox. I thought it was just a cute prediliciton my little jewel had for stalking the mailman…here I find an activity that will just thrill him and maybe pick up a skill or 2 long the way!
Melanie says
I was on this site the other day. I thin we’ll try the marble activity to help with counting by 5’s. Great giveaway! Thanks!
Dayna says
I think my girls and I are going to make the city of bags. Fun and a great way to teach about maps.
Amy R. says
Great site! I can’t wait to read the parent’s guide to 2nd grade.
Wendy says
I totally enjoyed surfing through education.com. There are so many ideas to choose from! I think my 13 year old would enjoy the Homemade Soap and the Family Newspaper activities. This site is a keeper.
Beth says
Oooh, I wanna make some slime!!! How fun!!!
Julie says
The pop rocket and the treasure hunt are right up my boys’ alley! Thanks for the link to such a neat and useful site.
Alyssa says
This looks like such a fun toy! What a great way to allow my toddler to use her imagination!
Doll Clothes Gal says
This looks like a great website – thanks. Imagination is everything, don’t let it get stifled.
Shannon B. says
I think I am going to try several of the activities including making our own weather calendar and the egg-cellent counting. I’m also going to work on labels for things around the house. What a great idea to help word recognition.
Zana says
great website, thanks for sharing. i think we’ll do several activities from there this summer, starting with making our own weather calander!
stacey moore says
my little loves would like the 16 Ways to Bring Books Alive actvity!
thanks!
moore.g at insideconnect.net
Jane says
Homemade fingerpaint! I haven’t been able to find kiddy paints near where we live, so this recipe is perfect!
Michelle says
This is such a great site! I could have really used some of their high school activity ideas this year while homeschooling. One activity that caught my eye was “Lit’s In the Cards!” This would be a great way to review some of the summer reading my kids are doing, without making things too mundane. Thanks so much for sharing this link. I will definitely be checking it out for our next school year.
melissa says
We would love to make slime in this house!! Thanks for the chance to win.
Charlsie Swadley says
Wow great site! The ABC Treasure Hunt looks like lots of fun for my little ones!
Saly says
WOW, my kids sure would love that fort!!
What a great site that is!
tnchick says
Make Stained Glass Crayons for one. Wow, so many neat things!!
Mama Zen says
I think we’ll bake some Alphabet Cookies!
Betsy says
The Dinner Table Study game sounds like a fun one!
TCC says
Wow! This causes me to imagine how many hours of fun my boys would have together. It would also be nice to let the blankets and furniture have a rest from creating their current forts. 🙂
tammy b says
oh my goodness, i’m so thrilled with the education.com website (thank you thank you thank you for exposing me to it!) that i don’t even care if we win anthing – although my 3 girls would love any of the giveaways.
so, i can say with certainty that we will be building a treasure candle, skip counting, fishing for vowels, making our own rainbows, and counting mixed change.
Angela says
Building a family mailbox sounds like a great activity that my five year old would love! Thanks for the great giveaways!
Heather S says
Thank you so much for sharing this site!! I have a 2 1/2 year old and the lace the ABC’s will be great for him and this will be a fantastic resource for when my 6 month old twins get older! Thanks for sharing! (And doing these great giveaways!!!)
Rachel says
Founds some great stuff as my girl gets older, but for now (2 1/2) the things I think she would love love love are
– making krispy kisses (she loves to cook!)
– Bubble science (I think that one sounds super fun)
– growing a sock garden (wow dirty socks on purpose)
LisaW says
Wow, this is a wonderful site! Right now my kids are really into words and letters, so I’ll probably try the “Words I Know” Book and “Glue a Bumpy Alphabet” with them first.
brandy w says
this is so awesome. my kids would enjoy this and i think my hubby would try and find a way to get in it too. he’s a science guy. i hope i win
Belinda A. says
My nephews are visting in August and I’ve been wondering how to entertain to busy little guys . . . This site has some neat, neat ideas! Just for starters, I know that building a time capsule and making chocolate covered pretzels will go down well. I know they’d really like to make slime, but it’s what they’d do with that slime that worries me!
Andrea says
The ABC Treasure Hunt sounds like a really fun idea!
Kara says
Cool! Not only would me boys LOVE that fort, but there are some great preschool activities like the glue bumpy alphabet activity, that they would enjoy and are educational.
lace says
The Alphabet hunt game looks so fun. This is right up the 4 year olds alley. She loves to tell me what the names of letters are and she finds them all over the place and really loves it.
She would also love to build a fort and is really into games.
Ashley says
I like the slime that would be fun when the boys get older or even for a gift!
Kari says
Wow this looks great! I love their flash card junction idea for 2nd grade and their counting ideas with marbles and coins (patterns)…this looks like a awesome site for the extra help I need to keep my soon to be 7 yr old’s mind sharp over the summer!! THANKS so much, count me in!!!
Megret says
I love the idea on labeling objects around the house to help my kids learn to read/spell.
And the handmade lacing cards? Brilliant.
I also love the weather calendar! I am a weather hound; I hope to instill that interest in the kids, too.
Thanks for the FABULOUS resource!
merideth says
oh my goodness! what a great site! i was planning to do a little map adventure to our local splash pad (a mini waterpark) for our 3yo and our 4yo nephew, like the treasure hunt. i’ll add several of these other activities over the summer: homemade finger paints, the air-dry clay, the sensory table. we’ll stay busy all summer!
Piseco says
I’ve had making a Fish Print on my list of cool things to try… if only JediBoy and his uncle can *catch* a fish, that is!
Thanks for the contest.
Amy Nabors says
my son would love the “adding colors: an optical experiment”. he loves doing science experiments and i know we’ll be doing this one.
Tracey says
I love COUNT AND CATCH AND BUMP!!! I LOVE THIS SITE!
Tami says
The Bulls-eye Math Card Game would definitely benefit my kiddos. Also, thanks for sharing the site. I’ve never been to it before, and have joined.
Blessed says
what an awesome give-a-way! I’d love to receive this and I’ll be checking out that website!
We are THAT family says
We are in the fort building stages of life too, my kids would love the fort!
Nodins Nest says
The treasure hunt for sure!and making puppets
Christieo says
ooh! I’m excited about the “sight reading” activity!! we’re going to label EVERYTHING!
Becca says
I appreciated reading about developmental milestones, it seems other kids say more words than my two year old son, so it’s nice to know he’s actually age appropriate. I like the homemade puppets idea and think I would combine the use of the puppets with reading aloud to him.
Kristin says
My five-year-old would love this!
Summer says
Wow, that is a fantastic resource! I definitely want to build a pop rocket with my boys. They would go nuts!
devildogwife says
I liked the idea of planting a historical herb garden. There are lots of fun activities that I’ll need to check out later as needed. 😉 My daughter would love, love, love the fort! Thanks!
Heidi says
So many fun ideas on that site that I’d hate to pick just one. I’ll definitely have to point my creative 8 year old to that site~ I’m sure she’ll find tons to do. I saw a cute windchime craft that would be fun for summer.
Kristen M. says
My son loves math so I like the idea of “Goldfish Math” but I may have to change it to “M&M Math” if I really want his attention.
chyk says
love the game bump! we play all the time
Shannon says
Making slime would be lots of fun!
mannequin says
Wow. I’ve bookmarked that site! A plethora of activities, games and ideas. Thanks!!
I know for a fact what my son would like because it is a constant request. He would like an iPod nano. Now you may think that’s not an activity…that’s just jammin. But this is a child that is gifted in musical arts. He has played piano and guitar for 7 years and he creates videos of himself playing instruments, uploads them to my iPod and watches them to see how he can improve. It would be nice for him to have his own. His interests are musical and the iPod is that!
chupieandjsmama says
What a great site!! I’ll definitely be bookmarking this one. My boys would love the ABC treasure hunt. Maybe well do that one later today. Thanks for the contest and the great site 🙂
Jodi says
What a great site!!! I can see my 13 yr old browsing this site for things to do!
An Air Science Experiment is right up his alley!!
Thanks for mentioning this site!!
Paper Bridges says
the book activities look like fun. actually, that whole website looks really good. thanks for the tip.
monica
mo says
Is this where I am supposd to comment ? For the education.com givaway?
Anywho…………….wow ! Incrredible stuff over ere there are so many things I think I might try but here are the top 3
1-Experiment with ballon science
2-Build a pop rocket
3-Crack the code spelling challenge
and many more as I also have a prekindergartener eager to “learn” as well
Thanks for the info , love it all…………
canadacole says
What an awesome resource! I can see this becoming a favourite over the summer. I can’t wait to do the Dictionary Treasure Hunt with my first grader. She’s in French Immersion and needs some help figuring out how to use the French/English Dictionary. This will be perfect! I also liked the Syllable I Spy and so many more!