Day Seven! (Of the Summer with Supermom Series! Check back each weekday this summer for FUN things you can do at home with your kids to cure summer boredom!)

Today’s activity is SIMPLE. This is something you can do in the car, at the check-out line, or when you have a spare five to ten minutes. I am simply a firm believer that in spending even a few minutes a day intentionally working with your child on skills, you can make a HUGE difference in their education.

I am currently working on developing a week’s worth of homeschool curriculum based on opposites, and will be sharing it with you soon! This activity would be used on Monday as my theme introduction, and then played throughout the week during our circle/warm-up time.

Activity: The Opposites Game

Suitable For: 4-7
Skills: Opposites, language skills, critical thinking, logic, justification
How To: Begin my telling your child you’re going to play a simple game. Tell them that you are going to say a word, and they will need to tell you the opposite word. Begin with an easy one like “hot.” If your child says “cold” , they have a basic understanding of opposites and you can continue. If they don’t, take a minute to explain, using a few other examples such as up/down, day/night etc.  Say a word to your child and have them try to come up with the opposite. Move towards more difficult words as the game progresses. Vary the words that you choose, and talk about their choices. Talk about how the choices are different. See how many different opposite combos you can come up with!

Extensions: Use abstract words and words that don’t necessarily have an exact opposite. We used words like “friendship”, “tree”, “chair,” “fun”, etc. It was really fun for me to see my daughter’s mind working, and to see the things she came up with. She also had fun being the one calling out the words for me to come up with the opposites.

Examples: Here are a few of the opposite pairings my five year old came up with:

Stars/Moon

Breakfast/Dinner

Grumpy/Happy

Rainbow/Gray (Pretty creative!)

Family /Alone (How much do I love this one?!)

Stay tuned! I will be posting an WHOLE WEEK of opposites curriculum SOON!!