What do Valentines, buttons and keys have in common?

Soooo, you bought the Valentine cards for your child to pass them out at school and it seems you have twice as many left.  I swear they multiply.  But don't throw them away just yet.  Get a couple of pairs and you have a matching game or memory game.  This type of game is great for children's basic memory as well beginning to focus on how things are alike and different.  For young children you really only need 4-6 pairs.  More than that for 3-4 year olds and it is overwhelming.  Another idea is to put the leftovers in a pile and ask your child to sort them, put them in groups.  You can model by saying, Let's put these in a group, they are all Hulk cards.  These are all Spiderman cards, These are all rectangles, etc.  How about sorting the cards by the number of words This is the beginning of learning about attributes or characteristics of things.  We sort by attributes, like color, shape, size, etc.  It's interesting to see how your child sorts the cards. Be sure and say things like, These go together because they all...Do you see any others that could go in this group?
on the card!
Take 3-4 different cards, cut them in half and have your child put them back together.  Cut each card in 3 and you have very easy puzzles.
Extra cards can also be used to start stories.  Get 3 cards and make up a story using all three cards. Encourage your child to add to the story.

My children accuse me of hoarding things.  I really do not, however, I do hold on to things a lot of people might not.  I have a drawer of those extra buttons that come on clothing, buttons that have fallen off and just buttons I find.  In my defense, buttons are one of the greatest things to use with children. You can sort them by color, size, number of holes and use them for counting.  When  my grands are here, we can sort and count.

How about all those keys you no longer remember what they unlock?  Another great tool for sorting. Kids come up with very creative way to sort keys.  Get a key and make up a story about what it unlocks or to whom it belongs.  Ask your child to  make a set of 2 keys, 3 keys, etc.

Everyone has coffee stirrers!  I love to use both keys and stirrers for measuring things.  Ask your child,  how many coffee stirrers long is the table?  How about the chair?  Your toy?  Kindergarten children are expected to know how to use nonstandard units of measure.  They can't understand inches, feet and yards until they just understand measuring, period.  Keys, paper clips, sugar packets are all great nonstandard units to use.

See?  I can tell you are thinking of other ways to use these ordinary things.