You can find workbooks with analogies in them or try the
following websites to practice solving analogies. Kids enjoy
doing them and you might create a family game in which you
create your own analogy problems for one another.
www.funtrivia.com (search analogy quizzes)
www.study.com (search analogies)
www.learninggamesforkids.com (search under
vocabulary games)
CREATE CATEGORIES
& CL ASSIFY ITEMS
Sorting items for like attributes
has always been fun for kids. For
example, you can sort buttons by color,
size, number of holes, shape, etc. You
can group animals into size, habitats, pets
vs wild, stripes vs no stripes, or any other
categories you create. And what kid wouldn’t
want to sort M&M’s by color? You can go further
and have children graph their information in
a simple bar graph or pie chart. Classifying
items builds both math and language skills
and leads the way to simple science explorations.
You’ll find lots of information on classifying at:
www.mensaforkids.org (classifying animals)
www.kidsbiology.com (go to animal classification game)
www.education.com/worksheets/graphing
TEST
HYPOTHESES
A hypothesis is an educated guess based on the
current information known. Your child needs to be able to
consider what is known, predict what might happen next, and
then test it out to see if the hypothesis was correct.
This is an important skill in all of learning.
When your child is reading a book, ask: “What do you think will
happen next?” Then, after reading, you can evaluate the accuracy of
the prediction and determine why it was or wasn’t right.
In math and science it’s also important to make logical hypotheses
and then go on to test and evaluate them. Go to www.study.com and
search for “How do you Develop a Hypothesis.”
IDENTIFY
RELEVANT INFORMATION
In the process of problem-solving, it’s crucial to be able to pull out the information that matters. For
example, consider the following sentence and the question to be answered: Tom had four quarters and
three dimes. He also had a frog in his pocket. How much money does Tom have?
Obviously the frog in the pocket is not important to determining the correct amount of money. But
selecting only pertinent information can be quite challenging. Go to www.study.com and search for
relevant information in math. You’ll find videos followed by simple quizzes to practice this
important skill.
VOLUSIA
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MAGAZINE
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