Shopkins Homeschool

Our kindergartener has an obsession with Shopkins.

Do you know any children like this?
 
She lines them all up for parades, plays with them for an hour at a time, scours the little lists to discover each of their names and their status as "common," "rare," or "ultra-rare."

She loves her Shopkins so much, she'd rather play with them than anything else.  Including school.

So why not use what she loves to help her learn?  Here are a few ideas we came up with:

Counting With Shopkins - They hop along the numbers and help her keep her place while we count.

Counting, Sorting, Grouping - Any of these can be done with your Shopkins collection.

Reading with Shopkins!

She was a bit overzealous with her Shopkins here, but each Shopkin was assigned a few words to read.  This was fun because she also came up with voices for each of the Shopkins when it was "their" turn to read.

Also, learning to decode the names on the Shopkins list is great practice, because typical beginning reading courses do not teach proper names. 

Because she wants to learn all their names, she stays up in bed at night with her lists, trying to figure out the names for the Shopkins she wants and those she has already, e.g. Tommy Trowel, Cheeky Cherries, Billy Bagel, Milkbud.

We also did a really fun activity that I thought I took pictures of, but apparently did not.  Or the more likely scenario: I can't remember where I saved them.  I'll post them up if I find them.

We tied a helium balloon to a Shopkins shopping bag and took turns testing which Shopkins would float and which would not.  I think the kids ended up attaching 2 balloons to the bag, so more Shopkins could go on a short ride.  All three of the kids played this for an hour.  It's science, it's inquiry, and it's Shopkins!  How could we go wrong?

Any toy can be used, really.  Pokemon would work well.  Little handheld toys could be used in any number of settings.  We adapted Shopkins for school because it was all my little girl wanted to do.  Isn't homeschooling about using your child's interests to help them learn?  Well - here ya go!

I'm sure these could be used for homework help or tutoring, too. 

Enjoy!