Learn math with the help of cows

Every Friday afternoon my five-year old comes back from school with a stack of worksheets he completes in class during the week. I spend a few minutes going over it and spot any problems he may need a little help with. The stack contains photocopies as well as original sheets from workbooks.

This afternoon I stumbled upon this worksheet introducing the concept of ”Ordering by Length”.

Learn math with the help of cows

If you want to practice counting, you’ll notice there are seven cows this page spread. And they’re really cute. Here’s a close-up of a few cows, waiting for a train that’s not coming. Actually kids are supposed to use “cube trains” on the tracks. Who said school is all work and no play?

Cute cows can teach you math

I met a Lego cow and it’s not very friendly

I recently borrowed The Lego Ideas Book from the library for my five-year old, who’s a big Lego fan and always looking for new Lego design ideas.

The Lego Ideas Book

This book does contain a lot of ideas (but no instructions) on things you can build with Legos. Unfortunately it also includes a lot of designs with “special” pieces that don’t come in regular Lego sets, so I’m not sure how helpful it really is since it’s hard to build the designs without them.

Of course, no Lego book would be complete without a cow, and it appears on the Country Barn page.

Lego country barn and cow

But wait, there’s more. Look at the bottom of the page spread and you’ll find another Lego cow.

Lego cow with a nasty attitude

Wow, and I thought cows liked to hang around together as a herd. This one looks cute but it sure is nasty!

You can learn to draw with a cow

I spotted this product at the end of an aisle while shopping at Target a couple of days ago. It looks like Crayola has been trying to figure out ways to increase their user audience and is now going after the toddler age artists with their “My First Crayola” line. This product is called My First Crayola Mess Free Marker & Paper.

My First Crayola mess free marker and paper

Here’s a close-up shot of the marker, a friendly, happy cow to help little hands draw their first artistic renditions.

Apparently, Crayola believes a cow is a toddler’s best art friend.

I witnessed my first cow birthday today

Today I took my boys to a San Diego County park called Dos Picos, a beautiful location in the East County hills, covered with lushy grass and lots of trees (a rare sight in San Diego). We first enjoyed some fun time on a large playground, then sat down by the pond of a picnic lunch, followed by an afternoon walk (and a unexpected run-in with a park ranger offering several activities for kids – how fun!).

As we started eating lunch, we noticed a group of people setting up for a birthday party. It took us a while to figure out we were actually sitting at one of their reserved tables, but they were nice enough to let us finish before regaining use of the table.

Take a look at what we got to witness happening right in front of us. It’s my first cow birthday party!

Cow birthday party decorations

Did you see the cow hide pattern tablecloth on the left? The cow balloon floating in the air? And the other cow balloon sitting on the right table? 

But wait, there’s more! More cow balloons showed up before we finished our lunch.

Phew, that’s a lot of cow sightings for a day, don’t you think?

Ever wondered what a real holy cow looks like?

When my four-year old enters his preschool classroom every morning, he’s supposed to sit quietly on the rug and pick a book to read while waiting for all the kids to come in.

This morning he seemed more eager to show me the dinosaurs laying down on an activity center table he’d play with later. He had to pick up every single dinosaur and tell me what they were. I’m always impressed with a kid who can’t say “spider” correctly (he’s finally going to get speech therapy) but has no problem spitting out “pachycephalosaurus.”

I gently directed him to the rug and instructed him to get a book out of the book bin. This one was waiting for him at the top of the pile, how appropriate. It’s called Some Things Are BIG Some Things Are Small - A Holy Cows Book.  

Some Things Are BIG Some Things Are Small - A Holy Cows Book

And in case you’ve ever wondered what a real holy cow looks like, now you know. I love the red lips and the red pumps, what a nice touch!