Math: I have an idea that really helped my active 6-year-old son with math concepts. He wanted to do addition and subtraction like his older sister, but traditional manipulatives were not getting through. I took a roll of clear contact paper (any solid color will do), left the backing on, and drew a giant number line with spaces big enough for his feet to "walk" his math. He now gets his worksheet and will read the problem: 4 (he stands on 4) plus 2 (he walks two spaces) and arrives at 6. Of course this works for subtraction and has helped in skip counting (“jumping numbers”), counting backwards, and even simple algebra (6+b=10).

Most importantly he now understands the concepts and can apply them to paper later. Plus it is easy to store and roll out again when needed.