Since Keely was in school all last year every day, she is not accustomed to our cleaning and getting things done routines. I think Keely thinks when she is home it is Mom and Sister's job to entertain. And I do love playing with her and do have fun things planned the next 2 1/2 weeks or so before the hurried packing begins and then we gather ourselves onto a plan to a new place of residence! However, I do need to clean the bathroom, sweep the floor, clean out 10 drawers and 3 closets, and start the process of packing 50 boxes! I know there are people that say it is good for children to get bored, and I agree. However, I don't need whining while I'm trying to get something done in the middle of our harried days! The other day on the train to the dentist and as I was waiting, I prepared a list of activities to put in stations for the girls to do while I spent a mere hour or so doing something that needs to get done. Most of the
activities need little preparation besides having all of the materials in each box. I have 6 little boxes, so I came up with 6 activities for each day. They are also things that I can give a 3 second explanation as to what they are. We did so much running around this week that we only used these twice this week, and I only got pictures once. (I don't know about you but if I show my face during independent play it is no longer independent play!)
Both girls working on matching the lettered bottle caps to the names. (The idea came from
here at 1+1+1=1)
You can see in the background the other boxes/stations
We also continued to do
Raising Rock Stars Preschool as well. Below are the highlights of our Letter H week.
Gluing number family numbers (found
here.)
Erasing the dry erase markers after tracing.
Cutting Letter H vocabulary cards
Doing letter H activities (found
here)
More letter H activities
Taping the train together
(Jacob was excited about the train because it looked a lot like the one we took at
Chinese New Year)
Gluing the Mother and Father craft together
Keely is 46 months old
Jordan is 25 months old
Both girls working on matching the lettered bottle caps to the names. (The idea came from here at 1+1+1=1)
You can see in the background the other boxes/stations
Erasing the dry erase markers after tracing.
Cutting Letter H vocabulary cards
More letter H activities
Taping the train together
Gluing the Mother and Father craft together
The activity stations are a great idea for encouraging that little bit of independent time YOU need them to have so you can get something done. Good luck with your move!
ReplyDeleteWow! Ya'll actually did quite a bit for it being such a busy week for you. I know what you mean about trying to get things done and you have kids whining for something to do or for your time. I just started to put up a gate inbetween my kitchen and living room so that I can cook without little hands grabbing for the food as I'm cutting or without an 11 month old clinging to my legs. They both pretty much cried the whole time, but I had to do it. They lived through the experience of being "trapped" as my 3 year old would say (even though they had 3 rooms to play in) and I survived through the crying...barely!
ReplyDeletethe homeschool website you linked to at the bottom was amazing! I can't wait to go back to it and spend time looking through all the resources!! I am getting ready to start Nathan soon and Emily will be doing stuff right along with us I assume. You are doing a great job keeping your girls learning and all!! I am impressed!! Way to go!
ReplyDeleteafter 3 wks on the road, it was good to catch up on you guys thru the blog. very impressed with all the stations - great idea to keep them busy for a while. :)
ReplyDeleteso...did i miss the post about the move? Taiwan? when? thinking of u guys!
MamaGames- Thank you! Yes all of us moms need a little us time to get things done!
ReplyDeleteTerra- Yes, the girls love consistency so as long as we are home in the afternoons we try to do a little bit of "school." I totally hear you on the kitchen thing -- ours is the smallest room in the house but everyone has to be in there! You have to do what you have to do, huh?
Sarah- I'm glad the link was helpful. It all seems daunting-- at least to me-- so a link here or there is always helpful. I'll be interested in hearing what you decide to do with Nathan. We are going to see how things go next year in local school for pre-k and if she likes it then we may go with it and home school for a couple years. We'll just play it all by ear. So I'm definitely interested in what others are doing.
Jen- Thanks girl. I love the freedom of summer, but have to keep them entertained too, huh? I think we posted at the beginning of May that we are moving to Taiwan at the end of this month. I'll do another update soon on all the details -- and I'll even see if I can get an e-mail written too! ;)