Creating A Home Schedule

I know everyone may be stressing out about what to do with the kiddos home all day long.  How do you balance your work, house work and create fun meaningful learning activities for your children.  

First of all my advice is to keep it simple.  Sit down with your children and come up with a schedule that will work for all of you.  Try it, depending how old your children are at the end of the day/dinner time talk about what worked and what didn't work.  You may have to tweak the schedule a bit to find out what works best for you and your children.  The past year I have retired from my teaching job and have taken on the responsibility of watching my two grandsons.   They are five months apart, right now they are three and two.  Generally, I have them on Tuesdays and Fridays, however time is flexible depending on work schedules and other appointments.  We have a great time visiting the library, zoo classes and children museums.  However, just like everyone else we have to make some adjustments.  Keeping a basic schedule is important to me and to the boys.  It helps to keep our schedule simple and light.  Right now our basic schedule looks something like this:

9:00 Pick Up Boys

9:20 Arrive back at my house free play outside for a bit (Check on bird feeders & walk around the house and talk about the garden.  Right now we are talking about the signs of Spring.)

9:45 In the house for some more free play (Sometimes we use this time as baking time.  We like to make cookies and banana bread.)

10:15 Snack

10:30 Learning Time (This involves reviewing the alphabet and counting and shape patterning.  This is simple using the same charts each time they come so they know what to expect.)  Next we have a story and a project.  Our projects are simple and generally have something to do with a letter of the alphabet or seasonal activity. I find many of my ideas on Pinterest.
   

11:00 More Free Play 

11:30 Quiet Table Activities (Puzzles/Coloring/Simple Activities that I have already taught them how to do.) -- I use this time to make lunch.

12:00 Lunch/Clean Up
   

12:30 Storytime

1:00 Nap time

3:00 Outdoor or Indoor Free Play/Weather Dependent

4:00 Clean Up and get ready to go home

I know I have the little guys and things may look very different if you have older children, however with older children they should be able to help more and do more independent reading, writing and activities on their own.  Set goals for the week and work towards them as a family.  

I know many bloggers/teachers are posting things to do and things to purchase.  My plan is to post simple activities that we are making at home with the resources we have on hand.  I like to refer to them as Make and Take.  I will also post one or two free resources I encounter on the web that I feel are worth sharing.  

Scholastic Learn At Home

 Brainpopjr.   

Thanks for Reading :)

Using Skip-Bo Cards to learn Math Skills

One of my favorite games to play with the kids right now is my modified version of
Skip-Bo. 
I wrote about this a couple of years ago on my blog.  This is game is so simple. 
I started with numbers 1-5. When my little guys can identify them with ease we add six.  

I have all the cards stacked in the middle of the table and each player picks one card at
a time. 
Then we lay the cards out in front of them in order.  

If he does not know the number then we count the numbers in front of him so he can match
the number or find the correct spot for it.  

It is fun and easy to play.  If a child gets the Skip-Bo card he gives all the players a high-five.
 (This is better than saying you lose your turn and it encourages team building.) The winner
of the game is all the people who are having fun. I usually give everyone a sticker who
has fun and clean up.  

As the kids advance in their knowledge you can play:

• War:  Divide the cards evenly between all the players.  Each player flips a card, the

person with the greatest value number wins all the cards.  In the event of a tie, flip a
second card.  

• Change the game to the person with the least value.  

• Then play where you flip two cards and add them up for your value.  

I also used the cards as an enrichment activity for double and triple digit addition and
subtraction in Math Journals. 

**Don't be afraid to stack the deck with only numbers you want to use. I have several
sets of cards so when I am working with 1-2-3 numbers, I have a lot of cards to
work with.

January Sensory Bins

January Sensory Bins

This year I am working with three year olds.  So I am searching and creating more social

and early literacy activities.  One of the things I have found is that the little ones really like

Sensory Bins.  Sensory Bins can be almost anything and I have found the simplest things

are the best. 

The boys are very interested in construction trucks, firetrucks and pretty much any type of

trucks.  So I decided to create a snowy village for the sensory table. I picked up the snow,

trucks, and town all on Amazon. But I'm sure you can use anything you have.   

We have lots of imaginative play going on.  I love how they drive to the restaurant to get hot

dogs.  They drive to the gas station to get donuts. They drive to school to pick up their pick

up their sister.  Then they go home to mommy. It is so adorable. 

  

The second bin I created is a penguin bin.  I used water beads for the first time and plastic

penguins.    I also added some spoons and containers.  But to be honest the kids just love

the beads, containers and spoons.  They don’t really play with the penguins. However, they

are having fun.  I use containers left over from applesauce, pudding and the cover to my Tide
bottle.

Another fun activity the kids are playing is patterning with penguins and icebergs. 

They are working on counting, AB patterning and colors depending on each child needs.  

  

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

 I am a little bit late with this post however I know that it is always good to share.  Teachers are great at filing away ideas for next year.  I was able to purchase this 5 foot Cat in the Hat from Really Good Stuff so it saved me a lot of time organizing.  The rest of the words I typed up and cut out.  The colorful letters I cut out and laminated together so that it would be easier to hang up.  

 Then I found this adorable door decoration idea on Pinterest.  My room is on the left and the library is on the right.  This is the perfect decoration for the reading rooms at our school.  I was able to project the face and numbers on the smartboard and traced them.  Then we purchased the blue tissue paper(1 package per door) and put them up with double-stick tape.  

The children at school just love the doors.  The kindergarteners are beside themselves.  They smile and laugh as they come down into the reading corner.  

Oh Snap! Reading Is Fun!

This is my door decoration for the winter months.  I have such a short time with my little kiddos and we spend our time reading and playing academic games that there is no time to do student art work.

So I had to be a bit creative with my door decoration.  My kids love taking their pictures so it was fun.  I just enlarged some clipart from Graphics from the Pond and added their sweet pictures.  

This is a easy idea but I cannot tell you how much joy the kiddos have finding their picture each time they come down to my room.  They enjoy showing their friends where they are and talking about the different book characters the children are holding.