Activities
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Ten Timid Ghosts: Halloween Reading Extension and Story Play Ideas
Looking for some more Halloween themed learning? This is one of our newest Halloween additions this year. My kids LOVE this story and it’s perfect to inspire lots of homeschooling/quarantine activity ideas. The fact that it’s less than $5 at the time of writing this doesn’t hurt either! One of our new favorite games is finding a book we’ve never read before and without even talking about the title looking through the pictures to think about what is happening. Sometimes we make up our own story about a picture or sometimes we just try to guess what will happen on a couple of pages before we start reading, but either…
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Home School Halloween Sensory Play
While we are taking preschool home this year due to COVID I wanted to incorporate some fun sensory bin ideas. One thing I had yet to try with my kids was pluffle – an awesome sensory activity, that is some kind of cross between sand and goop without all the mess. It moves on its own much the way goop would, but is sculpt-able the same way kinetic sand is, without sticking to everyones hands. We loaded up our bin with black and orange pluffle just in time for Halloween and once the kids had thoroughly explored just the pluffle I made a few simple additions and expanded it even…
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Home School Themes: Pumpkin Week
Pumpkin Week really started last week when we visited (“took a field trip to”) the fabulous Souza Family Farms to grab some pumpkins! The kids each picked out their own and we grabbed a few big ones to dissect. We then spent the morning washing our pumpkins before opening them up and checking out what was inside. The kids separated the seeds from the “goop” in a few little bowls and we toasted some of the seeds in the oven for lunch! With a quick google search for “pumpkin parts” I printed out a couple labeled pictures and while they ate we talked about all the different parts of the…
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Full Body Learning
Materials Needed: CHALK With remote learning/homeschooling in full swing this September we’ve taken on the 1000 Hours Outside Challenge to push ourselves to spend time in nature and well, out of our house. Being outside however doesn’t mean the learning needs to stop. In fact it’s a great opportunity to get our whole bodies energetically involved in the process. As the weather begins to get a little cooler we are longing to head out around town to some of our favorite outdoor spots, but with so many restrictions still in effect finding lots of fun things we can do in our very own driveway instead. Today we started off with…
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Space Week
We started our space themed week by making Shapes Rockets. A super easy activity that encompasses learning about shapes, colors and of course space travel! First simply cut out some shapes from different colored paper (or draw them if you have an older kiddo who can cut them out themselves). Start with a large rectangle, then three triangles, two circles and three diamonds. The rectangle will become the body of your rocket – attach two triangles for the wings and one for the top of the rocket. The circles then become your windows and the diamonds on the bottom become the exhaust gas. While most kids know what a rocket…
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Stone Soup
We just happened to have this book/cd set out from the library when everything around us got shut down. So in trying to think of something to entertain the kids we decided to use it! Audio books are quite new for them so it was kind of a treat to all sit together and listen to the book. After listening to the book we took out our witches cauldrons/ pots of gold/ soup pots (so multipurpose) and decided to make our own Stone Soup. We asked if they could remember how many stones were added in the story and counted out three rocks to add to each of their pots.…
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Play With Your Food!
Looking for a way to keep your kids busy, safe but entertained while you work or get something done? Extend snack time with a bit of fun – and play with your food! When they are done playing – eat your snack! Just make sure everyone has their own supply so theres no fighting over who gets to eat it (or germ spreading from kid to kid). All of these are super easy to set up – get in some playtime and continue the busy time by filling our bellies. Plus offer some great opportunities for picky eaters to gain exposure to new and different foods! “Candy” Necklaces Instead of…
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Activities You Already Have At Home
Stuck at home and don’t have any good craft supplies? Here is a great list to keep the kids entertained both indoors and out with things you already have around your house! Indoor Baths! Swim away, add some colors or bubbles (food coloring or dish soap can also work to make bubbles) Play-doh & kitchen toys (play kitchen or real kitchen stuff works here) – cookie cutters, cup cake pans, rollers, butter knives. It doesn’t matter what you bring out your kids will have a blast. We sit at the table to contain the mess a little bit. If you don’t have any cans of play-doh in house making your…
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Valentines
Sure you could give your kids a block of chocolate and call it a day, but we’ve been having a blast spreading the love with some of these valentines activities – just for fun with your kids or turn them into valentines to give to all the special people your kid loves! We opted for some multimedia valentines this year (because the beads and string I was hoping to work on bracelet making with turned out to be the wrong sizes for each other). But never doubt there are always plenty of ways to use your crafts! Instead we cut out some hearts and used our new stamp set to…
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Mom/Baby Work Outs!
Calling all my Mama’s with New Year’s Resolutions to get in shape or spend more time playing with your kids! Here is a little piece I wrote a while ago about all the ways I get my work out in while entertaining three babies: There aren’t many things I do that don’t involve my kids – at least when they are awake, and I’ve got enough other things to do when they are sleeping – so I don’t always get a chance to work out or go for a run like I did in my pre-baby days. Hubby and I used to enjoy the Couch to 5k app or…