Whew! I made it through day 1! How did everyone do today? I wanted to recap today’s routine. I’m patting myself on the back because it actually went okay but I’m also thinking “How long can this honeymoon last?!”
The day started with reviewing the weather journal that Griffin’s school sent home along with the “Days of the Week” and “Months of the Year” songs. I was able to look both up quickly on Youtube so if you aren’t familiar, they are just a few clicks away!
Then we did some handwriting. Again, Griffin’s teacher sent home his “Handwriting without Tears” book and he had a few pages to work on. And, because I save way too much stuff, I had one of Griffin’s old books from preschool that had several incomplete pages I could allow Maddie to use. I also had some laminated name practice sheets that my MIL made for the kids awhile ago. Paired with a dry erase marker we were in business for about 5 minutes! HA!
I pulled some more old worksheets out that had been given to us and were just sitting in Griffin’s desk to practice some rhyming for Griffin and basic concepts for Maddie (on top/bottom, between, etc). Phew, another 10 minutes gone! Yikes…it is now 9:30 and we’ve flown through a bunch of activities already!
Next, were some activities that I found on @busytoddler’s Instagram page. If you don’t follow her, please go follow her right now. She’s got academic tasks, sensory tasks, fun creative tasks, and today she had a post about activities for older kids (5-7 year olds). Maddie’s poster was name recognition and Griffin’s was sight words. They really love these and they were up and moving around our dining room. They also had different choices within the task…did they want to use colored pencils, markers, or crayons to circle? Then they could also choose the color they used…giving them the feeling they were in control!
After posters were finished, we read a scholastic book about green things and leprechauns sent home by Griffin’s school and then moved to “How to Catch a Leprechaun.” After we read the book aloud, I pulled out my box of green stuff. (Yes, I know not everyone has a box of green stuff but if you are SLP mom, its likely you do!). They were totally into decorating the box and making a leprechaun trap. Ours is less of a trap and more of a “leprechaun house” complete with a rainbow magnatile floor and green table but they worked together and didn’t fight so I’m calling this a win!
Alright we made it to 10:30! So far so good! My goal, at this point, is to make it to lunch. We take a snack and potty break and resume activities around 10:45.
After snack we switched gears to math. I luckily had some count the gold coins and then circle the correct number sheets for Maddie. I gave her some pennies to add some fun and she independently did them all! Griffin completed his math journal and a shamrock number maze I found online and voila! math was addressed for the morning.
Griffin really likes his routine and kept mentioning “stations” like they have in his classroom at school. So, I grabbed some tangrams, math and alphabet puzzles and we did three stations. Each station I set a 10 minute timer for. After clean up, it was 11:45 and I let them have some free play while I got lunch ready!
After lunch the kids wanted “recess” so they put on their jackets and headed outside to play for 45 minutes. Wooohoo! I was able to get lunch cleaned up and started looking for some materials for the rest of the week. If you don’t have a Teachers Pay Teachers Account-check it out. Your account is free and this afternoon I was able to put on search filters for “free” and “pre-k” and “kindergarten” and a TON of worksheets came up. I’m not a huge fan of just worksheets but they can be a nice tool when your creativity is lacking!
Around 1, I was starting to fade…I didn’t sleep well last night thinking about Covid-19 and at 28 weeks pregnant I also felt like baby boy was playing soccer in my stomach! So the kids got a show and mom got a little nap! (We need to ease into this whole homeschool thing, right?!). After my rest we bundled up and went for a walk/scooter ride. The fresh air was wonderful and we made it back to the house around 3. They both wanted to continue playing outside which sounded great to me!
Around 4 we came in and they requested “potions” again. Today our “potions” were green for St. Patrick’s Day which they loved. Potion time didn’t last quite as long as I’d hoped today. They switched gears quickly and wanted to dress up. I ended up with Princess Elsa and a ninja. I took advantage of the ninja costume and the fact that we were reading Magic Treehouse “Night of the Ninja” and sat the kids down for some reading time. We read a few chapters and then read “100 Ninjas at the Zoo”. This is one of our favorites! And it was time for them to play independently while I prepped dinner.
Made it to dinner! YES! Amazon delivered my first round of “Mommy School supplies” which included a rechargeable bubble machine. We tried it out after dinner and it was again a huge hit and a great way for them to get some more energy out!
Some other supplies that I’m anxiously awaiting are a big container of glue and shaving cream to make “puffy paint” as well as some real paint! I ordered basic Crayola paints and some washable tempura paint to make @busytoddler’s frozen paint. Also, I’m going to be pulling out my Easter decoration bin soon and all the Easter books. Think about all the things you already have at the house—plastic eggs, books, games and then think how you can put them together for theme activities!
Alright time to go check the Leprechaun trap and see if we’ve had any visitors!
