Recently I discovered another amazing blog! This one is called Meet the Dubiens. I have seen so many things on this blog that I want to do with my kids. Very inspiring!
Our first inspiration we did today. She mixed food coloring with shaving cream and used it as paint for her kids bath time.
We did not make it for bathtime, just craft time. I let them play at their little table and gave them some utensils.
I do wish I would have had primary colors, Oliver was mixing colors and discovering new colors, would have been more effective with primary colors.
We love centers! I used them throughout the past school year for all 3 boys. Some structured some as free-play. The boys are always happy to pull them out and play with them it is a guaranteed 30 minutes of constructive play.
For the Summer I reorganized them, rearranged and grouped different things together to get the boys geared up for summer indoor activities.
I put everything in one cabinet thanks to my sister who gave me a nice white cabinet. Thanks Tia!
Melissa and Doug Pattern Blocks and Boards
Styrofoam shapes – Good for Math, Sorting and Building
10 Base T set – great for Math and Building
Random Tools (thanks Liv for the Magnifying glasses)
I have such fond memories of watching my teacher use a felt board to tell a story. LOVED it so much. Gathering around her and finding a comfy spot to watch the story unfold.
Always wanted to get some to play with as a kid but never did, seemed like a teacher “exclusive” item.
I looked at my local Education store and they are so expensive I could not justify the cost.
However, now that I started to homeschool I went to my favorite consignment sale to find educational materials. Imagine how excited I was to find a Storyboard Felt set.
Nothing fancy, in fact it looks like it could be from when I was little, but it is in excellent shape. I bet they came from a former teacher. I practically let out a squeel like a 13 year old who sees Justin Bieber.
This has to be one of my best finds ever!
I let the 4 and 2 year old play with them and they loved it. The two year went through all the animals and tried to make their “sounds”. It was fun, now I need to come up with a story!
Last weekend we were invited to a Jewish Festival to celebrate Hannakah. It was a fun opportunity to engage another culture. The music, food, people were all great!
They had plenty of activities for the children, all of them were fun but one in particular had me very excited. It was an activity similiar to SandArt but it was edible sand, colored sugar. All the kids swarmed the table and had a blast creating tubes of edible art.
Oliver making his creationConcentratingTime for BluePreston with his tube of Sandy CandySandy Candy
You can purchase directly from Sandy Candy or I just found a 10 person kit on Amazon. I will be ordering soon, look out for another post.
After looking at this site and her ideas for a Calendar board I was completely inspired. Thank you Homeschool Creations for the wonderful ideas! Here is our Calendar board:
Our Homeschool Calendar ideas from Homeschool Creations blog
We have: Todays Date, with different ways to write the date, make the date in money, color of the day, weather for temp. (1st grader will fill in daily), weather for the 4 year old to use picture cards. We also have letter of the day and verse of the day. I will also be adding the skip counting pages.
For calendar I plan on having all 3 boys participate in one way or another. I have also been looking around for center ideas, things to keep the 2 little ones busy when I need to work with my 1st grader. Carissa has so many excellent ideas on her blogs. One of them is Tot Trays. I loved all her ideas and will be using them and creating more inspired by what I have seen. Here are some things we have so far:
Basket #1 (white) – for the 2 & 4 year olds, basket #2 – Base Ten set – 1st grader
basket #1 – Pompoms for sorting, pouring, gluing, scooping, measuring, tongs, ice cube try for sorting, clothespin centers (see below), poker chips to sort and stack, pipe cleaners, eraser center (see below).
I cut a square in the lid of a take n go container, then added erasersHe puts them and then tries to retrieve themDifferent games to play with these both toddlers and preschoolersBeads, funnels and bowlsPasta, glitter and glueFoil, Pasta and glitter
Still on the lookout. Excellent places for centers: the Dollar Tree, Walmart, Big Lots. You don’t have to spend a lot and your children will learn, play and love it!
Recently I discovered another amazing blog! This one is called Meet the Dubiens. I have seen so many things on this blog that I want to do with my kids. Very inspiring!
Melissa and Doug Pattern Blocks and Boards
