Kids and Family
For quick links to ALL Kids and Family posts please use the left side bar and click Labels. Under there click Kids and Family and you will get access to all Kids and Family Posts in a nice layout. Otherwise scroll through to find what you are looking for :)
Learning about the wonderful things that bees can do was a lot of fun and I feel like it has helped to ease my sons dislike of bees. He now knows that they aren't out there to just sting him (because they will die) and that they make the honey that he loves to have on his toast in the mornings. My youngest son was also extremely interested in the bee videos that we watched and learned a thing or two I hope.
Our friends also just had their second baby boy so we wanted to do something nice for them. We decided that it would be helpful to take dinner over to them one night so they wouldn't have to worry about cooking. The boys and I slaved away in the kitchen for most of the day making homemade bread, breadsticks, pasta, sauce, and cookies to take over for dinner. It sure was a lot of fun to have the boys helping me cook in the kitchen that day and we all really enjoyed our dinner.
My sons class also did some fun Zoom classes this week. They had their sunflower check in to see how their seedlings are doing. They made english muffin pizzas and ate lunch together, and they did a dancing rain experiment (which was a huge hit with both boys!). Its been great having these Zoom calls and my oldest son is always so happy to see his teachers and classmates and my youngest loves the activities and helping his big brother if he can.
My youngest is really exploring his vocabulary and pronunciation of words! I love that we have this time together to teach and watch how much our boys are growing.
This weekend was a big test on our gardens as the temperature dropped. We have had to cover them up for a couple of nights and hope that we were able to keep them alive... Don't mind the tarps in the photos as we still have some cold nights ahead and are ready to cover when the temperatures start to drop!
This week my son really wants to learn about snakes... I'm not as thrilled as I don't like snakes but maybe it will help with my disgust of the reptile.
Monday June 1:
Reading: Garter Snake facts: live in ALL places: Animal Fact Files, Garter Snakes (EPIC)
Writing: Form a sentence from given words about a snake (the snake slithers through the grass)
Craft: paper plate snakes
Math: Blowing Bubbles (Counting and chasing bubbles)
Tuesday June 2:
Reading: All about snakes for Kids, Who lives in the dessert? (EPIC)
Writing: S practice (S is for Snake)
Math: Basic math games online
STEM: water, oil, food colouring experiment
Wednesday June 3:
Reading: Facts about Snakes for Kids, It's a Boa Constrictor (EPIC)
Writing: Picture matching and writing
ZOOM MEETING
Math: Making patterns out of different household items or things found outside
Thursday June 4:
Reading: Wild Kratts Rattlesnakes, Rattlesnakes (EPIC)
Writing: Snakes are, live, eat, look
ZOOM BAKING CLASS
Math: drawing symmetry
Friday June 5:
Reading: 7 Fun facts about snakes for kids, Bull snakes (EPIC)
Writing: 1 fact about snakes and a drawing of your favourite snake
ZOOM LESSON
Math: Hopscotch
We still play lots of hockey downstairs when the weather is either too hot and we need to cool off or too cold and we want to play inside. My son also just got new road hockey goalie equipment and were slowly seeing a love for it. He still thinks his smaller equipment will work but it did;t even come up to his knees lol. Time to pass those onto his younger brother. Who knows, maybe we will have 2 young goalies and dad will be out numbered that way.
Week 1 of space was a lot of fun. It was also an extremely busy week but with all of the space activities it kept us entertained. We are looking forward to Space week 2 when we can explore other planets and features of our solar system.
Our plants are really doing well for the most part. We have started to acclimatize them by giving them time outside during the day when the weather has warmed up enough. I used my husbands "meat" bins for when he butchers to carry them in and out of the house and it seems to work well. So far they are all doing well with the changes in temperature, and wind.
This weekend we are also planning on getting our gardens ready so that once the weather looks like it has officially warmed up for good then we can start to do our planting. We are also going to pick up a few plants that either didn't take when we planted their seeds, or I couldn't find seeds for. I am also hoping to pick up some other jalapeno pepper plants to see which ones we have more success with. We also love to add jalapeno peppers to a lot of our cooking (bagels, jalapeno popper chicken, etc) as well as just throwing a jalapeno on top of a freshly BBQ'd steak!
Space Week 2 Activities:
Monday: (No School) Victoria Day
Tuesday:
Reading: Neptune Facts video, Neptune "far, far away" (EPIC) & take the quiz
Writing: What did you do over the long weekend and draw a picture.
Craft: Name rockets (as we didn't get to it last week)
Math: Hopscotch counting
Wednesday:
Reading: Learning about the Moon and it's Phases video, Our Moon "Brightest object in night sky" (EPIC) & take the quiz
Writing: What is a fact about the moon and draw a picture.
Snack: Moon Snacks (rice cakes with peanut butter, sliced banana and cheerios)
Math: Online math practice
STEM: Moon Rock Experiment
Thursday:
Reading: Mars Facts video, Mars (EPIC) & take the quiz
Writing: Do you think there is life on Mar? Why or why not? draw a picture of what you would look like if you traveled to Mars.
Snack: Making Muffins with my sons class on Zoom
Math: Basic math practice or online math
STEM:
Friday:
Reading: Black Holes Explained for Kids video, Exploring Blackholes (EPIC) & take the quiz
Writing: which planet was your favourite to learn about and why?
Math: Counting activities with household toys or objects found outside.
STEM: Water and oil experiment (I've even seen a video where they add an alka seltzer tablet after adding the food colouing to see what happens)
Well space has been a lot of fun but now its time to head back to Earth and explore some of the beautiful creatures that we have...
Its Dinosaur Week and let me tell you, this is all I've heard about all weekend long. Last week was a blast with Shark week! We learnt so much new information about sharks and really had a lot of fun learning about the 400 different types of sharks! I now feel like if I ever catch myself in a conversation about sharks I will be able to contribute. Lol
Our plants project is really taking off and I'm thinking now that the weather is starting to get warmer I will move them out into the garage so I can put them out into the sun during the day and then back in the garage so they are warm over night. This will also help with their transition to being planted (I think).
We definitely have been doing a mix of the activities I have planned as well as the things his teacher sends every morning. I always start with our educational video. This gets him into the learning mode and allows me to see what his teacher sent out this morning as well as finish cleaning the kitchen from breakfast. Once the video is done we go onto EPIC and read our book that goes along with our video and then move onto one of our books for my son to read or a similar leveled book from EPIC that his teacher has assigned to him. From there we either move onto the writing activity I have planned or do what his teacher has sent or sometimes I even sneak in both activities. Its nice to have the extra work as this is stuff we can then pick away at throughout the day as the days can become long if we don't have structure and a plan.
Monday:
Reading: Dinosaurs for Kids video, FOSSILS and DINOSAURS (EPIC) & take quiz after
Writing: What is 1 fact you learnt about dinosaurs and fossils?
Yoga: Cosmic Kids Dinosaur Yoga
Math: Name 3 different dinosaurs and conduct a survey to see which one people like the most.
Tuesday:
Reading: Dinosaur Extinction Explained video, Figuring our fossils (EPIC) & take the quiz after
Writing: tell me something new that you learnt.
Craft: Dinosaur colouring pages
Math: Hopscotch/outdoor obstacle course
STEM: Mystery science
Wednesday:
Reading: Learn Dinosaur Facts: Tyrannosaurus Rex Video, National Geographic Kids Dinosaurs
(EPIC) & take the quiz after
Writing: Sight word read it, build it, write it
Math: Online math practice
Thursday:
Reading: Dinosaur facts video Video, Triceratops (EPIC) & take the quiz after
Writing: Sight word bingo & practice writing sight words
Math: Count and sort all the dinosaurs by size, colour, Herbivore, Omnivore, Carnivore.
Friday:
Reading: Dinosaur Facts BARYONYX video, Hadrosaurus (EPIC) & take the quiz after
Writing: What is your favourite dinosaur and write a fact about them.
Craft: Dino shaped snacks (Wafflesaurus)
STEM: Erupting Car Wash
Next week we’re going to BLAST off into Space because Dino week is going to be hard to beat so we might as well get outta this world!
Wow what a week last week was! I feel like we finally have a good schedule and the weather looks like it might warm up again. This will make life a lot easier as we can then try to get outside for "recess" in both the morning and afternoon. On the days when we don't get out we still love to go down to the basement and play on the "rink". My youngest is getting much sturdier on his skates and more comfortable moving around on his own (he even likes to take shots on his brother now!). My oldest has also shown improvements in his confidence and his ability to do a crossover. We love going down to the ice for a skate and to play in the basement when the weather isn't nice enough to get outside. I've even made the boys a scoreboard this weekend for their rink. Now we can choose which teams we want to be and keep track of the score! I also think its a nice piece of art for the basement on a wall that has been black for the 5 years we have lived in the house...
Our plants are also doing really well! I am so excited to see how they continue to grow and will be so happy if they survive to planting time and can get into the garden.
Another proud success we had last week was the fact that my oldest son is getting really good at writing on the line. Who knew that this was a task to learn, but it is and we are starting to get it!!! My sister - in - law lives in Alberta and was talking to us about the Grizzly bears which is what lead to this lesson. We learnt some fun facts and had a good time retelling her about what he had learned that day.
This week is SHARK WEEK!!! Not the actual shark week on TV but at our home school we are going to have shark week. My sons love sharks! They are really interested in them so why not dedicate an entire week to learning about shark! I have baby shark on the last day as a celebration song but it is my youngest sons favourite song right now so we will probably listen to it every day...
Monday:
Reading Shark Facts video, Sand Tiger Sharks Book (EPIC) & take the quiz after
Writing: Write a fact about sharks that you learned today and draw a picture of the shark
Craft: Toilet paper roll Sharks
Math: Building patterns with blocks or other materials and work on making complex patterns
STEM: Floating Dry erase marker drawings
Tuesday:
Reading: Wild Kratts Sharks Video, Bull Sharks Book (EPIC) & take the quiz after
Writing: Sight word read it, build it, write it
Math: Hopscotch
STEM: Mystery science
Wednesday:
Reading: Sharks for Kids video, Blacktip Reef Shark Book (EPIC) & take the quiz after
Writing: Sight word bingo & writing name (full name)
Craft: Shark fin headband
Math: Basic math practice
STEM: Colour changing volcano
Thursday:
Reading: Great White vs Hammerhead Facts Video, Blue Shark Book (EPIC) & Quiz after
Writing: Write facts about a great white shark and draw a picture to go with it.
Math: Survey: Which shark is your favourite? (Choose 3 sharks and then survey family members)
STEM: Mystery Science
Friday:
Reading: All About Sharks for Children Video, Baby Shark, Nurse Shark Book (EPIC) & Quiz after
Writing: What is your favourite type of shark, why are they your favourite? Draw a picture of the
shark.
Food Snack: Shark grilled cheese
Math: Online math games
STEM: Mentos and coke experiment
Next week will be Dinosaur week as that is another favourite in out house right now! Stay tuned for next weeks fun dinosaur themed school activities :)
Last week was a lot of fun and a big adjustment for everyone. The boys are use to going to school and love spending time with their friends and teachers. They have both been enjoying their time at home but definitely are missing their friends and caregivers. We have participated in a couple of Connected North Sessions and have really loved having the opportunity to visit and explore different experiences without having to leave the house.
Last week I made a slight adjustment to the schedule as I started school during our outside time and then we would go outside during our learning time. The boys were both ready to learn first thing in the morning and it was nice to wait for the weather to warm up a bit before heading outside. See below schedule with adjustments.
SCHOOL SCHEDULE:
7:00 - 8:00 Breakfast and Cartoons
8:00 - 9:00 Playtime / small snack (my boys would eat all day if they were allowed to)
9:00 - 10:00 Academic time (Reading and Writing)
10:00 - 11:00 Outside play
11:00 - 11:30 Hand washing & Playtime before lunch
11:30 - 12:00 Lunch
12:00 - 1:30 Nap time for my youngest & Quiet games / activities for my oldest
1:30 - 2:30 Outside time & Snack time
2:30 - 3:30 Academic time (Numeracy and STEM)
3:30 - 5:00 Play time
5:00 - 5:30 Dinner
5:30 - 6:00 Bath
6:00 - 7:00 Snacks and before bed play
7:00 bedtime for my youngest
7:30 bedtime for my oldest
**Depending on the different zoo visits or connected north sessions I will adjust the schedule so we can have the most fun while also taking part in the educational sessions that interest the boys**
Find the link to Week 2 Connected North here
Another adjustment I made was on Tuesday we learnt about plants with Scholastic and that got us talking about gardening. We usually grow a lot of our own vegetables and some fruit in the backyard. Our boys like to help take care of the gardens and love the rewards of eating what they've grown. Well that got my husband and I talking and wondering if the Greenhouses would be opening this year with all of the other COVID - 19 closures. We decided that it would be fun to try and grow our own vegetables from seeds. We are home for an unknown amount of time, and this will give the boys an extra sense of pride when it comes to the garden. So, I went out to our local Home Hardware store and got what we needed to start growing our own vegetables. We had a couple of empty egg cartons and then will transfer to larger containers when needed. We get a lot of sunlight at the front of the house and will use our basement windowsills to house the plants as they will not survive if we leave them in arms reach of our youngest. I will keep you all posted on how this experiment goes :)
With my youngest I did "circle" time (usually just the two of us but occasionally my oldest would join). I would play nursery rhymes or other kids songs (baby shark is a hit with him). I would use the apple TV to mirror the videos and we would sing and dance along to them. Any neighbours walking by know know why we looked so silly. The MOE YouTube also has great videos under their language section that we have used for "circle" time.
To start our day usually between 8:30 and 9:00 I would get both boys to sit (I use the term sit very loosely as my youngest would go between playing and watching) and watch the video and listen to the story from Scholastic. Then my youngest would continue to play while my oldest and I would do the puzzle (quiz) to see what he learnt. He loves showing how much he knows. I would then get him to pick one of his leveled books and he would read it to me. Then the boys pick out a book that they both want me to read to them. Next my oldest gets to go and play as a reward for working so hard (this does not take an hour but your child is never getting 1 - 1 attention for an hour and they need rewards for working hard). He usually chooses to go into his room and play with the little toys he hides in there from his brother. This is when I would do circle time with my youngest. This would usually last between 15 - 20 minutes. Once circle time was over I get my oldest son to come back out as it is time to work on what ever writing activity we are doing that day. I know at school they usually practice writing their names. We start with that and then add on different words based on whatever theme we've decided to do that day or week. While my oldest is working on his writing or word recognition I try to distract my youngest with a craft, toys or colouring... this is not an easy task and he just wants to destroy any papers his brother is working with. Once we are done our writing we either all finish the craft or go outside. The boys love to be outdoors and this is a huge reward for all of the hard work they have just done.
Once we come inside it is usually time to get lunch ready. The boys play or whine at my legs telling me how hungry they are while I try to jump around them and make lunch ...
We all eat lunch together as a family and then my youngest goes for his nap. Now that my husband is working from home I take nap time as a time for me to get some exercise. I try to get outdoors if I can to get out with the dog for a walk or a run. This is my quiet time and a good time to get the dog some exercise.
Once I'm home I finish cleaning up the kitchen from lunch as my husband and oldest son are usually playing a board game. Once my youngest is up from his nap he is usually begging to go outside. We get dressed and head out for another backyard or neighbourhood adventure while keeping social distancing from neighbours in mind.
Once we come inside we have a quick snack and work on some numeracy and STEM activities. Next it is time to play or put on a movie so I can get dinner made.
Some days we would get all activities done and other days we wouldn't. Some days we would get side tracked by other learning opportunities or somethings didn't seem to be working so we would move on to something else. It is important to not force your kids to do an activity as they wont really take anything away from it, other than the fact that it is done. Find things that interest them as that will make the learning authentic and enjoyable for everyone.
Another thing we have had to do is order a printer. I know I will be wanting to print off resources for the boys and getting a printer was very important for that.
My sister in law recently got my oldest son a subscription to The Little Passport. He gets a monthly package that has a work booklet for him to work through (different games, colouring, etc.), stickers to add to his world map and there is always one big activity to do as well. It is a great educational resource and lets face it, what kid doesn't love getting something in the mail!
Monday:
Reading: Scholastic Day 6
Writing: Have kids draw a picture and write a story about what was their favourite thing we did last week.
Craft: Make Play dough
Connected North - Tombo Trail - Toledo Zoo at 11:00
Numeracy: Basic math skills (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) with sidewalk chalk outside (Side note: we will just be doing addition as my son is in JK)
STEM: COVID - 19 Germ experiment for kids (I'm really excited for this as I know my son had a GERM presentation at school before the school closure and he was really excited about it)
Tuesday:
Reading: Scholastic Day 7
Writing: Play dough letter mats
Craft/Snack: Teddy bear toast (toast with Nutella or peanut butter, banana slices for ears and nose, blueberries or chocolate chips for eyes and nose)
Connected North - Beaks, Bubbles and Burrows - Alaska at 11:30
Numeracy & STEM: Using LEGO Build a bridge for either plastic animals to cross or toy cars. You can get creative and map out a river for them to cross. Have kids count how many blocks they needed to create their bridge.
Wednesday:
Reading: Scholastic Day 8
Writing: writing name & letter puzzles
Craft/Snack: Blindfolded taste test (have various foods for kids to smell, feel and taste and see if they can guess what they are. Have a variety of different flavours, sweet, sour, savory. We avoid spicy as our kids are still pretty young)
Numeracy: Basic Math Practice
STEM: Disappearing eggshell Experiment
Mom's Birthday Dinner :) (I've heard some rumors about breakfast in bed... here's hoping I get to sleep in a little and eat in bed)
Thursday:
Reading: Scholastic Day 9
Writing: Writing name & Shark writing activity
Craft: Hand print butterflies & egg carton Bees
Connected North: Shark Babies at 10:30 and Bees and Butterflies at 11:00
Numeracy: Online math games
STEM: Mystery Science Can Animals Laugh mini lesson.
Friday:
Reading: Scholastic Day 10
Writing: Writing name & Letter puzzles
Craft: French Painting
Connected North: Home Science at 10:00 and Sea Turtles at 11:30
Numeracy: Balloon Drop (See how many times you can keep a balloon up in the air. This can be done as a group or challenge your siblings to see who can keep the balloon in the air with the most hits)
STEM: Build a LEGO car and see if you can get it to move by balloon power.
Keeping kids busy over the COVID - 19 Break March 23 - 27
In this post I will mention some more online resources that I have found and will likely use at some point. I will also post in further detail what kinds of activities we will be doing this week. And will have a weekly COVID-19 post of our tentative schedule for as many weeks as we are home schooling while social distancing/isolating. We need to be diligent during this time to limit our interactions outside of our houses but also need to have fun to take away the stress from our children. Our kids still need to be kids, have fun and learning while doing so!
Cincinnati Zoo virtual tour/ animal feature daily. Find their Facebook page and you can be connected to the daily animal feature. I believe they also have a YouTube channel where you can watch the animal experiences as well. What a great offering and experience for kids especially during this time of social distancing and isolation.
Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg also has creature features that will happen from 1:00-1:30 Central time on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the next two weeks. Just another great learning opportunity for our kids during this difficult time. You can find these features on their Facebook page.
Another google doc with lists of different sites to use to help keep kids busy.
Dream box is an online math website for K-12 and is offering a free 90 day trial.
Connected North has created an online schedule for virtual field trips that can be done at home! Check them out as they are very informative and fun for the kids.
MOE has also launched its online learning resource for families of kids K-12.
This is also another Kids Activity Blog that has posted links to different websites that have offered free subscriptions during this break.
Once you’ve gone on a virtual field trip you can connect in some other learning activities and link it all together. For example, if you visit the zoo tour you can create a craft and have some type of reading and writing activity to go along with it. The zoo posts the day before what animal they will feature so it give you a little time to find some activities to link to it. The Connected North field trips have sent out their weekly schedule, which also allows you to pre plan and find some activities to go along with the field trips.
In my first post about Things to do with Kids over the COVID-19 Break I posted my schedule that I will follow. Below I will post what we will be doing. Remember I am posting for kindergarten and a 1.5 year old but these ideas can be altered for all age groups.
Monday:
Reading: Scholastics day 1: animal studies - Rabbits (reading level A book)
Writing: practicing our name and work on spelling rabbit and then colouring a picture of a rabbit (goes along with our reading activities)
Craft: rabbit craft
Watch Connected North on Arctic Animals at 10:15
Math: sorting and counting blocks
STEM: building blocks
Tuesday:
Reading: Scholastic Day 2: living things - plants (reading level A book)
Writing: writing our name, creating letters with play dough
Craft: dinosaur craft
Connected North: dinosaurs at 1:45
Math: math number practice
STEM: create a racetrack and race cars
Zumba: 6:00
Wednesday:
Reading: Day 3: Life cycles - animal babies (reading level A book)
Writing: writing name and letters practice on paper
Craft: Rainbow craft
Math: Rainbow dice game
STEM: Roll a rainbow activity
Zumba: 6:00
Thursday:
Reading: Day 4 Scholastic- Earth and Space - the moon (reading level A book)
Writing: writing name and play dough letters
Craft: rocket ship craft (possibly made out of toilet paper rolls, if you’re lucky enough to have a spare roll lying around)
Math: MOE/TVO kids math games
STEM: making animals out of clay
Family Movie Night: we will pop popcorn, have treats and either watch a movie off Netflix, Disney+ or rent one off our Apple TV.
Friday:
Reading: Day 5 Scholastic - seasons- spring
Writing: writing name, letters practice worksheets
Connected North: Kaboomistry at 10:00
Connected North: Dinosaurs at 2:30
Math: dream box math online games or TVOkids games
STEM: exploding rainbow experiment
Cooking: Pizza
Pizza night!!! Check out my post on the best pizza dough recipe!
Obviously if things aren’t working or it’s seeming too stressful for your child. Stop and take a break and play. Don’t force learning but encourage a little bit of work followed by some fun play. Also try to plan things that they’ll find fun and interesting as that will help to keep them engaged in their learning.
We also have a family in our town who decorated their door for Easter and has encouraged others to do so. This will allow people to walk and look at doors or drive around and look at all the beautiful doors in our town. We will be adding in some more Easter Crafts and decorations so we can decorate our door as well.
Things to do with Kids over the COVID - 19 Break
Structure is extremely important as kids run on an extremely structured day when at school and will start to act up because of the unknown of what the day will bring. We were supposed to go to Arizona for our March Break but with COVID - 19 we cancelled our trip and are spending the next three weeks at home... in the not so nice weather. In the summer it is easy to fill your days with outside activities but when the weather isn't that nice outside, what do you do? Here are some ideas of ways to keep kids busy and learning for the next couple of weeks ahead. Don't get me wrong March Break is important for everyone and that is what we will do for the first week. However, by the end of the week we will all be ready for some structure and below is the plan that we have.
SCHEDULE: (I have taken my oldest son's classroom schedule and combined it with my youngest son's daycare schedule as I will be home with them and we need to be able to work together)
7:00 - 8:00 Breakfast and Cartoons (mom gets to hopefully enjoy some warm coffee before starting
her day and cleaning the kitchen)
8:00 - 9:00 Playtime
9:00 - 10:00 Snack and Outside time (Small snack which could also be outside if the weather is nice
enough)
10:00 - 11:30 Academic Time (Reading and Writing)
11:30 - 12:00 Lunch Time
12:00 - 1:30 Nap time for my youngest son, Puzzles, Painting, Books, board games or a movie for
my oldest son
1:30 - 2:30 Academic Time (Numeracy and STEM activities)
2:30 - 3:00 Snack Time (Possibly in the stroller while Mom gets a run in for her and the dog if the
weather is nice enough)
3:00 - 4:00 Outside time
4:00 - 5:00 Playtime while I cook Dinner
5:00 - 6:00 Dinner and Bath time
6:00 - 7:00 Playtime and bed night snacks
7:00 Brush teeth and youngest goes to bed
7:30 Oldest goes to bed
ALL SUBJECT RESOURCE LISTS:
Free online learning is a quick link to other free online resources for parents to use at home to help keep children learning and having fun.
Educational website list of companies offering free subscriptions due to the COVID-19 school closures. These are websites that usually have subscription cost but due to all of the school closures they have waived their subscription costs so students can continue to learn at home!
READING AND WRITING IDEAS:
Scholastics has organized different learning activities for different days and into nice themed based days. Follow the link and then click on the age/grade your child is in. It is really well organized and you can definitely add these books/videos into the reading and writing block and part/most of the block will be done. You could also go onto Pintrest and find different crafts to go along with the different theme of the day and have that as a next step to the activities.
MOE has also created an online learning bank for parents and students and you can go there to get grade based learning activities as well.
My son loves to be creative and make things. This usually causes me extra stress as I hate messes and it usually gets messy. But during the extra time off I will have to let that go as he always talks about what he created at school and this break will be long for all of us if we aren't having fun. My husband and I went to Walmart yesterday (yes we were feeling brave!) and picked up some groceries (what was left on the shelves) and some new things to give to the boys to help make this time at home a little more exciting as we were supposed to be in the warm sun of Arizona and swimming in the pool all week. We found this great crayola painting kit, my son already loves it as there are 3 different types of paints, different brushes as well as some shaped sponges. He has really loved the painting and I was sold on the fact that it said washable! This is an activity that we can do during nap/quiet time or during our Reading and writing time as we can link it to stories that we have read or working on our letters.
If you're looking for other ideas of what to do over this time please check out my post 10 Things To Do With Kids Over The March Break as I mentioned other science experiments and ways to keep kids busy and entertained.
LEGO is also another great STEM/Numeracy activity as it can involve kids counting blocks and creating at the same time. There is also a LEGO challenge that has a monthly calendar that has a daily challenge. Another stem off of this would be to get children to write about their building experience or to do research before completing the challenge (all dependent on their age and ability levels).
Virtual tours this is a link to a google doc that will take you on various virtual tours of zoos, museums and landmarks. What a great educational experience that can spark some excellent conversations! This can also be linked into a literacy time and get students to write/draw about something new they learnt.
Some of the links listed above in the ALL subjects area have some great math resources. My son really loves math so before I left work on Friday I printed off some great number recognition worksheets and basic math. The listed websites above definitely have some links to more advanced math (as that is my specialty) and I will continue to see what I can find for Kindergarten as this is a new realm for me.
OUTSIDE:
Obviously if the weather is not nice enough or too cold then this time will have to happen inside or be cut short. This will turn in to high intensity play time (getting the heart rate up as children also wont have gym and will need that time to burn some extra energy). Some examples of things you can do are Just Dance (YouTube has videos you can follow if you don't have a gaming console like we don't), Kids yoga, floor hockey (We have a pretty awesome floor hockey set up with HockeyShot skating tiles for the kids to even skate on when they want), racing cars or even racing each other around the house. We have even created obstacle courses in the basement for the boys to go through and time them to see if they can beat their old time. Anything to get their heart rate up and burn some of that pent up energy from being inside will be helpful when it comes time to sit and focus on their studies.
If the weather is nice enough to get outside then this time will be key for making everyone feel better. Simple things like playing in the yard with trucks, on the swing set, snowshoeing in the backyard, building a fort/snowman, playing with chalk on the road, road hockey, and much more! These are just a few examples of what we can do in our outside time to keep things fun and fresh for the next two weeks following the March Break. Also switching activities daily or after a couple of days will help to keep things fun and exciting outside.
10 Things to do with Kids over the March Break
March Break is coming up and let's face it, parents are often left wondering what to do with theirs kids for the week? If they're not in childcare and home with you for the week, it often starts off exciting but by the time lunch rolls around they're bored and wondering what you will do? And this is usually the first day. Being planned and prepared with activities can help make this week fun and enjoyable for everyone!
We usually travel to Arizona to get away from the cold or travel to the city (Winnipeg) for a mini getaway for our March Break. Either way we always make sure to have activities planned to help keep the boys busy and entertained. It makes for a more enjoyable Break for them and us as no one is complaining about being bored. One of our main focus as parents is to eliminate screen time. That means TV time and computer/device time. This is time for us to spend as a family bonding together and if we all have our faces in our devices then we loose out on quality family conversations.
1. Travel - whether you're going an hour away for a quick getaway or far away on a tropical vacation. Travelling can be fun and exciting! Having some sort of get away gives the kids something to look forward to. It can also take up 1 or 2 days of the March Break and mean that there are less days to plan for at home. If your trip is a week long, you still might have to have ideas of things to do while on vacation as sitting around by the pool doesn't really last a week with kids. This is where some of the other activities listed below might come in handy. These can be done either at home over the break or while on your vacation.
2. Movie - If you have a movie theater in your community then taking your kids out to the movies can be a fun and exciting experience. If you don't have a movie theater (like we don't) then renting a movie, popping popcorn and making your own home theater experience can be just as fun! We do this often with our oldest boy and are looking forward to his brother joining now that he is old enough to sit and enjoy a movie. We like to make it an experience by putting down the blinds to help make the room dark like a theater. Offer lots of snack options and have a juice box to go with it. Also letting them have some say in the movie selection helps to make the experience fun!
3. Bake/cook - look up fun recipes to try and have fun making them with your kids. We love to make cookies, pasta, pizza, and cakes. My oldest loves to help decorate the cakes as well. His kindergarten class does a lot of cooking and baking so he is getting really good at measuring and mixing. This is a fun activity to do and also has a great rewarding end result as you all get to enjoy the hard work you've just put into making your items.
4. Indoor and/or Outdoor Playground - If the weather is nice enough outside then hitting an outdoor playground is nice as we've just spent a lot of time cooped up indoors due to the cold weather. If the option is there to go to an indoor playground that is also a great option as they usually offer lots of different activities (Climbing, sliding, trampoline park and more) and are fun for the whole family.
5. Crafts - My boys like to create things. I usually will check the internet for different craft ideas or look through my sons CHIRP magazine to see what crafts they make in there. (Side note: my son LOVES his Chirp magazines. He loves the stories, facts, crafts, snacks and science experiments that they show in there. He also loves to get mail and this is a fun piece of mail that comes for him).
6. Fun Science Experiments - My oldest son loves to do and watch science experiments. I really like this blog I Can Teach My Child as it offers different activities based on age. I have done some of the experiments off her page with my kids at home as well as the kids at school. (Did I mention I am a teacher? I am an elementary school teacher! I teach Hockey Academy to grades 4 - 8, as well as Grade 1/2 Science & Gym). CHIRP magazines also offer a science experiment to do every issue as well! You can also follow me on Pinterest mcmastk for more fun science ideas for kids. Look under TN Science for lots of fun activities.
7. Board Games - My kids love to play board games! Marbles is a family favourite for sure. We have a homemade board from my husbands grandfather but Michaud Toys is a Canadian company that makes beautiful handmade boards and their game selection is AMAZING!!! We also love paw patrol pop up (Sorry), snakes and ladders, and recently Battleship has become a popular game. Board games also keep kids off the screen and having real interaction and conversation which now a days is a skill that a lot of kids are lacking. Don't believe me? Ask a teacher... oh wait I am one... Trust me! If you have a young kid who is just getting into board/card games, Candy land is a great one! It is easy to follow and good for kids 3 years and up.
8. Outdoor Activities - Getting outside and enjoying some fresh air can be really important to having fun over the break. Kids can build forts and really explore their imaginative play. You can also do so much outside the opportunities are endless. If you have an ODR (outdoor rink) near you, skating around or playing some pickup hockey can be a lot of fun and really help to pass the time. Also going for a hike or exploring walk can be a lot of fun. Checking out what different plants, animals, tracks are around can be a lot of fun and educational at the same time.
9. Play date - Whether you're having a kids friend over to play alone or with their mom/dad. This can be therapeutic for everyone. Kids can get board and having a friend over to play can add a whole new level of excitement, even if they toys and activities stay the same. If they have a parent come with them (one that is a good friend of yours) it can now become a therapeutic experience for both as you have the opportunity to indulge in some good conversation while the kids play.
10. Play, Sporting/Entertainment event - We have taken our sons to NHL games over the break as it is a good opportunity to get out of town and on either a nice long Vacation to Arizona or a mini getaway to Winnipeg. Also our boys love hockey and it is something we all look forward to every year. We have also gone to see Paw Patrol Live, which was a great experience as well. Any choice is great as long as it is of the interest of your child.
No matter what you decide to do make it fun and memorable as this is a week that you get your kids all to yourself. You get to make unforgettable memories and it doesn't have to break your bank while doing it either.
Keeping Family Memories
Have you ever had someone say to you "cherish these moments as they go fast"? I have... a lot! It's usually at the time when one or both of the boys are crying and the dog is howling because he does that any time one of the boys cries, and all I can think to myself is "this needs to STOP!". These are the memories I might miss the most as this is what makes us US.
I’m a big fan of pictures and keeping all the memories of the boys growing up. When we had our first son, family were always asking for updated photos of the new baby or what they had been up to. I love taking pictures and capturing all the moments of them growing up. However, sending everyone individual updates was getting exhausting and this was with just one kid! This is when my husband and I decided to try the app Tiny Beans. This app is AMAZING!!! I essentially explain this app as baby Instagram. You post pictures and videos onto the app. You get to pick and choose who is a member of the account and who can see and comment on pictures and videos. Its layout is great as it’s set up in a monthly calendar. My other favourite feature is the memories that pop up. Everyday it will have a memory pop up and you can look back at how little your littles used to be. I always get sucked into looking back at the memories and then swiping through all the other days around it and next thing you know an hour has gone by. This app is also great as it’s FREE! There’s a premium version of the app where you aren't limited to the length of videos that you can post (no longer than 30 seconds in the free version) but we just crop our videos or make multiple posts if needed.
Another way we keep out family memories is through Shutterfly. We order a family calendar yearly. I always have fun looking back at the pictures from the previous year while I’m making the calendar as well as everyday when I check the calendar to see what we’re having going on that day/week. I am also a fan of their photo books. I have used these to make baby books for the boys as it is extremely difficult and annoying to get pictures printed off in our town. I do however wait until the books are 50% off as they are expensive and seeing as I live in Canada, I never qualify for their free shipping :(. We have lots of family photos up around the house and if I’m making a Shutterfly order I will usually add prints to it as they are sometimes free when using the app.
I have made a photo memory book through iPhoto and it also turned out great. It was much cheaper than Shutterfly but I had to be on my computer to make it. It was our wedding album and turned out great! It came with a sleeve and looks very professional!
Whatever approach you take making and keeping memories is always a fun family activity. If you haven't found anything that works for you please feel free to try at least one of the above options.
**None of these are ADs and just links to things that we like to use as a family. **
June 1 - 5 COVID - 19 School Schedule
Our friends also just had their second baby boy so we wanted to do something nice for them. We decided that it would be helpful to take dinner over to them one night so they wouldn't have to worry about cooking. The boys and I slaved away in the kitchen for most of the day making homemade bread, breadsticks, pasta, sauce, and cookies to take over for dinner. It sure was a lot of fun to have the boys helping me cook in the kitchen that day and we all really enjoyed our dinner.
My sons class also did some fun Zoom classes this week. They had their sunflower check in to see how their seedlings are doing. They made english muffin pizzas and ate lunch together, and they did a dancing rain experiment (which was a huge hit with both boys!). Its been great having these Zoom calls and my oldest son is always so happy to see his teachers and classmates and my youngest loves the activities and helping his big brother if he can.
My youngest is really exploring his vocabulary and pronunciation of words! I love that we have this time together to teach and watch how much our boys are growing.
This week my son really wants to learn about snakes... I'm not as thrilled as I don't like snakes but maybe it will help with my disgust of the reptile.
Monday June 1:
Reading: Garter Snake facts: live in ALL places: Animal Fact Files, Garter Snakes (EPIC)
Writing: Form a sentence from given words about a snake (the snake slithers through the grass)
Craft: paper plate snakes
Math: Blowing Bubbles (Counting and chasing bubbles)
Tuesday June 2:
Reading: All about snakes for Kids, Who lives in the dessert? (EPIC)
Writing: S practice (S is for Snake)
Math: Basic math games online
STEM: water, oil, food colouring experiment
Wednesday June 3:
Reading: Facts about Snakes for Kids, It's a Boa Constrictor (EPIC)
Writing: Picture matching and writing
ZOOM MEETING
Math: Making patterns out of different household items or things found outside
Thursday June 4:
Reading: Wild Kratts Rattlesnakes, Rattlesnakes (EPIC)
Writing: Snakes are, live, eat, look
ZOOM BAKING CLASS
Math: drawing symmetry
Friday June 5:
Reading: 7 Fun facts about snakes for kids, Bull snakes (EPIC)
Writing: 1 fact about snakes and a drawing of your favourite snake
ZOOM LESSON
We still play lots of hockey downstairs when the weather is either too hot and we need to cool off or too cold and we want to play inside. My son also just got new road hockey goalie equipment and were slowly seeing a love for it. He still thinks his smaller equipment will work but it did;t even come up to his knees lol. Time to pass those onto his younger brother. Who knows, maybe we will have 2 young goalies and dad will be out numbered that way.
May 18 - 22 COVID - 19 School Schedule
Week 1 of space was a lot of fun. It was also an extremely busy week but with all of the space activities it kept us entertained. We are looking forward to Space week 2 when we can explore other planets and features of our solar system.
Our plants are really doing well for the most part. We have started to acclimatize them by giving them time outside during the day when the weather has warmed up enough. I used my husbands "meat" bins for when he butchers to carry them in and out of the house and it seems to work well. So far they are all doing well with the changes in temperature, and wind.
This weekend we are also planning on getting our gardens ready so that once the weather looks like it has officially warmed up for good then we can start to do our planting. We are also going to pick up a few plants that either didn't take when we planted their seeds, or I couldn't find seeds for. I am also hoping to pick up some other jalapeno pepper plants to see which ones we have more success with. We also love to add jalapeno peppers to a lot of our cooking (bagels, jalapeno popper chicken, etc) as well as just throwing a jalapeno on top of a freshly BBQ'd steak!
Space Week 2 Activities:
Monday: (No School) Victoria Day
Tuesday:
Reading: Neptune Facts video, Neptune "far, far away" (EPIC) & take the quiz
Writing: What did you do over the long weekend and draw a picture.
Craft: Name rockets (as we didn't get to it last week)
Math: Hopscotch counting
Wednesday:
Reading: Learning about the Moon and it's Phases video, Our Moon "Brightest object in night sky" (EPIC) & take the quiz
Writing: What is a fact about the moon and draw a picture.
Snack: Moon Snacks (rice cakes with peanut butter, sliced banana and cheerios)
Math: Online math practice
STEM: Moon Rock Experiment
Thursday:
Reading: Mars Facts video, Mars (EPIC) & take the quiz
Writing: Do you think there is life on Mar? Why or why not? draw a picture of what you would look like if you traveled to Mars.
Snack: Making Muffins with my sons class on Zoom
Math: Basic math practice or online math
STEM:
Friday:
Reading: Black Holes Explained for Kids video, Exploring Blackholes (EPIC) & take the quiz
Writing: which planet was your favourite to learn about and why?
Math: Counting activities with household toys or objects found outside.
STEM: Water and oil experiment (I've even seen a video where they add an alka seltzer tablet after adding the food colouing to see what happens)
Well space has been a lot of fun but now its time to head back to Earth and explore some of the beautiful creatures that we have...
May 4 - 8 COVID -19 School Schedule
Our plants project is really taking off and I'm thinking now that the weather is starting to get warmer I will move them out into the garage so I can put them out into the sun during the day and then back in the garage so they are warm over night. This will also help with their transition to being planted (I think).
We definitely have been doing a mix of the activities I have planned as well as the things his teacher sends every morning. I always start with our educational video. This gets him into the learning mode and allows me to see what his teacher sent out this morning as well as finish cleaning the kitchen from breakfast. Once the video is done we go onto EPIC and read our book that goes along with our video and then move onto one of our books for my son to read or a similar leveled book from EPIC that his teacher has assigned to him. From there we either move onto the writing activity I have planned or do what his teacher has sent or sometimes I even sneak in both activities. Its nice to have the extra work as this is stuff we can then pick away at throughout the day as the days can become long if we don't have structure and a plan.
Monday:
Reading: Dinosaurs for Kids video, FOSSILS and DINOSAURS (EPIC) & take quiz after
Writing: What is 1 fact you learnt about dinosaurs and fossils?
Yoga: Cosmic Kids Dinosaur Yoga
Math: Name 3 different dinosaurs and conduct a survey to see which one people like the most.
Tuesday:
Reading: Dinosaur Extinction Explained video, Figuring our fossils (EPIC) & take the quiz after
Writing: tell me something new that you learnt.
Craft: Dinosaur colouring pages
Math: Hopscotch/outdoor obstacle course
STEM: Mystery science
Wednesday:
Reading: Learn Dinosaur Facts: Tyrannosaurus Rex Video, National Geographic Kids Dinosaurs
(EPIC) & take the quiz after
Writing: Sight word read it, build it, write it
Math: Online math practice
Thursday:
Reading: Dinosaur facts video Video, Triceratops (EPIC) & take the quiz after
Writing: Sight word bingo & practice writing sight words
Math: Count and sort all the dinosaurs by size, colour, Herbivore, Omnivore, Carnivore.
Friday:
Reading: Dinosaur Facts BARYONYX video, Hadrosaurus (EPIC) & take the quiz after
Writing: What is your favourite dinosaur and write a fact about them.
Craft: Dino shaped snacks (Wafflesaurus)
STEM: Erupting Car Wash
Next week we’re going to BLAST off into Space because Dino week is going to be hard to beat so we might as well get outta this world!
April 27 - May 1 COVID - 19 School Schedule
Our plants are also doing really well! I am so excited to see how they continue to grow and will be so happy if they survive to planting time and can get into the garden.
Another proud success we had last week was the fact that my oldest son is getting really good at writing on the line. Who knew that this was a task to learn, but it is and we are starting to get it!!! My sister - in - law lives in Alberta and was talking to us about the Grizzly bears which is what lead to this lesson. We learnt some fun facts and had a good time retelling her about what he had learned that day.
Monday:
Reading Shark Facts video, Sand Tiger Sharks Book (EPIC) & take the quiz after
Writing: Write a fact about sharks that you learned today and draw a picture of the shark
Craft: Toilet paper roll Sharks
Math: Building patterns with blocks or other materials and work on making complex patterns
STEM: Floating Dry erase marker drawings
Tuesday:
Reading: Wild Kratts Sharks Video, Bull Sharks Book (EPIC) & take the quiz after
Writing: Sight word read it, build it, write it
Math: Hopscotch
STEM: Mystery science
Wednesday:
Reading: Sharks for Kids video, Blacktip Reef Shark Book (EPIC) & take the quiz after
Writing: Sight word bingo & writing name (full name)
Craft: Shark fin headband
Math: Basic math practice
STEM: Colour changing volcano
Thursday:
Reading: Great White vs Hammerhead Facts Video, Blue Shark Book (EPIC) & Quiz after
Writing: Write facts about a great white shark and draw a picture to go with it.
Math: Survey: Which shark is your favourite? (Choose 3 sharks and then survey family members)
STEM: Mystery Science
Friday:
Reading: All About Sharks for Children Video, Baby Shark, Nurse Shark Book (EPIC) & Quiz after
Writing: What is your favourite type of shark, why are they your favourite? Draw a picture of the
shark.
Food Snack: Shark grilled cheese
STEM: Mentos and coke experiment
Next week will be Dinosaur week as that is another favourite in out house right now! Stay tuned for next weeks fun dinosaur themed school activities :)
April 20 - 24 COVID - 19 School Schedule
Last week was another great week of home school. I will not say it was easy because lets face it, balancing work life and teaching your kids isn't an easy task. I can only imagine it becomes more difficult when you aren't a teacher or is it more difficult for me as I am setting unrealistic expectations on my children as I am a teacher? Who knows? I am getting great work from my sons teacher and am finding ways to distract and keep his younger brother busy during his learning time. It is still a difficult balance as they both need almost 1-1 attention during this hour and a bit of learning and I am essentially tied up during this time. I then find ways to keep them busy in the house, playing in the basement often works so that I can get caught up on any work that I might need to before we move on to another activity for them.
As the hockey academy teacher at our school I have really missed being on the ice and teaching hockey. We Have the Hockey Shot synthetic ice in our basement and have started a skating time every morning for both boys to also burn off a little steam. The weather as of late also hasn't been the best so using this time in the morning helps to get us through to the afternoon when we can then get outside for some fresh air.
If you're finding that your child is getting through their school work too fast from their teacher here are some ideas of things you can do with them or get them to do independently to continue to work on their basic literacy and numeracy skills. These will just be things to help keep them busy a little longer and also help to keep their literacy and numeracy skills sharp. Their teachers might also be using some of these platforms and the data will go directly back to them as well.
Literacy:
EPIC
Read Theory
Reading Eggs
Numeracy:
Prodigy
Khan Academy
Math aids (worksheets)
Our seedlings are all doing really well and we have had to transplant almost all of them into bigger containers so they have room for their roots to grow!
Monday April 20
Reading: We're going on a Bear Hunt (animated book), Black bears by Tammy Gange (EPIC),
Writing: Sight word bingo
Craft: Bear Headbands
Math: Laundry sort and count. Sort the laundry by colour, now sort the colours by big and small
pieces of laundry, now count the pieces in the piles.
STEM: Mystery Science
Tuesday April 21
Reading: Franklin Plants a tree, Maple Trees by Rebecca Stromstad Glaser (EPIC)
Writing: Sight word Read it, build it, write it
Craft: Draw a picture of the life cycle of a tree.
Math: Basic math practice either online or paper
STEM: Fireworks in a jar
Wednesday April 22 (Earth Day)
Reading: Betsy's Earth Day Adventure, Sid the Science kid: Earth Day Fun by Jennifer Frantz (EPIC)
Writing: Draw a picture of how you can help keep the earth safe and write what you're doing in your
picture.
Craft: Create something out of recycled material you can find around the house.
Math: sort and count the garbage that you picked up.
STEM: Pick up garbage around your neighbourhood
Thursday April 23
Reading: Recycling field trip , Recycling Earths Resources by Barbara Webb (EPIC)
Writing: Draw a picture of you recycling things at home. Label your picture so we know what is
being recycled.
Math: Creating patterns with blocks
STEM: Lemon Volcano
Friday April 24 (PA Day in ONTARIO)
Haven't heard yet what the expectations are for this day yet but will update once I know more.
As the hockey academy teacher at our school I have really missed being on the ice and teaching hockey. We Have the Hockey Shot synthetic ice in our basement and have started a skating time every morning for both boys to also burn off a little steam. The weather as of late also hasn't been the best so using this time in the morning helps to get us through to the afternoon when we can then get outside for some fresh air.
If you're finding that your child is getting through their school work too fast from their teacher here are some ideas of things you can do with them or get them to do independently to continue to work on their basic literacy and numeracy skills. These will just be things to help keep them busy a little longer and also help to keep their literacy and numeracy skills sharp. Their teachers might also be using some of these platforms and the data will go directly back to them as well.
EPIC
Read Theory
Reading Eggs
Numeracy:
Prodigy
Khan Academy
Math aids (worksheets)
Our seedlings are all doing really well and we have had to transplant almost all of them into bigger containers so they have room for their roots to grow!
Monday April 20
Reading: We're going on a Bear Hunt (animated book), Black bears by Tammy Gange (EPIC),
Writing: Sight word bingo
Craft: Bear Headbands
Math: Laundry sort and count. Sort the laundry by colour, now sort the colours by big and small
pieces of laundry, now count the pieces in the piles.
STEM: Mystery Science
Tuesday April 21
Reading: Franklin Plants a tree, Maple Trees by Rebecca Stromstad Glaser (EPIC)
Writing: Sight word Read it, build it, write it
Craft: Draw a picture of the life cycle of a tree.
Math: Basic math practice either online or paper
STEM: Fireworks in a jar
Wednesday April 22 (Earth Day)
Reading: Betsy's Earth Day Adventure, Sid the Science kid: Earth Day Fun by Jennifer Frantz (EPIC)
Writing: Draw a picture of how you can help keep the earth safe and write what you're doing in your
picture.
Craft: Create something out of recycled material you can find around the house.
Math: sort and count the garbage that you picked up.
STEM: Pick up garbage around your neighbourhood
Thursday April 23
Reading: Recycling field trip , Recycling Earths Resources by Barbara Webb (EPIC)
Writing: Draw a picture of you recycling things at home. Label your picture so we know what is
being recycled.
Math: Creating patterns with blocks
STEM: Lemon Volcano
Friday April 24 (PA Day in ONTARIO)
Haven't heard yet what the expectations are for this day yet but will update once I know more.
***None of these links are ads and just useful tools that I have used while homeschooling***
April 6 - 10 COVID - 19 School Schedule
So once again I have changed up our schedule. After being home and attempting home schooling for the past two weeks I now have a better idea of when the boys are focused and ready to learn and when they've lost interest and just want to play. I was trying to do learn, play, learn, play alternate throughout the day. However, by the time we got to the afternoon (after my youngest sons nap) there was little to no motivation from anyone! So we have tried a new schedule (I feel like by the time we find what works for us it will be over and time to get back into a school routine lol). I've also made the adjustments to the schedule to try and meet the needs/expectations of what the Ontario Government has come up with for their Grade. The MOE has decided the following hours and subjects will be focused on.
K-3: 5 hours a week and focusing on math and literacy
4-6: 5 hours a week and focusing on math, literacy, science and social studies
7-8: 10 hours a week and focusing on math, literacy, science and social studies (history/geography)
Even though science isn't a focus for kindergarten, my son loves looking at the science behind things as well as doing fun experiments. We will definitely keep adding those into our schedule. Your child's teacher should also be setting up their own online learning portal for parents and students to follow along and assign work through this. I will however keep posting what I plan on doing because as of right now teachers are still figuring out what this will look like. This isn't something that teachers are taught and every family is in a different situation (some have internet and devices available for kids, some have internet but no device and some have no internet but they have a device and others have no internet and no device...) and we all need to just have some patience during this time.
Another great reading resource is EPIC there are a lot of online books for kids to read and its free for a 30 day trial or free until June if your child's teacher gets them a sign up code:). When I downloaded the app onto my phone and used the code from my son's teacher is kept asking for a parent to sign up for the trial and then pay the monthly fee. However, when logging onto my computer it allows me to use the code and look through the books available.
Toy theatre is a website with educational games for kids. I've only browsed this website but have had other teachers promote it and say they like it.
Here is the week 3 Connected North Schedule. I hope you've been enjoying their sessions as much as we have!
SCHEDULE:
7:00 - 8:30 Breakfast, cartoons and get dressed for school (yes I make the boys and myself get ready
for school as it adds a little bit of normalcy in this not so normal circumstance)
8:30 - 10:00 School starts with reading for my oldest son (approximately 20 min), stop for circle time
for my youngest son (approximately 20 min) and then go into writing activities for my
oldest son (approximately 20 minutes). Finally we move onto some math (approximately
20 - 30 minutes) for my oldest son.
10:00 - 11:30 We snack, go outside or play downstairs (depending on the weather)
11:30 - 12:00 Lunch
12:00 - 1:30 Nap time for my youngest and TV time or a board game for my oldest
1:30 - 2:00 Science experiment if we have one for the day. If not we just go right into our craft
2:00 - 3:00 Craft & playing inside or outside
3:00 Snack
3:00 - 5:00 Playing inside or outside
5:00 - 5:30 Dinner
5:30 - 6:00 Bath
6:00 - 7:00 Playtime and snacks
7:00 Bedtime for my youngest
7:30 Bedtime for my oldest
Our seeds have been doing really well. Within the first week we have had a lot of lettuce, kale and tomato plants sprout up. I have also had my windowsill parsley, basil and chive start to sprout up too! These plants are really starting to take off and my husband is starting to get worried we will have a full blown garden in the basement before the weather is even nice enough to plant outside.
The next two weeks are also 4 school day weeks and I will treat them as this as my son will enjoy participating in some Easter fun over the 4 day weekend coming up :)
Monday:
Reading: Scholastic Day 11
Writing: Sight word (Read it, build it, write it) & sight word bingo
Craft: Mosaic Easter eggs
Math: building patters either on paper with different shapes/colours or with blocks
STEM: Mystery Science (Let my son pick out a lesson to do)
Connected North: Yoga at 12:30
Tuesday:
Reading: Scholastic Day 12
Writing: Alphabet letters lowercase
Craft: Painting Easter eggs
Math: creating patterns on paper
STEM: Magic Milk Experiment
Connected North: Bats at 10:00
Wednesday:
Reading: Scholastic Day 13
Writing: Alphabet letters lowercase
Craft: tissue paper Easter Eggs
Math: Basic math skills (addition and subtraction)
STEM: Mystery Science (let my son pick a lesson to do)
Connected North: All about Polar Bears at 12:30
Thursday:
Reading: Scholastic Day 14
Writing: Sight word (Read it, build it, write it) & sight word bingo
Craft: Egg carton flowers
Math: Basic math skills (addition and subtraction)
STEM: Skittles experiment
Connected North: Rabbits at 10:00; Drawing a cartoon seal at 11:00; Be your own superhero at 2:15
Friday: Good Friday (technically no school)
Scholastic has planned a ready activity for this day if you wish to teach
Hopefully you all are finding these posts helpful as I know it can be stressful trying to balance work, home school and just regular family life. Just remember that this too will end and when it does we will all be sad that our time at home with our families has come to an end.
K-3: 5 hours a week and focusing on math and literacy
4-6: 5 hours a week and focusing on math, literacy, science and social studies
7-8: 10 hours a week and focusing on math, literacy, science and social studies (history/geography)
Even though science isn't a focus for kindergarten, my son loves looking at the science behind things as well as doing fun experiments. We will definitely keep adding those into our schedule. Your child's teacher should also be setting up their own online learning portal for parents and students to follow along and assign work through this. I will however keep posting what I plan on doing because as of right now teachers are still figuring out what this will look like. This isn't something that teachers are taught and every family is in a different situation (some have internet and devices available for kids, some have internet but no device and some have no internet but they have a device and others have no internet and no device...) and we all need to just have some patience during this time.
Another great reading resource is EPIC there are a lot of online books for kids to read and its free for a 30 day trial or free until June if your child's teacher gets them a sign up code:). When I downloaded the app onto my phone and used the code from my son's teacher is kept asking for a parent to sign up for the trial and then pay the monthly fee. However, when logging onto my computer it allows me to use the code and look through the books available.
Toy theatre is a website with educational games for kids. I've only browsed this website but have had other teachers promote it and say they like it.
Here is the week 3 Connected North Schedule. I hope you've been enjoying their sessions as much as we have!
SCHEDULE:
7:00 - 8:30 Breakfast, cartoons and get dressed for school (yes I make the boys and myself get ready
for school as it adds a little bit of normalcy in this not so normal circumstance)
8:30 - 10:00 School starts with reading for my oldest son (approximately 20 min), stop for circle time
for my youngest son (approximately 20 min) and then go into writing activities for my
oldest son (approximately 20 minutes). Finally we move onto some math (approximately
20 - 30 minutes) for my oldest son.
10:00 - 11:30 We snack, go outside or play downstairs (depending on the weather)
11:30 - 12:00 Lunch
12:00 - 1:30 Nap time for my youngest and TV time or a board game for my oldest
1:30 - 2:00 Science experiment if we have one for the day. If not we just go right into our craft
2:00 - 3:00 Craft & playing inside or outside
3:00 Snack
3:00 - 5:00 Playing inside or outside
5:00 - 5:30 Dinner
5:30 - 6:00 Bath
6:00 - 7:00 Playtime and snacks
7:00 Bedtime for my youngest
7:30 Bedtime for my oldest
Our seeds have been doing really well. Within the first week we have had a lot of lettuce, kale and tomato plants sprout up. I have also had my windowsill parsley, basil and chive start to sprout up too! These plants are really starting to take off and my husband is starting to get worried we will have a full blown garden in the basement before the weather is even nice enough to plant outside.
The next two weeks are also 4 school day weeks and I will treat them as this as my son will enjoy participating in some Easter fun over the 4 day weekend coming up :)
Monday:
Reading: Scholastic Day 11
Writing: Sight word (Read it, build it, write it) & sight word bingo
Craft: Mosaic Easter eggs
Math: building patters either on paper with different shapes/colours or with blocks
STEM: Mystery Science (Let my son pick out a lesson to do)
Connected North: Yoga at 12:30
Tuesday:
Reading: Scholastic Day 12
Writing: Alphabet letters lowercase
Craft: Painting Easter eggs
Math: creating patterns on paper
STEM: Magic Milk Experiment
Connected North: Bats at 10:00
Wednesday:
Reading: Scholastic Day 13
Writing: Alphabet letters lowercase
Craft: tissue paper Easter Eggs
Math: Basic math skills (addition and subtraction)
STEM: Mystery Science (let my son pick a lesson to do)
Connected North: All about Polar Bears at 12:30
Thursday:
Reading: Scholastic Day 14
Writing: Sight word (Read it, build it, write it) & sight word bingo
Craft: Egg carton flowers
Math: Basic math skills (addition and subtraction)
STEM: Skittles experiment
Connected North: Rabbits at 10:00; Drawing a cartoon seal at 11:00; Be your own superhero at 2:15
Friday: Good Friday (technically no school)
Scholastic has planned a ready activity for this day if you wish to teach
Hopefully you all are finding these posts helpful as I know it can be stressful trying to balance work, home school and just regular family life. Just remember that this too will end and when it does we will all be sad that our time at home with our families has come to an end.
Keeping kids busy over the COVID - 19 break March 30 - April 3
Last week was a lot of fun and a big adjustment for everyone. The boys are use to going to school and love spending time with their friends and teachers. They have both been enjoying their time at home but definitely are missing their friends and caregivers. We have participated in a couple of Connected North Sessions and have really loved having the opportunity to visit and explore different experiences without having to leave the house.
Last week I made a slight adjustment to the schedule as I started school during our outside time and then we would go outside during our learning time. The boys were both ready to learn first thing in the morning and it was nice to wait for the weather to warm up a bit before heading outside. See below schedule with adjustments.
SCHOOL SCHEDULE:
7:00 - 8:00 Breakfast and Cartoons
8:00 - 9:00 Playtime / small snack (my boys would eat all day if they were allowed to)
9:00 - 10:00 Academic time (Reading and Writing)
10:00 - 11:00 Outside play
11:00 - 11:30 Hand washing & Playtime before lunch
11:30 - 12:00 Lunch
12:00 - 1:30 Nap time for my youngest & Quiet games / activities for my oldest
1:30 - 2:30 Outside time & Snack time
2:30 - 3:30 Academic time (Numeracy and STEM)
3:30 - 5:00 Play time
5:00 - 5:30 Dinner
5:30 - 6:00 Bath
6:00 - 7:00 Snacks and before bed play
7:00 bedtime for my youngest
7:30 bedtime for my oldest
**Depending on the different zoo visits or connected north sessions I will adjust the schedule so we can have the most fun while also taking part in the educational sessions that interest the boys**
Find the link to Week 2 Connected North here
Mystery Science is another great resources that has plans for and resources online. It's organized by grade as well as full length and mini length lessons.
The KPDSB also sent out a list of online resources to help families with learning during this difficult time. They've also shown which resources will work best for each grade.
Another adjustment I made was on Tuesday we learnt about plants with Scholastic and that got us talking about gardening. We usually grow a lot of our own vegetables and some fruit in the backyard. Our boys like to help take care of the gardens and love the rewards of eating what they've grown. Well that got my husband and I talking and wondering if the Greenhouses would be opening this year with all of the other COVID - 19 closures. We decided that it would be fun to try and grow our own vegetables from seeds. We are home for an unknown amount of time, and this will give the boys an extra sense of pride when it comes to the garden. So, I went out to our local Home Hardware store and got what we needed to start growing our own vegetables. We had a couple of empty egg cartons and then will transfer to larger containers when needed. We get a lot of sunlight at the front of the house and will use our basement windowsills to house the plants as they will not survive if we leave them in arms reach of our youngest. I will keep you all posted on how this experiment goes :)
With my youngest I did "circle" time (usually just the two of us but occasionally my oldest would join). I would play nursery rhymes or other kids songs (baby shark is a hit with him). I would use the apple TV to mirror the videos and we would sing and dance along to them. Any neighbours walking by know know why we looked so silly. The MOE YouTube also has great videos under their language section that we have used for "circle" time.
To start our day usually between 8:30 and 9:00 I would get both boys to sit (I use the term sit very loosely as my youngest would go between playing and watching) and watch the video and listen to the story from Scholastic. Then my youngest would continue to play while my oldest and I would do the puzzle (quiz) to see what he learnt. He loves showing how much he knows. I would then get him to pick one of his leveled books and he would read it to me. Then the boys pick out a book that they both want me to read to them. Next my oldest gets to go and play as a reward for working so hard (this does not take an hour but your child is never getting 1 - 1 attention for an hour and they need rewards for working hard). He usually chooses to go into his room and play with the little toys he hides in there from his brother. This is when I would do circle time with my youngest. This would usually last between 15 - 20 minutes. Once circle time was over I get my oldest son to come back out as it is time to work on what ever writing activity we are doing that day. I know at school they usually practice writing their names. We start with that and then add on different words based on whatever theme we've decided to do that day or week. While my oldest is working on his writing or word recognition I try to distract my youngest with a craft, toys or colouring... this is not an easy task and he just wants to destroy any papers his brother is working with. Once we are done our writing we either all finish the craft or go outside. The boys love to be outdoors and this is a huge reward for all of the hard work they have just done.
Once we come inside it is usually time to get lunch ready. The boys play or whine at my legs telling me how hungry they are while I try to jump around them and make lunch ...
We all eat lunch together as a family and then my youngest goes for his nap. Now that my husband is working from home I take nap time as a time for me to get some exercise. I try to get outdoors if I can to get out with the dog for a walk or a run. This is my quiet time and a good time to get the dog some exercise.
Once I'm home I finish cleaning up the kitchen from lunch as my husband and oldest son are usually playing a board game. Once my youngest is up from his nap he is usually begging to go outside. We get dressed and head out for another backyard or neighbourhood adventure while keeping social distancing from neighbours in mind.
Once we come inside we have a quick snack and work on some numeracy and STEM activities. Next it is time to play or put on a movie so I can get dinner made.
Some days we would get all activities done and other days we wouldn't. Some days we would get side tracked by other learning opportunities or somethings didn't seem to be working so we would move on to something else. It is important to not force your kids to do an activity as they wont really take anything away from it, other than the fact that it is done. Find things that interest them as that will make the learning authentic and enjoyable for everyone.
Another thing we have had to do is order a printer. I know I will be wanting to print off resources for the boys and getting a printer was very important for that.
My sister in law recently got my oldest son a subscription to The Little Passport. He gets a monthly package that has a work booklet for him to work through (different games, colouring, etc.), stickers to add to his world map and there is always one big activity to do as well. It is a great educational resource and lets face it, what kid doesn't love getting something in the mail!
Monday:
Reading: Scholastic Day 6
Writing: Have kids draw a picture and write a story about what was their favourite thing we did last week.
Craft: Make Play dough
Connected North - Tombo Trail - Toledo Zoo at 11:00
Numeracy: Basic math skills (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) with sidewalk chalk outside (Side note: we will just be doing addition as my son is in JK)
STEM: COVID - 19 Germ experiment for kids (I'm really excited for this as I know my son had a GERM presentation at school before the school closure and he was really excited about it)
Tuesday:
Reading: Scholastic Day 7
Writing: Play dough letter mats
Craft/Snack: Teddy bear toast (toast with Nutella or peanut butter, banana slices for ears and nose, blueberries or chocolate chips for eyes and nose)
Connected North - Beaks, Bubbles and Burrows - Alaska at 11:30
Numeracy & STEM: Using LEGO Build a bridge for either plastic animals to cross or toy cars. You can get creative and map out a river for them to cross. Have kids count how many blocks they needed to create their bridge.
Wednesday:
Reading: Scholastic Day 8
Writing: writing name & letter puzzles
Craft/Snack: Blindfolded taste test (have various foods for kids to smell, feel and taste and see if they can guess what they are. Have a variety of different flavours, sweet, sour, savory. We avoid spicy as our kids are still pretty young)
Numeracy: Basic Math Practice
STEM: Disappearing eggshell Experiment
Mom's Birthday Dinner :) (I've heard some rumors about breakfast in bed... here's hoping I get to sleep in a little and eat in bed)
Thursday:
Reading: Scholastic Day 9
Writing: Writing name & Shark writing activity
Craft: Hand print butterflies & egg carton Bees
Connected North: Shark Babies at 10:30 and Bees and Butterflies at 11:00
Numeracy: Online math games
STEM: Mystery Science Can Animals Laugh mini lesson.
Friday:
Reading: Scholastic Day 10
Writing: Writing name & Letter puzzles
Craft: French Painting
Connected North: Home Science at 10:00 and Sea Turtles at 11:30
Numeracy: Balloon Drop (See how many times you can keep a balloon up in the air. This can be done as a group or challenge your siblings to see who can keep the balloon in the air with the most hits)
STEM: Build a LEGO car and see if you can get it to move by balloon power.
Keeping kids busy over the COVID - 19 Break March 23 - 27
In this post I will mention some more online resources that I have found and will likely use at some point. I will also post in further detail what kinds of activities we will be doing this week. And will have a weekly COVID-19 post of our tentative schedule for as many weeks as we are home schooling while social distancing/isolating. We need to be diligent during this time to limit our interactions outside of our houses but also need to have fun to take away the stress from our children. Our kids still need to be kids, have fun and learning while doing so!
Cincinnati Zoo virtual tour/ animal feature daily. Find their Facebook page and you can be connected to the daily animal feature. I believe they also have a YouTube channel where you can watch the animal experiences as well. What a great offering and experience for kids especially during this time of social distancing and isolation.
Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg also has creature features that will happen from 1:00-1:30 Central time on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the next two weeks. Just another great learning opportunity for our kids during this difficult time. You can find these features on their Facebook page.
Another google doc with lists of different sites to use to help keep kids busy.
Dream box is an online math website for K-12 and is offering a free 90 day trial.
Connected North has created an online schedule for virtual field trips that can be done at home! Check them out as they are very informative and fun for the kids.
MOE has also launched its online learning resource for families of kids K-12.
This is also another Kids Activity Blog that has posted links to different websites that have offered free subscriptions during this break.
Once you’ve gone on a virtual field trip you can connect in some other learning activities and link it all together. For example, if you visit the zoo tour you can create a craft and have some type of reading and writing activity to go along with it. The zoo posts the day before what animal they will feature so it give you a little time to find some activities to link to it. The Connected North field trips have sent out their weekly schedule, which also allows you to pre plan and find some activities to go along with the field trips.
In my first post about Things to do with Kids over the COVID-19 Break I posted my schedule that I will follow. Below I will post what we will be doing. Remember I am posting for kindergarten and a 1.5 year old but these ideas can be altered for all age groups.
Monday:
Reading: Scholastics day 1: animal studies - Rabbits (reading level A book)
Writing: practicing our name and work on spelling rabbit and then colouring a picture of a rabbit (goes along with our reading activities)
Craft: rabbit craft
Watch Connected North on Arctic Animals at 10:15
Math: sorting and counting blocks
STEM: building blocks
Tuesday:
Reading: Scholastic Day 2: living things - plants (reading level A book)
Writing: writing our name, creating letters with play dough
Craft: dinosaur craft
Connected North: dinosaurs at 1:45
Math: math number practice
STEM: create a racetrack and race cars
Zumba: 6:00
Wednesday:
Reading: Day 3: Life cycles - animal babies (reading level A book)
Writing: writing name and letters practice on paper
Craft: Rainbow craft
Math: Rainbow dice game
STEM: Roll a rainbow activity
Zumba: 6:00
Thursday:
Reading: Day 4 Scholastic- Earth and Space - the moon (reading level A book)
Writing: writing name and play dough letters
Craft: rocket ship craft (possibly made out of toilet paper rolls, if you’re lucky enough to have a spare roll lying around)
Math: MOE/TVO kids math games
STEM: making animals out of clay
Family Movie Night: we will pop popcorn, have treats and either watch a movie off Netflix, Disney+ or rent one off our Apple TV.
Friday:
Reading: Day 5 Scholastic - seasons- spring
Writing: writing name, letters practice worksheets
Connected North: Kaboomistry at 10:00
Connected North: Dinosaurs at 2:30
Math: dream box math online games or TVOkids games
STEM: exploding rainbow experiment
Cooking: Pizza
Pizza night!!! Check out my post on the best pizza dough recipe!
Obviously if things aren’t working or it’s seeming too stressful for your child. Stop and take a break and play. Don’t force learning but encourage a little bit of work followed by some fun play. Also try to plan things that they’ll find fun and interesting as that will help to keep them engaged in their learning.
We also have a family in our town who decorated their door for Easter and has encouraged others to do so. This will allow people to walk and look at doors or drive around and look at all the beautiful doors in our town. We will be adding in some more Easter Crafts and decorations so we can decorate our door as well.
Things to do with Kids over the COVID - 19 Break
Structure is extremely important as kids run on an extremely structured day when at school and will start to act up because of the unknown of what the day will bring. We were supposed to go to Arizona for our March Break but with COVID - 19 we cancelled our trip and are spending the next three weeks at home... in the not so nice weather. In the summer it is easy to fill your days with outside activities but when the weather isn't that nice outside, what do you do? Here are some ideas of ways to keep kids busy and learning for the next couple of weeks ahead. Don't get me wrong March Break is important for everyone and that is what we will do for the first week. However, by the end of the week we will all be ready for some structure and below is the plan that we have.
SCHEDULE: (I have taken my oldest son's classroom schedule and combined it with my youngest son's daycare schedule as I will be home with them and we need to be able to work together)
7:00 - 8:00 Breakfast and Cartoons (mom gets to hopefully enjoy some warm coffee before starting
her day and cleaning the kitchen)
8:00 - 9:00 Playtime
9:00 - 10:00 Snack and Outside time (Small snack which could also be outside if the weather is nice
enough)
10:00 - 11:30 Academic Time (Reading and Writing)
11:30 - 12:00 Lunch Time
12:00 - 1:30 Nap time for my youngest son, Puzzles, Painting, Books, board games or a movie for
my oldest son
1:30 - 2:30 Academic Time (Numeracy and STEM activities)
2:30 - 3:00 Snack Time (Possibly in the stroller while Mom gets a run in for her and the dog if the
weather is nice enough)
3:00 - 4:00 Outside time
4:00 - 5:00 Playtime while I cook Dinner
5:00 - 6:00 Dinner and Bath time
6:00 - 7:00 Playtime and bed night snacks
7:00 Brush teeth and youngest goes to bed
7:30 Oldest goes to bed
ALL SUBJECT RESOURCE LISTS:
Free online learning is a quick link to other free online resources for parents to use at home to help keep children learning and having fun.
Educational website list of companies offering free subscriptions due to the COVID-19 school closures. These are websites that usually have subscription cost but due to all of the school closures they have waived their subscription costs so students can continue to learn at home!
READING AND WRITING IDEAS:
Scholastics has organized different learning activities for different days and into nice themed based days. Follow the link and then click on the age/grade your child is in. It is really well organized and you can definitely add these books/videos into the reading and writing block and part/most of the block will be done. You could also go onto Pintrest and find different crafts to go along with the different theme of the day and have that as a next step to the activities.
MOE has also created an online learning bank for parents and students and you can go there to get grade based learning activities as well.
My son loves to be creative and make things. This usually causes me extra stress as I hate messes and it usually gets messy. But during the extra time off I will have to let that go as he always talks about what he created at school and this break will be long for all of us if we aren't having fun. My husband and I went to Walmart yesterday (yes we were feeling brave!) and picked up some groceries (what was left on the shelves) and some new things to give to the boys to help make this time at home a little more exciting as we were supposed to be in the warm sun of Arizona and swimming in the pool all week. We found this great crayola painting kit, my son already loves it as there are 3 different types of paints, different brushes as well as some shaped sponges. He has really loved the painting and I was sold on the fact that it said washable! This is an activity that we can do during nap/quiet time or during our Reading and writing time as we can link it to stories that we have read or working on our letters.
NUMERACY AND STEM:
We have also tried a STEM activity with some white flowers and coloured water. We have done this experiment before but we did it with regular food colouring. This time we tried it with the Gel Food colouring and it worked so much better! We even took two flowers out of the blue water and added them to some purple water to see what that would do. It was really cool and got us talking about the science involved.
SPOILER ALERT: After two days in the purple die nothing has changed... We really like this experiment and might try it again when we can split the stem to see if we can get a multicoloured flower.
The walking water rainbow experiment and Fireworks in a jar are also great ones to try! CHIRP Magazines have lots of fun experiments and activities to do with kids that could help entertain kids during this difficult time.
Virtual tours this is a link to a google doc that will take you on various virtual tours of zoos, museums and landmarks. What a great educational experience that can spark some excellent conversations! This can also be linked into a literacy time and get students to write/draw about something new they learnt.
Some of the links listed above in the ALL subjects area have some great math resources. My son really loves math so before I left work on Friday I printed off some great number recognition worksheets and basic math. The listed websites above definitely have some links to more advanced math (as that is my specialty) and I will continue to see what I can find for Kindergarten as this is a new realm for me.
OUTSIDE:
Obviously if the weather is not nice enough or too cold then this time will have to happen inside or be cut short. This will turn in to high intensity play time (getting the heart rate up as children also wont have gym and will need that time to burn some extra energy). Some examples of things you can do are Just Dance (YouTube has videos you can follow if you don't have a gaming console like we don't), Kids yoga, floor hockey (We have a pretty awesome floor hockey set up with HockeyShot skating tiles for the kids to even skate on when they want), racing cars or even racing each other around the house. We have even created obstacle courses in the basement for the boys to go through and time them to see if they can beat their old time. Anything to get their heart rate up and burn some of that pent up energy from being inside will be helpful when it comes time to sit and focus on their studies.
If the weather is nice enough to get outside then this time will be key for making everyone feel better. Simple things like playing in the yard with trucks, on the swing set, snowshoeing in the backyard, building a fort/snowman, playing with chalk on the road, road hockey, and much more! These are just a few examples of what we can do in our outside time to keep things fun and fresh for the next two weeks following the March Break. Also switching activities daily or after a couple of days will help to keep things fun and exciting outside.
**None of these links are ads and just links to items I like and used**
10 Things to do with Kids over the March Break
March Break is coming up and let's face it, parents are often left wondering what to do with theirs kids for the week? If they're not in childcare and home with you for the week, it often starts off exciting but by the time lunch rolls around they're bored and wondering what you will do? And this is usually the first day. Being planned and prepared with activities can help make this week fun and enjoyable for everyone!
We usually travel to Arizona to get away from the cold or travel to the city (Winnipeg) for a mini getaway for our March Break. Either way we always make sure to have activities planned to help keep the boys busy and entertained. It makes for a more enjoyable Break for them and us as no one is complaining about being bored. One of our main focus as parents is to eliminate screen time. That means TV time and computer/device time. This is time for us to spend as a family bonding together and if we all have our faces in our devices then we loose out on quality family conversations.
1. Travel - whether you're going an hour away for a quick getaway or far away on a tropical vacation. Travelling can be fun and exciting! Having some sort of get away gives the kids something to look forward to. It can also take up 1 or 2 days of the March Break and mean that there are less days to plan for at home. If your trip is a week long, you still might have to have ideas of things to do while on vacation as sitting around by the pool doesn't really last a week with kids. This is where some of the other activities listed below might come in handy. These can be done either at home over the break or while on your vacation.
2. Movie - If you have a movie theater in your community then taking your kids out to the movies can be a fun and exciting experience. If you don't have a movie theater (like we don't) then renting a movie, popping popcorn and making your own home theater experience can be just as fun! We do this often with our oldest boy and are looking forward to his brother joining now that he is old enough to sit and enjoy a movie. We like to make it an experience by putting down the blinds to help make the room dark like a theater. Offer lots of snack options and have a juice box to go with it. Also letting them have some say in the movie selection helps to make the experience fun!
3. Bake/cook - look up fun recipes to try and have fun making them with your kids. We love to make cookies, pasta, pizza, and cakes. My oldest loves to help decorate the cakes as well. His kindergarten class does a lot of cooking and baking so he is getting really good at measuring and mixing. This is a fun activity to do and also has a great rewarding end result as you all get to enjoy the hard work you've just put into making your items.
4. Indoor and/or Outdoor Playground - If the weather is nice enough outside then hitting an outdoor playground is nice as we've just spent a lot of time cooped up indoors due to the cold weather. If the option is there to go to an indoor playground that is also a great option as they usually offer lots of different activities (Climbing, sliding, trampoline park and more) and are fun for the whole family.
5. Crafts - My boys like to create things. I usually will check the internet for different craft ideas or look through my sons CHIRP magazine to see what crafts they make in there. (Side note: my son LOVES his Chirp magazines. He loves the stories, facts, crafts, snacks and science experiments that they show in there. He also loves to get mail and this is a fun piece of mail that comes for him).
6. Fun Science Experiments - My oldest son loves to do and watch science experiments. I really like this blog I Can Teach My Child as it offers different activities based on age. I have done some of the experiments off her page with my kids at home as well as the kids at school. (Did I mention I am a teacher? I am an elementary school teacher! I teach Hockey Academy to grades 4 - 8, as well as Grade 1/2 Science & Gym). CHIRP magazines also offer a science experiment to do every issue as well! You can also follow me on Pinterest mcmastk for more fun science ideas for kids. Look under TN Science for lots of fun activities.
7. Board Games - My kids love to play board games! Marbles is a family favourite for sure. We have a homemade board from my husbands grandfather but Michaud Toys is a Canadian company that makes beautiful handmade boards and their game selection is AMAZING!!! We also love paw patrol pop up (Sorry), snakes and ladders, and recently Battleship has become a popular game. Board games also keep kids off the screen and having real interaction and conversation which now a days is a skill that a lot of kids are lacking. Don't believe me? Ask a teacher... oh wait I am one... Trust me! If you have a young kid who is just getting into board/card games, Candy land is a great one! It is easy to follow and good for kids 3 years and up.
8. Outdoor Activities - Getting outside and enjoying some fresh air can be really important to having fun over the break. Kids can build forts and really explore their imaginative play. You can also do so much outside the opportunities are endless. If you have an ODR (outdoor rink) near you, skating around or playing some pickup hockey can be a lot of fun and really help to pass the time. Also going for a hike or exploring walk can be a lot of fun. Checking out what different plants, animals, tracks are around can be a lot of fun and educational at the same time.
9. Play date - Whether you're having a kids friend over to play alone or with their mom/dad. This can be therapeutic for everyone. Kids can get board and having a friend over to play can add a whole new level of excitement, even if they toys and activities stay the same. If they have a parent come with them (one that is a good friend of yours) it can now become a therapeutic experience for both as you have the opportunity to indulge in some good conversation while the kids play.
10. Play, Sporting/Entertainment event - We have taken our sons to NHL games over the break as it is a good opportunity to get out of town and on either a nice long Vacation to Arizona or a mini getaway to Winnipeg. Also our boys love hockey and it is something we all look forward to every year. We have also gone to see Paw Patrol Live, which was a great experience as well. Any choice is great as long as it is of the interest of your child.
No matter what you decide to do make it fun and memorable as this is a week that you get your kids all to yourself. You get to make unforgettable memories and it doesn't have to break your bank while doing it either.
**None of these links are ads and just links to items I like and used**
Keeping Family Memories
Have you ever had someone say to you "cherish these moments as they go fast"? I have... a lot! It's usually at the time when one or both of the boys are crying and the dog is howling because he does that any time one of the boys cries, and all I can think to myself is "this needs to STOP!". These are the memories I might miss the most as this is what makes us US.
I’m a big fan of pictures and keeping all the memories of the boys growing up. When we had our first son, family were always asking for updated photos of the new baby or what they had been up to. I love taking pictures and capturing all the moments of them growing up. However, sending everyone individual updates was getting exhausting and this was with just one kid! This is when my husband and I decided to try the app Tiny Beans. This app is AMAZING!!! I essentially explain this app as baby Instagram. You post pictures and videos onto the app. You get to pick and choose who is a member of the account and who can see and comment on pictures and videos. Its layout is great as it’s set up in a monthly calendar. My other favourite feature is the memories that pop up. Everyday it will have a memory pop up and you can look back at how little your littles used to be. I always get sucked into looking back at the memories and then swiping through all the other days around it and next thing you know an hour has gone by. This app is also great as it’s FREE! There’s a premium version of the app where you aren't limited to the length of videos that you can post (no longer than 30 seconds in the free version) but we just crop our videos or make multiple posts if needed.
Another way we keep out family memories is through Shutterfly. We order a family calendar yearly. I always have fun looking back at the pictures from the previous year while I’m making the calendar as well as everyday when I check the calendar to see what we’re having going on that day/week. I am also a fan of their photo books. I have used these to make baby books for the boys as it is extremely difficult and annoying to get pictures printed off in our town. I do however wait until the books are 50% off as they are expensive and seeing as I live in Canada, I never qualify for their free shipping :(. We have lots of family photos up around the house and if I’m making a Shutterfly order I will usually add prints to it as they are sometimes free when using the app.
I have made a photo memory book through iPhoto and it also turned out great. It was much cheaper than Shutterfly but I had to be on my computer to make it. It was our wedding album and turned out great! It came with a sleeve and looks very professional!
Whatever approach you take making and keeping memories is always a fun family activity. If you haven't found anything that works for you please feel free to try at least one of the above options.
**None of these are ADs and just links to things that we like to use as a family. **
I am attracted by the presentation of this article. This information about Download education video for kids online is really good. I really appreciate your work. It is a gainful article for us. Keep posting. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThanks for providing us all with valuable information. I enjoy your article, and everyone you communicate with us is fully up to speed and therefore quite enlightening; I'd also want to read later the blog because I can come here and read you again, since you've done an excellent job.
ReplyDeleteUndine Match the Pic
Tennis Guys
Age Wars Idle
Fun Balloon Pop