A Day of Winter Indoor ActivitiesWritten by Laura Bankston
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The homemade hot chocolate creates camaraderie and is just downright enjoyable on a cold day! Here's where we'll select our beverage recipe: http://www.kidsrecipeclub.com . Some Energy burning - yes, I realize that hot chocolate has sugar that's going to escalate things :-), so we'll immeadiately do something very taxing! We'll start with some jumping jacks. The kids love them and that helps with coordination too. Then we'll do a "bear hunt" and walk around house doing movements for marching, swimming, climbing - hey, we'll probably go up and down stairs a few times too. That'll give me a nice workout! And then, to cool down, we'll play a little tug of war with our puppy. Some quite time - after our physical activity, we'll all sit down on sofa and I'll read to them. Right now, we are reading two books. And, one I'm pretty sure they'll want to hear today is some more of "Where Red Fern Grows". I'm just dreading getting to end!!! Some cooperative working together - it'll be getting close to dinner time by now. So, as a family, we'll set table and get everything ready to enjoy our heart-warming stew! So, whether you follow or plan or create your own, winter indoor acitivies can be fun and educational without emptying your wallet or leaving you exhausted. Plan your own "shut-in" day.
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| | Teaching Preschool Color and Shapes with Family GamesWritten by Laura Bankston
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I flipped over first card and asked Maegan to go first. "Do you have a yellow card to put down?" "Yep," she answered and put down a yellow card on top of pile. Round and round we went, with Maegan putting down correct color on her turn all by herself. Then finally a turn came that she didn't have right color. "Do you have a card," I asked, pointing to large symbol in middle of card, "that has a circle like this one?" While I still had my finger next to symbol, she went through each card, one a time. She carefully checked to see if she had a "match" - and when she found one, she put it down on top of pile. The game was a great success--especially since she won first round! "That's one point for team 'My Little Pony' (as she had named her team)," I congratulated her. She beamed with pride. She had won and she had done it all by herself. As I sat there admiring her accomplishment, I realized how easy it is to miss opportunities like this that are educational in nature. This game taught her taking turns, sorting, colors, and shapes. It's always a great asset as a home school parent to have one more way to help our kids learn and practice what they've been learning. So, "Uno away"!!
Laura Bankston is author of Internationally selling Cooking with Kids Curriculum: Homeschool Cooking in a Box and the Homeschool Cookbook. She currently home schools her three children, maintains home school support websites, and manages their family-owned service business. For information on her curriculum and free home school support services, please visit her website http://www.homeschoolcookbook.com
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