Summer Learning

Since we're stuck at home a lot these days (thanks, Evie), I felt obligated to come up with a few things for the kids to do to pass the time. First, we started activity jars. One jar is for Elina and Eli together; the other is just for Elina. Each jar has strips of paper that have random activities written on them. This helps me if I happen to have 20-30 minutes free while Evie is asleep and I can't come up with anything fun to do. I wrote down lots of activities I've been wanting to do with the kids and activities that I've seen in different parenting magazines. I also asked Elina what things she'd like to do and we threw those ideas in her jar as well. One of the highlights for Elina was just decorating the jar. Funny, right?

So far the kids have done quite a few fun things, especially if J is around.

1. They got to throw water balloons, which didn't work out the way we had planned. For some reason the balloons didn't break open as easily as we had imagined, so the kids just ended up tossing them into the grass to break. The weird thing is they loved just doing that.

2. Elina got to act out any story of her choosing. She ended up choosing Swimmy by Leo Lionni. She and J came up with quite a production. I was impressed that J went along with every single idea that Elina had. That is something that only an aunt or babysitter would do. But I must say, it was a cute rendition of the story and Elina really did have some great ideas (like having J paint her fingertips so that they could look like all the little red fish).

3. One of the fave activities is fingerpainting with pudding--we've already done it twice. Elina will actually make a pretty picture (although it looks like it's drawn with poo). Eli, on the other hand, just enjoys eating the pudding with his fingers. J says he just draws "rain" with his pudding.

4. Eli did body painting in our little pool in the backyard. I painted his body and he painted my feet and legs.

5. We've been making Pretend Soup and other recipes (more about this in an upcoming post).

6. Elina played Camera Seek around the house with our digital camera, taking pictures of different shapes that I would call out.

In addition to the activity jars, I also came up with lesson plans for the kids so that they could do some fun other fun things. It's not like they would get bored with all the toys that we have, but Elina asks me to do crafts every day and if I don't have some sort of plan written down, then I just give her the usual answer, "Not today, Elina. Maybe tomorrow I can come up with something." I know it seems anal, but I really function better with a plan in place.

I bought a thematic (units based on themes) curriculum book and while I nursed, I wrote down activities the kids would like and that I could manage (recognizing the time restrictions I had with a newborn). Each theme takes 2 weeks since I knew we'd be accomplishing things at a snail's pace. Since I had everything written down, whenever Evie started to take a good nap, I'd work on one or two things from the lesson plan. It didn't always work out perfectly since Evie's known to wake up earlier than planned, but for the most part, we got a lot of fun things done.
For the 1st 2 weeks we focused on Oceans. We read ocean-themed books, did tons of ocean crafts, played ocean games, and ate ocean snacks. The kids had a blast! I think their favorite craft was making a starfish using Froot Loops. Then I let Elina choose the 2nd theme. For some reason she wanted to learn about Health and Safety. So I taught them about fire safety, personal hygiene and dentist visits. (Sounds like loads of fun, right?)

Anyway, so far the themes and activities are going well. The kids are having fun and I don't feel as guilty that I'm not doing anything fun with them!