Food, Family, Fun.

Even though Amy was at home sick today, it was really just a day to rest so to I filled a few workboxes that she could do to keep entertained if she was feeling better. I didn't make a schedule strip or number them and it wasn't formal. I just left her to do them as she pleased. I went in to work for a little bit today and Daddy was at home - so it helped him out a bit too since he didn't have to play lego ALL day :)

Amy is Pre-K I think in the US system, last year of preschool in our system. These workboxes were filled with some fun things she likes to do, but I guess you could call them Preschool boxes? I don't homeschool - Amy goes to a Montessori school and Rose goes to a nursery school. During the school breaks I use the workbox system in a slightly lax way. More to keep the girls engaged in appropriate activities - but I also put things like watch a DVD, computer game time, play outside, chores/clean up etc on the schedule. It also helps me with planning my day. Occasionally I do it on a Saturday or Sunday too but that's usually if there is bad weather about - it also keeps the girls from begging to watch TV constantly if they can see a list/schedule of fun work to do instead. No one says "I'm bored" in this house !!

Heydon the Heart from Carol's Affordable Curriculum February

 It's cutting, pasting, colouring & stickers - her favourite things to do!

 I don't buy every month of CAF but a few here and there. We do the obviously seasonal projects on time and save some of the others for a rainy day. I like having short, fun crafts on hand where everything is all together and it doesn't take up a ton of room in the house. I really love CAF and would use them all of the time except shipping to Bermuda is a bit crazy (not their fault - it just is!) so I go with a few months here and there - it works out perfectly for us.

Handwriting without Tears

This is the same program they use in the classroom and it's just handwriting practice.

wooden pieces and letter formation cards

I took a couple out of the box so you could see what they are. This is also from the Handwriting Without Tears program. I don't think they have the wooden pieces at school. I think Amy is a little beyond this now but she still likes to make the letters out of the wood pieces. She asked me to put it in today, so I did, since it's all about fun work not challenging work today. There is a card that shows you how to make the letter and then you use the correct wooden pieces to replicate it on the blue foam mat. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy! That's what she says after each one  - LOL.



reading/spelling

The words are from Dolch List 1. The school sent them home as lists to read - I just printed them out on coloured paper and put them on a ring for easy practice. She likes to read them and then spell them out with the little plastic letters. This was also by request today! She can read words on the other lists but I don't mind using the first list for this activity. She sometimes misses words like "that", "they" & "said" so it's good practice/review.

Counting Game - from Lakeshore Learning

This is just a bit of counting fun - I put it in since I realised there wasn't any math work today and I like to keep it a bit more balanced than that - even for fun work days. She can count well over 100 so again not challenging work, but it is still a fun game.

Reading Books

These are her actual school reading books that she brought home to read from the classroom library on Friday. She only had to read them 3 times and return by Monday but since she was out sick she just read them a few extra times. I suppose I could have chosen new ones from our book shelf but I didn't since the school books were right there.

I should have included something that we could work on together for Amy to take for show and tell on Friday. The class is learning about birds, specifically Bermuda's birds. Last week we did some investigation of the Eastern bluebird and it's life cycle. I found a fun program online and it was a painting program so she painted a picture of the bluebird and printed it (about 5 times !), then we also found some good photos of the life cycle and the first 16 days of growth for the baby bluebirds online and she cut and glued them on to some construction paper to take to school. Show and tell must be something that everyone can learn from (and I usually encourage Amy to think of something related to the current unit of study) so we will come up with something bird like - we're usually more organised by now! We did see a bluebird mobile online that she wanted to make - maybe I'll print that and we can do it over the next two evenings. Her last ballet recital is on Thursday night so it will have to be today or tomorrow to be finished in time for Friday.

Anyhow, that was a little peek into our sick day workboxes - now I'm off to make dinner; meatloaf, steamed veggies & mashed potatoes :) YUM!