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5 Days of Summer {little style}: Learning

June 20, 2013 by Jules Leave a Comment

We are a homeschooling family. Thus far we've only done preschool with Kindergarden starting in the fall. We tend not to do a real formal "school" day but instead just try making learning part of our daily routine {minus all the paper work}. I know this will change a little in the coming yer but let me encourage you to use Summer as a fun learning time for your littles.

Here are a few things we've already done and then some we are hoping to do soon.

Outside Educational Activities

Zoo
Nature Walk
Animal Observation
Water Play
Parks
Learn new skills
- swimming
- ride a bike

Indoor Educational Activities

The Wonder Place
Museum
Board Games
Library Story Time
Cook/Bake
Make Playdough, Clouddough, Slime
Learn new skills
- tie shoes
- tell time
- new sight words
- play the piano {if you're a writer & interested in doing a review of FreePianoLessons4Kids here on aJig, email me! Must have a child 5-years-old or older as well as internet and piano access.}
- using the potty

For more ideas for an educational summer, check out my Pinterest board,
"The Ones about Homeschooling"! There is also a blogger in this series devoting the entire 5 days to summer learning; check it out!

The rest of the week includes:

Monday-- 5 Days of Summer {little style}: Entertainment

Tuesday-- 5 Days of Summer {little style}: Food

Wednesday-- 5 Days of Summer {little style}: Rest

Friday-- 5 Days of Summer: Summary & a GIVEAWAY

Filed Under: 5 Days of Summer {little style}, The Ones about Post Series, The ones about the Rothacher Home

5 Days of Summer {little style}: Entertainment

June 17, 2013 by Jules 2 Comments

This week I get to be apart of the "5 Days of..." series again!

I think the number one thing most people think of when they hear "Summer" is OUTSIDE.

Being outside in the warm {or cooking HOT} weather is involved in most "summer" activities: swimming, BBQ, beach vacations, swinging, lake trips, sports, slides, sprinklers, camp-outs, and so much more.

With my littles being 5 {this Saturday, sniff sniff}, 3.5, and 2.5-years old, we can't spend the entire day outside without heat exhaustion, sunburns, and major meltdowns BUT we do spend tons of time outside. Especially since in the past we haven't had a place to play outside but the this year we are staying in a house that has a huge deck AND we will be moving into our new home that has a BACKYARD in the next few weeks!!! Here are some of the things we have been doing outside and a few more we plan to do:

Permanent Outside Toys

Toy box {basket/tub}:

Chalk
Bubbles
Sports Equipment
Stilts {homemade- how-to coming soon}
Goggles
Trampoline {we have a small "exercise" one now but plan to get a larger one when they're a bit older}
Riding Toys
Dog {entertaining all year round}
Bug Nets
Swing Set {coming soon!}

Occasionally Setup

Swimming Pool
Although my kids do love swimming, for my and my littles, there's a lot less stress with a baby pool. Which ends up being used as a "water table" along with their water toys.
Water Toys
Anything that can be used to fill, dump, strain, measure, float, splash, etc, we consider a "water toy".
Corn Box
We do corn instead of sand to avoid being the neighborhood litter box & for easier kids clean-up. We also keep it in one of those flat "under-bed" plastic lidded tubs for easy access, clean-up, usability, and cleanliness.
Sprinkler
We have a simple round lawn sprinkler that hooks to a water hose. This is more than entertaining placed on the ground but if you want to switch it up you can make a shower-like contraption using a rack.
When we move to our new house, my husband is also going to build us a PVC pipe sprinkler that the kids can run under adding creative games like "car wash" to our list of outdoor games.
Play in the rain.
This is something we do in "non-stormy" rain. ie: no thunder/lighting
Paint
We haven't tried washable paints but that could be fun as well naked or in a manageable place. Right now, using water to "paint" has been just as fun. Add some wet sidewalk-chalk & there's some color
Kites
We don't leave these out all the time...mainly because they're a booger if the kids get the string strung everywhere. But with supervision, its oober fun.
Parks!!!
Take advantage of FREE public parks. Try them all in your area.

Now, for those days where it's storming outside or just too stank'n hot to brave the heat, we have plenty of indoors activities as well.

Indoor Fun

Dress-up
Baking/Cooking
Coloring
Painting
Playdough
Crafting
"Pillow Pile" Movie Time
Fort

For more awesome SUMMER Entertainment, check out my Pinterest board, "The Ones about KID Stuff" where there are tons of other super creative mom's and their ideas!

The rest of the week includes:

Tuesday-- 5 Days of Summer {little style}: Food

Wednesday-- 5 Days of Summer {little style}: Rest

Thursday-- 5 Days of Summer {little style}: Learning

Friday-- 5 Days of Summer: Summary & a GIVEAWAY

Filed Under: 5 Days of Summer {little style}, The Ones about Post Series, The ones about the Rothacher Home

Activities for Littles & Winter Sanity {Thoughtful Thursday}

March 14, 2013 by Jules 1 Comment

I know its supposed to be turning spring...really! Any day now. But if you live in Arkansas or any state with bipolar weather like AR then you know you're gonna need some tricks up your sleeve this month {and maybe next month as well} for those days when the brisk wind is more like ice daggers. Today I wanna share 3 silly things my kids love that cost little to nothing and entertained them for quite a while.

Pipe Cleaner Art

I had some construction paper, pipe cleaners, and {glitter} glue already in our craft supplies. My 4.5-year-old just went at it! Twisting and gluing. My 3-year-old was having a little more trouble. I ended up cutting lots of different colored pipe cleaners into tiny pieces. Then she told me what picture she wanted to make. I sketched the picture she described with a marker then I helped her outline the sketch with the glue, adding different colors to each part of the picture. They both really enjoyed it!

Indoor Water Play

You may remember we recently went to an awesome indoor playground called the Wonder Place. It was filled with numerous educational centers to play in, one of which being the giant water table. My kids spent the majority of our visit there. This reassured me that my plan to make a homemade outdoor water table for this summer was definitely gonna be worth it! BUT seeing as how we are still in transition and the weather is not exactly conducive to wet outdoor play, we modified our water play.

I filled our kitchen sink with warm water and dish soap. Simply giving them a few "tool" {strainer, spoon, fork, whisk, different sized cups & bowls, grater, etc} to do "experiments" with kept them more than busy.

I wasn't quite comfortable with my 2-year-old standing on a chair, step, or sharing the bench with his sisters for a prolonged period of time...there may or may not have been shoving involved. I chose to give him his own small tray of water with soap, and some safer tools on top of a drop clothe. #winning

Playdough Art

My kids all three love Playdough, like most kids. They do seem to get bored with the same ol' roll, smash, etc. They haven't quite mastered the molding concept yet. Soooo, I have saved a silly amount of cardboard circles from frozen pizza and we decided to use them in our playdough-play. We made, pizzas, faces, several other meals, and lots of "imaginary" things...

Once I got them going on these activities and gave general 'rules', they played interdependent very nicely. Giving them a "new game" seems to help them play well together as well as stay focused for a little longer.

Hope these help spark some ideas in these last few weeks of wacky weather and indoor boredom!

Filed Under: Homeschool, Parenting, The Ones about Post Series, The ones about the Rothacher Home, Thoughtful Thursdays

5 Days of Organizing Kids Toys into Centers: Manipulitives

August 23, 2012 by Jules Leave a Comment

Now that we've talked about selecting toys, the importance of & ideas for centers, as well as "dramatic play centers." Lets move on to those messy centers. You know, the ones we all dread...tiny pieces, lots of parts, and mess ones...but the ones every kids LOVES and we understand the importance of: Manipulatives!

Manipulative Center

We currently have lots of different manipulative centers in our home: Puzzles, baby toy manipulative, Playdough, etc. These toys and tools enhance children's fine motor skills and helps strengthen their hands, helps with eye-hand coördination, helps improve their writing skills. Even your pediatrician ask if they can stack 3 blocks at your well baby visit.

Block Center:

We currently have a set of large Lego blocks {multi-colored} and a small set of Jinja blocks {light wooden brown}. These are great for all ages. Just some of the possibilities for learning are: construction, transformation, measurement, spatial relationships, classification. It can even built language skill when they are asked to tell about their creation.

This is one of the most appealing toys for young children! They are versatile and appropriate for lots of age groups! Toddlers can stack cubes, kindergartners can build elaborate garages, and 9-year-olds can create a mall will tons of stores. Children of all ages enjoy playing with blocks because their open-ended allowing for countless possibilities for construction and transformation.

Blocks provide lots of learning opportunities: measurement, spatial relationships, and classification. It can even encourage language use as children talk about what they've created as well as ideas related to construction.

Board Game/Puzzle Center:

We currently have LOTS of board games. This shelf only contains the building, matching, and simple games they can do on their own. These are really better educational tools for older children with the amount of 'rules' involved with most games. But I've learned that simple games like Coodies, Hi Ho Cherrry-O, matching games, and even Candy Land can be comprehended VERY young! My 4-year-old completely understands taking turns, counting, etc. This is a center that will require more adult supervision at least in the early stages.

Puzzles are another center that with the proper training on the front end can provide for great quiet play time for little ones as theri brain sorts through all that is required to piece together puzzles. There are tons of different skill level puzzle options, so be careful not to jump in over your child's head which could just frustrate them but at the same time challenge them with harder more technical puzzles every once in a while to make sure they're not held back.

Almost anything can be a manipulative. There are TONS of infant toys out there that encourage manipulation as well as aid in teaching colors, shapes, and the like.

Low-grade supervision could lead to this but end in more lessons in sorting, identification, team work, and obedience ;0)

There are lots of other things that can be considered "Manipulitives" that I didn't mention; there are ton of outdoor activities and pretty much anything messy kids have to manipulate ;o) Some our favs: corn {rather than sand}, WATER, cooking, and good ole' dirt.

This is day 4 in this series. Monday was: 5 Days of Organizing & Cleaning TOYS into Centers: Selecting, Tuesday 5 Days of Organizing & Cleaning TOYS into Centers: Dramatic Play, and Wednesday was 5 Days of Organizing & Cleaning TOYS into Centers: Manipulitives

See you tomorrow for the finale:

Friday: 5 Days of Organizing & Cleaning TOYS into Centers: Sanitizing

edited repost

This post series is linked to 21 other lovely ladies doing a variety of tops for the 5 day series on organizing and cleaning.

Just when you thought the giveaways where over...We’re also going to be having several giveaways that begin on the 1st day of the series and end on Saturday, the 25th of August. Winners will be announced on Sunday the 26th.

Click the footer below to find all the topics,links to each, as well as a list of all the giveaways and more Rafflecopters!

Filed Under: 5 Days of Organizing & Cleaning, Cleaning, Homemaker, Organizing, The Ones about Post Series, The ones about the Rothacher Home

5 Days of Organizing Kids Toys into Centers: Quiet Centers

August 22, 2012 by Jules 2 Comments

So, I have NO idea why I chose to try and tackle all these centers together today. There is so much more than what I can provide in one readable post but here goes...

I labeled these quiet centers although, that's not always the case. For instance: Reading allowed very animated can be not so quiet but will encourage a LOVE for readings well as being overly engaged in crafting can be come quit rowdy and fun at times!

Reading Center

We currently have a single book shelf that houses all of our children's book {except a small basket of "bed time" books and Bibles in the girls bedroom}. I have them sorted according to age-appropriate by height {unfortunately my ~18 month old can almost reach the top shelf}. I have the baby books {ie board books with mainly pictures} on the bottom shelf accessible to all ages but most enticing to the youngest {shortest}. THe middle shelf has more board books that contain more words {needing longer attention span} and are reachable by all kids. The top shelf has "real page" books/paper back books as well as books with pop-ups, or pieces that would be better read by an older child or with help. Having access to books builds a love for reading. They feel more like toys or privilege and not an assignment or chore. This center developes a love of words, encourages motor skills, thinking skills, reading comprehension, as well as the ability to sit still building on attention span. "The number of words one knows as well as the depth of understanding of those words is related to the ability to think."

I couldn't find a simple way to summarize the importance of reading so I've added links to some articles about reading at an early age:
10 Reasons Why You Should Read to Your Kids
What is the importance of reading to a child?
Another article on Ten {more} Important Reasons to Read to Your Child

That may sound complicated but we basically group like things together to help my children know where to find things, where to put them away, and makes it easier to have them play with few things at once cutting down on mass chaos in the playroom.

Art Center

Art is a basic component in early childhood education. It is recognized as both a fundamental and distinctive way of knowing. Art is important nonverbal language: a system of symbols that emerge from children's drawings.

Art can be a way to express feelings, develop socially, as well as physically {large and small motor development}, develop sensory learning, visual perception, spacial intelligence and left brain-right brain.

-Isbell/Raines

The art and Playdough supplies are on the top shelves because I don't yet allow my kids to do these things without supervision or at least permission. We do these while the "baby" is napping. There are infinite numbers of how this center develops creativity in children as well as motor skills through working with the Playdough, steering scissors, maneuvering glue, paper and other supplies, and yielding writing utensils.