First we talked about the different kinds: quarters, pennies, nickels, dimes (waay over their heads). Then we started sorting. They were getting kinda confused between all the silver ones, so we stuck to quarters and pennies. Anjuli liked sorting and putting them in a row. Zion liked throwing them...
Then we took turns counting as we put them all back in the piggy bank. Later that day we went to the bank and put all our coins in the coinmaster...who would have known $45 would fit in a little piggy bank! I felt rich!
Later today we tried more sorting activities. I started to teach about rows and alternated between a row of white beans and brown pinto beans. I think Anjuli could have got it, but Zion was too eager to mix everything up and just start dumping them out--which led to the next activity...
Pouring: The kids loved this best of all. It was really fun to watch them pour the beans back and forth. I got a bunch of different size bowls for them to pour them into.
They both had their own bowls so they wouldn't have to share, but still...
a fight unraveled... I had to laugh. By the end Zion was throwing beans in the air like it was manna falling from heaven. I also saw him stashing some behind the couch. Doing these activities with my kids has really shown me how fun it is to play with them, teach them, and learn with them. Although more planning is required, and more mess comes out of it, it's worth it in the long run.p.s. if you're reading this, please don't think I'm supermom. There are so many days I don't feel like doing anything but the bare minimum. But for some reason right now I have this great desire to get my kids involved in doing a bunch of activities. I'm running out of ideas, so if you know of any good ways to entertain kids please let me know! Zui suggested I start a blog entitled "365 days of entertaining your kids" ...maybe I should...
4 comments:
This is a blog I read about activities with kids.
http://bigboredombusters.blogspot.com
If you had one I would read it too!
Hi Jenn, What a fun Mom you are! Here's another way to sort things: egg cartons. I used a lot of food items, because small things like pennies or buttons are going to end up in someone's mouth. Cheerios, raisens, peas, or whatever the kids like can be sorted. Once in awhile I used to serve lunch in a 6-muffin pan. Just a little bit of 6 different things to eat. Or do that for snack. As usual, someone will dump it all out and eat it off the floor.
Love,Mom
You are a great mom. and YOU are a great friend. Your children look like they are having fun. This is the fun stage.
You are a great mom!
"painting" with pudding is always fun - and a tasty treat!
shaving cream on a tray or table is a fun way to practice writing letters (we practice spelling words that way in first grade and they LOVE it!)
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