The Littles: Part 2

I know you are waiting with great anticipation to discover just what kind of activities may keep a toddler and preschooler busy for a few minutes...

A key part of our homeschool experience is establishing a routine for the little girls to know that it is "school time." That means giving them something to do, so they feel like they are participating in something special also. At the beginning of the year I make a list of activities for them. Then every week when I make out our schedule for the week, I write in what their activity for that day will be. I simply work my way down the list and then back to the top again. Having a set list that I systematically work through reduces the stress and thinking. To qualify for the list, the activity must be something special that only I have access to, and something they can do themselves.

The list for this past year was:

*Pattern blocks - a handy dandy math manipulative

*Create a Picture - an old Discovery Toys product where they piece together squares like a puzzle to form a house

*Play Doh

*Puzzles

*Playful Shapes - another Discovery Toys product similar to tangrams but for younger kids

*Water color painting

*Bendaroos - those infomercial bendy sticks

*Cut pictures from magazines and glue them on construction paper

*Linking cubes - yet another math manipulative

This is what my counter looked like after a morning of school when the activity was water color painting.


What do you do to keep your littles busy?