And I love art projects that:

• Are fun crafts for my kids
• Teach a lesson
• Make a memory
• Are something I want to keep

Handprint crafts are some of my favorite because it reminds me just how small they were at one point. So, combine that with a dinosaur kids craft about nighttime and daytime–and we’ve got a winner.

My kids are always thrilled to use paint. They love anything that could potentially destroy the house.

How to Make Dinosaur Handprints (And Dinosaur Footprints too!)

For this dinosaur kids craft, the supply list isn’t long:

• Acrylic paint (I personally use professional paint and avoid “washable” kids paint that isn’t really made for long-term value)
• Paintbrushes (large and small)
• Cardstock paper (I used black and parchment)
• Paper plates or bowls (to hold paint)
• Baby wipes

Start with Handprints (or Footprints)

Pro tip: practice having them keep their hands open before you paint. Mix colors to get a more textured/dynamic dino. Talk about how cold the paint feels and keep reminding them to keep their hands open.

We also talk a lot about not touching anything else. Tell them just to focus on holding their fingers open and not trying to touch the paper. You do all the work of placing their hand and gently pressing up each finger. Pull the hand straight up to get a clean handprint.

Wipe down immediately with wipes (and keep an old grocery sack on hand for the messy wipes. Wash hands after most of the paint is off. So far (fingers crossed), we’ve never made any messes with handprint art projects.

Add a Simple Prehistoric Background

Before adding details to the dinosaur handprints, I had the boys help me add backgrounds. We kept them very simple with a line of brown paint for the ground (and maybe a few green leaves). We added stars and moon to the black paper while we talked about night time, and we added the sun to the parchment when as we talked about day time.

My preschooler had to be more “accurate” with his sun, moon, stars and plants, but I gave my 2-year-old more freedom. Klay added lots of yellow “sun” to his and I love it.

Add the Details

I helped them add tails, legs, spines and teeth to their dinosaurs as needed. We waited until they were dry and then added faces with an extra-fine Sharpie marker.

They really loved this dinosaur print project and it went on the fridge as soon as it was dry and dated. (Pro tip: always add names and dates in the bottom corner because you will always forget. Always.)

Check out more adorable handprint and footprint projects!

Pin This Dinosaur Kids Craft for Later!

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So far, I’ve done two years of pre-k and one year of kindergarten at home before sending my oldest to school at the age of six. Whether you want to keep homeschooling or not, getting in at least a couple of early years at home has been great from my perspective. Not only does it help prepare them for the classroom and teach them to love learning, it doesn’t push them to focus too hard too fast.

Reasons for Schooling Early Years at Home

Not everyone is able to school at home. For various reasons (work requirements, health, etc.) you might not have the option, so schooling at home is not for everyone. But for the vast majority, holding off kids for school until age six has shown to provide better results.

Newer studies have shown that holding kids off for just one year (until age six for kindergarten) has resulted in a 73% increase on test scores for hyperactivity and inattention over the next four years. Kids need time to explore and play.

I’ve posted before about giving your kids time to be bored. Kids need a time for structured and social play, just as much as they need a time to explore on their own without many restrictions or distractions. They get exhausted by school that can be done simply over the course of everyday life.

Don’t Get Overwhelmed with Early Education at Home

Before I list ten ways to do education at home, I want to stress that this shouldn’t be overwhelming. At age 2-6, school should be easy and mostly natural. There are a lot of resources online, but there is also a lot of pressure on sites like Pinterest (and even blogs like my own). Focus on the small, daily moments that will build into larger learning skills.

It can be really fun to do extra, in-depth activities, but don’t feel like that needs to be an everyday thing. It takes baby steps to learn to run—let your kid take baby steps with early education by starting slow and steady. Anyone can teach early education to their kids. Here are ten great ways to work on early learning topics at home.

10 Ways to do Early Learning at Home

Whether you are working with a preschooler or kindergartener, you can use these simple tips to work on education at home. Give your kids a kickstart to learning without sacrificing their free time for playing and exploring.

1. Appreciate the Art of the Scribble

I’ve always loved teaching early art education and I can’t stress how important scribbling is. Kids need to be able to confidently explore their control of the pencil. Make sure your child has time to scribble until he or she developmentally is ready for moving towards representational drawing.

Encourage your child by expressing how good the lines or shapes are, not pushing them to represent shapes or people before they are ready. Scribbling is the first stage to writing and drawing. Your child will likely scribble into age three, though all kids are different. You will know when your child is trying, verses when he or she is stabbing the paper with a pencil and not putting any effort into it. Focus on the expression and focus, not the end result for early learners.

There may be times you focus on other forms of progress, like coloring in the lines or creating letters—if you feel your child is ready, but there should be plenty of time for them to express themselves on paper without much restriction or critique.

2. Teach in the Car

One of the biggest potential time wasters in our life is the car. Even though we aren’t in there that much, it can also be one of your biggest assets as an early educational resource. The car is a time where you are kind of stuck and so it can make the perfect place for learning.

Turn down the radio and keep devices out of your kids’ hands…instead, sing songs, find letters on signs, count to 20, talk about clouds, talk about where things come from, tell stories…you get the idea. There is so much you can do and talk about in the car. The best part? Your kids won’t notice it’s “school” and you will be able to multi-task your time. This is one of the easiest places to practice “boring” things, like counting and sounding out words for early spelling.

3. Get Simple Workbooks

The dollar spot at Target is one of the many places that offer simple workbooks for a very low price. With early learning, expensive textbooks or curriculum aren’t needed. Look for books that focus on one skill per page and make it clear for a focused learning opportunity. Doing a workbook page every once in a while (once or twice a week is what I shoot for) will help work on focused desk learning.

4. Repetition, Repetition, Repetition

Don’t underestimate the amount of repetition kids need to learn new things. Songs and fun picture books are a great way to repeat skills until they are learned without much effort. Most parents practice the ABCs song with their kids, but there are also songs for the seasons, rhyming books on numbers and more. By repeating songs, spellings, sounds and more, you will slowly move your child towards remembering those things without thinking about them.

5. Simple Educational Videos

I’m not a huge fan of TV or devices for kids, but they do offer a useful tool for specific things. YouTube has videos that can be put on repeat several times while you make breakfast or drink your coffee. I really like videos that focus on one sole thing, like one letter or number. Sesame Street has some great clips of just one letter. I also love the sole-letter videos from HobyKidsTV like this one:

6. Tracing Practice is Your Friend

It’s so easy to draw your child’s name with yellow marker on a paper and have him or her trace it with a pencil. Letters, numbers and simple words can easily be traced to work on handwriting and practice recognition. These are the moments where you will want to focus on them doing the assignment “correctly” before adding any scribbles or flair.

While I want them to have plenty of time for creativity and expression, it’s really good to have times where they have to do it “the teacher’s way” too. It will help them get better at following instructions, but more importantly, it will help them try things they wouldn’t naturally do on their own.

7. Find Books for Struggle Topics

You will notice at different times, different things are harder for your kid to remember than others. I’ve had kids good at numbers and struggle to remember or recognize letters. Other kids might be great with school topics, but struggle with a partial phobia (I had two that hated bugs). Get fun books on topics that will challenge your kids.

There are great books on any topic you need to cover. Here is a list of my favorite picture books for early education. Before buying a book, I always find page examples online or someone reading it on YouTube to make sure it has good pictures, is a good storyline and is fun to read. There is nothing worse than a cute book that is so boring you dread reading it.

8. Teach Nursery Rhymes

It can be easy to forget about the fun games and songs that are often taught in nursery school. Songs like Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star or rhymes like Humpty Dumpty are childhood favorites that have been around for generations. The songs and rhymes may seem pointless, but the rhyming, vocabulary and cultural point of reference are all good reasons to include them. While you might have to look up some words, this is ready-made content you can easily pull out for learning opportunities (and, remember, the kids will need lots of repetition to remember).

9. Explore Beyond the Textbooks

Probably the thing I love most about homeschooling is the opportunity to go way beyond the textbooks with your kids. Spend time gardening, cooking, exploring nature, building things, making music and more. Even household chores are a great learning experience. Let your kids learn by doing new things. Important skills, like gardening or sewing, should be passed to the next generation and homeschooling gives you plenty of time to focus on those things you find important.

10. Focus on Social Skills

Your kids are going to interact with people all day long. How they talk to adults at the grocery store can be a great time to teach them about how to talk to strangers without being rude, giving away too much information or getting too comfortable. You will want to start teaching them privacy at a young age, especially about their own bodies. Another issue you will likely run into is either tattling or not knowing how to stand up to other kids. This is a great time to teach your kids how to clearly tell another kid not to hit/take their toy/keep poking them and then tell an adult if the other kid persists. Use these opportunities to also teach your kids about bullying and help them learn empathy.

Each of these ten ideas are things you can easily incorporate into your daily life without a lot of expense or pressure. School at home can be fun and easy!

The post Pre-K at Home: 10 Easy Ideas for Early Education appeared first on MidKid Mama.

When I taught at a local preschool, daily repeating nursery rhymes and songs way to teach the kids these songs. Can you imagine growing up and somehow not really knowing how Ring Around the Rosie went or the Humpty Dumpty Rhyme? As a homeschooling parent, your kids aren’t going to hear these unless you include them in the curriculum.

Kids love to be involved, so making this an interactive time in your school day will make it really fun. This is an opportunity to get up from the table or desk and play a very simple kind of game.

The Nursey Rhyme Cube

I made my own cube because I love illustration. This is a pretty complicated project, but if you are up for it, you can look up instructions on how to make a paper cube (or wrap paper around a wooden block) and illustrate each side. For my first song cube I chose:

• The Muffin Man
• Six Little Ducks
• The Itsy Bitsy Spider
• Old Mac Donald
• Twinkle Twinkle
• Three Blind Mice

These are all old nursery rhyme songs I felt were important for the kids to know. I also have a learning song cube and a nursery rhyme poem cube. I think the pictures help get the kids thinking about the songs they are singing, but they aren’t necessary.

If you don’t want to make a visual cube, you can just write down your list of 6 songs on a paper (maybe add some clipart from online or marker doodles to illustrate the different songs or poems) and use a dice.

Pre-K or Kindergarten Nursery Rhyme Game

The game is very simple. Each kid rolls the block or die and the whole group sings or recites the rhyme landed on. If it is a newer rhyme and the kids don’t know the words, repeat it a second time. This works with just one student or several. In a full classroom, it can be considered a daily task that kids rotate turns doing.

Adding on to the Game

You can take this another step further by acting out or drawing the nursery rhymes. Kids can dress up and pretend to be the cow jumping over the moon or the three blind mice running around. We rolled for a nursery rhyme to illustrate and got Old Mac Donald. The kids then created their own versions of the farm, Old Mac Donald and some of his animals.

For this project, I encouraged them not to look at the picture from the cube, but to make their own farm, farmer and animals. There is no right or wrong way for kids to draw, as long as they are trying. We focus on doing our best and then not feeling like it needs to be perfect. I am always impressed with what they can do for their ages.

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First we ran through the letter names just to make sure she remembered all of them. Then we did the sounds. Kniya is going to be going to Kindergarten this year, even though she really did it last year at home. We wanted her to be 18 when she graduates and not 17, though with her June birthday, it’s kind of a grey area.

Back to School Spelling Game for Kindergarten or First Grade

After running through the names and sounds I had her make a word with the cards. This was easy enough, but to make it harder I had her keep making words with the remaining letters. Starting with a vowel and consonant of her choice, she would sound them together and see what should be added in front or behind to make it a word. It was tricky, but she got quite a few words.

We will be doing this a few more times and see what else she comes up with! What are your favorite back-to-school games?

The post Alphabet Flash Card Game for Kindergarten or First Grade appeared first on MidKid Mama.

Here are three really fun and quirky books on friendship that don’t fit the traditional mold of two best friends hanging out. The illustrations are beautiful and the stories are thoughtful in different ways. Then, check out the bottom for five classic friendship stories you will want to have in your library.

*Please note all Amazon links are part of the Amazon Affiliate program and I can make a small commission for purchases through my links. All book choices and opinions are my own.*

3 Quirky Books on Friendship

1. The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig

This backwards fairy tale is about three close siblings that have to build smart to outwit a Big Bad Pig. Not only do they meet friends who help them out along the way, they work well together (yay for a sibling win!). Not to give any spoilers away, but even the bully has a slight change of heart when the wolves change up their tactics. Funny story and beautiful illustrations for this friendship tale.

2. Mother Bruce

This is the first book in the newer Bruce series and I completely got sucked in by the fabulous illustrations. What is Bruce going to do when his breakfast hatches? Ugh. He has to put up with some pretty pesky visitors. He might be a grump every unwilling step of the way, but Bruce pulls through as a great friend and mentor. And, he may find himself a little better off for all his trouble.

3. The Old Woman Who Named Things

Slightly crazy, wispy white haired old ladies that wear lots of layers and have fabulous gardens are basically my spirit animals. This woman has lost a lot of friends over time, so she’s decided no more friends that might not outlive her. Instead, she names her chair, car, bed, house and other familiar items that are sure to last. In a change of pace, this slightly sobering story is thoughtful and beautiful. She finds herself making a friend she doesn’t want and needing him as much as he needs her.

5 Classic Friendship Picture Books

1. Horton Hears a Who! – Horton happens to have great hearing and overhears an entire city living on a speck. He goes above and beyond to help out his new friends.
2. Just My Friend and Me – Little Critter is the master of self confidence. This book on friendship may show an angle of a few things you should not do as a good friend (much to the delight of young kids).
3. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie – This book teaches a bit on boundaries just as much as it teaches obnoxious friend behavior. Are you the mouse? Do you know a mouse? You can still work through your friendship. I find this story line all to familiar with a bunch of young kids (if you give a kid a cookie…).
4. The Rainbow Fish – Is being cool, admired and beautiful better than having friends? This fish finds that sharing gets him what he really wants, while being conceited and selfish leaves him feeling sad and lonely.
5. Ginger and Petunia – I grew up inspired by the artwork of Patricia Polacco and so this book is a classic for me. Pet or best friend? I’ll let you decide as Petunia acts in Ginger’s stead for the day.

It was hard to narrow down books on friendship (Little Blue Truck and Explorers of the Wild were hard favorites to cut). What are your favorite picture books on friendship?

The post 3 Quirky Picture Books on Friendship (Plus 5 Classics) appeared first on MidKid Mama.

*Amazon affiliate links are included. Book choices are entirely my own, but I can make a small commission on any books you purchase through these links.

I am a picky writer and artist (with a focus in illustration), so I don’t take book selections lightly. My favorite books read easily, keep kids entertained, teach something valuable and have great illustrations. While I have hundreds (maybe thousands) of books, not all are equally good. Here are 10 picture books that meet all the qualifications and are perfect for getting your child started in school. I believe they are a must-have for every home–especially if you are home schooling.

Alphabet Picture Books for Pre-K and Kindergarten

Dr. Seuss’s ABC

This book is one I grew up with. The fun rhyming scheme changes up so it doesn’t get overly repetitive. Dr. Seuss is a master at making learning fun during a time when Dick and Jane books were the most common early readers. This book will help children recognize letters and start catching the way they start the words (even made up words!).

After reading it a few times, I made my kids say every letter when I pointed at it, “Big ____ [point to F and wait for them to say it], little [point to f and wait for them to say it].” Over time, this really helped them recognize the letters and it kept them involved in the book.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Bring the ABC characters to life for your little one with the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom book. The full book is longer than the board book, so it is my preferred choice (though, we have both because my kids aren’t allowed free access to our paper books yet). The letters climb up the tree, only to come crashing back down. Will there be enough room?

This book creatively introduces your littles to to the lower case letters and then brings out the upper case as the mamas, papas, aunts and uncles. Point out each letter as you say it’s name so your choice can get used to the lower case.

Charley Harper’s ABCs

It’s a great idea to also have one or two alphabet books that are a bit more simplified. ABC books are some of the easiest learning books to find, so don’t feel bad if you see one more that you just have to have.

The stunning art of Charley Harper are realistic forms simplified down to their most basic shapes and colors. These beautiful illustrations are paired with the letter and one word to go with it. As simple as this book is, it helps keep your child focused on the alphabet and nature.

As simple as the page illustrations are, the inner cover of the book is filled with Charley Harper illustrations. This provides an additional opportunity to learn about new animals. You can also discuss what letter begins each animal’s name. on this page.

Counting Books for Pre-K and Kindergarten

10 Apples Up On Top!

The fun story of three strangers and their apple skills will keep your preschooler or kindergartner laughing and learning at the same time. Dr. Seuss, writing under his secondary pen name of Theo. LeSieg, provides a ridiculous rhyming story filled with simple math problems and counting.

Counting Crocodiles

The crocodile-filled Sillabobble sea stands between a monkey and a tempting bandanna tree. But that clever monkey knows just what to do–count the crocodiles!

This book rhymes crocs with 10 creative descriptors as the monkey counts his way to the island. The cool crocs are so busy being counted, they don’t even realize the monkey has been successful. I love that this book shows counting 10 groups of crocs and not just adding one on each time. Sometimes kids get confused and think the number is assigned to a specific item. This shows them a visual picture of each number group as a whole band of 55 towards the end.

There are so many fun details in this book. My kids love to see how the fox and snail follow along. But the clever little monkey even thinks ahead enough to bring back a banana tree start if you catch the sneaky illustrations.

One Hundred Hungry Ants

Another great book that breaks up counting and teaches math themes in a fun way. One Hundred Hungry Ants are 100 strong and marching to feed their hungry bellies.

Unfortunately, the littlest ant keeps having great ideas about changing the formation in the hopes that it will speed things up. All those ants scrambling into new groups only slows them down. But, it does provide for great math visualizations (and laughter as the other animals make off with the picnic food).

Other Learning Picture Books for Early Education

Blue Hat, Green Hat

Sandra Boynton books are some of our absolute favorite. Her fun rhyming stories are often easy to read and her silly illustrations keep all of us entertained. This book teaches colors, dressing and “normal” behavior. Silly turkey!

For really young readers, I like to point out why we say oops. So I’ll read it, “Red shirt, blue shirt, yellow shirt, OOPS! Silly Turkey! The shirt doesn’t go on your legs!!!” This always gets giggling out of the one who is on the verge of getting the joke, but might need it taken a step further.

The Shape of Me and Other Stuff

As an art teacher, I absolutely love this book. It teaches shapes (outside of the typical circle, square, triangle) and creative perspective.

It’s fun to talk about what other shapes we might be. Or what our favorite shapes are in the book. I love that there are no details, focusing entirely on shape.

Zoo Zen: A Yoga Story for Kids

I love yoga and have been doing it frequently starting around the time I was pregnant with Kam. Kniya was only two at the time and Kaleb one, but they both joined right in and learned yoga with me. So, this book is such a fun new addition to my early learning picture book collection!

The illustrations are amazing, the girl has brown skin and curly hair (a huge plus for our household), and the creative poses get the kids moving.

Of course, as you read each page, you have to try the pose!

Some Bugs

My kids have some crazy terror of bugs. I highly encourage finding a book about plants or animals that helps your kids discover something unknown to them. This brand new book was just released and I’m loving it. The illustrations are SO fun and the descriptions are creative, though very simple.

After reading through, we talked about what bugs they had seen in our own back yard. I think every page had at least one bug they had seen in real life before.

Nursery Tales

Sorry this one doesn’t have a link, but there isn’t really a right or wrong book for this (or maybe I just haven’t found my absolute favorite yet). Make sure your little preschooler or kindergartner is learning nursery rhymes, fables, classic tales and poems. These nursery stories are one of those things everyone is expected to know later in life. An early exposure will give those memories to your kids that they can share with others. I have several, but this is an old one with pretty vintage illustrations and straightforward stories.

Reading with Your Preschooler and Kindergartner

You can’t really start reading too early. Even reading to your baby in the womb has shown spiked brain activity. Choosing the right books will only help those reading times be even more effective.

I’m always on the hunt for great books. Do you have any favorite picture books for early learners that I’m missing from the list?

I’ve teamed up with other bloggers to write about our favorite picture books! Check out yesterday’s post on Quick and Fun Rhyming Books by Mother in the Mountains.

The post 10 Picture Books You Need for Early Education appeared first on MidKid Mama.

If you’ve read anything else I’ve written or posted, you’ve probably seen me stress simplicity. It’s easy to get overwhelmed and think you need to keep up with every Pinterest craft you’ve pinned if you are going to keep your kids home. Who has time (or the energy) for that? Not me.

I love crafts and they have a great place in school — especially for learning more about art or special holidays. But, the really important thing for early learning is to focus on the basics. In preschool, you want to really focus on learning the basics. You can read my post about 5 Ways to Start Preschool for a breakdown on what you want to cover.

I always look for books that don’t try to overdo their lessons. Too often a book will not just focus on one letter or number at a time, getting bogged down in the activities. Some workbooks waste a lot of space. Target had some great $1 workbooks last year that I ended up using for both kids. Here is my overview:

My husband (the math teacher) didn’t like the chaos of having several small books. He really wanted to get organized books where everything was in one place. This year, we are going to be working on Brain Quest Workbooks. Here is an overview of those:

That’s the basics! After you complete this first step and select your workbook(s), you can make homeschooling more complicated. I have a favorite book to teach reading that I will talk about, along with other classroom tools to enhance your experience. Start simple. Build slowly. You can definitely teach your child at home.

The post Simple Pre-K and K at Home appeared first on MidKid Mama.

A lot of mothers I know get overwhelmed at the thought of teaching their kids at home. The first few grades are simple and the biggest factors are really patience and consistency. More and more is being expected of our young kids in school. I taught at a preschool for two years and did after school homework tutoring with kindergarten and first grade. They are expected to sit quietly and join in on group learning for hours out of the day. They usually came home with a few sheets of additional work in an effort to get parents involved. It’s not a terrible thing, but it is inefficient for the child. I would rather apply the specific lessons my kid needs and keep them with me for most of our 12 hour day.

When I taught after school help and art at the Boys and Girls Clubs, I saw kids that only saw their parents for about 4 hours of the day. Five- and Six-year-olds would come to the club exhausted from an 8-hour school day and then spend another 2-4 hours with kids and teachers there. I loved the Boys and Girls Clubs. I know parents had to work and didn’t always have another option. But I also saw how hard it was on the kids. I saw 5-year-olds that knew way more about peer pressure, sex and cussing then they ever should at that age, and I also knew it wasn’t coming from their own homes. They spent almost all of their time with other kids, learning from them.

These young years are formative in building the character of your child — especially before the age of five. I’m planning to send my kids to school when they are more prepared to think for themselves.

There is a Lot More Support

I know public schooled and private schooled kids can do well. I have many friends that have gone this route and I don’t have any problem with that. But, I want to make it clear to parents that are wondering — schooling at home can be simple!

There are so many books and tools available now. I was homeschooled until I went to college, and back in my day there wasn’t nearly as much support. We used to get the side-eye when we told people we were homeschooled — like they wondered what bunker we had climbed out of. I always got asked the awkward question, “But how are you socialized?” as if I wasn’t talking to them fluently in English. It usually came right after they had complimented how respectful and smart we were.

Homeschooling is much more common now and people are more familiar with the idea. Now, when someone hears I’m homeschooling my kids, I usually get the “Oh, my ______-in-law’s kids do that!” or something along those lines. I’ve even had people take it as a sign of luxury that I can stay home with my kids and teach them myself. I actually agree with that one.

Don’t Get Overwhelmed with the Options

The real trick is not to get overwhelmed with tools like Pinterest. Schooling at home isn’t a frolic in the craft aisle of Hobby Lobby. It’s staying on track with a few simple workbooks and then interacting with your kids a lot. Keep it simple and consistent.

The best part of homeschooling is that you get to stay with your kids all day. Of course, if you are a tired mom like me, the best part of your day often feels like the after hours activity you do with a glass of wine when everyone is finally in bed. But, in the long run, these are the days you are going to look back on with pride and mostly fond memories.

Preschool and Kindergarten are years where they learn social interaction, structured play, hygiene, focus and a thirst for learning — who is more fit to teach your kids those things than you? Of course, homeschooling really isn’t for everyone, but don’t avoid it because you are nervous. I’m here to tell you — you can do it! Just make time for learning every day and those spongy little minds will do the rest.

The post Why I Homeschool (And You Can Too!) appeared first on MidKid Mama.

Let them be bored.

As a parent today, it’s hard to let our kids be bored. There is so much to do. We constantly face pressure to show off what we are doing with our kids. Whether it’s learning activities or entertainment, we want to keep our kids active so they are happy, growing and having fun. In fact, when our kids start to get bored, we don’t have much fun dealing with the whining and needy lethargy. Beingbusy is good for everyone, right? Wrong.

Letting your kids get board allows them to grow the imagination and learn self-sufficiency. Today I was going to take them to the zoo. I changed my mind and put them out to pasture in the backyard for a couple hours. I didn’t even set up a sprinkler or the water table (though those can be great options too). I can see them out there squatting in the grass. They are busy digging holes for “flags” and covering themselves in dirt. They will definitely need a shower.

Kaleb didn’t even mind when Kam put dirt in his hair. He wasn’t sad at all when he said, “Oh no… I guess I’ll have to wash my hair.” Kam then tried eating the dirt and putting it in his own hair. Because do unto others, right?

This is the stuff that childhoods are made of.

They’ve been out there for over 2 hours now and it’s starting to get dark. Time to call them in, start showers and start a late dinner. It takes a conscious effort to make time for being bored. Give them simple toys and don’t let them convince you into changing their situation. This was a challenge I heard somewhere before summer hit and I’ve been purposely incorporating it.

Have you tried this? I’d love to hear how it went.

The post Making an Effort to be Bored This Summer appeared first on MidKid Mama.

Preschool is a great opportunity to collect memories and focus on “unschooling” techniques. I love having the kids learn about nature by gardening with me or learn about math because we solved a snack problem. I also love to write down all their funny thoughts and quotes. I have journals I keep for the kids where I record the funny things they say or small memories I have about them that I’m sure I will forget with time. I also started PreK journals where they can draw, write, practice school lessons and answer questions to random questions.

This has been one of my favorite preschool projects. Watching the kids’ abilities change has been really fun. In the journals they are only allowed to work with the medium I give them (usually colored pencils so they don’t bleed through) and they have to stay on the page I give them. This is a school assignment, not a free-for-all.

Usually I let them draw whatever they want for the day, but sometimes I require they trace certain letters first or draw something specific (like a self-portrait on the first day of school). Here is a comparison of Kniya’s first day of preschool in 2016 (age 3) and her first day of preschool in 2017 (age 4):

You can see how much has changed. She knows more letters, has better pen control and has a better understanding for drawing people. She even knows how to write her name this year already. Here is Kaleb’s first preschool entry as a 3-year-old (notice how much it looks like Kniya’s first entry):

We don’t do the journals every day and I always write the date in them so I can look back and know exactly when something was drawn or answered a certain way. It’s really amazing how fast you forget how they say things or how they used to write/draw/think. As they get older, I plan to have school journals remain a part of their regular work.

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