Family time challenge for JANUARY

[luvinmykidz]

Mods please move this to the appropriate place if this doesn't belong here.

I spend way to much time online and my kids watch WAY too much TV!! I don't do much with my kids at all and usually leave them to play together while I type on GCM :shifty

I want to challenge myself to spend some good quality time with them everyday for at least an hour maybe longer. I need to be held accountable because I have tried and failed before. I have my certificate in Early Childhood Education....I use to do preschool so I should have plenty of ideas to do with them.

Please feel free to :poke me to make sure they are getting some of my time!!! :shifty

[Living My Dream]

Yeah, I too have my early childhood NVQ 3 and still struggle some days. I want to spend more time with my LO especially seen as Im beginning to feel abit better with this hyperemesis.

I'm starting small. Yesterday, I did washing up and he played with a bowl full of water on the floor with his cups woodern spoon straws and a brush and sponge. I got loads done in the kitchen cleaning and we had lots of good discussions and play time.

Today, I'll prob let him do that again because he LOVED it! and it means my washing up getsdone effortlessly. but ive also arranged a sticky activity... ive laid a sheet of sticky back plastic down (sticky side up - i cellotaped the sides so they didnt fold up) and i chopped up bits of paper and foil and any other bits and he will get to make a sticky collage thing! Fun and not too messy.

[MarynMunchkins]

Ooh, I *love* this idea. I wanna join the challenge!! :)

[The Tickle Momster]

:raise Another who gets kids settled and comes here. :O

We got a bunch of new games for the Christmas that all 3 kids can play. I'm GOING to play with them, at least 1x today.

[luvinmykidz]

I talked to my DD (2.5) and asked her what she would like to do with me today.... she wants us to make princess crowns from paper and have a princess tea party and then read princess stories :rockon will let you know how it goes....haven't asked DS for his ideas yet but I will post and let you know how it goes :)

[Soaring Eagle]

I think I'd like to join this challenge too. I know right now as I am typing this, the children are playing together and watching tv. I want to play at least 1 game with them every day....the games are just sitting there doing nothing...

[Living My Dream]

my sticky back plastic sticking activity went we. DS really loved it. and now we have 2 lovely pictures stuck on our door waiting for daddy to come home to.

[Soaring Eagle]

We worked on a puzzle but my dd got tired of working on it so we quit. At least we spent some time together doing something that she wanted to do

[rstump]

We did smores around our bonfire pit nights in a row. Last night we played a few kids games and made popcorn. I LOVE finding activities without the TV. We are so addicted.

[mom2threegirls]

I'd love to do this too :tu. I tend to get the kids settled doing something and then just do "damage control" when they don't get along or need something :blush. They LOVE it when I actually sit down and play with them and I really need to do that more often :yes. And my oldest is REALLY needing more one on one mommy time as she is getting older. This should be some great accountability for me this month!

I already played with them a little bit, but I'm planning on getting out Memory with the little ones later today and spending some one on one time with my oldest (hopefully I can distract the youngers with something during that time ;), or get dh's help).

[HummusDip]

I need to focus on this too.

Last night dd and I read together and then read the Bible together. I'm going to head out to the dollar store in a bit and get some sponges so she can play in some water with them.

[Living My Dream]

Had some really nice story times with DS yesterday and he had a good go on the trampoline which he lovede showing me. Not sure what I'll do today cos I am not doing well today at all

[The Tickle Momster]

I've played games with all of them a couple of times. I need to focus more on connecting at rest time. :think

[luvinmykidz]

sorry forgot to update :O we made princess hats, read princess stories and had the princess tea party with candy cane tea. My older boy wanted to do a science experiment so I let him dump various baking ingredients into a big bowl and mix it all together to see what it did......He told me he made concrete lol! He had a lot of fun!!!

[Living My Dream]

I think today DS is going to just have to deal with me. I need a shower badly :bag so I'll shower and then maybe bath with him so he can play too

[Ned]

I can relate too....I also have my Early childhood quals ..... but sometimes its still hard to get motivated. I tend to hear that little voice in myhead that hears some ignorant mother saying 'Oh I know some Homeschooling kids and they are behind my kids" (yes, it really happened). SO I try a bit harder, not that I necessarily want my kids be "ahead", just happy and secure (OK....and educated) ;)

My DD(6) came in and asked what I was reading, so I showed her the Bible and she wanted me to read her some, so I started at the beginning (Creation od the world). We eneded up making a whole book about the universe from paint, drawings, colourings, etc about each day of creation and even snuck in some writing and phonics for both girls - it turned out great! Might even use the Bible as my curriculum.

I love that website list on the Homeschool thread about all the different websites available because we have already discovered a new website or 2 and the girls spent a few hours engrossed in that. Sometimes if I'm stuck for something to do I just grab a book to read to them.

[HummusDip]

Well now that I do the Motivated Mom's program, I have been reading to my dd EVERYDAY along with her listening as dh and I read the Bible EVERYDAY.

I got some sponges that she loves playing with in water but admittedly I haven't played with her while she does it.

I can't wait for the weather to warm up here so she and I can go for walks again. We went for a short one yesterday and she pointed out every puddle, "big tree", leaf, and bush. It was really cute and I enjoyed it, so did she. :)

[Living My Dream]

That sounds great. Glad your doing so great. We've read everyday. While I have so many jobs to do DS has been helping me and we've been doing it together and making it a really fun time. He's loved it, and I'm loving getting jobs done.

[Ned]

We've had an OK day today. Kids spend a fair whack of time on the computers playing on some of those websites form the list in the Homeshool Favourite websites thread and using some of the educaional software we have. We also read Dr. Suess HOP ON POP to help DD(6) with her reading. We did maths workbooks this morning which turned into playing with real money by turning them upsidedown and working out how much each one was worth and we also had to mix them up then line them up from 5c to $2 in the order of value. She also learned about division seeing that two 50c made $1, and two $1 make $2.

I think we've had a successful day.

[Living My Dream]

Today, is writing thank-you letters for christmas presents. He loves drawing and stuff so I've said he can use my special pens! *wow* but you know how kids get soooo excited about stuff.

[Soaring Eagle]

I asked my dd if she wanted to play a game and the game she wanted was on the computer. I stayed close to her so we could talk a little. That is why I like homeschooling - I get to spend some one-on-one with her. She actually likes math and is her favorite subject... :) But playing games is fun too or doing crafts together...

[luvinmykidz]

I need to be :poke I am already failing again :shifty someone send me a kick in the :shifty please :yes

[Living My Dream]

Lol bless ya. how about a :hug and :heart ot remind you that you can do it. we're all in this together. I'm struggling today too... how many times can you play slide the bricks down a mat without getting bored!

[Ned]

How can we help? What are your kids into? Maybe we can set you a little challenge or something.

How about to read them a book today and look for words that start with a certain letter they need revision on? It could also help with counting skills? Get them to draw something that was there favourite part in the book and re-tell the story?????

Hope this helps?

[Ned]

he, he, I've planned a little trick today. My eldest DD(6) resists writing so I came up with this idea. She LOVES getting mail, so I have put a couple of worksheets in an envelope and stamped and addressed it to put in the letter box. I got them off this website and the parent & child are suppossed to sign them when they are completed. It all looks very official. I think both my girls will be so excited when they get their letters they'll get straight to work. I'll let you know what happens.......... ;)

http://www.ed.gov/pubs/CompactforReading/table1.html

[luvinmykidz]

That link looks cool :yes
well we always do about 45 min of reading with the kids every night before bed so we get lots of reading in........I am just finding it really difficult to juggle 3 when they all want to do different things :doh

[Ned]

Yeah I struggled with that last year but I found as they got older, the younger one wanted to do what the older was doing, so I just gave her a simpified version of the same thing.

I also tried putting stuff like simple activity toys, out on the coffee table first thing in the morning and my youngest got interested in that, then I could do something with the older one. I also kept a list of 'grab' activities nearby ont he wall so if she cameover, I could grab something else for her to do, like playdough or construction toy or Leap pad. I had a list of about 25 things because I could never think of them when I was under pressure. :phew It usually got us through the first couple of hours, which was sometimes all that we needed.

[luvinmykidz]

I think it is so hard because my youngest is only 2 months old....maybe when he requires less nursing and changings life will get a little easier :)

[Ned]

Oh yeah, give your self time to settle in ands get used to the change. Don't put too much pressure on yourself. :hug2 Why not try a few educational DVD's for a while? Is your new little one an easy baby?

[luvinmykidz]

He is pretty easy....he likes to be held alot but other then that is easy. He sleeps very well.....I have just recently found some good christian toddler dvd's on netflix that we are going to try. One is called baby praise. Kinda like the little einstein shows except that they use christian praise music instead. I think my DD may like them :yes

[Ned]

Sounds good. By the way, he's very cute!

I spent the morning cleaning out last years Homeschool craft draw, making room for this years stuff. I found some great work, some of which I will keep for the memories. Am trying to start getting officially ready and organised for this year. This thread is actually motivating me YAY! Keep chatting and challenging me please! :yes

[Living My Dream]

:rockon we :heart :heart praise baby!!! they do a few dvds they re great.

[Ned]

So how is everyone going????? We are just recovering from a wild storm yesterday. We just got power back about an hour ago. Big trees came down on both entrances to our property - one just snapped completely in half - a huge gum tree it was. It was a very scary storm - it went completely white outside and we got 56mm in just 15mins. The wind made the whole house shake. The place ,ooked like a bomb went off.

Haaah.....anyway, now that the adrenalin is settling and we are getting somewhat back to normal life again its time to start thinking about meeting this challenge. We sat and reviewed number 9 for a few hours (they keep getting it confused with number 6 and it kept the girls minds off how scared they were yesterday. We mostly used stensils and workbooks. I have typed out the goals that I want them to achieve over this year and printed off a 99 page booklet from http://www.ed.gov/pubs/CompactforReading/table1.html with a step x step worksheet program for learning to read/phonics. I have found a new maths program to try as well. So here goes. First we are going to review the alphabet sounds and we started with long and short A and start those worksheets.

Oh yeah, my idea to post the girls their work was a hit with my 4.5 year old - she did it straight away. My 6 year old did her later on and pretty much finished it - well she learned what I wanted her to learn anyway. YAY!

[Living My Dream]

Glad the post thing worked! Im looking for some UK workshhets for my 2 year old... also need to fix my printer so that i can print them off!!!

We doing ok until today! Going to get plastercine out in abit...

[Soaring Eagle]

I forgot to come here and say that on Thursday we made cookies. In the AM I made the dough and then in the afternoon, my daughter and I made the shapes. She enjoyed it a lot. Yesterday we had our homeschool co-op and we did spend some time together, helping her with her art.

[Ned]

Hey MamaJuli, I was wondering if you were coming back to chat? Good on you with the playdough!

I've continued with the postage thing - it worked well so I'll keep going with it and have slipped their next lot of work in the letter box. We are doing Australian states this week with the floral emblems which will lead us into why those flowers grow there - the climate, etc. We alos are celebrating Australia Day this Saturday so we are going to the celebrations. I slipped some Australian flag stickers into their schoolwork envelopes to get thenm a bit excited - hopefully.

I'm really enjoying checking in to this thread - it makes me more accountable.

[Ned]

OK, now I'm really serious - if you look below ay my signature you'll see a brand new link - its to our brand spanking new Homeschooling blog. I got REALLY serious. I figured that if I got this blog going it would mean that I was more accountable because I have to report in on what we've been doing. :type2 What do you think?

[Soaring Eagle]

I like your blog :) I left you a comment

[Holiday]

I played the WII with my kids last night for an hour. They were laughing so much. Tonight we are going to go see a movie when they get home from school at the cheap movie theater. Then we will come home and watch American Idol together. We always make a party out of it.

[luvinmykidz]

Tomorrow we are taking the kids to Mcdonalds for lunch and then we are going to go play at the Science center for a couple hours.

[Soaring Eagle]

Yesterday, while my daughter was coloring on her math page, I made myself stay there and sit beside her instead of going on the computer...I know she likes it when I stay with her...she's been more clingy for the past 2 weeks so I should spend more time with her. She is still sleeping (woke up way to early) on the couch so I'm here checking emails and this board.

[Ned]

Good on you for staying with her - she would have loved that. :rockon

[Soaring Eagle]

I think right now she needs more Mommy time than before. Maybe she is seeing how much time I am spending with my 21 month old and she wants this same attention. I know now she wants to be rocked like I do my son...

[pastelsummer]

hmmmm I have a 7month old DD and a 1y/o dn and a 3y/o dn what can I DO with them? I have no clue how to play with any of them

[Ned]

Off the top of my head here's a couple of ideas.

Push them round in the wash trolley.
water play with sponges or little continers (can be in the bath - its summer here so I'm in the way of thinking).
Get a box of blocks out and build with them. Play hiding toys under a blanket or in a few simple places around the room.
Coloured Paper tearing (and gluing)
Hide n seek
Dancing to music
Give them the peg basket, little ones enjoy pulling them off after you've pegged them on to their clothes.
Make a cubby from a big box or blanket and read books inside.

[Ned]

How's everyone going? What have you been doing? :poke

I just updated our new Homeschool blog (link below) so we have been able to keep up the challenge. Looking forward to February one.

[Ned]

Hey everyone. Wondering if there's gonna be a FEBRUARY family challenge time thread? I loved last months one - it made me get totally organised. I've even got a brand spankin new Homeschool blog going.....http://homeschoollearningforlife.wordpress.com/
I love it because it really does make me more accountable. I feel lik everyone os watching to see if I've done anything with my kids this week........ even though they are probably not, but it certainly encourages me to keep it up. :tu