Saturday, August 22, 2009

Two New-to-Me Ideas

So, maybe most of you have already heard about these two things (hence, they might not seem all that exciting to you), but for me, a not-on-the-computer often, don't-get-out-much, just-trying-to-take-it-one-day-at-a-time, kind of person, they are SUPER EXCITING!

1. Muffin Tin Mondays

Basically this is serving your kiddos a fun theme-based lunch out of muffin tins on Mondays. And I just happened to be at our local thrift store today and found 6 muffin tins in good condition for $1/each. There you go, I'm set. If you want to learn more, check out http://michellesjournalcorner.blogspot.com

2. Workboxes

The idea here is that you have a series of "boxes" on a shelf for your kiddos, each filled with an activity (learning toys, games, worksheets, crafts, etc) and you number the boxes from 1-whatever. Throughout the day then, your kiddos start at box #1 and work their way through all of the boxes sequentially. I think the idea originated with homeschooling students in mind, but I think preschoolers could definitely benefit from this sort of visual progression through "school" activities too. I'm hoping to get our "system" up and running this next week. We'll see if the girls are still too young to do this independently...I'm just desperate to add a bit more structure to our day, and I'm hoping that this might be the answer. If you want to learn more, check out http://docs.google.com/View?docID=dwstdgn_447mphsmf8&revision=_latest for a bunch of neat blog posts on the subject.

That's it for now. :)

1 comment:

Mariah said...

Those are great ideas Julie! We use so many visual schedules/structures for the days and activities at work for the kids there - I always tell Paul that they are so effective that I'll "implement" someday in our house too! :)