As most of you know, I have 4 kiddos: 7 year old boy, 5 year old girl, 3 year old girl and 18 month old baby girl. Oh yes. It’s busy with a capital B.
Since we homeschool and we’re together all day long, I’m always on the hunt for new, fresh ideas, especially for my younger girls. While they love Do-a-Dots and stickers, they need a different change of pace every other day or so.
Recently, I had the opportunity to review Angie’s new ebook: Finding Educational Activities in the Most Unexpected Places.
Oh my. What a plethora of magnificent ideas – truly a treasure trove of ideas to choose from!
What I Like About the Ebook
The first thing that appealed to me about this book is its layout. The activities are categorized based on the object used: balls, bubbles, egg cartons, fabric, and so on. I found this to be so helpful since if you only have balls available, you go right to that section and choose an activity. If you have a brand new box of bubble wands, you can go straight to the bubble section and select an idea.
It’s also helpful that almost all of the activities involve items you already have around the house: plastic Easter eggs, paper cups, paper bags, cotton balls, or cookie cutters. There is no need to invest in items (unless you choose to, of course). You can easily utilize most every idea in this ebook without spending a dime at the store.
This ebook focuses on all of those age-appropriate activities: gross/fine motor skills, matching, spatial and body awareness, imagination. What’s great is that I don’t have to spend lots of time researching different activities to encourage development, as the activities are completely laid out for me in this ebook. All I have to do is have one of my littles choose one and off we go! So simple!
Such Creative Ideas!
Finding Educational Activities in the Most Unexpected Places is packed full of creative ideas. In the past, we’ve only used balls for a couple of different ways in play, but wow Angie lists a ton of different ways balls can be used for play and interaction with littles! And the same goes for all of the other categories. There is idea upon idea to help encourage play with simple objects from around the house.
It is obvious that Angie has a vast amount of knowledge and experience with engaging children in meaningful play.
How We Implement These Ideas in Our Home
Like most other preschool activities, most of the suggestions in this ebook are not independent. In my experience, this age requires frequent (constant!) interaction and I do not expect a large amount of independent play. That being said, this is how I plan to implement these ideas in our homeschool day:
I’m going to divide the activities into two groups: those for my littles (3 and 18 months) to play with me and those activities they can play with one of my older kiddos (5 and 7). I am going to print out the activities and then separate them into two jars.
During their “school time” with me, they will each draw one (or 2 or 3) activities for us to play together. I consider most of the school time at this age to be play, so this is the perfect curriculum for them.
After their scheduled school time with me, they can draw an activity out of the second jar to play with an older sibling.
Since we are taking several weeks off of school before we start again in July, I haven’t had the opportunity to actually implement my method. But I’m confident it will work because:
1) My kiddos love to draw an activity out of a jar!
2) My littles get designated time to “do school” with me, which they love.
3) Playing a few of the ideas with an older sibling allows me the chance to work one-on-one (uninterrupted) with a child that needs help. It provides my little one with something productive (and fun!) to do and gives us the quiet needed to do more intensive teaching.
Where to Buy It
Finding Educational Activities in the Most Unexpected Places is available for immediate, direct download for only $5.00. In my opinion, that is a steal for the amount of ideas and suggestions (52 pages’ worth) that this ebook contains.
While the book is geared towards the preschool age, my 7 year old loves playing a few of these with his sisters. It is the perfect supplement for any family blessed with little ones!
Disclosure: I received this ebook to review for free and I received no further financial compensation. The opinions stated in this review are 100% my own. For further information, please see my disclosure page.
I love the idea of putting the activities in a jar for them to draw out. I have several books like this but find myself overwhelmed with all of the ideas, and since I don’t know where to start, I just don’t. Now I know just how to start! Thanks!!!