♥ Make pancakes (or another favorite)…from scratch and all together as a family.  Check out The Minimalist Baker for tons of delicious pancake recipes, including allergy friendly options. Try to be as hands-off as possible, you can teach but try just watching and listening. Once you are ready, arrange everything on a tray, complete with you favorite morning drinks.

♥ Crawl back into bed all together and eat…read to them, tell jokes or play would-you-rather.  Follow the links for ideas if you need inspiration!  Try to really listen and make eye contact, again, let them do most of the talking. 

♥ Head to the kitchen and wash up the morning dishes, everyone can have a task – wash and dry the dishes, wash down the counters, give the floor a quick sweep.  Playing your favorite music during this time is a great way to keep everyone in a fun frame of mind. The goal is togetherness not a spotless kitchen. 

♥ Time to burn off some steam and get moving!  Try this quick exercise routine, or one of your personal favorites, and get everyone’s blood pumping for the day.  

♥ DIY Spa time!  Head to the kitchen and whip up some face masks for the whole family.  Find your favorite recipe here and enjoy the wonderful relaxing experience of you child applying a gooey concoction to your face…remember, it’s about connection not perfection. Feel free to do nails and back rubs as well, and don’t forget cucumber slices for your eyes!

♥ Time to clean up! Showers for anyone that needs one and then everyone gets dressed for the day.  The catch?  Everyone is challenged to wear every color of the rainbow AND the kids will be doing their parent’s hair.  You’ve always wanted a faux-hawk, right?

♥ Lunch will be taken care of by the kids.  Take a breather while they create menus, set the table and prepare your meal.  You might end up with a granola bar, 12 cheerios and a glob of hummus but remember, it’s the thought that counts!  

♥ If getting outside is an option, now is the time to do it!  Go for a hike or simply play in the yard.  Teach you kids a sport or game that you loved as a child.  If you do not have an outdoor space or the weather is not cooperating, blow bubbles out the window and enjoy the fresh air.  Try one of this simple DIY bubble recipes. 

♥ Time to get creative! Grab a large sheet of paper or canvas and create art together.  You could each draw yourselves for a fun family portrait, draw a tree and everyone uses a favorite color to stamp fingerprint leaves or use a dice and every number you roll correlates to a different art medium (markers, paint, yarn, salt, glitter) that you will need to use on your collaborative art. Have fun! 

♥ Serve others together!   Create cards and gifts for your neighbors.  DIY playdough makes a lovely gift for families and little bouquets of wildflowers or baked goods are always a hit! Take this opportunity to talk about how your neighbors will react to their gifts and then enjoy watching the kids leave the packages on doorsteps, ringing the doorbell and dashing away.  

♥ Time for supper prep!  Why not make pizza from scratch?  Here are a few fun ideas to spice things up a little. Make your own dough and let the kids shape theirs like their favorite animal or make silly faces with their toppings.  

♥ While supper is cooking, introduce the kids to your favorite songs from your childhood or teenage years.  Take turns playing your favorites and belting them out together.

♥ After supper,  let the kids enjoy a soak in the tub and surprise them with one of these ideas!  You could also play music and use essential oils to help them unwind from the day.

♥ With everyone clean and back in their jammies, create the ultimate blanket fort for a fun family movie night!  Use every pillow you can find and make your nest as comfy as can be…throw a mattress in there and add some twinkle lights if it’s an option!

♥ Pop some popcorn with an air popper or stove top style and grab your favorite treats.  Be sure to choose a movie that everyone will enjoy, we don’t want anyone tempted to check their phones because the movie is mind-numbingly dull!  Snuggle and laugh together, watch their little faces as they repeat every line to you…connect.

♥ If sleeping together in the fort is an option, go for it!  Talk about your day, remember your favorite parts and tell each other how much you love each other over and over.  Sleep tight, family! 

I hope you found connection today and had fun making new memories!

-Sue 

The post Family Day Ideas first appeared on Reaching Happy.

“If we want them to move mountains, we must first allow them to get out of their chairs!”. 

So, here are a few options to encourage movement in your child’s day, especially when the weather keeps you indoors. Enjoy! 

Chair Ball – We use this at our school table as a seat (that allows for bouncing) and then the girls can flip it over, grab on and bounce around the house. Our youngest, at one point, was so obsessed with this ball, she parked it next to her bed and bounced out on it in the mornings! This chair ball is fabulous for building core strength and great for wiggly kids.  If you want something a little more discreet, I highly recommend a wobble seat, perfect for restaurants or co-ops with friends. It truly gives them a chance to “actively sit” and increases their attention span. 

Resistance bands – These stretchy bands can be fastened around the legs of your child’s chair. This allows them to push and pull against the bands with their feet.  It increases concentration and releases pent up energy. Our kids love them!

Balance Boards  – The girls will hop on their boards while I read, when answering questions or they will set it up next to the table and work away on their lessons. I love that it can be flipped upside down to introduce a whole new option for play. 

Scooter Boards – There are a million ways a scooter board can be introduced to your school day…I think we have tried them all! We often will place a “goal” at the end of our long hallway and the girls will go back and forth to retrieve the desired item.  We have done this with puzzle pieces, alphabet or number cards, days of the week, months of the year, spelling their name etc…back and forth, one at a time until they have retrieved all the pieces and have them in order. They go on their bellies, using their arms to “walk” along or on their bottoms using their feet to scoot forward or backwards…the possibilities are endless.

Swings – We purchased a swing for a corner of our living room and have never looked back.  The girls love swaying back and forth while I read to them or while discussing subjects together.  

Pop-up Tunnel – I love the huge impact this tunnel has when I bring it out AND I triple love that I can just fold it flat and tuck it under the bed when we are all done! We use this mainly when we set up obstacle courses but often the girls will use it as a little hideaway to read in.

Mini-trampoline – Our little mini-trampoline has been going strong for the past five years. The girls call out answers to flash cards or lesson reviews while bouncing away.  This is perfect for burning off steam and is excellent in boosting the circulation of their lymphatic systems. 

Scooters – We also bring out the scooters when cabin fever really sets in during the long months of winter.  Around the kitchen island and down the long hallway they go…reciting poetry, answering questions or just listening to music or audiobooks. 

Jump Rope – Another useful tool to have when the outdoors are simply not an option!  Both of our girls love having little breaks to skip.  Put on a favorite song or audiobook and let them burn off some energy.  

What are your favorite ways to keep your littles active while learning when outdoors just isn’t an option?

Sue

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The post Encouraging Movement in the Classroom first appeared on Reaching Happy.

In following The Playful Pioneers curriculum this week, we were led to study bees, beeswax and their common nectar sources.  This study inspired the below activities and then so much more…we “followed the spark” and down the rabbit-hole we went for a fun-filled week studying all things bees!

We used both Nature Anatomy and Farm Anatomy by Julia Rothman to kick off our study and repeatedly, throughout our week as reference.  After recreating bees and their common nectar sources with pom poms and markers, we moved on to study their anatomy. 

We used THESE beautiful, free printables by The Homeschool Scientist to discover and label the parts of a bee and also, how to identify worker, drone and queen bees. 

I love using a black felt mat to present these materials, it makes the illustration pop, keeps the parts all in one place and gives focus to our study. 

The girls were so intrigued by the bees’ pollen baskets that it was only natural to move on to a closer look at pollen and nectar.

We made little bumbles with pompoms, craft foam and pipe cleaners.  

Bee Pom Poms by CalCastle

We then made a beautiful food source for them…a mason jar filled with apple juice “nectar” and topped with a colourful flower, complete with pompoms covered in glitter “pollen”.   

The girls had bumble bee wings they adorned and buzzed in for a sip of nectar and to let their bumbles pick up some of the glittery pollen.  

Bee Costume by Cutie Collections

We read this sweet yet fact-filled story of the importance of bees in our natural world.  This book really hit home for the girls and they both were struck with the thought of what the world would be like without bees. 

“No Honey!” said Miss 4…”no fruit…no veggies…no flowers??” said Miss 7.

Big City Bees by Maggie de Vries

We read a mountain of bee themed books this week and I will share my favourites as we go…but these two were gold stars in my opinion!

The Life and Times of the Honeybee by Charles Micucci

Bees: A Honeyed History by Piotr Socha 

We learned that in addition to pollen and nectar, field bees also gather water from puddles and sap from plant buds.  What do they use all these materials for?  “The Life and Times of the Honeybee” by Charles Micucci explains it beautifully but basically, it is all for the benefit of the hive. 

We decided to make a fun little beehive of our very own using a styrofoam ball, honey comb shaped cereal, yellow paint and a stick.  We discussed how actual hives are made and the difference between wild bees and farm raised bees.  We love our little hive!

While exploring the hive we learned that bees work so hard to care for the next generation of bees, so we next delved into the life-cycle of a bee!

We used THESE gorgeous, free printables by Montessori Soul…they paired so nicely with our bee life cycle set!

Bee Life Cycle by Safari Ltd

We took the time to read more books and enjoyed a few videos online at this point.

The Honey Makers by Gail Gibbons

The Honeybee Man by Lela Nargi

This one was definitely a top contender for Top Bee Book!  We all loved it!

 Flight of the Honey Bee by Raymond Huber

While we read, we kept little hands busy with a bee themed mini-playdough kit. 

Honeycomb shaped cereal, googly eyes, yellow jewels, silver jewels, black pipe cleaner and yellow play dough.  I laid out our Farm Anatomy by Julia Rothman for inspiration…queen bee, worker bee or drone bee…what would two little girls choose to do??  QUEEN BEE all the way! 

We next talked about all the wonderful things bees provide for us and how they are used. 

In our home, we use beeswax when making salve for colds, aches and pains and insomnia or for candle making.  

We decided we would make a new batch of salve using beeswax and lavender, we followed the recipe provided with The Playful Pioneer curriculum cook book…HERE is one by A Delightful Home that is very similar.

Beeswax Pellets by Beesworks

We also enjoyed hexagon shaped crackers and local honey (which, by the way,has helped us all immensely in battling allergies last season!) as our snack for the day. 

Honey Dipper Lid by Jarware

Luke’s Chia Seed Crackers

We also incorporated our theme into our math studies for the week…

These Bees Count by Alison Formento

Geo-board bees…

Counting fun with the help of The Sylvan Reverie’s gorgeous printables HERE…

and a fun game…

Build a tower of honeycombs for the bee by taking turns rolling the dice and stacking up the matching number of honeycombs.  The tallest tower after 5 rounds wins!

What a fun week!  What are your favorite bee books and activities?

Sue

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The post A Closer Look at Bees first appeared on Reaching Happy.