Special Activities from A to Z

With 4 kids six years of age and younger, school doesn't take all day.

J is doing Kindergarten/First grade this year, T is doing Preschool/Kindergarten, E is doing very early letter, number, and color recognition stuff, and j is tearing our house apart all morning :)

Really, we take a couple of hours in the morning to do seatwork-type stuff, then the big boys and I do our big read-aloud and tougher Arithmetic once the little boys are down for naps.

The afternoon, though? Well, we often find ourselves bored...believe it or not. (And maybe the kids aren't bored, maybe it's me feeling like we need the structure of our afternoons to at least be similar to the structure of our mornings.) Anyway, since I don't want to be a slave to a school-like daily schedule (one of my reasons for homeschooling!), I decided to come up with a list of ideas. We can use it, or not!! It's not a schedule or routine I will feel guilty about if we are all just having fun being outside all afternoon...but if everyone is fighting, children are misbehaving, and we need an organized activity, this list will come to the rescue :)

If you have any ideas of ANYTHING at all, I will be happy to steal it and use it in my home. Please do share!!

Special Activities from A to Z

*All can be done in the comfort of our own home!!

A: Art project

B: Bake something, bubbles, balloons, balls

C: Car wash (real or with toy cars), Cook dinner with Mom, "Create" box (a box full of random craft supplies, where imaginations can run wild)

D: Dance party!

E: Egg hunt (no matter what time of year)

F: Frisbee, Fruit Kabobs, Fence letter shooting,

G: Game Day, Gak/Goop

H: Horses (we have some down the street we like to pet and feed), Hide and Seek

I: Ice cream sundaes, Ice painting

J: Jump Rope

K: Kickball

L: Lemonade stand

M: Music, Motion (exercise), Mud pies

N: Nature walk (draw what we see/hear, make a treasure basket of our collections, or decorate a nature table from our findings)

O: Outside games/races, Obstacle course

P: Puzzles, painting, play dough, puddy, plastic cup pyramids, pillow pile, picnic (inside or outside)

Q: Q-tip painting with shaving cream and paint/food coloring

R: Read books on Mom and Dad's bed, Redbox movie, Relay races

S: Salt dough, shaving cream, special snack, sprinkler, swim, Skype with relative(s), Sidewalk chalk

T: Take a treat to neighbors

U: Undercover letter/number/color hunt

V: Make a volcano

W: Water fight, Wooden blocks, Water bottle bowling

X:

Y: Yoga balls (our kids love playing with the couple we have. Throw a yoga ball at a boy and knock him smack down to the floor, and you have apparently made his day.)

Z: Ziploc painting