Since my oldest child Henry (31/2) is not in preschool, I try to "homeschool" him a little bit, but it is really hard to find activities to include Mary Taylor (16 months) without her screaming and messing everything up. I usually just wait until she goes down for her afternoon nap and then we do "school"...when I am feeling it that particular day. Today, I brought the plastic Easter eggs out of the closet and randomly thought to do an Easter egg hunt around the house. Well, considering they were already playing dress up, it became the Chicken/ Monkey Easter Egg Hunt! I hid the eggs while they waited in the other room. They had the best time looking for the eggs and putting them in their Easter buckets. Henry wanted to know where all the treats were... I just told him this was a practice Easter Egg Hunt and the real one was on Saturday in our neighborhood. He was ok with this...sort of. When they finished searching for eggs, we then counted and sorted them by color. This did not last very long, because Mary Taylor kept taking the ones we were counting, but Henry got the idea. After the first hunt, Henry decided he wanted to put his small Play Mobile hats in the plastic Easter eggs so he could have "treasures" when he found them again on the next search. We did this about three more times. It kept them entertained for an hour!
As a former elementary teacher, I want to provide my children with great crafts and lessons, but planning for them takes time and it is hard enough to do the basic things to take care of a family. Buying the materials takes money, so when it's the end of the month...it just doesn't happen. But, I love it when I "happen upon" a fun, learning activity, that all can enjoy! So, just thought I would share! I would love to know of activities that your families enjoy, especially with two younger children. Please pass them along!
