5 Minute Time Fillers for Schooling at Home Families (or for Anyone :-D)

5 minutes fillers, a bit of a lifesaver!

The life of a schooling at home family can be made VERY interesting when computers or programs start acting up.  Also, when you school multiple students, it seems like they all need you at the same time.  By year 3, I had it somewhat figured out what they could do independently, what they would need me for and planned their daily schedule accordingly.  But...there always seems to be some "wait time".  Wait time can equal goof off and distract your siblings time also.  :-D  One solution:  have a selection of profitable fillers ready for them to choose from while they are waiting for you.  Always good that you have a planned signal that they are waiting for you to help them.

Manipulative Ideas

Sandwich Bag of Legos

Task:  Create an item using ONLY the legos provided.  Be ready to share with the rest of the family when time permits.

Manual Sign Language

Task:  use the chart to sign through the alphabet.  Learn to spell your first name and work until you can sign it quickly and smoothly. Then move onto last name.  If time allows, learn your family members' names or practice your spelling words using sign language.

You can print this chart, click here.

Language Arts Ideas
Free Reading

Task:  Grab your chapter book you are working on and read until mom gets to you.

Maybe a bookmark to color would be fun?  :-D  There are plenty online if you google them but to get the above ones you can get them by clicking here.  :-)

Search A Word/Cross Word Dollar Store Books

Task:  write your name at the top of one of the puzzles so that if you don't finish now, you can later. Work on the puzzle while time allows.

I also have themed ones that I place into binders, inside of page protectors and they use dry erase markers.  Then they can be reused.  Of course you can find these online too.

  

     A Kids Heart            Kids Puzzles and Games

Consider mazes, hidden pictures also!

Brainstorming

(I find that many students struggle with this so I often slip this kind of activity into our day.  I write brainstorming ideas on index cards and they write everything they can think of on that card, front and back.  Soon, I'll be posting a document with brainstorming ideas that you can print if you.  Keep and eye out for it!)

Task: spread the cards upside down and close your eyes.  Chose one card and write on it everything you can think of that comes to mind after you read the task.

Write a Letter

Task:  choose a family member to write a letter to.

Boggle

Task:  grab a piece of paper, give the boggle board a shake and write how many words you can find.

Fine motor-just for fun Ideas
Chopsticks

Task: use provided chopsticks and pom poms to practice picking up and moving them.  Can you create a shape or picture?

FingerWeaving

Task:  Grab a ball of yarn, start fingerweaving.  If you want to add onto it later, put a pencil through the loops when you need to stop.

Instructions 

Not exactly how it comes out for us...but it's the same process.  Here's a pic of my boys doing it.

Pipe Cleaners

Task:  Grab 5 pipecleaners, what can you make?  Be ready to share your creation with the rest of your family when time allows.

Playdough

Task:  grab a container or bag of playdough and a tray or mat.  Work with playdough until mom can get to you.

You can always make your own.  Here is my favorite home made cooked play dough recipe.

Cooked Homemade Playdough
1 C. flour
1/2 C. salt
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 C. water
1 tsp. vegetable oil
food coloring (or I often use a packet of kool-aid.  Inexpensive, bold colors and a lovely smell.  :-))

Paper Airplanes

Task: Fold various types of airplanes, using scrap paper.  Find an area which would not be distracting to others and test your airplane.  Change the variables: type of paper, size of paper, folds, etc.

Art Ideas

Chalk Art

Task:  create a winter picture using white chalk on black construction paper.  (When done, have mom help you spray with aersol can of hairspray so it doesn't smudge as easy.)

Doodle

(I bought small sketch books for each of my students).

Task:  Doodle or sketch in your sketchbook.

Oil Pastels

Task:  Grab a package of pastels and a black or white piece of construction paper.  Enjoy exploring.

AntiColoring Sheets

Task:  Choose a printed coloring sheet to color using colored pencils.

You can find them online or you can purchase books also.

 

http://www.geometrip.com/free/coloring/designs/rectangles/page2.html

I actually do not find many when I google "anticoloring" mainly because that' is probably a copyrighted product.  So, when searching online, google "design coloring".

Math Ideas

Math Facts

Task:  set timer for 5 minutes, fill in as many multiplication fact answers as possible on chart.

There are many blank charts available but here is one for you.  You can find this one....and several other multiplication charts at Math-Salamander

Number Pattern Task Cards

(On index cards write a beginning of a number pattern.)

Task:  Grab a piece of paper and a task card.  Begin by writing down the initial pattern and then complete it with the next 5 numbers.  Finish that task card by writing out the pattern rule underneath the numbers.  Continue onto next card.  

examples:

2, 4, 6, 8,    count by 2s 

3, 8, 18,  38     add 1, multiply by 2

Also, there are a lot of logic/brain teaser sheets available online or you can purchase a book of them.  These make GREAT time fillers!

My kids love these kinds of brain teasers :-)  

http://printable.my3gb.com/printable-brain-teasers.html

Brain Teaser Examples here:

http://www.netplaces.com/kids-riddles-brain-teasers/puzzle-answers/

Logic puzzle example

http://www.squiglysplayhouse.com/PencilPuzzles/More/AnimalLogicPuzzle.html

Let your imagination go!  If you have your own time fillers that are a success, please share the in comments!

November Calendars and the Chore That Wears Me Out the Most :-D

So, how did those calendars work for me?  Well, I created two for December.  Ha!  

Did having a menu save me $$$?

     I don't think as much as I initially thought it would.  However, it did help my sanity!  We can't really put a $$$ label on that!  :-D  It made life so much easier to know what was planned the next day (even if I did have to move things around...at least there was recipes ready at my fingertips and know that the majority of the ingredients were here).  

I put the calendar at the front of the binder and the recipes I printed into page protectors.  I can go back to them when I want to put them back into another rotation...and I'm keeping the ones I marked as "fails" for awhile, until I remember, because often I repeat a recipe, forgetting I had already tried it...and of course, we get the same response.  LOL

Chore calendar:  absolutely!  Definitely need to allow flexibility but it was so nice to have that ready and with no need to think about what needs to be done.  Basics were done each week. Maybe not as good as if I had done it myself...but at least it wasn't being left to get dirtier and dirtier!   I got a good idea of how often a chore needed done and what I needed to add TO the calendar.  I will definitely continue this...tweaking it as I go along.  I now have it taped to the wall at the top of the basement stairs so that when they head up from after our school morning...they see it.  :-D  T., 5 years, is the only one I really need to remind and instruct.  

Side note:  practicality weighed over visually appealing.  :-)  No matter what, a pile of towels, bibs and who knows what else ended outside the door of the basement to go to the laundry.  Well, baby loves those dirty things.  EW!  Anyway, can't plop them on the carpet of the landing and heaven knows the only person who takes them down is me, so a plastic bin became a necessity.  :-)  

So the basics are covered...now how about some advice in getting done the other stuff....the extras...like the boxes that are still piled up in the basement from our move in August?  Keeping up with the bills and the receipts?   Getting MY closet organized and not just the kids?  Homeschooling stuff organized so we can more easily find it all?  the garage...so that my dear husband can park his car in the garage also? 

 What are your tips?

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Mommy chores = never ending

There are some chores that just should be done more frequently then they are but there just isn't enough time in the day, especially when you are a schooling at home mommy and are "working" during the day.  However, there is a chore that MUST be done weekly....it should be done more...but at least it's getting done more thoroughly weekly.  :-D Monday night, yep, I'm completely exhausted by the time I'm done.  Might have something to do with Mondays, in general, are the absolutely most busiest day of the week.  School day is the longest, piano lessons, and the such.  
But, it's got to be done...so here's our procedure....

Kids, get the chairs and boosters wiped down, after supper, and moved out of the kitchen.   Typically a child washes the table and sweeps but if it's a certain child's assigned chore for that day, I usually end up just doing it myself and get disgusted with myself because I thought he could handle it...and I knew better.  :-D  

Anyway, then I start into Bar Keeper Friending the sink.  BLAH!  But!  I got smart today and wore gloves!  :-D  Doesn't stop my fingers, wrists, and elbows from aching though.  I really should buy stock in Bar Keeper's Friend, the amount we go through each week.  This sink is the absolute worse to keep clean and these counter tops....yeah, if we ever build a house, we are not going with Corian.  Yes, it has some pros but boy oh boy...it takes a LOT of work and heaven help if you drop anything on it.  No such thing as easy clean up.  You think you got it clean and wipe your hand over it and ew!  ESPECIALLY where I work with dough.  The sinks stains within 24 hours of cleaning it and I used to fret about it but I just say, "oh well", now.  Kids wash paintbrushes and paint is everywhere and stains stains stains.  We use pasta sauce, stains.  Anything with color, stains.  Ugh!  So maybe you have an idea now why I'm exhausted by the time I'm done.  SCRUB, the sink, the countertops, tile on the backboard and up the wall, everything on them, stainless steal appliances, micro, coffee pot....EVERYTHING.  Give it a good ol' scrub.  It's absolutely amazing how dirty that kitchen gets in such a short time.  General wiping down every day just does not cut it.  Seems way more then our old kitchen...and there were way more kids in the old kitchen.  LOL  Then it's onto the floor.  Another thing I won't do...tile floors.  Steam mop does NOT do well with tile floors but I really don't have the energy to do it the old fashion way.  LOL   My knees don't want to either!  One benefit would be that I shouldn't get warm with scrubbing by hand because the floor is so COLD!  :-D   Okay, I admit...the kitchen of our "new" house is not my favorite . I liked my old kitchen better.  But, that being said, we can't have everything we want so, we just make do.  There are many positive things about this house that outweigh the cons.  :-)

Final word:  if you want to stop in and visit...you might want to come Tuesday evenings.  Floors on the main floor look nice for less then 24 hours....and the kitchen MAY be clean, since Tuesday is usually a bread day...I can't guarantee it.  LOL

Do you have a chore that exhausts you?

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Let me end on a more positive note though!  The lovely Kitchen Aid mixer seen in the picture above....that was a wedding gift from my mom and dad :-).  It hardly ever got used at the old house.  Only my husband would pull it out and then I'd get my nose all wrinkled up because guess who had to put it away.  Yeah...not fun.  BUT!  Here at this house....it stays on the counter ALL THE TIME!  And that also means...it gets used!  Quite frequently actually...since I'm starting into making our own buns and bread.  Makes baking bread a whole lot easier!  Thank goodness for the Kitchen Aid!  :-D

Inquiry Based Science---M & M explorations----fun stuff!

I've always felt that Inquiry Based Science is the way to go to get the most out of science.  We had gotten into the habit of "read the material-take the checkpoint" and science wasn't fun anymore.  Great info...but not applied or thought about after the fact and thus not retained for long.  So, I came across this freebie that is guiding us through some Inquiry Based Science lessons.  Wow!  We've had so many good discussions already! They've been actively using the scientific method, and coming up with their own questions and hypothesis and what variables could be changed also.  

Here's a fun looking freebie to help remember the steps in the Scientific Method:

There are so many poster freebies out there for this method!  Surely can't get bored!  Change is good, so I don't even laminate them...when one is needing to be replaced, because it's been used and abused, I print a different one.  :-D  You can get this one free at Teachers Pay Teachers.

The downfall, if one can call it that, is that there are so many directions we can take...we can easily spend an hour and a half in history and science...and still have more questions to explore.  Ha!  How do we progress through material but be able to touch on all those other concepts that come up?  We'll get it figured out.  :-)  At the moment I like being more relaxed and touching on many science concepts.   One way we are handling the "extra" questions is by writing our questions on post it notes and sticking them the wall so mom remembers.  :-D  We get to them as time allows.

You can find this book to download free at Inquiry In Action!  I'm very impressed with it!  We tweak it to work for my kiddos, K, 4th, and 6th grade, and we are slipping some Chem4Kids in between the first and the second lessons because dissolving brings up molecules and so on.  Good refresher for them and for myself too!  As a homeschooling mom, I never take the "I know it all" attitude because I surely don't.  I have to relearn or even plain ol' learn it the first time right along with them.  That has pros and cons.  Number 1) I can't always answer their questions but on the other side it makes us all have to dig a little deeper to find the answers and that is ALWAYS beneficial!  Learning to be a life-long learner.

Some pics from our first exploration

Our materials were

foam plates, package of M & Ms, colored pencils, room temperature water.  

We went from there!  It was so fun to put all that in front of them and ask them to come up with their own question about the material.  One of my goals is to get these kiddos back to "I wonder" thinkers ... the first step to problem solving... in my opinion.  

drawing out what they saw on their plates 

It was really neat to see the colors go above and below each other but not mix!  The kids were able to bring in their past knowledge, make new observations, try the experiment changing a variable.  So fun...yes, it's the way to go!  :-D

Variables they changed and explored:

water temperature

color of candy

type of candy

number of candies on a plate

I found that they asked many of the questions that the document suggested they would.  :-)

Problem we came across...those foam plates all raise up in the center...they are not flat. 

Problems are just fine...it ended up being a variable.  :-D

What's up next?

* Review on the states of matter

* Gummi bear explorations- physical change-all matter has volume-osmosis

*starting second lesson in Inquiry in Action document.

We've gotten a good start on our History project so they can be relatively independent for this next week, so the focus is on Science in the morning instead of history, I will have some happy kiddos!  Yeah!

Year of Emma & a Bit of Mommy Guilt :-D

Doesn't that title sound so serious?!  I've read all sorts of "mommy guilt" articles over the years and yes, there is something to feeling guilty about doing stuff for ourselves or expecting others to help us or expecting everything to be done...but not getting it done because, guess what, we aren't superhumans.  I have had all of that over the years.  Most recent maybe is this....maybe you will notice as I share 1st year pics of Emma Mae.  :-)

Happy Birthday Emma!  This year flew!

 December 2013

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Clue: this one does not fit the pattern.  :-)

January 2014

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February 2014

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March 2014

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April 2014

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Clue:  this one didn't follow the pattern---deep down I know that temperature plays a part.

 May 2014

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Okay, I don't feel extremely bad now...this month had very few pics to feed my "guilt trip"...unfortunately, I know that I just didn't take as many pictures probably.

Happy 6 months old!

June 2014

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Okay, obviously it's summer....only 2ish pics in this month followed the pattern.  :-D

July 2014

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 Obviously there was a favorite :-D

August 2014

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September 2014
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This one is just too cute not to share...but it doesn't follow the pattern either :-)

October 2014

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Definitely changing at 11 months.  No "little baby" anymore, that's for sure!

November 2014
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Happy 1st Birthday Emma!

December 5, 2014


So, did you find the pattern?  Yep, Emma spends most of her days in a sleeper.  LOL  It's just way easier...and now we are back to cooler weather...it's more practical.  However, I do feel a little bit guilty about this, for whatever reason.  I really should be getting her dressed.  :-D