As I mentioned previously, I decided to put his preschool activities in his siblings' workboxes/envelopes along with index cards that say, "spend time with Little Man". So one day his sister had a bunch of fat markers in her envelope and a picture of Thomas the Tank Engine. The box their brother's birthday present had come in was really huge and I had cut and taped it into the shape of a train engine. Our daughter did the rest. Didn't it turn out great?! Little Man has had so much fun in this!
The next 3 photos show his special one on one time with each of our 3 oldest children during one day. With his 12 year old sister he spelled words and said all the sounds of the letters with this felt alphabet train.
His 9 year brother played Gobblet Jr with him.
And his 10 year old brother helped him draw with stencils.
Here are a few activities from another day: playing Quirkle.
Making a torn tissue paper butterfly. These were the items in our daughter's envelope. The "spend time with Little Man" index card is velcroed to the front of the envelope. She took everything out and knew immediately what to do, since I had already glued a few pieces of torn tissue paper to the butterfly shape as an example.
I didn't take a picture of this, but his brother G did a color wonder coloring book with him that day.
In addition to these times with siblings, Little Man has two times (at least!) during the day when he reads books with me. One with just me, and one with me and his brother C. So that is always their sibling time together. All of our children have LOVED their time with Little Man so much! And I am so thankful that workboxes/envelopes have made it easier for me to arrange these times and to utilize so many fun activities. Yay for workboxes!!
what a brilliant plan! little man must really be feeling the love these days ;o)
ReplyDeleteThat is great!
ReplyDeleteAre you feeling like less of a director? This seems to be working so well for you.
ReplyDeleteBeth in TX: Yes, I feel less like a director! The children are hearing much less of "come here" and "let's do this now" and "time for xyz", etc. I love that!
ReplyDeleteI would think that there is also less of "Mom, what do I do now?" said just as you are going over something w/ someone else and thus interrupting your moments with them. This is the whole appeal to me -- that I would be juggling less balls all at once.
ReplyDeleteIt's working out wonderfully! I know that you have to put a lot of effort into organizing and prepping, but it looks like it is worth it!
ReplyDeleteGreat job!!! I loved seeing how your son spent time with his siblings! I am enjoying that about the workboxes too.
ReplyDeleteI just bought qwirkle and am looking forward to playing it with my children.
Love the train! What a great job they did!
Blessings
Leslie
So I've been scouring the net, starting with your blog, for ideas to put in workboxes for my youngest two for next fall. I saw a few Discovery Toys links. Do you have a consultant that you work with? If so, do they have a website? I don't know any, so that's why I thought I'd check.
ReplyDeleteBlessings.
This is really helpful. I'm thinking of starting workboxes....so I gather from your post that Little Man actually doesn't have his own set of workboxes? All his activities are in his siblings' workboxes? Or do you have a set for him, too? I have a 4 yo and feel workboxes would be a beneficial way of getting him started with some preschool activities...much of his day is free play right now and he needs a little more structure.
ReplyDeleteTeacher/Mom: My sil used to sell, so I always bought through her, but she is no longer selling. If I were to buy anything now I would just go directly to the Discovery Toy website (www.discoverytoys.com) and shop directly. I was just there yesterday, window shopping!
ReplyDeleteMolly: Currently our Little Man does not have his own box (he had one for about a week until I started putting his things in his siblings' boxes). I am now working on a modified "schedule strip" for him that would include time with his siblings as well as activities that he can do independently. If I gave him his own workbox again right now, I'm not sure how to handle the timing of it all so that when he gets to a certain item in his workbox that is intended to be done with a sibling, his sibling is also at that same point and not in the middle of other work. Or maybe I could give him his own workbox with short, independent activities, and whenever a sibling gets to their time with him in their own workbox, THEY just interrupt HIM. I'm still thinking through that! It certainly has provided better structure for our Little Man though, and everyone has benefitted from focused time with him. I have observed the olders being more patient with him during after school hours (an answer to prayer!) and generally being very helpful in "teaching" him a new skill or playing an educational game with him.