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Monday 14 September 2015

After School/Work Routine and Busy Activities



Last week Asher Started Grade 1!  I created a simple After School Schedule for him so that there are no arguments about screen time, or coming to the dinner table.  I structured it so that he has a chunk of Homework/activity time before dinner (screen free) and then after dinner he gets screens until 7pm. This has been great because he is learning that the longer he takes to eat dinner the less time he gets to play, watch a show or play minecraft! Resulting in a lot less arguments!  

With the new routine in place after school I realized that I needed to plan out some activities for the "Homework/activity" time block in the boys after school schedule.  I know he will eventually have some reading/homework type activities to do but for now I want to keep him and Fraser both busy without the use of screens while Gord and I get dinner made.

So I got to work planning a few activities for both age groups.  Fraser is 2 (Preschool age) and Asher is 6 (School age).  

I found a bunch of great activities on the Kids Activities Blog and other blogs I discovered along the way and decided to make a little schedule to plan our our evening activities so that I knew what I needed to do and had a plan in place rather than just gathering everything together while I was supposed to be making dinner. 
Busy Bags all ready to go!

Over the weekend I made the busy bags or bins, and prepped the Bins.  I created a list for all the supplies for the week and a Busy Bag Activities Supply list for each day to make it easy to sort the bags.  

You can receive the Supply List and Busy Bag Activities List I used for each day of the week by Clicking here to have it Emailed directly to your inbox!

The nice thing was having the lists made getting my husband to help out much easier and shopping for the few supplies I needed easy!

Day 1

Fall Craft: Tissue Paper Leaves


Fraser's Activity: Colour Leaves
Asher's Activity: Tissue Paper Leaves

Looking forward to this craft!  We hit up the dollar store for tissue paper on Sunday  and I can't wait to see what Asher comes up with for his leaves!  I might have trouble not doing one of my own!


Fall Craft: Tissue Paper Leaves
For this craft you will need

This free fall leaf printable
Tissue paper in fall colors
White glue
Scissors




Get the Busy Bag Activities List here



Day 2

Fraser's Activity: Ocean Sensory Bag
Asher's Activity: Bubble Fish Art

For the Ocean Sensory bag, I hit up out local dollar store and grabbed a few bottles of blue hair gel, some Finding Nemo toys ($1.25 each!) and some of those glass rocks. I already had sprinkles at home.  I made the Sensory Bag on Sunday so of course Fraser was already playing with it and the Nemo characters were a big hit!   


Ocean Sensory Bag-4 copy

Supplies Needed

Here’s what you need to make an Ocean Sensory Bag:
Gallon-sized ziplock bag
Hair gel
Blue food coloring (optional)
Glitter
Sea animal toys
Packing tape

Here’s what you’ll need for the Bubble Fish Art:

1. cheap non-toxic acrylic paint (water-based children’s paint is safest)
2. dish soap
3. water
4. straws
5. card stock cut into folded cards (and envelopes too if you want to make stationery)


Day 3

Fraser's Activity: Finger Painting and Learning Colours with Flash Cards

Asher's Activity: Colouring and Phonics Flash Cards

I put my husband to work printing off colouring sheets from Pinterest!  Super easy!


Day 4


Fraser's Activity: Water Scooping and Pouring Activity 
Asher's Activity: Make Ice Cube Boats and Phonics Flash Cards

We started this activity last week actually but the ice boats didn't make it as we didn't have tape!  One of those items you think you have but when you search for it you come up empty! I got some more tape at the dollar store so now we will try again!  Besides the water activity was a huge hit so I'll do that one again!  This time I'm putting down a water resistant table cloth too!

Supplies Needed


You'll need for Ice cube Boats: 

A plastic cup or 
Bendable straw
Tape
Paper
Scissors
Hole punch


Asher building his Ice Boats

Water Activity was a hit!



Day 5

Fraser's Activity: Play with Ice Cube Boats
Asher's Activity: Play with Ice Cube Boats

Overall having planned out activities over dinner time is awesome!  Pre-Prepping the activities into Busy Bags or Bins is Key so that you aren't busy running around to organize everything for the activities.  To have a copy of my Supply List and Busy Bag Activities Supply breakdown emailed to you just fill out the form below!  




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