Alternatives to workbooks....

[tuffykenwell]

So I find myself avoiding our workbooks like the plague. DS will be 5 in May and even though he can read fairly well and so can do for example ETC 1 without issue, watching him physically do the writing is painful for me. I just keep thinking that this will be *so* much easier when he is a bit older and his manual dexterity is better. He doesn't mind doing worksheets but it just feels wrong to me KWIM?

So I have been looking for ways to give us stuff to do besides reading all day (we do that anyway LOL so we need things to break up our day). So I am looking for non workbook suggestions...they don't have to be academic but they can be IYKWIM.

So far we are doing stuff like playing with cuisinaire rods (can I just say that these are waaaaayyyy more compact that the rods that you use in Math-U-See....I think we will actually use them more often because I avoid MUS like the plague just because it means I have to drag out the dumb blocks from the bottom of the craft cupboard (the only place they fit)...anyway I digress So far we are just fooling around with the blocks but I am sure we will get around to mathy type stuff eventually (not in a huge hurry can you tell).

Rhys has fallen in love with UNO. We play the Dora "my first uno" when the girls are awake just because the games are shorter in case we have to stop abruptly but he is also loving the adult version (simpson's collectors edition no less) that we have and we play that at night when the girls go to bed. We don't count to 500 though...the winner is just whoever gets rid of their cards first (I figure we can add the math in later...no pun intended).

We play Trouble too and I just bought some magnetic "word bits" which will be coming soon which I think we will have fun with too (and after that we will probably pick up some magnetic poetry tiles).

We do some crafty stuff and he has recently started drawing stuff that is supposed to be something (as opposed to just random stuff)...today he drew a bunny...of course he drew it in the dirt by the side of the road as we were doing our paper route LOL but still I was way impressed! He isn't much for colouring books and such and even painting will only hold his attention for maybe 10-15 minutes.

We also have been spending a couple hours a day outside because it has been soooo nice lately!

So any other ideas of things that your 4-6 year old enjoys (keeping in mind I have a 2.5 year old and newborn as well to keep entertained so time consuming is not an option).

Steph

[Lillian J]

Take a look at my preschool/kindergarten page. My article and Bev Krueger's article - both at the top - have lots of suggestions. And down underneath the box of articles are annotated links to lots of websites that have fun ideas!

Lillian, just taking another brief break from packing for a long trip...

[Brisen]

My ds is 5... one thing he is enjoying lately is a "silly sentences" card game we have (it is a school zone game... you're in Ontario, I see them at Giant Tiger all the time, as well as Zellers). He plays it on his own. They are cards with words and pictures to help you know what they are, and in the game, you're supposed to make simple sentences with them. He just lines them up to make huge silly sentences. I like a lot of the other card games that school zone puts out; most of them are pretty flexible and can be used a lot of ways. He likes activities on paper -- mazes, dot-to-dots, etc. -- even though he's not a fan of workbook-y stuff (my oldest was at that age). He likes puzzles. He likes playing in water and "helping" with cooking. He likes learning songs.

[Roo_Online]

You are already doing what I would suggest: Spend time outside. Getting fresh air, excersising, noticing nature, exploring, doing nothing....all that ioutsdoor stuff is good for the brain, the body, and the soul. Fill up his childhood with outdoor memories.

[OTMomma]

We really like story extenders- you can do the highly structured ones like Five in a Row or Peak with books- or you can make up your own. Basically we read a book- and then do something to extend the experience- it might be a craft (using scissors is good to build hand strength/coordination)- like making a paperbag puppet from the story, or it might be an imaginative game, of pretending dd is doing something in the story. Of course there are also some stories that lend themselves really easily to activities like ones where the characters cook. I love cooking with dd these days- and she's even learning fractions from it.

[tuffykenwell]

Originally Posted by OTMomma

We really like story extenders- you can do the highly structured ones like Five in a Row or Peak with books- or you can make up your own. Basically we read a book- and then do something to extend the experience- it might be a craft (using scissors is good to build hand strength/coordination)- like making a paperbag puppet from the story, or it might be an imaginative game, of pretending dd is doing something in the story. Of course there are also some stories that lend themselves really easily to activities like ones where the characters cook. I love cooking with dd these days- and she's even learning fractions from it.

Well we are currently reading "The Burgess Book of Birds for Children:" and we look up the birds online after each chapter. I have been trying to find sound files of their calls because some of the birds are native to our area and I would like him to be able to recognize them if possible but so far I haven't had much luck with that. Still searching though!

Both DS and DD love cooking...I really do need to do that more often! I also realized that we haven't done any experiments for almost 2 weeks so I think I will pull out some of those ideas too.

Thanks for all the ideas....sometimes even the simplest things are new and interesting when you are 4

Steph