Well, I would forget to do them sometimes and I would usually run out due to bad planning just when I was especially needing that morning quiet time to get myself together to make up for my bad planning. Do you ever get caught in those cycles... run out of food, can't think properly to do a shopping list, get junk food to tide you over, can't think properly, get junk food again, manage to scrape together a shopping list to match a menu plan, but then don't have much money left to spend because you bought fast food? No! You don't?! Then ignore that please.
Back to what I was saying... so I would run out of morning pages regularly. This last break I decided to print out a whole 5 weeks worth and bind them into one big book with my new cheap binder. I was going to try for 10 weeks worth but my binder won't go that thick and it wouldn't have been easy for the kids to handle.
What did I put in them?
Here's my rotation list:
Day 1
- Maths sheet (printed out from Math Resource Studio) suiting each child at their level of skill
- Fun Maths sheet (I would just google some thing that could be fun, I found great Subtraction mazes somewhere. Thankfully I tried to keep the footers with the details on the page so I can find the good ones again.)
- Handwriting (lines to suit their skill, will be a review of their handwriting lesson that they struggled with first time in their workbook)
- Maths sheet
- Art Scribbles (from Art Projects for Kids)
- Handwriting
- Maths sheet
- Literacy task (Again just googled various things, amazing the sheets you can find. I went with simple grammar, alphabetizing, syllables, fill in the gaps...)
- Handwriting
- Maths sheet
- Maze according to their skill level (from Krazy Dad)
- Handwriting
- Review (I put in a blank page that I can write a review task up on, just anything I think they need to revisit from normal lesson time.)
- Maths sheet
- Science task (Good old google helped again, animals and habitats, labelling body parts, food pyramid activities, senses, all good fun!)
- Handwriting
I like that all the thinking for half the term has already been done. Even if only the morning book got done each day I know they have done something 'schooly' if my brain has gone walkabout (as it can do sometimes!).
Hope that is helpful to someone, and big thanks to Tracey of Little Men in My Library for her inspiration.
Best wishes
Jen
This sounds great, and very organised! I completely agree with you about the vicious cycle when planning goes awry. I have a monthly menu planner but somehow I still have weeks when we survive on too much junk food and takeaways. (I liked your ideas for using up my capsicum and beetroot recently.)
ReplyDeleteDo your boys actually do the 'warm up' activities without too much nagging? I'm still at the stage of having to stand over ds1 (10y) to get him to do any work. Thankfully he does his chores fairly independently.
I am lucky, they actually ask for their warm up activities. I do try to make them fun, and the maths is fairly easy for their skill levels. Have fun with that freezer of mystery meals!
DeleteBest wishes
Jen
You are most welcome. :)
ReplyDelete