In Need of Some Down Time?

There is currently a discussion regarding family activities taking place on a yahoo group I belong to. This idea, which is not neccessarily just for summer, was sent out this afternoon. I think it is a marvelous idea. I plan to use it when my three start to get weary of each others company, hopefully before the arguing begins.

And for "downtime" anytime of year that my 5 kids (ages 1-9) are getting chaotic, we have "station" time, where I grab 5 different toys or activities (puzzles, playdough, the dollhouse with furniture, watercolor painting, blocks, etc.) and each child has to stay at that "station" until the timer beeps (15-25 minutes, at mom's disgression), then we rotate stations until I'm ready to be done or we've gone all the way around. One of the stations can even be "mom's helper" Works really well most of the time since the kids are happy to have a toy to themselves for a set amount of time, and looking forward to the next station too.

An idea I often use for giving the kids downtime is the book basket. (an idea from the authors of MFW curriculum) This is different from the organized basket I posted pictures of earlier. This basket contains books from the public library, as well as our own, centered on subjects we are studying that week. Whenever I need the kids to sit quietly for an extended period of time or if I need to do guided work with one while the others wait, I tell them it's book basket time. Surprisingly, this is always met with cheers. Typically, I play a CD of the composer we are currently studying as they "read" the books.

What's in our book basket this week? Books on Canadian provinces within the Appalachian region, Canadian seek and find books, and Canadian photography books. This week the basket also holds books about wildflowers, plants in Canada and even a book on poisonous and injurious plants. (Boys dig the poisonous stuff!) I like to include Arch Books to go along with our Bible readings for the week. This weeks Arch Books are about Zacheous, The Last Supper and Thomas. I must not forget to mention books about our current composer, Mozart!