What kinds of skill-building things do your 4 yr. olds do? My dd is a very intellectual/not so physical 4 year old. We'll be finishing our first official round of homeschooling in about 10 wks. I'm going to go straight into a new round of lessons (that mimic what we've been using - MFW, but will allow her to "age" a bit before moving on to the next grade) using things I've collected. I would love to begin some kind of service project and/or teaching her some skill. We live in a semi-rural town, so we don't have access to too many things beyond gymnastics, piano or violin lessons, swim lessons, horseback riding). Any great ideas out there? Either things we can do at home: domestic skills/cooking, artsy things (she said she wanted to learn how to weave!?) or things that we'd go to a lesson for. Just looking for some ideas beyond the normal (our normal anyway). TIA
That sounds great that she wants to weave. There is also sewing and crocheting, painting, and modelling clay are also fun. We've also made salt dough recently. It's pretty easy and fun to work with. Other things in winter there is sledding, skating, and in summer walking, running, biking, gardening, hiking, poking in ponds and ditches. I love to come up with things to do with the kids also to keep them busy as well as educate. Both love the cooking/baking and it's great for mathematics as well as reading. Doing indoor aerobics can also be really fun and good for everyone. Oh yes and skipping, hopscotch also good ones. Rural can really be a lot of fun. How bout a yoddeling contest? Or winter night hike and sing song. I grew up in the country and we always had lots to do. Puzzles are great for learning and you can even find some educational ones like the alphabet or maps of different places.
Well, if she's not so physical, I'd tend to go with the gymnastics or swimming or horseback riding, to introduce some fun physical activities that she may want to pursue later on. If she realizes that it's fun now, she might become more physical later on. Around home, you can start her on helping in the kitchen or artsy-craftsy stuff like hand-sewing of one kind or another. For service projects, maybe there's a Crisis Pregnancy Center around? that she could do something in order to donate to. Kids this age love to do stuff to help babies. You could just explain that some of these mommies need things for their babies that they can't afford to buy (you don't have to explain about how most of these mommies aren't married, and she probably won't notice - if she even meets any of them - that some mommies are younger than they "should" be). Or another easy thing to do at her age is "adopt a road" (not formally, necessarily) and pick up cans and papers other people have littered the side of the road with. And it doesn't take any money to do.
Another idea for service projects might be to find a way to help out a nursing home. I used to take my kids to the nursing home with our dog. Many kids become afraid of elderly people, so I wanted my kids to get early exposure so they would be comfortable with the wisest of our society.
Lindina, our 4-H group was cleaning up a road, and there were age requirements for it. That may not be true everywhere, but we weren't allowed to have children under 12 out on the road. I've got some lovely pictures of Rachael that age baking bread. She's so cute with an apron tied around her that came down to her knees, flour all over her face, standing on a chair kneading the bread, lol! How about baking cookies to take to a nursing home, or to the fire station or something like that? She'd have fun learning to bake, plus you could tie it into a service project. If you were to take them to the firehouse, you could tie it into a lesson on Community Helpers or fire safety.
I see that for a group. She said "rural area", and I was thinking about the rural area I live in, and thinking of a sort of mother/daughter walk, safely on a secondary road, carrying a plastic bag and picking up odd soda cans and chip bags, rather than "cleaning a highway"... I guess I'm a little "too rural" :lol:
We actually were "rural", but just on the edges of town. Not a busy road, though. Maybe if it wasn't done "officially". Ours was "official", and we were given gloves and sticks and stuff by "someone in charge". So the rule was the organization in charge's rule. I would guess that if some lady and her daughter would go out on her own and picked up, the Litter Police wouldn't come complaining!
Nature walks or hiking would be a great way to get physical plus you can add in science or SS (maps). Geocaching or letter boxing? Both are pretty prevalent in rural areas. Plus easy on the budget after the initial investment of a GPS (you can get a simple kids GPS for geocaching for around $50-$70) Is there a Keepers Club nearby? If not, many do Keepers Club just as a family or it's quite easy to start your own group-and it's cheaper than girl/boy scouts and they allow younger kids to participate. Have a state park nearby? Our state parks have some Jr Beaver program or somethign like that. What about a local nature center? Ours offers TONS of activities for kids of all ages, many of them free or very affordable. They even have monthly homeschool day with classes and activities. Is there a local college near by? Many offer some great kids activities free or cheap. We're close to UGA and a small private college and my kids have been to both for fun kids things. Have you checked with your local rec dept for things she might could sign up for to get physical? A local skating rink for homeschool day? (this is quite popular in our small town)
