Monday 23 April 2012

Killing two birds with one stone....

This week I have been trying to clear my house out giving it a spring clean and make way for new rubbish to enter the house as the twins birthday is looming and I am in no doubt there will be a new influx of items to be strewn round the house.. 

I have felt like I have been banging my head on a brick wall all week as each room I clean out the twins end up destroying again as they aren't being 100% supervised whilst my attention is on the cleaning out, so today I had a eurika moment and decided to let them get involved with the cleaning and I came up with a fantastic idea of education and cleaning... 

I tipped their food toys and pots and pans etc into the bath filled it with bubbly water and got them to start cleaning... as they passed them to me they practiced colours and matching (if there were two items of the same) and counting as they were giving me things to dry off...

Then the dolls went in to give them a good well needed bath...

We all had a great time and as they got bored which doesn't take much with my two I gave them the watering cans and we had a 123 go game which involves them filling their buckets and watering cans and after 123 they tip it out as fast as they can into the bath to see who can do it the fastest all whilst I happily get the items dry...

All in all a very productive game they had a lesson consisting of
Physical Development
  • Improves fine motor skills - lifting containers with water
  • Improves eye-hand coordination - pouring water
Cognitive Development
  • Shows math and science concepts: sinking and floating, volume
  • Shows that the same amount of water may appear to be different when poured into different sized and shaped containers
  • Increases vocabulary - wet, dry, sopping, sink, float
Social-emotional Development
  • Provides opportunities to imitate the play of others - children wash baby dolls
  • Provides opportunities for imaginative play             
  • Helps dramatic play - together children develop social skills 
Not forgetting the colours and counting....

I felt very pleased with myself being able to get what I needed done today... I think i am really getting the hang of this home education, lets hope I get some more eurika moments like this one.