Making a List. Centers.

Today I've been thinking on expanding on our independent learning centers. We currently have centers hanging on a wall and they are much like file folder games. Today I began researching different centers I can create for not only Marco and Isabella, but for Anthony and Christian too. Homeschooling with littles is always a challenge and I'm always trying to come up with inventive ways to keep the little ones busy while I do one on one with the older kids.

A very neat blog I came across has some great ideas for creating Toddler Activity Bags. Melissa at Chasing Cheerios has some simple, yet inventive ideas for keeping little ones entertained. Be sure to check out her blog! I plan on recreating some of her toddler bags as well as using the ideas as a starting point for creating some of my own.

Claire over at Kiddley also has some great ideas for activity bags. She breaks down ideas by age group, starting as young as infants!! A wonderful resource! And if you haven't checked out the book "Preschool Activities in a Bag," you really should. I purchased the e-book version of this last year and just took it out this past weekend. Once you make the activity bags, you can file them away in a cabinet, box, or crate. I'll be changing it up a bit and probably start using shoe boxes. Which leads me to shoe box centers.

I want to change my centers up a bit from the current file folders and bags. I think adding shoe boxes will allow me to create centers with manipulatives, art supplies, etc. I have some great ideas so far, but I also found these great looking books at Amazon.com. Shoe Box Learning Centers from Scholastic looks promising and fun. I'll also be hunting the Teacherfilebox.com website for more shoe box center ideas.

So my mission for the next week will be to create a list of materials for my new shoe box centers and activity bags. I'm not sure how many, if any, of the centers I'll be able to get done; but I completely plan on trying to add 5-10 new activities by January.

Until then, I'll probably be visiting our local Kaplan warehouse in order to scope out any deals on items I can make an activity bag or shoe box out of. Once I finish any centers, I'll post about them!!