Homeschooling? Moi? Maybe?

I've been thinking a lot lately about the quality of time I spend with the boys when they are at home all day.  Do we spend way too much time watching TV? yes. Should we go outside more? yes. Do I get frustrated with the kids bickering and nit-picking each other? yup. Should I be doing more to engage them during the day and spending quality time teaching, exploring, learning and playing? ABSOLUTELY!

So, Pinterest has actually really helped me find some amazing homeschooling activities! No I will not be homeschooling my kids....props to the teachers out there..and especially the real-deal Homeschooling moms, but I am the first to admit I was never cut out to be a teacher!
I've been stacking away a ton of ideas and although the thought of it all really overwhelms me (oiy! the prep!!), I'm excited to become more engaged with the boys during the day.

Yesterday, Ollie and I actually had a really fun day doing activities together while Austin was napping. On top of that, an added bonus was that Oliver was actually so much more well behaved throughout the day and listened to me, was less grumpy and seemed happier! I feel a little a whole lot guilty thinking he's been really bored during the day :(
I probably won't be doing this every day, but maybe 3 times a week we'll crack out the learning tools and I'll get my teach on!

So first things first, I found an old freebie calendar from the grocery store and I used a highlighter to write out the numbers, and Ollie traced the numbers (to the best of his ability at three years old).
He was so intense, and really worked slowly and meticulously to get those numbers "perfect".  He liked this activity a lot.
So simple, and FREE! That's important for me...so I have to find some other things to do with free calendars!!

 I found some activity printables on a blog called Totally Tots .  I printed out her "Letter A" activities. Ollie kept calling it a crocodile, and he was a little frustrated when I was correcting him that it was an alligator....A, for Alligator, hahaha
(Lulu decided to jump up and watch...she has a thing for pencils so I think she was waiting for Ollie to drop it!)

This is a colour recognition colouring page.  Ollie loves colouring so this kept his attention for quite a while. Each alligator had a colour name in it, so Ollie matched p the colours and filled in the picture.
(mind the glob of peanut butter on his lip...we just had snack!)

I've been noticing that a lot of these Homeschooling sites have their kids work on the floor on trays....not quite sure why? I pulled out an old "breakfast in bed" tray from the cupboard and set him up on the floor with the next sheet.  The jury is still out on whether I like this or not....I find it easier to interact with him when he's sitting at the counter, so we'll see.  We might switch it up depending on the activity, but he liked having his own "desk" to do "homework" at. Cute kid!!

Next up, I'm going to attempt to make a DIY lightbox.  I think Austin will really enjoy all the neat things we can do with that!!