Graduation Week at Kind Academy
Hey Kind Families!
This is it. We made it, guys! Each year in our little nature school we found a way to celebrate how much our children had grown. We did this with some sort of celebration and party with friends. Parents loved getting to see their children receive their playschool certificate and we all loved seeing how proud the children were of themselves.
A lot of homeschool communities make an end of the year moving up ceremony an end of their school year. It helps to break up learning a bit and recognize all we accomplished each year. This year is of course a little different as we cannot celebrate with our friends in person due to Covid-19 but we have some fun ways to celebrate at home. See below for the activities for the week!
Disclaimer: the links below are affiliate links which means we may make a small commission if you purchase from our links.
Sensory
Sensory Beads and Fine Motor Tools
Have you tried sensory beads, yet? Some people call them Orbeaz or water beads, but they are the same thing. You may have seen them in the plant vase section as a decoration for flowers as they retain water so well. Playing in them is an amazing experience and lends very well to the celebratory feeling we are going for during this week! Sensory beads feel like a spa for your hands. Here are the ones we usually get from Amazon.
Sensory beads start out as tiny little beads, but adding water causes them to increase in size exponentially. We get our here and then add some cool fine motor tools like tweezers and handy scoopers. Kids stay engaged in this activity for a long time. As a warning: children may think they are candy and supervision is highly recommended for these. We always remind the children to keep them out of mouths and watch super closely. Also, be sure to keep them away from children if they have not been increased to their full size yet; eating them as tiny beads could be very unsafe.
Art & Fine Motor Skills
Shower Curtain Art - Keeping with our celebratory theme let the kids make a mess and have fun with lots of paint! TinkerLab has an amazing tutorial up on her site you can see it here!
Supplies:
Process:
Hang the shower curtain between two trees and weigh it down to keep it from blowing around. You can use the paint in containers and line them up across the bottom. Fill the with different colors of paint and let your kids go at it! This is definitely a messy one, but so much fun especially when it is warm enough out to be hosed down right afterward!
Nature Connections:
Nature Graduation Caps: We love making nature crowns in our program so we know this one will be fun for the kids as well! And the photos commemorating this special moment is a great keepsake.
Supplies:
scissors
nature treasures (take a nature walk and co
Process:
Cut the poster board lengthwise about 3 inches wide. Allow your child to stick nature treasures along it as they choose. Now you can stay at this point and just make a crown, but to make it look like an actual graduation cap, cut small slits across the top of the band and fold them down to create a platform type set up. Cut the remaining poster board into a square and then glue it to the top to get your cute nature graduation cap. Feel free to add some yarn to the top as a type of tassel.
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Social Skills:
Managing Big Emotions - Managing our emotions is something even some adults struggle with. Teaching children positive coping skills as early as possible is a great way to set a strong foundation for kids. See below for some ideas on helping kids to manage big emotions. It shows kids different was to manage their emotions and is something that should be practiced even when kids aren't mad. That way when they are, this will be easy for their brains to access.
Blow Bubbles
Take deep breaths
Count to 5
Sing the Daniel Tiger Song "If you are feeling mad, and you wanna roar; take a deep breath and count to 4."
Read a book
Draw a picture
Take a break
Take a walk
Teach them to say the words "I am Mad!" Expressing themselves is a great first step in managing emotions
Squeeze your fists, count to 5, and them let go.
What is next?
We have loved seeing your posts, hearing your feedback, and are so excited you decided to join us over the past 2 months since Covid-19 began. Our focus has always been to help families homeschool and supporting parents to connect with their children in a positive way.
We currently offer the following services to help with this:
A Free 3 day How to Transition to Homeschooling Training beginning on June 15th. Sign up and get the deets here.
Homeschool Kits containing hands on, nature based, and art focused activities to delight learners.
Homeschool Advising Services to assist with developing educational plans, homeschool organization tools, and curriculum development customized to fit your family's needs.
Virtual Classes on Outshool that your children are interested in like Nature School online, Music and Movement, Crafts, Minecraft Social Clubs, Sensory Story Time, Process Art Studio classes, and more. If you do not see a class now, follow me so you are notified once they become available! You an also get up to $20 off of your first class by using my link here.
Our book suggestions for this week:
Disclaimer: the links below are affiliate links which means we may make a small commission if you purchase from our links.
You Are a star
Thanks for Reading!
We hope you enjoyed our Free Virtual School Posts and hope to see you join in our other programs, soon! Please reach out if you have any questions, comments, or need help with anything at all!
Sincerely,
Ms. Iman
754-204-8310
kindacademyrocks@gmail.com