back to school for nearly a full month. Already we are starting to crave the
school mid-term break, coming up in two weeks time. Freddie especially is coming home exhausted
from all the learning he is now doing in Junior Infants. He has just started to read his first little
books now which is brilliant and he is really enjoying reading, but he is
finding all of the intense concentration needed very tiring come late afternoon.
Therefore I have been trying to plan lots of calming after school activities to
help get us all though to bedtime in one piece!
adding lavender oil to some home-made moon sand. This smelt lovely and they had
a lovely few sessions playing with their diggers in the sand.
But the best activity I have found to help calm them
all down has been to play with water. Freddie especially has been finding it
very soothing to have his hands messing around in water. (Just think how nice
you feel after a long soak in the bath!) It’s a very versatile activity as
well. We’ve added in funnels, jugs, whisks and giant pip-pets to a bowl of warm
soapy water. Bella has had fun with her play cups and waterbeads making me lots of
cups of tea! And they all enjoyed having a go at our Fishing in waterbeads activity. The best fun though was
blowing bubbles in water with straws; this was great at working out those late
afternoon frustrations.
What are your favourite afternoon calm down activities?
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Water play activities are so much fun – love the sound of fishing in waterbeads and digging in moon sand sounds great too 🙂
Fishing in waterbeads was such fun! Water is definitely a good de-stress activity for all (well until they spill it i suppose!)
It sounds and looks like you have been having fantastic fun!
Water play is such fun x
Well it worked for us this week, but we ll have to see what next week brings. It has made me long for summer now as playing with water outside is much more fun!
Oh, I know my two would love blowing bubbles with straws – such a simple thing, but I can already imagine the giggles! Will have to set that one up! Thanks for sharing your great ideas with #WotW and roll on the holidays! x
Definitely have a go at the bubbles. Try adding in some paint or food colouring as well and then press paper down over your bubbles to make some bubbly art.
After school my son is soooooo perky. One thing that I do is make him read books from his school. That usually relax my son and then bathing before sleep. But recently its harder to make him relax and slow down. #wotw
Books are good as well for quiet time, although Freddie can get a bit frustrated if he is reading whilst tired and can t read all of the words.