To remind me

This summer I don't want Henry playing trains and watching TV/ipad all day long, so I have instituted two little tricks.

I asked him what the trains love to do on Thomas and Friends, and he said "shunting cars," so Fun Shunting is the name of our envelope of fun and quirky activities. I already knew that the Dieselworks had a negative connotation, so Dieselworks Assignments is our envelope for consequences of naughty behavior. None of the consequences are particularly bad and most make him laugh.

This morning, for example, Henry was being disrespectful, so he pulled a slip of paper out of Dieselworks Assignments that said, "Clean outside of refrigerator." I sprayed some cleaner on a microfiber cloth and he wiped it down as best he could (i.e. not well at all, but that's not the point). The reason I didn't let him spray it is because the stainless steel cleaner makes the floors dangerously slick if it doesn't make it to the cloth.

On afternoons that I feel Henry hasn't been active enough, I put 2-3 fun activities inside Fun Shunting and he pulls one out. Most of the ideas I adapted from a great blog post I saw, but some are my own. The ones I put in are dependent on the weather and what I perceive he needs that day (e.g. sensory input, gross motor work, fine motor work, etc.) Here they are:

Fun Shunting
Visit the library.
Paint with food!
Read one book to Dobby.
Egg experiment
Nature walk
Picnic in the treehouse
Play on school playground.
Build an inside fort.
Mystery Adventure
Make cookies for firemen.
Ride your bike.
Kick the soccer ball.
Make sidewalk paint.
Read one book to Mom.
Ninja obstacle course

Dieselworks Assignments
Clean outside of refrigerator.
Bear crawl from playroom to bedroom and do 2 push-ups.
Pick up books on floor of bedroom.
20 jumping jacks
Help Mom with a chore.
10 sit-ups - count in Japanese!
You are free. Just a warning!
Practice writing for 5 minutes.
Clean playroom for 5 minutes.

When we get through most of these I'll add more. Oh, and the other little enrichment thing I do is lay out trails of sight words when he isn't looking. For example, when he comes downstairs for supper, he might find a different sight word on every step. He LOVES this!