Pam Koutrakos
Staying Busy- Beyond School and Academics
Katie Egan Cunningham was one of the first people to post sample home schedules to help us maintain some semblance of structure and routine over the coming weeks. She also posted ideas for choice time, using the themes of connect, create, move, and discover. I was immediately drawn to these themes as they inherently highlight playfulness and joy. I was inspired by Katie’s brilliance and created a few of my own 4-box choice charts aligned to these themes. As I thought through just a few of the possibilities for each box, I made a concerted effort to minimize technology involvement. This was done to balance out the increased time many of us are spending on devices each day. Click on the image or provided link to take a peek at some of the ideas that could appeal to a kindergarten - grade four crowd:
K-4 Staying Busy At Home (With Minimal Technology)
I imagine that throughout the day (and across the week) children could have the opportunity to choose ideas from different boxes, nourishing different parts of their minds, bodies, and souls. Ideally, youngsters would choose the ideas that they find most appealing, as we don’t want to force exploratory routines on anyone! Even better, perhaps seeing these mentor texts will prepare children and teens to create their own connect, create, move, discover charts - with completely personalized options. Until then, here’s a link to one example of a chart for those in grades four through eight:
Grades 4-8 Staying Busy At Home (With Minimal Technology)
As the oxygen mask metaphor goes, we need to take care of ourselves in order to take care of others. To that end, below are a few ideas for how adults can connect, move, create, and discover, too:
Grown-Ups Staying Busy At Home (With Minimal Technology)
Hang in there everyone! Remember, you can share additional ideas, spotlight other options by posting this blog along with your thoughts - tagging @drgravitygllc on Twitter, and/or join us for some online community time during GG LLCs daily scheduled office hours. Please remember that GG LLC’s office hours and daily blogs are accessible and free for everyone who may be interested.