At this point in the quarantine life, moms are just trying to find fun and entertaining to keep our kids engaged in homeschooling. With there being a ton of resources out there, we never know what to actually use. My main goal as a teacher and a now homeschooling mom is to use online resources that are fun and exciting for my daughter. She is having a hard time adjusting to me as her teacher so traditional teaching in a homeschool setting is super hard! I am sure I am not alone in this, so I wanted to share with my other mamas out there who are struggling with being their kiddos teacher some fun online resources. Luckily, Dole has created FREE resources for parents that they can use at home with their kiddos PLUS they have some amazing recipes on their site too! Read on to find to see how to use them!
Dole is offering FREE at-home resources for you to access online to make this time at home easier. See? That is exactly what I am talking about! Their goal right now is to help moms and dads at home by providing them with as much information as they can. Whether it be with printable worksheets, family activities or recipes to help improve your diet, Dole has you covered! What a cool way for a company to help out families during this uncertain time.
Here are our favorite ones from their that my daughter loved so far!
Garden Markers
A fun way to integrate science and hands-on activities into your daily homeschooling is to create a garden. With the weather changing and getting nice, this is the perfect time to create a garden. Start with getting seeds, gloves, soil and potting plants. Then go through the fun lesson on talking to your kiddos about what each of those things are and what you will be doing with them. Then give them the printable sheets and scissors to start cutting the garden markers!
If you are really crafty, you can laminate them in case you are putting the sheets outside, so they don’t get wet. If not, no worries! Do the best you can! Glue or tape to popsicle sticks, straws or paint brushes and have a fun hands-on science lesson planting the seeds. Not sure you can remember all of this? No worries, Dole created directions that are printable with their resource!
Fun Coloring Sheets
Another great online resource that Dole has for families is coloring sheets! My daughter is the ultimate artist! Anything that she can color, draw, paint or decorate is perfect for her. In between lessons when switching from math to reading, using a fun coloring sheet helps her to get some free time but also to use it wisely.
Plus, we get to talk about the different characters they have chosen and why their names are what they are. It’s fun because the fruit characters have names like Bobby Banana and Christopher Cantelope. We talked about why the words both started with the same letter, what colors to color that specific fruit and what does the fruit or vegetable taste like. Yes, it’s a coloring sheet, but just by asking those questions we made it into an educational moment and your kiddo won’t even know they are learning!
Activity Sheets for Better Health
Another great resource that Dole provides for families are activity sheets. These sheets have fun facts on them plus allows kids to be able to color the fruit too. Essentially, they are teaching kids fractions by using fruit and making it visible for them! Even though fractions do start in 3rd grade, it doesn’t matter how young you want to teach this to them because the pictures on the activity sheet make it really easy for them to visualize 1 cup vs. ½ cup. Then to even make it more exciting, have your child eat that fruit or vegetable!
My daughter and I talked about the activity sheet called Chopped, Mashed or Sliced. This taught my kindergartener that even though we are changing the shape, it does not change how much there is. Then later for dinner we went on to make French Fries and mashed potatoes and she was able to relate it to the activity sheet that we had done earlier in the day. It was really a fun thing to watch how she processed that information and used it later on. Plus, she got to color the yams too. So it was a win, win for everyone!
Eating Healthy
While you are helping your kids learn and be creative, there are also some great resources for you too! If you are looking for some new recipes to add to your breakfast, lunch and dinner ideas, well guess what? Dole has a whole selection and more of recipes. Plus, you can download their digital cookbook for free!
Looking for monthly news to read about a topic you are interested in? Dole has you covered. They have articles on topics such as children’s health, brain health, beauty, fitness, pregnancy, skin, mood, immunity, and so much more.
Overall
Hopefully these activities can help you get in some activities, learning and fun at home. Not always is homeschooling going to go well during this uncertain time so it is important to have some fun activities that are also educational too. Between being able to download some great resources to use with your kiddos, find some new recipes for dinner or watch a video! With it being such a different time that we are living in right now, we need as many resources as possible to help our kids and ourselves.
One of my favorite articles I just read on their site was called “Eat More of These to Feel Less Anxious!” Can you guess what it was? Make sure to go find this article over at the Dole Nutrition Monthly Newsletter tab on their website.
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Thanks for the tips! Definitely needed a lot of these things lately!
Same !
Very cool. My kids would love this.
So fun! And they are really easy to print out — no sign ins or anything
I love these ideas. I feel like there is so much stuff online, it is good to have activities on paper.
There really is so much stuff online it’s just a matter of being able to find it all.
Love the garden markers idea! So fun! Thanks for sharing!
They are awesome ideas!
I love these! Easy to remember and use for this extended period at home!
So true! Plus they are easily accessible at any time too
I think I’ll print some of these up for my younger children today, they are super bright and I know my youngest daughter would love the coloring pages!
The colors come out so nicely!
Great resources. I love the gardening one. My son is really into gardening and we’ve been trying to plant stuff. Hopefully at least something grows. Lol.
Yes! They are so easy to make and easy to laminate too if you wanted to
What great activities for kids. My kids would love the activity sheets.
They are super fun for all kids!
These are awesome! I will download it for my 2 year old
Yes! They are easy to download too!
So glad that companies are providing activities for kids during this time. We love Dole and will be printing these out!
Yes! it is so cool — plus they have a lot of great stuff for moms on there too!
These are great products and activities. My daughter love colouring and painting.
They are so much fun!
I will show this to my daughter and I bet she will definitely like these activities. Thanks for the recommendations.
They are so fun and helpful! There are a lot of them on the website so make sure to check it out.