We know that many of you are adjusting to new routines and rhythms! While we can’t be together during this time, we want to continue to resource and support our families and we hope the following can be that for you! If you have any suggestions or additions to this list contact Alison Kling!
Faith for Families:
As you share faith with your children, grandchildren and family members we hope the following resources are helpful for you:
Story Time with Ms. Alison: Each morning at 10am Alison Kling, has a Story Time on Facebook. Learn a new story, a Bible verse and a song! Head to Covenant’s Facebook page to watch at 10am or whatever time works for your family!
These Printable Coloring Pages are a fun way to engage your child in a Bible Story craft that is easy for you to prepare. Print these out and enjoy coloring them, hanging them up or taking pictures and sending to friends.
This is a helpful article for nurturing faith at home with your family. Set aside five minutes at the end of each day, or whenever it fits, to nurture your child’s faith with these special questions and rituals.
Fun for Families
It is FUN to have FUN! Check out some resources for activities, concerts and more:
Roger Day is a kid’s singer with fun and educational songs and videos! He is also Pastor Kling’s uncle! Check out his YouTube and/or Facebook Page for songs, activities and live concerts!
Mo Willems (author/illustrator) has Lunch Doodles on YouTube every weekday. (15 episodes are already up on YouTube) Sometimes he reads one of his book, always doodles!
James Dean (Pete the Cat author/illustrator) goes live on Instagram every weekday at noon for Pete the Cat Club. Story time and often a doodle, too!
School for Families
We know many of you are balancing work and school for children of all ages. Check out some resources that we hope help you in this area:
The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens goes live with a Home Safari of different animal exhibits everyday on Facebook at 2:00pm CST.
Preschool/Elementary:
To work on writing skills, we emphasize strengthening hand muscles. Play Dough (Click here for Ms. Debbie’s Play Dough recipe), using pipettes, tongs, basters, etc are fun ways to do this. Have them trace letters in a pan of rice, play in water, kinetic sand, etc.
A thought about Preschool from Ms. Debbie: Preschool is primarily for children to learn to live in a community. Social skills like sharing, taking turns, learning empathy, knowing when to ask for help and independence in tasks are a large part of our day. Unfortunately, some of these things are harder to work on when it’s just your family, but just try to be mindful of teachable moments.
Game ideas: put magnetic numbers on board, have them close their eyes, take a numeral away and then work together to figure out which one is missing. Write numerals on paper (or use flashcards) and find dinos, cars, blocks, PLAY!
More ideas for littles from Miranda: fill a large plastic tub with shaving cream and let them use some plastic pipettes/turkey baster/anything like that (even a medicine dropper would work) with different water colors (you could even just put food coloring in water to make a few options). The kids love to do this at preschool outside and get messy but since shaving cream is basically soap it is a very easy clean up.
More from Miranda: Dropping colored vinegar into baking soda is another really fun and easy science experiment. A water table is always fun as well and can be as simple as a large plastic tub with some bowls/measuring cups to experiment with pouring. We have also frozen toys in ice blocks and let kids drip warm water over it to try to “extract” the toy.
READ READ READ!
Middle/High School:
STEM/STEAM resource: Janet’s Planet. These videos are great to inspire the next generation of engineers and scientists! Head to Janet’s Planet Facebook Page or Website!
Coding for Kids: Take a Code Break. Head to Code Break’s Website to engage in weekly challenges for students of all ages
At Home with NASA! Check out these incredible resrouces for all of our budding astronauts on the NASA STEM Education Website!
Does your High School or Middle School student need STEM tutoring or support? Covenant’s very own Drew Pendergrass if available for tutoring! Click here to send Drew at pendergrass@g.harvard.edu!
From Debbie Hester: As a former middle school reading and advanced history teacher, I understood my responsibility to cover an assigned course of study. However, it was much more important to me that my students leave my class curious and with good questions than just able to repeat back my answers or information. Don’t worry about covering information that your child would have covered in school. Use this time to really explore your child’s individual curiosity. Let them read what they are interested in reading and then just have meaningful conversations with them about their books like you would any other reader. Let them brainstorm a topic or time period in history that interests and excites them and have them look for interviews and pictures that make the time period come alive.
National History Day (nhd.org) is a 6th-12th grade program that was a focus for my classes and gives students structure to explore a topic that interests them. and produce a meaningful end product. Feel free to contact me for supporting documents if you would like your child to walk through this process. I also have a document with general reading discussion questions if that would be helpful to anyone: Email me at: debbiejhester@gmail.com
Encouragement for Families
Read some encouraging tips from others as you navigate life at home in this season:
“Relax! Don’t stress about “academics” like letters, numbers, etc. Covenant’s philosophy of play-based learning means that play is the most important aspect.” – Debbie Sullivan, Covenant Presbyterian Preschool Teacher