Art + Cars = Fun!

One of the biggest challenges I have with home schooling is keeping my preschoolers constructively occupied while their older brothers work on their lessons. Josiah, of course, is easy...he's held some of the time, and other times he's content in his swing, jumper, or napping. Jordan does some kindergarten-level work, but it doesn't take much time, so he is always asking to do "projects." Today in an effort to keep him and Joseph in the living room while Josh and Jon worked at the table, I taped a large piece of paper to the floor and drew some basic road outlines on it. I gave them a box of crayons and a dozen or so cars and let them at it. It actually kept them occupied for at least 45 minutes, and Jonathan and Joshua joined in as soon as they finished their work.

Here are Jordan and Jonathan hard at work coloring...Joey scribbled some, but spent most of the time driving his favorite blue truck around the roads.


Jordan drawing a house...


Joey and his blue big rig...


Jonathan coloring grass between the roads...


Joseph and Jordan. It's hard to tell in this photo, but you can barely see the large bruise on Joey's chin. It turned up two days ago...we have no idea how he got it, and he doesn't remember. That's our rough-and-tumble boy!


Three boys with three cars on a collision course...


Joshua joining in on the fun...


Cheese!


Later in the day, Joshua or Jonathan went back and added street names. On this half we see Broadway and Wall Street...which, since we live in New York City, makes total sense, of course.


Here in the upper right corner of the picture, we find Cleveland Street. No idea where that came from. I didn't know they had even heard of Cleveland.


We had a friend who works on Wall Street come by for a visit after dinner. She was honored that the J-Boys had included it on their map! Unfortunately, their picture is now nearly torn in two and missing its corners, so it will probably end up in the trash tomorrow. But now I know yet another great way to keep my little guys occupied for a while, and it doesn't include a huge clean-up effort afterwards! Now that's my kind of activity!!