I have decided to paint (not plant, paint) a large tree in my formal living room (which functions as a rumpus room for the kids). I am going to do this with ‘magnetic’ paint so that the tree becomes a magnet board. My plan is to use it for a variety of instructional purposes for my kids – here are my initial ideas:

1. Trace our family tree (attach magnetic cards with people’s names onto the tree).

2. Trace word origins (Latin roots, suffixes, prefixes, word ‘families’)

3. Display rhyming words or words that follow a phonics rule for my little ones.

4. Classify things (“What doesn’t belong on this tree?”) using pictures for my littlest one.

I’d love to hear if anyone else has done something as harebrained as this and, if so, what the results were. Once I get it together, I’ll take pictures and post them – and I’ll send an update to the blog.

- Heather