What critical thinking activities are you doing with your kids? Montessori over zoom sucks & au pair isn’t exactly Partner-track material. Ideal=critical thinking activity that others can also do.

likefunny
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Lmao

likefunnyhelpful

Lots of games teach critical thinking skills - try Peacable Kingdom cooperative games like Race to the Treasure, Mermaid Island, Count your Chickens or Hoot Hoot Owl. I also liked Osmo little genius kit, tangrams, any memory or sorting games, scavenger hunts, lego, or card games like go fish, war, crazy eights.
Also teach your au pair to ask questions like ‘what do you think?’ Or ‘what would happen if...’ - simple ways of having them think through stuff first before just answering them. Let the kid do stuff on her own or help (like how should we make this sandwich - what should we do first?) - it’s not hard but the au pair is probably trying to do everything for the kid to take care of her.

likehelpful

When I was taking care of my sister when she was your daughters age ( there’s 22 year gap between us) I’d make crossword puzzles for her. Obviously she couldn’t read at that time so instead describing a word I’d draw a picture, e.g. an owl, a bee, something simple and teach her how to spell it. Once she solved a password ( e.g. princess) I’d ask her to draw a picture of it. She loved playing with me. The older she got I’d make those words more complex or swap with simple math problems ( add 2 apples and 3 pears and draw the fruit stand with exact number of items).

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Love this, gonna try it with my niece who’s a similar age

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I also have an AP and don’t think it’s right to expect them to drive homeschooling activities. They probably didn’t sign up thinking they’d have our kids all day every day and teach them on top of it. Cut her some slack.

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Thanks for the replies - lots of good ideas. To be clear, I have no expectation that the Au pair will replace school.

We did hire one that was a teacher in her home country, but I get it. (We used to have a nanny with an educational background, so maybe my expectations were incorrect. )

I will def try to out some of these items (I like the crossword thing, we have an Osmo somewhere, and I haven’t played piano in months, but probably time to break out the masking tape and sharpie to label the keys). Appreciate the input.

Stay safe, all the best to you and your families.

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I taught my three girls black jack. Hey, it’s counting! 🤷🏻‍♀️ My almost 4 yr old was a little young to grasp the math so we made her the banker. She handled the payouts when anyone won and thoroughly enjoyed sorting the change.

likeuplifting

It would help if we knew age.

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Music (e.g., learning piano), learning a new language, and reading are all fantastic activities for the child to do on their own. Board games can be great as well — chess, checkers, et. al., and your au pair can play as well. Under normal circumstances, sports involve a lot of critical thinking. Legos and other “build-it-yourself” toys could be great, too. Even just doing mundane things but challenging the kid with questions can be good.

Riddles, brainteasers, etc. are some more options, as is sudoku.

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Dont hire au pairs if u r gonna complain. They are not there to raise and educate your children

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I am ok taking au pair on director track and hire her/him!

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My daughter's Montessori school is doing pretty well over zoom. One of her teachers is really good at getting the kids engaged, and he does a lot of fun lessons with them, and then they have simple project they can make after.

Scholastic made a web site of online lessons (mix of text, video, pics, etc) for kids that covers a variety of random topics.

How about giving them a research assignment? My daughter's teacher gave her a research project. Watching her do it, and then fall into a Wikipedia black hole was excellent. she started off researching moss... 20 minutes later, she's reading about fiddler crabs. 20 minutes minutes later, its the history of swedish death metal.

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Make them study a new language

Board games (Jenga, connect 4, candyland, etc)?

That should be ur job as a parent

Check out Busy Toddler, Days with Grey and Kristina Toddler Approved on Instagram. Lots of easy ideas that work for varying ages and skills

She might be a tad young for it, but there’s plenty of coding-for-kids, build robots and tech stuff around, you’ll prob be able to find some of that online! In addition, learn chess, new language (Spanish or Chinese prob best), teach her to read/write/math

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