Eating out with our kids isn't a horrible venture, as long as we eat quickly and don't want to sit at the table and talk at all. Of course, that's exactly what we wanted to do this week. So I packed a "special" bag and included a few Kumon workbooks I bought recently but haven't used for anything: Let's Cut Paper! (Kumon First Steps Workbooks)
and My Book Of Number Games 1-150 (Kumon Workbooks)
. I included some scissors (of course) and some 24 ct. Mini Twistables Crayons
. I love these crayons because they do not break while in the bag or when rolling around on a table.The kids finished eating pretty quickly and started asking for their special treats. I pulled out some sheets one at a time and managed to keep them busy and content until all the adults were ready to go. (I could have saved myself some interruptions by giving them the books, but I wanted to make sure they didn't go through all the pages in just a few minutes.)
When I bought these (and a few others), I envisioned using them next year as part of our homeschooling. First Son will be attending the story hour with the girls at our local library, but he really needs something more than practice with letters and numbers up to ten, so I picked some books on counting coins, measurement and telling time we can use for practice once a week. The ones for First Daughter are to keep her occupied while I exercise in the afternoons next year (when she's not in quiet time anymore). I plan to ask First Son to read the instructions for her. If he can't think of anything else fun to do at the same time, he can have some worksheets as well.
I'm very glad I thought to bring them along earlier this week, though, because they made dinner a lot less painful!
