Record Your Own Story

If you would like to record your own stories on the computer it is relatively simple to do.  First go to the Audicity link, which I have provided below.  You will need to install the program onto your computer.  You will also need a microphone (these can be purchased at Walmart or Meijers for around $30).  You are now ready to record!  You can, of course, record anything you like, but we have found that the children enjoy listening to stories with the headphones.  They especially like the ones Daddy records since he is working a lot of extra hours right now.  They may not get to see him, but at least they can hear his voice and one of their favorite stories read by him.  This would also be a fun way for elementary age children to practice their spelling words or math facts!                                 

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Painting - make clean up a snap!

The kids love to paint and asked all week to do it.  We finally had the time this afternoon, so I got our paint supplies out.  Having taught for 10-11 years I have learned a lot about this activity, mostly about making the clean up process quick and easy.  First, we always either paint in the garage or outside.  Today we had just a little breeze, so we ended up painting in the garage (I've learned papers blow away very easily!).  To start with, I keep cheap dollar store table cloths on hand to use on our work surface.  I always keep table cloths after our birthday parties too as they work well.  Next, I filled a couple recyclable containers with a little water to rinse our brushes in, and grabbed some paper towels to have close by.  I always put old t-shirts or something on over the kids clothes and we just reuse them each time we paint.  Lastly, I poured some paint in disposable meat trays.  Both the plastic and Styrofoam ones work well.  This makes clean up a breeze; I recycle the water containers, throw away the paint trays, and just fold up (or throw away) the plastic table cloth. 
I think its an adults nature to want the children to keep the paints separate, but this is a great learning opportunity.  I happened to put pink and blue in one meat tray (at opposite ends).  Lillian mixed them together and learned she could make purple.  Of course this led her to wonder what other colors she could make.  We had a great time and now have lots of art work for the Grandma's to have!

Cell Phone Math

Lillian loves this activity!  There's lots of ways to use your cell phone to play math games while you wait in line or at an office.  Sometimes I type the number and she tells me what is displayed or I say a numeral and she types it.  One of her favorites though is Phone number math; I tell her Grandma's phone number (lucky grandma!) and if she can find the numbers and get it dialed she gets to talk to grandma!  This is a great way to kill time and practice numbers (of course we do 10, 11, etc too; not just 0-9).   I bet this will be a big hit with your kids too.

FREE and EASY

Both of my kids love books on CD's and I love them because it keeps them busy while I'm driving.  The library has tons of titles available too, so we can listen to lots of different stories.  The children have their favorites, but I know they're listening because Lillian can recite the story before they even say it and Cole repeats his favorite parts after they read it.  One of Lillian's favorites is The Three Billy Goats Gruff.  We even expand on the story by retelling it in our own words and acting it out.  She loves being the Billy Goats and, yes, sometimes she skips the middle Billy Goat Gruff, but that doesn't matter.  What's important is that she gets practice retelling the story and developing her speech.  I don't know how many times we've listened to a story and I've been asked "what's that word mean?"  What a great way to expand their vocabulary too and, its free and super easy! 

Writing Ideas

Last week my cousin mentioned that her son, who just started kindergarten, isn't wanting to write his name.  Amazing how different boys and girls are!  Not unusual, but still discouraging.  Most of the time we just sit down with pencil in hand, paper at the ready, and tell the kiddo it's time to practice.  That just doesn't always work though.  That's when its time to pull out the FUN writing ideas!  There are numerous ways you can practice without it seeming like work and it "hooks" them in.  Here are some you may want to try:

writing with crayons in the bathtub
on a magic doodle board
on a dry erase board
on a chalk board
sidewalk chalk outside
chalk on black paper
wikki sticks
"write" it in the air or on someone's back
shaving cream
in sand or pebbles

There are numerous ideas, but you have to take the work out of it and just make it hands on.  And at this age don't worry about line use.  Just work on how the letters are made and the rest will come later.  Just have fun with it!

Can't get any easier than this

We read library books!  Simple, love it.  For the first time Cole sat at one of the computers too and listened to a story it was reading. They both enjoy the computers at the library and I like it because the activities are at their level, there's no disk to change, and it can't mess up my computer.  As an added bonus, the kids Highlights magazine was in the mailbox when we got home.  Lillian's always excited to get mail so that always hooks her, but she loves the magazine too.   She spent some time just looking through it on her own and then we read a couple stories from it.  It isn't to expensive, plus we save them and read them over and over, so I feel like we get out money's worth. 

Yertle and turtles

We had the most amazing science lesson this weekend and, once again, I didn't plan ahead at all!  Love it when that happens!  I was driving down the road and, as the car in front of me had done too, I swerved some to miss... a turtle in the road!!  I used to see them all the time growing up, but now it seems like a person never does.  So I went half a mile down the road, turned around and went back.  I was a bit worried.  He had since been hit and was in the middle of the highway.  I approached carefully and was thrilled to see his shell was only slightly damaged and he was still alive!  I brought him (I guess it was a him anyway!) home and we put him in a box with about 2 ft high sides.  Added grass, clover, a little water, and bingo, we had a turtle habitat.  A little later I went out to the garage and he was upside down on the concrete.  Bummer!  We put him back in the box and moved the box in the shade on the ground.  He stuck around for a couple hours and the kids enjoyed him.  They put him on the grass, felt his shell and legs, saw him come in and out of the shell, learned they can climb pretty well (like out of a box), held him and in their own way learned about turtles.  There's no better way to learn than with a live creature.  It just isn't the same as peering through a fence at the zoo, or looking online or in a book.  However, we are going to get Dr. Seuss' Yertle the Turtle book to read.  What a perfect ending to our study.  Cole asked today (this happened Saturday) about the turtle and him and Lillian went out "exploring" to find him. He's a very smart turtle though; he's still hiding.  I told my Grandmother I wasn't sure I was really saving this turtle by taking him home to my children!  In the end I didn't save him.  He saved himself.

Calling All Readers!

I re-learned a lesson this past week.  Oh, I knew it, I've said it to many parents, I've read it in magazines, but I didn't apply it to my own children!  Let me back up a little.  A few days ago my nephew, who will be going into 5th grade this year, went with us to the library.  He wanted to get some chapter books off the rack.  Of course since he was getting chapter books Lillian wanted some even though I told her they were to hard for her.  She got 4-5 and I managed to put all but two back on the rack.  When we got home she wanted to read the books.  We did and while we were reading those books I had an "ah-ha" moment.  She loves Scooby Doo so back to the library I went - to get a Scooby Doo chapter book.  While I was there I saw the Junie B. Jones books.  These chapter books have a 5-6 yr old as the central character and the book is written by her.  So I browsed through the titles until I found two Lillian might like.  We finished the Scooby Doo book and have started the Junie B. Jones books now.  I felt so dumb though, telling her they'd be to hard for her.  If a child shows interest, try it.  If THEY want to do it they will be more likely to succeed.  I've always let the kids help choose their own books, its important they have input, but in this case we were also successful because we chose books on topics that interest her.  Just like us adults, if we aren't interested in something we're not going to want to do it!  I know we aren't just going to stick with chapter books now, picture books have a lot to teach too, but its good to explore different types of books too.  This week mom learned a lesson too!

Calling All Tactile Learners!

My kids love working with their hands and, sometimes, it seems like the messier the better!  The children wanted to get out the Play Dough this morning.  I figured I'd put them off as long as I could.  Don't get me wrong, I love the stuff; the feel of it in your hands, the smell, the things you can create.  It's very soothing.  But it's just so darn messy!  That stuff gets everywhere.  I gave in though and we got out all the rolling pins, and cutters, and supplies that go along with it.  First; however, I put one of those cheap table cloths that you can get at the dollar store on the table.  This way when we get done we can pick up the big pieces and then I can just take the cloth outside and shake the rest off.  We use a plastic table cloth for most of our crafts as it speeds up the clean up process.  A lot of people might not think playing with dough is educational, but it is.  The children are building up those little muscles in their fingers, learning to control those little movements they're making with their fingers, and learning that different substances feel different.  Lillian even offered to get out the sweeper when we were done to sweep under the table so clean up was a breeze after all! 

Refrigerator style learning

Our learning today was once again quick and easy.  I let Lillian pick the pace and don't push it.  When she says she'd done and it isn't fun any more, we quit.  Today we made a game with cheap, plastic, magnetic numbers and letters.  I think they can even be bought at the dollar store lots of times.  I would put one on the frig door and she would tell me what letter or number it was.  I also used this as a quick assessment; as I took them off I had two piles.  One stack was the ones she knew right away and the other stack we need to work on some more.  This activity didn't take any planning at all on my part which I love!  I had a plastic tupperware on the counter beside the frig with the letters already in it for when we had time for a quick lesson, so it worked out really well. 
It is Tuesday, so we took Grandma to the hair dresser's again this morning.  While we were there I got out Lillian's electronic writing tablet.  We only use it at special times so it is fun to use when we get it out.  We practiced guessing the letter and writing a couple of letters too.  It is a good tool for a quick review and time filler.