Everyday Teachable Moments

For Parents who like Routine….and Sanity

I don’t know about you, but I like to stick to a routine for sanity’s sake. I know that it is bound to change at times, but I am a creature of habit and like to keep it that way as much as I can. In fact, one of my favorite things about teaching was having a schedule posted on the wall for all to see. The kids loved it too. They started to inform me when we had to be somewhere or when it was time to move on to another subject.

Kids thrive on routine, but I am not suggesting that you post a schedule in your house because I know things change on a DAILY basis (unless you are homeschooling-then I absolutely recommend it). But, I am suggesting that you post the things your children know to expect like brushing their teeth, making their bed, getting dressed, etc.
There is SO much research on smooth transitions. And let me tell you… displaying a child’s routine so that it is predictable and consistent definitely paves the way for smoother transitions in the morning.

So, good news, Casey shared with me that http://www.Livinglocurto.com has FREE printable routine cards that are so cute. Not only are they cute but they have very kid-friendly images for all the words that describe the steps in their routine. She also has some after school cards. I am interested to see how creative my Mommy Teachers are in how you display and use them. I recommend printing them on cardstock and maybe even getting them laminated for durability, but it’s up to you! 🙂

An LSU professor, Dr. Buchanan, highlighted that adding pictures of your children “brushing their teeth,” “making the bed,” etc. really makes the chore more personal and meaningful to your little one. I definitely recommend taking the time to add pictures! 🙂

April 6, 2011 by Jessica | 1 Comment

An Activity For Active Children

I love how little kiddos get so excited to participate in activities that include moving around. So many kids learn through movement; in fact, kids with this learning style are called kinesthetic learners. For this reason, I used to come up with a lot of little activities that I could pull out at any moment that would get the kids moving and that would reinforce some of the things that I was teaching (numbers, letters, shapes, colors, etc.)

SO today’s activity is to roll two dice. One that reads a number and the other that reads an action clue. This way, your little one will have to move the way the dice tells them to, and move however many times the dice tells them to.

To make these dice, you simply cover an empty, square-shaped tissue box with paper, and write numbers on each side. This does not have to be fancy! If you have a small mailing box or present box, use it!

If your child is already REALLY familiar with their numbers 1-10 and you have started teaching the numbers 10-20 you can reinforce those numbers by writing them on the cube (make sure you use the language “cube” with your little one when referring to the dice because it is great to introduce 3-D geometry terms early).

Then make another dice and choose the theme of the game that you might want to play, and make clip art to represent the motions or cut the pictures out of a magazine and tape them on the sides of the cube.

My action cube is pictures of animals so when playing the game you might have to hop like a frog 10 times, or flap your wings like a bird 7 times, etc.

You might want to make one with exercise motions on it and do jumping jacks, push-ups, or sit-ups for each number.

You could even do colors and find that many items of that color around the house.

April 5, 2011 by Jessica | 1 Comment

Learning in the Kitchen

This past Thursday night, I cooked a meal for a group of college students, and one of them told me “I hope I’ll be able to cook meals like this one day.”

That one comment got me thinking about SO many things:

My first thought, to be honest, was satisfaction – who doesn’t like to make a crowd-pleaser?

Second thought, I was proud of how far I’ve come because before I got married I couldn’t cook macaroni and cheese.

Thirdly, I wanted to help this college student learn to cook because I love to teach about anything I have learned about (hints this site!).

Finally, I thought about how it was sad that I didn’t take the time to learn cooking tips from my mom and dad when I was young.

This reminded me of one of my FAVORITE things to do with kids, when permitted: bake or cook!

Maybe you already do this, but I have a couple suggestions to pack this activity full of learning opportunities.

Before starting, read a book like “The Little Red Hen” “Pete’s a Pizza” or another book that prepares your little one for the process and purpose of cooking or baking in a fun and meaningul way.

First, write out the recipe WITH your little one on a large piece of paper, and then read each ingredient as you pull it out. Ask them questions and give them clues “What ingredient do you think starts with the sound /m/?” (milk!) This will give you a chance to model reading and writing for your little one.

Next, measure each ingredient WITH your little one so that they have the chance to experience measuring for accuracy and to observe large and small amounts and they will naturally observe science in action as dough rises and ingredients mix together, etc.

Finally, let them take on as much ownership as you are willing to share: stirring, spreading, sprinkling, watching the timer, or whatever your recipe calls for.

Ask your little one what he or she wants to make or bake! Have fun!

Casey shared these pictures with me from the Young Chef’s Academy…

Mommy and daughter measuring to make the dough from scratch – ambitious!

Mommy and Daughter making the measurements precise.

Mommy and her big boy rolling out the dough.

James is enjoying the pizza sauce…mmmmmmm.

Putting on the cheese….my favorite part of pizza making.

And last step of prep….toppings of choice!

Here is a pizza recipe you can write out, cut out the pictures and use them when you write out the directions for the recipe.

Please share pictures on my mommy teacher facebook page of other FUN cooking experiences you share with your little one!

April 4, 2011 by Jessica | 2 Comments

Find Your Rhythm

My 10 month old loves to drum on everything. If he gets a hold of any object that resembles a stick, he will bang it against the ground, a chair, or even my head. He dances to music and he even sings a note or two with his eyebrows raised as if he is trying to hold the note as long as he can. There is so much brain research that links music and movement to better storing and recalling of information. And it is amazing how the love of music is ingrained in children, from the time they are born!

So, today we are going to talk about a simple activity that falls on the 3rd step of the reading ladder….Syllables.

Compound words are the easiest syllables to hear so we should start there: like foot-ball (football), ice-cream, space-ship, and other fun words to break apart and put together.

Then, there are short 2 and 3 syllable words like “prin-cess, ti-ger, di-no-saur.”

Finally, there are longer words that have more syllables and can be harder to stay on track when you are clapping or tapping these 4+ syllable words: “cat-er-pill-er,” “cin-der-el-la,” etc.

So, all that being said, this is going to help your little one start the process of hearing parts of words and playing with words which is going to pave the way and help your little reader develop an awarenss of sounds which will eventually help them sound-out words….are you with me?!?

When I teach this I find two stick-like objects I can click together (spoons, chopsticks, drumsticks, or in the picture the student is holding wooden dowels I bought for Super-cheap at lowe’s). Then I start by letting my little one play with them because otherwise they will never pay attention. So at first I give about 5 minutes of chaotic free play (with safety boundaries of course). Then, I say I am going to tap my sticks together to hear all the words in the word “ice cream.” I tap during the word ice and cream and then say ooohhh- listen again and tell me how many words you hear in the word ice cream. Hopefully they hear 2 haha unless counting is something that you really need to start working on 🙂

Then I will do this same thing a few more times with compound words, letting them tap with me. I repeat this little activity with “how many parts are in your name?” Then mommy’s name, daddy’s, etc. And keep going until your little one is ready to move on to something else 🙂

Have fun!

March 30, 2011 by Jessica | 2 Comments

Meaningful Word Cards

Going through old pictures reminds me of so many activities I love. Not every idea has to be an original, especially since there are so many great activities out there. But I still don’t think anyone should waste their time searching the world-wide web for activities to maximize your time with your child, when searching the web usually minimizes your valuable time. One thing that I have seen in just about every classroom that I think would be beneficial at home is a little list of seasonal or themed words. So, if your little one is really into colors then you might make a “color words” poster/book. So here is ONE way to help them transition into a new season (Spring):

1. First, Check out some Books from the Children’s section at the Library on Spring like: (Read about a list of books HERE) and talk about things outside that change as the weather starts to warm up (time to plant flowers, birds are flying all about, a lot of pretty and windy days for kite-flying, etc.)

2. Use the Shared Writing technique to write down some of the Spring Words your child comes up with “What are some words that make you think of Spring time?” *If you want to use sentence strips you can buy them online or even at Dollar Tree.

3. Have your child decorate the word cards – drawing a picture that describes the word!

4. Display these words in a fun and meaningful way.