Printable

Would you like some string cheese with that WHINE?

We are teaching Sean Patrick A LOT right now.

I try my best to purpose our “upcoming” days at night before I go to bed. Even if I just spend 15-30 minutes making a little “agenda” and some goals for the day. My goals might include some age-appropriate social studies skills like 1) caring for our pet 2) talking about our environment (signs, water, animals, places, workers) and some days I might focus on his social-emotional skills like self-control, communication, calming techniques, etc. But I mainly try to have a balanced day…which as a stay-at-home mom means a BALANCING ACT of mommy teaching, cleaning, feeding, changing, playing, managing, ETC.

Today I wanted to share some of my anti-whining techniques in a video and then share a printable I made for my little man since we are working on using our words and a big boy voice.

Telling him over and over “STOP WHINING” does not work for many reasons I could list, but these tricks and a few other positive reinforcement cues really help.

I made “raffle tickets” for Sean Patrick to receive to place into a jar each time he SELF-CORRECTS himself or CHOOSES to use his words/big boy voice or does something else that I notably want to reward him for. When it is filled I plan to take him to the New Orleans Zoo or somewhere that we rarely get to go. I plan to fill out the left side of the ticket (talking out loud for extra positive reinforcement) and then tear the ticket. He can place the right side in the jar and I will save the left side to share with daddy, MeMe, or family friends each chance I get so that he will be excited about his good choices. I hope this is helpful to you as well!

Here is the big boy ticket printable

Here is the big girl ticket printable

I used a Word Template to make these 🙂 Enjoy!

August 23, 2012 by Jessica | 0 comments

Kid’s Checklists For The Car

As promised, in the post “Pack Your Clipboard” here are more checklists, and they are perfect for the Car:

1) Environmental Print Checklist

2) ABC Checklist

August 10, 2012 by Jessica | 1 Comment

Pack Your ClipBoard!

This past weekend our little family took a day trip to the zoo, and when I got home I thought…Why didn’t I pack the clipboard? In my classroom I always allowed the kids to “document” the nature walks or other outdoor events for several reasons:

1) Kids love to feel “professional.”

2) Kids like to have a (fun) job/task.

3) Kids need a great age-appropriate recording sheet to “write about” or “draw” what they see.

So, I made it easy on you… Not only did I make a Zoo Animal Checklist :

I also made a Kid’s Grocery Checklist with all the staples:

I made the grocery checklist because if I keep a stack of them on the clipboard in my bag then grocery trips can go smoothly. The picture to the left shows the calm before the craziness. This is when the clipboard comes in handy! Your child can either check or “x” what he sees or doesn’t see. OR check off items as you place them in the cart.

Kids love this kind of thing!

Need a clipboard?

This gave me ideas for more clipboard checklist fun so I’ll be posting two more checklist printables THIS WEEK! Stay TUNED 🙂

August 6, 2012 by Jessica | 1 Comment

Sticker Activity Printables

I spent the babies’ nap time today making sticker activity printables that I promised you on Friday….. because I know everyone who works with kids loves a good printable 🙂

These printables have a simple instructional line at the top of the page, but my suggestion is to 1) print TWO of each, 2) MODEL how to do each page, 3) do it together, and 4) let your little one try it independently on their own page.

Hope you enjoy these:

sticker activity printables

May 22, 2012 by Jessica | 0 comments

Complete A Story, Letter, or Poem

When I was little I loved mad libs because creative writing was a favorite past time of mine and madlibs allowed me to play around with silly writing topics and ideas that were fun to read to others. They were great for learning parts of speech as well.

But today, I want to encourage you to get your little one to “write” stories, letters, or poems by filling in the blanks of incomplete sentences in their own way.

My sister shared the following poem that my brother completed years ago before mad libs even existed. It is different from a mad lib because you don’t choose the words beforehand; you fill in the blanks of incomplete thoughts which is more age appropriate for little ones.