After much begging and pleading from my 6 year old, Mommy finally gave in… I bought him a pair of shoes with ::gasp:: laces instead of velcro! I told him he would not be allowed to wear them until he learned how to tie his shoes – and without tears.
I tried to teach him how to tie his shoes when he was in Kindergarten and after much frustration on both ends, we gave up pretty quickly. That’s when I decided he would be wearing velcro until he hit high school. The bunny ears just were not working with his little uncoordinated fingers.
I recently ran across this video and shared it on our Facebook page. Amazing. Forget bunny ears, this is so much easier! James watched the video with me and that’s when I first heard the dreaded, “I want shoes with laceeeeesssssss.”
I thought that he had possibly forgotten about that video when we went shoe shopping for new school shoes, but boy was I wrong! We immediately saw two identical shoes, one with velcro and one with laces and he was dead set on the one with laces. Great.
When we got home with our new shoes (with laces) I pulled up the above video. We watched it once, I tried it once, and then it was his turn. I kid you KNOT (get it?) James learned how to tie his shoes in 15 minutes! He practiced a few times and then made his own tutorial to show you and your kids! Enjoy!
UPDATE 8/30 – The video is not uploading properly, so to view it, please click here!
For your older child, if he or she is interested in learning new knots, check out this website, shared by one of our fellow Mommy Teachers on our Facebook page.
“I’m going to school on a bus today mom” says my 3 year old as he walks toward the door with his backpack on. He doesn’t ride a bus to school so I reply, “Yes! Let’s pretend to do that Sean Patrick. Are you going to drive the bus or is the driver going to pick you up? ” and the conversation continued as we made our way to the stairs where we pretended to be riding on a bus singing “Wheels on the Bus” and looking out the pretend window pointing things out to each other.
I asked him what friends were riding with us in our imagination and he named his cousin and a few other friends.
This gave me the idea to make this:
He is obsessed with school buses. He tells people when he is six he can ride the school bus. I am hoping he gets to ride one on a field trip this year.
We have a school bus toy that we drive all over our neighborhood road rug that looks something like this:
We read “Gus The Bus” pretty often and there are other great school bus books like and and obviously The Magic School Bus episodes and books are great.
So, he had a blast coloring his school bus picture…
And he did a great job drawing the eyes on the faces… one was shaped like a square so he told me that Mckayla had a square eye haha.
Anyway, click on the link below to download the FREE printable if you think your child would enjoy this too. You can help your child practice sounding out their friend’s names or just writing the first letter in their name. Have fun!
[purchase_link id=”3920″ style=”text link” color=”” text=”Download the School Bus Printable now… FREE”]
This is a tough one y’all. There can be a lot of authority figures in our kids lives, and well… we don’t always see eye to eye.
But, in my experience, it has shown effective when everyone is on the same page about the BIG issues…expectations, discipline, and roles. Sometimes we can be control-freaks about the little stuff, but we can let go of that stuff when we acknowledge the root of that is PRIDE. Sometimes we need some perspective that other authority figures in our kid’s life CARE about our kids and want the best for them. So, try not to sweat the small stuff. But lets focus on the main things…. we all want to act out of impulse and “maternal/paternal instincts” most often. That doesn’t mean that we are right. Prov.21:2 states that “EVERY way of man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.”
Sometimes we need to “check ourselves” before God.
Here was my check: For a long time I was under-mining my husband’s parenting by constantly sharing with him my early childhood experiences in order to teach him the “right way” to guide Sean Patrick. I admit that I was not the most supportive wife in the area of parenting for the first two years of our parenting together.
On almost every issue we (all parents) can approach something with our own experience, expertise, and opinions. BUT I believe the key to authority figures getting on the same page is when we partner as learners TOGETHER so guiding children becomes OUR resources… not my resources VERSUS your resources.
I am so excited to be in a community group of parents right now going through the book “Parenting is Heart Work” because it opens up so many discussions like how can WE do this better, or this isn’t working so how can WE change “x-y-z” to align with this great tool that WE now have.
Are you seeing the shift in perspective? Are you experiencing this right now?
Share your thoughts in the comments of this post or share if you have found some resources that both you AND your co-teachers (in parenting 😉 ) have found helpful!
My sister and I each grew up playing instruments – our choice, not our parents – because we had been exposed to music. I made the decision at 5 years old to play the violin after seeing an orchestra perform on TV. And what do you know? My new school that next year had a violin teacher! Watching that first chairperson on the TV screen sparked a passion in me that lasted throughout all of my school days.
Art, music, dance, and theater education are what mold our creativity, interests and passions, yet they are quickly the first things that are cut from the classroom due to budget cuts or lack of time for core subjects to be taught in a school day. The exposure to the arts that we once had in schools is quickly diminishing so it’s up to us Mommy Teachers to introduce these “extracurricular” activities at home.
If you have a talent or passion for the arts, share what you love with your child. If you don’t have a background in any of these areas, you have the world of knowledge at your fingertips! Google and YouTube can literally teach you the basics of anything you want to know!
Will my children share my same interests? Perhaps, perhaps not, but that exposure will help guide their interests and interests can quickly turn to passion and yes, I want my children to be passionate about something that they love.
My children have been exposed the few instruments that I dabble in and, to my dismay, this did not make my oldest child interested in music in the least bit – so don’t think you need to be a master musician to get your kids to like music. In fact, James (age 6) would always say, “Will you please stop playing the violin??? It’s too loud! It’s hurting my ears!” I honestly think he just doesn’t like anything making more noise than he does ;-), but, I digress…
What my son DOES like, is MATH! And music THEORY is basically math! Half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes… all math! And then there are (most commonly and for the sake of teaching young kids) 4 beats to each measure, that’s 1 whole note, or 2 half notes, or 4 quarter notes, or 8 eighth notes… or you have to figure out a combination of all of them that equals 4! WHOA! My math nerd was instantly hooked to MUSIC after our first lesson about clapping out the music!
I started off by teaching the different notes, starting with the QUARTER NOTE.
A quarter note is 1 count. So we count 1…2…3…4… and clap on each count… clap…clap…clap…clap.
The half note is 2 counts. 1…*…3…*… (clap on the numbers in bold, and hold the clap for the *. When counting, still say numbers 1…2…3…4…).
The whole note is 4 whole counts. 1…*…*…*… (only clap on the 1st count in the measure).
The eighth note is half of 1 count. For this note, we verbally and an “and” between our numbers when we count. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and. clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap.
If you want to get real fancy, you can also introduce the sixteenth note which is a quarter of a quarter note. 1 ee and uh 2 ee and uh 3 ee and uh 4 ee and uh (there should be 16 claps in there). James: “Whoa that’s way too fast.” So we just stopped at the eighth note.
As I introduced the notes, we did a little art projects to put our notes into measures so he could see how 4 counts fit inside each measure.
Now, I don’t just have blank music sheets lying around my house, so I used lined writing paper that the kids use in Pre-K and Kindergarten. 3 lines, 5 lines… that wasn’t my focus for this lesson.
Materials:
4 small marshmallows
markers
paint (4 different colors)
lined/handwriting paper
4 stirring straws
1. Choose 4 colors of paint and decide which color will represent which note (the differences in color help the kids remember the notes better)
2. Stick each marshmallow on the end of each stirring straw.
3. Draw “measure lines” on your paper. I put them down the middle so there was enough space for all of the eighth notes in one measure.
4. Start with the quarter note and dip the marshmallow into the paint. Put 4 quarter notes into one measure. I did the top line and had my child copy me on the line beneath. In the next measure, choose a different color for eighth notes. Dip a new marshmallow into the new color and put 8 eighth notes into the measure. Have your child copy you on the lines beneath.
5. Clap out your new song.
1…2…3…4… 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1…2…3…4… 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and
6. For the half and whole notes, choose 2 different colors of paint. This time, instead of dipping the whole marshmallow into the paint, just roll the edges of the marshmallow in the paint so you get the hallowed center for the note.
7. In a new measure, put 2 half notes into one measure, spaced evenly. In the next measure, put 1 whole note in the measure. Have your child copy you.
8. Clap out your new measures.
1…*…3…*… 1…*…*…*… 1…*…3…*… 1…*…*…*…
9. Then clap out your whole song:
1… 2… 3… 4… 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1… 2… 3… 4… 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1… *… 3… *… 1… *… *… *… 1… *… 3… *… 1… *… *… *…”
Yay! You and your child have just written your first song together! Feel free to add words to your music and more!
For our next activity, I created a giant musical staff (this time with 5 lines) on our floor using painters tape! We used our index cards with our notes from the picture above to figure out how we can fit 4 beats into each measure using a combination of all the notes we learned about! I used a different color tape for the measure lines because it was easier to see.
OTHER ACTIVITIES AND VARIATIONS OF ACTIVITIES:
Clap out the notes in familiar simple songs such as “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” or “Mary had a Little Lamb.” Both of these songs uses quarter notes and half notes. See if you and your child can recreate these songs on your big musical staff!
The song “BINGO” is a great way to practice clapping notes. “::clap:: I – N – G – O, ::clap:: I – N – G – O, ::clap:: I – N – G – O, and that’s how we spell Bingo.”
Use other instruments instead of clapping: kazoo, pots and pans as drums, shakers, recorders, etc.
What other parts of your body can you use to “sing” the music? Try stomping, jumping, squatting, conducting with your index finger, etc.
The possibilities are endless! Music is so much fun!
Let me start this off by saying that this book is one of my new “favorite finds” but it can easily be MADE BY YOU so don’t break out your PayPal account email just yet.
Sean Patrick has been having fun with the book
The pages only give a PICTURE of the letters in block form (not step-by-step) so the book just provides a visual of the letter after you have built one.
But, it does come with the pieces to make /build the letters which is why this is one of my new favorite finds. HOWEVER you can just as easily buy foam at the dollar tree… draw the pieces (straight lines and curved lines) and cut them out to help your little one explore building letters or numbers.
Sean Patrick had so much fun with his little bag of pieces. He carried them around everywhere and he was always either on his way to “Numberland” or “Letterland.” He gave me a great idea to only assist him in making numbers when we were in Numberland (the den) and only making letters when we were in Letterland (the playroom). Kids need to be able to distinguish letters from numbers so this was a great way to compartmentalize the two.
We had a lot of fun with this… especially for my boy who loves hands-on learning. We just play with it here and there…we are not structured in how long or how often we play with this, but here is a glimpse into this activity when we play with it:
I might take the bottom part off of his B and say “If swiper swiped this piece what letter would you have left?” (wait to see what Sean Patrick says) “P” – “I see it too! Let’s find that letter in our book! That silly old swiper – he doesn’t even know that he is helping us make new letters! Your turn to be a swiper…. take one piece away and see what new letter we can find!”
The Letter Construction Activity Set is similar but kind of expensive and you can’t make it. I have an Overhead projector (former teacher here) so I might just have to put it on my wishlist :/ but I am debating that because I don’t think we could keep track of all the pieces if I am being honest with myself!
