I’ll never forget the day when I was packing lots of monkey puppet printables and crayons on our way to Kennilworth park and my husband said “Jess, no kids are going to be coloring while they are at the park.” And as I recall I said something along the lines of “We’ll see.”
Mmm Hmm… I think you know where this is headed…
Every last printable was colored and taken home, of course.I set it up on a picnic table under a covered awning and the kids re-visited the craft bit by bit.
Now, don’t get me wrong… I FULLY believe that parks are a place to take advantage of the gross motor skills (balance, coordination, running, jumping, climbing skills, etc.) that naturally take place in that setting.And there are SO many great parks in Baton Rouge to wear out your kiddos ;).But, if you are like me, you might pack snacks and other carry-ons that can make your playdates vary and LAST!
Today, I am sharing a printable that could be a great way for kids to observe, record, and note the differences of their local parks.
This printable has different uses for different stage kiddos:
For Toddlers:
Introduce the vocabulary…. “Look!Swings.Where are the swings?Yay! We found the swings.Do you want to swing?”
For Pre-schoolers:
Observe the details…. “Does this playground have swings?What color are the swings?Lets color the swings green so we can remember that this park has green swings!”
For Pre-Kinders:
Record the details….Put an “x” on the line under the equipment that is not at the playground, try to write the beginning sound or all the sounds you hear on the line under the equipment that is at the playground.
For Kinders:
Write about the details…. “Can you write what you like about the {slide, swing, etc.} at this playground?”“I like to push my friends on the swings so I am going to write that under swings.”
For Kinder Grads:
Compare and Contrast the different playgrounds by making their own scavenger hunt specific to their own local parks/playgrounds.
My final bit of advice for using these:bring clipboards… kids feel so official when they are “recording information” on a clipboard.🙂
I hope you like this little freebie that you can tote along to the park OR have it out on a table at home after going to a park for some unwind time.
Today, the start of a new month, we wanted to spotlight a mommy teacher who has made it her discipline to choose to look at life in a positive, truth-filled way…every day. She focuses on one goal, one month at a time. We are hoping that some of her disciplines will rub off on us!
Megan writes “I can’t tell you how excited I am to be a guest blogger on the Mommy Teacher! I just entered the blogging world myself a few months ago with Just30Days.org.
I was honestly tired of thinking the grass was greener on the other side. Have you been there? I wished I could cook like her, get up early every day like him, workout like them or encourage my husband like that. I wasn’t even close to doing one of those consistently, let alone all of the things on my list (and I promise you, my list is crazy long!). So instead of wallowing in my discontent, I decided to water my side of the grass! Now every 30 Days I’m taking on a new project to try out and sharing my experience on my blog. Last month I got up early every day. This month I’m praying specific virtues and qualities over my kids. This month I’m finding ways to be thankful. Let me just say, there is power in a focused life!
So, this month as I’ve focused on praying scripture over my kids, I have realized how much my husband and I rely on God’s Word in our parenting. Now, my husband is a pastor; so, some would assume that this comes naturally in our home…think again! We do not sit around having beautiful family devotions (our kids are 5, 3 and 1 so I don’t even know if that’s possible!), we forget to pray at meals way too often, we say mean things that we wish we could take back…we are just normal people. Can’t you just see the love between these two…
We are not even close to having it all together. And I’m finally ok with that because I’ve realized that it’s in those times that I rely on God even more!
Now what does it look like to use scripture in your everyday parenting? I don’t mean running to the bathroom, closing the door and crying out to God, “I know your Word says that even the hairs on my head are numbered by You. But I am pulling them out, one by one in frustration!” Now sometimes that is necessary, but I really mean that we use it in our normal conversation throughout our day with the kids. Here are some of our favorite verses we use daily…
God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:7)
Encourage one another daily. (Hebrews 3:13)
Be kind and loving to one another. (Ephesians 4:32)
Fear not, I am with you always. (Isaiah 41:10)
Children, obey your parents in everything for this pleases The Lord. (Colossians 3:20)
Let me give you some examples of how we use them…
When the kids are eating snacks and my daughter grabs one of her crackers and gives it to her brother without him asking, I will say, “God loves…” and she will say, “…a cheerful giver.” It’s that easy!
When the kids are in the back of the car fighting, I will say, “I don’t hear kind words coming out of your mouths to each other. What does God tell us? Be kind…” and they will finish, “…and loving to one another.”
When my youngest begins to throw things in anger, I will say, “In your anger do not sin.” This is a new one that we are starting to use with him. Does he understand that at all as a one year old? No. But he will eventually and I am just speaking truth into his little life.
If I hear one of them saying something mean to the other, I will say, “God’s Word tells us to encourage…” and they finish, “…one another daily.” Then I have them apologize for the discouraging thing they said and then they have to say something encouraging to each other. This is probably one of my favorite things we do with the kids!
We are just taking verses that apply to how we want our children to act, what we want their hearts to believe and what we want their mouths to speak. And do you notice that in none of those examples am I even asking where the verse is in the Bible? At their ages, I am not concerned that they know the exact verse, but instead that they know the truth! And the point is not to beat it into the kids but to encourage them with it. As a parent, you are called to “…guard what has been entrusted to your care.” (1 Timothy 6:20). What better way to do this than with God’s Word. It really is changing your mind frame to use scripture as a parenting tool…it’s the best we’ve found!
So give it a try.
Pick a few short verses that you want your kids to know. Then memorize it yourself first. Write it on the wall in your kitchen or on your kid’s bathroom mirror. Even if they can’t read, you can! It will be a good reminder for you to use it when you see it. And then teach it to your kids…use it for correction, use it for encouragement, use it to remind them of truth. The key is to use it! And then maybe by the end of our hard days of parenting, our kids will look more like this (makes my heart melt!)…
I would love for you to follow me on one of my 30 Day projects! This month, I will begin 30 Days of Being Thankful….a month of finding our everyday blessings. You can read more about it and sign up here!”
This is a Mommy Teacher Spotlight from a friend that works out at the same gym as me… that will be no surprise to you after you see what she is all about.
The following post is from Niki (whose information to link up to her site is at the bottom of this post… so check it out!):
Niki writes “It was a 4:30AM kind of morning. I was pulling out of my driveway to see an early client. My crazy neighbor was at it again. Running up and down the street. Back and forth. The monotony of it practically put me back to bed. I wondered why on earth she ran back and forth. We lived a quarter mile from the cities running hot-spot. A beautiful 3 mile loop around the university lake. It made no sense and the absurdity of her routine drove me bonkers. Years past and every morning I gave her a we’re-up-too-early wave of camaraderie, followed by a you’re-more-nuts-than-me look.
One morning as I was headed off I noticed she had 2 mini-me companions on her morning route of back-and-forth. Two young children on bikes pedaled at her heels. It turns out she was a single mom and the only way she could fit exercise into her day was to wake up earlier than her kids and never stray farther than a backward glance. I immediately fell in love with her no-excuses, make-it-happen mentality. She wasn’t a nut. She was a warrior.
What I didn’t know is that she would become the inspiration for my own back and forthing.
Fast forward 3 years. I’m now a single mom to two wildly fun kiddos, ages 4 and 6. I could never have dreamed up the life I have today. It’s very screen-play-ish. Life throws you curve-balls sometimes. What I’ve learned is that as pressure increases you have two choices: you can either rise or explode. Rising sounds like more fun to me.
I know that I am my child’s greatest teacher. I will pass on my best and my worst qualities to my children.
So I had to ask myself, “what kind of adult do I want my children to become?” “Am I a model for that kind of adult?”
I want my children to be healthy, happy, confident and love themselves. Not self-love in a narcissistic way. Self love in an I-am-worthy-of-greatness way. I want my children to become outside-the-box thinkers, people who laugh at limitations, go after what they want in life and follow their heart’s desire. I want to raise individuals who understand that wholeness comes from within.
Then I asked myself “am I a living example of all I want my children to become?”
Because I value being a mother more than anything in my life, I choose to rise each morning in self-love. Loving yourself by taking care of your personal needs is not selfish. So many mothers feel guilty for taking the time to exercise, prepare meals or relax! We need to embrace self care as a teach-by-example lesson to our children. If we want our children to love themselves, we must teach them to respect their entire being, body-mind-spirit. That includes exercise, feeding the body healthy foods, and seeking solutions to eliminate cravings, poor body image and low energy. The mind can literally become captive inside an unhealthy body. I know, because I struggled with cravings, emotional eating and poor body image for over 15 years. Negative self talk occupied my mind and prevented me from contributing my unique gifts to the world. I knew that I never wanted my children to experience the pain of not loving themselves or the fear of not being enough. Pretty enough. Smart enough. Popular enough. I want my children to experience a love of their bodies as a gift that allows them to do things that bring them joy and allow them to contribute more love to the world.
I choose self love inspired exercise and nutrition daily to fulfill my own physical needs and personal growth desires. When you fill yourself up with good food and exercise, you have more energy to give your children. You show them what it looks like to be healthy and happy. That is a life skill that cannot be taught in a classroom, it must be consistently modeled.
So, I rise each morning long before the sun comes up. I move forward in my self-love inspired life by sprinting back and forth past my children’s bedroom window. I send out a prayer of gratitude for the strong, no-excuses woman who pioneered the path of back and forthing. The mornings I find myself moaning and groaning with a I-don’t-feel-like-it attitude, I envision my future healthy happy adult children. My children are my greatest motivation and my biggest fans!
3 Ways To Model Health & Happiness For Your Kids
1. Identify what makes you happy in life.
What are your deepest desires for your own personal development? Do you have the desire to live in a strong, healthy, energy-abundant body? Do you have the desire to learn a craft or hobby? Do you deeply yearn to volunteer and make a positive impact on the world? What can you do to become the best version of yourself? Inspire your children to reach their highest potential by reaching for yours.
2. Get organized.
Write your self-development goals for the next 6 months. Break down your goals by month and put it in your calendar. If it’s not on your schedule, it’s not happening! Prior to bed, each night make a (doable) to-do list for the next day. Setting goals seems obvious but it doesn’t work unless you actually do it and stick to it!
3. Set it and forget it!
Set your goal and then enjoy each step of your journey towards achieving your goal. Focusing on the end-result will lead to overwhelm. Overwhelm is the inability to make a decision and take action. Take one moment at a time and knock out the 1,2,3’s on your daily to-do list. The most successful people don’t hyper-focus on achievement, they are present with the experience. Remember, your children will learn patience, persistence and follow through if you model a positive attitude on your own self development journey. ”
Niki Driscoll is a Mind-Body Connection Expert, Holistic Health Practitioner and Personal Trainer.Niki created Candy to Kale, a sassy-fun online video program to help women kick cravings and end emotional eating without discipline. Her sassy-edgy style motivates even the most committed self help cynics.Learn how to love yourself healthy and hot at [http://nikidriscoll.com] and visit [http://facebook.com/thenikidriscoll for the designed-by-niki poster series ‘Exercise Meditations.’
“I want to paaaaaaaiiiinnt mom” was all I heard from my little Mckayla yesterday haha. I encouraged my little girl to re-phrase with “Mom, can we paint please?” and then of course we headed to the playroom (like 5 times yesterday). We hadn’t pulled out Dot Paint in a couple weeks so I thought it was time to re-visit it. My kids treat the dot paint sticks like drumsticks sometimes and just bang on the table, but there are plenty of uses for this art experience. So, I wanted to share some ideas with you. 🙂
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There are definitely days when I simply put all different types of paper on the art table and just let my kids jump around from one new creation to the next. Other days I use the printables I make specifically for these activities, and we focus on a few skills at a time. Today I’m all over the place y’all haha so bare with me… I felt like sharing my five favorite dot paint activities AND because one of those five activities involves using my home-made printables I am also going to share my five favorite dot paint printables!
So, my five favorite dot paint activities are:
1) Making faces using the dot paint on paper plates – this can be a great tool for discussing emotions.
2) Decorating white paper bags (you can teach your little one to make a pattern around the edge of the bags).
A good friend of mine from my church fam is always planning and purposing teaching moments with her kiddos, and I love to see snapshots on Instagram and Facebook that highlight moments in their day.
One of my favorite mommy-teacher friends, Julie, and her little one.
So the following activity is the play-by-play from Julie -this week’s Mommy Teacher Spotlight:
Julie says “I am always looking for ways to inspire my child’s imagination. Today’s activity was appropriately titled “Project Imagination.” I threw several items (found around the house) into a cardboard box and set my three-year-old free to create whatever he wanted. To make this an independent experience free from frustration (for him and me) I made sure he had prior experience with most of the items in the box. Our box contained glue, scissors, tape, dried noodles, pipe cleaner, popsicle sticks, bead necklaces, stickers, favor bags, styrofoam, toothpicks, paper towel rolls, and two bowls of paint with paintbrushes. I was taking a risk by letting him paint with no supervision but he did a great job! I set him up on a patio outside with the materials so I wouldn’t be tempted to interject my ideas. It’s important to note that he didn’t have a clear idea of what he was making until he was half way through his project.
He started by examining all the materials before deciding he wanted to add stickers to the box, followed by a popsicle stick and then paint. It was at this point that he knew he wanted to create a rocket ship. For an hour he worked diligently until he needed some input on making a steering wheel. We brainstormed some ideas out of the materials available but I let him make the final decision. He was so proud of his final product and so was I. We will definitely be trying “Project Imagination” again!
As a former classroom teacher this type of activity would have intimidated me in the traditional classroom setting. But as a parent I have learned my child needs creativity without restraints. As the great Sir Ken Robinson said, “I believe this passionately: that we don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out if it.” I love this quote because it pushes me as a parent to foster the creative spirit within my child and evaluate the ways I may be limiting his creativity.”
Love it Julie! Thanks for sharing this with us!
Here at The Mommy Teacher, we would IDEALLY love to contact a WEEKLY Mommy Teacher for a Spotlight! So please share pictures on our Facebook Page!
