This weekend we went to a birthday party for a big boy 4 year old! Now, since I have 5 and 3 year old boys, I am all too familiar with the likes and interests for little boys this age. It can be pretty frustrating, actually. You buy a gift that is say, $20, and they are more interested in playing with the plastic parts, twist ties and cardboard packaging that it came in.
Two Christmases ago, we hit the idea jackpot for least expensive Santa gift ever… a spy kit! I bought cheap canvas backpacks from Hobby Lobby for $10 a piece and ironed on letters that spelled Agent J and Agent L. Then I filled them with all sorts of random junk from the Dollar Store! $30 per child… not bad at all! So before I went to the store, I was searching the house, trying to decide what my boys’ FAVORITE toys are, and what did I see littered all over my messy house? The contents of their spy kits! I think a Mini-Spy Kit is PERFECT for Austin, the birthday boy!
And BONUS: the idea of a spy kit encourages imaginative or pretend play which is really important for your child’s Physical, Linguistic, Emotional, Academic and Social Education (PLEASE) and development. Here is a great article on the importance of Imaginative Play in Early Childhood.
Agent A is now an official member of SKIP (Spy Kit Imaginative Play)!
All secret agents need to have sole access to their kits via a thumb scan and number code.
Contents: bungee cords, tape measure, shoe laces, combination lock, glow sticks, flashlight, ear phones, watch, calculator, slingshot, mustaches (to maintain their secret identities), key clamps, safety glasses. You can add as many or as few items as you wish!
I taped this letter to the top and copied the text below. Feel free to copy and paste this into a word document, add your own agent names and print for your own use! You’re welcome!
Free for your own use to copy and paste in a word document. Remember to replace the bold words to meet your needs:
Agent A:
Congratulations! Now that you are 4 years old you are officially a spy for SKIP (Spy Kids Imaginative Play)! This spy kit will equip you with anything you may need to carry out your secret spy missions. Beware! Do not blow your cover! Inside your kit you will find mustaches so you can maintain your secret identity at all times.
Only you will be able to access the materials inside of your kit. You must first put your left thumb on the thumb scan on top of your box. Then you must press the access code. We will tell you this code once, and only once. Please memorize it and tell no one! The secret access code is 1 2 3 4.
Welcome to the club, Agent. We know that you will be a good spy and will have many successful missions.
Happy Birthday,
Agents of the SKIP Academy
Agent J, Agent Capital L, and Agent-in-Training lowercase l
Ya know, I need to just start off by saying that I am just like any other mom. I go a little crazy when the chores pile up and my house is messy. I don’t always have my meals thought out. I can’t compare myself to other moms…. Because then I’ll just feel like a hot mess. I am not perfect, and I am actually relieved that I am not expected to be. But, like any other mom, I want the best for my kids, and I am always trying to figure out what more I can do to be the best mom that I can be for them.
I give myself lots of grace because I believe there is a huge learning curve when it comes to raising these little impressionable people.
But, when I am not feeling like a very intentional, efficient, or productive mom, I am not completely satisfied in my role. So that is why, both when I was a SAHM and now as a working mom, I get those motivational moments to sit down and plan out something to make the most of my time at home with my kiddos.
Sometimes just ONE thing can make your day feel like a HUGE success. You might sweep one floor, exercise for one small chunk of time, cook one meal, check off one thing from the to-do list, etc.
Well, even though I aim to purpose learning as a mindset and not just in a compartmentalized way my ACTUAL GOAL is to purpose one quality activity a day.
Most of the time, I sit down & think of a daily activity that I think my son would enjoy and one that I know can be used to teach important skills.
In these times, I can get inspiration from:
1) Pinterest… depending on my children’s age or what I am working with on them. Follow meFollow Casey
2) Friends…which is why I have teamed up with an AWESOME mommy teacher, Casey, to share ideas.
3) Teaching experiences… Which Casey and I both share with you here 🙂
4) Connecting with other moms, whether in my mom peer groups, or moms around the world who share what works for them.
But lots of times, I just get inspiration from what I know would be meaningful to my kids.
The other night, my son was missing his Texas cousins…. So, writing a letter to them was naturally the most meaningful activity for us to make the most of.
1) We pulled out some card stock cut into cutesy shapes (Stationary Template Printable here!), as well as some markers, crafty stamps (his idea), pens, envelopes, and mailing stamps. (Stickers would have been fun too.)
2) I asked Sean Patrick what color he wanted for Kaylee, what color he wanted for Presley, and then I let him decorate.
3) Then I asked him what he wanted to say and I re-vamped it a little and read it to him as I wrote it. He also stamped the bottom with his fingerprints and I drew a heart around it.
4) He carefully placed the stamp in the right-hand corner so the mailman knew we paid for it.
5) He helped me say the numbers in the address so he the mail carrier would know where to bring the letter.
6) He stuffed & licked the letter.
7) I let him put it in the mailbox and lift the flag.
Here is the vocabulary he used to tell daddy about our activity: mail, letter, address, deliver (he said “liver it”), mailman, and mailbox.
And as you can see…. just this ONE, SIMPLE activity made our day an unforgettable and meaningful one.
Share your simple, yet meaningful activities with us & other mommy teachers around the world…comment here or post pictures on our Facebook page 😉
Hi, Mommy Teachers! It’s Casey, stopping by from Kidspired Creations! I am Mommy to James (5) who just started Kindergarten, Leyson (3) and Lena (6 months). I currently stay at home with the younger two but I taught Pre-K and Kindergarten before my Mommy days.
Leyson and I were playing (learning) today and were toying around with different Busy Bag Exchange ideas. We will be participating in a Busy Bag Exchange soon where all the moms participating bring gallon baggies filled with simple, hand-made activities for each of the kids who will be there. If 15 moms participate, your child has 15 new Busy Bags full of super fun (and educational) activities!
Leyson and I came up with 3 different ideas today and I thought they would all be fun to share with you Mommy Teachers!
PATTERNS:
We used word strips (found at the Dollar Tree for, you guessed it, $1 per package) to glue colored squares in AB, ABB and ABC patterns. I cut additional colored squares for Leyson to COPY the patterns on the strips by placing each of the colored squares below the square on the strip. This will get him used to making patterns. Saying the color out loud reinforces the pattern so he can also HEAR the pattern (helpful for an auditory learner – someone who learns better when hearing information).
After he was able to copy the pattern, I then taught him how to EXTEND the pattern. At the end of the strip, he must finish the pattern by placing the appropriate colored squares that would come NEXT in the pattern.
The next step is to create his own patterns without looking at the strip. From there you can create more complex patterns! The options are endless! Patterns are difficult to understand, so it might take a little time for your little one to be able to catch on.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?:
Kids are so funny when it comes to learning how to spell their own names. Most often kids learn how to spell their names before they completely understand the concept that letters make words when put together. Take my son Leyson, for example; anytime he sees a word that starts with an L, he says it spells Leyson. He thinks he owns the letter L. The same goes for the letters E, Y, S, O and N… he owns them all. You see, for young toddlers, they will not understand that the ORDER of letters actually makes a difference when spelling words.
Even in my kindergarten classroom, students who knew how to spell their names would sometimes slip into the idea of “owning” all the letters in their name and would write their names out of order. LUIS would spell his name UILS… still thinking that it spelled the same thing. Even more common would be for kids to write their names backwards (SIUL)… and several, get this, would write their names in mirror image! I can’t even do that! All of these are totally normal progressions when your child is learning how to spell his/her name, so here is an easy activity to help:
You need two word cards (or index cards). Write your child’s name evenly and legibly on each card. Leave the first card whole, and cut out each individual letter on the second card. First, have your child put each cut out letter on top of the letters on his/her name card, matching letter for letter. Then, have your child put his/her name together underneath the name card. Last, take away the name card and have your child put together the letters to spell his/her name from memory. Be sure to say the letters out loud in order so your child can hear how to spell his/her name in addition to seeing it. Jessica had a great post on singing a catchy song to learn how to spell a name.
HAMBURGER PLAY:
This game was Leyson’s idea. He picked up a circle I cut out and pretended to eat it, saying it was a hamburger bun. Bam! Instant Busy Bag idea!
I used construction paper to cut out a top and bottom bun, hamburger, tomato, cheese, ketchup, mustard, pickles, lettuce, and bacon and we made a hamburger! Not only is this a great pretend-play activity, but it was a great way to encourage language development and sequencing. I had Leyson explain to me exactly how we should make a hamburger. I encouraged him to use words such as “first,” “next,” “then,” and “last” in his explanation. You can also add an extra element by writing numbers on each of the pieces to teach your child number order (1: the bottom bun, 2: the hamburger, 3: cheese, etc.). For the beginning reader? Write the words “bun,” “pickle,” etc. on each of the pieces and then enjoy your nice, tasty treat!
I am still brainstorming different Busy Bag ideas! If you have a good one, please comment below and share! Hopefully after the Busy Bag Exchange I will have another post for you, so stay tuned!!!
—
Casey Dellinger Hilty
“One day, all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education.”
Teach For America
LA Corps 2005
Great learning opportunities do not have to be completely planned out nor do they necessarily have to require much time at all. They do not have to come at a certain time of the day and do not always have to be over-the-moon exciting. Great learning opportunities DO need to have a goal in mind and this one, in particular, needs to be routine.
I give you the every-time-we-leave-the-house-4-second-learning-opportunity…
My kindergartner came home with his first day of homework. He had to trace the word RED three times, color the picture red, and do a word search where he had to find the word 4 times. After, I asked him how to spell RED without looking at his paper… r-e-d. Perfect.
The next day he came home with his homework for the color BLUE. After completing the same tasks as he did with the color red, I asked him to spell BLUE, but he couldn’t remember.
Then I remembered a teaching trick I used to get something to stick in my Pre-K and Kindergartners’ heads: repetition. How can I guarantee that I remember to enforce this repetition? Through practiced routine. And what better routine is there in a classroom than how to enter and exit the classroom? It is, in fact, the most rehearsed and the most repetitive… going in and out and in and out all day long.
I always had a sight word of the week (Kinder) or letter/number of the week (Pre-K) posted on the door frame and any time a student entered or exited the classroom they first had to hit the door frame and say (and spell) the word/letter.
For your beginning reader…
“B-l-u-e! Blue Blue Blue!”
or for your 1-3 year old…
“Big A, little a, /a/ /a/ /a/!”
You can even have just a colored piece of paper and use this repetition to teach colors. Or math facts…
“2 x 3 = 6!”
Or Bible verses! Or pictures of animals for toddlers! The learning opportunities are endless! Keep your one word/letter/color/number on the door for the entire week and any time you and your child leave, make sure to hit it on the way out! Be careful, though, it’s super easy to just remember the SOUND of this repetitive activity without looking at the actual word/letter, so make sure your child is also LOOKING at the card on the door frame to also remember its visual representation as well.
What other things can you teach using this 4 second activity?
Casey and I are so excited to give you this gift Chesnye!!!!
When I emailed Chesnye this morning, I got to learn a little about this awesome mommy teacher….
She is a stay-at-home mom with two little ones. She says: “My son will be 3 in September and my daughter is 16 weeks. I love to do crafts and science activities with my son and we do a lot of crafts based on the books we read! I love that I get to be his full time teacher for the time being; we start preschool curriculum (at home) in 2 weeks! I also love that he tries to teach his baby sister things he has learned! Let’s me know that things are sticking!”
She sounds so deserving of this prize!
Thanks Casey for hosting this giveaway! All you Mommy Teachers would appreciate the Kidspired Creations that Casey customizes and personalizes for sale….so go shopping!
I posted a status on my Facebook Page polling some Mommy Teachers to find out where they shop most or would like to shop more, and the majority ruled in favor of…..
Target!
Casey and I were both Early Childhood teachers so we remember the days of Teacher Appreciation week 🙂
Not many mommies get the apple they deserve for being the primary teacher of their own child SO Casey and I are awarding one lucky winner with a $50 Target Gift Card!
The giveaway ends this Friday, August 3rd at midnight and the winner will be announced Saturday.
