Shared Writing - The Mommy Teacher

How To Survive The Waiting Room {Printable}

You know those days when you walk back to your car after an all-day-event of check-ups or appointments and you feel completely drained?

I have had plenty of those days.

But, I *think* I cracked a little code the other days when I went to the doctor with all three of my three and under to get flu shots and I walked out of the office wishing I had passed out business cards haha.

There are plenty of factors that marked the success of that day:

1) God’s good grace 🙂

2) Going early enough in the morning that I wasn’t torturing tired children

3) Bringing plenty of snacks to keep my little ones tummies happy

4) Staying Calm and Positive

and

5) Being Prepared!!

I was wearing my baby in the moby wrap, and I packed clip boards and a small dollar tree container of crayons in the diaper bag.

While I was filling out paperwork I put the clip boards and crayons on the floor and said something like: “The doctors need to know who we are and why we are here so we are going to write it down for them.”

Preschooler Activity for Waiting Room

While I was writing my information down I would just ask my preschooler questions like:

“Okay, they want to know your name. What is your name? What are the letters in your name?” Simple questions.

He would answer me and then scribble his lines and circles. But lines and circles mean that he is learning that we can communicate through print so every little moment counts.

This little waiting room success moment inspired me to make this for our next visit:

I know the whole space to draw a picture for why they at the doctor leaves room for T.M.I. but I am so curious to see what your kids “think” they are at an appointment for.

Please share on our Facebook Page !!

January 14, 2014 by Jessica | 0 comments

Favorite Christmas Traditions

I made a printable to piggyback this morning’s post…. you should definitely go back and read it if you haven’t had a chance!

Or, you can always “Pin It” and save it to read later. 😉

I made a journal template for Christmas traditions so that you could help your kids write out their traditions as a keepsake, but I decided that I am going to print one for myself.

I want my kids to get to see what my childhood traditions were so they could learn a little and yes, even compare the traditions from my childhood to theirs.

So, here it is:

Oh, and Stick these in a folder or binder with sheet protectors so you can always add pictures later!

December 21, 2013 by Jessica | 0 comments

Real Life Lessons From The Mommy Calling Blogger

I was following “Mekmommy” on Instagram and saw this fun, illustrated picture:

The Mommy Teacher that I am had to know the play-by-play and story behind this authentic, on-the-spot mini lesson. Krista (this particular mommy teacher) is a mommy of three and the blogger behind “The Mommy Calling.”

So, here is the story shared by Krista that I hope inspires you the way that it inspired me:

“It all started b/c Maddox ran inside freaking out because our yard was full of spider webs. Of course, living in the country cobwebs will always be there, so I had to figure out a way to help him understand. It actually turned into a lesson about counting, adding, habitats, the food chain, a ton of things!

I tore some paper off of the butcher roll and drew a spider. As I drew it, we talked about how it has 2 parts to its body, the head and the body, setting up for a later conversation about the difference between insects and arachnids. Then we counted out the 8 legs as I drew them and talked about how there are 4 on each side and how 4+4=8.

I used a different color crayon to draw the “silk”. I drew some in the spider’s belly, and drew a line coming from the spider and as I drew a random “web” pattern I explained that as the spider moves with the silk behind him it makes the web. After I drew the web I talked about the uses of the web. I broke it down by first drawing the spider in the web telling Maddox that the spider lives in his web. Then I drew an egg sac and explained that this is where the spider lays its eggs and they hatch. I drew a bug flying on the outside of the web and a dotted line leading to the web explaining that as the bug is flying it gets caught in the web because it is so sticky. I explained that the sticky web is how the spiders catch their food to eat. I drew an arrow from the spider to the bug and explained how the spider will then eat the bug. I then asked him if he remembered what the web was for and we broke it down into living, laying eggs, and eating.

Maddox then got his own crayon to copy what I drew and he explained it back to me while I reinforced that there were 2 body parts and counting and adding of the legs (making sure he drew 4 on each side rather than just drawing out 8 random legs so he could visually see the 4+4=8). We didn’t go into the details of the web again, but again we discussed the live, lay eggs, eat. All-in-all it was about 15 minutes and he was so proud that he spent the next 15 minutes talking about it over and over and hung his picture up and called his daddy to tell him about it. In 30 minutes he learned so much about so many things. And it wasn’t anything that was hard to explain or too over his head. It was such a great reminder of how many important things they can learn without a classroom and without making it a boring ‘lesson.'”

March 21, 2012 by Jessica | 1 Comment