The Mommy Teacher - Schooling parents to support their children, one lesson at a time.

The Birthday Party Whirlwind

If you have ever planned a birthday party then you know why it has been so long since Casey and I have posted…. We have been planning birthday parties for our kids 🙂

Well, we survived them and I’d like to share a great resource with you if you need some help planning a party for your little one….

Lauren Haddox Designs Etsy shop and her facebook page will have you in awe of all the beautiful themes and graphic designs that are perfect for all you pinterest peeps. She has sooo many great packages & files of DIY printables for parties. I loved her train theme that I used for my 3 year old’s party yesterday and she took some great shots of her design in action. I want to share and I’m hoping super-mom AkA Casey will share her pics from her party here soon too.

Getting ready for the party was fun too. Sean Patrick helped me paint cardboard boxes the primary colors which was great teaching him how to paint on something that would be used at his party. We cut black circles for the wheels and used the cute play on words “chew chew” to decorate each cart.

My 8 month pregnant self having a paint party with my birthday boy before his big day.

I got to teach him more about environmental print when we made the railroad crossing signs. Making kids aware of “writing” on signs is a great pre-reading reference and geometry lesson too as you observe the shapes all around.

The Party favors: Sean Patrick loves my school whistle that I wear on my lanyard so I got whistles for the kids that I wrote their names on with a sharpie and passed out as soon as the kids got to the party.

And the highlight of the party: the train!!! The kids had so much fun riding on the trackless train that Sean Patrick has been telling everyone about his “super-fast” train at his party. Adding an expense like that can make a party overwhelming unless, like me, you let all family members know that if they want to chip in a little for the train in lieu of presents then it makes it more affordable (and then you don’t end up with lots of extra plastic in your house ).

Please comment with a link to your blogs if you have cute kid parties to share because I love the inspiration now that I have been converted by my friend Lauren to a party-planning mom… which is a small miracle because I avoided it like the plague for so long 😉

May 7, 2013 by Jessica | 0 comments

Rainy Day

I had planned to run errands today, but alas, the thunderstorm has dampened my plans. (Under the definition of “parent” you can find the word “flexible” in bold print.) You know that opening scene of The Cat in the Hat where the two kids are just staring out of the window? Yes. That was us today. Even me.

I brought some paper and markers over to the window for us to draw what we saw outside – a simple activity that throws in some drawing skills, vocabulary, sight words, colors, descriptors and more.

Mommy Teacher: “What color is the sky today?”

Without thinking, Leyson said, “Blue!” But then he looked more closely… “Das not blue!”

I explained to him that the clouds are covering the sun and they are filled with water which made the sky look gray.

Mommy Teacher: “And when the clouds fill up with water, the water drips out. That’s called rain! When it is raining this hard and you hear the thunder, that is called a storm.”

I drew a picture of some gray clouds and had him do the same on his paper. Then we each drew rain falling from the clouds, just like we saw outside. I wrote the word “storm” on my paper, and he did the same. Sounds easy enough, right? Because it is! The activities you do with your child do not have to be Pinterest-worthy; they just have to be age-appropriate and fun!

Drawing a picture of what you see and what you are talking about in conversation helps reinforce what you are teaching. Prompt your child to talk about what he/she is drawing. You will need to model both the drawing and the conversation…

Mommy Teacher: “To draw a cloud I am going to make a lot of humps. On the top it looks like lowercase m’s and on the bottom it looks like lowercase w’s. I am drawing gray clouds like we see outside. Can you draw a gray cloud?”

I told Leyson that when the sun comes out, we may be able to see a rainbow. He decided we should also draw pictures of a yellow sun and a rainbow with lots of colors. I wrote each of the words at the top and he did the same on his papers. We talked about the different colors too. He then also decided that we needed to draw one more picture of a cloud and we wrote the word cloud.

Mommy Teacher’s pictures…

Leyson’s pictures…

I am going to keep these pictures up for a few days so we can continue to talk about the weather. We are experiencing a huge temperature drop too so I am sure we will be talking about warm and cold. With an older child you can explain about cool fronts and warm fronts and check out some weather maps online!

Here are some great interactive websites for your older kids:

The best thing about a rainy day? It’s perfect nap weather! Nighty-night!

April 11, 2013 by Casey | 0 comments

Easter Egg Letter Hunt

Anyone else suffering from TMEEIMH (Too Many Easter Eggs in my House) Syndrome? They are everywhere you look at my house – despite my best efforts to sneak a handful at a time into the trash. But, don’t throw them away just yet! These plastic eggs can actually serve as practical learning manipulatives for you! My old teacher self used to actually buy dozens of them each year to use in my classroom for letter matching and rhyming words (I tell you, Jess and I share a brain because she does the same thing, too).

Leyson’s favorite word to read is “Leyson.” Well, that and “pizza.” In a past post I wrote about Busy Bags, I talked a little bit about the significance and progression of a child learning to read and spell his/her name:

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…

Well, here’s another activity that not only teaches the letters of your child’s name, but also teaches the ORDER of the letters – and, of course, we are using Easter eggs because, well, who doesn’t love a good egg hunt?

I first wrote Leyson’s name and underneath each letter I wrote the numbers 1-6. I did the same thing on another sheet of paper, but this time, cut out each letter and number.

We used 6 eggs… the same number of letters in Leyson’s name (no, that’s not a coincidence). I stuffed each egg with 1 letter and the corresponding number and then I hid the eggs around the room while Leyson was in the other room. Then, the hunt was on!

Once he found a letter and number inside of his egg, he had to tell me what he found:

Leyson: “It’s the letter L and the number 1!”

Mommy Teacher: “That’s right! Because the letter L is the FIRST letter in your name! L is the FIRST letter in Leyson!”

See that right there? Right there in the bold, italicized, CAPITALIZED print? See how I threw in some number recognition and some sequencing vocabulary? Sneaky, sneaky, Mommy Teacher!

Now, the reason I have his name and numbers written on another piece of paper is, yes, so he can see the ORDER of his name, but to also see which way the shape of each letter is supposed to go. Kids will recognize the SHAPE of the letter no matter which direction the letter/number is facing, so it’s important to also show them that they have to turn their letters/numbers around.

Reminder: a letter, number, symbol is a SHAPE much like a square is a shape. That’s why it’s so easy to confuse d, b, q, and p – they all have the same shape but are just turned different ways. But, I digress…

Next, I took away Leyson’s cheat sheet and asked him to spell his name.

Juuuust as I anticipated. So I brought out our language from the first activity…

Mommy Teacher: “What is the FIRST letter in Leyson?”

And he grabbed that L and put it underneath his scrambled name.

And the whole time he was singing his very own name song saying each letter of his name to the tune of “Bingo.” It really is magic how quickly they learn things when you tie a tune to it!

What other activities can you do with your Easter eggs? Sorting? Counting? Compare/Contrast? The learning possibilities are endless!

April 2, 2013 by Casey | 0 comments

Mommy Teacher Spring Break

I remember when spring break used to be a week at the beach, party cups, and friends for days.
Now, my spring break (as you are going to see) still includes friends, but it revolves around my kids and not my suntan…. But who needs a suntan anyway right? …. Well, since you asked….I do. But, I am 7 months pregnant and it was actually a chilly week so, that wouldn’t have happened anyway.
I have to admit, ever since I went back to working full time … I miss my kids so much that I SAVOR my time with them even more.

With a week of just me and my angels, I took the liberty of jumping on board of EVERY playdate adventure I caught wind of, and here is what my crazy-busy, awesome week looked like:

Monday – Zoo DAY

Packed the wagon, clipboards, zoo checklist, and lunches…

After nap time, we even made it to the neighborhood school playground and nearby park too… we really made the most of our day outside!

Tuesday – Exporing Downtown Baton Rouge

We packed our lunches, umbrella strollers, and blankets and headed to a trolley stop in Downtown Baton Rouge. We started singing “The Wheels on the Trolley…” when my baby started crying it was perfect timing for “The Baby on the trolley goes wah wah wah” haha

We took a little stair-step picture of the kids from tallest to shortest in front of the State Capitol…

After venturing to the top of the State Capitol, we had a picnic out front as we waited for the trolley to swing back around…

Wednesday – Fire Station Tour and Easter Egg Hunt Party

My friend set up a local Fire Station Tour where we maxed out the place with the youngest crew possible…

Sean Patrick was intrigued, and then scared, when the firefighter did his suit-up demonstration…

The Easter Egg Hunt Party we went to was way too fun for a simple, last-minute thing my friend threw together….

I’m still loving the bandana-liner idea from last year.

Thursday – Louisiana Arts and Science Museum

The LASM in downtown Baton Rouge has a great little discovery depot that was so developmentally appropriate for my under 3 year olds. It has so many age-appropriate learning stations for them to explore…

Friday – Bass Pro Shop and Sunrise Assisted Living

We made our way to Bass Pro Shop in Denham Springs, La to take pictures with the Easter bunny…. only to get the memo a little late that we would miss the bunny all-together (live and learn!) We found plenty to do…

After “Driving” the stationary truck out front Sean Patrick “Rode” the statue of a horse too…

Right before he picked out a fishing pole (that he uses every day!)

Then, we went to visit my mom (who has Alzheimers) and decided to take a picture with the Bunny Decor at the Assisted Living Residence since we missed the bunny at bass pro…

Weekend Fun – Crawfish Boils and Easter Celebration at the Camp

Finally, we wrapped up the weekend with two crawfish boils (dont be alarmed…below is a fake, plastic crawfish)…

Took a family pic (minus smiles) …

And went fishin in the lakefront (in the closest thing to a swimsuit) with the pole from bass pro…

And I wouldn’t trade ONE minute of it…. for my old Spring Break tan 😉

I hope that if you are on Spring Break right now with your kids off of school that you are able to join forces with your friends and come up with some play dates… it makes for such memorable moments!

April 2, 2013 by Jessica | 1 Comment

Sun Crosses – Easy Easter Craft

I had planned to do a different Easter craft activity every day this week, but you know what? This week FLEW by and we were never home!

Being Spring Break, I knew my kindergartner would want to be on the GO so I planned the week chock full of stuff… play dates to the park, zoo, arcade and more! So needless to say that by the time we got home, took naps, woke up, it was already dinner time!

Tonight we will be having a glow in the dark Easter egg hunt with all of our friends at our house! It will be so much fun! (If you want to do this, simply get a package of LARGE plastic eggs and glow in the dark bracelets to fill them. Then throw them in your yard. Bam! Glow in the dark Easter egg hunt).

Anyway… onto the ONE Easter craft we were able to d o – and we were able to complete it in about 15 minutes before we left for a play date one day this week! My kids call them Sun Crosses, for lack of a better name.

Materials:
2 sheets of paper per kid, scissors, tissue paper and stick glue

Step 1. Fold the 2 sheets of paper in half long ways together.

Step 2. Draw half of a cross on the fold.

Step 3. Cut out the 1/2 cross.

Step 4. Flatten one cross and cut 3-4 inch strips of tissue paper (or use one large sheet of tissue paper for your entire cross).

Step 5. Put the stick glue around the outside edge of the cross.

Step 6. Place the tissue paper across the opening for the cross. Do not leave any gaps.

Step 7. Take the other sheet of paper with the cross cut out and cover one side with the stick glue. Then glue it directly on top of the other cross on the tissue paper side.

Step 8. Add your own artistic flare around the crosses.

Step 9. Place in a sunlit window and watch the light shine through the cross!

Happy Easter, y’all!!!

March 30, 2013 by Casey | 1 Comment