The Mommy Teacher

So this happened…
Which was then followed by a few impulse buys…

…and a complete new behavior modification system to discourage future closet explosions.

I introduce to you…

The Room Rating

(located right outside of their bedroom door for those times when it is so messy I can’t even walk into it)

Green:  Mommy approves!

Yellow:  Slightly messy.  You will have to clean it before bed.

Red:  Total wreck.  You may not come out of your room until it is clean.

or, according to my husband,

Green:  Mommy approves!

Yellow:  Daddy approves!

Red:  Just shut the door.

I was looking for a dry erase board to put on my clipboard, but found this doodle pad instead! And then I thought that this is pretty genius so I don’t have to leave a marker within reach of the kids… I’d definitely have another mess to clean up!  I used Command strips to secure it to the clipboard.

Check back in with me in a week and let’s see if we stick to this!  So far, the kids are excited about trying to keep it on green!  Green = Clean!  Say it with me!  Green = Clean!

Everything is nice and neat, and labeled by size and article of clothing so that they can read the tags on their clothes to determine who they belong to.  Once they are sorted, they know exactly where they need to go!  Definitely encouraging some independence (and help around the house) here!

4T, 5T, XS = L’s clothes

6+, S+ = J’s clothes

Oh, and another thing new we’re trying?  Bins for BIG TOYS and bins for small toys.

No more organizing by type of toy for us.  It was just taking way too long to clean.  The new rule is that if it is larger than your hand, it goes in the bin for BIG TOYS.  If it is smaller than your hand, it goes in the bin for small toys.

And BONUS x 2!  All these labels are GREAT for increasing print awareness for my 4 year old and encouraging reading for my 6 year old!

By:  Erin Walker

I read about Little Free Libraries in a local newspaper and fell in love with the idea. The basic concept is that a Little Free Library belongs to the community, and anyone can take or donate a book. When you’re finished with the book you can return it to any LFL location around the world or pass it on to a friend.

The first decision was where to put it. People locate their LFLs near their church, school, home, or place of business. We decided to place ours in our front yard because our house is located at the entrance of our neighborhood and faces a street with lots of pedestrian traffic, so we thought our Little Free Library would be used by neighbors and passersby. Having it at our house also makes it easy to maintain, and it’s fun check out the latest activity!

Next, the design: there are so many possibilities for how to design your library! You can buy a pre-made one from littlefreelibrary.org, use their plans to make your own, or create your own unique design. My dad built ours from plans on the LFL website and painted it to look like our house.

Choosing books: some LFLs have a specific theme, like children’s books or hobby books, but we live in an eclectic neighborhood with young families, retirees, college professors, and lots of college students walking by, so we filled our LFL with a variety of books. We included novels, travel books, hobby books, children’s books, etc. We’ll keep an eye out for what kinds of books people seem to like and try to stock more of those types of books. We’re also planning to have a party to invite friends and neighbors to visit our LFL and bring a buck and a book to help keep it stocked.

Before placing the books in our LFL we imprinted each one with our special LFL seal (ordered from http://www.littlefreelibrary.org) so that when the books are passed on people can see where they came from. We couldn’t imprint the thick pages of children’s board books, so we just placed a sticker inside those.

We also placed a notebook in our LFL for people to write comments, suggestions, reviews, and requests.  Reading the notebook is a fun way to feel connected to the people who enjoy our LFL.

To teach people about our LFL we posted our LFL plaque and some basic instructions, and I printed fliers with more detailed instructions and placed them inside the library for those who wanted to know more.

We also registered it at LittleFreeLibrary.org so people can search for it.

During the installation several neighbors stopped by to ask what it was and offer to donate books.

A few hours later we went outside to admire our LFL and noticed that someone had already donated a book!  It’s exciting to walk outside and see what people have taken from and added to the library. I’m looking forward to when my son is old enough to choose books to donate to and borrow from the library. For now he just has fun opening and closing the door.

If you’re in the Baton Rouge area stop by or visit our Facebook page at Walker Little Free Library.

Erin Walker is a teacher, Industrial/Organizational Psychologist, and soon to be stay at home mom. She earned her B.S. in Psychology and Sociology from Louisiana State University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from University of South Florida. She’s taught at University of South Florida in Tampa, FL; Saint Joseph’s School in Shreveport, LA; and Catholic High School, Saint Joseph’s Academy, and Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA. She currently works as a Selection Consultant in the telecommunications industry. She lives with her husband, 15 month old son, and two dogs, and is expecting a baby girl in July. She very occasionally blogs at firstyoumakearoux.typepad.com.

Eeeek!  Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day!  Leave it to me to wait to the last minute to even think about what to do.  I decided a few years ago that I wanted to be intentional about the holiday – teaching my boys to be thoughtful and caring through acts of kindness – so we would always make our own cards and gifts for our classmates.  Well, that was a few years ago, and this is now… and phew!  2014 is flying by and February 14th has crept up on me.

My Pinterest-loving self is really annoyed with my lack-of-planning self for just allowing the boys to choose store-bought Iron Man hologram cards that they simply wrote “To: Friend, Love, James/Leyson” on 20-something of them.  But, boy!  My kids were soooooo excited about those holograms.  So, they win this year.

I did decide (at about 4pm today) that we were at least going to be intentional about what we exchange between our family members.  The kids made “mailboxes” out of manila envelopes for each of us.

I pulled out all of my scrapbook paper, glue, crayons, markers and scissors and let the kids go to town!  Leyson enjoyed playing with the scissors so much he pretty much made confetti the entire time, and my husband and I made bookmarks for all of the kids to go with their books that we bought them.

The kids kept running back and forth from the craft table to the mailboxes, delivering their own personal “letters” to Mom, Dad, Brother, Sister, Mimi and their visiting cousin and aunt.  I can’t wait to open these all tomorrow morning!

So, yes, I realize this post is kinda really last minute (I apologize)… but this is still a great activity that you can do tomorrow or sometime this weekend!  Happy Valentine’s Day… even if it is a little rushed!  🙂