How to get your kids to volunteer

I’m choosing to post this today because I think volunteering is one of the principles our country was founded on.  Large numbers of the men who fought for our independence took no paycheck, they fought because they believed it was right.  To this day the United States is still a country that leads in volunteering and in charity.  I want my kids to be leaders in this area.

Every Sunday morning I teach Sunday School at my church.  We come into our classroom, which is 1/3 of a basketball gym, and there is nothing set up.  We meet in a YMCA, and there is a crew of big burly men who do most of the hard work of setting up the worship service and putting up lots of curtains to divide rooms up.  But, the individual classroom are set up by the teachers.

This is my view every Sunday morning as I finish my breakfast.  Jeff carries in huge stacks of chairs, and the kids pull them apart and put them around tables.  They help happily.

Why do they help happily?  Because they see their parents serving.

 

They see us get up every Sunday and do it.  They see us during the week working on our lesson and practicing it on them.

 

They see me pick up trash I see in the street and throw it away, even if it’s not mine.  Why?  Because it’s my calling to care for the earth.  Why?  Because God called me to be a steward, I am to keep it and care for it.

 

So now because the kids have seen me pick up trash for years, they pick up trash they see in the street.  They don’t usually randomly drop it on the ground, there are those times they do, but it’s becoming less often.

 

When I read Mom Connection, I realized I wanted to work on how we’re giving back to the community that has given much to us.  As I started to think on it more, I’ve realized we are giving back already.  Now, I need to refine this and make it more structured.  One of my plans is to bring a plastic bag with me when we go to the park to put the random trash we find into.

 

It’s a small thing, but it’s one we can do.  Do you have a small step you’re going to work on?

How to encourage free play while waiting at the doctor

Princess has started speech therapy.  She mispronounces her C’s and G’s, and while I think it’s adorable she’s starting to get frustrated with people not understanding her.

 

So, every week she goes and “plays with Aunt Tara” for 30 minutes while the boys and I sit and wait.

 

Every week I remind the boys before we head out to pick up something to play with.  They’ll pack a small “suitcase” full of Legos, or mini-figures.  The picture up above is their colonial action figures and some of our gaming figures.

 

Then you train them.  If they’re not used to playing on their own while waiting, then set timers.  Have them play on their own for a few minutes, and then do something with them.

 

I’m proud to say that I can now take my kids with me into the church office and work on making copies for something for 20 minutes and not worry about them playing with things on people’s desks, or interrupting them.

 

This wasn’t an immediate result.  It took time, and patience, and a lot of reminders.  But, I have high expectations for my kids.

 

I expect them to be able to interact with adults and answer their questions intelligently (and there are times we’re still working on that one).

 

I expect them to be able to sit at a dinner table with adults and be able to participate or wait patiently.  That may mean they need to figure out how to entertain themselves quietly.

 

I expect them to wait or play in a way that’s appropriate for where they are.  If we’re at an office or the library, they are quiet (usually).  If we’re at a playscape or playground they can be as loud as the next child.

 

They are high expectations, but you know what?  My kids are happy, and they are loved and they know they are loved.  So, I think they’re good expectations.

New way to practice spelling or phonics

 
Write in shaving cream

Okay, it’s not new, I was using this almost 10 years ago when I was teaching, but some of you may not know about it.

We’ve been using it for our All About Reading Level 1 in place of the letter tiles.  Though my kids still do like to use our spelling boards.

Educating Laytons has just started Tactile Tuesday!

Quick reading or spelling tip

As I’ve mentioned several times before we’re using All About Reading level 1.  One of the big components of the program is spelling out the words and then reading them.  They recommend using spelling tiles, and I posted an earlier tip how we use ours with velcro and that was working for us.

That’s still working for us.  But, my new tip is to sometimes take a break from that and write it using dry erase markers.  If you don’t have a dry erase board you can use a mirror or window and it will wipe off just as well.

Right now this is the most commonly requested method to review our reading.

All About Reading tip

I took some of those fun games they have in the All About Reading workbook and made them into an envelope game.  For the feed the monster, I glued him on, and cut a slit in the envelope so we can feed him.

Afterwards the pieces just store right in the envelope we fed them into.

I did the same thing for the monkey game, and plan to do the same for all upcoming games.  Now it’s easy to play it over and over again. Update: 1. Sorry for the bad photo, I took a quick picture with my phone in a rather dark room. 2. Since first creating this "game" we have done the monster game almost every day, I'm taking it super slow with Princess and taking about a week a lesson for now.

Do you ever play with your camera settings?

We finally made it to the children’s museum and the dinosaur exhibit which I thought would enthrall my kids, they spent a cursory few minutes at, and then they split according to gender.

 

So, I spent a good 30 minutes being fed plastic food.  Which led me to play with the settings on my camera.

This is the accentuate one color.  I played around with different colors, but pink was most startling.

Fish eye and miniaturization.  Neither of which I thought were all that fun.  Maybe I should play with them more, or it might be a situational thing.

 

You know looking at most of the rest, I don’t particularly see how they were different, but it’s a fun thing to fiddle and play with.

 

Do you ever play with the settings on your camera?  Any tips or tricks?  I’m not that great of a photographer.  I can see what makes a great shot, but I don’t always follow through.

Fun way to entertain kids when you have nothing on hand

play charades!

 

Why didn’t I think of this sooner?

Quick tip: Calendar time

Use double sided calendar cards (or just use single-sided ones, but double sided have more interest), and when it actually reaches that day turn it around.
Okay for whatever reason this has really helped my kids with keeping what day it is straight and they really like turning the card around.

I’ve tried adding in the days as we reach it and since we’re not good about doing calendar every day (how was I so good at it when teaching and not now?) it rather confuses them.  This is BRILLIANT!  If I do say so myself.

Playful space: Costume Closet

I tried to find an amusing image to show you a before shot because I didn’t get one, but just imagine a closet overflowing with stuff.  I now have two large tubs of boxes and a big bag of gift bags to giveaway.
Oh, and I finally unpacked the final box from moving in 7 years ago.



Yes, you read that right.  Then the kids and I went through our two trunks full of costumes.  I get mine in the after Halloween sales, so it’s a very odd assortment, but they get used A LOT.

This of course meant they had to try them all on.  Several times.










After all of the sorting I was able to convince them to get rid of 2 costumes out of that lot, and I secretly snuck out a few broken pieces I was sure they’d try and keep.

Ugh, that pictures is slightly out of focus so it’s driving my eyes nuts, but it cracks me up so much I had to include it.



Then we had to dress up Mac.  Poor dog.


Finally the space under the stairs is transformed into a much more functional space.  And I don’t get frustrated when the kids get out the costumes anymore because the costumes are now hanging on hooks rather than having to dig out the entire trunk to find THAT ONE COSTUME……..

homemade tools: spelling board

We use All About Spelling and it has 100 or so spelling tiles.  They encourage you to get a magnetic board that is about 2 foot by 3 foot for this.  The problem is I have problems knocking the magnets off and losing them.  Enter my solution:

Supplies: laminated file folder (for durability), All About Spelling letter tiles , velcro (bought at Feiner supply [thanks to Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations for giving me the heads up of where to buy]), scissors

This is fairly self explanatory, but I figure I’d give you the tips I learned in making three of these.

1.  Measure out the space between velcro strips and figure out the right distance.  I figured out it was roughly an inch space.

2.  I figured out it worked best for me not to have all of the multiple letters out at this time.  There might come a day someday when the kids need them, but right now there are no double letters out, and only the 3 digraphs we’ve started on.

3.  I used rubber cement to put on the labels for the different phonemic segments consonant blends, vowel teams, etc).  I had originally used packing tape, but that makes it harder to pull up if I need to rearrange, which I’ve already had to do once.

4.  Figure out roughly how much space you need for each section before gluing down any labels (see above comment on the packing tape).  I figured out the primary alphabet needs 3 rows with some extra space left over.  The vowel teams needs about 2 rows, and the consonant blends needs a row (maybe 2, wasn’t real sure yet), and the other two categories can pretty much split a row).

5.  I’ve got the extra letters and such in ziploc bags right now and squirrelled away, hopefully somewhere I can find them again.

I got this idea from something I saw on pinterest, but I just spent 20 minutes scouring my boards and can’t find the original post.  If you pinned this idea or have seen it, could you let me know the source so I can credit it.  Also, they had a printable to some plain alphabet tiles if you don’t want to buy the AAS ones.

Solving a problem…..

Now they each have a clearly marked spot, and they do not cross it.  We rotate who sits at each spot at a different time.

 

Someday I will look back on the need to do this and laugh and laugh and laugh.  Today is not that day.  Today it is a necessity.

Fun quick tip for deocrating

I used dishwasher detergent to clean my sink.  It’s great because the bleach in the detergent helps get rid of the stains in my sink and scrubs it all out, but ever since we switched to using the tabs of soap for the dishwasher I didn’t have it as much (we switched to the tabs because the kids could put those in and not overfill the soap dispenser).

So, I bought a box of it and filled an empty spice container with the soap ready to be poured onto dirty sinks.

But it looks ugly.
Solution:  Prettify it.  Yes, that is a word.

Supplies: spice bottle, mod podge, paintbrush, scrapbook paper (mine is from a scrapbooking calendar)

It’s super quick and easy.  I just cut the paper down to size, and then painted mod podge all over the container.  After carefully aligning it I put it on and then put some more mod podge over the top.

Super duper easy!

Favorite Resource this week: Pinterest

I LOVE this site.  It’s so addicting, it’s like One Pretty Thing, but it’s only the stuff I like!

 

One of the things I’ve been looking for recently has been activities/crafts for swimming creatures to go with our science text, and here’s what I have so far:

Chapter 1 oceans and currents:

Experiment from All Things Beautiful

Chapter 2 whales:

whale from Superheroes and Princesses

Chapter 3 seals:

nothing yet

Chapter 4: aquatic herps (turtles)

turtle milk bottle lid from Mama Jenn

Chapter 5: Primeval Reptiles (water dinos):

nothing yet, though there is one about Champy I might do from Superheroes and Princesses, still debating

Chapter 6: fish:

Fish sun catcher from 4 Crazy Kings

Chapter 7: Sharks and Rays:

Shark craft from Brimful Curiostities, anyone have a good manta ray craft?

Crab science experiment from Learning Ideas (you should totally check out this site)

Chapter 9: Mollusks

Hermit Crab from Handprint and Footprint Crafts

 

I’d go on, but you get the idea.  If you want to see all of the 50 odd ideas I have on my Swimming Creatures board feel free to head there.  If you have a craft or activity related to this be sure to leave it in the comments and I’ll head over and add it to my board.

 

DISCLOSURE:  None of these pictures are my own, all of them were taken from the site linked right underneath, if you want to see the entire cool project FOLLOW THE LINK!

Love this idea for outside racing

If you don’t want to take the time to draw it out, or if you’re racing remote control cars:


We went to a carnival at my Mom’s church and they had car racing for one of the spots, and made a simple race track out of a couple of hoses.  Isn’t that just the coolest idea?  It helped keep the cars contained.

I think you could probably use a light rope inside or some ribbon, and it’s easily picked up.

How to make your wife feel LOVED!

As I mentioned on Monday, that was my birthday.  And, well see my primary love language is gifts.  I love to get them, give them, what have you.  I love to see people open presents.  It is the most wonderful thing to find the PERFECT present for someone.

Jeff has learned this through years of exhaustive research and study.  And some not so subtle hints.


Here’s my tips:

1.  It’s not just a birthDAY, it’s a birthWEEK!  Oh yes!  All week long Jeff brought home little surprises.  I got flowers 3 times last week.  Each time he’d call me right when he got home and I sent out a different kid each time and then the chosen kid would quite proudly present me with flowers.  Boy was there fighting over who got to bring in the flowers.

2.  Take the kids out to pick presents.  Last week Jeff took the kids and they each picked presents for me.  Batman got me a movie to watch with him.  Superman insisted I needed a game, and got me the Lego Harry Potter game (totally awesome, will write more on that later), and Princess got me something “that smells good and a pretty Jesus candle, see Mommy it’s pretty.”

3.  The kids all got me cards and signed their names and wrote “Love you,” that is so neat to see.



4.  Doing something he tolerates with me because I love it.  Jeff went to see Footloose with me.  He REALLY loves me.  He has already said that “Sound of Music” next year is going to be a girl’s night, I can only push the boundaries so far.

5.  Small little things, like oh say bringing me a giant Dr. Pepper………  Especially after I had to plunge the toilet and clean a very filthy bathroom.  EWWWWWW