Arriba and Abajo

My daughter is a HUGE Dora fan. And thanks to Dora, she has picked up on additional Spanish that has required no effort on my part! One of these words is "arriba". She used this word correctly in conversation at the dinner table one night. I was impressed! Not being a Spanish speaker (yet), I researched and found the word for down- "abajo".

To teach this concept, we played! My Boo had all her princesses lined up waiting for the magic carpet ride (a.k.a. drink coaster that looks like a little rug). In order to make the magic carpet go up, each of the princesses had to say the word "arriba". In order to make the magic carpet go down, they had to say "abajo". My daughter and I took turns helping the princesses on their carpet rides. It was a fun learning experience! My Boo caught me a time or two forgetting to say the words in which she would promptly tell me "Mom, Belle didn't say arriba!"

I love that we are having fun while learning a second language together!

Happy Teaching!

Curriculum Planned and Posted!

It was my goal this week to get my Boo's curriculum posted for the year. I wanted to give her a very flexible, well-balanced curriculum that will not only help her to progress but to allow her and I to spend some good quality time together!! The recurring thought through this whole planning process was how quickly time goes by and that each minute is precious with our kiddos. With that in mind, I didn't want a curriculum that would require me to spend more time preparing for lessons and less time playing. With that being said, here it is! In all it's glory!!!

My Boo's Learning Plans (a.k.a. Super Work!)

MATH

I have divided this section into 6 sections. I will write what each section is, the learning goals we plan to achieve, and the manipulatives we will be using to teach those concepts.

HANDWRITING

LITERACY/ READING

I have two separate learning activities: one is our reading program (hooked on phonics garage sale special!) and the other is our literacy tray, which will be word play activities. There is so much to consider when teaching your child to read- what do you teach first, when is your child reading ready, which components of literacy should you be integrating into the reading program,... I have thought long and hard about this and I think we are just going to dive in head first and see what happens! I will be doing a week of alphabet sound segmenting. My daughter knows all the letter sounds, I just want to work with her on breaking down the sounds. I think that will help her understand reading more. But who knows- I feel like my daughter is more than ready to read- why should I hold her back because of my apprehensions?

EXPLORATIONS

These little units will be chosen by my daughter. I think it is important for kids to have a say in their education, and it definitely helps if the topic matter is something that is interesting to her! I found a darling little science tool kit with all sorts of exploration tools for 1.50 at our local bookstore. I can't wait to use it!

EARLY SKILLS

SPANISH

An outline of the Spanish that we plan on learning... I want to be very flexible on what we do learn, and if she has questions about other Spanish words or we happen to hear new words in our community, then our curriculum will adapt!

RELIGION

This was a toughy to plan. I feel like these scripture lessons need to be taught to my daughter in accordance with what she needs at the time. So there is no "set schedule". but I do have some FHE ideas that I would like to use this year!

ART

An outline of some of the art materials we have... I think it would be fun to center the art around our exploration study, the season, or holidays that are coming up.

PIANO

I made two songs for my daughter's little tikes piano. Once she has mastered that, I will move her to the real piano. Or who knows- I may start having her look for middle C now!!

A Dollar Store Tip to Get Your Kids Eating

For the past 6 months my husband and I have been struggling to get my daughter to eat. I researched some tips (posted here). One tip was to use fun dishes to spice up meal time (and capture your child's attention and interest long enough to eat!) Rather then spending a lot of money on children dishes, I went to one of my favorite places... the dollar store. I was able to find 2 and 3 compartment trays which has worked SO well for us!

As funny as this sounds, I love these trays because they keep my daughter's food organized! She can see that she has 2 or 3 separate foods to eat, and she knows that she needs to eat three bites of each of the foods served. It also is a reminder to me to serve more than just the main dish. And they are great when you have dippy foods and sauces- for example: one compartment for chips, the other for the cheese!

Journal Writing Prompts for Little Ones

I have been eager to have my daughter "write" in a weekly journal as part of our Sunday routine. I want to remember as much as I can of her thoughts at this humorous and curious stage. I found the following list of prompts online, put them all together, and uploaded it to our site's wiki.

I made a blank journal by binding together a stack of white paper and creating a personalized card stock cover. I will choose one or two prompts each Sunday, have her share her answers, I will write them down, and she will illustrate. So far we have written about her favorite dinosaur (Parasaurolophus). It is a simple and easy thing to do with your kiddo and yet you are helping to keep those precious memories to enjoy for many years to come.

Go start a journal with your kids!

Happy teaching!

Weekly Schedule Chart for Little Ones

I came across this great pocket chart at Target for a buck. I put it on our fridge and it serves as a schedule of our weekly events. I LOVE that I can easily put the activity cards in and out of the chart. (the cards have an activity with a picture and the word) After I put in the cards that have a specific day, I can have her choose activities for the rest of the days. For example, I know church will be every Sunday, so that day can't be changed. But we might go to the duck pond during the week, and that could be done on any day, so I would let her choose which day she would like to go. I LOVE that it is on our fridge and therefore I use it. My daughter is already recognizing that Sunday is a special day, and will use the names of the days in her regular conversation. We can also review at the end of the day/week what we have done, and can look ahead to see what is happening the next day! (This is terrible, but during church I think about the activities we will be doing for that week so I can have the cards made and ready for her.) If I were to change anything about this chart- I wouldn't make the names of the days all capitals (it was just the font I had chosen- didn't even think about it until later!)

If I had all the time in the world, I would...

I love all things organizational, and when ABC and 123 did their Let's Get Organized party, I was having a drool fest!! All I can say is that I am so amazed and impressed with the talent of some of you out there in the blogosphere! I wanted to compile a list of some of the things I would do if I ever get caught up in life!!

1. A List Maker's Life- CUTE monthly calendars and a file box system for sorting different papers
2. Shared from way over here- organizing all your stuff
3. 1+1+1=1- preschool binder (ah! I love binders!!!) Carisa is one of those teacher gems- If you haven't checked out her website, it is a MUST!! She has great ideas not only for organization, but also has incredible curriculum that she provides at no cost! How she does it all, I will never know!
4. The Happy Scraps- closet organizers. Not that we really need them, but they are just SO stinkin' cute!!!
5. The Shafer Family- reading curriculum ideas. One day I will be that organized! And it looks like her daughter is having so much fun LEARNING!!!
6. Nanny goat- 30 meals plan. It looks like a great idea for planning meals!
7. Monkey See Monkey Do- simple yet thorough cleaning schedule
8. My Delicious Ambiguity- a creative and cheap way to organize puzzles

Those are just SOME of the many, many sites that I love! My goal for this week: get all my curriculum sorted and planned. Right now I have PILES of stuff on each of my daughter's learning trays. I never knew how much curriculum I had until I tried to organize it all! As far as learning is concerned, I want to have daily piano lessons (about 10 minutes), daily reading activities (about 15 minutes), and daily time to work on our learning trays that are lovingly referred to as "Super Work" by my girl (about 10 minutes- but she is more than welcome to spend more time than that!)

Do you ever feel like there is SO MUCH stuff out there to teach our kids? How do you manage it all??

Kid Friendly Recipes

Do you create a weekly/monthly menu for your family? I find the months that I take the time to write a menu, I am not struggling at mealtime about what we are going to eat! Believe me, mealtimes have enough battles with my two year old! We have struggled over not eating to the point that I pulled out my dusty baby books and went online searching for some helpful ideas. I learned a lot about this age and that it is very normal for kids to go from being good eaters to not wanting to eat a thing! But I also got some great advice- like avoiding time outs for not eating (we were super guilty of that! and that led to such negative meal times!), setting limits like one bite per age of all the different foods at the table, and offering a variety of foods. I knew what I had to do- I had to create a breakfast/lunch/snack/dinner calendar. Our daily meals are entirely planned on my Google calendar (with a great deal of flexibility of course) to ensure that we are eating healthy and that I am providing my daughter with a variety during her meal times (I guess spaghetti every day COULD get old after awhile!)
Here are some recipes that I found that fit the kid-friendly standard- some I have tried, some are on the menu in the near future:


Mini Pizzas for Kids
Ingredients

• refrigerated biscuits...the cheapest you can find

• tomato sauce

• grated cheddar, mozzarella or other pizza cheese desired

• meat topping if desired such as pepperoni

Directions
Flatten raw biscuit slightly with hand.
Using a spoon, spread tomato sauce over top of biscuit.

Cover with grated cheese, meat, or other desired toppings. Bake in 350° oven for about 10 minutes, or until biscuits are baked through.

Easy Hummus Dip Recipe

• 15-oz can of chick peas
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp paprika (optional)

Place first 5 ingredients in blender or food processor.
Blend until smooth.
Serve in bowl, sprinkled with paprika.
Several Servings (about 1 1/2 cups)

Fruit Tart
Ingredients
• 1 pkg. refrigerated sugar cookie dough
• 1 8-oz. block cream cheese
• 1 tsp. vanilla or lemon flavoring, or whatever liqueur I have that matches one of the fruits I'm using
• Zest of one lemon or lime
• 1 Tbs. lemon or lime juice
• 1 C. orange marmalade, apple or apricot jam
• 2 Tbs. water
• Sliced fruit (whatever is on hand):
• kiwi, strawberries grapes, blueberries,a Granny Smith or Gala apple, a tangerine, and/or a banana

Directions: Roll out sugar cookie dough and place on a cookie sheet or a pizza pan depending on desired shape. I use a tart pan. For a more rustic look, I just put the dough on the cookie sheet and turn up the edges of the dough slightly. Bake dough according to the directions on the package. Mix together cream cheese and flavoring/liqueur, and then spread the mixture onto the baked, cooled cookie dough. Arrange sliced fruit on top of cream cheese. Combine marmalade or jam, tart citrus juice and water in a small saucepan and heat until marmalade/jam is melted. Pour over tart and chill. Slice and serve.

Easy Enchiladas

Ingredients

• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast meat - cut into strips

• 2 potatoes, peeled and diced

• 1 (1 ounce) package taco seasoning mix

• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

• 1 (5.5 ounce) package red beans & rice mix

• 10 (8 inch) flour tortillas

Directions:

In a large skillet, prepare rice and beans according to package directions. Meanwhile, in another large skillet, saute chicken until cooked through (meat is no longer pink), about 15 to 20 minutes over medium heat. Drain saute oil/grease from skillet. Add the potatoes and cook until just tender. Add seasoning according to package directions. Cook all together, stirring often, until potatoes are done. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Take a tortilla. Place some of the chicken/potato mixture and some of the beans and rice (about 1/2 to 3/4 cup total filling) onto the tortilla, add a little cheese to taste, and roll up. Place rolled tortilla in a lightly greased 9x13-inch baking dish. Repeat with other tortillas until dish is full. Top with the rest of the cheese and bake in the preheated oven 15 to 20 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Updated theme

I finally updated my blog theme- it isn't 100% what I want, but I am in such a time crunch lately! I don't know about you all, but I am sitting in a pile of curriculum just WAITING for it to magically come together- actually, the hardest thing is deciding WHAT to teach. These little ones of ours are sponges soaking in everything we teach them. But it is my goal to get the new year curriculum posted, as well as potty trainers 101 (devoted to us, the trainers, in our child's potty experience, kid friendly recipes, and more! :)

Toddlers in Tiaras may be closer than you think!

I am not a beauty pageant mom. I don't see the importance of focusing on vanity. While some may argue that beauty pageants teach their daughters poise, how to win and lose gracefully, and to smile on command- I just don't see the point- other than to flaunt one's vanity...
I recently went to one of these pageants to support my darling niece. (who is incredibly gorgeous- who needs a judge to tell you that??) Everything I have heard about them is true!! The moms out in the foyer coaching their daughters on how to walk, wave, and smile. The moms glaring (and sometimes even rebuking) their daughters for forgetting to blow kisses to the judges (or something else ridiculously silly). The moms walking around with massive totes full of hairspray, curling irons, and large poofy dresses. And yes, the moms who are hidden in the back, dark corners sobbing because their baby girl was not deemed the biggest beauty (when really, all these girls are so darling- how can you say one is cuter than the other?)
This is just not a pastime that I understand!
I never would of thought- living in the conservative state that I do- that this kind of vanity would be happening regularly. I would love to hear your opinion on this topic!
Happy teaching!

Phonics VS Whole Language

Those familiar with the educational reading battle "phonic vs. whole language" may have a view point on the correct way to teach reading. Phonics programs teach how to connect letter (or groups of letter) sounds- or to be able to manipulate phonemes in words.
The National Reading Panel gave us the following about phonics instruction:
"It is important to recognize that the goals of phonics instruction are to provide children with key knowledge and skills and to ensure that they know how to apply that knowledge in their reading and writing. In other words, phonics teaching is a means to an end. To be able to make use of letter-sound information, children need phonemic awareness. That is, they need to be able to blend sounds together to decode words, and they need to break spoken words into their constituent sounds to write words. In implementing systematic phonics instruction, educators must keep the end in mind and ensure that children understand the purpose of learning letter sounds and that they are able to apply these skills accurately and fluently in their daily reading and writing activities."
And they are right- the reason we read isn't to practice our phonics skills. We read to gain meaning. This is an important part of the whole language philosophy. Whole language instruction focuses on a child's motivation, having access to a variety of good reading materials and the time to read them, and focusing on a word's meaning and using meaning clues to figure out the pronunciation of unknown words. Whole language looks at making meaning in reading and expressing meaning in writing.

I could go on about the two perspectives- but the point is, reading is not an easy thing to teach!!! Although I know 2nd grade readers, I was petrified about teaching early reading. That is why I was so happy when I found this gem at a yard sale in Seattle:

Cost?: $15! This kit has never been used, and everything is just right there to help me teach my daughter to read. And you can bet we have already started working on mastering letter sounds! Curriculum makes my heart sing!

Don't fall off your chairs, but...

I am finally posting! Wahoo! This has been a summer full of vacations, sleeping in, and working (gotta love those jobs!). The teacher inside me LOVES this time of year- back to school gear, new curriculum, the smell of freshly sharpened pencils... August is my January. It is the time of year that my spirit is rejuvenated for the following year. All you crazy teachers out there might understand what I am saying!
I am going to be typing up a few posts this week about our "super work" toddler curriculum plans, fun activity days in August, hooked on phonics, and children's' beauty pageants. Stay tuned! And as always, Happy Teaching!!!