my I CAN DO book

Like all parents, I want my daughter to have confidence in herself. I want her to go through life with the attitude that anything is possible and that she can do anything! Unfortunately I have already seen the beginnings of frustration when my Boo realizes that there are things that she can't do (yet!). Dr. Michele Borba- an author, parenting expert, and educator- has outlined eight tips to cultivate that can-do attitude in our children. Two of those tips- Celebrate the special achievements and efforts and Accentuate the positive tie in directly to that confident attitude I want my three year old to develop.... as well as our latest Mommy & Me made book: My I Can Do Book! And the book is shaped like a can! :)

I just finished the template today and would love to share it with you all! Just right click on the image and save to your desktop. Or for larger files, click here for the cover and here for the blank pages. You will only need to print one cover, but print several of the blank pages. I plan on cutting out the can and binding the book on the side.

I hope this book will not only help my kiddo, but your little ones as well!

Happy Teaching!!

Super Cute Chore Chart

I have debated on when to start my little one on a chore chart... and I realized that the time has come! She is old enough to be responsible for a few tasks, and I figured I should start this chart while she still loves to help! :)

After finding a simple, yet cute, chore chart online (check out Leah Remillet's photography site for a free download) I went to work on what chores are appropriate for a three year old. I decided that 10 tasks would be great (and there just happened to be 10 lines on the chart!) We have a very solid night routine (brush teeth, say family prayers, scriptures) but we struggle with the mornings. So the first four tasks on the list revolve around improving our morning routine. As a teacher I had to stick in some of our learning activities- so two tasks are centered around scholastic education. Writing in journal, putting toys away, and putting on jammies are to help my daughter take more responsibility at night and to HOPEFULLY motivate her to do them quickly... I am sure I am the only parent with a daughter who associates bedtime with playtime! That left one task..feeding the dogs. She already loves to help with that, so I know that making this her special job will thrill her to pieces- or so I hope!

I also started thinking about external incentives- would she be motivated by stickers alone? I didn't want to be caught in the trap of giving her a treat every time she earned her 10 stickers for the day. So this is the plan: When my daughter earns her daily 10 stickers, we will run around the table (my daughter LOVES this!) and sing the "Go Jackie!" song/cheer. Simple- yet meeting the ultimate goal of my daughter knowing how proud we are of her and her good choices! I am also thinking of adding a special gold star sticker on her chart when she can go a whole day without a time out.

I am in the works to start a social skills jar with my daughter- focusing on a different skill every two weeks to a month (such as listening, following instructions, waiting, interrupting appropriately, and accepting feedback or correction) There are roughly 18 skill ideas that I would like to implement (taken from the Cool Kids program). I hope to type up that post as soon as we get our feet wet with the program!

As always, happy teaching!

Road Trip Survival Ideas

Planning a vacation with small children can be exhausting, and let's face it, the last thing we want to think about is the travel to and from our destinations. While planning our recent road trip to a few national parks, I came across some great ideas to keep kids entertained in the car (or plane!) I put them all together in a travel bag next to my daughter's car seat, and she was thoroughly occupied for the 9+ hour car trip (and that was just one way!!)

EDUCATION CUBES

This was by far my little girl's favorite activity in the car (for those who don't have a set of these cubes, check out Education Cube's website)

I made 4 different dice- one with colors, one with numbers, one with modes of transportation, and one with different objects you would see while traveling. The game play is simple- choose a dice (cube), gently throw it up in the air and catch it (without hitting anyone in the head!), whatever the cube lands on is the object you try and locate. For example, my daughter LOVED the color cube. When she rolled the color blue, we would work together as a family to try and spot blue objects inside and outside the car.

LICENSE PLATE GAME

So this activity was more for my husband and myself.... we searched for license plates from different states and whenever we spotted one (I use that term loosely- it was more my hubby than me!) we'd color in that state on our map. By the end of our vacation, we had colored in about 40 states!

FLASHCARD FUN: A NEW TWIST ON THE ALPHABET GAME

I am sure most (if not all) of us have played the "alphabet" game while traveling in the car. You know- the game where you start with the letter "A" and search billboards, license plates, and signs until someone in the car spots an "A" then you move on to "B" and progress through the rest of the alphabet. We decided to change it up a bit by bringing a set of well-shuffled alphabet cards. My daughter would choose the top card from her stack, and then we would search inside and outside the car for that letter. I loved that the letters were in random order- we never knew when one of those hard to find letters would pop up!

MAGNETIC PATTERN BLOCKS AND BINGO

Magnetic activities are quickly becoming one of my must-haves during church when it is important for my kiddo to sit still. So of course it made sense to bring them in the car!

I had a set of magnetic pattern blocks, cookie sheets from the dollar store, and pattern block printouts (found at PreKinders for free! Gotta love that!) I found some cute travel bingo cards awhile ago that worked well using the cookie sheet magnet board and circle magnets.

TRAVEL GAMES

In our travel bag, I packed several portable games that I knew would occupy my daughter's attention for a little while. We love the Leap Frog Scribble and Write learning toy- as well as our Tag reader and a stack of books.

I thought it a brilliant idea to bring my daughter's binoculars to get a better view of all our national park stops, but of course I left them in the car most of the time!

And last, but not least- bring (or make) a toy microphone so your kids can sing along to those road trip tunes! It's adorable and provided me with some entertainment!

This post is dedicated to all those skeptics who think the only way to travel with kids is via technology! :)

Happy teaching and travel safely this summer!!!