penpal package send-off

Today we wrapped up what was supposed to be a month's worth of work but what we actually shoved into four days. Nice.

Maddy, Owen, and Cora finished their pen-pal package for their new buddies in Texas--Macy and Jake. We are a part of the Super Summer Swap, coordinated and organized by two very cool gals, Christy and Denise.

We have been practicing our writing all summer in games and letters to our local pals, so this was a really big-for-us extension of the little things we've been doing. It's a great way to wrap-up some previously touched on skills, and I can't thank Christy and Denise enough for their great idea.

• Pen Pal Wrap-Up: On Monday, we made a checklist of everything we wanted to include in Macy and Jake's package. With instructions to spend under $15 and to include information about themselves and where they live, things they liked, and anything else that might be interesting to kiddos their same age, on Monday, Maddy and Owen were really psyched about starting this.
  

On Tuesday, they bought a book for both Macy and Jake at the book booth--a book re-sale event at our local hospital's annual fair and which just so happened to be Tuesday. It was only about 800 degrees, hazy, hot, and humid outside, but they managed to find interesting books in great shape that they thought their pals might enjoy.

We also worked on the computer on Tuesday on the layout of the letter part of the package. We made it like a book; it contains a Table of Contents and a page each about Maddy, Owen, Mommy/Daddy/Cora, Golden & Guinea, Our House, Maryland, and Friends. They chose the pictures for their pages, Cora's page, and the Friend page.

Maddy and Owen working tirelessly (ha!) on bead creations.

On Wednesday, since they decided that their favorite toy was the balloon launcher, we all went to our favorite local toy store and picked one up. This would be the exciting part of their package since these guys aren't cheap.

They also worked on their letters. The excitement for our impending trip to the shore was palpable over here by mid-week, so Wednesday is when things became more difficult. Owen scribbled on his sheet and said he was done. Maddy wrote that she loved horses but I never heard her say that in all of her life. We were slowly losing our minds, the package needed to get out by the weekend, and I had a hundred loads of laundry to do before then. Gulp.

On Thursday, Maddy and Owen posed for pictures for the house page of their book and dictated to me what they wanted to have written on the pages of their books. This was fine with me; sometimes writing is intimidating for little ones, so having them say what they want written with someone else composing it is a great alternative, especially when their minds were already on other things (ie., sand and surf).

Friday was the day that we put everything together. Maddy put the pages in order. They chose the colors for the pipe cleaner binders. They also wanted to make bracelets (or a snake and a keychain) for Macy and Jake, so they worked with beads and completed those today. They also wanted to include some of their favorite recipes, so we threw in our muffin recipe and our more recent zucchini bread one.

Saturday the package will hit the Post Office, and it's off to Texas!

We're hoping that Macy and Jake--and their awesome mom, Sarah--enjoy the package, but we want to send a disclaimer along: BlogHer made a mommy tired and the beach caused a major distraction. Next year, we'll plan better.

new for us friday--root beer floats!

We were due for a successful New For Us Friday after the flop that was our coconut NFUF and after last week's NFUF only included me (and oh my gosh, was it fun!).

This week, we tried one of my old favorites but one that I know Maddy, Owen, and Cora had never tasted in all of their 5, 3, and 2 years--Root Beer Floats!

• Root Beer Floats: How could these not be a success, really? I am not even sure what prompted me to pick up a 6-pack of root beer the other day, but I'm glad I did.
  

July is National Ice-Cream Month, so in order to really celebrate--aside from having it as dessert nearly every day this month--I thought that ice-cream paired with a good, ole root beer was a treat that would be new and exciting for the kids. With so many flavors and textures, it really would be interesting to see how they liked it. This NFUF was a hit.

I poured in a half glass of root beer, then I topped it with vanilla ice-cream. This was Owen and Cora's first time having soda; Maddy had it once in the fall at a wedding. These poor, poor kids are so sheltered. It was time to let loose.

This float had no hope.

Really, these were gone from the moment I put them in front of the kids.

Maddy said, It's so spicy, Mom. And Owen, between slurps, told us that the beer really felt funny in [his] mouth. Cora wanted to pick up the ice-cream and screamed when we gave her a spoon, so we let her go and enjoy it however she wanted. My husband and I really just wanted to enjoy our floats in peace.

So it was a completely successful New For Us Friday, and I believe it's one that they will not forget. I have been having a blast with these this summer; trying to rack my brain for new activities, foods, or events for us to try has really been fun. Any ideas? Send them my way!

beautified baby slide

I think I may have a problem.

When my husband told me that his brother wanted to take our sadly neglected hand-me-down baby slide for his daughter--our sweet, almost-2-year-old neice--my heart raced.

I had spray paint sitting in the garage from when I pimped our coupe a few weeks back.

I had to think fast. He was coming the next day.
And there was no way we were going to pass along a sad and faded slide to our most-favorite-in-the-whole-world neice. I got to work.

• Beautified Baby Slide: First, we scrubbed this baby down. She was sparklin'.
  

Oooooh, baby, she was clean.

Then, I made some flower and leaf stencils.


I painted the ugly, faded orange parts white and cream, then I threw on some flowers--tulips and daisies.

And then I put on some leaves, here and there.

And that's it. Super-simple and now oh-so-beautiful.

A perfect first outside slide for our sweet neice.

Some things you can only do in the summertime! I'm so curious--anyone else frequently beautifying or pimpin' their backyard toys this summer? Link them here!

w-w-w- wordo!

Tonight we played a game before bed that focused on Sight Words. It is a bingo game--which Maddy and Owen totally heart in the first place--but instead of letters, places, or rhymes, it uses those words in Maddy's Summer Kindergarten Packet that they suggest she be able to read by the end of Kindergarten. Really, no pressure.

That's light years from now, right? She's only just beginning Kindergarten in the fall, so we've got time. . .

Anyway, here's the skinny:

• WORDO: We used these WORDO boards and WORDO cards. Like I said, we used the words from a that we received as part of Maddy's Kindergarten packet, but you can really add any words you're focusing on at the time. I played this game many times when tutoring younger students, and I would use the sight words for that student's grade or reading level.
  

Here are the WORDO cards we used.

I started by reading the words on each card, but Maddy and Owen wanted to begin playing, so I scrapped that, said All right, let's go then! and we began to play.

It was right before bed, and they were eating Cheerios as their snack, so we used Cheerios as bingo markers. Nothing like being able to eat your game pieces when you're done playing. . . You can really use anything--Foamies, real bingo chips, small erasers, stickers--whatever's close.

Our WORDO boards in action--Cheerios and all.

I flipped a card from the pile, and I read it out loud. I would say, Am. Am. A-M. I am tired from swimming today. Am. Look closely to see if you have 'am' on you board.

We all checked to see if we had the word, then placed our Cheerio down if we did. When a winner got three in a row, he shouted, WORDO! and read each covered word to make sure he really won. We helped if anyone needed it--and often they needed some reminding.

And that's it. Since our boards only had 9 squares, we played cover-all for the last game, and we really couldn't shout because Cora had just gone to bed. But overall, I think Maddy and Owen enjoyed it. Easy, fun, and simple.

Here are some variations of this game for different levels of readers. Consider:

-writing 9-12 words on a board and having students write their own words in each box, creating their own boards;

-doing above and then having students switch boards;

-giving students small word cards, having them cut the cards out then glue them onto the boards;

-having students jump up and read the words before they place their Cheerio down;

-having students write their winning words at the end of the game, after they shout, 'WORDO!'


This game is from Pat Cunningham's Phonics They Use: Words for Reading and Writing (2000). It's a seriously incredible resource for teachers, and it's been reprinted several times since 2000, but as slim as it is, it is packed full of fantastic--and easy--games and activities to use with emerging readers. I haven't had a need to check out the later editions, but I'm willing to bet they rock.

One of my favorite sites, ABC and 123, featured Sight Word games one day last week. More great ideas!

That's it for today--a little sneaky learning in the form of one of our favorites--bingo!

keep out! door signs

I think the post a few days ago about my attempt to provide authentic writing and reading experiences for my kiddos went a little too far the other day. Maybe we've been doing too much sign reading over here on our trips to and from the pool. . .

Before I left for my trip, as I was scrambling to put Cora down for her nap, I noticed an eerie quiet in our upstairs hallway. I walked to Maddy's door, and there was a sign that said, No B--S.

I went into her room and asked her to read her sign to me. She said she wrote, 'No Boys.' It means, No boys are allowed in my room, Mommy. It's a girls' only club in here.

Oh. Of course. I asked if she wanted to know the correct spelling of 'boys' and she said she did. I told her (the -oy sound is pretty tough to figure out for emerging readers!), and she re-wrote the sign on the back and re-posted it.

By this time, Owen had retaliated. His sign said, No G--

Owen's sign

He asked how to spell 'girls', and I helped him through it by giving him the 'I' then I said, 'Girls.' Girrrrls. What sound do you hear in the middle?

He said, Rrrrr. It's an 'r'. I gave him the 'l' then said, What sound do you hear at the end of 'girlsss'? He added the 's' and hung up his sign. He added the letters and walked inside.

Then Maddy hollered, Owen, this would be more fun if we had real club members. It's quiet in here with just me.

Owen agreed, and they forgot about the signs.

We'll return to sneaking in some everyday learning tomorrow, once I'm unpacked, rested, and back in the game. Our focus will be the Super Summer Swap this week!!

new for (me!) friday--blogher

This New For Us Friday doesn’t include Maddy, Owen, and Cora; it only includes me (and I can't express how guilty I feel about it)! It's my first time away solo in ages--woo-hoo!! Talk about being totally new and exciting; I’m trying something crazy new—a blogging conference in Chicago!

It’s a four-day getaway, a chance to learn a little more about the in’s and out’s of blogging, a chance to hang out with some of my favorite bloggers and to meet some new ones.

Here are some things I’m having a great time doing:

• Sharing a room with--and spending some good, old-fashioned girl-time with my pal, Amy
• traveling with Shannan;
• hanging out with my DC Metro Mom pals and meeting the writers from Silicon Valley Mom Blog Group (and all of the area writers--Chicago Moms, New York Moms, New Jersey Moms, Philadelphia Moms, Rocky Mountian Moms, LA Moms, 50-Something Moms, Deep South Moms, and Canada Moms;
• handing out cool pens and tatoos for Momfluence;
• chatting with--and laughing and crying through the keynote speakers with--one of my favorite mom-teachers, Allie;
• running--okay, and walking--the BlogHer 5K with Leticia and Justice Fergie;
  
• spending time with another mom pal and Philadelphia Mom Blogger, Amy;
  
• working with some cool people--Cathy, Mollie, and Chanse--from Nokia who want me to try out some snazzy new techie device;
• meeting the good people from all of the sponsors of BlogHer and the nightly cocktail parties and events. . .
  

While I’m away, my husband—great dad that he is—is in charge, fancy-schmancy new knee and all. They’ve got some playdates scheduled, the guineas to play with, and even a birthday party thrown in the mix, so I’m sure their little “at-home vacation” will far surpass the one I had with our troops way back in March during my husband’s golf trip weekend.

And that's it! I sure miss my little ones and husband, but it's also pretty awesome to get away!

reading about guineas

Today, we read a lot about guinea pigs, thanks to everyone's interest in our new pets, our friend, Heather, who let us borrow some super-cool Fluffy books, and to Maddy's Summer Kindergarten Calendar.

It was a riot! Who knew these guineas would be so much fun?

Here's how it went:

• Fluffy Books: Written by Kate McMullan and published by Scholastic, this series is available--I believe--only through the school market. They are, however, super-affordable if you do some searching on Amazon.
  

This series is a level 3, which is way too difficult for Maddy and Owen, but they are high interest, so they want to read them. These books feature a very silly, brave, and smart guinea pig, so my kiddos would do anything to be able to sit down and read by themselves.

While I read the books, I would stop every so often and say things like,

Hmmmm. What sound does Fluffy begin with? What letter makes that sound? Can you use your detective eyes to find the word, 'Fluffy' on this page? Right! How did you know that? or,

I read the word, 'boots' three times on this page. Can anyone point to the word, 'boots'? or,

Wow! There are sound words on this page--'Whoop!' and 'Beep!' They are written differently to show readers that they are sounds, so they are in italics, or slanted. Can you point to 'Whoop!' or 'Beep' and say the word in a funny voice? or,

I have read the word, 'fire' many times in these two pages. I read 'firefighter', 'fire truck', and 'fire'. Think about what letter makes the 'f-' sound, then use your strong reading eyes to find one of the 'fire' words.

And they love this. They love the book because it's high interest and funny, and they love that they are able to find--and read--words on a page. If they make an error, I say something like, You're close. Try again. or, Think hard about (whatever I asked) and let me see you give it another try.

• Summer K-Work: Maddy and I worked on an activity that asked her to find a book about an animal and then write down three things she learned about that animal. Then she was to draw a picture of where that animal lived.
  

She knows our guinea pig book inside and out, so we walked through it one more time to refresh her memory before she started writing. She decided on a few facts--Guinea pigs eat berries. / They play in a box, and we did shared writing just like we always do. Then she got rockin' on her picture.

I like that this activity focused on a non-fiction text; it seemed to be a cool pairing with our Fluffy series! Thanks again, Heather, for lending them to us!

And that was our learning for the day--busy weekend for this mama ahead!

trying to keep smiling: quick trick, wait time

I am so grateful to be married to my amazing husband; he's an incredible father and a patient and loving friend, and he totally rocks as an educator.

Having taught both elementary and high school, coached boys soccer for a long while, and currently being an elementary school administrator, he has a ton of experience under his belt and really knows how to work well with people of all ages.

Often, I've thought about how cool it is to be best friends with someone I can talk to about work, education, teaching, and parenting and be so on the same page. I'm very lucky.

Okay, enough of the mushy stuff. . .

Tonight at dinner, in his conversation with our kids about their day, he gave me the idea for this Quick Trick: Wait Time.

• Wait Time: Many talented teachers give their students Wait Time after they ask a question. More parents (including myself) should consider doing the same.
  

Wait Time is just that--time to wait and think before sharing an answer.

This is how the conversation went today at dinner:

My husband: Hey guys--I heard you had a busy day today--you played at Air Mania in the morning and went to the pool in the afternoon. I want you all to take a minute and think really hard about your favorite part of the day and then tell me what it was. Don't tell me yet (everyone, of course, started talking at once. . . ). Think for a minute and then tell me. Owen, it's your day, so you go first. . .

And so they shared. And I marveled at how smoothly it went, everyone taking turns and talking about really interesting parts of their days.

Wait time allows a breather, gives every mind time to sort out information and formulate the best response--even to a dinnertime question about the day's activities.

Usually, I seem to move so quickly through the days that I forget to give my kiddos time to think before they answer me. Like most of us, I tend to rush through one thing in order to move to the next, and Wait Time forces everyone to slow down. I know I need to do it more.

One reading researcher who writes about questioning and assessment believes that "thoughtful answers require thought and thought requires time."
(Afflerbach, P. (2007). Teacher Questioning as Assessment. In Understanding and Using Reading Assessment, K–12 (pp. 51-71). Newark, DE: International Reading Association. 61.).

Sure. Right! Of course!! This makes complete sense. Now I just need to do it.

letter writing--and ownin' it

Late last week, Maddy received a letter in the mail from one of her pre-K friends. She was elated, but Owen was a crying mess because he wanted a letter in the mail.

We chatted about how in order to get mail, you've got to take the time to send something yourself, so this morning before Maddy's last pre-team swim practice, Owen and Maddy got to work.

They were determined to write some letters and color some pictures to send to their pals, secretly hoping that they'd get a return note in the next few days. Woo-hoo! Talk about an authentic reason to get my kiddos writing. So what if they were doing it just to get some mail--anything to get them into writing was cool with me.

I was more than happy to help them with some shared writing and to take them to the post office for stamps later in the day. And I have to admit that some envelopes were sealed before I had time to make sure that they signed their names--such is life when you're juggling three little ones, all scribbling, writing, and drawing at the same time!

• Letter Writing: Cooperative, or shared, writing, as I've said before, is simply working with an emerging writer as she attempts to sound out and compose words on a page.
  

Maddy's picture for her pal.

Instead of giving the spelling of a word to Maddy, I let her take the lead. She said, I want to write, 'Dear Emma'. Dear--

I sounded out the word with her: Dear. Ddddddear. What sound do you hear at the beginning of 'dear'? That's right, 'd'. 'Dear' begins with 'd'. Then I would write a 'd' on my paper and Maddy would do the same on hers. I usually give her the difficult vowel sounds and worked with her on the rest. I wrote 'ea' after 'd' and said, What sound do you hear at the end of 'dear'?

She sounded it out again and said, 'R--' I hear an 'r' sound. 'Dear' ends with an 'r'. So I completed the word on my page and she did the same. Sometimes I'd let her finish the word first if she felt confident with it, and if she made mistakes and kept going, I let her go. My goal was to let her feel comfortable with writing--not to bruise her ego. If she asked if she was correct, I'd work with her; if not, we moved on.

Another of Maddy's letters to one of her friends.

Their letters were simple--Owen's were mostly quickly scribbled pictures, the name of his buddy, and his name. Maddy's letters were short and sometimes included a picture she drew. And that was it--the letters and pictures went in, I wrote the address, and they put on the stamp and return address label.

Here's why it's so important to get our little ones to read and write topics that interest them:

Last night, I finally had a second to sit down and read the June/July 2009 issue of Reading Today. Kathryn H. Au is the International Reading Association President, and I found her article in Columns and Commentary to be especially interesting; it focused on giving students "ownership" of literacy--something that I think not enough of us as parents and educators do.

She wrote that as the US and other countries push for higher standards of literacy achievement, education in general is shifting towards an emphasis on proficiency and not on student motivation to learn or eventual ownership of what skills they do master. Au believes that "proficiency without ownership leads to students who may have control of strategies and skills but no reason to use them, but minimally. Ownership without proficiency leads to students who may have goals but lack the know-how to accomplish them." There's got to be a balance and a paradigm shift in order to make it happen.

Au goes on to say that to change this, "teachers must be a reader and writer, to help students take ownership of their own literacy" and they must share experiences about how they use reading and writing in their lives. She also believes that teachers should share their own tastes and interests as a reader and help their students develop their own tastes and interests as readers. (Promoting ownership of literacy. (June/July 2009). Reading Today, 26(6), 16. )


We as parents can do the same things at home--demonstrating that we use writing and reading for authentic purposes every day. Reading the newspaper, making grocery lists, reading recipes--and letting our kiddos in on this fun can actually help them in the long run.

our not-so-teeny-zucchini

Last week, a good friend of mine gave us the most ginormous zucchini I had ever seen. I'm not sure what she's feeding her plants, but I knew right away what I wanted to do with it. I had been craving my mom's zucchini bread all summer long.

So, without haste, I made the recipe kid-friendly and had Maddy, Owen, and Cora throw on their aprons and get to work!

• Reading to Perform a Task--Baking with Zucchini: Just like I've done before, I made this recipe into one that would be more easily read by my tiny bakers and emerging readers. I enlarged the font, added a check-off line, and--where I could--I added a small picture to aid in comprehension. I also wrote the directions in easy-to-understand steps; here is the revised recipe.
  

I put the recipe in a plastic sleeve, and I grabbed a dry-erase marker. Then we gathered ingredients and got to work.

Maddy and Owen helped grate the zucchini, and everyone cracked an egg into the bowl. Each kiddo took turns dumping ingredients into bowls and measuring.

Our kitchen was a serious mess by the end, but it was worth the work. With a little bake-time tweaking--we only had one loaf pan, so we filled two 6-muffin tins and kept the bread in longer--everything came out delicious!

Caught her! Cora's tiny finger caught on camera--
trying to sneak a taste of sugar.

While we're baking, I usually try to put tiny samples of each ingredient (the safe ones!) on a plate so that they can try each "piece" of our recipe. My thinking is that by doing this, they will all become accustomed to how familiar--and unfamiliar--foods taste.

Any time I can sneak in early literacy skills, I'm especially happy--whether it be on the road, in the kitchen, at the store, or wherever. Showing little ones how we, as adults, use reading for different purposes--to gain information, to perform a task, or for enjoyment--demonstrates for them the importance of acquiring these skills themselves!

new for us friday--going coconutty!

Wondering what new something we could try for our next New for Us Friday, I grabbed a coconut while I was at the grocery store this week. I remembered my mom having one for us when we were younger, and it was so amazing to me that there was liquid inside of this strange fruit.

Having already unnecessarily butchered our mango a few weeks back, Maddy suggested I search on the Internet for a lesson on how to open the coconut before I do the same to this poor guy. How'd she get so darn smart?

Here's our story:

• Going Coconutty: I found that there were way too many crazy videos online on how to open a coconut, and since I don't have an icepick, meat cleaver, or sledgehammer, I had to settle on FreshFruitDaily.com's how-to video. I also watched About.com's video, and I found that a combo of both techniques worked for me. (Well, kind of. . . )
  

Woo-hoo! I made a hole in our coconut!

First, I handed the coconut to Maddy, then Owen, then Cora to hold and shake a bit before I attempted to open it. I wanted them to feel how rough the outside was, how heavy the fruit was, and to hear the liquid inside it.

I used a wine bottle opener and scored one of the "eyes" so the water could drip out. This was easy to do, and Owen thought it was so cool to empty the water into a small bowl. We all tried a tiny sip of it--and everyone said that they didn't care for it. We were off to a good start.

Emptying our coconut.

Next I tried to open it. Not so easy. I found the "equator" and tried to use the back side of my (ahem. . .) bread knife to knock around the circumference, but that did nothing. Then I grabbed a hammer and some sort of awl-like tool I found on my husband's work bench and tried to hammer around the equator to crack it. Unsuccessful.

My kiddos covered their ears while flecks of coconut shell wound up all over the counter and floor. Eventually Owen ran into the living room--too much excitement for him--and eventually the darn coconut cracked.

Finally! Our cracked coconut next to the coconut that Cora
spit out on the counter. Not yum.

I broke off small pieces for everyone to try, just like the video demonstrated, and consensus was that they didn't love it. Maddy said it tasted like "hard and chewy nothing" and Owen just said "Yuck." In fact, after Cora spit hers out on the counter, Maddy and Owen followed suit, and they all just about fell over laughing.

Most likely, if they remember anything from this coconutty-afternoon, it will be an image of their mom pounding the life out of a coconut with a hammer and some strange tool and them spitting out their coconut on the counter and falling into a fit of hysterics. We were all a little nutty after this experience.

So that's what was this week's NFUF. We determined that we are not a coconut family after all. I'm seriously hoping we can hunt down a winner for next week.

trying to keep smiling: quick trick, color cards

This Quick Trick is something that has saved my sanity on several longer-than-expected waits at the doctor's office, auto shop, Target, and even the grocery store.

I have no recollection as to where I first saw this, but it's something I stored away in my brain for a long time and have kept in my purse--or diaper bag--ever since I made it a little over a year ago.

• Color Cards and Clips: I cut a red, orange, yellow, green, and blue divider into similar shapes. I made a "matching set" of each color in several square and rectangle sizes. For two of the sets, I punched a hole in one corner and clipped them together with a gold fastener; for the remaining three sets, I kept the cards loose.

Then I stuck each set into a snack-size sandwich bag, and I threw in a mix of colored paper clips. I tried to include at least one of each color, but in some sets, we're missing some colors. My goal was to keep it small, easy to store, and inexpensive
to make.

One set of cards and clips.

I thought that for my little ones--Owen at the time and Cora--having the cards stuck together would be one less thing to juggle and eventually lose. For Maddy--and Owen, now--they would be able to manipulate the loose cards and paper clips, and that way they could also make things out of them, connecting the cards with clips to make chains, designs, or whatever.

One big, happy rainbow family of cards and clips.

Next, I threw all of the small bags into a quart-sized one and put it in my diaper bag. I try to keep this, along with a sheet or two of stickers, a small tablet, and one pack of crayons along with me on my everyday travels. Sometimes, these lifesavers really work and can buy me a minute or two. . . or ten. Other times, they don't, and such is life. That's when I'll break out the back-up dum-dum lollipop.

Not only is Color Cards and Clips a cool way of passing time for little ones, but it also helps with super-important skills like color learning, counting, and improving fine motor skills. The set is initially a bit labor-intensive to create, but once it's done, it's worth your time!

And that's another Quick Trick to do with as you please. I'm always up for more great ideas, so if you have something that you think really works and is worth sharing, drop me an email, and I'll pass it along! I would love to feature some of your awesome ideas!

bugs, beads, bugs, beads

Two things ended up on our agenda today: bugs and beads.

• Lightening Bug Articles: Today's Kids Post had a really interesting focus--lightening bugs.

Maddy and Owen were totally psyched about it because they caught--okay, and inadvertently smashed--tons of these little guys on July 4th and had a serious blast. If I weren't so darn tired by 9 o'clock every night, I'd have them do it more often, but I just can't keep these eyes open much later. . .

So our paper-reading today stretched far past breakfast time; we read parts into the afternoon. We particularly loved the article about the families who are counting lightening bugs for a program through the National Children's Museum, the firefly facts, and the awesome Fireflies for Kids site on the NCM website. The game was tough for Maddy, but I think she'll be up for trying it again. It's totally worth checking out.

I'm hoping to head on over to the NCM sometime soon. My friend Jessica just told me about how cool it was when I saw her on Sunday.
(Thanks Washingtonpost.com for the photo above.)

• Beads: Maddy and Owen wanted to play with beads today. So before rest time, I brought out one of our bead boxes.

I've always found that when we string beads, Maddy and Owen talk non-stop. It's a great time for me to work on my own listening skills and to help them work on theirs. I also try to model for them how to ask meaningful foll0w-up questions instead of just trying to talk over each other (like almost every young kiddo wants to do).

So we just strung beads, relaxed, and talked about fireflies, swim team, jewels, Madagascar, and anything else that came to mind.

Bead stringing is not only super-beneficial for working on fine motor skills, but beads of all types are awesome for talking about patterns, shapes, colors, and numbers.

One of our bead boxes.

That's it for today--super-sneaky learning via the newspaper and some beading. Cheers!

fun font sorting

Today Maddy was not keen on any sort of learning game or activity; she wanted to play with a calculator after her dad showed her how to use it.

She was doing simple addition problems--Mommy, two plus two equals four! See? You just press this. . .

Why didn't I think of introducing my kiddos to a calculator before? Leave it to dad to show them the really fun stuff.

But Owen was up for some sorting after he played some music and sang some songs for Golden and Guinea. Seriously, the excitement never ends here.

It was a long swim-team and playground morning, so I grabbed an activity that I thought would be engaging and interesting for him:

• Font Sort: We did the A/B sort and the D/G/E sort; I did not enter the M/N/H sort into the mix because I thought it would be too much. (One or two concepts at a time is plenty, unless a student has known challenges, the sorts have been previously introduced, or you're doing a wrap-up. I thought Owen would feel comfortable with this activity, so I started with two; if a student has difficulty distinguishing letters, focus only on one.)
  

This sort didn't involve rhyme sounds, tricky beginning sounds, or word families. It just focused on categorizing similar letters written in different fonts, and some of the fonts that are out there are pretty tricky. So I set it up more as a game, like I did with letter sorting and other sorting games we've played before.

I said, Okay, Owen, I have a bunch of letters here, all typed differently. Some are uppercase letters, and some are lowercase letters. Some are fancy and some are plain. You will recognize most letters--because you have a great eye for letters and you know so many already. But let's see if you can put these letters in groups--put the A's in a line here, the D's in a line here. . .

He started grabbing at the letters to put them in lines. He was cookin' with steam for a while, sorting tricky lowercase a's, d's, and b's. But then he glanced up and saw Maddy hanging with G & G, and he jumped up to join her.

I left the sort where it was, said, All right, Owen. You finish when you're ready. And I dodged into the kitchen to finish cleaning up lunch. Why pressure him? It's supposed to be fun for goodness' sake--

The mysteriously finished sort. . .

When I came back, someone--either Maddy or Owen--had finished "chatting" with G & G and had completed the sort. I heard tiny sneaky feet running up the stairs by the time I made it to the living room, though, so I wasn't able to do much follow-up with him--them?--and was kind of happy they had headed up for their rests on their own.

Hey, if they're going to be sneaky about things, I'll be happy with it being something like this, right? I am hoping they didn't sneak any toys into G & G's cage as well. . .

. . . and the other half of the sort.

If I were able to do a follow-up with them, I would have:

• asked Owen to tell me which letters were the hardest to organize and why;
  
• talked about which letters looked the most alike and different;
• asked what ways we could continue the sort--uppercase vs. lowercase letters;
  
• mixed them up again to do a "speedy sort";
  
• looked in whatever book we read before rest time to see if we could identify any of the letters we had just sorted. . .
  

Tomorrow or this evening, I'll bring this sort out again and try to wrap it up a little more cleanly if I can.

Thanks to Bear's Words Their Way (2003) once again for providing today's little bit o' learning.

toothbrush painting

Inspired a post I read a few weeks ago by my pal Allie over at No Time for Flashcards, Maddy, Owen, and Cora had a blast painting with toothbrushes earlier this week.

These were freebie brushes we scored at the Guppy Gala, and they were perfect for this kind of activity. Kids loooove to paint with unusual things--leaves, branches, their fingers!, combs, golfballs--whatever.

But toothbrushes--things used to clean our teeth?

Maddy's paining with her toothbrush.

My kiddos were super-giggly over this and thought for sure their mom had lost her mind. (Not quite yet, kiddos. . .give me time).

I even made some smiley faces with big teeth so that Maddy, Owen, and Cora could pretend they were making teeth dirty instead of cleaning them.



This, they loved.

It was so fun to watch them figure out how to use the brushes to create the pictures they wanted--they certainly felt stranger than their usual paintbrushes. . .

They really enjoyed this, and I'm not sure it would have come to mind had I not read Allie's "Smile" post. Thanks, friend!



And that was our little bit of fun and crafty learning for the day. (Or was it playing?) Sometimes it's hard to tell, and that's okay by me.

new for us friday--guinea pigs

Today is our first full day of being pet owners!

Talk about something new on a Friday for our little familia! (Hopefully it won't be a bust like last week's NFUF!)

With a husband and daughter who are allergic to cats and with the craziness of having three kiddos in just about four years, we've put off getting a pet for obvious reasons (my sanity).

But our kids--I felt--needed some fuzz in their lives to teach them the responsibility of taking care of a living thing, to show them how fun pets can be, and to teach them how to act around other people's pets.

So our turn came yesterday when we picked up Golden and Guinea, our two little girl guinea pigs!

• Guinea Pig Pets: We went to visit our county animal rescue on Tuesday, and on that day we submitted our application for our furry friends. On Wednesday, thanks to some really awesome websites about guinea pig care, cages, health, and everything else guinea, we set up and created our cage and purchased supplies. On Thursday we picked up our babies. Today, we went through the motions of feeding, cleaning, and playing with Golden and Guinea.

We decided that according to whose day it is, that person will be the one who helps get fresh water and food and who helps mom or dad clean the cage. That person will also be the first to hold and pet one, too.

Today, before rest time, I also created these rules with the help of Maddy, Owen, and Cora so that my little ones are reminded of appropriate ways of interacting with our precious G & G. And--hey--I'll admit it, I'm always looking for ways of sneaking in a little bit of learning in our days, so this chart won't hurt with our early literacy skills either, right? The rule, next to a picture of it (or something similar), helps emerging readers to decode unfamiliar words.

Our Guinea Pig Rule chart which now hangs above G & G's cage.

We even found a new life for our good ole Sensory Box that had been hanging out in our living room, sadly unused for the last few weeks. I think it's much happier as a guinea pig hideaway. Or maybe not.

Golden is peeking through her new hideout.

Maddy's feeding Guinea.

Tomorrow morning, we're heading to the library to search for some good Guinea pig books. We only have a few Max and Mo books which feature hamsters as the main characters, which (I think) might be as close as we'll get, but it's worth a try. I see a new series in the making. . .

We'll see how it goes. Our New for Us Fridays won't get much more awesome than this, I fear. Maddy, Owen, and Cora are in heaven right now, and although I know the excitement will not last forever, it's been fun for us today.

Welcome, Golden and Guinea, to the family!