what you need from your local yard sales

Yard sales, yard sales, yard sales!

We love yard sales.  Here is everything that a parent with young children needs from his or her local yard sales, all wrapped up in one tidy little blog post.

So throw an extra couple of bucks in your pocket on your way to soccer practice or the grocery store on Saturday mornings just in case you hit one of these super sales this spring. Here are some things to pick up if you're lucky enough to run across a few sales:

• toys:
• magnetic letters or magnetic numbers: You can never have too many of these, and the more varied the fonts and styles, the better for sorting!   

• felt boards: The boards and the felt pieces are awesome for story-telling.

Maddy and our felt board--a yard sale find from last spring.

• games:  Really, if they're selling for under a dollar, grab a bunch!  Think: anything alphabet (we love our alphabet board games!), think anything number-related, memory games, checkers, chess, Scrabble, Connect 4. . . you get the idea.  Better brands like Gamewright or ThinkFun are totally worth picking up.   

• puzzles: Pick up anything--even if your kiddo isn't doing much past wooden peg puzzles, grab some 24-piece jigsaws.  Go nuts and buy some 50-piece jigsaws.  Pick up puzzles with themes that your child might not love right now but may want to explore a few months down the road.  Don't even think twice about better brands like Melissa & Doug.  If they're selling them for a few dollars, it's worth it.

 our blocks meet our Lincoln Logs and T-Rex

• blocks: For building, for painting, for anything. More blocks can mean the difference between one tiny, lonely house and a whole neighborhood for your kids on a rainy spring day.   

• legos, lincoln logs, tinker toys: As with blocks, if you find a yard sale where the kid has outgrown them and is selling her lifetime collection of something like Legos, Lincoln Logs or Tinker Toys, don't think twice.  Kids love Legos.  Parents love Legos.  And if you have a decent-sized plastic box to store each of these in, you'll stay sane.

 

• crafty items:  
• stamps: Buy anything and everything (not someone's entire collection, but enough for creating pictures, cards, and playing some open grid games).

• kid-safe paint and/or paint brushes: Get this for making paint bags or for water painting.  If you don't spend too much on them, you won't worry if they're left outside or are used for mud-painting, right?

• paper: Big rolls, little rolls, construction paper, fancy paper--kids will find some way to use this for cards, artwork, or letters to friends.  

• note cards: If they're blank inside, they're great for letter writing practice and sending long-distance hugs to pals or family members. Tacky? Who cares?

• household items: 
• cookie trays: You can use one that's in decent shape for playing with your magnetic letters, keeping craft supplies close, or for sticky finger writing;

• magazines: I'm talking kid ones here, like Highlights, High Five, My Big Backyard--it doesn't matter. Kiddos will still love to read them, and  you can play Magazine Hunt with just about any ole issue!

• plastic dishes: Even the kiddie ones with dividers are super for re-usable palates if you can get them cheap enough!  Grab an inexpensive set of plastic ones and take them with you to the pool this summer.  Or leave them in the sandbox--they're so much cooler than the store-bought sand toys!

• cookie cutters: For making cookies, for revving up sandwiches, for use with Play-doh or Model Magic, for tracing, for crafting, for anything.  Cookie cutters are so fun.

• jars: I think if you can get these cheap enough, there are a million ways of using them.  Science experiments, color-mixing, flower vases, sorting colors--inside or outside--so many possibilities.  

• boxes: Plastic, wicker, cloth--it doesn't matter. You can use them in some way to organize something in your house.  Don't all moms get a kick out of labeling boxes? 

• clothes: If  it's a reasonably clean home, and they're selling cool dresses, shoes, or hats, think 'dress-up' and buy-away.  (Just remember to dry-clean or wash them yourself before throwing them in the 'dress-up' box.)

• decorations: My super-cool sisters are rolling their eyes at this one, but holiday decorations--especially those with words on them--can make holidays more fun for little ones.  And if they're staring at the same 'Halloween' placemats for the 30 days of October, they just might be the first kids in the class to know how to spell it on their own.

• books, books, books!  Either at yard sales, book sales, church or hospital fund-raisers, buy books.  Buy more books.  Share them, give them away, and read them over and over.   

Create a literate environment in your home by keeping books inside, outside, in the car, in bedrooms, in the living room, in the bathroom--everywhere.  Buy varied genres, buy early readers and later readers, buy children's books and buy picture books.  Buy coffee-table books if they're cheap enough, and let your kids cut pictures for home-made Alphabet Books or for cutting practice. 

Buy gently used workbooks if they're there, because maybe your kiddo will think it's cool to play school with them, or maybe they'll make a road trip pass more enjoyably this summer.   Plus, if you to "try out" used workbooks and like them, maybe you'll buy more of the series as your child gets older.

fyi: Here's the Yard Sale Look-For's as a pdf, and it even has a Cheat-Sheet at the end so you can sneak it in your back pocket and not look like you're on a treasure hunt in your neighbor's front yard.

The saying is so true--one man's trash is another man's treasure.   So stop the car, look around, and pick up some useful things for you and your kiddos. This list is by no means exhaustive.  Did I forget something? Let me know--please!!  Happy discount shopping!

we heart alphabet board games

It's yard sale season!

Wooo-hoooo!

Some of our most favorite learning materials have found their way to our home via yard sales, including these two alphabet and early literacy board games that we've played for the last three months straight.

Owen's always been my "go-to game guy", but recently he cannot seem to get enough of these simple--but worthwhile--games. And really, if my kiddo wants to play an alphabet or reading game, I'm not going to say no, especially if it means he's just getting more sneaky learning practice. But I have to admit, I'm (gulp!) getting (just a little!) sick and tired of these two games. . .

• Alphabet Board Game: Seriously, this game is so old that I couldn't even find a link for it on the internet. It's part of the Macmillan Beginning Reading & Language Program, and ours is in pretty good shape considering it's probably been around for well over 20 years.

a very, very, very old but pretty cool alphabet board game

The premise is basic, and there are several ways of playing it, but we've been spinning, moving our game piece (which has ranged from a lego to a car to a block. . . ) that number of spaces, identifying the letter and naming one word off the top of our heads that begins with that letter. So easy. But for some reason, my boy has gotten a kick out of it. And there are pictures all around the board to help kiddos think of words, which I think is pretty darn thoughtful of the boardgame creators.

• Spelling Bee Early Literacy Board Game: I really, really thought that this was a Scholastic game, but I was unable to locate it on their site, so it's origin is kind of a question mark. But what I do know is that again, Owen and Maddy love to play it, and I have a last-summer yard sale to thank for it.

This game is a little harder than the above game because it takes literacy a step further; instead of stopping with letter-sound identification (the alphabetic principle), this game moves into more wild and incredibly exciting phonics principle.

Players roll a dice and move their game piece that many spaces. Then they spin, identify the letter that the spinner lands on, and then they have to put that letter's sound into the word on the board. It's tough. It's requires looking at a letter, knowing the sound it makes, and then shoving that sound into a part of a word--it's phonics at its finest, with its letter-sound correspondences and application of that information to reading and spelling.

the long vowel spinner

One side of the spinner has the short vowels (a, e, i, o, u), and the other has long-vowel patterns. We've played more often with short vowels, but Maddy and I have played with long vowels once only to find that it was really, really difficult for her. We flipped the spinner after our second or third turns. No big deal. I don't plan to sell this baby back for quite some time, so maybe we'll give the tricky long vowels a try down the road.

And that's been our little sneaky, game-playing learning for the last few. . . well, way too long. And my purpose in sharing this was not to brag about these two games that I'm not even providing links for you to pick up your own (gosh I feel horrible about that!). Rather, it is to remind you: 'tis the season to grab some really good games and materials for some really good deals.


fyi: For the love of yard sales. . .
Check out our Yard Sale Look-For's for all of the things a savvy teacher-parent should pick up for only a few bucks, come springtime sales. Sure, most families look for extra shelves and second-hand sporting equipment, but you can also find a boatload of educational tools you might otherwise overlook.

new for us friday: family watchdog site

If you have five minutes in the next day or two, I encourage you to check out this site, throw in your address, and really take a look at what you find.

The Family Watchdog site isn't new for us--we've known about it for a few years now, but I frequently return to it and know for a fact that I have come to rely on it for keeping my family safe.

Just like the Safe Side--Stranger Safety DVD that I spoke about last summer, the Family Watchdog is not the kind of thing you really love to peruse; the information it provides is disturbing and scary.  But it's something that, as parents, we need to know.

This New For Us Friday is not as light as some have been, but because I just learned that a registered sex offender has returned to the neighborhood surrounding one of our favorite parks, the information is new to me. And it's certainly worth sharing.

• Family Watchdog Site: Essentially, this site provides a free national US search for registered sex offenders.  You can enter an address, and a map with that location appears. On that map are the locations of all the registered sex offenders in that area.

You can then see all of the home and work locations of people who have been convicted for committing crimes against children, those who have been convicted for rape, sexual battery, and "other offenses".  You can view the offenders in list form or map form, and you can even see a list of recent address changes.  You can even search for convicted offenders by name if you choose.

Family Watchdog screenshot

Since August of 2005, Family Watchdog has provided a service that sends you an email any time a registered sexual predator moves within a five mile radius of a given address, which I think is an incredible service.  It's not always easy to remember to check the site, so I find this service a worthwhile safety net.

Sure, there are occasionally glitches; the site depends on public information to keep its database updated, and sometimes it may take a while for that information to make its way to the site. But when it comes down to it, Family Watchdog provides us a free service that we should all be incredibly grateful for--keeping us informed, aware, and alert.

This New For Us Friday isn't necessarily new for us, but it may be new for you, and that's why I'm sharing it.  I actually have a ton of really cool products sitting here, waiting to be tried by my kiddos and waiting to be shared with interested teachmama readers, but I just think that with spring around the corner, more kiddos playing outside, and more park time logged, this was really worth sharing.

If you haven't had the all-too important chat with your children about safety--which adults they can trust, when to call for help, and how to handle being approached by a "don't know"--then consider reading my post on Stranger Safety: The Safe Side DVD.  It's not easy, but we need to do it.

building words with letter lids

We have been rockin' it out with our alphabet letter lids since we made them a few weeks back, and occasionally I'll throw in some word building when the kids are in the mood.

I had a bunch of bigger lids that were just waiting to find a new life outside of their ole lid container, so I thought I'd make work spaces for word building.

I've found that Maddy and Owen--and many kiddos, for that matter--seem to enjoy tiny spots for word-creating rather than just making words on the carpet, fridge, magnetic board, or table.

• Building Words With Letter Lids:  I used the alphabet letter lids and some larger, flat lids, and I combined the flat lids with tiny dot stickers.  

I wanted to focus on two things: short vowel words (the simple CVC pattern--consonant-vowel-consonant) and one long vowel pattern (CVC e -- consonant-vowel-consonant + e). 

Because short vowel word families are the first ones that emerging readers usually learn, I thought it would make sense to use these with Owen, and the review of the short vowel sounds would be helpful for Maddy. 

The first time we used the lids, I said, Hey, Owen! Look at this tiny word-building space.  There's a dot, the letter 'a', and another dot.  Watch how I can put a letter 't' on top of the second dot, and now I have 'at', (and then I sounded it out) at.  If I choose any letter and put it on the first dot, I can make a word. Watch.  

I grabbed a 'c' and put it on top of the first dot. Owen loooves cats.  Now I have 'cat'.  Cat.  How cool is that?

He said, I know.  Cat.  

Watch what happens if I put a letter 'm' where the 'c' is. Now I have mmm--aaaa--ttttt.  Mat.  Neat, huh? And I can do it if I put a letter 'h' where the 'm' is.  Hhhhhh--aaaaa-ttttt. Hat. 

Hey that's cool. And now we have an 's' for ssss--aaaa--ttt. Sat.

He got it. And that's all he and I did that afternoon.  And I was fine with it; changing the first letter of a word that kiddos already know is one of the 7 Basic Principles of  Word Building, and if Owen remembers just a teeny bit of this concept, I'll be happy.  

 Maddy and I played with 'powerful e'

On another lid, I placed a dot followed by the letter 'a', followed by another dot, followed by the letter 'e' -- (* a * e).  Maddy and I played a bit with the 'powerful e' by comparing gat/gate, rat/rate, mat/mate, and hat/ hate, until she had had enough and was ready to get back to dress-up with Cora and Owen again. 

Maddy and I have been recently talking about the 'powerful e' at the end of words, so I wanted to have her play with those patterns as well so that she could see firsthand how an 'e' at the end of words can really change the sound.

I really didn't want to make this into a huge and boring lesson for them; I wanted to use a teeny bit of time while they were playing to show them each something reading-related that they would find interesting and relevant.

And part of the reason they maybe, just maybe, get into these things is because I think the concepts are cool--because they really are, aren't they?
 
If you're interested in a pretty neato (yes, I mean 'neato') and incredibly handy sheet that outlines the Seven Basic Principles of Word Building (I've used it for years and have only modified slightly from Reading Recovery and MCPS), then feel free to download it here: How Words Work--The 7 Basic Principles.

fyi: The 7 Basic Principles of Word Building:

1. Add a new letter or letters to the end of words you know. (go-going; can-can't; look-looked)
2. Change the first letter of a word you know. (to-do; Dad-had; come; some)
3. Change the last letter of a word you know. (up-us; is-if; out-our)
4. Add a letter or letters to the front of a word you know or take away the first letter. (is-his; and-stand; or-for)
5. Change the middle of a word you know. (get-got; ran-run; make-made)
6. Put two words you know together. (in + to-into; a + go-ago; to + day-today)
7. Take a part of one word and add it to a part of another word you know. (sh/she + op/stop-shop; pl/play + an/can-plan)

 A few pointers:

• Always use two examples when teaching these principles (or any, for that matter!).
• In spelling new words in writing or decoding an unknown word in reading, children should learn how to go from their known words to new words through 'analogies'--comparing what they know to what they need to know. 
• These Seven Basic Principles are not a sequence; kiddos can work on each concept as needed.
• Magnetic letters, stamps, jello-mix, post-it notes, letter lids--anything with letters--can be used to play with these principles.

Happy Word Building, and remember what reading researcher, Kathryn H. Au has said: "Making words encourages children to study how letters go together to form words, to look beyond the initial consonant, and to notice vowels as well as consonants."  We want our kids to love words, to be in awe of what words can do, and to--most of all--have fun building words!

2002, Multicultural factors and the effective instruction of students of diverse backgrounds. In A.E. Farstrup & S. Samuels (Eds.) What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction (pp. 392-413). Newark, DE: IRA

Thanks to Reading Recovery program and MCPS for most information here.

alphabet letter lids

I still keep lids.

Actually, I keep lids, egg cartons, coffee containers, yogurt cups and probably too many other things that are cool to play with and easy to reinvent.

The lids were great for working on colors with Cora, and they're still fun for Maddy and Owen to play with every now and again, whether we use that all-too important math vocabulary or not.

But being that we've accumulated about a gazillion lids and being that we had a bunch of alphabet letter stickers, I thought I'd combine the two and make some alphabet letter lid manipulatives.

• Alphabet Letter Lids: We started out by dumping our huge container of lids on the floor, organizing them into color piles and then--just for fun--putting them in piles of tens in order to count how many we had collected.

Even Cora could help with the counting. One hundred lids exactly! Talk about a great way of counting by 10's and then actually seeing what 100 looks like. It was a pretty sweet math moment for us.

I then put uppercase letter stickers on the inside of medium-sized lids (from gallons of milk and such) and lowercase letter stickers on the smaller ones (from water bottles).

And when I was finished, I said, Okay, my friends. I need some major help in making sure that I have all of the letters here.

Would you please put the letters in alphabetical order, with the uppercase letters on the top row and the lowercase letters below them?

See how I've matched the letter A's? Let's try to match the whole alphabet, just to make sure we have a lid for each letter.

Our uppercase and lowercase letter lids

So we matched and matched and matched some more, until we had the whole alphabet--uppercase and lowercase--matched up. And we sang the good ole ABC Song just to double-check our work.

And after we matched, I made some extra vowels and consonants I thought we'd use with more frequency--m, n, t, s, p, d, g, b. We built our names, played with some words, but by this time we had been playing with alphabet letter lids for quite some time and the kiddos were ready for something new.

I was just happy to have the kids engaged and eager to create words and play with the letters for a bit, and I'm sure we'll pull these out when we want to play with letters next time.

Very easy, super-inexpensive, and just one more way of sneaking in a little bit of learning while playing with colors, doing some counting, and chatting about the letters of the alphabet. Woo-hoo!

birthday butterflies and hide-and-seek game

We celebrated Cora's big #3 in springtime style this past weekend, with butterflies, her favorite hide-and-seek game ever, and pink and purple cupcakes.

With a warm, sunny day and lots of friends and family, how much better could a third birthday get?

• Butterfly Birthday Favors: I wanted something very simple, something that all of the kiddos would enjoy. I wanted something that Cora and Owen could help me assemble and (okay, I'll be honest) something that wouldn't break the bank.

Owen's beading up the butterfly antennas.

I found this 'butterfly bounty' idea in the April 2010 issue of Family Fun Magazine, and although theirs has a healthy spin, ours absolutely did not. I thought the idea was too cute, and I knew I could make it work for us.

Our springtime butterfly birthday favors required a snack bag, a pipe cleaner (cut in half), beads, a clothes pin, eyes (we had these gem stickers leftover from Valentine's Day), and Fruit Loops and colored marshmallows.

Our unfinished Springtime Butterfly Birthday Favors

For butterfly antennas, Owen and Cora folded the pipe cleaners into a 'V' and strung two beads on the edges (two beads, ideally--Cora made some fancy-schmancy, and that was fine with me). Then they folded the tips down so the beads wouldn't fall off. I hot-glued the antennas onto the back of a clothes pin, and we let them dry.

Then we filled a snack bag with a handful of Fruit Loops and a half-handful of marshmallows, pinched it in the middle, and clipped it with the clothes pin. Owen put two eyes on each butterfly, and I drew their smiles. We wrote 'love Cora' on the back, and they were ready to fly. . .

• Where's Cora Hide-and-Seek Hunt: It's no secret that Cora loves Hide-and-Seek, so when I was sure that we'd have a great day for an outside party, I moved into game-planning mode with Hide-and-Seek on the brain.

Again, with the mixed ages of kids at the party, I didn't want to interrupt their free play and the adults' time to catch up with a ton of organized games. I wanted something exciting, engaging, and fun for everyone. Enter: Where's Cora Hide-and-Seek Hunt.

I copied a dozen square head shots of Cora, a dozen photos of Cora standing, a dozen photos of Cora in her snowsuit, and a dozen 'CORA' names. This was super-easy and only took a few minutes of copying and pasting on my photo program. We cut them out, and that's it!

Then I made a really simple sheet that the kids could use to keep track of how many Cora's they found. We didn't end up using it, but (shhhh!) I think it will be a perfect activity for Cora's playgroup party on Wednesday morning. The Where's Cora Hide-and-Seek Hunt is here to download if you'd like.

the Where's Cora Hide-and-Seek Hunt

After we ate, a few of the parents went to work hiding the many tiny Cora pictures all around the yard, while the kiddos hung out front with our friendly toad.

When the kiddos returned, they gathered as many Cora's as they could, and then everyone counted the number that they found. When it came down to it, we didn't need to use the sheet; it seemed that everyone had more fun running around, searching for Cora pictures, and then grabbing what they could.

One wintertime Cora hid by the basketball hoop. . .

. . . a Cora is by the slide. . .

. . . and here is Cora hiding by a rock.

Cora's pink and purple cupcakes

After every child had counted (and sometimes re-counted) his or her number of found Cora's, we celebrated by eating pink and purple cupcakes.

So that's it. Just like that, my tiny Cora celebrated her big #3. It might be a party, but that doesn't mean that this teach mama isn't going to use it as an opportunity for a little bit of learning and fun along the way.

frog or toad? it's an eastern toad! ( we think...)

On our way out the door yesterday morning, Maddy spotted a small, dark, warty visitor. Maybe the leprechauns dropped him off, or maybe he got lost on his way to our neighbor's pond.

Whatever the case, finding this little guy gave us a little science-focused research on our otherwise busy day--after Cora's St. Patty's Day Walk with a pal, after Maddy and Owen's school days, and after our own St. Patty's Day fun.

Figuring out what we had here--frog or toad--made for some fun post-bathtime, pre-bedtime fun.

• Frog or Toad--Easy Science Research: I have to admit, I have always enjoyed the Frog and Toad series by Arnold Lobel, but I haven't cracked one open for years and years. I probably should, and maybe the ole differences between frogs and toads would be more fresh in my mind.
  

But I also know a worthwhile, meaningful, and authentic research topic when I see one, so that's where I thought we'd take our visit from this little guy today.

Frog and Toad

So while my husband and kids ran around out back after dinner, I Googled 'frog and toad' and had some sites ready for Maddy, Owen, and Cora to examine before they hit the sack.

I pulled up the pictures we took of our visitor once I had three clean kiddos in jammies, and I said, Okay, here's our little guy. Let's take a good look at him before I show you the pictures I found on the internet. What do you notice about how he looks?

They commented on his three toes, his bumpy skin, and his big, bulging eyes.

I asked how he felt when we touched him, and Owen said, His skin was kind of like dry skin.

Then I said, I just typed in 'Frog and Toad' on this search engine, and lots of sites came up that might have answers for us. I pulled up Frogs and Toads site, which has two columns with a black and white drawing of a frog and a toad with characteristics of each underneath.

I read the headings and we were all surprised to learn that "all toads actually are frogs." I went through the list of frog and toad characteristics with them, and we determined that our guy was, in fact, a toad because his stubby body and short hind legs and "warty and dry skin".

We checked out a pretty basic toad page from botswanagallery.org that had pictures of toads, and the first photo of an American Toad was a pretty clear match.

Then I typed in 'American Toad', and we came upon some sites that really seemed to lock in our decision that we had an American Toad on our hands. The Eastern American Toad, according to Choosing Voluntary Simplicity site, seemed to be a match for our guy. The pictures on this site are great, and the information about the fact that toads like cool spots and hibernate underground in the winter made us wonder if he was sleeping near our front garden for the past few snowy months.

The next thing I knew, we were tired of reading about frogs and then Maddy asked me to search about whether 'wild animals were friends' and then, 'what animals do in the wild'. I typed in her first question, and I realized that another day (and at an earlier time) we'd talk about the best ways to search for information on the web. But she's little, and she has time for that kind of lesson down the road. . .

I found tons of sites with information on frogs and toads. Here are some that may be of value:

• National Wildlife Federation: (fyi, I LOVE, love this site) Talk about a valid source of information on just about any animal--if you want to identify the wildlife in your neighborhood, they have your answers.
  

You can print a Wildlife Watch List for your state, which I did, and which I really believe will make our 'nature walks' that much more exciting this spring and summer. Check out their article on how to 'dote' on toads and how to host a party for our froggy friends.

• SCORE (Schools of California Online Resources for Educators): Tons of information is assembled here for teaching about frogs and toads. I totally plan to revisit this site and use some of what these talented educators have gathered.

• Center for Environmental Education: Also a boatload of information for educators about teaching frogs and toads. If you click on A Thousand Friends of Frogs, you'll find classroom resources as well.
  

And that's it for our big toad research. He was still there today, so we'll keep an eye on him and make him feel at home in our front garden.

If anyone thinks we made an error here, please let me know! I'm no scientist--I'm just a mom trying to sneak in a little bit of learning each day!

st. patty's day scavenger hunt and holiday fun

Yes!! Only one day until St. Patty's Day!

All of our favorites are on tap for tomorrow: naughty leprechauns, green milk, corned beef and cabbage, and a good excuse for a mid-week Guinness (for the adults, not the kids).

This year, we've been less crafty than we were last year, but that doesn't mean that we're not in the St. Patty's Day celebrating spirit. We've just been field-trip busy for the past two days and have been enjoying the sunshine while we've had it.

Here's our St. Patty's day checklist for tomorrow:

• Lucky Charms at breakfast-- ready to go (thanks to a last-minute run to the grocery store). . .
  

• Leprechaun Trouble: They have already turned over our kitchen chairs and made a mess of golden sparkles on the table. . .

Leprechauns have even turned our milk and cream cheese green. . .

• St. Patty's Day Scavenger Hunt: In the afternoon, Maddy, Owen, and Cora will go on a St. Patty's Day Scavenger Hunt that will lead them to a little sweet surprise. We did this hunt for Valentine's Day two years ago, so I think it will be new-ish for the kids tomorrow.
  

The Scavenger Hunt will get them moving, reading, and enjoying tomorrow's sunshine. They'll have to put letters in alphabetical order, finish a puzzle, and use their brains to figure out a riddle or two.

Click here to download the St. Patty's Day Scavenger Hunt but know that the last page has three different endings for us to use for Valentine's Day, St. Patty's, and any other occasion.

For more super St. Patty's Day--and other holiday ideas--head over to we teach. Join some groups that interest you and share your ideas along with the rest of us. We know you've got some great things going on under your roof, and we'd love to have you join one of the coolest--and fastest-growing--groups for teachers and parents on the web!

Aside from enjoying the taste of sun and springtime tomorrow, that's all we have planned. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

abc exercise cards. . . hooray!

Thank you, ABC Exercise Cards, for giving us a fun and burn-some-steam kind of activity this afternoon!

After a rainy weekend and another rainy--but exciting!--morning at the College Park Aviation Museum with Owen's class, I found that by the afternoon, my kids had crazy energy to burn.

After playing dress-ups and swinging from the downstairs rings, we used this set of ABC Exercise Cards to keep us busy, make us laugh a lot, and get little brains moving--and reading--along the way.

• ABC Exercise Cards: These are simple cards each with an uppercase and lowercase letter on them and an action that begins with that letter.

They are similar to our Action, Action 123 Cards, but these cards have the pictures already included and have one action for each letter of the alphabet. And we didn't use a dice for this game to indicate the number of times to do each action, but you certainly could.

Owen's rockin it out, running in a zig-zag. Obviously.

Owen was in a game-playing mood, so when he suggested we an alphabet board game that we've been playing every day (almost for the last two weeks), I said, Hey, I have an idea. I think we have a game that has the letters of the alphabet in it, but it will get us moving and grooving. And I think we all have some energy to burn. Let me get it.

I dumped the bag of cards onto the floor and said, Now here I have a card with an action for each letter of the alphabet. When it's your turn, you'll pick a card, we'll read it, and then you'll do that action. And what do you think we'll do with the card after we're finished?

Owen yelled, Put it in a line! (He has such a good memory from all of our ABC- Style Hide-and-Seek playing. . . )

Exactly, I said. We'll put the cards in alphabetical order. And if we need to, we can just sing the 'ABC Song' to help us. Okay, the first person to spot a circle in the room goes first. Ready, search!

Owen found a circle first, so he led the party, and we went through the entire pile of cards, jumping, hopping on one foot, riding a unicycle (on our backs), waving our arms (like windmills), acting like an inchworm, running in place, and touching our toes--all from A to Z.

Maddy, in her princess shoes, is hopping on one pretty little foot.

When we finished the first time, Maddy and Owen immediately asked to play a second time (Cora was too busy dressing up and playing kitchen). I said, Let's play tomorrow. Why don't you go through the pile and read and follow the cards you want? Soon it'll be dinnertime.

And so they did, and soon it was, and as soon as I slapped my husband five, I grabbed my bags and headed out the door to tutor. A busy, happy Monday it was.

Not only did these cards get us moving, but they also reinforced the all-important letters of the alphabet. Putting the letters in alphabetical order after we completed each card gave Maddy and Owen more practice in understanding where the letters of the alphabet fit in relation to each other, and pictures next to the action instructions made reading easier.

Other variations of this activity (that we'll probably try later this week) include:

• hiding the cards around the room and having the kiddos find them;
• trying to do the actions in order, from A to Z and then Z to A;
  
• having the kids spell their names with the cards and then complete the actions for their name;
• spelling our last name and then completing the actions together as a family 'routine' (just kidding. . . but not really);
• giving the kids 3-5 cards and then allowing them to pick an action, demonstrate that action, and then we could guess what letter they had.

Who knew ABC Exercise Cards could be so much fun?

A long while back, I found the ABC Exercise Cards on someone's website, and (gulp!) I'm not sure whose site it was or who actually created this great resource. However, you can download the same pdf that I downloaded and saved by clicking here: ABC Exercise Cards.

My most sincere apologies go out to the talented creator of these cards, which I did link back to homeschoolshare. I feel strange sharing them without proper linking--which I do feel is extremely important in the world of educational resource sharing--but I am sharing them today because we used them, because I think they're awesome, and because with rainy spring on its way, I think many others may want to use them, too. Anyone who knows where they originated, please let me know, and I'll link more properly.

Happy ABC Exercising and sneaking in a little bit of learning!

computer games for the little guys

I remember being way pregnant with Owen (with very little lap left), when Maddy--then a curious, bouncing 18-month old--was seasoned at banging away at the keyboard on Sesame Street's Peek-A-Boo.

And why not? It wasn't like I planted her in front of the computer while I painted my nails and ate ice-cream (though some days I might have wanted to). We were together, the games were meaningful, and she was interested.

I put a teeny-tiny star sticker on the left side of the mouse to remind her on which side she should click, and she was ready to roll. She's still very much interested in the computer, as are Owen and Cora; for that I am grateful.

So because so many of you have asked, and because we still frequent these sites, I thought I'd share some of our favorite computer games for the little guys:

• Sesame Street: Like I said above, this was really the first site that we used with our kids, and Maddy was probably about a year when she started with simple games like Peek-a-Boo and Keyboard-o-Rama. The resources for parents on this site are incredible, and the site has really become much easier to navigate in the last year or so. Again, it's totally worth spending one--or two--days' naptimes to check out. Here are some starting points:

-Zoe's Dance Moves: Always a favorite here, not so much for the early literacy focus but instead for help with promoting mouse control. (Okay, and the music and Zoe's moves are not to be beat.)

-Cora still loves the to pick out letters on Keyboard-o-Rama, and she's only weeks away from three.

-Snuffy's Magic Garden is a fun again for helping with mouse control, as little ones can make Snuffy's garden grow by "watering" the flowers.

-Animal Sounds and Sounds Around Town both help little ones listen closely for the sounds of familiar things, and with help from a parent, even tiny ones will giggle at these two games.

• Mouse Control Practice: These are some fun sites we've used to help promote fine motor development and mouse control for our kiddos.
  

-Make a Teddy's Face: That's it--creating teddy bear faces! Ad-free and very simple graphics make this an easy site for little ones.

-Design a Face, Build a House, Dress a Bear, or Build a Snowman: All basically the same as 'Make a Teddy's Face', these games sometimes have a model to follow and sometimes allow little ones to 'build' on their own. Either way, simple moving and clicking, dragging and dropping, moving and clicking . . .

-Bubble Wrap!: Seriously fun, this one is totally addicting. It's Bubble Wrap, computer-style. A fresh sheet of Bubble Wrap, ready to be popped by the clicking each bubble. Move into 'Manic' mode, and the bubbles pop as you move the arrow across the screen. Nuts crazy fun.

-Bubbles: Relaxing bubbles float across the screen, and each one that gets clicked gets popped. The tally of popped bubbles is kept, and Maddy and Owen try to beat each other. Great hand-eye coordination practice, and for my kiddos, it's a good foot in the door for video games.

-Flower Garden: Pick flowers, plant them, water them, and they grow. A bigger-kid version of Telly's.

-Feed the Monster: My kids get the giggles over this one because the monster is funny-looking, and he keeps calling for more food. He'll eat and eat and eat and eat, and my 6, 4, and 2 year-olds think it's a riot.

fyi: If you missed our previous computer-faves posts, here they are:

• Early literacy computer games
• Worthwhile math games for the little ones

That's about it for the sites we've used with the little guys, but know that because my kids are so close in age, the few sites we frequent have overlapped. Maddy still likes the Sesame sites and enjoys the mouse control practice ones; early on, Owen challenged himself (to near tears!) trying to do the more advanced sites that Maddy could by then easily handle; and it really depends on the day for Cora. Some days she's happy watching Maddy and Owen navigate and other days Cora really fights for her own screen time, which I'm happy to give.

Please, please feel free to link back if and when you've shared your favorite computer hot-spots for kiddos. We're always up for new ones! Happy computing!

Still need some convincing that little ones should have at least a wee bit of time in front of the computer?
PBS Parents offers these tips for screen time with kiddos and offers this list of resources about children and computer use. Thanks, PBS Parents!

an everyday nonfiction: newspaper reading

Just like many families who incorporate book-reading into bedtime routines, my kiddos find breakfast time is a time for newspaper reading.

Newspaper reading is a natural, easy way to incorporate a little bit of nonfiction reading into our day. Some days the articles we read lead to simple internet research later in the afternoon, and sometimes what we read in the morning paper gives us a starting point for our library book searches or dinnertime chats.

Other times, the articles (especially the Ever Wonder. . . column which answers questions like 'Why We Burp?; Pass Gas?; Cough?; or Blow Our Nose?) throws us into near hysterics. Sure, it's not really breakfast table material, but these topics totally get my kiddos wondering, listening, and interested. And that's what counts.

Today, after we checked out the weather and Owen counted four cloudy days and only one sunny (boo!), Maddy noticed the Rubics Cube on the KidsPost. She said, Hey, there's that thing I play with at Nanny and Pap's house! Read about that, Mommy!

And so our day began:

• Newspaper Reading and Making Connections: The KidsPost article, Imagine no TV or Internet really gave us something to talk about and connect with. It indicated that 2010 marks some major anniversaries of well-known things in our kids' lives, like Nintendo (25th anniversary), Rubik's Cube (30th), Green Eggs and Ham (50th), Bubble Wrap (50th), and Monopoly (75th). We were really stuck on two--the cube and the wrap.

We got stuck because we had direct connections with both Rubik's Cube and Bubble Wrap, and making personal connections is a major way of getting little ones interested in nonfiction texts.

I read about Rubik's Cube, and because Maddy and Owen have distinct, recent memories of playing with it at my parents' house, they thought it was so crazy that it was once called the 'Magic Cube'. Really, it's not major information, but most likely, it'll stick with them because they had a personal connection to it.

The minute I saw 'Bubble Wrap' under the 50th anniversary heading, I said, Oh my gosh. You guys are going to love this one. Remember how we've been playing that strange and crazy game on the computer about bubble wrap? Listen to this. . .

My kids, like many people, loooove bubble wrap. They love to jump on it, smash it, twist it, and sit on it. They love new, untouched pieces, and they love to find an old piece and search for that one last, lonely bubble to pop.

So a few weeks ago, when I ran across a website to help teach mouse control using bubble wrap, they've been obsessed. (It's already on my half-finished post on Best Computer Games for Our Little Guys, but I'll share it now because I just have to: Bubble Wrap, Computer-Style).

I read the section, and very casually, as I read, we made connections:

• Bubble Wrap started as a mistake?! We all make mistakes, but we don't make bubble wrap! What were they doing?
  
• Plastic wallpaper? Can you imagine if we had bubble wrap on our walls?
• What if the bubbles all got smashed? Would there be a button you could press to fill them back up again?
• I wouldn't want bubble wrap on my walls. No way. It would be too loud.
  

Even without me saying 'Okay, here's a connection. . . ' by relating their own experiences to both Rubik's Cubes and Bubble Wrap, Maddy, Owen, and Cora were making personal connections with the text. And when readers make connections to texts, they're more likely to remember, relate to, and understand what they're reading.

Breakfast was over before we knew it, but I'm betting that the next time Maddy, Owen, or Cora get their hands on bubble wrap, they'll wonder about it as wallpaper and maybe--just maybe, down the road--they'll remember that occasionally mistakes can pay big dividends.

We love the newspaper because we learn about lightening bugs, about why we should exercise, about super-tough kids, and local must-see museums. We boo-hooed when our favorite panda left for China, we laughed our tails off at silly orangutans, and we talked our way through the earthquake in Haiti.

I personally wish more families would use the newspaper to sneak in a teeny bit of learning, especially when so often kiddos can make direct connections with what's being read. It's also another way that parents can model reading comprehension strategies for their tiny ones even before the little guys can read.

As Linda B. Gambrell, former president of the International Reading Association, has said, "teachers of reading should read themselves" and though we all hope that our students will develop into "lifelong readers who read for pleasure", the best way to encourage this is to model, mentor, and support them in doing so (Promoting Pleasure Reading, Reading Today, August 2007).

What better way of getting them started on this path than by reading the newspaper each day?



If you haven't checked the Share a Story, Shape a Future Tour yet, please consider doing so. It's awesome, and the resources available are incredible.

This post will be part of Day 3, Just the Facts: The Nonfiction Book Hook, hosted by Sarah Mulhern of The Reading Zone.

(Share a Story, Shape a Future button designed by Elizabeth Dulemba)

getting a little sneaky with literacy

Too many times, parents think that in order to support their children's developing literacy skills, they have to sit down with a book on their laps, read through the entire book, and then drill their kid with basic comprehension questions when they're finished reading.

No, no, and no way, Jose.

Sure, I am all for quality book-reading time together, and I am a serious proponent of making homes literate environments. But I am also a queen of sneaking a little learning in at any point in the day.

So I've compiled a few of my favorite ways of incorporating literacy into the every day: the teachmama way.
Hopefully you'll join me for the ride!

• In The Car: Signs, signs, everywhere are signs. I usually try to use the time I've got my kiddos strapped safely into their car seats, and I point out the signs we see every single time we leave the house. Start tomorrow--on the way to preschool or the grocery store--and soon you'll have even your youngest ones yelling, "S-T-O-P, stop! B-U-M-P, bump!"
  

• At The Table: Breakfast, lunch, or dinner, my kids are again, stuck in their chairs (or at least I hope so!), staring at the decorations on my walls. Being an avid (and even sometimes tacky) holiday-decorator, I've tried to buy decorations that have words so that my little ones are learning even while they're chewing. And those wild and crazy cereal boxes? I close 'em up after cereal is poured, and I leave them on the table. So what if my kids' first sight words are 'corn', 'pop', and 'cheerio'? It's something!

• On the Beach: After we've tired of wave-jumping, crab-hunting, and sand castle-building, I try to sneak in a game or two of tic-tac-toe with my kiddos. There's something about a stick and wet sand that makes writing--and reading--silly messages all the more fun.

• In the Back Yard: Sticks and stones may break bones, but sticks (if used carefully) can also be pretty cool building blocks for letters and words. When we pile up the sticks from our big tree out back, we've 'written' names and messages by using the sticks to create letters. Pretty sneaky, huh?

• At the Store: Kid-friendly shopping lists take some preparation on my part, but when I'm faced with a long grocery list and have my 5, 4, and 2 year old with me as my partners in crime, the shopping lists are like gold. By personalizing lists for each of my kiddos, complete with a picture and the name of the item, my children become more invested in the task at hand, and they're reading along the way.
  

• In the Kitchen: Lots of parents have their kids help them in the kitchen, but actually having emerging readers read the ingredient list and the directions is a great way of getting them involved in the process and having them practice reading at the same time. I've modified many of our favorite recipes so that the ingredient list is easy to read, complete with word and picture, and the directions are clear and have pictures as well.
  

These are just some of the ways I try to incorporate literacy into our every day. There are a million ways of crossing the same bridge, but as many know, I'm all for the somewhat-secret, kinda-sneaky ways.

Happy Share a Story, Shape a Future Blog Tour Week! I'm grateful to be a part of Literacy My Way, Literacy Your Way, Day 2, hosted by Susan Stephenson of the Book Chook.

Please be sure to check out the other really incredible, totally awesome contributors and great giveaways (there's even two sets of curriculum donated by Tara Rison of Itty Bitty Bookworm) .

Here's a link to Day 1, The Many Faces of Reading. Happy reading!

(Share a Story, Shape a Future button designed by Elizabeth Dulemba)

children count too: census 2010

Every child loves a good game of hide and seek. There are the fun butterflies they get in their tummies when they're waiting to be discovered and the pride they feel when they're able to count to ten and then yelling, "Ready or not, here I come!"

But children who are hidden from the U.S. Census counts (taken only once every 10 years) are not a laughing matter. So, ready or not, here comes 2010 Census ... and you have an important role to play!

Many parents may not realize the importance of accurately reporting the number of children in their family, including newborns. The truth is that the undercount of children means that we do not get a true picture of our nation and our communities do not get their rightful share of public funds.

Why Children Count Too
Children have been undercounted in every census since the first one in 1790. Local communities rely on census information in planning for schools, child care, health and other critical services. Babies need to be counted today, so they can benefit tomorrow from community services.

Census counts are used, in whole or in part, for more than 140 programs that distribute more than $400 billion of federal funds to states and localities, including such child-focused programs as:

• Special Education Grants to states ($10.8 billion)
• Head Start ($6.9 billion)
• State Children's Health Insurance Program ($5.9 billion)
• Foster Care Title IV-E ($4.7 billion)
• Improving Teacher Quality State Grants ($2.9 billion)

Unlike adults, who may bear some responsibility for making sure they are counted in the Census, children are dependent on others to make sure they are included. Yet in 1980, 1990, and 2000, Census Bureau data show children, particularly young children, are one of the groups most likely to be missed in the Census. In fact, in the 2000 Census, there was a net undercount of more than 1 million children under age 10.

Global Influence is working with 2010 Census to help spread this important message for the next week to all of the parents who read our blogs. We need your help to make sure that every child is reported so they can receive the services they will need in the future.

When playing hide and seek your children have the opportunity to be found after ten seconds.

The Census only comes around every ten years. So when you receive your Census form in mid-March, make sure your child (no matter how old) is counted!

How You Can Help:

• spread the word about the importance of correctly reporting children;
  
• print out this Dora Census 2010 Fact Sheet and post it in a public spot--your library, church, MOMS group, school;
• talk about the reasons why it is important to correctly report children (think: funding for children-focused programs!).
  

By participating in this Global Influence campaign, I am not only helping a cause I feel is extremely important, I am entered to win one of several $20 Amazon gift cards.

boot camp and backyard learning

Today, I will be enjoying a day away at Baltimore Bloggy Boot Camp, learning a bit about SEO, PR, and Social Media while meeting some new local bloggers and hanging with some of my old pals.

I'm very much looking forward to it, but I know I will be missing one of our first warm and sunny weekend days here. So I'm hoping (and crossing my fingers!) that while I'm in a conference room with other cool-cat bloggers, that my husband and kids spend some quality time outside, having fun cleaning up after our nutty squirrels.

I'm thinking bike riding, scooting, soccer, and baseball, with a little learning on the side.

Here's a re-post from last March that I'm envisioning for today, this time with Owen and Cora as the big-word builders. . .

We have crazy squirrels in our backyard, ones who have tried repeatedly and failed repeatedly to make a nest in our now-infamous swing tree. Each time their nest fails, a million tiny sticks are left in our yard. Today, as we've done many times, we had to clean up their mess. This time, however, we worked hard and played hard--with the squirrel sticks, that is.

• Squirrel Sticks: I set Maddy, Owen, and Cora to work gathering the sticks in the yard so that no one would fall on them--honestly, there's that many some days. Today Maddy and Owen were determined to try out their new soccer cleats and kick around the ball, so we had to have a clean "field" first.

We put them in a pile by the sandbox, and Maddy held up a funny-looking stick and said, Hey, here's a 'y'!! And so the fun began. . .

I said, Let's use the sandbox lid as our paper and make our names with sticks. Maddy already has the 'y'. Let's use the squirrel sticks to build the rest of the letters to Maddy's name.

So that's what we did. While Owen ran back and forth dribbling the soccer ball in his new cleats, Maddy and I spelled her name and Cora's name--not perfectly, of course--but the best we could. And we spelled 'Mom' and 'Dad', since we had the letters already.

Just a little bit of letter practice on this fantastically sunny day (woo-hoo!), using the sticks already spread around our yard by the not-so-smart squirrels. It was a Wikki stix-meets-Building Letters-meets-the Great Outdoors-kind of learning.