Mommy-Made Workbooks

As a teacher, I was not a fan of worksheets. I personally think there are better ways for children to learn that are more interactive than a worksheet.or a workbook.  That being said, there are also some moments when it is necessary to administer a paper/pencil activity to see if a student understands what is being taught. 

For the last month, I have been going through my 10 years of teaching supplies. My main goal was to get rid of my storage unit, so we moved everything into the garage.  This gave me a chance to sort through everything and really evaluate what is necessary for teaching in the future, and what is not.  I came across many things I have not used in many years and some things that I have never used.  A lot of things got tossed in the recycling or trash, and I was able to sell some things to new teachers at a yard sale.  All of my neatly organized binders were taken apart and put into a file cabinet (which I do not like but it takes up less space than 30 notebooks of files). As I went through the notebooks to file them, I pulled out pages that reinforced letters, numbers, colors, and shapes.  I turned them into workbooks.  Each workbook focuses on a different skill and the activities range in ability. For example, in the letter workbook there are simple matching upper and lower case letters and then there is also writing words that begin with a particular letter.

workbooks in old report folders that were in my teaching supplies

I also created one that is write and wipe with dry erase markers.  I have a laminator at home so I just laminated the sheets I wanted and put them in a folder.  I can add more or make it more challenging in the future.  Included are sheets for tracing the alphabet as well as his first and last name. (worksheet for name tracing was generated here.)  There is also number writing practice and a sheet to circle the correct amount of pictures that corresponds with the number.  I particularly like this book because it is reusable.  Eventually, the sheets may end up in a larger three ring notebook and they can also be reused when Brooke is old enough to practice these skills.

examples of two pages in the write and wipe book

Teachable Moments

As a teacher, sometimes the lesson plan goes in another direction if something comes up.  That is called a “teachable moment.”  Teachable moments happen with your own kids as well.  Here are 5 that happened recently with Derek.

1. We were on our weekly trip to Giant for groceries and we always go to Starbucks first for a treat.  He gets chocolate milk and I get a coffee.  This time of year, a pumpkin spice latte.  You know the little green things that you put in the cup to prevent spilling?  Well, there were 4 left in the container.  Derek says, “There are 3 sticks.”  I asked him to count again and he did, “1, 2, 3, 4.  There are 4, Mommy.”  I said, “That’s right.  Now, Mommy needs one so how many are left?”  He counted and came up with 3.  Then he said, “If you take one more there’s 2 and one more there’s one.”  He did all of this without counting.  AKA: mental math with simple subtraction.
2. On the way to school one day we practiced some phonemic awareness.  The key to phonemic awareness is that it is auditory.  This is the first step before phonological awareness and phonics.  So anyway, what I did was ask him, “Which friend’s name starts with /m/?” And he said “Mason.”  We did the same for Sam, Dean, Bryce, and Haidyn.  He also noticed that Dean and Derek start the same.  Prior to this we had only done games where I asked him “What letter does B-B-Brooke start with?”  This reversed the game for him.
3. The other day we went to eat and I had a soda.  He said “Soda sounds like Yoda.”  This led into a game of generating rhyming words!  We would give him a word and he came up with a rhyme or two.  Even if they were Dr. Seuss words (made up words) it still counts because he is hearing the same sound in the word.
4. On another trip to Giant, he was in the grocery cart and naming the shapes of the containers in the cart.  Now, I don’t mean square, circle, and triangle.  He was saying cube, cylinder, and sphere. He started this on his own so then I started asking him to show me something that is a cylinder etc. Below is a picture of the items he was naming in the cart.

cylinder, cylinder, cube, sphere

      5. Driving around today he noticed the STOP sign and said, “That says stop.”  I asked him to spell stop and he did as he looked at the sign.  Then he wanted me to spell other words for him.  I wanted him to try to spell some too.  He spelled out the word “go” when I sounded it out but then he insisted that I spell everything.

It is easy to turn everyday activities into teachable moments with your toddler/preschooler and even older children.  To him, it’s just a game, but I know that he is building a foundation in his learning.

Painting Breakfast for Dinner

Breakfast for dinner happens often in our house.  It used to be once a week…Martini Wednesday with omelets.  Now it is usually every other week.  On Pinterest I found an activity to paint bread.  It uses milk and food coloring.  I though this would be a fun idea for Derek.  A friend of mine had also done this idea and said “I should have dipped it in egg and made French toast.”  So that’s what we did!

I laid out the bread on a cookie sheet and he painted it with the milk and food coloring mixture.  In the meantime, Daddy cooked the bacon.  When the bread was finished being painted, Daddy cooked the French toast while Derek helped me to melon ball the watermelon.  (This was less successful because all he did was make a mess and eat the watermelon!)

painting the bread

all finished!

helping with the watermelon

Yum!

Then voila! Breakfast for dinner was served!  Fun activity to get the kid involved plus we made dinner as a family.

A Day In the Life and Colored Rice

As a teacher, I got to experience the best of both worlds: working mom and SAHM. I was a SAHM for 9 weeks in the summer with my son, Derek.  After having our second child, Brooke, in April, I am now officially a SAHM.  Derek still went to daycare part-time until mid-June and is now home with me ALL.THE.TIME.  Love him!  But he is three. And a boy. An active boy. Who doesn’t nap.  So I like to come up with fun activities to keep him entertained. 

In a previous post, I talked about the calendar I made for him that keeps his activities straight.  We don’t have an activity everyday, but it is nice for him to count down to soccer or to a beach trip.  On the days that we don’t have something planned outside of the home, I try to plan fun things to do at home.  Especially on days that are 100 degrees with a heat index of 105! (Like the past two days).

Today.  A day in the life of a SAHM with a 3 year old and a 2 month old.

My day began at 6:15am.  Today I managed to shower, take Brooke to the doctor (Bryan met us there) do 3 loads of laundry, fold 6 loads of laundry (I had 3 sitting there from about a week ago), play with Derek, cook with Derek, consol a screaming baby after getting shots, make dinner, and begin reorganizing my craft room (furniture moved and floors cleaned).  Now I just want some ice cream and we are out!

Colord Rice Sensory Box

I found this on Pinterest after my friend posted about it on Facebook (what would we do without social media?)  I made the rice yesterday but did not follow the exact directions on the website.  Fun for indoor play on a super hot day like today!

 http://shareandremember.blogspot.com/2011/06/rainbow-rice-garden-sensory-play.html

Here is what I did…

1. I got a 10 lb bag of white rice (store brand was about $7)

2. I put 4 cups in a gallon sized Ziploc bag and added 3 tablespoons of rubbing alcohol and one small bottle of food coloring (you know the kind you buy in a 4 pack at the grocery store?)

3. I sealed the bag (well, I thought I did, the yellow and the blue not so much, there was some spillage on the kitchen floor) and mixed it all together. 

4. I lined baking sheets with foil and spread the rice on the sheets. I put them outside in the sun to dry (it was 100 degrees out so this didn’t take long).

5. After they were dry, I put the colored rice into piles in a large plastic tote.  This way Derek would see all of the colors and he would get to mix them up.

I was able to make 5 different colors with just a little rice leftover.  I added dinosaurs and cups to the rice and he played with it for over an hour!

S’mores Croissants

http://homemade.tipjunkie.com/smore-croissants-edible-gifts/

use crescent rolls and add chocolate chips and mini marshmallows then bake!

Next time I will add more chocolate!

Oven Baked Chicken Fajitas

http://realmomkitchen.com/9318/oven-baked-chicken-fajitas/

I managed to get Brooke to sit in the bouncer and fall asleep long enough to prepare dinner.  I put it in the refrigerator so that if I was occupied when it was time to cook it, Bryan could put it in the oven or I could manage to do it quickly.  It was very good and very easy to prepare.  Even Derek ate it! (He’s pretty picky but he ate it wrapped up in a tortilla!)

If only I could be this productive everyday! 

Doctor Notes

As I prepare to go to Brooke's 2 month appointment, I think about the questions I have for the doctor and write them down in my "Doctor Notebook"...

I wanted to keep track of my kids weight/height and percentile rankings through the years.  At first, when I had only Derek, I had developed a table to keep track of questions and answers I had when visiting the doctor for well baby or sick appointments.  This also helps me keep track of his illnesses.  Every well baby appointment comes with a packet information that explains the shots he is getting at that time and developmental milestones that he should have reached and should be working on. 

After three years, Derek’s folder was very thick and I now had Brooke’s appointments to keep track of as well.  So I decided to make a Doctor Notebook.  I made a section for Derek, one for Brooke, and miscellaneous information.  At the beginning of each section a inserted a table that keeps track of age, weight, height, and percentile rankings.  Now I was able to toss all of Derek’s information sheets. (I’d be getting new ones for Brooke anyway!)  Behind this table I placed the sheets that I use to keep track of questions and answers.  This way I still have information from sick appointments.  Now I am only keeping the most current information sheet on each child.

Cover to my doctor notebook 

Derek's sheet that keeps track of his height/weight/percentile rankings from the past 3 years.

Brooke's note page, yes at 2 months she has been that many times. She had jaundice.

Miscellaneous...this is a dosage chart that I received at a clinic and I keep it in here to help me know how much Tylenol and Motrin to give based on age/weight.

***Before I had kids I had made a notebook like this for my cats.  It helps to keep track of each of their weights and of Bay’s surgery and recovery.

What Are We Doing Today?

As a teacher I was used to being off in the summer and home with my son anyway.  But now that I am a SAHM, I will be home with him and his sister every day.  He will not be going back to daycare in mid-August so it’s more than 9 weeks to keep him occupied.  Preschool starts in September and is only two mornings a week.  I like to be organized and have a plan.  I decided to make a calendar that shows the different things we will be doing through pictures.  This started in May when I made one showing when he would turn three and when he was going to have his party. The calendar is on our refrigerator and we cross off each day as it ends so that he can easily see what, if anything, we are doing the next day.  I used different icons to mean different things.  Things that I indicated are soccer, story time, the beach, birthdays, camp, fireworks for July 4^th, a ferris wheel for carnivals, Giant for grocery day, and I have a school icon for when school starts.

He really enjoys looking at the calendar and seeing when things are going to happen.  It’s also a great way for him to start building calendar skills beyond just knowing the days of the week and being familiar with the months of the year.

End Of An Era

When I was 7 years old, in second grade, I had the best teacher.  She inspired me to want to be a teacher when I grew up.  After years of babysitting, working in a before and after school program and summer camps, and being a nanny for a few summers, I graduated and got a job as a kindergarten teacher.  In 2002 My dream had come true.  Through my years of working with kids from ages 3-17, I decided early childhood was where my heard was and I was now going to teach 5 year olds.

I spent only one year at my first school before being involuntary transferred. I interviewed at the job fair and went to another school where I would teach for the next nine years.  I had completed part of my student teaching at Ronald McNair Elementary and was now going to be teaching there with my mentor.  Three years later, my mentor decided to move on to another school after 16 years at McNair.  So I decided that I too needed a change and requested to move up to first grade where I would spend the next six years. 

Over the course of those six years, the first grade team changed a few times.  We acquired teachers new to our school and teachers that moved down to first grade from other grade levels.  A new special education teacher came on board and I was so lucky to get to work with her for two years.  Our students made such great gains and it was because of her and our collaboration with each other and our paraeducators.

In April of this year I had my second child, a little sister for our big boy.  Another dream of mine was about to come true.  Not only had I always aspired to be a teacher, but also a mom.  Now, I was already a mom, but I wanted nothing more than to stay home with my kids.  And now that dream has become a reality.  Today, I packed up my classroom at McNair, which has been my home away from home for 10 months out of the year for the past nine years.

Goodbye McNair and all of my coworkers and former students.  You have been such a big part of my life.  But it’s time to say goodbye and to move on to the next chapter: SAHM.

My empty room.

My reasons for leaving.

Reasons For My Blog

I started my blog in 2010 when Derek was almost 18 months old.  There are a few reasons why I started it:

1. To record his development.
2. To record all of the things we are doing now that we have a child.
3. To share ideas with friends.
4. To share how my life and priorities have changed since becoming a mom.

My opinions are my own.  This blog is a record of my personal journey as a mom and homemaker and how my career as a teacher plays a part in all of this.  I look forward to continuing to share Derek’s growth and development as well as his sister’s when she arrives in May. 

Priorities have changed even more now that we are expecting a second child.  BIG decisions have already been made and will be executed within the next few months.  Stay tuned to see what comes next…

Sculptures In a Bag

The final product...Derek's "rocks".

I was looking for something different to do with Derek besides the usual watercolor, markers, and painting wooden frames etc.  I came across an idea to make a sculpture.

Materials:

1 cup of Plaster of Paris

½ cup of water

Ziploc bags

Paint

Add 1 cup of Plaster of Paris and ½ cup or water to a Ziploc bag. 

(**I found that using 1/2 cup of Plaster of Paris and 1/4 cup of water worked better)

Seal, letting out as much air as possible.

Double bag it (just in case!).

Now let your child squish and squeeze it.  In 10-15 minutes it will get warm and start to harden.  (**The original idea said it would only take a few minutes, I found that it took longer and Derek got bored.  He could have also been bored because he was tired.)

Once it has hardened, you can remove the bags and they are ready to paint.  (**I removed the bags over a trash can as there was some crumbling.  I also let them dry a bit longer before painting them.  They felt a little wet when I removed the bags.)

Finally, I got out the paints and Derek painted his “rocks” (as he calls them).

"Hand"-made Valentine's Day

I feel it is important for Derek to give hand-made gifts, especially at his age. They are more appreciated than something that I inevitably picked out at the store and signed his name to.  While Bryan and I don’t make it a habit to actually celebrate Valentine’s Day, we still want Derek to know it is a day to celebrate friendship and love.  So we went to work on his Valentine’s!

The main gift was a handprint heart that he made using a pink and a red handprint.  This of course required help from Mommy.  (idea from pinterest)  

Final Product

Messy Hands!!!

He also made cards for everyone in the family and his daycare teacher.  He used foam stickers and markers.  When working with the stickers, he wanted to know what all of the words said and he made sure that he put all of the purple hearts on Mommy’s card since he knows it’s my favorite color.

I made bookmarks for the students in my class. I used paint swatches and stamped a heart in each block, then attached a ribbon to the top.  The original design called for a heart shaped punch but I couldn’t find mine. (idea also from pinterest)

My final project for this weekend was actually the first one I made.  Our anniversary was February 10.  We celebrated 11 years together. Bryan loves martinis and olives so I saw this idea in a magazine for this card and decided it was perfect to make for this occasion.

A Homemade Christmas

With a growing family and a budget to stick to, Christmas 2011 had a focus on homemade gifts.  On Christmas Eve my fathers’ side of the family gets together. I always like to give a little something to my aunts and my sister.  This year I went completely homemade.

I made gifts boxes for each of them.  Some of the items I made include strawberry jam, hot mocha drink mix, hot pink drink mix, lemonade iced tea mix, and candles made in an old miniature jelly jar.  I also included Derek in the homemade gift project.  He made travel mugs and apple-cinnamon ornaments.  The items were put together in gift boxes I got from the Target dollar bins.

                                                                      My finished jars

                                 Candles made in jelly jars (the scents match the flavor on the jar)

                                                                Jam and Drink Mixes

                                              Derek working on his apple-cinnamon ornaments

                                                          Ready to bake the ornaments!

Finished gift box for my sister (Aunt Momma as Derek calls her).  Includes a travel mug and ornament made by Derek as well as a jar of Hot Mocha mix and Pink Drink mix.

The main gift I made for my parents and my sister was a joint effort between Bryan and myself.  I had this idea that I saw in a magazine to make a large letter depicting a last name.  This could be hung inside or outside.  So that I did not have to enlarge a letter and cut it out of wood myself, I searched several craft stores to find what I wanted.  JoAnn Fabrics had letters that were large enough to use for this project.  I got a D for my sister and an H for my parents.  The next step was to do the decorating.  Bryan helped me by cutting wooden dowels that had varying thicknesses.  He cut them into different lengths so that they would be varied on the letter.  After he was finished, he sanded the edges and I glued them onto the large letter.  The final project was sprayed with polyurethane so that it would be safe if it were to be hung outside.

 

This was a very rewarding way to give gifts this year and I already have a plan for Christmas 2012!