Candy Cane Legend Book and Craft Tray

As we made our way through the first days of our Literature-Rich Advent Alphabet last week, one of Luke, Nina and Jack’s favorite activities was a tray created around a craft that is hardly original, but which is definitely worth reminding others to enjoy at this time of year.  That is, they loved our:

Candy Cane Legend Book and Craft Tray

A Picture Book-Inspired Tray with Faith, Early Literacy, Practical Life, Fine Motor and Math Connections

A Meaningful Craft Tray for Less than $5

Materials

• a large basket
• copies of The Legend of the Candy Cane, The Candymaker's Gift: The Legend of the Candy Cane and/or J Is for Jesus: The Sweetest Story Ever Told.
• small containers of red and white beads
• a handful of white chenille sticks
• one or more trays

Goals

Nina loved this activity the most!

(1) Recall the legend of a candy cane.
(2) Create the alphabet letters “c” and “j”.
(3) Experiment with patterns while stringing beads.
(4) Offer a fun, focused opportunity for fine motor control,  hand-eye coordination and patience.

Set Up

1.      Place copies of The Legend of the Candy Cane, The Candymaker's Gift: The Legend of the Candy Cane and/or J Is for Jesus: The Sweetest Story Ever Told in a large basket.  (If you don't have access to these, simply search “candy cane legend” or “candy cane legend poem” for brief online versions of the legend to share the faith-based symbolism of candy canes with children.  Then, search for images of candy canes with varying patterns/thicknesses of stripes to inspire different beading patterns.)

2.      In front of these, place a handful of white chenille sticks and several small containers of red and white pony beads.  (We used recycled, single-serve apple sauce containers for our pony beads.  Glass, ceramic or wooden bowls would be more appealing. Holiday patterned ones might be more fun.)

3.      Place the basket on a large tray.(We used the top of a bed tray that long since lost it's legs.  An inexpensive plastic holiday tray might be a fun alternative.)

4.      If desired, put a stack of other trays nearby so multiple children can enjoy the activity at once.  (We use ones we have around the house, including dollar store aluminum cookie trays and wooden trays from our wedding.)

Procedure

Luke, Proud of His AA-BB and A-B-A-B Patterns

1.      Pre-read The Legend of the Candy Cane, The Candymaker's Gift: The Legend of the Candy Cane and/or J Is for Jesus: The Sweetest Story Ever Told with children.

2.     Present the book and craft tray, asking children to retell one or more of the stories in their own words, or to explain the symbolism of the candy cane.

3.     If children are unfamiliar with beading activities, demonstrate how to take a bead form the container and to string it on a chenille stick.  Go especially slowly when demonstrating how to twist the chenille stick around the first and last beads to keep the rest of the beads from falling off.

4.      Suggest looking at the illustrations in the book to get ideas for beading patterns.

5.      If necessary, demonstrate how to shape finished bead sticks into candy cane shapes.

Skills, Learning and Concepts

• Faith (the legend connects the color and shape of the candy cane to Christian history)
• Early Literacy (retelling stories, making bead sticks into the letter “c” for candy cane and then shaping them into the letter “J” for Jesus before turning them upside down to make shepherd crook shapes)
• Practical Life (creating ornaments, perhaps to be used as gifts; exercising eye-hand coordiantion)
• Fine Motor (picking up pony beads; stringing beads on chenille sticks; twisting chenille sticks around beads at the beginning and end of beading; manipulating finished bead sticks into candy cane shapes)
• Math (creating and talking about patterns, such as A-B-A-B or AA-BB-AA-BB, or A-BB-A-B-A—A-BB-A-B-A)
• Art (discussing lines, shapes and colors)
• Focus (concentrating stringing and remaining patient while coordinating movement to string beads)

Notes/Quick Tips/Extensions

At 2 1/2, Jack was completely engaged in this activity.

• Children of all different ages and skills?  Differentiate by using various shaped and sizes of beads, paying more attention to the size of the inside hole in them than the shape or size of the outer portion, to increase or decrease the attention needed to string the beads onto the chenille sticks.

• Of course, pony beads can be a choking hazard and chenille sticks can have sharp ends that can scratch skin or poke an eye out.  Use common sense precautions when presenting this activity to young children.  If you are concerned about the ends of the chenille sticks, use needle nose pliers to turn the pointy, wiry bits down in order to make more rounded end points.

• Don’t want to play find-and-pick-up-the-pony-beads all week?  You might not want to leave this tray constantly available or your two-year-old, like mine, could become so overjoyed with the sound of cascading pony beads that you find your entire living room floor decorated with spilled beads.

• Concerned about historical accuracy?  Be aware that the candy cane legend is just that, a legend.  Perhaps discuss with older children how faith ideas are often layered onto pre-existing traditions, creating beautiful “new” symbolism.

• No beads around?  No problem?  Children can also enjoy making candy canes, while getting a fine motor workout, by simply twisting red and white chenille sticks around one another.

• Discouraged beaders?  Adapt!  Cut the chenille sticks in half or even in thirds to lessen the amount of actual beads that need to be strung to make a candy cane.

• Have a low budget?  Do not disregard this activity.  If you have a Dollar Tree nearby, the activity can cost $5 of less.  A bag of red beads, a bag of white beads and  package of chenille sticks that includes white ones can be had for $3.  If you have no basket or tray about, an aluminum cookie tray and a basket can be purchased for an extra $2.

• Planning a party or playdate?  Check out the ideas at the end of The Candymaker's Gift: The Legend of the Candy Cane.  They include a menu of candy cane celebration activities, instructions for making candy cane themed decorations and a list of Bible verses that support each of the ways candy canes can be used as faith symbols. 

Homeschool Methods and Approaches Connections

• Montessori:  This activity makes an excellent one for the Practical Life shelves.
• Workboxing:  Skip the tray and simply slip a book, a baggie of beads and some chenille sticks into a box or drawer.
• Reggio:  Skip the demonstrations.  Leave the basket out at a provocation and see where the children take the idea.
• Sensory Smart:  Use this activity when calming and focusing are in order, but bracket it with activities that will warm your child up for fine motor challenges and give your child enough gross motor heavy work to balance the sedentary nature of the craft.

If you have tried this or other beading activities, we’d love for you to share your own tweaks and experiences.  We’d also love to hear about other Legend of the Candy Cane crafts and activities your children enjoy.   to hear how it went.  We’d also love to your ideas for variations, extensions and sensory connections.  Please share!

Please note: Links to Amazon within this post and others are affiliate ones. Should you choose to click through one to make an Amazon purchase, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. This does not cost you anything, but is a choice we thank you for making. Anything we make from links goes straight back into training up our children and to much of what we share with you here. Thank you!

Want to be inspired with others' Montessori ideas and work?  Click on over to Montessori Monday and enjoy.

A Literature-Rich Advent Alphabet of Faith, Others, then Selves (Free Printable)

Including Ideas for Montessori, Workboxing, Sensory, Motor Skills and Traditional Activities

Last year, I created An Alphabet of Plans for a Literature-Based Family Advent Rich in Sensory Input and Special Activities, which served us well.  As I thought we would, we used the plan as a guide for our learning and fun during Advent, yet did not become slaves to it.  Rather, we went with the flow of life, reading most of the stories listed on the plan, doing some of the activities on it and adding other impromptu ones.  As a result, we enjoyed a relatively relaxed, yet meaningful Advent.

This year, I was going to simply tweak the plan to accommodate the shorter Advent season, but when I started to do so, I found that both my head and heart began to squawk:  Different year.  Different needs. 

Unfortunately, neither my head nor my heart initially clued me in to which of this year’s many desires I should consider when revamping our Advent plans.  Thus, I began a map-less journey through thoughts, books, blogs and computer files.  It was not a productive one, and, only after spending ridiculous amounts of time stumbling along, did I think to pull out the compass of prayer.

Duh!  Advent is about awaiting Jesus and silly me got so caught up in possible Advent to do’s and to read’s that I neglected to just get quiet with our Lord.  Thankfully, the Spirit prompted me to do so, and that is when the words “Faith, Others, then Selves” came to mind, quickly followed by an undeniable desire for more discipline in our home.  (Discipline in the sense of structuring time). 

During the full fall that we had, our daily rhythm at home became rather arrhythmic.  Too often, we weren’t at home at all, and when we were at home, positive habits were ignored and routines began to become more an exception than a rule.  Although learning, living an loving progressed, I feel that they did not do so as fully as they could have with more discipline.

So, as I look towards Advent, not only do I seek to inspire an atmosphere of joyful anticipation in our home, but also one of much needed restoration – re-establishing a steadier rhythm for how we learn, play and work while still keeping our main focus on the meaning of the season.

It was with these thoughts in mind that I proceeded to revamp last year’s Alphabet of Plans for a Literature-Based Family Advent Rich in Sensory Input and Special Activities or this year.  Now,with but a day to go, I have finally finished this year’s Literature-Rich Advent Alphabet of Faith, Others, then Selves.

I share it below as a free printable for anyone who would like to borrow ideas from it.  Included in the plan are:

• a dated, alphabetical table of Key Advent Words, suggested Read Aloud choices, ideas for Montessori Tray and Workbox preparations and notations of Special Activities, Observances and Traditions
• an explanation of our Ideal Weekday Rhythm for Advent
• Daily Rhythm Cards that we will cut and use on a visual schedule to help us maintain discipline
• A Theme Poster to remind us of our focus.

Of course, as we did last Advent we will use this year's plan as a guide, not a rule.  We won’t read every book or do every activity.  If we did, we’d be so busy doing there would be little time for just being – taking a quiet pause as we await Christmas.  

That said, I will be trying to hold us accountable to re-establishing a better daily rhythm of homekeeping, homeschooling and time to breathe and be.   For it is a new Liturgical Year, and for us, a fresh start to our home-and-school year.  NO need to wait until January 1st for that, as I see it.

Further explanation of what is included in this year's plan and how I expect it to unfold can be found on the plan itself, available here.

Please feel free to borrow ideas from the printable in order to enrich your family's or classroom’s Advent experience.    And, since I love finding new-to-me books and resources, reading about how others celebrate this special time of year and bookmarking ideas for the future, I’d appreciate it if you’d take a moment now to share your favorite traditions, book titles, CD titles, DVD titles, Montessori tray ideas, workbox activity ideas, etc. in a comment. 

May your Advent be blessed!

Martianne

PS  For fellow Advent lovers, this post is linked to Liturgical Time's, Familia Catolica's and Catholic Blogger Network's link ups.  Click on over to these to glean more great ideas!

Montessori and Workboxing – How We Mix the Two

Montessori and Workboxes?  They don’t seem to go together very well, do they?

Montessori, a method begun many years ago by Maria Montessori, is all about following the child.  While Workboxing is a modern-day system created by homeschooler Sue Patrick in order to help organize a homeschooling day, offering parents structure and present curriculum in a way the helps children learn more independently.  While both seek to develop independence in children, one is, by nature, child-led while the other, by design, is parent-led.  Both appeal to me for different reasons.  So, this year I have decided to reconcile the two in a way that works for my family.

In Theory

In my understanding, a Montessori parent/educator not only models active, curious learning for children, but respects and delights in a child’s growth through fulfilling four key roles:

• Observer:  A Montessori teacher observes children carefully, noting what motivates each one individually.  She notes how a child interacts with others, works within his or her environment and approaches activities.  She reflects on her observations in order to discern individual children’s learning styles and to cultivate each child’s personal interests and abilities.

• Facilitator:  A Montessori teacher is responsible for nurturing self-discipline, motivation, and confidence in children while assisting them in learning how to succeed in the world around them.  As such, a Montessori teacher not only assists children in learning how to communicate with other children and adults alike, but also guides them toward activities and experiences that include practical learning materials, sensory investigation and continual opportunities for independent growth and learning.  Once the educator has modeled an activity to a child, she must allow that child autonomy in investigating it.  That means, she must allow the child to make and learn from errors, intervening only if the child asks for help or if safety issues become a concern.

• Record Keeper:  A Montessori teaches must not only keep track of observations, but also record what activities engage a child and which might further a child’s development.  Thus, a Montessori teacher employs a variety of methods to record a child’s progress.  These might include check lists, flow charts, anecdotal narratives and objective notations.

• Evaluator:  A Montessori teacher reflects on observations and records and evaluates patterns of behavior, growth and development within children.  She determines if a child has mastered a particular skill or element of knowledge and determines whether a child’s level of proficiency indicates a need for variations of a particular lesson or activity or if the child is ready to advance to something new.  She also considers a child’s strengths and interests in order to ascertain how to best nurture a child as a whole person, considering not only the academic progress of a child, but their emotional, spiritual and physical well-being.

So, what does this have to do with Workboxes? 

After much thought, I have decided that utilizing workboxes as a part of our learning environment, I can better fulfill my role as a Montessori-inspired teacher.

• As a home educator, I am admittedly fall short in my role as Observer at times.  Housework, business tasks, meal making, phone calls and other things vie for my attention and, sometimes, I opt to use moments when my children are happily engaged in learning to sneak away to attend to these things instead of to the important task of observing my children.  By utilizing Workboxes, I afford myself a safety net.  My children’s Workboxes act as concrete way for me to note which activities they are interested in, motivated to do and progressing forward with with even when I am out of the room.

• As Facilitator I am charged with assisting my children in developing self-discipline, confidence and independence while maintaining motivation.  Because we do not spend time daily in our Montessori space, adding Workboxes to the children’s choices of activities on the days that we do helps me meet my responsibilities.  My children know they must do the activity in one workbox before moving onto the next.  Thus, they practice self-discipline and benefit from motivation; they concentrate on getting through a task that may not appeal to them as strongly as another in order to get to that other one they really want to do.  While doing so, they develop confidence and independence.  The activities I place within their workboxes are not ones that require me to present them.  They are geared to allow them full autonomy and, through completing them, they gain self-confidence. 

• Workboxes provide me with a double dose of Record Keeping and Evaluation.  Most of the activities I put in the Workboxes are ones the children can complete and proudly show me.  So, I am able to track their work this way in addition to simply observing their work with Montessori Shelf activities and their interactions with me and each other.  Also, once I have presented an activity on a Montessori shelf, if I feel the children need additional repetition of it, but are not motivated to select it, I can “recycle” it into a Workbox. 

In Practice

We have 23 Montessori Shelf cubbies in our classroom.  I have unofficially assigned each of these to a particular “subject”.  (Unofficially in that the children have not been told that “This is our Language-Reading cubby. This is our Math one. This is our Sensorial one…” and so on.  Rather, I try to simply put a specific type of activity in a specific cubby.  The children are free to use any of these activities at their own pace as they wish.  The only guidelines are that:

1. If an activity is one they have never used before, they must ask me to present it to them first.
2. They can only do one activity at a time and must return an activity to its proper shelf cubby before moving onto another one.
3. If they want to explore an activity someone else is using, they may ask to do it together and, depending on what the other person says, may join in, sit and observe until the other person is finished or go onto a different activity until the activity is available.

My pre-K and K children each have five Workboxes.  Typically, I put a Reading, Writing, Faith or Math activity in three of these, something that feeds their sensory diet in another and something that I really think they will be eager to do in the last.  Guidelines for using the Workboxes are:

1. A child may open any of the Workboxes to peek at what is inside, but may only do them in order, top to bottom. 
2. A child must complete a Workbox activity once it is selected, but may move back and forth between Montessori Shelves and Workboxes at will.

How It Is Working So Far?

My kindergarten son, who needs structure and will also focus indefinitely on something of high interest to him, does not always choose materials from our Montessori Shelves to work from and rarely repeats an activity once he has completed it.  Novelty seems to have become as much a motivator for him as are things related to whatever his current interest is (dinosaurs and elephants this week).  Coloring, drawing, creating and building are preferred activities for him, too.   

Thus, Workboxes add a dimension to our work periods that works for us.  They speak to my son’s need for order, his desire for novelty and his penchant for doing what he wants (not necessarily what others want.)  In fact, he usually motivates to do whatever is in his upper boxes (even if not completely novel or in sync with his interests) in order to get to whatever I have put in his bottom box.  And, better yet, he does so with attention and little to no display of opposition.  (He can be very rigid and oppositional.)

Granted, at this point, I put things in his Workboxes that I know will hold some appeal to him and I know that the boxes themselves are still a novelty for him.  So, time will tell if the system keeps working for him.

My pre-K daughter, who is usually a go with the flow sort of girl, tends to do activities from our Montessori Shelves over ones in her Workboxes.  And, she tends to repeat activities that interest her.  (Playdough, Knobless Cylinders and Cutting and Pasting activities of late.)  She sometimes does the activities in her Workboxes, but often only the first one or two.  So, I find I have to move an activity up over consecutive work periods if I really want her to do it. 

My toddler does not have Workboxes yet because, frankly, there is no space for them in our classroom and he does not really need them anyway.  Instead, he remains content with activities geared to him in our bottom four Montessori Shelf cubbies.  He also proves his developmental stage by being a typical toddler, reaching up to disassemble trays meant for his older siblings.  When this happens, I usually take him to the hallway with one or more of his activities, putting a baby gate on our classroom door.  This is not ideal, but it is what works for us.  And, we don't ostracize the poor babe completely.  Rather, his siblings and I take turns being with him out there or helping keep him engaged back in the room with us. 

Do Montessori and Workboxes really work together?

In our home, yes, they do!  But, Montessori purists may beg to differ. 

Even tweaked the way I have been using Workboxes, they do not follow the Spirit of Montessori to the letter.  For, yes, they may be part of our prepared environment, and, yes, I have adapted them to support my roles as a Montessori-inspired parent/educator.  But, no, they do not allow the child as much choice and autonomy as simply putting work choices out on shelves do and, admittedly, they inherently include a bit of manipulation, for lack of a nicer term.

That said, we are eclectic here.  Montessori is a core inspiration for us, but we happily weave in other methods, philosophies and systems that appeal to us and Workboxing certainly does! 

 

This post is being shared at Montessori Monday hosted by One Hook Wonder and Living Montessori Now.

Nativity of Mary: What's in the Workboxes and on the Montessori Shelves

We are in the midst of celebrating the feast of the Nativity of Mary right now, so I cannot take the time to take and post pictures, but I did want to share our works for the day in case anyone needs some quick and easy last minute ideas for workboxes or Montessori-inspired shelves.  Here's what we have been doing:

• Reading/Practical Life/Fine Motor:  Print out a picture of Mary, Joachim and Anne such as  (black and white version of this one) and write "Mary", "Joachim" and "Anne" below it.  Have child color the picture, cut out the names and glue the names on as labels.

• Math/Reading: Draw a candle-less birthday cake and the words," I am _ years old." above it  Have the child fill in the number for his/her age and draw the appropriate number of candles on the cake. Color in the cake, too.  Then, save th candles for use in a real or playdough birthday cake later on.
• Math:  Make a simple addition sheet and include candles for the manipulatives to figure out the problems.
• Art:  Use all or part of Life of Mary Cards for game time.
• Sensory:  Offer blue, white and yellow playdough, plus some beans and have children create their own baby Mary's to sing the happy Birthday song to.
• Cooking/Math:  Make the aforementioned playdough together using a favorite playdough recipe.
• Saint Study:  Print out or look at art work depicting the Birth of Mary.  Look at these for inspiration.  Then, create your own artwork depicting the birth of Mary and narrate a story about it.  Add it to a Saints scrapbook.
• Sensorial:  If you have knobless cylinders, take out the blue ones and use them, perhaps using some mats.
• Snack/Practical LifeAnd, of course, enjoy a birthday cake or Mary tea time.
• Movement/Sensory Diet Break:  Pull out M, A, R and Y cards from an ABC Exercise or ABC Alerting Activities card deck and follow them.  
• Faith Formation:   Take a break to enjoy beautiful artwork and a reflection about the day on youtube.

Now, I've got to get back to enjoying the celebration with my kids.

Enjoy celebrating the Nativity of Mary today!

3-Part Car Movement Cards: In-Seat Movement Breaks for Car, Bus or Desk

The school year is upon us.  For some, that can mean more time spent in the car, on the bus or seated at desks.  This can be trying for any body, especially little bodies that are eager to move!

To help prevent the wiggles, you may want to try our 3-Part Car (or Seat) Movement Cards:

We'll be using these today and throughout the week as a simple, fun way to help release wiggles, coordinate motor skills and focus on body parts in a fun way.  


I created these last year before a long road trip  and found them a useful tool in our Car Activity Bags.  Since then, we have also used them at home as three-part cards in many of the same ways we use our 3-Part Life of Mary Sequencing Cards and our 3-Part Unicorn Song Cards.  (The Unicorn post features 10 ways we like to use cards!)  This year, I am thinking of printing out three fresh copies to put on rings to attach to both of our older children's car seats as well as to put in Luke's workboxes.  This way, the children will have a quick routine at hand to help them get their wiggles out whenever they need to.

I am also planning to use them for some Math and Health/P.E. lessons by playing card and dice games with them.  Basically, the kids will roll dice or pick a numeral card and then pick a movement card.  They will perform the action on the card as many times as indicated by the dice or numeral card.  Easy-peasy counting and movement fun!

If you'd like to use the cards with your children too, please feel free to click on the graphic of them.  A large-sized version should pop up for printing.  If it doesn't, simply leave a comment and I will email some to you.

As always, if you know someone who might benefit from these cards, please feel free to share a link to this post (as opposed to just passing on the cards themselves.)  And, please do stop by again to share how you use these cards successfully in your homes and classrooms.  Thanks!

This post will be shared at Homeschool Creations Preschool Corner, 
where you can find links to lots of fun Pre-K and 5K ideas.

A More Peaceful Bedtime Routine: Our 5 T's for Bedtime

Bedtime has never been easy in our home.  We have always struggled with finding a routine that will help our children (particularly our eldest) wind down and fall asleep peacefully.

To that end, I’ve read many books, listened to a lot of other parents and tried numerous strategies in an attempt to find “the key” that would make bedtime more peaceful in our home.  The Nanny Jo approach. The No-Cry Sleep Solution. The Happiest Baby on the Block. Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child.  You name it.  I have considered it.  Some of the suggestions I have discovered proved fruitful – for a while – but little has ever “worked” for the long run. 

Enter the 5 T’s for Bedtime that we developed.  These have definitely been helping for a while now.  (Not every night, mind you, but many!)

What are the 5 T’s?   

They are 5 simple steps that our children have learned to countdown on their fingers before bedtime: toilet, teeth, tales, talk (to God and briefly to each other) and tunes.  When we as parents remember to attend to these 5 T’s consistently, and help our children recognize that we are doing so, bedtime works so much better!

1. TOILET:  The kids go to the bathroom (and, with help and reminders, put their undies in the hamper and their clothes in the hamper or away in their rooms before changing into bedtime diapers and jammies.) 
2. TEETH:  They brush their teeth (often with a demonstration or help from Mom or Dad while humming the tune to a tooth brushing song I know from childhood.)
3. TALES:  They pick out one story or chapter to cuddle up and read together each (often begging for more, more, more, to which, we, as parents, have learned to respond, ‘Tomorrow.”)
4. TALK:  They say their prayers, with our help, and chat with us a bit about what’s on their minds or ask us for a “made up story” once the lights our out.
5. TUNES:  They fall asleep listening to lullabies, instrumental music or calming CD’s (on ideal nights.  On other nights, they fuss and cry, get out of bed, call out to us and require reminders about which of the 5 T’s we are on and that tunes require quiet listening, not talking and active bodies…)

In short, they prepare their little minds and bodies for sleep in an expected way.

The Truth of Our 5 T's 

Now, in all honesty, I probably should not have numbered the list above, because, to be truthful, we don’t always attend to the 5 T’s in order.  But, we have found that as long as we attend to all five and do a finger check with the kids about which we have done and which we still need to do, they “work” (or work better than any other strategy to date has.)

We have also found that five seems to be the “magic” number for our kids.  For, we have tried to add other things into the “T” mix, which we want our children to do before sleeping– for example, tidying their room or taking care of their bodies by stretching and exercising.  That didn’t seem to work.  It was simply too many T’s for their young selves to attend to. 

Likewise, we have made the mistake of failing to follow through on one or more of the  T’s on certain nights – say taking away stories as a consequence or spending too much time talking to the kids.  That doesn’t work out either.  If the kids don’t get their stories, they get so angst they cannot calm themselves for sleep and, if we drag out any portion of the 5 T’s, it’s almost as if it triggers something in the kids’ heads that says it’s not bedtime anymore.   The flow goes askew and we end up back at square one.  Yep.  We have found taking focused time to attend to each of the 5 T’s actually takes less time than dealing with the repercussions of skipping some of them!

Thus, through trial and error, we have recognized what works for our children at this stage in their development.  We have also learned to include other things we want to do with them in the evening to the time between dinner and bedtime.  That way, things such as clean up times, stretching and long chats about our days get attended to, but don’t complicate a simple routine that is working for us.

Now, if we could only find a way to KEEP the kids in bed in the middle of the night, so we don’t wake up to this some mornings:

Yep, that’s all three in our bed!

This post is being shared at We Are THAT Family’s Works for Me Wednesday. Please click on the links there to see what is working in other folks homes and lives.  Also, if you have tips for bedtime, or, better yet, back-to-bed-until-morning time, we’d love to hear them in a comment below.  And, if you like our  T's idea, stay tuned in the coming days.  Luke requested we make a 5 T printable and I will be posting it soon.

Makeshift Monday - Letter Tracing at the Fridge

As much as I want to consistently plan and carry through on well-thought out and creative lessons and projects for my children, it never fails that "life happens".  Consequently, spontaneous, semi-structured lessons become the order of the day at times.  So, I thought I would begin documenting these through occasional Makeshift Monday posts -- brief explanations which evidence impromptu ways to keep the kids engaged (or not) with varying degrees of success.

First up?

During some rather important and lengthy (due to holds) phone calls I had to make one morning, Luke and Nina got a bit antsy.  Likewise, I felt guilty that I was on hold on the phone instead of engaged in quality learning and play time with them.  That was when I spotted a poster that had fallen out of a pile of clutter I had been going through earlier in the day.  It reminded me of some recent yahoogroup conversations on interactive posters with workboxing and- BINGO!  Guilt assuaged.  Focus on writing engaged in.  A makeshift Letter Tracing at the Fridge activity commenced!

I attached the poster to one side of the fridge with magnets and gave Luke a dry-erase marker and a page protector to trace away with.  He quickly became involved.  Success!  (Even if he did get some marker on the actual poster when the page protector slipped.)

And Nina?  She, of course, wanted to join in, but (a)  there was not enough room on the side of the fridge for them both to work on the poster at once and (b) the letters to be traced on the poster were a bit too small for Nina's stage of pre-writing skill.  So, I wrote her name -- which she is still learning to recognize the letters for -- largely on the back of a piece of recycled paper, slipped it into another page protector and - viola! - a tracer for her was soon attached to the front of the fridge. 

Who cares if she went at it right to left instead of left to right without my guiding her to do otherwise?  She felt "big" and proud and I was able to attend to the service person that had just come back onto the phone line...

So, deep, thoughtful and hugely effective lesson?  No!  Fun and engaging for the kids while abating my guilt and helping to keep the house a bit quieter during an important call?  You bet!

What makeshift lessons have you been doing recently?  Leave a comment or link to share!

Grasshopper Kit Review

Simple, specially-designed for skill-building and sensory-friendly. We just love this new-to-us find!

During the time our computer was down, we received a Grasshopper Preschool Prep Kit: Getting Our Hands Ready Kit for review at Sensational Homeschooling.  We've been having so much fun with it that I wanted to review it here, too.

When the kit came in, the kids dove right into it and have been enjoying semi-structured learning and play with it since.   Truly, we find the kit simple, yet awesome.  Why?

It contains stretchy dough (different from both the store-bought and homemade playdough we have used before), dough stamps, a dough roller, a Mr. Crunch head, a mini set of bug figures, a full set of mini-crayons, two sheets of re-usable stickers, a sticker board and coloring sheets.  It also contains an illustrated guidebook that can stand up so the kids can follow along with the step-by-step illustrations for each of the activities, while I browse the easy-to-read formatted text that helps remind me why certain activities are good for age-appropriate skill building and how to adapt the activities to make them easier or more challenging.

Also, it meets some basic criteria for any activity that becomes a hit on our household:

-         It provides multi-age challenge and fun.  Yep, the Grasshopper Kit is challenging enough for our now-five year-old Luke to enjoy while being easy enough for our still three-and-a-half year-old Nina to use right alongside him.

-         It causes less arguments than it does enjoyment.  Indeed, the Grasshopper Kit has enough components to offer a variety of choices in one self-contained, low-to-no-mess “set”, meaning lots of focused play with little reason to fight over things.

-         It can be open-ended as well as independent.  The Grasshopper kit involves creation and coloring – key features in Luke and Nina’s enjoyment-quotient book.  And, the tasks can be done step-by-step as directed or used in more self-initiated ways.

-         It is sensory-friendly and age-appropriate.  The activities in the kit inherently provide fine motor practice and tactile input – which are so important at Luke and Nina’s stages of development.  Plus, it is low-tech.  (I do love toys and activities without batteries, voices, flashing lights, bells and whistles, especially at this time of year when the opposite seem to lurk everywhere you go!)

Plus, there are stickers involved.  And re-usable ones at that.  Oh, how the kids love stickers!

So, it is that  we have been thoroughly enjoying our Grasshopper Kit during post-dinner wind-down time, long, cold afternoons and other times by request.  It’s living up to the promises made on the Grasshopper Kit site by providing hours of fun without a worksheet in sight!  Plus, I think Grasshopper Kits are very Montessori and workbox-friendly and great for folks who like hands-on activities to “get kids ready for school all through play: no workbooks... no pencils... 100% fun.”  In my book, that makes them Reggio-friendly and Charlotte Mason-friendly as well -- open-ended enough to ignite some emergent curriculum, hands-on enough to be handiwork friendly.

Yep, we give this product two thumbs up - or, perhaps more accurately, whole hands in!


I know we will be putting the ABC & Following Directions and Snip, Glue and Grow Kits on our wish list while continuing to enjoy the Getting Our Hands Ready one.

Thank you so much to Grasshopper Preschool Prep Kits' Rachel Rudman,  the talented Occupational Therapist with a specialty in Pediatrics who created the kits, for sending us one of your awesome products for review. We had so much fun with it and will continue to build skills and enjoy learning through play for quite a while with it.  We think others will love it, too and encourage them to check out your Grasshopper Kits facebook page for news about the product, occasional giveaways and your many great tips.