Spontaneous Learning

My husband and I have toyed with the possibility of homeschooling our kids in the future for various reasons. Right now, our kids aren't old enough to go to school yet, so we still have some time to think about it and make a decision. But sometimes I wonder if I would even be able to handle homeschooling.

Some days it seems like I get absolutely nothing done, and the kids spend all day watching T.V. (Hopefully, that's not actually true, but some days it seems like it.) 

Well, I have made a new resolve to be more organized and make some specific goals on what to get done during the day. One area that I wanted to start having a goal for each day is to do some kind of learning activity with my boys. 

This morning started off better than most. I got part of my new planned morning routine in before the boys woke up for breakfast and got a couple things on my to-do list done before lunch, but I didn't have any sort of plan for a learning activity for the boys. 

After lunch, I actually remembered to go out and get the mail. (Most times my husband just grabs it on his way in from work, but then sometimes it doesn't get looked at for a few days because it's dinnertime.) 

There was one of those big advertisement mailers. I glanced through it really quick to see if there was anything useful in there and went to throw it away. I was feeling proud of myself for taking care of the mail right away instead of letting it pile up on my counter.

But as my hand was about to drop the mail into the trash, I stopped. My two-year-old was hanging on my leg, and I knew I should go do something with him since he obviously wanted my attention. I glanced at the mailer in my hand and got an idea. 

"Hey!" I said to him. "Do you want to do a project with me?" 

He did, so I ran to grab some scissors and glue. 

Not too long after starting, my three-year-old stopped what he was doing and came over to see what we were doing. He excitedly joined in. 

We searched through the ads for pictures of food that they liked.

This is the only reason I keep our coffee table.
It's the perfect height for the boys to do projects.

 Then they cut them out.

"Take a picture of our scissors, Mommy!"

"I can do it by myself."

And glued them onto a paper.

"And here's the glue!"

To make a fun food collage.

The finished product

I was going to have my three-year-old label his food when he finished, but after he wrote "Food I Lic" at the top and his name, he said he was done. So, I let him off the hook. I don't want to make learning a chore at this age. But I was so proud of him for spelling "Food" right all by himself.

This was such an easy activity to do, and the kids loved it. It allowed them to talk about different kinds of food, including likes and dislikes as well as finding out the names of other foods they weren't familiar with. They also improved their cutting skills and learning how to use a glue stick. And it kept them busy and engaged for at least 30 minutes! 

And there was no planning!

What spontaneous learning activities have you done?

2018 Book #3 - Way to Be

I thought I'd start off the year with an inspirational book. I read Way to Be by Gordon B. Hinckley, a former president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This book was written for the youth of the church (boys and girls ages 12 - 18), however, I think much of the advice can be applicable to others as well.

Pres. Hinckley gives nine "Be's" for things that people should be to have successful, happy lives. For each "Be" he uses quotes, tells anecdotes from his own life, as well as his opinions and ideas on how being these nine traits can help people in their lives.

There is an Introduction, a chapter for each of the Be's where he goes in depth on each one, and then a conclusion. The copy of the book I had also had a foreword by Steve Young, a former BYU football player.

I had a hard time getting through the Introduction, but once I got to the "Be" chapters, the read went quickly. It's a pretty quick read - just over a hundred pages, but it's a smaller book with lots of margin space.

Although it's written by a leader of a church, it didn't feel preachy to me in any way; it felt more like someone who was older and wiser giving someone younger his advice. The man was around 90 years old when he wrote the book so I would think he'd had plenty of experiences to know a little something about life.

All of his advice does go follow the teachings of the LDS Church, but it wasn't written in a way that was like, "Do these things to get to heaven." It was just more like, "Hey, if you want to have a good, full life, here are some things that I have learned that will probably work for you."

As I mentioned earlier, it was written for teenagers, but I felt like many of the things he wrote about were still applicable to me as an adult. If I was much older, more of the specific things he mentions in some of the sections or some of the examples he uses to expound on some of the "Be's" wouldn't really apply, but each of the "Be's" would still be things that I think would be beneficial for anyone to try to be, no matter their age.

I thought this was a great book to start out the year, seeing as it's the time for people to make resolutions on how they are going to be better people. I, for one, found a couple of things that I could work on.

What inspirational books have you read?

2018 Book #2 - Snow Babies

Snow Babies, by Laura Ellen Anderson, is a board book about animals in the snow. It has simple text like "Roly-poly polar bear cubs play," with each set of pages designated for a different animal.

The animals included are polar bears, reindeer, beavers, arctic foxes, arctic hares, huskies, penguins, snow leopards, snowy owls, wolves, harp seals, and pandas.

I really liked how they used the full names of the animals, such as harp seals instead of just seals. The baby animal names are also used for each animal. I think this is a great book for teaching kids about some different baby animal names in addition to some of the more common ones out there.

The verbs paired with each type of animal is something that animal would typically do in the wild and could lend themselves to more conversation with a child on each page.

The illustrations are cute but somewhat realistic looking.

Arctic fox cubs

I did think the final animal, the panda, didn't seem to fit in with others since they are mainly arctic or tundra animals and pandas are not. It seemed really random.

Overall, though, I thought the book was really cute and simple enough to hold really young children's attention, but I also really appreciated that they didn't completely dumb down the vocabulary in the book.

2018 Book #1 - I Broke My Trunk!

Mo Willems has to be one of my favorite children's author. The Elephant & Piggie book I Broke My Trunk didn't disappoint. I read this book to my son today and had him laughing out loud.

Gerald comes to see Piggie, who asks him about his nose as it's all wrapped up. He says he broke it. When Piggie asks how he broke it, he goes into a "long crazy story."

Even after he tells about holding two hippos, a rhino, and a piano on his trunk, Gerald explains to Piggie that still isn't how he broke his trunk. The ending is funny and surprising.

One of the best parts of this Elephant and Piggie book is the illustrations and seeing the facial expressions of Elephant as he tells his story and Piggie as she listens and asks questions.

Elephant & Piggie stories are told completely through dialogue and the illustrations. The illustrations are usually just the characters and whatever props they may be using. There are typically not any backgrounds for the pictures, so things like facial expressions are very important. This was one of my favorite pages:

These books are very fun to read aloud, especially doing different voices for the different characters. My boys also love when I make sound effects for the characters when they aren't actually saying dialogue. I usually make a face to go along with it. For example, the face Piggie's making in the picture above was one that I made with a face. My son got a kick out of that.

These books are great for kids of all ages. My two youngest, ages 15 months and 2, loved this book today when I read it to them. I've had first graders read them over and over again, and even one of my third-graders a couple years back loved to check these books out from the library. I think they're hilarious and are great books even for adults. And they tell great stories about two friends who really care about each other.

Family Fun - 4 Benefits for Using Advent Calendars with Kids

There are many different types of advent calendars to aid in counting the days until Christmas. Most of these calendars start on the first day of December and continue all the way until either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, with a window to open or a pocket to check for each day.

I have seen many different kinds of advent calendars, many with other added learning benefits. Lego advent calendars teach kids how to follow a diagram to put together a small item that adds to a larger Christmas scene.

An advent calendar my family had growing up helped us learn about the Christmas story, as the calendar had an item for each day to add to a nativity scene.

I've seen other interactive advent calendars that have other kinds of different activities for each day. These calendars all have their own uses too.

But even the chocolate advent calendars, where there is just a chocolate to eat each day, have their benefits too.

As I've been doing an advent calendar with my boys this Christmas season, I've noticed a few things that have made me think I should keep doing these every year with my kids.

1. Advent Calendars teach children calendar skills. As my oldest son who is three years old has been doing the advent calendar this year, he has picked up on some different calendar skills. Since the numbers on the advent calendar match up with the date, he now talks about what the date is. When I went to pick him up from his nursery class last week, his teachers said, "He was teaching us all about the calendar today." They had a calendar up on the wall that my son had apparently noticed and scooted a chair over to. He climbed up on the chair and was pointing out what day it was and which day was Christmas, which he knew because of which number was the last number on the advent calendar.


2. Advent Calendars teach children about taking turns. Most advent calendars have one thing in each box you open. If you have more than one child, they will have to take turns or learn how to share what's inside. This year, we have a Lego advent calendar, so the boys have been taking turns each day with who gets to put together the little model. Yes, there have been days where there has been fighting over it, but they're still learning. They are only two and three, so a little fighting is kind of expected. But my three year old keeps track really well of whose turn it is and explains to his brother, "Today is my turn to build, but tomorrow will be yours."


3. Advent Calendars are a great way to get the family together at least once per day. In my house, the boys have to wait until Daddy gets home to open the box for the day. Although advent calendar activities are really short, it is still something that brings the family all together for at least a few minutes each day while we open the box and see what's inside. Then we usually end up staying together a little longer to talk about it or other things and spend a little time together.


4. Advent Calendars help you keep your sanity. As Christmas gets closer, children get more excited, and more impatient, about Christmas. Instead of my kids asking me every five minutes, "How many more days until Christmas?" they already know. Because we look at the advent calendar every day, they can see how many boxes we've opened and how many we have left. Instead, my kid wakes up every day and says, "Mommy, there's only 7 more days until Christmas!" which is a much more pleasant thing to hear than constant whining about, "Is it Christmas yet?"

So, those are just a few benefits that I've noticed from doing advent calendars with my kids. 

The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids Special: Mrs. Claus Doesn't Climb Telephone Poles

Mrs. Claus Doesn't Climb Telephone Poles by Debbie Dadey and Marci Thornton Jones is part of The Bailey School Kids series. It is not included in the numbering of the regular series, and since I have not read any of the other books in the series, I can't really say how it compares to the rest of the books in the series. The story does mention two characters from a previous book, so it may help to read that one first, but it wasn't vital in understanding what was going on in the book.

The book centers on the before Christmas adventures of four friends who are out of school for the rest of the year due to a terrible blizzard that caused their school to be shut down. The story is told in third person but is told from the point of view of Liza, one of the four friends.

It's a week before Christmas Eve, and the friends are trying to decide what to do with their new freedom. Liza notices a lady all dressed in red at the top of a telephone pole doing repairs. Right from the start, she thinks there's something different and special about her. Her friends just brush her off and decide to go sledding instead.

Throughout the book, the kids continue to cross paths with the lady, whose name is Joy. Liza hears her laugh, "Ho, ho, ho." They overhear her talking to a man named Eli, who they saw in that other story, about S.C. and how he doesn't appreciate anything that she does. Eli begs her to come back, and talks about how they're behind schedule.

Pretty soon, Liza is convinced that the lady is Mrs. Claus, but her friends are going to take some convincing, especially Eddie who only wants to race at everything, especially down the big hill that terrifies Liza.

The children get to know Joy better and find out that she and her husband aren't really on speaking terms. Liza is convinced that if they don't help her get back with her husband, that Christmas will be ruined.

This was a fun, quick read, geared toward young readers, with its obvious clues as to who this mysterious woman up the telephone pole might be. I think it would be fun to read to my kids when they get a little older and see if they pick up on all the clues.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

The first book of December was The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson. I have read this one before, but it's been awhile, so in the spirit of Christmas, and seeing lots of people talking about reading it on facebook, I decided to give it a reread.

This story focuses on the Herdmans, a family of five children whose mother works all the time and are left to do whatever they want, which is usually getting up to no good. The book starts out by introducing us to these children and some of the terrible things they have done including burning down a toolshed, stealing, hitting, lying, and making fun of anyone they please.

Told in first person by a girl who is the same age as Imogene Herdman, the reader gets an outside view of the Herdmans. After introducing the Herdmans, the Christmas Pageant is introduced. The lady who normally runs the pageant has an accident and winds up in the hospital. No one else volunteers to do the pageant, and the narrator's mother ends up in charge.

The usual director tries to direct it from her bed by calling the new director and explaining every little thing. The mother gets fed up with her calling and declares that the Christmas pageant is going to be "the best Christmas pageant ever" just to show her how capable she is.

The Sunday before the first rehearsal for the pageant, all five of the Herdmans show up to church, because the narrator's brother, Charlie, told one of them that they had refreshments at Sunday School. When they hear about the pageant, Imogene Herdman seems interested, and they all show up to the first rehearsal.

The Herdmans have threatened anyone who tries to volunteer for one of the main parts at the first rehearsal. No one dares to go against the Herdmans, so they end up with all of them, with Imogene herself as Mary.

The narrator tells us about the antics of the Herdmans as the rehearsals for the pageant go on, and her friend is bound and determined to get her role of Mary back for herself. Everyone wonders if five children who have never set foot in the church in their lives before this can actually pull of the Christmas pageant or if they'll completely ruin it.

It's not a super exciting story. The narrator isn't clever or witty, but there are a few moments where she starts to think a little more about the Christmas story and what actually might have happened when Christ was born because of things that the Herdmans do or say throughout the story. There's a sweet, although somewhat anticlimactic ending with the pageant itself and a few closing thoughts from the narrator.

It's worth the read as it did offer some points to ponder and showed that sometimes it might be better to do things a little differently from what people may be used to.

Follow-up on NaNoWriMo

Now that November is over, I am happy to say that I successfully finished NaNoWriMo! I wrote 50,000 words in one month!

I know the original widget doesn't say I made it to 50,000 words or level 100; there's some sort of glitch. Probably because I made it to 50,000 words at 11:30 on the night of the last day, and then the contest was over before the widget could update or something. As proof that I finished, here's a new one. This one didn't evolve, but it has the right numbers on it.

I couldn't have done it without my oldest son. The one who's obsessed with Pokemon. My tactic worked quite nicely. Throughout the month, he kept asking to see what level my Pokemon was and if it had evolved yet. When he would see it, he would say, "Mommy, write some more words, so you can level up your Eevee." And then he would go play something with his brothers so I could get a little bit of typing time in. 

He actually got so excited about it that he wanted to write his own story to get his own Pokemon leveled up too. Unfortunately, the widget only works with the official NaNo website, and you have to be 13 to sign up for an account. 

However, I did help him set a goal the way they do in the Young Writer's Program for NaNo. We set the goal of writing 100 words for the month of November. I thought this would be a challenge for him since his longest story previously written was only two sentences.

He finished in two days.

After that, he kept saying, "You still have more words to write Mommy? I'm done. I already won."

Talk about motivation. As it got closer to the end of November, I knew he was going to be disappointed in me if I didn't finish. This just made me want to try harder. I ended up writing over 11,000 words the last day in my efforts to win, and it paid off! I finished with just half an hour to spare. It feels great to be able to accomplish something like that. But it feels even better to do it with people you love and to help each other get there.

I suppose that's why they always tell people to have a buddy for goals you set like losing weight or exercising. I think the same is true of anything you want to accomplish. If you have someone who can be your cheerleader or motivator, it's easier to find that motivation to do it, even when it seems hard. But it's even better when you have someone who will commit to doing things with you, where you can both help each other reach your goal.

NaNoWriMo

If you've never heard of NaNoWriMo, it is National Novel Writing Month. This happens in the month of November, and the goal is to write 50,000 words of a novel during the month. I've attempted to do this several times, and actually "won" once by writing just over 50,000 words before the end of November 30. I didn't actually ever go back and finish that novel because after writing 50,000 words or doing NaNo period, I'm usually quite wiped out with writing and feel like I need a major break.

I haven't done NaNo for a couple years just with my kids and teaching school things have always been too busy or I didn't have an idea. I wanted to do NaNo this year, but I was pretty sure it wasn't going to happen since I didn't have any idea what I would write.

I have several projects that I'm working on (or rather, not working on. I'm kind of stuck in all of them.) The technical rule for NaNo, however, is that it is supposed to be a new novel that hasn't been written or started before the month of November. Planning and research and outlining before November is allowed, even encouraged.

I was wishing I had an idea for NaNo, and then, on October 31, I suddenly thought of something I could write. So, on November 1, I logged onto the NaNo website - which can be found here - and entered my novel.

I'm terribly behind as my word count has been made up of just a couple word sprints a day (15 minute timed writing sprints) in between playing with my boys, making dinner, making things to open up an online craft store with my sister, cleaning up after sick kids, doing homework for my online class, and trying to get my house clean and organized to be ready for Thanksgiving dinner after our move. Word Sprints have actually worked quite well, considering I only did one each day for the first week and have only just started fitting in a few more here and there. I work well under pressure, so a timer does the trick for me to get out a lot of words in a short amount of time. But it's been fun so far. This story has taken on a life of its own, and I'm not sure where it's headed.

I noticed on others' NaNo profiles these fun widgets, that only caught my eye because my oldest son is obsessed with Pokemon right now, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I guess now I have a little more motivation to write more, so I can evolve this for my son.

If you want to make your own, just click on the widget above. You also have to have a NaNo profile and have a novel entered for this year for it to work.

For those of you who are doing NaNo this year:

Happy Writing! and Good Luck!

Case Closed Vol. 63 - 2017 Book #3

Case Closed Vol. 63 by Gosho Aoyama is the latest installment in a graphic novel series that follows the adventures of Jimmy Kudo, a teenage detective. In the first book, he follows some suspicious men but gets caught. They give him an untested poison and leave him for dead, but instead of dying, he is turned into a little boy. He goes by the name of Conan as he continues to solve cases, all while trying to keep his identity a secret and find the mysterious group known as the Syndicate to try and reverse the poison and get his old life back.

This book starts out finishing up a case started in the last book where they discovered a man who had been strangled in his car while driving. The time is ticking, because Jimmy has to solve it before Anita's mixture wears off and he changes back into Conan in front of everyone.

The next case happens when a food critic is poisoned at a revolving sushi restaurant where the Junior Detective League is eating. This is followed by a murder case at what was supposed to be a television quiz show as part of a final contest for a prize. I actually solved this one myself, which pretty much never happens, so I was pretty proud of myself for that one. 

The final case is about the Silver Witch who is known for racing people in the fog and leading them to their deaths. This one had a funny ending when the identity of the real Silver Witch is revealed.

I feel like this book of Case Closed had a much lighter feel to it. As always, it was a quick, easy read, with Conan showing off his amazing deducting skills and trying to guide the adults to the right answers, all while keeping his true identity a secret.

I've never really been interested in graphic novels, but I love a good mystery, and Case Closed never fails to deliver one.