The Write Start

Little Notes

 

Around here, we've had a recent explosion into reading and writing. That's how it is with these things. You're just plugging along, doing the same stuff you always do (reading many, many, many books; playing alphabet games; rhyming; pointing out all kinds of print; play-writing... you know the drill) and then POW! all the pieces start coming together. That's where we're at right now. It's an exciting (and exhausting!) time full of many discoveries, some frustrations, and far more questions than I can possibly answer. All of a sudden, the world is a code that my son is trying to crack. And boy does he have an insatiable appetite for challenge!

He gets a great big kick out of the little notes that I am leaving for him around the house. My favorite spot to leave a message for him is on a little chalkboard I put right where he washes his hands (and hey, if it makes handwashing ever-so-slightly more appealing, then it's twice as nice). Every time he visits the sink he is greeted with a cheery note. After he washes his hands, he erases the message with a tiny rag, leaving me a "clean slate" on which to leave my next Mommy-memo.

   

We also started writing lunchbox love notes to Daddy. This is such a sweet ritual. It is so motivating and a great way for him to communicate to his father that he is thinking about him when he is at work.

So there you have it, the news from our house. Mommy-memos and lunchbox love notes. Short and oh-so-very sweet.

Do you have any little reading and writing rituals to share?

Rock the Vote

And the winner is:

  

chocolate chip.

We're big on voting around here. I mean the kind of day-to-day voting that teaches a child that everyone has a choice and each opinion counts. Some recent hotly-contested races include:

    Which movie to watch on movie night?

    Oatmeal raisin or chocolate chip cookies?

    Vanilla ice cream or mint chocolate chip?

    Blueberry or chocolate chip pancakes?

(I am realizing now that many of the campaigns have included chocolate chips. That may be my son's political influence...)

With the help (yet again) of our handy-dandy clipboard, we make tally marks to weigh-in on the household issues where the final decision is up for grabs. (We don't, for instance, weigh-in on weather or not to brush our teeth, or what time to go to bed.)

This post may seem glib considering the enormous decision our country is making today. But, for kids, the freedom to choose is a big deal. And for parents too. When my children are teenagers, I can't think of anything I'd find more reassuring than to feel that they are good decision-makers. The first time they ask to borrow the keys, and leave to meet their friends, what could be more important than their ability to make good choices?

Providing opportunities for children to exercise their freedom of choice definitely does not mean kids rule. Too much choice is overwhelming for a child, and unsettling, to say the least. But offering a couple of options, when appropriate, helps children learn the difference between the laws of life (like wearing a seat belt) and the choices (like wearing a blue shirt or a red one).  

So when we decided to make cookies today, as sustenance before hitting our local village hall to cast our ballot, we put it to the vote. Cinnamon or chocolate chip. I started campaigning for cinnamon early on. But Gracie was the swing vote, and she waved her arms wildly when Jack said chocolate chip (although I think the jumping, wiggling dance he did while polling her may have furthered his cause).

It's all smoke and mirrors, isn't t? I demand a re-count.

Simple Fall Fun

Here's an activity that kept us busy on quite a few Autumn days last year.

First, take a walk around the neighborhood and collect some fallen leaves of different shapes and sizes (this is my favorite part).

  

Then, put them face down on your copy machine...

 

and print out a copy (Jack's favorite part, without a doubt).

 

Presto! You now have a leaf-matching game. It doesn't get any easier than this. And, believe it or not, this super-simple project held my boy's attention for quite a long time, on quite a few occasions. 

I put the leaves that we used in a small basket next to the "game card" we made, along with a magnifying glass to encourage inspection. I left it on a low shelf where Jack could take it out when he happened upon it and place his leaves on their double.

This matching game was the perfect match for Jack, developmentally speaking, last year (he was three). This year I think we'll add some more leaves, and maybe some small objects (I'm thinking acorns, pine needles, seed pods) to up the challenge and make it even more interesting.

How do you fall into Fall?

10 Minutes

Some dry pasta and a pair of tongs...

 

plus a mini-muffin tin...

 

equals ten minutes to load the dishwasher.

Enough said. What are your best tricks for getting the job(s) done?

(P.S. Some serious hand strengthening gets accomplished too -- not just the dishes!)

Special Delivery

 

We're having a little party for Gracie and we made simple and sweet invites using a daisy stamp on kraft paper. (I love kraft paper!) They seriously took less then ten minutes and they capture her personality: irresistibly cheerful.

   

I gave big brother Jack the job of hand-delivering all of the invitations, with the help of his handy clipboard, checklist, and chauffeur (a.k.a. Mommy). We put on some mail carrier-looking clothes (an oxford and a cap with the American flag was as close as I could get) and packed up his toy mailbag.

Then he made his rounds.

 

 

Family get-togethers and holidays provide great opportunities for recognizing the names of relatives. Guest lists, invitations, place cards, and gift tags are festive ways to reinforce name recognition. If you think about it, the first words children learn to write are their own names and then the names of their family members. They are very motivated to write the names of the people they are fond of, over and over again, making continual lists of their clan.

I have some more activities in the works to inspire Jack to practice some family name-writing. Let's just say, I'll keep you posted.

Building a Foundation

 

My son knows construction inside and out. He has watched (and helped) his father build foundations, raise roofs, and do everything in between. He loves being hands-on, but he also will listen attentively as my husband explains every aspect of a job in excruciating detail. Needless to say, when Jack plays with his own little blocks, he has big plans. He draws blueprints, calls for lumber deliveries on his toy phone, and prepares for visits from the building inspector.

He also knows that there's a reason why builders always have a pencil behind their ear. They actually do tons of writing. From job estimates to material orders, invoices to measurements, builders write all day long. A pencil, a set of blueprints, and a clipboard are essential props that we include in Jack's daily block play. Play-writing his punch list has become just as important as all the stacking, piling, and crashing of blocks.

 

But today's jobsite notations went a big step beyond the usual play-writing. He told me he needed to demolish an old fire house and build a new one. He asked me, "business" book and pencil in hand, to write down what he needed to do. He said he wanted it to be "real" writing (as opposed to the scribble-writing that fills almost every other page in his book). I encouraged him to do more play-writing, but he knew what he wanted. So he tried it himself.

First he wrote demolition: D M O

Then he wrote cart away debris: C   D B

Next he wrote foundation: F D S

I almost fell off my seat! He sounded each word out as wrote the letters. He had a clear picture of what he wanted to write and how to accomplish it. All of that time spent scribbling has paid off. The foundation is there, and he is ready to start building some big-time writing skills.

Now if he could just get that pencil to stop slipping out from behind his little ear!

Alphabetical

 

Today I heard Jack's excited voice: "Mommy! Come be so impressed!"

He had dumped the magnetic alphabet on the floor and, one by one, found each letter in the pile. As if that wasn't impressive enough, he lined them up in order on the refrigerator. It was such a big, tough job. He was proud of himself. He kept singing the alphabet while touching each letter, first to double-check himself and then to admire his work.

   

He's big into the alphabet lately. A while ago I made the letters of his first and last names for him to hang on a line with clothespins. I scramble the letters up and he clips them in order to spell his name. But he's ready for more; he asked me for the whole alphabet the other day, and we had to string lines around the room to fit all those letters.

There's nothing like watching the joy of mastery. That "I did it myself" moment when a child seems almost buoyant with self-satisfaction. I love to see him playing with the alphabet like it's a code to be cracked. I hope learning can always be this lively!

Has your child had a can-do moment lately?

One Brick at a Time

 

We had more fun with cornstarch, adapting a no-bake clay recipe from The Preschoolers Busy Book, by Trish Kuffner.

Here's the story:

Jack decided he needed some bricks for his rock box, so we mixed up a batch of clay. We formed it into little bricks, let it harden, and then we painted them.

Here's how we did it:

Combine 1 cup cornstarch, 2 cups baking soda, and 1 1/4 cups water in pot. Stir over medium heat until mixture is a wet, mashed potato-like consistency. Scoop mixture onto a plate and cover with damp dish towel until cool. Knead.

 

Here's the fun part:

As he was painting, Jack sighed dramatically and said, "How am I going to paint ALL of these bricks?"

Aha! Time for a little life lesson. "One brick at a time," I answered.

And then, from the deep dusty recesses of my brain, the lyrics to the song of the same name emerged. (My sister sang it in a high school musical oh so many years ago, with me, her biggest fan, lip-synching in the front row.) I burst into song as if we were in our own little musical production, and Jack soon caught on and joined in. So there we were, singing our hearts out while painting our bricks.

It was one of those days I really needed a reminder that great things can only be accomplished "one brick at a time." And Jack was right. It was a big job to paint all of those bricks. It actually took much longer than I expected it would. But we did it. Side by side. Singing a song.

Magic Powder

 

Does it get any easier than this?

    1. Add water to magic powder (cornstarch)

    2. Play, play, play in the drippy ooze

 

Cornstarch + water = irresistable, slimy fun.  

This is an amazing hands-on activity that is a sensory treat. We can't get enough cornstartch around here.

What do your kids love to sink their hands into?

No-fuss Feltboard

  

I have made some labor intensive felt boards in the past invollving plywood, glue, wood moulding, etc. But as I dug out the leftover materials today to make a feltboard for my son, I said to myself, "Why all the fuss?" Instead, I just cut out a rectangle of felt the size of our easel, clipped it on, and we were up and running. I cut out simple shapes from felt as my son asked for them and he placed them on the easel. In less then five minutes we had a delightful (and developmental) activity.

 

I cut out a cloud first, just to show him how the felt shapes stick to the felt on the easel. As soon as he got the idea he asked for a sun, and then a house. He requested a foundation, a roof, a chimney, a door with an arch, and a window, Then he asked me to make two solar panels for the roof (the two rectangles you see on top of the house). I was so impressed by his green-ness!

 

I'm trying to keep the shapes super-simple right now, to go along with the shapes I see emerging in his drawings. I am resisting the temptation to make sweet, super-fussy feltboard figures (oh how i want to!). The idea is that if he plays around with the lines, circles, squares, rectangles, and triangles three-dimensionally on the feltboard then he will have a better idea of how to combine these shapes in his two-dimensional drawings. Right now drawing frustrates him at times. He has great big ideas that are hard for his little hands to implement. The feltboard works great because he can play around with shapes and forms without the added pressure of drawing them.

So there it is. The no-fuss feltboard. File that one under the category: why didn't I think of it sooner?