Lately two out of three have been dragging their pencils about writing their sight words. Those two particular children HATE doing their sight words.
So I did some thinking "out of the 'box' [lunch box]"
I can't take credit for the original idea, as I saw it posted on Facebook some where or Pinterest I'm sure. So as amazing as the idea is...it's not mine originally, and even then the person who posted it...they probably weren't the first ones to 'come up' with the idea either. It's simple, and genius. Why I didn't do it sooner...I have no idea.
Do your children love snack crackers? Mine do. They currently love Cheeze Its (ack!) not my favorite snack food, especially for kids. However they do love the crackers and it's better than giving them cookies after school (also there is a super yummy recipe for home made cheese crackers too, you can find it on Pinterest too, I've made it once, and it was awesome just haven't had time to make it again).
Anyway. Moving on.
I bought some decorating markers in the cake area at the store, they are for writing on cakes, cookies, bread...whatever. I originally bought them so I could draw on some of their stuff in their lunch boxes for fun. (they love that too by the way).
So today I sat down and took the "Cheeze Its" and used them as tiles, and wrote on each tile, one letter...and spelled out their sight words using the crackers. Brilliant, no?
If I can't get them to do their sight words in the conventional method...I'll go through their stomachs darn it! We can call it 'ingesting knowledge' right? Right.
Well fast forward a few hours and the kids came home from school and had an awesome fun time partaking in their edible sight word tiles. Well, two out of three appreciated the time I spent on this. One son was not so impressed, but he did eventually spell out his sight words just so he could finally eat the crackers. I guess you can't please everyone!
Sometimes it's hard as a parent to find ways to keep home work fun and exciting. To keep them wanting to learn, especially if you have children that struggle in different areas. I think tomorrow we're going to try MATH on the Cheeze it crackers! I'll make up a bunch of numbers and addition and subtraction signs and let the kids go to town figuring out math problems, that one to me sounds like a whole lot of fun!
Maybe I would have been better at math if I could have devoured my math problems after I figured them out, ha! I'll try that next time I have to do algebra *shudder* I still have night mares about algebra (ok not really, but I really hate algebra and probably could have used some counseling after I was done with it....)
Kind of glad I got off of work early today so I could come home and work on this little project for the kids. We'll see what I get done tomorrow when I work until 3 (just an hour before my kids get home!)
Being a parent is exhausting work. I've been both a stay at home mom and a working mom, heck I've even worked at home before. It's all hard. It all has it's struggles and it's pluses, no matter which route you choose.
Today I got home from work an hour earlier than usual (which doesn't happen often, but I was happy I was able to come home early). I did a few chores, relaxed for a few short minutes, took care of my furry pack of animals (currently I have four dogs, one is a foster dog, and I have two cats). Don't ask how many furry dust bunnies we have running around here thanks to all the animals *sigh*, if you don't like animals, or dog hair...don't come to my house is all I'm saying.
Anyway, I worked up this sight word idea, and I started on supper (made some yummy home made cheesy, tuna noodle casserole), so yummy. My daughter had a Girl Scout meeting tonight so we went to that at five. While we were gone my husband fed the boys and did their home work with them. When my daughter and I got home we ate supper and I helped her with the rest of her home work. Then it was the bed time routine, and I did her nails to match my own. She loves having her nails done and we decided we wanted matching nails. Nothing fancy, but we love them! I snuggled with my sons and read books with them too and then everyone went off to bed. Now my house has been quiet for a couple of hours (even the dogs are asleep). I'm getting ready to head to bed myself.
Got a text message tonight from my daughters soccer coach letting me know she was the coach, and when the first day of soccer practice is. We shall see how this goes! Still waiting to hear from my boys' coach. I'm kinda excited and nervous about this whole soccer thing. I know NOTHING about soccer. T Ball I could manage last year, I've played soft ball before (not that I was that GOOD at it, but I did play...a little). I'm not exactly 'sports inclined', but I sure give it my all! My husband on the other hand is the friggin' sports "expert". He was a state champ wrestler in high school, foot ball player, cross country track, swim team, basketball, he played a LITTLE baseball but he found it wasn't his favorite sport, he played soccer a couple times when he was a lot younger but again found it wasn't his sport. So he stuck with the other sports I mentioned. So when it comes to sports....I tend to hand the reigns over to him, but I am still involved.
It's been a busy week so far. My sons had their first school concert on Monday. They did a really great job! They were so gosh darn adorable it wasn't even funny. I just wish we would have gotten there early enough to get good seats for Circus Son #1's performance. We were both in a bad location so sadly I didn't get too many good photos of him, and a video was OUT of the question as parents were walking in front of me REALLY bad, and they were talking like crazy (how rude!) However, it's our own fault for running late because the kids were all like "Ahhh we're not going to cooperate! You want us to hurry, we'll go even SLOWER than usual!" Thanks kids.
My boys Son Circus 2 in green and 1 in orange. Ready to leave the house for their FIRST school concert. Woo hoo!
My boys Son Circus 2 in green and Son Circus 1 in orange, posing for a photo after they were both done performing at their first school concerts. They did so well, I am really proud of them.
Son Circus #2, I was able to get a front row seat and got pretty good decent pics of him, and a few short video's of his performance (which is adorable because his brother was sitting next to me REperforming everything and you can hear him on the video, so it's super cute, ha!)
I am really proud of how well my boys did on stage. (They did not perform at the same time, because there are five Kindergarten classes and they split them up, and there were two performances. I actually liked that they weren't on stage at the same time. That meant each of my sons got our individual attention during each of their performances and they knew that when THEY were on the stage our eyes were ONLY on them not trying to shift between two different kids. Sometimes, it's rough having twins! However, I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.
Mom Circus
