Its that time of year for Teacher Thank Yous!

Its that time of year for Teacher Thank You Gifts!

I will be the first to admit that if another mom hadn't shown up a today (a day early) with teacher gifts I would have totally forgotten to bring something on Friday.

Click on the picture to hop to a blog with more cute teacher ideas.

I want to do something to show my gratitude (because my daughters teachers were phenomenal) but i'm on a budget and now only have 36 hours.

Run to Pintrest…. find a spark of an idea….. run with it…..

I want something practical that the teachers can use in some way. I've worked in the education system long enough and have received several gifts that I look at with appreciation but wonder what in the world I will do with yet another mug, etc….


It came down to two choices:

Thanks for making me sparkle and attach sparkly nail polish.
                or
Thanks for making me one smart cookie and attach cookies.

I love the play on words for both but don't know if either teacher paints their nails. I do know both teachers have families with kids who would (i'm pretty sure) love to eat sweets.

One smart cookie has won!

I hopped online and typed in "one smart cookie" and found some free clip art, downloaded it...

Added the text in Microsoft word, then I printed it on card stock.

Next a quick trip to the grocery store for a gourmet cookie for each teacher. Add some cute ribbon….

And it is done.

Gardening With Your Kids

A few posts ago I talked about the little steps towards healthy eating that I do with my family. One of the ways I provide healthy food is by growing some of our own veggies in the summer.

I grew up with a family of gardeners so I have a bit of an advantage when it comes to the amount of background  knowledge I have. Nonetheless, I have had my fairshare if gardening failures but haven't let it deter me from continuing to try new plants and grow new things. 

I am now trying to teach my daughter these things so she develops a love and appreciation of gardening too. I love seeing my child's eyes light up as she sees the perennials pop up each spring and the excitement when the first tomato appears on a plant or he first strawberry is ready to be picked. 

I am a firm believer that children should see plants grow and so they understand where plants come from and how much work goes into helping them grow. Also, children seem much more eager to eat veggies when they've helped grow them!

The return on investment is really pretty good. A few dollars for a set of tomato or pepper plants, some herbs, or any other plant will usually provide I have more than we can eat at the end of the season.

I strongly encourage you to garden with your children, even if you only do a simple potted plant such as a tomato plant or a bowl of lettuce. No one says you need a full size farm. The process of planting, caring for, and harvesting is full of teachable moments. 

Here are some other tips I've gathered:


~Grow a theme garden. For example, a pizza garden. Grow pizza ingredients - basil, tomatoes, oregano, onion, and green peppers, etc.

~Let you child feel special by giving then their own kid size gloves and shovel/spade to use while helping you or working in their own special area. 

~Plant a sensory garden. Let you child explore gardening by using all their senses. Kids enjoy touching plants so plant a variety of textures, lambs ear is very soft in contrast straw flowers are very crispy. Sense of smell is very powerful. Look for fragrant flowers such as sweet peas, marigolds, and freesia. Bright colors are great visual stimulators. Look for a varity if colors or let your child pick their favorite color but in a variety if plants. Introduce new tastes by picking a few new veggies that your child has never tried and make a special meal out of it come harvest time. 

~Encourage your child to experience all the things that go along with gardening. Let them browse the seeds at the store and chose flowers or vegetables they want to grow. Have them start seeds in simple Dixie cups ans place near a window to grow in they are big enough to transplant outside.

~If you have enough room let hem have those own little comer of the garden to plant and care for.

In the end it doesn't matter how much you harvest from your garden, the important thing is to let your child enjoy the expierence. 

Flying Pony Activity

The latest Disney Family Fun magazine had a Rocket craft activity that was really cute.  Unfortunately my 4 year old girl isn't really into rockets, however, My Little Pony is WAY COOL to her right now….. 

So I adapted the craft just a tad to make it a flying pony craft. 

Here is the link to the original craft: http://www.parents.com/fun/arts-crafts/kid/activities-for-getting-kids-outside/

Supplies: 

-My Little Pony printable clip art (approximately 4"x6"size each)

-scissors

-glue

-toilet paper tube

- Two 6 foot pieces of curling ribbon cut 

Step 1

 Print and cut out Ponies

Step 2

Glue onto opposite sides of the tube

Step 3

 Thread the curling ribbon through the tube.

Step 4

 Play! 

 One person quickly pulls their arms apart so the tube zips along the ribbon to the other side. If playing with a friend, the other person now repeats the action while the first person brings their hands together to return the tube to the other side. Continue to repeat.

 

Starting Kindergarten...

I'm am one of those parents facing the dilemma of  when to have my child start kindergarten.....

The question I have for all of you is: Is it ok to start kindergarten very young or is it better to wait a year? As a starting point, I am basing the "cut off" on my local state standard. According to the Illinois School Code, children who will be 5 years old on or before September 1 may begin school. Based upon an assessment of a child's school readiness, a school district may choose to permit a child to attend school prior to that date, or it may choose not to do so. In a school district operating on a year-round school basis, children who will be age 5 within 30 days after a term starts may begin to attend school that term.  (http://illinoisearlylearning.org/faqs/kinderentryage.htm)

Currently my daughter goes to a private preschool/daycare that serves children ages 3-5 years old. About half of my daughters current preschool class will be going on to kindergarten at various schools (this is a private church based school so the children will most likely go to several different schools since they all live in different areas of the town) and the other half will attend the preschool/day care program again next year. She would know no difference if she attended again vs going on to kindergarten since they mix up the classes every year. 

My daughters birthday is right on there at the cut off and I know she is smart enough to handle kindergarten but my concern is with the social and emotional ramifications down the road. What happens when she is has just turned 15 and many of her classmates are going 16 or 16+.

The differences in the physical and metal pressures that a child faces in today world are rather daunting. I know this for a fact. I have spent the last 10 years working daily with Jr high and high school students. I know what they talk about, I know what they do, and it can be rather scary sometimes.

 

So back to my question: Is it better to be the youngest in ones class or the oldest. Not necessarily worried about her being academically ready, she's a smart little lady. What about jr. high and high school? Emotional and social ramifications?

I scoured the web looking for research and found lots of info related to the early academic abilities of children who where or were not held back for a year before beginning kindergarten. During my research I learned that waiting a year for your child to start kindergarten has its own term, redshirting. There are tons of interesting studies out there. So many studies talked about academic success in elementary school, performance in early elementary school, behaviors and ramifications in early elementary school based on preschool and kindergarten enrollment. There were also a lot of studies about children being held back in kindergarten after they were not ready to advance to first grade.

The problem I came across was that there were not many articles that talked about long term emotional and social affect of being the youngest or oldest in your high school class. I'm not worked about her academic success. I'm concerned about the peer pressures she will face as the youngest in her class vs being older.


Can anyone point me in a direction of some research? Can you share your thoughts or your experiences?


Thanks!




Link to another mom asking the same question:
http://www.urbanmamas.com/urbanmamas/2010/03/and-what-about-starting-kindergarten-early-or-young.html

Resources:
http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=282

http://www.edutopia.org/does-entering-kindergarten-late-improve-performanchttp://www.lapetite.com/parent-resources/blog/2012/02/redshirt-greenshirt-%E2%80%93-the-surprising-pros-and-cons-of-starting-kindergarten-a-year-late/e'

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18331132

Spring Grass Egg Head Project

Making some spring egg heads!

Start with some egg shells. The easiest thing to do is to just break open the top of the egg and rinse the shells out with some warm water. (I did this on a Saturday morning and had some wonderful scrambled eggs for breakfast before doing this craft.

An egg carton makes a great holder for these little guys. I added some faces for fun then let my daughter fill them with potting soil.

Bonus: when you are tired of these little guys growing in your house you can throw them out knowing that they are 100% biodegradable!

I use rye grass seed for these spring grass projects because it is fast growing! Don't be intimidated by how big the seeds are. (Plus my mother-in-law always buys a bag of it for her Easter center piece so she has extra to share with me).

My daughter sprinkled the seeds in and we gave it a little water and we waited....

After 5 days......

After 2 weeks......

The first "hair cut".....

Here is another way I use my grass seed. I plant it in a shallow dis and it grows into a thick lush grass, then I put a little ceramic bunny in it and it makes a great table centerpiece.

Kids vitamins....

I am on the fence about making my daughter take a daily vitamin. Some days she takes a vitamin and some days she doesn't. I am blessed that she isn't too picky when it comes to eating and gets a good balanced diet so I'm not worried.

 

However, After reading an article titled, "Top Children’s Vitamins Full of Aspartame, GMOs & Harmful Chemicals" (published on July 18, 2013 by Arjun Walia) Link to article here

I had to stop and think. Do I really know what is in my child's vitamin? Can I trust that if I grab one of the shelf at the local store that everything in it is ok for my child to ingest?

 

 

 

I do recall the days as a child when I took a daily Flintstones vitamin. It didn't hurt me, at least that I can tell..... but maybe I need to reconsider what I buy for my child.

 

I'm not rushing to jump on the all 'natural holistic wagon'.... but I'm not in the 'nothing can hurt you' club either. I think a lot more studying and research need to be done to see what are the long term consequences of ingesting these various substances. Maybe in the mean time I will look more carefully at the ingredients in my child's vitamins and select something that I feel ok with until I can see long term studies on some of the ingredients.

 

Do you have your child take daily vitamins or supplements? 

What are your thoughts on this?

 

Click to link to my Facebook page and share your thoughts





Original article and materials related to  "Top Children’s Vitamins Full of Aspartame, GMOs & Harmful Chemicals" (published on July 18, 2013 by Arjun Walia) were found on the website: http://www.collective-evolution.com/2013/07/18/top-childrens-vitamins-full-of-aspartame-gmos-harmful-chemicals/

Cherry Blossom Art

I got this craft for the Learn Create Love website. What a great site for quick crafts! There are lots of printable activities here that can provide fun and entertaining things to do for little ones. 

We used a Q-tip instead of fingers to make clean up faster and easier. 

I also like putting paint into small paper cups. Another clean up time saver.

After only 10 minutes my daughter made a beautiful cherry blossom tree that she wanted to give to grandma to hang on her refrigerator. 

Click HERE for the direct link to the cherry blossom craft.

Sneaky veggies....

I posted this on Pinterest before I had this blog so unthought I would share it here. This is a way I sneak a few extra veggies into my daughters favorite... Mac and Cheese.