Christmas Pajamas
Will you be waking up in new Christmas pajamas this year? Somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve, the soft package would be delivered in person or through the mail. One look at the return address or the tag, and my girls knew right away what it was. They could hardly wait to open their new Christmas pajamas from our dear friend. I’m not really sure who got more joy out of the gift – my girls or my friend! This sweet tradition continued for years. It really did not matter if they were Christmas patterns or not. My girls got a new pair of pajamas to wear, especially on Christmas eve. It was the gift that kept on giving all winter long. Many families have Christmas pajama traditions, including all the family members. Some wear them to drive around and look at Christmas lights, to sleep under the Christmas tree or for a special movie and hot cocoa night. The Holderness Family even went viral with their first of many Christmas Jammies videos. We did not go this far but certainly the thoughts of Christmas pajamas, hot coffee, and grandma’s special coffee cake brings up many sweet memories. As my…
Four in a Row Game Board
Was Connect Four a favorite game in your childhood? Four in a Row is a simple game where the goal is to score four boxes in a row in any direction, yet it becomes a complex game when you apply strategies to keep the other player from scoring four in a row first! The supplies are minimal – a four in a row game board and two colored pencils. To help one of my tutoring clients be more engaged in reading and comprehending his spelling word patterns instead of just memorizing the letters, I pulled up a four in a row game board and typed in his spelling list. In order to score a box, he had to correctly pronounce the word on the first try. He likes a good competition so this challenge pulled him right in! Soon he was thinking more about a word and sounding out in his head before saying it. Typically I like students to go ahead and attempt hard words and process them aloud and ask for help when needed. However, this was the perfect challenge to push my client to the next level! If he said it wrong, he did not get the…
Table Talk Cards Especially for Advent
What does advent look like at your house? Before we talk about the printable Advent conversation starters, let’s talk a little bit about Advent itself. The word advent means coming or arrival. Advent starts the fourth Sunday before Christmas. Traditionally each week has a different theme: hope, peace, joy, and love. Many people have different traditions regarding Christmas and Advent. The purpose of Advent is to help us remain focused on the birth of Jesus Christ and our hope in His glorious return one day. For many, it is a joyful preparation for the Christmas season, a season of great hope. You all know I love to ask questions that get people thinking and talking. I especially love to ask questions around the table! I created Table Talk card sets to be advent conversation starters. Let me introduce my newest card set: Table Talk card set 4 – Especially for Advent. You can use the Table Talk questions at home, on a road trip, on a bus, in the classroom, at a family reunion, in line, on a video call, in carpool, and just about anywhere. Most of these questions do not have a correct answer. I always ask people…
Postpartum Help
What’s the best thing you can do to help a new mom? Some of the best advice I got on grandparenting was how to offer postpartum help during what is also known as the 4th trimester. It’s a tricky time for everyone and so much of a learning curve for the young family, especially with the first baby. My friend said to have my daughter give me a list of a few daily goals, such as taking a shower or reading her Bible, and that I should do everything necessary to help her accomplish those goals the first few weeks so her routines would be set in place when I went home. She suggested I do the cooking and cleaning and let the young parents care for the baby. I was honored that my daughter and son-in-law wanted me to come stay for a week or so once the baby came. We all were conscientious of wanting to have it be a good and successful time so we went out of our ways to be considerate of each other. They stocked up on our favorite snacks, and we purchased a few items needed around their house like a new hook…
20 Read Aloud Books for the Middle Years
What was your favorite read aloud as an elementary or middle school child? Most parents think of read aloud as something you do at bedtime for preschoolers, but read aloud is valuable at any age. It is especially helpful during the middle years as upper elementary and middle school kids are learning to think critically and to make sense of the world around them. Reading aloud and discussing it helps you guide and stretch their thinking. As a fourth grade teacher, my students and I loved read aloud time. It was a great way to teach across subjects and objectives, and it leveled the playing field for the wide range of reading abilities in my classroom. The discussions were rich and the “five extra minutes of read aloud” was a highly coveted prize in my weekly ticket drawing. I often found my parent volunteers listening to it as well. There are so many new books and books lists available by categories online, but I tend to favor older forgotten books that not every kid has read already. I look for books that have a strong character and often a topic that’s a bit of a controversy so we can have…
Bathroom Bags for Travel
What are the advantages of having a bathroom bag that is just for travel? Having a travel bathroom bag has been a big help at our house. Ever since the kids were big enough to have their own travel bags, they have had their own bathroom bags. There are so many advantages to this. When traveling, we have a packing list and instead of listing all the toiletries, it just says “bathroom bag” because we keep packed bags ready to go. We have our favorite toiletries in travel sizes, travel toothbrushes, make up, and so much more. The advantages of having a travel bathroom bag are many. It saves time when packing and unpacking and you are less likely to forget essential items. I typically restock mine when I return home from a trip, so its ready go the next time. Time savers can be bar soap that also doubles as shampoo and clothes wash, such as Dr Bonner’s Magic Soap. We buy small waterproof soap containers and cut a large bar of soap in half. There have been times I have had to pack an overnight bag in a hurry, such as heading to the hospital with a family…
Strategies to Reinforce Learning
How can you reteach or preteach topics during school breaks? Summer is a great time for parents or tutors to reinforce learning when there’s less academic stress or pressures of homework, and here are 4 strategies to reinforce learning that work across all grade levels and all abilities. Teaching vocabulary – Reinforce the vocabulary and languages of the standards. Review vocabulary from the past year or get a jump start on the upcoming year. If the student cannot understand the big words in the test or assignment question being asked then they probably cannot answer the question very well. If they KNOW what the question is asking, it will be a better test of their knowledge. Struggling students will learn so much of the lesson through just the key vocabulary. If the unit does not come with a list of vocabulary words and definitions, try googling a vocab list for that topic. Chances are they are pretty available. Print a copy of the words and definitions. Print a second copy and cut it apart. Have the students match words and definitions even if you need to limit it to sets of 2 or 3. Build confidence by starting at their…
Summer Balance For Kids
How many days will it take for you to first hear “I’m bored” from your kids this summer? Finding the balance between commitments and boredom is a tricky thing each summer depending on the age of your kids. Much needed rest after a busy school year is needed by both parents and kids, but many kids find it hard to occupy themselves after a few days. Some parents want to avoid this and sign their kids up for too many commitments during the summer, exhausting both the kids and the chauffeurs. Here’s a few tips to help your family find summer balance for kids. Pick a few commitments wisely. Nothing wrong with a summer camp or two. Consider researching a few your child might like and letting them pick one or two, not every week of summer. Same goes for recreational classes. Ask your kids to prioritize their top few interests and go from there. If budgets are limited, consider hosting a camp week swap with other families. You plan one fun theme day at your house complete with lunch and activities, then another families hosts the next day and so on. Easy and inexpensive themes are water day, water…
Vocabulary Courses Now Open
What do you do with the list of science vocabulary words your child brings home from school? Building vocabulary knowledge helps you become a better reader, writer, and test taker, yet most students do not take the time to learn vocabulary beyond being able to pass the weekly matching quiz, let alone take a vocabulary course. According to the Northwest Education Association, vocabulary can be defined as “all the knowledge a person has about a word, which includes knowing what it means, when it is used, how to say it, and how to use it in a sentence.” Do any of these sound familiar to you or your children? You just Google the definitions for vocabulary word homework. You don’t study for vocabulary tests. You just guess using the word bank. You don’t really have a good plan for how to study, but you read the word list a few times. After the vocabulary test, you do not often remember the definitions anymore. Imagine what a difference it would make if you knew some easy ways to learn and study vocabulary. You could confidently study vocabulary words. You could expand your reading and writing by making word connections. You could…
Disciple Your Children
How do you make discipleship a natural way of life? Whether it’s the younger years, the middle years, or the launching years, choosing to disciple your children can easily be woven into the natural rhythms of family life. It can start with simple questions about the beauty around you in creation or reading Bible stories at bedtime. You can discuss the right choices or natural consequences of bad choices. You can talk about school and life through a biblical lens. You can do a book study with your teens, host a backyard Bible club this summer for your elementary-age neighborhood kids, or read Bible stories to your little ones. It does not have to be hard or complicated, but it does have to be intentional. Talk with your children when you wake, when you walk, and when you wind down to sleep (see Deuteronomy 6). So that pretty much means disciple your children all throughout your days. Do not leave it up to the church. The church is there to partner with parents, not replace biblical teaching in the home. In order to disciple your children, you want to open the doors of communication so it is regular and natural,…