Preschool Activities: Play with Shaving Cream

By Deborah Pace Rowley

In a past post, I shared with you a fun activity for shaving Dad. If you haven't read it, check it out here.
But you don't have to wait until Dad is available to have fun playing with shaving cream. Below is a picture of my kids playing with shaving cream on the table. They had so much fun spreading the shaving cream around, writing letters and numbers and having fun. I have even used shaving cream on my student's desks to help them practice writing their spelling words. Using all our senses really makes the learning stick!

The picture at the top of this post is another picture from my upcoming book. Isn't Brooklyn a doll? If you really want to have some fun, put your child in a swim suit and take the can of shaving cream outside. Then you can really go wild, painting with the fun and fluffy foam!


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Toddler Activities: Sound Exploration Shakers

By Tiffany Rudd

The other day I threw together some quick and easy sound shakers to keep Anniston occupied while I was making dinner. These simple noise makers kept her occupied for almost half an hour as she experimented with each and puzzled over the different objects and the sounds they made.

All you need to make these sound shakers for your toddler are 4-6 matching containers with lids and any small items you have on hand. I filled mine with rice, dry pasta shell noodles, colorful beads, white sugar, and dry beans. Just try to find a variety of items that will make different sounds when shaken.

*Make sure you use containers that won't break and that your child can't get the lids off of, or the items could become choking hazards.

Later, I adapted this activity for my preschooler by making 5 more matching containers.

I then lined the inside of each container with paper and challenged her to find the matching containers using only the sounds they make. This activity was a hit as well.

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Meal-Time Activities: Buy Dinner and Make Change

By Deborah Pace Rowley

For this fun learning activity all you need is a homemade menu and some play money. You can create the menu on the computer or even on a small chalkboard. Assign a dollar value to each of the items for dinner. You can even charge for a glass of water and for ketchup to go with the french fries! For younger children, just use whole dollar amounts. For older children, throw in some change. 

Give each family member some money and start out the meal by letting your child act as the waiter and cashier. First he can take each person’s order on a small notepad. Then he can total up all the purchases. Math Practice! 

After each family member has paid for their meal, your child can calculate how much change each person should receive back. More Math Practice! If your child figures the correct change, give a big tip. The waiter can then use that money to buy a yummy dessert.

Now that my older children have started working in fast food restaurants, I know how important figuring change can be.

P.S. Learn how to make the cute menu board shown above for just a few dollars at oopseydaisyblog.com. 

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Parenting Tips: The Inverse Power of Praise (i.e. Don't call your kids smart!)

By Tiffany Rudd

More than once in the past, Deborah and I have written about the book Nurture Shock by Po Bronson. One of my favorite chapters in this book is called The Inverse Power of Praise and is subtitled "Sure, he's special. But new research suggests if you tell him that, you'll ruin him. It's a neurobiological fact."

The basic concept of this chapter is that labeling children as "smart" does not prevent them from underperforming, it may actually cause it!

At first I was definitely a little shocked by this concept. How could telling my kids they are smart cause them to underachieve? In the book, Dr. Carol Dweck explains, "When we praise children for their intelligence we tell them that this is the name of the game: look smart, don't risk making mistakes." So, when something is difficult for them, rather than try and risk failure, they just give up.

In her research, Dweck discovered that kids who think that innate intelligence is the key to success begin to discount the importance of effort. "I am smart, the kids' reasoning goes; I don't need to put out effort. Expending effort becomes stigmatized - it's public proof that you can't cut it on your natural gifts.

So, now I'm not supposed to praise my children? No, of course not! The book says that praise can be an effective and motivating force, but only when done correctly. So, how should we praise our kids?

1. Be specific. Researchers have found that in order for praise to be effective in needs to be specific. For example, after a soccer game praise your child for looking to pass or working hard to get the ball instead of just saying, "You played great!" (pg. 20)
2. Be sincere. Kids as young as seven can sense false praise and giving an overabundance of general praise can cause kids to discount sincere praise, lose intrinsic motivation, and become too competitive. (pg. 21)
3. Praise Effort. According to the book, "Emphasizing effort gives a child a variable that they can control. They come to see themselves as in control of their success. Emphasizing natural intelligence takes it out of the child's control, and it provides no good recipe for responding to a failure." (pg. 15)

This last piece of advice has become a big one in our house, especially for Cameron. He tends to get frustrated and want to give up when anything is hard for him. So, we sat him down and talked to him about how the brain works by comparing it to Superman's strong muscles. We talked about how lifting heavy things and exercising makes muscles bigger and stronger. Now when something is hard for him I just have to remind him that thinking about and figuring out something hard makes his brain stronger and smarter. It has made a big difference in his willingness to continue trying. 

So, for the next week pay close attention to the kind of praise you give your children. Stop yourself before you compliment your kids to make sure your praise is specific, sincere, and praising effort not natural talent. If you're anything like me, it will be harder than you think.

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Elementary Activities: Start Early with Alarm Clocks

By Deborah Pace Rowley

I have a terrible confession to make. I am often the last one up in my home. I secretly love to lay in bed and listen to my household stir around me. My husband leaves for work at 6:00 a.m. and after we pray together and he gives me a kiss I usually go back to sleep. Unfortunately, my blissful slumber only lasts so long. Then the door slams shut and I glance blearily at the clock. 6:30 a.m. There goes my 17-year-old out for a morning jog. 6:45 a.m. Now I can hear my 14-year-old son slamming cupboard doors as he help himself to some breakfast .7:00 a.m. Here is my 9-year-old grabbing some clothes out of the laundry room before she gets in the shower. 7:10 I guess I will drag myself out of bed now! 

There is something about lying in bed while I listen to my independent children start their day that makes me feel like a good mother. You should try it sometime! I think the biggest thing we have done to encourage our children’s independence is to buy them alarm clocks at a young age. Why is that a 6-year-old thinks that getting up to an alarm clock is the greatest thing since sliced bread while a 14-year-old thinks the sound of an alarm clock is worse than death? Start young!

I have never wanted my children to depend on me to wake them up and get them out of bed. For starters, I won’t be living with them and in a position to do this for very long! (I hope)  Plus I have heard horror stories of mothers having to throw buckets of cold water on nearly comatose teenagers to get them out of bed! (Think of the clean up!) No way did I want to be in that situation down the road. So we begin early in training our children to get themselves up and going on their own. 

Buy a cute, fun alarm clock and announce to your child that now she is old enough to get up on her own. Place a cereal bowl and spoon in a cupboard or drawer that is easy to reach and store a small amount of milk in an easily pourable container. Show your child where everything is and then tell her that she can get up and have breakfast even before Mom or Dad if she gets up with her alarm. We don’t often have sugary cereals so my kids consider them a real treat. I would buy a box of Captain Crunch and show it to my child when I make this announcement. 

That is all that is needed to make getting up with an alarm appealing and fun. Sure the novelty wears off, but it usually takes just once or twice of my child sleeping in and having to go to school late to get things back on track. Don’t intervene and wake up your child if they sleep through their alarm. This defeats the whole purpose, doesn’t it? Just take the child in to the office when they finally wake up and are ready for school. Then the child has to explain that he slept in and is not excused by Mom for this tardy. If extra encouragement is needed, talk to the teacher about piling on the work that he or she “missed” during the time they were asleep. Good luck establishing an effective morning routine in your family. If you have any other ideas that have worked for you, we would love to hear them below. 

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Preschool Activities: 6 New Ways to Play in the Sandbox

By: Deborah Pace Rowley

Sand is so much fun to play with, but my kids interest in playing in their sandbox seemed to come in waves. Sometimes they were super interested and were out digging and creating sand creations on a daily basis. Then for no reason whatsoever (actually the reason was usually that one of the girls had seen a BUG in the sandbox!) I couldn't get them to play in the sand for months at a time.

If your child's interest in the sandbox has waned and you are interested in getting back outside and enjoying the beautiful fall weather, try these ideas to think outside the box!

*Bury plastic dinosaurs in the sand and have your child launch an archaeology dig. No madly flinging sand around the box, no siree. Use a large paint brush and big kitchen spoons to gently uncover the fossils where they lie.

*Create your own homemade bones with make and bake clay. Craft bones in three sizes-- large, medium and small. Or cut the bones out of cardboard. Then turn your preschooler loose to uncover one of each size of bone. Can your child guess which size of bone he has uncovered first?

*Send your child on a treasure hunt around the yard that eventually leads to the backyard sandbox where treasure is buried. A few gold coins wrapped in a plastic bag make a great treasure but even a fruit snack will do in a pinch! If pirates had fruit snacks they would have buried them, don't you think!

*Send your child out with supplies to create a sand sculpture worthy of a California beach! Here are a few ideas to get you started.  Sculpt an octopus complete with bottle cap suction cups on his tentacles. Sculpt a mermaid with pasta shell scales. Sculpt a swimmer complete with real swimming goggles or a shark with a fun foam dorsal fin sticking out of the sand.

*Create a massive sand volcano by building the sand up around a full two liter bottle of Diet Coke. When the volcano is complete, watch it erupt by quickly unscrewing the cap and dropping several Mentos candies inside. Yes, this is messy but worth it! And your sandbox will eventually dry.

*Move toys outside that don't usually grace the inside of the sandbox. Would your daughter's Littlest Pet Shop Collection enjoy a day at the beach? How about the Polly Pockets? Could your son build a cool beach house out of Legos for the vacationing guests?

What are your kids favorite things to do in the sandbox? Share your ideas in the comments below.

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Teen Activities: Dig Deeper

By Deborah Pace Rowley

I just finished the book Girls on the Edge by Leonard Sax. I think every parent needs to read this book. It is really eye-opening and somewhat disconcerting, but in a good way. It helped me to see clearly the challenges my teenage daughters face and gave me some practical advice on how to help them. One of the things that Dr. Sax recommends is encouraging our daughters to develop a deep inner life. Ask your daughter questions such as: Who are you? What are your special gifts? What is the purpose of your life? If she answers these questions in a superficial or shallow way, encourage her to go deeper. As Dr. Sax asks, “What are there so many girls who can tell you a great deal about what they do but not so much about who they are?”

Modern girls can become so preoccupied with the cyber bubble and crafting an image for social networking sites that they do not spend time in personal reflection and meditation. They don’t contemplate the deeper issues of the soul. This can leave them empty and vulnerable during times of crisis. 

I particularly like this quote:  

“Why is the spiritual journey so important? Because life doesn’t go as planned. Because death and loss happen. Because disappointment hurts. Even if a girl has a brilliant mind and has earned top marks in every subject, and she is in great physical shape, those achievements of mind and body will count for nothing when the crisis hits. She will then discover that she has been living on the edge of the abyss. It may not take much to push her over that edge. Achievements in academics and athletics won’t get you through the dark night of the soul. If her life is just mind and body, then she may feel her life falling apart. She may experience an awful disorientation as she wonders whether anything is worthwhile, whether life is worth living. Maybe it’s not. All her dreams are dust. But if she has nurtured her spirit, nurtured it because you have taught her to cherish it, then she can endure through that dark night.” (pg. 195) 

I know I want to be a mother who has taught her daughters to cherish and nurture their spirits. Will you join me as we work on this together? Stay tuned for more ideas from this book as well as the companion volume by Dr. Sax Boys Adrift. 

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Meal-Time Activities: Healthy School Lunches

 By Tiffany Rudd

Both Deborah and I have recently completely changed the way we eat and feed our families. We've switched to a plant-based, minimally processed, "real food" way of eating. Part of this change has included finding healthy and kid friendly school lunch ideas. I've been scouring the web and wanted to share my favorite websites for healthy school lunch ideas with you.

100 Days of Real Food School Lunch Roundup!

55 Healthy & Cheap School Lunch Ideas

School-Lunch-Ideas.com

We're only a week into school, but so far Cameron's favorites have been natural peanut butter and honey on whole wheat bread, homemade lunchables, hard boiled eggs, celery with peanut butter and raisins and fresh pineapple. I'm excited to try out more ideas from these websites as the year goes on!

P.S. If you'd like to read more about our change in eating habits you can find my personal challenge, weekly weigh-ins, recipes, and tips on my Feel Great In Eight Blog.

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Parenting Tips: Interviews

By Deborah Pace Rowley

I was interviewed regularly by my dad when I was growing up. He was a busy doctor but he wanted to be very involved in my life. These interviews were a great time for us to connect one on one. He would ask me questions such as: How do you feel like school is going right now? Where are you thinking about going to college? Are you satisfied with your social life? How is work going? 

My husband and I have continued to interview our own children. One of our favorite questions to ask in an interview may surprise you. How do you feel like I am doing as a mother? or How could I be a better dad? You can ask this question in a formal interview setting or you can ask it on a casual drive to get a smoothie or some fries. Whenever you ask it, make sure you are open and convey to your child that you really want an honest response. You are sure to get some eye-opening and maybe even life-changing feedback. 

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Elementary Activities: Measurement Fun

By Tiffany Rudd

One of my favorite math concepts to teach in 3rd grade was measurement. Length is an especially fun one to watch kids experiment with and learn. Recently, on a rainy day, I got out a my favorite picture books about measurement/length to read to the kids. After we read, the kids were super excited to get measuring on their own.

A great way to start exploring measurement is to try measuring using household objects. Cameron discovered that Brooklyn is 6 baby-phones long, 9 Anniston shoes long, and 7 Declan diapers long. 

This is a perfect lead-in for a discussion on standard measurement. The book How Big is a Foot by Rolf Myller is a fantastic book about where standard measurement came from and why we need it. 

These next three books are my favorites for inspiring kids to measure the world around them... 

How Tall, How Short, How Faraway by David Adler 

Measuring Penny by Loreen Leedy  

Hershey's Weights & Measures by Jerry Pallotta

So, next time it is rainy or cold and your kids are stuck inside, get out a ruler or measuring tape and let your child loose measuring everything in the house! :)

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