Weekly Unplugged Project : Alphabet Letters

This week's project was Alphabet Letters. I was so excited because a couple weeks ago I bought a bag of alphabet pasta at Trader Joes and figured we could do something with that.

I decided to have the kids sort the letters out so I wrote each of the letters out on paper. Both kids "helped" although my 2-year old was not as interested. I tried to come up with a variety of things to talk about and practice related to the project. I geared some toward each boy since they are at different levels.

We talked about:

identifying letters

sounds letters make

matching pairs of letters

ordinal numbers

counting

guessing/hypothesizing/estimating

It was a lot of fun. And of course, we still have the pasta to reuse so we are brainstorming other activities.

Joy Joy Joy !

My kids are outside playing in the backyard! Hooray! We have had such icky weather lately but today is beautiful and it makes me think Spring is on the way.

This is really the first time I have felt comfortable having my little one out there without being right with him. (He's 2.5) Of course, I am just right inside the door and can hear them and partially see them. We have an awfully small yard and it is fenced in so it should be a pretty safe place.

You can probably tell from reading that paragraph what kind of mom I am - did you guess paranoid? If so you are right. It is such a struggle to let them play and "be boys" and balance that with my overactive sense of danger and catastrophe.

How Exciting! I won an award!

Look at my adorable award!

I'd like to thank MomUnlpugged for passing this award on to me. I have had a lot of fun being her friend and our family has benefited from her creative ideas and motivation.

I was excited to see my name on the short list of participants in the first week of the Unplugged Project. I wish we had participated every week but we did miss two of them.

Thanks again!

Valentine's Mania

Aaaaagh! What happened to the on the ball mom who always had her son make the valentines a whole week in advance? Oh I know, she had another child and she can only juggle so many balls.

How did it turn out to be the night before my 5-year olds preschool valentine's party with NO valentines made. It was dinner time and my poor boy did not want to write his name any more times. I must admit I was a bit grumpier than necessary and forced the poor boy to finish.

And it was really my own fault. I should have started sooner and I should have realized that most things are easier said than done. - Our fingerprints didn't look much like hearts for some reason!

Chores for Kids

We have been a bit on and of with the chores in our house. I am a huge proponent of unpaid unoptional chores for kids of all ages. I have gone through spells though where it was hard to consistently implement them. Mostly because I am a creature of habit and if I get out of the habit of asking the boys to help me with the dishwasher and just do it myself, I just don't think of it until I have already done it.

One of my goals for this year is to be more consistent with the chores and more clearly define our expectations for the kids. So my 5-year old and I sat down together in January and he helped me list their chores. (Funny thing - he kept trying to add more stuff - I think he just liked working with me on it - but I had to cut him off and suggest we add more later)

5-year old Chores
Cleaning his room daily at rest time
Put his dirty clothes in his basket
Putting away his clean laundry
Picking Up Toys around the house when asked
Unload dishes from dishwasher, placing on counter or in cabinet
Carry plate over to sink when finished eating
Setting the table with brother

2-year old Chores
Put his dirty clothes in his basket
Putting away his clean laundry (that he can reach)
Picking Up Toys around the house when asked
Unload silverware from dishwasher
Setting the table with brother

We are doing really well with this and all are being done consistently except the last 2 and that is because I have not really been consistent. The lists look long to me but they are actually quite small jobs. The only significant one is the room cleaning one and that has caused some conflict. Overall, I am happy with where we are now. Of course I will need to add more things as they get older.

Unplugged Project : More Collage

We had such a great time last time we made collages. In fact they are displayed in the kids rooms and they still enjoy looking at them. So when collages came around again on the Unplugged Project we were happy to make more. We were even all the ball this week - we did these on Tuesday. After my 5 year-old repeatedly asked me if it was time to do the "weekly project" yet I figured we would go ahead and break out the catalogs.

Mostly we used two catalogs - Pottery Barn Kids and Ballard Designs - with a little from a 3.5 year old Sunset magazine thrown in there.
My 2 year old just did whatever he wanted, although I ended up doing a fair bit of the cutting under his direction. I gave my 5-year old some ideas and tried to do something a little more directed with him. So he started looking for the letters of the alphabet. But after a while, he said "I think I'll only do through i" and then he moved on to add some things he thought were more fun. I think he thought his brother was having more fun than him - since he wasn't working near as hard.

These collages are also hanging in their rooms and my two-year old loves to look at and touch his creation.

Unplugged Project : Pipe Cleaners

We had a nice time with pipe cleaners this week for the unplugged project. My husband started by making letters with our 5-year old. He wanted to spell "train" - surprise, surprise - so that it what they did.

There were some remaining pipe cleaners and the next time I turned around, my son had made a hat. Once our 2-year old saw the hat, he wanted one too so I helped him make a hat as well. The hats have especially been a hit. They made them yesterday and have been wearing them off and on today too. In the photos, we have Clifford modeling the lovely hats.

The one on the left is the one I helped my 2-year old with and the elaborate one on the right (which used most our pipe cleaners!) is the creation of my 5-year old.

What I'm Reading

I've managed to find a bit of time lately to participate in one of my favorite activities. My reading had really dropped off but I have enjoyed getting back into it.

Here's what I've been reading. I really liked all of them.

The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett

The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama

Understanding and Managing Your Child's Food Allergies by Scott H Sicherer

(This is definitely the best book on food allergies I have read. I would highly recommend it to anyone dealing with them!)

My Television History

Participation in the Unplugged Project has got me thinking a lot about television and the lack of television in our lives. It also prompted me to do a little reading, at sites like Instead of TV. This has been a great encouragement to me, as I don't know anyone (besides my sisters) who impose many if any limits on their children's television viewing. Seeing that there are others who agree with me on television helps to boost my confidence that I am doing the right thing by my kids.

When I was a child, my mother limited our television viewing to 1 hour per day. It is funny to me now that that seemed like such a difficult and harsh restriction when now 1 hour seems more than generous. I have vivid members of how confining that was and how much my sisters and I hated the limits.

When I was in high school, I had an assignment to write a research paper and the topic I chose was the negative effects of television viewing on children. (If I sound like a nerd, that's because I am a nerd.) Anyway, it was pretty clear to me from that research I did that television viweing was not a good thing.

In college and for a year or so after college, I did not have a TV. This was mostly because I was too cheap to buy one and too busy to watch one. But there were several short periods during those years where I had a television (while interning in the summer and on business trips) and I found that I watched tons of TV. That box is totally addicting to me. Once I turn it on, I have such a struggle to ever turn it off, even watching things I barely liked. I would not get the things done that I needed (or wanted) to and I would always stay up way too late and have to drag myself out of bed in the morning.

Now, we have a television but we do not have cable and for some odd reason live in a little bubble that gets no broadcast television reception. So that actually makes it pretty easy. We have some videos and dvds that my children watch, although I limit them to 1 per day. (These are mostly 30 minutes long.) I don't miss watching at all. The only issue I have is how isolated I feel when I get together with others and they are talking about all the latest shows. And this issue bothers me for my children. My kids are still young but I worry about them feeling left out and ignorant at school because they don't know about all the characters and shows.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on watching television....

Another Snow Day!

Well, we had another day at home today. Somewhat unexpected for the Seattle area. It has been really cold here but no precipitation and even a little sun and blue skies. But Sunday night we had some snow. It was pretty fun because my husband and I were oblivious and my 5 year old was the first to spot it.

Anyway, as we were stuck at home today, I had to come up with some activities to keep us happy. My goal for today was to watch ZERO television. And I am happy to report that we succeeded.

We did some crafts including Paper Snowflakes

And some baking including Graham Squares

I was actually suprised that today passed pretty quickly.

Unplugged Project : Egg Cartons

This week's project is : Egg Cartons

My boys had a really fun time making alligators. One reason they liked it was we pulled out the paint (which is a rare treat indeed.) Another thing that made it fun was the alligators were thought-up and designed by my 5-year old. Being short on creativity myself, I was trying to convince him to make the standard (but cute!) caterpillar. He did not like that idea so I told him to come up with one himself - and he sure did.

"Googley eyes" always made things more fun too!

Celebrating MLK Day

I never really hear much about celebrating this holiday. I see articles in the paper about politicians giving speeches and the occasional festival but I don't really hear about families celebrating.

I have tried to do something each year with my kids, even if it is something small. We always listen to the "I Have a Dream" speech. Obviously, much of it is over the heads of my kids but it does give us an opportunity to talk about the history of our country, including slavery and segregation. Each year, my oldest understands a litte more.

I am making a point to teach the kids amout Marting Luther King Jr and about discrimination with a great hope that the next generation will continue what has been started.

Puzzle Storage

My son received a tub of ten puzzles as a gift. Each puzzle is stored in a flimsy zip-close bag. After a while, the bags were starting to look worse for the wear. Plus my son had trouble sealing it all the way and so puzzle pieces were escaping and getting mixed up. Not good when you are delaing with 10 similar puzzles.

So... I devised a new way to store the puzzles. The labels are actually photos I took of the puzzles as he completed them. That got extra bonus points from him! So much neater than before!

Unplugged Project : Toothpicks or Popsicle Sticks

Time again for this week's project. I have been sick so I wasn't sure we were going to get to it this week but it turned out to be just what we needed to get through a slow Sunday afternoon.

This week was originally toothpicks but then MomUnplugged mentioned Popsicle Sticks as an alternative. The boys got some of those in their stockings this year at Christmas so that seemed like a good place to start. Thinking of popsicle sticks reminded me of one of the projects for the Puzzles Unplugged Project. So I took my inspiration from Heather, and my kids made puzzle pictures out of their sticks.

In fact, it looked like so much fun that I made one too! And the boys did not stop at just one, they made 2 each. My husband had fun attempting to put them together.

2 year old's creation

not sure what it is

but it is colorful!

5 year old's creation
It is a train on a train track going past a barn.

Snow Day

We had a bit of snow last night. I hate to drive in even the smallest bit of snow and possible ice so the boys and I stayed home today. I really like staying home for a whole day and just relaxing a bit.

But what did we do so we did not lose our minds?

First we did some baking. The boys helped me make dinner rolls for later and pumpkin muffins to eat for our morning snack along with oranges.

Second, we did some cleaning up. They both helped put toys in their bins and then my 2.5 year old ran around with the dust buster while I let my 5 year old use the adult vacuum for the first time. He loved it! The cleaning took a fair bit of time.

Third, we played a board game together. Novel idea - mom sits down and gives them undivided attention!

Lastly, as it was approaching dinner time and I was getting tired of all the running and screaming, I pulled out the play-doh again and got another good hour of entertainment.

Successful snow day!

Unplugged Project : Sculpture

This week's Unplugged Project is Sculpture. I'd just like to thank MomUnplugged for running the weekly projects. It really helps motivate me to try some different activities each week.

This week we pulled out the play-doh for the first time in about 2 years. Fortunately, although it was a bit dry, it was still usable and my kids played with it for a full hour. As it was the hour I was making dinner, it is likely they would have watched a video instead. So it saved my kids from at least one video and instead got them working and creating and thinking.

My youngest mainly cut and smashed and cut some more. My oldest did lots and lots and lots of different sculptures, mainly various numbers (like the 6 in the picture) and animals. They both had a really good time, especially considering I have very few play-doh tools. And now that I realize my play-doh is dried up, I am considering making my own. I have seen tons of recipes but I am not sure if I am up for it or not!

Thank You Notes!

I think everyone is familiar with "letting things slide." There are so many "good" things to do with your time, but not enough time to do them all. Some common things to leave undone under pressure are laundry and cleaning.

But I have noticed recently that many people are adding writing thank you notes to the list of things that are not making the cut. I really think that is a shame. I don't think there is any need to explain why thank you notes are important, as it is obvious, so I wonder why they are so often left undone.

I write thank you notes to let others know how much we appreciate the spending their time and/or money on something for us. But the second reason, is to teach my children to be appreciative. (Note that the goal is not just to raise kids who write thank you notes, but to raise kids who are thankful and grateful for what they receive)

It was a little harder when they were young but now they are old enough to participate. For my older sons birthday thank yous, I wrote the words but he brought all his gifts to the table and drew a picture of each thing on the corresponding note. While he was doing this, I reminded him who each gift was from since he is not reading yet. For Christmas, I had both kids attempt to make cut-out christmas trees which we glued to some blank notes we had. They may not be the most beautiful cards ever but I hope they were enjoyed and appreciate by those who received them.

I hope I never decide to let making thank you notes slide into the pile of undone tasks around here!

Unplugged Project : Puzzles

This week's Unplugged Project idea was PUZZLES!

I did not manage to pull together much of a "project" this week but the idea did serve as inspiration for several puzzle activities.

First, I found some sodoku puzzles that only use the numbers 1,2,3,4 and taught my five-year old how to do them. He did 2 this week with some assistance but seemd to catch on to the concept pretty well. I am not sure if he will continue or not. I *thought* he was working on his 3rd one when I realized he was actually just doodling in the boxes! This also inspired me and I have been trying to practice my sodoku skills as well. So far I am still at "Easy"

Second, my husband led a rousing scavenger hunt and the boys both loved it. He made lists for each child and then after that, my 5-year old made a list for his dad to find. My husband (very smartly) included putting all items back where you found them as part of the game, and they could not move on to the next round until that was done.

These were really fun unplugged activities that the whole family participated in. Unfortunately, I have no good pictures to share.

Oh yeah, and we did do the cereal box puzzles a couple months ago as well so we did not repeat that this week.

What We Are Reading

Have I mentioned how much I love the library. My only problem is making sure I limit how many books we have out at one time. I was just sorting through our library box so I can take a big pile back! Then we can check out a whole bunch of new ones. Here are some that we are returning that we have really liked.

Night Tree by Eve Bunting (a Christmas story)

Not A Box by Antoinette Portis (my kids love ths one!)

Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown
Lemons are not Red by Laura Vaccaro Seeger (colors, really creative)

Sugar on Snow by Nan Parson Rossiter (making maple syrup)

Unplugged Project : Collage

I was happy to be able to join in this week. Our normal routines are off as we are still in the midst of a more than 2 week visit from my in-laws. It's not as scary as it sounds but I have been so busy that we have not been able to sit down and do any projects.

The boys loved doing collages. We chose the final option for MomUnplugged's Unplugged Project.

Or...anything you want to do!

For the age my kids are, I figured that anything much harder and it would be too much work for me, so I just let them cut out any pictures they wanted from the magazine and catalog I pulled from the top of my recycle bin. This was the first time I had ever let my 2 year old use scissors and he LOVED them.

It was a great success!