Busy Learning: Name Book Journals

I'm participating in Smart Summer Challenge and one of the blogs I discovered from it is Teachmama.  I love her simple ideas!  I've had simple ideas, but never wrote about them before because I thought they were too simple.  It is really nice to see them written out and with pictures- it helps motivate me to want to do them, and I hope I help you want to do them too.

This name book is such a great idea and is something very simple to do with your child every day!  I went to the store, bought a blank journal for each of my kids and had them write their names on the front:

Then, I told them that everyday, they would open to the next page and practice writing their name, birthday, and my cell phone number.  Going through security one time, my youngest son was asked his birthday, and he couldn't recall the year, so I feel like this is important information.  My hope is that by writing these three things every day, by the end of the summer, it will be committed to memory.

When we lived in Japan, my son's teachers had all the kids' names written on small strips with their mom's cell phone numbers under them in the writing station.  My son would come home with about ten each week and guess what?, he knew my number and sometimes I wasn't even that sure of it (11 digit number over there!).  Lately, my two youngest kids have been humming a commercial 1800 (xxx) LUNA, and they asked me can they call it and one day, I caught my 3 year old trying to dial the number.  They had no idea what it was for, but the TV told them.  So, I hope by the end of the summer, they will all know my cell phone (and my two oldest will also be writing my husband's)- in case of emergency, you just never know.

Speaking of the LUNA commercial, sometimes when we are driving in the car, I sing my cell phone number to my kids to the tune of the song that is my cell phone ring tone.  I think that is beginning to catch on too.

For my three year old, I wrote her name across the top in capital letters.  She can write one or two, which is fine by me, the rest, she draws circles.  I didn't write her birthday or my phone number.

For my five year old, I wrote his name, birthday, and my phone number.  He is practicing properly forming/sizing his letters and using lower case when needed:

For my six year old, I had to spell out his birthday month, February, but besides that, he could do it all himself. He is working on using lower case letters when necessary, writing the letters the proper size, and allowing for the proper amount of space to fit the word on the line.

For my seven year old, he is just trying to write neatly and will be using cursive by the end of the summer.

For the six and seven year old, I might change it up a bit a few days a week and say write it in rainbow letters, write your name in the shape of a question mark, write it in a spiral, or use only one specific color.

We are keeping all of the books on the floor under our tiny table, so they are easily accessible. They are free to doodle or draw at the bottom of the page after they finished their writing for the day.

Happy writing!