Kid Friendly Letter Writing Center

This has been on my "to do list" for over three years now.  We have always lived apart from our families, and I thought having a special place set up for the kids to write letters to their family and friends that live far away was essential.

I have always been a letter writer.  I have so much stationery that I could probably write a letter a day to everyone I know for a year and still not be out of it.  We rarely buy cards. I encourage the kids to make their own, so for the little ones that can't spell yet, I am constantly telling them what to write and how to spell it.

Last year, when shopping for homeschool stuff, one of the main things I wanted to buy for my second grader was a book of letter writing etiquette.  I searched online and went into a few teaching stores, and such an item was not available.  I had the idea to make my own basic templates, but never sat down to do it.

I am currently taking an e-course at Playful Learning Spaces to help me create playful spaces for my kids throughout the house and as a major motivator to unpack.  My first week was very successful because it motivated me to finally create this letter writing center for the kids.  About two weeks ago, I saw a similar idea on pinkandgreenmama blog, which made me want to make mine even more.

The idea is to create places the are fun and inviting to the kids where they want to sit and create.  This is great because they have all the things they need to do it on their own, while I'm cooking dinner or changing the baby ;)

In the letter writing center, I included normal and very small sized notecards.  The very small ones are for our Valentine's mailboxes that I posted about earlier in the week.  The kids are SOOO excited to use them and get mail.  The normal ones are for sending to family and friends.  We love getting mail, but so do other people- sometimes if you want to get mail, you've got to send it.  We love supporting the US Postal Service because we have a lot of family members (a lot) that work for them !

Here's a quick tour:
In the top left, I hung a calendar, family and friend's birthdays are marked down so the kids can decide if they want to send someone a card.

I used a five drawer organizer that I had from homeschooling, you can get them at Target, Michael's, JoAnn's for around $12.  I used adhesive velcro to attach the labels to the drawers.

Here's a close up of some of the drawers:
Stickers- we use them to decorate homemade cards and the outsides of envelopes.  For the time of year, I only put out Valentine's and Birthday stickers:

Mini notecards:

The top drawer houses our Addresses.  I created a 4x2 table in power point and put a picture and the name of the people in the picture in each grid.  After I printed the pictures, I turned the paper over and printed the addresses on the backs.  (If you do this, when creating the tables, whoever is on the right in the picture table, their address would be typed in on the left in the address table, remember it will print on the opposite side when printing on the back).

I cut the pictures out and laminated them.  I placed them all in the top drawer, now readers and non-readers can identify who they want to write to.  There are family and friends new and old included.

On the top of the organizer, I put laminated letter writing templates.  Sorry about the shot, I tried to rotate it and it was making me sick to look at it.  I didn't have time to take another photo.   There are templates for birthday, thank you, miss you, congratulations, and a general letter.

An envelope guide:

A caddy full of writing and coloring supplies:

A box full of pretty blank cards.  We reused a cardboard box that our garbage bags came in to make this from scrapbook paper and ribbon.

The front white cards are homemade from my kids' artwork.  I scan in the pictures, save them as jpeg, then I paste them into power point to make the cards.  In the bottom right hand corner of each, it says "from the desk of...." The kids have been eyeballing these all week! (These would also make great homemade gifts!)

Under the table where the writing center is, I put a basket of books about mail:

Dear Mrs. LaRue
Millie Waits for the Mail
The Jolly Postman
Click Clack Moo, Cows that Type
The Post Office Book

I hope this inspires you to create something great in your house too.

Busy Playing: Family Games- Scrabble

It all started when I had Maeve- my husband got me an iphone a week later and I downloaded "Words with Friends" to play during her late night feedings.  During the day when an opponent would make a move against me, the phone would ding and my kids would jump up excitedly and grab the phone for me.  They were always watching me play, trying to get me to use their word suggestions.  When my husband left to go back to work and we weren't going to see him for a month, I decided to let each of the older boys start one game against him. This was a great way for them to interact with him daily since they wouldn't be seeing him for a while.  Well, the next thing I knew, they were playing against all three of my brothers, my dad, my sister-in-law, and several of my friends.  In fact, they had so many games going, when one of mine ended, I couldn't start a new one.

It is hard for me to complain about my kids monopolizing the game on my phone because they are reading, writing, thinking, calculating, and just plain having fun! When someone plays a word against them, they remember the word to play another time.  Example:  qi, the only 2 letter q word and it can make you a lot of points when played in the right spot.  We've looked several of the words up in the dictionary so they know what they mean.  

The other day, Nathaniel rattled off his letters to me and asked me what word he should play, I said "ninth", then from the way back of our car, Addison shouts, "Mom that's only nine points!"  OK- WHOA, he couldn't even see the phone from where he was- yes, my son has played so much he has memorized the point values of the letters and now can calculate in his head (not bad for an almost first grader).  

We also downloaded "Hanging with Friends", it's basically hangman for your iphone.  These two games are going to be a great way for my kids to communicate with their uncles, aunts, and grampa when we move 1,000 miles away in two weeks.  How fun is it to be able to play a game with your family and friends everyday even when you are so far away?

This week, I've been occupied packing, so two mornings I told the kids to get out Scrabble and play it.  How antiquated of me- no computer to do it for them.  They had to add up their own points and then verify with me if their word was real or not.  Even Owen, the almost kindergardener was playing.  Nathaniel would spell him the words and he would find the letters and place them where they belonged. Sometimes Owen just takes the board out on his own and lines up the letters and says them to me as he goes along.  

This is fun for everyone.  Maybe not everyone can make a real word (ages 3 and 5)- but they still have fun and when they do make a word, you could not wipe the smile off their face! I would much rather hear my kids fighting over whether a word is real or not or how many points it is versus over whose toy is whose or what show to watch.

How many words can you find in here?

Busy Learning: Knowing the Bees and Wasps in your Backyard

Two days ago, I quickly stepped on the porch to put something outside- I stepped on a bee and it stung the bottom of my foot.  I was thanking my lucky stars it wasn't one of the kids because it was so painful I actually cried.  Yesterday, one of my nephews got ATTACKED by yellowjackets while in my parent's backyard.  My sister heard him wimper, turned to see the swarm around him and just ran in, grabbed him, and kept running.  He must have been stung at least 20 times- he took an ambulance ride to the ER, where it was determined he was fine, but what a scare!!!

It occurred to me that with all the travelling we have done in the past few years, one of the first things I would do was look up bugs/plants that might be poisonous and make sure I knew how to identify them- but here, since I'm in my home country, I don't pay as much attention.  I decided my kids needed to be aware of the pests that inhabit the yard and how to deal with them in case of a problem.  First up, bees and wasps.

I downloaded some pictures online of a few of the most common bees and wasps we see around here, honeybee, bumble bee, hornet, yellow jacket, and paper wasp. Then, I got pictures of honeycomb, hives, and nests.  I printed them out with their name written above the picture, laminated them, and tied them together with a string:

Today, I sat my kids and their cousins down in the front yard to talk about these things they might see in the yard.  I told them if they see any of the things on the cards, they should get an adult and point to the picture on the card they saw, so we could properly identify the bug and take care of it the right way.

We walked around the yard to look at some of the most common places a bee or wasp could be spotted:

Here's one eating nectar from a flower:

We used binoculars to look at nests that were up high on the house:

We spotted some down low on the foundation, here is a mudwasp nest:

Yellow jackets like to build their nests inside of things, like the cab of this toy truck.  They are very territorial if you disturb them at home- this is why my nephew got attacked, he tried to touch the truck.

Here is the honeycomb we found inside the truck.  You can see some of the attackers lying around the ground after being sprayed by my dad:

Most of the kids were outside yesterday when my nephew got attacked.  I think they are all scared of bees now.  I explained that they can be helpful to us by making honey and killing mosquitoes.  I just told them to be aware that they are afraid of us and are just trying to protect themselves and their homes.  I warned the kids it is best to stay away from them and let an adult know when they see one, just in case.

My oldest son used the internet to look up some advice for what to do if you are attacked by a swarm of bees or wasps.  The best advice he said is to run away as fast as you can and seek shelter. He said you can try to go near flowers to distract them too.  NEVER try to swat them away, that will just make them more angry.

For our thrill challenge for the day, all the kids tried a spoonful of honey:

Do your kids know to keep away from bees and wasps and how to identify a hive or nest?  If you are bored and looking for a way to have fun in the yard, try to identify some bees and the nests they make in your yard.

If you are looking for more information about bees and wasps, here are a few sites you might like:
Mass Audubon Society- information about bees and wasps common to the state of Massachusetts

Adkins Bee Removal- identification charts for common bees and wasps

Brown County Beekeepers Association- good pictures of common backyard bees and wasps, and nests

Insect Identification- information about common insects you might see in your yard

Honey Bee Research- good advice on what to do if being attacked by bees

Wikihow- how to treat a sting

Getting rid of things- how to get rid of bees nests (with links for hornet, yellow jackets, and other wasps)

Busy Learning: Incorporating History into Bedtime Stories

A major downside to not being in our house, is that most of our books are boxed up :(  Another one is that we don't have residency in our town yet, so we cannot get library cards to check out books.  Oftentimes, two of my sons will ask me for a story from my mouth (one that is not written in a book).  It is not always easy to come up with a made up story for them, sometimes they get downright silly, so it occurred to me last night to start using stories from history as their "bedtime stories from my mouth".

Since it was Independence Day yesterday, my story was about the first Independence Day.  I started off the story by saying "235 years ago..".  I talked about the Declaration of Independence, parts of the American Revolution, some of the presidents, the Statue of Liberty, and we all recited the Pledge of Allegiance together.  As I was talking to them, I could not remember many of the battles or events that took place during this time.  I could remember the Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere, and Sam Adams, but there were a lot of things that seemed to slip my mind.  OK- this was a major reality check for me- I DO NOT WANT TO NOT BE SMARTER THAN A FIFTH GRADER!!!!  Lucky for me, none of my kids are in fifth grade yet ;) I am totally going today to buy a book on the American Revolution for my kids and I to read together.

During my story, I would periodically stop and do a pop quiz.  I would choose one of the kids and ask them a question about something I just said.  For example, when we were talking about presidents, I stopped and asked my 6 year old the name of the first president (he said "Grampa")- this caused big laughs!  For the Statue of Liberty, the questions were:  Which country gave it to America?, What is on her head?, Where is she?, and What is in her hands? (most of this they know actually from watching Little Einsteins).  They were all begging me to have a turn, there were no prizes obviously, but I think they liked the chance to share their knowledge and for the attention of being chosen.

Another thing that I decided to do to drag out the story, was to stop and ask the kids the definition of words I was saying.  For example:

Me:  What does decision mean?
Addison:  It means when you are playing rock, paper, scissors, and you get to choose.
Nathaniel:  It's when you vote.
Me:  It's when a choice needs to be made, whether by one or many people.  The choice can be achieved in many ways, by an individual choosing one way or another or by a group voting on their choice and the most votes winning.  
Nathaniel:  Like when we vote on what to have for dinner.

Have you ever realized how hard it can be to define a word without using another form of the word in the definition?  Another word we talked about was Independence.  I have begun to realize how many words my kids know how to use properly in a sentence, but do not know how to relay it's meaning when asked.

One of my favorite activities we did for school this year was "Word A Day"- I feel it is so important for kids to know how to define a word and use it in a sentence that they constructed themselves.  That book and activity deserves its own post, another day.

So, if you're looking for something different for bedtime, try incorporating a story from history.  You can even make it slightly fictional and have your child be in the story- kids just love to hear stories about themselves.  You could even read or sing from the dictionary.

Not only did the bedtime story last night open up a whole slew of bedtime story possibilities for the rest of the week about American History, it gave me a great field trip idea.  We are heading back to Massachusetts this week, and guess what is there? - The Freedom Trail!!  My seven year old is so pumped to go walk along it and I have to admit, I've never been on it in my entire life of living so close.

And, as part of our Summer Thrills Challenge (to be posted tomorrow), we are totally dropping tea bags in Boston Harbor, for our own Tea Party.

Do you live near a historical place that you've never visited or brought your kids to?  Incorporate it into a bedtime story and create a field trip- one less day of hearing "I'm bored" for you!

Happy story telling!!!

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!