Friday Funny - Searching for the Perfect Parents

One night a family watched a video about a boy who searches for the perfect parents, only to discover that his own really do love him. It seemed like a good opportunity to ask their sweet, but often uncommunicative, teenager if she ever wanted to find another set of parents. “No, Mum,” she answered. “You and Dad are so moody it’s like having a different set of parents every day!”

 

Mem Fox’s Ten Read Aloud Commandments

As a Mummy I have really loved reading to my kids, Boo has developed a real love for reading and it is my hope that all of my children will share her passion. As a teacher I know that reading to our children is such an important exercise. Reading aloud helps children to develop their imaginations, their speech and their concentration skills and thats just for starters. However, as a teacher I also know that in our busy world there are far too many children who miss out on being exposed to books. In a world where we have television, videos, DVDs and computers to entertain the children books are all too often shoved on the shelf collecting dust. It saddens me to recall students who were unable to find the front of a book, nor tell me that the story lies in the text.

Mark found this great site the other day and I thought I would direct you to it as well. It has been set up by the very well known childrens author Mem Fox and it is full of ideas for reading with your children as well as inside stories about many of her classics. I have copied her Ten Read Aloud Commandments here for you to see and encourage you to consider setting yourself a goal to achieve these things with your own children.

I must admit that whilst reading is present in our daily routine I have not been as diligent as this list of commandments calls for. It is my goal to work on achieving each of these over the next week or so and I challenge you to do the same. Can I challenge you that next time your child asks to watch a dvd you pull out a book and read to them instead?

Mem Fox’s Ten Read Aloud Commandments

1. Spend at least ten wildly happy minutes every single day reading aloud.

2. Read at least three stories a day: it may be the same story three times. Children need to hear a thousand stories before they can begin to learn to read.

 

 

3. Read aloud with animation. Listen to your own voice and don’t be dull, or flat, or boring. Hang loose and be loud, have fun and laugh a lot.

4. Read with joy and enjoyment: real enjoyment for yourself and great joy for the listeners.

5. Read the stories that the kids love, over and over and over again, and always read in the same ‘tune’ for each book: i.e. with the same intonations on each page, each time.

6. Let children hear lots of language by talking to them constantly about the pictures, or anything else connected to the book; or sing any old song that you can remember; or say nursery rhymes in a bouncy way; or be noisy together doing clapping games.

 

 

7. Look for rhyme, rhythm or repetition in books for young children, and make sure the books are really short.

 

8. Play games with the things that you and the child can see on the page, such as letting kids finish rhymes, and finding the letters that start the child’s name and yours, remembering that it’s never work, it’s always a fabulous game.

9. Never ever teach reading, or get tense around books

 

 

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10. Please read aloud every day, mums and dads, because you just love being with your child, not because it’s the right thing to do.

Happy Reading!

Jay

 

Friday Funny - Mother of the Year.

Ever had a day like this one?  Hope it makes you giggle as much as it did me!

Have a great weekend!

Jay

 

Learning For Life - Wonder Walk.

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. Proverbs 22.6

Mark and I take seriously the Bibles charge to train and teach our children in the ways of God. We have recently been challenged to take every opportunity to do this. One of the things that we have lined up to do with Boo and our Little Mister this week is a Wonder Walk.

We will prepare by going to the local travel agent and picking up their guides for various destinations. We will then read the account of creation to the kids and focus on the fact that God made everything good. Afterwards we will take our digital camera and take the kids for a walk at our local national park where they can help Mummy and Daddy take photos of trees, flowers, the lake, animals and anything else that God has made. During this time we will continually talk with Boo and Little Mister about these creations and how special they are. We will also encourage them to pick up leaves, feathers and twigs to use at home. Once we are home Boo will use the photos combined with the pictures in the travel catalogs to make a collage or a book (any scrapbook would do).

It does take a little bit of preparation but with the internet, travel agents and your digital camera you can make a wonderful and personal resource for your kids to learn about the story of creation.

Have fun and happy Walking!

Jay

 

P.s. As a bonus, Mark has made some wallpapers that use some great pictures of different nature scenes that you can use too.

 

Real Treasure - by Robin Jones Gunn

In the lead up to Easter I thought I would share the following story with you. It’s my prayer that my own children will grow up with this kind of innocence and the ability to cause their teachers and friends to look beyond themselves and the riches of this world.

…………………………………………………………………………

We went to Open House at the public elementry school. When Rachel’s teacher met us, her eyebrows seemed to elevate slightly. She spoke kindly of our first grader but said she had some concerns. She then invited us to look at the artwork; we had to see what she meant.

Dozens of brown paper treasure chests were tacked to the bulletin board. Each had a barreled top attached with a braid. On the front was printed, “A Real Treasure Would Be….” We walked over and begun opening the lids to find Rachel’s treasure and see why it had concerned the teacher.

As we peeked into each chest, we saw TVs and Nintendos, a few genies, heaps of gold coins, and a unicorn. Rachels chest was in the very bottom corner. We had to stoop to open it. Inside, our daughter had drawn Christ, hanging on a cross with red drops of blood shaped like hearts dripping from his hands. She had completed the sentence, “A Real Treasure Would Be… Jesus.”

“Do you see my concern?” the teacher asked, her arms folded across her chest.

“Yes,” my husband agreed, “I see what you mean. The J is backwards, isn’t it?”

……………………………………………………….

For another great Easter story (One that you can share with your kids) visit Marks blog A Spot of Blogger.

 

Learning For Life - Kisses for Daddy.

One of the benifits of having a husband who is a teacher is that occassionally he gets to bring home some books for the kiddos from school. He is on holidays at the moment and he has suprised Boo with a few this week. She loves the thought that the book we are reading before bed is from “the big kids at school.” I thought I would share a small review of one of these books with you and recommend that you hunt it down at your local bookstore or library.

Kisses for Daddy is about a grumbly little bear who doesn’t want to go to bed. “What about a big bear kiss for me?” says Dad. “No!” says Baby Bear. “No kisses for Daddy.” The book follows the adventures of this young bear and his daddy as they get ready for bed. The pictures are adorable and the text is playful and heart-warming, full of hugs and kisses. Boo has requested that we read the book everyday and the repeative text has meant that she is able to join in with the reading which, at three, she particularly enjoys. The book is a great one to read as part of any bed time routine.

 

Friday Funny - She’s just perfect!

This one is more cute than funny but it made me smile anyway!

A small boy invaded the lingerie section of a big department store and shyly presented his problem to the sales clerk. “I want to buy my mum a present of a slip,” he said, “but I’m darned if I know what size she wears.

The clerk said, “It would help to know if your mum to short or tall, fat or skinny.”

“She’s just perfect,” beamed the little boy, so the clerk wrapped up a size thirty-four for him.

Two days later the mum came into the store herself and change it for a size fifty-two.

Have a great weekend,

Jay

 

Full of Emptiness.

There’s a beautiful old story about a Sunday school teacher who asked the children in his class to bring plastic eggs on Easter Sunday, each one filled with something that symbolized the meaning of the resurrection. The day came, and the teacher took each child’s egg in turn, opening it and making a point of amplifying and reinforcing its meaning. One child had a tiny flower, and the teacher spoke of the new life that springs forth at Easter. Another egg contained a crayoned picture of Christ, and the teacher spoke of that. Another egg had a small nail, and the point was made about the nails of the cross. Another had a round pebble that represented the stone that had guarded the tomb.

But the teacher was dumbfounded when he opened the egg of seven - year- old Brian, a mentally-challenged boy, and found nothing there. But not to worry, Brian himself spoke up and announced: “It’s full of emptiness - just like the tomb of Jesus.” His was the best lesson of all.

Thanks Mark, for sharing this story with me. I think it’s a winner!

 

Learning for life - Easter Activities #2

Here’s three more activities that I thought sounded fun as Easter approachs.

1. Roll it. Young children need lots of practice to develop their motor skills and hand-eye coordination. You can play this game with one child or two or three at a time. The children sit on the floor facing you with their feet spread apart to help trap the ball. They should be six to eight feet away from you or closer if they are younger. Sit on the floor facing the children and roll a ball to each child in turn. Add a quick review of the easter story by saying “Jesus is alive!” each time you roll the ball back and forth.

2. Puff Pastry Crosses. Cut frozen puff pastry sheets into strips. Arange two strips into a cross shape for each child. Top with butter and cinnamon sugar and bake until golden brown. As you serve the crosses say, “This cross helps us remember that Jesus is alive!” or “This cross helps us to remeber that Jesus loves us!”

3.Easter coloring. Provide your child with coloring pages of scenes from the easter story and some crayons for children to colour.

 

Learning for Life - Easter Activities.

I found these Easter activity the other day when I was planning for play group and I thought that I would share what I found with you too. I will post three of my favorites today and another three on Wednesday. I hope you have fun with them in the coming week or two.

1. Easter Praise…

Young children love to move to happy music. Play some praise songs and encourage your child to move along to the music. Make a simple tambourine by placing rice between two plastic plate and taping the edges together. Invite your child to shake the tambourine with the music. Reinforce the idea that because Jesus is alive we can celebrate.

2. Easter song…

Young children are likely to struggle grasping the meaning of the resurrection. What you can teach them, though, is that Easter is a time to be happy. Teach this simple song to the tune of “Mary had a little Lamb,” to your children.

Easter is a happy day, happy day, happy day.

Easter is a happy day.

Jesus is alive!

3. Easter card…

Place a piece of plain white paper in the bottom of a shoebox. Cut the paper to fit. Dip two or three marbles in bright colors of washable paint and gently drop them into the box on top of the paper. Let your child shake the box back and forth to move the marbles across the paper. Remove the marbles from the box, then remove the paper and set it aside to dry. You can then fold your paper in half to make a card with a beautiful marble painting on the outside. Add your Easter message and a scripture verse to make the card extra special.