Video of our Disney vacation and marathon

Refrigerator Make-Over

I have three of these magnetic charts hanging on the front of my refrigerator. I bought them to teach about what food is good to eat, the different food groups and how to choose food to keep your body healthy. I am hoping that they will learn life-long healthy eating habits while they are young that will carry through to adulthood. We used them for a while but them got away from using it. I wanted to get back to it so I re-organized my refrigerator to help.

We came home yesterday from vacation to an almost empty refrigerator. Since, I have been wanting to incorporate some sort of snack policy to help my kids choose healthy snacks and understand food groups; I took the opportunity to clean and re-organize my fridge before grocery shopping.

Here is the final fridge.....not all that much different but let me show you the snack area. The bottom drawer will now be the snack drawer.

There is a section labeled Milk, Vegetables, and Fruit. In each section are individual portions ready for snack.

The Milk section has string cheese and yogurt. The Vegetable section has baggies of carrots so far with plans to add some celery, green beans and a few other options. The Fruit section has some Gladware cups of strawberries and blueberries - we also have a fruit bowl with apples, bananas and oranges that stays on the counter.

In the pantry are two boxes labeled Meat and Beans and Grains.

The Meat and Bean box has tuna, peanut butter, and baggies with nuts and dried fruit.

The Grains box has baggies of crackers and pre-packaged granola bars.

When my children are hungry for a snack, I can direct them to choose a snack from a specific food group. We can look at their magnetic food chart, see what food group they need, and pick a snack from that box. Since the twins are not reading, I made the labels the same color as the magnetic chart so they can get something from the Red Fruit bin to correspond with the Red Fruits on their chart.

I plan to add a Fat box with sweet snacks such as gummies, chocolate bars, etc. once we get the system down.

Today is the day

Today is the day! My first marathon!
We will be staying in Orlando for the next few days to enjoy the weather,
the parks, and to let my legs recover!
I'll post soon.

What's The Word?

objective:
a. to listen to the phonemes in familiar words.
b. to practice syllables

Points to remember:
1. This skill will help you child to hear and say the parts of a word.
2.. You can play this game anywhere

Lesson:
1. Play ‘What’s the Word’ Game
This time parent says a word in parts and the child repeats the entire word.
Example:
Parent: "di..no..saur"
Child: "dinosaur"
Parent: "al..pha...bet"
Child: "alphabet"
Parent: "tel…e…vi…sion"
Child: "television"
2. Again, you can make this more difficult with words with more syllables when your child is ready.

Modifications:
1. Play with words you are practicing such as all words that begin with the letter Ll
or words on a topic such as snow or Valentine's Day.

Airplane learning

objective:
a. listen for two critical elements: a color and an object
b. practice drawing

Points to Remember:
1. We will be using this activity on the plane. I cut the squares and made it a little booklet. I took out the binocular square since Brooke doesn't know what binoculars are.
2. Make sure your child knows all the objects first.
3. Remember your crayons

Lesson:
1. Print the page.
2. Read the sentence to you child and they will draw the object.
3. Make sure she picks the correct color and stop her if she doesn't. Repeat as necessary.

Modifications:

1. Use the words throughout your trip. Have your child read the book to any family members on vacation with you.

top, bottom, under, near, next to, between, below, in

objective:
a. to practice with top, bottom, under, near, next to, between, below, in
b. following directions with 2 or more critical elements

Points to remember:
1. I put this little book in my purse and used it while waiting this afternoon at an appointment.
2. You child should know the names of all the animals before you begin.
3. The stickers are removable so you can use this activity again. Lesson:
1. The inside of the book is a sticker page. Show your child one page of stickers at a time.

2. Tell you child, "Place the mommy pig with her 2 babies on the farm." I let Brooke place the sticker wherever she wanted on the farm. Then I began to use location words.
3. "Put the other baby pig near the mommy"
"Put the chicken and her chicks under the barn."
"Put the roster next to the mommy chicken."
"Put the boy at the top."
"Place the pool of turtles at the bottom of the page."
"Put the goats in the fence."
"Put the goats between the chickens and the goats."
"Place the food dish below the boy."
4. Continue you use all the stickers or you child doesn't want to play anymore.
Modification:
1. Brooke was able to get all the location words except below so we practiced later in the day while at an indoor play place. I had her hide below the swing and then below the table. She enjoyed this game and practiced the other words such as in, on, out, top and bottom.

New Year"s Resolutions

I have 2 (sorta 3) resolutions for 2011. Let me share:

1. My first resolution is cook more meals at home. We eat at home most nights, but end up with take-out or a ready-to-cook meal from the freezer section. I will cook 5 nights of the week. On Thursdays we will eat out, and Sunday will probably be a left-over night. Hopefully our family meals will be healthier and less expensive. I get my weekly menus and recipes from http://menus4moms.com/. You can purchase the weekly menus or get menus from the archives for free. Since I am cheap, I get the menus from the archive - works for me. A weeks menu is 5 days and includes the recipes and a grocery list. Since we will eat out one night and have a left-over night, the 5 menus work perfectly! Tonight is potato and ham skillet!

2. Get back into the chore chart. We have used the Accountable Kids chore system in our home. This summer we took a break from it and never got back to it! Jake, my 6 year old, does well with his chores and doesn't really need the chart. On the other hand, I find myself "babying" the twins and not requiring them to do much. I know this will come back and get me soon. So the chore chart is started again. The Accountable Kids system is a little overwhelming at first glance, but the book really helps to break it into manageable steps.

3. My "sorta" number 3 resolution is actually my husband's resolution. He wants to eat healthier lunches and wants me to pack a lunch for him everyday. It is actually his resolution but "sorta" became mine too!

A Happy 2011 New Year!