Mar 23, 2008

My Good ideas

Yeah, yeah - sometimes I DO get good ideas . . . mostly I just see seomething in a magazine or hear of another idea and and adapt it to suit our needs. :)


Here are my latest ideas... (as I learn and remember better visually, I am posting photos to show. :)



We "read our way to bowling". For each book the boys read, they earned a bowling pin for the wall - - at the top was a bowling ball that said "Family Bowling Trip" Once we reached the bowling ball, we got to go bowling- hence the photos posted earlier with our bowling trip. :) It got the boys reading and was fun to see the books we read!

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March 17th FHE: Shamrock scavenger hunt - the boys LOVE scavenger hunts and this one ended at the oven with cupcakes! (Ignore Josh's crazy eyes. :)

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Okay, so Calvin is working on memorizing his multiplication tables, so I jazzed it up a little . . . I saved several dollars and made our own flash cards. I taped them to the wall in the kitchen, the wall in the bathroom (yes, the bathroom) and even on his bedroom ceiling. See the quarter taped to the door? When he completes a number set and has them all memorized, he can take the quarter down and it is his to keep (most kids would ask for more than a quarter, but Calvin is not one of those kids. lol.) When he has a fact memorized he can turn the card over to hide the answer.

The bedroom flashcards? Well, credit goes to Family Fun magazine for that idea . . . Calvin gets a flashlight for bed and has to spend time each night shining his FLASHlight on his FLASH cards to memorize them .

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Our "Get up and GO" Chart. credit goes to Supernanny for this one. This is a bad photo, but the boys each have a wooden pirate piece and each morning their pieces start at the bottom of the poster. First thing is to read scriptures (with mom), then make bed, take bath (if needed), get dressed, brush hair, brush teeth. We use velcro to move the pieces up to the Pirate Ship. They both love it and it makes the morning go so much more smoothly!! We keep scripture sets in their bedroom so as soon as they are awake enough, we move to the floor and read.

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Another idea that doesn't have a photo . . . credit goes to my mom for this one . . . I sometimes wake the boys up with a cup of hot cocoa. I got so tired of "begging" them to wake up, that I started bringing a mug of cocoa to their beds. They sit right up and start chugging. Josh will often wake up and announce that "The cocoa is coming!" Each time I have woken them up with this technique, they get right up and our day is bliss!!!
As an aside to this, I used to make our morning cocoa from scratch (the best way to do it), but was lured into using instant cocoa by KBB - talk about carnal security! Sheesh.

2 comments:

The BirdHouse said...

GOOD GRIEF!!! You are such a good mom. I am ashamed to admit that we lead a boring life over here!! I need to get that "Family Fun" mag!

Jensen Fam said...

Impressed...of course. I'm still glad my kids don't have to get up at any particular time yet. :) Remember your good ideas because your kids will be on missions almost when mine are in elementary school. :)