Category Archives: Teaching

Remembering 9/11

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AdorableIt’s been twelve years since that terrible day. Life continues as normal, although we have since experience a recession that we never fully recovered from. I have children now, who have no idea such a thing has occurred on the land they live on. One day I will teach them of that event, and how I was there, and Daddy was there, and Grammy and Papa and aunts and uncles, but we were on the other side of the country, so we were just watching the news in horror that day. I had teachers that disobeyed rules so we could watch the news all throughout their class. I remember the second plane hitting, and the plane in Pennsylvania going down. I remember my mom talking to me about myths that had started spreading that weren’t true, and helping me understand what was going on.

The next day, the moment of silence took place while I was in my health class. I wrote a poem in my English class. It wasn’t very good, because I was still too young to fully grasp what had happened. In my poem, though, I wrote about how we Americans came together and supported each other and loved one another. In my short life, I had never seen America so united, and it was wonderful and inspiring, and sadly short lived. For now, I teach my children about patriotism. They love the flag, and keep begging for fireworks. They got to see my cousin receive his Eagle Scout award, where they experienced a flag ceremony with a color guard and a room full of at least 50, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. And, one day, I will teach them about that day when something terrible happened, and America united.

Toddler Temple FHE

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Today, for family home evening, we drove to the temple, and sat in the parking lot, while we explained to our girls what the temple is all about. They actually sat still, because they were buckled into their car seats. I explained that Mommy and Daddy got married in the temple, and some of the benefits of that, and that we can, also, do work to help the dead. When one of them asked to go in, we explained that you need a ticket (this made perfect sense to her, since we took a ride on a train a few weeks ago.) We told her it was called a temple recommend, and explained some of the things you need to do to get one. Then we let them hold Mommy and Daddy’s tickets, temple recommends. They thought it was really cool. When our short lesson was done, we got out and walked around on the grass and looked at the pretty flowers.

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A Cell Model

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1374720568539Glow stick parties are a favorite of ours. We create all sorts of crazy things, experiment like crazy, and always listen to Daft Punk. In preparation for fireworks on Pioneer’s Day, we had an awesome glow stick party, where even the girls were creating costumes. 1374721147708

At this party, I made a model of an animal cell out of glow sticks. I am calling it the nerdiest thing I have ever done. As you can see, there is a cell wall, and a nucleus within the cell. Inside the nucleus is a double helix, or what I consider to represent the DNA. In the next picture, you can actually see the cell dividing.

Teaching Sharing

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IMAG0686Sharing is a complex idea for kids to grasp. They actually have to think beyond themselves, and accept parting with something they might hold dear, at least for the moment. We didn’t really get serious about teaching sharing until our church nursery had a lesson about sharing. Lizzy came home with a new tool in her arsenal. Rather than being the one to give up something, she began insisting that everyone must share with her. It was a bit of a face-palm parenting moment.

IMAG0689So, we began the slow process of teaching sharing. Toys are the obvious things for kids to share, but we, also, insist on sharing food and time doing a certain activity. As the parents, Michael and I have to ask nicely and coach the girls through the action of sharing. It can be aggravating when they aren’t willing to listen, but when they actually follow our directions, they get lots of praise and a serene moment with friends.

We usually can tell that we have a moment to teach when a fight breaks out over toys. We ask the child that wants the toy to ask nicely for it, which sometimes means telling them exactly what to say. And then we instruct the child with the toy that it’s time to share, which means it’s the other person’s turn, and it will be their turn again in a little bit. This doesn’t always work, and sometimes ends in time outs, but when the kids aren’t being obstinate, they practice the process of sharing. We’re hoping that after enough times practicing this skill, that it will become second nature.

How to Teach Colors

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Teaching the names of colors is much easier than I thought it would be, and now that we’re in the thick of it, I don’t know why I thought it would be so difficult. As much as colors are lumped in with art, the names themselves are actually a language thing. Good writers describe things using colors when it is warranted, and as a parent, that’s exactly what you should do.

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There’s no need to break out flash cards that will soon be torn to pieces or chewed on. Rather, talk to your child about all the different colors of things. “Where are your purple shoes? Do you see the green tree? Thank you for the pretty, pink flower.” This is a natural method that allows a child to learn at her own pace. Soon enough, she will be describing things to you using the colors you have taught her.

If you are the kind of parent that likes to evaluate if your efforts are paying off, feel free to ask, “What color is this tomato?” But, don’t worry or worse, over drill, if she can’t immediately answer, “Red.” She might need time to think about what you just asked, or to even figure out that you were asking her a question. She might not know what the word, “color,” means yet. Don’t fret. She’ll figure it out eventually. Just keep talking to her.

Reading to my Kids

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I am obsessed with learning. It is one of my very favorite things to do. I am the kid that loved going to school, was frequently teacher’s pet, and was thrown for a loop when I stopped going to school. I read non-fiction now more than fiction, because my desire to know has surpassed what fiction can provide. I desire, every day, to share the passion of knowledge with my children. With both of them being younger than pre-school age, my initial idea of them learning by me teaching specific things at specific times had to be scrapped to make way for how kids really learn. I can’t spend hours and hours with them going over reading, writing, and arithmetic. Simply because they can’t sit there for that long.

The one thing that I can do, which breaks the boundaries between parent and teacher, is reading to them. Reading to your kids creates the perfect setting for bonding time, while still allowing you to teach them on an academic level. From the parenting side of things, you get cuddle time, a chance to provide one-on-one attention, and a break from the stresses of everyday life. From the teaching side of things, you are teaching them whatever it is that you are reading about, how to properly use a book, and language skills. It’s perfect, because they don’t even realize that they’re learning something, because they’re so caught up in getting attention from you.

With our children’s young age, we prefer to buy books, rather than check them out from the library. So, then it becomes a matter of having enough books to keep them interested, while still saving money. As far as keeping them interested, they’re at a point in life where reading the same book over and over again is completely acceptable. We could probably get away with only having ten books, but then I’d probably get bored, so we have close to 50 children’s books. Anyone who’s been to their local bookstore can attest that children’s books are not cheap, so we have only ever bought a few there, and about as many have been given to us.

The bulk of our children’s books come from the dollar store or the dollar section of stores. My favorite place to buy books for my girls is at the dollar section in Target. You can buy whole sets for under $5, and spend hours reading them over and over again. Plus they are made out of material more durable than paper, so kids can read them by themselves if they feel inclined. Another place that I have found children’s books for a very good price is yard sales. We have gotten primo books for $.25 each, and walked away almost doubling our collection.

Reading is fun, and reading while cuddling with your children is even more fun. You can make up random voices for all the characters, and your child will copy you. Together, you can pick out a favorite section to memorize and have it as an inside joke. And, you can relax, knowing that you are teaching your child in a way that is conducive to them enjoying learning.

Spelling Practice

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I recently saw a bunch of pins about how to make spelling “fun.” It made me roll my eyes. Not everything is fun, but it sure feels good when you get 100% on the spelling tests every single week. My mom was really good about drilling our spelling words with us every day of the week. Spelling for the week went something like this:

Day 1

  • Bring the spelling list home. She would take us back to school to get it if we “forgot” it.
  • We were supposed to review the words ourselves so that we didn’t waste her time on the next step. Needless to say, we rarely did this step.
  • While cooking dinner, she would read our words, and we would spell them out loud to her. If we missed any, she would read them to us again after the whole list was done.

Day 2

  • While cooking dinner, she would read the words to us, and we had to write them on paper.
  • Depending on how old we were, and how trustworthy we were, either she or we would correct the paper.
  • If any were spelled incorrectly, we had to write them five times, correctly.

Day 3

  • Same as day 2, only this time the words got all mixed up, just to make sure we really had them learned.

Day 4

  • Same as day 3, except for the random tests that ended up being on a Thursday. On those days, she would read our list out loud, and we would spell them to her out loud, while driving to school.

There is nothing “fun” about this, but I thought it was great. Her consistency and involvement show that she loved us and that she cared about us doing well in school. I rarely missed any words on my spelling test, and was able to enjoy the thrill of showing my mom a perfect spelling test. I know that this is how I grew to love learning and gained a desire to always do well in school and life.