Teaching manners to kids is seriously one of the funnest things I've ever tried to do as a mom. Serious. Not because my kids are perfectly mannerly either (actually it's quite the opposite!). We've just played a few games that they think are great fun, and the manners have just kind of stuck in their minds. (To my friends and family: if you are eating with us, and my kids act like little piggies... just know, they were taught otherwise!) Here's what we did: Manners Boot Camp! 1. I wrote down all of the manners that are most important to me. Here's a copy, if you would like: 2. We talked about and practiced a few manners each night for about a week. Sometimes I pull out a whistle, and give it to one of the kids. They are allowed to blow the whistle when they see someone breaking a manner. Needless to say, manners are often broken on purpose :)! 3. We play the Manners game a few times each week. Here's how it goes: (I didn't make this up, I've seen it a few times in my life... so thanks to the originator of this game whoever you are) Set up: Everyone gets a little bowl with 5 pieces of small candy. This will be dessert, and CANNOT be eaten until after dinner and clean up. Play while eating: If a family member catches anyone breaking one of the manners, that person has to give the person who caught them 1 piece of their candy. (Be lenient with the littlest ones, of course, or else tears will flow!) If someone is extraordinarily mannerly, then I will give them one of my candies- although if it were chocolate, no way! After dinner and clean up, everyone gets to eat the remaining candies in their dish. This makes for an easy dessert... kids love candy (which cracks me up-my kids prefer candy to key lime pie, so this game works great for them!) We play the manners game or pull out the whistle a few times each week, and it really has worked a few miracles! THE BEST THING THAT HAPPENED: My kids had mega problems with saying rude things like, "ew, gross!" or "I don't like this." Or making gagging noises. I asked them how they would feel if they drew me a picture or made me something and I turned up my nose and said, "I don't like this!" My son, who is notorious for telling me he doesn't like what I cook, said that would make him feel really bad! (He even said "really bad" twice). I told them that is exactly how I feel when they make unkind comments about the food that I make for them. It seemed to click for my older kids! They are much more willing to try food that I make. One day they said "thank you" (manner #6). Then after taking a bite, my son said "it may not be my favorite thing you've ever made, but I like it." Haha, melt my heart :). We talked about how we won't like everything that we're ever served, and that's OK. We all have different taste buds, but showing respect and courtesy are what manners are all about. Teaching our kids to have good manners is one of the most important gifts we can give them! It's free, and can even be fun :). XO, Nancy
Hello there. I hope you are all enjoying your summer (or winter if you are south of the equator!). I saw this toilet roll octopus and it inspired me to put together this quick paper craft. It’s perfec
frontierdreams
Has your little one stopped taking naps? If so, quiet time boxes are solution for keeping your child busy and quiet during rest time.
[Beginning next week, I will be featuring your yes stories every Wednesday. Please continue to link up helpful links that work for you. I hope it’s a yes or two.] Put a yes in your mess. And …
Want to know how to teach your kids respect? From effective parenting tips to fun activities, we’re sharing our best strategies to raise respectful kids!
this is going to be a post of little words - but many images... ideas for contruction - up, out and with many materials - and I have by no means come close to exhausting the possibilities and material choices with paper - to make bridges, curls - whatever you can imagine and test... with curlers with play-dugh and ice-cream spoons curlers again play-dough and bit of plastic (from packages that are delivered - the band that goes round) with tubes and old discs with magnets in lines and lines and lines - and yes the light table is under the table - we notoced that children wanted to explore under there! constucting with just tape with cans with jewels with sticks in the forest with sand with ice with cardboard with plusplus airplanes with blocks with stones more playdough construction with ear buds with leaves with mixed media - animals soft blocks and bristle blocks with beads with stones and conkers with branches and cones branches, yarn, shells - etc etc etc soft blocks mats and blocks don't ask me what these are called - but they spin and they can be built with... with chairs with magnatiles with BIG cardboard boxes high high up or houses and of course for some it is not so much the construction as the destruction that is the most fun!
Materials are set up for the children begging a response. Will the materials beckon the children to use them? A.M. explains that this is a different kind of snake that is eating poison cherries a…
This Montessori Inspired Homeschool Plan for Preschool is a loosely formed outline of the lessons we hope to cover in 2016-2017.
We believe that building a culture of transparency connects us to our community in a powerful way that demonstrates our commitment to our earliest learners. In our ongoing effort to be transparent …
Aistear – The Early Childhood Curriculum Framework can be viewed here.
Teach kids good manners with these simple positive parenting tips. Teaching kids good manners doesn't have to be difficult... Learn how to teach children good manners the easy way!
Illustrated poem about garden snails. Ideal to use in your school or early years setting when exploring minibeasts as a theme. It is also great fro reinforcing basic mathematical skills.
This STEM activity requires no prep and kids will love creating and building. STEM activities are a great hands-on learning activity!
18 months. Wow. It sounds cliche but that time went way too quickly. I thought I would show you some of the toys and materials I have out for Sarah at 18 months. These are in both the playroom and …
Make a color mixing sensory bottle for sensory play, learning about colors, or just for fun! These are perfect for all ages.
Individuals volunteer for many reasons, not the least of which is to enhance their skill sets and flesh out their resumes. Volunteer work can be more than just filler; with substantive volunteer experience and a targeted application of that experience on your C.V., you can demonstrate your value to a potential ...
5th Grade This year in social studies our focus in the United States history and geography: Making a New Nation. Our first unit of study is the first Americans. Students describe the major pre-Columbian settlements, including the cliff dwellers and pueblo people of the desert Southwest, the American Indians of the Pacific Northwest, the nomadic nations of the Great Plains, and the woodland peoples east of the Mississippi River. 1. Describe how geography and climate influenced the way various nations lived and adjusted to the natural environment, including locations of villages, the distinct structures that they built, and how they obtained food, clothing, tools, and utensils. 2. Describe their varied customs and folklore traditions. 3. Explain their varied economies and systems of government. This past week, we finished our focus on the Pacific Northwest. They are known for their totem poles. At the end of this region, we created our own totem poles. The students were given a handout about totem poles that contained information about what each color symbolized, as well as what the animals represented. They were asked to create their own totem poles and pick animals and colors that related to themselves. Once their totem pole was done, they had to do a writing piece to go along with it. For each animal they chose, they needed to discuss what the animals represented, how it related to themselves, and why they chose the color they did. Below are students working on their totem poles, as well as using our classroom iPads, to type up their writing!
With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, I’m rummaging through my crates for those “perfect for this time of year” books. But here’s the thing, Valentine’s Day in the Applicious Teacher classroom is really more about kindness and compassion than it is about love, so I thought I’d share some of my favorite reads for […]
Hello Everyone!! If you are working on fractions, you have to read this book! Equal Shmequal by Virginia Kroll is a perfect book to introduce kids to the concepts of equal and unequal, symmetry, same, congruent, etc. This week I used this darling book to introduce our fractions unit. Today we worked hard on the symmetry aspect of equal and unequal. In first grade, symmetry is an important mathematical concept that actually serves as a jumping off point for many different mathematical objectives. We naturally look for balance and order in our lives, as well as in math. Symmetry can be taught with real life examples and leads beautifully in to a study of fractions. To help grasp the concept further, I made up a life sized game of equal schmequal! Kids got some paper triangles. I made sure that there were two of each color. I taped a line of symmetry down the carpet and we reviewed some of the math talk words that would be important for this game. Then the kids took turns placing the shapes one at a time making sure that the design they were creating was symmetrical, the shapes were congruent, the sides were even, the same, mirror image, etc. They were delighted with the design created and definitely understood the idea of symmetry. Equal Schmequal!!! I have some similar activities in a symmetry mini unit I shared last spring. This little unit includes : 2 mini posters with definitions A hands on shape activity creating a class symme “tree” 4 visual activities 3 center or math tub activities A vocabulary word search For your 20 page symmetry unit (free) click HERE!! :) We had a great day!! We hope you had an equally great day!! Thanks for stopping by for a peek into our little Window On Wonder!" Let us know what you think!! Joyfully! Nancy Oh! And stay tuned for a quick little terrarium unit to help learn about living things and dependency!!
In this lecture to the first Waldorf teachers, Steiner focuses on the twelve senses, grouped into Thinking, Feeling, and Willing.
Finding a rhythm in your home for you and your family. It's not the same as a routine, it's not as structured. A Waldorf inspired flow to your life.
Huge number of resources for free printables for Montessori homeschools and preschools along with ideas for using printables to create Montessori activities
You are currently reading our archived blog. While these older posts may not reflect our current vision and direction, we encourage you to visit our new website at wunderled.com to explore our latest, updated content. There, you'll find a wealth of valuable articles, resources, and insights that align with our current focus and over 60+ Free […]
“Have you ever noticed that if you leave old junk lying around, kids will almost inevitably play with it? Whether it be old cardboard boxes, wooden pallets, pieces of wood, old tires [sic], bits of rope or string, kids will use their imagination and ingenuity to make something. This may make your garden look like a junkyard sometimes, but the experience for the kids is invaluable and it will keep them occupied for hours. Don't try and direct the kids in their play, just let them get on with it.” Nicholson, S, "How Not To Cheat Children: The Theory of Loose Parts", Landscape Architecture 1971. My children love using loose parts. We use very few actual "toys" in our play, as the majority of them have quite limited uses and once they've exhausted those uses, my children generally lose interest. Instead, I prefer to buy and collect open-ended materials that can have a variety of uses, only limited by my children's creativity. Children's desires to use loose parts are often demonstrated through the classic example of them being more interested in the cardboard box that a toy came in, than the toy itself. It allows us to see a child's need to be creative, to think "outside the box," to experiment and to control their play and learning while adapting it to their own interests. Little fingers also love little things. Bits and bobs and trinkets and treasures. Usually with younger children, people assume that anything they can fit in their mouth is too small, a choking hazard and should not be played with. However, I think that so long as there is adequate supervision, this is not always the case. Aside from the development of physical skills, such as fine-motor, hand-eye coordination, etc., children can learn so much from these real life objects that they are able to manipulate and use in a large variety of ways. Of course loose parts don't need to be small items. They include any item that can be used in many different ways. From items in nature such as sticks, sand, rocks, shells, leaves, to junk items, sports equipment, recycled goods and so much more. The way that my children play and interact with loose parts outside and inside differs due to the different materials and space available. Below are some examples of the loose parts that we are currently using for our inside play. From top-bottom, left to right we have pictured: Large plastic buttons perler beads shape blocks (S) wooden cubes glass stones pattern blocks (S) mini erasers matchsticks felt shapes foam numbers river rocks different sizes sticks (S) seed pods small white pebbles coloured glass jellybeans marbles shells wooden numbers pom-poms circles and semi-circles (S) small coloured wooden disks (S) recycled bottle tops Q-tips/cotton buds pony beads Most of these items can be purchased from $2 shops, found around the house or collected from nature. The items with an (S) next to them are part of our Spielgaben set. You can read my review and thoughts on Spielgaben and good quality educational toys here. There aren't any rules about what you can and can't use and it is good to keep adding new materials and mixing things up. The same materials can be used in so many different ways by combining them with various other materials to produce different results each time. I tend to store most of these items in cheap or recycled plastic container that are stackable. I also use things like recycled coffee jars and even vases to keep our loose parts out of the way but easily accessible. Below you can see just a few of the many ways that my children use these loose parts for play and learning. Many of the pictures come from our Instagram account where I often share our loose parts play as it's happening. Some of the pictures I have written posts about and have provided the links for you to check them out in more detail. Muffin tray, divided paint pallet, spoon, tongs, glass stones, shells and seedpods. Shape sort and count with 3D shapes, paper and pen. Marbles and an ice-cube tray Recycled bottle tops and coloured cupcake liners Pom-poms, glass beads, tongs and plastic glasses. Colour match, sort, count and number writing with 3D shapes, coloured paper, plain paper and markers Miniature erasers Playdough, pipcleaners, craft sticks, animals and plastic cups. Invitation to play. Threading patterns with playdough, skewers, 3D shape beads. Glass beads, water, medicine syringe, tongs, plastic containers. Designs using pattern blocks, curved lines, straight lines etc. Make your own playset using loose parts from around your house Enticing literacy. Making and writing words. Straight lines, curved lines, nature flash cards, paper, markers. An invitation to play and learn with numbers and natural materials. Construction building with blocks and tape. Matchsticks, plastic bears and playdough (in the other side of a divided water table). Coloured wooden pegs, bowl, spoon. Which loose parts are favourites with your kids? Happy playing, Debs :) {Disclosure: I have provided the link to the Spielgaben site for your convenience as part of a paid ambassadorship with Spielgaben. All opinions in this article, as always are my own} Look where else we are. Do you play with us here? :) New Here? Subscribe to get all activities sent directly to you Enter your email address: Delivered by FeedBurner
Tips to keep kids active this summer with Change4Life and Disney, plus get your free pack
You are currently reading our archived blog. While these older posts may not reflect our current vision and direction, we encourage you to visit our new website at wunderled.com to explore our latest, updated content. There, you'll find a wealth of valuable articles, resources, and insights that align with our current focus and over 60+ Free […]
Pedagogia Reggio Emilia, a criança como protagonista do aprendizado. Ela é um sujeito dotado de capacidades para experimentar o mundo por si mesmo.
The Reggio Emilia Approach is a new method of education for preschool children that helps them to develop comprehensively. Learn more about this method in this article.
Flickr is nothing without you, our community. We want to make sure this community continues to thrive, grow, and inspire, so we've made some big changes.
Interview with a prison social worker dispels popular myths about male sex offenders, and introduces a 7 phase CBT male sex offender treatment.
You might have heard the terms provocation and invitation with regards to inquiry learning. An invitation is something that encourages students to explore a concept. A provocation is something that provokes action and stimulates thinking.
