Easy Kids Activity: Tell Me a Story with Magnets

While online gift shopping I came across this nice idea for a storytelling game. "Story cubes" are dice with pictures on them, roll the dice and kids have to make up a story based on the images they rolled. Well of course why buy when you can make your own story telling game. This type of activity is easy and it helps kids build creativity skills, pre-reading skills, and a great way to keep them busy so you can get things done. Like my dinner...



Making dinner can be a challenging time. The Kids like to stay with me in the kitchen so I include them in the cooking whenever I can. But then terse times I need to occupy them. My younger son was playing with his Refrigerator magnets making the pieces "talk" to each other. When I asked a few questions about his story, eureka! A new Kids activity struck me.
We have many, many, many magnets that we have collected through the years. Alphabet letters, Melissa and Doug animals and dinosaur magnets, vacation souvenirs, a farm book with farm animals, and responsibility / rewards chart magnets. I keep things in a storage "just in case bin" or circulate some of these through so we don't get bored with them. This is a sample of the magnets from the fridge. 

Easy Kids Activity: Tell Me a Story Magnets, a photo by areyousureaboutthatblog on Flickr.

Our Tell Me a Story Game:

1. I grab 3 - 4 magnets from the storage bag and put them in a row on the fridge.

2. We talk about the picture on each magnet.

3. Then the kids "take a minute to think about a story using these 3 magnets." (At first, I had to make up the stories so the kids would get the idea of the game. Since about a dozen times playing, the kids now get more detailed, and very elaborate in their stories. Which may require more "thinking time.")

4. When my younger son is ready, he starts telling me his story.

5. PARENTS NEED TO LISTEN. Even though I am cooking (usually), I always stop to fully listen to the story. Its often short and I can spare the 1-2 minutes it takes him to tell me.

6. Then its moms turn to make up a story. I go last because I have found over time that my son simply imitates my story on his turn and just changes a few things around.

7. Pick new magnets and keep "story telling."




Variations:

-- Sometimes the kids pick their own magnets to use.

-- Or they pick some out for mom to make up a story.

-- Baby girl likes to take the magnets and "act out" her stories. Or she repeats segments of the story like "Roars" when my son said the Lion Roared at the Farmer. She is learning the game early on and will be vary familiar as her vocabulary grows.

-- We often put criteria on the story depending on what new things are happening in our lives. For example we have required many stories to "take place in Japan," when my husband and I were traveling there. Or my son makes the characters repeat an activity he learned in school that day.

The options are endless. We have also made up stories using the action figures we take to the car, and we have even started making up our own endings to the books we read at home. That's been really fun.

I hope we have introduced an easy, low-cost, game that's fun for kids.

Make Mistakes. Breath, Reflect. and Laugh.Out.Loud

Baby Supplies... Part II... What Do You Really Need for Growing withBaby?

And more importantly change your habits around their (baby) needs. 

Along with making new habits for you, comes the basics of caring for a new person.

- Feed baby

- Clothe baby

- Change baby's diaper

- Let baby sleep, regularly.

When you walk into a chain baby supply store it can be overwhelming. Do I buy or register? If both, what do I buy? Do I need a diaper disposal system? Which Crib is best? What kind of Stroller do we need? What’s a travel system? Look at all these cute clothes!!! Bathing in a bath tub or a sink? (Is the sink thing a typo? Nope) Register for a college fund? Already!? And life insurance? UGH! 

Below I tried to outline the most common items that we did need and the some good questions to think about when you are shopping. This blog is called "are you sure about that..." So I my comments on what you don’t need and why. I've included my baby registry list. It's what we really needed for baby.

Saving Money

Oh yeah, and then there is saving money. I know that many, many, many people can buy the most expensive stroller, crib set and designer cloths for baby. But I am a practical mom, and I am going green (environmental stuff). So I don’t want to spend my hard earned cash on all baby stuff (which I won't need anymore within one-year). I just want the things I need, and then some of what I really want.... of course!

Still reading? Good. Just keep an open mind, we are on a journey right? Well, along the way on this trip you are going to hopefully hear some great ideas, and some you might think are strange. But stick with me, and you can decide which ones you like for your lifestyle. Deal? OK, keep reading.

A real practical easy to remember tip is you want things to “grow with baby.” Convertible, Stretchable, Changeable. Cloths, Strollers, chairs, cribs, you name it. Get the one that will covert and “grow with baby.”

Consider with any baby item you think you need what's Practical vs. the Trend: Really decide how important the item you want is. Will it "grow with baby?" Is it for YOU, just to say look at my baby? Or is it for baby to live better? Well if you really want to save money, these are the hard questions.


Cloth Diapers.

THESE are not your mom’s diapers! These are new, awesome, and not gross! I am a practical mom, not hard core green tho. We use cloth diapers at home (which is an insert into an "envelope" type water proof cover) with my older first son, then when we went out and about in the world we took disposable diapers. Now, the cloth diapers I mention in the next section can easily be taken on trips with baby, but we chose to integrate with disposable.

Here you need to plan how often you want to wash this extra load of laundry. No ou shouldn't wash diapers with your baby clothes. You can use a diaper service too. We choose every other day for laundry, so we needed about 26 diapers. I also choose a brand that grows with baby - not infant size - but elastic and button options to resize them.

 

It's been 8 years since my diaper days with older so and the cloth diaper market has grown. In 2005 you could only but diapers online or through mail order parent magazine ads. Now cloth diapers are in stores like Target and Baby giant retailers. Lots of colors too - not just white like in his baby days. 

As for longevity - there great. It's 2013 and baby girl is being potty trained with the same diapers. I cared for them cautiously, so they aren't stained or falling apart. I always soaked them in a 1:1 vinager water ratio in the diaper bin while waiting to be washed. An used a gentle laundry soap to limit wear on them.

Homemade Baby Food. 

Easier then you think. There is an easy, fast, and inexpensive way to feed your baby as they grow! 

I did buy baby food books and the best was "Mommy Made." She quickly review health benefits of homemade food and eating real fruits and veggies. And there the simplest baby food ideas. It's not even really a recipie. More of a habit to incorporate into your life.

Having a baby is fun, in between the “work.” So consider what you want, what you need, and what you are about to learn you need!

Registry.

Do register for “convenience” items or in things you want to splurge on. My husband told a friend this once: “You may not really need it, but it would be nice to have.” Like we had a baby bottle warmer in the nursery. Practical, not really. You can always run downstairs to warm the milk, but who wants to walk all the way to the kitchen at 2 a.m. on the 12th night in a row? I didn’t. This item was a hand me down that I didn’t even think I needed. Glad I had it and you will to!

· Do consider the “life span” of the product – will it last through more babies that you may want?

- consider Baby Supplies that Grow with Baby

We bought a high chair from 2 months (gentle reclined position) to converting into a seat for over 1 year olds. 

Our stroller converted from a 4 month old recline position to a seated position. I also recommend splurging a little for a "terrain" stroller. A large front wheel over 8 inches - little dinky wheels are a pain I maneuver especially as baby gets bigger and heavier.

Register for visa gift cards versus store specific so ou can order from websites and places YOU prefer. 

Make sure you read Part I of this post series... About what your baby really needs: YOU!!

The Days are long, the years are short. 

Early Math Addition Game with Dice: Math Facts Addition and Penmanship Practice all-in-one

My older 3rd grade son needs to continue learning his math facts (adding through answers to total 20). And flash cards are just so boring, but a necessary evil right?

Not so much. There's lots of ways to practice math facts without worksheets and flash cards. We got a nice dice game idea for my sons teacher. Roll the dice, shout the answer. We played a few times this way, my son loves the "pressure" to tell the answer out.

Now we have added a penmanship element. We have to write the addition problem from the dice and then write the answer. The first person to complete the math problem rolls again. If the other players still writing the previous math problem he might not even see the next roll, and that's okay, it's part of scoring. Whoever has the most problems written at the end of the game wins. We set the kitchen timer for 1 or 2 minutes, and off we go.

areyousureaboutthatblog Math Facts and Dice Game

The first game was a test... To "get the hang of it." But round two was fun. My son really caught on. He lost by one math problem less then I. In the test round he lost by 8. 

For round 3 my pre school younger son wants to roll the die too, so I had to wait to write the math problem until my son rolled his color die and said the color. It helped slow mom down for the 3rd grader to get a fair(er) shot at winning.

This adds penmanship practice, and math all in a fun game!

Make mistakes. Breath, reflect. And Laugh.Out.Loud

Easy Garden Pasta

We have a small garden that we tend too at home, nearly year round. The boys help pick what we grow each season, plant the seeds, weed and hardest our produce.

Our cherry tomatoes, which we planted waaayyyyy too many off, are coming in. During nap time I started the dish. While my pasta was boiling, for 8 minutes, I went out and picked a bowl full of tomatoes.

I washed and cut the tomatoes into quarters. I drained the pasta, and in the pasta pot, heated some olive oil, and sauted 4 chopped cloves of garlic for 5 minutes on low. Tossed in the tomatoes and sauted for an additional 6 minutes or so. Yes that whole bowl of tomatoes because we are making a big bath of pasta.

Added some fresh chopped green onions for moms bowl. 

Bag of pasta $0.89 cents. 

Everything else was in the pantry and garden.

Yes it was very yummy!! 

Make mistakes, breath, reflect and Laugh.Out.Loud

School Pencil Pouch Solutions: An Alternative School Supply Solution

I love back to school deals. I do not believe in paying FULL PRICE for anything. NADE, Zero, Zip. When we are out at second hand stores I always keep my eyes open for school supplies, and alternative school supply solutions. I keep them in our school supplies bin in the playroom. See the red box here.

This year we snagged a bunch:

$1 for 10 crayons markers

$1 for 12 color pencils

.50c for 100 color index cards

.50c for 2 glue sticks

.17 for 70-page wide rule notebooks

And thru sales and thrifting we've found:

.1c folders

$5 pocket file folder, accordion style

But Pencil Pouches drive me nuts. The vinyl ones have holes in them within a few weeks of school starting. Forget about the plastic ones! 

So I've resolved to searching for wallets and cosmetic cases! Canvas zippered is preferred, but through the discount stores like Ross, Marshall's and TJ Maxx I've found leather ones for under $5. 

My new treasures!

Make mistakes, breath ad laugh.out.loud!! 

Bank of America tried to Charge Me an Application Fee when The Application Process MADE my Rate Lock Expire!! Instead, I Got Paid!!

I applied for a mortgage loan refinance with Bank of America. After a grueling 6 months we finally closed our loan, with our promised rate, even tho the "rate lock" had expired.

Our first rate lock expiration was January 19. I was working with a very nice processor to get my loan processed. She's the go between me, the consumer, and "they" the underwriters who actually look at all of the paperwork and process my loan. We were applying in a new "less paper" mortgage refinance option called "Fast Track" since we were long time customers in good standing with good a good credit rating. The loan application took 2 hours! But almost no paperwork was required from us in the process (priceless!).

Long story short, I'd get those annoying emails on how "my loan needs I close before my rate expires"... However all this paperwork jazz is really outta my control once I send them what they have asked for.

So my application was taken in October over the phone by a rep. in Arizona. I've been in touch via email weekly with the bank. There system tracks these communications. When in December, my closing wasn't happening I wrote an "email of concern" to the girl who took my application. She said we "might close my loan even faster. I'm on the fast track to approval." Then I wrote again in January.

"We have only 7 days until the rate lock period ends. Please advise. It doesn't look like I'm going to close my loan in time" She wrote back: "if needed we can extend our rate lock."

I wrote back: "We are long time HAPPY Bank of America customers. Since we locked my rate in October (now January) rates have fallen. Since its the underwriting side taking extensive time processing my loan, I'd like to request a revised more current rate."

Of course I know they won't/can't do this. And they shouldn't charge me any fee (generally 1 point (that's 1% of your financing amount), in my case $1,500) to extend the rate either!! She said they'd extend the rate "as a courtesy." So I write back an extensive email asking for at least a "credit" of any sort to my loan for the undue burden, email highlights include:

"I've consistently received emails saying the processor is "checking on third party stuff." I have submitted all my required documentation for the loan expediently. We are long time HAPPY Bank of America customers, not typical in banking these days. Any service issues in the past have always been resolved and we stay because of this kind of good customer service. The issues and delays are not your fault or mine, they are a failure of the system!

Our loans been in process 75+ days. The rate lock is "not a promise to close," but it is a commitment of delivery of my loan to your investors.

Your loan documentation rate disclosure says on page 7 "we will do everything we can to provide our customers with excellent customer service, and address and concerns regarding your loan."

I am asking for a financial incentive to finish the loan. I realize you can't give me a new rate, but you can certainly offer me a credit towards the loan. Every bank has a policy to cover issues around Rate

Locks. Please see what you, or your supervisors can do."

They offered me my existing rate plus 1.5 point credit to my loan (that's 350$). 

But don't get too excited. The paperwork processor was charging me incorrectly on the revised extended rate lock ($1,000) and no sign of the credit. It was on the revised document called the "Good Faith Estate." My credit should've put me 900$ ahead. Getting this issue fixed went on until the night before closing, when my Good Faith Estimate still showed a new $1,000 charge for my rate and no credit as was promised. So what do you - an average consumer do? Start dialing UP.

Every email and voicemail had at the bottom the name of the immediate supervisor for the representative I was working with and their phone number of email address. Use it!! So I called up, and every supervisor had a supervisor, I called them too. I left voicemails up the chain 6 people until the last guy had no email or phone number to give me. He was apparently a "Big Boss."

Briefly my voice message was this, but if I emailed the below text to the supervisors, it was followed by the email trail as mentioned I this blog of my discount toward my loan because of the "system failure."

"I am desperately calling because I am in the loan pipeline for nearly 4 months, and it's the Friday night before my Saturday closing which I need to reschedule again, because 1. my application is being INCORRECTLY charged a point for a rate extension which you the bank initiated. And 2. my $1,500 credit has still not been applied. Please help me resolve this issue. I am calling supervisors because I don't know what to do anymore, can you help me get my APPROVED loan closed?!?!"

Well, at 7:30 am Saturday I got a call from a very nice supervisor who was All.Over.My.Loan!! He repaired the rate charge, applied my credit (and then some). 

Steps to negotiating with the bank:

1. Persistent and polite. 

2. Playing a little stupid helped too.

3. Don't give up

4. Use information about "customer service" to help your cause too, it's probably written in the loan documents disclosures. Those are worth reading! They saved us $3,000 in closing costs.

5. Don't threaten to leave or walk away, because no one wins then.

6. Finally, go up the chain of command. It takes time, you'll tell your story 100x's, and maybe to 3 supervisors up, but take whatever help your offered! 

Make mistakes, breath, and don't forget to laugh.out.loud. 

Lenten Season: Giving Up ON Giving Up

Growing up it was a little exciting and rewarding to be able to "give up" candy for 40 days and feel a sense of accomplishment. Sometimes I might sneak a bite of a snickers and then feel guilty for days.... ah catholic guilt! As an adult a few years ago I gave up soda for lent and happily I never went back to drinking soda daily. It takes at least 30 days to build a habit, or unlearn one in this case, so Lent's 40 days works great! Now it really is an occasional treat. Unfortunately soda just doesn't taste as good to me as it used to either.

My son came home from school an announcement that "the whole second grade was giving up talking at lunchtime for lent." Gee, I can only imagine who's idea that was? Any teacher friends want to fess up?

So mom, what are you giving up for lent? Hmph, for the first time in many years I hadn't given it much thought. I'd seen my Facebook friends post Meatless Monday, Tubeless (No TV) Tuesday, Water Wednesday, Fish Friday, etc. you get the idea. And yes, on Water Wednesday that doesn't include the water in mom and dads coffee. Let me know how that works out for you?


If you are reading this post, please post a comment below on what you liked - or didn't  - about this read. Does the topic interest you and you want to know more? Submit a question and I am happy to tackle it.


So at about a week into lent my son returned asking again "Mom what are you giving up for lent?" I said without thinking "I'm giving up on giving up!" And it hit me - sheer brilliance! I am not giving anything up, instead I will do... I will do what I have been needing to do for months, years even. I am going to do every little project, activity, and proactive effort I have been meaning to do during lent. I commit at least one hour a day to this task.

And then I started my list. Because of course I have a list to check things off as they are accomplished. My only "rule" was to complete these things over the course of lent, committing at least one hour per day. I couldn't abandon my children and like a tornado get everything sifted and shifted in a day or two. After all this was months and years in the making and I hadn't gotten it done so far. And I had to involve family members where possible (#4 & 5 are AWESOME for kids). I've included my list and some of the steps involved. And we know how time flies, things don't get done because the day to day of life takes over. So this plan just might work to get those things done!

#1 - Clean off the dining room table and KEEP STUFF OFF OF IT. Granted I was only storing things on half of the table, but it's so unsightly during dinner. Most things were transitional - go to basement, go to storage, go away. But they didn't "Go" anywhere, they sat, and sat. So once I put things in their rightful place I gave myself a basket. It's an 8 x 12 inch basket for any transitional stuff. If the basket gets full I MUST pay attention and put those items away.

 #2 - Have at least 3 projects a week with the kids. After homework and commitments we need our time to learn the non-school way. My four year old is really into color mixology, thank you Pinterest for all the great ideas. Including Gak, Slime, Sensory bags, Sensory bottles, I-Spy Bags (AWESOME), Growing Beans in a Clear Jar so we can "watch" what happens (AWESOME x2!), make a paper mache mask and paint it, and much more!

#3 - Speaking of Pinterest. MAKE THOSE Sensory Pins! Check and Check! Again based on the current interests I used some small animals and made an African habitat in rice. Baby girls has a sound set up making noise, I mean music with her bowls and spoons, and our sensory bags.

#4 Have the kids start picking up after themselves. So it is totally true that boys "don't see" things laying around as they trip over, hop over and scoot around them. So I am making a conscious effort
that when we leave a room, like the kitchen, the older boys takes all the toys from the "high" areas and the younger from the "low/floor" and items get put Where They BELONG! This worked so well that I have added putting your own plates and cups away into the sink. When they leave their plates out - well that same plate greets them in the morning, who the hard dinner crud on it. Lesson quickly learned. My effort in this is constant - hopefully only thru lent, where I follow them around like Mother Goose, making sure toys end up in the right places. THIS IS WORKING GREAT! For me too - I have learned to actually follow the kids and make sure they learn the procedure right the first time. I "invest" my time and they learn correctly - again the brilliance of Montessori-esque.

#5 Finally start that Montessori-esque Playroom. I have been reading lots and lots about Montessori, and I totally love it. Its so European and makes loads of sense. But some elements I think are too extreme for me. Others are of course wonderful reminders that children can be independent at a young age. And for my own mom sanity its a great method to teach good habits, chores and independence and creativity at the same time. So to task I asked my boys to bring me toys they no longer want, that are broken, etc. HA! Each boy brings me things the other plays with. . . Let's start over. I sat the boys down with a glass of juice and "we" decided on what goes, ... again.

- If it's broken, gone.
- If it's not played with. buh bye.
- If it's not yours, put it where it belongs.
- Bring me stuffed animals we don't like, don't want, that smell, or are leaking stuffing.
- If you think you might want it but your are not sure, bring it in the "maybe box" ("also the keep it in the basement a week if they don't ask it goes box")

After I get their selections I separately went thru the toys they NEVER play with. We cleaned out nearly 3 large boxes of stuff. Our toy room is more of an inspiration room now.

What stayed in the Toy Room
all neatly organized into individual boxes and baskets by item:
- Musical Instruments
- Wooden Building Blocks
- Wooden Lincoln Logs
- Ball bin
- tinker toys bin (one in toy room and one in their bedroom, since they always end up downstairs)
- Wood trucks and cars
- Plastic toy cars all in one basket
- All board games
- construction play set
- dress up clothes (on hangers)
- Chest with our "hard plastic" animal figures
- Basket with stuffed animals (slimmed down to our most, most, most favorites in 3 rounds of filtering)
- Book shelf (thinned out so we can actually access our books and thumb thru a selection)
- Wood Toy Trains Sets

The walls still have our Art Gallery Line where I pin their art work up. And a map of the animals around the world, a low play chalkboard, and craft / supply storage shelves.

Upstairs Boys Bedroom has:

- Lego's with tiny not-baby-friendly pieces
- Squinkes set which my 4 year old loves
- book shelf (thinned out so we can actually access our books and thumb thru a selection)
- Astronaut set and imaginext shuttle
- Dinosaur play set
- Reading/snuggle chair
- Bionicles
- stuffed animals bin in baby girls room
- Lego Table and 2 chairs.

Also Montessori Esqu beginnings are:

- ENFORCING the put your slippers on policy. "Enforcing" for me means when shoes come off after arriving at home, I gently remind the boys to put slippers on. It's a "Type A" thing, sorry Montessori readers!
- # 4 picking up after themselves and putting their own plates and cups in the sink.
- keeping your homework basket neat. And cleaning up homework supplies after yourself.
- to be introduced: a small wood try and a tray basket. So if they want individual play they can have it.

These are all wonderful steps to mom feeling Waaaayyyyy less stressed. And my boys knowing what to do and not having to ask who what where constantly.

#6 Write Scientist Names Around the trim of the toy room. Followed by a project on each so we can learn about their contribution to science.  Still on the to do side of the list. When we were at the Museum of Science and Industry, during a demonstration in the main rotunda I notices around the ceiling moulding were various scientist last names. LOVED THIS IDEA. It'll get it's own post when that's accomplished.

#7 Filter the old mail, papers, and filing documents in the office. I went thru and trashed so much paperwork in 1 hour, only 1 hour! Such an accomplishment. Now I need one more hour to file it all... nearly there. When we renovated our office into a sitting room I rid us of the horrid filing cabinet and hanging folders into accordion folders i had left over from some other projects. So the filing process was started but for some reason I had a BIG basket of left over paperwork.

#8 Clear off kitchen Counters and KEEP THEM THAT WAY. Am I yelling? I don't mean to yell, it's just I cannot keep my counters uncluttered. Everything has a place. That's been my rule for year. But for some reason I don't follow it? Until now, and it's working great. I am simply Following my own rules!

#9 Impromptu clean up the spice cabinet and tea boxes. I'm not British, but you would think I was with all the tea I drink. Loose tea, bagged tea, boxed tea bags, and canisters of exotic teas yet unopened. So I filtered out half empty tea boxes into a canister, bags from left and right. I consolidated spices and tossed what is not used - and will never be used - OUT. Again, it took only an hour, and it felt so good!

#10 Sit with my son during homework. We have 3 kids, and this one can be challenging sometimes. I had to rearrange my day to accomplish this task. Homework usually takes 30 minutes. But we sidebar, and or chat, alot, so it can get to an hour sometimes. I want to sit at the table with my son. It accomplishes 2 things. I get less "frustrated" having to walk away from what I am doing (usually cooking dinner) to address his needs, and he feels he has my full attention - as it should be. So the Sensory Bin plays a big role here. For my 4 year old son and 1year old daughter. Both have a sensory bin. The 4 year old plays for an hour with no problem. The baby however plays for 10 minutes (which is still great) and then invades my cabinets. Still giving me and the big boy quality homework time.

#11 Sort boys art center. I opened items in boxes and put them in east to access baskets (Montessori esque). I opened the lacing and string box, put all the stamp and ink in a clear bin, and consolidated all our craft books (mask making included) into one shelf. The boys said they like it better, but most importantly are using the area more which shows me they really do like it! I also ended up sorting their coloring books bin right by the kitchen table and got rid of old magazines and half colored books I knew they wouldn't use.

#12 Put into storage what goes into storage! So obvious, right? Yeah I have a Christmas bin I am still filling with leftover stragglers. But that, and my husbands teaching books that are collecting dust, and the boxes from under my sons bed (with toys he can grow into), into the Attic they go.

#13 Rearrange Boys Room. My older son brought this up a few weeks ago. And we know how time flies, things don't get done because the day to day of life takes over.  We were in their room, filtering the books and toys and my son said his bed would look good by the window. And so we talked thru where 2 dressers, a table, 2 beds, a chair and 2 drawers sets and a book shelf would go. We started moving things out and out. I'm a pretty logical kind of girl so I directed mostly here. That took one hour. We moved the beds around and the chair. Dressers were basically in place so time for a Lunch break! It was great! We sat at the kitchen table, talked about the room move, what we liked, what we didn't. The boys didn't really want to finish the job. But I talked up our sense of accomplishment, ... that we were almost done, ... only a few more books and toys to move around,... okay, I caved and promised some ice cream. Congrats to us all on a job well done.


I feel a HUGE sense of accomplishment getting these tasks underway. We are not even halfway thru Lent and I am more then Halfway thru my list.  I hope to keep our home running this way for several more years! As for my new Lenten tradition. I may just have to keep that too. #14 - add before and after pictures to the blog :-)