When Inspiration Strikes during a Trivia Game

We were playing a trivia card game and the question came up about the Taj Mahal. My Older son had learned about the Taj Mahal at school. I told him that his grand had visited there and he should ask to see the photos when he visits her. This is an impromptu unplanned activity and discussion that was fun with the kids. We stay at home moms often have resources right at our finger tips that we forget about. This stack of landmark cards sits on our kitchen window ledge for easy, and frequent, access.


When Inspiration Strikes during a Trivia Game, a photo by areyousureaboutthatblog on Flickr.

I remembered we had famous lanark cards near the kitchen table. And of course there was a photo if the Taj Mahal.

Easy Lunch Bag Notes: Mommy I Love my Lunch Note

When my older son started full day kindergarten in 2010 I wanted to expand "being with him" through little love notes. Little did I know how fashionable (and important) of a tradition this is. He'd come home and often say "mommy I love that my lunch note was... funny, made me feel happy, I liked seeing it." Seeing his joy after getting a little love note often brightened my day too.

Kids like (and need) the reassurance of their parents even when we are not around. When my older  son started preschool, his teacher read "The Kissing Hand" by Audrey Penn on their first day with the moms and dads in class. I cried as the mama raccoon kissed baby raccoon's hand and "Locked it up." And so started our tradition. Everyday at drop off I'd kiss the palm of his hand and "we'd lock up the kiss" incase he needed it later. "If you miss mama, you can always put the kiss on your cheek and it'll be like I'm right there with you."

This book reinforces the fact that our children need us, or the thought of us even when we are not with them in person. Recently I'd seen on Pinterest some website advertising a for premade lunch notes. Go for it! Some mamas just can't fathom where to start right?

We often have projects and kitchen table conversations at our home and these feed my little notes habit. Below I'm including some of the "notes series" (little did I know they became a themed series until I started taking pictures) - I keep these in a bowl, handy to grab and throw in with the days grub.

Our Lunch Notes Bowl - quick access to notes from one top of the microwave areyousureaboutthatblog

My sons pointed out thru this year his favorite notes. And sometimes I think it's not my best work, and he'll say it's his favorite yet!? Kids love the notes not because of what they have written or drawn on them, they love um cause there from mom!

You can see what we love at home is echoed in these easy peesy notes:

Some are simple post it's written the morning of the lunch packing, others were sketched and cut out while we watched movies. Then just glued onto construction paper and cut out so they have a little trim.

Most recently we added PSY who sings Gangnym Style

Psy Gangnym Style Lunch Note Sketch - areyousureaboutthatblog

Music / Song themed
We appreciate music in our home. We are always dancing and singing in the kitchen. My son LOVES the Black Eyed Peas - he thinks in Black Eyed Peas Pump It their saying "Monkey Power" (please dont ask because I have no idea?) but there saying "Louder," Theres Survivors "The Eye of the Tiger" (just because they say the word Tiger) "Who let the dogs out," by Baha Men "Shimmy Shimmy Coco Bop," by Little Anthony and "We are the ones under your bed...lyric" "This is Halloween" from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Actually my kids hadn't seen the movie, they only heard the halloween song from one of their playlists I made.

Music Lunch Notes from areyousureaboutthatblog

Favorite Cartoon and Characters
"Mom my friends say your a good drawer" motivated me to make a few new drawings for his bag.

Mom Sketches become Lunch Notes that we treasure - areyousureaboutthatblog

Just things we love including Karate, Pirates, Avatar Nations - these are doodles inspired by images from the web.

Travel
"One day til our hotel getaway" "Grandmas House for the Weekend"

About A Boy
Everyone needs motivation, so ours include: Good luck on your test today, I really like that your trying hard to help out, Take Your Time (because he always rushes thru his work which ends up sloppy), You are my Super Star (created after a particularly hard day), and my favorite "Work Hard, Leave Tracks" (on a drawing of a car I doodled all thru high school.

Little Motivational Lunch Notes - areyousureaboutthatblog

Of Course I love You Notes - areyousureaboutthatblog

Silly Jokes and Sayings

It seems almost everyday my sons comes home with a new joke. So I looked up a few of my own and quickly jot them on a post it. "What do you call a pig who knows Karate? A Pork Chop" and Motivational support "I love you" and "Have a great day - from Dad"

These notes are used in rotation and in no particular order. Which one gets picked all depends on what's going on in our lives. An even though there reusable my son looks forward to his lunch notes.

Lunch Notes Safe and Dry

As for the lunch bag I made a note slot by hot glueing (with caution) a piece of thick clear plastic to the inside of the lunch bags. This way the note stays reusable, dry, and easy to read without being handled by lunch eating hands.

Simple not sexy, A little hot glue and a homemade Lunch Note Slot - areyousureaboutthatblog

So, eventhough in December of his Kindergarten year my son said one morning as I went to kiss his hand, "mama I don't need a kiss anymore." Crush went my heart - I cried in the car. But my notes are still dearly enjoyed, for now.

It's made a wonderful difference in our house an I hope you try some of your own lunch notes too.

The days are long, but hte years are short. - Enjoy childhood with them as best you can...

Activities with Kids: Poetry

The Story Behind the Poem:

We often do some very impromtu activities with our kids. and sometimes their creativity, with a sprinkling of ideas from mom, can inspire a great activity.

My 7 year old son came home from school saying that after homework was done he wanted to write a poem. "What kind of poem?" I asked. "I don't know yet" he said.

We went about tending to our responsibilities - he has to change his clothes, unpack his backpack and lunch bag, feed the dog and eat a snack. Then 30 or so minutes of play and straight to start homework. But today was so incredibly, unseasonably warm and beautiful, we stopped at the park for our play time.

For homework he had to study for his science test. At the end of the study packet was a little activity for the family. There was a list of words about natural resources including: natural resources, minerals, recycling, erosion, sand, weathering, boulder and pollution. The activity said we should include these words in our everyday language. We are a nature, outdoorsy, kind of family so we use this vocabulary often. I asked him perhaps to consider that for his poem we should use the words in the list, and mom will write a poem too?

We decided we would see how many words we could use up in one poem. He had a little trouble with rhyming, but then told me his teacher said a poem doesn't have to rhyme. At age 7, he's going through a very competitive phase. So he said yeah "let's see who writes the best poem." I said "it's not about the best poem, it's about seeing how we use the same words in our poetry but each poem will be very different."

Here are our poems: 

with the titles added after we finished writing and reading them aloud to each other.


Natural Resources by Older Son, age 7

When I look up into space I see a boulder at the beach I see sand it tickles my feet.

I see a recycling factory on the way to Indiana.

To not pollution the earth I do not throw stuff on the ground.



Moms Poem: 

Nature Was Talking to Me

As I stood on the mountaintop,
I looked upon a special spot,
where the air, sand and sea,
felt like they were talking to me.

These natural resources are ours,
just like when you see the stars. Weathering is nature's way,
of taking some poisons away.
Erosion doesn't have to be,
the way you take her away from me.

Pollution is a danger,
Recycling is no stranger.
Use a boulder to build your home,
but replace trees when you roam.

by: Areyousureaboutthatblog Author
Not Authorized for Reproduction Without Permission

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