Learning Together - savings goals

Hey beautiful people,

Can you believe another one so soon??? I've written about how we do pocket money before. Today is about a new thing I've introduced to help the boys. They tend to get all excited about saving for a big ticket item then they see something smaller and cheaper and quicker to have and forget what they were saving for. (I think I'm a bit like that too!)

Recently at a friends house Flip discovered iPod nanos. Our boys listen to a lot of audio books and some music and Flip does love his technology! so he decided he wanted one of them. We looked up new ones and second hand ones and figured he could probably get one for around $150 - being his father's son ;-) he's only interested in the 7th or 8th generation!

Bounce wants roller skates so we had a look and found that $80 would be plenty for him to get a pair.

I helped them make a temperature gauge.

Having a goal and saving towards it is so much easier when you can see it coming and if I get really organised I'll print them both a picture so they can see it coming. It will take them quite a while to save up but I know they will really value them when they get there.

Learning Together a series for primary aged children and their parents - activities that break up homework monotony, promote skills and create positive experiences together.

What keeps you on track when you are saving up for something special?

love you more than a savings goal achieved xxxx

Learning Together - Screen Time

Hello mamas (and papas?),

It's been a while since I've shared one of these posts. Recently I've been thinking about our screen time policy. For those who don't know me personally I'm very strict about screen time. We had a fairly strong 'no screens before 2' kind of thing and after that very limited screen time. I know we fall well outside the 'norm' when it comes to access and time on screens and we are happy with our family approach.

Like any family we have considered reasons around how and why we decide on how much time is spent looking at a screen and I'm sharing our system in the hope it might work for other families even if they have different amounts of time allowances/access.

I do have one son in particular who loves technology and I tend to have a default no setting generally but I want the boys to have some access and I also want to teach them about managing their own timetables as they get older. (They are currently 6.5 and 9).

So we have decided to use a voucher system. The boys will both get a collection of 10 minute tickets weekly. They will then have autonomy, within reason, about how they use these over the course of a week. This will include all screens - Wii time, iPad, Computer and TV/DVD.

There will be some exceptions if we decide to watch a family movie that won't count, weekly family check-in on the Wii doesn't count either. At least 20 minutes have to be spent on an educational thing like study ladder or maths games etc.

The boys are so excited about the new system and it has a number of benefits for us:

• no nagging - the boys don't have to ask and hope every day that maybe I will say yes
• time management - how will you spend your time, how does it feel when you use it all up on one day? do you like a little every day? 
• motivation - if jobs are done quickly there may be time for some screen
• responsibility - they will need to be responsible for using the vouchers and telling me
• time concepts - especially for the little one how much is 10 minutes, how many minutes in an hour etc
• sharing - we will allow them to pool time to use technology together for some things, if they want to
• anticipation - for my oldest especially knowing he will get some screen time and being able to look forward to it and anticipate it will make him feel very happy
• clear boundaries - I find this takes stress out of things - we all know what the rules are and we all feel happy because everyone is getting what they want

I know this isn't a learning/homework thing but I hope it gives some ideas and I know there are skills that the boys will get out of this. 

In terms of management I am going to print and laminate the tickets and they will get given them each week at pocket money time. As they spend them they will go into a box - unused ones will go on a magnetic clip on the fridge. At the end of the week empty and repeat! 

Learning Together a series for primary aged children and their parents - activities that break up homework monotony, promote skills and create positive experiences together.

How do you manage screen time in your house?

love you more than laminated tickets xxx

Learning Together - Holiday Activities

School starts in Australia today and all my plans for extra reading and writing over the summer have been shaky to say the least...

One of the things we did do though was make peele bead creations (small beads put together on boards and ironed to make them stick together).

The time and effort these require as well as the fine motor skills makes them a perfect highly concentrated activity.

It's also good for creative ideas and making things that silt their interests - one went for owls and the other mine craft!

I also drew the patterns out for my boys from the pictures they wanted to create (took me right back to my cross-stitch days!). Using graph paper and following the colours is really another form of close reading - sorting out information visually without the need to de-code the text.

Now we have hundreds and thousands of the beads for the next time the mood hits us!

Learning Together a series for primary aged children and their parents - activities that break up homework monotony, promote skills and create positive experiences together.

love you more than a transfer to the ironing board without losing a bead xxx

Learning Together - Holiday Activities

I showed the boys some of the amazing photos that people have made with props and children lying on the ground and we decided to do some of our own.

Skills:

• Brainstorming - we loosely sketched all the ideas we had
• organising - we got props and worked together on the set up
• negotiation - everyone had their own ideas and I tried to let each person have a lead sometimes
• editing - I showed them how I edited them on pic monkey and then we did a strawberry picking photo together - this was also a nice opportunity to talk about how photos can be airbrushed and not tell the real story of a person or scenario
• creative thinking - need water or a zoo or clouds.... what objects can you find around the house?

We only managed 2 photo shoots but we got some sweet results and the boys were pretty pleased with the final photos.

Obviously we won't be up for any major accolades but we worked with their ideas and it was a fun way to kill some time on an overcast (yay!) summer day. As an activity this is a great one for creative thinking, problem solving and having fun together.

Learning Together a series for primary aged children and their parents - activities that break up homework monotony, promote skills and create positive experiences together.

love you more than a teddy trip to the zoo xxx

Learning Together - A Year in Review

This is about the most irregular series ever! However on I go ...

This is something we did together on the last day of the year at dinner time. There are lots of nice lists to be found but this one was hurriedly written on the back of a used paper bag about 5 mintures before dinner - I know you are so impressed by my organisation!

It was a nice way to stop and help the boys reflect on their year in Aus and also focus them on the coming year without it being too arduous.

Self-reflection and making goals are great skills to have in life and it's also good to spend time as a family with space and time to give some weight.

I did write down their responses but more as a sweet record than some kind of laws they had to work towards.

Do you make these kind of resolutions?  - my own are pretty flimsy at the moment but I did enjoy chatting through this list and some more with my sister as we toasted in the new year with soda water (we are such rage-ers!!).

Learning Together a series for primary aged children and their parents - activities that break up homework monotony, promote skills and create positive experiences together.

love you more than a sweet conversation xxx

Learning Together - family meeting

Learning together... it's been a while!

I know lots of people have family meetings and are very scheduled but the create hope inspire family is a little more laid back (or disorganised, or freaked out by 'programming activities'). However, a certain someone wanted to proprose something to the family so I suggested we had a family meeting.

The boys made the agenda sheet which was pinned to the fridge - not literally obviously, it was attached with a magnet! - a week before and everyone was allowed up to 2 items.

You can probably guess even without the names who added what.

So what skills do you learn in a family meeting?

• writing up your items
• writing notes so you don't forget what you want to say (only one of us did this!)
• making sure you select your most important issues - this is a life long skill to develop, sometimes you have to be able to distinguish the trees from the woods
• communicating your ideas clearly
• clarifying when questioned
• seeking clarification from others before you weigh in or take your vote

The Atlas took notes and we had a lovely time of it. The key results are that we will hire an xbox 360 one weekend per term (4 times a year) and 2 games each time, we will try to have a special family time on Sunday afternoons together where we will include a family meeting once a month, the boys will have the Christmas Tree (which will be small because that's what they wanted and the vote was unanimous) in their room, Bounce and I will decorate the house for Christmas and The Atlas is in charge of following up on sumer sports. Phew - I think that's it.

It's great for children to contribute and have their ideas heard and it's a good opportunity for them to take part in discussions, present ideas and learn to compromise.

Do you have family meetings? Do you track the formal or informal route of parenting?

Learning Together a series for primary aged children and their parents - activities that break up homework monotony, promote skills and create positive experiences together.

love you more than the chance to decorate xxx

Learning Together - picture word hunt

This was one of those crazy activities that sort of came from something random Flip said about hiding things for them to find around the house.

On afternoon about 10 minutes before I left to get the boys for school I scribbled down 12 different words I knew they could both read or figure out numbered each and stuck them in every room of the house including laundry, ensuite, toilets, my 'sewing room' (corner)....

When they got home I gave them both a piece of paper divided into 12 sections and numbered then I sent them off in different directions to find and draw each item.

Wee Bounce started by writing the first word (which could be a variation) but they soon got into it. They went at different speeds but because they started in different rooms it wasn't a race (which often takes the joy out of things here and means the little one doesn't want to play) and they were both super engaged.

They loved this so much and it was cute (and have me some time to prep tea). We'll be doing it again for sure.

Skills:

• Word recognition - they could check if they wanted to but only once they had their idea sorted. 
• Fine motor skills - we don't do a lot of drawing and fine motor work so some simple speedy drawings that don't have to be perfect but do have to be small are a good work out for little hands.
• Close reading/matching - they had to find the appropriate box for each picture which is good number recognition for the little one and careful checking for the big one - achievable but an extra thinking step.

In case you can't be bothered thinking of your own words ours were - ant, car, three, tree, family, hat, teddy, cat, rainbow, cow, angel, banana.

  

and we had lots of fun - result!

Learning Together a series for primary aged children and their parents - activities that break up homework monotony, promote skills and create positive experiences together.

love you more than a super cute picture xxx

Learning Together - silly rhymes

Take a 'sight word', by which I mean a spelling word or a simple tricky word like - there, turn, or whatever words cause consternation at your place, or a word that you have on a list of words to recognise by sight.

Now have some fun thinking of all the rhyming words you can think of. Record them on a chart/ white board/ piece of paper

make sure you throw in a few ridiculous ones for good measure like 'zear' - you know the baby of a zebra and a deer - I can't believe you've never heard of them! What are those teachers teaching you?

Now try to write a short 4 line poem together using some of the rhyming words.

Perform it in silly voices if the mood so takes you.

Skills:

• spelling patterns when a word like 'there' also rhymes with bear, pier, and cheer you start to 'see' that there are different ways to make a long e sound. Of course in NZ (and probably Aus?) pear, peer, pair and pier all rhyme - they don't in England! Yes happy to ruin those vowels for you English colonialists.
• playing with rhythm and language - when you try to write lines that rhyme you naturally have to adapt them to get the rhyme scheme to work properly 
• word recognition - if this is a spelling or sight word or just a word they perpetually get wrong by the end of this activity they will have seen it written, they will have written it and they will have said it aloud several times - all without the dreaded 'write it out 5 times' ever being uttered.

Learning Together a series for primary aged children and their parents - activities that break up homework monotony, promote skills and create positive experiences together.

love you more than that fat cat who sat on the mat and crushed his hat xxx

Learning Together - a little of what you fancy

One of the skills I believe is important is social confidence. Some children are naturally confident and others struggle with confidence but I want to know my boys will be equipped with social confidence to see them through different situations.

So this week rather than a 'homework activity' I'm going a bit 'real life'!

Bounce needed a new reading folder for school, which you get from the office. So in we went together. Rather than me asking it for it, paying, sorting it out.... I got him (with coaching and encouragement from the sidelines) to do it. We started with a 'good morning R (school receptionist)', 'Can I please get a reader folder'.

I did the payment as it was on EFTPOS but he also wrote his name on the folder. Of course I would have like to do that myself with fancy writing and what if he made a mistake?? but all of the greetings, asking for what you need, taking responsibility and thanking are special skills that I want him to develop.

If I was held up getting to school one day or there was some other situation arise then I want to think he will have the confidence to go to the office, speak clearly and ask for what he needs. Small situations provide good practice for him to relate to adults, communicate well and feel heard.

Photo Source Here

And for a little more, we went to the markets yesterday afternoon after school - sorry boys we're not walking home to do homework we're going out for a treat - when we got there I told them they could have up to $5 to buy a treat.

In this situation I want my boys to practice these skills:

• decision making - it is a smallish amount of money for them to handle but they can choose from a large variety of options. Looking at options, narrowing down favourites, checking and re-checking is a little tedious and not for the frazzled or time poor but it is a helpful skill to exercise. All through life there are times to make choices and learning to do this and live with the consequences after you tried the first mouthful is an important skill. (Been caught out on choosing something that looks good but tastes disappointing? Yeah, me too!)
• dealing with money and change - I would expect Flip to be able to tell me how much change he will get from his choice and Bounce is still working out what is less or more than $5 by looking at the prices, reading the amount to me and deciding if the dollar number is less or more than 5.
• social confidence - waiting your turn, speaking loudly, saying thank you, handing over money... these are all important activities that children don't get to practice that often in real life contexts

Of course this is also fun, it's a treat, it's building collective family memories and I am very blessed to be able to do these things so easily with the boys.

What about you? Do you encourage your children to take the lead in shop interactions or making requests of adults at school/ kindy? It's easier just to do it myself I admit, but I get such a feeling of delight in seeing my boys take these things on and have success and positive feedback from adults in our community and in the long run these are real skills I want them to have.

Learning Together a series for primary aged children and their parents - activities that break up homework monotony, promote skills and create positive experiences together.

love you more than a sweet treat for mummy too xxx

Learning Together - Putting it Back Together

Learning together is back again after a wee break :o)

Feeling the pinch to get through a whole book/chapter one night?

Too much to take it in one go?

How about taking a page from a book you know they can manage - cut up into sentences, words, or chunks and give it to them in pieces. In our case I just made some up along themes from the boys' nightly readers.

See what you can do with these words - can you make it make sense?

What kind of crazy combinations can you make?

If I read you the text coming up to this page does that change the order you will put it in?

Skills you will be developing in this activity:

• text literacy - capital letters go at the beginning of sentences,  full stops come at the end... this kind of activity enforces basic conventions of narrative stories and information like speech always starting with a capital letter, speech marks...
• sight words - when the words are broken down sight words can easily be identified and trickier words separated out
• reading for sense - does this sentence work? Also engages basic editing in terms of checking for all the words you want or need and eliminating words that don't work.
• multiple reading - sentences will be read, re-read, re-ordered and re-read.

Remember without context the 'tricky' words will be trickier so be generous with clues/help because you want it to be fun and confidence building rather than defeating. Make it fun (and difficult) for yourself by drawing the word they don't know, acting it out, telling them rhyming words...

My boys totally enjoyed this and engaged with it independently as well as being open to assistance and discussion together.

At our place Flip's story was long but he loved it - the story he made was rather nonsense-ish and that made him laugh even more. He re-read it aloud to me several times, to Bounce, to the teddies and to Daddy when he got home. The sentences still worked but the story was crazy and we got a lot of reading aloud with no protests! Success.

Learning Together a series for primary aged children and their parents - activities that break up homework monotony, promote skills and create positive experiences together.

love you more than a spontaneous activity loved by the participants xxxx

Learning Together - I Have My Eye on You

This is a very simple way to help reading stay on track.

As texts become denser it can cause problems with keeping focused on the right word. These little googly eye readers are simple and fun to make. One ice block stick and one googly eye is all that is needed plus some glue if you don't have adhesive eyes.

As little person reads the eye on their stick matches the place where they find their eye in the text.

You can also have word races with these - call out a word from their word list, or familiar words page and get them to see if they can get their googly eye there before you.

Keeping it simple, keeping it fun!

Specific skills:

•  help ease the frustration of a constantly lost place in the book 
• on full page texts with faster readers it can be used as an under-liner
• you can also use it to teach scanning skills by using it with full page text to scan for a sentence, phrase or individual words - being able to scan a text is a helpful skill as children progress further up school and need to find information to support arguements/thoughts/projects
• fine motor skills - making it, manipulating it to point to each word

Learning Together a series for primary aged children and their parents - activities that break up homework monotony, promote skills and create positive experiences together.

Learning Together - Hangman

If you don't have a good small whiteboard in your family supplies I can tell you ours is used more than any other 'toy' we have.

Hangman - a game of words. Even wee Bounce can play this. For the first few rounds he just watched and contributed the odd letter but then he decided he could do it too. Of course his words are simpler and he has less chance of guessing our words.

Why hangman?

• vowels knowledge -  when you play hangman you learn that every word contains at least one vowel (yes sometimes that is a only a y), so you learn which vowels there are and subsequently what a vowel is
• you also learn that vowels don't give as much meaning (chance of guessing) as consonants
• you learn that some consonants appear much more frequently than other ones
• you learn about blends - eg if a word ends in an 'h' it will probably have a 'c' before it, if the 2nd letter of a word is l you are going to guess letters like s and b instead of n and d
• you learn to look at parts of a word and access your own knowledge of other words you know to make considered guesses
• you laugh and you have fun with other family members
• you practise writing letters (not just the ones in the word because we write down each letter as people guess it)
• you make sure your spelling is correct
• your mother chooses words from your spelling list for her words to reinforce letter patterns within the word and to make you laugh when you guess them

You may choose to have conversations about these things while you play or you can trust that many of these pieces of knowledge will just drop into a way of thinking as you play more and more. You are the best gauge of that one - just don't ruin a fun game by making it all about 'teaching'.

If, like me, you don't love the idea of drawing a hanging person we change it up and start drawing a picture of our word, line at a time. Or you could call it something else like sink the boat and do something like that instead.

Learning Together a series for primary aged children and their parents - activities that break up homework monotony, promote skills and create positive experiences together.