Letter Recognition Wheel

This project is SUPER easy!  I made the designs for you, all you need to do is open, print, cut out and laminate the different letter wheels.  Then find 26 clothes pins and write the same capital letter on both sides of the clothes pin, A-Z.

Callie did this all by herself!!  She was so proud! 

It is important for you to make the letters on the clothes pins, capital letters AND it is important that you begin this project using the Capital Letter Wheel.

Developmentally, children will learn to match capital letter to capital letter first because they look identical.  As children get better at matching capital letters, they can move on to the lower case wheel.  Children can continue to use the same capital letter clothes pins when they use the lower case wheel.  Doing so will encourage their letter recognition skills between upper and lower case letters.  The third wheel, Picture Sounds Letter Wheel,  is to be used as a phonics tool, alongside the letter recognition wheels. 

The most important part of using these tools is YOU being present.  Take 10 minutes to sit down with your preschooler and explain how to play the game and then be there to watch, encourage, and guide them through the game.         

Break: an interruption of continuity or uniformity.

Whether it is a 3 minute break away from a whiny child, or a 2 hour break that includes girlfriends and margaritas, all moms need a break.  When I lived in a small town and was involved with the Fire & Rescue Squad.  I got a lot of breaks… some when I needed them, others when I didn’t, or quite often when I was sleeping.  Sometimes the “breaks” were a quick, non critical medical call and then a nice break at the fire station with fellow squad members.  Other times, the break was an incredible tragedy followed by a “break” consisting of emotional breakdowns, graphic reflection, the affirmation of continual support from your crew members and more often than not a pack or two of cigarettes.   It’s a proven that emergency workers deal with an excessive amount of stress (if you want to argue with that, you can dream my dreams one night).  Many people associate smoking with being a form of stress relief.   If you’ve ever pumped on the chest of a 90 year old man while his wife looks to you to save her life partner, you know what it means to have an incredible amount of stress on your performance.  If you know what it’s like to search for a child on a snowmobile trail for hours in the worst snowstorm of the year in jeans and tennis shoes, you know what it’s like to put your own needs aside.  If you know what it’s like to stand on an interstate in the middle of a full moon night surrounded by 6 helicopters, 9 different fire agencies, more than 20 squad cars, an over turned semi and 3 bus loads full of injured high school band students; you know what it’s like to stand in awe over what you have just witnessed.  Stick with me, I’ll get to the point, I promise. 

Additionally to my medical training, I was trained in Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD) and did numerous stress debriefings for emergency services workers involved in critical incidents.  A critical incident is described as a traumatic situation that has effected one, many or all members involved in a call, be they fire personnel, law enforcement, dispatch, and medical personnel.  Typically, any incident involving a child, a traumatic death, or an incident involving a member of one’s own squad qualifies as a critical incident, among other incidents.  Members of a crew involved in a critical incident can experience symptoms associated with post traumatic stress disorder.  It was my job to help them sort through their angers, questions, sadness’, nightmares, etc.  As a member of the debriefing team, I was taught a phrase that has stuck with me into mother hood.  We are trained to teach people that they are having “normal reactions to an abnormal situation”, and that is where motherhood and servicehood meet with respect to breaks.  Ready for the comparison?    

As mothers, isn’t almost every single situation we come across on a day to day basis some sort of abnormal situation?  There is no instruction manual.  We don’t have policy and procedures to follow.  There are no standard operating guidelines to define what you do when your 4 year old punches you in the face.  Crayon artwork on the wall- abnormal situation.  Bottle of baby powder emptied on your carpet- abnormal situation. French fry stuck in a nostril- abnormal situation.  Economy size can of Big Sexy Hair hairspray used to coat the bathroom mirror- abnormal situation.  Being a mother is nothing but a series of abnormal situations that we have to react to.  Normal reactions to an abnormal situation…some days I wish I had more normal reactions to those situations, but hey… bad moments don’t make bad moms… right!?  Hang tight, I’m getting to the point.     

I used to get breaks…I no longer get those breaks.  I served on a Rescue Squad for 7 years and resigned due to a family move that left us 1,000 miles outside of the squad response area.  Really, I wanted to remain on the squad, but I feared that my response time to scenes would not have been acceptable.  I miss those sporadic “breaks” from motherhood.   

Moving 1000 miles from home and being thrown into a role that I haven’t ever played before, has some of the same stresses as my previous life as an emergency worker.  There are so many similarities- stress on performance, putting my own needs aside, and standing in awe at what I’ve just seen…but being a stay at home mom, these moments are more than just sporadic.  These are things I do more than several times a day.  Hard things several times a day = much more of a need for a mommy break. 

Are you ready for the main point of this whole post? 

I’m terribly embarrassed to admit this, but I am a very new former smoker.  I quit smoking in light of my recent hospital stay.  I started smoking when I was young (because it was cool) and continued into my adult life where it was an addiction, a crutch and a coping mechanism for dealing with the “hard things”; I’ve smoked on and off for the past 13 years.  No need to tell me about how bad smoking is.  I know.  Almost every member of my family who has passed has passed because of some form of cancer.  I know the risks.  No need to lecture me about how much of a terrible thing it is for me to be a mother and smoke.  I quit when I was pregnant and I NEVER smoked in the car or in the house with my children, and I hope you can understand that I am embarrassed to have been such a negative influence to my children.  No need to tell me about how much time or money I’ve wasted on smoking… I’ve done the math, I get it.  128 minutes a day for the past 3 years = 2,336 hours.  Let’s not even get started on the money part of it because all I can think about is how many pairs of shoes my daughter and I could have in our closets right now and that makes me (and her) sad.

Here’s my battle- I figured it would be easy to quit while I was in the hospital… and I was right.  It was super easy while I was in the hospital… but being at home is different.  I need a break!  I need a moment of silence.  When the kids get a little whiny, all I can think about is a cigarette.  When I get done cleaning the bathroom, all I can do is think about rewarding myself with a cigarette.  It was my break- it was my reward for a job well done or it was my few minutes of peace with no one tugging on my leg asking me to do something.  It WAS the only silence I got every day.  Now it’s been 7 days since I have been a non smoker.  It has been easy up until today.  By now, all the nicotine is gone from my system and I don’t have the actual chemical craving anymore, but I miss the action of getting a break.  Today was a tough day and I can honestly say, it was a tough day because all I could do was think about having a break.  I’m not giving in though.  I don’t want my kids to kiss an ashtray.  I’m on a mission to be a MOMentous mom.  Some days it’s tough, some days it’s not.  I can do hard things.  Until I can conquer this physical craving of getting my breaks each day, I will spend my 128 minutes a day writing and skimming Pinterest, because dangit, Mommy deserves a break. 

MOM! I'm HUNGRY! Can I have a SNACK?

Do you feel like all your children do all day is ask for food, say they're hungry or hang out in the kitchen all day?  Until a week ago, I was going crazy trying to explain to my children that they need to wait a half hour for snack or lunch or dinner.  What is a half hour to a 4 year old?  That is not measurable time for them!  It's like asking you, how long is a minute in heaven.  You don't know what time is like there because you haven't experienced it, you haven't been taught!  To a child, 3 minutes is an eternity (just ask them when they are in a "time out" or "take a break").  Instead of being frustrated that they don't understand a half hour is 30 minutes, teach them the importance of time by making them their own clock!

Making a clock is easy or getting one online is even easier (and less time consuming).  I Googled clock and found mine- complete with red and blue hands!  I copied the image, then pasted it to a Word document and printed it out.  Once I cut the 3 pieces out, I laminated them.  You can use scotch tape to hold the hands in place, or even sticky putty.  Normally I would have used a brass fastener to hold the hands in the middle but evidently those were lost in the move.  I put the clock next to the real clock so they can compare the hands.  You could even stick red and blue stickers on the hands of the real clock to show each hand more clearly.  Make sure you put the right color on the right hand or they might never get that snack.  FYI- if you have a clock with a second hand, this can be tricky for them.  You'll have to explain the second hand simply by telling them that it drank too much coffee and is a little crazy, much like Mommy is in the morning.    

Teach your children the value of time by showing them.  Teach them the dying art of reading an analog clock!  They still teach this in school, so children need to know it!  Not only will their teachers will be elated, but your life will be so much easier when your children runs to you and asks you, "Is it time to EAT yet?".  You simply ask them to go check the clock!  "Do the two clocks look the same?"  Don't forget to change the clock after each meal. :)

Please remember this one thing.  The minute you put the clock up, they aren't going to automatically get it.   Remember they don't know how a clock works until you show them.  You will have to take a minute each time your child asks, to go to the clock together and compare the hands.  The first day will seem like an eternity to you, checking and comparing the clock every 5 minutes, but each day will get better.  About the 3rd or 4th day, you will be able to ask them to go check the clock by themselves.  **Alacadabra** No more, "MOM!!  When do we eat?"

Happy Clock making MOMentous Friends!

The Joys of Slides

Thankfully children love slides. A slide can provide hours of running up and down flights of stairs inevitably wearing your children down so they will hopefully take a good nap or, God willing, sleep in the next morning. But the slide can be a wonderful teaching tool! What can you learn from a slide you ask, well let's think like adults for a minute. You know when a little girl with long hair flies down a slide enough times, they wind up looking like a child who stuck her finger in a light socket.  What's that called? Static electricity! Does your preschooler know those two big words, probably not, but they will learn those words when you take 3 seconds to say it.  3 seconds, and you just made your child smarter!  Imagine what you could do with 3 minutes! Let's learn about more things children can learn from slides!

Simple Machines aka Ramps and wheels:  do you have a toy car at your house?  If you have a boy, I bet you have a million and ten cars! Big, little, chewed on, broken?  Ask your child to grab two cars before you leave for the park (believe me, they won't object).  Make sure they are 2 different sizes.  Explain to you child how ramps make things go faster.  Ask them which car they think will go faster down the ramp.  Take the cars to the top of the slide and let them go at the same time.  Leave your child at the bottom of the slide to be the scientist.  Have your child grab a stick.  Ask them, "what do you think will go faster down the slide, the car or the stick?"  Do the experiment and let them answer why they think the car went faster, then explain a wheel.    
Sound travel: play telephone with the slide!  They are sure to enjoy that!
Friction: did you ever notice that certain types of pants make you soar down the slide?
Counting: help your child understand one-to-one correspondence by counting each step as she steps.
Alphabet: very creative parents will take advantage of handwritten love notes (usually written by 6th graders on a mission to spell a dirty word) on playground equipment!  Hey, your child can't read yet, but they might be able to recognize a few letters.  Let them "read" what it says to you, this inspires their creativity!

My Mission for MOMentousness

Operation MOMentous

Momentous as defined: a decision, event or a change that is of great importance and significance especially in it's bearing on the future.

As a mother of two preschoolers, I can't think of anything of more importance and significance than being a mommy. Making a decision to be the best mom I can be, brings lots of events (most celebrated, some swept under the rug to remain there forever) and a HUGE change that I see in my children daily.

Stayed tuned for MOMentous ideas to help your children learn. Ideas that are cheap, ideas that are creative, and ideas that are easy to do! I'd love for you to join me in Operation MOMentous!