One of my favorite tv shows is NBC's Parenthood. There are so many times when I burst out laughing because I can totally relate to something said or done on the show. I had one of those moments while watching the episode "Trouble in Candyland" during which one mom asks another about how she gets her son to behave and cooperate. "Bribery," she replies. "We call it an incentive program, but it's really just bribery." While there is some debate about the technical differences between bribery and incentives, I found myself nodding in agreement, and laughing out loud.
The final piece of the school at home puzzle is behavior management. You can't be an effective instructor, and your child can't be a receptive student if you both are constantly battling behavior issues. We have created a new incentive program at my house, and so far...it's working. I'm calling it Working on Behavior. My daughter is 9, but very much wants to get a job so she can earn some money. We don't offer allowances at our house, but I won't go into the details of that decision right now . We do, however want to fulfill her need to get some satisfaction for her hard work, so she and I had a talk about the fact that her school work and household chores are her job for now.
After some thinking and discussing we agreed on this...
She can earn up to $10 per day based on her behavior during school and completion of her chores after school. At the end of each week, she will receive her paycheck, which she will need to deposit into her account. She can then use her checkbook to buy rewards from us. Rewards can be things like extra dessert, staying up late on weekends, or extra tv or video game time. We also agreed that other rewards can be added to the list as we go. This allows her to feel more grown up, and gives her more of the things she really wants while teaching her that successes in the working world are linked to performance and effort. (It doesn't hurt that she is learning to manage money and a bank account at the same time.)
I sat down and made a chart to display how much she is earning each day, an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of her weekly pay, and then linked it with Word documents I created for printing her paycheck, blank checks, deposit slips, and check register. I formatted all of these documents so that you can download them and quickly fill in your own information. I set up the spreadsheet to accommodate up to 35 students, and set up the Word documents as mail merge templates so that you can easily print paychecks, blank checks, and deposit slips for multiple children. Download my Working on Behavior Starter Pack for free.
Last, but not least, please congratulate Melanie S. on winning the Ready-to-read Bundle! Thank you for the entries I received.
Karissa
August is just around the corner. Although I hate to cut summer short, it's time to start thinking about getting ready to go back to school. This can mean different tasks for different people. For traditional public schoolers it means buying a list of school supplies, and perhaps new uniforms. For homeschoolers it means planning your curriculum and lessons for the year. For us virtual schoolers it means choosing our children's schedules for the year. One task we all have in common is getting organized. Regardless of what type of school your children attend, they cannot be successful if they are disorganized. Even if your children are pre-school aged, it's nice to make a plan to keep their education (and your life) organized. To kick off the back-to-school month of August I'm linking you to a few school planners to help you get organized. They are aimed at homeschoolers, but are very useful to any student or parent who wants to stay on top of assignments and grades. The Home School Mom has a list of planners with descriptions of each. Some are free, others are not. Some are printable, others are software or databases. Also, Erica from Confessions of a Homeschooler made three printable planners. One is free, the others are $5 each.
How do you and your students stay organized during the school year? Do you have a planner or system to share? Let me know in the comments below.
Karissa
April showers bring...stem and leaf plots? Sure, why not? Especially when the stem and leaf plots are disguised as May flowers. My daughter learned about stem and leaf plots in math class this week. Frankly, I don't remember learning them when I was in school, so we learned them together. In case you don't remember them either, according to her text book they are "convenient ways to organize data using numerical order and place value. The digits to the left of the ones digits are called the stems; the ones digits for each stem are called the leaves." Just for fun, we started drawing flowers, using their stems and leaves for the stem and leaf plots. It was much more fun than doing them the way her lesson suggested. She decided I should make them for my store. (I have mentioned that she's a very smart girl, haven't I?) So, I sat down after dinner and started working on these Stem and Leaf Plot Manipulatives. Visit my CurrClick store to download a copy. The list price is $1.43, however for my blog readers it is free. You can only get it for free by using the link above. I do ask, though, that if you download a copy, please take a moment to rate and review it on CurrClick. It will really help other customers know that I provide quality products.
Karissa
May is here. The kids are in the final stretch of the school year. It's hard to believe another year of school is almost over. This school year has been quite an adventure; one I'm sure the kids will never forget. We moved to Florida just about a week before the school year started, so this has been a school year full of firsts. Regardless of whether or not your school year has been quite as unique as ours, you & your children will want to remember this year and all the great memories it holds. I've scoured the internet and found several free printable memory books to help put all those memories in one place. Enchanted Learning has a memory book children can print and color. Just look on the right side of the page, where non-members can print the individual pages of the book. Elise Stoddard posted a fill-in-the-section memory book on Teachers Pay Teachers which is suitable for middle to upper elementary students. Site registration is required to download the book, however both the registration and the download are free. Fellow blogger and first grade teacher Cara Carroll created a memory book suitable for younger students. Either visit her Teachers Pay Teachers store or click on the image to download it for free. Teacher turned assistant principal, Alicia Lochridge made an 18 page, color memory book available for free at her Teachers Pay Teachers store. It is suitable for younger & older students. Third grade teacher, Ashleigh put together a 16 page, color memory book. Visit her blog to download it for free. It is suitable for older or younger students, however it may not appeal to older boys as much.
With all of the parties and gifts, the end of the school year can get costly. Here are some do-it-yourself, inexpensive gifts to make for your children's teachers. First and foremost, iVillage has put together a list of do's and don'ts. This is particularly helpful if you are new to giving gifts to teachers. The Happy Home Fairy put together an extensive list of ideas. So long, in fact, that she made it a two-part series. Check out part 1 and part 2 to see them all. Mique at Thirty Handmade Days has a few cute ideas as well. Finally, the crew at Tip Junkie has put together a list of 24 ideas to show teacher appreciation.
Now that the teachers are taken care of, what do you send with your child to give to his/her classmates? Don't worry, I found some affordable handmade ideas for that, as well. Maura & Sheila, The Two Crafting Sisters, created adorable candy bags to give away. Erin from Making Memories shared a dollar store goodie bag idea she made last year. Rebecca, The Crafted Sparrow, has a "kool" gift idea for her son's classmates. Finally, 24/7 Moms has found a way to help your children's classmates "have a ball".
Now that you have everyone at school taken care of, how can you make the last day of school special for your own child? I found some very creative ways to show your child how proud you are of his/her accomplishments. First, help build the excitement with this countdown to summer paper chain from Laurie over at Gallamore West. When the day finally arrives, make them feel special throughout the whole day with this keepsake t-shirt idea from Awesome Craft Pins. (S)he can even feel special at lunch with this lunch bag idea from Everything Pink. However, after school is when the real celebrating begins. Dixie Delights posted about how she celebrated her son's last day of school last year. It was quite the extravaganza! I also found this really fun finish line idea from Canadian blogger Gina Bell at East Coast Mommy. Top it all off with this hand made keepsake meant to remind your child of all of his/her great qualities. Confessions of a Teaching Junkie's Mrs. Wilson made them for her entire class, however I think they are great gifts for children at home as well.
Wow. This is a much bigger post than I expected it to be when I came up with the idea. Hopefully, there are plenty of ideas to help you celebrate the end of the school year with your children.
Karissa
One of the reasons I love schooling my children at home is because it allows each of them the opportunity to learn in his/her own style. One of my children is a very kinesthetic learner. She learns best when I give her a manipulative so she can really experience whatever it is she is learning. So it was no surprise to me when she learned fractions that the fraction bars provided by her school were just the tool she needed to fully grasp the concept. They were such an important part of the learning experience that I decided to make my own fraction bars and post them online for free. Visit my CurrClick store to download your free copy. Regardless of what type of school your child(ren) attend, having a set of these fraction bars at home can save time and frustration when solving fraction problems.
Karissa
What time is it? It's time to spring forward for Daylight Saving Time, which makes it the perfect time for some lessons all about time. For many children, telling time is a milestone on their way to becoming more independent. There are steps you can take to help even children too young to really tell time get a little closer to that milestone. One step is to use a clock that chimes on the hour. Chances are your child will notice a pattern on his own. This will give you the opportunity to talk about time and introduce the concept that time can be measured. Another step, which I used regularly with my sons when they were little, is to post a practice clock beside our wall clock. Set the time on the practice clock to whatever time something important would happen (such as bedtime, time for a friend to come over, etc.). Instead of asking if it's time yet, they can simply compare the two clocks to see if they match. Even though they can't actually tell time yet, it gives them a sense of independence (and minimizes their asking, "Is it time yet?" If you don't have a practice clock, here is a free one I posted last fall.
For children old enough to start learning to tell time, I have found a nice collection of lesson plans. The general idea is to start with telling time to the hour. Then practice telling time to the half-hour, quarter-hour, five minutes, and finally to the minute. Here are links to some ready-made lesson plans from Teachers.net, Teach-nology, and Lesson Corner.
Children are inquisitive creatures, so you are bound to get questions about time. I can't tell you how many times over the years my children have come up with questions that I just didn't know how to answer. Keeping that in mind, I tried to anticipate some of the questions you might hear when talking about time. I found a concise summary of the history of telling time on ThinkQuest.org. Time for Time offers a more in-depth look at the history of time. For visual learners, BritishMuseum.org has a video covering the history of telling time.
Once children have learned to tell time, they can move on to other lessons involving time, such as understanding time zones and Daylight Saving Time. World Time Zone has pages for time zone maps, Daylight Saving Time, a sun clock, and more. Both Time & Date, and About's Geography site tell the history of how time zones came to be. If you are looking for information about Daylight Saving Time, visit either WebExhibits.org or DaylightSavingTime.com.
I know this is a lot of information. It may take some time to get through it all. ;-) And by the way, don't forget to set your clocks ahead one hour before you go to bed tonight.
Karissa
Monday is Presidents' Day (and my birthday) and most students have the day off. All too often holidays are taken for granted as simply a day off. We don't take the time to ponder why the day is special, let alone do anything to celebrate it. I've done some research on our presidents recently, and the first thing I can tell you is that there is a ton of information out there. I research a lot of topics. I'm always looking something up. Usually, I search through page after page of results before I find enough information to satisfy me. This time, however, I found great resources right on the first page of my search results, and even more on the pages that followed. So, this year, take advantage of the extra time with your little ones and spend some time exploring the lives of the our presidents.
Biographical Information
The Internet Public Library (IPL2) has links to biographies, historical documents, audio & video files, and other presidential sites are also included.
The Biography channel's website has full episodes, mini biography videos and more biographical information about all 44 presidents.
The PBS series American Experience has 33 hours of streaming documentaries on 8 20th century presidents, biographies of every U.S. President, original interviews, articles, photo galleries, timelines and extensive teacher guides.
Songs
YouTube has a couple fun versions of songs to help teach the names of the presidents in order, one set to the tune of Yankee Doodle, and the other by the Animaniacs. Please note that these songs are a little old; the Yankee Doodle song ends with George W. Bush, and the Animaniacs' song ends with Bill Clinton.
Games
Learning Games for Kids has a collection of presidential online games including word searches and a hangman style game.
Primary Games has a few president-themed puzzle games.
Activities
Enchanted learning has a 2 pages full of crafts and printables, and historical information.
Family Education created a whole page of crafts, activities, printables, and crossword puzzles about our presidents.
Lesson Ideas
Scholastic's teacher website includes everything you need from lesson plans to activities & games to help students learn about past presidents and develop leadership skills.
The Home School Mom is offering 2 free presidential notebooking units.
Extras
Family Education has put together a 10 question quiz about presidential blooper and blunders, and slideshows about presidential pets, and first kids.
The History Channel has nearly 50 short video clips about the presidents.
The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery has a mystery for kids to solve involving a portrait of George Washington.
Karissa
Patterns are an important part of developing math skills. Furthermore, understanding patterns help children problem solve, make predictions, and use reasoning skills in all other areas of their life. This week's Mid-week Morsel highlights a resource found right here at Simply The Good Life. When I first started the blog, I posted the Pattern Puzzles I created several years ago on my Free Printables page, but did not write a post about them. Since traffic has been very low to that page, I decided to write a post about it. There are 10 different pre-made pattern pages (meant to be duplex printed), 2 blank pattern pages for creating your own patterns (again, meant to be 2-sided), and 1 page of numbers to cut apart (print as many of this page as you wish). I recommend printing them all on card stock, and laminating them if possible (particularly if you want them to last through more than one child). I've considered creating more pages with more complex patterns such as ones using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. I'd love to have your feedback. Would you like more Pattern Puzzles? Leave a comment and let me know.
Karissa
This week's Mid-week Morsel brings you a Christmas Factoring Tree. Just in case you're not doing 5th grade math right now, a factoring tree is a diagram showing the prime factorization of a number. Prime factorization is the process of breaking a composite number down into its prime factors. My daughter does happen to be doing 5th grade math right now (which means so am I), so I decided to make it a little more fun for us to practice prime factorization. I created two versions of this free printable; one sized to use at your student's desk, and the other sized to hang on a wall or chalk board.
This week's Mid-week Morsel is for parents, teachers, and geography & social studies buffs of all ages. While digging through my very long list of educational bookmarks on my laptop, I rediscovered a link to Maps ETC, a website produced by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology. They have an enormous collection of printable maps. I'm not just talking about blank maps to color in; they have historical maps, political maps, black & white maps, color maps, and many others from every state in the country, and every continent on the globe. This is definitely a site to add to your bookmarks list for future reference. What must have links in your bookmarks list help you live the good life? Please post them to share with others.
Karissa
Early this morning we "fell back" from Daylight Saving Time. This is a perfect opportunity to start thinking about telling time. When my daughter was a preschooler, I created a printable practice clock for her. The hands and numbers are color coded to help little ones differentiate between hours and minutes more easily. Now I'm making it available for you to download for free.
- Print the clock, and the number sheet.
- Cut out the hands and numbers. I recommend laminating all the pieces so that they last longer, but it's not required.
- Punch a hole in the end of each hand and attach them to the clock face using a paper fastener or brad.
If you want to have the ability to attach the digital clock numbers to the practice board, I suggest either attaching a small piece of Velcro to the number spaces and the backs of each of the numbers, or printing the numbers on a magnet sheet and posting the practice board on your refrigerator. What tips and ideas can you offer to others for teaching little ones to tell time?
