Reading Jars (a way to re-use all the little toys cluttering your house and motivate reading!)

Here comes summer! I needed a way to motivate my 7 year old girls in their reading. They just were not all that willing to sit and read very often, and needed to practice. I got an idea when looking at all the little random things shoved in the corners of the schoolroom. 

Quickly I grabbed two mason jars from the cupboard, one wide mouth for little hands to reach in and the other regular mouth. Next I took a sharpie and wrote on the regular mouth jar, "Reading Jar!" with stars and happy faces, covering it with random stickers from the sticker drawer. Next, I scoured my house for little bits. You know the bits: games pieces without the game, pretty buttons, little shells, broken hair clips, a domino or two, beads,dice and more. I found enough to almost fill the wide mouth jar by looking in our junk drawer, schoolroom and corners of my kids bedrooms. Next I told them the rules. "Whenever you read a book to someone (even the dog!) or when someone reads to you (Mom, Dad, Grandma, brother etc. . .) you get to reach into the jar and pick out whatever you want to go into the reading jar. When the reading jar is all filled up there is going to be a big surprise!" 

I'm saving the Groupons I got for a local kiddie amusement park for that special day! To my surprise and delight they already filled up half their jar! We have been doing a lot of reading! They have fun reaching in and searching for their little choice for the jar. 

Turn STEM into STEAMM- ART and MUSIC is important to Education

Whenever I see the tag word STEM I have always thought something was missing. Doesn't science, technology, engineering and mathematics walk hand in hand with the creativity and brain development art and music training provides? There is a strong connection between music instruction and math ability that is well known. (google it- there are too many references to post here!) I have seen with my own eyes, as an art teacher, children light up when they are doing art. Often, their confidence and creative skills greatly improve. Also many children find healing from trauma and decrease in stress as a result of doing art.  Isn't that what we need in our society? I hope this generation of children find love in art and music and use these God given gifts to worship Him and serve others. Whether they use it in a traditional sense, or in science and technology, it will be a benefit to many and enhance their lives.
#turnSTEMintoSTEAMM #creativitymatters #bringbackartandmusic

My son writing his own music
#turnSTEMintoSTEAMM

Our "Not So Halloween" Tradition

Our family isn't a big fan of Halloween. We don't like scary decorations, or themes that are based in the occult or other fear based subjects. I don't believe this honors God or is beneficial to my children.

"This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all." 1 John 1:5

So what to do, as a family, to be honoring to God and have fun together?

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things." Philippians 4:8

I want to share our family tradition that we have done the past two years (this will be the third!). We live in a neighborhood with lots of kids which means lots of trick-or-treaters, but strangely is also is a neighborhood with lots of scary Halloween decorations ( really scary ) demons coming out of the ground, body parts, etc. . . Not good for little ones! (Or anyone). So we put a BIG bowl of treats and tiny Bibles, and small toys outside with a cute sign, "Take One Please!" and leave our porch light on. When I say treats I mean granola bars, real fruit snacks, vitamin C lollipops, and other better choices. (who thought of giving kids so much refined sugar and other junk right at the beginning of cold and flu season? What a dumb idea.). Anyways. . . .Then I make homemade maple caramel popcorn (its done in less then 10 minutes, recipe here.) And all six of us cuddle on the couch with hot cocoa or cider and popcorn and watch the old Disney Swiss Family Robinson from the 1960's. My 6 and 8 year old remember this tradition and they are so excited for it again. I asked them if they wanted to change the movie this year and they said no. They love the movie and it makes it so special to watch it once a year as a family.

Most important I am teaching my kids something different.

Here are a couple of the many verses in the Bible concerning witchcraft. Consider what your children read, see, and engage in. Is it flirting with what God detests? Is this going to lead them closer to Jesus, closer to love, to light, or farther away?

"I will destroy your witchcraft and you will no longer cast spells." Micah 5:12
"Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God." Deuteronomy 18:10

Next post: Yummy Maple Caramel Popcorn!