Thursday Quick Tip

I am joining Marcy at Ben and Me today to share a Quick Tip on this Thursday.

I have already posted about the Grumble-Meter, but I thought it was awesome enough to deserve it's own post.

Eli is a grumbler. It really doesn't matter what you announce that you are getting ready to do, good or bad. His initial response is a grumble. That makes for a LOOOOOONG homeschooling day! I knew that I did NOT want to listen to that all day every day.

Eli also does not respond well to losing privileges. That means, it really just doesn't affect him. But he THRIVES on EARNING things!

So that's where the idea of the Grumble-Meter and award system came into play.

The Grumble-Meter is a fancy contraption made from half of a paper plate colored in green, yellow, orange and red. It has a black construction paper arrow attached with a brad. I am currently selling these for $50. Just kidding!

It is attached with an ever-so-fancy clothespin to a sketch pad sitting on an easel. Each week (or every two weeks), I come up with a reward the kids can earn by NOT grumbling! The week you see in the pictures is CIRCUS. This week's is FORTS (we are going to go to a really cool fairy house and fort exhibit next weekend).

Each time ~~Eli~~ one of them grumbles, the arrow moves up. As long as it doesn't get into red, they earn a letter for that day. If they grumble more than two times, it goes into red and no letter is earned. Earning those letters is VERY important! (In fact, the week that the reward was the circus, they didn't even end up wanting to go to the circus. They chose to get ice cream at Dairy Queen and play on the school playground instead. See, it's all about earning the daily letters.)

As I sit here and look at the Grumble-Meter, I realize that it hasn't been moved off green in over a week. If Eli starts to grumble, Brynne says, "Eeeeeli!", and he stops.

This has been an amazing tool. I haven't copyrighted the idea yet, so go ahead and steal it! And have a happy, non-grumbling day!

ABCya

Eli's reading resource teacher shared a website with me yesterday that I would like to pass along. It's called ABCya . There are separate educational sections with fantastic games for ages kindergarten through 5th grade. I browsed the 2nd grade level, and it includes age-appropriate games about Letters, Numbers, Shapes, Geometry, Patterns, Mouse Manipulation, Art and Holiday games. There are lots and lots of fun and creative games for children to play. They are fun, but oh, so educational. Eli's favorite, in his short time playing it, was Create a Car . A lot of the games also have Apps available for purchase (99 cents for most of them) for the iPad and iPhone. I have been looking for another free website for games similar to Starfall , for some time. I think I have found it. I can feel confident having Eli and Brynne play these games.

A Thomas Jefferson Education "This Week in History" ~ Schoolhouse Review

Talk about a GOLD MINE! A Thomas Jefferson Education's This Week in History by Rachel DeMille is her "labor of love" ... and I absolutely LOVE it! " This Week in History is a daily resource that brings your home school or classroom to life." For just $9.99 per month, you can log onto TJEd.com and click the "This Week in History" link to obtain many, many, many resources tied to specific events that occurred in the upcoming week in history. Or even better, you can receive the summaries and links to ALL resources right in your email Inbox each week! It doesn't get any easier than that! What does this really look like in real life? Each week, I receive an email from Rachel DeMille that sets out each date of the coming week. Under the date, there are listed anywhere from one to several events that occurred in history on that date. THEN there are ALL kinds of things to do related to that event, such as books to read, websites to visit, ac

Cells ~ It's What's for Dinner

Dawson made edible cells on Friday. He made an animal cell pizza ... and a plant cell chocolate chip cookie ... He reviewed what he's learned about cells the past two weeks, and I had dinner made by someone else. Win, win!! I am linking up at Science Sunday at Adventures in Mommydom.

Journey to Excellence

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