Are they ready?

I found an interesting resource today. It is the Smithsonian Education website. On it, you can identify your state's standards for education. It was quite enlightening to read what is expected from each grade level and in each subject area. Or maybe it's scary. I'm not sure yet. Ask me later.

Happy Mother's Day

Wishing you all the joys that God's most precious little angels bring!

Stay "N" Play

Just wanted to invite you out to Babies "R" Us in Brandon on Saturday, June 9. I will be part of the Stay, Play and Learn Event that will be there from 10 Am - 2 PM. Join the fun with free Kindermusik classes, valuable product samples, and in-store coupons. To reserve a spot to participate, contact Babies "R" Us directly.

Splash!

Here's a couple of photos from one of my Our Time classes. We were pretending that the blanket was the ocean, and we needed to keep the balls floating on the big, blue waves. Believe it or not, they all worked together to accomplish that task, rather than taking the balls off to play with. I was so proud of them for having such self control. This activity can easily be reproduced at home with friends or family. It's so great for hand/eye coordination, following directions, and social development, not to mention it's just plain FUN!

Rock-a-Bye Baby

I was looking tonight at the history of some of my favorite nursery rhymes. We have laughed in class at how funny some of them are when you really think about the words. However, I found out that Rock-a-bye Baby, for example, is believed to have been written by a Pilgrim boy. He was intrigued by the American Indian mothers who rocked their babies by hanging their birch bark cradles in a tree. They could then work, while the wind did the rest.

It's amazing what you can "pick" up!

My mother sent this photo to me. She took it when we were geocaching recently. If you don't know, geocaching is where you use a GPS system to find hidden containers. These containers contain various treasures large and small. If you take a treasure, then you must leave a different treasure in the box. Anyway, when I saw this picture, I was immediately taken back to a good ol' third grade saying. You can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose. But you can not pick your friends nose! Hope it made you smile as much as it did me!

Book of the month

Someone suggested that I post some of the books I recommend in class on the blog. After all, who has a pen and paper handy while we're movin' and groovin' in Kindermusik class! :-) So this month's recommended book is "Discovering Your Child's DQ Factor" by Greg Cynaumon. This book talks about misbehavior and breaks it down by motivation or personality type. There are tests in each chapter to determine your child's particular personality. The author then discusses what forms of discipline work best for that personality type. This book has helped me as a teacher and a parent. It was so enlightening for me to better understand the motivation behind a child's misbehavior.

Too good for drugs

I read an email today that concerned me very much. It was about a new form of Methamphetamine that is being produced. It is being flavored and packaged to possibly entice children. You may already be talking to your children about drugs, but with this new type of meth, children would easily think it was candy and ingest it. You can read more about this important safety issue at this website or you can google "candy meth" and find several news articles.