Letter Board Chore Chart For 5-Year-Old

I did it!! You probably thought that hipsters had exhausted all the ways you can use letter boards - but no! I found a new use for them! You're welcome!

We've been reaching some new "big kid" milestones with our oldest.  I feel like it can be easy to forget how much he's capable of with a new baby around, but he really is ready and able to do so much!  There are many studies that show that kids who grow up doing chores end up being more successful and responsible.

We've always had him do things around the house, so this isn't a brand new concept.  However, I realized recently that he might enjoy earning some money, and that of course there were many chores that he could do!

You can search "chores by age", and find lots of great ideas for what kinds of jobs kids can do at certain stages.  Aidan already does a lot of them just out of habit, but I wanted to make some chores more consistent.  Also, we have a unique situation, where Aidan "works" all day at school - he is busy learning a new language.  When he comes home, he's usually exhausted.  So, I didn't want it to be way too much.  Anyway, here's what you'll need:

12x16 inch letter board, like this one

Exacto knife

Piggy bank (we went with a 12x12 shadow box one, similar to this.  I like it, because you can see the money accumulating!)

Desired skills:

- fostering good work ethic

- learning to tithe

- valuing money

- learning to save

Directions:

1. Use the exacto knife to get a clean cut when you're cutting out the enclosed letters.

2. Title your board if you like (kids love seeing their names).

3. Write out the (abbreviated version of the) days of the week on the left, leaving two lines between each word.

4. At the top, list the chores.

5. I added the chores that are only weekly at the bottom.

Another layout option for more chores would be to have just the first letter of each day at the top, and then the chores down the side.  Your choice! :)

We're using all the little symbols that came in the pack to "check" off the days.

And there you go!

What we've achieved so far:

- all week, Aidan has come out of his room with his bed made! Now, I'm not delusional, I know the excitement of it will wear off, but for now I'm loving it!

- he loves "checking things off" his list, and is enjoying the sense of responsibility. Yay!

Hooray for big kids, and new milestones!

Preschool Fun: World Bee Day (Svetovni Dan Čebel)

Welcome to a new holiday!  May 20th is officially the first World Bee Day - started and promoted by Slovenian beekeepers.

Surprisingly, Slovenia is the bee capital of the world!  They have the largest number of beekeepers/capita!  Here is a link you can go to to find out more about it!  Here is the Facebook page for the World Bee Day, and here is their website.  Slovenia's honey is world-class, there is a long history of beekeeping, and as someone who likes bees, this is great news to me!

Honestly, on actual bee day, pregnancy got the better of me, but I've been making up for it since!  

For starters, here are some "bee" products we love.  These are not all local, Slovenian, but it is all part of supporting bees!

Products

1. Honey - duh.

Or, "med", in Slovene.  The bees in Slovenia are the Carnolian bees.  My personal favorite Slovenian honey is acacia honey.  YUM!  I put honey in my tea, on pork loin, in yogurt, and if you're having a traditional Slovenian breakfast, you have it on butter bread.  Yeah.  It's awesome.  Here's an added tip.  When you use honey, make sure you lick the knife or spoon - apparently that's approximately how much honey ONE bee makes in its life - you wouldn't want to waste a whole life's work!

2. Bee's Wax Candles

There's a stand at our local market that sells bee's wax candles, and we have a couple in our bedroom.  For a fun family activity, you can find "make your own candle" kits on amazon.com.  In school in Hungary, we had a "tradition and heritage" class, and we made bee's wax candles, and it was loads of fun!

3. Bee's Wrap 

This single-use plastic alternative food storage item is cotton fabric, which has been dipped in wax.  You can wrap it around things, or as a lid on a bowl.  It seals because of the warmth of your hands.  It is perfect for fresh produce, cheeses and bread.  Each wrap can be used for about 100 uses - you clean it with cold water and soap.  It's may seem a little expensive up front, but if you're truly cutting out that much plastic wrap and ziplocks, 1) it does end up being cost effective, and 2) obviously it's better for the environment.  I got a set of them for Christmas, and have LOVED using them!

4. Burt's Bees

Dan can't live without his Burt's Bees chapstick.  He's one of those people who has a car chapstick, a bedside table chapstick and a pocket chapstick.  He swears by it!  I've been using their belly butter against stretch marks, and we plan on using their products on our baby.  (On a side-note, their baby clothes, burp cloths and bedding are SO soft.  It's totally one of our favorite baby product brands.)

I showed Aidan each of these products, and we talked about how important bees are.  Without bees, there would be no fruit, no coffee... it would be a sad, sad world!

Activities

1. Plant a Bee friendly garden

When we lived in Florida, we sowed some seeds in the corner of the yard, in the hopes of growing some flowers for bees.  Unfortunately, it didn't quite pan out.  Here in Slovenia, we have a balcony, so we came up with this way to have an herb/flower garden.  There are some specific plants that attract bees, a few are: lavender, sage, thyme, oregano, rosemary and parsley.  Of course, there are pretty, colorful flowers you could use too, but we were more interested in a "functional" garden.

2. Recycled Bee Craft

 For this beeeee-autiful craft, you'll need two toilet paper rolls, yellow and black paint, newspaper, scissors and a black marker.  
First, you have your kiddo paint a toilet paper roll yellow (for the record, IKEA has great kids' art supplies).  Then, you have them paint a couple black stripes with black paint (I drew a faint line each time to help him stay straight all the way along).

Then, you help them cut out the wing shapes out of newspaper (watch those fingers!!), cut a strip of toilet paper off, cut it in half, have them paint them black, glue them in for antennae, and draw on a face.  Ta-da!!  So cute!








3. Bee Worksheets

 It can be (really) hard to get Aidan to sit down and color, or write, or do much of anything that wasn't his idea.  But he got a HUGE kick out of writing the B-s, and was super excited at how well it was going!

I found this, and a couple other sheets on pinterest.  I looked at them, and tried to pick the ones that were age-appropriate, and that I thought he would like.  This one had a fun, identify-the-letter section, that we used a stamp on, which of course made it tons more fun!

Snacks

1. Honey Lollipop

 Like I said, Slovenians love their bees and their honey.  There's this great Honey House shop in Ljubljana.  They have honey, honey spreads, candies, lotion, candles, etc.  I bought myself a blueberry money spread, and yes, it is as yummy as it sounds!

 I found this fun honey lollipop for Aidan...

which of course he loved!

2. Honey Comb Snack

For this snack, I used a banana, half a strawberry, some blueberries, and cashews.  Oh, and candy eyes. :)

We talked about how all of these foods (minus the candy eyes) need pollinators, like bees, and how important they are!

Watch

1. Wild Kratts Season 1 Episode 10 - Honey Seekers - this episode is about the honey seekers - lions, honey badger - in Africa, and of course the African killer bee!  So much fun!

2. Wild Kratts Season 1 Episode 32 - Flight of the Pollinators - this episode is all about what different pollinators there are - bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, etc.  I seriously always learn something new when we watch Wild Kratts!

3. More Than Honey - this is a really interesting documentary currently (or at least last time I checked) on Netflix. 

Preschool Fun: Earth Day, 2018

Earth Day!

With Aidan being in school full-time, and adjusting to life in a new country, we haven't had any of our school days at home.

But, today we were home, and it happened to be Earth Day!

So, here we go:

Activities

1. Bird Feeder

 For this activity, you'll need a toilet paper roll, some twine, seeds/nuts and peanut butter.
You'll need to thread the toilet paper roll onto the twine.
This is a great exercise for "reusing".  The toilet paper roll, obviously had a previous life, and the twine was from a tag on something I bought. :)  Also, I only had a tiny bit of peanut butter left - not really enough for anything else.

 First, you slather the toilet paper roll in the peanut butter.

And roll it in the seeds/nuts (we used sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sunflower seeds and some crushed up nuts that we had.)

 Then, you hang it up in your backyard - or in our case balcony. :)

Ta-da!!

2. Watering Plants

We have an herb garden on our balcony, so we made sure we watered them while we were out there!

3. Active Recycling

 Living in Slovenia, recycling isn't really an option - it's just what everyone does.  Which, of course is how it should be.  Our trash can is already divided into sections, and Aidan is really good about always double-checking where his trash is supposed to go.

After we used up the peanut butter, he rinsed out the glass jar, and set it to the side with the other glass things for recycling.

4. Reducing

Throughout the day, we talked about the different ways we could "reduce" the resources we have - like water or electricity.  For example, not letting the water run while we brush our teeth, not wasting the water while we wash our hands, and of course turning the lights off after we've left a room.  We also walked to the grocery store - a pretty common thing in our home honestly, but we talked about why it's important. :)

5. Poster!!

We used a big paper shopping bag for our "poster", and then collected all the things we did under the "Reduce", "Reuse" and "Recycle" tabs.

Food/Snacks

1. Earth Pancakes

For this breakfast I had Aidan help me make pancake batter, then I made up the pancakes, and arranged the grapes and blueberries on it to sort of make out the continents. And of course, a strawberry heart. :)

2. Earth Sandwich

I made Aidan's sandwich on a Kaiser roll, and then cut out some green bell pepper (which was the first thing he ate off the plate, I might add, woohoo!) to - again - make sort of continent shapes, and used cookie cutters to cut out apple slices to write out EARTH.

Arts/Crafts

1. Upper/lower case letter "E" coloring

Now that we've mastered the upper case letters, it's time to get started on the lower case ones!  This coloring page was great - all the water shapes that needed coloring had an upper case "E" on them, while the land ones had lower case "e"s on them.  After he was done, he wanted to cut it out - and who am I to stand between a boy and his fine-motor skill practice, lol?

2. Q-Tip Painting

 I found this coloring page on Pinterest.  All you need is some paint and Q-Tips, and you're set!  For the record, we bought our art supplies at IKEA, and I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised!

Such concentration...

3. Art Out Of Recycling

 We used that same shopping bag from earlier as a back, and since we didn't have any newspapers lying around, I used what I had - tons of IKEA instructions - for our paper.

 Aidan made a handprint, with a heart in the middle,

And then colored a blue and green border around it! :)

Books/Media

1. All The World by Liz Gaston Scanlon

I have not braved the Ljubljana public library, so the books I had on hand were just that - what I had on hand.  But this is a great book that shows different sides of our world, and that we're not all that different.  I'm particularly in love with the illustrations!

2. The Giving Tree by Shel Silversteen

While not strictly about the Earth (and of course, it can be taken to be meant in a more metaphorical way), it is about using up resources, until there are none left.

3. The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

Of course, this is an Earth Day classic, but it's always worth reiterating.  Honestly, I probably say "I speak for the trees" more than my husband finds amusing, but it does come to mind a lot. :)

4. The Magic School Bus Rides Again

(and the original too, of course!) Aidan and I both really enjoy this reboot, and of course as always, I learn something new from each episode!

And that's pretty much it!  That's how we spent our Earth Day this year, how about you?

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Preschool Number Practice

Aidan has been doing wonderfully with his letters, but not very sure about his numbers.  So, before we move on, we wanted to review them!  We focused a number a day, and with the exception of the game, we did the same activities.  Not to create monotony  but rather give Aidan the confidence that he knew how to "master" each task.  So, here's each day:

Day 1

1. Game

 I found this egg matching game, which was perfect for Spring!  We counted the dots, put them in order, talked about the numbers, and matched them!

Obviously, this was a fun game, and he liked it!

2. Play-Doh

 I found some play-doh mats (I can't find the originals, but if you just google that, you'll find plenty).  I wish I had a laminator, it would make them reusable. This is a great pre-writing exercise.  Take little pinches of play-doh, and place them within the lines of the number.  

Then fill in the number grid!

3. Q-tip Painting

I found some Q-tip painting sheets.  I thought it would be more fun than it apparently was... 

4. Worksheet

I'm not huge on worksheets, but this one was fun, and the truth is, kids do need to learn how to write, and these were very manageable.  Also, ironically this was one of Aidan's favorite activities each day.  I found them here. 

5. Lunch

Cheese, carrots, strawberries, and a sandwich, all cut into the shape of the number 1.  Yummm!

Day 2

1.  Game

For this game, you'll need 5 green shapes that look like tree crowns, 15 blossoms, and 5 clothespins with the numbers 1-5 written on them.

 We clipped the clothespins to each of the trees, and then counted out that many blossoms.  Again, perfect for Spring!

This activity practices fine motor skills, counting, putting the numbers in order, and number recognition.

2. Play-Doh

 Aidan loves the play-doh part of each day!

3. Q-tip Painting

But not so much the Q-tip painting.  I can't even be upset, look at that face!!!

4. Worksheet

He did so well on this one!!

5. Lunch

I used a dolphin shaped sandwich cutter, clementines, and a slice of mango.  Yum, yum, yum!

Day 3

1. Game

 I took flashcards, and clothespins, and then we put the correct number of clothespins on the card.  Easy peasy, and fun!

We take counting very seriously!

2. Play-Doh

Getting better each day!

3. Q-tip

At least he did it, haha!

4. Worksheet

He does so well at circling the 3-s!

5. Lunch

I used sandwich for the aquarium, carrots for the net, and fruit leather for the three.  I'll let you guess which part he ate first!










Day 4

1. Game

I wish I cotton balls or pompoms, but I didn't.  So, I used fruit snacks.  So, I took cupcake liners, wrote the numbers 1-5 on the bottom, gave Aidan some tongs, and we counted out the fruit snacks to each cups.  It was really funny!

Yay!










2. Play-Doh

He was doing so well with making little balls!












3. Q-Tip

There's a slight smile... haha!













4. Worksheet

He's been doing so much better with the worksheets than I thought he would!












5. Lunch

For this yummy lunch, I cut a sandwich into 4 little hearts, to make a four-leafed clover.  I used round slice of mango in the center, cucumber for the stem and leaves, and cherry tomato and olives for the ladybug.  Oh! And fruit leather for the number!






Day 5

1. Game

 I found this Five Little Monkeys Jumping On the Bed Activity.  I just so happened to have the book!  It was so fun, I read the book, and Aidan would take a monkey off the bed each time, and change the number on the corner.

 He enjoyed it so much more than I though he might!

The concentration in is face, melts my heart!












2. Play-Doh

He's doing such a good job!













3. Q-Tip

He finally did it all by himself!  Wahoo!













4. Worksheet

Circling the numbers is his favorite part!













5. Snack

I used gummy frogs, fruit leather for the tongues, and raisins for the flies and number 5.  As you can imagine, it was a huge success!

And that, my friends, has been our week of numbers!