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 Boy Back-to-School Capsule Wardrobe

Capsule wardrobes.  The phenomenon that has hijacked my Pinterest feed.  If you are unfamiliar with the concept, a capsule wardrobe is a wardrobe that has fewer elements, however they all are interchangeable, and therefore offer just as many - and often more - outfit options than the average wardrobe.  Capsule wardrobes take more planning, and purposeful purchasing.  They are also seasonal.  Back-to-school is a great time to start a capsule wardrobe, as many parents buy their children a larger amount of clothes, and you want them to last as long as possible and keep the outfits as interesting as possible.  Another characteristic of capsule wardrobes is that there aren't many "trendy" pieces, or pieces with motifs.  With kids and their interests, that can be a little harder, but I think it's doable.  With kids growing as fast as they are, I think capsule wardrobes are a great way to go for people who want their kids to get the most out of their clothes, without spending a fortune.

Here are some basic tips when choosing pieces:

- Stick with only a handful of colors.  Neutrals and blues go with an array of colors.  So for Aidan's wardrobe we went with gray, blue, white, black, dark red/burgundy and mustard yellow.  

- For non-neutral colors, choose ones that go with the season - we chose the dark red/burgundy and yellow mainly because they also work for Thanksgiving and the Christmas season.  

- For accent colors, if you like the "color of the season" (this year it's totally yellow, other years it's been purple, guava, etc.), go with that one, because it's easier to find complimenting colors in different stores.

- If your family tends to dress in certain colors, choose colors that go with what you already have.  We wear a lot of grays and blues, so most things we choose naturally fall into that category.

- I don't love graphic tees, or clothes with cartoon characters on them.  However, I also understand how much kids LOVE these.  So, I try to find pieces that are either subtle, or maybe look a little vintage.  Hence the hoodie with dinosaurs on it, and the admittedly very cool Batman shirt.

- Layers.  Layers offer more options, and they're perfect for Fall/Winter.

Here are the main pieces of Aidan's capsule wardrobe:

Basic pieces:

- 3 pairs of trousers/jeans (a dark denim, a light denim, and a seasonal color.  We went with mustard yellow.)

- 2 pairs of sweatpants (dark blue and gray)

- 2 dress shirts

- 3-4 long-sleeve T-shirts

- 3 sweatshirts

- 1-2 sweaters (I suggest one light weight and a thicker one)

- 5-6 T-shirts (don't go crazy on patterns)

not pictured:

- 2 pairs of long-johns

- 2 pairs of shoes (maybe one more dress pair, depending on your needs.  But honestly nice, clean chucks can be great for dressing up - they're kids, after all.)

Now, I'm not gonna lie, we do have a few "outlying" shirts, and a couple more pairs of pants, but honestly, this is what Aidan wears week after week.  The long-johns not only are of course great for keeping warm; since we've had Jocelyn (5 weeks), we've been having Aidan change out of his school clothes, and into a pair of (super soft and comfy) long-johns, and a cotton T-shirt.  Score!

Here are a couple of pictures showing how you can mix and match the clothes shown above:

There are many many more options, but that's just to give you an idea.  

Reasons I love Aidan's capsule wardrobe:

- I don't have to think too hard about what to put him in - it all pretty much goes.

- It's nice for anytime we take a picture, because he always looks pulled-together.

- Even when I ask Aidan to get his own clothes, there's a pretty good chance it'll look nice, lol!

- It's really easy to see if he needs anything, and then whenever I buy him something new, I'm not just buying stuff to buy stuff.  I have a pretty clear picture of what to get.

Here are the stores we bought Aidan's clothes at:

H&M - it's my go-to for the basics (t-shirts, underwear, long-johns - oftentimes in awesome packs).  The quality can be lacking, but you can't beat the price.

Okaidi - is a new store I found this year, it's where I got the mustard pants and dress shirts.  I really like the quality, and they have good sales.

Gap - I like Gap's version of graphic tees, and it's where we found the Batman shirt.

Name It - This brand is a little more expensive, but there's a store here that has good sales on it, and we really love the sweatshirt and sweatpants set we bought.  Really comfy and well-made!

Capsule wardrobes can be a great way to organize, even downsize and stay minimalistic.  I hope this helps.  Happy shopping!

My Son Thinks Doing The Laundry Is A "Mommy Job"

My son thinks doing the laundry is a "Mommy job".

He also thinks cooking dinner is a "Daddy job".  Cleaning is a "Daddy job".  Making something we call fancy snacks is a "Mommy job".  Making coffee in the morning is a "Daddy job" - one that he insists on doing when Daddy is out of town.  Cleaning up after dinner is a "Mommy job".  Making the beds alternates - depending on who got up with him in the morning - the other unloads the dishwasher.  Daddy puts up the hooks for mommy to hang things in the apartment.  Mommy chops veggies for Daddy.

My parents got Aidan a kitchen for his birthday - because he wants to be just like Daddy.  While his Daddy is busy making dinner, he's usually "cooking" away in his own kitchen - one that has a microwave, unlike ours.  A fact he is very proud of.  

The child has a favorite vacuum cleaner (we have a real one, and a little hand-held one).  He likes to help me sort the laundry, load the washing machine, and push the buttons.  He likes to put the dishwasher capsule in the dishwasher.

So the other day, when I was folding laundry on the couch, and he said that when he got married his wife would do the laundry, the feminist in me freaked out a bit, and in that calm mommy voice we all learn to speak in, I said, "well, you can do the laundry!  And who is gonna do your laundry when you're not married?"  To which he responded, "Like in college?" I said, "Yes."  To which he answered, "You can do my laundry."  I told him that he would probably live too far from me for me to do his laundry, and again, that he could do his own laundry.  By now I'm ready to organize a march, and wear a "She Persisted" shirt.  Then the other half of the conversation came... and he said, "When I get married, my wife will do the laundry, and I'll cook the dinner.  And I'll make coffee.  And we'll have two Slovenian babies, and I'll have a desk."

And there it is.  My little four-year-old is planning his future, and in that future there are chores, equal responsibilities and a desk.  And do you know why? Because it's what he sees modeled in our home every day.  We frequently tell him that we are a team, and that we all work together in our family.  We tell him that we love each other, and so we like to do things that help one another.

After our conversation, my heart could explode - I love how his mind works.  And I'm crazy thankful for the guy who does all the "Daddy jobs", and teaches our son to value the same things.  You know what they say: "Train up a child..."  And we're doing our best.

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 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!