Kindergarten preparation

Great outline to determine kindergarten readiness and plan activities before your child starts this fall. We are doing a lot of the things but I realized other ways I can be preparing my 5 year old as well as involving and engaging him more during the last few months and summertime before he starts kindergarten in August.

At home preschool activity

We have been lucky enough to participate in the Utah Upstart program with our two oldest children. While I don't always follow through on activities as I'd like, I appreciate the reminder of things I can with him. 

 

Have you had a chance to read “Baby’s Birthday” yet? If not, you can visit www.utahupstart.org/kids-corner/ to read the book with your child. After you’ve read the book with your child, you may want to participate in either or both of the activities below to ensure understanding and enhance your child’s learning experience.

Sum Up—one way to sum up is to answer two questions:

Who is the story about?

What Happened?

In this story, we could ask:

Who had a birthday?

(A baby monkey.)

What happened?

(The baby monkey celebrated his birthday. He received a ball, a balloon, and a bunny. He also had a birthday cake, a bottle, and some bananas.)

Creative Writing—after reading “Baby’s Birthday”, show your child some birthday cards.

Help you child write down some words you might expect to find on a birthday card (e.g., “Happy Birthday,” “I like you,” “Have a fun day”). Place the list of words in your child’s workspace, along with the appropriate paper and writing supplies. Then invite your child to design his or her own birthday card (this activity can be a great creative outlet for your child, as well as something special he or she can do for a special person).

Homemade Butter Recipe (and Provo Pioneer Day Extravaganza)

For the last two years I've taken my kids to the Pioneer Extravaganza. It's a fun city-sponsored event that celebrates the pioneers entering Utah on July 24th. It's a fun family event with great interactive activities for kids, including riding ponies. They have tons of games, crafts and hands-on activities including making butter. Here's the recipe they gave out:

MAKE YOUR OWN BUTTER RECIPE
1 jar with lid
heavy whipping cream
pinch of salt
yellow food coloring (if desired)

fill your jar 1/3 of the way with heavy whipping cream. Add salt and food coloring. Tighten lid and shake jar for 10 minutes or until butter has formed. Remove butter from jar. Squeeze out the remaining buttermilk and enjoy!

Lego Birthday Party Ideas

Pinterest had tons of great ideas but I was proud of my "original" Lego brick pizza slices for my son's recent 7th birthday party. We also bought a lot of Lego mini figures off of ebay and after each game or activity let the boys choose a piece and build their own Lego guy to take home with them as part of their treat bag. It was really fun! Oh, and if you need a quick, easy and frugal way to decorate a cake, save and cut out "Legos" from the cardboard box. The boys went nuts each choose which Ninjago character to have on their piece of cake. We played Lego games and watched Lego Clutch Powers. The Lego candy bricks, a package of fruit snacks and a snack size butter finger were all in a little treat bag with a cute thank you note (with a picture of a Lego mini figure, of course!).

Lemi Shine: My New Cleaning Friend

I like my house to be clean but I do not necessarily enjoy cleaning. I have a friend who says she'd prefer to clean toilets than cook. I wish we could trade and I'd cook and she could clean my toilets! We recently bought our first house and went from having a roll-away dishwasher in a postage stamp size kitchen to a nice sized kitchen with a regular, newer dishwasher. I was of course excited for this step up in the world but did not forsee having issues with yucky hard water, nasty white filmy dishes! yuck, takes all the fun out of a "new" supposedly nicer, newer dishwasher if your dishes are coming out gross. Luckily I had two friends recommend Lemi Shine  and after another frustrating washing experience stomped off to Walmart hoping to fix my problem. Luckily it has! I ran a treatment through an empty dishwasher to get out any hard water buildup then sprinkle a little in with each load. Right now I am using a Cascade Advanced powder dishwasher soap that I got at Costco (currently there's a coupon off it) and that with the Lemi Shine my dishes are looking MUCH better than any other detergent I've tried by itself (Kirkland gel from Costco and even the Finish tabs that say they include a rinse aid in the ball).

Lemi Shine is my new best friend! seriously, how did I never know such a product existed? My dishes finally are mostly rid of hard water spots (dang hard water here in Utah!) and disgusting detergent film and I've run a treatment through an empty dishwasher, working on the washing machine tonight (letting it soak overnight) and throwing one in the disposal tomorrow. Happy cleaning devices at our house now :) A big thanks my two good friends for sharing their secret with me. If you have never heard of or tried this and are having issues with dishes being clean or would like to do some deep cleaning of your dishwasher, washing machine and/or disposal look for it next time you're at the store (it's all natural too!). Gotta love it when keeping your house clean is a little more exciting and fulfilling.