Okay so I know that it's not Friday but at least I am getting closer....
We DVR'd Flight of the Navigator a little bit ago. I had totally forgotten about it until I was deleting some things on the DVR and came across it. Remember that movie? It was one of those that we watched over and over and over. I was at Target and noticed that they had it in their cheepie section. I also noticed a few other of our favorites, Goonies, Karate Kid, Escape to Witch Mountain, Return to Witch Mountain, Gremlins, Short Circuit, Superman. The best part is that they are all under 13 dollars! I think that our video collection is going to grow soon.
My sister, brothers and I used to play a game called Movie Theater when we where kids. It wasn't really much of a game actually. We would take all the movies that my family had in our movie cabinet, take them out and spread them all over the floor. Then we would go through each clunky VHS tape and write the title on a piece of notebook paper making a list. As we made our "list" of each movie we would talk about our favorite parts, recite lines, and play out scenes from each movie. The whole idea of "the movie theater game" was actually to list all the movies, vote on a favorite and then watch it. We usually never made it to the voting or the watching. My mom would probably say that all we did was make a big mess but aaahhh the memories! Cleaning the mess was so worth it now that I have those memories. The only messier game we played was store but that is another story...
It is fun having the kids get a little older and be interested in a lot of these old movies that my sister, brothers and I used to watch. On Sunday we like to play games and watch movies together, just spending time doing our version of family stuff. I am going to turn on Flight of the Navigator tomorrow and see how they like it. Anyone want to come over!?
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Kindergarten Graduation
I remember very little about kindergarten. I remember it being all day. I remember having snacks and punch in little paper cups. I remember refusing to nap on my towel. Those things I remember but I don't remember having a graduation.
Emily had her kindergarten graduation yesterday. They did a good job of keeping it short sweet and to the point. The kids all sang a song about going to first grade to the tune of "New York, New York" that one of the teachers had made up. Then they each got to go up when their name was called and get a certificate and picture. This is Emily's:
They did a good job of hiding her chopped of bangs. If I had known they were taking them I would have tried to convince her to wear a nicer shirt, not like it would have helped, she would have worn what she wanted anyway. She definitely has her own style! It looks a lot better than the snapshots we got since we were a little to far away from the stage. We all got treated to punch and cookies in the classroom when it was finished. That was Andrews favorite part. It's hard to believe that she is all finished with kindergarten and headed to first grade. It seems like just yesterday she got lost getting on the bus as a brand new school kid. The boys are very jealous that she is done with school and they still had to go today and tomorrow. Schools out tomorrow, YIKES! Now the fun really begins.
Emily had her kindergarten graduation yesterday. They did a good job of keeping it short sweet and to the point. The kids all sang a song about going to first grade to the tune of "New York, New York" that one of the teachers had made up. Then they each got to go up when their name was called and get a certificate and picture. This is Emily's:
They did a good job of hiding her chopped of bangs. If I had known they were taking them I would have tried to convince her to wear a nicer shirt, not like it would have helped, she would have worn what she wanted anyway. She definitely has her own style! It looks a lot better than the snapshots we got since we were a little to far away from the stage. We all got treated to punch and cookies in the classroom when it was finished. That was Andrews favorite part. It's hard to believe that she is all finished with kindergarten and headed to first grade. It seems like just yesterday she got lost getting on the bus as a brand new school kid. The boys are very jealous that she is done with school and they still had to go today and tomorrow. Schools out tomorrow, YIKES! Now the fun really begins.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Flashback Friday on Tuesday
My friend Charlene always tries to do a flashback Friday post and being the great friend I am I think that I am going to steal the idea from her. I am going to try to always do them on Friday from now on but this time we are making an exception.
The bus comes at 7:00 sharp so the kids have to be up early on school mornings. Usually I can't drag them out of bed but this morning they all got up nice and early in anticipation of Field Day. Remember field day?
I loved field day in school. Not only did it mean you got a whole day of playing games outside and not doing any work but it was also that signal that the end of the school year was upon you. Aaahhh, a morning full of kickball, softball, and mini track and field events. Some schools we went to even had each class wear a different color shirt or would give medals or ribbons to those"exceptional athletes". One year on the morning of field day my school also had a pet show. I got to bring my cat who of course won nothing and spent the entire morning trying to run away. It was successful a couple of times. Lessons learned: cats don't like leashes...and you can still do field day covered in scratches. I'm sure that my mom was also there. She often helped out with field day at our schools. I will have to ask her if she remembers this.
Here in AZ the kids don't get to have field day all day like we did. They only get to have a small block of time set aside for each grade. With temperatures already in the triple digits they get to wear swimming suits and shorts and tank tops to school for just one day and have "water field day". Wouldn't that have been fun as a kid! I just hope that they are making as many memories as I did when I was a kid that they can remember for years to come.
The bus comes at 7:00 sharp so the kids have to be up early on school mornings. Usually I can't drag them out of bed but this morning they all got up nice and early in anticipation of Field Day. Remember field day?
I loved field day in school. Not only did it mean you got a whole day of playing games outside and not doing any work but it was also that signal that the end of the school year was upon you. Aaahhh, a morning full of kickball, softball, and mini track and field events. Some schools we went to even had each class wear a different color shirt or would give medals or ribbons to those"exceptional athletes". One year on the morning of field day my school also had a pet show. I got to bring my cat who of course won nothing and spent the entire morning trying to run away. It was successful a couple of times. Lessons learned: cats don't like leashes...and you can still do field day covered in scratches. I'm sure that my mom was also there. She often helped out with field day at our schools. I will have to ask her if she remembers this.
Here in AZ the kids don't get to have field day all day like we did. They only get to have a small block of time set aside for each grade. With temperatures already in the triple digits they get to wear swimming suits and shorts and tank tops to school for just one day and have "water field day". Wouldn't that have been fun as a kid! I just hope that they are making as many memories as I did when I was a kid that they can remember for years to come.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Reward boards & chore charts
I am a list maker. A very, very big list maker. I have lists and charts for everything. I had a friend once that laughed when she found something that I had not made a chart or a list for because it was a bit rare. As the the kids have gotten older some of the lists have gone away and some have stayed. I have struggled with finding a chore chart and reward system that would work with the varying personalities in my kids. I found one awhile ago that works so well I have to share. It's at www.myrewardboard.com. It was designed and created by the same gentleman that created the Jump Start series of computer games for kids. It says that it is geared for ages 5-12 but we have started our kids on it younger and it works well. You download it and then can do everything on the computer or print things out to hang up around the house.
You get to set up a chore and/or a goal chart for each child. Then you get to customize the chores or goals anyway you want. When they complete them they get a "happy". There is lots of interactive features and lots of clapping and congratulating from the happies. If you do allowances you can also use the piggy bank feature.
At the end of the week they kids get a payout day when they get to collect star points for what they have done for the week. As the parent you get to determine how many star points chores are worth and it has parental locks so that they can not do their payouts without you. They have a list of award certificates that the parent can turn on and off or you can create your own. They redeem the star points for the certificates.
The things I like about it are that I can customize chores differently for my 10 year old than my 6 or 4 year olds. I also like that you can print out achievement certificates that they can hang on the fridge or in their room. My favorite thing is that you can type in your own chores or choose one from the list. The lists have everything from being nice and not hitting, to doing the laundry. My kids love it. You can get a free 15 day trial on the website. That gives you a couple of weeks to try it out. It's a very motivating program for kids and besides who doesn't like knowing they did a good job?
You get to set up a chore and/or a goal chart for each child. Then you get to customize the chores or goals anyway you want. When they complete them they get a "happy". There is lots of interactive features and lots of clapping and congratulating from the happies. If you do allowances you can also use the piggy bank feature.
At the end of the week they kids get a payout day when they get to collect star points for what they have done for the week. As the parent you get to determine how many star points chores are worth and it has parental locks so that they can not do their payouts without you. They have a list of award certificates that the parent can turn on and off or you can create your own. They redeem the star points for the certificates.
The things I like about it are that I can customize chores differently for my 10 year old than my 6 or 4 year olds. I also like that you can print out achievement certificates that they can hang on the fridge or in their room. My favorite thing is that you can type in your own chores or choose one from the list. The lists have everything from being nice and not hitting, to doing the laundry. My kids love it. You can get a free 15 day trial on the website. That gives you a couple of weeks to try it out. It's a very motivating program for kids and besides who doesn't like knowing they did a good job?
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