SMMART TIME-OUT FOR TIDBITS: DINNER TIME

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I recently attended a seminar where Becky, a registered dietician, spoke to an audience of women about preparing healthy meals for the family. She also discussed the value of helping your family appreciate the importance of eating dinner together as a family. She had a few suggestions to help make dinner a special event:

-Let your child choose from a variety of fun tablecloths to set the table

-Use fun, colorful placemats- personalized to each person in the family

-Try using “school lunch” trays to serve dinner

-Set the table with different styles of plates, or a “your special” decorated plate, or special birthday plate

-Take turns pulling conversation starters from a “Conversation Pail” (“What do you like about school?” “If you could change places with your sibling for a day, what would you like best?” “What was the best and worst part of your day today?”)

-Read excerpts from books such as: 365 Manner Every Kid Should Know, Sheryl Eberly or 10 Minute Life Lessons for Kids, Jamie C. Miller or 100 Simple Secrets of Happy Families, David Niven


Here are some other ideas (more can be found on the “Studio 5” website at: http://studio5.ksl.com/?sid=1840540&nid=54)

-Place big utensils on the table (ladle, noodle spoon, tongs, spatula) instead of silverware

-Use chopsticks instead of silverware

-Feed the person on the left his dinner from your plate

-Food color in certain foods (red mashed potatoes for Valentine’s Day, green scrambled eggs for St. Patricks)

Lisa

SMMART READING: SQUISHY LETTERS

Fill a zipper plastic bag with a little squirt of shaving cream (not too much). You can also use tempura paint, pudding or yogurt to use in the plastic bag. Seal the zipper bag and let out all of the excess air.

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Lay the bag flat on a table and spread out the shaving cream inside so it fills into the corners of the bag. Tape the top (seal part) and bottom of the bag to a hard surface, such as a table top or even onto a glass door or window.

Now your child can practice writing letters with her finger or with a round end implement (like a rounded pencil eraser, capped pen top, even a crayon or capped marker with a round top).

-For little ones just learning to master their hand coordination, you can draw a straight line on the bag. Let your little one try to trace the line with her finger. Now try a curvy or zig-zag line.

-Your child may be just learning the letter sounds to start words. Ask your child to write the first letter of a word. “Write the letter that ‘ball’ starts with.”

-Your child can practice spelling words. Dictate a word from your child’s spelling list and she can spell the word letter by letter.

Squishy Spelling = Squishy Fun!

Lisa

SMMART ART: CRAYON-RESIST/RELIEF

I am enjoying a creative blog called: lets-explore.typepad.com
"Amy" shares fun ideas on many different topics.

This activity on lets-explore.typepad.com reminded me of an art project I once did in elementary school, so we gave it a go.

My 3 year old was a little perplexed as she drew with a white crayon on white paper and nothing showed up...but the payoff came when she began to watercolor her "relief" masterpiece.

It is wonderful to expose your child to many different artistic techniques and mediums. This activity provides an opportunity to explore the "crayon-relief" or "crayon-resist" technique:

*You'll need paper, a white crayon (you can use other colors too), watercolor set with a brush and water. (You can also used watered down tempura paint.)

Have your child draw a picture with the white crayon on white paper. Be sure to press down hard so the "relief/resist" effect will work.

Now when your child watercolors on the paper, the white crayon will resist the water color and stay white wherever it is on the paper.

Your child can watercolor a wash of colors over the whole piece of paper, or like my three-year old, just watercolor where she wants and the crayon relief will expose itself in random places.

Lisa

SMMART MUSIC: BOWLING SOUNDS

Empty and dry four tall plastic water or soda bottles. Pour a little bit of rice in one, water into another, and dried cereal into another. Leave one bottle empty.
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Set the bottles up and give your child a ball as she stands a little ways from the bowling bottles. Encourage your child to throw the ball at the bottles to knock them down.
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Ask your child to describe the different sounds in the bottles as they fall. Let your child shake the bottles to explore the sounds that each bottle makes.
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Older children may enjoy:
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-Have your child try to just hit one bottle. Can he name what is inside the bottle when it falls down, just by hearing it shake around?
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-Fill empty yogurt cups or containers that have lids with different substances. Let your child build a pyramid to knock down. Listen to the loud crash.
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-Play a game of bowling and keep score to see who can knock down the most pins after 5 turns.
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-Toss the bottles back and forth. As you catch a bottle, name what is inside just by hearing the sound. Have your child toss the bottle back to you to check if he’s correct.

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-Blindfold your child as you shake a bottle. Ask your child if it’s easier to recognize what is inside the bottle if he can see the bottle or not.

Lisa

THANKS FOR WATCHING SMMART MATH ON

"GOOD THINGS UTAH"

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Here is a link to the SMMART MATH video on the abc 4 "Good Things Utah" website:

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http://www.abc4.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoid=86282@video.ktvx.com&navCatId=462

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Be sure to try this activity out with your children. It's a lot of fun!

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Thanks for watching and stay posted for the date when I'll present SMMART MUSIC!

SMMART MATH: DIZZY DIGITS

This activity may challenge your child’s math skills, and his vertigo.

You will need an office swivel chair and number flashcards. You can easily create your own number flashcards by writing the numbers 1 through 10 on separate note cards. You may also wish to have a notebook and pencil for your child to hold.

Place a swivel office chair in an area where there’s room to move around. Place the number flashcards in a circle around the chair. Make sure the number flashcards are facing inward, so your child can read the numbers when he is sitting in the chair.

Have your child sit in the chair and give him a firm spin. If you do not have a swivel chair, then instruct your child to close his eyes and put his arm straight out, while you spin him around as he stands in the middle of the flashcard circle. You can also use an empty water bottle to spin in the middle of the flashcards as a version of “spin the bottle”.


For young counters:

-When the chair stops, have your child tell you the number where his feet are pointing.

-Additionally, you can ask your child: “What number comes before this number?” or “What number comes after this number?”

-You can count with your child from zero up to the number where his feet are pointing.


For more advanced mathematicians:

-Your child can write down the number where his feet are pointing. Spin your child again and have your child write down this second number.

-Your child can add, subtract, multiply or divide these two numbers.

-You can have your child write the two numbers side by side as you discuss which number is in the “ones” and “tens” spaces. Spin your child again to choose another number and you can work on numbers in the “hundreds” position.

-You can write down two numbers that your child’s feet point to and have him write down the numbers side by side. Spin twice again and have your child write those two numbers side by side. Now your child can add, subtract, divide and multiply numbers with two digits.

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You get the idea…there are a lot of ways to twirl and teach!

Lisa

SMMART SCIENCE: FRUIT AND VEGGIE SEEDS

Cut open a few fruits and vegetables to show your child what each plant’s seeds look like. You can find and compare the seeds of many different fruits. Here are a few suggestions to get started:

-Cut open a tomato and a cucumber and let your child touch the slimy seeds. Ask your child how the seeds from a tomato are different from cucumber seeds. Let your child taste the different seeds and feel them on her tongue.

-Cut open an apple sideways to display a seed star pattern and let your child hold an apple seed. Observe the apple seed’s texture compared to the tomato and cucumber seeds. Observe the rigid holes that the apple seed came from and count the number of star points. Help your child brush on some tempura or finger paint onto the apple star pattern and let her stamp the apple star onto a clean sheet of paper.

-Cut open a mango and show your child how large a mango seed is. Clean the seed and let your child hold the seed to feel its texture and weight.

-Observe the ridges and pointy end of a peach pit. Plant the peach pit in a yogurt container filled with soil. Let your child water the seed and observe growth.

-Show your child a fruit and ask her what she thinks this next seed might look like.

*REMEMBER TO WATCH "GOOD THINGS UTAH" on August 29th, 10:00am on abc4*

Lisa

TIME-OUT FOR TIDBITS

I thought I'd tip you onto a product that we are enjoying. "Elmer's Squeeze n' Brush Paints" are great for the novice painter and great for making posters too. They're quick and easy and contain messes to a minimum.

Set up an easel for your little Picasso. You can create your own easel. Use a large piece of cardboard or purchase a foam board and prop it up against a chair. Place an old sheet under the board. You can use hair claws, those black paperclip clamps, or twist two small tufts of the sheet and wrap them with masking tape to create a support at the base of your foam board so it doesn't fall.

Tape individual pieces of paper onto the sturdy foam board.

Put an old, long T-shirt on your child. Pull loose hair back and let your child paint whatever she imagines.

Now, that's a cute little Picasso!

Lisa