Outdoor Fun!!

We are having a huge problem with obesity in our country and the epidemic is starting younger and younger with children.  A major part of the problem is all the processed foods that we eat and the fact that our bodies are made to crave fattening things, which kept us alive back in the day as hunters and gatherers but for now with the grocery store just a car trip away it is an instinct that is very challenging to overcome.
This is how obesity has increased in just the last few years!!

This is an issue that I have not quite figured out myself yet. So instead of informing you on something that I dont know much about I will give you some insights on the other side of the equation = Activity!
We live a very sedentiary lifestyle and the children watch their parents sitting all day so that is what they think is normal.  Then very exciting and interesting things are created which encourage children to sit and zone out all day such as television and video games.  While that may be more normal for an adult it is definitely not normal for children.  They need activity to keep them healthy but also to learn the skills and coordination that they will need to be sucessful in life. 



When an adult actually takes time to do something active with a child it makes such an impact on that child!  These are activities for you to do with your child, the more we encourage them to learn these skills and the love of being active the less disease and heartache they will have to go through later in life. 

So at school we have had a goal to have two different outdoor activities every day at school and it has been so much fun!!  I will share some of them with you.  These are great and the kids have loved them!!  First, we started with balancing activities.  So we started with a piece of tape on the ground and having the kids walk on the tape like a balance beam. Next we have a balance beam at school but you could easily make one.  Just take an old 2x4 board and lay it on the ground and have them walk on it.  It doesn't need to be high.  If they are under 5 just get a whole bunch of shorter lengths of boards (go to home depot if you dont have them laying around and buy a 2x4 and just have them cut a whole bunch of 18" lengths or do it yourself.)  Let the child lay them out in any pattern or way they want and then practice walking around on them. 



Next do stepping stones (this can be anything somewhat flat that the child can pick up and move).  Have them jump from one to the other.  They will challenge themselves if they are ready and try to move them further apart to jump further this is a great activity for them.



Next let them try balancing with their small muscles.  Get easter eggs and put something in them so when they hit the ground they explode open.  Put the egg on a large spoon and have your child take one and you and do races without dropping your egg off of your spoon.



Then we moved on to some other activities.  First we tried your basic tag, then we moved on to freeze tag.  Whoever gets tagged needs to freeze and someone has to climb underneath their legs to unfreeze them (ps this is hard to do for adults we learned you have to teach this to kids but they have to crawl under each others legs because an adult crawling under a child doesnt work.



The best tag we learned though was ribbon tag.  Everyone sticks a piece of ribbon in their pocket or their beltloop if this is not an option just tuck it in the top of your pants.  If they are as long as the child's leg that is about right.  They dont have great muscle control yet so they need something to grab onto that is not such a small target but you also don't want them to trip over it.  Then you try to get other people's ribbons.  Kids don't really care who wins or loses they just have so much fun playing.  They really understand getting tagged as well because it is a concrete thing (when their ribbon is taken they were tagged).  This was so much fun the kids have begged to play it again almost every day since.



Another fun thing is bubble's.  I learned that every time I give a child bubbles they inevitably spill them or the wand is too big for them to have enough force to blow out the bubbles.  Then I went to a wedding and found the solution!!  Wedding bubbles!  You can get them at almost any dollar or craft store.  It is a tiny amount of bubbles so if they spill then no big deal, and it is easy for them to make bubbles with the tiny little wand and they love catching them on the wand after they make them.  You buy a big thing of bubbles and let the children have the small wedding bubbles it is a blast.

Next try bowling!  We just filled up a bunch of old bottles with a little bit of water then we put them all in a row on the cement and gave the kids balls and they bowled to see how many they could knock over. Then we showed them how to line them all up again and they played the whole time we were outside.



You can always play london bridge, duck, duck, goose, and ring around the rosies.  These are simple favorites.

Walks are always a hit as well!  Try to find something different for every walk.  Bugs, or different leaves you can do an art project with.  Different grass, rocks, textures to rub with crayon or chalk and paper.  Things you can glue together and make a collage.  Pinecones that you can take home and cover with peanut butter and bird seed then hang in the trees to make birdfeeders.  Watch clouds, walk to the park.  Walk somewhere and fly a kite. There are a million ideas of things you can do on a walk.  And go different places.  Even if you take your car somewhere and then go for a walk.  You will be amazed at all the things a child will see that we don't even notice anymore as adults.  A walk a day at least is so great for a child!  And there won't be any toys to clean up at the end!



These are just a few fun ideas I will post more later!!

Toodles

Ster's Birthday

So I was really excited about Sterling's birthday this year.  Unfortunately I worked over 14 hours the day of his Birthday so we couldn't celebrate on his birthday.  For years Sterling has wanted an old motorcycle that he could restore with his brother.  A few weeks ago he mentioned that he would really love to have an Ipod, then later he decided he really didn't want an Ipod but I told him he might have told me too late.  I called his brother Jacob and asked him if he could possibly find him a bike that we could afford.  He told me he would do his best and within two hours he had a bike for Sterling everyone but Ster knew about it and we were so excited to see his face.

     So Friday the day after his birthday we all gathered at his parents house, siblings, grandparents and all.  We had some great burgers and dogs roasted by Trent.  Then we had so much fun with the Butt cake that Hope made for Ster.  We lit the candles and Alyssa (our adorable 2 year old niece) helped Ster blow out the candles and then Ster showed Alyssa how to grab a handful of cake.  I need to get the pictures from Becky.
   
     Then I got to give him a box that looked as though it should contain an Ipod but instead it held a key.  He walked around the house and there it was!!  It was so fun.  He was just obsessing with excitement about starting to work on it.  We are meeting him at Jacob's Tonight so he can start.  I will get the pics up as soon as I can.
-Goodnight All-
I will try to put some more activities on soon

Never Say Never

This week my brother who has a pretty good mix of learning disabilities, (he could not even read until after 7th grade) was married to a wonderful woman named Jill in the Salt Lake Temple.  It was beautiful! When he was 12 and still acting like he was 5, none of us ever imagined that this could be possible for him.  In the last few years he has really grown up (not that he doesn't have a long way to go, but who doesn't).

Growing up he despaired at times that he would never have a normal life.  He used to think he was garbage sometimes because he just couldn't seem to understand things, or get things right.  He would cry and sob and tell us "you are normal you don't understand what it is like to be me.  I will never be able to make it through college, I will probably never get married, who will marry me?  I will never have kids.  I will always be alone."  He started trying to date a couple of years ago.  He was introduced to another girl with disabilities and he was so sweet to her.  He planned everything around her.  He bought her huge gifts for valentines and Christmas.  He did almost anything she wanted to do.  They both loved being able to say they had a boyfriend/girlfriend and being able to hang out with their married or dating friends and feel normal.

The problem was that this girl was not nearly as ready for a relationship as Matthew was.  Developmentally and socially she was pretty far behind him.  She would barely let him touch her and never kiss her.  She spent most of the time at our home hanging out with my sister and not Matthew.  She just was not ready for a real relationship yet.  This lasted a little over a year and Matthew was getting a little frustrated.  One day he just decided that he had been taught his whole life what to do to ask for something you really wanted and that he was going to try the principle.  He fasted a number of times and for long periods.  He then went to the temple and prayed so hard and really had faith that a miracle could happen for him.  He came home and told us all that he felt strongly that he was going to be married withing a year.  We all thought that is not really possible Matt but we didn't want to crush him.
He said he had tickets to a Real Salt Lake game and if I could put him on LDS singles to see if he could get a date to the game.  I helped put his profile on and quickly a wonderful girl responded that she would like to go with him.  Matt met her at the game and that is that, they have been inseparable ever since.  We all thought that no one could look past his disabilities and see the amazing Matthew that we all knew, but Jill did! sometimes I think she sees him clearer than the rest of us.  Now less than a year later Matthew is married and on his honeymoon.  I hope and wish the best of everything for them!  They may face more obvious challenges than some of us but with Matthew's faith that can bring about miracles, and the love I have seen them have for each other, I believe that they have a better chance of making it through those obvious trials than many of us do at making it through the ordinary yet unforseen ones.
Best wishes, luck and love sent out to you Matt and Jill.  I hope you have everything you ever need, and that that love you have will truly continue to bring miracles into your life!

Carly, your big sis

 

P.S. The wedding pics on the right were taken by Wesley our Family Historian :)

More Writing

Kids love to write at first.  Just give them a pencil and paper and let them practice writing their name and anything else they can think of.  After a while it becomes a little boring though, so change it up a little to keep them excited about writing!!

In our classroom we have little white boards and dry erase markers that the kids can write with.  We have chalk boards as well.  We have different colors of chalk, pens, colored pencils, crayons, markers, sidewalk chalk, and anything else we can come up with.

This week I just put 5-10 of the three letter words from the earlier post Beginning Readers!   
on a tray with a new writing utensil they had not used yet and the writing material for them to use (for example a white board and dry erase marker, or colored pencil and paper)  And left it on the shelf.  I did not even need to explain to them what to do they just started doing it.  It was natural for them to want to copy what they saw.  Next week I might change it up by changing the words, or by changing to a different color paper, or pencil or marker.

Tomorrow we are going to use sidewalk chalk outside and we are definitely going to be practicing writing!!  The kids love it.

By the way, if you keep one thing out all the time they tend to get bored.  Keep it out for a day or a few days then take it away for about 2 weeks or change it to something a little different and cycle a few different things.  It will keep them excited and interested.

Even kids that have every toy in the world will get bored if every time they go to play with their toys the same things are there.  Try breaking your kids toys up into groups and changing them out every week or so to something different.  You will be amazed at how much more interesting their toys seem to them when they don't see them every day.  I saw a mom who kept a few different laundry bags of toys in her basement and every week put all their kids toys in a laundry bag took it downstairs and brought a new one upstairs.  What a great idea!!  This keeps the toys interesting, without buying new toys all the time, and it also cut down on her mess only having 1/5th of her kids toys around at a time.