Can your child identify a zucchini?  A radish?

When it comes to “uncommon” vegetables my kids lack vegetable knowledge.  I have to say that my kids are fairly good vegetable eaters.  They like carrots, corn, broccoli, peas and cucumbers.  These are “common” vegetables in our home.

So last week when we went to the farmer’s market and my son pointed to a squash and said, “What is that?”–panic attack!  Oh no!  My children are vegetable illiterate!  Now what do I do?

Being the resourceful mother that I am, we turned our farmer’s market outing into a lesson on vegetables.

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Do you label items in your house for your preschooler?

Most people typically answer “no” to this question.  Labeling things throughout the home makes it look like a preschool center.  However if you have a preschooler, your house probably already looks like a preschool center with all the toys, artwork and utter chaos that follows this age group.

For beginning readers, labeling items helps them recognize words.  If they see the word, book, every time they go to get a book from the bookshelf, chances are it will begin become a familiar word to them.

Idea of the Day:

Label items in your home.

- Start with simple items such as: wall, door, book, table, chair, etc.

- Make sure to go around with your children and point out the words.

- After a couple weeks, take the labels off and see if your children can put them back on the correct item.

Do your children write letters?

In today’s world of technology, the telephone, email and Facebook have taken preference to the age old art of letter writing.  What does this mean for our children?  Will our children not take the time to write a letter?  Will they not receive letters in the mail?  Will all birthday parties be done on Evite?  I hope not!

Recently my son has started writing to a little girl in Florida (we live in MN).  He loves having a pen pal!  He loves sending and receiving the letters and/or packages.  He has learned a great deal about writing letters as well as going to the post office.

I highly recommend incorporating letter writing into your child’s life.

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Do you have your children practice writing every day?

My 6 year old son is not a fan of writing.  In most subject areas he catches on very quickly.  Writing is different.  It takes work and practice and this is new to him.

Now I do not like to force him to write because then his bad attitude gets worse.  However he needs the practice.

So what is a mother to do?  My solution: Find as many fun and silly writing activities as possible - if he is having fun he will forget he doesn’t like it.

Idea of the Day:

Notebook Tag

- Write a short message in a notebook (make sure each child has his/her own).

- At the end of the message write, “Tag!  You’re it!”

- Hide the notebook in the house.

- Have each child find his/her notebook and write a message back to you.

For younger children simply write shapes or letters.  Then have them practice scribbling or drawing in their notebooks.  This way they do not feel left out of the game.

I found this idea in the Family Fun Magazine - August 2009.  It was submitted by Wendy Ann Mattox of Idaho.

When you and your children visit the library, do you allow them to check out movies?

When my children and I first started going to the library I would not let them check out movies.  For the longest time  they didn’t even know that the library had movies.  Wouldn’t you know they knew I was holding out on them and eventually found the movie isle.

At first my rule was no movies just books.  However my son then proceeded to pull out a video on the planets and said, “But this one is educational.”  He had a point.  So my rule then changed to only educational videos can be checked out from the library.

I have to admit I am glad he found the movies.  We have checked out some great ones.  I have learned more about Thomas Edison and Benjamin Franklin in watching a 20 minute animated library video than I ever did in school.

Tip of the Day:

Check to see if your local library has the following videos:

- Bill Nye the Science Guy.  This series has a variety of topics.  We have watched everything from the solar system to volcanoes.  It also has fun experiments you can try at home.

- Animated Hero Classics Series.  This series is awesome!  We started with, Thomas Edison and the Electric Light. They also have Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Graham Bell and many others.

- Eye Witness Planets.  This video is an information overload for most kids.  However if you have a science kid in your house, he/she will like it.