How to join in a conversation

Joining in a conversation is a skill that some people have naturally and others need to learn and practice.   Personally, I've never been that comfortable joining in group conversations, I'm much better one-on-one. Particularly as a kid I often found myself not knowing what to say or how to start a conversation - and I remember lots of awkward silences!


So - this is one area that I really want to help our kids learn to be comfortable with. 

An idea we started using a while ago was conversation coasters. I made up a few coasters with questions on that were placed on the table at dinner time. During the meal, everyone had to ask somebody the question they found on their coaster. We used lots of questions about the day, for example.


"What was the best thing that happened to you today?"

"What did you learn today?"
"Who did you play with and what did you play today?"


These coasters proved to be a great hit,  our daughters really enjoyed using them.   After a while of using them, they gradually became more confident with conversations - using the questions from the coasters to start and join in conversations when we have dinner guests.  These coasters have also been enjoyed by friends and family members who have come to visit.



We haven't used those coasters much lately- using the same questions over and over again does get a bit repetitive and boring. However, since our girls are a little older now, I thought it was time to make some new questions and start using this idea again to extend their conversation skills and ideas.  We tried this first new set out last night at dinner and once again they were lots of fun!



For kids who are shy - this is a great way to get them talking in a group.  To practice speaking with given questions and 'roles', it will build their confidence and also provide examples for them to replicate and build on for future conversation situations.



I'm hoping to add new question coasters every few weeks from now on. Using the same questions over and over again each day doesn't really work, so the more we have to mix up the better.



If anyone has any suggestions for questions to put on these coasters I'd love to hear them!



How do you encourage your kids in conversations? Do you have any ideas to share?




Doing homework in the car


Do your kids get homework? When do they do it? There is of course the whole sticky situation of whether or not homework is a good thing (more about that here). Personally I'm all for it. Our girls get a variety of homework -and have to learn to find time for it amongst their busy schedules of school, sports, music practice, reading, playing etc. 


Both our girls this year have been receiving a homework 'grid' which has tasks on to be completed over the space of 2 weeks.  Some of this is recorded reading, some is worksheets, and then there are tasks like telling their parents about things they have learned in class,  discussing news items with their parents, or verbally practising times tables, or maths exercises like doubling or practising 'rainbow facts' (numbers that add up to 10). These latter verbal tasks are ones that we do in the car on our way to and from school.



For a while now we've done times tables practice in the car journey to school. This has become a challenge for the girls who now get started with it as soon as we get into the car and have often both finished before we've even left our street!

Now we add in whatever homework tasks they have too. We live close to the school and our journey is only 5 or 10 minutes, but it's enough to do a little maths practice or discussion. 


My favourite parts of the homework are when the task is for the kids to tell their parents about things they are doing in school. When this is a 'homework' task, the happily chat away telling me all about their day. Whereas if you just ask, "So what did you do at school today?" all to often the response is , "Nothing."!



Do you ever do 'homework' in the car with your kids? Do you think it's a good idea?






How to whistle with a blade of grass or a leaf



Can you whistle with a blade of grass?  We used to do this all the time as kids when we were out for walks.


For me who can't whistle, at least this is one way I can make a kind of whistling noise!



When our eldest daughter was practising her clarinet yesterday - I took our younger daughter outside to show her a reed instrument she could play outside to make a similar noise to her sister's clarinet!



You find a blade of grass that is nice and wide, and place flat and taut it between your thumbs as shown in the picture above. Then you blow through the small gap just below your thumb knuckles - through the edge of the blade of grass. This makes a kind of whistling noise.  



It took a little playing around with, but we managed it in the end and had fun playing our own reed instruments!



My daughter then told me that a friend at school had whistled using a leaf in a slightly different way. I'd never heard of this before - but good old You tube had a couple of videos - and after watching this one, I found a leaf in the garden and managed to make tuneful sounds with that too!








And here's the link to a 2 minute video of a man playing an amazing version of Eidelweiss - with a leaf!!!



So  - why not go out into your garden and find your own musical instruments for yourself and your kids and start practising!




When simple progress isn't motivation enough



How good are you at motivating yourself to stick to regular practice of something? Me - sometimes I'm good, sometimes not so good.


I'm a fan of check lists, and tables to record things in, to help get things done. 

For example - our eldest daughter is learning the clarinet just now as part of the school brass and wind programme. She has a notebook to write in each week, when and how much she practices. She knows the teacher will check this each week, so this helps to encourage her to practice!


I've mentioned before that our elder daughter and I have less than perfect eyesight and we're both using eye exercises to help improve that. Back in March, we started using a chart to record when we did our exercises - aiming to do them three times each day.

I have to say here, that my eyesight has since improved heaps and I no longer need glasses (I've used them since the age of around 10 for distance vision).  



Lately however, we've both become quite slack, and our chart has been blank quite a lot of times!



After a trip to the opticians, our daughter was also told that one of her eyes isn't working as much as the other and the optician recommended the use of an eye-patch to help stimulate it to work.  We were told that this is something that needs fixing while she's young to avoid the need for glasses, so it's really important that she uses this eye-patch.



However - I know she find this uncomfortable and right now she's not having any problems seeing at school, she can read the board fine and so has no real incentive to do the exercises - other than knowing they are helping her!



 If she doesn't practice her clarinet enough - her teacher may tell her off, but there aren't likely to be any serious consequences from that. However - if she doesn't use her eye-patch and exercise her eyes now, potentially she will need glasses and her eyesight will deteriorate.



This is something I feel is very important to stick to, and so I need to find a way to make sure she sticks to the exercises and eye-patching each day. So what to do? 



I think I'll go the route of financial reward again. I used this recently as a week long challenge to stop negative comments and moans and groans! It was very successful in getting our girls to think about what they were doing!



So - it's 15 weeks until the end of the school year. I'm going to use this fixed time to offer a financial incentive for each week our daughter does all of her eye exercises and eye-patching every day. Then at the end of the 15 weeks, an added larger bonus, if she's completed the full 15 weeks successfully!


Hopefully this will provide a good enough incentive to get her into the habit of exercising her eyes and will be a long enough foundation to stimulate her weaker eye. She should also see some tangible progress on the eye charts in that time, which should help her continue thereafter!



Of course then I just know our younger daughter will want to join in and have the chance to earn herself an equal amount of money too - so we shall have to think of something she can do each day and check off on a chart too!



What do you think of using money as a reward to get your kids to do things?  How do you stop them then asking for a financial reward for everything they do? For doing their homework etc?



What alternate ways could we use to get our kids to stick to an important daily routine?







Using Lego to encourage kids to write stories

I recently stumbled across a new lego set called 'Story Starter". It comes with a software kit and the idea is that kids can design, build and write their own story using the lego kit. They then take photos of the scenes, and use those photos in the software to create, then print their own story using different templates, like comic books or newspapers.
Here's a video that shows a little more:
What a great idea!
One of our daughter's friends recently made a short video with the help of her mum, using her toys set up in scenes. Our girls were very impressed with this, and now want to try making their own movies of stories they make up with their toys!  

I need to look for some video editing programmes or apps to help them with this, and after seeing this Lego idea, I think I'll suggest this story making type of idea too!

Does anyone know of any good programmes or websites that you can use to edit videos or have templates for adding photos to make stories? 
Have you tried this with your kids?
I'd love any suggestions or ideas.


Cycling on the road for kids



Over the past few months, our girls have been taking part in a few kids triathlons.  The bike part of these is the most challenging for them, and is something we've tried to help them with.


With the triathlons involving riding on roads in some cases, we have been trying to take our girls out on the roads on their bikes to learn the road rules.  Fortunately we live in a quiet suburb, so there are plenty of safe places to practice turns, roundabouts and signalling, and each time we go out, they are learning more and improving.






Cycling Proficiency in the UK


Growing up in England, when I was at primary school (about our girls age) we had cycling road rule lessons at school. The playground was set up with cones and road markings and we cycled around learning the road rules.  At the end of our 'training' we took a Cycling Proficiency Test and if we passed got our cycling proficiency badge and were ready to cycle on the roads.  This test has since been upgraded to a programme called Bikeability. There are now 3 levels and badges, but no test at the end. I think it is such a great idea and programme to help prepare kids for biking on the roads.





In Australia



Here in Australia unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a national bike programme like Bikeability.  I have just discovered that one of the local state schools here in Cairns, has a bike education programme for their kids, with a mock road set up complete with street signs and traffic lights. Learning to cycle and follow the road rules is apparently part of their school curriculum !  What a great idea and resource for the school to have. 



Our school does not have a programme like this, so I will continue to take our girls out myself and teach them road rules, getting them to practice and learn from real experience on quiet roads.


I do wish there was an equivalent to the Bikeability programme here in Australia - and making it part of the primary school curriculum is a fabulous idea. I would be all for that!



Is there a bike learning or safety programme for kids in your country or your school?  How did you yourself learn road safety on a bike? and how are you teaching your kids this?










Hockey




This year, both our girls took up hockey as one of their after school activities.


They had both tried it out and really enjoyed it at a boot camp they attended at the beginning of the year.


Although they are 2 years apart in age, and are on different teams, they have both ended up training and joining in with the other's team in some way. Our youngest 'plays up' with the older team, and our eldest joins in the younger kids training sessions, then helps the manager organise the substitutes and practises with the players off the turf during the younger team's matches.  So we now have 4 days a week of hockey (2 training sessions, and 2 matches). Plus, every spare moment the girls get at home they are out in the garden with their sticks and balls practising! 


Why Hockey is a good sport to be involved in.

 Both girls have been swimming for a long time now, training and racing but hockey is the first 'team' sport our girls have become involved in. This is something we, as parents wanted to encourage to help build those skills of working with, and relying on others. 


It's great that they have found a sport that they are enjoying so much and it has the added bonus that several of their friends play it too! Hockey is a very well organised sport here in Cairns, with a great network of coaches and players of all ages and levels, so if they choose to continue after this, their first season, there is a well great community for them to join, with structured training and well marked pathways to move forward in the sport.




The down side



For all the positives about hockey, I do have to admit that the risk of injury worries me. The experience of buying and moulding mouth guards with the girls was a new one!  And helping them get padded up to play goalie too.  They've never needed any protective clothing for swimming!!





Learning


For me watching and supporting the girls in hockey is a learning curve. As I've helped out managing the younger team occasionally, I've had to learn the positions and try to understand the game a little!  I did play hockey as part of my school sports as a kid, but never enjoyed it. (I used to run up and down the side of the field avoiding the ball! I preferred netball and volleyball.)


As the girls learn the positions and rules of hockey, we can see their understanding of other team sports we watch has improved too.  


Since this is their first season, they are learning something new every week, so this is helping to keep them interested and keen. That, together with the fact that they are playing with their friends means that it's a sport they are going to continue with for a while I'm sure.


I'd better keep watching and learning myself, so I can share in and enjoy their post match discussions over dinner!



What team sports do your kids play?  Did you play the same sport as a kid?








Borrowbox - instant library access


Do you or your kids read e-books?  Since our girls saved up for their own Samsung Tablets a few months ago, they are quiet happy to read either e-books on those, or 'real' books.


A little while ago, we discovered this great app for the tablets, that allows you to borrow e-books direct from your local library.




It's a relatively new app - and has already gained some good recognition: BorrowBox - from Bolinda Publishing, won the Book Industry Digital Innovation Award earlier this year here in Australia!



We discovered this great app, after I bought a couple of books for our daughters from the local charity shop.




The books were from the very popular children's Molly Moon series.



Both our daughters read the first book in the series and loved it. Of course the other book I had found wasn't book 2 but book 5!



So we went onto our local library website to see if we could reserve the second book to pick up next time we went. The library did have the book, but only as an e-book.  So we went ahead and reserved, then downloaded the book to our computer.  We then received an email with the reservation details on and also details of this Borrow Box app.



So onto her tablet our daughter went, downloaded the free app, logged in with her library card details, and there was the book all ready for her to read!



The book stays in the app for the reservation time, when you have the option to renew just as you would with a regular library book.



I am so pleased we stumbled across this app. Our girls love reading and so do we. The collection of e-books and also audio e-books that our library has is huge!  



To be able to seize a moment with a kid who shows an interest in a particular book  - to be able to instantly produce that book for them to read is wonderful! Anything that encourages reading in children definitely gets my vote.  



Is your local library linked to Borrow Box? Bolinda Digital, the e-publisher that produced Borrow Box is Australian, but I couldn't find anything about it being available in other countries.  I would imagine there is an equivalent though.



Do you borrow e-books from your library? Do your kids?









Spotto - how to improve your observation skills



Have you ever heard of or played this car spotting game?  My girls were taught it recently by a friend of theirs. Quite simply, when you're in the car out and about, if you see a yellow car then you try to be the first to shout 'Spotto' - to claim the point for that car.  The girls have also added more things to the list of things to spot - including pink cars (Pinko), Purple cars (Potto) , cars the same as ours, Learners and more. They seem to add more each time we go out!



When I was a kid, we used to go on lots of driving and camping holidays and played plenty of games spotting things out of the windows, which was great to while away those long hours sitting in the car.



I think that "Spotto" is an Australian name for this game and seems to be quite well known and used here.  I found an entire website dedicated to the game, with lists of rules and points!



There are 'Spotto' sheets you can download and print out for your kids to use like bingo sheets in the car, and there is even a Spotto app for your iPhone!



However you and your kids play this game - whether just through speaking, or you have printed sheets or a phone app, it's a great way to help improve and develop observation skills.



Observation is an important thing to develop for everyone. It is a whole brain skill, paying attention to detail, using memory, analysing and focusing.



Good observation is also an important aspect of good eyesight - and for this reason this is something that I am keen to encourage in myself and our elder daughter in particular since we both have less than perfect eyesight! (read more here about how we're using eye exercises to improve that!)




Do you play a version of 'Spotto' when you're out and about with your kids -  in the car or perhaps just out walking? What kind of things do you look out for?









Hopscotch



Do you remember playing hopscotch as a kid?


I was reminded of it the other day when I was doing a video workout which had me doing hopscotch moves!



The traditional kids game of hopscotch involves drawing a grid with chalk like in this picture. Then you jump across the numbers in order - hopping on the individual numbers and then jumping two feet down, one on each of the double numbers.  A stone or small object is also used and thrown into each numbered square in turn, with the player missing out that square, then as they turn and hop and jump back along the numbers they stop to squat down and pick up the stone.


Kids love playing this game - I remember happy times playing this myself as a kid - but finding it in my workout programme has made me appreciate the benefits of playing it too!




I read that hopscotch was originally invented as a training exercise for Roman soldiers! Whether or not that is true I don't know, but it is a good form of exercise!  Jumping and hopping is a good cardio workout.  Getting your feet inside the right squares helps your stability, core and balance.  Then there is of course the squats to pick up your stone! Great leg workout!






This ladder pictured here on the right is what I got as part of the package with The Asylum workout programme.  Here's a quick snippet of one of the workouts using it!  It's an amazing, tough workout - a lot of it mimics kids school yard games, for example hopscotch and skipping.  




Lots of different sports use ladder drills as part of their training - from soccer and football to hockey basketball and tennis!



So get your kids out there with a piece of chalk and a stone and get them playing hopscotch - it's a great foundation for future sports!




Traditional kids games really are great for keeping you fit and giving you a well rounded workout!  I should never have stopped as I grew up!