Tide pool discoveries and humble pie

This week we are talking about humility

I want to start out by a quote from LaNae Valentine, Ph.D .This article is taken from a BYU devotional address, “Discerning the Will of the Lord for Me,” given on June 29, 2004.

"As you go through life, sometimes painful or disappointing experiences will tempt you to build barricades around your heart. Feelings of inadequacy or unworthiness can become barriers if they cause you to turn your heart away from Heavenly Father. Through disobedience, you can roadblock revelation by hardening your heart.

When there are blockades between your heart and the will of your Heavenly Father, you will have difficulty choosing in accordance with God’s will.

But you can, like Nephi, pray that your heart will be softened (see 1 Nephi 2:16). That removes a roadblock. You can ask Heavenly Father to heal your broken heart (see Psalm 147:3). That moves another obstacle out of the way. Keep listening to your heart, keep trusting in the Lord (see Proverbs 3:5–7), and He will help you to know what your barriers are and how to remove them. Then you’ll be without roadblocks on the road to righteous decisions."This part of talk or all if it found here

Scripture:3 Nephi 9:20
 "And ye shall offer for a a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost, even as the Lamanites, because of their faith in me at the time of their conversion, were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not"

We read The King who wanted to touch the moon

Since we talked about the moon in our story,U thought it went well with tides.We talked about what causes tides and learned more about tide pools.

We went to a beach at low tide and found a tide pool and made soooo many discoveries!

 How long is seaweed? Is it a plant?

 We saw so many jellyfish!Ouch watch out!

 The water at high tide can cover this area wow!

 You may not be able to see him but there is a crab.He was really fast!

 My oldest rescued and caught this fish.We are still trying to find out what it is.

 Where did my daughter go?Fun in the sand.We had a great time!

5 or more ways to survive a road trip!

There is still a lot of time to travel for the Summer!What do you pack? What do you bring to entertain the kids?

First I suggest writing a list.You can also have the older kids write their own.

2.Stop at interesting places.

3.Bring toys including rattles,books,mirrors and a flashlight to entertain the babies.

4.Have a lot of creative activities and games to keep them busy.Dry erase markers can work on windows.Post it notes are also fun.They can write on them and stick them places.We wrote characters from movies on them and then placed them on our foreheads and asked yes or no questions until we guessed who they were.

Make cereal necklaces or paper clip ones.You can also make things with pipe cleaners or write stories with stickers.

5.Make frequent stops and have lots of snacks!

How to teach kids to make an effort

Scripture:
D&C 98:3
“Therefore, he giveth this promise unto you, with an immutable covenant that they shall be fulfilled; and all things wherewith you have been afflicted shall work together for your good, and to my name’s glory, saith the Lord.”

It takes a lot of effort for us to learn a new task or to take responsibility for our messes.It takes even more effort ,I think, to admit fault.I feel like it is a constant battle to get the kids to do things or tell the truth.I found this lesson making an effort.It has videos to go along with each lesson.It also has an activity.In this lesson they talk about life as a game.We have the opponent or our inner voice.This lesson also defines both effort and taking the easy way out.

 Effort: Working hard to achieve a goal; leads to long lasting fulfillment.
Easy Way Out: Not making an effort; leads to temporary fulfillment
 They have 12 lessons which are really great!I will definitely be coming back to this!

Writing prompt:Think of a time when something was hard but you did it anyway.How did it feel? Was it easier the next time?

For 2 and up
Letter:E for effort
Number:6
Shape:circle

When we make a bad choice we can try to make it right or we can lie hoping it will go away.In the movie Emperor's New Groove Kronk is given the task of disposing of the Emperor.He throws him in the river but his conscience gets to him and these comical characters appear on his shoulder in Kronk's conscience 

We don't always hear voices but we do feel bad or sad.It may be a feeling that something is wrong or we feel happy when we do what is right.This is God's spirit to help us as we make an effort to make good choices.

Here is how our brochures are coming along:

We can be Pioneers too!

Last week we talked about courage.We talked about those in the scriptures who showed courage.David fighting Goliath was among those stories.In a talk President Thomas S. Monson, First Counselor in the First Presidency, said: “David went to the brook and carefully selected five smooth stones with which he might meet his enemy. … Just as David went to the brook, well might we go to our source of supply—the Lord. What polished stones will you select to defeat [your] Goliath?” President Monson suggests choosing the stones of courage, effort, humility, prayer, and love of duty (see “Meeting Your Goliath,” Ensign, Jan. 1987, 2–5).

Here is our character wall I forgot to show before with our bee not afraid and believe in yourself.Last week we added the courage bear.I am still thinking on what visual I want for this weeks!

Over the next few months I want to talk about these stones.First was courage to stand up when times are hard.This week is effort.We show effort with hard work.It is more challenging these days to teach children hard work.We have so much in the ways of technology and convenience.Back in the 1800's they did not and they had to work hard.I think the pioneers are examples of these five stones and very good examples to follow.

Scripture:
D&C 98:3
“Therefore, he giveth this promise unto you, with an immutable covenant that they shall be fulfilled; and all things wherewith you have been afflicted shall work together for your good, and to my name’s glory, saith the Lord.”

As pioneer day approaches I think of how many hardships they suffered all for the benefit of those to follow, including us.We started with a video Faith of our Fathers which led to our talk of What's a pioneer?

Writing prompt: Imagine you are a pioneer what hardships would face?

Nursery Rhyme:Over the river(modified slightly by yours truly:))
Over the river and through the woods,(move babies legs like a bicycle)
the pioneer's trek did go
The ox knows the road,
to carry its load,
Through the white and drifted snow, O!
Over the river and through the woods
Oh, how the wind does blow.
It stings the nose(touch babies nose)
And bites the toes(touch babies toes)
As over the ground we go.

For my Tot:
Letter:P for Pioneers
Number:6 We counted 6 wagon wheels
Shape: circle

8 years old:write in journal.Check uppercase and proper punctuation.We also did some math problems.

6 years and up:write in journal.Practice lowercase a,h and d.Use 100's chart to practice counting.

This week we are also researching and making a brochure for our vacation.Today we just talked about San Jose and the kids had to work together to design the front of it.

5 ways to play with dino's in play-doh

We finished up with courage.We talked about how you can find comfort and courage in the scriptures.There are 3 promises in specific we talked about.

 John 14:26 (the Holy Ghost), D&C 108:8 (the Lord will bless us and deliver us), and 1 John 2:25 (eternal life). 

It is the last day of camp for my older kids so my preschooler wanted to play with play-doh.

1.Make foot prints and talk about dinosaurs.More specifically that some walk on all fours and some on two feet.

2.Make fossils

3.Use an excavator to find the fossils.

4.Break the dinosaurs out of dirt(play-doh).

5.Make your own dinosaur with just a circle and play-doh.Be warned these creatures are scary.

Writing prompt:Write about a character that you can relate to and why.My 8 year old picked Jared from Spiderwick Chronicles because they both are curious.My daughter picked Pinkalicious because........drum roll please.....yep you guessed it she likes pink!

We also counted by fives and for my 8 year old we went over the 5's time tables.

Lego challenge-dinosaur

We are continuing to talk about courage.We talked about different scriptures to find examples of someone being courageous. 1.David and Goliath 2.Joseph SmithDavid went up against a giant as a boy. Joseph Smith although he was persecuted did not deny that he saw a vision.

We are continuing to have dinosaur fun with legos.I love all the challenges you can find online with legos.They are good for fine motor development and being creative! 

I just had to throw in what my kids call chocolate muffins but all they are is Gf cornbread mix and chopped up hot dogs.Follow the package directions.Slice and add hot dogs.Cook in muffin tin

Oh say can you say di-no-saur?

Scripture:Deuteronomy31:6"Be strong and of good courage" What does it mean to be courageous? When faced with a challenge how can we show courage? We talked about and sang Nephi's courage.

Nursery Rhyme: Teddy bear Teddy bear

Number:5

We are continuing this week talking about Dinosaur. My older 2 kids are at Patriot Camp this week so it is just my Preschooler and my baby.We read Oh say can you say di-no-saur by Bonnie Worth.In this book the Cat in the Hat takes you to a dinosaur museum.The kids learn how to say the different names of dinosaurs.

For my Preschooler we talked about what letters they start.I cut a D from construction paper with a head, feet,spikes, and a tail.The original idea is found here

Next we put the dinosaurs in groups.

We arranged them from biggest to smallest.Then we arranged them by colors.

He really likes 5 little Monkeys,but instead of monkeys I substituted dinosaur. Each time one would fall off the bed I would have him count how many were left.

We had to make dino cookies.We tried to imprint dinosaurs into them but it didn't really work with sugar cookies.The older 2 got home just in time to enjoy them!

For my Kindergartner and second grader I had them count by 5's and write in their journals.