Showing posts with label kids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kids. Show all posts

Saturday, August 23, 2008

to encourage a little more sanity at home...

Photobucket
...I made a privilege board, inspired by my friend Emily. Those last few days of summer vacation were getting very whiney, and we were all losing it more than I'd like to admit. The kids weren't the only ones screaming and running around the house! I loved the concept Emily shared on her crafty blog! She used old scrapping materials, but I just used crafty left-overs. Basically I decided upon some privileges my kids often have. Can you tell what they are from my cryptic drawings?

the goods
Computer time, afternoon TV, a sweet thing, and Saturday morning cartoons to name a few. I bought a $5 magnetic board and covered it with some scrapbooking paper, ribbons, and stickers. The "privilege magnets" are clear glass pebbles. I drew pictures and glued then onto the back of the pebbles, then glued the magnets onto the paper.

privilege
So, each day most of the privileges stay in the "X" column except for the ones that they get for the day. I decide what the privileges are. Usually it's one or two for the day. It's helped with the whining a lot. If they know that we're not watching TV on a certain day, they don't ask so much. The left side of the board sort of tracks their behavior. They know if they get to the bottom, then I'll take away a privilege for the day. Any kind of fighting/screaming results in BOTH of their magnets moving down. They get real motivated to play nicely if they're both on the "2." It's amazing how nice they can be to each other.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

recycling unwanted crayons

Tropical storm Fay managed to gloom-ify our day yesterday by being the cause of a ton of rain and our school cancellation. So, we decided to get creative. I'd had a Ziplock of crayons laying around and decided it was time to do something fun with them. Here's the recipe.

Take your unwanted crayons. My girls enjoyed sorting them by color and peeling most of the wrappers off.
crayola

After the wrappers are peeled off, break 'em up into little pieces. Bake in a muffin tin at 170F for 15-30 minutes or until they're totally melted.
little pieces

After they've cooled, stick the pan in the freezer for a few mintues.
They'll pop right out of the muffin tins, and presto: crayon chunks.
crayon cakes