Just Say NO to Hiccups!

At our family Easter bash today, a kindergartner came down with a serious case of hiccups. To this little boy's amazement and joy, we got rid of them instantly. Over the years, I've done the spoon-in-glass technique with literally hundreds of kids (and adults, too) with 100% success.

To nix the hiccups:

1. Fill a glass of water.
2. Put a spoon in the glass, head down, with the handle poking out.
   
3. Lean the tip of the spoon against the hicupper's forehead before suggesting to drink as much of the water as possible. (Actually it doesn't matter how much water gets swallowed, but it sounds good.)
   
4. Viola! The hiccups are gone.

Skeptical? Hiccups are caused by spasms in the diaphragm. The idea behind scaring or offering water to a person with hiccups is to distract them, so the diaphragm can relax. These things seldom work, or they take several tries, because hiccup victims can think past swallowing and loud noises. The spoon puts the focus on the gentle poke in the forehead, so the diaphragm can get back to normal.

If you're in a place where you don't have easy access to a glass or metal spoon, have no fear. It may take an extra try, but paper cups and plastic spoons work, too (For some reason, it doesn't work as quickly with a fork. Go figure).

Margaret Gordon, my friend Jeanne's mom, gave me this spoon-in-the-glass hiccup remedy when I was in third grade, some thirty years ago, and it hasn't failed yet!

Names for 10: the Mathematical Boost

Most of us have lots of names: our formal name, full name, possibly a title at work, a nickname our friends call us, "Babe" or however our partner refers to us, Mom or Dad ...
If you stop and think about it, most of us answer to all kinds of names; why should it be different for the number 10?

Since life tends to be expressed mathematically in base 10, kids who know the Names for 10 become math whizzes on paper and in their heads.

Knowing the Names for 10 (10 and 0, 9 and 1, 8 and 2, 7 and 3, 6 and 4, 5 and 5, 4 and 6, and so on) helps kids solidify number relationships. You'd be shocked to know how many kids, even sixth graders, don't have a solid understanding of these partner relationships.

All kinds of number functions become clear and easy once the Names for 10 become second nature.

Since games and food make learning more fun, try this (and don't be surprised if your own mental math gets faster too):


Use Skittles, M&Ms, Fruitloops, Goldfish, or (for the more healthy minded) almonds or dried soy beans - anything that allows your child to count out 10 pieces to put on a plate, napkin or table. To cover a portion of the food items, use a cup or the child can use a (washed) hand.

• Have your child count out 10 items.
• Tell your child that you are going to figure out what number partners go together to make 10.
  
• Model for your child by saying that 10 and 0 are partners. Then cover 1 item, and have your child tell you how many are left. Tell your child that 1 and9 are partners. Then cover 2 items (8 are left, so 2 and 8 are partners), and so on.
  
• Then have your child cover 1 item and tell you 1s partner (9), and continue the process consecutively until all 10 items are covered (0 and 10 are partners).
• Don't spoil the discovery. Let your child tell you about the commutative property of equality (4+5=5+4) when it becomes apparent.
  
• If your child is tired at this point, stop here.
  
• If you're still having fun, model by asking your child to cover a number of morsels with a cup or hand. Count the leftovers, and "guess" how many your child has covered, based on the number partner to make 10.
• Switch roles. This time, you cover a number of items, and let your child "guess" how many are covered using its partner number to make 10
  

After you've played the game a few times, you can skip the consecutive drill and go right into the partner guessing game.

At the end of a game, let your child eat each item, one by one, tell you how many pieces have been eaten, and what partner number of morsels to make 10 must be left.

The above activity helps with reasoning skills, addition, subtraction, and number relationships.
After the first time, most kids can set up the game and do most of the steps themselves while you're making dinner or doing another activity if you have a time crunch.

Car or doctor's office variation: Take turns "guessing" the partner when one of you says a number aloud. (What is the partner for 6? Answer: 4) When you get good at it, make partners or "Names" for 100. (What's the partner for 43? Answer 57) As the games get harder, they're more fun, and the kids get more into it.

If you have other ideas for variations, other math games to share that work for your family, or a question to ask, leave a comment. :-)

Make Math Fun and Easy With "Names for 10"

Since our entire math system is in base 10; 10 cents in a dime, 10 dimes in a dollar, 10 tens in 100, 10 hundreds in 1000, etc., if your child knows all of the "Names for 10" well enough to play with them, mental math and all kinds of other concepts are a snap.

So what are the "Names for 10?"
0 and 10
1 and 9
2 and 8
3 and 7
4 and 6
5 and 5
6 and 4
7 and 3
8 and 2
9 and 1
10 and 0

When your child knows these relationships, inside and out, you won't believe how numbers will be easy to add, subtract, multiply and divide on paper as well as mentally. Dealing with money, word problems, even geometry concepts are a snap when the Names for 10 concept gets thoroughly internalized. How the numbers fit together make sense on a whole different level, whether manipulating single, double or triple digits.

Stay Tuned for fun ways to develop Names for 10 skills ...

Supercharge Reading and Writing, or Get the Gears In Motion

Get reading and writing skills in high gear by using your child's own words to boost motivation and get the literacy gears clicking.

This process, called "Language Experience," is most often used with children and adults who are learning English.

But Language Experience, using kids' own words to teach them to read and write, works wonders for just about everybody!

Here's how it works:

1. Choose a picture from a magazine, a photograph, or a toy together. Your child will have buy-in if he gets to help pick out the item.

2. Ask your child as many questions about the item as you can think of.
Examples: Who (or what) is in the picture?
What are they (What is it) doing?
Why do you think ... ?
What have you done that is kind of like what you see in the picture?

3. Ask the child to make up a quick story about the picture or toy, and tell him that you will write it down.

Hints: Prompt the child to include a beginning, middle and end.
Keep the story as simple as possible.

4. When the story is finished, read it aloud and let the child make changes, if desired.

5. In your neatest printing, write the first sentence from the story on a long strip of paper.

Hints: Paper can be cut into 3x12 inch strips from construction paper or lined writing tablets. These can be purchased at the drug store or variety store in the stationary section.
If you live near a teacher supply store, you can also buy "sentence strips."

6. Have the child point to and read each word in the first sentence. This will not only help to reinforce letter sounds and blending, it will develop a sight word vocabulary.

7. When your little reader is comfortable reading that sentence, copy the next one, and repeat number 6.

8. Continue the process until the child gets tired, you run out of time, or the story comes to an end.

9. Read whatever portion of the story you have written on strips out loud together, and put the sentences in order.

10. If your child is excited and would like to keep going, mix up the first three sentences, ask him to read each sentence and put them back in order.

If the kid is tired, don't make him keep going or he won't want to come back to it later.

11. Mix up the next three sentences, have the child read them and put them in order, and so on.

12. Once your child has been through the whole story a couple times, cut up the first sentence to make word cards. Have your child read each word, mix up the cards, and let him put the sentence back in order.

Note: Since these are your child's words, these cards will become reading sight words or "instant words" that your child knows because he learned them in context.

13. Provide a piece of paper and pencil for your child to read each word and copy it to write the complete sentence.

14. Repeat the above process with all of the sentences until your child has copied the entire story. Ask your child to read the story aloud.

IMPORTANT:
-The entire process may take several sessions.
-Quit working before your child gets exhausted.
-If your child tires of the story before you make it through the entire process, pick a new object, and start a new story. There's no rule that says you have to finish all the steps for each story.
-Keep reading picture books to your child for variety and to stimulate story ideas.

HAVE FUN!

Thanks for the question, Stacy. :-)

If you have a question, please leave a comment. The answer to your question may be the next post!

Fun for Mom: The Womens Blogger Directory

Hey Moms,

Check out The Womens Blogger Directory for lots of fun information and insights from the girls.

A friend of mine, Kelly Armstrong, author of The Embassy Wife,
a hilarious account of what it's like to raise American kids abroad (http://kellyarmstrong.pnn.com),
recently won the Womens Blogger Directory Sisterhood Award


The Womens Blogger Directory
(http://womens-blogger-directory.blogspot.com/)
lists blogs by ladies with all kinds of expertise and wisdom. Listed in categories such as parenting, health, recipes, and poetry, there's a whole array of blogs to enjoy.

Try it out and have some fun!

KidZui: Safe Computer Fun for Kids

A friend of mine told me she once innocently ended up on a porn site while surfing the web with her six-year-old, so now she makes sure her daughter steers clear of the computer.

I told her about KidZui.com.

If you want your child to visit excellent educational websites that make absorbing lots of skills and information fun and painless; if you want to spark interests in everything from math, science, art, music, history, geography, math, literature, and anything else you can think of, take a trip to KidZui.com.

KidZui provides lots of free services:

• links to thousands of websites arranged by grade level, kindergarten through sixth, listed by subject and interest categories
  
• weekly emailed reports of children's online activity and graphs of Internet activity for a 30 day period.
  
• the ability to add family blogs and the website of your child's school to KidZui
  
• you can register multiple children on different grade levels and receive reports on each child's Internet activity
  
• additional services are also available for a nominal fee.

KidZui keeps your child safe from unsavory, inappropriate websites while it opens a new world of opportunities for learning and healthy playtime. On family trips to the zoo, museums or libraries, or just out and about, you'll be surprised at the interesting facts and ideas your child has picked up by playing computer games and watching cool video shorts.

If you have a great website for kids or anything else you'd like to share, leave a comment. I'd love to hear from you.

Trish Wilkinson

Pencil Grip: How important is it?

Kids hold pencils in all kinds of ways these days. Truthfully, if the way a kid holds a pencil works for them, I don't think an unconventional grip is anything to worry about.

Most teachers still teach kids the conventional grip: pinch the pencil between the thumb and index finger, then use the middle finger for a "couch" for the pencil to rest on. The thumb, index finger and middle finger should form the three points of a triangle, or the fingers should form a tripod around the pencil. The remaining two fingers (ring and pinky fingers) relax in succession, or in a row, below the middle finger.

Since children begin writing in kindergarten, the muscles in their hands may not be strong enough to hold a pencil "correctly" yet. Getting primary grade kids, K - 2, with weak hands and wonky grips to write can be a challenge for parents. For young children, it can be literally painful and exhausting to write for any length of time.

If your child has difficulty holding a pencil using the "tripod," here are a couple fun activities you can do to build strong hands and develop enthusiastic writers.

1) Set up a place for your child to play with play dough and modeling clay on a regular basis. Any kind of molding and shaping makes muscles in the hand stronger. For added fun, have your child roll out and form the letters to spell new spelling words with the modeling clay. As the hands get stronger, the pencil will get easier to hold.

2) If your child already holds the pencil in some unconventional way, but it doesn't seem to cause a problem, don't worry about it. There are more ways than one to do most things, right? But if your child complains that writing is hard or boring or distractions come easily because writing is just no fun, use the magic of tape.

• Show your child how to hold a pencil with the thumb, index and middle fingers (the tripod).

• Then tape the two middle fingers together, side-by-side (they love this part!), to help remind them to keep their fingers in place. You may want to tell your child's teacher you are taping fingers at home and ask if she will do the same at school for consistency.
  

• If your child consistently holds the pencil correctly for 21 days, the pencil grip will change, and so will the writing attitude.

Note: The new habit may take longer to develop if your child forgets to change the grip at school, and you may still get requests for tape long after the grip is under control, just for the fun of it.:-)

If you have questions or experiences about pencil grip, or you have anything else on your mind about your kids' learning, please leave a comment, and I'll get back to you.

Enjoy the ride!

Trish Wilkinson