We have discovered the joys of Bananagrams.  For the uninitiated, it's a game that comes with letter tiles, similar to those used in Scrabble.  The tiles are packaged in a cute sack shaped like a banana.  We got our set at AC Moore.  The title of the game is a play on words (anagrams--when you make new words from the letters of other words).  The game is similar to Scrabble, but it's every man for himself.  Each player gets their own tiles and then makes up their own words in a crossword-like layout.  The winner is determined by who makes up the most words and uses up all of their tiles.  I bought the game on J's recommendation--she played it at school and said, "It's really fun, Mom!"

Our entire family enjoys the game, even the 5 year old.  My husband can generally wipe the floor with anyone in Scrabble, so I knew he would be good at this.  What levels the playing field for all of us it that it's the amount of words you make, not the length of each word, that counts.  This means that all of us at least have a fighting chance, but I'll be honest--he still wins almost all of the time.

No, K doesn't really know how to spell, but she can do her name (if she pulls all the right letters) or J's name.  She will also sometimes spell dog or cat.  Most of the time she just puts all of the letters in a big long line to make some crazy word.  But she's learning to identify all of the letters, and spell a few simple ones.  Sometimes I will have her make words on a list that I make up--things like "I", "am", "be", "and", etc.  I'm always pleasantly surprised by how well J does when we play, and some of the words that she can come up with.  I'm finally starting to see the results from all of the reading.  That's pretty exciting. 

This game saved us from a good deal of boredom on a trip to grandma's this past weekend.  Sometimes there's not a lot for the girls to do there, so this really helped pass time during our visit.  The picture is from J's successful attempt to use all of the letter tiles in one giant puzzle.

Go bananas with your family!

First, I added Tags and Categories to my blog entries, so if you're looking for a specific idea, this should make it easier!

We continue with:  J learning to cook!  We're hoping to make this a weekly event, and we'll report on the recipes and results here.  On tonight's menu:  Chinese Soup, featured in the "Kids Can Cook" book I mentioned last week.  This was basically a chicken corn soup with some asian flare (soy sauce).  We shopped for necessary ingredients this afternoon.  I can't remember a time when this kid was actually excited about going to the supermarket,  until now!  The soup was very easy to prepare.  J did most of the work.  I would step in to help with the chopping--she's still not super confident about handling a knife.  She now understands how onions can make your eyes water too!  She struggled a little with cutting the chicken into small pieces, but happily chopped carrots.  The entire family LOVED this soup!  Even K, who can be ridiculously picky until she actually tries something, liked it right off the bat.  We have leftovers too, so we will continue to enjoy it this week.  The cookbook has to be returned to the library next week, but we're planning to copy down the recipies we liked or still want to try. 

I admit, one thing I'm struggling with is doing more math with J.  She does a great job with fractions when we're cooking something, dividing in her head without struggles.  But on paper--it's another thing altogether.  Today we tried "Stacking Dice Puzzles".  You can find the worksheets at www.education.com/worksheets or through www.math-drills.com.  These were interesting logic puzzles using dice.  It helps if you actually have about 4-5 dice to manipulate to solve the problems.  We did one sheet today and hope to finish the other tomorrow.  J's reaction:  it was okay.  She made some silly mistakes, mostly because she just didn't think logically about what the question was asking.  This tends to be her problem in school as well.  I'm still looking for ways to improve her math without drilling on worksheets, so if anyone has some ideas about this, please share them! 

Lastly, today J and I played flute and clarinet duets (me on flute, her on clarinet).  She's played for 2 years now and catches on quickly.  Still, because both mom and dad are music teachers, she will balk at having to practice over the summer.  We're trying some easy duets, which she played well tonight.  She also got a book of Disney songs and movie themes, so she plays those for fun.   Although I'm "assigning" her duets as I would with my flute students, I really just want her to play because it's fun.  I think it's hard for her because she tends to be too perfectionistic about her playing.  Living with two music teachers probably doesn't help this, I realize.  I keep telling her I don't care about the mistakes and just want to play!  Sometimes that's a hard sell, but I keep trying. 

In all of these learning opportunities, we're still getting out to see family, go swimming, and enjoy the summer and each other.  We hope your family is doing the same.  Until next time!