July Currently Take 2 & Poker Chip Parenting...

Holy Moly how did July just creep in the back door?!?  We adore summer, and especially July, but why oh why is it going soooo fast? Someone please hit the summer snooze button because we'd really just like to stop time right here, right now and stay awhile.

We're linking up again with Farley and many other fun bloggers this month, but we have a lil' confession to make...Sorry, our conscience cannot tell a lie...

Apparently, there are Rules. 
Which we Love!

Rules that are to be followed.
Which we Follow...usually...

Rules that we thought we read.
You get the point...
We are Rule Followers, People.

 But, our weary blog stalking hopping eyes must've
missed that lil' detail in June's link up. Just when we think we're flying high through this blogging thing, our newbie feathers shine through.  Sorry folks!

Sooo {blushing} we're giving this 
Currently Link Up a Take Two...

 

This is an Oldie I know, but it just sends such a powerful message that stands the test of time and is a story I remember loving from the first time I heard it as a child.  I adore reading it to kids young and old, but love discussing it even more.  Even the Littles can cope with the concept of giving, and Good 'Ol Shel just has a way with words...It's never to early to learn to give and I feel teaching kids to care for others is one of the most important things they need to learn. Just love it! 

 

Have you heard of the PRIM (Pre-Referral Intervention Manual)?  This was a textbook I used in one of my credential classes back in the day. I don't think I realized what a huge resource it was until several years into my career. It's sorta like the white pages of behavior and learning problems ~ Look up a specific challenge and find dozens of ideas to help meet those challenges head on. 

The best part ~ We start here before ever considering a Student Study Team (SST) or IEP. It gives us a lot of ideas to try first. If we do end up having either of those meetings to discuss a specific child we have a laundry list of strategies we have tried and documentation of the results. 

It also gives us great discussion pieces for parent conferences and allows us to share some ideas with families that seem to work or not work with their child.

 

It's a bit pricey, but where there's a will, there's a way! We asked our Parent Association to purchase one for each teacher last year, and they did. It's a gem!

A much more tattered loved edition sits on the shelf next to our desk in class. It holds a special place in my heart and I adore sharing these poems with our kiddos any moment I can.  It's a great time filler and fun to have the kids pick a number, then read the poem on that page.

************Timeout************

Weird that we both picked Shel Silverstein! We swear that wasn't planned, but that's nothing new.  We have actually shown up at school events practically dressed in the same outfit on multiple occasions. We've learned to add our wardrobe to our plan books. Seriously. 

We are scary!

Ok...Now for my Professional Pick...

Sounds and Letters for Readers and Spellers ~ I love "at your fingertips" type resources and we've had this one forever! 

This is my favorite quick drills book for practicing phonemic awareness with our friends. The activities cut to the chase and engage the kids immediately. It targets lots of levels for differentiated instruction and covers a wide range of activities. We use it whole class and in guided reading groups. It's a keeper!

With all this Currently chatter, we cannot help but share a little parenting problem we're both currently having...

Like wearing the same outfits, and picking the same books, we are also each raising 8 year old girls and 10 year old boys (1 of each for Tammy, 1 girl and twin boys for Christy).  

So now that we have that established, here's the problema...

electronics

To be more specific~ 

Wii, 

iPod, 

iPad, 

Desktop, 

Laptop,

Crop Top  

(oh sorry, not that one, but did we recapture your attention?)

Television, 

blah,

blah, 

blah. 

We are just a few weeks into summer vacay and our own lil' cherubs at home have got the Plugged In Plague 
BAD! 
"Mom, can I watch a show?" 

"Mom, can I play the Wii?" 

"Mom, can I check the village on my fake app that has absolutely no real meaning in real life whatsoever?"...

Okay, sorry added that last one too. 
But, seriously...

Run!

Play! 

Be free! 

Get Outdoors Children...

It's Summer! 

 We got to chatting about this little problem and decided us teacher moms needed to vaccinate this bout of the Plugged in Plague stat! It was time to put on our poker faces. We could no longer let them see us cringe every time they asked to plug in...

So we devised a plan...

We're calling it Poker Chip Parenting to you, but to the short people in our homes we're calling it "Technology Tokens".

At the beginning of each week (we're doing Sundays) our kiddos get 7 Technology Tokens. We felt if spent wisely 1 hour a day was realistic, especially considering they were previously being sucked into the Black Hole of Apps and Tablets.

Christy is giving her kiddos colored poker chips, and Tammy just had plain old white sitting around, so she wrote "1 hour" on each one with a Sharpie and had her kids write the first letter of their first name on the back (sorry, no pic). Let's be honest...This is simply to avoid any "whoops, I didn't know those were hers or his" moments.

We don't let them break up their minutes, but you could certainly make the time for whatever fits your family's needs. 

We have had a few opportunities to teach them to use their technology tokens wisely. One of the girls wanted to use a token with just 20 minutes until soccer practice. Mom said, "Sure, but you will only get 20 minutes and it will cost you an hour token." She decided it wasn't worth using her token. That a Mom Girl! :)

Of course, they resisted at first...They're kids. But, after a few days we actually heard one of them whisper under their breath, "This is kinda cool". 

W-H-A-T?!?!  

Huh..."Kinda cool" ~

We'll take that as a H.U.G.E Mommy compliment 'cuz they don't come around very often. Thank.you.very.much.and.yes.we.are.kinda.cool.in.a.dorky.kinda.mom.way!

~ Here's the Kicker ~ 

They get their 7 chips to use as they wish.

Well, within reason. 

They can't use them at bedtime.

Or, 

Midnight.

Or,

in the middle of a family dinner.

Or,

anytime we say no, basically.  

Yup, that's how us kinda cool Moms roll. 

It comes from a place of complete and total love. 

We love them enough to not let them do whatever they want, whenever they want to do it. 

It's a beautiful thing and one day we might be kinda really cool for doing this. 
We hope...

 

This is another valuable life lesson for them.  

If they spend all their tokens in one day, (Yes, that would drive us batty on the inside, but poker faces on the outside!) or before the week is up, they do not get more. 

So far, we've experienced a mix of spending habits with different kids. A few have gone hog wild only to be saddened later, while others have gone cold turkey on all technology to covet their precious tokens. Too funny! 

We are not going to carry over technology tokens into the next week (Use it or loose it!), but we may offer a little incentive for extra chips that are left at the end of the week ~ Maybe so many unspent chips earns a trip to the book store or something like that...not sure...What do you think?

Anyways, Currently we are peaceful moms once again as our kids are resting comfortably after the nasty Plugged in Plague. 

Full physical activity has resumed. 

They are playing outdoors, 

Diving into summer reads, 

and most importantly, a bit more

Unplugged! 

From the length of this post, maybe it's about time we do the same ~ unplug ~ or we have a feeling some certain taller men in our homes might make us some technology tokens of our own! 

Thanks for hanging in there friends...eesh!

So we're not just using these poker chips this summer at home... We're onto something for class too.

Stay tuned for some fun ways we're going to use them in class.

 No, it won't earn us a World Series of Poker bracelet or even a trip to Vegas for the Bloggy Meet Up next week (BOO!), 

But,

It's "kinda cool"...Like us...or so we're told under their breath. :)