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Hack: Reading Hacks

Fun hacks related to reading.

Flash cards are a great way to get your child sight reading:

https://amzn.to/2RIU9OM

Some of our favorite books for reading to our 5 year old are:

Princess in Black

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 

My friend has a fun trick where when he wants to share something with his son, he hides a book on the shelf.  This results in curiosity and surprise :)

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Game: Jumping High Five

The grown up sticks out their hand at about the height that the child can reach without jumping.  Grown up then encourages the child to jump to give a high five.

After each successful high five, you move the hand slightly higher.

Celebrate each achievement!

Kids can take turns going.

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Game: Incoming

This is a great game where you lob nerf things at each other.

Soft (nerflike) balls (bombs) can be thrown and deflected with paddles

And there’s these fun rockets 

And these great swords

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Game: Daily Check

The kids like it when I do a morning or bedtime “check”.

A child will be sitting in a chair, and I’ll say “toe check” and I’ll proceed to (in my best robot voice), count the number of toes.  Then I’ll announce “leg check”, and repeat.   From hands, fingers, arms, ears, and nose to Belly button and butt, these checks are a hit!  

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Game: Beachbag

This is a fantastic game for the beach - it’s cornhole, with none of the annoying equipment to lug.

Bring these organza bags to the beach:

And while at the beach your kids will have a blast filling them with sand.  Then tie them up!  Draw a circle in the sand with your feet, and voila - you can play cornhole at the beach, which I am calling “beachbag” (though sandbag is a good name too).  

Each person gets 3 bags.  On the circle is 1 point, in the circle is 3 points.  First to 5.  Like table shuffleboard, it helps to stand on the same side when you toss, so nobody gets sand in their eyes.

My kids were tossing back and forth

Bonus: My daughter Lulu calls the bag her treasure bag, and uses it to hold seashells, shiny rocks, and other treasures from the beach.  

Extra bonus: These bags are biodegradable, so if one blows away, you won’t have harmed the planet

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Hack: Buddies

Kids love to do things with their parents.

So when we’re all sitting sharing a meal, especially if it’s the same food, I point it out by saying “${Food} Buddies”.  This makes eating fun and reinforces good eating habits!

Examples: “Bacon Buddies”, “Cereal Buddies”

It also helps if you say “Buddies” in a cute, loving voice.

You can extend to areas like “Reading Buddies”

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Kill The Kings game on Android

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.standardgames.killthekings

No ads, totally free. Now with Achievements!!! Enjoy!

One player card game of strategy. Freecell meets solitaire. Kill all 4 Kings to win

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Hack: Kid plates on a low shelf

Our little one (who was 2 at the time) wasn’t interested in eating.  So we went to the store and picked out a lot of little kid plates and utensils that they’d like.  We put them on a shelf they could reach in the pantry, and before every meal, they get to pick out the plate and fork that they want.  It is a big hit, allowing them to exercise some control at mealtime.

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Android buddies, please enjoy my no ads, free solitaire game, Kill The Kings. It's quick to play with a bit more strategy - all the rules are above. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.standardgames.killthekings

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Game: Shape Hunters

An Ally game.

With construction paper with a different shape on each on the floor, call out a shape. The kids have to hurry around the room and find objects of the same shape and put them on that piece of construction be paper.

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Game: Fast Feet

An Ally game.

On the floor, put down many pieces (around 6) of construction paper with a different shape drawn on each.

Call out a shape. The kids then run to it

Repeat.

Can also be done with different color construction paper.

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Vogel games

These games & fun ideas were from Erwin Vogel.

1) He would put lollipops on a particular plant on a birthday, and said it was a magic tree that would only grow lollipops on that child’s birthday.

2) He would give kids “Vitamin M”, which was an M&M candy

3) He would celebrate the “billionth” second of life.  That’s around 31.7 years.

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Clapping Hands

My son and I are both sitting on the floor; he’s a little in front of my lap.  He grabs my hands and starts clapping them together.

I say “I am clapping my hands my own self.  Nobody is clapping my hands for me.”  Hilarity ensures :)

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Peanut Butter Jelly Game

With a child sitting on the floor or chair, I pick up one foot and hold by the ankle in my hand.  I take one finger, run it down the center of the bottom of the foot (from toe to heel) and say “Peanut Butter”.

Then I repeat on the other foot, saying “Jelly”.

Then I say “Sandwich”, and press the two foot bottoms together, holding them in my hand.  I pretend to eat the feet with my mouth while squeezing with my hands. 

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Lulu Story: The Waterballoon Castle

Princess Lucia heard a story about a castle that was covered in waterballoons.  She wanted to find it, so she went to the library and got a book with a map that showed how to get there.

Princess Lucia ventured off, following the map, but when she got there, the water balloons were gone.

She asked the fairies who lived in the castle what happened.  They said that an evil night fairy took them all.

Princess Lucia was determined to get the water balloons back.  She asked the fairies where the night fairy lived, and they told her in a cottage in the middle of the woods.

Princess Lucia waited until morning, when the night fairy would be sleeping, to head over.  When she got to the cottage, she didn’t see any water balloons.  She heard the night fairy snoring, so she figured she was asleep.

Princess Lucia quietly opened the door and snuck in to look for the water balloons.  She checked the kitchen - not there.  She checked the living room - not there.  She even quietly checked around the night fairy’s bed, careful not to wake her.

No water balloons!

Then Princess Lucia decided to check the bathroom.  She saw a bathtub full of water and lots of empty water balloons.  She grabbed the empty balloons and brought them back to the castle.

Princess Lucia realized that the Night Fairy must have needed the water to take a bath!

When she got back to the castle, she told the fairies the story.   The cast a magic spell to put water in the Night Fairy’s well, and they magically filled up all their water balloons which magically rolled back to the castle wall.

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Hack: Vitamin circle

Being able to walk in a circle is a big hit with kids. We have an island in the middle of our kitchen so we have them march around it while we get the vitamins and hand them out as they walk.

Gummy vitamins are fun and the vitamin circle makes it even more fun.

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Game: Popcorn

In a ball crawl like this one: https://amzn.to/2GxLcSC, have your child sit down.

Pick up the corners of the ball crawl quickly back and forth, to make the balls inside like popping popcorn.  Try to get the balls to jump over your kid’s head!

Another fun variation on this is the “ball drop”.  Have your child fill a plsatic drawer or bag with the balls from the ball crawl.  Then, they climb inside and you dump the balls on their head in a “ball drop”.