I find this portion very exciting because I’m looking forward to visiting some reindeer or maybe listening to some live Christmas music with my family. I feel like we don’t do this part of Christmas often enough – because we are always rushing around shopping and don’t plan for it particularly well.
Building this planner has given me hope that this might be our BEST Christmas ever!
If you have any ideas or ways to improve these worksheets – please email me at marj.sanpietro@gmail.com.
I started watching The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix a few days ago and it immediately grabbed and held on to my attention. It has a compelling story with so much detail that I thought the main character was based on a real person.Spoiler: She is not. Elizabeth Harmon is a fictional character first seen in the novel of the same title by Walter Tevis, originally published in 1983. The actress, Anya Taylor-Joy plays Beth and is amazing. I’ve also been googling other work she has done because of this performance.I think what made me want to learn more was the level of honesty and true portrayal of emotion. Beth has to deal with some very hard situations before it feels like she comes into her own.
The show did a very good job of moving through the years of her life it covered and made absolutely everything seem dynamic and exciting. I felt that it handled a main theme of addiction particularly well. One scene in particular – Beth is drunk, hits her head, and blacks out. The next day she is not recognizably herself – she is confrontational, rude, and barely functioning. Besides probably having a hangover – I’d bet she has an untreated concussion as well. That’s not said – but it seems evident.
I enjoy that the series is complex – both dark and hopeful. I find one of the most complex and beautifully played parts to be that of Beth’s adoptive mother – Marielle Heller does a very good job playing someone so troubled but also caring. There was an amount of depth – where I was always expecting something bad to happen because of her – and then she’d surprise me. I expected her to use Beth more than she did, instead, they developed a complex but loving relationship which Beth vigorously defends later.
The sets and costuming are superb! Beth enjoys looking good and it shows. I would wear what she wears to her chess matches any day! The sets are beautiful- I especially enjoy Moscow lit up at night.
The Queen’s Gambit has gotten a rare 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating – and besides my rave review continues to impress. I hope we get a second season and more of Beth’s story. Don’t worry. I didn’t give everything away. So many powerful and interesting surprises!
I’ve planned a week’s worth of activities and fun for your kids (grades pre-k – 2)! There is a theme for each day which includes a craft, some easy discussion questions/expansion activities, and some curated links to keep the fun going! Each day has a completely different theme so they don’t need to be in order. You could even do one a week.
Buttermilk Falls is in Ithaca, NY near a busy shopping area. Our trip here was Eh…
We stayed Wednesday night to Friday morning due to campground availability – weekends are heavily booked at the state parks right now. I overheard a park employee describing it more like a city park and while that didn’t feel exactly true, it was funny to see store building tops from our walks. I imagined sneaking away to Starbucks a couple of times (especially on Thursday when I had the boys alone).
I could have made it a little better with more planning – like calling the park to see what was going to be available.
Swimming will be available starting July 4th and is only open on Fri, Sat, and Sun. We went on July 1st – 3rd. The bathrooms are not open in the lower park until sometime in the late morning as far as I can tell. The ones in the campground are closed from 11-12 and 4-5 for extra cleaning. I know most of this is because of COVID-19 precautions so I can’t really complain.
The campground was nice but very stony. We bent our stakes trying to get them in the ground and sort of worried about our tent caving in or a strong wind blowing it away. It did not blow away. We appreciated that the site was shady and near the bathrooms.
We definitely did some hiking – going from the campground to the lower park entrance twice and back via the Owl Creek trail. We also hiked to the scenic overlook via the same trail. It’s amazing! You can see across to farms on the other side…of something 🤣 (maybe Cayuga Lake?). Near the overlook is also a huge rock wall presumably created by glaciers which people have signed by scratching their names with a rock. That’s where we saw our first snake. We saw our second snake on the portion of the Rim trail that leads to the park entrance. I had the boys make a list of everything else they saw.
lots and lots of chipmunks – these guys were everywhere!
It was a hot few days – we kept hydrated and took lots of breaks when we needed to.
Another hiking option is the Rim Trail/Gorge Trail loop. These are two seperate but connecting trails – currently they have them operating in a loop due to COVID-19. They describe them as fairly challenging so I didn’t attempt without another grown-up but I saw other families doing it.
Other nice things to do included a playground and large playing fields. My 6 yr old gave the playground two thumbs up!
The park was beautiful and I would visit again on a day trip during the week. I’d camp on the weekends if it was available.
I was worried that my kids were going to be spending too much time on electronics this summer. I had let them have free reign for a few days and they began to look like little zombies. In response, I made a daily to-do list with time for electronics scheduled in after they completed what I thought were worthwhile activities including time for play.
We had a few good days with it and then we were all sick of it. I felt like an enforcer and the kids felt nagged. Neither of those feelings were what I was going for.
Then I changed my perspective…
My main goal was to keep them busy and off the electronics. It wasn’t to micromanage their day. Inspiration finally struck at 2 a.m. the other night.
Google says gamification means “the application of typical elements of game playing (e.g. point scoring, competition with others, rules of play) to other areas of activity, typically as an online marketing technique to encourage engagement with a product or service.”
An article titled Gamify Your Life from entrepreneur.com says that playing a game can trigger intense emotion and winning brings a great deal of satisfaction to a person. This is due to neuro-chemical activity in the brain including dopamine – which produces the sensation of pleasure. If you organize your to-do list to include pleasurable activity when you complete other tasks – you are starting to use this concept. You would be teaching your brain to associate completing those tasks with enjoyment.
That accurately describes my new approach. I took the same to-do list and turned it into a menu of activities they can do to earn points. The points can be used towards time on the television and game systems. This is another important component of gamification. Entrepreneur.com cites Tom Chatfield who did a TED talk – one of his points was that every bit of effort should be rewarded.
The kids get a visual reminder of their point earnings because I am handing out poker chips as they complete things. I assigned higher values things that I especially want them to focus on. Everyday simple tasks that can be done in less than 5 minutes are worth less. If they go through a simple morning routine of getting ready each day – they can earn their first 40 or so points. It sets them up for success and even their minimal efforts are rewarded.
There are some other elements that are covered in both the TED talk and the article that I haven’t incorporated yet – so I’m going to be thinking about it. One that I think will require deeper thought because I find it very important is the incorporation of both long and short term goals.
Applying the principles I covered here was easier than you’d think. I feel that the most important element is the point system. However, I think the visual appeal will turn out to be important as well:
If you compare these two lists – which is more fun and exciting? I feel like I threw a smiley face on the first one at the last second to save my butt. I’m really proud of the second one – I tried to find more exciting fonts and came up with a cool title!
My kids are highly competitive – so I had to lay some ground rules fast. I told them that this game is about their own personal growth and that they should not brag about or compare points.
If you want to try it – here is the list I made! Get Your Game On!
If you want to try gamification in your own life – I recommend Habitica. You have a little character and they level up when you complete your daily tasks, to dos, or complete a habit you want to adopt. There are pets to collect and you can level them up too. It’s a to-do list that’s fun for grownups!
We bought an amazing shelf for $15 and turned it into “Catopia” for our three kitties. We bought 8 pieces of scratchboard, 3 pieces of carpet remnants, 7 dust mop heads, a brush head for a broom, and a mop head from the Dollar Tree. I used E6000 glue for this project and I went through 1 large tube at $3. In total – $38 for an amazing sturdy piece of cat furniture.
Tools:
Protractor
Jigsaw
Staple gun
Rotary tool
Serrated knife
I started by gluing the scratchboard pieces with E6000 to the long side of the shelf. I reccomend doing this a piece at a time, letting it dry several minutes between each piece (if you make a Catopia someday). After it dried, I trimmed the extra off with a serrated knife.
Then I used the protractor to draw circles on the shelves – this part was easy! I used a Sharpie to darken the lines and then my husband and I used the dremel to make holes for the jigsaw to start in. He cut out the holes for me with the jigsaw. This was challenging because of the lack of space near the walls of the shelf.
Together we figured out where to put the other features. The glue was not holding the mophead, so I undid the yarn from that. We used a staple gun to attach it to the bottom of a shelf where it hangs down.
I used the staple gun to affix the carpet pieces. I love the paw prints in the front and the cute mini Hello mat at the bottom! My kitties literally had a welcome mat put out for them.
I sprayed it with catnip spray and baited it with treats. We are also putting them in it and petting them to let them know it’s ok to be in.
Progress goes slowly on the dinosaur. I’ve lost my helpers to Minecraft Dungeons…and the mastermind is not in love with the craft of paper mache. He does not love the glue on his hands.
Mr. Stegosaurus now has firmly attached feet. I ran strips lengthwise from the bottom of the feet up both sides of the leg and then wrapped additional strips around the leg.
I’m working on attaching the spines. I used what the boys drew and made more. I think I’ll need about 10 pairs of spines in varying sizes to finish. I used the handy-dandy masking tape from Scotch that doesn’t suck and went to town. One tip I can share – I attached the spines together where they met and hopefully gave them more stability.
I’ll reinforce them with more strips and glue and then add paper mache clay to give them detail. The next big task is making the paper mache clay. I’ll use the clay to smooth out my sculpture and add finer details – besides accenting the spines. I’m thinking toes, facial features, and bumps for knees are possibilities.
Three ingredients that I remember off the top of my head are joint compound, toilet paper and PVA glue (like white Elmer’s). I’m interested in how far the recipe from Ultimate Paper Mache that I plan on following will go in covering Mr. Stegosaurus. I think I’ll probably need multiple batches.
If I continue the dino paper mache saga – I’ll start cutting out the T-Rex. I feel like he is going to be more difficult – because he’ll be standing up on two back legs. Luckily, I found these cardboard boot inserts that I might use for his feet. They seem heavier and like they would give him more stability.
Stay tuned and comment below! What’s the craziest thing you have made for your kids?
It's All Whimsy 