Great learning idea!

Seth hasn't got tired of this yet, and we made it a few weeks ago. He is reading a little faster, and I think its because of practicing his sight words.
I just got a white poster board and made a parking lot. It took me like 5 minutes, not very time consuming. In each parking stall, I wrote a sight word.
To "play" he gets 3 or 4 cars. One of us will tell him a word and he parks a car on the word. There is more room to grow too.... another week and I think we will be adding the 1st grade sight words!!

Journal Jars

I want my girls to be better Journal writers than I've been, and I needed a little inspiration to write as well. So we made Journal Jars! We typed up a bunch of questions and printed a copy for each of us. Then we cut them into strips and rolled them up. We also decorated canning jars to hold the papers. When it's time to write in our journals, we pull out a paper, glue it to the top of our blank page and answer the question. You may also want to make cute journals out of a notebook and scrapbook supplies!
Some sample questions:
Who is your favorite aunt or uncle and why?
What is your favorite vacation you've taken as a family?
What are your favorite foods? Your least favorite foods?
What do you do when it snows?
For adults... What did you do on a snowy day as a child?
Tell a story about your Grandmother.
What are some of your strengths?
adults... Tell about your first car, how you got it, how much it cost, what it was like?

Job Chart with more than 1 purpose!

This may be hard to believe, but my kids haven't even noticed that this is a "job chart". We had a Family Home Evening lesson on using our time wisely and I had made us each one of these charts, we are going for 1 week and seeing who can get the most points. Winner gets to choose a family activity for next week! You can do it for a week, or for an activity like a scavenger hunt.
This chart not only gets them to do their jobs, homework, piano practice and exercise, but it also gives them ideas to do instead of watching TV or playing on the computer.
You can change this to include things you'd like done at your house, or change the points as needed in your home. There is no way they can do every item, every day... So, they have to CHOOSE the way they spend their time. They get more points the better they choose! Sneaky? yes, a little... but so far this week.... The TV has not been on (unless Dad's watching!), there have been moments when I see kids doing jumping jacks, drawing pictures and more. And, they keep giving me ideas to add on for next week! It has also been good for me! I have got some unfinished projects done, and made the time for more worthwhile things!

To make your chart:
*Make a table chart with 2 columns, and as many rows as you want (remember to put more than they have time to do!) I have 27 and will add a few more next week.
*Fill in the first column with the item to do and points that it's worth.
*Leave the second column blank to fill in with points as they are earned. As we are doing it for a week, we are doing Tally marks and will add it up at the end of the week.
*Start Earning Points! Of course,Most Kids learn by example and so by seeing Mom and Dad writing in a journal, instead of playing a game on facebook, they will want to try harder to get points.

Some ideas of what we have on our charts with points:
Vacuum a room (20 points)
Do 25 push ups (10 points)
Practice Piano for 20 minutes (50 points)
Write in your journal (30 points)
Clean your Room (20 points)
Read 30 verses of scripture (30 points)
Memorize a scripture or Article of Faith (50 points)
Draw a picture for someone in the family (10 points)
Watch TV for 1 hour (10 points)
Do a service for a loved one or neighbor (50 points)
Homework finished before dinner (20 points)
Do a job from job jar (30 points)
Take a bath or shower (30 points)
Play a game with a sibling (40 points)
Read a book for 20 minutes (50 points)