New Year's Think Book

  The New Year's Think Book contains a variety of questions and prompts to help kids reflect and record memories from 2012 in addition to questions and activities to help identify goals, wishes and resolutions to make 2013 a great year.

  The New Year's Think Book is a place to reflect on the past year, record memories, think about success, accomplishments, fun times, and great memories…to identify what’s important!

   For the upcoming year the New Year's Think Book will help to prioritize activities, interests and hopefully new ideas of things to try or learn and potential areas for improvement.

   It’s for kids and families. The questions are targeted for tweens ages 8-12. Parents and older kids may easily adapt the questions so the whole family can participate. It would also be a great classroom tool for teachers to give to their students.

Suggestions for use:

• Make it fun by having the whole family complete the book and share   their responses.
• Design vision boards afterwards.
• Color and decorate the pages.
• Cut out inspirational responses and put them in a journal, poster or binder. 

You can download a free sample page of the 2012 Reflection section and the 2013 Goals, Wishes & Resolutions section on Teachers Pay Teachers.  

Follow us on Pinterest for ideas and resources to have an amazing year with your family.  Check out our New Year's Pinterest board for more ideas and suggestions for celebrating New Year's Eve.  

Best wishes for a wonderful 2013!

2013 Resolutions for Parents

Make 2013 the Year of the Family. Build relationships. Bring purpose, balance and well-being into your lives.

1. Play. Through playing with our kids we build relationships while learning what excites and motivates them. Play develops the senses of imagination, curiosity and problem-solving. Encourage your kids to be inquisitive and ask questions. They should wonder about the world, how things work and how they are created. Encouraging exploration will help kids find passion and purpose.
2. Listen. Through active listening we allow a child to deal with their feelings. The best way to disengage a child is to lecture them. Remember it’s not about you, it’s about them. When children have a platform for expressing themselves they will develop confidence, autonomy and strengthen the parent/child relationship.
3. Enrich. Help your child develop practical life skills. The primary objective of our education system is simply to transfer knowledge. We need more than good memorizers and test-takers but rather kids who can communicate, make connections and are willing to take risks without fear of failure. 
4. Relax. Get your family to slow down, put life into perspective and prioritize what’s important. Stressed brains do not learn the same as the relaxed brain. Value and support each other’s uniqueness. People will be most creative when motivated by interest, not external pressures.
5. Smile. Happiness is contagious. Setbacks will occur but how we respond is a model for our children. Remember that problems are temporary and changeable. Positive emotions increase learning, creativity and problem-solving. 

For further reading and inspiration visit our Resources page on thinkingiq.com

Best wishes for a fantastic 2013!

Stocking Stuffer Ideas for Tween Boys

Having two tween boys, I know how hard they can be hard to shop for.  Here is my list of ideas for stocking stuffers. 

Keeping the Magic During the Holidays with Tweens

I remember the day I found my baby teeth in a box.  If there was no Tooth Fairy, then there was no Easter Bunny, and oh no….NO SANTA!  In one quick moment all the magic of the holidays was over.  I was about 9 years old.  From that moment the holidays changed a little especially because I was the youngest child. 

Tweens are at a stage when they are trying to become independent and struggle with being big kids while they still really enjoy the joys and traditions of holidays for kids.  Now that my boys are tweens, they are begging not to get their picture taken with Santa however, they still love many of our family activities and traditions. 

Below are some of our family traditions and activities to keep the holidays magical and emphasize family time and connections.

Winter/Holiday Classroom Parties

Penguin Poop & Snowballs

After several years of being a room parent and helping with classroom parties, I have tried lots of games and activities for Winter theme classroom parties.  I have complied the list of what works and each year when I am asked to help, I just pull out the list and pick a few ideas.  Most teachers I have worked with like the station party plan so I usually have a food station, 1 or 2 crafts stations and 1 or 2 activity/game stations. 

Elf Adventures

Our family loves the tradition of Magic Elves.  Even if my kids know it's not real they continue to play along because they have so much fun.  Our family elf tradition has some differences to the traditional Elf on the Shelf that is sold commercially.