Monday Activity-Alphebet Soup

Hi every one. Guess what, I am taking a blogging class at Ilisgvik. I am really excited about it. We are learning how to make our blog appeal to more people and get more readers. One thing I have decided to do to accomplish this goal is to have weekly post for people to look for. My first one is on Mondays. I will post an activity for you to try with your kids to help keep them entertained, engaged in learning, and also to learn how to focus.


I read in the article: Children can be taught how to cut through the culture of distraction.
July 29, 2008 - by Maggie Jackso


"Two-thirds of children under six live in homes that keep the TV on half or more of the time, an environment linked to attentional difficulties. Mothers multitask an average of 80 hours a week, up from 40 hours in 1975. Racing from activity to activity, families have little time to sit down to eat, to converse, or to be in the same room. They have no time to be together in the deepest sense of the word."

Jackso goes on to quote Ellen Galinky, president of the Families and Work Institute who said,
“We all live in an overwhelming, overstimulating, information-overloaded world,” says Galinsky. “And unless you can pay attention, you can’t think, you can’t problem-solve, you can’t learn. It’s an underlying skill that is to me front and center to success at work, and at home.”

In an article entitled "How to teach your child the importance of concentration"
by Nan Keltie she says:

"Since toddlers are often distracted and on the go, this stage is probably the most important of all in the training process. Your child's natural curiosity is a valuable tool, so use it. Toddlers love to play, and you can train them while doing something fun."

By doing focused activities with your young children even once or twice a day you can help improve their ability to focus which will later help them do well in school, be more successful at work and have more meaningful relationships.


Here is my first Monday activity. This is a silly little game but Chalyse really enjoys it and she is really starting to recognize her letters.

You will need each of the letters of the alphabet that are easy to handle and see from any side as they will be tossed around. We bought some big foam letters at Target. They can be found by the bath toys in the baby section. When we moved to Utah for the summer we left our letters in Alaska so we took 26 of the clear rectangular lids that come on Gerber baby food and wrote on them with permanent marker. Both worked well.

We then put all the letters into a big mixing bowl. Usually we talk about each letter as we put it in the bowl. We may line them up in order first.
Then comes the fun part. We mix all the letters up, using our hands or a big spoon. We sing, "Alphabet soup, alphabet soup, we love alphabet soup." or something like that.

We are not careful to keep all the letters in the bowl :). As the letters fly out of the bowl we name them and talk about them.
Chalyse enjoys being able to make a mess and I love that she is starting to recognize most of her letters. As she gets older we will begin to talk more about the sounds each letter make and start to make words with them.

Mommy Wow!

Chalyse has been so excited to learn to go potty. We told her she had to wait till we got home to Point Hope because we were doing too much running around this summer to devote that much time to the bathroom. Oh! Are we ever spending time in there! I have decided that Chalyse spends at least %20 of her day in there.

Over all I am extremely pleased with how well she is doing. She has been able to get up there on her own, wipe and even wash her hands by herself; although, she can't turn the water on. She can also take her pants on and off, but sometimes she gets her underwear on upside down. Yes upside down, don't ask me how.

It's just that she gets a little distracted with things like brushing her teeth...or flossing...the best part is that she is so genuine about what she is doing. Yesterday, I went in there are she had ripped off several squares of toilet paper and lined them up along the sink. "This one is for Meese, this one's for Mommy, this one;s for Daddy, this is for Ellora..." So, many of you who may be reading this, Chalyse is saving a square of TP for you, too.

Also, because she has been so excited to start using the potty, she somehow needs to go every 5 minutes unless she is truly busy doing something else. Then, as I was surprised to find out, she can go an hour or two without even having an accident. I have started to have to tell her, "you just went potty, see if you can hold it for just a little while." Today, I was so sick of her using the potty so often that I put a child-proof handle on the doorknob.

All in all, she is doing very well and is very pleased with her self. We are also quite pleased with how with what a big girl she is.



In other news, Ellora decided today that markers make a nice snack. We found her sucking on one. Her mouth was completely black which made Chalyse start screaming and freaking out. I couldn't blame her. The sight was quite grotesque. Luckily the markers were none toxic and hopefully Chalyse has learned not to leave markers laying around.

Later Chalyse was chasing Ellora around with the camera telling her to say "Ahhh." and trying to pry her moth open to take a picture of it. Ellora didn't think is was quite as funny as we did.

Coincidences from the Book of Mormon

I'm currently taking a class to finish getting my professional teaching license. It's entitled, "North Slope Inupiaq History, Language and Culture." We are studying some of their creation stories and other legends. One of them is particularly interesting.

Over the course of their oral history, they have legends of four major disasters. The first of these occurred at the end of a paradisaical period. The climate was much warmer and people didn't have to work for what they had. There was one boy who grew up and was the perfect child. He was helpful, kind, and thoughtful. Everyone loved him.

One day, as he was thinking near a pond, he heard a voice calling him. He looked around, but didn't see anything. The voice called again, but again there wasn't anyone. After a third time, he saw a man unlike anyone he had seen before with a long, white beard and hair. He was afraid because he had never seen anyone like that before, although people lived to see the 5th and 6th generations of their descendants. The man told him he was a prophet who had chosen this boy for his goodness to warn his people of a destruction to come.

He told him that to begin with, there would be great earthquakes. People wouldn't die from these. However, they would warn of things to come. Soon after, the sun would be eclipsed by the moon for three days and a nearby mountain would erupt. After that, all but very few people would be dead and the climate would change so that the people would have to wear warm clothes, deal with winter hardships, and be industrious.

The boy warned the people and they were responsive, but even so most of the surrounding populations of people were wiped out.

This story, and others of interest, can be found in the book, "People of Kawerak."

Be you

Yesterday Chalyse said to me "Mommy I really like you."

I said "I'm glad. I really like you too."

She then said, "Mommy I want to be you." I was so delighted and tickled that she would like me so much she would want to be me.

After I walked out of the room she said "I can't be Mommy, I'm too young to be Mommy."

North to Alaska

Here are some pictures of Beautiful Alaska that I took as we flew over

A Warm Sunny Afternoon at the Beach

Back to School Night

The girls are starting to learn the art of Eskimo dancing. They would stop when we would get out the camera, of course, but we did catch a little bit of it.




They are wearing there traditional Atukluks (pronounced Atooglooks). Our friend Gail help me cut them out.

Home Again, Home Again

We are back in PH and I am actually really glad to have regular schedule and a clean house again. This summer has been so fun but I am ready to get back to normal life.

My biggest fears about coming back have been set to rest. Our flights went well with minimal crying and screaming and the girls are adjusting SO well. They got back onto a great sleeping schedule right away, naps and all. They are also eating well also, although, Ellora still won't drink milk. We are hoping she will start drinking it soon because alternitive dairy products like cheese and yogurt are so expensive and she needs the nutrition it affers esspecially the vitamin D.

The weather has been so nice, besides the wind yeterday and today. It got up to 72 yesterday! That the warmest we have ever experienced here. We have been to the park and the beach and the girls have enjoyed playing outside alot. I don't mind all the rocks so much just as long as the girls don't run into a rusty nail or peice of glass. (They are all over, even at the playground, but that is my only complaint for now so we are doing well.)

This picture reminds me of Daurie when she was little. :)

Over the next few weeks i will try to post some of our summer pictures but the internet is really slow here so we'll see.

I know this kind of doll makes a lot of people sick, but really?

We went yard sale-ing today to try and find good deals on birthday presents. We didn't find what we were looking for, but at the last stop we let Chalyse and Ellora have a quarter and find something that they each wanted. Ellora found a Barbie doll that she liked, so we got it for her. When we got home, Chalyse was playing with it, but couldn't quite get the pronunciation down. She started out calling it a "Barfbie," but that soon became "Barfie." She misplaced it momentarily and went around the house calling, "Barfie, where are you barfie?" We tried to convince her that it was "Barbie," but she liked her name better.