Did Ya Notice an Exclamation Point Fell Upon Your Nose?

A truly wonderful thing happened to me. As I was walking home from my beloved farmers market with tomatoes, basil, and flowers in my arms, an exclamation point bounced down upon my nose.

I was passing a beautiful front yard garden when I heard a voice: “Would you like some rosemary?”

I looked up to find a woman holding huge scissors near a huge bush.  Would I ever! Rosemary was the perfect addition to the smells of the basil and the flowers.

What a morning! The sky was bright blue; the temperature was perfect; and the vegetables, fruits, and herbs in the market composed a beautiful painting of colors and shapes and scents. The morning was terrific. And then…a bonus! The exclamation point of a gift of rosemary in my arms made the day absolutely awesome!

CONVERSATION KICKSTARTERS

For kids 8-18:

Can you think of a time that a punctuation mark “bounced down upon your nose?”  Maybe you were quite sure about something, but then you learned some new information and that made a question mark “bounce down upon your nose.”  Or maybe you felt something must be final and a period “bounced down.”  Or maybe something really great happened and you too felt an exclamation point “bounce down upon your nose!” Adults can start the conversation by giving their examples.

For kids 5-8:

With younger children, remind them what a period, question mark, and exclamation point are. Give examples of when one of these marks might have “bounced down upon their nose.” For example, maybe they were having fun at a birthday party and then they were the winner of a game. Exclamation point! Maybe last night they had to turn off a show they were watching and go to bed. Period! Maybe there was a new girl in school who came from someplace they never heard of before. Question mark! Ask them for more examples.

For preschoolers:

Act out an exclamation point together. Yell ,“Yay”, and make a big jump.

Act out a period. Plop down on the floor and stay absolutely still.

Act out a question mark. Bend over to look like the mark and repeat “Why? Why” as you walk around.

You can make a game of this by saying: “Period!” and they have to plop down. Question Mark! and they have to walk bent over and say Why? Exclamation Point! and they have to jump and say Yay! They won’t know what you will say next. Fun for toddlers to follow their older sibs.

Did Ya Notice All the Things You Can Debate?

A debate is when at least two people discuss a topic in front of an audience, and they have different points of view. They try to convince the audience that their opinion is best. It is important to know how to disagree respectfully and state your opinion based on facts. For example, one day a stapler debated a pile of paper clips.

The moderator (the person making sure everything goes smoothly) said, “Paper clips, you won the coin toss so you may begin.” “First,” said the head paper clip, “let me thank my opponent for being here tonight.  Now I am sure, in the course of everyone’s preparation, numerous of my brothers and sisters have been clipped to your papers. We are small, we are mighty; you can keep us in your drawer or even in your pocket.  We are always where you need us.”  And it did appear that the paperclips were shining ever more brightly on their table.

The stapler began to staple piles of paper that he had set beneath the table.  “Staple, staple, staple.” he sang as he worked.  “What could be more satisfying that the sound of the stapler?!  Everything is tied together so securely and neatly!  There are no little clips to fall off.  When I staple, the job is done! My job is done cleanly, neatly, and without drawers and cups full of little clips.” The stapler stood on his end and looked sincerely at the audience.  “Folks,” he said, “let’s keep our country neat and clean.  Let’s agree here and now to utilize only the mighty stapler.

The moderator thanked the paper clips and the stapler for their great debate. Who would you vote for?

CONVERSATION-STARTERS

For Elementary Schoolers

Having silly debates is a great learning experience, and great fun.  This would work especially well during election time, when the kids can watch politicians debate on TV.  Have the kids make lists of what their debate topics could be.  Baseball vs. soccer?   Flip-flops vs. sneakers?  Ice cream vs. cupcakes?  Remind them to be silly - the whole family can get into this!

For 2-5 year olds:

Ask each person what color they like best? Why? What flavor ice cream? Why? What do they like best for breakfast? Why? What is their favorite food? Why? What do they like to play outside? Why? It is a great skill to have them learn to explain their answer…no matter how much sense it makes or doesn’t make!

Did Ya Notice How Amazing Ants Are?

Photo by Salmen Bejaoui on Unsplash

You may have heard that ants can carry things much, much heavier than they are. Pretty amazing, huh?

Well, here’s something else cool about ants. Ants can cling to each other and form a raft for themselves in a flood. They can cling together and form a bridge too, and even repair a hole in the bridge with their own bodies! Here is an awesome video about ants. https://www.nytimes.com/video/science/100000002605952/sciencetake-the-physics-of-ants.html

There is nothing that a cooperative colony of ants can’t do. Shouldn’t we humans try to be more like ants?

Conversation Kickstarters

1.    How do you regularly cooperate as a family? Does everyone have chores they do? What are they? Do family members help each other out? How? What other things could you do?

2.    In what ways do you cooperate with your friends?  

3.    For teens: When are some times when it is good to cooperate with your friends? When is it a good time to compete? When can you combine cooperation with competition?

4.    For young children – Pretend to be ants with your brothers and sisters or your friends and build a bridge with your bodies. Is it fun to cooperate and build something? When else have you cooperated with your family or friends to build something neat?

©2020 Margery Leveen Sher

Did Ya Notice Something New to Celebrate?

Introduction

This material comes from a book in production entitled The Family Dinner Table Book. Many of us no longer have time for dinner together as a family, but conversation as a family is still extremely important. Even if you eat together once a week, make the time worthwhile. Perhaps your family would title this The Family Sunday Breakfast book, or the Wednesday Pizza Together Book. The important thing is that you establish a regular time to talk together as a family. This book gives you examples of interesting topics, and each topic includes Conversation Kickstarters, which can be made simpler or more complex and used with toddlers to teenagers. I hope this material brings good times and good laughs to your family!

Did Ya Notice Something New to Celebrate?

It is such a good idea to Notice and celebrate small things: things like the first warm day of spring, or a flower with an interesting shape, or smells from a kitchen where someone is making something delicious.

Notice, and have parties to celebrate! People have parties to celebrate holidays and birthdays. But how about a party to celebrate coziness on a winter day, or the first flower of spring, or maybe even just a party to celebrate Tuesday? Why not? Tuesday is a nice day, and not often praised – like Friday is, for instance.

Or just celebrate getting stuff done.  Celebrate being a good friend, and have a Good Friends Party.  Celebrate hearing or seeing something that makes you smile or laugh and have a Good Mood Party.  Celebrate Noticing unusual clouds in the sky and have a party to celebrate beautiful skies.

Parties can be online or in person. Your party can be a simple, just get together some cookies and a drink. Or you can have fun as a family making decorations and planning games. Or you can put on music and dance. You can do anything you can dream up, as long as you are Noticing something good to celebrate!

CONVERSATION KICKSTARTERS

Give everyone in the family a chance to name one thing they would celebrate with a party. What kind of party would be good for that celebration? Keep going around so everyone can name as many things to Notice and celebrate as they can. Be silly!

If it is my turn, I say:  Celebrate the hard-working trashcan. Where would we be without trashcans? Living in a mess, that’s where! Pull up a chair for it at the table and give it cookies and cake to make up for all the yucky stuff and scratchy papers it usually has to eat!

©2020 Margery Leveen Sher

Did Ya Notice These Amazing Inventions?

Introduction

This material comes from a book in production entitled The Family Dinner Table Book. Many of us no longer have time for dinner together as a family, but conversation as a family is still extremely important. Even if you eat together once a week, make the time worthwhile. Perhaps your family would title this The Family Sunday Breakfast book, or the Wednesday Pizza Together Book. The important thing is that you establish a regular time to talk together as a family. This book gives you examples of interesting topics, and each topic includes Conversation Kickstarters. I hope this material brings good times and good laughs to your family! 

Did Ya Notice These Amazing Inventions?

Notice some things that we see and use all the time, but usually don’t give them the gratitude they are due! We often don’t really Notice them. Let us profusely thank:

•          Your TRASHCAN! Imagine if there were no trashcans - trash and garbage would be everywhere. Yuck! Who could live in a mess like that?!

•          Your JACKET in winter! Imagine yourself walking outside in a cold snow. You have on a warm jacket or parka. You are nice and warm inside that jacket, and you can admire the beauty all around you. What if nobody had ever invented the jacket, parka, or coat, and you only had an animal skin that kept falling off?

•          Your BOOTS! Yes, you can stomp in spring rain puddles; you can walk in snow; you can slosh through mud. Hooray for boots!

•          And don’t forget to Notice the great and wonderful HOOK!  The hook is amazing – it takes up little room and allows you to hang up all kinds of things that are then out of the way and ready for the next time you need them. Yay for the hook!

CONVERSATION KICKSTARTERS

1.         What inventions do you see in this room that you want to thank?

2.         What inventions in school or at work should be praised?

3.         Take turns and name as many inventions to thank as you can, and tell everyone why are you thanking them.

4.         Laugh! Tell your friends to thank a trashcan today!

©2020 Margery Leveen Sher

Did Ya Notice the Broccoli?

Introduction

This material comes from a book in production entitled The Family Dinner Table Book. Many of us no longer have time for dinner together as a family, but conversation as a family is still extremely important. Even if you eat together once a week, make the time worthwhile. Perhaps your family would title this The Family Sunday Breakfast book, or the Wednesday Pizza Together Book. The important thing is that you establish a regular time to talk together as a family. This book gives you examples of interesting topics, and each topic includes Conversation Kickstarters. I hope this material brings good times and good laughs to your family

Did Ya Notice the Broccoli?

Have you ever Noticed all the repeating patterns in nature?

Look at a head of broccoli. It is made up of a repeating pattern. The head of broccoli is made up of smaller heads of broccoli and those are made up of even smaller heads of broccoli. It’s a repeating pattern. It’s awesome! After all, a head of broccoli could be a big mishmash of stalks and florets, but it’s not. It is a beautiful repeating pattern!

Another example of repeating patterns are trees – the branches come off the trunk and smaller and smaller branches come off those branches. A repeating pattern! There are lots of repeating patterns in Nature – and there are also repeating patterns in the way we do stuff and the way we act. Some patterns are good like fresh, green broccoli. Some patterns need to be changed like old yellowing, dried-out broccoli. What are your patterns?

CONVERSATION KICKSTARTERS

1.     What is the pattern your family has on a weekday morning? How do you each get up in the morning? How do you have breakfast? What is your pattern for gathering your things for school and work?

2.     Do you like your morning pattern? What part do you like best? What would you like to change in this pattern?

3.     How about the afternoon/evening? What is your pattern for returning home after school or work? What do you do first? Then what? Do you like your pattern? What do you like? What would you like to change?

4.     What other family patterns can you think of?

5.     How can you help each other as a family to have beautiful, fresh broccoli-like patterns that work so well?

©2020 Margery Leveen Sher