Ted E. Bear

Jensen's class at Mothers Day out has been doing a literacy activity called the "Ted E. Bear Project." The students get to take home the class stuffed animal, Ted, for a weekend and then they journal about and share what they did with him. This weekend Jensen got to bring Ted home. 

 Ted came home with a backpack full of clothes, a journal, toys and books. Jensen LOVED dressing Ted in different outfits. You can totally tell my kids don't have any dolls to dress up. (Maybe we should think about getting some Build-a-Bears and outfits…)

 We didn't have any grand plans for our weekend, so Jensen just hung out with Ted, and they did what we normally would do. He played games with him, brought him along while we ran errands, etc. I tried to take pictures of things to add to his journal. 

My favorite journal entry was on Sunday. Jensen would always tell me what he wanted to write and I would put it in the journal. That day he wrote, "Today Ted went to church with me and my family. Ted was good at church and he took a nap there. He also played with me in the car, which was fun. We sat quietly and played the quiet game." Sometimes he just cracks me up!

 We had fun playing with Ted and documenting our experiences. The goal of the Ted E. Bear project is to introduce students to journaling while making connections with other students in the class. I loved participating in this. I'm an avid journal keeper, and it's something that I have worked on with both Carson and Jensen. Every Sunday morning we take 10 minutes or so to write in their journals. Jensen narrates while I write, and then he draws pictures or letters at the bottom of the page. Now that Carson can write, he journals more on his own. I love reading what they wrote for different things, and it's hilarious to hear things narrated from a child's point of view. I really do hope that they come to enjoy this habit of regular record keeping.