Favorites: Noise Monitor, Kid Strengths & Bioglyphs

I’m sharing a few of the Middle School things that have stood out to me in a positive way for this segment of Friday Favorites.

  1. Bouncy Balls: Michael shared that his science teacher used a website that monitored the class noise level in an interesting way. I did a google search and found the site. It’s such a cool way to visually monitor sound/noise that I’ll be using it around my home when we have a bunch of kids over at our home.
    bouncy balls noise monitor
  2. Kid Strengths: I was given homework by two of Michael’s middle school teachers to share about him with them. That’s pretty broad, but I found a 34 Strengths Defined page to be helpful in articulating his various character strengths (and weaknesses). (Excerpts on that post are taken from Now, Discover Your Strengths and StrengthsFinder 2.0.) It’s very cool because it tells you things to look out for if you have a certain strength AND tips regarding how to interact with others who have certain strengths. Personally, I think that every parent should read this post or the related books. As I write this, I’m reminded that I want to buy StrengthsExplorer For Ages 10 to 14: From Gallup, the Creators of StrengthsFinder.

  3. Bioglyphs: This is a fun back to school icebreaker that allows kids to create an image of themselves. Fortunately, you don’t have to be artistically inclined. Rather, you just need to follow the directions. I went to my friend Google to find a copy of a bioglyph exercise at The Science Spot.
    bioglyphs

Michael is having a relatively smooth transition from grade school to middle school so far. An added bonus is that I’m learning new things too!

If your kids have brought home some new resources that you think might be helpful to other moms, please let me know. Thanks.