3-2-1.........

Have you ever felt like you say something over and over throughout the day? For instance, my mom, sister, and I pulled up to a Taco Bell once to order drinks while we were driving around doing errands. We order our drinks, and the lovely gentleman comes back over the [garbled] drive-in and asks us, "would you like hot or mild sauce with that?" It was funny, but I guess you had to be there...You get the idea. We say things over and over all day.

Well, this is what I say about a million times a day: "_____________ in 3-2-1-0..."

It may be "voices off in 3-2-1-0. thank you!"
OR "desks cleared in 3-2-1-0"
OR "find your partner and get busy in 3-2-1-0"
OR "line up silently in 3-2-1-0"
OR "whisper the answer to your neighbor in 3-2-1-0"
OR "shout out the answer to me in 3-2-1-0"

I guess I should just be glad that I finally have these kids conditioned to respond the way I want them to. With as many times as I say it in a day, I wish I was saying something that will actually matter or something that they need to know....so here are my ideas....rather than counting down to zero, I could:

-do multiplication facts, such as "everyone sitting in there desk in '6 x 6 is 36'"
-use Arkansas information that we are studying, which might sound like this: "at your seats by the time I get to the end of the 6 Arkansas regions: 'Delta Region, Ozark Mountain, Gulf Coastal Plains.....'" (I think you get the idea)
-where to put commas in a compound sentence, which would be like this: "voices off in 'conjunction then comma in a compound sentence'".....(that one's a stretch. Ok, they ALL are, but who cares? I'm just venting a little. haha!)

Maybe if I repeated USEFUL information my kids could remember these IMPORTANT facts. After all, I've heard the statistic is that a child needs to hear something 17 times before they actually remember it and put it into practice......

I'd say I count down everyday at least 20 times, so each day they would at least pick up SOMETHING of importance.

Maybe next week I'll give it a try.