Monday, August 15, 2011

Learning, Chores, Exercise - Minute to Win It Style

Have you seen the television show Minute to Win It?  The concept is cool; what can you accomplish in one little minute?  C and R love the idea, and we have been using it to sneak in some learning, to make chores fun, and to get a little exercise.  C and R have been pretty surprised by how much they can accomplish in sixty seconds!

This all began with a package of stacking cups that came from a fast food kids meal (yes, my kids have the occasional fast food kids meal).  They were marketed as Minute to Win It toys and we spent many days setting the timer to see how quickly they could stack the cups.  Before I knew it, I had tons of ideas for minute challenges.


Here are a few we have done:
- write the alphabet


- write as many numbers as you can in numerical order
- can you complete a 1-100 dot to dot in one minute


- how many crayons can you line up in one minute


- how many math problems can you complete in one minute
- can you make your bed in less than one minute
- how many jumping jacks can you do in one minute
- how many of your favorite things can you write in a list in one minute
- how many blocks, candies, cups, etc. can you stack in one minute


This has been a great way to motivate C and R to do things they don't really want to do, but it has also been a fun way to sneak in a tiny bit of learning one minute at a time.  As long as you have a timer or stop watch, you can do this anywhere.  Sometimes C and R have the same challenge, but often they are working on different minute challenges, and they love to repeat challenges to see if they can improve their scores.

I also want to mention that I think this is a great way to make the clock your friend, and gain confidence in yourself when it comes to a timed activity.  There will be many timed tests in school, and activities like this help to take away some of the timer anxiety.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

What fun! Sammy and I will sometimes do this with cleaning up.. We set the timer for a minute and see how much we can clean up a room!

Jenny said...

I've never heard of that show, but what a neat idea. I like how you made it educational, but still fun!

April said...

My grandma used to do that to us all of the time when we were kids, trick us into doing stuff. She would say, "let's see if we can put all the toys away before the minute hand gets on the 6" lol

Ticia said...

What a great way to sneak all those things in. I'm sure they were loving it!

Kelly said...

What a cool idea. I love all the ideas you thought to do while racing against the clock.
Little Wonders' Days

MaryAnne said...

I love this idea! Your kids must love it!

Valerie @ Inner Child Fun said...

What a great idea!! Esp. with the repeat challenges to see if they can beat their best times. Brilliant!

Debbie said...

I remember doing things like this. Thank you for reminding me of this we will have to try this sometime.

Sherri said...

This is awesome! I have never seen the actual TV game...due to the fact that we dont have TV...but I have heard of all kinds of fun games with this idea in mind! Yours are super fun for all ages!

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

This is an awesome idea! I have to try it out at home, since daughter absolutely enjoys the element of competition.

Susana said...

I haven't seen the show either, but have heard of it...This is super fun! I want to do this here for sure with Joe and Jack. Thank you for the idea, I know they will enjoy it!