The Wonder Years Preschool

Halloween Party

2010-10-29T11:43:00.000-07:00

I can't believe this was the only picture I took today! We ended our day with a Halloween lunch and some extra play time. The kids enjoyed the cute cupcakes Christine made. :)

Preschool 10/27

2010-10-27T14:42:00.000-07:00

Theme:
Halloween!

Circle Time

Books: The Halloween Play, There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat

We played Trick or Treat memory and Halloween Bingo. I printed them out from a website online and the kids really liked playing both games, Bingo especially. It was easy - only 9 squares but just easy enough that they were interested.

Centers

Halloween costume dress-up with paper doll (and dude).

Sort the monsters eyeballs. There were 6 different colored monsters and eyeballs and each monster had a different number of eyes.

Princesses chatting on their phones.

Pretending they are in the car going to a doctor appointment.

Art

These are the glue ghosts we started on Monday. Basically you just draw an outline of a ghost on wax paper using Elmer's glue and then fill it in with more glue so you can't see the paper. Add some eyeballs an let dry over night.

Ta-Da! Super cute ghosts!
The kids role played with them for a bit today making ghost sounds and chasing each other around.

Did our letter of the week - F is for fish crackers.

Outside/Science

I'd been wanting to do this with the kids and thought what better time than Halloween? I played it off as we were going to mix a secret potion that would become ooze. We started with green food coloring first.

I told the kids to scoot back a bit because they were crowding and I didn't know how crazy it would foam up. This isn't exactly what I'd meant...

Then we added some purple coloring and did it again.

...and again.

They then went and made their own witches soup. The dump truck was filled with rain water and they kept dumping random stuff in - wood chips, leaves, dirt, whatever they could find.

Snack

Fish crackers and raisins

Preschool 10/25

2010-10-25T14:35:00.000-07:00

Theme:
Halloween!

Letter: F
Number: 7
Color: Orange and Black
Shape: Triangle

Circle Time

Books: Happy Halloween board book, Cliffords Halloween, Ghosts in the House

We started our theme with just talking about what they know about Halloween - which pretty much summed up to dressing up and candy. I asked them what they did over the weekend, if any of them went to a Halloween party? Isaiah said he went to Olivia's soccer game and stayed home and played games. Megan said her daddy took her to a movie and Red Robin. Tatum said she went to Red Robin too. Lola said I don't want to talk about it. Haha...

Art

Used Halloween stickers and used a picture of a triangle to put them on. Then they practiced with the triangle in the middle and writing the word triangle.

They did some cookie cutter stamping with orange and black paint.

This got REAL messy, REAL fast. The table was basically black by the time they were done. They really enjoyed it though and didn't seem to mind getting messy, I wouldn't expect anything less from preschoolers! :)

We also did some quick glue ghosts...pictures will be in the next post. They had to dry overnight so they weren't quite ready until Wednesday.

Centers

Silly kids trying to decide what they should do next. Isaiah looks kind of scared of Tatum in this picture. She was doing a funny face of course.

They pounded pegs into our class pumpkin (kind of like lite brite except we didn't carve it first). They all kept coming back to this multiple times during the day.

Cute friends digging in the sensory bin.

Finger puppets.

Snack

Open face little bagel with cream cheese and Halloween sprinkles and an orange

Preschool 10/22

2010-10-22T21:01:00.000-07:00

Theme:
Community Helpers

Circle Time

Songs - Einsy Spider, Wheels on the Bus, Baby Bumblebee
Books - Trashy Town, Community Helpers A-Z

Today we talked about garbage men and mailmen being community helpers. Just as luck would have it today was our garbage day so we anxiously awaited the garbage man to pick up our trash. When he came, the kids were glued to the window until he was out of sight. We noticed when he drives he stands up and is not sitting down. I asked them why they thought he was wearing a bright yellow vest and where they think he takes the trash too. Megan apparently was the only one who's been to the dump because the other kids didn't seem to know what I was talking about. Or maybe they'd forgotten if they had ever been?

We also talked about using the phone for help and dialing 9-1-1. I gave them scenarios of situations and asked them if they should call 911 or not. They all seemed to understand what an emergency was so hopefully they won't unnecessarily call it one day...

Centers

We cut paper, used stickers and crayons and 'made' our own mail stuffing it into envelopes. We pretended to deliver it around the room.

Played with wooden blocks and made our own city complete with fire station, police station, library, etc. They used the matchbox cars on the 'roads' they made.

Outside

It was kind of a yucky day today so we had an indoor playground!

Snack

Pooh crackers, raisins and peanuts

Preschool 10/20

2010-10-20T20:52:00.000-07:00

Theme:

Community Helpers

Circle Time

Books: Doctor Maisy

Today we talked about doctors being Community Helpers by helping us keep our bodies healthy. We go to them so they can check our bodies every year and we see them when we are sick and need medicine.

Art

We made a doctor's bag and glued down things that we thought would be in it.

We also did a paper plate dalmatian dog dipping their fingers in black paint to make his spots.

And we did our letter of the week project - E is for Elephant.

Centers

The kids really, really got into the fireman role again! I arranged the chairs to be a 'fire truck' and they took turns driving the rest of us to the fire. We'd pretend squirt water on it and go rescue the babies and kitties (that's what they told me...). Gosh, we must have role played this for at least 20 minutes. Lola loved helping me make the siren noise on our way to the fires. :)

They also role played with the doctor kit, babies and stuffed animals. They did very good sharing and patiently waiting their turn with all the different instruments.

We worked a bit with tangrams .

Outside

I drew a 'road' on the patio and then some signs - stop light, yield and stop. They loved it and it was so warm out we all peeled off our jackets!

Snack

Pooh crackers

Preschool 10/18

2010-10-18T21:29:00.000-07:00

Theme: Community Helpers

Letter: Continuing D and Introducing E

Number: 6

Color: Orange and Black

Shape: Triangle

Circle Time

We read 'Officer Buckle and Gloria' and 'Going to the Firehouse' books. We talked about what to do if there's a fire in your house and how you crawl on your tummy to an exit. We practicing STOP, DROP & ROLL. Then (thanks to Lola's awesome daddy!) I passed out fire hats and sticker badges. They had a blast playing with them and pretending they were putting out fires. :)

Art

I have a lot of art projects lined up for this week and they seemed interested enough to tackle some today.

We made a fingerprint counting book.

Our letter of the week project (this we didn't get to do last week for D)

Practiced writing the number 5 and then followed the activity on the page - color the mail letters, cut out and paste by the mailman's bag.

Centers

Today we did some shadow matching with fireman objects, a fireman puzzle & some tracing lines from the cop to the robber. The kids enjoyed cooking food in the kitchen and took turns shopping, buying and being the cashier.

We also pulled out our sensory bin. They love to pretend they are witches cooking a stew. :)

Snack

Fish crackers & Animal crackers

Preschool Fieldtrip! 10/15

2010-10-15T21:33:00.000-07:00

Our first fieldtrip and of course it was to the Craven Farms pumpkin patch! All week we've had fun learning about pumpkins and what a fun way to end the lesson and week.

Unfortunately poor Tatum came down with a stomach bug and couldn't go. We really missed her and wished she could've joined us. :(

Our first stop was a cookie and a 'farm story'. Then we were ushered out to look at some animals.

The kid's really enjoyed playing on all the fun outdoor things they had. Megan had some issues sharing and even after a time out was a little grump all day.

Megs and Isaiah tromped to the very END of the patch to find their perfect pumpkins.

They were so cute watching them walk together and discuss which pumpkins looked best. :)

Trying to get a cute picture of all of them with their pumpkins and Megan did NOT want to stand next to them. I'm not sure where this newfound independance is coming from but I'm pretty sure I don't like it.

She was in the picture but on her own terms. haha

It was such a fun day and I thank all the mommies (and grandparents!) that came.

Preschool 10/13

2010-10-13T13:54:00.000-07:00

Theme:
Pumpkins

Circle Time

Books: Haunted Party, Berenstein Bears and the Prize Pumpkin

We had our pumpkin friend back again today and passed him around as all the kids wanted a turn in holding it!

We guessed if we thought the pumpkin weighed heavier or lighter than us. Then they each stepped on the scale to weigh themselves.

Tatum - 32 lbs
Megan - 55 lbs
Isaiah - 47 lbs
Lola - 37 lbs
Pumpkin - 16 lbs

Played some file folder games - matching pumpkin faces and Pumpkin ABC's

Art

We listened to Raffi's '5 Little Pumpkins' song and then did our own art project to it. They all really liked putting this one together!

Later we did an open-ended art project with tissue paper circles (pumpkins), pipe cleaner (vine) and real pumpkin seeds. Lola chose not to participate in this one. She was too engrossed in playing something else at the time.

Snack

We made individual pumpkin pies. The kids helped measure the ingredients, mix it all up and scoop it into their own bowls. I had planned to have them eat this right away but didn't see before in the directions it had to set up in the fridge.

So we had saltines and string cheese, went outside to play, finished our day in the preschool room and came back down stairs to have the pies at the end of our day. I think in the end they all only at the whip cream on top! Oh well!

Preschool 10/12

2010-10-12T14:00:00.000-07:00

Theme:
Pumpkins

Letter: D
Number: 5
Color: Black and Orange

We had sort of a mixed up day today. It was a make-up day since we didn't have school Monday for Columbus Day. Lola wasn't here and Tatum came 1/2 way through our morning.

Books: Whooo's There?

Megs, Isaiah and I made some pumpkin pie playdoh that smelled SO YUMMY!

We did some observations of our in class pumpkin. They drew it in their journals and then they held it and touched it noting how smooth and cold it was.

Art

For art they did still life with the pumpkin. I think they did pretty well with a non-directional project, just some paint, paper and here ya go! Tatum and Isaiah liked seeing how their colors mixed together.

Centers

We played in the sensory tub again and scooped marbles and sorted them. They played with the kitchen and pretended to make pumpkin pies.

Snack

String cheese and fish crackers

Preschool 10/8

2010-10-08T13:47:00.000-07:00

Theme:
Fall

We talked more about squirrels today and where we think they might live. We made a bear cave under the table and they enjoyed hiding out under there.

Centers
Had fun playing with the Halloween sensory bin. Digging through black beans and orange rice is so mesmerising! Even I love feeling it pour through my hands over and over. :)

Color matching with paint samples.

We played a dice game with leaves. They took turns rolling the big dice, counting out how many it landed on and then choosing that many leaves from the pile to stick onto their tree. We did about 2 rounds of this before their patience started to wear thin and they all started just grabbing leaves to stick on. The concept was good though! It was good for them though because they all needed to practice getting the paper off the backs of the stickers.

They traced some lines I had written on paper also. Curved, wiggly and straight. Good practice in preparing to write letters.

Snack

Carrots & crackers (both orange like our color of the month!)

Tatum likes showing me what she's eating. :)

Preschool 10/6

2010-10-06T15:23:00.000-07:00

Theme:

Fall Is Here!, day 2

Today we talked a lot about squirrels. How they gather nuts, where they live, and what they eat.

Art

Painting with our hands with Fall colors.

We also made our own squirrels. They colored the squirrel template and then cut & glued on pieces of grey yarn for the fur.

Afterwards I told them they were going to pretend to be squirrels and I was going to hide, ok scatter nuts around the room and they had to hurry and gather them and bring back to the nest (the bowl). They were quick at this!

Afterwards we observed all the different nuts - shapes, size, texture. We sorted them out and in doing so Megan found an almond that was easy to open. Out popped a yucky looking old nut. She wanted to eat it but I told her no. So we went downstairs and tried some fresh almonds I had in the fridge.

Afterwards we enjoyed some playtime outside!

Snack

Fish crackers & cheese

Preschool 10/4

2010-10-04T15:16:00.000-07:00

Theme: Fall Is Here!

Letter of the week: C

Number: 4

Color of the month: Orange

Shape of the month: Triangle

Circle Time

Introduced theme of the week and talked about leaves changing colors, falling from the trees, jumping in piles of leaves, what animals start gathering food for the winter, etc.

We sang a song about leaves falling down and we also sang Eensy Weensy Spider & Where is Thumbkin? per Tatum's request.

Centers

This week enjoyed the Concentration game. I know it's pretty advanced for them but they worked hard at getting the right shapes in and then we'd start the timer and wait for them all to pop up.

Dancing to music!

We did some beading, patterns & sorting.

We played a game where 1 person sat in a circle on the floor (I made it with a jump rope). We all counted to 4 and and threw the leaves in the air. The person in the circle had to count how many landed in the circle with them.

They each enjoyed having a turn!

Silly faces!

Snack

Crackers & peanut butter

Art

We did our letter of the week - C is for caterpillar. They glued pom-poms onto the letter C to make a caterpillar and then added some googly eyes. I guess I didn't get a picture of them; some art projects need a lot of guidance and I don't always have the time to snap a picture! This one required lots of gluing so I'm guessing I was busy with overseeing the use of too much glue. ;)

We also did some dot a dot with the letter C & caterpillars. And then we did some practice cutting. Lola loves to cut so she was pretty happy.

Left to Right: Megan, Tatum, Lola, Isaiah

Preschool 10/1

2010-10-01T07:02:00.000-07:00

Theme:
Animals of the Forest, Day 3

Circle Time
We discussed what animals in the forest eat - berries, leaves, bugs, & other small animals. We read the books below:

Then we played a matching game.
Tatum and Megan patiently wait for me to explain the rules. I must've been long winded because by the time I was done they were all laying on their tummies.

Snack

Animal crackers and string cheese

Art

We did raccoon paper bag puppets but I never took a picture of them I guess.

We also did a messy project outside stamping apples onto the letter A.

After we were done they all needed to be cleaned up so I dumped some water and dish soap in the water table. It was perfect! Then they wanted to wash the apples. :)

It was a beautiful day so we took full advantage and had a lot of outside play time on the swings, trampoline and just running around.

Preschool 9/29

2010-09-29T13:59:00.001-07:00

Theme
Animals of the Forest, Day 2

Circle Time

Read the book 'Bear's New Friend'. I love these books! The pictures are so cute and the moral behind the story is always a good one.

We pretended to be raccoons digging through trash to find something good by only feeling and not looking. I had about 6 things in a sack and they took turns reaching in to find one thing. Then they had to describe what it felt like (smooth, pokey, soft) and guess what it was before pulling it out.

Then we made a chart with 4 animals on it. We took turns saying our favorite one and then I wrote our name under it. Friday we'll do this again and see if their favorite changed.

Centers

They enjoyed the trains and animal hospital again today. I had set out letter B worksheets at the table in case some wandered over to do some. They all eventually did but didn't take any interest in writing, just coloring. That was fine because we just talked about things that start with the letter B (some of which were on their paper).

Megan and Tatum took turns 'reading' books to each other.

Snack
During snack time I read them another story 'The Kissing Hand'. This was such a cute book and I'm surprised I'd never seen it before. I had only checked it out from the library because the raccoons on the cover went along with our theme but after having read it, it might have to be a permanent book in our house.

At the end of the story was the sign for 'I Love You' so I showed them how to do it with their fingers.

Isaiah wanted to have a picnic snack on the floor so we had our fishy crackers there. They we 'seasoning' their crackers with the play food. Haha! I held up a potato and asked them what it was -

Isaiah said 'chicken nugget'
Megan said 'cantaloupe'
Tatum said 'bean'
Only Lola said 'potato'!!

Made me wonder if they knew what all the other play food was that they play with?!

Art

We did 2 art projects today. I didn't really care for how our letter A collages turned out the week before so I wanted to do something different for B.

I held up the paper and asked them if they know what letter that was. Right away Tatum yelled out 'B'!!! Yay!

They first colored it with a Brown crayon and then proceeded to glue lots & lots of Buttons on. They loved this!

Our next art project was doing an animal habitat. I loved seeing how each of their papers came together. Each so different and imaginative. Great work guys!

Preschool 9/27

2010-09-27T13:19:00.000-07:00

The theme this week is
Animals of the Forest

Letter: B
Numbers: 2 & 3
Color: Red

Circle Time
In circle time today we discussed forests, what kinds of animals live there, what their homes might look like, what our favorite forest animals are, etc.

I read 'Stranger in the Woods' and they pointed out what animals were in the book.

Centers

The kitchen seems to continuously be a favorite for them all. They love pretend cooking and fixing food for each other.

They stacked blocks as high as they could and we counted them as they put them on. We did some butterfly sorting (large, medium, small) and some color matching with bee's and flowers.

They stacked blocks as high as they could and we counted them as they put them on.

Snack

We had graham crackers with strawberry cream cheese frosting on top. Also some apples & apple juice. They gobbled those crackers right up! :)

Outside Play

I've been having issues with outside time because all they want to do it swing...and none of them can swing by themselves...and there's only 3 swings. So I told them this week that I will give them 2 big (underdog!) pushes and then they need to swing by themselves or ask a friend to push them or swing alone on their tummy or find something else to do.

This totally worked! They did ask for more pushes after the 2 but I just said 'No more' and they were fine. Tatum helped push Megan and Lola. Megan pushed Lola and Isaiah swung on his tummy. Then after a few minutes of all that, they all found something else to do - ride bikes, do the slide, kick the soccer ball. It was wonderful and they were able to burn off some much needed energy. :)

The one exception I made was the tire swing because none of them can push it while they are sitting on it. And if someone gets off to push, it's impossible for them to get back on once it's going!

Art

Owl headbands!

Stamping patterns. I stamped the first 4 stamps to get the pattern going and then they had to finish the last 2 boxes by figuring out the pattern. They all did excellent at this!

Then they wanted to stamp some more so we turned their papers over and let them at it.

Preschool 9/24

2010-09-24T23:01:00.000-07:00

We didn't have preschool today because Lola ended up coming down with a cold. I would have done it with just Megan but I ended up cleaning the house like a mad woman for Meg's family birthday party on Saturday. Poor Meg's just wanted me to play with her and I kept having to tell her 'in a minute'. Before I knew it the day was nearing an end and I felt so bad I hadn't just said to heck with the cleaning and sat down to play with her.

At that point I vowed to never let that happen again. Birthdays are a crock and should be spent just enjoying who you are celebrating. Cleaning house, running errands, filling goody bags, baking, planning menu's, ignoring your birthday girl so you can do all that, that's not what birthdays are about.

So I'm sorry Megan for letting the party get the best of me. I promise to lay on the floor with you and play Polly Pockets or bingo or memory when you ask because before I know it you will be celebrating your 18th birthday and won't want to do that with me anymore.

I once read this quote and it explains it all: "Cherish the here and now before it is there and gone"

Preschool 9/22

2010-09-22T14:53:00.000-07:00

Theme: Apples, Day 2

Circle Time

Read books '10 Apples Up on Top' & 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?'.

Showed them 3 different apples - Red Delicious, Granny Smith & Honey Crisp. Then discussed how they were different or the same. Also what they thought they would taste like.

I showed them this color matching game and all 4 of them worked together to match the apples:

Centers

We continued with the same activities as earlier in the week.

Snack / Science

Taste tested the apples that we talked about in Circle Time earlier today. They liked guessing what each would taste like, trying the different kinds and giving their opinions afterwards.

Art Time

With my help we painted each of their arms to look like tree's and then they dipped the eraser end of a pencil in red paint to dot apples on their tree. They all stayed pretty interested in this activity.

Tatum's work of art:

We didn't have outside time today as we were pretty busy inside most of the morning. We drew apple tree's in our journals, played Candyland and Hullaballo.

.......................................................

After school ended we celebrated Lola and Megan's birthdays with a fun lunch & cupcakes. My friend Candace came over with her little ones Maya & Sean. The kids played outside for awhile before eating lunch.

Then we had cupcakes & Megan opened some presents from her friends. It was a fun day indeed!

Preschool 9/20

2010-09-20T14:58:00.000-07:00

Our theme this week was APPLES.

Letters: A & B

Numbers: 1 & 2

Color: Red

Circle Time

After doing our usual calendar, weather, songs and Pledge of Allegiance, we read the books 'Apples' & ' Llama Llama Red Pajama'. We talked all about apples - colors, taste, texture & what kinds of food we can make with them.

Centers

The kids worked great together this week in centers! Megan and Tatum scooping and sorting pom-poms.

Lola and Isaiah loved the animal hospital & using keys to open each door. They were great at taking turns.
Pounding the foam alphabet puzzle pieces in.
More animal hospital.

We also explored the geoboard with rubber bands. No pictures of it but they liked putting the different colored bands on.

Snack

We made cinnamon apples! I had diced some up earlier and they scooped them out of the bowl into a baggie, sprinkled cinnamon in and shook it up.

They all gobbled them right up!

Art Time

Torn apples! Ripping paper and gluing. Nice face Megs.

Showing off their work. :)

Games

We tried playing Hide & Seek with the apple and took turns while each child got a turn to hide the apple. I don't think any of them understood the point because they would each hide it in the same place as the person before them. Then when we would go into the room to find it, the hider would announce and show us where it was. I was laughing so hard because it was so silly!

We also had some fun with the musical instruments. Isaiah really got into the guitar. :)

Preschool 9/17

2010-09-17T15:03:00.000-07:00

We finished our week of our 'Friends' theme today. Just Megan and Lola today but we had fun painting, practicing our letter A's and singing songs.

It was raining outside so we didn't get to go out to play. Instead Lola requested we dance to princess music.

Baby Bumblebee Song

2010-09-17T14:04:00.000-07:00

Here are the lyrics to one of our favorite songs we sing at Circle Time. The kids always scream 'Again, Again!' when it's done. I think I sung it 4 times in a row one day. :)

I'm bringing home my baby bumblebee,
Won't my mommy be so proud of me,
(Cup hands together as if holding bee)

I'm bringing home my baby bumblebee,
Ouch! It stung me!
(Shake hands as if just stung)

I'm squishing up my baby bumblebee,
Won't my mommy be so proud of me,
('Squish' bee between palms of hands)

I'm squishing up my baby bumblebee,
Eew! It's all over me!
(Open up hands to look at 'mess')

I'm wiping off my baby bumblebee,
Won't my mommy be so proud of me,
(Wipe hands off on shirt)

I'm wiping off my baby bumblebee,
Now my mommy won't be mad at me!
(Hold hands up to show they are clean)

Preschool 9/15

2010-09-16T14:35:00.000-07:00

Today we continued our Friends theme. In Circle Time we discussed what friends are, what they mean to us and how we treat them. We talked about who our friends were and who some famous friends are (Woody & Buzz, Dora & Boots, etc.). I read some books about friendship - Unlovable & Bear Feels Sick.

We also talked about the:

Letter of the Week - A
Number of the Week - 1

Color of the Month - Red

For Art we did 2 projects today. We began our alphabet art projects. For each letter we are learning, they will do some type of art involving the letter. For A we painted red Apples using a red pom-pom. We will be adding each letter of the week and putting together an ABC book.

Our next art project was a Friendship sun. We talked about what makes a good friend and how you know someone is your friend and then added our friendship words to the rays of the sun.

Free Play:

Little Miss Lola doin' her thing while chatting on the phone. She is never NOT in a princess dress. :)

I taped a large A on the floor and the kids walked it as we talked about what starts with the letter A. And that each of them have the letter A in their name.

Then they took turns laying down with another friend to make the A shape. Isaiah was cool with it until I told him I was going to take a picture which is why he hid his face. He was fine though when I showed it to him on the camera. :)

Lola and Tatum's turn. Lola just couldn't put down the wand. Ha!

Outside they helped clean out the sensory table that will soon be brought in. Our weather is suddenly changing from Summer to Fall here and we won't be able to use it outside much until Spring. I have lots of stuff planned for this table though!

Tatum riding bikes. I think this is her favorite thing to do outside!

We tried doing some letter worksheets but those didn't go over so well. I think I will hold off on those until we have our day more routine. I do have other activities we can do that will help with the letters. I just think a sit down worksheet with a pencil in hand is too intense this early on however I would like them all to get there eventually.

Our day today went much more smoothly though (or at least for me!). I think I wasn't so stressed about not having enough to do or having too much and not getting to it. Megan on the other hand is having a hard time and I'm not sure why. She throws fits if she doesn't get her way at that moment. But afterwards when I talk to her, she fully cooperates and understands and shares. I think she might be testing me to see what I'll let her get away with. Hopefully she'll come around soon. Why does it always seem it's the teacher/coaches kids that are the worst ones?!

1st day of Preschool!

2010-09-13T14:42:00.000-07:00

I have to admit - last night I was SO nervous & anxious about today. I was scared of failing and started second guessing myself as usual.

What if the kids didn't like me?
What if I couldn't control them?
What if I let the parents down?
What if the kids refused to do my art projects/circle time/listen to books?
What if Megan didn't like sharing her Momma?

I was seriously up last night until 2am thinking it all over wondering if I made a mistake in taking this role on.

Well I'm glad to say that after a short 4 hours of sleep last night, I woke with a clear head & no worries. I feel in my heart that this is right. I know that what I'm doing is what I should be doing. 2 steps forward and no looking back. :)

The room all came together this past weekend and I was so excited for the little one's to arrive!

We had some pic's taken and then headed in for Circle Time.
Isaiah, Lola, Tatum & Megan :)

They were so good about 'owning' their own carpet square. :) I sang some songs to them, did calendar & weather, then read a book. From there I had planned to go over to the table for a structured activity but they were getting kind of restless from having to sit for awhile already. So instead I explained the different centers and rules about cleaning up 1 thing before pulling something else out - then they went and had 'free play'.

Megan and Lola eventually wandered over to the table where I had a writing activity for them to do. Meanwhile, Tatum loved the dress-up area and Isaiah spent a lot of time cooking for me in the kitchen. He even was kind enough to bring me a coffee!

I rounded them up and we sat at the table for snack. Isaiah passed out the napkins as everyone found a seat. I placed 1 bowl of fish crackers (thanks Christine!) in the middle and they took turns putting some on their napkin & then passing the bowl to their neighbor. They each were responsible for pouring their own water too and this fast became the fun thing to do. At least they drank a lot!

We cleaned up, had a potty break and then got our coats and shoes on to head outside. We swung, rode bikes & scooters, went on a slug hunt (yuk!), picked blackberries and jumped on the trampoline (that was everyone's favorite!).

After coming inside we went back to the preschool room and sat in Circle time again. I had cards showing different emotions on them. I showed them each one and we talked about them. For example, for the Sad card Isaiah said he was sad when his sister broke his toy. (heehee!)

We then flipped them all over on the floor and took turns picking one. Whichever one we picked we had to show our own emotion to match the card. This was funny and they all did really well with understanding it.

Oh and Megan came back inside with a little inch worm on her shoulder so we put it on top of the book shelf and the kids watched it intently for the rest of the day.

We then headed to the table and did an art project making our own stick puppet. Here it was neat to see the difference in their ages. Megan and Isaiah being 4 yrs old, knew how to draw a face on the puppet and add the hair. Tatum and Lola being 3 yrs old, didn't quite know how to draw a face yet. They are all at the correct stages and doing what they should be and I like having the multi ages together. The older ones can help the younger ones learn better and the younger ones can help the older ones learn how to become role models. Both Isaiah and Meg have older siblings so they are always following rather than leading. This is one of the Montessori concepts that I love.

Lola & Tatums puppets are on the left, Meg & Isaiah's on the right.

After art, we went back to some free play. We all played with the train set, then cars on the rug (Isaiah and I had quite the collision course!). The girls wanted to play with the baby dolls so we brought those out and they all pretended they were mommies taking their babies to the Fair (even Isaiah). We pulled out the fishing set and went fishing, taking the great opportunity to sort the fish by color, shapes, and then counting how many there were. I was surprised they could all count to at least 10.

We ended the day by setting our inch worm free and saying good-bye to each other until Wednesday!

More summer fun and the beginning of a new season

2010-07-29T20:24:00.000-07:00

In the last months....we've done 2 camping trips:

Gone to a spray park that had a huge sandbox:

Pretended we were cats & dogs:

Done art projects with our friend Lola:

Made our 'Countdown to Disney' chain:

Had many a meals outside:

Done more art projects:

And did our 2 1/2 week road trip down to Disneyland!

School started this past week for my oldest and Monday is our 1st day of preschool. I am so excited - the room has all come together, the curriculum is done (the first week at least!) and we are anxiously awaiting our friends to come have fun!

Finished pictures of the room to follow ~

Summer Picture Catch-Up

2010-07-11T22:43:00.000-07:00

As we are on Summer Vacation and I am working towards getting our playroom transitioned into a preschool room...I thought I'd share some pictures of what we've been up to this summer!

Lots of time with the sprinkler:

Megan figured out real fast that she didn't particularly care for fireworks this year:

Backyard sports (in dresses mind you!):

Just being totally silly! Actually I think Megan was pretending to be a dog at this moment and was lifting her leg to 'pee'. Haha!

Lots & LOTS of swing time:

Spray park:

Petting zoo:

Pedicure (!):

Megs learned how to ride Riley's big girl bike:

Ferry ride:

Playing inside on rainy days:

We have SO much more that we would like to do and see this summer. Feels like it's slipping away so fast so I've decided for the rest of July I'm just going to fill our calendar up with fun (mostly free!) stuff to do. Otherwise I'm afraid we'll just not get to it.

Oh and by the way, late nights = late mornings. :) Ahhh, summer!

School 5/24 - 5/28

2010-06-01T13:33:00.000-07:00

This lovely weather is what I've had to work around this week.

Seems like October, not May (almost JUNE!)

Megan has been drawing lots of 'people' lately. I love that she always adds cheeks. :)

We made a trip to the zoo with the Woodinville Mom's Club. Our friends Lauren, Charlotte and Logan accompanied us. The penguins are always a favorite attraction!

The bears had just recently come out of hibernation and were busy pacing back and forth. We really wanted to see them catch a fish but they just seemed irritated rather than hungry.

Lunchtime with Charlotte. :)

Back at the penguin viewing...and taking a rest.

We had our 2nd to last swim class. Megan really loves swimming and I feel so much better with the summer coming up having had her in lessons since last Sept.

Doing a sit dive with her buddy William.

Our friends Maya and Tatum came over a few days this week also. Meg and Maya painted picture frames while Tate painted a picture.

We had lunch in the playroom...

...then read book for nap time. We counted all the apples 'Up On Top'

We worked a little bit on the letter D

The girls all had fun painting pots (cut milk cartons) to plant some Marigold seeds in.

While we waited for our pots to dry they crushed up oreos while I whipped up some pudding. We assembled 'dirt' for a snack - oreos, pudding, gummi worms.

Lola loving her dirt!

They then put stickers on their planters before we added dirt and seeds.

That was it! The weeks are just flying by and just a few more short weeks until schools out for summer!!! Yay! I have a lot of fun ideas to keep these kiddos busy and can't wait to go on some of the outings.

Megan School 5/17 - 5/21

2010-05-22T13:17:00.000-07:00

Theme: Ladybugs
Letter: L

Tuesday Megan and Tatum enjoyed playing mommy with their babies and strollers. They even set up 2 separate tents upstairs for their separate homes. It was pretty cute to see them play and interact this way. :)

Maya and I busted out the Lincoln Logs and we had fun constructing log cabins, houses and forts. We tried to keep them safe because she really wanted to show Riley when she got home from school but alas Tatum had other plans...at least we took pictures to show her!

Megan and I worked on the letter L all week. Here she cut out pictures that began with the letter L and glued them around another piece of paper with L on it. We haven't really worked that much lately on cutting but she really surprised me with how well she cut all these out.

Practicing writing upper case and lower case.

Did some pages out of one of her work books. On this one she had to put an X on all the small ladybugs and circle all the big ladybugs.

This worksheet I printed off online. She did write pretty good L's in the boxes but when I turned back around she had been busy scribbling them out.

Wednesday we got some play time in with our friends Lauren and Charlotte and also her 2 cousins, Katie and Mikayla. I read them some ladybug books we got from the library and then we did an art project.

Silly girls, Megs was pushing Lauren in the shopping cart and Charlotte was trying her hardest to keep up in chasing them. :)

We did some rubber stamping with Tatum.

Then worked on some geometry shapes and patterns.

Alphabet puzzles.

Thursday we had only Tatum as Maya with at a zoo field trip with her dad. Our neighbors Christine and Isaiah came over to play with us too.
We used bingo dobbers on a ladybug sheet.

Megan and I worked on more patterns with lollipop cards. I set up an ABABAB pattern which she continued with no effort. Then I set up an ABBABB pattern that again she grasped right away. I think she's ready for more challenging patterns!

We also made some fingerprint ladybugs. She loved making all different colored ones.

Friday night Riley's school was doing a Family Bingo night so we went. She had fun eating candy, coloring in the numbers called and playing out on the playground during {and not during} breaks. We were able to sit next to Riley's friend Kailee's family and Megan just adores her.

Sad for Riley but Megan happened to win a game and pick out a prize. She really wanted yet another baby doll but I convinced her to try and pick out something that they would both like to play with. So they picked a Polly Pocket playset. They had some really nice prizes!

Riley was VERY VERY upset over not winning but hopefully she had fun anyways. Looks like we are going to have to work more on playing boardgames at home to help her with 'it's not just about winning' all the time.

Megan School 5/10 - 5/14

2010-05-22T12:58:00.000-07:00

This week we didn't spend much time at all on planned activities. I started watching my friends 2 little girls 2 days a week and while it was fun to have more kids, we just sort floated from one unplanned {yet FUN} activity to the next.

Here's Megan and Maya sharing headphone to the kids music player. It was cute because they were both belting out the tunes like - Knick Knack Paddy Wack & B-I-N-G-O

Then they decided to have a picnic lunch up on the play set both days. We spent a lot of time outside playing with the weather being SO nice and there's always lots to do outside.
Chalk + swings + bikes + trampoline = hours of fun!

Thursday we spent the morning playing out in the front yard. Riding bikes and playing with chalk. Megan was chasing Tatum and fell on the pavement but a cold wet washcloth helped her feel better. :)

We drew our own shadow people. They made a shadow and I traced it. Then they colored in their faces and extras. Maya drew my shadow!

Friday we took off for an early weekend of camping over at Leavenworth. There was so much to do that our weekend zoomed by way too fast!

Megan School 5/3 - 5/7

2010-05-11T14:49:00.000-07:00

We had a really busy week and Riley was home on Monday for a teacher professional day so we went to Jump Planet to play. The kids love this place and for just $10 all 3 of us can jump and slide to our hearts content. I tell ya, it's really quite a workout for us moms!

Our theme of the week was:
Health and Nutrition

We worked on the letter F for Food.

We talked about doctors and how they help us. Leading in to that we messed around with colored band-aids. First she sorted them by color, then counted how many of each color there were.

Then I'd start a pattern and ask her to finish it. She loved doing that!! Then she even came up with her own patterns.

And when we were all done she did 'Band-Aid Art' by sticking them anyway she wanted to the paper.

We talked about good food and bad food for our bodies and how we feel after we eat certain foods. She was pretty smart when it came to what was good for you and what wasn't. I was a little concerned when we started off and she thought Ranch dressing was good for you but then everything else she placed it correctly on the paper. Phew!

I printed these out from an order I placed with Me & Marie. I spread them all out on the floor and had gathered a basket of play food. She took each item out and had to determine what category it belonged to. She knew all the sweets and surprisingly all the dairy (there was a egg over easy and a egg still with the shell on) but she did have some troubles with which was a fruit and which was a veggie. Not bad though.

We also did a science experiment after talking about germs and how they can be bad for our bodies and make us sick. After they came in from playing in the backyard I had them watch me peel a potato and cut it in half. I handed one half to Riley and told her to rub her hands all over it and then give it to Megan to do the same thing. They then went in the bathroom and washed their hands really well. I handed them the other half of the potato and instructed them to rub their hands on it too. We have been charting it for a week now and not much difference has been seen. Supposedly the dirty hands potato was supposed to be growing things while the clean hands potato wasn't supposed to have much change. As you can see in the picture, neither has had much change. The dirty one IS slightly dirtier but not growing things.

We are going to continue this subject next week too as I have a lot more I want to do with her. Some of the things I want Riley to partake in also as I think she could benefit from it as well.

Tot School 4/26 - 4/30

2010-04-30T14:07:00.000-07:00

This week we worked on the letter B....

using our Geoboard.

Handwriting sheets
(notice how she liked to go back and color in the part on the b's!)

Practicing writing numbers

Blowing Blue Bubbles . . .

. . . which of course turned into 'Can I give my baby a bath? She's really dirty.' :)

We had our friends Maya and Sean over on Tuesday. I think Riley really enjoyed being the oldest one and succumbing to their little ideas. Like being tied up!

Megs loves having a baby around and was always RIGHT there to get whatever was needed - diapers, wipes, food, blankets, binky. You name it and she was on it 10 steps ahead of you.

While Sean took his nap the girls did a Butterfly art project. I didn't get a close up picture of one but they just rolled up pieces of tissue paper and glued it to their butterflies.

We had a fun but super busy week. Megan also got to play with her 2 cousins, Katie and Mikayla one day while I went to a dr. appt. The 3 of them had grandma & grandad wrapped around their little fingers. They made banana bread & jello together, watched Dora and played outside for awhile. Grandma tried to get all 3 down for a nap but Megan told her that her eyes were broken and they couldn't close. ;)

Tot School 4/19 - 4/23

2010-04-27T14:53:00.001-07:00

C is for Caterpillar

We started the week out by ending our 1st camping trip of the year.

Lacing card caterpillar -
Megan has a new found love for lacing!

Patterns with colored caterpillars

Graphing caterpillars

I gave her the option of gluing fuzzy balls or doing the bingo dobbers and she wanted the balls. But then got bored.

We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and as I read, she laced the appropriate items onto a lacing string. We did this many times during the week!

Pom Pom caterpillar

Monday:
We also had a lot of fun going to the zoo on Monday. I forgot my camera at home so sadly I don't have any pictures to share. It was a great day for the zoo as it wasn't too rainy out and not many people. Megan did get the poop scared out of her by a peacock that was blocking our path and looked ready to fight!

Tuesday:
Megan enjoyed her swim class at the YMCA. Then we came home to work on our tot school stuff.

Wednesday:
We went to a play date at our friend Lisa and Jadelyn's house with the Woodinville Mom's Club. Lots of snacks were consumed and she enjoyed playing with all the other little ones. :)

Later our friends Maya and baby Sean came over for a few hours. They loved playing in the backyard, making bead bracelets and playing with little Sean.

Thursday:
Our neighbor's Christine and Isaiah came over to try baking some sprout bread. We ended up not being able to find the sprout flour so we used coconut flour and made bread, honey muffins, and blueberry muffins. The kids had fund with the marble run I set up for them and they liked playing with the playdoh.

Friday:
Megan and I had a shopping day. I had to get 2 b-day presents and went to spend some of my b-day money at Michaels (ended up getting a cool sticker maker - thanks Julie!!). Then we had a nice girly lunch at a cafe before heading to Old Navy to find me some jeans.

Tot School 4/5 - 4/9

2010-04-11T22:00:00.000-07:00

We didn't do Tot School this week since Riley was out on Spring Break. I figured we deserved a Spring Break from Tot School too! :)

Here are a few pictures I snapped of the girls this past week:

My mom & I took them to St. Edwards park. It was so stinkin' cold out and it eventually started raining and I had to call it quits. They got to play for about an hour but Riley was bummed because there were lots of cool walking trails to explore but being the hour it was I knew Megan would want to be carried.

This place had the most amazing play structure. It was GIGANTIC!!!

We played hide and seek and I caught them both ducked down behind a bench. :)

Megs playing some music.

Afterwards we went to The Village Bean at County Village. The kids love this place as they can have hot cocoa and sit at little tables and chairs and there's lots of cool things for them to do there. They have a huge magnet wall, a play kitchen, many toys, and a reading nook.

Riley played her first softball game of the season. I am so amazed at how much these girls know their stuff this year. It's a huge step up from T-Ball!!

My serious batter. :)

Having a snack outside while listening to music.

Dave found a birds nest when he was taking the cover off our travel trailer. Sadly there was no where close for him to put it where neighborhood cats or our dog couldn't get it. He had to put it in a tree about 50 feet away. I just hope the momma bird accepts it and continues to care for them. She was not happy!!!

Tot School 3/29 - 4/2

2010-04-05T14:17:00.000-07:00

Letter of the week -

N is for Nest

Pre-writing skills:

Practiced matching lowercase and uppercase letters:

Worked on repeating patterns:

Bingo dobbers for N:
Art Projects

She picked cherry blossoms from the ground outside and then glued them to a tree I drew. I still don't understand why she glued them all to the trunk of it rather than the branches?! I even showed her a tree outside with blossoms on it but she had to do it her own way. :)

Sponge painted bunnies

Used a bath sponge to paint an Easter egg. She loved mixing the colors all up!

In the Kitchen
Birds Nests

We crushed up shredded wheat biscuits and then mixed them with melted chocolate & peanut butter. Then added Whopper eggs in the nests.

Bunny rabbit pancakes

Easter S'mores!

Mmmm, they were tasty but oh so very sweet!

Easter Activities
The neighborhood had an Easter egg hunt so we attended since the weather decided to be nice and hold off on the rain. The kids are SO fast at getting those eggs, I think it lasted all of 10-15 minutes for 3 yards worth of eggs.

And of course we had to dye eggs! Actually this year we did 2 rounds of it, 1 at home and 1 at Uncle Chad's house. Megan was very patient in waiting for them to be done but she was very impatient always wanting to check on the color every 5 seconds.

These are at home:

At Chad & Rachel's:

Apparently there was a raw one in there?!

So pretty!

Check out 1+1+1=1 for more Tot School activities.
Also check out Confessions of a Homeschooler for the printable activities I used.

Tot School 3/22-3/26

2010-03-29T12:14:00.000-07:00

No Letter of the Week?!
Huh. Guess I was off my game last week.

Anyways, the girls painted some rocks to look like Easter eggs. This kept them occupied for a long time. I originally wanted to get some wooden eggs from the craft store for this but upon seeing that they were $1.oo EACH I figured free rocks would do just fine.

I like that Megan put only glitter on this one.

IN THE KITCHEN
Made some whole wheat zucchini chocolate chip cookies. True fashion...no picture of the baked cookie. I can guarantee you though they were fabulous!!!!

Yet another cookie recipe...this time I made sugar cookies and used my Wilton Easter stamping kit that I bought end of season last year.

Before baking the cookies, beat 2 egg yolks & 2 Tsp. water together. Divide into individual containers and add desired food coloring to each. Using a paint brush, paint the cookies and then bake as directed.

The yolks give the baked cookie a super shiny glossy look. So pretty!

SILLY KIDS
Using Mr. Potato head's glasses to read books.

We have been struggling with naps here. Some days they happen, other days they don't, and some other days they happen while watching a movie. Which was the case this day.

Tot School 3/15-3/19

2010-03-19T12:05:00.000-07:00

IN THE KITCHEN
We continued to explore rainbows this week. I saw this article in my Family Fun magazine and knew we had to try it out!

All you need is a box of cake mix. Now I'm not a fan of the Betty Crocker/Pillsbury mixes because of the yucky hydrogenated oils & sugars in the mixes. I found a great alternative at Trader Joes (of course!).

Make the batter as directed on the box and divide evenly into 6 containers.

Add food coloring.

I am so disappointed in myself for not getting a picture of the finished cupcakes (I stole this one from the Family Fun website). They turned out so stinkin' cute and the kids thought they were so cool. Rather than frost them I just squirted some whip cream from a can on top. Go get the recipe for yourself as I know it will become our St. Patricks Day tradition from here on out!

PLAYDATE
We had a fun day with our friends Maya and Sean!! I froze colored water in mini muffin tin and let them experiment with them melting.

It was cool at first but then I think it just made brown...oh well they had fun anyways.

The girls got some swing time in ~

Little Seany with his ever so kissable, squishy cheeks!

Our only art project all week was this tissue paper rainbow. I just love how colorful rainbows are and think we will have to revisit this theme again this summer!

The girls also got to spend the night at Nana & Papa's while we went out for my birthday dinner. They love any time they get to spend with them!

Nana & Papa have a pretty high toilet seat so when Meg has to go #2 she can't reach her books. (Seriously, who poops without reading?! Not my kids! Especially when they like to take their time.) When we came to pick them up the next day, this is what I found. I totally love it - a TV tray in the bathroom. Think of the possibilities....

Tot School 3/8-3/12

2010-03-12T11:40:00.000-08:00

Letter of the week - R is for rabbit
(should have been rainbow but I couldn't come up with anything! Plus rabbit sort of fits into the whole upcoming Easter!)

This wonderful foam ABC puzzle was an absolute hit! I showed her how to just lightly place the correct letter over it's hole and then use a hammer to pound it in.

We made fingerprint bugs.

The rainbow caterpillar at the bottom right was all Megan's. She drew really long legs because it was a fast bug. :)

IN THE KITCHEN

We made rainbow cookies using the Playdoh cookie recipe.

It was a lot of fun and felt more like we were playing rather than baking. :)

Here's a freshly rolled unbaked cookie.

Hot out of the oven! They were just as good to eat as they were to make!

What's at the end of our rainbow??!? Why hot chocolate of course!

We also made shamrock bread sticks to go with our dinner one night.

We baked Grandma a Black Forest Cake for her birthday and took it to her.

OUTINGS

After swim class one night I had packed our sandwich dinner and we took it to the park. It turned out to be way too chilly to eat outside on the bench so we sat in the car while we ate. Then went and played at the playground for a bit before heading down to the water to feed the ducks.

There was some crazy weather this week including massive hail. It looked like it had snowed outside.

Tot School 3/1 - 3/5

2010-03-01T11:29:00.000-08:00

Letter of the week - T is for turtle & tiger (stamps)

Nice weather allowed us to play outside a bunch!

Used bingo dobbers for a toothfairy worksheet.

We celebrated Dr. Suess' birthday this week by making hats and reading many, many, many Dr. Suess books!!

I also printed off some activities online from the Suessville website. They had mazes, crossword puzzles, coloring pages and lots of other fun stuff to do.

This turned out to be quite a crazy week as we ended up at the dr.'s office twice thinking that Megan had a UTI. So we didn't end up getting to do a lot of preschool activities. :(

Tot School 2/22 - 2/26

2010-02-26T13:47:00.000-08:00

Letter of the week - M

M is for Marshmallows!

Practicing writing the uppercase M and lowercase m.

Using M&M's for markers

More practice writing

We glued a Monkey Magnet together

Marble painting

Pouring marbles into cups

She LOVED this and went back to it many times during the week!

And she was very responsible in cleaning up her 'messes'. Although then she grew quite frustrated because it's really, really hard to sweep up marbles (I tried!)

We made oatmeal carrot Muffins

And had a Muffin tin lunch

Trip to the zoo

It was pretty chilly and rainy out so we spent a lot of time indoors playing in the Zoomazium exhibit.

Megan School 2/15 - 2/19

2010-02-21T21:37:00.000-08:00

Happy Chinese New Year! My wonderful neighbor sent down some fun craft projects to do and the kids loved these. The Chinese dragons are just the coolest!

I didn't do many lap trays last week because well, I just didn't have time to pull them together. Meg has been pretty interested in writing so I printed off these cool pre-writing worksheets from Confessions of a Homeschooler. You have GOT to check this woman out, I print off some of the best stuff from her website and I don't know how she manages to pull all this together while homeschooling her 4 little ones. Amazing.

Then we did some worksheets that I had here.

And some practice cutting with scissors. Megan has an obsession with cutting things. Luckily it hasn't been hair or clothes but she's always wanting to cut with scissors.

Strung heart beads onto pipe cleaners.

Colored this cute vase of heart flowers and then she glued on conversation hearts. She matched them to the colors mostly and initiated that by herself!

Letter of the Week -
V is for Valentines!

Practicing writing V's.

We took a trip to the zoo last Monday (apparently with everyone else...grrr.) being that Riley had the day off from school. We went to see the Night Exhibit as they are closing it on March 1st due to budget cuts. There was such a long line to get into it that I made us skip it. After 2 hours of massive crowds and not being able to get up close to the animals, we left and went to play at a park. I'm glad we have a membership for days like this that I would've wasted $40. I still hope to take them back this week so we can get in to see the nocturnal house.

Check out Carisa's blog at 1+1+1=1 to see what others did for Tot School.

Megan School 2/8 - 2/12

2010-02-13T21:25:00.001-08:00

Valentines Week!!!
Here are just SOME of the books we read this week:

My kid's love Arthur and this book was read over & over & over more than any other one. I like Arthur books too because they are funny!

Tot Trays:

Conversation hearts - sorting by color (while reading what each one said), then counting how many of each color, and then some sampling. This was Megan's favorite tot tray this week and by the end of the week there weren't many hearts left. :)

Sorting fuzzy pom poms by color, size and texture. Then we counted them.

Matching Valentine bugs. This went over pretty well as she came back to it again and again throughout the week...until she started crying because the dog ate one of the bugs. I printed this out from Carisa's blog 1+1+1=1. She's got some great stuff!

Making Valentines with stamps.

Sizing from big to small felt hearts.

Stringing beads. We did this a few times but different ways each time. We did patterns of colors, all the same color, same shapes next to each other. So many different ways!

Art Projects:

Painting a snowman with a Q-tip. She had kind of a hard time with this one as she wanted to rub it and the Q-tip wouldn't hold much paint so she's get frustrated that it wasn't working the way she wanted. I showed her how to just dot it to make snow though and she liked that!

Megan painted a GIANT heart made out of newspaper. I staple the bottom 1/2 together and then we stuffed it with crumpled newspaper and I stapled the top shut. She enjoyed painting it but it was awkward for her to hold and paint at the same time. I ended up just holding it up for her and she painted.

Life Skills

Cutting up her own apples.

Outings and Fun Stuff!

This was the last week of swimming lessons and I finally remembered to bring my camera! This is the first class that she's been going in the water by herself (without her momma!) and she has adjusted amazingly well. Her favorite part is just jumping in from the wall.

She's a little fish just like her momma and sister. :)

After jumping in the teacher would have her push off from her thighs and swim back to the wall. She only would swim about 18 inches but nonetheless - she did it!!! I am amazed at how fast she's picked this up and just how confident she is in the water. I signed both girls up for the next round of lessons starting next week. The YMCA offers great classes for members - 7 weeks (1/2hr. lesson a week) for $26! You just can't beat that.

We had a couple nice days where we were able to get outside and play. I hadn't been able to find our sidewalk chalk for months so I broke out a new pack. They love that stuff!

They were making their own houses and were telling me that when they grow up they are going to be neighbors. How I wish that comes true for them!

Megan School 2/1 - 2/5

2010-02-05T20:53:00.000-08:00

We started this week with Itty Bitty Bookworm. We read The Snowy Day by Jack Keats which is a super cute story that I had never read before. It would've been really awesome had we actually had snow on the ground like the east coast. But we tried to make due with cotton balls {totally NOT the same!}

Tot Trays:

Practiced counting out our fake snowballs.

Colored this book that went along with The Snowy Day book.

Make your own snowy scene with stickers.

Snowflake matching carisa>

Letter of the week
Q is for Queen

Playtime:
We did lots of pretend play with the kitchen & cookies.

Then we made Valentine rice krispie treats.

Art Projects:

The girls made Valentine mailboxes. I told them they could write love notes to each other and that we might write some for them also. I've been putting little treats (candy, puzzles, socks, stickers, etc.) in when there are no notes. Also when the girls get real mail I've been putting it in their special mailboxes. They *love* checking their boxes every day!!

Megan School 1/18 - 1/22

2010-01-25T18:59:00.000-08:00

This week for Itty Bitty Bookworms we read WHEN IT STARTS TO SNOW. It's a darling story about where animals go and what they do when it snows. Sadly since it hasn't snowed here all year, we didn't have any snow here to play with. :(

Meg did an art project showing what the deer did in the snow. Can't you tell it's eating grass and moss? Yeah, me too. Haha! She was sad because she didn't want me to take her picture with it.

We played hide & seek and pretended we were hiding in snow.

Muffin Tin Monday lunch with our festive snowflake muffin pan.

Since it had been so nice outside all week the kids actually got a chance to play in the backyard. I came inside to start dinner and came back out to find them raking leaves to jump in.

Tot Trays:
I've seen this idea before here at 1+1+1=1 and at Christmas I finally recieved my new trays. I have nowhere to put them out so I decided to put a tray at each place setting in our dining room table during the day. Then around 4pm I gather them up and put them away for the next day. She's able to go around to each tray and do the activity that she chooses.

Here she's working on making Valentines.

This was matching the numbers to the hat's & scarves.

Snowflake puzzle. They only went together a certain way (whites on blues and blues on whites, no blue/blue or white/white). It was a good challenge for her.

Silly Meg moment of the week:
She had an 'akident' in the bathroom and then requested a bath in the sink. It just looks odd to see a 3yr old in the kitchen sink. :)

Megan School 1/4 - 1/15

2010-01-18T07:04:00.000-08:00

We had a very unexpected last 2 weeks so 'Megan School' was pretty much null and void. I spent the week at the hospital with my parents and family as my dad needed a triple bypass. It was very stressful and I'm so thankful for my father-in-law for coming and spending 4 days with us to care for our kids/house/dogs (we had my parents 2 dogs too!). Anyways, all is calm and all is bright now. We are attempting to get back to school this week with a new book however I do want to retouch on some things I didn't feel we finished up.

During the last 2 weeks we began our Itty Bitty Bookworm Curriculum and I loved it!! We started with CORDUROY:

Each day we made a page that ultimately made up a book of all the toys from Corduroy. This was the giraffe.

The letter of the week was 'O'. She first colored it and then she smeared glue all over and sprinkled oatmeal on. After it dried I cut the 'O' out and glued it to a piece of colored paper. I put together a notebook that once we complete all of the ABC's she can go back and look through them.

Staying with the bear theme this week she sorted gummy bears.

Then we counted how many color of each one we had.

We made cinnamon/sugar paw print rolls for snack.

Outside of the Itty Bitty Bookworm we did a few other activities...

We made a 'pantry snowman' (with all stuff I found in the pantry!)

She sorted buttons by color all by herself while I was emptying the dishwasher!

She gave her baby doll a bath.

My mom and I took the girls downtown Seattle and she got to ride the Westlake Center Carousel. That ride never gets old! This particular one went around and around REALLY fast. I was surprised!!

Dave and I also took the kids ice skating. We did this last year on New Years day and Riley loved it! Megan was still pretty young last year and didn't get out on the ice but this year she really thought it was fun. It was so cute to see how happy they were. I love ice skating and Dave plays ice hockey every weekend so hopefully it will be something the girls keep on enjoying...of course we should make more of an effort to take them more than once a year. ;)

See this face?! Yeah, this is the attitude that we've been seeing a lot lately. Spitting, yelling NO!, and stomping off. I realize it's just her testing her boundaries but man does it get old!

Here to hoping for a better week!

Taking an unexpected break

2010-01-13T21:53:00.000-08:00

We completed our 1st week last week from the Itty Bitty Bookworm. However, my computer was down so I couldn't download pictures. Then my dad had a heart attack and this week he had open heart surgery....such a frazzled start to the New Year.

I'm happy to say that not only is my dad recovering very well and all went as planned but our computer is also working again. I'm still trying to help my mom out and I think my dad will be home by the end of the week. Lots to do and help out with around here so we are putting 'Megan School' on hold for awhile. At least through the end of this week.

Good-bye Christmas, Hello January!

2010-01-04T12:51:00.000-08:00

I absolutely LOVE December and all that it brings . . . cooking, shopping, baking, wrapping, etc., etc. We had a blast during the month doing advent calendar activities and little art projects here and there. We watched so many movies and there were so many days that we never even changed out of our P.J.'s. I love December and Christmas time!!

That being said I am so very happy to be getting back to a normal routine today. Riley's back in school (I almost actually shed a tear as she got on the bus thinking she won't be with us today). I made it back to the gym and Megan got to play with all her little friends at the gym. Then we made it home in time to start our new preschool curriculum. I will be posting more on that towards the end of the week but if you want a sneak peek check THIS out.

All is good and I feel like life is once again moving in the right direction!! Now if only we could get some *snow* around here, life would be perfect. :)

Lazy Tot School . . . . must be December! :)

2009-12-18T23:42:00.000-08:00

December has been a REALLY busy month. There is always so much stuff to do so we decided to just wing it on the 'school' part of December. I can't actually wait for January to get back into it because although it's been nice, there's no structure to our days at home. Lately when I bring an activity out for Megan she snubs her nose at it and doesn't want to do it! :( So not sure what that's about...

So far here's what we've done this month -

Art Projects

Gingerbread Man

We tried 'snow painting'. You basically use a squirt of shaving cream and some elmer's glue, mix it up and have at it! I don't think I got the consistancy right because it didn't dry very 'snow' like.

I drew a snowman on Meg's so she'd have a guide. She pretty much just painted the whole thing anyways. Man did my kitchen smell good and clean after this craft!

This was supposed to be a popsicle stick Christmas tree however she insisted on coloring it red. Just look at her fingers. :)

Beaded wreath ornament

Cookie cutter wrapping paper

Painting with a tree branch. We started this on the art easel and it didn't work too well as she had to basically fling the branch onto the paper. Yikes! So we moved to the table and it worked much better.

Jingle bell painting on a candy cane

We painted pinecones green to make them into 'tree's' and then she glued on sequin ornaments. On another tree she sprinkled pink (of course!) glitter on but I missed taking a picture of that one.

Candy cane beaded ornaments

Rubber stamps - one of her favorite activities!

In The Kitchen

We've done A LOT of baking here. I love cooking and Megan is always right there eager to help - and lick the beaters or sample a fresh cookie!

White chocolate covered pretzels (with LOTS of sprinkles!) for the neighbors.

We also cooked up some new peppermint playdoh. It smells SO good!!

Strung some popcorn/cranberry garland.

Got to bake cookies with our neighbors and Megs buddy, Isaiah. They were crushing candy canes to sprinkle on cookies.

Making Cherry Tassies with Daddy.

Science

This FX snow is the coolest stuff! Since we have not gotten any snow yet here this year, this is the next best thing. It feels like the real thing and it's so fun to stick your hands in. It's even cold like real snow. You just had a little water and watch it grow.

We added some cups, curling ribbon and jingle bells to make it a full sensory tub.

Tried out our new water droppers.

Learning

Like I said, we kind of 'lacked' in the learning area this month. When I did bring this shapes gingerbread house out, she did NOT want to do it. So I sat down with it on the floor and did it by myself and eventually she came over to see.

I swiped some paint sample cards from the hardware store (2 of each color strip). Then cut one set up and glued it to clothes pins. Megs has to try and clip on to the correct color. This had been hard as some of the lighter colors are very similar. Sticking to just 1 color strip at a time though helps.

Worked on stringing foam beads.

File Folder game - making the cookies to the cookie sheet outline. She really liked this and went back to it again and again throughout the day. That is until the dog ATE the moon cookie. Oops.

Megan got to go to Riley's class and be her 'show and tell' last week. Riley told the class that her sister is annoying and likes to shake her booty! Oh lord. Her teacher was cracking up and so was I. :)

Life

We've been struggling with naps lately. Some days we just aren't home in time for her to lay down. On other days when we are home, she fights it saying she's not tired. When she does take a nap, going to bed at night takes her a little while longer. On this night she was messing around in her room and she always takes her PJ's off because she's hot. I thought it was cute that she tucked in her animals and fell asleep like that.

Counting Santa Dice Game

2009-12-02T10:33:00.001-08:00

You can print off your own Santa Counting Sheet here. The Activity Mom had a fun counting game posted this morning. In between cleaning chores today we did this. Megan wasn't too interested in it but I think next time I will use m&m's as markers rather than pom poms.

Tot School

2009-11-15T20:00:00.001-08:00

Riley was home from school with us on Wednesday this week due to Veteran's Day so you'll probably see some of her in this week's post. :)

Art Projects

Open Ended Art - feathers, ABC noodles, corkscrew noodles, foam leaves & foam sheets.

Riley got VERY creative with this and spent 3 hours at the kitchen table!
She was so very proud when she was all done.

As usual, Megan's style is to see how fast she can complete an art project.
This one was about 10 minutes, not bad.

We also made paper bag scarecrow puppets.

So this is one of those projects that you have in your head but once it's complete you think, 'Oh wow, that could have been cuter.' It's supposed to be an acorn but the only things to glue on that I could come up with were buttons and Coco Krispies. Haha!

Learning Toys/Manipulatives

Helping mom decorate for Thanksgiving by putting window decorations on.

Transferring leaves and acorns with tongs.

I stuck spaghetti noodles in playdoh balls and then gave her a cup of cheerios to string on. This was by far her most favorite activity of the week. Hmm wonder why - one for the noodle, one for me! ;) She was very careful though when stringing the O's on and I was very impressed with her concentration.

Working on lines and circles in her workbook. And then magically erasing it with tissue. She's usually good for 2-3 pages of this at a time.

Outings and Playdates...

We got to go up to our friend Maya's for the day. The girls loved playing with shaving cream. I added some red & yellow food coloring in and crossed my fingers they wouldn't start flinging it everywhere. Maya was very interested & dainty with hers. Meg, you guessed it, dove right in and was done within minutes. Argh, we'll have to work on that. :)

The girls also used different colored ink pads and their finger tips to make these corn on the cobs. I think they turned out so cute but next time I'd love to use real colored popcorn.

And our HUGE accomplishment this week was having our 1st successful dental visit for Meg. Last time she wouldn't even open her mouth...this time she loved every minute of it! The cool sunglasses, opening wide, letting them count & clean her teeth, getting to watch Scooby Dooey (!), and picking out her prize at the end. The only thing she didn't have patience for was the fluoride treatment. The hygienist said the trays were too big for her mouth so she just brushed it on with a toothbrush and I think at that point she had had enough.

Life Lessons

Spreading her own jam on her PB&J.

~ Mom's Favorite Picture ~

I think this is my fav because we were listening to Christmas music, drinking hot chocolate out of Christmas mugs with whipped cream and Xmas sprinkles. They were so cute and chatty as we sat and drank our treat. Love moments like this when nothing else is going on!

Our trials and errors in Preschool now has it's own blog!!!

2009-11-08T20:52:00.000-08:00

Yup that's right. I was getting too bogged down with keeping up with family life AND doing Tot School updates. So here we are...I'm so excited to have this all set up!! I look forward to being more organized online now. :)

With that said I was up WAY too late last night and really need to get to bed at a decent time tonight so last weeks Tot School post will have to wait one more day!