Stepping up my game

So I have viewed about as many preschool mommy blogs as I can. After feeling like a complete failure I decided to step up my game a bit. Its a learning process, but I am starting to come up with new ideas and have found a site where starting next week I can print all sorts of fun alphabet themed activities to go with my plans for that week. This week we are learning all about the letter C and the sound it makes etc. We started the week with our usual calendar time and reading our themed book. I loved the book Mouse and the Big Cupcake. Sooo cute and Maddie loves it too. We have read it everyday wince bringing ti home from the library. Tuesday we started out with our letter recognition, spelling the word cupcake. She LOVES the clothespins and has done this one many times for Daddy Landon and anyone who will watch. We had a spur of the moment play date arrise and decided to go to a friends house for playtime and crafts that day so thats where C ended for the day.

 Bieng out of the school setting I take every opportunity to play with kids when we can. Sooo that brings us the Thursday. Busy day! Of course calendar and book on cupcakes. Try explaining to a toddler that it is cloudy outside when its one giant cloud. so we went with rainy until it started snowing=) Next we moved on to  arranging the cupcakes I printed out in to order according to size we did this a dozen or so times at her request both big to small and small to big. She's a pro. Maddie took a quick puzzle break while I prepared for the baking part of our day. She has a little boy body puzzle that she calls her Landon puzzle. She loves to take him apart and then reassemble, not sure if thats a good thing or not.lol  

Maddie helped me mix the cake batter and then we added color to seperate bowls, of course we talked about what would happen etc. She was amazed to see the batter change colors as she mixed. Soooo here comes the messy part, I set her up with a tray and I had one too. She dumped generous helpings of batter into the little cups, all the while licking everything her little hands touched. (dont worry neighbors if you recieved mini cupcakes today, you got mine=) I could not believe how amazingly bright they turned out! Maddie was more interested in eating the icing and sprinkles then putting it on her cupcakes. We even lucked out and Daddy came home for a surprise lunch and took a pic of both of us in the kitchen.

We ended our school day with a new task, sewing. This was a bit of a challenge, but once she realized what I was asking her to do she quickly caught on. (thanks for the string tip Stacy) I think as she continues her ability to hold the card and string it will improve. Soooo very busy toddler day, my house is relatively clean as I was entertaining Madddie all day so she had no time to run around and destroy. Oh my, I almost forgot to mention our art project! WHAT ME? We used barbasol and glue mixture to make fake frosting (thanks Tracy)and painted and smeared our mock cupcakes and then added sprinkles. It was so fun.

B is for Ball and other stuff

This week school was abit more flexible. I haven't been feeling good and my back is still on the mend sooo, we skipped Tuesday and had school Wed and Thurs this week. Had to throw in the pics of Maddies bed head. I was so excited this week because I had found this great tutorial on how to make your own bouncy ball. So I planned to make Balls one morning and then paint with them. Well, the tutorial was a bust we tried 3 times and i finally gave up. Although Maddie seemed to thuroughly enjoy the substance that we did make=) We quickly moved on to coloring our B is for bouncing ball pictures. I have no pics from Wed. because it was very messy and Maddie insisted that I join in on the coloring fun. Next we read Maddie's current favorite book, A Bug a Bear, and a Boy at home. This book has a ton of the B sound. We ended our session singing the B says Buh song. Thursday went a bit smoother, we started our morning singing the weekday song and doing our calendar (this is a new thing for us).

 Keeping her from moving everything around when I am not looking is tough. I found various balls around the house and lined a tupperware with paper and primary paint colors. Maddie tilted it all around and really got into making the paitnings and mixing the colors. Of course as usual we had to do a bit of finger painting.

 
(I suggest using real bouncy balls or marbles with adult supervision, they roll better and don't get stuck)  Maddie at this point is covered in paint so we moved on to Bubble and water time at the sink. As you can see she had a blast. We ended the session with a bubble bath and some berries with Yogurt for lunch. It was a day full of B.

I was a bit aprehensive about doing B day as this is what my nursing child lovingly refered to the boob as. She would get sidetracked when I said the letter B and then told me she had little B's. lol So I guess we threw in a bit of human anatomy today as well=)

Day 2

So today was bit lack luster as I have pinched or seriously pulled somehing in my back causing numbness in my face fingers and toes. I know sounds exciting right? But, since mommies don't get days off I took some advil and on with the day. To finish our A is for apple week, today we made applesauce. I have to say it was the BEST I have ever had! I will never buy it again. We used the papmpered chef apple peeler corer slicer I have. If you work with kids or just love apple crisp then this is the best tool ever invented. Kids love to use it. Maddie enjoyed cutting the apples into pieces the best. She had 3 helpings so I know its good.

We also read the book 10 apples up on top by Dr. Seuss and then practiced our sorting skills by empting the silverware fromt eh dishwasher. yes I know, sounds more like free child labor, but Landon use to do it as his chore and it really is fun for them to sort the different utensils. She loved it. Later Maddie decided it was time to practice her pouring skills so she got out a few cups and poured from one ot the other, lets just say she needs to develop these skills a bit further.lol And last but not least a bit of painting. we practiced what happens when you mix different watercolors together. The look on her face when she made purple was priceless. Today was slower paced but still fun learning at home.

Preschool with Mommy Week One

Today's lesson is brought to you by the letter A. Sounds a bit generic, but I have to start somewhere and simple. I just realized that I have not posted to the blog since Nov. whoa that's sad. so much has happened in that time. everyone in our family had a birthday (except me), Thanksgiving trip to Pidgeon Forge and Christmas. I was a bit busy. For those of you who haven;t heard I am home pre-schooling Maddie. I was sooo unprepared this morning.Not a surprise, as an art teacher I was always forgetting something. I hadn't planned on the Library being closed so our lesson this morning started with a trip to the local library where Maddie and I both got our Library cards issued. Toddler in a library is a bit overwhelming. Landon was not so crazy. He loved books, but never just ripped them off shelves and then try to "re shelve" them. We found the section for kiddos and Maddie happily played with puzzles while I surfed the card catalog. Maddie then informed me that she would be putting on a puppet show. Of course she had no puppets but just wanted me to look at her from behind the curtain.

 After an hour at the library it was time to head to the store for some baking and art supplies.
We started our school time with a song about the Library in the car. She also sang this song the WHOLE time we were at the library. Once home it was time for a bit of lunch and then outdoor play in her "garden". Of course it finally snowed here so as with most toddlers I asked her to use the bathroom first. she said non would come out.lol  so we bundled up in all our winter attire and headed outdoors. btw its freezing today!! Going form 47 to 25 overnight is rough. We are outside a whole 15 minutes when she tells me she needs to pee pee potty. Seriously? Perhaps it was all the snow she ate. Soooo we run inside strip down and of course its way to late after trying to rip off the snowsuit that has has a velcro piece every inch down the front. Uggh, so play time in the garden was an epic fail for the day. I will not be so dumb about the potty part next time.

Maddie decided it was time to paint so I pulled out the apples and the paint and off she went. Of course we had to do a bit of finger painting after the apples were printed. She explained that she was making baby red marshmallows and candy canes. And that they tasted gooood. Of course we sang the A says aaaa song before cleaning up.

Quiet time, she no longer naps so I let her sit and watch a leapfrog video about letters while I try to clean a bit.  After quiet time its time to make apple cookies. Way too messy but sooo much fun. Lets see how many are still here when Daddy and Landon get home. All in all it was an ok attempt on my part. A little harder to teach just one child instead of 30 weird right? And in your home. I am sure as we start doing things over and over it will become habit and be less chaotic. Here's hoping!

A Little catch up

 

So, I am WAY behind on the ol blogging. I was trying to post all the hilarious goings on around here and have found myself able to get the shots, but not the time to blog and post them. I decided to at least get the Halloween photos up. This year Landon wanted to to be Harry Potter and I started back in July assembling his costume. He looked so much like Harry Potter that it was the talk of the trick or treat night. I am pretty sure by the end of the night Jared was ready to break Landons wand. It came complete with lights and sound. Who knew Landon would look so good with black hair. I decided that Maddie would be a 50's girl despite her wanting to be a princess. I figure this is the last year that I would have a say and she wouldn't know the difference. the good news is that she was wearing her 2 favorite things, big skirt and Pink. SO... she was happy. Maddie actually understood the process this year so she hung in there for longer than expected but really lost her nerve when a scary guy with huge horns came walking towards her. Daddy carried her for a while. The rest of the night was touch and go after that. Landon ended the night with his favorite part, eating candy and handing it out. Both kids were so hopped up on sugar it was a super late night, and an even grumpier morning. We survived it and had a blast.

 

 


 

adventures in Allergies

So everyone who knwos us knows that my son is allergic to everything. And they also know that I am not exagerating. The list is 2 pages long. Anyway, he loves corndogs so I decided to make up my own version of the mini corn dog that was egg free of course. I must say for having no recipe and no idea what it would look like Landon gave it a big thumbs up and ate all 20 of them before ethe night was over. I am pretty usre he is growing because as we all know, he never eats. So here they are I used a mini muffin pan heavily oiled, a can of jiffy corn mix (used egg substitute), I sweetened the batter with honey, and cut turkey hot dogs in little rounds. After putting avery small amount of cornmeal in the tins, I generously pushed down the hotdogs. Baked at 400 for 10 minutes and they were perfect! Even Maddie who hates anything that resembles fried food ate 3. So I would say Kid aproved!!

 

Cabinets and football and glasses, oh my

This week I finally finished refinishing our kitchen cabinets, phase one of the kitchen redu. I know I am glutten for punishment doing these big projects while the husband is away. It took a full week to get all the fronts off and refinished and back on. No small task that is for sure, especially trying to finish it up between naps and while the kids were at school. But its finished, I am not sure how I feel about it bieng so dark. It is 100% improvement over the look we had before though. They look new!

Thats not all this week, We had a mild break fromt he never ending rain long enough for the kids to play a game of football ( or what they called football). I laughed so hard when I saw they were wearing their bike helmets. Maddie and her friend made a perfect cheering section, along with every stuffed toy they could find. The game was full of confusion and tears due to a lack of knowing the fundamentals of the game. Still it was so funny to watch.

Today Landon got his first pair of glasses. I was happy to learn that he only needs them for reading etc. I know how rough kids can be on glasses and his pair cost an arm and a leg. He picked an Ed Hardy version with little skulls down the side. He feels so cool and thats what matters I guess. At least he will wear them. Actually he is still wearing them after homework, he refuses to take them off. He has to have bifocals due to some eye muscle disfunction the optomatrist told me about. I am sure there is a fancy name for it, but it escapes my mind a the moment. Anyway, He wanted to pose after homework to show them off.

I almost forgot... I made this cool spider web for our back door with puffy paint. i forgot that you can draw on your glass windows with it. I plan to make a whole family of bats for the front door. I was in a hurry with the web so its a bit sloppy but Landon thinks its sooo cool. thats all the thanks I need=)