Joyfully Weary

A weekly reflection inspired in part by Bob Bennett's song "Small Graces".  turning a pumpkin into a turkey her smile & knowing that box of tissues cost me less than $.75 little handprints - even when they are misplaced leaf piles perfect for jumping  and throwing cream cheese frosting  air vents a successful week in underwear - now to figure out how to keep his pants up without the extra bulk of a diaper  the magic of popcorn mail from maca 

Little Lady had her first bout with illness today.  It came on suddenly and strong. We'd had a great morning and were hanging around outside when all of a sudden she became fussy and irritable. I didn't think much of it but as soon as we got back inside she wasted no time in throwing up all over me.  It amazes me how motherly instinct takes over and even though there is vomit and it's gross and smelly, you don't notice, you just hold them closer and whisper that it'll be ok. I hate seeing my children ill and I do all can to ensure they get over it as quickly as possible.  There is, however, a part of me that enjoys the moments sickness brings.  The cuddling on the couch, holding their warm still bodies. We do not co-sleep with any of our children and thus when they are tired they usually prefer the familiarity of their beds.  Our cuddle time is when we read books or have movie nights. Those are moments that I cherish but it's extra nice to just hold them and wat...

One of the books we've read for our Thanksgiving and Turkey's Unit  is A Plump and Perky Turkey.   It's a rather silly book about a town that tries to trick a turkey into being the main course for their Thanksgiving feast by hiring him as the model for their arts and crafts fair. After reading it I thought it would be fun for the boys to try their hand at making turkeys.  We had toilet paper rolls and coffee filters so that was our medium. Our 1st step was painting the rolls brown. big buddy was very proud of his idea to stick his hand in to the roll while painting it Then we painted the filters. Ideally I'd have used eye droppers to paint the coffee filters but we didn't have any on hand so we tried markers and a spray bottle... It was a lot of fun but didn't give the best colors so we also tried food coloring in a squeeze bottle, which worked a lot better. After the rolls and filters dried we glued them togethe...

This week and next it's all about Thanksgiving and Turkeys at our house.  our fact board - i record the new facts big buddy learns and then he "reads" them to daddy We won't be going too in-depth in any particularly area. We've got a rather large assortment of books on the history of Thanksgiving, it's traditions, and the silliness of turkeys.  One literacy activity we will definitely be trying is making our own version of these  Thanksgiving story bracelets. WRITING   CENTER ADDITIONS coloring sheets (via abcteach.com), turkey stickers, paint strip cutting.   skills practiced: fine motor, creativity, social studies LEARNING "TRAYS"  -   I rotate these, setting out about four a day from which the boy's can choose. pumpkin alphabet game (pumpkins: painted "plaster of paris" from ice cube mold) skills practiced: letter recognition color matching turkey feathers game (turkey is a painted paper plate with c...

It seemed like a crime to complete a Dr. Seuss unit without trying some green eggs, so this weekend we made two varieties.  the healthy version - the candy version For the healthy version we made made our normal scrambled eggs and added a some spinach.   pulverized spinach   big buddy is our resident scrambled egg chef, he sometimes  makes a mess but otherwise does a great job. The candy eggs are spoonfuls of generic almond bark with a green M&M in the middle. mini man had a little trouble placing the m&ms and kept accidently dipping his fingers in the candy or at least we thought it was accidental The boys ate both varieties and even said they liked the spinach...looks like they just might eat them here, there, or anywhere. 

The boys and I were a little bored the other day so I decided it would be fun to make some hats to go with our Dr. Seuss unit .   Here's how we made them.  cut a head hole out of the middle of a sturdy paper plate *works best if the plate has a little bit of a "bowl" to it* glue two pieces of large red construction paper together so it's big enough to fit around the "bowl edge" of the paper plate cut white paper in to even(ish) size stripes glue on white strips cover backside"bowl edge" of plate with glue, fold red paper around it, glue edges of red paper together Once our hats were finished we decided the best thing to do was listen to silly music and have a dance/parade. if like me, you cut the head hole too big - a stocking cap works wonders :) Looking for more Dr. Seuss ideas? You may be interested in these posts as well:  Preschool Syllabus: Dr. Seuss,   Cats in Hats and a Parade of Thi...

A weekly reflection inspired in part by Bob Bennett's song "Small Graces" knowing I can count on batman to protect my lamps from pirates amazing concert date with husbandie ( the civil wars)   heat lamps at train stations puddle jumping leaf covered sidewalks christmas tree display at our library 1st snow waking up early enough to read books with daddy mini man's melt-my-heart eyes and mouth, that kept me from screaming last bunch of garden tomatoes