Learn, Practice, Work & Patience

This week has been one of learning and practicing. Working and patience. Over last weekend I moved the classroom around, making 2 separate spaces. I took many things off our shelves so we could work on putting the items that were out, back on the shelves correctly. I took time to really teach and practice the art of clean up with our 2's. That those toys don't miraculously put themselves away, is always a surprise to the 2's and early 3's ;)

It was definitely a week of patience. Whether it was the kids being patient with each other, or Shell being patient about clean up (I learned it will probably take longer than I expect and I should allow for that). We practiced using our words... when we played games, interacting with Little Man, cleaning up, and especially while we played "make believe." "Make Believe" is a concept the 2's are just starting to understand, especially as it pertains to playing with the preschoolers. They don't understand that Princess wants them to move to the closet, and they want to move to under the table. Words worked well in conveying that concept. We practiced and role played a lot this week.

Also, our practical life shelf has only 2 things on it this week. I had more on it before, but it seemed to be ignored for the most part for more imaginative play. When I took most of the work off the shelf, the kids seemed to gravitate to it more. Maybe I had to much and they couldn't see past what was on the shelf to pick something?? Not sure, but next week I will add 2 more things to the shelf and see how it goes.

The brooms, dust pans, and rags have been a big hit this week. Between the play dough and rice from the mini rice tub, the kids have been busy working on those clean up skills. Oh, yeah the whole patience thing comes in handy here too :)

One of the children that used to come to my home for child care, donated a cup cake maker to Kozy Kids!! (Thanks Guys!!) We decided that a Friday was a great day to try it out. Basically with this one, you microwave the cupcake, and then use the frosting machine to frost it. Well, we knew it would take to long to microwave all the cupcakes we would need, so Princess and her Mom bought us some great Valentine's Day cake mix!! Yum, Yum!!!

Teamwork!! We made those cupcakes and they are waiting patiently to be frosted!! I will try to post photos tomorrow. I can't wait to see them with this frosting machine. To cute.

Homemade Ice Cream

I Scream, You Scream

We All Scream For...

ICE CREAM!!!

My son was home from school today, so thankfully I had someone willing to shake our ice cream bag for the 20 minutes it takes to thicken up...

Princess is saying, "Wow, this is the best ice cream, EVER!"

Sprout wasn't to interested in helping to make our ice cream today, but she loved eating it.

This is what Sprout was doing outside while we were busy shaking the ice cream up... Inside, she was playing with her baby dolls and didn't want to cook for some reason. Which was fine, she enjoyed the fruits of our labor. It tasted REALLY good.

Muffin Making

Cooking with children has always been a great thing... so much learning going on. I love it because of all that learning, but also because it is something they all love to do. It keeps energetic, curious little people busy for more than 3.5 minutes. There is talking, measuring, mixing, counting, problem solving (what do you do when the 2 yr old knocks over the water), and interaction between the ages. The older kids learn patience, the Little's learn turn taking, the way the 2 yr olds watched the big kids so intently, was priceless. And at the end... We get some yummy treats to eat!!

This Muffin Making project was done yesterday... but due to some family matters I wasn't able to get it on until today. We had a muffin eating good time!!!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!!!

I need to be quick today because, as you see from the photo below, we are having some snow. So, here in NC you must close school early!!! Yes Bev... EARLY!!! I know you are chuckling right now, but it that is exactly what all the schools are doing!!! So, right in the middle of nap time I will have 4 BOYS traipsing through my house!!! ARGHG!!! All for a little snow. It isn't even sticking to the pavement!! Oh well... we will make the best of it right :)



I think we had a real fun morning... we were soooo busy. We started early with a reading of Green Eggs & Ham, by Dr Seuss. Then off to breakfast we went for our own Green Eggs & Ham... with a lot of discussion about where we should eat them (we decided the kitchen table would be best). During breakfast we took a vote, "Do You Like Green Egg's and Ham?" and we got Yeas all around!!!

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We read lots of Dr. Seuss books, talked about how silly he was, especially in some of his tongue twister books, and made up lots of Rhyming words ourselves. I decided that some of Dr. Seuss' books were really hard to read. Fox in Socks was a little to much for my tongue... the kids thought it was pretty funny though!! Can you believe how long some of his books are?? At one point I was ready to toss Fox in Socks out the door into the snow :) It seemed to never want to end. But the giggles of the kids kept me going. I love the Horton books and we read both Horton Hears a Who and Horton Hatches the Egg... along with The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham. I read Bartholomew and the Oobleck last night again, and well, I decided I would skip that one today... we will be making the Oobleck this afternoon, especially since the school aged kids will be here early. They will like it, and maybe I can get one of them to read it to the kids :)


After breakfast I was getting our Art Table ready for making Cat in the Hat Hat's, when I wandered into the sunroom and found all these beautiful ladies playing so nicely together. Very cute!!!

We also finished adourning our Tooth Fairy Boxes with jewels, and are almost done with our Lion faces... more pictures tomorrow. To much to do right now.

I shared this post on the blog... Mom Tried It