Rainy Days

Some days you just have to put down what your doing and succumb to the call of the rain.

A Day at the Park

We have a short week this week, just today and tomorrow, then no Child Care during the Thanksgiving Holidays. So, today we decided to enjoy the beautiful 70 degree weather and go to our neighborhood park. It is a nice walk away, tires the kids out, and then they get to play, run, slide, and climb until their heart is content. We played so long we didn't have time to do our craft project today. We got home and it was lunch time. Tomorrow is supposed to be just as nice, so I hope we get our project in... but I can't promise :)

As the children were waiting for lunch to cook, the 2 preschoolers put on a Sock Puppet show for the little ones. It was very cute. I guess when they were taking their socks and shoes off, after our walk, the socks made their way to their hands and the rest is history. We got to see the Itsy Bitsy Spider, Where is Thumbkin, ABC's, & lots of other songs the little ones knew and could sing along to. It was very spontaneous and a nice moment for the kids.

It's All Worth It

We have been having a hard time at nap time this week so I haven't had much time to get on the computer... but, as hard as those days can be, it all is worth it when I think of the little things.

Did you ever have a child snuggle so sweetly and closely on your shoulder, tucking their little arms under themselves, and press in for a long, quiet moment... I did, today. It makes it all worth it.

Did you ever have an infant look at you with big, round brown eyes and smile a smile so big, just because he heard you talk... I did, today. It makes it all worth it.

Did you ever have a parent tell you their child cried on the way home because they didn't get to give you a hug and kiss goodbye... I did, today. It makes it all worth it.

Did you ever have a child slip their hand into yours without you noticing, and then just stand next to you and look out at whatever it is that your are looking at, smiling... I did, today. It makes it all worth it.

Did you ever have a child tell you they love you... I did, twice, today. It makes everything worth it.

I am a lucky person to have such precious souls loving me.

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.

Being Kids

OUR DAY IN PICTURES

I was watching the kids play today, exploring things to do with the letter Ii... Ice, Insects, & Inchworm, and I realized that they were having so much fun just exploring the things I had set out for them. They were dripping food colored water down their arms as they shared the color they picked with each other, they made lots of noise as they crashed and crushed the ice cubes in the sensory table with the huge insects I purchased from the Dollar Tree, and cutting and decorating their inchworm, exactly how they wanted it, not how I wanted them to complete it.

They collaborated on so many things, even learning you can't swing tools and materials around without someone falling victim to a flying insect, and they learned that sometimes a wet, rainy day can be the most content day of them all. We didn't even have to resort to jammies and TV to have fun (not that we haven't had great fun having a jammie day, mind you). But, just setting up the environment, for independent play, gave me ample opportunity to give Little Man the extra TLC he needed today. It was nice to just BE today, and learn wonderful skills along the way.

A New Week

It's a new week and the kids are excited to be learning about the Letter Ii. We will continue to learn about Thanksgiving too. At Circle Time today I asked the kids if they went some place special for Thanksgiving, most said no. So, I wanted to find out some Thanksgiving traditions they may enjoy...

Princess: "I don't eat anything for Thanksgiving."
Shell: "Not even turkey?"
Princess: "I eat lots of turkey and applesauce for Thanksgiving. I didn't know you meant THAT Thanksgiving."

D-Man: "I eat and eat and eat for Thanksgiving. But when is it?"
Shell: "Next week." (we count on calendar) "So, D what will you eat?"
D-Man: "I don't know, maybe burgers"
Princess: "You have to eat turkey. Don't you Shell?"
D-Man: "I'll eat dinosaur meat meals. Shell, do dinosaurs eat turkey?"
Shell: "Probably, and you'll probably eat some too... you'll like it."

It was fun hearing them talk about Thanksgiving (talk about anything really). We read The First Thanksgiving, by Jean Craighead George and illustrated by Thomas Locker. It was a beautifully illustrated book, but one with to much writing, and detail for these guys. So, I just talked about what was happening in the pictures. We made comparisons about life then and life now, differences in clothing, and what they actually ate at the first Thanksgiving, compared to what we actually eat.

We also read The Littlest Pilgrim, by Brandi Dougherty. This cute book is about Mini, the littlest pilgrim in her village. Mini wants to help do things in her village and everyone tells her she is to little. But, she finds she is not to little to be a friends to a little Native American friend she meets. It is a cute book that I could point out the way life was like when the pilgrims first landed in the New World. It is also something they can relate to... the Princess said, "That's like me when I want to help my Mom." That spun into a talk about being a good friend, big sister, little sister, little brother, etc...


After Circle Time we made some Ice Paint Cubes. The kids mixed up some batches of Red, Yellow and Blue food coloring with water. We then used a measuring cup to pour the colors into the ice cube trays. I then tried to put some foil over it, so we could put the sticks in (so we had some where to hold it tomorrow). I found that I could not tell where the cubes were under the foil, and we sort of make a little mess. We went to clear cling wrap after that... did you know that cling wrap doesn't really cling to plastic ice cube trays :) I had to hold it tight for the kids to get the sticks in, but we did it. I'm not saying we didn't make a little mess, but that's the fun right :)

I was so busy holding, directing, and making sure that the colored water didn't get on our clothes, that I only got 2 photo's. Weird, it felt like I was taking lots of them. Oh, well... you get the idea. The kids are excited to paint with them tomorrow. I think we are going to use paper first and then mix it with either flour or cornstarch and make some Icky paintings... I will see where it takes us tomorrow.

When we were finished with our Ice Paint Cubes we cleaned up and took a walk to the neighborhood park. It took us a while to get out of the house today, because we lost a sock. We are ALWAYS losing socks!!! The kids take off their sneakers when they come in, and mostly they leave their socks on. But when the 2's take their shoes off, usually the socks come off along with it. I think I should learn by now, but I always say, "leave your socks on, the floor is chilly." And without fail, Sprout or Little Miss M will take off their sock SOMEWHERE in the house and I won't find it for a week. I usually will find it tucked in the darnedest places... someones backpack, in the Tupperware cupboard (in a piece of Tupperware) or once we found one in the toilet paper holder in the bathroom.

I'm sorry, I digress... we went to the park. The kids had a great time, climbing, swinging, sliding, and running. Then it started to rain. It was cloudy, I know. But we had sunshine peeking through a lot, it was warm, and I just didn't think it would rain until later today :) The kids LOVED it!! Great Big Rain Drops were falling on our heads. It wasn't a downpour type of rain, it was just these big drops falling, kinda like a Springtime rain. It even smelled great. We made it back without getting drenched. It was the talk all through lunch and settling down for nap. It was a great morning.

Letter Hh and Blocks

We did lots of learning today, but my camera only caught these great learning opportunities...

"Look what I build Shell!!"

"Shel,l it is a person, just like me"

We talked a lot about being Happy today... So we thought it would be a great idea to put Happy Faces all over our letter Hh's.

"Hmmm, which one??"

(She really was saying that, I loved it)

There was so many to choose from... they came out great.

What a great week. Next week we will be learning about the Letter Ii... one of my favorite letters. You can't learn about the letter Ii without tasting some tasty Ice cream!!!

What We've Been Doing

We have been learning about the letter Hh this week. We learned lots of Hh words, we talked about Animal Habitats, the emotion Happiness, the gross motor activity of Hopscotch, we had Hay and Horses in the sensory table, and we created crafts with our Hands. It was a fun filled week.

Here some photos of us trying out being Happy!! I think we were pretty good at this emotion :)

This was Little Man's first time in the outside baby swing... He LOVED it!!!
I think we all LOVE swinging!!

Just being outside on this beautiful day makes us Happy!!

We learned how to play Hopscotch... lots of jumping, hopping and skipping

We love movement

Look at me Shell!!!

We found this little critter near the sandbox... it was a perfect time to make connections about Animal Habitats... "Where did he come from?" "What is he doing here?" and "Where do you think we should put him" were some great questions that led to a discussion about where we should let him go.

We decided on this little tree. We all thought it would be a great place for him.

We also made some turkey's with our Hand prints. We even broke out the smelly markers. I find that some of the kids don't want to participate in the art projects much, so when I bring out the smelly markers it seems those kids who usually choose to not to participate, will.

Little Miss M had the markers everywhere... it was soooo cute!!

We decided to take a trip to the Charlotte Nature Museum to learn more about Animal Habitats. What a great time we had. This museum is so great for the little ones. It is geared for the 2-7 age group, and they really make everything perfect for them. There were hands on activities, a puppet show about Unlovable animals, and an absolutely wonderful nature trail. It was small, but we still didn't get to dive into everything for as long as we wanted to.

There are to many photos to put up, so I made a Smilebox... Enjoy!!

This photo slideshow customized with Smilebox

What is hiding in the grass??

We not only made a fun craft today, but worked those fine motor, scissor and problem solving skills, all the while having fun and socializing with our friends!

You have got to love the tongue!! Hard at work, such concentration!!

The kids loved this activity, especially the boys. We started out with a review of our letter Gg, sounds and words that start with the letter Gg. We came up with lots of Gg words... guitar, goat, goldfish, gorilla, go, game, green, gumballs, and then they said, grasshopper. Which led us to a discussion on where grasshoppers live. Grass!! Then we talked about all the things that live IN the grass, Over the grass, and Under the grass. It was an interesting conversation, we had answers like, "Bugs live Under the grass and On the grass." "Birds fly Over the grass, and even poop IN the grass" :) You can see where our conversations sometimes lead us at this age :)

I got this idea from a Mailbox book, but I cannot tell you which one... Sorry!!