Mind Jars and Bathtub Paints and Hair Feathers – Oh My!

Posted in Crafts, Decorating, Dreams, Musings, Organizing by karlamcurry

When I first heard about Pinterest – a virtual pinboard where you can showcase and curate visual things that you love – I could tell right away that it would suck me in if I didn’t vacate the premises. Here and there, however, blogs I follow have been mentioning things off their own Pinterest lists and of course I just had to check them out. Eh, why not sign up – what harm could it do?

This definition of the website that I recently happened upon is a more accurate description:

pin-ter-est (n): A fun reminder of the clothes I will never afford/fit into, the home decor I will never afford/fit into our small home, the recipes and crafts I am too lazy to ever make, the sayings I wasn’t clever enough to think of on my own, the photos I wish I had taken but didn’t.

There is a virtual treasure trove of ideas, all sorts of “this would be nice” and “I could do that” or “someday maybe” and like I’m always telling myself “as soon as I learn how to sew! (or knit, or scrounge up a few more hours in a day)”

I consider some of the time well-spent because it helps me organize ideas I definitely plan on utlizing - links to preschool printables and ideas or craft ideas I’ll be using during the week with the kiddos, a gift I want to make for someone, a new recipe I’m going to try. And some of them are light-bulb-moment finds - aha, I never thought of doing it this way! Stringing balloons looks so much easier than trying to tape them to the ceiling, zig zag streamers are such a cinch and way cooler than your average streamer, and why bother frosting the cake anyway? Can you tell I have the kiddos’ impending party on the brain?

Suffice to say I’ve spent a lot of time “pinning” virtual items to my board, and then I have to check out the boards of those who’ve repinned my pins – ahhhh, the insanity! I’m back to imposing a computer ban until the kiddos’ naptimes just so I can devote my undivided attention to them and get some other things done around the house.

Last week wasn’t the best for me - the kiddos were possessed by screaming, whining mosters and I didn’t have much motivation to get things done or keep them entertained. I find that cleaning and organizing give me a feeling of control at times like that, so I’ll tend to want to vacuum a lot, pick up after the kids incessantly and get mad if they strew toys all over the house, make lists and dream about all the things I could do (hello, Pinterest). I also made Chocolate Cake In a Mug a few times, which helps.

Instead of just pinning and dreaming, I did in fact get around to making some of the projects. I started off with the mind jar, hoping it might help Gwen calm down when she gets upset with Josiah and storms about the house. She didn’t seem to get it; it’s pretty and glittery and maybe she’ll pick it up another time.

I made the bathtub paints the same night, both because I knew the kids would have fun and because I hoped it would stave off their usual bathtime whining rompous. They had LOTS of fun, but when they decided to paint the walls I noticed some of the coloring seeping into the grout. *sigh* It turned out to be no biggie, but I’ll have to look into some friendly food coloring.

One evening I stayed up late browsing and bookmarking, and I came upon what seems to be this ever-growing trend for hair feathers. Now, I don’t consider myself trendy and don’t care for fads, but I have to admit I fell in love with some of the ideas. I pinned some favorites to my Hair board, and ended up buying Gwen and me some feather clips from a shop on Etsy – I can’t wait till they arrive! I would love to try the “permanent” method, but I’ll have to buy some feathers for that. In the meantime, I found a couple feathers I had around the house, made myself a fun little clip, and took it for a test drive:

Whaddya’ think?

On my to-do list for the near future:
bottlecap flower wreath (I already have a bunch of bottlecaps!)
coconut milk shampoo
apple tart
fall leaf mobile with the kiddos
oh, and I’m thinking about going on a dishwasher strike

Do you have a Pinterest board? If so, what do you get out of it?

21Sep2011

Celebrating Ten Years & a Mini Scrapbook Album

Posted in Crafts, Family, Phil by karlamcurry

Last week Phil and I celebrated ten years of marriage – woot! Makes me feel like I should have some advice for all the newlyweds out there. Truth is, I’m still taking it one day at a time, learning new things as I go. You can’t possibly know everything there is to know about someone before you marry them – and this can be a good thing!

It’s strange to forever associate or wedding day with 9/11. Yup – we got married on the 15th of September, just a few days after the attack on the Two Towers. At our reception, we honored my grandparents on their 60th anniversary, who got married the same year as Pearl Harbor. I felt so guilty getting married, continuing with my life almost as though nothing had happened. But you know what? Life Goes On. There were a number of friends and family members who were unable to attend our wedding due to the lack of flights, and it’s a good thing we had already planned on honeymooning in nearby Nantucket, MA because we wouldn’t have been flying anywhere.

I spent my anniversary by myself. Phil was working a 24-hour shift, and Meme had the grandkids. I didn’t really know what to do with myself! Were it my birthday, I may have done a little shopping, maybe gotten a small box of chocolate truffles. I felt the need to somehow celebrate, but it didn’t feel right without my husband. In honor of the fact that I had a carrot cake muffin on my wedding day, I had a piece of homemade carrot cake (recipe courtesty of Nourishing Traditions) and got an iced coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts. Then I drove around aimlessly, trying to figure out what to do.

Later in the day, I decided to whip up a homemade gift for Phil. I’m usually on top of these things – and had already gotten a special package deal from Omaha Steaks through Plum District - but I like to do something special if I can. Last year for Valentine’s Day I made a little love book from a deck of cards, so my idea for making a love jar filled with 365 thoughts and sentiments felt a bit too similar. Instead, browsing around and inspired by some of my favorite craft sites, I decided to make a simple scrapbook album with one picture for each year of marriage.

I didn’t go crazy matching and coordinating elements, but it still took a while to pick the pictures, print them, cut and assemble the book. I interspersed the photos with the Bible verses, songs, and readings from our wedding, along with a couple others to fill the book. I like how it turned out!

We walked down the aisle, each of us escorted by our parents, to Bebo Norman’s A Page Is Turned.

My sister sang I Will Love You, by Kathy Fisher. I forget where I first heard the song, but I fell in love with it and had to have it in the ceremony.

One of my favorite passages in the Bible about the passion between husband and wife is in Song of Solomon, when the writer says “Arise, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me… My lover is mine and I am his… Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away.”

Another favorite verse about love, loyality, devotion is found in Ruth chapter 1 – “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God…”

We danced our first dance to Kenny Chesney’s “Me and You,” special to us since we dated and fell in love listening to his songs.

I don’t remember where I found it or who said it, but I put the following quote in one of our wedding albums. It really resonated with me; there were some people who tried to discourage our relationship, tried to tell us how our relationship should look, and when it all comes down to it it’s between us and God.

“Marriage is the clasping of hands,
the blending of hearts,
the union of two lives as one.
Your marriage must stand,
not by the authority of the state
nor by the words of the minister,
But by the strength of your love
and the power of faith
in each other and in God.”

19Sep2011

Preschool: week four

Posted in Gwendolyn, Homeschool, Josiah by karlamcurry

One of the things I like about the ABC Jesus Loves Me (ABCJLM) curriculum is that it covers thirty-six weeks of material, but has it in a three-day-a-week framework, with the fourth or fifth week a review of the previous weeks. I initially debated over creating a five-day-a-week program, working it into the “school” months and so forth, but decided I’d rather be consistent from month to month. Sticking with three days a week appealed to me, because I wouldn’t [necessarily] over-plan, we’d have time for unstructured play and activities, and hey – if we decide we want to go above and beyond three days, that’s just gravy.

The fourth week was a review of the first three weeks. We got to work on a couple things we didn’t get to before, and I was able to relax rather than plan extra stuff for the week. It was also the start of Gwen going to church with her Grandma on Wednesdays; my mom attends Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) there, and there’s a special program for the children. Since Wednesday is normally a school day for us, I just made sure to cover some material on Tuesday. Needless to say, the week was a bit fragmented, but it was a nice change of pace.

A good routine for us is to do Bible after breakfast, some sort of coloring or craft, maybe some stories and/or music, then if it’s nice the kiddos play outside [hopefully] till lunch. Josiah goes down for a nap shortly afterwards, and I get one-on-one time with Gwen.

Last week in Sunday School, Gwen happened to make creation story cards with her class, so we used those along with the Garden of Eden cards from week three. She has been been doing really well telling the story on her own, as well as reciting her memory verses.

The kiddos used playdough to form letters during the first week, but I didn’t actually print out play dough mats and put them in page protectors, so I did that this week for letters A, B and C. I also broke out the cookie cutter to use for stamping the dough.

The Do-A-Dot pages are a big hit with Gwen, and I printed the letter A page, which had gotten overlooked the first week. I had meant to do some sort of cut and paste activity for each letter, but when I found the Alphabet Cut & Paste Sheets on Homeschool Creations I decided to go with those; instead of printing out both pages, I printed out the pictures and just wrote each letter on a piece of colored paper. Gwen usually tires of trying to cut things out, but she did most of the three pages by herself – enthusiastically, I might add.

I flipped through my stack of workbooks and found a few pages to do; Gwen likes the variety of tracing letters, matching pictures to beginning sounds, circling like items or which item doesn’t belong, cutting and pasting, etc.

The weather was great this week, which afforded lots of outdoor fun. We love B for bubbles, which kept them occupied for a while running around, trying to catch and pop the bubbles. We finally painted Gwen’s birdhouse from week two, but I forgot to take pictures; it’s red with white glitter sprinkled on top – purty. Sometimes the two of them play so nicely together; involved in their play side by side or working together to accomplish something, it warms my heart to observe what good friends they can be.

Of course, inevitably one of them won’t share something, the other gives a shove, and they come crying to me.

Sometimes they get all serious, focused on the play at hand, and you can tell those little wheels are turning. I love when this happens through unstructured, spontaneous activities. At one point, I put a pan of water, some little cups and some plastic ice cubes out on the walkway, and the kiddos sat there long after the ice had melted. I could not for the life of me figure out how to explain to them why ice cubes float; I called Phil and he wasn’t much help. There are some things I just know but can’t really explain – especially not to a 3-year-old.

We always have fun when Daddy’s home, and you can guarantee that whatever I had on the agenda will get scratched - who wants to sit at the table when he’s outside, working with machinery and getting his hands dirty? UPS delivered a styrofoam cooler with some food I had ordered from Omaha Steaks (yessss, the filet mignon was just in time for our anniversary!), and Daddy got to show them all about dry ice. It was amazing! When you put it in water, the water boils – or bubbles vigorously, at least. I don’t know if it actually boils, since it’s not technically hot – in fact, it’s super-cold, which is why you can’t touch it with bare hands.

Tuesday is our library day, and though I request books through the online system for the next week’s reading list, I always forget to bring our preschool outline so I can browse while I’m there. I was delighted, however, to find the Learning Zone; apparently it’s been there for a while but I didn’t notice it till now. There are a whole bunch of games and activities you can check out along with your books and DVDs. Many of the games are for older kids, but I found a couple to bring home and they were a hit with Gwen.

Playful Patterns is an activity with 20 double-sided design cards and a whole bunch of foam shapes that you use to create the design. She enjoyed this but wanted help with the more complex designs.

The I Spy Preschool puzzle was fun, but even for ages 3-6 it was almost too easy for her since she picked it up by the second time around. It was still good practice for her, though, since the I Spy pictures are of different size and orientation in the hidden picture.

A while back I had gotten the idea from Tools for Tots to make a Mix & Match game. I basically went around the house and found random items in pairs to fill an old peanut butter jar, I dump everything on a tray, and the kids have to match them. I was surprised how fast Josiah caught on, though he does just like to grab stuff and drop them in the jar. If I ask him “where’s the other one?” he’ll actually look for the matching item.

Similarly, after reading Corduroy, I decided to get out my jar of buttons and an egg carton and have the kiddos sort them by color.

Gwendolyn has been doing very well with her numbers; it wasn’t too long ago that she could say her numbers but not readily recognize them. Now, she gets them almost every time, although she often confuses six and nine. I’ve been getting out various number flashcards, matching pictures to the number, and counting out pom poms. Pom poms makes any activity more fun.

Homeschool Creation’s Clothespin ABC Match Up had me looking for some mini clothespins, and I was chagrined when I came back from the craft store with a package of twenty-four. *sigh* I ended cutting arrows from scrapbook paper and turning them into dials for the three wheels. They immediately got a good reception, because hey, turning the dial is fun. I used these this week with some letter flashcards along with beginning sounds.

We ended the week on a jaunt to Spring Hill Sugarhouse, a local farm which boasts apples, apple cider, maple syrup, maple candy, pumpkins and gourds, and a corn maze. Phil’s great-uncle Harry from Harry Here Farm also has his cornmill up and running there, selling cornmeal and johnny cakes. The mornings have been chilly, and I’ve started craving Autumn comforts (we had hot chocolate this morning!), so this hit the spot.

On our “off” days, Gwen has been asking to “do school” with me, and almost every night before we go to bed when I ask what her favorite part of the day was she answers, “doing school with you.”

Linking up…

Gwen is 3 years old (44 months) and Josiah is 1 (20 months).

15Sep2011

Pink & Green Baby Shower – a celebration of life

Posted in Baby, Decorating, Friends by karlamcurry

“Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from him.”
Psalm 127:3

Growing up, I thought the nurturing gene may have somehow passed me by, because although I thought babies were cute, I wasn’t drawn to them. I didn’t flock like the other girls to new mothers, oohing and ahhing, asking to hold their babies.

And then I had a baby girl.

Having children changes everything, no lie. It changes your perspective in so many ways. I love babies. I still don’t rush over to new mamas, but I crane my neck to get a look at the tiny hands and feet, the tufts of soft hair on their heads, smile and offer congratulations or some sentiment about the precious bundle. And every baby makes me think of my own children, how small they once were, how quickly they’re growing up. While the urge to have another isn’t as strong now as it was when I only had one, I do sometimes feel that longing to hold my own baby again. *sigh*

So, what’s the next best thing to having a baby? Your best friend having a baby! Nikki gave birth to beautiful Liberty Rose on July 1st, a name she’s had picked out since the first time around.

While I love to be organized, ambitiously plan, I’m not very good at planning parties. I get into the details, the food and decorations, but not all the other stuff – contacting people, figuring out how many servings we’ll need if “x” amount of people show up, narrowing down a time and place that’s suitable for everyone involved – gah, it gives me a headache! But I’ve been wanting to throw Nichole a shower for a while, and with the help of a few friends we pulled it off.

I’m still waiting for Becky to show off some of her party shots on How-To Hospitality – and I’m sure she’ll make sure to include at least a couple endearing hospitality fails from the afternoon – but for now I’d like to regale you with the lovely Pink and Green Tea baby shower that Becky, my sister-in-law Jenn and I put together to welcome Liberty.

Becky remembered Nichole telling her she loved the combination of pink and green, so when I told her that Hostess {with the mostess} had some great party ideas, she looked around and thought it would be neat to go with their Sunny “Lemonade Stand” theme and substitute lime instead. Of course, this was just a starting point, and the end result was totally different. I decided to google pink and green baby shower, pink and green party, you name it - and yikes! – the ideas are endless and overwhelming. We narrowed down our list of ideas to a few favorites.

Decorations
Of course, we tried to stick with shades of pink and green. We went for the more muted colors, but there were some bright pops here and there.

Handmade paper circles like the ones in this beautiful Bump Smitten: Pink & Green Garden shower were meant to be a backdrop the a dessert table, but since the weather was worsening due to the impending Hurricane Irene, we moved the festivities inside and had to change the original set-up. Alas, I don’t think I ever got a shot of these, but Becky did a great job accordian-folding scrapbook papers for these. We ended up hanging these in a window, along with strands of silver beads.

Somewhere I had seen a tutorial for tissue paper pom poms, and they made festive many of the occasions that popped up on my goodle search. I thought, these would be easy enough! I found a great assortment pack of white, pink, and green tissue papers at Target, and armed with good ol’ Martha Stewart’s Tissue Papar Pom-Poms How-To – and laughing at this tutorial (yes, we braved the green ones) - we folded and scrunched and fluffed away. It gets easier after the first one.

We made a few big ones for hanging, and some smaller ones to double as flowers on the table. The effect was gorgeous, nixing the need for fresh flowers (even though fresh flower are always nice, but one must make these decisions when working with a budget).

Pooling our resources and dishware, we came up with some elegant settings of white china and pink glass. The centerpieces, along with the pom pom flowers, were silver candleholders and vases in varying heights.

Menu
We rearranged some of the furniture to suit the flow of guests, and ended up putting a dining room sideboard out on the porch to serve as the food table. It echoed the elegant simplicity with white and glass plates; pom poms and silver beads brightended up the area.

My mouth started watering as I saw the spread for this Pink and Green Baby Shower from Heather Christo Cooks. I was immediately drawn to the lime bars with macadamia nut crust (I always go for desserts), and was trying to figure out how I could alter a recipe for lemon-raspberry bars when I discovered that Heather Christo was nice enough to share her recipe for the lime bars! I think the only changes I made were using white whole wheat flour for the all-purpose, and rapadura sugar for the white. They tasted great, but it was humid and the sifting of confectioners’ sugar dissolved on top of the bars so they didn’t look as nice as the original version.

Among some of the other “savory tastings” and “sweet somethings” were chicken salad with grapes wrapped in lettuce, cucumber tea sandwiches, multigrain chips with hot artichoke dip, strawberry cupcakes, and strawberry scones with lemon curd and jam on the side.

Pink lemonade and limeade were on top of the list, and I lucked out with Martha Stewart’s recipes for Mint Limeade (using chocolate mint from my own garden) and Pink Lemonade with cranberry juice – yum!

We served these beverages – along with ice water – in canning jars that doubled as place card holders. I had seen these whimsical striped straws among other party ideas, and found a green and pink straw combo pack along with some pink plaid cupcake liners at The Bakers Confection’s Etsy shop. We also served tea for those brave enough for a hot drink.

Think Outside The Box
A fun little idea was to set up a photo booth where people could have their picture taken. When we moved the shower inside, there wasn’t really a good spot for this. While setting up for the party, this old couch of my grandmother’s sat on the porch, and it was too big to move out of the way. I decided to dress it up shabby-chic style so it would blend in, and we ended up using that as the photo booth. Think outside the box, and work with what you’ve got!

We had a lovely time, I ate way too much sugar, and I was so glad to be able to welcome this little life and bless a friend.

10Sep2011

Preschool: week three and the letter C

Posted in Gwendolyn, Homeschool, Josiah by karlamcurry

Monday morning saw us off to a fabulous start, as is Monday’s custom. After going over our Bible story – and really, starting off in God’s Word should give us extra points, no? - Gwen was trying to paint her coloring picture with dot markers, and I vigorously shook it, trying to get the paint to the tip. The top popped off, paint sprayed across the table and its contents, arching and splattering across the entire floor. After a shocked silence, then wearily calling my husband in from his shop to help me clean it up (why oh why do I think the things I plan will ever work out?), we moved on to a simple story. Now, Gwen usually loves books, but she was too distracted and I just trailed off and started staring off into space. She eventually realized I wasn’t reading anymore. “Just go out and play,” I told them. I’m trying to learn that I need to be more flexible, to relax my expectations.

The third week of preschool has been brought to you by the letter C, the number 2, and the square shape. The theme for the week was clothing, and our word for the week was costume because I know how much Gwen likes to dress up. We saw Adam and Eve leaving the Garden of Eden after Eve “obeyed the bad snake,” and worked on our new memory verse.

Bible
It took Gwen two weeks to get her first memory verse down pat, but she’s pretty much got Psalm 34:13 in the bag: “Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies.” I propped the memory verse card on the table, along with a fake snake and toy apple, and the kiddos had fun with those.

Along with the Bible story from 100 Bible Stories, 100 Bible Songs, I printed out an Adam and Eve minibook twice – once on regular paper to read, and again on photo paper so I could cut out the pictures to use as sequencing cards. She really enjoyed doing these throughout the week, and got good at telling the story herself.

Theme
C-themes for kids tend to revolve around cows and cats and things of that nature, but I figured clothing would be useful – especially since, as I already mentioned, Gwen loves to play dress-up. We already talked about the seasons the first week, and were able to tie the two together, talking about which things we wear in different seasons and why. We went to her room, and I asked her to show me something she would wear in the winter, summer, fall, and spring. We made a mini clothesline on the bulletin board with these items, and she thought that was pretty cool. Then she asked if she could wear a bathing suit and pretend she was at the beach – sure.

We did a simple cut-and-paste activity, sorting two different categories – clothing in one column, and animals in another.

This was really easy, and I chose it mostly because it had the clothing and she likes to use the glue stick, but also because she needs practice holding the scissors. Since she’s a leftie, I fail miserably at helping her with technique.

Grandma knows how much Gwen likes to read, do hidden puzzles and get magazines in the mail, so she subscibed her to the Highlights’ High Five magazine, along with their Hidden Pictures Playground. There’s almost always some simple game to cut and assemble, and a couple months back there was a game with three suitcases for three players who have to match the playing pieces to the items in their suitcase. We played it, and though the kiddos are still learning the concept of taking turns, they did pretty well. Josiah might not have understood that he couldn’t just grab a card, but he knew when he made a match!

Gwen dresses up almost every day, so this week it was a justifiable educational pursuit! She put on her ladybug costume from Halloween last year, and we talked about the difference between regular clothing and a costume. One of her favorite open-ended toys that she played with a couple times this week was her Melissa & Doug Magnetic Princess Dress-Up. I have to keep my eye on this girl – she kept giving her doll kisses, saying they were married. Hmmmmm.

While Gwen played with her doll, Josiah and I strung lacing beads into necklaces and I showed him the different shapes and colors.

It’s so cute watching his tiny little fingers try to put the lace through the hole, not realizing he actually has to push the lace through to the other side.

Letter
At the end of the week, I clear off the bulletin board, put some of her work and crafts in page protectors and organize them in a binder, throwing other things away. Sometime before Monday morning, I pin up the material for the following week, and if Gwen catches a glimpse of it she’ll get curious and start talking about it. She was already on the C-train before Monday came along. Sometimes I wonder if I’m expecting too much of her… then other times I feel like she’s way ahead of the game.

Gwen colored her C picture with crayons, then glued cotton ball clouds all over. Josiah was coloring a picture of a clothesline to go along with the theme for the week, and I helped him put “clouds” in the sky.

That was pretty much the extent of our morning before the kiddos wanted to go outside; it’s nice having Daddy home during the week, but he can sure be a distraction! But I also know playtime affords some of the best opportunities for learning – like Josiah learning about leverage while pushing his big sister on the four-wheeler.

Daddy taught them C for “chop,” giving them little hatchets to ”help” him cut wood - it was the cutest thing.

I tried to help, too, but discovered that my technique with an axe hasn’t improved – no matter how many times I swing that thing. Phil asked, ”How are we supposed to be homesteaders if you can’t cut wood?” I told him that’s his job - I’ll make the yogurt and cook the food.

During Josiah’s naptime, I’m able to focus on some sit-down activities with Gwen. We do her do-a-dot page, dry-erase activities, letter hunt worksheet, and various other activity books.

I like to plan crafts, because when it actually goes over well, we can be sitting at the table for a while just having fun, making those connections between work and play. I had two animal-related crafts planned for the letter of the week – a caterpillar and a crab. I like Totally Tots’ Now I Know My ABCs animals crafts, and used their suggestion - C is for Clumsy Crab - to go along with the story Clumsy Crab.

I also found this nifty idea for making a Counting Caterpillar (Kiboomu has some great ideas!) with a paper plate in the shape of a C, and I changed it up a bit to incoporate letters in our names rather than numbers.

Thanks for the idea, Jennifer – I told you I’d probably be stealing that one! And of course we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

It just so happens that I remembered the Alphabet Animals Flash Cards that I had gotten for Josiah. I initially planned on stringing them up around his room, but I never got around it it. They’ve been sitting in his room, and I decided they were too pretty to have packed away. The flash cards are thick, board-book type cards, and the artwork is beautful. The animal for C is – you guessed it – a caterpillar.

Number
“Around and back on the railroad track. Two! Two! Two!” I kept forgetting ABC Jesus Loves Me‘s rhyme for the number two, but it seemed to help Gwen trace and write. As silly as some of the songs and rhymes can seem, they really do stick with you! I was rather discouraged one day last week about how things were going, and as Gwen and Josiah were playing, I heard her spouting off her “Seven Days” song and “Baa Baa Black Sheep” rhyme from last week – she really does listen!

Inspired by Passionate Homemaking’s idea for Circle Time, I spread out a blanket so we could do some work on the floor during Josiah’s naptime. Gwen took to this right away, and we blasted through a whole bunch of activities, including a number puzzle and a couple file folder games.

I forget where I initially found it, but ever since I came across the idea of letting kids use play tools to pound foam puzzle pieces together, I thought, my kids would love that! I got this neat, simple set of foam numbers puzzles from my mother-in-law’s old stash of educational goodies, and sure enough, they went away at those pieces. I even joined in on the fun!

Josiah has been learning to count with us, especially when we play Hi Ho Cherry-O, and his favorite number to spout at any given moment seems to be three. Josiah, how many? Thwee! One… two…? Thwee!

Shape
It was easy to incorporate reinforcing the square shape through snacks – we had crackers and slices of cheese a couple days. Oh, and those just so happen to be C words (along with chocolate). Just when I think Gwen’s got her shapes down, she confuses a square with a rectangle, or seems to think anything with straight lines is a triangle. This shape rhyme from ABC Jesus Loves Me helped her remember (tune - Are You Sleeping?):

“Four straight lines, four straight lines,
the same length, the same length,
join them together, join them together,
a square with strength, a square with strength.”

A couple times I heard her singing this under her breath when trying to figure out a shape.

She did a few tracing/coloring pages from workbooks, and though she gets easily-frustrated with lacing shapes we worked together on the square.

Rhyme
The poem or nusery rhyme isn’t always a large part of our week. I introduce it on Friday, and if I remember we try and quote it until the following Friday. This week’s rhyme was “Diddle Diddle Dumpling.”

Etc.
I haven’t been using all their suggestions for fine and gross motor skills – really, a peg puzzle at her age? – but the ABCJLM activity for this week included Red Light, Green Light. Remember that game? I used to love that one when I was kid – along with Simon Says, of course. One night I spontaneously suggested we play it with the kiddos before bed, and they loved it! Gwen got it right away because she knows what red and green lights mean, and Josiah just had fun running back and forth.

I’ve been trying to make a concentrated effort to involve the kids in helping out around the house, even if it means more work for me. *sigh* Inspired by Rachel’s kid with a kitchen knife, I decided it was high-time Gwen learned how to use a paring knife, so she helped me cut peppers for dinner one night. My allowing her to do this seemed to boost her confidence and I’m so glad such a small thing seemed such a big deal. I’ve been having them do simple things like set and wash the table, which also happen to be things occasionally on Gwen’s chore chart.

Friday nights I make homemade pizza and we have a picnic in the living room and watch a movie. Both Gwen and Josiah helped me roll out the dough, and Gwen helped me spread the sauce and sprinkle toppings.

She’s seen us make pizza before, and she’s helped us out at various times cooking and baking, but tonight while taking a bite and watching a movie, she paused and said thoughtfully, “The dough turned into pizza!” I love seeing how they connect the dots.

Daily
We press on with Gwen’s chore chart and her weather watching jars (I use glass jelly jars on her window sill, and currently we’re doing it weekly rather than monthly). Most days we do the Starfall calendar activity in the morning and their letter activities – along with other website interactives – during J’s naptime.

Bulletin Board