Week Nineteen Recap!

Monday:

Nothing stunts any motivation like a cold and rainy Monday! But we weathered the storm (see what I did there?) and got through the morning with minimal whining, fighting, or drama. We ate our breakfast and then got dressed and ready to update our calendar. Mondays are good calendar days because everyone can take a turn putting a number up. They’re catching on to the songs and to which day it is. We danced to some of our usual songs and even added some new ones, then went on a bear hunt. After some free play and straightening up, we hopped in our chairs for a healthy snack of apples and goldfish. We started to talk about the letter N and things that started with it. We painted our Nest N’s using water colors and then finger painting some ‘snow’ onto a blue piece of paper for a project later in the week.

Tuesday:

Well, we are officially back on a routine. The kids know what’s coming next in the morning for the most part, unless I decide to throw a curveball in, which is sometimes needed! We ate breakfast, got dressed, updated the calendar, and then ran around the house for a little bit while I got my act together and some laundry done. We had a picnic with the toy food (something we haven’t done in a while) then we cleaned it all up and started our ‘exercise’ time with some Animal Action and then some of our faves, like I Like to Move It and Everybody Dance now. We ate some snack and got ready for some crafts. Today’s project was a melted snowman! I cut out all of the pieces (a white blob, some coal buttons, a scarf, a carrot nose and a top hat) and spread glue all over a green piece of paper. I gave them each their own set of materials and let them do the rest! They ended up stacking everything on top of the snowman blob, which I thought was pretty cool. This project and the shining sun almost tricked me into thinking spring was near!

Wednesday:

Hump Day! We’re halfway there people! The day started out with both kids eating all of their breakfast (French toast) with no yelling, screaming, crying, or complaints. I was floored! Usually one gives the other the wrong look and for a brief moment, World War 3 looms on the horizon. We got dressed, brushed our crazy hair, changed Lily’s earrings, and then did our calendar. They started to get a little rowdy during free play, so we cleaned up the cars (I had to take away cups and turn the TV off for either to cooperate, but it got done) and we did some Animal Action, Cosmic Yoga, and one song of each of their choosing. We ate some snack and finished our igloo project by gluing white squares (ice blocks) onto the pre-drawn igloo. Lily started singing the opening song from Frozen (which I don’t even know) and Tristan followed suit. We played with some Lego Duplos for a little bit (I want to get another set of these), went on a bear hunt around the house, and then got ready to wind down for nap with some reading.

Thursday:

I will preface today’s update with this one fact…I did not have coffee today. And we went to the gym after Lily was asleep last night, so I coudlnt fall asleep until late. Damn endorphins! I should probably switch my game plan to going to the gym in the morning but it’s too cold for that nonsense. Anyway, I felt like I was waltzing through molasses all morning. The kids ate and got dressed with little to no problems, and then we did our calendar. Tristan asked to play with the trains, and that was a nice little break for me to straighten up and get a project ready. Until they started fighting over the trains and we had to clean up in a haste. After we all cooled down, we had snack and started on our project, a resist painting of a tree on a canvas. I taped off the tree and a snow pile with some blue tape. I thought it would be more frustrating than it was because the tape kept peeling off, but the kiddos actually used their listening ears and only painted the white space. They came out very very good! I think I might hang Lily’s in her room. Once we washed hands and cleaned up, we had some free play time til we became too wild. I put on some yoga, which we got through a decent chunk, and then switched it up to Animal Action and Walking in the Jungle, and then ended with some Barney (unfortunately for my sanity, they have become obsessed with ‘the dinosaur singing’) and of course our Frozen medley.

Friday:

Woo we made it to Friday! We did our usual eat breakfast, get dressed, and do the calendar routine and then we had some free play. And as usual, we got to wild so I reeled them in with some Cosmic Yoga and some Animal Action. When we got tired of dancing, we played with some blocks and practiced building tall towers (which was a focus skill goal a few weeks ago) and making patterns (which was this week’s focus skill for us and it was also featured on Sesame Street a few times---go me)! Once the blocks were cleaned up, we did some vacuuming and dusting. They really are such big helpers! We skipped an actual project today, but after snack we played a new game! I got a tri-fold board from the Dollar Store and drew a snowman surrounded by snowflakes on it. I cut a hole in the snowman’s belly, gave them some large white pompoms, and voila! An easy snowball toss game! They were slightly cheating and getting very close to the hole, but hopefully with some practice, we’ll be all ready for carnival games come springtime!

Hope everyone has a fun, relaxing (hopefully) three day weekend! 

Week Eighteen Recap

Monday:

We are back on track today! Hooray! As much as I love the holidays, and the go go go busyness of it all, I am happy to say we are back on schedule, everyone is napping, and we started our alphabet back up again. It was awesome to have Jordan home around Christmas and visits from the Georgia Peaches but it’s also nice to get back into the swing of things. We added a new piece to our daily schedule today—the calendar! Today we talked about the months of the year and the days of the week and we took turns putting the numbers on the calendar up to the 5^th. We learned a song about the months of the year and one about the days of the week that I am sure everyone who has attended preschool has heard or learned at one point in their lives! After we finished our calendar talk, the kids played with our musical instruments for M week while I got a project ready. We had some free play and then some snack, and then we made decorated mittens with little squares of tissue paper. Tristan wanted to draw, so we used colored pencils for the first time to color in a picture of kids making music. I love how intense Tristan gets when he uses a pencil or pen. He holds it the right way and almost colors in the lines! I am so proud of him!

Tuesday:

Snow Day! Well, sort of. It has been lightly flurrying all morning. We ate our breakfast, got dressed, and added a 6 to the calendar, then had some free play time while I threw in a load of laundry. Before we got too rowdy, we did some of our letter/picture puzzles. After we cleaned up, we did our project for the day---painting our Mouse M’s with water color while reading Mouse Paint. We had a little snack and then I made the executive decision to venture outdoors for a bit. After layer upon layer upon layer were, er, layered onto us, we headed outside. I was sweating at that point, but it was quite chilly. We took a walk down to the church playground and played in the little houses for a few minutes, then walked back to the house and tried to make a snowman. When that didn’t work, we tossed snow at each other until I mentioned peppermint oreos and both kids made a break for the door. It was a nice change of pace to get outside and blow the stink off! After our peppermint oreo snack, we built some forts, which is practically a must on a snow day before settling in for a (hopefully) long winter’s nap. After naptime, we ate our lunch and had some free play time, but we were a little too cranky for non-structured play. I decided the other fun thing to do on a snow day is build forts, which lasted for a little bit, and we finished the day with playing with some play dough.

Wednesday:

I think we all woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Today started off a little rough and cranky for all of us. After breakfast, the struggle of getting dressed, and calendar time, I decided we needed a little zen and calm in our morning, so we did some yoga. We haven’t done Cosmic Yoga since before Christmas so it shocked me that the kids lasted a full ten minutes before they got bored and started climbing all over me. It helped to stretch our muscles and take a couple deep breaths. Today’s project was an inverse snowflake painting. Using scotch tape, I made a snowflake shape on a small piece of blue paper. Tristan and Lily’s job was to paint the entire paper white, using a foam brush. They did a great job and when we peeled the tape off, you could see their snowflakes. After some snack, we decided to go on a shape hunt around the house. They had so much fun looking for circles, squares, and triangles that once we finished all our shapes, we moved on to a color hunt! They were running from room to room showing me all the things they saw that matched the colors we were talking about. It gave us some extra movement time which is always nice when you’re stuck inside all day. We settled down after our hunt and read some books. I left the room and when I came back, I got a “shh mom we’re reading!” That is always music to my ears!

Thursday:

Today started off slightly different than usual. The heater was acting up, so after we ate breakfast, we moved upstairs to Lily’s room to play because it was much warmer up there. It was a very…trying morning. They fought over almost every single toy and I couldn’t leave the room for even a second without someone crying or screaming at the other person. But the heater was fixed and we went about our normal day of looking for shapes and colors, having a snack, and making a snow hat by decorating half of a paper plate. We used markers today for the first time during project time and they did a very good job keeping it moderately neat! We read a few books before nap, after running a few laps and going on a bear hunt to warm ourselves up!

Friday:

TGIF! This was our first full week together in quite some time. And because I deeply believe in karma, especially in the once-a-kid-now-a-parent sense, I need to send my mother flowers for the hours she spent pulling my brother Bobby and I away from each other. I don’t know what it is, but they love to swat at each other! I’m guessing it’s the age, coupled with we are stuck indoors 98% of the time. As long as we keep moving, and stick to a routine, we manage. That being said, we did our breakfast, get dressed then do calendar thing this morning with little to no struggle or tears (mine or theirs). I got the instruments down and put on a music channel so they could jam. Once they started fighting over harmonicas (we have two, one just has a black string and is the coveted one), I put on some Cosmic Yoga and we stretched and took some deep breaths for a while. We tried Pedro the Penguin. It was definitely faster paced than Swish the Fish, but we had fun. For our project, I mixed glue and shaving cream together and let them go to town on a picture of a snowman. Lily dove right in with a brush and then her hands, but Tristan told me he did not like it. He did paint with the paint brush for a little bit, and I got him to dip a finger in and stir the fluff around but when he said he was done, I wiped off his finger and got him some colored pencils to draw with. It kept Lily entertained for quite some time! The pictures were a little too heavy/messy to save, but it was a fun new thing to try. 

Well, here's to a new year full of (hopefully) many new projects and fun new adventures! We have a lot of new going on over here (wedding planning, diets and exercising, learning and crafting) so I am super excited for 2015!

Enjoy your weekends!