The time has come for colds, and overcoats…

…not really quite yet. It's actually really humid and gross out right now. But the time has come for Halloween and costume making! We visited a costume store a week or so ago and it might have scared Lily a little bit! They had a big display complete with a creepy pumpkin scarecrow on a swing that was talking. She has informed me many times that it scared her, but it was only pretend. 

I thought I could get one more year of deciding what costume to create for her before she started asking for specifics. I was thinking 50s Chick, with a poodle skirt, pony tail and curled bangs, a sweater, and some sweet saddle shoes I have been eyeing up for her but can’t quite bring myself to buy. But Jordan asked what she wanted to be, and she said “Ummmm PRINCESS!” So I guess I will be making some sort of princess attire. I am not sure if I should go the route of a Disney princess (she’s not really into one specific character yet) or if I should just go for the generic princess. Since everyone (and probably literally their mothers) are being Elsa and/or Anna, I am going to skip on those two. She also is fickle with what she has on her head, so I don't know if a long Rapunzel wig will be in the cards. 

I loved making Lily's lady bug costume and Tristan's owl costume last year and thought they came out pretty cute. Guess it’s onto the drawing board (and some Pinterest boards) to see what I can make on a budget! What are you making (or buying) for your little people for Halloween?

Boo at the Zoo 2013

Fine Tuning Some Fine Motor Skills...

I was going to wait until Friday to update on what we have been up to during the week, but today’s fine motor skill was just such a big hit, I could not resist! All it took was two colanders and some bright colored pipe cleaners (both found at the Dollar Tree) and Lily and Tristan had a blast!

I put a colander face down in front of each child and handed them each one pipe cleaner. I asked them what they thought we should do with them, and Lily’s first instinct was to thread the cleaner through one of the holes, and Tristan followed suit. After we divided the pipe cleaners, the two of them went to town threading the “crazy hair” onto the colanders. Tristan started putting both ends of the pipe cleaners through the holes while Lily would pull each pipe cleaner straight though. It was really interesting to see their techniques for inserting the pipe cleaner and how frustrated they each would get when it would bend at the last minute. They ended up playing with these for 20 minutes straight, which might be a record!! Well worth the $3 and the sneaky learning tactics! I can't wait to see their reaction to stringing noodles on these pipe cleaners later in the week!

September Plans Volume 2!

Box of Tricks!

This week, we will be working more with our fine motor skills and using new and different types of manipulatives. I bought two small colanders from the dollar store, along with some brightly colored piped cleaners. Before I show them the outcome I would like to see, I want to see if either of them decides to thread the pipe cleaners through the holes on their own. I also have been dying pasta (rigatoni) in all the primary colors so we can practice stringing beads. I am pretty sure with the amount of pasta we have, everyone we know will be getting a noodle necklace in the near future.

Since the letter of the week is B, we will be reading “Feely Bugs” by David A. Carter, and going on some bug hunts in the sandbox. We know a bunch of bug finger plays like the Itsy Bitsy Spider and Baby Bumblebee. We are going to try stamps again, but this time using ink pads so we can see our bug pictures a little better than the apples. We will also be tracing and decorating our bodies and naming simple body parts. The focus skill of the week will be drinking from (small) cups on our own, so we’ll see how that goes. 

Week Two: September 8-12

Book of the Week: Feely Bugs by David A. Carter

Letter of the Week: B

Color of the Week: Orange

Monday September 8

Art & Sensory: Painting the Letter B with water colors

Fine Motor: Stringing pipe cleaners through colanders

Language: Talking about the Letter B and what begins with B

Music & Movement: Going on a B hunt around the house

Focus Skill: Drinking from a (small) regular cup

Tuesday September 9

Art & Sensory: Stamping Bugs

Fine Motor: Stringing orange pasta onto a pipe cleaner

Language: Talking about things that are orange

Music & Movement: Playing cymbals fast, slow, quiet, and loud

Focus Skill: Drinking from a (small) regular cup

Wednesday September 10

Art & Sensory: Playing with plastic bugs in sand or rice

Fine Motor: Manipulating the bugs into cups and buckets

Language: Talking about different types of bugs

Music & Movement: Going on a nature walk to look for bugs

Focus Skill: Drinking from a (small) regular cup

Thursday September 11

Art & Sensory: Decorating our Leaf Wreaths

Fine Motor: Using cookie cutters in play doh

Language: Talking about things that are the color orange

Music & Movement: Cha Cha Slide

Focus Skill: Drinking from a (small) regular cup

Friday Septmeber 12

Art & Sensory: Tracing and decorating our bodies

Fine Motor: Stringing pasta onto yarn

Language: Talking about body parts

Music & Movement: Exercise Song

Focus Skill: Drinking from a (small) regular cup

Week One Recap!

Lily and Tristan’s first week “back to school” went off without a hitch! There wasn’t really a big change in the routines so no one freaked out. I just snuck in some more structured activities like project time, playing with instruments, exercise time, and of course, story time. We learned how to sign “A” and “red” in sign language, and learned some new finger plays and songs. The projects I chose to do were simple enough that both kids could do them with no trouble and with little help from me. They got to work with different textures than either of them are used to and that was fun to see the different techniques they chose to use. As far as our focus skill of putting our own shoes on---it’s a work in progress!

Here’s a little recap of the week. I am excited to continue to plan and come up with new weekly projects. I’ve been scouring Pinterest, other Mommy blogs, and even got some fun idea from the Oriental Trading catalog!

Tuesday:

It was very, very hot and humid, so our outside play was limited to about thirty minutes after breakfast. Before we went outside, we read our book of the week “Alligator Alphabet”. Once outside, we drew a big A on the pavement and doodled things that started with the letter A. After snack, we painted our Alligator A’s with green water colors. After our naps, we played instruments, danced and did our “exercises”, and then colored some pictures of things that start with the letter A. Not being able to go outside again made us all a little nuts. 

Wednesday:

The weather was slightly more bearable today so we were able to be back on our normal routine. We ate breakfast, got dressed, and had our vitamins. (Our new incentive for Lily to dress herself comes in the form of a gummy vitamin. If she can undress herself and redress herself as best she can without whining, she gets her vitamin). We took our stroller walk and looked for things that were red or started with the letter A, as well as our usual list of trucks, busses, dogs, Cookie Monster eyes (what Lily calls two adapters on the Verizon building we pass), and airplanes.

Since they were very well behaved on the walk, we stopped at the park across the street to play on the swings and then we explored the huge soccer field, looking for acorns. After we collected a few, we headed back to the house to play in the sandbox. A meltdown or two occur in between the sandbox and our project time, but that’s about par for the course. We glued red tissue paper squares onto our apples. It was fun to see the two different ages with two different techniques. Tristan threw all his tissue paper on top of the glue, while Lily carefully placed each piece one by one on her apple.

We got another day of pool time, popsicles, and a wagon ride in! That helped to break up the afternoon a little better.

Thursday:

It was slightly warmer this morning, but we still went on a walk and looked for things that were red. I actually had forgotten I said that we’d be looking for red things until Lily started pointing out red signs, flowers, and cars. Proud (space cadet) mom moment right there. We played in the sandbox, and drew some more pictures with sidewalk chalk of things that start with the Letter A. Then two very large daddy long legs appeared in our play area and we moved our playtime to inside. 

Today’s project was ‘painting’ the letter A with rice. I drew a few lines with Elmer’s glue and gave them each a pile of rice. Today, Lily chose to pick up big handfuls and sprinkle them on the glue trails, where Tristan picked up each piece of rice individually and placed it on the glue.

Lily and Tristan went swimming in the afternoon and ate some homemade popsicles while I paced back and forth waiting for those spiders to return. We had a Code Brown in the pool times two, which was just the icing on the cake of the afternoon I was having. Deep breaths and some laughter helped me to not completely lose it and hide in a dark corner.

Friday:

It’s another warm and muggy day today, so we opted for some outside play after breakfast and took a short wagon ride. When we came inside, I asked if they wanted snack or to do a project, and they picked the project! 

Originally I was going to cut an apple in half and show them how to use it as a stamp, but I forgot to grab an extra apple at the store and I found these chunky stamps my mom had given me. Conveniently, two were shaped as apples. I dipped each one in paint and showed them each how to stamp on their papers. They got a little crazy and ended up ‘painting’ with the stamps but I just let them do their thing. 

We played with dress up clothes, and had a little snack. Right now they're snoozing and I am brainstorming ideas for more fun and easy projects!

Happy Friday!

September Lesson Plans

In preparation for Ashley eventually having another baby for me to take care of, I decided that next week Lily and Tristan will be going ‘back to school’! I also need to start preparing myself for longer days spent inside once it starts to get colder and we can’t spend a majority of the day outside. The two of them are already on a pretty good schedule, but I would like to add a little more structure, as well as throwing in some sneaky learning tactics. I based my lesson plan model of ones I had to create when I worked for The Learning Experience. For the lessons, I used a combination of things I did with my class, things I found on Pinterest, projects my mom used when she taught, and things I did myself as a child. Each day will include an art or sensory project, a fine motor skill to master, time with music and movement, and a language activity. In addition, each week will have its own focus skill. For example, the first week we will be practicing putting on our own shoes. It could also be a task as simple as making a tower from blocks. Each week will start with introducing a letter and a color and a book that will be the theme for the week. I would like to teach them (and myself) to sign each color and letter as well. When we run out of colors, we will reconnect with our shapes. I am excited to do an array of fine motor and sensory activities with them, especially now that they are older and can handle more activities on their own.

Here’s an example of the lesson model, the projects I plan to do, and the skills we plan to work on. We’re starting off simple and hopefully we’ll all be able to ease into this (slightly) new routine. I am hoping to update this on a daily (more likely weekly) basis and compare what I wanted to get done vs. what we actually got done. I am a realist, so there will be days where certain tasks will not be completed, and that’s fine too. I am very excited to get back into a good groove and watch them learn new tricks!

Week One: September 1-5

Book of the Week: Alligator Alphabet by Stella Blackstone and Stephanie Bauer

Letter of the Week: A

Color of the Week: Red

Monday September 1: OFF

Tuesday September 2

Art & Sensory: Painting the Letter A with water colors

Fine Motor: Using a skinny paint brush

Language: Reading “Alligator Alphabet” and talking about letters

Music & Movement: Dancing to Bop Til You Drop

Focus Skill: Putting our shoes on by ourselves

Wednesday September 3

Art & Sensory: Gluing red tissue paper onto an apple

Fine Motor: Pincher grasp while gluing the tissue paper

Language: Talking about the Letter A and things that begin with it

Music & Movement: “Kids in Action”

Focus Skill: Putting our shoes on by ourselves

Thursday September 4

Art & Sensory: Gluing dyed rice to the Letter A

Fine Motor: Pincher grasp to pick up rice

Language: Talking about things that start with A

Music & Movement: Going on a hunt around the house for things that are red

Focus Skill: Putting our shoes on by ourselves

Friday Septmeber 5

Art & Sensory: Apple stamping pictures of things that are red

Fine Motor: Using an apple as a stamp

Language: Talking about things that are red

Music & Movement: “Exercise Song”

Focus Skill: Putting our shoes on by ourselves

Hand & Footprint Painting Pictures: COMPLETE! :)

I'll admit it. These past few months have been a whirlwind, physically, mentally, and emotionally. I have been slacking on my creative projects, Photoshoot Fridays, and painting hands and piggies with the kids. I have been a lazy bum this summer. I figured it could possibly be my last of lounging by the pool with a drink in my hand. By that I mean defusing pool fights over non identical toys, being splashed only on days I opt to not wear my bathing suit, and opening Flavor Ice popsicles quicker than lightening with my teeth. I am honestly not complaining though. This is the tannest I have been in years. 

I am determined to get back on track for September and have been hatching a plan to keep us in line, on task, and learning. But more on that later. I am proud to announce I finally finished our monthly hand and/or footprint pictures! I cheated and did May-August this week, but at least i finished those! It is so cool to have a visual of how much they are growing month by month. Hopefully I'll get a Shutterfly gift in the near future and I'll be able to make something out of them on the cheap. But here they are, in all their glory. Enjoy!

"You're only given one little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it." -RW

As someone who has suffered from depression and anxiety, it tears at my heart when I hear someone lost their battle with their demons. Depression is not just being sad. It is not underappreciating the life you have. It is not dwelling on the bad. It is this feeling of sinking away into whatever dark thoughts and feelings you are having and it is not easy to overcome. It hurts when I hear people talk negatively about those who lost the fight with themselves. It’s okay to have your own beliefs about suicide, but do not speak negatively of someone’s choice if you’ve never been in that mindset. Instead of getting on your soap box and preaching about how immoral and cowardly suicide is, find a way to help. Raise money for suicide prevention. Become a mentor. Smile at a stranger who looks like they are having a rough one. Everyone has their own demons and some people just need extra help fighting them away. 

I remember right before Lily was born, I told my mom I was scared of postpartum depression. Being able to (somewhat) prepare myself for all the emotions that were about to be piled on top of the ones that were already occurring was no easy task. Neither was telling someone my fears. But I think that helped me stay on the lighter side of things. In the hospital after Lily was born, I took a mandatory survey and my doctor had to come in to talk to me because I scored on the side of postpartum. I am not ashamed of this. I could admit to being a new mom and being completely overwhelmed with my new situation because I also knew I had this incredible backbone of support in not only Jordan but in our families and our friends. 

I vowed a long time ago to never get back to that place; to that me who I never wish to see again. I send love and hugs and positive vibes to those who are stuck there now. I had some very low lows and I had horrible thoughts. There was not one specific thing that was hurting me, and yet everything was hurting me. When I read my journals from that time period, I want to give my that scared young girl a hug and tell her she’ll get through it. Because I did. I had great friends and a great family support system who pulled me out of the darkness; some without even knowing it. Not everyone is that lucky. 

It’s not always the sulky ones who are battling some sort of inner war. Some people, like Robin Williams, will have you in stitches laughing while they suffer silently. I wish he could have seen what everyone else saw and taken some joy in the happiness and laughter he brought to others. Rest easy, good sir.