Saturday, February 11, 2012

Moments To Remember

Over these past 9 weeks while dealing with morning sickness I have had many not very good, attentive mommy moments. Some days it was an accomplishment if I actually got the littles dressed...at all. lol Needless to say the teacher was absent and there was no substitute. There were even days where I thought how lovely it would be if my littles ones were in school (or at least stricken with laryngitis so that it would be quiet in my house). I will say that my littles were champs during this time of 'mommy is trying to grow a baby...please do not invade my bubble'. They really pulled through and played together a lot and really made me smile with how cooperative they were with each other....even when they didn't want to be.

I would often check on them to find them all playing nicely together. The play food was a huge hit this month. Weird how something that's been there forever that they really didn't pay much attention to in ages all the sudden became their favorite toy. Annabelle said, "Cheers!"
Silas eating a 'gackle' (apple).
This day they were playing dress-up. Annabelle was the princess (of course). Asa was the prince (love the pajama pants Mr. Prince), and Silas was the cutest little dragon that I think I've seen in quite a while.
Good times.....
This happened to be a frustrating day for me (even though the kids are dressed). Silas has been nap resistant for a few months now (I'm not ready for him not to have naps). This day I put him back in bed close to 10 times before giving up. He promptly snuggled into the chair with me and fell fast asleep. It's amazing how the Lord knows exactly what you need when you need it. I really needed his sweet snuggles that day. I sat in that chair until I thought my bladder would explode...lol

Happy blogging!

jess_hak

Linking up to Moments to Remember

Valentine Trays

I think the trays turned out decent, but these are horrible pictures. Story of this blogs life. Someday maybe I'll get a camera that doesn't think that just because it is before 5pm doesn't mean that the flash doesn't need to be on....maybe someday....

Cutting activities. 2 different levels....this one is obviously for Asa. Totally nabbed this idea from The Princess and the Tot who always has phenomenal tray ideas. I put some stickers on there for him to decorate with after he was done cutting the hearts out.
Silas is just starting to be able to use the scissors well enough to cut. I thought I would give him a few strips to just go at for some practice. This keeps him busy for a fair amount of time....kind of like it used to keep Asa busy for a long time....kids grow up way to fast!
Spooning/1 to 1 tray. This one is mainly for Silas. He liked this tray last year so we will see what he thinks of it this year.
Shape sorting. This was my favorite little tray from last year (and the littles liked it too). The little boxes are from The Dollar Tree. The big buttons are from Oriental Trading Company.
These are cupcake toppers turned into a fun little 'pin pushing' activity. For some reason Asa and Silas always LOVE these types of trays.
Sorry for the glare. These heart containers are from the Dollar Tree. There are enough hearts (table scatter from Target Dollar Spot I think) in the cup to correspond with each container.
I had these little bracelets from last year and had no idea what to do with them. Monkey Toes Montessori mentioned that I should use them for tracing. I thought I would take her up on the idea....especially since I still had no idea what to do with them. lol
Rose soap tweezing. Put a rose into each circle (the roses are from the Dollar Tree).
This is another idea that I've been wanting to do that I have seen several times on The Princess and the Tot. Asa absolutely LOVES stickers so I think that he will enjoy this. The object is to put a heart sticker onto every little heart on the paper.
Last year I printed out these hearts from Musings of Me. I know that she has had many unfortunate issues with clip art so I am not sure if these are still available. I think that they would be very easy to make with construction paper and a marker though!
These are some special activities that we will be doing specifically on Valentine's Day. This first printout is from 2 Teaching Mommies. The other two are from Musings of me and I am not sure if they are still available.

Sorting and graphing.
Filling the spaces with candy hearts (could also be a roll and cover type game).
How many kisses does Valentine bear get? Yummmmm kisses!!
I hope that all of you out there in blog land have a wonderful LOVE filled week! Happy blogging.

jess_hak

Linking up to 1+1+1=1
Tot School

Monday, February 6, 2012

MIA.....

So, I have been completely MIA this month. I haven't been blogging much, but mostly because I haven't felt like we have done enough to do a weekly blog. I thought that I was beginning to feel better in the beginning of January, but apparently I was not. This post consists of some of the pictures of what we've accomplished this month. Usually this would be done in a week (sometimes 2). There are also many other things that I wanted to do, but just didn't feel up to doing it. I will say that I am finally feeling better (almost in my 2nd trimester!)....for real this time, I am feeling better/motivated/'normal'. So I apologize for my lack of posting. Here is what we've been doing this last month.

We've been working on 'rowing' The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. Rowing a book would generally take a week or so....but it took us the whole month. :)
I printed out these shape cards (along with many other printouts) from Homeschool Creations.
Asa looked through the book and would find the shapes in the illustrations.
Drawing icicles on the house. He would pick a number card and then draw that number of icicles.
This printable is from 2 Teaching Mommies.

Asa drew some of the things that he and Peter (little boy from The Snowy Day) like doing in the snow. He drew the snowman, the ground and the hill. He insisted that I draw the sled and the little boy on it. After he drew the picture he used a snowball (cotton ball) to paint snow on the picture.

Counting the snowflakes, counting out beads to put on the snowflakes, then circling the correct number. This printable is also from 2 Teaching Mommies.

Cutting practice. This boy LOVES scissors!
Letter tracing. We also did a little experiment to see what happens to snow when it is brought inside. In the book Peter put a snowball in his pocket and when he went back to get it the snowball was gone. I asked Asa to make a prediction about what happened to the snowball. He said that he thought it melted. We brought snow in the house and I asked him what would happen to this snow....he said it would melt and make water. He didn't let that cup out of his sight for the longest time.

He checked on his cup after naptime and he was pretty excited that his prediction had been accurate. Then I had to convince him not to drink the water. lol
More letter S work. These printables are from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

This is one of the trays that I really wanted to do and got around to making. The idea (and the snowflake printables) are from Making Learning Fun. The idea is to look at the card and build the snowflake using the correct shapes.
After putting so much time into making it I was pretty bummed when it wasn't a huge hit. It wasn't that Asa didn't like it, he was just more interested in other things. Oh well, maybe next year he will like it better.
One of the snowflakes that he finished.
Silas enjoyed creating his own snowflakes.
This was one of Annabelle's favorite activities last year. Asa liked it as well, but was still a bit confused about how to do it. We worked together quite a bit on this.

Play dough took up a good time of our month. I was pretty grateful that it consumed a lot of time. I made it just the normal color and added some vanilla extract (that's why it's a little brown). I had bought a couple Toobs (penguins, polar). The kids had a great time using the play dough as snow. They made tracks as well as little landscapes.
Silas LOVES play dough. This would easily consume 1-2 hours of time with him.

We did happen to have snow for about 2 weeks here in good ol' Michigan (it's pretty much gone now and in the 40s.....bizarre). We took advantage of it while we could. We did some sledding...

....the kids also enjoyed coloring the snow.....
I was pretty grateful for this activity. It was an extremely bad feeling day for me. The kids were insanely loud that morning I knew that they just had so much pent up energy.
I forced myself to get them bundled up and sent them outside to color the snow. I got an hour of peace and quiet in the house and they had a GREAT time outside (and didn't want to come in). I love my fenced in back yard!!!
I hope that everyone else had a fantastic January. I for one am really looking forward to February! Happy blogging.

jess_hak

Linking up to 1+1+1=1 and Preschool Corner

Tot School

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Moments To Remember



I love this sweet little series of snapshots I took. Some of them are a little dark (sorry). This is what music time with daddy looks like. While all the kids like playing the guitar with Zak, there is no doubt that Silas is the most delighted whenever the guitar comes out. He soaks up this time with his daddy (and I think Zak really enjoys it too). :)

Practicing strumming.....

Silas really wants to get his sweet, pudgy hands over the frets.....
Playing without daddy's help.
It's so nice to have the ability to 'freeze' this little moments in time. There are days that are very stressful for me....and not much fun for the kids....but when daddy gets home from work life just seems to run pretty smoothly (unless someone breaks a tv.....lol).

Happy blogging!
jess_hak

Linking up to Moments to Remember