Rough Day

It's been one of those days! Mama has spent most of it crying, which is so stupid since it's mostly an ego thing.

Aiman's birthday is on July 28, so he meets the cut of for school by just a month. We decided in October that we were going to go ahead and keep him back a year for maturity reasons and to put him ahead instead of behind. I am very happy with our decision.

Right now Aidman is in a 4 year old preschool class (9-12, Tues & Thurs) and will be in a different 4 year old preschool class next year (9-12, M,W,F).

The past 2 weeks Aidman's school has been doing assessments of the children. I had a talk with the teacher today and even though I'm happy with my decision and I KNOW this, it's so hard to hear that your kid is BEHIND the rest of the class.

The hardest part for me is that fact that we work so hard on the things that he is "behind" on (ABC recognition, sounds, and writing) and he is STILL not getting it. Part of me thinks that he was just goofing off for the assessments because I KNOW that he knows more than he let on for the teachers and that he doesn't like to be put on the spot, but I also know that he isn't where he should be which is why we are giving him an extra year of preschool.

I have also been strongly considering homeschooling, but after this I just don't know if I'm good enough for it. His teachers tell me that I'm doing over and beyond what many parents do, but it just doesn't feel that way when there's not much sign of improvement over the last few months.

And to make me feel worse about being down today of all days, it's my anniversary. Daddy and I have been happily married for 7 years today!

Muffin Tin Monday

Today the Muffin Tin Moday theme was Rainbows!

Red= strawberries

Orange= carrots in dip

Yellow= buttered noodles

Green= peas

Blue= blue colored milk

Purple= blueberry yogurt

The kiddos LOVE a muffin tin meal and ate every bit of their Rainbow!

Eye Dropper Ee

Today we made Eye dropper Ee's. The eye dropper is not something that I take out with paint very often so the kiddos enjoyed doing it.

Lyssy always looks so serious while doing her "work".

Aidman is getting very good at writting his letters.

Ee Lessons

It's the letter Ee week! I know many of you may be thinking that this is because of Easter, and while I'm sure that's the reason Aidman's preschool is doing it (I do the same letter as his 2 day a week prek), it's entirely too early for me to do a whole week of Easter activities. I will however bring some plastic Easter eggs out to play as they are GREAT for putting things in and matching up colors.

Art:

-Eye dropper Ee

-Earth painting

-Decorate Envelopes and send mail to friends

Science:

-Evaporate (put a bowl of water outside and see what happens)

-Egg Experiment (keeping it simple, dropping hard boiled and raw eggs and see what happens, may even try to make a soft landing to see if that makes a difference)

-Echo (in tunnel at park)

-Play with Elastic

Math:

-Estimation jar

-Empty vs. full

-Count to eight and eleven

Cooking:

-Eggs- hard boiled, scrambled, sunny side up, omelet

Movement/Outside:

-Exercise

-Elevator and Escalator at mall

Whoot Whoot!

I got the Lemons to Lemonade Award TWICE! Actually, I got one a week ago from Hey, I'm Just the Nanny and I have been a slacker and haven't had a chance to post about it. Then I got another one last night from Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile! I'm so excited and SO glad that ya'll are liking my blog! And the fact that this award came from you both is just wonderful as I LOVE both of your blogs!!



The rules of the award are as follows:

1) Put the logo on your blog or post.
2) Nominate at least 10 blogs that show great attitude or gratitude.
3) Link to your nominees within your post.
4) Let the nominees know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5) Share the love and link to the person from who you received your award.



So here are 10 blogs that I LOVE to visit and get ideas from!!

1. My Montessori Journey

2. Read Em' and Leap

3. Itty Bitty Love

4. Tiny Tots Learning and Growing
5. My Little Gems
6. Little Hands, Big Work
7. A Mommy's Adventures
8. Mind Games
9. Casa Camacho
10. A Year of Crockpotting

There's a BUNCH more blogs that deserve mention, but I'll save listing you all until another time. Let me just say that I am truly inspired every single day!!!

We LOVE Strawberries!

Today we went to pick strawberries. This time every year we go to pick fresh strawberries for a super cheap price (today we got 10 quarts for $5). It's alot of fun to do and of course the taste is amazing!

Aidman made sure that we didn't pick any green ones (strawberries do NOT continue to ripen after being picked).

Lyssy liked getting the really BIG strawberries!

Daddy even got in on the fun!

If I decide to make jelly we will have to go get more later in the week.

Happy Spring!

Today we celebrated the first day of spring by spending most of the day (actually most of the week) outside.

We love to paint while outside because it shakes things up a bit and is different. Plus, it keeps the mess OUT of the house. We don't have a real easel so we've found that the back fence makes a great outdoor easel.

We painted with Green and Gold for the letter Gg.

As always, the kiddos are very proud of their work!

Go to Rambling of a Crazy Woman for a GREAT Saturday Showcase of what everyone has been doing this week.

LOUD House!

Today we invited a few friends over to our house for a Story and Craft. I let Aidman choose with book and craft he wanted to do. He chose to read Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? by Dr. Seuss and the craft of noisemakers. He must have chosen the book that fit his mood today because he was SO STINKIN LOUD during the playdate, even before we read the book and did the craft!

We took toilet paper and paper towel tubes and decorated them with markers and stickers. I taped off one end and let them fill the tubes about half full with rice, beans, or uncooked noodles. Then I taped off the other end and let them shake the tubes to make wonderful noises. All the kids really liked the book and the noisemakers.

Head over to Just for Fun for some other book projects.

Leaves!

I am NOT a fan of yard work! But I LOVE being outside this time of the year. It is just beautiful and there is NO humidity. Woohoo!

Here in Florida, leaves do not fall in the Fall/Autumn. They fall in the late Winter (which is kinda a joke to call it Winter since it never really gets cold). It's actually more like a shedding of dead leaves since they don't turn pretty colors. So right now our yard is covered in brown crunchy leaves.

The kiddos and I decided that we wanted to see the pretty green grass so we went outside and got to work! We raked and picked up leaves for several hours and filled up 8 55 gallon garbage bags, sadly we barely made a dent in the leaves. We did have a really fun time together and lots of interesting conversation thanks to Aidman who loves to ask a million questions!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today I took Lyssy and AB to the park for a St. Patrick's Day playdate with PALS (Aidman was a preschool). All 23 moms and their kiddos were decked out in green. Actually, it was quite hard to find a particular kid in the sea of green!

We went on a scavenger hunt to find acorns, leaves, rocks, sticks, and a pot o' gold. Since there was such a range of ages we kept it simple.

Off the find our items!

WOOHOO! The pot o' gold! It was Reese's candy in a big pot.

The kiddos had a really fun time finding everything.

Next it was time for lunch. YUMMY! Everyone brought something GREEN! We had green pb&j, green ham and cheese wraps (spinach tortillas), green rice krispie treats, broccoli, green bell peppers, snow peas, celery, green cupcakes, grapes, cucumbers, zucchini, green cookies, green Gatorade and hi-c, pickles, and I'm sure I'm missing something.

The girls really enjoyed their yummy lunch!

After nap, I'm going to let Aidman go in the back yard to do a scavenger hunt since he missed it. I made it alittle more difficult for him.

Grass Gg

Sorry I didn't get this up on Monday like usual, our entire family was in a Gigantic Grumpy mood yesterday (and I'm not just saying that to get the Gg in) so mama was unable to sit at the computer for any amount of time.

First we went outside and picked grass. Aidman refused to help!

But, the girls and I managed to get a good amount.

Then we glued the grass to our Ggs.

They turned out pretty good.

Gg Lessons

The letter of the week is Gg. Gee, I wonder why? For GREEN since it is St. Patrick's Day tomorrow, and Aidman's favorite color is Green. BTW, I don't know why, but this was a difficult week to make lessons for.

Art:
-Green Grass Gg
-Glitter, Gold, and Green painted mural
-Green Shamrock marble painting

Science:
-Plant Grass Caterpillar
-Play with Gears and Gadgets
-Gross! Do a blindfolded touch test of "gross" stuff.

Math:
-Search for Green shamrocks (scavenger hunt)
-Simple addition and subtraction with Grapes

Cooking:
-Green Picnic/MTM
-Granola Bars

Movement/Outside:
-Feed the Geese

Coffee Filter Butterflies

First we colored coffee filters with markers.

Then we sprayed them with water.

Then we let them dry.

Finally, we turned them into butterflies by scrunching the center and twisting half a pipe cleaner around it. Lyssy REALLY loves thes butterflies!

We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Sadly that is the only butterfly book we could find on our shelves, and we have at least a hundred books! Looks like we need to go to the library!

Head over to Just for Fun for some other Friday book projects.

Toys we LOVE!

Pattern Blocks!!! We love to play with pattern blocks! We sort them by color, we build things with them, we count them, we sort by shape, we make patterns with them, we make fun designs out of them, it's even fun to make holes in foam paper plates with them because it's cool to make them stand up. They are such a great learning tool! I found this great website that has printables for pattern blocks (some examples below) called Prekinders.

They love each other

Look at my cute kiddos! They REALLY do love each other!

BTW, Aidman is always shirtless because he thinks he's being cool like Daddy who goes shirtless whenever working around the house.

Radish Planting

Today we went to a Playdate at my friend M's house. She LOVES to do gardening playdates and this was the first one we were able to make it to. Today we planted radishes (which worked out perfectly for us for the letter Rr week). We had a really great time and the kiddos are very excited about their radishes.

M collected milk and oj cartons, cleaned them out, and cut one side off. She then poked holed in the bottom and covered the sides with white contact paper. The kiddos decorated the planters with stickers and crayons.

They then filled the planters an inch from the top with soil. Then they sprinkled on radish seeds and filled to the top with more soil. M finished it off with alittle organic fertilizer and let the kiddos water them.

This is how it will look in one week.

This is how it will look in two weeks.

Rr is for Rocket

Today we made Rockets for the letter Rr. The kiddos are having a fun time flying them around.

First I cut out shapes on colored paper and wrote a number (1-7) on them, then I took a piece of paper and drew the shapes and numbers on it. See the faint pencil on the black paper?

Then the kiddos put the correct number shape on the paper and glued it on.

It's very simple, but the kids have been counting on the shapes and then screaming BLASTOFF and flying the rocket around.