More Swim Lessons

Wonder what we've been up to? Lyssy and AB started their swim lessons this week. They are both doing much better than I thought they would! Lyssy has been super excited about the whole thing and it's just really funny watching her.

For the girls, the swim lessons will take 10 minutes a day for 4-6 weeks, but by the end they will be swimming on their own and able to save themselves if they ever fall into water.


We took this week off from doing our letter lessons, so that I could get used to the schedule change, but we only have 3 letters left (Ii, Aa, and Xx) so we will be getting back to it next week!

Oh, I've also been preparing for Aidman's birthday party that is next week, I can't wait to show off some of the fun things for that!

Imagination/Creative Play

I have always LOVED creative play and providing children with things to inspire them to get really creative and imaginative. We have the standard play kitchen with tons of play food and suppplies, a dress up box full of silly outfits, puppets, a doll house, little people things, tons of toys for them to play and pretend with, and about a month ago I even turned the kitchen area into a grocery store for 2 weeks.

But lately, I haven't provided MY favorite things ( prop boxes) for my kids, that I was ALWAYS sure to have in my preschool classroom. A classroom and a home are such different atmospheres, but sometimes I just really get sad that I'm not providing the same things at home for my own kids that I would have fought for in my classroom. So THANK YOU to ABC and 123 for providing this weeks Picnic Table Talk with the topic of Imagination because now that it has been brought to my attention I will be working hard to get some prop boxes made to inspire my kids alittle more.

So, on to explaining how I like to inspire kids to get creative! I LOVE to provide prop boxes! If you set up a tent and some camping gear, they will have their own campout. Normally, I will get out a box filled with a theme of things and set everything up really nicely in a certain area, but I could very easily just set out the box and let the kids figure it all out. Rather than me listing tons of things that can be set out or made into prop boxes, I'm going to refer you so some of my favorite websites for getting ideas.
Prop Boxes
Dramatic Play Props

AND if you promote imagination and silliness in your kids now, they will grow up to STILL want to be silly sometimes!!


Here I am dressed up for a Murder Mystery Night where I had to be a blond Miss Priss.
Here some close friends and I went to a 70's party!

High Five

One of the BEST gifts we have ever received is from our Great Nana. For the past two Christmases, she has bought the kids a subscription of Highlights High Five Magazine. My kids LOVE it!! I love it too because not only is there stories, but there is also songs, crafts, cooking, and building to be done together. We spent the entire morning reading and doing activities for the magazine. Oh and the best thing was that this took NO planning on my part! And I had everything on hand so that was awesome too!

First, was to make a colorful, fuzzy mobile. I like that it list everything needed through word and picture, so while I was standing in the craft closet, the kids read off what I needed to get out.

It was great for those fine motor skills.

We added a few things I had on hand to make it our own.

It looks really pretty too!

Then we got to the build it section. They had built an apartment building.

This is what ours looked like! BTW, other than me taping the containers together with their help, they did this entirely on their own. They are still playing with this and adding more to it.

Finally, it was lunch time. The cooking section listed a recipe for Maple-Cinnamon French toast. Again they called out what we needed while I dug it out of the fridge.

They made it by them selves, except for the stove top cooking which I did.

Looks Yummy!!

So what I'm trying to say with all this is that you SHOULD get this magazine!! It really is one of our favorite gifts because if gives something every month and it is so educational!

Muffin Tin Monday

The theme for today's Muffin Tin Monday is Big and Little. We decided to have our Muffin Tin for snack today. We ate Big and Little graham crackers with peanut butter, Big and Little star shaped marshmallows, Big and Little grape skewers.

Lyssy woke up from nap with a fever and wasn't feeling great, so the activities I had in mind got put aside. They both went straight for the marshmallows.


You wouldn't even know she wasn't feeling well with that cute smile!

Jungle Painting

What happens when an uncoordinated 3 year old swipes hair out of her face while holding a paintbrush???
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.
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A painted forehead happens!! How could I NOT laugh at this! Poor kid is crying and her mama is doubled over laughing!

Not to worry! A wash cloth saves the day!


Today I asked the kiddos if they would like to paint a jungle. Anytime I mention paint their are hoots and hoorays and today did not disappoint. I asked what color paint we needed to paint a jungle and they said green and brown. Later Aidman asked for blue, because his jungle needed a waterfall.


Afterwards, Aidman said "It looks like a rain forest too 'cause the vines look like a canopy".

This weekend we will be on the hunt for some jungle animal stickers to add to our painting.

Join us over at The Ramblings of a Crazy Woman for We Made It Friday Showcase.

Jack

What better week to talk about the "Jack" Nursery Rhymes than Jj week!

Jack be Nimble, Jack be Quick,

Jack Jumped over the Candlestick!

I LOVE to add activities to storytime because they make the story come alive for me. I hope it will do the same for my kiddos!

Jack and Jill went up the Hill to Fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown, and Jill cam tumbling after.

I printed these sequencing cards off of enchanted learning for the kiddos to color and put in order.

After watching them do this, I decided that we really need to work on more sequencing activities as both of my kids struggled with it.

We also read Jack and the beanstalk and painted some leftover Easter eggs gold. Come back later for pics as I still need to download them...

Join me over at I Blame My Mother for some more great Kid Friendly Friday post.

Jj, KITK, & TTT

Welcome to another edition to Kids in the Kitchen and Tea Time Thursday!

Today we made Jellyrolls for the letter Jj. The kids poured in the ingredients.

Mixed them.

Buttered the pan.

Poured the batter onto the pan, spilling much of it.

Stirred the All fruit (no sugar added) jelly.

Spread the jelly.
And rolled the roll.
Looks Pretty and Yummy. BUT it was MUCH too sweet for me, which is weird because I love rich and very sweet desserts.

I was planning on having our Tea Time Thursday for snack time with our tea and jellyroll, but Lyssy insisted that we have the jellyroll for our dessert with lunch. Because she worked so hard to make it, I agreed that it would be fine. So once again, it was nothing fancy, but it was fun. We had peanut butter and banana sandwiches (couldn't do jelly because it was in the jellyroll), fruit, ancient cherry tea (so yummy), and jellyrolls.


I don't know if I've ever given my kids a peanut butter and banana sandwich before (I think they've had bites of Gran Gran's though), and they LOVED them! I will be making them more often.

As always they loved the tea party!

Join A Little Fun with me and Lu for more Kids in the Kitchen!!

Jars, Jugs, and Jellybeans

I have TONS of jars! It's because my Granny in TN loves to can food from her garden and send it to me. Luckily, we love everything she sends.

Today, I got out jars of all sizes and lids to match and let the kids have at it.

Then I filled a milk jug about half full and let the kids pour water into the jars.

We decided to put food coloring in the jars to make it pretty. Aidman is stirring to mix it in.


Then we tapped on the jars with a spoon to hear the different sounds they made.

Look how pretty! It sounded pretty too!

Afterwards, we dumped the water into a pitcher and then into ice cube trays. Tomorrow we will play with the green ice.

Next time I will add blue food coloring to one kids and yellow to the others so that it will make green when mixed together.

For snack time we had Jelly beans! I gave each child an empty applesauce container filled with jelly and an empty container. I asked each child to guess how many jellybeans they had. Then we counted the beans.

We were so surprised that Aidman and Lyssy had the same amount of jellybeans.

Before eating, they had to graph all of their beans. Needless to say, it was a FUN snack time.

Thank You Mahalo and ABC and 123!!

A couple weeks ago, we won a giveaway at ABC and 123 for some cute Mahalo circus puppets. They arrived today and my kiddos could not be more excited! Right away they asked for my to make a puppet stage (luckly I had been saving a big box for a moment just like this). As you can see, I did not get fancy (because they gave me no time to) and just cut a rectangle out of a box. They have spent over an hour playing with these today!

We got a pretty acrobat, a silly clown, and an elephant that has a funny hat. All of these puppets are nicely made and are sure to hold up against lots of playtime.


Aidman peeked up to see what was going on on the other side.


Lyssy and Daddy had snuggle time while watching Mommy and Aidman do a silly puppet show.

Thank you so much ABC and 123 and Mahalo for this Awesome giveaway!!