Make and Play ...

There is so much to each box of Mother Goose Time! 

So I want to highlight one of our favorite activities we do in this post. 

It's the Make and Play!

 A Make and Play activity consist of three parts:

1. a card showing an example of what the project could look like

2. supplies to make the project however the child would like to

3. an activity for the child to do with the project they made

I love the Make and Play activities! These allow the child to focus on making something and then to use the energy they've been saving up while sitting still to use their creation in action. 

On Monday we made Fishy Cups. 

Kohen seems to always surprise me when we do school. Each day this week I started each lesson by asking Kohen and Khloe if they knew of any animals that carried their babies like .... whatever way we talked about that day. On Monday, I asked them what animals carried their babies in their mouths.  Immediately Kohen shouted out fish! Um, totally admitting here that I had no idea fish carried their babies in their mouths until I opened up the packet for Monday. I love being surprised by all that he knows! 

What is it about markers that children love so much? I mean crayons are fun and all, but markers? It's like the jackpot! They took the tops on and off, on and off. And they colored their cups all different colors, we added the fins and tails. We took a bag of Goldfish, one of our favorite snacks, and counted them out into our Mama Fish's mouth. And then of course, we ate them after we "swam" around the house carrying our babies around.

On Tuesday we made Turtles.

When this girl gets focused, that tongue comes out! And I love it because I catch myself all the time with my tongue just like that when I'm concentrating! Ha, like Mother like Daughter. 

After we made our turtles, we let them dry while we tried carrying objects around on our backs like Mama Turtles carry their babies on their backs. This was hilarious and it was a great opportunity to incorporate our word of the month, GENTLE! 

Once their turtles were dry, we took them to the backyard and made habitats for our baby turtles or hatchlings. 

On Wednesday we made Kangaroo Pouches.

Here is another great Make and Play activity we did this week. Kohen and Khloe sat and colored their baby kangaroos or joeys and colored their pouches. We put them together and they spent the rest of the afternoon hopping around the house like kangaroos! I even caught Khloe trying to feed hers a bottle. Such a sweet Kangaroo Mama! 

This Mama is thankful for another great week with Mother Goose Time!

Please note: I received these materials and resources from Mother Goose Time free of charge in exchange for me telling all about our experiences using their materials.

You can check out their website here.

​www.mothergoosetime.com

Bringing Back Mother Goose Time ...

Hey Y'all! Remember Mother Goose Time? That adorable preschool curriculum we used a couple years ago? Well, we just started back up this month and we're a little excited about it. 

 

Kohen making his Owl.

Just in case you don' know about it, I'll fill you in. So we get this amazing box every month filled with 20 days of pre-bagged bliss for any preschool aged kid. And it is so organized for us Mamas, so it's bliss for us too. Each month there is a different theme and this month we are talking all about Winter In the Woods. 

There is so much included in each month's curriculum. Art activities, themed music, activities for number and letter recognition, manipulative toys, a planner and a scheduled month for us Mamas. There is also everything needed to learn about days of the week, months of the year and the weather.

Right now, we are homeschooling through 4th, 3rd and 1st grade - y'all know this Mama needs all the help I can get when it comes to making our mornings as easy and smooth as possible. MGT does just that for us. 

Kohen is obsessed with animals. 

All of them. All the kinds. Ocean animals. Woodland animals. Dogs, cats. Even beavers and turtles. So when I saw this month included days that were all about animals that lived in the woods, I got excited. 

The first week was all about different animals we would find if we took a stroll through the woods right now. We learned about deer, bears, hedgehogs and owls. 

There is always an opening question to start that morning off with and I may or may not have died when I asked Kohen what he knew about deer and his response was, "I know I just ate one at Poppie's house!"

 

 One of my favorite things about homeschooling is being able to watch my children use their imaginations, to watch them play, to watch their little minds go to work - so learning about bears this week was my favorite. We took a little walk in our wooded backyard and collected items that a bear would use to create their own den. Kohen and Khloe picked up leaves, pine straw, sticks and bark. Each of them were given a bowl as their den and they covered their bear's home with all of the items they collected. We had so much fun! Each of them had some of the Counting Bears (manipulative toys sent from Mother Goose Time this month) and used those as their bear families.

 So far December in our preschool world has been lots of fun! If you have a preschooler at home, I encourage you to take a look at Mother Goose Time. You'll be impressed at how much goodness can fit into one box ...

Please note: I received these materials and resources from Mother Goose Time free of charge in exchange for me telling all about our experiences using their materials.

You can check out their website here.

​www.mothergoosetime.com

All Them July Babies ...

If you know us at all, you know that apparently the Husband and I spend a little too much time together in the month of October. Or at least we did in 2007, 2009 and 2011. Because we have birthdays to celebrate on the 9th, 11th and 13th of July. This year Kolt celebrated his 8th Birthday, Kruz celebrated his 6th and Kohen celebrated his 4th. 

Because their Birthdays are so close together, we try really hard to make each of their days special. Sometimes we're able to make the whole day about them with going to spend their Birthday Money and going to their place of choice to eat. And then there are years like this one in which we were consumed with the passing of a very special friend the day after Kolt's Birthday, Travis' School Schedule, attending the funeral on Kohen's Birthday and having our Kid's Crusade at church every night of that week. So this year we kind of just did what we could.

Kolt's Birthday fell on the same morning of the Party, so he chose to make a Dunkin Donuts run with his Daddy and blow his candle out that way. We were all starving after the Birthday Party so we ran off to a new Mexican Spot here in our little town. And since we were out, we took him to Academy to spend some of his Birthday Money. 

On Kruz' Birthday he requested a trip to the "same store as Kolt", GameStop and Toys R' Us. He is very methodical with how he spends his money. If only all 6 Year Olds were like that, right? So we headed to GameStop first for Fifa 2015, because in his words, he knew he could get the '15 Version cheaper than the '16 Version and really they're the same thing. He went to Toys R Us for a new 3DS game and to Academy for some new Nike stuff. And after church that night we went to the pool for a night swim and enjoyed the Birthday Cake he picked out from Publix earlier that day. 

And on Kohen's Birthday he asked all day when his friends were coming over for his party. I tried over and over to explain to him that we already had his party, but he just wasn't having that answer because "this day is my Birthday Mommy". We had this conversation a thousand times. My heart only broke into a thousand pieces when we got to our church for the funeral service for David and he saw so many of our friends and he asked if this was his Party. Bless it. I was so thankful this kiddo was content with some cupcakes at the end of the night when Daddy got home from work. 

And of course, there's the Big Birthday Celebration we had! I believe I counted 38 kids here, not including my own. It's always a fun time with the water slide and all of the families that we have over. 

This year I decided not to feed the crowd and just have snacks. It was perfect! I took advantage of the Buy One Get One Free sales at Publix and scored a ton of variety snack packs. At the end of the day, we went through 80 bags of chips and 38 bags of snacks like Cheez-Itz and Animal Crackers. 

We cut up some watermelon, had popsicles ready to go and had a cookie cake from Great American Cookie and drinks. Bam! Done! Easiest way ever to keep a ton of kiddos content while they wore themselves out! 

I would say Miss Khloe enjoyed that cake too! 

I always look forward to celebrating my babies' Birthdays and always so thankful when it's all over too! Now here's to planning Miss Khloe's Second Birthday ...

Another Green Thumb ...

Some of my most favorite childhood memories happened in Gardens.

Growing up, at the top left corner of our yard held our Family Garden. And every year I'd watch my Daddy till the ground, make the rows, plant the seeds and I'd watch it grow. 

I can remember the compost pile and having to run potato scrapings up there after my Mama would make mashed potatoes for dinner. I can remember running through the corn stalks and playing hide and go seek in them, picking okra and watching the tomatoes go from green to red.

Then over at my Grandma and Grandpa's house stood their garden and in my eyes, it was always so grand. And might I add, it's still there today. They're 86 and 91 and still grow their garden every year. Talk about Life Goals! 

I can remember going to Grandma and Grandpa's house and sitting in a circle while we all shucked corn and Grandma at the sink cutting it off the ears to make her Cream Corn. I can remember walking with her, scissors in hand, to cut fresh gladiolas for our kitchen table. I can remember watching my Grandpa, squatted down, picking his crops. 

A few years ago Travis built us a Box Garden and that first year we had it, for the space we were given, I actually did pretty good. I had tons of okra, zucchini, cucumbers, squash and bell peppers. All of our favorites! 

The second and third year were blah. Heck, I didn't know you needed to fix the soil and add more to it and not plant the same plants in the same spot two years in a row and yada, yada, yada. Obviously, I had a lot to learn! 

I was determined to get my green thumb out again this season and get some homegrown food. And what do you know? Kohen is obsessed with our little garden. Reminds me of me. Every morning he helps me water the plants, checks to see if our squash grew, counts the prickly cucumbers and watches the tomatoes turn from green to red. 

This was one thing I always wanted to be a part of our household; knowing where food comes from and being able to watch something go from a tiny seed to something on our kitchen table. And I'm thankful we're doing just that ...

Kohen's love for Gardening goes from the crops in the morning to the flowers in the evening. Give that kid a water hose and he's as content as can be. 

It's like ... our Bonding Time. 

My heart gets all mushy from memories and he gets all excited and we end up hugging it out and he says, "I love you Mommy" and then makes those kissing sounds and his adorable little fishy lips and then its the perfect timing because it's usually bedtime after the flowers get watered and everybody is in a lovey mood and I think maybe for a split second he isn't an Emotionally Unstable Toddler and ... I'm runnin' on here. But you get the picture.

Gardening and Flowers and Kohen are good for my Soul. 

The end.