Glow in the dark fun with Playdough and letter cards!

I had to stop by Walgreen's today and found that they had glow in the dark alphabet and numbers. They are like a post it note but in the shapes of letters and numbers. They came with a glue stick as well.  So I made a poster board of the alphabet and a poster board of the numbers....only 1-10 though.  I also made Name Flashcards.  I cut each letter of their name out after pasting them onto a poster board and they came out really nice! The Name Flashcards will make learning their names so much fun in the light, black light, or on a light panel.

I decided we should test them out with the black light as well as some playdough!!  FUN!  Some of the pics came out blurred but I do not have a big fancy shmancy camera, just a Canon Powershot SX210. NO matter what I did , it blurred a few of them that looked so cool through the lens.  

P.S. There are more black light fun pics here!

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Black Light Fun and More! ;)

I decided to pull out my old black light for Graham and Parker to have some fun, which by the way the black light still worked!  They had a lot of fun!!  I plan to do more activities with them too. I was inspired by the Play at Home Mom Blog. They have lots of fun ideas on that blog!
I also changed around the yard and indoor play area quite a bit, and made a "school/learning" area.  They are having a blast!!  Lately I have been letting them do some of the worksheets from the preschool program I purchased in earlier this year from kidsparkz. Plus a few from their website. They have really enjoyed them!

I am not enforcing "bookwork" but I am letting them do the fun stuff. They enjoy pasting pictures onto alike pictures on a page with glue sticks. I did have to switch to the while glue sticks rather than the ones that go on purple and dry clear.  Parker was way too distracted by the purple.


 We are taking a break from our playgroup and playdates for now. Just to work on some learning at home. I was going to leave the playgroup at the end of the year but I think maybe the better idea will be to attend less playdates.  It was really becoming too much on me to attend playdates 4-6 days per week. It really starts to take a toll on your after a while. I always felt obligated to attend daily playdates, and stuff do because of I doi not host playdates they don't tak place in general.  However now I ahve a few ladies in my group who are making extra efforts to be amazing Moms and playdate hosts. I really appreciate that too. It makes things so nice for the group and its members and children to have such fun playdates!  I have been burnt out on the playgroup but I have been attending playdate after playdate after playdate for 3 years

I plan to begin attending both our home preschool group events (within the playgroup) as well as 1 playdate each week starting in October.

Anyways here are some fun pics!! I plan to update this blog more often too!!  stay tuned!!

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3 = talk talk talk talk talk

So the theme with Graham and Parker lately is talking. They have really taken off with full sentences. Sometimes I am wondering how they come up with some of what they say.

They will be 3 in April. I am happy they are pretty much on track with most things. I have always been a bit worried because they were born 8 weeks early. Parker is still really small but the pediatrician says he is fine.
Graham is pretty much the size of the average almost 3 year old.

We spend a lot of time with our playgroup. I think it helps a lot.

We have been working on pronouncing words correctly, colors, shapes, counting, songs, signing, all the good stuff. We spend time at the Zoo and Science Center regularly. We also spend lots of time going to the park and other great places like library storytime & craft (on a break from storytime right now though). It is tough to fit in all of the cool places we go to!!

They are doing well socializing and learning. They enjoy seeing their friends. We also are in a weekly home preschool group. They know their friends by name and talk about them when we are at home. They like to talk about the places we go. They ask to go to the places they like best like The Zoo, The Science Center, Certain Parks, they ask to see certain friends or if certain friends will be meeting them for a playdate that day. It's cute!  Graham is still more academically advanced. Parker is still athletically advanced. Parker's latest thing is doing head stands and then multiple somersaults in a row. He LOVES the head stands. He sort of does hand stands too. He loves to hang upside down at the park. They still enjoy Gymboree too!!  They ask about Gymboree on the days we are not going to our class. They love it!!  Graham is still really into reading books. He looks at books a lot all day still. He likes to talk out loud while going through his books. He also likes me to read to him...or any family member.

For our home preschool class we work on learning through play. It has been tough to really get things going the right way but it seems we are on a great path now. I think we finally have a way to get all of the kids interacting involved, and enjoying!  I will try and take some pics of our home preschooling soon.

Still working on all of the details of their 3rd birthday party. Should be lots of fun!!

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HOLY SCHNIKES

I HAD A LONG DAY!
I really feel like today was played out three times at once. Wowsers!

I felt like I had three full time jobs that were mega demanding all at one time all day today.

My 10 year old had her friend over, my 12 year old was sick, my 14 year old was really annoyed by my 10 year old and her friend. One of my twins is sick and the other is annoyed that his twin is sick and not as playful.  I had a full day of kids, housekeeping, playdate organizing, home pre-school organizing,  a billion phone calls, a lot of typing, vacuuming, swiffering, cooking, wiping, entertaining, nurturing, etc etc etc etc.
Everyone and everything was 50x more demanding than usual today!

I can say I am very happy things are calm and it is bed time. Thank goodness.
Later on I will have to amuse myself by watching the new episode of the monstrosity that is Toddlers & Tiaras. what a trainwreck!!

So I bet you might be wondering about the home preschool, right?
A few friends and I that are in a playgroup together have started a home preschool group. We have 19 of us in the group and have spit the groups into a couple of groups.
We are doing a more natural learning type of preschooling. Lots of fun, no pressure or drilling with flash cards, and most of all...great mini projects and field trips!
We have chosen several books, each of us bought one and we are creating 2-weeks-at-a-time lesson plans. We actually start next week! We will do our "schooling" one day per week in a big community room at one of the local libraries. It is free!! We just had to reserve in advance. Then on another day each week we will be going to a local library storytime and craft hour. The other days will be play dates and field trips, depending on the week..with one day per week being a big group day where we meet with the other half of our home preschool group. We want to go with learning through play. Not pressure and drilling and crazy expectations. We wish not to rob our toddlers of toddlerhood....children of childhood etc.

The philosophy........
Children pursue life, and in doing so, pursue knowledge



All of the children in the group were born in 2008 or 2009.

Our first 2 weeks theme is blue. All of our lessons those 2 weeks will revolve around the color blue in some way. Including the snacks, They will be BLUE!

We plan to let them go at their own pace, not to pressure or make them feel like they are in school but to add some smart structure to their daily playdates. We usually hold playdates 5 days a week.



The books we purchased and are working from are:

1.  The Encyclopedia of Infant and Toddler Activities: Written by Teachers for Teachers
2. Gymboree - The Parent's Guide to Play (Gymboree Play & Music)
3. The Preschool Calendar
4. The Complete Resource Book for Preschoolers: An Early Childhood Curriculum With Over 2000 Activities and Ideas
5. The Complete Daily Curriculum for Early Childhood: Over 1200 Easy Activities to Support Multiple Intelligences and Learning Styles
6. Montessori Play And Learn: A Parent's Guide to Purposeful Play from Two to Six
   
   
   
    
Field Trip ideas so far:  Zoo, art museum, feeding ducks, pumpkin patch, strawberry patch, grocery store. Have them find 3 items each and add to cart, cupcake decorating at one of our houses, splash pad, park to collect leaves, stones, sticks, etc...make a nature day, park to play but add some light learning with the play wish us luck!

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