Indoors but Active!

Colorado winters are COLD.  Some days (like today) the high is 2. Yes thats in Fahrenheit, and yes that's the real projected high for the day.  BRRRRR. So what do you do with little ones that need to burn energy?  How do you help them when they're bouncing off the walls?  Here are 5 things we do when we need to occupy our full bodies, and all we need is a bit of space.  This is also a great thing to help our kids stay healthy during the winter months.

1) Cosmic Kids Yoga:

These are simply AMAZING.  My 5 year old and our 3 year old babysitting kiddo love to do yoga with Jaime.  She spins an exciting story with actions for the kids to do with her.  We have traveled to the moon, under the sea, and visited unicorns. 

2)  Fireman Letter / Word Stomp: 

This one we did during our Career Week, but it was fun enough the kids have asked for it again. I started by creating little red "fires" and writing lower-case letters on them.  Then I created water drops and put upper case letters on them.  It was a matching game and it was fun for them, and easily adaptable to burn (pardon the pun hehe) energy.  Write several words or letters on "fires" and have them stomp them out as you call them.  

3) Simon says: 

This is an excellent game for helping kids listen.  When the energy is high and the activity is low its hard for little ones to focus, but this takes both listening skills and energy building. 

4) Dance Party:

As simple as it sounds, clear a space and turn on some pumping-and uplifting-music.  Kids can't help but dance when there's music.  If you have a flash light or colored lights you can turn on as well they'll eat it up!

5)  Toilet Paper Roll Bowl:

This isn't as calorie burning as some of the others, but it still requires motion.  Simply using old TP rolls and a lightweight ball set up a bowling alley for the kids - have them keep score to practice math skills!

All Things Are Possible

"It always seems impossible until it's done." ~Nelson Mandela.  This quote has just become my favorite of all time.

In September I gave birth to my second dear daughter, Ky-Ky.  While I was pregnant woman, I was nervous.  Would I be able to juggle life with a new baby and a 5 year old?  Would my homemaker duties suffer?  Would my oldest think I don't love her enough with a new baby stealing so much attention?  Would I be overwhelmed and curl into a fetal position and hide in the closet watching eagles?  (Name the movie! Video at the bottom if you give up!) 

I must admit, I think having two children has helped.  I feel more focused.  My days are spent with my dollies, my house is cleaner, we eat more dinners at home, heck we do preschool on a regular basis!  When I posted this on my mom's group on Facebook (Are you part of one of these? OMG They are my GIRLS man!  I love seeing their posts and there are days where everyone just needs to vent and these ladies get me!) some of the ladies asked for tips - so here you go.  

What's changed:

1) Humility.  I was on bedrest for almost 4 months.  During that time I had to humble myself and ask for help.  I'm not supermom, never have been, but asking for help allowed me to...

2) Balance.  My cousin-in-law whom I love dearly came over on a daily basis and whipped my house into shape.  Now I don't know if its because she's worked hospitality at some major hotels, or if she has a certain level of OCD (Love you sweetie!) or what, but I have never had my house be and stay as clean as that.  She was at our house for only a few hours a day, and most of that was spent with me and my first daughter, not cleaning-cuz it was done!  She'd done it!  I watched her balance and learned quite a bit.  And I realized that I have never been able to find that balance myself.  Now I love my mom and my MIL who have both helped me out, and I learned how to clean from my mom, but for some reason seeing Ari do it I learned it.  

3) Accountability.  I gave myself too much slack.  I used to always whine about how awful I was for not doing stuff...instead of doing it (makes sense right?)  Now if I catch myself thinking "wow I'm such a slacker." I make sure to stop slacking and set myself a mini goal.  I hold myself to an end goal and its made me happier.  

4) Happiness.  I didn't realize that I could be happy without a lot of down time.  This too came from my 4 months of bedrest.  There is a LOT of time for self-reflection when you can't do anything!  I always thought I was happiest when I was playing video games or watching TV or out shopping and going to festivals.  But I have realized that I can be just as happy by taking pride in what I own, by organizing the house and keeping it clean, by playing with my dollies and watching a Disney movie. 

5) Acceptance.  Allowing myself to say enough is enough.  I have always berated myself, I've never been "enough".  For some reason this aforementioned movie struck home and made it 100% clear to me, maybe it was because I felt so like Ally so much of the time.  This scene is incredible, whether you believe in God or not, and sums up much of what I have been trying to live by recently. 

6) Inspiration.  Dozens of things have inspired me, my two dollies do, absolutely.  My husband, my cousin, my parent's, my in-laws.  Media too: Mom's Night Out, a book called "The Gabriel Method" which oddly enough is about weight loss but has inspired me in hundreds of other ways, The 5 Love Languages...

In the end...well there is no end.  That's something I continually am trying to accept.  Every day is a journey.  Some days I'm awesome at following these changes in my life, and some days I find myself regressing.  But I'm changing.  I'm learning and accepting myself.  So if you're planning on making a long, or at least grueling, New Year's resolution, remember that "It always seems impossible until it's done."

~~~~~

The movie:  Mom's Night Out

Shelfari!!!

So you may notice a new little book shelf up in the upper-left-hand corner of this blog.  In fact if your eyes will take a wander that way now....yep you noticed it!  It's my Shelfari!

This all started because I was having a hard time figuring out how to keep track of the books She-she and I read.  We are avid readers in our house - we read a chapter every night, and several picture books during the week for preschool.

If you haven't ever heard of Shelfari its a cool little website by Amazon.

Some awesome features I've used so far:
~(obviously) The Widget - which connects smoothly to my blog here - easy peasy for you guys to see! Also there are a few different layouts / designs to fit smoothly with my aesthetic.
~ My "Shelf" - which lets me put books I've read, and the date we finished it, what I'm currently reading, and books I plan on reading.  This is especially helpful because I have written MANY lists of books / recommendations people have given me for my daughter and I to read and frankly they get lost far too easily.
~ Personal Reviews - This is great as it lets me and She-she see what we have liked.  Though its rare for me to put books down, if we do (like we did with Werewolves Don't Go to Summer Camp) we can pick it up later!
~Best Of Lists - Again these are personal and customize-able so we can share our favorites.
~Groups of Like-Minded Readers
~Following and Followers (Any site without this feature is outdated in my opinion!)
~Next in Series - Ok this is awesome, it auto tracks which books I have read that are in series and indicates which one is next.  So sweet!

There are however a few features I'm wishing I had, though I can't seem to find them any where.  In a perfect world I could design it myself!

Things I'd add (If you know how or if you know a different app with these features, comment and let me know!)
~A phone app (Do they still have websites without this?!)
~An ISBN Scanner (I can look it up manually by typing it in...but I can type in the title too, so really not easier.)
~A "Batch" Uploader (Would be so hot if we could just scan our library books like we do at check out!)
~Multiple Shelves - I want one for picture books and one for chapter books at least!
~Family Trackers - I want to be able to keep track of what my daughter is are reading, what I'm reading, and what my husband is reading (Since I pick up new books for him I don't want to bring home duplicates).  I'd also love to have age appropriate categories.
~Better Facebook Links - I want to be able to share a specific set of books.  For example my preschool kid's parents should be able to see what we're reading in preschool!  But the only way they can do that is sign up on Shelfari and follow me, and even then they see ALL the books I put in.  Which includes the chapter books each night.  Since I'm only tracking my daughter's books on this account I don't need to worry about the appropriate factor, but surely I'm on the only one that doesn't necessarily feel that everyone needs to know what books I'm reading?  For example: My preschooler's parents may be concerned if I throw on some Adult Murder Mysteries as books my children are reading!

Ah well, its a fun feature I wanted to share - watch for books my 5 year old and I enjoy, and please comment with books you and your kids love!

Sand and Sea Pudding

This week She-she and I are studying the Sea for preschool, and on today's list was a delicious treat that I am enjoying so much I figured I'd share.

Sand and Sea Pudding - a piece of the Beach.

Sand and Sea Pudding

Auntie and She-she mixing up the jello

Here's the yummo recipe!

Sea Jello
1 small box of blue Jello (We used Berry Blue)
1 small box of green Jello (We used lime)
Your fave berries for "Fishes" - we used 7 strawberries, and 7 cherries, and 1 banana sliced into 7 pieces.  (7 is our number of the week if you hadn't guessed.)

Prepare Jello as instructed on the box, stir the fruit in about 45 minutes in the fridge so there are some under the water and some above and its bumpy like waves.

Sand Pudding

(I honestly eyeballed most of this and it came out fantastic, which is great when you are doing this with young children inevitably some ingredients end up on the counter, the original recipe called for whipped topping too, but I didn't have any so I just cut it - so good and not necessary in my opinion!)

She-she grinding up the sand, we used a rolling pin to crush.

3/4 box of Nilla Wafers (I saved enough for some snacks for the rest of the week, as She-she had never had them)
2-3 Oreos (or black knock off frosted cookies, they're for color more than flavor.)
6-8 oz. whipped cream cheese
1/2 stick butter
2/3 c powdered sugar
1 box of Vanilla pudding
1 box of Coconut cream (You can interchange either flavor as you wish.  I was thinking one butterscotch and one vanilla would be good next time.)
2 3/4 cup milk

Start by putting the cookies and wafers in a zip top bag and letting your preschooler go at it, crush those cookies, crush them! (You can also use a food processor, but so much more fun for the kids to grind it up.)  Once all "sandy" set aside.

Whip together the cream cheese, butter and sugar, set aside.  Prepare the puddings, and mix them into the cream cheese mixture.  This is mostly to keep it nice and smooth.  Then top your set up Sea Jello with the pudding, and pour the "Sand" over that.  Its so good.

A is for Acorn!

School has officially started with a bang in the Dollighted house.  

Here is what our Monday schedule looks like:

Monday - Chores, breakfast, life, etc - first, Library, Calendar Time, Library Book, Craft, Uppercase A page, and "dittos" about the Capital letter

As always we did our Calendar Time.  We have been practicing our Month and Day songs for almost a week now, and She-she seems to be getting the hang of it pretty well.  We also pulled in our first exercise in "charting" with the Weather Chart, matching up the symbols from the weather we charted last week and coloring them in on the page in the proper place.  I was shocked how much this excited her, the idea of seeing what the weather was last week and how it will compare to this week really made her happy.

To sort of ease her into school again after a long summer of relaxing, I chose to start off with an A week.  She-she's name starts with A, so its one she's hugely familiar with and can write out pretty easily.

My goals this week are to hit our Wow's, which are:

Letter of the Week ~~ A
Number of the Week ~~ 8
Color of the Week ~~ Amarillo / Yellow
Animal of the Week ~~ Alligator
Food of the Week ~~ Apple
Shape of the Week ~~ Circle

So our first focus after the library and calendar was our Library book.

We learned about the Long A sound (A as in Acorn!) and the goal here was to read a book about Acorns.

We read Scared Squirrel goes Camping by Melanie Watt.  I had wanted Little Acorn Grows Up by Edward Gibbs, but that happened to be checked out and though I reserved it last Thursday and it said it was on the shelf it wasn't yet to my library~so make sure if you're putting books on hold you give yourself about a week for books to come in! :'(

This book, even though not what I first pictured ended up being adorable, and there were plenty of acorns for us to count throughout the book as well.  The other thing I loved about Scaredy Squirrel was how many fun interactive pieces there was to the story.

We had maps, complete with a cool key that we used to interpret the map:

We had graphs, there even happened to be a weather graph, which we had just charted and She-she was excited to compare to what we'd just done:

And several ways to interact physically with the book, like this warm up routine:

We had so much fun doing all the acting out of Scaredy Squirrel's adventures that it took us a while to get through the book, which is fine with me - it kept us away from the TV for almost a half hour itself!

She-she's Acorn

Once we completed our library book we decided to make our own Acorn project, which I snagged from Pinterest and a blog called "No Time for Flash Cards" which is super awesome by the way!

No Time for Flash Card's project

 
I didn't get the opportunity to run to the store for the brown paper bags, so we used orange and yellow construction paper.

After Craft time we did our dittos. An A page to practice her capital letters.  As my daughter doesn't love to focus through an entire page of letters, we focused only on the uppercase A.  I love this set from The Moffatt Girls.

I also picked up a book from Target called, Workbook Rhyme Time, A Frog on the Log - unfortunately I can't find it online to link it, sorry.

We did the "AT" page, and then wrote on our chalkboard.  I think this was almost She-she's favorite part of the game (She loves writing on her easel) and she loved putting different letters in front of "-at" and deciding if it said a real word or a "funny" word.

That's what our first day of school looked like - what are your favorite Acorn projects?

Playing School: Assessment Time

If your child has never done any schooling this may come as a complete shock to you: Children are brilliant.

She-she, around age 1.

Ask a child what color such and such is, and whether told previously or not, they'll likely be able to tell you, or describe it like "well it looks sorta like red, but is lighter".  They might recognize things like the star beside the elevator button, or at the very least, that parking under the Golden Arches likely means burgers are about to be had.  That's because young children learn by observation more than most anything else.

My husband will forever remember the day our beautiful little almost 1 year old sat up on his lap placed a finger on the tip of his nose and declared triumphantly, "Nose!"  It was her first word.

 So when you sit down with your little toddler to do these "I Can" pages and take the "Readiness exam", you may be completely shocked to realize your child might be able to do a lot more than you thought, thus allowing you to dive a little deeper than you had planned.

That's why I really recommend doing these with your children, and the more excited you are about it the more excited they will be.

The first thing I recommend is the I Can... Assessment, its pretty basic, but deep enough to allow your child the opportunity to show off - not to mention its free, cute, and not as intimidating as the dozens of pages I've found in other packets.  (You do have to sign up for a Teachers-Pay-Teachers account, but that too is free, and not intense.  I've pulled tons of packets from here and really do recommend it.)

The other is an online website called SchoolSparks that has a Kindergarten Readiness Test.  The most excellent part of this test is that it includes a variety of assessments from math skills to gross motor skills, and provides feedback on how you can help your child grow in the areas they're weakest.  (The chart below is not She-she's, I just clicked through it quick to show you the end graph.)

She-she and I sat down and did the I Can... series together to prep her for school this week, and when I loaded up the SchoolSparks sight I had her near to play with, she enjoyed hopping on one leg and showing me "she could do it" to so many of the questions.  Be excited, and they will be too!

Bella-Boo's Water Obstacle Course

This is actually a project my sister and her man did for my niece's birthday, but its so clever and fantastic that I had to post it up for the world to see!

All that was used for it was PVC Pipe, waterproof glue, and a drill or hand saw.

To quote my sister, "You take the PVC pipe.  With some glue.  Make a cut here and there and TADA!!! Obstacle course! Lol."

I'm thinking next summer this is on my to do list!

Bella-Boo and Z runnin' through the obstacle course!

Playing School - Our Daily Start

One of the things our Kindergarten asks for our children to learn is the calendar.  They should know the days of the week, the months of the year, and have a general knowledge of the clock.  Since my daughter could maybe tell you that Friday was a day, but couldn't tell you when day it was, I figured we needed to really dive into the calendar, thus our Daily Start with Calendar Time!

Let me first explain our "Calendar" and link you to some great places where you can make your own.  In total I spent about $30 in this because I really wanted a laminating system to get all the individual little parts.

Break Down:
$0.69 for the wildly pink poster board. (My daughter's choice)
$27.99 for the laminating system.
About $0.50 worth of white paper...if that.

We have our actual calendar, which I got from TpT.  This will be our daily start to bring us into focus for school.  We'll start by singing the Months of The Year to the tune of Ten Little.  Then we'll put up the day of the month it is, count to that number, and sing our Days of the Week to the tune of The Adams Family.

Then we'll move over to our clock.  I really wanted one that included the :00, :05, etc. so I opted for one similar to this one.  We'll discuss what time it is, and AM and PM, when lunchtime is etc.

Then we will go to our weather chart and weather bear.  I created my own weather bear, which is really simple to do, but there are dozens of links out there for both the chart and the bear.  I'll be scanning it in soon so everyone can have access to it - I just can't get to it today.  (Oh the joys of pregnancy! haha)

Once we have completed the calendar we'll do our "Wow's" (___ of the Week).  It will include color, number, shape, letter, food, and animal.  

I think our daily start will be a great way for She-she to focus in on school and be prepared to start the day.  

Playing School - Preschool Style, 6 things to Get Ready for Homeschool

My She-she is five years old this October, missing the cut-off for Kindergarten by only a few days.  I could have tested her to see if we could force her into Kindergarten, but we have big changes, a new baby and possible move.  I knew I wanted her learning and growing, but I didn't want to put her in a preschool only to have it change within a few weeks or months.

Last year I "home-schooled" her, which is to say that I got several cute books, printed out a few hundred alphabet printouts and did a few projects I found on Pinterest, like this Tree. 

She-she wanted more.  She craved it.  Begged for it.  Constantly asked if we were going to do preschool projects again.  

So this year, despite a brand new baby coming in Sept. I am planning out an in depth, very detailed, 5-10+ things to do a day away from computer time, TV, and general play.  I really am going to "Play School" with my daughter!  

For the past few weeks I have delved into the realm of Pinterest, TpT, and countless blogs reading about teaching as much as I can.  The good news is I have a bit of experience, I was a substitute teacher with the Meridian School District, a toddler teacher in a day care, and nursery provider through church.  More good news is there are thousands of resources.  So what's the bad news?  There are SO MANY resources!  I am spending hours at my computer (which being on bed-rest these last few weeks has been a good way to pass the time) trying to find the best way to teach, play, and have us look forward to school each and every day.

So in my final week of "prep" for the start of this school year I figured I'd share with you guys how I'm going about doing it so if you have a young child (3-5 year olds) and want to get them involved and ready for school you won't have to spend the 200+ hours I'm currently rolling into this.  You can, of course, adapt this to you however you would like, I hope you enjoy the research I've done!  

~~~~~~

First, print off a calendar/day planner for yourself, I found this one (2015) and this one (2014) from HandmadeHome.net to fit my needs spectacularly.  I will say that the monthly calendars, the weekly calendars, and the reading chart were the only ones I needed for school.  I am scheduling Sept - May and 41 weeks, I printed off 9 reading charts with the goal of 20 books a month to be read to She-she, not counting her own library books, and the chapter book we read at night as a family.

Second, decide what your goals are.  Last year Ashleigh pretty much mastered 90% of the alphabet, she's still a little iffy with her W's and V's.  So I'm hoping to get her involved with some sight words, and bump up her numbers (she's only adding 1s and 2s, easily) and increase her color play.  I also discovered my school district likes to have kindergartners know the days of the week and months of the year, she has no clue on those, so we'll be practicing those daily. 

Third, outline your week/year.  I'm a full-time stay at home mom, but I know that Monday's and Wednesdays my husband will be out playing soft ball in the evenings, and we'll likely want to go so I don't want to do a lot of running and physical play those days (remember I'll be recovering from birth and have a new baby!).  I know her dad also has Friday's off from work, so field trips on Fridays would be ideal because then he could come along.  If you know you're flying to Disneyland the first few weeks of Dec. don't plan school!

Fourth, and this is the part that gets hugely personal, start planning what you'll teach.  I know we're going to do generally do a series of "Wow's." (that's what I'm calling them.) They will include a Word, Color, Number, Letter, Animal, and Food.  That will consist of roughly 30 of my 41 weeks, 26 letters of the alphabet, with 4 as review weeks (particularly for numbers and letters).  The other 11 will be holiday weeks, we're Christian so we celebrate Christmas and most "standards" like Halloween, Thanksgiving, Valentine's Day, etc.  I will also be including a unit on the four seasons, the body, what I want to be when I grow up, the five senses, and maybe a few others depending on my mood.  

Fifth, set up a shopping / check list to get basics.  There is nothing worse than deciding to do a major project with your child and mixing everything together only do discover you ran out of corn starch!  And put them all in a big box together. Here's my list:  (Most can be picked up from the Dollar Store or you'll already have laying around your house.)

Felt / Fabric Scraps

White Liquid Glue (2 bottles +)

Beans or Beads (For counting, gluing, etc.) 

Liquid Starch (For Goo) 

Glitter

Ink Pads

Paints

Shaving Cream

Sticky Stick (That stuff that's like gum to stick paper to your walls)

Googly Eyes

Pipe Cleaners

Paper Plates

Clear Cups

Stickers

Balloons

"Holed" Cereal (Cheerios, Fruit Loops etc.) 

Buttons

Yarn / Thread

Corn Starch

Baking Soda

Vinegar

Crayons

Markers

Construction Paper

Glue Sticks

Safety Scissors

Salt

This list, minus the food I want (for snack time and play with your food time) is pretty much what I plan on using all year, most all crafts I've found can be satisfied with these things.

Sixth, set up a Pinterest board for preschool.  This is the greatest thing you can do for your planning, there's so many great ideas.