Cultivating Childhood

Welcome November!  This must be my favorite month.  I love the falling leaves, the apple cider, Thanksgiving, harvest... everything! We are coming in for a new unit in our art and music appreciation.  Up this month... Norman Rockwell and Antonio Vivaldi. Norman Rockwell is a lot of fun.  I thought that some of his home and family scenes would be fun to look at during the Thanksgiving season.  He gives one such a warm and cozy feeling.  I'm looking forward to learning about him more with Noah. I still LOVE the Classical Kids Collection.  The Mozart CDs were fantastic, so we are going to continue our music appreciation by listening to Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery .  I also have his Four Seasons, and I'm hoping that we can talk about what is going on in each season, particularly Autumn. Now, as it is the month of Thankfulness and harvest, we have a related new Bible verse.  This month we will begin with memorizing Psalm 136:1 - "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good."

Monday was nice.  Noah really enjoys the books on the fall.  Our favorites are: Leaf Trouble  by Jonathan Emmett- cute story about a squirrel who is worried about the leaves falling off the tree and tries to put them back until his mommy squirrel explains to him why they are falling. Applesauce Season  by Eden Ross Lipson - tale of a city boy whose family makes applesauce throughout the fall.  Includes a recipe at the end. Who Loves the Fall?  by Bob Raczka- simple book with rhyming names of all those who love autumn. Mouse's First Fall  by Lauren Thompson - Mouse and Minka play in the leaves. That's When I'm Happy  by Beth Shoshan - a little bear enjoys the little things in life with his mommy and daddy bear We did the Alphabet Exercise cards, and they were a hit as well.  Noah couldn't do half the activities, but he enjoyed trying and watching me do them.  Zach liked watching us make fools of ourselves as well.  It was a good review on the alphabet, but I wish we had

I get to put my new plan into action this week, and I'm pretty excited.  I think it will put us into a good rhythm for the week/month/season.  So here goes... Everyday Talk about Monet Listen to Mozart Have devotions and review Proverbs 3:5 Monday Seasonal Workbox - Read books about the fall Rotating (Alphabet) - Alphabet Exercise Cards Extra Activity - Playdough Baby Box - Wooden Blocks Tuesday Seasonal - Make homemade applesauce in the slow cooker Rotating - MOPs Day Extra Activity - Stickers Page Baby Box - Drawing with washable markers Wednesday Seasonal - Go to the pumpkin patch with Noah's preschool Rotating (Music) - Pumpkin Songs Extra Activity - Draw faces on our little pumpkins Baby Box - Stacking plastic blocks Thursday Seasonal - Read fall books Rotating - Preschool Extra Activity - Peanut Butter Playdough Baby Box - Fall Sensory Bin with leaves, apples, pumpkins, pinecones, etc. Friday Seasonal - Fall Tree Collage Craft We are going to use Noah's hand for the t

So I've been thinking a lot about how we are doing things each week, and I've decided that it's not working the way I'd like.  One thing that especially has been bothering me is the weekly themes.  Every week we've been going to the library and getting 4 or 5 new books related to our theme.  Every week, we try reading them all a few times, but we never get super comfortable with them before we are on to something else the next week.  Everything is just too fast. I've also been reading a lot about the workbox system .  It makes a lot of sense, but it is a bit much for my preschooler.  However, I like the idea of having boxes that we complete every day.  It seems like it would be easier for me to get things organized for each day and to have a visual reminder of things that we get to complete that day. I mentioned in my last post that scheduling out each minute isn't really working but instead I want to have 2 or 3 activities that we do each day that we can co

Ok, so this week is a blurr.  My husband left for North Carolina on Thursday, and I'm struggling to keep up with things here on my own.  Here is what I remember from this last week... Monday was good.  I think that we usually start out well.  Noah really liked the exercise DVDs we tried, and I think that we will continue those on rainy days.  The paper bag craft wasn't a big hit.  I made mine to show him how it works, but I'm pretty sure my son is a perfectionist.  He doesn't want to do something that he knows he won't do really well at.  Also, Zach kept wanting to eat the wiggly eyes so that was a bust.  Finding age-appropriate crafts for kids under 3 is HARD.   Noah's still excited about Monet.  We didn't put up a new picture this week, but looked through a Monet art book instead.  He really likes the train pictures. Tuesday was a nice MOPs day. Wednesday was rough, but we did manage to collect a bunch of leaves and make our leaf rubbings.  Noah was pretty

So, I'm the worst about not talking to strangers.  I'm constantly talking to moms I've never met that I see at playgrounds or anywhere else really.  I've always been like this.  My mom tells the story of taking me to the park, and all the kids saying "bye, Alisha" when I had to go.  When asked how they knew my name, I just said, "I told them."  Of course, I didn't know any of their names!  Noah is just like me.  He thinks that all the kids at the park are his "friends", and he doesn't have a worry in the world when it comes to strangers.  I know that this is important though.  I don't want him thinking that he can go off with just anyone.  Hopefully, I can convey this message. Monday  is a stay-at-home day.  I'm starting to feel like this is a good routine for us.  Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at home and Tuesday, Thursday out of the house. 7:30-8:00 - Breakfast with Devotions from  The Jesus Storybook Bible  and Memory Ver

This week was a rollercoaster, and we strayed pretty far from our schedule.  But, hey! We still got lots done, and for the most part had a really great time. Monday  went so much better than last week.  I really think that the schedule helped Noah.  He enjoyed all of our activities for the morning, and even learned his Bible verse! I definitely want to keep going with scheduling out our mornings.  Moving from one activity to another seems really important, especially since Zach isn't yet able to keep himself entertained without help. Tuesday  was busy with MOPs.  The morning went as planned, but we also had a lot of fun hanging out in the backyard in the afternoon.  Noah has this great play table that works as a writing table, a duplo table, or an easel.  We hadn't used the easel part yet, so we decided to take it outside and get out the paints just like Monet did.  No staying in a stuffy old studio for us!  =) Both of the boys got really messy from playing outside and from the

There is a ton of free stuff online to help kids learn about fire safety and prevention.  Here is a quick round-up of some of the ones I liked.  I LOVE free stuff.  Enjoy! Free Printables: From Scholastic From www.abcteach.com From Teacher Vision Online Games: www.sparky.org USFA Kids McGruff Website Smokey the Bear Website Crafts Origami Firedog Dalmation Toilet Paper Roll Craft Fire Engine Puzzle Egg Carton Fire Truck Easy Fire Truck Craft (this is the one we are doing this week) Fireman Craft Safety Checklists and Escape Plans From sparky.org Scavenger Hunt Coloring Pages Remembering Fire Safety Steps Stop, Drop, and Roll Thank You Firefighters Firefighters From Everything Preschool

I'm so excited about Fire Safety Week.  Of course, I had a little bit of poor planning as I just discovered that the national fire prevention week was last week!  Oops!  It is funny though that I had no idea about that when I made my own plans, and I was only a week off.  Noah is going to love this week.  We live right next to a fire station, so we get to see the firetrucks and ambulances go by all the time AND... it... never... gets... old.  =)  He loves learning about fire trucks, but we haven't really talked much about fire safety.  So this week, we get to fill in those gaps! Also considering how hard last week was, I'm going to try to make some changes to how we spend our time at home.  It seems to me that we do need to continue to stay at home as much as possible and work on good habits.  However, trying to fit in one activity during each day isn't really working for Noah.  We need to have more structure, especially in the mornings.  So this week I'm going to

I don't like staying home.  And, apparently, neither do my kids.  We all tend to be fussy and foul-tempered.  More power-struggles occur, and fighting over toys.  And I just don't know if we'll EVER have a potty-trained preschooler.  This week was just... hard.  We made it through but not without a lot of tears and time-outs. Monday  we stayed home, and it was hard.  Noah was eager to read his books, but little brother got in the way. He wanted to take whatever book we picked up to read.  We got to read a few books, but not without a lot of interruptions.  We also got to talk about our picture for the week.  Noah was super excited that it was finally revealed.  Monet currently has a prominent spot in our living room. We all really like MOPs on Tuesday.   Mama got a nice break, and the boys had a good time in their prospective classes.  Noah learned about kindness and encouragement through the book Have You Filled a Bucket Today?   We are trying to use the same language that