Fall Part 2 in Review

You know those weeks where nothing seems to go as planned? Yes, this was one of those weeks.  We had good plans, but life had different ones!

I should have known something was up when Monday didn't go as planned.  Mondays are usually our best day because Mama is excited to start the new week.  I was pretty excited about the Upper and Lower Case Matching Puzzle, but my color printer ink was out.  I attempted to print it in black and white, but only succeeded in getting a really sketchy picture for each card.  You couldn't even tell what they were.  I pretty much gave up on our alphabet activity for the day.  However, right before we were ready to go to bed, Noah enjoyed using my computer keyboard to hunt and peck for letters.  He thought it was hilarious to watch all the letters show up on my computer especially when he would hold one down for a long time.  This quickly deteriorated from a learning activity to a crazy time, but it was fun while it lasted.

On Tuesday, we made our maple snickerdoodles.  These were fantastic.  I ate waaay more than my share.  When we make these treats, I need to think about who we can give them to or else mama is going to get fat.  Anyone want to sign up?

Wednesday was our best day.  I tried the pumpkin bowling in the morning (before we really picked up the toys) so it seemed like a dud of an activity.  I gave up on it and after cleaning up we brought out our Band in a Box. This was as a new toy, and they really enjoyed it.  I'm glad there were a lot of different instruments in it because it helped with sharing among the boys.  There was always another instrument to play with if they got bored with the one they had (without having to steal what his brother was playing with).  While we were playing with the music, we used the beat we made to learn our Bible verse.  Noah picked up on it really quickly.  After putting it away, Noah wanted to try the bowling again.  This time it went a little better, but Zach just wanted to throw the pumpkin around.  Ah, the joys of toddlerhood!

The sticker sorting was great.  We got out our 3-D stickers again, and I took five shapes to put at the top of his page.  Then he matched the shapes he found in each column.  Finally, we counted each shape.  Noah really enjoyed it, and Zach enjoyed taking on and off stickers on his page.

Thursday was preschool.  Mama didn't feel very good this day, so there was a lot of watching Blue's Clues to keep the kids entertained.

Friday was a lost day.  We ended up picking up Papa from the airport in the morning, and mama was just too lazy to get the pumpkin numbers activity together.  We did make pumpkin bread though which is always fun.

On Saturday, Daddy got to show Noah how a guitar amplifier works.  Noah loves "playing" the guitar with Daddy.

Successes:

• Noah loves listening to "De-baldy" (Vivaldi).  We listen to Ring of Mystery at home a couple of times a day.  It is a really engaging story about a young orphan girl that starts attending the orphan school in Venice where Vivaldi is music teacher.  Noah also enjoyed listening to me read to him the excerpt from The Gift of Music about Vivaldi.  I learned so much about him.  Did you know that his work was lost for a while until someone stumbled across his work only because Bach transcribed one of his pieces?  He was virtually unknown after his death until this happened!

What Could Have Gone Better:

• It's really hard to get activities done with the baby around.  I'm glad our kids are close together in age so this won't always be a problem, but for now it is difficult.  I find that I have to do most things with Noah in the hour that Zach is napping before he goes in for quiet time.  The baby box idea really isn't working how I hoped.  The only time it works to do things together is if the activity I had planned works for both of them (like the Band in the Box).

What I Learned:

• I need to be better about prepping activities before the day of.

Good thing we always get a fresh start every week!