Week 8 with the 2's: A Case of the Crazies

The twos were in RARE form this week! They were happiest playing together making "forts" out of blankets heaped in the yard, and playing in the toy kitchen. The actual amount of structured school was minimal...but that is FINE. We need to keep reminding ourselves that the whole purpose of doing "school" with the 2's is to encourage them to peacefully co-exist with other people, to sit quietly for short periods of time, and to free up the 4's for more intense learning activities. So even though it was a little crazy around here, we accomplished all those things.

Story time and Bible time were great. We read The Little Rabbit Who Liked to Say Moo, Animal Hide and Seek, and built an awesome scene full of animals on our Bible felt board.

Pumpkin cookies for snack!

And I got out the rice bin for some sensory play (we had a friend visiting too!)

Doc worked his skills screwing and unscrewing this cap for a WHILE...

And Juliette dug for hidden gems...

Got one!

 

This rice bin fits under the bed perfectly and is a great thing to pull out when we need a little distraction :) I've had the same one for two years and it's still a favorite.

 

**Gus is transitioning from two naps to one at the moment, so he had a pretty rough week and spent most of our school time hanging out on Evelyn's lap...hence his absence in these pictures.

Messy Play Day - The Last Day of School

It's hard to believe we made it through the whole 3 year curriculum with our little co-op. What an amazing blessing this whole experience has been! I can't believe how much our kiddos have grown up. They are really becoming such neat little people. I attribute so much of the  growth I've seen with my own child to ABC Jesus Loves Me, and to the amazing friends that we have worked through all the material with. What a gift! Look How they've grown!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a great group of kids

 

And here's the whole bunch...toddlers and all!

 

To wrap up our year, I decided to set up 4 "messy play" stations in the back yard. The weather has been great, and the kids have done a wonderful job staying on task these past few weeks, that a little fun seemed to be in order.

The first station was a mud pie kitchen.

 

Here's Jack checking it out.

 

And then the toddlers came along...

This was some good, MESSY fun.

 

The second station was for "potion mixing". I gathered a bunch of clear bottles (both glass and plastic) and filled them with colored water. And I provided some empty jars for the kids to make potions in..pouring and mixing colors was a HUGE hit, especially for the younger kids. I was very impressed at the concentration many of them (especially CJ!) showed while creating their potions.

 

Here is the "before" shot...

 

 

 

Even Gus got in on the fun! (His face may be green for a while...)

 

Next was the bubble blowing station. I found a recipe for jumbo bubbles on Pinterest, but it didn't work as well as I'd hoped. It was also a little windy today which didn't help. But the kids didn't mind. The biggest hit was the homemade bubble snake blower. I made a couple of them by cutting the bottom off of a plastic bottle. If you put a sock over the cut end and dip the sock in the bubble juice, it makes a giant snake when you blow through the bottle. Just be careful not to inhale by accident!

 

Good job, Doc!

 

 

And finally, the biggest hit of all was the water station. I gave the kids a bucket full of water, some giant squirt "guns" from the Dollar Tree, some homemade "sponge bombs", and squirt bottles. I drew a target on the wall, and the kids had fun trying to squirt the bulls eye. This batch of water toys literally provided hours of entertainment.

 

 

 

 

Love these boys!

 

And there ya have it! A fun day for all. This is seriously the best group of kids and moms ever.

Lucky, lucky, lucky...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the Teacher is Grouchy...

I was feeling really good about school after Monday's "class". I think the big kids are really getting the hang of what's expected of them, and they seem to be enjoying our school time a lot. It seems like each of the moms has sort of established her own routine when school is at her home. It's not the same from house to house, but the kids know that when they come here, we always start with calendar and Bible time on the blanket. Addison got to put the number in the calendar (sometimes I forget to call on my own child :)

This week we learned all about the story of Daniel in the Lion's Den. Monday we read the story in our Jesus Storybook Bible (this is seriously the BEST kids' Bible ever...)

 

Then we recited our memory verse, Luke 1:37 - "Nothing is impossible for God." And we danced to the song "My God is So Big". The kids LOVED this song! I think doing the hand motions makes it even more fun for them.

 

Then we got busy working on building strong hand muscles by cutting snowflakes! This was definitely challenging for the kids. The regular printer paper was too thick for them to cut through once it was folded, but they did better with coffee filters. They all worked very hard to make those scissors go!

 

 

 

 

All that cutting worked up an appetite! Our snack was lion rice cakes! I mixed peanut butter and honey together and pipped it on to make a mane. Then I stuck on chocolate chip eyes, a craisin nose, and oriental noodles for whiskers! They were a hit!

 

 

 

 

Doc didn't hesitate to get right in there...mmm...

 

Instead of reading the book of the week from the curriculum, I decided to share some of our favorite Christmas books during snack time. Monday's book was Mortimer's Christmas Manger by Karma Wilson. This is one of our favorite stories to read at Christmas!

 

After snack and story time, it was time to get our hands dirty! We made a giant batch of salt dough so we could roll and cut ornaments. We all took turns mixing the dough...

 

 

 

And the kids rolled it out all by themselves! Our arms and hands got quite a workout today!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Salt Dough Recipe

• Mix 1 cup flour, 1 cup salt, and gradually add 1 cup water.
• Mix until it forms a ball. (You may not need the whole cup of flour).
• Roll out on a floured surface and cut shapes with cookie cutters.
• Poke holes in the shapes using a straw (so you can add ribbon later for hanging).
• Bake at 200 degrees until dry.

If they are thick, you may need to flip them halfway. Our thin ones took about 3 hours to dry, but the fat ones took much longer. Then paint, or add glitter, gems or any other decorations you like. I doubled the recipe for our school group...just wanted to make sure everyone had enough dough!

 

Thursday...

 

As great as I felt after school on Monday, it all went out the window today. In reflecting on the morning, I realize that the majority of the problem was MY attitude not the children. I've been strugging with a 17 month-old who is teething and has decided that 5:15 is his new wake up time. By the time school starts, he is exhausted and clingy, and it made the morning very challenging for me. My patience had long vanished by the time our friends even got here today. Shame on me for being so foul...

 

But we pressed on. Huckleberry-dog decided to join in for calendar and Bible time today!

 

 

We retold the story of Daniel in the Lion's Den using our felt board. We sent the babies outside at this point so all was calm :)

 

 

 

Then we practiced making straight lines for writing "L's".

 

And we colored lions to make puppets! They really enjoyed this today. We don't give them enough time to color...

 

Cute!

 

 

Today's snack was "trail mix" with pretzles, wheat chex, yogurt-covered raisins, craisins, and Christmas M&Ms. And I read the story Humprey's First Christmas. Story time was a bit of a disaster. Doc whined the whole time and wanted me to hold him. And he managed to sit on everyone and spill at least 3 cups of trail mix. It was a challenge to even get through the story. I was extremely frustrated with him by the end and decided to just throw in the towel and let the kids play. We were supposed to do a number sorting activity and we were supposed to decorate our ornaments...but the kids were squirly, and I was in a foul mood so we ended school there. The kids played for a bit longer, then we put on Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas while we made lunches.

 

Evelyn led the kids in prayer before they ate...

Seems to me like we should have STARTED the day with prayer. Ah well...live and learn :)