P Is For a Perfect Week!

When looking at Amelia's "list of things she loves and wants to learn more about'; I came across the name Pinkerella. Pinkerella is her beloved pink stuffed penguin. So I decided to focus our week on the letter P, the color pink, penguins and pies. Here is what the week looked like...

We had some great fine motor activities such as putting letter P pictures on the coins that go in our piggy bank, putting letter P pictures on a giant P with glue dots and connecting the animal that begins with P to it's home. I was super impressed with how Amelia caught on to the last activity. We haven't discussed animal habitats often and she knew right away that a pigeon can be found in a city and a polar bear can be found in a snowy mountain.

For Math and Literacy Activities I had an "Awesome Penguin Fact Match Up". I found out some cool facts about penguins like; the Magellanic Penguin makes underground nesting colonies during mating seasons. I told Amelia some facts and then gave her a penguin on a clothes pin. She had to match the penguin to the fact.

I also took out my old pizza game. I made this game using a pizza image off the internet. I printed two copies and on one I made slices with different colored items and different numbers of the items. For example there are 5 brown meatballs and 4 green broccoli pieces. This was an absolute favorite in my preschool class. The pizza slices are laminated and attached to the larger pizza by velcro. The song goes like this, "Pizza Pizza On My Dish. What Kind of Pizza Do You Wish?" Here is a moment of sharing with brother.

Songs are always a great way to learn different concepts. I use songs often for counting activities. I discovered a cute counting poem about penguins and cut/laminated 5 adorable penguins for the felt board. Each penguin has some velcro on the back so it sticks better. Amelia wanted to do this every single morning.

For my felt board I attached some felt to the back of an old picture frame from IKEA that had a plastic backing. It works perfectly. Last week we used it for my cut out felt ballerinas.

For Art and Sensory Activities we "Painted like Professionals" :)
I gave them both real rollers and a real paint bin to put the paint in. I was disappointed to not have a lot of pink paint but we used reds and purples. Amelia was fascinated by the word "professional". I told her if you work really hard and learn all that you can about something; you can be a professional at it. She told me she would like to be a "professional princess".

I have had a sensory bucket of pink stuff for a while now. It was a hit this week.

Other highlights of our week included making Pink Lemonade after her favorite book Pinkalicious and The Pink Drink. I didn't have fresh lemons but a whole lot of light lemonade cans. And we added strawberries to it so it would be a bit more pink; just like the story.

Creating

Pouring

Enjoying

We also had a letter P hunt, a trip to the Playground, a puppet show and Charlie really enjoyed watching a live web cam of penguins at Discovery.com. It's crazy adorable!

It was an awesome week!

We Are Back!

I can't believe how much has changed since I started this blog two years ago. I was a stay at home mom at the time who quickly began expecting a second child. Two kids and jumping back into work left no time to update the blog. The purpose of this from the start was to update Amelia's teachers, friends and loved ones about her little adventures and BIG changes. She is now an incredible three year old with a strong will and awesome sense of humor. We are on a new adventure of homeschooling until she is off to public school (oh the support I will need then!). 

Since I made this decision many people have wanted to ask me about the curriculum that I plan for the children while they are home. I believe strongly in creating a rich learning environment full to the brim of the kinds of things that Amelia and Charlie LOVE. Amelia has given me a list of what she wants to know more about and it grows/changes all the time. We talk together about what Charlie loves and as the week goes on she will say things like, "hey mom; how about next week we do a pink and red week. Won't that be great?" :) We do a small circle time, literacy and math activities, sensory play, field trips and more. I have some great resources that I will share and I hope to use this blog as a way to inspire other moms, dads and teachers.

Our first week was right after her birthday. As a team we decided to focus our week on the letter B, the color blue and topics such as ballet. Here are some highlights. 

We had a sensory bucket available with "blue stuff" in it. These are things that I had around the house and one of those random bags from Savers with fun little treasures. 

 

Charlie enjoyed trying to put long tubes that used to be a part of a wind chime into this m & m container. Giving toddlers challenges like these will provide endless scientific play. 

We went on a "Letter B Hunt" in the neighborhood and of course brought along the Binoculars. With the help of her aunt and uncle Amelia found butterflies, a basket ball hoop, birds, bikes and more. I took photos along the way and then laminated them and punched holes in the pictures. I attached them all on a key ring so she now has her own letter B book. 

Concentrating

Mom is impressed

 

Proud girl

B is for beading! I hadn't tried beading with Amelia and figured that this week was the perfect opportunity. I had to really restrain myself from trying to help her get each bead on the string. She was incredibly patient and put 80% of this necklace together by her big kid self.

Using the Ballet Preschool Pack from http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/PreschoolPackIBallerina.html Amelia and I did some really great math and fine motor activities during circle time. Check it out!

Years ago I took my group of preschoolers to The Boston Ballet School and had a very nice tour. http://www.bostonballet.org/school.html. David who remembered me from the last time I was there was very kind and made sure Amelia really got to see some magical moments. We even got to go to the basement where they were creating costumes for upcoming shows like Snow White. How very special. She was a super star at finding the letter B all over the building as well.

Overall it was a great first week of homeschooling and I'm already putting some things together for the next week which I'm hoping includes a trip to a bakery to see how they make their pies.
I will leave you with a few favorite photos from Boston and a video that we enjoyed about a million times while discussing butterflies :)

B is for a Bunny in Boston

B is for a Big Boy in Boston

  

Don't miss this adorableness :)

Letting go

Today has been a hard and exciting day. Amelia started her first day of school in a toddler room at a nice daycare in town. Researching schools and applying to one has been a HUGE exercise in letting go.

As I drove away with my 18 month old daughter in the care of other people I just couldn't stop thinking about what we had when we were a part of the JHCCC family. I really think we all could have used some group therapy after losing our jobs with a focus on how to "let go". Little's new school is very nice and the teachers I'm sure will care for her. It's just that the magic that we experienced before is taking a while to shake off of us. No-one said, "how was her night?"; no-one asked, "does she have a favorite song?"; and no-one said, "how are you doing?" with care and concern for this emotional momma. At JH we took the extra mile always. We called moms and dads on first days or first weeks to reassure a parent that their kiddo was doing great. We wanted to hear stories from parents about their child's night, morning, or even car ride to school. I am so very proud of the care that I gave and the care Amelia and I received while we were there.

On Thursday her class is doing "hat day" which is super cute and I'm sure she will love. I laughed a bit to myself when they told me thinking, "would Paulette have allowed us to have hat day because there is always a risk of lice with hats in a toddler room?" I miss having a Paulette and I miss everyone caring so much about every single little detail at school that I felt so...safe. Sure as a teacher having so many rules we most likely complained but looking back, I feel so incredibly lucky.

Lucky that Carolyn cared if the eggs were going to crack, that Paulette cared about hats, that I cared so much about the furniture and toys I would stay for 2 hours after my shift so it was right, that Lynne cared about what noises Amelia made on the train ride over, that T cared about the water table looking amazing, that JRay cared about girls being firefighters, that Stephanie cared about the school being organized, that Linda cared about transitions, that Sarah cared about the kids feelings, that Amanda cared about music, that Erin cared about sign language, that all of Chestnut cared about things like a classroom zoo, that Ellen and Jen cared about classroom connections, that Neddie cared about those books, that N3 cared about laughing and making everything exciting, that Lisa cared about hugs, that Jen cared so much about naps, that Regina and Helen cared about making a small room a home, that Irina cared enough to engage me in conversations about education, that Warti cared if we had play-dough in the color we wanted, that Lorraine cared about singing, that Linda K cared to observe and appreciate everyone, that Stacey cared to make sure we could have the best friendship/working relationship, that Renalyn cared to teach us how to knit, that Bert cared about our troubles and Jason cared about our smiling or not, and lastly that Marcia cared about all of us.

I had a family there. This new adventure just feels like we are acquaintances. I didn't even know the teachers names when I got there. I'm sure over time it will be more of a friendship. I know I just have to let go. I have to let her play with Elmo at school even though she has it at home, I have to let her drink juice from time to time, I have to let her hold onto that stupid plastic rope that they use to walk the kids because you know what...I might be biting my lip about it but my kid loves it. She wanted to be a part of the walking line. She is going to help me on this journey. And I will always be sure to remember what we had.

This is an important time for me. While she is there I can figure out what to do with my career, I can go for a walk, or I can do laundry like I plan on doing next. I will also have more time with Charlie when he arrives this summer. Maybe I will have the opportunity to work with some of those family members again.

Here is Little having a "bana" at the table with her new friends.



Sigh...

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