Changes

Working a demanding full-time job at home while raising three kids under three and sleeping in 2-3 hour intervals has been a big challenge for me, but somehow I've managed to do it for the past year and a half.  I constantly find myself nostalgic, however, for the days where I could play with my kids without having to check my work email every ten minutes, or when my daily schedule didn't revolve around conference calls. The stress has just been building up and affecting my physical and emotional well-being.  So earlier this week I talked to my boss about leaving the company.  Here's what this means for our family...

Decorative Picture Frame and Painting Wooden Objects

On a recent trip to the craft store, I bought a bunch of wooden frames and other wooden objects for $1 each, and the girls (33 months) have been having such a wonderful time painting and embellishing them over the past couple weeks.  I wanted to share the process for making this lovely sparkly picture frame because it was so much fun, and actually ended up looking pretty neat (the photo doesn't do it justice)...

Early Learning Fun with Unit Blocks

We have a big tub of unit blocks (each is one centimeter square, weight one gram) which I've been using with the girls when we play with our bucket scale (see our Blocks in Socks activity).  This morning while I was trying to catch up on some work, I let L and E (33 months) do some exploration and play with these unit blocks.  Later, I joined them and made up lots of fun math, spatial vitalization, and fine motor skills activities.....

Hot Air Balloon Craft

We went grocery shopping this morning instead of our usual homeschool routine (which usually includes art and a story), so I improvised with a quick after-dinner craft instead.  We read The Big Balloon Race, which is an exciting story about a girl who helps her mother compete in a hot air balloon race that takes place in the 1800s.  Then I gave L and E (33 months) the materials to put together their own hot air balloon craft.  We usually do more free-form art exploration rather than specific crafts, so the girls enjoyed the challenge of aligning all the parts to form a specific object...

Introduction to Maps

Yesterday we used sand and water to make various natural formations.  Today I wanted to show the girls that we can use symbols to represent some of these land and water forms.  I drew some examples of symbols and invited L and E (33 months) to try to copy them or to make up their own...

Cooking With Kids: Mini Pizzas

For our weekly Cooking Day, the girls and I made mini-pizzas.  Not only was this a fairly easy kid-friendly cooking activity, but the results turned into a great lunch that my husband and I enjoyed as well.  Here's how we did it..

Land and Water Forms

I'm going to start a Geography unit with L and E (33 months).  Today we did a variation of the Montessori Land and Water Forms activity using real sand and water.  Since the girls have no need to know the difference between a Peninsula and an Isthmus (as in the Montessori curriculum), I made up my own variation.  We made mountains and valleys, islands, lakes, rivers, forests, and other natural formations that the girls were already familiar with...

Alphabet Boxes

I first learned about alphabet boxes here on the Counting Coconuts blog.  The concept is that you have boxes or drawers representing different letters of the alphabet and put tiny objects that start with each letter in the correct box...

I'm constantly collecting little trinkets for the girls in the $1 section of Target, craft store clearance sections and other places, so I've built up quite a collection of miscellaneous objects.  I put some alphabet boxes together for the twins a while ago when they had just turned two years old (they're now 33 months old).  At first they just wanted to play with the small objects inside instead of doing anything alphabet related (I can't really blame them - using the small cup and fork to feed the small animals is a lot more fun than sounding out words), but now that they are a bit older I've been taking the alphabet boxes back out again to work on our phonemic awareness and the girls are being a lot more receptive to organizing the objects by starting sounds..

Exploration with the Number Balance

I am obsessed with math manipulatives because they provide such a good way to really understand math concept and are so much fun for kids (and..um..Mommy) to play with.  I purchased this Number Balance a while ago, and decided that now that the girls are starting to understand addition, I could take it out...

Baking Day - Pies and Cinnamon Rolls

The girls and I had so much fun baking yesterday.  It ended up being an all-day affair with related books, crafts, and other activities in between the actual baking.  We read the book, How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman..

Homeschool Preschool Week in Review

L and E are 33 months old.  My workload has slowed down and we were able to get a good week in full of learning and playing.  Here are some highlights of the activities we did this week...

Review: Time4Learning Online Kindergarten Math Program

My kids adore online learning activities.  They see Mommy and Daddy work all day on their computers (we both work from home), so naturally they enjoy doing their own 'work' on the computer.  For phonics/reading skills, I've been very happy with a combination of Starfall (free), PBSKidsPlay, and Reading Eggs, but I'm struggling to find an online kindergarten-level homeschool math curriculum that is going to work for us.  I was very excited to have the opportunity to review Time4Learning for 30 days in exchange for my honest opinion. Time4Learning is an online program that includes both reading and math, but I focused on the math side, since that is where our current needs are.  Unfortunately, we discovered that this tool just wasn't for us.  I'd still like to include a full review to give other parents more information about how I made my decision...

Fairy Rocks

It's always fun painting on something other than paper.  Paint some rocks, add a layer of glitter glue and you've got beautiful sparkly.... Fairy Rocks!

Going on Safari

Today I put the girls' stuffed animals all around the house and invited them to take pictures of 'wild animals' with their kid-friendly digital cameras...

Yoga Fun for Preschoolers

I'd like to do yoga, but I don't.  I can't even touch my toes.  My kids, however, are apparently made of rubber.  To keep my little contortionists occupied, I bought them some yoga cards....

Using Buttons to Make Decorative Bowls

Last week we took out our Sensory Button Tray and made decorative plates and bowls using buttons and Model Magic (this would work with Salt Dough or any air-dry clay as well).   Here's what we did ...

What We've Been Up to

I can't believe I haven't blogged all week, but work has been really busy lately.  On one hand I would love to go back to being a stay-at-home Mom without the stresses of a full-time job at the same time, but I think right now the (financial) benefits of being able to earn a paycheck while staying home with my kids are pushing me to keep at it.  Although I haven't been blogging, the kids have still been having a lot of fun this week.  Here is what we've been up to...

Big Green Pocketbook - Dramatic Play Activity

One of my kids' favorite books is The Big Green Pocketbook by Candice Random and Felicia Bond, which I found when researching Before Five in a Row (BFIAR) literature-based curriculum.  It's a story about a girl who goes out to run errands with her mother and fills up her purse with little tokens from each place they visit.  Around Christmas, I found tiny green mini-purses, and we've been acting out the story since then...

Interviewing 2 Year Olds

A while ago, I read another blog where a mother interviews her children every year and records their responses (sorry, I can't find the link now).  I thought that was a really cute idea, and wanted to give it a try with the twins (32 months old):

Five Minute Teddy Bear Cape

Today we read Corduroy, the classic story of a bear who goes in search of his missing button.  In less than 5 minutes, I put together some capes for their stuffed animals, so they can practice their buttoning skills...