Activities

Rooster enjoyed matching colored paper clips to the matching paper. It didn't take her long to get the hang of using the paper clips:) I saw this on some Montessori blog. Sorry that I forgot which one:(

We did some writing.

I cut out the letters to the kids names on sandpaper. We put the letters in order then glued them onto some construction paper. As you can see these sheets have been through a lot. It's hard to keep impatient toddlers on task.

Anyway, we put another piece of construction paper over the names and did some shading with our colors. Big Dog was excited once he could see the letters in his name.
Rooster wasn't quite as excited. But, still enjoyed pointing out the letters to her name.

We did some sequence cards. This set was about making cookies. It took several times. But, she got the hang of it. Then we did the Noah's Ark sequence set as well.

We did some more Letter O coloring pages. I didn't really do any crafts for the letter O this week. Hopefully, I get something done tomorrow. If not I will just try to do better next week:)

Pot of Gold

I saw that Tot School was doing a sensory search with a St. Patrick's theme. We didn't use dried peas. I just used some rice dyed green. The kids searched for chocolate gold coins and St. Patrick's Day necklaces.

After Rooster found a necklace for herself she made sure her brother got the other one:)

Big Dog loved his necklace.

GH turned 47 weeks old

GH has been babbling a lot more this week. When he says "mamamamama" my heart melts and he knows it. He's trying to stand on his own. And he got a third bottom tooth.

Tiny Tim

Tiny Time came over this morning.He doesn't look so tiny anymore. He looks as big as GH. Isn't he a sweetie?

Big Dog sounds out his name

Last week I accidently deleted a great video of Big Dog singing different songs. I was really upset about it. But, this video kind of made up for it:)

Do you know why I love YouTube?

Because no one wants to miss a gem like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWmsoEqT17w

"Don't kick your brother"

Big Dog fell asleep during our walk yesterday. I felt bad for him at first because I thought he fell asleep and didn't get to finish his sucker. But, when I went to take the sucker out of his mouth, all that was left was the stick. Anyway, doesn't he look precious?

GH took this time to kick at his brother knowing full well that Big Dog was out for the count.

When Big Dog turned one

We had a cowboy themed birthday party. It was awesome. We sifted for "gold", painted tee pees, and whacked open a pinata.But, I can't seem to find any pictures to post. So I will find some to scan sometime. We are trying to think of a theme for GH's first birthday and Big Dog's third b-day party. Got any ideas? Let us know.

Happy Birthday to me.

Captain Awesome went into work to do the schedule. Which I don't have a problem with. As long as he isn't there too long and he doesn't do any manual labor. Anyway, while he was there. He picked up a card, cake, mint chip ice cream and a balloon for my birthday. He said Rhianna saved him because he didn't realize he picked up a Sweet Sixteen balloon. And when she went to blow it up, she came back and asked him if that's the one he really wanted b/c she didn't want him to get in trouble. Haha.... I'm twice the age of Sweet 16...so I might not have taken it well:D

Rooster keeps talking about blowing out the candles in an attempt to get the party started. She really wants that cake.

My Mardi Gras

Was this bottle of Pepsi. Yummy!

So I gave up regular pop and fast food. Rick gave up fast food. And the kids gave up a box of toys. See later post.

Lent

When I told Rooster that all the kids needed to pick some toys to give up for Lent and that she would get them back at Easter. She said "Nooooooooo." So obviously my first explanation didn't sell the idea. So I told her that it would make Jesus very happy. This went over a lot better. She put a bunch of toys in the box. I was very suprised. She put far more in than what I expected:)


Big Dog must not think of Lent as a time sacrifice. He was digging through the bottom cabinets and found a box of Tuna Helper. He ran around looking at the box, hugging it and saying, "I love...I love"

A Beautiful Day

Waiting for Rooster to come home from school.

On the way to the park.

Break Time

Big Dog likes cake....even when it's fake:)

What have the toys been doing?

I suspect this dinosaur went for a swim in the toilet. What's my evidence?
Exhibit A: Wet toilet seat
Exhibit B: Wet dinosaur

Rooster navigates favorite on-line bird site

The yellow warbler was the first bird she wanted to hear. With a little help she did a great job clicking to where she needed to go.

Next she wanted to hear the blue jay call and started to mimick it's annoying shrieks. I asked her, "Do you like blue jays?" She responded, "I love blue jays."

That makes my heart melt:)

What a funny little Rooster

How big is GH?

GH is a big boy. He crawls up the flight of stairs all the time. I've seen him do it enough that I'm not freaking out about him falling on the way up. He has signed "more" a few times. He does the "soooo big" game. And, I even got him to point today. So I'm a pretty proud mommy right now.

GH is 46 weeks old

Different shades

Remember those paint samples that I snagged from the store? Well we used them to work on shades. I showed them how there are several shades of colors. Showing real life examples of different shades of blue and yellow. Then I had Rooster sort samples into like colors.

Big Dog did some coloring today. But, maybe I should have been more concerned about brushing his hair:D



Then on Montessori Mama I saw her cute little ball tube. That ball tube was secured against the wall. I didn't have enough shipping tape for that. So I hung ours from the staircase. The kids enjoyed working the tube in different angles and trying to get the balls into the basket. The tube was also used as a mega phone and a telescope:D

Fancy Leprechaun Traps in Family Fun Magazine

I don't know how many of you get Family Fun magazine but it's awesome. In this months issue they have taken leprechaun traps to a whole new level. I anticipate a capture this year:D Here is a look back at our past trap.



Leprechaun trap from 2007. (We thought a leprechaun might check into our hotel.....but, that didn't work)

This is the trap from 2008. We tried to coax a leprechaun into our trap with an Irish pride buffet of corn beef and hash. That didn't work either:)

I have a million excuses

for not getting things done. Today we had lots of appointments:D

I saw this cute color matching activity on some hot shot Montessori blog. I don't know how those ladies come up with such great ideas. Mine didn't turn out as well as theirs. But, I followed the basic idea. I went to a paint department (at a store that will remain nameless) and got a handful of paint samples. You have to make sure you get two matching paint samples of all of them.

Cut out and glue one sample to a paper plate. Then glue (I used my hot glue gun) the matching sample to a clothes pin. Then the child matches them up. Big Dog still struggles with the paper clips so I help him:)

Rooster's teachers say she doesn't know all the numbers from 11-20. So I made the most pathetic flashcards ever. But, look how excited everyone was about learning their numbers:) I was surprised how many Big Dog knew.

Rooster's teachers also said she needed to work on patterns more. We copied some patterns. Then tried to complete patterns.

Roosters homework from pre-school comes in the cutest little pink suitcase. This time she had a book about a bear driving through his town running errands. We re-enacted the book. Rooster liked this activity. But, Big Dog thought it was funny and just kept laughing at me. While we did this activity we tried to work on positional words.

A slow day for activities

I found these cute little fuzzy dice at the thrift store. We used them for a basic math activity. We each stood back, threw them at the closet door, then counted up the dots that were rolled. Rooster won all but two rolls.

I got this cute alphabet puzzle on Zwaggle.

We worked a little on pouring skills.

We worked on writing skills using our fingers in salt. We drew shapes, letters, and a cute little smiley face complete with big ears:)