School Days: Valentine's

Week 2 of the new curriculum was not as good as week 1. After just one week, the kids were tired of making books so we didn't do that part. Week 2 went into the next week since the theme was Valentine's Day and Valentine's Day was Monday of the following week. Because it went a little longer, I added off topic things to the curriculum.

Here's what we did!

We started the week with a experiment.
What happens when you add red food coloring to the water of white flowers?


The kids' predictions


The results


We sorted and counted candy hearts.







We made Valentines!






We also wrote in our journals.
Who do you love?






Sean "I love grandparents."


Maddy "Grandma"


Zach "I love mommy and daddy."
Christianna "I love mommy and grandma."


The extra day we talked a little about nutrition: food groups and why it's important to try new foods. All four kids joined the Two Bite Club by trying at least 2 bites of a new food.



This week's reading:
Curriculum based on
The Best Thing About Valentines - Eleanor Hudson
The Two Bite Club - Team Nutrition USDA

Supplement books
Don't Be My Valentine - Joan Lexau
Valentine Cats - Jean Marzollo

What the kids picked out
I'm a Turkey - Jim Arnosky
Silent Movie - Avi
Raccoons And Ripe Corn - Jim Arnosky
Turtle in the Sea - Jim Arnosky
LMNO Peas - Keith Baker
Such a Prince - Dan Bar-el
Thomas' Milkshake Muddle: Three Thomas & Friends Stories - W. Awdry

Project 52: Week 6

My plan is to post a picture of the kiddos together at least once a month.

This month:

Toddler wrestling!


Also this week, Sean got his dance costume. He's just missing his top hat. Isn't he cute!?




Tails!!


Checking himself out.

School Days: Teeth

This month we're trying out a new curriculum Itty Bitty Bookworm. So far I really like it. It's inexpensive even when you add in the cost of printing. And since it's a PDF file and I print what and how much I need, the price doesn't change if my numbers do. It also cuts down on waste when I pick and choose what we do. There were a couple things we didn't do mainly because I cut back on Wednesday because of storytime and the things I added for Ground Hog Day (Project 52 Week 5/Ground Hog Day).

This week's theme was teeth and the tooth fairy. Another thing I changed this week is I added a big dry erase board and a cork board to the wall where we do school. So here's what it looked like at the end of the week:



What did we do this week?

Used toothbrushes to paint with:


Thank God for nontoxic paint!

Drew what we thought the Tooth Fairy looks like

Adding fairy dust of course!



Bought teeth with pennies



Made the first entry in their journal

What does the Tooth Fairy do with the teeth she collects?



Did an experiment with hard boiled eggs

Stained the eggs: coffee, juice and water



Then experimented to see which worked better:
Brushing with water

Or with toothpaste



Painted mouth pictures...It's hard to see in the picture but they used sponges to make white teeth. Then we mixed the white and red paint to make pink!



Look ma! I'm a mess!

Whitened yellow teeth


The paint was mixed with mint extract to make it like tooth paste.


And had a yummy snack (ok, well more like 10 snacks but this is the only one worth mentioning)


It looked better in the picture that was in the curriculum.


Reading List:
Curriculum based on:
The Night Before The Tooth Fairy - Natasha Wing

Supplement books:
A Trip To The Dentist - Penny Smith
Squirrelly Gray - James Kochalka
Little Rabbit's Loose Tooth - Lucy Bate
Clarabella's Teeth - An Vrombaut

What the kids picked out:
Lulu The Big Little Chick - Paulette Bogan
Tap-Dance Fever - Pat Brisson
In A Blue Room - Jim Averbeck

Allergy scare

I got it from my mom and Sean got it from me; being allergic to bug bites that is. But I would have never expected to find out like we did last night!

We had gone shopping and Sean had fallen asleep in the car. So it wasn't a surprise when he was cranky when we got there and he woke up. But then he kept saying "you hurt me!" when Richard would pick him up. When we got home, he didn't want to walk and didn't want to bend his knees. I asked him to stand while I took his pants off to look at his knees and he cried. His knees were swollen, red and hot to the touch. I had him lay in my lap with ice on his knees and tried to think of anything that could have caused this. Then it hit me to call my cousin, a nurse. I told her what was going on and she said to call the on call doctor. But then she asked if he had been bitten by anything. I had seen a flea once or twice lately so it was likely. I took a look at his knees again. The ice had brought the redness and swelling down a little and I then could see several bites on each knee. She suggested I give him Benadryl and Motrin and to keep an eye on him. This morning he woke up like nothing had happened. Now that it's in my mind, I'm noticing more and more bites on him. Now to treat all the animals...

His knees last night after being iced:


I noticed his face looked really bad today too..I swear it didn't look like that yesterday!

Project 52: Week 5

It's Groundhog Day! The groundhog may not have seen his shadow but we saw ours!

End of January update

silly photo summary of the month

January started out good but ended even better than it started. Daycare girl is a great fit. Sean and Maddy love having a playmate almost everyday. When she's not here, they ask me about her at least a few times a day. We started going to a weekly story time and the kids love it. It's also helping Sean tremendously with his independence. And speaking of independence, Sean is doing wonderful in dance! Just a couple weeks ago he wouldn't let me go to the other side of the room without him. Yesterday he did tap all by himself without me in the room!! sn:the class is half an hour of ballet followed by half an hour of tap. I could seriously jump for joy!

And Maddy..wow, where did my baby go? I would like to say I've only been potty training her for about 2 weeks but in all reality, I've been slowly doing it since she was born almost 22 months ago. BUT, about 2 weeks ago we said goodbye to diapers except for when we were not at home and for bedtime. A few days ago she told me she had to go for the first time and as the days go by, she tells me more and more. Most of her accidents are right after she tells me and we're not close enough to the potty. Accidents are now at about 2 a day. Yesterday we made the jump and said good bye to diapers except for bedtime. We were out of the house for 7 hours and it wasn't until an hour before we got home that she had an accident. She told me she had to go but we didn't get there fast enough. I'm very pleased with her progress and it's nice having no kids in diapers when I don't have the young daycare kids!

A look toward next month:
February will bring yet another playmate!! Our cousin Zach will is now enrolled in my daycare and starts Tuesday!