Preschool with Drew

While Brodie is off in the afternoons at preschool I have a plan to do preschool with Drew here at home. Last year he really wasn't interested in most of the activities I had planned. Now that he is a whole year older and has a tiny bit more of attention I figured I would do some scheduled activities each afternoon with him.

I was really hoping Brodie's school would be in the mornings. It would make it easier to teach Drew in the mornings I think. But since Brodie school doesn't start until 12:30p I am going to try and spend 45 minutes or so in the afternoon with Drew. My goal is to focus on a letter each week. I found a simple and easy planning sheet here that I will be using to plan my weekly themes and jot down any craft ideas I have or projects I want to do.

I will be starting with Drew on Tuesday. Our first theme is A for Apples and Alligators. I have a TON of stuff planned already. Included are a few crafts, a whole stack of books I already picked up from the library and a trip to the apple orchard.

A Very Busy Day Already

Have you ever had one of those days that every activity you mention sounds like a really good idea to your children? So, you get everything out (or dump it out) and everyone starts playing and 5 minutes later your picking it all back up and switching to something new where you start the process all over again. This morning has been one of those days. We started off the morning dancing, which led to the pots and pans coming out for a drum session. Then when I couldn't stand it any longer I suggested they play kitchen with the pots and pans. This was great fun and they did actually play this for quite sometime. Then they decided to play blocks.And string beads. This is one of Drew's favorite activities. Today he strung the entire set all by himself. Then decided he wanted to were it as a necklace.Then we played Legos.That didn't last long and Drew wanted to paint. There was no picture taken of this activity because it got cut short with Drew playing in the cup of water for the water color paint and spilled it all over the table and floor. So, since he wanted to play in the water I had him play with some toys in the kitchen sink.While Drew was playing in the water, Brodie played in his oatmeal bin with his construction trucks.And then they had to switch. Then we decided to have some quiet time and read some books and look through our totbooks.Finally it was time for lunch. What a morning! Drew is finally sleeping and Brodie is at least playing quietly. I think Mommy may need to take a nap today too. They keep me busy.

Matching Games

I have been working on a few projects for the little boys. I went to this site and printed off some matching games. I just printed them onto cardstock and then cut them out and glued them onto a file folder. These are really simple and the boys really enjoy them. I made one for them around Thanksgiving with turkeys and they loved it. You can go here to see the turkey one. I also finished a new tot book for Drew. I will post about that after I give it to him.

The older boys are on Spring Break now. I have all 4 kids home everyday. Thankfully the weather is going to warm up. I am hoping we can hit up some parks and maybe even the zoo next week. Spring Break always gives me a little taste of what it will be like in 2 months when the kids are done with school for the Summer and they are home with me for 3 months!

Indoor Bowling

When it is cold outside and you are tired of being stuck in the house, why not break out a game of bowling? All you need is 2 liter bottles and a ball and let the fun begin!

Update~

Drew is healing nicely. Today the stitches started to bother him periodically. He really has done a great job not messing with them. He did touch them a few times today and told me to "get them off". It was hard telling him that I couldn't.

Bug Matching Game

Here is a matching game I put together for the boys. I did it a while ago when we were talking about insects and then we broke it out again last week when we talked about ladybugs. I just found some pictures of insects online and cut and pasted them into a word document. The I printed 2 sets, cut them out and glued them onto notecards.

You could also just print them right onto cardstock. That would save you a step.

~An update on our family. Brodie has finally turned the corner. Drew is still sick. Will and I both have sore thoats and sinus stuff going on. Jake and Tony are the only ones who have been ok. We will keep our fingers crossed that they don't come down with anything.

New Tot Book

Here is the new Tot book I made Brodie. If you remember reading in the past I have made him a Cars book and Curious George. He really loves these. He always wants to get them out and look at them. This one is all about construction trucks, his favorite! If you are interested in making this one or any others this blog called 1+1+1=1 has them to download.

Also here is a picture of the new color game I made for the boys. I made one for each of them. I just matched up the paint with the colored pom poms I had and painted the egg holders. The boys have to put the pom poms in the correct color.

This week is the letter "J" Here are the jellyfish we made yesterday. Brodie loved watching the videos of jellyfish I found online. I couldn't break him away! And it was really funny listening to him trying to say tentacles!

Updates

Here is a quick review of some of the things we did this past week.

Thursday night was Tony's Winter concert. It was short and sweet. They sang 2 songs and then we enjoyed 9 Recorder songs! Love the recorder! Tony did really well. Here he is, if you click on the picture it will enlarge and it is easier to see him.

The little boys and I finished up the letter "I". We talked about igloos and then we also painted with paint ice cubes. They weren't as excited about this as I thought they would be. I left them in the freezer to pull out another day to use. I myself thought they were cool. I just added paint to the water stuck a stick in them and froze them in this tin. You could also use ice cube trays.


Here is a few other pics of the boys. They kept busy one morning stringing these foam beads. I was pretty surprised that Drew did so well. And I think he sat for about 20 minutes doing this activity. That in itself is amazing.

Here they are when I told them it was time for naps. I cleared the dishes and when I went to the bedroom to read a book they were both laying under the covers. We have to seperate them from each other for naps. One in my room the other in their bedroom. As cute as they are here, it ended with them fighting over who was sleeping where.

Lastly, our dear friends came over last night. They took pity on us and brought us Chinese food for dinner! It was a wonderful surprise and very much appreciated. We had fun playing games and of course I had the most fun snuggling with their 5 month old baby. Sometimes I miss having a baby in the house. Thank you guys!

I'm posting some pictures!

I finally got my camera charged back up and took some pictures today to let you know what we have been up to. We started the letter "I" this week. Yesterday we talked about ice cream. We made cones out of construction paper, read a book about ice cream and even had ice cream cones for our snack. Brodie got some letter writing in and was excited to see that "I" was so easy to write. Today we read about inch worms and made these cute little creatures.
We also stuck foam worm stickers onto paper and colored them (ok, maybe they are catapillar stickers but who cares). Tomorrow we will talk about igloos and Friday will be insects.

I also made this little contraption. I saw something similar to this on another blog. The one they made was a little more fancy than mine but I figured it didn't need to be perfect as long as it serves its purpose. Brodie is great at counting but his number recognition is what we are working on. I am hoping this helps. I just used lids off of juice bottles and cardboard. I am also in the middle of making another Tot book. This one is really cool and I will post about it when it is finished.
We spent the rest of the morning today putting up our Valentine's decorations. It was a little refreshing to take down the snowman stuff as much as I like having it up. There will be an end to all this cold weather eventually! And as always the boys had fun taking turns between playing in the water and playing in the beans. Always a favorite activity.

Day 5

Well we survived everyone going back to work and school. The kids and I had normal day at home. I got a little cleaning done. I rearranged Tonys room for him so that it opened up the wall by his heater. His room is always so chilly so I am hoping this will help. This motivated Jake to rearrange his room as well last evening.

The little boys and I played with lots of different toys. Here is some pictures of Brodie, I don't know why I don't have any of Drew, probably because he didn't sit still long enough yesterday to have his picture taken. The first picture he is playing with our new felt board from my sister in law. I am very excited to make some new items for the felt board. Unfortunately I need to wait to buy the felt! The next picture he is putting together a 24 piece puzzle given to him by my sister. He did really good for his first time ever putting a puzzle like this one together. He also had fun playing with the homemade blocks also made by my sister.
My fridge is starting to look a little bare so I figured now is a good time to get it all cleaned. I have added that to my to-do list. We didn't really go anywhere yesterday except to Tonys piano lesson and to Redbox for our free Monday rental so no money was spent yesterday!

Today looks to be a little bit more busy. Brodie was up half the night with an ear ache so a Dr. apt might be in store for him. We have a conference with Jake's teacher after school to discuss his grades. He hasn't been doing so hot. Not really looking forward to that. Not sure what else will pop up.

Tuesday night we had Jakes Band and Choir performance at school. He did a really good job. It is amazing how much difference 1 year makes. The 7/8 grade band was great. Jake really isn't digging choir so I think he is going to drop out at the end of the quarter. That is ok with me though. He is liking concert band and jazz band much more and seems to stay busy with that.

In this picture he is in the middle on the top row. Click on the picture for a better view.

Last night was family night. My turn again. I opted for a nice quiet night. Everyone has been a little testy lately and not sleeping well so I thought a movie was a good option. I rented Kung Fu Panda. We all like it alot. I felt a little lazy though because I didn't make any cool desserts or plan anything real exciting. My goal was to have some type of dessert each Wednesday. Oh well, we did have popcorn and left over icecream I guess that is something.

Drew has his 2 year check yesterday. He weighed in at 30.8 pounds and 36 inches long. He is 75% for weight and 90% for height. He is doing really good.

Lastly here is a couple pictures of the new tool I made the little boys. There is different colored pockets that I made and glued to cardboard covered with paper. Then I colored popsicle sticks to match the colored pockets. I also wrote numbers on each one so they could match the color or the number. Then they can just drop the stick into the correct pocket. Brodie did great and got the hang of it. He already knows his colors-I made the numbers on them more for him. Drew just liked putting the sticks in any random pocket. He wasn't very impressed.

This morning we were trying out the new lacing cards I got Drew for his birthday. That challenge only lasted about 5 1/2 minutes. Then it turned into waving the shoestring for the cat to play with. So, we switched gears and made these cat toys out of yarn, feathers and sticks. I am not sure who had more fun. Brodie or Jinx.

ABC Book

Drew didn't sleep good again last night. Will slept with him in the chair. Then he was up for good this morning at 5:30am. He still hasn't fallen asleep for his nap yet...I noticed a little drainage coming out of his ear this morning so I am guessing he has another infection.

On a happier note I finally got my ABC book for Brodie done. Now I just have to take it to get it laminated somewhere. I am pretty happy with how it turned out.

I also had to post this picture of Jake and our cat. This is the picture I used for J in the ABC book. I told Jake to hold the cat and the cat turned and licked him on the check. It was really funny. See...our cat really is nice, some people don't believe me.

Tot Book

Here is one of four "tot books" I have put together for Brodie. I found this wonderful blog that had these "tot books" listed that you could print off the template and put together. I am not sure who loves it more, Brodie or me. I am putting finishing touches on the other 3 books. I am not going to give them all to him right now. I will however put some pictures up of them when they are complete. They are so cool! If you are interested in these you can go here to find them and make them yourself!