Weekly Wrapup: 10/28/2011

This week was a whirlwind of activities getting ready for Halloween, Mommy's first catering event and the housewarming party.  In between, we started learning about telling time, months of the year and days of the month. 

We broke out one of the wonderful activities from SimplyFun called Tibbar's Big Board.  It has the days of the months at the top, the months of the year on one side,  a big clock in the middle, weather dials and the days of the week. 

Days of the week were not new actually due to taking vitamins every day from my pillbox.  Momma always sounds out the day of the week and asks me which days starts with a sound.  Like Friday, which letter does FFFFFFFFFFFFFFriday start with?   Sometimes, it is annoying to be honest!

When she brought out the board, I became fascinated by the clock.  So that is what I concentrated on this week.  Every, oh five minutes or so, I would ask what time it was.  Momma would point out the time on the digital clock.  I asked where do the hands go?   So for 10:15, it was little hand on the 10 and big hand on the 3.  I am still not sure I get the whole count by 5 for the minutes.  I mean really who came up with that ..... it's a 3 on the clock therefore shouldn't it be 10:3.  Oh well, maybe someday I will figure it out.     On the other hand, I was pretty good with the month.  I mean hey October is the only month that starts with O.  WOohoo!

Other things we did this week, included Momma looking at cookbooks all the time and throwing out suggestions for things to make for the housewarming.  Not sure what all the fuss is about but we no longer have completely blank walls in some of the front rooms.  And Momma is frantic about cleaning. Okay that is true most of the time!  Shoes don't belong in the living room (why not?; Daddy's are), or if you are done playing with it, put it away.  Why?  I might wanna play with it again soon.

Halloween parties galore this week!  Lots of candy at the Trunk or Treat at Hampton United Methodist on Wednesday.  I got a purple spider ring to match my outfit.  I am hoping next year Mommy and Daddy will decorate their trunk!

On Saturday, we watched the OU game and I continued to learn how to cheer for them.  BOOMER .................... SOONER.  And I guess we won!   Anyway, later that evening we went to a Halloween Carnival at a local school.  As you can see, I loved playing golf!

Happy Halloween and speak with you next Monday which I am told will be in November! 

Weekly Wrap-up 10/14/11

Not much going on this week as little one was sick on Thursday and Friday.  Monday through Wednesday were not much better.  We did get her clothes organized by color and type.  It was a great activity and helped Momma out greatly.

First activity was to take all of little one's clothes to the living room, including those being unpacked from storage while the renovation was going on. 

Monday:  We seperated by size and tried on all the 4t, 5t and 4-6 sizes.  Wow, we have lots to put together for boxes on ThredUp.  Yea!; because we need swaps!   If you are not familiar with Thredup, check it out.  It's an online swap meet, consignment sale and yard sale in one place.

Tuesday: We took the clothes that still fit and seperated by type (hanging items vs in the dresser).  Then each stack of hanging clothes were seperated by color.  I just love an organized closet.    Little one helped seperate the items into color stacks.  Items that went into the dresser were seperated into 4 piles, one for each drawer.  Little one wanted to label the drawers so we got out the labeler and she typed them up.  Okay, she hit the print button after I typed them!

Wednesday: Last day of organizing.  Good thing too! Bill was getting a bit antsy over the clothes piled in the living room on every available space!   Anyway we took the color piles of hanging clothes and seperated out the dresses and dance apparel for the top rung of the closet.  Then little one took all of the rest of the items and hung them on the lower rung.  She chose the order of the colors!

So what did we learn this week:

• Organizing a closet is hard work
• Little one needs new winter clothes and she needs to stop growing.
• Who knew knowing numbers and colors could be so practical!

Weekly Wrap Up 10/7/2011

This week was a whirlwind of activities!  

First, we had dance on Monday.  Jea is learning to tie her tap shoes.  LOL that is an experience.  After much searching I found the rhyme that my mom taught me (thank you Swagbucks!): 

Criss Cross and go under the bridge
Then you got to pull it tight.
Make a loop but keep a long tail
That is how to do it right
Then you take the other string
and you wrap it 'round the loop
Pull it through the hole
Now you got the scoopFor now we are just using my tennis shoes to pratice on with little one attempting to tie them while they are on my feet or the shoe is on the table.

Second, Little one went to the park everyday after Mommy's Morning Out (MMO) with Grandpa.  Dad is so funny about this.  He loves it just as much as she does.  He makes sure to put her bike in the van before heading off to pick her up.  On Tuesday, they wore themselves out with 3 hours at the park!  Some of little one's friends from MMO and dance class showed up just as they were to leave.  I love that they have a great relationship.  I still cherish the memories of my Papa and hope the same for little one.

Third, we went grocery shopping (hush -- we are learning math) on Thursday.  Little one had $3 left from her birthday money and wanted to buy something.  She was not sure what it would be but the money was burning a hole in her pocket!  So while at the store, she kept picking out things to buy.  Our lesson was on how much $3 would buy her.  She finally settled on helping with the birthday cake for Daddy (Oct 6 was his 50th) and a bottle of juice.  I was so proud of her.  She bought the juice all by herself and then gave me the remaining amount toward the cake.  She then helped me count out the dollars needed to purchase.  While we are still a ways from truly understanding how to subtract/add money, she is starting to get the concept about how much she has to spend.  IE if the price has a 4 in front of the period and she only has 3 dollar bills -- it is too expensive to buy.  However, those items at $2.99 and adding tax were hard to understand. 

So what did we learn this week:

• Tying shoes is hard work (so is teaching something so ingrained in my psyche)
• Grandpas are the best
• Money matters need to stay with Mom and Dad for a few more years! My brain hurts.

Weekly Wrapup: 9/26 - 9/30

As you may know, we have been in the middle of major renovations in our house since the end of July.  It has been an exciting, trying, crying and anxiety laden time in our lives.  Little one has been right in the middle of the uproar and her schedule (trying to figure out if we had one) has been messed up.  Daddy and little one worked getting furniture back into our house!

For the first time in over 3 months, I had to travel for my job. I was off to Boston Monday through Wednesday. Getting back into a routine was the first order of business for Daddy and little one.  Not an easy task.  This is our supposed schedule :

• Get up at reasonable time (around 8am)
• Eat breakfast (why is that one so hard to get done?)
• Get dressed (and take shower for little one if she did not have a bath the night before)
• Mommy's Morning out (in our case it should be Daddy's morning out!)
• Lunch
• About an hour of "school"  in the early afternoon
• Play Play Play Play ("wait you need shoes to go outside"; "no don't <insert your defnition of NO>")
• Make dinner (why does it always take longer with HELP?)
• Eat dinner
• Story time
• Bed by 8pm (okay more like 9 or 9:30)

This last week Daddy and little one came close.  Yes we missed dance on Monday but not really surprised as Daddy doesn't always think of that.

Outside of getting back into a semblence of a routine, the big thing we did this last week is use our imagination.  Bill let little one have a big box to play with.  Here is what we learned this week:

1. How to build a tent
2. Cages hold back the monsters
3. Hide and seek
4. Tossing the ball into the "basket"
5. Tell stories about the box and her dwellers

Fun fun stuff and I loved that little one wanted to teach us these things.  I have always found one learns more teaching another!

Weekly Wrap up: Field Trip

This week we have my best friend here from Michigan.  Thank you to her hubby for letting her come down for a whole week! 

Thursday night it was a Low Country Crab Boil in Aunt Kristi's honor!  It was YUMMY but we could have done without all the gnats.

Not much schooling has been done this week, however, we had a field trip to Charleston on Saturday.  Little one took her aunt to The Battery, over the Ravenel Bridge to Patriot's Point, through Bill's Alma mater, The Citadel, and out to one of our favorite restaurants, The Grill on the Edge. 

This was the first time little one and I have been able to walk around Battery Park!   Did you know that while it is commonly known as Battery Park, White Point Gardens is the actual park part? In the past, it has always been raining when we have been to tour around Charleston.   Of course admittedly until this time, it has always been in November when we have gone.

In preparation for the trip, we did a bit of research on the bridge and how it was made.  I love bridges and so this was fun research for me.  Other than little one getting to learn how to use a search engine on the computer, I think the whole exercise was kind of wasted on her.  But I learned a lot!  For instance, there are 128 individual cables between the support piers and each of those cables can hold over 1 million pounds!    Here is a link to some great photos of it since it is quite hard to take one while riding in the van.

http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/charleston-county/ravenel-bridge.html


On Sunday, we celebrated little one's 4th birthday with friends and family.  One of the highlights of the afternoon was little one and her friends ATTEMPTING to break the pinata bought by Aunt Kristi!   Well, let me tell you, this pinata could have been the poster child for a Volkswagen.  One of the cousins finally had to bust it open with a two-handed swing.   Little one was very happy with her presents and will enjoy them for the next ...... oh month or so!

So what did we learn this week?

• We aren't quite ready for history beyond climbing on cannonballs & cannons.  Okay, we loved the sailboats!
• Bridge construction at this point is not an option for a career path.  Little one was not as impressed as I was.  Boat captain might be.
• Aunt Kristi loves to spoil me
• Preparation of crabs is hard work, messy and WET. Note to Momma... let me wear my bathing suit next time and you won't have to make me change 3 times before company shows up.
• Birthdays should be everyday.

Weekly Wrap Up

 I am going to try to post a weekly wrap up each week on Saturday for the previous week but I reserve the right to be late and it may always end up on Tuesdays!

We have a name for our preschool............... Anderson Academy .... LOL I know not the most original but hey we like it.  While we will not formally start doing desk work in the study room in the house until October, it doesn't mean learning isn't happening.  I guess most would call this k-4 curriculum "unschooling" but it works for us.  Dad is the primary teacher as we start this adventure.

Last week we got the cabinet setup in the RV for our school.     

In the RV, we are limited on space, so we have a few workbooks for writing and shapes, for reading we have the Usborne First Reading Set and other items include two games, one a busy bug set (colors and sets, early math) and a phonics card set.

Here is we are playing with the bug set. She is making bug soup, hence the bowl. YUMMMMMMMM my favorite is purple and blue bugs!   Little one also likes having her dad or me make the soup while she calls out the recipe:     

• 2 blue bugs
• Stir gently
• All of the beetles
• ETC!

On Wednesday night, it was the start of FUNdamentals at church.  Playing mass chaos, I was really impressed with her following directions and getting to play with the big kids.  Basically Mass Chaos is a dirty, messy and hilarious time for kids of all ages.

So what did we learn? 

Play = school!

Cleaning up allows us to know where to find things the next day

Getting messy can be a learning experience (gotta remember that Mom!)

Our first Review -- Thank you Amber

Thank you so much to Amber at WAHM Connect for the wonderful review of the Dino and T-Rex Kid kit.  You can read the full review at her blog.  If you are a Work at Home Mom (or Dad), check out her websites.  She is a wonderful resource for all of us.

I appreciate the review both from a business perspective but also from a personal one.  Bill and I are plannig to homeschool our daughter and this review shows me in concrete fashion what can be done outside of a formal "store-bought" curriculum.  I already knew that Usborne had some great resources but to see them in action with someone I admire is priceless.

Want to know more about the kid kits ?  Check them out now.

4th of July Weekend

It was a whirlwind of travel, laughter, food, sightseeing and family.  The whole family including the new addition, Chase the puppy, loaded up the van and headed north to Newark, Delaware.  We left on Thursday evening after I got off work. 

Our weekend schedule was packed with seeing family: Uncle Jim & Aunt Becky, Cousin Jake and his family, Cousin Elizabeth and her family and Niece (Dad's oldest granddaughter) Rena.   It was good to see and stay with Beck and Jim; they have a beautiful house. 

Meeting with Rena was wonderful; we had to fit it in with her schedule of heading to DC for drum corps parades/competitions.  Dad and I had not seen her since 2002.   So we met her at the Delaware House Service Area. 

On Saturday,  we went sighseeing in Amish country about 45 minutes from Jim's house.  We stopped at a yard sale where Bill and I found 37 books from the Hardy Boys series.  All the books are hardbound and range from 1940 - 1955 editions.  It is not the complete set but we couldn't resist after reading the sign that said $2 a book.  Bill haggled a bit and we got all of the books for $50.  Woohoo, can't wait to start reading them to Jea.  Not only to let her enjoy books but also to reacquaint ourselves with the series.  We will also have to track down the other books in the series!  This just might entice Bill to go garage saling with me.  Oh, Uncle Jim loved telling the story to everyone we met about our purchase.

Jake and his family drove down to see us on Saturday afternoon.  Traditional 4th fare was on the menu with hamburgers, hotdogs, and grilled corn.   Seen here are Jake and Bill shucking the corn!   The kids had a great time, playing outside in the sand and inside with the playdough!

We also got to have a date night on Saturday, well okay, dinner out by ourselves while our daughter stayed with the three grands (Jim, Becky and Dad!)  We had wonderful tapas at Ole Tapas Lounge and Restaurant.  If you are ever in the area, you should check it out.   I highly recommend the lamb chops!  They also have paella on the menu and while we didn't have it (it states on the menu it serves 2-3), another table had it and oh my the aroma was fantastic! 

Sunday, we went to church and then over to Elizabeth's.  There we had a great time visiting and hearing about their trip outwest to the Grand Canyon.  We also had a great meal. Do you see a theme?

On Monday we headed out.  We drove from Newark, down through DC and over to Skyline Drive, VA.  Our goal was to continue on down the Blue Ridge Parkway but with the rain that started we jumped off at Swift Run Gap and over to I-81.  We stopped in Staunton VA for the night.  We saw some wonderful fireworks at Gypsy Hill Park.  Thank you goes out to our waitress at Shoney's for giving us the heads up on that one.   Then on Tuesday we visited Frontier Culture Museum and Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library. A great time was had by all.  If you have kids, the library offers a scavenger hunt and a small play area including dress up items from the 1920-1930's.  The frontier museum was a wonderful look at the houses and cultures that make up the early settlers and frontiersmen.  Jea even helped sweep in the English house.

How to get your preschooler into the kitchen and live to tell about it.

My mother and grandmother started allowing me to help with making dinner and desserts at the tender age of three.  By the time I was eight, I was making dinner for the family at least one night a week. Some of the best times of my life were while in the kitchen cooking and baking with my mom, grandmother and various aunts during the Holidays.  I want my daughter to have memories like me. 

But how does one do that? This question started my journey to figure out how to teach my daughter the art and the joy of cooking.   Here are the easy (or maybe not so easy as it turns out) steps that I have incorporated into my cooking routine

• KISS -- Keep it simple stupid works here! Don't plan an elaborate project.
• Each activity that I plan lasts no longer than 5 to 10 minutes.
• I start small and keep it fun.
• Look at recipes and determine tasks that a preschooler can do independently or with minimal supervision. 
• Assign tasks
• Baking usually has the best and most tasks that can be assigned.   And as we all know baking is a big part of the Holidays!
• Pour liquid or dry ingredients into a bowl.  Of course its usually from the measuring spoon or cup after I have measured it out.  
• Sprinkle cheese or bread crumbs on top of a casserole before it goes into the oven
• Use cookie cutters.  
• Use the metal cookie cutters to cut PB&J or cheese sandwiches. I avoid lunch meat sandwiches as I quickly found out it is not easy to cut!
• Use plastic or metal cookie cutters with biscuit dough
• Pounding out or punching down dough, especially during bread and biscuit making.  
• Stirring the ingredients in the bowl.  I use high sided bowls now!
• Rolling meatballs or dough balls by hand.
• Forget about the mess
• This is the one I have the hardest time with!
• Everything can be washed. 
• Wear aprons or old clothes!
• Put down newspaper under the table or stool being used by the child
• Purchase kid-friendly utensils
• Jea loves the Head Chef tools we have purchased.  They are a Fiesta Product (http://www.fiestaproducts.com/head-chefs.php).  They can be purchased online or like us, find them in a kitchen supply store.
•  Clean up as you go.  This is a great teaching tool so that the kitchen isn't a complete mess after cooking.  Of course, if you are lucky like me, you have a husband who does the dishes so cleanup as we go is putting dishes in the sink and wiping the counters!
• Last but not least is Have FUN

I hope others are able to take these steps and find the joy in having your preschooler in the kitchen!