preschool lately.

N's preschool program, aptly named 'junior kindergarten,' has been kicking into high gear lately. The majority of the year so far has been unstructured, with regard to learning letters....coincidentally my biggest concern before he gets to kindergarten. Now they've implemented a letter of the week, show and share based upon that letter, and - get this - homework. They send home a little packet every weekend. It's a great idea to get him used to the routine of having homework and to reinforce what they learn but it is like herding cats. It's not uncommon for N to spend up to an hour on a single worksheet just because he would rather be doing anything but that. It makes me relieved that we delayed starting kindergarten and I'm trying to use this time to spark some curiosity and help him be as prepared as possible.

With the aid of some of our own supplies, including a two-minute sand timer (which works like magic, by the way), we've been able to practice pretty writing regularly at night. This dry erase board from Dollar Tree is great for practice and the gloves (his choice because they make him "evil") made for easy clean up.

Hand in hand with writing has been some fine motor skill practice that, to Nate, is all fun and games.

Thematic show and share has also been fun to have him rifle through his most precious belongings that start with the letter of the week. It was "G" a few weeks ago and he was excited to take in pictures of his grandparents.

Finally, we're continuing our 1000 Books Before Kindergarten journey and we're halfway there! Nate was proud to write his name on an animal and hang it up on the bulletin board in our local library. This has been a great little program that's free and offered in many public libraries. While we have a good number of books at our house, I'm always glad to add in a little more variety to the mix and expose Nathan to new stories.

And that's what's preschool shaped up to look like lately! I'm excited to make some great progress before we get to summer break.

to kindergarten or not to kindergarten.

That has been the agonizing question on our minds for the last year or so. Between a summer birthday that would make him one of the youngest five year olds in his class, his penchant for playing over anything learning related, and his high energy, we made the decision to wait until six. Some days I am absolutely convinced it was the right decision and other days are the ones where I doubt it all. I have a decent number of friends who work in K-12 and the reviews are mixed. At the end of the day, it was our decision and we're owning it.

We're using this 'extra' year to try to firm up the basics: the letters, the handwriting, the numbers, the socialization, While he doesn't completely understand why most of his friends went to kindergarten and he didn't, he understands that he went to their birthday parties a long time before he turned five.

And I jumped on the chalkboard first day of school bandwagon, and I love it! Such a cute way to capture that special 'before' moment at the beginning of the year.

Oh, and another thing that we're doing is a program through our local library called 1000 Books Before Kindergarten. Reading books to N is part of our after school and before bed routine anyway. I'm all for supporting early literacy skills and getting that jump start on the desire to read! Here's little man after he finished the first one hundred books!

fourth of july.

The fourth gave us a blissful three day weekend this year! Just piling up the freedom over here. Before the weekend got started, N's summer camp had their annual fourth of July parade. The babies are wheeled through the parking lot in their cribs, the toddlers in strollers, and the older kids (normally holding something especially crafty and patriotic). Apparently N's class started in high spirits with a round of 'yankee doodle went to town' but when they saw the parents lined up outside, the kids definitely started hamming it up. Especially mine..and with his very own royalty wave.

On the fourth, I decided that photos of little man were a necessity. My neighbors probably think I'm crazy, but I got the shot I wanted. Imagine a grown woman practically laying on the sidewalk, coaxing her kid with a two second attention span into cute poses. The end result though? Pretty darn adorable.

I can't remember the last time that I didn't go to a city fireworks display. I lied. I can remember, but I was nearly nine months pregnant and no mortal could drag me away from air conditioning. This year we got invite to a friend's house, so we tried something new. It was a lot of fun and no awful traffic afterward.

The tale of my child with a sparkler:
Me: Do NOT touch this. Once it starts sparkling do not get near other people and when the light goes out, put it in this bucket. Do. not. touch.
Nate: Whoa this is pretty! [runs around near lots of other people, under a tent, and once the sparkler went out, grabbed the extinguished remains]
Me: Noooooooo!

Thankfully, he was more startled than hurt. Then came the big fireworks! For a do-it-yourself display, this far passed my expectations! These shot up over the rooftops! 

 

Hope that everyone had a happy and safe fourth!

father's day.

My husband is a laid back sort of guy and, as such, wanted nothing more than a laid back Father's Day. After sleeping in pre-child style (code for waking naturally), Nathan gave him some sweet gifts that his teachers helped him put together at school.

First, Nate gave his dad a coupon book. It had all of these nice coupons for yard work, making breakfast, doing laundry, etc. As my husband aptly told someone later, these were "coupons for stuff my kid can't actually do by himself". Hysterical! Also, preschool put together one of their famous questionnaire forms. Remember mine from Mother's Day this year? Just when I thought something couldn't get funnier, Nate delivers this little gem:
(hint: see number nineteen)

Oh, this child cracks me up! We also gave Chris a gift certificate for a massage, which he's very excited about. Happy Father's Day!

q & u wedding.

The big end of the year event for Nate's Montessori class was to do a play called a Q and U Wedding. I'd never heard of this before, but after poking around online, it's a pretty common celebration for preschool and kindergarten classes. All of the kids are assigned a letter, attend the wedding of Q and U, and have their own little lines to deliver.

I'll admit that making Nate's costume snuck up on us and before we knew it, it was the night before the costume was due and we didn't have anything. Chris saved the day and put this little gem together. This man sewed, stenciled, and ironed on patches. Lifesaver!

I cry at weddings and this was no exception. I mean, the bride's dad walked her down the aisle! Each kid's costume was unique and they were all proud of themselves for putting together this big thing for their families. So precious! Nate and I practiced, practiced, practiced his lines and he did his part flawlessly. I was so proud!

My gift to you is the letter D and its sound. 
D is for dinosaur
D is for dog
D is for a doll on a log 

Congratulations, Q & U! :)

teacher appreciation week.

Teachers work their butts off so when Teacher Appreciation Week comes up each year, I always participate and try to do some sweet things for N's teachers to show them how much we love them. Our daycare center participates and usually gives some 'guidance' for parents on how to show teachers some well-deserved appreciation. This year it was:

Monday: a card or note
Tuesday: breakfast
Wednesday: something sweet
Thursday: lunch
Friday: choose your own gift

Well, we participated in four of the five days. I can never think of something to bring for lunch that won't require them to cook, reheat, and put in effort to be ready. Maybe next year. I'll also throw out that none of these are my original ideas. I scrounged around on Pinterest and Google to find some cute, doable things. And I'm all about some cute puns!

Cards & Breakfast: Dunkin Donuts munchkins and handmade cards

Something Sweet: Hershey bars with a little love note

Choose Your Own Gift: Starbucks gift cards on an adorable and free(!) printable

Now, time to start brainstorming for next year!

montessori art show.

Nate has been attending the Montessori preschool program at our daycare this year and I've been impressed with both the curriculum and his response to the program. Let's be honest: the first month or so was a bit of a struggle. N didn't understand the ebb and flow of the day and needed some extra hands on direction. He also wasn't the least bit interested in any of the 'work' that was available for him to do. Fast forward to (almost) the end of the year and he's doing really well. He is learning, he is excited to go to school every day, and his behavior has been pretty good!

One of the bigger events that the class does is an art show based on different artists and techniques that have been introduced to the kiddos. Each kid had their own display and N was pretty excited to show it off ... and eat the refreshments served afterward!

Now what to do with all of this stuff?! We currently have his art on display on a table in our house, but how are parents supposed to keep track of all of this? I'm usually the first person to purge, but I can't seem to pare down on anything yet. For now, we'll live with the ever growing stacks of drawings and paintings...and be thankful that we're starting to be able to decipher what he's made because it's more recognizable and that his 'masterpieces' even have some letters peppered in for fun!

daily doses of sweetness.

I've been using my happiness jar and I'm not the only one, either. That in itself is something to be happy about! For every weird or annoying thing happening that pops up and distracts my attention, like accidentally taking 329 pictures with my phone while it was in my pocket, I've found little things that are just so sweet to re-focus on what matters. Sweetness is a perfect way to add balance and perspective into what can become a hectic day.

Nate has also really gotten into drawing pictures for us this week. One day when he wasn't particularly looking forward to going to school, I reminded him that he could draw me a picture while he was there. When I went to pick him up, not only was he incredibly focused on his picture but he had eleven others to bring home with him. I thought that maybe he was drawing a diagram of how to set the table, but apparently this is a family portrait.

Yesterday we got a lot of snow -- which makes N think that it's Christmas. After shoveling twice (!), I was super sore and had a nasty headache brewing. When I went to take a nap, Nate came in and covered me up with a blanket, gave me his teddy bear, and gave me a kiss on the forehead before telling me to get some good sleep. So adorable and my nap was glorious!

Another day I'll admit, I wasn't my best self. I had a rough day while Nate was at school and then tried to cram in too much in too little time. Rush, rush, rush ... and pick up from school got me back into perspective. Nate discovered marbles. Something so simple, not electronic (because, well he's obsessed), used some critical thinking, and was fun. He talked about this little marble maze for hours after we got home! It reminded me of neighbors that we had when I was a kid who had so many marbles and gave me some when I moved away.

And then there's this cape: this gift that no one will ever be ever to top and constant staple in his wardrobe. Nate's aunt and uncle gave him this cape for a birthday or Christmas, I can't remember, and I'm pretty sure he's worn it every day since. He often pairs it with some snow boots and gloves to pretend to be a "bad guy" to stomp around the house. This is how he stomps around the house every single night...and the lighting in this picture is absolutely perfect.

I'm hoping for a fun weekend with my boys! We've got a birthday party party to go to, a kids workshop, and I'm determined that we're going to build a snowman before all of this snow melts away!

valentine's.

We've taken a very low key approach to Valentine's Day over the last few days and I have to say that it's been nothing short of refreshing! Am I the only girl in the world who doesn't like flowers? Don't get me wrong, they are beautiful and do make me feel special (and when I've gotten them in the best hubby has done very well), but the pragmatist in me looks at the dollars and cents v. the fact that the flowers will be dead and in the trash soon.

So our V-Day weekend went a little something like this:

Friday afternoon, N's preschool class had their Valentine's Day party. This marks the first year where I didn't buy him a special V-day shirt to wear, but we tried to make do. The back of this shirt says "ladies dig me." There were cookies and cupcakes and vegetables to eat ... which one did my child not touch? :)

Once we got home, I let him open up his Valentine's from his friends. I'm so glad I didn't add sugar to the mix and hope that the other parents appreciated my candy-free Valentine's for the kids.

Saturday started off with a fun little Build & Grow clinic at Lowe's where my boys made another thing for N's ever-growing collection. This week's project was a Valentine's-inspired picture holder.

Then we grabbed some Panera bagels, some coffee at Starbucks, I took a nap, and then went to Target all by myself. If that isn't love, I don't know what is.

This morning we headed to a birthday party where both of my boys got to play :)

Chris spent this afternoon and evening going on an organizing binge to straighten up the garage and all of the miscellaneous things that find their ways into junk bins and drawers. Love it!

diy for valentine's day.

I spent the afternoon working on Valentine's Day gifts for my kiddo's classmates and teachers. Amidst the paper, fun edging scissors, and double-sided tape I found myself wondering how I got to this new stage of life. I am not a very crafty person and anything that requires artistic talent is just right beyond my grasp, but the art of mothering has me channeling my inner DIY lately.

I've been on a candy-free kick, mostly because I hate it when my kid gets too loaded up on sugar and I don't want to pass that on to anyone else. My anti-goodie bag approach went over well at N's birthday party, so I'm doing something similar for Valentine's Day -- for the kids, that is. The teachers deserve all the chocolate they can get!

Candy-Free Valentine's Day For Kids: 

I want to give credit where credit is due: I came across this adorable idea for Valentine's 'cards' with crayons instead of candy. Albeit simpler and probably not as cute, I made these for N's class. I might have spent a bit more than I would have on out of the pack Valentine's, but I'm okay with that (I made up for it with the teacher gifts!).

What You'll Need:

• Crayons - the idea that I came across used loose crayons, but I opted for 8-pack boxes with classic colors (approximately $1 a box) 
• Red card stock paper 
• Double sided tape 
• Heart stickers 
• Edging stickers 

What You'll Do: 

• Figure out what message you want on the Valentine's (I went with "Color Your Heart Out!"), type and format so that you can print it out 
• Cut out the "card" for each box of crayons with edging stickers
• Put the card onto the crayon box with the double-sided tape
• Finish by adding in a heart sticker

Voila! So easy!

SUPER Inexpensive Valentine's for Teachers 

Again, giving credit where it's due, I found this adorable idea here. I'm all for a good pun and being thrifty -- and this is both! I was able to make these for about $2.70 per teacher, which is awesome! 

What You'll Need: 

• 1 box of Betty Crocker brownie mix, per teacher (found on sale at Wal-Mart for $1 each) 
• 1 Betty Crocker spatula, per teacher ($1; available at Dollar Tree)
• Valentine gift bags (found these for 2 for $1 at Dollar Tree) 
• 1 package of Valentine's tissue paper ($1 at Dollar Tree) 
• Red card stock
• Plain white printer paper
• Twine
• Regular tape
• Double-sided tape
• Glue gun 
• Scissors
• Edging Scissors 
• Paper guillotine
• Hole punch

What You'll Do: 

• Use a few dots from the glue gun to attach the spatula to the brownie mix -- this gift capitalizes on the red on the product/packaging and the brownie pun, so I wanted to make sure to highlight this

• Type up a quick message to your teacher - I went with "I'm aiming for brownie points!" before jumping into saying Happy V-Day. I also found a cute graphic online to use to tie into the message. Print these out on normal printer paper 
• Use your paper guillotine (or scissors if you can cut a straight line, unlike me) to trim down your messages to a standard size 
• Cut down the red card stock to frame out your message on the white computer paper
• Attach the message on the white computer paper to the red card stock by using double-sided tape
• Punch a hole into the top center of each card 
• Use the twine to tie the card to the gift bag and use regular tape to secure the ends of the twine to the bag 
• Put some decorative tissue paper in to make everything even cuter

Ta-da! You have a really cute teacher gift that won't break the bank!

Happy Valentine's Day!

playing catch-up.

Where in the world has this month gone?! I honestly can't say what has happened this month, outside the normal work and school for us. Is it sad that I have to go back through my phone to see what the heck we've done lately?

Let's see. Chris got a great new leather recliner right after Christmas. Unfortunately, when I bought the sectional in our family room I purposely got the particular size so that we wouldn't need any other furniture. Once we added in Chris's new chair, our family room became a fire hazard ... so we also got a new couch! It wasn't exactly what I set out to buy, but it fits the room and is very comfortable. Some days I like the color and other days I hate it. Here's sort of what our new set-up looks like, complete with a tiny furniture model.

Once the new couch came, I resolved that there would be no more dogs on the couch. This has been a tough one for dogs who are used to having their way all the time. This huge dog bed from Costco helped to soften the blow a bit.

Nathan had a random bug last week where he puked his guts out like that kid in The Exorcist but had absolutely no other symptoms. We spent our fair share of time on the bathroom floor before bed that night before he launched into a four in the morning vomit sneak attack. Let me just say that groping around in vomit for my glasses is much funnier as a memory than in the actual moment.

Over the weekend, we went to a birthday party at one of our favorite local bounce house places. N tried sparring for the first time and did pretty well, despite the fact that the equipment was bigger than him.

Watching him wait in line was a happy moment. The child is learning patience!

N's Montessori program continues to help him learn new things (and quite frankly, learn how to learn). This week, they are having an international night and also going to the Children's Museum tomorrow! I wish parents could go on these trips! :)

montessori update.

Oh, the attention span of a four year old boy. Or is it just my four year old boy? Not sure. We've seen some improvement lately in N actually wanting to talk about the letter of the week and also what he's learning about in school. The inner educator in me is ecstatic! I even have proof - here is my child tracing letters in his journal at home and is actually smiling!

I'm always so intrigued about the things that carry over from school to home. One is this nifty little hand washing song that speaks to both thoroughness and washing for the correct length of time. Score! And, it's precious to boot!

This week, N is also focusing on learning the letter 'T'. While we were both home for Veteran's Day (thank you all for your service!), I kept the lessons going at home. Really, what's more motivating to my child than cake? Confession: he helped mix the batter and ice the cupcakes and then I put him in his chef outfit. There are secrets to taking cute photos, albeit a little neurotic.

Last week, N's class unveiled their "City of Monumentessori". After parents brought in boxes and other recyclables, the kids helped to recreate some of the famous monuments in Washington, D.C., as well as add in their own special contributions. My kiddo added in a trap to catch the ninja turtles - conveniently located near that Washington Monument and the Smithsonian's National Zoo. I love the creativity that went into this project!