What I Miss

This summer I had a grand time doing projects with my little ones.  I'm a teacher at heart not just through occupation, so it was right up my alley to have  mini preschool in our home this summer.  We had a blast doing activities for alphabet letters, from A to.... U.  That's right, U.  I had intended on finishing up the last letters after school started, because we couldn't quite cram in the last 5 letters with the first 21 in the time I was off from school.  But it just didn't happen.  Did you notice that my alphabet activity posts stopped after U?

A reality check made me realize quickly that not only did I not have time to collect ideas and prep projects for Sam and Anna while working over 40 hours a week, but we didn't have enough time to do any of them with our school days schedule.  They love having time when getting home from daycare to just play independently (or with each other) with all the toys they didn't have access to during the day.  Forcing them to do a structured activity with me instead would be just that- forcing them.  Since the main point of any project is having fun, forcing them would definitely be the opposite of my goal.  Plus, our new awesome daycare provider wanted to start doing letter activities with them, and I thought it would be just fine for them to start back at A, rather than pick up from where we left off. (Repeated exposure and all that.  I knew she'd do different things than when we did too.)

But I miss it.  I miss doing those project-y type things and creating with them.  There are so many fun fall-ish, halloweenie things that I would love to do with Sam and Anna. It's hard for me to be making apples, fall leaves, pumpkins, bats, spiders and skeletons with the kindergartners in my class but not have time to do something similar with my own children when I really want to.  I do give our daycare person ideas, and she does do some fun things with them.  However, it is about the process for me- the having fun together to create something, not just the end result to hang on my fridge.  I just don't know how to squeeze more time out of our daily life to do any of it.

P and Q!

 

For letter P, we read lots of books about penguins and pigs.  We read a few princess books (like The Paper Bag Princess, an excellent one with a less stereotypical image of a princess) and some books about puppies.

 

Here are Sam and Anna's penguin handprints.

 

We played with pinwheels.

 

We made dot marker P and p.

 

 

We explored a new playground.

 

 

I brought out some new puzzles with 12 pieces this week.  We needed a new challenge because all the single piece picture puzzles are way too easy for them now.  While Sam and Anna need lots of assistance with the 12 piece puzzles right now, they really enjoy them.  They are learning how to put like colors together and see a piece as part of the whole picture.  LOVE these wooden Melissa and Doug ones because 4 came in a wooden box, and each one has a small shape on the back to help keep them form getting mixed up.  I know we'll be getting more soon.

 

 

We poked pencils in playdoh.

 

And we experimented with making prints of different things in playdoh too.

 

My favorite P activity was mixing paint in plastic bags.  I used primary colors and Sam and Anna got a little intro into color mixing.   They loved discovering the new colors we created when they got mixed together.  It was mess free and I thought it was great that you could still see on the edges the two colors we used to make a new color even with lots of smushing.  Fun, easy, and fast clean-up!

 

 

We traced Pps.

 

We ordered puppy pictures from largest to smallest.

 

We did some fine motor practice with pom poms and tongs.  Sam had trouble using the tongs (and I only have one) so I brought out spoons to use too.  Anna really surprised me with how adept she was at using the tongs to pick up a pom pom and transfer it into the dish, sorting by color, using one hand (although I know this picture shows her using two hands).

 

We also sorted paperclips, as well as counted them and made patterns.

 

Sam wanted me to take a picture of the pattern we made together.

 

This was our special P lunch:  pepperoni pizza, peas, pickles, pineapple and plums!  We also ate pasta at many meals, peaches, pears and pancakes.

 

I gave Anna and I pink and purple pedicures this week too. :)

 

Not to mention the advent of potty training in our house!

For letter Q, we read books about quilts, queens, quiet, quick, and ducks books (quack).

Here are Sam and Anna's quail handprints.

 

We made dot marker Q and q.

 

 

We also used dot markers to make "quilts."

 

 

We traced Qqs.

 

Sam and Anna painted using Q-tips.  As usual, Anna was really into the free-exploration art.  Sam was done fast, Anna had to be torn away 45 minutes later. 

 

 

We sorted pictures by loud and quiet sounds.

 

And then we practiced being loud and quiet ourselves.  They loved doing the opposites right after each other.  It was a huge giggle inducer!

 

We played a quarter game where they had to try to toss quarters into the Q... I let them get as close as they wanted.

 

Then we sorted money by quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies.

 

Of course, we had to go feed the ducks too... we heard a plethora of "Quack, quack!" while they scrambled for the bread!

I asked Sam and Anna 21 questions at different times without prompting any sort of answer- and got fun responses, even if they aren't completely accurate!  What they said at 2 and a half years old:

1. What is your name?  Sam [last name], Big Girl Anna [last name].
2. How old are you?  Sam- two, Anna- I two.
3. What is your favorite color? Sam- red Anna-red (keep in mind I did not ask both of them at the same time)
4. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Sam- bacon, Anna-fruit
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  Sam- bacon, Anna- mac and cheese
6. What is your favorite thing to eat for dinner? Sam- bacon (notice a trend?), Anna- no response
7. What is your favorite snack to eat?  Sam- apricot (fruit strips from Target), Anna- apricot (same thing)
8. What is your favorite fruit? Sam- watermelon, Anna- apricot
9. What is your favorite vegetable?  Sam- corn, Anna- french toast (?)
10. What is your favorite thing to drink?  Sam- water, Anna- water
11. What is your favorite animal?  Sam- elephant, Anna- lion
12. What is your favorite toy to play with?  Sam- elephant, Anna- mama (she likes to pretend everything is a mama, including pinecones, pieces of food, etc.)
13. What is your favorite book to read?  Sam- duck book (Little Quack), Anna- Monkeys Jumping Bed
14. Where do you like to go?  Sam- Grandma's, Anna- Grandma's
15. What is your favorite song?  Sam- Grandma (?  Maybe he meant singer?), Anna- Jesus Loves Me
16. Who is your best friend?  Sam- Anna,  Anna- Sam (everyone awww all together now)
17. What is your favorite thing to watch on tv?  Sam- watch Thomas on tv, Anna- Thomas
18. What do you want to be when you grow up?  Sam- in the dirt, Anna- no response
19. What is your favorite thing to do outside?  Sam- play basketball (we don't have a basketball or a hoop), Anna- play in the sandbox
20. What is your favorite thing to wear?  Sam- diaper (on the second day of potty training, hahaha!), Anna- shirt
21. Who is your favorite person?  Sam- me, Anna- ... (then Sam interrupts:  "Sam is!")