Patterning

A great way to remember shapes and colors is to set up a patterning activity.

I worked individually with each child for this project.  It looks a bit overwhelming for a three year old.  We just set the shapes down in the spots where they belonged.  I love that moment when they recognize what we are doing!  They all managed to take over without my help at some point.

The next step was to go ahead and glue the pieces into place.

This project only took a few minutes of preparation.  To save time, I folded the paper into eighths and cut out one shape.  This resulted in 8 of each shape, ready to go.  Grab another color and repeat, cutting out another shape.

He was very proud!  So was I!  He couldn't wait to show his mom.♥  Happy Monday! ♥♥♥

Song for today is The Chain by Fleetwood Mac.  Downloaded the album over the weekend. ♫

Quiet House

The house will be quiet today- no kids! That is always a strange feeling.  Luckily I have a giant grocery list for the daycare menu that needs to be picked up.  Praise the Lord the rain is turned off for now- I may get a neighborhood walk in as well!  Happy Friday. ♥♥♥ 

Song for today is Sinkin' Soon by Norah Jones.  I downloaded the album yesterday- I love every quirky twist and turn!  Best of all- it was only $5.  ♫

Smudge Vs. Chippy

It was inevitable.  Smudge outsmarted me and went outside while we were feeding our Chippy.   I let it play out.

Oooh- Chippy kept running to the apple tree.  Smudge kept his distance while letting Chippy know who is boss.

Chippy.. "Freeze!"  Click on the photo to see him in frozen mode.

Smudge took "cover".  Duh, Chippy can still see you. ♥

"Well then maybe I'll just make it clear that I OWN this porch."

Wait a minute...

What the... 

Chippy showed Smudge who is BOSS. Nothing gets between a squirrel and his snack.  Happy Thursday!♥♥♥

Song for today is now playing at Henle House.  Peace Train by Cat Stevens. ♫  Sorry about the pastel colors- just listen!

Sixteen

Yep, we are STILL working on the number 16.  It's a harder number for this age group to remember and we have been working on it for almost 3 weeks now.

First we colored the inside of the numbers. (Working on holding the crayon correctly, coloring inside of the lines..)

To finish, we stuck 16 farm stickers around the number. (Fine motor skills, counting practice.)

Our second project was to practice a little bit of name writing.  She is holding the pencil beautifully!  (Am I a dork or what?)

It's funny how God speaks to us sometimes.  I saw the apple blossoms this morning and they stood out more than usual.  I knew that God was saying,  "Nicole, these blossoms hold the promise of an apple.  This weather will pass, I promise.  Meanwhile I am here with you, even in the rain.♥  Now stop whining about the weather and be happy that I just watered your flower garden for you."  Ok!  Gotta love Washington.  Happy Wednesday!♥♥♥

Song for today is Rainbow Connection by Sarah McLaughlin.  Something bright for a rainy day. ♫  Just remember, there is always room for all of Gods creatures, right next to the mashed potatoes. 

T Is For Tiger

Moving along through the alphabet we arrive at the letter Tt.  The writing worksheet had a tiger on it so I thought that we should make some tiger masks to wear.  Paper plates are wonderful for making masks!  To prepare, cut out two eye holes and hole punch the sides of the plate to allow a sting to be attached.

The hard thing about painting a mask is that it has to dry before the child can wear it.  They didn't mind the wait!  We talked about other things that are orange while working on painting away the white.  I love that Crayola has such a vibrant orange!

The next step was to glue on the ears and stripes. Since the plate was already wet with paint, we used Elmers glue from the bottle rather than a glue stick.

T is for tiger! 

I went ahead and tied some elastic onto the masks before they were dry.  I like to be able to complete the project within half an hour.  I'd rather get paint on my hands than continue with the project later when I have other stuff to do.  I love elastic string.  We use it for masks, necklaces and bracelets.  I think I spent about $5 on the roll of it. 

Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrr!!!  Happy Tuesday!♥♥♥

Song for today is called Only Time by Enya.  It looks like rain today.  ♫

Great Weekend

We had such a fantastic weekend! The sunshine was warm.  Look at these cousins above.  They enjoyed their wagon time yesterday. ♥  I spent my time in the garden.

I noticed one lone tulip fighting to be seen in the spearmint. 

It is coming to life beautifully!  Do you see that bare spot?  It belongs to the mammoth sunflowers that we will plant an a bit. 

I used a chicken noodle soup can to create this simple outdoor vase.  It seems welcoming to me!  I stuffed it with spearmint because spearmint always lasts a long time in a vase.  It will actually grow roots, and an outdoor vase will get less attention so the hardier the foliage, the better. 

A drill worked well to create the holes, and then I used twine. 

The piggies came outside until we saw a giant eagle flying low over our yard.  They enjoyed their outside time. ♥

This is the garden mound of weeds I started to tackle.  It is so root bound thanks to that ugly rhody, it's just so difficult to clean out.  One day I will plow this whole thing over and plant grass.  Gardening is supposed to be fun! 

This is as far as I got.  There are some great strawberries among all of this mess, and a rhubarb plant as well as some perennial flowers that are great for vases.  I think every garden should have some picking flowers.  Happy Monday!♥♥♥

Armor Of God

This morning I am going to  a frugal exchange (free yard sale type swap) at church and we are going to share what our favorite thing is and what our favorite verse from the bible is.  I knew immediately what I would share.  My favorite verse is from Ephesians Chapter 6 verse 11. I think about this verse every day.  I feel like I can't go out into the world without it always there.  

Ephesians 6:11-13, "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the devils schemes,for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.  Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, 

and having done all,

 to stand."  

♥

My favorite thing is my Sony MP3 player.  It holds 8 gigs of memory, that's about 2000 songs.  I have taken this device with me everywhere.  It has taken road trips,  weeded the garden, wandered the city I live in, made dinner, and even scrubbed toilets with me.  My family is wonderful.  They know that I need what I call quiet time.  When my giant Sony headphones are on, I have a mission to complete and they leave me be.  My MP3 player probably plays about 6 hours every day hooked up to the stereo at home.  I love that I can pop into any playlist that has been tailored for the daycare, the weekend, my moods, or just a shuffle of everything.  So I am bringing it in to church today- not for the first time, either, to share.  It was the best $100 I have ever spent. 

Song for today is Corner Of Queen by Walk Off The Earth. ♥ Still loving these guys!♫

Ladybugs

I love children's books.  They are so informative and they get the point across in just a few well worded sentences.  We got out this ladybug book to see what we could learn.

The most interesting bit of information we found was how icky looking a ladybug larvae is.  If I saw one coming toward me, I would probably crush it not knowing that it would soon be welcomed onto my own hand.  Don't judge a book by it's cover, right?  Ladybugs are a gardeners friend!  They eat those nasty aphids. 

We created some construction paper ladybugs.

It was simple five minute project.  I once again forgot to let the capable child use scissors to cut out her own pieces.  I really need to work on remembering that.

Tada! No aphids here!  Happy Friday!  Will you please say a prayer for the kiddos in my daycare and their families?  Several have been recovering from illness and now another is out with the same symptoms.  We all need to beat this thing.  Meanwhile I am bleaching everything constantly. Thanks!♥♥♥

Song for today is by local artists Quichua Mishis.  Sorry I don't know what the name of the song is.  I bought an instrumental CD called Solo Amigos last summer while they were playing on their usual stretch of sidewalk beneath the Space Needle.  I really love the album.  It has been playing this morning at Henle House. They are great to watch!  It always excites me to hear local musicians.  Do you have any that you follow?

Grass Seeds

We have been talking about how things grow.  I'm not sure that they understand, but we're going to keep on keepin' on. 

First, we took our small cups outside and used the trowel to scoop some soil into the cups.  Kids are more proud of their project when they take part in creating it.  I don't mind letting the kids get their hands dirty.  (It's letting them get my house dirty that I am working on... reluctantly...)

We brought our soil inside and looked closely at the grass seeds.  They are so small and pointy, we couldn't believe that they would grow into nice soft grass. 

We poured out some soil and added the seeds to the cups.

When most of the seeds were in the cups, we put the remaining soil on top of the seeds.

The best part is watering the seeds!  We learned that the seeds need three things in order to grow.  Water, soil, and sunshine.  A squirt bottle is a great way to let kids water their projects without the mess.

We hot glued some faces onto our cups, (well, I did..) so that when the grass grows, our little people will have green hair!  Happy Wednesday!♥♥♥

Peanut Butter Smoothie

Yum- who doesn't love peanut butter?  We sure do!  I'm so happy that we have no peanut allergies in the house right now.  We've been having lots of peanut butter treats lately, cookies, pb crackers, chocolate and peanut butter, pretzels and peanut butter.. you name it. I am a choosy peanut butter mom, and I prefer Jif, but my pocketbook does not.  It costs almost $10.00 for the giant tub of peanut butter in the photo above.  I just remind myself that it contains protein and we all need it to survive.  We made smoothies this morning.

In a blender, load one ripe banana, a glob of peanut butter, and 1/2 cup of milk.

My blender ha a smoothie button on it.  If yours doesn't, just blend until it looks smooth.  I suppose some leftover banana chunks would be nice for texture.

They loved this snack!

This recipe made enough to fill 5 3 oz. cups.  Just right for my young group of children.  Enjoy!♥♥

Song for today is now playing at Henle House.  Hearts by Yes. ♫