Monday, May 24, 2010

one little monkey jumping on the bed

Don't feel compelled to load every video on this blog, but here is another one for the grandmas:) AP reciting the 5 little monkeys rhyme.

End of the School Year

Yep it is here already.
I've really enjoyed having J in afternoon kindergarten. J feels the same as I do. The other day he said
"Mom, don't you wish they had afternoon first grade?"
"Yep, I said, I'd sign you up in a minute" J is so not an earlybird bird!

At kindergarten graduation, the teachers give all the kids an award having to do with their area of expertise such as future stuntman, future entymologist, etc. I asked J if there was such thing as a Star Wars award. Sure enough, J got the Star Wars expertise award because his teacher says he knows the layout of every star wars ship, he frequently sings the star wars theme song while doing his work, and he seems to be a just a little bit obsessed...
We are trying to branch out, he is now a big fan of Clone Wars too. Seriously though, he recently enjoyed reading a history of dirigibles and he says he wants to read every book in the library on volcanoes.

Here are two very short clips from AJ's program for the grandparents to see: the BLT song and AJ's narration.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Kindergarten Craft Sale: Yoda Finger Puppets






On the last day of kindergarten the kids do a kindergarten store. The idea is to help the kids learn how money works. They all bring 10 homemade things labeled 5 cents each. They all bring 50 pennies and go shopping. Then they come home with 10 new things.

I LOVE this because kindergarten crafts are so fun to do. Last year AJ came up with the idea of jeweled fairy wands and pretty much made them herself. This year J came up with the idea of doing origami yoda finger puppets. I asked if we could do them colored and he thought that was cool.

However, some googly eyes, pipe cleaners, and scraps of green fleece started calling my name and we just had to make fleece finger puppets too. J sold packages with one origami and one fleece puppet in each and had a great time. J came home with these homemade items-silly putty, a block with Star Wars Lego pictures on it, playdough, a transformer ring, a bracelet, a homemade rainbow crayon, a beaded lizard, and I forget what else.

May 2010 slideshow

Saturday, May 22, 2010

No more toys???

I thought it would be a good idea to take away all the toys at my house for awhile. So two months ago I did, I also decided to unplug the TV while I was at it. It wasn't supposed to be a punishment or anything (although one kid was grounded at the time), just something I felt needed to be done. I told my kids I thought it would be a good thing to have no toys. They shrugged their shoulders about it only asking what they were supposed to play with now, "I said, blankets, cushions, pillows, and chairs." J got right to work making new and better toys. After a few weeks I got the Legos back out and if the kids ever request any other toy I get it out for a day or two. The TV was recently plugged back in so dad could watch baseball, although I don't think anyone noticed it was unplugged for a week or more.

By the way, as we head into the summer when all four of my kids have birthdays, YES my kids are allowed to have toys, but they also seem to enjoy popsicle sticks, pillows, cushions, chairs and blankets *grin*


x-wing fighter

clone trooper with blaster


Sunday, May 16, 2010

weekly highlights

I write down highlights for everyone each week in family home evening, I thought I'd share.

AJ: I have lots of highlights this week. I went to a Museum of Natural History travelling exhibit. We got our own rock collections...fools gold and volcano rock and a clear one and a green one. I made a fossil called a trilobite. Everything about the exhibit was cool. Also my class went to the farm and I got to feed a baby goat. It bit me, but it didn't hurt and that was my favorite part of the fieldtrip. We also got to go to a very cool playground. This week we had teddy bear picnic day and pirate day. I memorized a poem this week the first time my teacher told it to us. I think I should memorize lots of poems.

J: I went to the Natural History exhibit too. They put special lights on the rocks and some glowed. The white part of my coat glowed the most, it was cool. My friend Sam had a birthday party with pizza like at my birthday party, but it wasn't padawan pizza. He liked my present best, I gave him a little robot toy (J always says that). My class went to the zoo. The first thing we saw was a turkey, we got to ride the train, and I even saw a giraffe poop!

Dad: I went to Logan on a Gosner's cheese run with my dad! I amended the dead soil in our flowerbed and we planted flowers. They look really nice--red, yellow, orange and blue ones.

Mom: We went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for mother's day. I got babysitters for baby D and AP during Youth Arts festival taken care of. I'm learning lots of things about art and LEGOs, the class will be fun. I'm working really hard with J on reading, he'll thank me some day. I read a true story about a family that got shipwrecked which I really enjoyed, very thought provoking.

AP: "I like Cinderella!" (enough said). I'm finally resigned to the fact that at the premature age of 2 1/2 AP is done napping. She won't even fall asleep in the car. Also, she's had a big bed for a few months now, but she always ends up in the pack n play by morning. I had the bright idea of taking her mattress off the big bed and leaving just the board. She loved it. She's slept in the twin bed a week straight without getting out and she didn't flinch when I took down her beloved
'basket bed" and put it in storage. J also prefers a board over a mattress, my funny kids!

baby D (10 mos): two weeks ago he started eating food. We gave him some pretzels and he cried to have me get them out of his mouth because he didn't know how to chew and swallow. Yesterday he ate breakfast lunch and dinner the same as the rest of the family. Babies turn into little kids so fast! He split his head open one day (pitching a fit for food), not a highlight, but notable. It bled a lot and I was very scared. He turned out to be fine, but it was a scary day. He is scooching a lot, AJ calls his crawl "the worm", it fits.