Preston is staying home for the week. I decide to go ahead with a couple classes as planned for the girls as soon as they feel up to it. That ends up being Thursday for our Day 1. We are still coughing and sniffling, but they are finally feeling a little more energy to finish the lesson plans for Halloween that I have spent a lot of time preparing and want them to be able to do in time for Halloween as it is now only 3 days away.
Day 1
We are dressed the part today, Alex in black cat pants and shirt, and Amy in her Jack-o-lantern shirt,
perfect for beginning Activity 1 C is for Cats followed by Jack O Lantern shapes. To introduce both, we begin with a Jan Brett picture book, Scary Scary Halloween. Filled with carved pumpkins and scaredy cats who are hiding on this spooky Trick-or -Treat night out, it is the perfect Halloween book
perfect for beginning Activity 1 C is for Cats followed by Jack O Lantern shapes. To introduce both, we begin with a Jan Brett picture book, Scary Scary Halloween. Filled with carved pumpkins and scaredy cats who are hiding on this spooky Trick-or -Treat night out, it is the perfect Halloween book.
We follow with a coloring page from a Halloween book. I add C handwriting to the scaredy cat picture. We discuss how C is also for crescent moon, which is even shaped like a letter C. I had some triangle tracing and shape recognition with the cat's triangle ears.
After coloring our black Halloween scaredy cats, we "copycat" our cats, by arching our back and getting down on all fours.
One last letter C craft, we notice the shape of a cat's tail can also be a letter C. 
I find a printable shape craft off the web. It is perfect for making our C tail. We glue triangle ears and a circle body, with googly eyes and some plastic whiskers that I have pulled off another stuffed animal. Alex is "meowing" as I snap this shot. 
Afterwards, we work on our shapes by using Jack. First I rip out a workbook page, and have Alex trace some triangle eyes, circle nose, and some square teeth.
The next activity is their favorite of the entire class. I stressed over what to do with the whole pumpkin theme, there is a lot of ideas for halloween crafts online, but I make this one up myself and am proud as to how well it is received. Even big brother cannot stay away for this one. I give them each a cut-out orange construction paper pumpkin along with a pile of cut-out black construction paper shapes for the face. 
Listening to teacher they must make the faces as directed. Such as "Make a happy pumpkin with circle eyes, a triangle nose, and three teeth" or "Make a sad pumpkin with a circle nose, triangle eyes, and four teeth." They absolutely love it. I repeat slowly as they work. Since we are not using glue, we can then just dump the face shapes off, and make another one. So simple, and so much learning with it! Afterwards I let them play freely with their faces. And they spend almost forty-five minutes on this! C.J. keeps complimenting on this idea. He is even having fun making the faces. This simple shape puzzle / craft may not be the showiest or most complicated or even the most creative per say, but what it does do that knocks the rest of them out of the running is allow for creative kids. It's creative kids, not crafts, that I want. There are a ton of glueing crafts online but by deciding not to glue pieces, we can go on with endless creative play and creation, even for an almost sixteen year old boy! 
At first Alex is annoyed with C.J. taking a seat and this is funny to watch. She reminds him that this is her school, not his, a little possessive she is about her time with teacher. But C.J. wins her over by showing her how to create some cool faces, like this owl. 
I am so happy C.J. is home to enjoy preschool with us, it really ends up to be a fun week off with all the family together, even Allen and C.J. home, too...and that is not something that happens if but once a year, and even then it is almost never for a week period! 
The next activity is their favorite of the entire class. I stressed over what to do with the whole pumpkin theme, there is a lot of ideas for halloween crafts online, but I make this one up myself and am proud as to how well it is received. Even big brother cannot stay away for this one. I give them each a cut-out orange construction paper pumpkin along with a pile of cut-out black construction paper shapes for the face. Listening to teacher they must make the faces as directed. Such as "Make a happy pumpkin with circle eyes, a triangle nose, and three teeth" or "Make a sad pumpkin with a circle nose, triangle eyes, and four teeth." They absolutely love it. I repeat slowly as they work. Since we are not using glue, we can then just dump the face shapes off, and make another one. So simple, and so much learning with it! Afterwards I let them play freely with their faces. And they spend almost forty-five minutes on this! C.J. keeps complimenting on this idea. He is even having fun making the faces. This simple shape puzzle / craft may not be the showiest or most complicated or even the most creative per say, but what it does do that knocks the rest of them out of the running is allow for creative kids. It's creative kids, not crafts, that I want. There are a ton of glueing crafts online but by deciding not to glue pieces, we can go on with endless creative play and creation, even for an almost sixteen year old boy! At first Alex is annoyed with C.J. taking a seat and this is funny to watch. She reminds him that this is her school, not his, a little possessive she is about her time with teacher. But C.J. wins her over by showing her how to create some cool faces, like this owl. I am so happy C.J. is home to enjoy preschool with us, it really ends up to be a fun week off with all the family together, even Allen and C.J. home, too...and that is not something that happens if but once a year, and even then it is almost never for a week period! I find a great printable off enchanted learning.com. My friend has kindly paid for a subscription for both of us to use. I have already had my eye on this site but with limited access I could not use a lot of the printables, so what a surprise to get an email from my friend about it. She had no idea that I have been using this site for what little I could get to already. I am happy to find a great printable that wraps up our shape learning so perfectly. (Thank you so much, Jamie, you are a true friend, giving me so much encouragement with this preschool thing.) A lot of thinking - counting, shape recognition and sorting must go on with this worksheet of counting Jack-o'-Lanterns. With almost ten questions, I make it a little easier for each one by writing numbers to circle instead of write in since we can't do that yet. For example, the questions ask "How many pumpkins are smiling, frowning, have triangle noses, have no noses, look surprised, have triangle eyes...and last how many altogether?"
Our Jack O Lanterns with teeth bring us to our next body part to learn. Activity 1 includes our last lesson on body parts. After making our pumpkin teeth, I tell Alex to go look in the mirror at her own teeth. We talk about their square shape and white color, and what our teeth help us do, like helping us display our feelings with happy faces that smile.
We go back to circle time for a reading of
Our Jack O Lanterns with teeth bring us to our next body part to learn. Activity 1 includes our last lesson on body parts. After making our pumpkin teeth, I tell Alex to go look in the mirror at her own teeth. We talk about their square shape and white color, and what our teeth help us do, like helping us display our feelings with happy faces that smile.
We go back to circle time for a reading of
This is such a funny book that I have saved from C.J. Someone has stolen Grandpa's teeth! 
They place Wanted ads,
and even try to pick out the culprit at the police station. 
Not wanting Grandpa to think they are responsible, the whole town walks around smiling. 
When the teeth cannot be found, the town raises money and buys him a new set. So proud of his new teeth, Grandpa smiles for a family picture. 
The picture upload wants to be difficult today, but look who's also smiling like never before - Grandpa's dog, who appears on every page of the book, is the sneaky teeth snatcher! Sure, blame it on the dog. (Maybe for preschool, girls, Grandpa can bring in his set of teeth, I say. lol to my father!)
They place Wanted ads, and even try to pick out the culprit at the police station. Not wanting Grandpa to think they are responsible, the whole town walks around smiling. When the teeth cannot be found, the town raises money and buys him a new set. So proud of his new teeth, Grandpa smiles for a family picture. The picture upload wants to be difficult today, but look who's also smiling like never before - Grandpa's dog, who appears on every page of the book, is the sneaky teeth snatcher! Sure, blame it on the dog. (Maybe for preschool, girls, Grandpa can bring in his set of teeth, I say. lol to my father!) C is for cleaning and we talk about how we clean and brush our teeth with this short little workbook page. (No matter what I do, the picture's are all loading sideways, talk about clenching my teeth.) 
C is for computer and Colgate, so we spend some time at Colgate's website doing fun games all about our teeth to end the lesson. Attack of the Plaque Monsters: 
...This tree helps us learn how to brush ALL our teeth, and where, by clicking on the arrows. Neat!
C is for computer and Colgate, so we spend some time at Colgate's website doing fun games all about our teeth to end the lesson. Attack of the Plaque Monsters: ...This tree helps us learn how to brush ALL our teeth, and where, by clicking on the arrows. Neat!
Alex's favorite is the Animal faces game. She clicks and drags the mouse to make all kinds of silly faces that are just cracking her up, I let her play this one awhile because she is just having so much fun. I am so impressed with the stuff on the web for kids. I really have not explored this so much until now. There is so much out there to help with our lessons.
Speaking of sharp teeth, for our snack today, we chomp on Count Chocula who will be the subject of our next activity since C is for counting, and I know a Count who loves to count.
Youtube comes in handy for this. I find four or five classic Count clips from Sesame Street. We spend a good twenty minutes watching The Count, mimicking his laugh with each scene. Some of the clips are perfect for our learning - a counting scene of monster feet and a song about bones with a hanging skeleton, plus spooky clips at his haunted castle doing the Batty Bat song. We do one last C is for Count handwriting page that also includes counting bats that I have ripped out of the girls' Halloween coloring book.
C is for Candy and this ends our class time. I cut out bubble letters of the word "candy". We make a colorful letter C by glueing Sixlets candy to our word. Amy is having a hard time resisting, so I have to separate a pile for her, otherwise she is taking all the ones that she has just glued to her C, and shoving them in her mouth, glue and all. 
Next up some real candy counting and number matching from a Winnie the Pooh coloring book. I add some numbers to one side to help her make the match. 
Plus we do shape recognition with my directions to color the circle candies red, the triangle candy orange, and the rectangle candy blue. Another Halloween coloring book, I spend a lot of time looking at coloring books. Other fun things like, can you find Piglet's ears? What color is Piglet? Color the flower petals purple. Count how many candies surround Piglet. People in the store must think I am crazy as I study the pages before I buy to see if they will work for our learning. 
Next up some real candy counting and number matching from a Winnie the Pooh coloring book. I add some numbers to one side to help her make the match. Plus we do shape recognition with my directions to color the circle candies red, the triangle candy orange, and the rectangle candy blue. Another Halloween coloring book, I spend a lot of time looking at coloring books. Other fun things like, can you find Piglet's ears? What color is Piglet? Color the flower petals purple. Count how many candies surround Piglet. People in the store must think I am crazy as I study the pages before I buy to see if they will work for our learning. Here is our homework pages that Alex asks to complete that same night (she can't get enough, I guess! But seriously, this is how excited and eager she is to learn everything). She loves the dot-to-dot pages, so delighted is she when she makes this cat below, laughing out loud at herself. It is a dot-to-dot of the numbers 1 through 10 that I have printed off the web. I add some C's for handwriting. Amy helps by coloring the cat blue.
Plus another dot-to-dot homework page that I draw myself since I am now out of ink for what feels like the tenth time since I started this preschool. I include some O handwriting from the word "toothbrush", and tracing some up and down lines at the bottom where I have drawn a mouth with teeth. We talk about brushing up and down as she traces.
Might I add here that I seriously wonder if it was a good idea to include teeth in our lesson plan ...because afterwards at home, Alex decides to explore biting. She chomps her sister's hand and arm twice, followed by a shoulder bite on Daddy, too. Maybe sinking her teeth into people has something to do with Halloween, after all we did use a vampire to do our lesson. Opps. I hope to nip it in the bud soon, as she now knows what it feels like herself, because after three incidents we resort to biting her back, and it so far has worked.________________________________________________________________
Day 2
I am breaking up the last class which is actually taking place on the weekend, into two parts. The first part is the regular time at 9:o0 in the morning and this part is so chock full of activites that I know it will take almost all of a regular class time of three hours to probably do.
For Activity 1, we work with our letter C again. Letter "C is for Cookie and that's good enough for me," so I take Cookie Monster's word for it as he is our guest today at class. Instead of the alphabet song, we read The ABC's of Cookies with our guest. Cookie has lots of questions, he needs help recognizing the letters on each page. Alex is there to do this, and she is very serious about it, looking straight at Cookie Monster as she talks. Teacher is trying hard to impersonate Cookie Monster's voice. Afterwards I must have a glass of hot tea for my parched throat and all the coughing because of it.
After our reading, we count cookies taken from the girls' kitchen as we feed them Cookie Monster. This puppet was about 75 cents a few years ago when I picked it up at a garage sale. I cut a slit in his mouth so that he really does eat the cookies. He engages in conversation with Alex, asking for more cookies and rubbing his tummy. He eats seven cookies and his tummy begins to hurt. I love watching Alex, she really does believe it is Cookie Monster, as she is shy at first to talk to him. Amy on the other screams in terror and is out in the living room hugging Daddy. 
While Cookie Monster is taking a rest we watch a youtube video of Sesame Street and you can guess who our main star is. Youtube works out perfectly this week, as I am able to find a number of clips for exactly what we are working on. We watch Cookie Monster sing C is for Cookie and munch on his cookies.
Alex belly laughs through the entire show. She keeps turning around to look at me so we can laugh together and she is so excited as she talks about what she sees. Although they have watched Sesame Street about one hundred times, I can't recall if they have seen this older version of Cookie Monster in his classic skit, and they seem completely mesmorized by it. 
I find a great clip of both Count and Cookie "cooperating" as Count counts the cookies and Cookie eats them right after. It is quite funny and teacher is laughing just as hard.
Our reading with Cookie is all about making cookies, so Cookie Monster joins us again as we bake our own cookies. A is for apron, so we have donned our aprons and put our cookies on the cookie sheet.
Cookie Monster is right there beside us when our cookies come out of the oven. He is hungry. We have to teach him some manners as he is taking Cookies as fast as he can from Alex's hand, making his classic munching noises. Alex is laughing so hard, even Amy can't help but warm up to Cookie Monster now, even taking a turn to feed him, as she timidly puts her hand out there for him, luckily Cookie is being gentle this time. We teach him to ask "please" and say "thank you".
I cannot get over Alex, she just loves feeding that Cookie Monster. She turns to me to laugh every time, as Cookie grabs at her hands for another cookie. 
We say goodbye to Cookie Monster who has to get back to Sesame Street. Next up, making our own cookie jars while we work on our handwriting by tracing some C's and O's. 
The cookie jar works as our game board when we play a cookie matching game next. I have cut out an assortment of cookies on paper, labeling one P for peanut butter, adding chips to another, and sprinkles and frosting to a couple more different kinds. Taking turns, once you receive a match you put in your cookie jar. We play until all the cookies have been matched. 
After playing our matching game three or four times, we go to Circle where Daddy is there to join us in another fun game of Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar. I make up my own way to play that works better for the girls. Everyone closes their eyes, and the person who feels a tap on their shoulder must quickly take a cookie from the jar and put it under their seat. Here is Amy about to take the cookie as Alex and Daddy wait with their eyes closed.
Alex is a scream to watch as we play this, here she holds her hands up trying to convince Daddy that it wasn't her who took the cookie as we sing the song "Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar, was it Alex? Who me, not me, couldn't be, then who?" Doing class on the weekend actually works out nice today, as Daddy is able to enjoy it with us.
Back at the table, we do one worksheet of recognizing the differences in two Cookie Monster pictures that I rip out of a coloring book. I add some tracing of numbers and the letter C.
After our reading, we count cookies taken from the girls' kitchen as we feed them Cookie Monster. This puppet was about 75 cents a few years ago when I picked it up at a garage sale. I cut a slit in his mouth so that he really does eat the cookies. He engages in conversation with Alex, asking for more cookies and rubbing his tummy. He eats seven cookies and his tummy begins to hurt. I love watching Alex, she really does believe it is Cookie Monster, as she is shy at first to talk to him. Amy on the other screams in terror and is out in the living room hugging Daddy. While Cookie Monster is taking a rest we watch a youtube video of Sesame Street and you can guess who our main star is. Youtube works out perfectly this week, as I am able to find a number of clips for exactly what we are working on. We watch Cookie Monster sing C is for Cookie and munch on his cookies.Alex belly laughs through the entire show. She keeps turning around to look at me so we can laugh together and she is so excited as she talks about what she sees. Although they have watched Sesame Street about one hundred times, I can't recall if they have seen this older version of Cookie Monster in his classic skit, and they seem completely mesmorized by it. I find a great clip of both Count and Cookie "cooperating" as Count counts the cookies and Cookie eats them right after. It is quite funny and teacher is laughing just as hard.Our reading with Cookie is all about making cookies, so Cookie Monster joins us again as we bake our own cookies. A is for apron, so we have donned our aprons and put our cookies on the cookie sheet.Cookie Monster is right there beside us when our cookies come out of the oven. He is hungry. We have to teach him some manners as he is taking Cookies as fast as he can from Alex's hand, making his classic munching noises. Alex is laughing so hard, even Amy can't help but warm up to Cookie Monster now, even taking a turn to feed him, as she timidly puts her hand out there for him, luckily Cookie is being gentle this time. We teach him to ask "please" and say "thank you".I cannot get over Alex, she just loves feeding that Cookie Monster. She turns to me to laugh every time, as Cookie grabs at her hands for another cookie. We say goodbye to Cookie Monster who has to get back to Sesame Street. Next up, making our own cookie jars while we work on our handwriting by tracing some C's and O's. The cookie jar works as our game board when we play a cookie matching game next. I have cut out an assortment of cookies on paper, labeling one P for peanut butter, adding chips to another, and sprinkles and frosting to a couple more different kinds. Taking turns, once you receive a match you put in your cookie jar. We play until all the cookies have been matched. After playing our matching game three or four times, we go to Circle where Daddy is there to join us in another fun game of Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar. I make up my own way to play that works better for the girls. Everyone closes their eyes, and the person who feels a tap on their shoulder must quickly take a cookie from the jar and put it under their seat. Here is Amy about to take the cookie as Alex and Daddy wait with their eyes closed.Alex is a scream to watch as we play this, here she holds her hands up trying to convince Daddy that it wasn't her who took the cookie as we sing the song "Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar, was it Alex? Who me, not me, couldn't be, then who?" Doing class on the weekend actually works out nice today, as Daddy is able to enjoy it with us.Back at the table, we do one worksheet of recognizing the differences in two Cookie Monster pictures that I rip out of a coloring book. I add some tracing of numbers and the letter C.
Keeping our monster theme going, I have 2 monster readings for some further storytime today. We start with our pal Grover in There's a Monster at the End of the Book!" This is all fun and full of interaction, as Grover talks right to his readers.
Grover begs his readers not to turn the page. I have made all of us pink construction paper noses to wear like Grover's nose. I let Alex and Amy take turns trying to turn the pages that Grover tries to stop us from doing on each page by tying knots and laying down bricks. Alex is cute to watch as she acts out trying to turn the page. She gets it, and acts like the page loaded with bricks is heavy and takes a long time to lift it up and turn it.
"Grover is so mad at us!" I say. The book ends with the only monster at the end of the book being Grover himself. The last line by Grover is "I am so embarrased." Alex is giggling and I really thing she gets it.
We end our class a little early with the promise of coming back later in the evening for a special costume party. For our ending right now, I put out some monster puppets for the girls to create. They are very cool, as you can velcro any body part anywhere on the puppet. I have these from C.J.'s little boy days, and I remember now how much fun we had with them. 
Complete with any kind of tail, horns, or funky-looking ears you can think of, the choice is all theirs as they create just about any kind of monster they want. Amy is all about the roaring when she finishes her puppet, and I quickly snap this shot of her.
The students receive boo bags for the last time, and so as they leave I hand the bags to them this time myself instead of hiding them in their backpacks.. I ask if they have figured out yet who has been doing the boo-ing all this time. "I knew it was you, Teacher!" Alex states. Instead of candy, they get some items to remind of us our teeth. The toothbrushes are received with a lot of excitement, 
and I know they will come in handy with all the candy they are about to eat... but Alex loves the monster/vampire teeth the best, and as I have already written above, this whole teeth lesson comes back to "bite me in the you-know-what" the next couple of weeks, when she decides to try out her own teeth on other people. I can't get her to take them out of her mouth for the next two days as she runs around frightening everyone in her path. Amy is gurgling and drooling as she has a hard time even getting the teeth in her little mouth, but she looks quite scary once she gets them to stay. 
They also receive phones and puzzles from Preston's mom. The phones are perfect for we have just learned about our ears and listening skills, too. 
After class, the girls spend a good hour puzzling together. They love the challenge and do the puzzle over and over again, getting faster each time. Those little minds just don't stop! I am exhausted with this cold, so I sit in my chair with a cup of coffee watching and wondering how they can just keep going. 
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But they do eventually stop. I guess they were just as exhausted as teacher, because both of them miraculously take a very long nap. This works out well for our party which now begins at dusk on Halloween night. They arrive in costume upbeat and well-rested. I surprise them both with my own costume to go along with a story reading. First we each take a turn telling about our costumes. Alex buzzes for us while Amy hops around with her floppy ears. Alex catches Amy with a big squeeze, and Amy hugs her right back. Mom watches and wishes they would take naps more often, as they are in the best moods I have seen in a long time.
They are a little unsure of teacher though, and I catch them staring at me with serious faces, as I try to capture in the picture below but the camera is too far away to really show how funny it is to watch them watch me. At first I can't figure out why they look so melancholy, until I realize that I am in costume and Alex keeps reassuring herself out loud with a nervous laugh, "You are teacher, not a witch."
Our book is a fun one, that takes after the classic story of The Little Red Hen which we are familiar with from our class on chickens a month ago. The title is The Little Green Witch, and she cannot get any help from a ghost, bat, or gremlin as she plants pumpkins and makes rotten pie all by herself. I use a scratchy voice which is not hard to do since my voice is gone with the nasty cold. They are entranced thoughout the story, I am not sure if it is more so with the story or the witch telling it. 
Even C.J. joins the group, and if you look closely you can't miss that huge grin on his face as he enjoys the next cute story, too 
But before the final story above the girls do a witchy craft "witch" is all about cutting, as Alex must trace white crayon lines to cut out a witch hat. I help Amy with hers as I watch Alex cut. She does it perfectly with no help and I can't believe how she has just taken to cutting with no trouble now. 
We discuss the triangle shape, and then glue some ribbon to another piece of black construction paper for out hat's rim. The fun part is glueing little googly eyes
to complete our witchy hat.
We read one more story, and it is a favorite Sesame Street one of mine. The monsters of Sesame Street are all coming in handy for this week's lessons. This one is titles Which Witch is Which? as Telly, Herry, Zoe, Grover, and Elmo make their way around the neighborhood Tricking for Treats by asking if anyone can guess who is who. I give them each a witch nose, like in the book, that I have cut out from construction paper, and we all tape them to our noses for the reading. We are about to do our own Tricks for Treats but before we do, I have cut out color copies of each witch monster from the book, and I hide them under their own crafted hats with only the monster feet showing. Alex does her own guessing of which witch is which by the color clues given - which witch has little red feet, or big blue feet... 
Before our Trick and Treating party, we start with an Exercise song to help get us fired up since I did not do one in the morning. Ezekial's Dry Bones is our song and we do the motions as we sing "The foot bone's connected to the ankle bone, the ankle bone's connected to the leg bone, the leg bone's connected to the hip bone, the hip bone connected to the back bone, the back bone connected to the shoulder bone, the shoulder bone connected to the neck bone...Let's hear the word of the Lord! Dem bones, dem bones, gonna walk around..."
Grover begs his readers not to turn the page. I have made all of us pink construction paper noses to wear like Grover's nose. I let Alex and Amy take turns trying to turn the pages that Grover tries to stop us from doing on each page by tying knots and laying down bricks. Alex is cute to watch as she acts out trying to turn the page. She gets it, and acts like the page loaded with bricks is heavy and takes a long time to lift it up and turn it. "Grover is so mad at us!" I say. The book ends with the only monster at the end of the book being Grover himself. The last line by Grover is "I am so embarrased." Alex is giggling and I really thing she gets it.In between books, we do a couple monster workbook pages. One page is counting monster eyes printed off the web, while the other is counting monster teeth from a coloring book. 
Amy colors the monster, and Alex counts the teeth.The next story is a great one, and I could go on about it forever. I am so excited, I tell about the story to my family, and C.J. states, "Mom, you'd think, it was a three hour movie, the way you tell it." I can't help it really. Childhood is really a gift that parents should not miss because it is so much fun, and it happens in a blink of an eye, and you don't get to experience it again until you hopefully have grandchildren. Grandparenting is also a gift, because at this point in life you do make the time. A good grandparent knows what it means to enjoy a child's laughter and smiles, they are full of wisdom that we parents are just learning and they know what is truly important is the time they spend now with these little people- if only more parents could also realize how important it is, too, to make the time for their child in their busy schedule. I know they will wind up being sorry, or even more sadly not even know what they have missed out on. One of the most enjoyable and humorous times in your life only happens whey you have a child, I wish more parents who complain and gripe, and pass the kids off for someone else to raise, would realize that this is it! This is what living is all about, these stages in our life are meant to happen!
Once thing I feel thankful for is being able to expereince it twice in my life, once with C.J., and now with the girls. Because, once it's over, you never go back, and knowing that gives me an advantage that I would not have without having raised C.J. You don't read the cute picture books anymore, or watch all the cute shows. You have to experience the childhoold right along with them. Those memories will last forever and you soon realize when the time is gone, that they are some of the most important ones that you will carry with you in your life.
Like, I will never forget moments reading to my children, or watching Sesame Street together. Having an older son, I know you just don't go back to that time again and I am cherishing it with these two girls as well. Adults really do become stuffy and old, they forget how to have fun. If you want to truly laugh like you've never laughed before, watch those seven dwarfs or Sesame Street, read one of those great picture books, or even enjoy one of the new shows out there like Wonder Pets, which are full of some great humor, that even make Allen laugh with tears. Do it now and you will see what I mean. You grow right along with your child in parenting, and I feel thankful to know this, enjoy the good times before they become stressed out teenagers! I am off the subject now, and turning into a mother...
The best part of our reading is the finger puppets I have printed off from gruffalo.com. What a cool site! Music with forest sounds, and activities galore, how can you not love this book?! I have the forest sounds going right now as I type. The Gruffalo is the coolest monster ever. First, I have them color their puppets. The girls are able to follow along and act out the characters with their fingers for each page I read.
Anything to make reading more interactive is fun and more memorable for them. They are so busy with their puppets, Alex is following along with the story, holding up each animal when I get to that page.
Anything to make reading more interactive is fun and more memorable for them. They are so busy with their puppets, Alex is following along with the story, holding up each animal when I get to that page.Our main character is a little mouse walking through the forest. He runs into many predators, all of them wanting to eat him for lunch. But our little mouse friend is a clever one, and he tells his predators one by one as they arrive on the scene that he is on his way to lunch with a Gruffalo. "A Gruffalo?" "What's a Gruffalo?" So on every page, the mouse describes a terrible monster with "terrible claws, terrible teeth, orange eyes, a black tongue, and knobbly knees, a green wart on his nose and purple prickles on his back. With each animal he meets, the Gruffalo is described even fiercer than before. The fun part is when that mouse walks on, he really does run into his made-up Gruffalo. 
The clever little mouse deters the Gruffalo from eating him by telling the monster that he is "the scariest creature in this deep dark wood." He tells the monster to walk behind him, as he goes back past the fox, owl, and snake who are terrified and run. The Gruffalo sees how scared the other animals are and takes off, too. The last scene is the mouse chomping on an acorn, enjoying his lunch.
We end the story with a printable coloring page of the Gruffalo. Alex works on her colors by recalling the description of the monster in the book. She uses her crayons to make purple prickles, black knees and tongue, orange eyes, and a brown body. I introduce letter T which we will be working with next month, by adding handwriting to the bottom of the coloring page "T is for Terrible".The clever little mouse deters the Gruffalo from eating him by telling the monster that he is "the scariest creature in this deep dark wood." He tells the monster to walk behind him, as he goes back past the fox, owl, and snake who are terrified and run. The Gruffalo sees how scared the other animals are and takes off, too. The last scene is the mouse chomping on an acorn, enjoying his lunch. We do one last activity to go along with our monster theme today. I find a great monster in one of the girl's Halloween coloring books, and cut it out with eye holes. The girls color their monster and glue a popsicle stick to the back to make their very own monster face mask. 
We use the masks to do another I spy book, this one called I Spy Monsters that I have spotted at Meijer the week before. The I Spy books are great fun, and we spend a long time trying to find all the listed items.
We use the masks to do another I spy book, this one called I Spy Monsters that I have spotted at Meijer the week before. The I Spy books are great fun, and we spend a long time trying to find all the listed items.We end our class a little early with the promise of coming back later in the evening for a special costume party. For our ending right now, I put out some monster puppets for the girls to create. They are very cool, as you can velcro any body part anywhere on the puppet. I have these from C.J.'s little boy days, and I remember now how much fun we had with them. Complete with any kind of tail, horns, or funky-looking ears you can think of, the choice is all theirs as they create just about any kind of monster they want. Amy is all about the roaring when she finishes her puppet, and I quickly snap this shot of her.The students receive boo bags for the last time, and so as they leave I hand the bags to them this time myself instead of hiding them in their backpacks.. I ask if they have figured out yet who has been doing the boo-ing all this time. "I knew it was you, Teacher!" Alex states. Instead of candy, they get some items to remind of us our teeth. The toothbrushes are received with a lot of excitement, and I know they will come in handy with all the candy they are about to eat... but Alex loves the monster/vampire teeth the best, and as I have already written above, this whole teeth lesson comes back to "bite me in the you-know-what" the next couple of weeks, when she decides to try out her own teeth on other people. I can't get her to take them out of her mouth for the next two days as she runs around frightening everyone in her path. Amy is gurgling and drooling as she has a hard time even getting the teeth in her little mouth, but she looks quite scary once she gets them to stay. They also receive phones and puzzles from Preston's mom. The phones are perfect for we have just learned about our ears and listening skills, too. After class, the girls spend a good hour puzzling together. They love the challenge and do the puzzle over and over again, getting faster each time. Those little minds just don't stop! I am exhausted with this cold, so I sit in my chair with a cup of coffee watching and wondering how they can just keep going. ___________________________________________________________________
But they do eventually stop. I guess they were just as exhausted as teacher, because both of them miraculously take a very long nap. This works out well for our party which now begins at dusk on Halloween night. They arrive in costume upbeat and well-rested. I surprise them both with my own costume to go along with a story reading. First we each take a turn telling about our costumes. Alex buzzes for us while Amy hops around with her floppy ears. Alex catches Amy with a big squeeze, and Amy hugs her right back. Mom watches and wishes they would take naps more often, as they are in the best moods I have seen in a long time.
They are a little unsure of teacher though, and I catch them staring at me with serious faces, as I try to capture in the picture below but the camera is too far away to really show how funny it is to watch them watch me. At first I can't figure out why they look so melancholy, until I realize that I am in costume and Alex keeps reassuring herself out loud with a nervous laugh, "You are teacher, not a witch."Our book is a fun one, that takes after the classic story of The Little Red Hen which we are familiar with from our class on chickens a month ago. The title is The Little Green Witch, and she cannot get any help from a ghost, bat, or gremlin as she plants pumpkins and makes rotten pie all by herself. I use a scratchy voice which is not hard to do since my voice is gone with the nasty cold. They are entranced thoughout the story, I am not sure if it is more so with the story or the witch telling it. Even C.J. joins the group, and if you look closely you can't miss that huge grin on his face as he enjoys the next cute story, too But before the final story above the girls do a witchy craft "witch" is all about cutting, as Alex must trace white crayon lines to cut out a witch hat. I help Amy with hers as I watch Alex cut. She does it perfectly with no help and I can't believe how she has just taken to cutting with no trouble now. We discuss the triangle shape, and then glue some ribbon to another piece of black construction paper for out hat's rim. The fun part is glueing little googly eyes to complete our witchy hat.We read one more story, and it is a favorite Sesame Street one of mine. The monsters of Sesame Street are all coming in handy for this week's lessons. This one is titles Which Witch is Which? as Telly, Herry, Zoe, Grover, and Elmo make their way around the neighborhood Tricking for Treats by asking if anyone can guess who is who. I give them each a witch nose, like in the book, that I have cut out from construction paper, and we all tape them to our noses for the reading. We are about to do our own Tricks for Treats but before we do, I have cut out color copies of each witch monster from the book, and I hide them under their own crafted hats with only the monster feet showing. Alex does her own guessing of which witch is which by the color clues given - which witch has little red feet, or big blue feet... Before our Trick and Treating party, we start with an Exercise song to help get us fired up since I did not do one in the morning. Ezekial's Dry Bones is our song and we do the motions as we sing "The foot bone's connected to the ankle bone, the ankle bone's connected to the leg bone, the leg bone's connected to the hip bone, the hip bone connected to the back bone, the back bone connected to the shoulder bone, the shoulder bone connected to the neck bone...Let's hear the word of the Lord! Dem bones, dem bones, gonna walk around..."
My favorite snack tonight for our party, is our Gruffalo cake in honor of our earlier reading. Another idea from the publishing site, this cake is so easy to make. Using store-bought frosting and a cake mix, I am able to do this simply in the afternoon after the morning part of our class. I add some cocoa to cream frosting for brown color, and then instead of using shaved chocolate like the directions, I go with coconut mixed in to the frosting for our textured hair that makes our Gruffalo look better than the one given in the picture online. I make the eyes, whiskers and mouth with black and orange squeeze tubes. All that is left are the horns and teeth made with two bananas. Before starting our games, I let Alex make the rest of our Gruffalo. I have found some teeth gummies to spread around it, making this a perfect monster treat. We use a green M&M for the wart nose. 
But before we eat our treats we must first do some Tricks at our "Tricks for Treats" party. Set up around the house are stations with games and activities. This part of class ends up being a family event and a nice way to celebrate our Halloween since we will not be going outside tonight with the awful colds still taking over all of us. I can't help think that it works out even better for us since everyone ends up having a good time.
Our stations include a candy counting table which is just a workbook page and numbers that must be matched to the correct jar.
But before we eat our treats we must first do some Tricks at our "Tricks for Treats" party. Set up around the house are stations with games and activities. This part of class ends up being a family event and a nice way to celebrate our Halloween since we will not be going outside tonight with the awful colds still taking over all of us. I can't help think that it works out even better for us since everyone ends up having a good time.
Our stations include a candy counting table which is just a workbook page and numbers that must be matched to the correct jar.
We also have Pin the Spider on the Web and Pin the C-tail on the Cat. Alex does not understand why we won't let her see. I don't either actually. Teaching the concept of the games takes the most time sometimes, and a lot of the time I have a hard time conveying what it's all about such as with this one. She wants total control. She doesn't know why we are spinning her around.
She simply states, "I can't pin it on. I can't see! Take this off!". What, may I ask you, do I say to that?! We play it a few times though, and she gets over the reasoning part. This ends up being a good one to show her exactly what it means to be able to see with our eyes.
She simply states, "I can't pin it on. I can't see! Take this off!". What, may I ask you, do I say to that?! We play it a few times though, and she gets over the reasoning part. This ends up being a good one to show her exactly what it means to be able to see with our eyes. Another station is about position words. There are 2 pumpkin cutouts and a spider. She must make the spider crawl around by listening to teacher. Such as, "The spider crawls between the pumpkins. . . 
The spider is crawling on top of the pumpkin on the left." 
She is getting better at left and right, especially due to dance class, and only once does she mistake one for the other out of about five times.
The spider is crawling on top of the pumpkin on the left." She is getting better at left and right, especially due to dance class, and only once does she mistake one for the other out of about five times.Meanwhile, older brother C.J. has been busy preparing his own games for the students. In addition to dressing a part, he is also designing and drawing the "tricks" that he will ask the girls to do. We call him "Bones" as he is helping run two of our skeleton game activities. 
Bones makes 2 skeletons on white construction paper. One skeleton is put into a skeleton bucket and the students must put the body puzzle together. I think up both skeleton games myself, and they end up working perfectly as a review of all the body parts we have been learning. 
Another skeleton is taped to the floor, and similar to Hopscotch, this game is called Shake, Rattle, and Roll and the students, using little plastic bones (again from C.J.'s younger days), roll all the bones onto the skeleton, trying to get them to land on different body parts. 
Then they must perform an action for each body part that their bones land on. Such as with her right hand in the picture below, Alex must first figure out which one is her right hand, count 1 to 5, and bend her thumb.
Bones is there to help with each game if they need it, complete with his skeleton hand that talks. Alex is all smiles as she enjoys shaking her arm in this shot:
I will say here that Amy will have nothing to do with "Bones" or the games he is helping do. It isn't until the games are all over that she actually warms up to him and we catch this shot. 
And now for some monster fun. This game is just for that reason - FUN. Monster bowling causes a lot of laughs, and this one is very hard to get them to stop playing. 
Amy loves it, too. 
(And so does Bones, as he watches and slaps them high fives when they knock all the monster pins down.)
With this one, they must knock all the pins down four times. We are keeping track with a " greem slime" paper pad that for each strike, they get a monster sticker added. They are into this one, keeping track of their slime paper as they go. It is almost as much fun as Wii bowling.
The last station is a real board game, another one that I bought on sale the year before for under 10 bucks, and have put up waiting to play for this time of year since the name of the game is Go Away, Monster. Another simple one like Goodnight Moon (as well as award winner), with this one, game players take turns pulling a shape out of the bag, trying to match it to their own game board which is a bedroom scene.
Through repeated play, it is hoped that children will begin to recognize the shapes which are beds, lamps, and pictures, as they feel their way around in the bag. The fun part is pulling out a monster that you must then make go away. You can do this however you like, the game directions suggest putting it under the bed, or hiding it under your seat, or even the board, but we use little plastic monsters that I have kept from C.J.'s younger days. If a monster is pulled out, they take one of the plastic monsters that I have set up around the boards, and pound and smash the play piece yelling "Go away, Monster!" Afterwards, we put our monsters under the ottoman. They just love getting surprised by pulling out a monster, it does not get old for them. Their next favorite part is attacking the monster. Amy is very serious about it, and she remembers every time to make sure to put that monster under the ottoman. Even Bones is playing the game with us.
The monster game is a great finale to our Tricks for Treats Party, and now I wave everyone over to our treat table. Alex's first choice is a witch hat cookie, that I was able to also make this afternoon along with the easy cake.
Included on our treat table is another fun snack to end our lesson on teeth. I have cut up apple slices with mini marshmallows to make lips and teeth. This is an idea out of Family Fun magazine. 
So quick, easy, and fun, our treat table looks quite festive. I leave some of the apple teeth unassembled for Alex to make her own,
and we smile at eachother afterwards. 
The teeth are a little big for Alex's mouth.
Cutting into the Gruffalo cake has both girls laughing hysterically when we take off one of his ears to eat. I tease and joke how we are eating a monster, and they love the thought, digging into the yummy cake. 
The witch enjoys a witch hat cookie while having a conversation with Alex about the Gruffalo. Alex is spending more time talking than eating, actually and I don't mind, because I can tell she has to share all that wound-up excitement from a very fun night. Amy is covered in chocolate and ready to leave the table. Her poor little tummy is now hurting after eating plenty of cake and cookies.
Our party ends with turning in our "Tricks for Treats" bags filled with stickers. Before the games begin, Alex traces some Ts where I have handwritten " T is for Tricks and Treats" on the bag. She takes the paper trick or treat bag around with her to her games. Given one sticker for each "trick" she completes once she fills up the bag with five stickers, she is entitled to a real treat bag to take home.
Included are a couple of Ugly Dolls (an award-winning toy, I bought these a couple years ago, and get them out every year around this time. This is the first time the girls have seen them this year and they think they are new - nothing like re-gifting!). The monster dolls never leave their sight the rest of the evening. So much for the monsters under the bed scaring them - they would rather have the monsters join them, after all we did just get done watching Monsters, Inc. on our day off which I highly recommend if you haven't seen it. 
A busy month for October and it has left me exhausted! I think we have covered it all with spiders, bugs, ghosts, skeletons, owls, witches, cats, pumpkins and monsters all aiding our lessons on handwriting, numbers and counting, colors, shapes, and our body parts.
Bones makes 2 skeletons on white construction paper. One skeleton is put into a skeleton bucket and the students must put the body puzzle together. I think up both skeleton games myself, and they end up working perfectly as a review of all the body parts we have been learning. Another skeleton is taped to the floor, and similar to Hopscotch, this game is called Shake, Rattle, and Roll and the students, using little plastic bones (again from C.J.'s younger days), roll all the bones onto the skeleton, trying to get them to land on different body parts. Then they must perform an action for each body part that their bones land on. Such as with her right hand in the picture below, Alex must first figure out which one is her right hand, count 1 to 5, and bend her thumb. Bones is there to help with each game if they need it, complete with his skeleton hand that talks. Alex is all smiles as she enjoys shaking her arm in this shot: I will say here that Amy will have nothing to do with "Bones" or the games he is helping do. It isn't until the games are all over that she actually warms up to him and we catch this shot. And now for some monster fun. This game is just for that reason - FUN. Monster bowling causes a lot of laughs, and this one is very hard to get them to stop playing. Amy loves it, too. (And so does Bones, as he watches and slaps them high fives when they knock all the monster pins down.) With this one, they must knock all the pins down four times. We are keeping track with a " greem slime" paper pad that for each strike, they get a monster sticker added. They are into this one, keeping track of their slime paper as they go. It is almost as much fun as Wii bowling.The last station is a real board game, another one that I bought on sale the year before for under 10 bucks, and have put up waiting to play for this time of year since the name of the game is Go Away, Monster. Another simple one like Goodnight Moon (as well as award winner), with this one, game players take turns pulling a shape out of the bag, trying to match it to their own game board which is a bedroom scene.
Through repeated play, it is hoped that children will begin to recognize the shapes which are beds, lamps, and pictures, as they feel their way around in the bag. The fun part is pulling out a monster that you must then make go away. You can do this however you like, the game directions suggest putting it under the bed, or hiding it under your seat, or even the board, but we use little plastic monsters that I have kept from C.J.'s younger days. If a monster is pulled out, they take one of the plastic monsters that I have set up around the boards, and pound and smash the play piece yelling "Go away, Monster!" Afterwards, we put our monsters under the ottoman. They just love getting surprised by pulling out a monster, it does not get old for them. Their next favorite part is attacking the monster. Amy is very serious about it, and she remembers every time to make sure to put that monster under the ottoman. Even Bones is playing the game with us.The monster game is a great finale to our Tricks for Treats Party, and now I wave everyone over to our treat table. Alex's first choice is a witch hat cookie, that I was able to also make this afternoon along with the easy cake.
Included on our treat table is another fun snack to end our lesson on teeth. I have cut up apple slices with mini marshmallows to make lips and teeth. This is an idea out of Family Fun magazine. So quick, easy, and fun, our treat table looks quite festive. I leave some of the apple teeth unassembled for Alex to make her own,and we smile at eachother afterwards. The teeth are a little big for Alex's mouth.Cutting into the Gruffalo cake has both girls laughing hysterically when we take off one of his ears to eat. I tease and joke how we are eating a monster, and they love the thought, digging into the yummy cake. The witch enjoys a witch hat cookie while having a conversation with Alex about the Gruffalo. Alex is spending more time talking than eating, actually and I don't mind, because I can tell she has to share all that wound-up excitement from a very fun night. Amy is covered in chocolate and ready to leave the table. Her poor little tummy is now hurting after eating plenty of cake and cookies.
Our party ends with turning in our "Tricks for Treats" bags filled with stickers. Before the games begin, Alex traces some Ts where I have handwritten " T is for Tricks and Treats" on the bag. She takes the paper trick or treat bag around with her to her games. Given one sticker for each "trick" she completes once she fills up the bag with five stickers, she is entitled to a real treat bag to take home.
Included are a couple of Ugly Dolls (an award-winning toy, I bought these a couple years ago, and get them out every year around this time. This is the first time the girls have seen them this year and they think they are new - nothing like re-gifting!). The monster dolls never leave their sight the rest of the evening. So much for the monsters under the bed scaring them - they would rather have the monsters join them, after all we did just get done watching Monsters, Inc. on our day off which I highly recommend if you haven't seen it. A busy month for October and it has left me exhausted! I think we have covered it all with spiders, bugs, ghosts, skeletons, owls, witches, cats, pumpkins and monsters all aiding our lessons on handwriting, numbers and counting, colors, shapes, and our body parts.
With a busy weekend ahead, no classes planned yet, and no husband home, I plan to test the waters. For the coming week I am going to play it by ear. Although, I tell myself, if I do end up taking a week off, I shouldn't feel bad, as I have spent HOURS planning and making the activities for the classes above, which both end up running over three hours once said and done. Not to mention the hours spent preparing. It really does take a lot of time for each class, as I search what to do online or look through oodles and oodles of coloring books and workbooks.
My mothers tries to ease my mind by jokingly reminding me that it isn't like you have to answer to a school board. Do what you can when you can. As I do have a house that right now is in such a state of disorder and chaos, taking a week off may give me a chance to clean up and get organized. Plus, it will allow me to get a good routine going for myself and the kids as we venture on during our weeks without Daddy.
(As I finish writing this, it really is that week and I can say now that taking the time off has done wonders for my stressed out brain and disorganized house, not to mention sick house, that I now have scoured. I even manage to fit in one class as well as spend a good hour another day doing some homework pages that I will write about in my next blog. With a clear mind and a clean house, I venture forward.
Preston is going to continue at home for the time being. I am happy to hear from his mom that I have jumpstarted him into learning. We have received "official word" from Tri County that there will be no preschool funding this year so we both are going to take it on ourselves.
Preston is going to continue at home for the time being. I am happy to hear from his mom that I have jumpstarted him into learning. We have received "official word" from Tri County that there will be no preschool funding this year so we both are going to take it on ourselves.
I have a lot to work out both at home and at school, and although I am worried about handling it all, I am determined to keep this up when I can, after all, the big plus in doing this at home is I can be flexible on the time and everything else, but that just goes to show how seriously I really do take this learning for them, and I know how much they need to keep doing it, even if it kills their mother, lol!
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