A Good Week

I'm pleased to report...that week two was a greater success than week one! How do I rate success? If...
...I didn't cry to my husband at the end of the week about how I shouldn't have left my job at the Child Care Center, and how the kids would have been better off with their teachers.
...we got out of the house at least once a day.
...the kids got to be around and play with other kids.
...I learned from my mistakes.
...I maintained my patience even in the crankiest of moods.
...I can still feel the Spirit in my home at the end of the day, and my family goes to bed content.


This week my kids learned the basic anatomy of a flower (petals, stigma, stem, leaves and roots). We took a walk around the neighborhood to look at flowers, and my daughter can now identify the petals, leaves and stigma of a flower, describe the stem (because she can't remember what it's called) and talk about its roots. They also made their own flowers with construction paper and art tissue paper. They're beautiful!
Aislin has practiced matching her uppercase to her lowercase letters using different materials, including alphabet cards in the pocket chart which she uses to play "Memory," alphabet flowers that we "pick" from a cup and then match to lowercase letters (either written on Desmond's whiteboard or matched to the cards that I spread across the room), and worksheets. 

Des has been listening to stories, working on a color and shape puzzle, and looking at flashcards with pictures and letters on them. He repeated some of the words, too, like "apple" and "hat"! 
The kids attended a library story time where they listened also sang and danced, and then made crafts and played with toys afterwards. 

He looks so serious, doesn't he? I think he was disappointed that the cards didn't come together like his trains with the magnets at the ends!

They played at a park a couple of times where they had fun feeding ducks!

The kids also had a play date at our house where we shared yummy treats, the girls exchanged dance moves and they came up with their own fun games :)

Finally they made instruments with cups and paper plates, which they didn't quite enjoy as much as I thought they would! I think they would have enjoyed their projects more if they had gotten to paint and glue things, but I was ill-prepared... I should have given them more time to paint their paper plates and for Aislin to cut out shapes and pictures, but since it was late in the day when we got around to this activity and I had to start making dinner soon, I've concluded that any projects other than coloring pages will have to be done earlier in the day!

Still, I wouldn't say the experience was completely lost on my kids :)

Like I said, it was a good week :)