Tuesday, August 22, 2017

It Makes Sense that Our Last Mother Goose Time Box is about Superheroes

We opened our last Mother Goose Time Box. I'm sad.

It's appropriate that the theme for this box is Superheroes. MGT has been my superhero for two years now. (Was that a bit cheesy?? It's true.) 


We jumped to the Reuse day because I saw wax sticks in the bag and saw that the art lesson was about upcycling and I had to do it.



*But first we took out the manipulatives for the month and explored. They are letter magnets and magnetic sticks.



And I looked at the CD for the month and felt sad.


We talked about recycling and upcycling and why it's so good and necessary to do those things. We connected it to their own real life experience when we discussed how I love to upcycle things such as my grandmother's desk. 

We talked about upcycled art and how beauty is in the eye of the beholder.






I passed out the wax sticks and cups and glue and had them start their upcycled art.

Meanwhile, I looked down at the desk and thought about how I was going to miss THIS. All of this beautiful curriculum and art materials strewn across our table. What precious memories we've made like this. 



They began to create. 



The child who doesn't tend to do art for more than five minutes created for a long time (Strong B) and the child who is usually so even-keeled was tired and a little frustrated (Tiny B). It's good to be frustrated sometimes. 



Tiny B said, "But his art is going to be more beautiful than mine." So we talked about that and came up with examples of how I think some things are beautiful, such as the desert, and some people don't think the desert is beautiful. 

Strong B's wax sticks didn't hold as well as he'd like. So he went on to tracing shapes with the sticks. Tiny B used his leftover sticks to change her upcycled art. 




I asked them what they learned from this lesson. Tiny B learned that "all art is not perfect" and Strong B said that "people see art different." I love this.

And I give you "Glow in the Dark Lipstick Crab!"



I made sure to bring it to her attention that she was initially so frustrated with this project, but that she persevered and made a beautiful creation. And Strong B did too.


*I  receive Mother Goose Time curriculum in exchange for sharing of experiences, resulting from our personal use. All opinions/thoughts are my own and are in no way influenced by others.







Oh, How I'll Miss This...

I've prayed about this for a few months now, and even though I didn't get an immediate answer, God did answer my prayer. 

I have a homeschool mommy friend whom I admire very much. Every school year she prays about how to teach her children for that particular year, and she follows through with God's answer. It seems that some years she puts them in a two-day hybrid homeschool program, such as we did last year, and some years she takes a different homeschool path. I have made a promise to myself and to God, that I would do the same thing. I realize that what I've chosen at this point in our lives--homeschooling--is a bit radical and "weird" to some, but it's clearly what God has called me to do right now. 

I never would have guessed that I'd spend so many years in college and the teacher credentialing program, and having my own classrooms, and then choose to stay home and teach my own class of two, and not get paid one single cent. I can't explain it here in this blog, as my reasons are entirely too difficult to put into print. My longing to homeschool comes from the tender life of my seven year-old who just got her feeding tube removed a year ago, and the fact that I can't let her out of my grasp. And when I see my now five year-old son, I want to hold him tightly and protect him as only I can. It's hard to put into words. I can say this: This is what I'm meant to do at this point in time, and until God tells me to stop, I will continue.

I will always speak highly of the public school system and traditional classrooms to them, as that is my background and where my teaching beginnings were, and they might very well go back there someday, and they know this.

We moved and I've chosen to once again do a two day charter hybrid homeschool. They will attend two days in a classroom, where their work is highly individualized for them, and I'll teach them for three days at home. It's a mixture that I like. However, if God tells me to put them into a typical classroom I will, just like I'll fully homeschool them if that is for the best. 

Tiny B will be going into first grade (wowzers!) and Strong B will be in other TK or Kindergarten (I'll decide next week) and I will be given the curriculum that the school has decided upon. Mother Goose Time has brought me through the last two years of tube-weaning and homeschooling and will always hold a very special place in my heart, but it is time to move on. And I suppose that Mother Goose Time would want this, as they are a preschool curriculum company who wants children to learn and grow.

I'm not ready to completely say goodbye, as I might still order a box from time to time, and I've organized my boxes with the MGT that we haven't used yet. So, there's still time...

I will miss Strong B wanting to do an art project and already having the materials on hand. I am not the most creative teacher regarding art projects. It's been amazing to have all of the materials ready and put into a tidy bag!

Two days ago he wanted to build a boat.


So I took out the Alphabet Island box which we are still working on, and opened that bag full of magic, and they started creating. 

Tiny B, who is now a reader, read the nursery rhyme, and Strong B created. 




His little pictures make me want to squeeze him. They're that cute. 




Tiny B couldn't resist the Make and Play project, and soon she was putting the finishing touches on her boat. 



In my next two posts I'll be finishing up with Mother Goose Time and sharing just how much this beautiful curriculum has impacted our journey.


*I  receive Mother Goose Time curriculum in exchange for sharing of our experiences, resulting from our personal use. All opinions/thoughts are my own and are in no way influenced by others.








Developmental Stages and Angry Game Playing

I am not a competitive person. At all. I compete against myself and am always trying to better myself but when it comes to competing against others, I shy away from it. This is probably why I'm so boring to play games with! My kids on the other hand...They got an incredible competitive spirit, which obviously comes from my dear hubby. 

A few weeks ago we took out our Build a Castle Game from Mother Goose Time with high hopes of learning, building, and sharing sibling love (ha ha!). Needless to say, two of the three expectations did come to fruition, but sibling love was nowhere to be found!

*On a side note, there was poodle love. There is always poodle love when Jack the Standard Poodle is involved.


 

We went over the goals and rules of the game. I wish I had laid out expectations for behavior. Thank goodness this isn't the last game we'll play!

 
They both built their castles differently. Different building techniques but equally intent on building the biggest castle. 

 

 

I did manage to get them to work together at times.

 
 
There are many pictures I could have taken of them crying or rolling on the floor in fetal position but I've made a promise to myself to only put pictures in this blog that would make them happy.

I know it's completely against an education-based blog to say where I went wrong, but here goes:

-I really should have laid out my expectations ahead of time!
-We truly need to work on building each other up and good sportsmanship. I need to show them good examples of this. They are such good kids and their behavior is truly so, so sweet, that I have full confidence that they can be good and fun game-players.
-I should have changed the game midway (as soon as I couldn't get the bickering under control)  to them going toward making a big castle together. 

Truly, this is just the age where they learn how to compete in a kind way. My boy just turned five, and that is just the beginning of being able to understand this. I'm so thankful for opportunities to practice our sportsmanship skills on all of these Mother Goose Time games. 

 

*I receive Mother Goose Time curriculum in exchange for sharing of our experiences, resulting from our personal use. All opinions/thoughts are my own and are in no way influenced by others.