Thirsty Thursday

Rachel here. So my friend Heather and I had a texting conversation yesterday about how ugly we can be to our children when it comes to trying to teach them. When I taught 3rd grade, I never got frustrated because a child didn't "get it", or when they wouldn't do their work... because frankly... they did their work. It's TOTALLY DIFFERENT when it's your own kids and they are toddlers/preschoolers. Holy shenanigans. I shared with her one time about how I SCREAMED at Reese because she wouldn't glue a cotton ball onto a sheep I hand drew for her. Seriously. Seriously... who does that?! I've since gotten much better, but I do think I sometimes expect too much of them. I want them to be sweet and smart, and dammit if I'm putting the effort in... so should they. But again... we're dealing with a toddler and a preschooler here. Needless to say I'm currently enrolled in a "let it go you freak of a mother" crash course, and it can be terribly frustrating AND absolutely hilarious. Today I chose to take the "absolutely hilarious" route when dealing with my children's meltdowns. I even have a video for you Heather... if I can get it to load... on what a typical lesson looks like with Emma Grace. You'll laugh. So before I begin with today's "work"... I'm going to suggest a small drinking game. I've included photos of my children's meltdowns, and because I can't take a shot... maybe you could for me. ;) Let's begin.

Reese begins her day with dot-to-dots.Emma Grace's drug of choice... puzzles.We get all dolled up in our Thursday's best, and EG completes her uppercase a "collage" with apple jacks. (CoaH)Reese matches lettered clothespins to a picture wheel... working on letter sounds. (CoaH)EG matches both upper and lowercase letters to the word ANT. (CoaH)Letter a poke. (CoaH) Reese does these ALL THE TIME at Montessori and LOVES them.DRINK! Meltdown #1.After said meltdown, we move on to the game "Roll an Ant." Roll the dice, count the dots on the dice, find the piece that matches that number, and build your ant hill. It was cute. (CoaH)Reese worked on building her letters. I made the letter builders out of foam with the help of the Tired Need Sleep blog. She has the letter cards you can print and the template for the actual letter pieces. After building the letters, she had to then practice writing the letters in sand... which led to her having to write the letter on her mini chalkboard. It went REALLY well. I'd say she got through about 10 letters and never complained once.
There were a few letters she had a hard time writing... like the g. This opened up the chance for me to sit with her, dot the letter out, talk her through it, and have her learn the correct way.DRINK! Emma Grace doesn't wants to work on the upper/lowercase puzzle but refuses to clean up all of the others. I leave the room and ignore her. Oy vey.It gets VERY quiet. I go and check on her only to find she's decided to finish the ones that are out as opposed to cleaning them up. Meanwhile Reese decides she's over her work boxes and chooses to go on a measuring spree. With her little tape measure in hand, she measures things in miles, points, and finally after some convincing... she decides to measure in inches. :)As you can see, Emma Grace finishes the world puzzle, so I give her the puzzle she's requested. She gives it a hell of a go for a good 15 minutes before she requests another.Still avoiding her work boxes, Reese wants to work in her new workbook. She finishes the intro page and two pages on circles.For the picture of herself, she originally had a picture of 4 jellyfish. I told her it was supposed to be a picture of her, and she said "but I want it to be a picture of 4 jellyfish." Um... whatever. I give in and she IMMEDIATELY changes the picture. And it starts.Here is where we break. We headed to the library for some fun videos and books... oh and some computer time. We then hit up the Caboose Park across town. I'm not sure when my children became daredevils but holy moly.There was Carol Lee Donut purchasing, lunch eating, napping, Pocahontas watching, and snack eating before getting back to work.

Emma Grace disappears long enough to play dress up. She then decides she's ready to continue working. Ant shape matches. (CoaH)
DRINK. It's hard being 4 years old and naked.EG works with me on graphing ants. Out of 10, we get to 5 before she's done. This is where the video comes in. HOPEFULLY I can get it to load. It's a gem.Reese is back at her work boxes and practices her writing. (CoaH)EG ends her learning experience for the day reading her library books.
Tomorrow is a teacher workday... aka... Mommy is leaving town with her girlfriends. :) Daddy will be home with the girls all weekend. I will miss my little ladies, but I will enjoy myself. Even if it kills me. :)

Monday

Rachel here. Today went great! Sure there were ups and there were downs, but the tears were kept at a minimum on all parts... Reese was our big winner when it came to tears. She is the most emotional person I think I've ever met... you know... because being 4 is EXTREMELY difficult. :)

After dropping her off this morning and letting Emma Grace do some 'work' at preschool, we headed home to remove our pants, do a puzzle, and get started on our preschool day.Emma Grace's work boxes.Working with all of her letter a materials.
Sandpaper letter.Practicing writing the letter a in sand.Tracing the letter with glass beads. (CoaH)
Letter a coloring sheet. (CoaH) Upper/lowercase sort. (CoaH)After finishing most of her work, it was time for a little bit of computer interaction. We used Starfall for work on the letter a, the number 1, and the color red. Then I let EG listen to The Rainbow Fish on Storyline Online while I finished up some dishes.
Because it was WAY TOO COLD to play outside, Emma Grace and I bundled up and headed to our local toy store, Imaginations, for some indoor playtime.After leaving Imaginations, picking Reese up from preschool, and eating lunch, it was time for Emma Grace to hit the sack. Reese began her K4 time by doing an alphabet puzzle. (CoaH)Alphabetizing letter cards and then finding the upper/lowercase letter magnet matches. (CoaH)Matching lowercase clothes pins to uppercase letter wheel. (CoaH)After Emma Grace's quiet time was over, Reese and I went upstairs to read The Cat in the Hat to her. Upon finishing it was time to head back downstairs for snack. This is what I like to call a mediocre fail... while it has all the appropriate pieces... it's a little wonky. This is our interpretation of the Cat in the Hat's hat. Imagine if you will solid red Lifesaver Gummies (miscommunication with Bryan on that one), regular Oreos as opposed to the spring variety, and white frosting... not red. :) Ours are super fancy. (Pinterest)Today was ART DAY, so we made "Things." (Pinterest)After finishing all of her K4 work, Reese was able to have some computer time using More Starfall.EG managed to keep herself busy by practicing her numbers (large numbers on the floor, I would call out a number, and she would have to jump to it. We're new with number recognition, so we started with 1-5.),finishing her morning work... working on her ABC artwork book cover, reading Dr. Seuss books, and working on her new puzzle. This was really difficult for her. I think it was information overload. She knows all of her letter sounds and most of their names, but dealing with those two aspects and upper/lowercase letters... I definitely had to walk her through it. Once we got rolling though it really worked out nicely. I would point to the letter, say it's name and sound, and then she would have to find it.While I fixed dinner, Reese practiced cutting...
... and Emma Grace went on a puzzle building rampage.We ended the night with a Harold and the Purple Crayon video and some fastening practice.I'm EXHAUSTED... and tomorrow we start it all over again. :)