Never a Dull Moment

WOW!!!

2012-01-10T17:12:00.000-05:00

WOW!!! 2012 I can not believe that you are here. This new year is going to be wonderful. I am so excited about all that God has in store for us. I can not wait to watch it all unfold.

I have not been on here for awhile. I spent a lot of time in Charlie's class before the holidays working with the kids on different craft projects. I loved every minute of it. Being there with the kids makes me so happy while at the same time it makes me miss teaching so bad. But I love my life and I am so thankful that I have this time to spend with the boys and that I am free to help out in their classes. God has truly blessed me.

Poor Charlie missed the first two days after break because he had strep. Poor baby was so sick. Once we got him diagnosed and some antibotic in him he was a new kid with-in 12 hours. .
I am just going to show you a few pictures from our holidays. I am hopefully going to start posting on a more regular basis very soon.

I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed 2012.

We are pretty bummed around here that we have not had a good snow yet. We are keeping out hope that one will be on its way soon. We will be doing a lot of snow crafts in the next week hoping to bring some snow our way.

Truth in the Tinsel Advent fun days 2-8

2011-12-08T22:43:00.000-05:00

We have been having so much fun with Truth in the Tinsel. Both boys are loving it and they love making the crafts each day. They are learning so much about the Bible and the Christmas Story.

Day 2

Jesus is the King of all Kings

Day 3

Zechariah

Zechariah did not believe in the miracle God was going to give him so the Angel Gabriel made him unable to speak until the baby was born.

We used a button for Zechariah's mouth. This showed that his mouth had been "buttoned" up so he could not speak.

Day 4

The Angel Gabriel delivered the messge to Mary that she would have baby.

Day 5

How Did Mary react to the news?

Mary obeyed God - She told Gabriel that she was the Lord's servant.

Day 6

Mary visited Elizabeth and her baby jumped for joy when Mary entered her house. Elizabeth was excited because she knew Mary was carrying God's Son.

Day 7

Mary Sang a beautiful song to God

Day 8

Day 8Zechariah describes Jesus s the 'rising sun" coming from heaven to "shine on those living in darkness".

I love these Advent activities!!! You can find the book here.

Truth in the Tinsel - Day one (Light) and homemade Advent Calendar

2011-12-01T22:33:00.000-05:00

Today we started the Truth in the Tinsel program. You can get it here. Day one was a hit! The boys loved it and they have been going around the house singing their own song about The Light of the World is a baby named Jesus. I highly recommend this program if you are looking for a hands-on and very meaningful Advent program. Today's focus Bible reading is from Isaiah 9:2-7.

Advent Calendar

The boys each made a Santa count down til Christmas

Santa to put on their bedroom doors. Each day they

will put a cotton ball over the number for that day.

By the time we get to Christmas Santa will have a

full beard.

Busy Busy Fall

2011-11-30T17:06:00.002-05:00

Halloween was so much fun!! It was a three day
event but the boys had a blast!!

                      Finally headed home with all the Loot!!

                      We spent a couple of days hiking the
                        Great Smoky Mountains

Happy Thanksgiving

Charlie made this cute card for us at school.

                         Thankful trees that they boys made. I think C.
                          is really starting to get what it means to be
                          Thankful!!!

Buddies

Preschool and Kindergarten weeks 4-5

2011-10-29T16:54:00.000-04:00

During the last two weeks we have had a lot of fall fun. We took an over night trip to the Great Smokie Mountains and then we took a short five day trip to the beach. We did do a little school work too.

Fall Beach Trip

Fun with Papaw and Grandma

B enjoyed painting in his Thomas watercolor paint book.

C made a stain glass apple.

                                           A new discipline system that we are trying out--
                                                   The boys earn marbles when they are caught doing
                                                    the right thing or being especially nice or helpful
                                                  around the house. The can lose marbles
                                                  when they are not doing the right things or when they
                                                  are disobeying or not following the directions.
                                                  Each week I give them green cards with the numbers
                                                  1-30 on them they have to lay them out in order.
                                                  Then they get to lay out one marble for each green card.
                                                 So when they have earned 30 marbles they get two
                                                dollars. So they each have a little plastic baggy that
                                         they collect their money in.
                                                They can spend it when they want to.Charlie has started
                                                 to learn that if he saves his money he can use it
                                                 to buy bigger things that he wants instead of just
                                                 spending it when-ever he has a dollar or two.
                                                 So far this system has been working well for us.

Easel painting on the deck on our last nice warm day.

                                              My favorite moment of the week!!!   B was making
                                                  a picture on the chalk board. He called me over and
                                                    told me he made a cross. Then he told me that Jesus
                                                  died on the cross to save him.   Such a sweet moment
                                                   from my sensitive, big hearted three year old.

A little sand playing.

Charlie painting a ghost and monster.

Charlie working on his sight words by coloring the
pumpkins by word.

Brayden working on patterns from preschool
printables from here.

Brayden continuing to work on writing his name.

Making chalk Halloween pictures on black paper.

Crafts that we made to go along with our Bible Verses.

We have had a great couple of weeks. Next week we

plan on working on more fall things plus getting back to work

on our Raising Rock Stars Curriculum.

We hope you all have a very saft and Happy Halloween.

Back on Track Preschool Raising Rock Stars

2011-10-17T08:54:00.000-04:00

I was soooo excited that we had finally gotten back to a routine ---- then we were hit with pneumonia. C. had a major sinus infection and pneumonia. He was not quite himself for well over a week so I finally decided to take him to the doctor. I knew he did not feel great but I still debated the whole doctor thing because he did not seem that sick. I am sooooo glad I took him. So now things are slowly getting back to normal.

I am using the Raising Rock Stars Curriculum but I am skipping around so the focus letter matches our theme. The past couple of weeks our theme has been apples so we are doing Raising Rock Stars A unit. You can find it here.

B has had a lot of fun learning his Bible Verse. He loved cutting it out and gluing it together. It also reminded me that we still need to do some work on his cutting skills.

Family Apple Picking Trip-

B's preschool class took a field trip to a local farm. He loved the baby cows and the chickens.

Play-doh fun!!!

B loves play-doh so we worked on numbers with our number cookie cutters. He cut out all the numbers 0-9 and then put them in order then we practiced making the number 12-20.

C likes the play-doh too. He worked on making his sight words with it then he used the letter stampers from Lakeshore to stamp his words.

We still have some apple activities to complete so we will work on them next week. We will also begin a unit on Fall that we will work on for a couple of weeks.

Preschool

2011-10-11T16:58:00.000-04:00

B. Started his 3 year old preschool year on September 6th, He likes it but he does not like it when I leave. Well I think he may be playing me a little because his teachers say he is fine the minute I leave. He just loves to hang on and not let me go. Okay so he may be a titch spoiled. His teachers say he is a great helper especially at clean up time.

The I am a preschooler sign came from here.

SOCCER

2011-10-11T12:04:00.001-04:00

The boys are playing Upward Soccer at Biltmore Baptist Church this year. Charlie really likes it but Brayden is still not quite sure about it. He could be so good if he would just get over his shyness and just play. We like Upward because it is laid back and non-competitive and they do Bible stories and Verses with the kids.

Finally--A routine

2011-09-23T09:06:00.000-04:00

With C. now in kindergarten and B only going to preschool 3 days a week B and I have finally gotten into a routine. We just finished our first week of preschool at home. We are using the Raising Rock Stars curriculum from here.

This week we worked on the letter Ll and the sight word see. The curriculum works on the number one for this week but B. knows all his numbers to 10 and he can count to 14 so we have been working recognizing the number 11.

B worked on his fine motor skills.

He painted with water colors the candle that went with this weeks Bible Verse

then he glued the verse to the paper.

He read the I see book from Raising Rock Stars. He loved this book and read it to me about 50 times. I can't believe I did not get a picture of him reading it.

He worked on the sight word see by using do-a-dots to trace the word.

He played a lot with his stacking alphabet blocks.

He matched up upper case letters to lower case letters using the Eric Carle game that we found at Barnes and Noble.

He spent a lot of time playing with his Little People Farm and his moon dough farm set.

He did an L is for lion page from Making Learning Fun.

He made a lighthouse out of a capital L. This idea came from here.

He practiced writing his name. I wrote in on a piece of construction paper with green dots showing where to begin and red dots showing where to end. Then he traced it with a blue crayon.

He made a lady bug using a lower case L as the center of the body,

This idea came from here.

We had a great week. We are planning on working on the letter Aa next week and have lots of yummy apples to eat.

Kindergarten

2011-08-18T10:19:00.001-04:00

WOW!! I can't belive Charlie started Kindergarten!!!! It was a bitter sweet morning. He is so ready and I think he will do great. It hard for me to let go but I know he is in good hands and will have a blast.

I got the cute I am a kindergartener sign here.

Smoky Mountain Vacation and hike

2011-08-11T22:53:00.000-04:00

We took a spur of the moment last minute mini vacation to the Great Smoky Mountains for several days. We began our trip with a picnic.

Then we hiked to Grotto Falls. It was a little over a 3 mile round trip and the boys walked the whole way. They loved it and they did so great. They loved the waterfall and they wanted to play in the water but it was very cold. The had a great time.

The next day we did some shopping and then headed to the Wilderness of the Smokies hotel and water park where we spent two days playing in the water and riding slide after slide after slide. When we finally left on Wednesday afternoon boy did we have two tired little boys.

Christmas in July

2011-08-11T22:27:00.000-04:00

Ok I know that it is August but we went to Santa's Land in July. Santa's Land is in Cherokee NC about an hour from our house. It is just a small park with a few rides and some zoo animals. The boys had a blast even though they would not sit and talk to Santa.

Merry Go Round with Grandma

Merry Go Round with Papaw

Fun Rides

Train ride

The boys loved the bears.

Santa's Sleigh

More rides

Preschool- Kindergarten July 8-15

2011-07-22T09:51:00.000-04:00

The last two weeks have been laid back and we have just tried to beat the heat.

We spent a lot of time at the pool and we worked on the letter Ii and of course we ate a little--well a lot of ice cream.

C also work a lot on his sight words and reading some phonics readers. For some reasons I did not get any pictures of him working on reading.

The boys also had a lot of fun painting with cars.

Pool Time

Painting with cars

Letter I work-

Making an Iguana out of the

letter I. Idea from here

Making an inchworm crawling

up a leaf with the stem shaped

like the letter i.

Idea from here.

Fine motor skills

tracing the path to find the

ice cream. idea from here.

Playing the roll and build ice cream game from here.

Making CVC words and word family words from
here.

Preschool-kindergarten July 1-7

2011-07-08T22:57:00.010-04:00

This week Daddy was off so our whole routine was way off so we did not get a lot done in the way of school. That is ok we had a lot of fun doing things around our town with Daddy.

We bought B a new bed so of course he had to have Cars 2 bedding to go on it. When then C had to have Cars 2 bedding also. So now both boys have Cars 2 beds. B's room is still a work in progress.

The boys used straws to make letters.

We cut up red and blue straws in to little pieces and the boys used them to make 4th of July bracelets. The put them on a white pipe cleaner and then we just twisted them and put them on their arms.

We made some 4th of July snacks. We took pretzel rods and dipped them in white chocolate and then covered them with red, white, and blue sprinkles. The boys loved making these and eating them.

We also made 4th of July cookie pops. We made sugar cookies and put a lolli-pop stick in them and baked them like normal. When they were cool we decorated them with white icing and blue and red sprinkles.

The boys used glue and glitter on black paper to make fireworks. They love glitter!!

C worked a little bit on his sight words from the Ready to Read program from The Moffatt Girls.

Hopefully next week we will be back to normal.

4th of July-Field Trip Friday

2011-07-07T22:55:00.006-04:00

For the 4th of July we went to Davidson River where Poppa and Nana were camping. We spent the whole day there and the boys loved playing in the river and gathering rocks.

Linking up to field trip Friday here.

Preschool-Kindergarten June 24-30

2011-06-30T22:11:00.024-04:00

We had a great busy week. We celebrated a friend's birthday at the local Fun Depot, We had a water playdate at our house, and we had a cook-out with the cousins, and we went to the library twice this week. On Thursday at the library they had a fire and ice day. The local firemen came and talked about fire safety and let us see the fire trucks and they brought the smoke house and the boys got to go in and learn what to do if we had a fire in our house. It was a great learning trip for the boys.

C working on his sight words. He chose to make them with glitter glue this week.

Trip the the fire and ice event at the library.

Field Trip

Cook-out with the cousins and a little night time slip-n-slide.

Warming up by the fire!

B. Worked on the letter I some this week. We did not get around to everything but we will do some more next week.

Sight word color by number from the moffett girls.

We made this cute ice cream cone using handprints.

This idea came from 2 teaching mommies.

The boys LOVED making these.

Pool fun! They are also playing with their new

Cars 2 cars.

We used Crayola color bubbles to make pictures. I taped

paper to a tree and the boys blew the bubbles at the paper.

They had sooooo much fun. Yes, it was a little messy--so messy

in fact that they had to get in the pool to get the color bubbles off

of them before we could go back in the house. BUT it was

soooooooooo much fun!!

The boys are CARS crazy. We had to go see the new movie on

opening day and they both loved it.

This is just a little craft when they got

to paint Lightning McQueen.

Our week was great. We started today doing some 4th of July activities. I will post them early next week along with more reading activities for C and some more letter I work for B.

Favorite pictures from the week.

I hope everyone has a very happy and safe 4th!!!

I am linking up to field trip Friday here.

Beach

2011-06-27T23:00:00.005-04:00

We took a trip to the beach at the end of May and stayed until June 5th. We had the best week!! The weather was just perfect and the beach was not crowded and the boys became little fish. They went down big water slides, both got really brave and would jump in the deep end, and they would even go under water and retrieve dive sticks. They were given little green bracelets to wear to the water park that our hotel has and it is now June 27th and they still have them on. I guess they think if they keep them on we will go back soon.

Miss Bindergarten

2011-06-24T23:36:00.001-04:00

Check out Kinder Kraziness for a free Miss Bindergarten Unit

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Check out this wonderful blog for many awesome ideas.

Preschool-Kindergarten

2011-06-23T11:19:00.038-04:00

WOW! Our Spring was so much fun and so so busy. I began doing Preschool with B and Kindergarten with C on June 6th. After taking some time off and enjoying a beach trip we are back into the swing of things.

June 6-22
started a book worm on June 6th to see how many books we could read before C begins school in the middle of August. Each time we read a book we add the name of the book to a circle and the date and add it to our word worm. The boys LOVE this.

Preschool-- B recognizes most upper case letters but we are going to review them over the summer while also working on the lower case letters--

He loves the do-a-dot sheets from here.

Play-Dough alphabet mats--B loves these alphabet play-dough mats from 1+1+1=1

C rainbow writning and C is for cotton.

The boys had a great time at the beach so we have been doing a beach theme. B made these C crabs from Homeschool Creations

Jelly Fish--

Shaving cream fish---

Shaving cream letters --

Shaving cream fish--

B loved preacticing his letters in the shaving cream. He also practiced writing his name.

Play-dough potato head--

Kindergarten
C is so ready for kindergarten. We are working on sight words and he is beginning to read a lot of his own books. We are doing a mixture of the sight word programs from here and here.

C's drawings. He has a Learn to Draw Zoo animal book that he used to make these drawings.

Sight word play-dough and Do-a-Dot sight words.

Sight word color by word, Sight words in shaving cream and sight word puzzles.

We have had a wonderful beginning. We are now back into a routine and hopefully I will post weekly now. Next week we are planning on doing an ice cream theme and some 4th of July activities.

Favorite picture of the week:

WAY Behind!!!--Baseball

2011-06-14T22:36:00.005-04:00

Well I am way behind on my blogging. Things have been crazy busy this Spring. Our Spring began with baseball. The boys loved playing ball. This was C's 2nd year and B's 1st year. The had so much fun and loved every minute of it.

The boys loved having Papaw help out on the field and Papaw loved helping out!!

Preschool-TOT-School April 1-15

2011-04-16T14:48:00.007-04:00

Preschool- Tot-School in pictures.

Aqua Doodle mat-

Thomas The train glow in the dark track-

Crayon resist umbrellas-

Blocks-

Preschool-Tot School March 25-31

2011-03-31T16:44:00.015-04:00

This week we have just spent a lot of time playing with all of our new birthday goodies. We have also been working on thank you notes for all our new toys. B just stamped his name with alphabet stamps and C is actually writing a little note inside each card. It is taking a while to get them done but he has been working hard on them. We have also been talking a lot about Easter and reading many Bible stories about Easter and the Resurrection. We will be doing a lot more of this in the next two weeks.

Birthday wrap up- Curious George Party

Brownies for B to share at preschool.

Goodie bags for his Little Gym Party

George Lolli-pops I made for the goodie bags Cars Party-

Party favors for C's Chuck E Cheese Party.

It looks like they are empty but they do have goodies in them.

Brownies for C's preschool class

Thank you cards-

For B's cards we put a sticker like the ones on the goodie bags on the front then he stamped his name on the inside and then I wrote the little message and he drew some little people.

C wrote thank you on the front of his cards and then wrote a little message inside. After that he signed his name and stamped some Cars on it too. C got a neat little drawing desk. He can insert a disk into the top of it and then an outline of a picture shines on his paper for him to trace and then he can color it. He has had a ton of fun with this. The pictures are all characters from Toy Story. We began talking about Easter this week and each boy made a cross to hang in the window. They are so pretty and springy looking. We will be doing mostly Easter activities for the next two weeks.

Check back over the next two weeks as we show you all of our Easter fun.

My Big Boy

2011-03-27T22:10:00.005-04:00

Wow how time flies! Today 3/28 my big boy turns 5. I can not believe that it has been five years since he was born. He is my Disney Car lover who loves to sing and dance.

Happy 5th Birthday Charlie. We love you!!!!

Happy Birthday Brayden

2011-03-22T09:41:00.007-04:00

Today 3/24 my baby turns 3!! Where does the time go?

Happy 3rd birthday Brayden. We love you!!!!

Preschool-TOT-school Feb. 26- March 17

2011-03-17T16:58:00.018-04:00

The last several week have been a bit of a blur. I worked so hard getting things ready before my arm surgery and then I had my surgery and I have been somewhat out of commission since. Hopefully this will be my last surgery and I will regain some rotation in my wrist. We have managed to fit in some school activities,Celebrate Dr. Seuss, my dad's 80th birthday and a little Leprechaun fun.

Dandy"Lions"

We talked about the old saying March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. C. really understood what this means. We have been graphing our lion and lamb days and so far this March has come in like a lamb--let's just hope it goes out like a lamb too. We made this cute dandy"lions".

Dr. Seuss

We celebrate Dr. Suess day with Read Across America on March 2nd. We read a ton of Dr. Seuss books that week and did ssveral activities to go along with some of the books.
We sorted and graphed gold fish after reading One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.
We did another graphing activity after reading Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? We rolled the dice and read the sound and then matched it to the picture on the graph. The boys loved this activity and C really got into reading the words. We got this activity from 2 teaching mommies. Get it here. We also measure things with our feet after reading The Foot Book and of course we ate green eggs and ham.

Marbel Painting Shamrocks

Lucky the Leprechaun

Lucky the Leprechaun visited us but the first time he came we were still in bed. He left us a note on tthe chalk board and some shamrock tattoos and a shamrock necklace on the table. Then while we were at school he came back and we missed him again. This time he left us some lilli-pop cookies, and a lprerechaun and bendable shamrock men. He left us a note saying he had to go home but maybe we would see him next year. The boys had a blast with this. Charlie went into preschool telling everyone about Lucky.

Happy Birthday Papaw!!
We also celebrated my dad's (AKA Papaw) 80th birthday. He has a St. Patty's birthday so we surprised him the Saturday before with a party. I think he had a lot of fun. Happy Birthday Papaw!!

Next week is our BIIG birthday week!! Both boys will have Birthdays by the 28th so we have a family party planned on the 27th and two individual parties planned this week to. I will post pictures after all of the festivities are over!!

Preschool Tot-School Weeks 7 & 8 Feb. 12-Feb.25

2011-02-25T11:21:00.014-05:00

style="color:#000099;">Well this post is for last week and this week. Last week we did not get a lot done. Both boys had the flu and YES we did get the shot. They were so sick. B was much sicker than C. B had a fever for 5 1/2 days. So needless to say last week was a very long week. We did do a couple of things so I am just adding them to this week.

Before we were so sick:

President's Day- George Washington:

Read read several stories about Presidents and talked a lot about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and the boys made these George Washingtons.

They also made these George Washington Cherry Trees. We had a great discussion about honesty with the George Washington Cherry Tree story.

Abraham Lincoln:

We made these Abraham Lincoln Log Cabins. They loved playing with the popsicle sticks. I think I will have to put some out and just let them explore and play with them. The boys put a penny in the window to make it look like Lincoln was looking out of the window.

Cars: Painting

The boys painted with their Cars. They LOVED this!!!! We did it several times this week because they kept asking to do it again. Such a big hit!!!

These next Car activities came from Time for Tots. You can find them here. We ordered the kit on line and boy has it been so much fun for my boys. Cars are their thing right now and so these activities have been done over and over and over this week.

Spelling the Car's Characters names:

;
Car's Character Puzzles

Playing Cars Roll the dice board game:

Sorting the Alphabet Cards by character--then matching upper and lower case letters

Fine Motor and pre-writing skills:

Roll Count and cover game:

Cars Puzzles: This is just one that we did this week. We have lots and we worked almost all of them this week.

Of Course we had LOTS of playtime with all of our Cars!!!!

We had a much better week. Thank goodness the boys are feeling better. We hope to do some Dr. Seuss activities next week!!

Preschool-Tot-school Week 6 February 5-11

2011-02-11T11:08:00.020-05:00

We have been so busy this week. We have had so much fun and the boys are learning so much. We focused on Valentne's Day this week along with the letter Hh for hearts.

Stain glass hearts-

We made pretty stain glass hearts. I cut a heart shape frame out of construction paper and then we laid it on a piece of wax paper then the boys but glue all over the middle and on the edge of the heart. Then they used little pieces of purple, pink hot pink tissue paper to fill in the hole. When they were dry I peeled them off the wax paper and they look so pretty hanging in the window.

Crayon Shavings hearts

We took some old crayons and shaved them and put the colors red, pink and purple in their own bowls then the boys took wax paper and sprinkled the shaving onto one side of the wax paper. Then they ironed them and I drew heart shapes on them when they were cool and the boys cut out the shapes. These look great in our window too!

Hh is for heart-

I printed these Hh sheets here and the boys water colored them and then they took heart stickers and decorated the Hh. We also brainstormed a lot of Hh words and C had fun making up rhyming words to go with our Hh words.

Painted coffee filter hearts- We got this idea from Here

The boys just used water colors to paint the coffee filters that I had cut into heart shapes. They LOVED this. The colors are so bright and the hearts a just beautiful. I think we are going to attach a few of them to their preschool teacher's Valentine's Day gifts.

Alligator Valentines

#000099;">C made these little alligator valentines that we found here.

They are so cute they are little boxes and the alligator mouth opens and says I would snap to be your Valentine. We filled them with Candy and he is going to give them to a couple of special friends.

Roll and Count game-

We played this roll and count game that we got here.

Each boy had a game board and they would roll the dice and cover that many hearts with Hershey Kisses. They loved this game and they did not even try to eat the Kisses until we finished. I bet we played this game at least 6 times.

Painter Tape Hearts-

We took painters tape and made a heart shape on cardstock. Then to boys painted the entire piece of paper and when it was dry we peeled the tape off and they had a neat heart picture.

War with Cars Cards

We played war with our Cars Go fish cards. The boys really got into seeing who had the card with the higer number.

Photo of the Week:

You know how Cars the movie Craxy we are around here. Well C got this Mater the Tow Truck teeth candy for Christmas and he was saving it but he broke down and had to eat it. He loves his Mater teeth!!

We really had a great week. We will be doing a couple more Valentine things this weekend and on Monday and then C is going to work on color words and B is going to work on recognizing the letters of his name both upper case and lower case. Plus we have 2 birthdays to celebrate this week--The boys Aunt Patti and Poppa. Should be a fun week.

Preschool-Tot-School Week 5 Jan.29-Feb.4

2011-02-04T11:28:00.014-05:00

This week was better than last week but we were still sick and even made a trip to the Dr. with B. Poor baby had a very bad ear infection. He felt terrible but finally got some relief with the pain numbing drops. Those things are awesome!!!

This week we did get several activities in-so here is a look at our week.

Sensory tub

The sensory tub just has some different shape noodles in it and some red pom-poms right now. The boys took out some of the noodles and made a pattern which turned into a ring for their monster trucks. They reeally had a lot of fun with this and it kept there attention for over an hour.

Penguins

We read all of the Tacky the penguin books by Helen Lester. If you have not read these you need to check them out. They are so cute and my boys loved all of Tacky's funny adventures. Tacky is an odd bird but he always comes around to save the day. Great books!!!

Groundhog Cupcakes

We made groundhog cupcakes and we read several stories about groundhogs and we talked about the legand. The boys seemed to be happy that our local groundhog at the Nature Canter did see her shadow so they are hoping for an early spring.

Car puzzle and Car s Computer

C worked on his Cars Computer. His favorite game this time was the adding game. He also work on subtraction. Both boys worked together to make the large Cars puzzle.
Games

We spent a lot of time this week playing games. We played Car dominos, Handy Manny Uno, Candy Land, Hi-Ho-Cheerrio, and Uno moo. The boys love games and they are really getting good at playing the games and taking turns.

Marble Painting Hearts

The boys really liked marble painting hearts. We ran short on time or I am sure they would have done tons more. C. kept making them and then telling me who they were for. I bet we will do this again next week.

Reading

C. spent a lot of time reading/listening to his Tag reading books from Leapster. He figured out that he could hook his Lightning McQueen headphones into and use them to listen to the stories.

Yeah! We are a little Cars- the movie crazy around here. But that is ok we can incorporate it into our learning everyday.

Next week we will be doing the letter Vv and Valentines. Lots of crafts (I hope) and other fun stuff.

Preschool- TOT-School Week 4 January 16-22

2011-01-27T17:23:00.016-05:00

Well last week I vowed to be organized this week. I actually was very organized this week but my "perfect plans" did not happen. We began our week with both boys sick and spending most of the day on the couch. It took them a couple of days to get to feeling better so we did get a few activities in but not everything that I had hoped.

This is how our week began!!! Poor sick boys :(

The Hat by Jan Brett

After reading the story The Hat each boy picked out his favorite character and then I printed it from the mask section at janbrett.com. The boys then took their animal and our scrap box and created a hat for their animal. They really had a lot of fun with this project.

The Mitten by Jan Brett

After reading The Mitten the boys each laced a snow-white mitten and then colored pictures of the animals that tried to get in the mitten. C. used his mitten and animals to re-tell the story to me.

Disney Cars Math workbook

C. loves his Cars math book. Mainly just because it is Cars. He asks every day if he can "do math" in his book.

Trains

B. still loves, loves, loves his trains and plays with them daily. He loves to rearrange the track and he also likes to make bridges.

snowmen counting game

This game came from here We played the game using M&Ms as markers. The boys loved it because they knew at the end they could eat their M&Ms. It is just a dice game where you roll the dice and then cover that many snowmen. I was surprosed that we actually played it 3 times before they broke down and had to eat the M&Ms.

Snowman Jumble

This game came from here
This was another great game that the boys loved and worked on toether. They had to match the clear stones that I had written the Upper case letters on to the lower case letters on the game board.

All in all it was a good week. We just did not get to everything I had planned but we will catch up next week. Hopefully this new week will bring fun with penguins, snowflakes, groundhogs and a little Valentines.

Preschool-Tot-School week 3 Jan.15-21

2011-01-20T22:48:00.034-05:00

This week we have not been so organized. Why?? I am not really sure but we did get somethings done it was just a little of this and a little of that. Hopefully next week I will be a little more organized.

Time for Tots Learning Kit

We just received our first learning kits from time for tot and we love them. This week the boys made patterns and sorted beads and did square puzzles. Both boys loved this activities and I know we will use them a lot. You can find them
here.

Handy Manny Uno

The boys got a Handy Manny Uno game for Christmas and I bet we have played it 100 times already. They love, love, love it!!!! It is a great game that they both can play together and it reinforces color and number recognition.

Sensory Bin

Our sensory bin only has a some different size noodles and red pom-poms in it right now. I am hoping to create a more of a Valentine theme for next week. B. loves it. He loves to scoop and pour. I had a funnel in it and the pom-poms would not come out of the bottom of it so C. made up his own game of blow the pom-pom. He would stick a pom-pom in it and then try to blow it out and land it in a little cup on the floor. For some crazy reason I did not get a picture of this but I am sure he will be doing it again so I will be sure to take of picture of him playing his new game.

Thomas Painting and Addition workbook

B spent some time painting pictures in his Thomas coloring book again this week and C. started working in his new addition workbook. It is a Disney Cars book that we got at Barnes and Noble. He loves it and wanted to work in it several times a day.

Easel--Chalk and Markers

This week the boys used the easel to draw with chalk and Markers. B. drew Grandma and he actually drew a head, eyes, nose, mouth, hair, arms and legs. C. made a gorilla and he sounded out the word gorilla to label his picture. He is just now getting into sounding out words so we will be doing a lot more activities like this one.

Little Gym -- Big Show

C. just finished up a semester at The Little Gym had his big show. He loves going to The Little Gym. Next semester he is taking a sports class and he is soooo excited about it.

Preschool-Tot School Week 2 Jan. 7-14

2011-01-14T15:32:00.024-05:00

This was a wild and crazy and snowy week. We missed preschool the entire week due to snow so we had lots of time at home. We spent a lot of time working Legos, playing games and reading books. We also managed to get in some sledding and snow play too.

Easel Painting

Both boys were really into easel painting this week. They made tons of pictures. They both made snowman pictures and B. made a picture of his Grandma and gave her a head,eyes, nose, hair, mouth and arms and legs out of the head part. This is only the second time he has made a person and he was sooooo proud. Since he was so interested in the easel I took this oppertunity to have him paint some unpper and lower case letters. You can see the Bb that he made. I wrote it on with a pencil and then had him trace/paint it with the paint.

Singing and Guitar

Both boys got guitars for Christmas and Charlie also got a stand up microphone. Both have been a big hit. C loves to sing and dance so he has been doing a lot of musical shows for us.

Polasr Bear ABC

Fine motor and math
Both boys had a great time fishing for letters and making words with this game.

C worked on a what number comes next sheet. He is getting so much better at forming his numbers the correct way. He also worked on laminated sheets to practice writing his first and last names and numbers. He has been writing his name for about a year but this is just good practice to help him form the letters correctly. He also finished up a math work book that we had picked up at Barnes and Noble. It was Disney and Mickey Mouse. It focused on recognizinf, counting and writing numbers to 10. He is excited to begin the next book which is addition and it has a Lightning McQueen theme.

Legos

It seems to be Lego central around here. We have Lightning McQueen Legos, Thomas the train Legos, and Toy Story Legos plus some of the smaller ones that Charlie has just started using. The boys LOVE them and have been creating some very interesting things with them. Great for problem solving and creative thinking.

We had a great week. We hope to be doing a little more academics next week but we will still be having lots of fun!!!!!

Preschool-Tot-school week 1 Jan. 1-7

2011-01-10T09:34:00.021-05:00

After I had my accident last year Tot-school and preschool got pushed to the back burner but now we are slowly getting back in the groove. This week we really did not have a theme we just enjoyed some of the things the boys got for Christmas. I did not get a lot of pictures of the boys in action but I will do better next week.

McQueen Car

The big Christmas present this year was the McQueen car and both boys LOVE it. The only problem is our weather has been terrible and our garage is too small so they have not gotten to enjoy it much yet. We did sneak out on a cold, windy day for a few minutes so they could take a quick spin.

Snowmen

The boys made snowmen with cotton. C got creative and had to add arms and legs to his.
Marshmallow snowmen

The boys made marshmallow snowmen. C put his glue on all by himself but I had to help B a little. He had trouble squeezing the glue and getting it where he wanted it. B loved eating the marshmallows as much as he enjoyed making the snowman.

Thomas Water Color

B got a Thomas Coloring book for Christmas and the boys had a great time this week using watercolors to paint the pages.

Sand Art

C got a Lightning McQueen sand art set for Christmas and he actually let his brother have Sally. They had a great time doing the Sand Art and they really did not make a big mess.

Moon Dough

B got a moon dough set for Christmas and they had so much fun creating the farm animals using the dough.

Christmas

2011-01-07T15:58:00.019-05:00

We had so much fun celebrating the holidays this year. Both boys are so into it and they were both so excited for an entire month. They both now really do understand the true meaning of Christmas and they really enjoyed reading many books and Bible stories about the birth of Jesus.

This was our Advent Calendar this year. Each tin on the sheet had a number written on it and each day we would open one tin and read what was inside. Some were free activities that we could do around town and some were baking and doing things for others and some were Christmas crafts we could make together. The boys could not wait for each morning to arrive so they could see what the Advent calendar said for that day.

We all had so much fun spending time with family. The boys had a blast hanging out with all of our family especially the cousins the young one and the older ones.

Our good friends Adriana and Michelle hosted a Christmas pajama party. It was so much fun. The boys got to play with their friends and they got to watch some of the movie Nemo. Michelle had a wonderful breakfast for them and then we topped it off with each kids getting their own little cake with a candle in and we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. It was such a great morning.

We did a lot of baking. We make treats for our neighbors and friends and we make cookis for Santa.

We visited the Grove Park Inn and looked at all the great decorations and the wonderful Gingerbread houses.

We had our first white Christmas in YEARS so we got outside and enjoyed it!

We had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends celebrating
the birth of Jesus.

What a Fun Fun Fall!!!!

2010-11-01T14:53:00.035-04:00

Our Fall was very busy but we had a lot of fun. I finally got my cast off in November but I still cannot rotate my wrist. I am probably looking at having more surgery in Feb or March. I am not looking forward to that but for now I am trying to not think about it. I hope that it will work and I can rotate my wrist more and that I recovery quickly. Being laid up and without an arm/hand for 8 months was totally no fun at all. I am hoping to get back to blogging more now as we settle into he Christmas Season.

Thanksgiving
We had Thanksgiving at Papaw and Grandma's house. Danny and Duckett came and we had a wonderful dinner. Charlie made the place setting turkeys and decided where everyone would sit. The only bad thing about the day was that Eric was sick and felt so bad that he just slept through dinner.

Beach
In late October we took a few days and went to the beach. The weather was great, the pools were heated and the boys had a blast. It was a wonderful trip.

Halloween
Halloween was so much fun. The boys made brownie haunted houses and deocrated them. They had Halloween parties at school, went to trunk-or-treat at our church and at another local church and also went trick-or-treating to several at several family and friends houses. They still dress up in their costumes and play Toy Story all the time.

Fall Hike

Soccer
C played Upward Soccer and loved it. He really liked playing although sometimes he was a little distracted while on the field. Upward is really a great program because they incorporate Bible stories into practice and game times.

Apple Orchard

We took a wonderful trip to the apple orchard. The boys had so much fun picking their apples and eating apple doughnuts. We had to walk to the bottom of the orchard to get the apples and B. had to have a little help getting back up the mountain. He got a little tired.

Thomas

2010-08-23T16:53:00.006-04:00

A few months ago I bought tickets for us to go ride Thomas the Train. Due to conflicts and such we had to go on the last weekend that he was going to be here. Little did I know back then that I would still be dealing with this crazy broken elbow/arm. Any way I was scheduled to have my 2nd surgery on July 27th and our tickets to ride Thomas were for July 30th. I could not bear the thoughts of telling my train crazy 2 year old that we could not make it to see Thomas. So 3 days after surgery on a 94 degree day we packed up, pain pills and all, and went to see Thomas. The trip was ever so worth it when B's face lit up and he started jumping for joy the minute he saw Thomas.
I was totally exhausted when we finally returned home that night but I would not trade that day for ANYTHING!!!!!

Beach

2010-08-14T14:14:00.007-04:00

Between surgeries we managed to make it to the beach for a few days. Papaw and Grandma went with us and we had a wonderful, relaxing time. Both boys had a blast and continue to ask daily when we can go back.

Hopefully we can make back in the fall for a couple of days.

Summer

2010-07-16T13:49:00.018-04:00

Well our summer has been a lot different than I had planned. With my broken elbow we have stayed pretty close to home and just had fun being together and enjoying our backyard. We did manage one trip to the Knoxville Zoo and a trip to the beach. Later this month we plan to take a ride on Thomas the tank engine.

Knoxville Zoo or Zoo Zoo as B calls it

We took a day trip to the Knoxville Zoo and we had a wonderful day. Both boys loved it and really got into zoo animals. As far as Tot-School and Preschool this summer we have just been working on things that interest the boys. So they took such an interest in the zoo animals that we did several zoo animal projects.

The boys got really interested in Zoo animals and so we did several activities involving things we had seen at the Zoo.

Ee is for elephant paint dotter fun and cut and paste from Making Learning Fun.

We also created giraffes, more elephants, and lots of butterflies.

We painted with marbles and created Zebras.

B's 1st Big Show

2010-06-15T10:35:00.006-04:00

B went to The Little Gym this semester too. He also began to blossom as we got towards the end of the class. We were so glad that, after I broke my elbow, Papaw could help us out and take B to class and work with him.

C's big show

2010-06-15T09:59:00.007-04:00

C just finished his second semester at The Little Gym and had his big show. He has come such a long way since he started and I am sooooo proud of him.

Easter (finally)

2010-04-22T16:25:00.016-04:00

Trying to blog with only one hand is a bit hard but I think I am getting the hang of it. The past 22 days have been so hard for me. First of all I am TOTALlY not use to people waiting on me but I have had to give in and let them. Everything I do is such a chore and takes me for ever. I will never ever take having two hands for granted again!! A friend came over this week to bring dinner for us and she said, "You know God has a reason for everything even this." I know that is so true and I am working on figuring this out. I have a few ideas why He may be trying to get my attention but I guess I will know in time if it is His will for me to know. For now I just have to sit back, heal, and rely on others.

We had so much fun this Easter. On Friday Daddy was home and we so enjoyed this rare treat! We dyed our eggs and a little of the floor and most of our fingers but oh what fun we had!

On Saturday we attended an egg hunt at our church. It was lots of fun! We got to find eggs (both boys won the hunt with the most eggs for their age group.) play games and decorate cupcakes.

Easter Sunday was just an awesome day!! We read several Easter stories before heading to church. After a very spirit filled service we went to the Easter egg hunt at the Biltmore House. Then we walked around and looked at the house and the gardens. We managed to get several great pictures at the garden. Then we headed to Papaw and Grandama's house for a wonderful Easter dinner with all of our favorite people.

Highlight of the day was C asking us--"God created everything, right? Well then how did God get here? Where did he come from?" OK so we are still working on answering this deep question from my 4 year old! Anyway I am thrilled that he knows God and he understands that God created all the beauty that surrounds us!!

Behind

2010-04-17T17:08:00.002-04:00

I just wanted to let everybody know that I fell helping out with Charlie's t-ball practice and broke my arm/elbow and messed up a lot of ligaments. I had surgery on Monday April 12th so this has been a long and painful week. Anyway--I am way behind on blogging but as soon as I get to feeling better I will try to catch up.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Spring!

What a great week!!

2010-03-29T09:29:00.018-04:00

What a great week we had last week!! The boys both celebrated their birthdays with family and friends and they both had a really awesome week!!!! We are sooooo blessed!!

Some sights from the week---

Birthday Week!!!

2010-03-23T16:50:00.013-04:00

Man I just don't know where the last 4 and 2 years have gone!! The time has just flown by. My boys both have big birthdays this week!!! B will be 2 on Wednesday the 24th and C will be 4 on Sunday the 28th!! I really feel like I don't have a baby any more!! (That is sooooo sad!)

B March 24, 2008

B today March 24, 2010

C March 28, 2006

C March 2010

I love these two more than any thing in this world. They are the lights of my life and I can not imagine my life any other way. What blessings the Lord gave us on these two wonderful March days in 2006 and 2008!!!!
Happy Birthday Boys-- I Love You!!

I will post some pictures after all of the festivities of the week!!

Preschool and Tot-School Weeks 27 and 28

2010-03-18T14:48:00.016-04:00

C is 47 months old and B is 23 months old

The last two weeks we have had so much fun!! The weather finally turned a little warmeer so we got to spend some time outside. We have worked on St. Patrick's day activities and we beefed up our calendar time.

Calendar time: We have added a weather graph, and for March a graph about what the day is like--Is it a Lamb day or a Lion day. C has enjoyed making and reading this graph during this month.

We have also added pictures of C and B and Papaw because they all have birthday's this month. C has done a great job counting down the days until everyones birthday.

Our graph this month is an aab graph using shamrocks and rainbows. Thanks to preschool corner for our weather graph symbols. They are wonderful!!

Spring Weather

We have finally gotten some nice warmer weather and we have taken full advantage of it and played outside and at the park.

St. Patrick's Day

C and B fingerpainted some shamrocks that we hung in the window.

They leprechaun that we got from Making Learning Fun. They colored it and then had to cut on the lines to make the beard.
We ate green jello and made special shamrock cookies that we decorated with yummy greeen icing. I think licking the knife was the best part of the whole cookie making activity.

We also made rainbows using jell-o and they turned out so pretty and they smelled so yummy. We sorted and graphed Lucky Charms Cereal.

Clifford
We got to go see Clifford at our local library and we also got to read some Clifford books and check some out to read at home. We are planning a trip to our local Health Adventure to see the Clifford exhibit in the next couple of weeks.

Sensory tub and Stacking Blocks
We had noodles all sizes and shapes and pom-poms in the sensory tub this week and both boys loved it. B likes to dump it out and then put everything back in.
They also love the stacking blocks. While they stacked them they sang the alphabet song. Their most favorite part was of course knocking the blocks down.

DOGHOUSE
C has a little stuffed dog that he has named Sheba after his Papaw's dog that recently passed away. He has gotten very attached to this dog. He dresses her and feeds her and he even made her a doghouse. He got a box and painted it and then had Daddy cut a door in it. Then he fix it up with pictures on the walls and blankets.

We have had a great couple of weeks. They boys are getting so big and learning so much. I am amazed everyday by all the things they have learned and by all the things they come up with on their own.

Spring

2010-03-10T09:36:00.013-05:00

Dear Spring,
Please don't TEASE us!! We love your warm and sunny days so we can go outside and play. You can tell old man Winter that we won't cry a tear if he goes away until next year!!

Reasons we love you Spring...

So PLEASE don't tease us Mrs. Spring!! As you can see we are having lots of fun!!

TOT-School Weeks 25 and 26

2010-03-07T15:56:00.027-05:00

To learn more about Tot-School and get some great ideas to do with your toddler go to Tot-School.

B is 23 months old!
B is finally feeling better!! Boy February was just not his month. We go back to the Dr. for an ear re-check this Friday so hopefully after that we will be on the mend.

The past two weeks we have gotten a little Tot-school done and we have just had a lot of fun.

Last week our Bible story was Martha and Mary and then this week it was Moses. I think we may spend some more time with Moses next week!

We got to enjoy a fresh 5 inches of snow last Tuesday and the boys both loved it. WE had snowball fights, built snowmen and snowbears and just enjoyed nice family time together. We also enjoyed making and eating snow cream!!
The snow

Snow Cream!! YUM!!!

B got to build a Lowebot car from Lowes. He loves to use a hammer and he is actually quite good at hammering in nails.

He got to see Curious George Live. George is one of his favorites so he LOVED this show!!

Last week we read The Mitten by Jan Brett and B made a paper mitten and then laced it and he colored the animals from the story that we printed of janbrett.com. He would help me put the animals in the mitten as we read the story.

B also did a M is for mitten magnet page from making learning fun. He used dot markers to paint his.

We also read The Hat by Jan Brett. He colored a hedgie from the website and then used the scrap box to make a hat for Hedgie to wear. B just loves getting the glue out!!

Trains

Puzzles
B is really getting into puzzles. He has a birthday coming up so I hope he will get a few new ones then.

This past week we celebrated the birthday of Dr. Seuss. We read a ton of great Dr. Seuss books and then we reread many of them. B's favorites were The Cat in the Hat and Put Me in the Zoo. He made a cat in the hat hat to wear and then he painted a paper plate and a hat and created a Cat in the Hat. This ttemplate came from Making learning fun. He also put together a dog from Put Me in the Zoo and used Dot markers to paint the spots and he did a Z is for Zoo Magnet page using dot markers again.

Even though B was not himself last week we did seem to get a lot done over the past two weeks. We have had a lot of fun and we love having daddy hope to play with us in the snow!!

Preschool Week 26

2010-03-05T17:14:00.028-05:00

For other great preschool ideas check out preschool corner.

We had a really great week this week. We got about 5 inches of snow on Tuesday and we had tons of fun playing in it. The boys are getting very good at throwing snowballs. Especially at me and daddy!!

We also celebrate Dr Seuss this week. We read and reread a ton of Dr. Seuss books and did several activities.

Our Bible story this week was about Baby Moses. We talked a lot about how God watches over us and keeps us safe. C has also been full of questions about heaven. We have talked a lot about heaven since both of his grandmothers are in heaven and he never got to meet them. He will look at pictures of them and ask all sorts of questions about heaven and what heaven is like. He also wanted to know if he would see Papaw's dog, Sheba in heaven one day. I am so glad that he is so interested in God, heaven and that he is so excited do do our daily devotion time and read Bible stories.

The Snow
We got 5 inches of beautiful snow and the boys had an absolute blast playing in it. We had snowball fights, made a snowman, a snowbear, and just tons of fun!!

Snow Cream!!
What is a good snow without snow cream??? We made a big bowl and the boys thought it was just yummy!!!

On Saturday we went to Lowes to build a Lowbot car and robot but we got there too late. So they gave us a kit and we took ti home and built it. It has been the favorite toy this week!

Dr. Seuss
This week we celebrate Dr. Seuss and read many stories. C is really into rhyming right now so he loves these stories.

The Cat in the Hat

We made cat in the hat hats and then we made our own cat in the hat using a paper plate and a template from Making Learning Fun. C. loved it because he got to paint and use the glue.

We also made Green Eggs and Ham but of course I forget to get a picture of it!

Put Me In the Zoo
C made a dog from Put me in the Zoo that we got the template of Making Learning Fun. He used the dot painters to paint the spots. Then we did the Z is for Zoo magnet page using the dot markers.

Mr. Brown Can Moo
C is very into learning sight words right now so I found an emergent reading on Making Learning fun that went along with the story Mr Brown Can Moo. C worked on the word can and he circled all the cans in the story. He can now read the book.

C has a cookie monster workbook and he worked on the Aa and Bb pages. It is helping him learn how to form the letters.