Rainbows Return

We had one of our favorite themes again! Rainbows!  I love finding the rainbow crafts. Gives me one more reason to hang out on Pinterest.  

We got this idea on Pinterest from Live Learn Love 226.  I cut everything and Adelyn practiced gluing them.   I put my finger on each spot to show her where to put the glue. 

This was the book we focused on, What Makes a Rainbow 

We got this idea from Child-Development-Guide.  Just tape 6 cue tips together and put paint for each color of the rainbow in a straight line. Dip and paint! 

We did rainbow cookies again! This idea we first saw from our great friend Mollie.  This one sure is a lot of work but we had fun.

Llama Llama Misses Mama- Going to School

Llama Llama Misses Mama

During the week that Adelyn began her new school year in September we read books about school and making new friends. Adelyn fell in love with Anna Dewdney's Llama Llama book about Llama feeling very uncomfortable about being in a new place.  The author also has a great website with activities, puppet characters and coloring pages at this address:  http://www.llamallamabook.com/. 

Adelyn and I decided to act out the book with her animals. We happen to have the Llama stuffed animal.  Our Hop on Pop character played Mama and Sylvester the cat was the school teacher. Adelyn loved repeating some of her favorite lines in the book while playing.  

Zachary's First Kinder Project!

This past Thursday Zachary brought home an assignment that needed to be completed by Monday. We really enjoyed working on it! I promise I mostly watched. There were a few corners I had to cut.  Since the picture is a bit blurry I'll clarify a few things.  

The title says "All About Me".  The next line says, "This is my family", the middle line says, "These are things I like to do" and the last one says, "This is my Favorite".  We found most of our stuff in magazines. I also had some stickers, an old birthday card and a couple come from Google.  He also decided to add color to just one sleeve.  

I hope he feels special seeing it in the hallway at school and knowing that he is unique. 

School Bus

Time for us to get back into our school routine! With Zachary starting kindergarten it has been a new type of routine but we are all liking it a lot. I have been looking forward to Adelyn getting the one on one time with me for our themed activities. This was the first lesson Adelyn and I did since Zachary started school.  I found the bus image from printables on google images. We printed extra wheels and put a brad through them so that the wheels would go "round and round".  

I think I would like to make another bus but make it raised off of the construction paper with something like cotton balls. The next steps would be to use an exacto knife and slit the door so it opens, find coloring pictures of children which would be cut out and then have them go through the door of the bus. That might be a fun trial craft for myself! 

It's a good set up craft for The Wheels on the Bus song.

Hands on Faith Manipulatives

The Mass I attend with my two children on Sundays is anywhere from 1 hour to an hour and 15 minutes.  Parents of any faith or denomination bring their children to church and hope that they will not be disruptive and learn about our faith.  I love to bring my own because not only do I feel like we are participating as a family together but they also taking in information through all of their senses.  They see the colors, artwork, and progression of our Mass.  They hear the sounds of the music and our prayers.  The smell the incense.  We also use our taste when we receive communion.

The hard part of course...is that it lasts for over an hour.  Portraying this special celebration as important and not boring can be difficult and it can take hard work on our part to have our little ones interested even with their level of curiosity.  

The first part of our Mass, the Liturgy of the Word can be the most difficult for us as parents to hear and take in information.  Older reading children can follow along but our version of the readings can be complicated to understand.Little toddlers and pre-schoolers can focus well on a single activity for roughly 10 minutes give or take a little (Early Intervention Support). So this requires bringing six different activities/books/items or getting them interested in the parts of the Mass that they can. We know that children learn best from hands on activities so I have been constantly searching for ideas to incorporate into our Sunday Mass. It takes work to prepare some of the things ahead of time but it has been so worth it in seeing them learn and having my own peace during Sunday worship.

I have learned through this that Noah's Ark is SOOO overdone in the toy industry.  Animals are cute and great to learn about and Noah is a story but our center at church is not Noah, it's Christ. I would love to see more toys that have to do with the Gospel stories. I would love to see a Wedding Feast of Cana set. My aunt also suggested Zaccheus in the tree. So many options!  My mother in law is making us felt characters to go along with some of those stories that will be posted in the future!

Below are things we use during Mass and also some things I look forward to getting. I have a lot of books and pictures currently but I really want to get more manipulative type items.

Order of the Mass 
Order of the Mass coloring book.

This has been wonderful in helping the kids to know what is coming next and get a grasp on the structure of the Mass.

Readings:

To teach the story being heard on a particular Sunday I look for the story on Google images.  I paste them into word and print them for church. Crayons spilling can be a problem but bringing just a few crayons helps with that.

For older kids their is the option of bringing their age appropriate bible and finding the story for them to read if it is in there.

We also bring books associated with the particular season we are currently celebrating such as The Easter Story and The Three Trees during Lent and Easter.

Creed

This book has pictures that go along with the Apostles creed so we use this during our creed to help them follow along.

Prayers of the Faithful

I ask Zachary to pick at least two things he wants to pray for. Also as the prayers are being read I explain them to him.  

Liturgy of the Eucharist
To prepare for this part we play with an olive wood paten and chalice at home.  We sit very close to the front each week and I point out the paten and chalice used during the Mass.  Sitting close makes a HUGE difference.  They love to be able to see also. 



The 12 Apostles!
http://www.bibletoys.com/Figurine-Playsets-s/1.htm


I just saw that these action figures are coming out!
http://www.bibletoys.com/Talking-Toys-s/2.htm

Nautical Themes!

My mother made this for a special friend's baby shower! 

Many have asked how I feel about Zachary going to school.  I will miss him in so many ways . We have developed so many cherished memories and learning experiences.  At the same time I know that if we did not let our sweet babies go this year we would be looking for extra help to stimulate them as they move towards a need for new learning experiences. I would definitely need to learn more about home school curriculum. I feel like we are definitely to the point where he needs more than what we have been doing so I would either step it up or send him to school! 

We chose school for many reasons.  He is enjoying new little responsibilities that allow him to be a little more independent such as the take home folder and being somewhere on his own yet still loves to share experiences after school.  I'm happy that he is learning to socialize with a variety of children. This school has opportunities in the school that I cannot provide him myself such as the fabulous art teacher and a music room FULL of Orff instruments. I love his teacher who is very gentle and has a classroom full of great visuals and hands on learning items. She put up a picture and description of herself on her website which was so helpful to Zachary before we officially met her. It really helped to ease any anxiety he had. We have seen him full of energy and enthusiasm since he arrived on the first day. I'm so glad this has been a positive experience so far. 

My mother n law sent us this poem from the eyes of a teacher before Zachary started school and I thought I'd share.  I am unsure of who the author is.  

The First DAY

I gave you a little smile
As you dropped off your child today
For I know how hard it is to leave
And know your child must stay.

You've been with him for several years now
And have been her loving guide
But now, alas, the time has come
to leave him at my side

Just know that as you walk away
And tears down your cheek may flow
I'll love him as I would my own
And help her to learn and grow.

For as a parent, I too know
how quickly the years do pass
And I remember the day it was my turn
to take my child to class.

So please put your mind at ease
and cry those tears no more
For I will love him and take her in
When you leave him at my door.