Friendly Frogs: On a Snowy Day

I'm playing catch up here, and posting last week's curriculum as well.

On a Snowy Day
Literature:
Book: The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
Book: Mama, Will it Snow Tonight? By Nancy White Carlstrom (we did this as a call repeat group read, and the children loved it!
Book: Max and Molly’s Winter by Ann Garrison Greenleaf

Share: Wear your favorite Winter Gear

Fine motor: cut snowflakes out of pre folded paper.

Sensory: Insta Snow Play!

Mr. Sammy isn't usually attracted to the sensory bins, but I couldn't pull him away from them, today! He must be a lover of the snow.

Math/Fine Motor: divide 12 “snowballs” into equal groups (2 groups of 6, 3 groups of 4, 4 groups of 3, 6 groups of 2) using a cotton ball and clothespin transfer center
Science: Solid, Liquid, Gas We talked about the properties of water, and how it looks and feels in different forms.

We listened to the Solid Liquid Gas song by They Might Be Giants during Music and Movement time. I used the weather as an example (snow, rain, fog/clouds) to explain the difference between the three forms. Here's the YouTube music video for the song we listened to: enjoy! (beware...it WILL get stuck in your head, and you WILL be singing "Gaaaaaaaaaaas!" later.

Language Question: what happens to ice and snow when it melts?

Mystery Item: (snow shovel) ask children “what is it?” Record answers

Music and Movement: Falling Down, Gently Down-sing with snowflakes, and Once there was a Snowman, Solid, Liquid, Gas -They Might be Giants

Language: W words-add to our list

Snack: cocoa with snowman straws and snowman marshmallows

Math: marshmallow W patterns

I made several AB and AABB patterns with capital and lower case W. The children put a large snowman marshmallow on the capital W's and mini marshmallows on the lower case w. This was a great excercise to help the children work patterns of various skill levels, matching, size classification, and staying on task and in control (not just eating all the marshmallows!) during a group activity.

Art: The color white! The children painted white swirly snowy W's

Happy Winter, Friendly Frogs!

Recycle

I have wasted a small fortune on plastic baggies since Reese started school.

You can only fit so many plastic reusable containers into thermal lunch bag. I recently restocked my baggie supply and discovered that I had spent $9 on plastic bags. $9 freaking dollars! What a waste! I know they hold a purpose and all, but $9?

But I just can't live without the convenience. At least, I don't think I can...and I don't want to. It is absolute torture when I really need a ziplock bag and don't have one available.

I still feel like I threw $9 away.

While all of this was on my mind, I was reading a book about a pioneer, and it described her wrapping contents of her lunch (jerky, nuts, slice of pie, etc) in brown paper, or fabric napkins.

I'm not about to put a piece of pie in a napkin.

But it did help me to look around and think about what I would do if ziplocks weren't available.

I didn't discover some superb alternative.

But I did find that I'd been throwing away even more than $9 worth of plastic bags.

A lot of the food we buy already comes in a plastic bag or container.

bread

apples

oranges

bagels

butter

cool whip

english muffins

A lot of people already think to reuse plastic containers, but why not reuse plastic bags, too? I'm not about to wash and reuse something 100x, or save the bag my frozen chicken came in, but why not shake the bread crumbs from the breadbag and fill it with something else, at least once? That's one bag I don't have to buy.

My favorite re-usable so far, is the tortilla bag.

We eat a lot of tortillas, and they come in a ziplock bag.

Tortilla crumbs have been shaken out, and now the bag is keeping the leftover white bread from going stale.

Look around your house and see what containers can be reused for another purpose before they get tossed or recycled.

Do you reuse or repurpose something in your house? Tell us about it.

Blast Off!

My baby (can I still call him a baby?) throws everything.
He has quite the arm.
If it's not a ball, it's... well, anything. This kid has no preference. He just assumes that everything must be thrown, and it needs to be thrown soon. With an exciting sound effect.

My daughters didn't do this.
Is it a boy thing?


Last week, we witnessed:
-a buttered slice of bread get launched across the kitchen table and land squarely on top of my lasagne.
-a golf ball land in the butter tub
-a Little People airplane take a maiden voyage over the sofa.
-a Little People school bus also take a maiden voyage over the sofa.
-every everything ever made take a maiden voyage (and many return flights) over the sofa.
-a remote contol head impailment
-the plush Buzz, Woody, and Bullseye toys thrown 'to infinity and beyond'
-100 billion things end up in the kitchen sink (does he think it's a basket?)
-and of course, all unwanted food on the high chair tray forced to walk the plank.

I had started to type, "most recently, a square lego block just hit the screen of my laptop" (inspiring this post), but by the time I had finished, the wall had been nailed with a shoe and the footstool from the bathroom had been carried down the hall, then launched across the living room like a car in one of those crazy iron man competitions where they see how many yards one man can pull a city bus by a rope.

A few days ago, Aaron started juggling some golf balls to entertain the kids. (yeah, Aaron can juggle. He is cool.)
I was totally against this, because I thought it would only encourage Corbin's habit of throwing things (and we are all getting sick of being hit with wooden train tracks).

But I was wrong.


Turns out, the only time Corbin doesn't throw things, is when he is juggling.

Point: Facebook

I Confess:
The #1 reason I keep my facebook account active is so I can ask people to call me when I lose my phone. This happens at least once every two to three weeks.

I Confess:
Yeah, that last one is a lie. I solicit the help of Facebook friends to help me find my phone at least once every week. Sorry Friends.

Shameless Brag

I forgot to mention (brag) that when we were waiting at the doctor's office the other day, Reese picked up a copy of Dr. Seuss' There's a Wocket in My Pocket and read the whole book out loud! She needed help with a few of the made-up Dr. Seuss-y words, but I am so impressed with her reading skills. Listening to my child read to me is absolute music.

Way to go Reese!

Oh, and I should have knocked on wood. We went back to the Doctor today and surprise! (not.)Quincy's ears are totally infected. Nice.

Bummer

Corbin's little bickies are about to go all natural.

If you had asked me 6 years ago if I would ever consider cloth diapering, I would have laughed in your face and called you a hippie.

Right before Corbin was born, I started to actually consider cloth diapering, but I looked around at the mountainous supply of diapers that I already owned (thank you, wonderful friends of mine), and didn't see a need to purchase diapers, since I had almost 6 months worth of disposables waiting to be used.

Fast forward to when the supply ran out. I considered it again. The upfront investment is $75-$100 to get started. Um, yeah at that point, I was spent on both energy and cash and it just wasn't worth the investment just to "try it out".

But now, we're sinking into a nice little groove. Corbin is 20 months, and I probably won't even attempt to potty train him until a year from now.

So for the cost of 3 boxes of diapers, I bought enough to "try it out". 4 Bummi covers, 6 prefolds, 3 snappis, and a box of disposable liners (because solid poop in your washer is nasty).

3 boxes of diapers would last us about 2 months.

So I figure, If I can do this for 60 days, I'll have broken even with what I've spent, so far.

Anything after that will be money still in my pocket. If I continue, I'll spend another $20+ to get another dozen prefolds for the diapers, and maybe some other diapering supplies I don't know about yet, but I think that's still worth it, considering I currently spend that amount every few weeks on disposables.

Even if it is totally gross and more work, I think I could stand to see these little rockets on Corbin's bum for 60 days.

So, the adventure begins.

I will use disposables at night.

I will use disposables when I send my baby to a friend's house, have a sitter, or go on road trips, because I still have a box of them to use up.

And also because I am not 100% certain what I have gotten myself into.

But I can do anything for 60 days.

If I hate it after 60 days, the cloth diapers will be lovingly tucked into our 72 hour kits, and I'll never look back.

As a bonus, I won't have to worry about replacing the diapers in my 72 hr kids every time my babies grow into a different size.

Is it worth it?

We'll see.

Stay tuned.

It should be noted that I gave myself a few pats on the back for purchasing these online. Whaaat?!

Go me.

While the Parents Were Away

Kasey received the Bestest Friend Ever Award, tonight, when she came over and put our kids to bed for us so Aaron and I could go on a date.

Our date was wonderful, just what we needed.

We came home to three sleeping children, and this awesome video of the Baby Guy taking a horsie ride on Kasey's lap.

Shut up.

Could he be any cuter?

We don't think so.

Thanks, Kasey!