From the heart: A Christmas craft for preschoolers

In my effort to be frugal and meaningful this Christmas - I looked through our school box to try and come up with a quick, easy, and preschool friendly craft to do with my girls. This is what I came up with and I think some grandma's, neighbors and even our trees are going to look extra special with these beauties hanging on them. :)

Here's what you need:

 

- Sisal, yarn, string, whatever you want to be the hanger-upper part

- Glue gun and extra glue sticks

- Kids glue sticks

- Craft sticks. We used the ginormous ones. You can use any size.

- green paint

- felt and foil pieces OR whatever you think would make simple and pretty "ornaments". 

1) The day before have your kiddos paint the craft sticks on one side with the green paint. Let dry.

Once dry, I hot glued the 3 sticks together. Glue sticks don't hold well for that part. 

2) Cut out tiny pieces of felt and foil to glue onto the dried green sticks - these are the "ornaments". Let the kids use their glue sticks to pick where they want to glue the pieces. Cut out foil stars to put at the top of the tree!

3) Mom or dad: hot glue the back of the top of the tree and use your yarn or sisal to make a loop, this will be how you hang it up. 

4) Name and date on the back. Presto! A memory made! 

The 2 year old finishing one of her trees

My girls and I are having a cozy night at home and working on this craft together was great fun. Now, the ornaments are drying and we are enjoying some special cartoons. These were some of my favorites as a child - happy to share Rudolph with my girls now.

And the wonderful hubs surprised me with THIS when I woke up from my nap this afternoon. It's been a good day. Eggnog latte = Christmas love. :)

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!

What works - Gettin' our preschool groove on

It's 3:00 here in Iowa and my children are both upstairs asleep. Nap time. It's a wonderful thing. But I should be honest with myself - my almost 5 year old is def not asleep, as she proved 20 minutes ago by tiptoeing down the stairs... (sigh). I haven't given up the battle on rest time, she may not sleep, but she will be in her room to rest. Most days she feels asleep right around 3:15 after laying in there for like 2 hours. She STILL needs her sleep - I just have to convince her :)

We've had our first full week of preschool (Mon, Tues, Thurs) and I can tell you that honestly it was great! I'm still learning and trying to figure out how to give Ava attention on "big" tasks like writing and math while little sister is dumping bird seed onto the table. But, we are getting there. We have gotten our hands dirty on some fun projects this week and the girls are really getting into it. We start our time with a book on the couch - just to calm the wiggles and give us an official "start". Today we read a book about "Thinking of Others", one of those cute board books that even 4 year olds can enjoy. My biggest girl really got into the fun of thinking of ways to put others first, or just being kind, score! Later in the morning we found 2 baggies of halloween candy on our porch that someone had left for us. They thought that was SO cool that someone was thinking of us, too :) Don't you love those moments when something is lived out for your kids to see? One of those "God moments" for sure.

Hopefully this weekend I can get some of our real pics up of the girls in action - but for now, I'd love to show you what has worked for us this week in the department of Preschool fun. Thanks to Pinterest for allowing me to pin all these ideas in one location - brilliant!

Ladybug Math:

We did our own spin on this. I cut out 6 red circles and then had Ava draw the correct amount of dots to go with each ladybug. Then she really enjoyed drawing the legs and antenna. This could easily adapt with any kind of bug, but since we have an abundance of ladybugs outside our house - this was perfect for us.

Goldfish sorting:

We adapted this one as well, as I didn't have the time to make the fancy fish bowls (doh!). Instead, I drew 4 rectangles with each of the goldfish colors - the girls sorted their snack bowls onto the rectangles and then got to enjoy their treat when finished. August really enjoyed this - thinking it was a little too young for my big girl. But, she enjoyed the color review.

Weather Plate:

Suprise, suprise, we adapted this one, too! I had Ava draw the 4 temperature groups and glue them to spots on the plate herself. Ours is not perfect, but it was totally hands on and the girls love telling the weather each morning when we begin. It is taped to our back door!

Bird feeders:

Painting with peanut butter is MESSY, add to that the ping-ping-ping of tons of birdseed hitting your hardwood floor... ahhhh. But, it was SO worth it. My girls really enjoyed making these bird feeders and I was happily suprised to find a HUGE bag of birdseed at walmart for only $2! They are now hanging outside and we are waiting on the birds. So far, the neighbors dog is the only one interested.

Felt dolls:

Winner Winner chicken dinner! This one has been the biggest hit!
I took an hour during nap time earlier in the week to cut out a felt family, clothes, accesories. Felt was .23 a sheet at walmart and the ideas are endless on this. I use it as a "quiet time" bag, or a transition activity. My 2 year old asks for it every day "I pway fet dahls?" My only mistake was to only cut out ONE wedding gown. What was I thinking? If you have two daughters, you understand that comment. ;)

Friends, I am so enjoying my children SO MUCH MORE now that things are so much more hands on. They know our school time and when it's time for Mommy to get housework done. Boredom seems to be less frequent and the guideline for the morning has been great for my relationship with my very testing first born. So, this is what worked for us this year! I cannot wait to show you some pics of the girls doing their hard work!

All of these ideas are on my Pinterest boards "Arts n' Crafts - kiddo style" and "Preschool fun".

Preschooling at Home

Way back a long time ago I went to college and learned how to teach preschool. It sounds simpler then it actually is, especially when you get a group of 13+ 3 year olds running around. All the same, I studied, learned, and quickly sealed a job doing just that, teaching preschoolers, shortly after I graduated.

So I'm boggled at how I STRUGGLE so much with educating my own dear preschoolers. It's the END of October and we still haven't started school this year. Now, we did move twice, and life is crazy busy with ministry stuff...but, seriously?! I pulled out my little lesson plan book this morning and just shook my head - still nothing. But that is about to change. I'm making a list, checking it twice, the heading out to pick up school supplies after I'm done with this post. Ha! I know busy little hands make busy little minds and I have a biggest daughter who NEEDS that right now. :) I'm thankful there is grace, and that in all reality, it's just preschool.

Here's our agenda for this week with a pic or two (from Pinterest) of what we'll be doing:

Today:
Puzzles, sticker dot activity, paint with marshmallows, outside play, Lunch, Bottle cap stamps


Tuesday:
Bible reading, prayer sticks, quiet books, make a weather plate, felt paper dolls, dry erase boards, Lunch, begin a chapter book to read aloud.

prayer stix! 

Weds:
No school

Thursday:
Bible reading, prayer, quiet books, movie or 1 tv show, lady bug math, goldfish sorting, tp roll bird feeder craft, Lunch


Friday:
Journaling, "100 easy lessons" reading for Ava


We can do this! We can do this!

Preschool: Day 1

It's been a long time coming, but, we finally started preschool at home today. But let's back up... so I can tell you how ONCE AGAIN my plans were thwarted. I, wanted to get up at 6 and have some quiet time in the word. Drink a cup of coffee. Gather my thoughts. Pen some notes in my "teacher" planner book. I, wanted things to go a certain way. Limited chaos was at the top of the list. And, once again I didn't get my way.

August woke up at 5:42am. Which, is just a gross time. Especially when you already have an early morning planned and those last 15 minutes would have been precious. Anyway, my plan changed from having a quiet time in the word - to laying on the couch in the dark, with a toddler on my chest. I was freezing because I forgot to grab a blanket for myself and I didn't dare move or it would stir her again. {sigh} So I just lay there and prayed. I was tempted to cry. Why does it seem that every time I set the alarm early... my kids wake up BEFORE me?! It's like a kid radar or something. Actually, I know its part of my sanctification. But that's another post. Aug's snoozed another 10 minutes and then went straight to whining and crying as loud as possible for "milk" and "eat" and "Nana" {banana}. This crying woke up her sister. We were all awake by 6:40am. Now my eager preschooler is asking over and over... "are we gonna do school now?" and I'm struggling to smile and act excited - because I'm not and honestly, my eyes hurt from being awake. Ah, but enough of that - we already know that part of being a momma is not sleeping and having your own plans change on the dime. And I know full well that I am blessed beyond measure that I even get to lose sleep over these precious ones. 

After breakfast we headed upstairs to the school room. It's nothing fancy and right now has zero decorations or school type things in it. I'm still working and planning a scheming ideas. But the kids table was up and our school bin was filled with workbooks and sharpened pencils. :) I had hoped to start each school time with prayer and a few songs - like I would have done in my preschool, sans prayer. The 4 year old announces that she doesn't want pray and then refuses to sing "this is the day" with me. I press on. Augs is now attempting to dig out all the pencils from the school box. How does one home school with more then 1 child?! I admire you. What went on from there was half chaos/half fun/very precious/memorable/totally amateur. But, we went through 3 workbook topics and Ava was SO eager. She just kept wanting to do and do and do. Which, tell me I need to plan some more! My heart kinda aches as I realize now I didn't get a picture of her "First day" and I'm annoyed that August was such a distraction and Ava was frustrated with her. But, it's also all good. I'm convicted that I could use my personal time better to plan and organize this for both of them. But ultimately, all that matters is that we made a memory and we have finally begun! 

Preschool: Day 1. In the bag. Here's to many more better days! This afternoon I found this quote in my email and I'm so thankful for the awesome reminder :

“You know, motherhood has caused me to come face to face with my less-than-wonderful qualities. Sometimes my kids bring out the worst in me. However, God doesn’t waste a thing. He uses my kids to bring me to Him. When I come face to face with my shortcomings, my weaknesses, and my sin, it’s a reminder of my need for a God who wants me to be more like Him each and every day.” 

–Jill Savage, NO MORE PERFECT MOMS