Wife, Then Mama

For our third week of Going on a Safari with Mother Goose Time we learned about how people and animals live in the Grasslands of Africa. Beads - Day 11: I don't have any pictures from Bead day.  Hadlee and the girls were all home and it was to hard to get pictures that didn't have anyone's face in them.  So I will just briefly (as if I can ever be brief LOL) explain what we did.  First on the list was Maasai Bracelets.  We talked about what we wear when we dress us (usually just for church, we don't go very many fancy places) and I told them that the Maasai tribe in Africa traditionally wear red fabric and beads.  Then we counted beads for how old each of the kids are, and they made bracelets.  They were able to grab more beads after they counted, it was just an easy way to add in some math to the fine motor project! Then we did Bead Shapes.  Every day we have a topic poster, and this month we saved them all to look at for this activity. ...

Safari Animal week was not all about lions!  We also learned about 4 other animals through a wide variety of crafts, games and activities provided by the Mother Goose Time Curriculum.  We actually did the right activities on the right days this week, which is pretty impressive for us! Elephant - Day Seven: We started out our day with a Circle Time activity focused on "Ee".  I taped up the Phonic Photo Cards to opposite sides of the room (this is the clean side pictured here :) ) and then he ran between them slapping them and saying "E!".  This was intended as a follow the leader activity, but I was holding the baby so I was more of a manager than a participant.   I told him how baby elephants hold onto their mommy's tails like he holds my hand.  Then I stuck a sock in my pocket and he followed me around the room, holding onto my "tail".  The actual point of this activity was to learn about "E" but since I didn't want to make a ...

Today was one of the best Mother Goose Time pre-school days we have had so far!  We were able to do all the activities, in a timely manner, and Little Guy was cooperative the whole time. First we did Circle Time.  This month's pattern is ABCDABCD and it is to hard for him, but he keeps trying.  He really likes the Days of the Week song from the Circle Time CD, and the last few days has asked if he can do it himself (usually I hold his finger over the correct day during the song).  I tell him yes, but then step in and help him since he still just points at them randomly.  I always give him two days of the week clouds and have him identify the day that it is by the first sound (and never give the poor kid a Tuesday and Thursday cloud at the same time!).  I think next month I will start giving him three options, because he gets it right EVERY time. Today's Circle Time activity was supposed to focus on the shape of the month (oval) but since I didn't want ...

Last night my husband asked me if I thought that Mother Goose Time was worth the money if I didn't get it for free.  I think this is an excellent question, and one that people probably want to know. How Much Does It Cost?: Mother Goose Time costs $75 a month for one child, including shipping if you buy it month to month.  If you can order and pre-pay ahead of time, you can save up to 15%, depending on how far ahead you pre-pay.  If you have more than one child using the curriculum it is only about $5 a month to add a child.  Many of the products provided cover the entire class, including manipulatives and story books.  The things that each child needs come packaged in their own bag for each child. What I Think of the Curriculum: The curriculum is great.  It is thorough and engaging.  It provides me with ideas and supplies to teach my son things I never would have thought to teach him, but will make him a very well rounded person.  He now t...

You can't go on a safari without getting ready!  For our Mother Goose Time Safari we are spending the first week getting ready to "go"!  This week was really heavy on the masking tape, which I was unable to find so we missed a few fun activities.  Also, although I arranged this by the day it was supposed to be done, we didn't really follow it precisely this week.  Some days we did one or two activities and one day we did SIX! This is actually items from Little Passports, but I thought it was to perfect for our theme to not take a picture! Also, Little Guy really needs to go to the barber shop... Passport - Day One:   Little Guy's idea of writing his name...  Hopefully his handwriting improves as he gets older :) If not I guess he can become a doctor? Every month, on the first day, Mother Goose Time students get new nametags.  Seeing as how Little Guy is the only pupil in our classroom we don't really use them for much, but its a great ...

Beef jerky is amazing right?  But its filled with additives and preservatives, making it a less healthy snack than it seems.  You can't really feel good about handing your child a stick of chemical laced meat, despite the protein content. Before I go on, let me say that I received a free sample kit from Chomps Snack Sticks in exchange for a review.  This partnership was facilitated by Brandbacker .  Regardless of the amazing "price" I paid for these sticks of deliciousness, my review is not influenced by that and all opinions are my own! Chomps Snack Sticks are a healthy and delicious beef jerky.  They are made from 100% grass fed, non GMO beef, and don't contain anything icky like MSG or fillers like gluten or sugar.  They have 9g of protein and are around 100 calories per serving.   I can't decide if I am a fan of regular jerky, sometimes I really like it and sometimes I think its pretty gross.   Chomps Snack Sticks however, ar...

The last week of Sights and Sounds of Winter was Light and Dark.  We did really bad this week at doing school time, but had a lot of fun with some of the activities.  Since it was Christmas Vacation the older girls were home, and Michael had an extra day off, and Hadlee was here, so routine was completely, 100% out the window.  Like house destroying, sleep weird hours, eat weird hours and go places at weird times out the window.  But that is a story for another post! I tried to do one day of school with him, but we never made it past Circle Time!  We did calendar and then I don't know what happened but that was it!  Despite our lack of organized activity I would say this was a very fun week with Mother Goose Time . We only did activities twice, but we did a lot of them, and read all the books off the reading list. Michael took the girls over to his mom's house, so that I could organize the toy room (another post for that!) and before I put Little Guy ...

To be 100% honest I wasn't super excited about this month's Mother Goose Time theme.  I am a weirdo and really not a fan of Africa, and would not go on vacation there if you paid me.  If you love Africa or happen to live there, please don't be offended.  I also pretty much refuse to go to Disneyworld because its in Florida.  I don't want to go places with an abundance of animals that wander around wanting to eat me (lions, alligators, etc.). I also have an irrational fear of contracting horrible diseases if I went to Africa.  I used to read Lurlene McDaniel books and there was one where a girl went to Africa on mission, contracted a terrible disease and died.  Like the characters do in ALL Lurlene McDaniel books, but this one stuck with me. As soon as I looked through the box though, I had been completely won over on the theme!  First of all my son was in LOVE with the Safari Counters as soon as I showed them to him, and despite not showing t...

Week three was a pretty big failure at our house - school wise, we only did about half the activities, and not necessarily on the correct days.  There were some really fun activities we got to do, and Little Guy really enjoyed it when we did school.  He gets really excited when its "My Mother Goose Time !", which is great. Sights and Sounds Indoors was perfect for the week before Christmas, and if we had done a little more I think I could have connected it to Christmas a lot better. Day One: Cookie - There were so many fun activities to do this day.  We did exactly 1.5 of them.  He started on Cookie Plate Art, but something happened halfway through and we never made it back. Cookie Shapes was fun and easy, and Little Guy was able to do it with very little help. Spiced Play Dough didn't happen, because my house is a mess and making play dough and then getting it all over just didn't seem like a good plan. There was also Cookie Jar, but that involved prin...