Exploring Feelings with Mother Goose Time

The second week of Me and My Family was all about feelings.  We started the Mother Goose Time mini unit with a combo happy/sad day.  I had my wisdom teeth out, and was miserable for an embarrassing amount of time this month.  Which put us behind on our studies.  AGAIN!  Someday I WILL get this housewife/homeschooler thing down, but it is taking some time.

The song for both days was variations of "If You're Happy and You Know It", which is always a fun song to sing. 

The first thing we did was play with our magnet set we got this month.  Little Guy had some trouble following the patterns.  He did great when I had him put the pieces on top of the picture, but when I tried to get him to put it on a different piece of paper he got confused and just wanted to put eyes on things.  This kid of mine is obsessed with eyes I think.  I blame Michael for letting him watch Percy Jackson Sea of Monsters. 

We also did what I think was his favorite art project ever.  I don't have an end result picture, because honestly, it didn't turn out like anything.  He started it before lunch, and worked on it again after nap. 

He was supposed to be creating a quilt, but instead he was just cutting, and cutting, and cutting.  I think cutting is his favorite activity.  This was another Invitation to Create.  Like I said, I am being quickly won over by this process type art.  Don't get me wrong, I am still very much a color within the lines kind of girl, but if there ARE no lines, I suppose you can color wherever you want.  He has a lot of fun with art done this way, and I have a lot more fun being able to let him do his thing, not having to micromanage the project so it turns out right. 

On Scared Day, we started out with saying Little Miss Muffet.  When the spider came along I threw the plastic spider that Mother Goose Time sent us on his lap.  I wasn't sure how he would take it, but he was not impressed.  After a quick recovery from the shock of having your mom throw a giant spider in your lap, he was completely enthralled with the spider and took it around with him all morning.  We had to go to the dental surgeon to get my mouth looked at, and he took it with him (the dentist was awesome and pretended to be terrified by the spider, screaming and jumping across the room, which REALLY amused Little Guy), and he had the spider (its name is Charlotte - I read Charlotte's Web to him a year ago and he is still pretty into it) watch him do the rest of his preschool activities.

We did a counting activity that was right up his alley.  Counting monster eyes!  He did quite well at counting them, although he does still get distracted by talking about what he is counting.  I am trying really hard to work with him only counting something once he moves it so he doesn't get ahead of himself.  He also counted all the way to 28 today!  I mean I helped him with 15, because he always forgets 15, and then with some of the twenties, but he knew most of them! 

We also made some fun shadow puppets, although we didn't get a change to use them because our house has a lot of windows, so there isn't really a room we can darken and use flashlights in during the day.  On the Make and Play sheet it said that Bear was scared of the dark.  We talked about what to do when you are scared, and Cat taught Bear that he should say prayers asking Jesus to help him be brave and courageous even when he is scared. 

We were also Surprised this week!  Our storybook of the month was a version of Little Red Riding Hood, and although I usually prefer the more intense morality tales then everyone lives happily ever after versions of the stories (as an example, at our house, Goldilocks get eaten, every time), it is a sweet version, with a wolf that just wants a family.  We played with the storytelling set, first retelling the story, and then pretending to have a surprise party for the wolf. 

Another thing we get every month is pattern card.  Last year we didn't start until November, so we missed the easiest patterns.  I was really happy to start with a simple AB pattern this year.  Patterns are really helping Little Guy, it really helped him with counting to twenty, by being able to see the pattern that a number that starts with a two is a twenty something number.  I was feeding the baby while he did the pattern cards all on his own!  At first he pretended like he needed help, but once he figured out that he wasn't getting any help, he did the pattern correctly all on his own, and quite quickly.

I am so happy that we are given Mother Goose Time for free in exchange for our sharing our fun with everyone.  It is such a great curriculum and teaches him so many things I would never think to teach him, but I know will help him either scholastically or with being a well rounded person.  All opinions are our own, even though we get the product for free.  The most glowing recommendation has to be that Little Guy asks to do Mother Goose Time. unprompted, almost everyday, sometimes even if we have already done it that day.