Wife, Then Mama

If I have said it once I will probably say it 6000 more times.  Mother Goose Time is the ultimate theme creator.  Every month we get a box PACKED full of curriculum that is matched perfectly to the month's theme.  Storybooks, games, manipulatives, you name it, it "goes"!!! The Experience God add-on is no different.  God is an Artist fits seamlessly with our Art Studio theme we had this month.  It is SOOO true as well.  God is the ULTIMATE artist.  God made the world and everything in it!  Even the best artist has never created anything more than tributes to the beauty God has created. Every month the Experience God Teacher's Kit comes with Story Cards.  These cards usually have pictures related to the story that help the children remember.  On the back is the story you read to them, complete with prompts to make it more interactive.  This month was a little different, instead of 4-5 cards, we got seven cards, one for ea...

Little Guy and I have been having a lot of fun with Mother Goose Time this month.  I think it is really wonderful to teach him about great works of art, because what could be cuter than a three year old being able to identify famous artwork!  This is Little Guy's recreation of Girl With a Pearl Earring, next to a print of the original.  Yes, his lacks the detail of the Vermeer's, but it does have something it has never had before.  Facial features!  And in the right places!  Alright, I admit that I instructed him where they should go, but I have done that plenty of times before, and he just scribbled randomly.  So I was pretty impressed.  It doesn't take much to be impressed when you are a mom... This is his version of Monet's Chrysanthemums, which was made with a pokey ball (not to be confused with a PokeBall) and paint.  It was a lot prettier before he glued his "shapes" on, but I have REALLY been working on letting...

Learning to be responsible with money is something most people don't think to teach their children until they are older.  Of course, Mother Goose Time is ahead of the curve!  This month, in addition to A LOT of art, we are learning character traits related to financial stewardship, and the ways to use money. We started out by reading the story of Falco the Flightless Bird.  Falco found a coin, and was intrigued.  He started to spend all his time looking for coins (kind of a gambling analogy), and didn't even realize he had lost all of his feathers in his pursuit of coins!  This month, we are helping Falco get his feathers back by making responsible decisions.  The first thing we do each day is find a feather from our "nest" (we were supposed to have used a box to make a nest, but I just pile them up every day) that is both the color of the day, and starts with a certain letter.  Then we read the scenario on the back of the feather.  If...

Children love art.  This month our theme for Mother Goose Time is The Art Studio.  In addition to learning to recognize famous works of art such as the Mona Lisa, The Girl With the Pearl Earring, and Starry Night, Little Guy will get to experiment with creating his own art in a variety of ways.  Printmaking, Pointellism, and Stenciling are just a few of the different techniques we will be learning. The set up for this month is completely different than most months.  It is designed differently because of the fact that many childcare facilities have older children during the summer months, so its a little more "day camp" and a little less preschool.  Opening this box was a surprise, because things I expected to be there were not, and there were lots of things I didn't anticipate that were included. One of the main focuses of this month is good financial stewardship.  Everyday we have an activity to do that focuses on learning responsible ways to ear...