Wife, Then Mama

Mother Goose Time is great at finding ways to teach kids things while they are playing.  One of the ways it does this is through the arts.  Music, visual arts, dramatic play and movement are all ways that Mother Goose Time respects different children's styles of learning, and the process of learning through play. They always provide ample opportunities for learning through visual arts.  Little Guy isn't very good at learning this way, because he doesn't do the activities in a very accurate manner.  They are more fine motor development skill building activities.  Music is a fun way to learn things, and usually learn them long term.  Back in January when we were learning about Safari animals, we sang a song about respecting animals space.  He still sometimes sings it.  He also learned about musical instruments back in December, and still remembers how to properly hold a violin! The amount of dramatic play that Little Guy does now is am...

Little Guy loved learning about bees, and was a little hesitant to move on to butterflies.  But this month's Mother Goose Time theme is Bees AND Butterflies. I still have not gotten very good at scheduling in daily school time, and during weeks that we have a lot of stuff going on I don't do very well at doing any school some weeks.  Yesterday we played a little catch up, since next week is a new month, and that means a new theme for our curriculum. The first week of butterflies was focused on the lifecycle of a butterfly.  I thought I took a lot of pictures, but I really didn't take nearly enough.  Of course we started with Eggs, because that is how a butterfly life begins!  Every month we do a Would You Rather game.  It is a fun way to help children learn to express the reasoning behind their opinions and preferences.  This time Boy Z participated (unfailingly picking the last thing I said in true toddler style) making it so that I could ask...

*A special announcement first:  If you have been considering getting Mother Goose Time , now is the time to do it!  They just announced next years themes, and not only do they seem super fun (themes range from Nursery Rhymes to Community Helpers, Birds & Eggs to Superheroes!) but for a limited time you can save an extra 5% on your curriculum.  This is on top of up to 15% savings with a pre-paid subscription!  Click here to see all of the themes, and scroll to the bottom to see the number to call to order and get your discount - YOU MUST CALL TO ORDER TO GET THE EXTRA 5% OFF!* Last week we didn't do much school.  One day we did go to our friends house, and we brought some Mother Goose Time along, because: Its fun Little Guy likes having a "class" sometimes (other times not so much) My friend likes the stuff we do and was actually trying to figure out if it was cool to ask me to bring some, but I offered so she didn't have to The kids all worked toge...

When we started with Mother Goose Time, I had no idea that one of the benefits would be a behavior modification tool!  Despite his mild disgust at seeing pictures of ACTUAL bees , Little Guy LOVES the Friendly Bees that are a part of the curriculum.  Last month our Friendly Bee was wise.  He made good choices.  To illustrate making good choices, we put the Wise Bee in a "hive" made from the geoboards we got in February.  Then I had Little Guy leave the room so he wouldn't see me throwing toys in the house, and threw yellow and blue connecting cubes all around the room, and called him back.  I told him we were pretending that the yellow blocks were food for the bee, but the blue blocks were dangerous for the bee.  We had to make wise choices and only pick up the yellow "food".  (Learning about character traits AND colors!) He picked up all the yellow ones, and none of the blue ones.  After we learn about our character trait th...

This month our Mother Goose Time theme is Bees and Butterflies.  I was pretty stoked about it, since I think that bees and butterflies are both pretty (for insects) and I know they are incredibly important creatures.  Little Guy was not as impressed.  He said "Ewww..." a lot while looking at the stuff.  Oh well, I know he will learn a lot, have fun, and probably learn to appreciate these little creatures more. Our schedule last week was beyond busy.  My brother was visiting on leave and so we did a ton of fun stuff.  On Tuesday we went to the children's museum, Wednesday we went to the zoo, and on Thursday we went to the beach!  We still did a few activities where we could squeeze them in, and the ones we did were really fun. On the first day we did a rhyme poster with some cute bees that he got to stick on the poster while we counted.  He really liked this and we played probably half a dozen times before it was time to move on to someth...