The First Day O' School. Or, The Beginning of the End

Is it melodramatic that I'm feeling like life is over because this is Bennett's last year before Kindergarten?

It may be, but I'm freaking out nonetheless.

It's the beginning of the end. The end of his toddler-hood, the end of being home all day every day, the end of his whole world being our family, the end of him thinking Mommy and Daddy are the coolest people in the world. Pretty soon he'll be moving away and marrying some girl from the University.

I object.

I often voice these objections to Benny-boy.

Me: "I don't WANT you to grow up. Please stop."

Bennett: "Moooom... it's OK! I'll still give you hugs and kisses, even when I'm big."

Sigh.

Do you see now why I refuse to accept him growing up?

Nonetheless, school started today, and I decided to get over my temper tantrum and make it a special day. After all, I do love a good reason to break out traditions!

Like the "Special breakfast on the First-Day-of-School" Tradition.

I made these apple cinnamon muffins. They were amazing (I made mini muffins instead of biggies, just FYI). I served Benny's up with some yogurt.

Along these lines, we also celebrated the "Bring-the-Teacher-an-Apple-on-the-First-Day-of-School" Tradition. Also known as "My-Mama-is-a-Kiss-Up" Tradition.

I packaged up 12 of our Apple mini-muffins in an egg carton. I found this cute idea on Pinterest. Benny was excited to give them to his teacher Miss Mary!

Moving on... to the "Picture-on-the-Front-Steps" Tradition. Our pics were a little sub-par this year. We were rushed, and we have two young children. Enough said.

Still we got a few semi-cute shots.

Getting a semi-decent picture...

When we got to school, it was all craziness and hustle and bustle, which is not Benny's favorite.
He likes it calm and quiet like his Daddy.

He said hello to sweet Miss Mary, who greeted each child outside the door with a big smile and hug. Love her already.

She oohed and aahed over the gift Bennett brought her, and I saw his little eyes twinkle with pride.

Inside the classroom, Bennett found a quiet corner where he played Dinosaurs and "Guys" (which basically means action-figures in Bennett-speak").

For the first 10 minutes or so, he kept asking me to stay, and then all of a sudden, he said very calmly, "Mama, can you please leave me here now? You can go."

So I kissed him (twice) and told him to be good (10 times) and drove away.

When pick-up time came, my buddy emerged from the classroom wearing a green Birthday Crown since he just had his birthday. He had a great first day of school and told me all about the special snack, the toys and the friends.

We then went and celebrated with our final tradition of the day... the "Special-Lunch-After-The First-Day-of-School" Tradition. This was one my Mom always did with me, and have fond memories of the first day of school!

He picked "Pandamania Express" :0), and we had a really nice lunch and playtime at the park afterwards.

After lunch he said, "What a beautiful day this was. I love this day."

Enough with the preciousness, kid. Can't you see your Mom is hanging on by a thread today? Sheesh.

Summer Learning: Rooty Tooty Fresh-n-Fruity

Those of you who read my blog with scrutiny may have seen that "Learn the Fruits of the Spirit" was one of the items on our family's "Summer To-Do List."

"What is this all about?" you may have asked yourself.

Well, I'm glad you asked, O Scrutinous Blog Reader.

The idea came to me a few weeks ago when I was trying to describe to Bennett how we needed more peace in our home. He asked me, "What is peace Mama?" And while I was explaining it to him, this simple idea was born. I didn't want to overwhelm him or myself with tons of elaborate summer preschool curriculum like I used to. I though that focusing on a new "Fruit of the Spirit" each week could provide some opportunities for spiritual growth for the whole family as well as some arts&crafts, cutting, math and music along the way.

So here's what we did. First we made a big blank tree on butcher paper and hung it on the playroom door. (This is also what I do for my thankfulness tree in the fall.) I'm no artist, and my tree is proof of that, but the kids don't care.

Then, each week, we choose a fruit that begins with the same letter as the virtue we are learning. For instance, a lemon for love.

And a pineapple for peace. I also wrote a simple, easy-to-understand definition on each fruit that I keep repeating to my kids every day at breakfast. The kids get to paste the fruit up on the tree, and this helps us to continue reviewing all the fruits we've learned.

I also choose a Bible verse that corresponds to the Fruit O' the Week and post it on the chalkboard in our eating area. Here's the verse for love.

The verse for peace was "Live at peace with everyone." (Romans 12:18)

Again, those scrutiny-filled readers may notice that we skipped "Joy" on our tree. This is because I did "Peace" early... we've had a lot of fighting around here lately, and I thought we needed some peace ASAP! So I broke the order for the greater good.

And now we're doing Joy this week.

Our fruit for Joy is actually going to be "Jelly" because there are no fruits that begin with the letter J! Jelly counts as fruit in my book. Long live jelly!

And my kid-friendly definition for Joy is: Having a happy heart no matter what happens.

Joy's verse is: Proverbs 15: 13 "A happy heart makes the face cheerful."

Also: Throughout the week, I really try to phrase things using our 'Fruit O' the Week,' so the meaning will really sink in for the kids.

For instance, I use it to lovingly correct, as in, "Bennett, is that a good way to seek peace with your sister? Or are you stirring up fighting?" OR "Mallory, that wasn't a very joyful attitude." OR "Bennett, those weren't very loving words."

Or better yet, I use it when I'm praising the kids for great behavior. As in... "Bennett! I'm so proud of the way you handled that peacefully!" OR "Great job, Mallie! I love your joyful attitude!" You get the picture. This serves as a good reminder of what we are working on.

So there you have it... our Rooty Tooty Fresh -n-Fruity Summer Learning!

April's Theme: HELP!

Hello Darlin's,

I need some ideas/suggestions for April's theme o' the month. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, read this and this.

I'm stuck. Seriously. Easter is at the beginning of the month, and that threw me for a loop.

• Umbrella (ella, ella... ehhh) month?
• Spring Month?
• Something-else-because-those-are-the-only-two-ideas-I-have-month?

I'm desperate. Please send help.

Two Things: Today's Schedule and Green Month

Our days have needed a little more structure as of late. I've noticed Bennett getting a little antsy and cranky on days when we are home. I also feel a constant struggle between things that need to get done around the house and Bennett's need for me to play with him.

So today, in an effort to love-tap several birds with one stone, Bennett and I devised a little "To Do List" on our easel.

The rule was that we got to trade off picking activities for the morning. Bennett started off the list with play trains, and then I added in item #2 "Get dressed" (translation: let Mama take a shower in peace without trying to toss cars in the shower and asking her, "Can we pway cars?" every 2 minutes).

We weren't super sticklers about the order of things... that's just not how I roll. If Bennett decided he wanted to play trains again during "car play time," that's just fine and dandy. The main purpose of the list is to let him see that his activities are important and given priority in our day while teaching him that Mama also has other responsibilities at home too. It also keeps me on track and helps me balance playtime with work time. I actually really liked the way the morning played out using this schedule.

A few side-notes:

• Item #4 (Reading Lesson) is actually something we just started today. We had an awesome speaker at our MOPS group last night who talked about teaching pre-schoolers to read. She has a very user-friendly curriculum, which we purchased, and I'm excited about it. Check out her website for more info.

• Item #5 (Green Hunt) is referring to our theme for March, Green Month! Bennett is VERY into his favorite color being green right now. If I hand him a blue plate, he will quickly (and somewhat politely) remind me that blue is NOT his favorite color. So for March, I decided that instead of focusing on Shamrocks or Leprechauns, we would focus on green. Bennett is VERY excited about it.

• One item that somehow didn't make it onto the To Do List was: "Make a fort using every toy bin in the playroom, thereby dumping every toy we own onto the ground." Oh, but don't worry. Bennett took care of that item while I was getting dressed (#2).

• Today's activity, the "green hunt" was just walking around the neighborhood looking for things that are green. We picked up leaves, clovers and green sticks, and when we got home, we talked about the word "nature" and what that means. Then we taped the leaves to a paper and hung it in the playroom. Simple, but Bennett loved it. I am learning with Bennett that he enjoys simple things MUCH more than big, elaborate productions. Even though I'm all about the glitzy, glittery crafts, that's just not Bennett's thang... and I'm learning to plan our activities accordingly. I'm trying.

But I cannot promise that we won't have some sort of elaborate rainbow/pot 'o gold fiasco on Saint Patrick's Day. Baby steps, people... baby steps.

I'm only human after all...

January School Time: Snowflake Month

Okay, okay I know you've all been waiting with bated breath to hear what we've been doing for school time this month. Seriously, stop baiting your breath like that... it's not good for you.

We're focusing on snowflakes this month, along with snow animals (penguins and polar bears to be exact) So without further adieu, here's a little preview of Snowflake Month to appease you breath-baters before you turn purple and keel over...

• We went to the library and checked out oodles of snow and winter-inspired books. A few cute ones we've enjoyed reading are:

Tippy Tippy Tippy Hide

The Missing Mitten Mystery
One Winter's Night

• Bennett's favorite activity so far this month has been a simple little "science experiment" we did. Since we're learning about snowflakes, we decided to get an ice cube and let it melt in the sun and see how long it took to melt. Bennett LOVED this and kept checking the ice cube every few minutes to see if it had melted yet.

• We've been cutting out paper snowflakes from blue construction paper. This is a good way to teach Bennett how to use scissors, and he loves unfolding the paper at the end to reveal our snowflakes.
  
  
• I found this great website with lots of winter activities and coloring sheets. I am planning on doing a few of these simple crafts from the website:
  

Thumbprint Penguins

Easy Cut-and-Paste Penguins

Do you like how the "E" in Easy isn't highlighted? Let's just say that blogger is really annoying me today and leave it at that, shall we?

I also think this polar bear craft page would be great practice cutting circles and this mitten craft is cute if we have time.

I also found this cute idea on familyfun.com. Even though it's an idea for Valentines Day, I though it would be fun to make these bags of teddy grahams and gummy bears when we learn about polar bears. Then we will attach a note that says "Bear Hugs From Bennett" and Bennett can give them to his friends. I was also thinking of using gummy bears/teddy grahams to practice counting and adding/subtracting. Bennett loves it because it is tactile, and then he gets to eat the snack when we're done!

Bennett loves to cook, so I am planning on making these cupcakes or these cupcakes when we learn about polar bears. I also have a cute penguin cookie cutter (random, I know...) we will use to make sugar cookies when we learn about penguins.

And of course no snowflake month would be complete without a trip to the snow. We plan on taking the kids in a few weeks, so stay tuned!