Food for thought- outside of the classroom

So I have been in a rut with lunches for K and O, I feel like they are always getting the same thing day in and day out. Then I was referred to a wonderful list of foods, that led me to a thing called Bento boxes. I have a couple pictures below but look them up they are awesome! So when I heard about them I decided okay I need to embrace this and change my way of doing lunch. This little snowball idea formed into a pretty awesome snowman.

So I started with ordering a couple bento boxes (a cute koala, adorable panda, princess box, cars box, 2 gold fish, and then I had various tupperware in the house already) I order rice molds, vegetable cutters, egg molds, sandwich cutters. I have used everything except the egg molds and so far I am very happy with my purchases.

So I have been making their lunches (not every day) fun but I knew I needed to do a little more with their meals. I have known I needed a meal planning schedule, I have asked friends, watched the food nanny and then I found a blog that has given me a plan I really like.

This plan sets up your meals for two weeks at a time, so if you get busy you are still a week ahead of yourself. I really think this blogger was reading my mind, because part of my reason for planning is because I want to start rotating food storage, and I want to grow my recipes used.

I found this Post-it paper that seemed to work great for the woman who I found the idea from, and it is great because I can list my Breakfast, AM Snack, Lunch, PM Snack, Dinner, and Daily Events. I laminated them to be able to reuse. I also laminated the list that I found from another blogger.

I also took meal planning a bit farther. I have had a bit of a summer cold so I took it easy one day last week. I sat down and I went through all my recipes, wrote down my common ones, and wrote down ones that I want to try. I separated the meals by theme (Mexican Monday, Over-Seas Tuesday, Wake-up Wednesday, Left Over Thursday, All American Friday, Soup and Salad Saturday, Slow-Cooker Sunday)

I have a good list so far, once I have it typed up (wrote it while sitting in the play room while having a tea party) I will possibly put it on.

This is the start of something big!

So we started and have been at it for a week and a half. K is loving is, O likes it but I think he wants to find ways to pull everything out then decide what he wants to do. They both want to be in there all the time, and when I tell them it is time to finish and we need to head down for snack and nap time for O it is a fight. (It is a fight that I do not mind losing, if they want to be in there that is great). Sensory boxes has been a hit, K would play with them the entire time (which I let her, with a break doing other activities in the classroom) O likes to play with the playdoh and mimic what I do (pat, roll, pinch).

Here are the other activities we have in the classroom for my little chickies this month. (Mid August to Mid September; the reasoning for this is a beach vacation we are taking in mid September so I had a theme that leads right up to the trip "Fun in the Sun"

Here is our playdoh, I made it and added sandbox

sand in it to give the texture of the beach.

Each child has there own box of playdoh.

Here is our sorting activity, O likes to dump them then drop one by one back into the star or shell and hear the "ping" noise they make when the shells hit. K takes the spoon and scoops one at a time into the other dish. I will ask her to move all the white (clear) ones over, to give her an extra goal.

Counting fish, this month we are working on the number 1, so I have one fish of different colors (I never put this many fish on the board at once but maybe two or three, most of the time 1) K doesn't have much interest in this, but I am hoping once the sensory tub isn't her only activity she wants to do she will try to work with the fishies. O loves to take the fish and put on them on the board and slide them up and place more on them.

Here are our letters and number for the month, I picked S and B because their sounds are very different and they are good letters when talking about the ocean and beach. (i.e. Sand, Sun, swimming, swimsuit, sunscreen, slippery, beach, boat, beach ball, burned) and number 1. These are sandpaper letters and numbers.

These are my counting fish, (some are still being worked on) I got the idea from the Blog Counting Coconuts. This is a fishing rod with a magnet, we aren't using them for counting but more for coordination.

Here is the Land vs Water activity. We sit and try and decide where each activity or item belongs, whether it be in the water or on the sand. K also uses this for imaginative play, she will pretend the children are playing together or jumping in the water, or going into the house.

These are our shells, this is where we talk about and observe texture, size, color, shapes.

K really like this activity, she really enjoys pouring the beans. The first time we did this I have given her too many beans in the measuring cup and they ended up going everywhere. A positive note would be she was able to work with her fine motor skills and O was able to help under close supervision.

Here is our bead activity. K uses this activity to practice putting beads on the strings and pulling them off one by one. Eventually we will start doing patterns, but we are taking it one step at a time. O practices placing the beads in the purple sand castle bucket. Also I will string on a couple beads then have Owen pull them off.

Grow an octopus. This activity we haven't done yet, but plan to do it next week. We are going to watch this octopus grow in water.

So here it is, the month "Fun Under the Sun". We also have a calender up but haven't done anything with it, we are starting this school time slow but steady. They seem the like it and look forward to starting soon after breakfast.

First day of school

Today was the day... well actually Monday was but because of being out of town it was pushed to Wednesday. We started off slowly, with just an hour of exploration. We went up to the classroom at 9:00 and stayed in there until O's nap at 10:10.

Our theme for a month is Ocean, Beach, and Underwater life. We plan to use this theme from now until Sept 24th. I chose this theme because we are going on a family vacation (cruise) in September and wanted to do something that would be relevant.

Pictures to come of the classroom, and what activities we will be doing this month!

Requests from my 2 1/2 year old

Today while we were eating lunch, my daughter K said to me, "Mommy, I want to knit."

Me: You want to knit?

K: Yes, I want to knit.

Me: Do you want me to teach you?

K: Yes

Me: Okay, well when I learn to do it myself, I will try and teach you.

K: Okay, mommy you knit.

I didn't even know she knew the word knit, and I am sure she doesn't know what it is. I guess it is something I need to learn to be able to teach her. It made me think, what age can you teach knitting?

K has been so funny recently, she knows we are setting up her classroom, and we are going to start school. We have been to various stores (crafts, thrift, supply, ikea, etc) and she knows we have been looking for various items. So now she picks something up in the store that she feels should be for the classroom and will ask, "This for school?" She is getting so excited.

Little Overwhelming

So after much deliberation we have decided at this time in our life the Loft is the best place for the classroom.

Tomorrow we are taking a trip down to Ikea to pick up the shelves and my desk, I am so excited. I think my husband is having a little bit of a heart attack with all my plans, but he understands my excitement and my want to give our children the best!

Once I have the classroom set up I will post pictures, I hope it turns out how I imagine.

So I am addicted to reading blogs right now, and I know I need to step back and take a deep breath, their are some amazing talented women out there in cyber space that have me in awe. (please send some of your creativity and talent, over my way please!)

I need to just remember I can only give my best, and even if it isn't successful the first time, my children don't know the difference, so I can just try and try again!

Where or where should the classroom go?

So here is the debate, where should we set up the classroom? We have three rooms that we have in mind; the office/guest room down stairs, the guest room upstairs, or the loft upstair.

The office/guestroom

the good

On the main level

Can be closed off

Connected to a bathroom

Good size

the bad

It is my husband office

No closet (closet being used for something else that cannot be moved)

The guestroom

the good

Can be closed off

Near a bathroom

Two windows

There is a closet in the room

the bad

It is located upstairs

It is our official guestroom

Smallest of the three

The loft

the good

Largest of all options

Good amount of natural sunlight

Open, not used space

Near a bathroom

the bad

Cannot be closed off

Near the stairs

No closet

So many thoughts to think about.

I love the idea of the loft because of the amount of room my children would have to spread out and work, but it would not contain the children because they would want to go into their rooms and go down the stair. But I do love the windows, and we can buy a storage closet to place in the room.

My favorite idea in the office/guestroom, but my husband needs his office (he works from home), also we would have to use a storage closet for the school supplies, and will have to find new homes for the storage.

The guest room would be great also, but I love having a guest bedroom, but I guess we already have one guestroom, and it can be contained with a closet, BUT it is the smallest choice.

hmmmmmm

Get Excited!!!

So I am going to try this blogging thing one more time. I have been reading the Blog Counting Coconuts for a couple weeks, and I have fallen in love with the passion this woman has for her child and teaching. I have always known I wanted to start a mini preschool with my daughter and a infant teaching with my son, but I have felt over whelmed and not sure where to start. As I have been reading her blog I realized I can do this, so I am starting to prepare my classroom (a bedroom in my house) and plan to start after our family vacation in September. I plan to integrate different methods of teaching. I love the idea of Montessori, so I know I want to incorporate the method into our daily lives.

At this time I plan to hold school Monday and Wednesday from 9-12, but depending on how my children take to it will decide if that is too long or they need more time through the week.

I am currently a SAHM and my most important thing in my family. I am so blessed to have a husband that supports and wants me to be home with our children. I love my children and I am so grateful to have them.

I am not great at blogging but I hope this will help me get better! I am excited about with the future holds... GET EXCITED!!!