Week Three SHSH Day 17

So apparently it's been 17 days since we started self quarantine. I had lost count.
I haven't been posting on here as much because each day is basically the same, so if you want a schedule, look back at the first few posts. 😛

Things that have changed a little bit are:

-we have been walking up to the local high school up the street for free school lunch distribution because groceries are still in low stock, so it has helped boost us for healthy snacks and food for the kids. They provide a daily breakfast and lunch, and milk.

-I have just started incorporating Alan's school's provided online resources into his learning time. They sent a note home at the end of last week about how they had plans to "ramp up" the distance learning, but I have not seen any changes so far. At this point as far as I know, all of his school work is still optional and not being graded. So we will keep on keeping on! Had a little bit of tears from Alan today as he was getting overwhelmed with me getting on his case about completing his work. I explained that this is the situation we HAVE to do right now, and I am one person teaching him. He has one teacher at school teaching many kids, so he does get in trouble for not completing work, but they don't get on his case the same way I do, I suppose. We are learning together how to learn together. It is a work in progress, and we are both trying our best. I know from teacher friends that this is a difficult time for parents, teachers, and students alike.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nora's virtual preschool is learning about community helpers all this week, so we are going to be sending letters and pictures to different helpers in our community. Nora loves firetrucks and ambulances and the like, so this will be a fun week for her, I hope.

Both kids overall are doing well with the cards we are being dealt with right now. We all have our own struggles, but overall, this is a positive thing, I think.

Keep on staying healthy, happy, and safe!

Here are some pictures from the past week:

Week Two! SHSH Day 10

Well, we ended up doing basically nothing all weekend, so nothing to report from there. I think we all needed to take it easy, and the weather wasn't so great, so we didn't go outside too much, either.

Came back into week two of homeschooling rested and ready to go, though!

Thank goodness for Miss Jamie at Play to Learn Preschool! She is doing another week of videos this week, at 11 am each day. This week's theme is fairy tales, so today started with the Three Little Pigs. Nora has been enjoying the videos and the singing, and it gives her a little bit of learning and fun, and a little bit of seeing someone besides her family, too, because although she loves us a lot (I think), she is a very social girl and misses her various teachers and friends from the outside world a lot. So she views Miss Jamie as her new teacher. 💛

Blowing down the house like the Big Bad Wolf

We made pig and wolf pictures and built three houses and reenacted the story. 

Piggies safe from the wolf!

 Alan read two scholastic articles, did a math problem from his school-provided worksheet, and did some independent reading today. He also did his chore, so both kids are enjoying screen time now.

We are continuing to tune into Mcharper Manor for art tutorials almost daily, but Alan doesn't have much interest in participating, and Nora loses steam pretty quickly after doing a painting or two. I do like that today, she used lots of different colors:

As always, we had outside time again this morning. Nora was able to do one of her favorite things: Jump in puddles!

 As always, stay healthy, happy, and safe, like Nora!

Dealing with the now.... SHSH days 6 and 7

Hello!

I did not write yesterday! I could have, but there was not much to report other than the kids are doing well in our home school time, and I get frustrated when I am around my family too much sometimes!

Yesterday, we did our outside time, and it was FINALLY a nice warm day out there again. Nora did her 11:00 virtual preschool. I hope they do this again next week, because it was so great. They do a video with songs and games and a story for about 20-30 minutes, and then they post resources so you can further the learning at home. This whole week focused on colors and rainbows, and color mixing. We did many of the activities on our own. Yesterday, we tried color mixing on a paper towel with food coloring:

Here is Nora outside yesterday. She has been obsessed with picking the daffodils:

Alan has been doing the Scholastic learn from home program this week. I have him read 2-4 articles, watch accompanying videos, and then we mostly have discussions on the topics, although I have been throwing a little bit of writing and math in here and there. Yesterday, I had him do the 6th-9th grade article because his reading level is there anyway, and the topic was on Esports, so I thought the video gaming aspect would be of interest to him. We've also been doing a lot of the animal themed articles and videos because he likes animals, and is interested in how they adapt and how they are different from us. He has read about endangered species, animal eyes, cat tongues, and some other things this week. I have not gotten pictures of him, I am aware, because 1) he does not usually like pictures taken of him and 2) he's just been sitting at the computer mostly as I work with him. But I have been proud of his participation and the discussions we have. I know that no matter what, I want to keep doing this every day in some aspect, because I have been enjoying learning with him and the discussions we have afterwards. I don't know how next week will look with him, because he is supposed to have distance learning work from school next week, so we will have to see what Monday brings.

I will probably do a post like this for the weekend too, with the days combined, because the schedule will be a little more relaxed, but we still plan to do some fun activities together!

In case you missed it, as of now:
Alan's return date to school is April 13
Nora's return date to school is May 11

Today, Jean joined us in the preschool fun:

and Nora worked on drawing some monsters from the printouts.

Finally, here is just a friendly reminder in times of stress:

Have a good weekend, and stay healthy, happy, and safe!

Cancellations and extended distance learning... SHSH Day 5

Halfway through week one of homeschool learning!

Hit a low point yesterday as we were running out of some home and food necessities (replenished bread, milk, eggs, paper towels, still need trash bags, peanut butter, and meat). When we need to go get supplies, we try to go at a time when stores won't be crowded, and if it looks crowded or picked over, we immediately leave. We have been frequenting the Family Dollar most often because of this. It is discouraging to still see things out of stock, and the Walmart website busy (we usually get grocery pickup, but it has been too busy to place an order). Even more discouraging yesterday was that our local town's activities are getting cancelled, and the big festival of the year just cancelled all activities yesterday. This festival was not supposed to be until May. At around the same time yesterday, I found out that Nora's preschool is closed until MAY 10! 😱

Had a little more relaxed/late start to this morning. Let the kids run around inside as today's weather is more gloomy and cold. Nora had virtual preschool at 11:00 with Play to Learn Preschool. She has been LOVING this. I also have had her practice writing/spelling her name every day.

We also have been doing something creative together every day through dance videos, or art videos (or both). Her gymnastics center has just announced that they will be making some at-home videos soon, too! Today, we took a virtual art class through McHarper Manor. Nora enjoyed the paint and the brushes! Yesterday, Nora tap danced in her high heeled shoes. She's been having lots of fun.

Alan has had a little bit more of a struggle, but honestly overall, everything has been good with him, too. He has REALLY enjoyed playing outside every morning. Before school closed, he had been doing okay, but having a few social struggles here and there, so I think that missing school for a little while is overall doing him good because it's like a breath of fresh air not having to deal with certain aspects of school for a little while. We had a good talk last night about why the break was happening, and that we are all doing something new at this time, because it is such a unique situation that has not happened before. We just found out today that his school is now closed through April 13. Since the virtual preschool videos are live at 11:00 every morning, Alan has been able to have free time (screen time) during this hour that I am working with Nora. This may change to reading time after this week; I am not sure yet. It depends on how long some of the online resources continue. We have to be flexible during distance learning time! His school is supposed to send materials for online learning next week, too, so we will have to see what that looks like, and how long it takes him to complete that work. Currently, he has been doing at least 2 of the Scholastic activities a day. Today, we spent about 30 minutes on the subject of the Revolutionary War with the activities that Scholastic provided. He then spent the rest of the time on animals. He read an article and watched a video on sea otters, and we watched some videos on the penguins at the aquarium who have daily "field trips" around the aquarium while it is closed to visitors. I gave Alan the option to opt out of painting class today, and he chose not to do it. Tomorrow, I will focus on keeping the schedule on track better for the next two days, and then on the weekend, the reins will loosen a bit again. Overall, I am pleased with his attitude and the discussions we have while learning a little bit. It will be interesting to see what next week will look like.

Well, that's the update. Things are overall good. Sometimes I'm tired. Sometimes I'm frustrated. Sometimes I think this is kind of fun. Keeping on a schedule even if it is kept a little more loosely some days, has been really beneficial for us, so I will definitely continue this, even if the overall schedule needs to change. If I am frustrated or stressed or tired or overwhelmed, or one or both of the kids are, that is when we move on to something else. Keeping things moving with new activities or videos to spice things up has been the key so far.

Happy hump day! Almost through week one.
Stay healthy, happy, and safe.

The New Normal... SHSH Day 4

It is St. Patrick's Day...

This is not really a holiday we pay much attention to here. Sometimes, we do some fun things to observe it, and sometimes, we don't. This year, I'm letting it pass us mostly by. None of us are wearing much green. I am planning a treat later for the kids, though. We wrote in green chalk outside and drew some lucky shamrocks. That is about the level of commitment I've given not only the holiday, but the day in general today.

Let me explain....

I woke up grumpy. It happens. I went to bed a little too late. I was trying not to take it out on the kids. I woke up and they had already eaten breakfast (Alan made them both eggs). So at least I didn't have to deal with that. I got them ready to go outside.

We did our morning "recess" outside time. This has been going well every day and the kids are really enjoying their time outside in the yard in the morning. Today, I challenged both kids to find me 3 different flowers and 3 different leaves that they saw. They worked together and completed their easy outside task I've been keeping these outside activities simple and quick so that they do have to think and do something, but then they have lots of free time to do whatever they want to. The weather was nice and sunny today too, and we are enjoying our spring flowers in the garden. We picked a whole bunch of daffodils, and a bunch of periwinkles too, to bring into the house. Nora said this would cheer her up. The smell in here now that they're in the window is very pleasant. We also picked some leaves and flowers to put in the flower press today.

My Kitchen Window

So we came inside after the kids played, and I looked at my "lesson plan" I had written down for academic activities for the kids today. And I was NOT happy. I had not planned anything out the night before on exactly what I had wanted to do with them, so I was kind of in a panic at first about what to do. For Nora, I just want to keep working with her on writing and spelling her name, and then any other kind of learning for her is good, because in preschool, they're learning new things each day, no matter what we do. I had made Nora a basic name puzzle where I wrote each letter of her name on a piece of cardboard and cut them out separately, so she had to put the letters back in order to spell her name. She did well with that, and then luckily, I remembered that the Facebook group Play to Learn Preschool was having a live virtual preschool video at 11:00 with songs, and a lesson, and a story. It was luckily just past 11. So Nora had virtual preschool, and she enjoyed it so much! I am definitely going to keep doing this with Nora! I even printed out the bonus resources that were provided, and did those with Nora, too. They can be found here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pJAzPs07EV3lEqzUQ_zzl6lE9eY_6Knm/view?fbclid=IwAR28klo9T-X87-VOoDWG9vJ0Fqt8qrHH436vn7FEbk7nmXYSWrnrkThag3c

During this time, Alan had slipped back downstairs, but that ended up being okay, because it gave Nora a nice, quiet time to enjoy her learning time. Once she was done, she requested lunch and a show (she's been watching Pokemon over and over), so that it what she is still doing now. 

For Alan, I gave him some virtual school too, and used the resources from the scholastic website. I had wanted to work on vocab with him today, and luckily, there was a story on there for him to read that had questions and vocab with it. Perfect.

Found here: https://storyworksjr.scholastic.com/issues/2017-18/090117/clean-start.html

I also had him read this one on George Washington, since his grade studies Virginia history for social studies this year: https://sn3.scholastic.com/issues/2018-19/020419/washington-s-secrets-revealed.html#On%20Level 

I then had him do a few division problems from flash cards, and, big surprise, he did them all in his head, because he is a math whiz. Finally, I had him write in a pass back and forth type journal that he and I have about moms and sons. He also had a bit of a grumpy attitude today, and did not want to write much in the journal. He is not a fan of writing. Working on it!!

Finally, as a family, we pressed some of the flowers from outside into our flower press. I am going to start making our St. Patrick's day treat (green cinnamon sugar soft pretzels), and do some chores and have my own lunch. The only other thing I want to accomplish today is to have Nora do her second dance video. It is tap today. I will have to snap some pictures, of course! Doing a dance class online and playing outside yesterday really tired Nora out. She went to bed on her own right after 8:00 last night!

Finally, I mentioned yesterday about the online art class through McHarper Manor's Facebook page. It went great! Alan didn't even want to do it at first, but then, he made this beautiful picture that was so full of detail! And I liked that Nora used all the resources: paint, pencil, and black marker. And I'm pretty proud of my painting, too:

Working on trying to safely get some groceries in the next few days. Walmart pickup and delivery has not been going through. 

Until tomorrow, stay healthy, happy, and safe!

I made my kids LEARN!? SHSH Day 3

"The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain." -Dolly Parton

Part of Alan's weekday morning work each day is going to include a quote, and we will analyze it together. I tried to pick some inspiring quotes that will make him think a little bit. I then asked him the questions:

1. What does the quote mean? 

2. Do you agree with the quote?

3. Can you think of a real life example?

4. Do you know the author? (this is mostly just for my own amusement)

Alan is a very literal thinker, so quotes like this can be tough for him. He was able to analyze it in terms of weather very well. But as soon as I told him to think of the rain as a "bad day" and the rainbow as a "good day", it took a little bit more abstract thinking on his part understand the deeper meaning of the quote. We discussed how if there were no bad days or things that make us sad or upset, then good days wouldn't seem as good to us because that's all we would know. 

I also saw something a long while back where young children (I think it was a class of first graders) finished famous quotes, and the results were hilarious, so I am having Alan complete a quote each day, again, mostly just for my own amusement, but also to get him to think a little bit, as well. I told him that with these, there are NO wrong answers, and he replied, "Well, if there are no wrong answers, then I can even say a bad word and I would be correct, because you said nothing can be wrong." The snark of a pre-teen is real, y'all. But he DIDN'T say a bad word today, so here is the result:

It's always darkest before..."midnight"

Nora started her morning work by "signing in", which is what it is called when she traces her name in the morning at school, since the parents are ACTUALLY signing their kids in to class at this time. I made her a tracing plate like her one at school:

We also had our morning outside time this morning before the real academic work began, and Nora used 4 senses (because taste would not be a good idea here) to describe things outside today: Nora SAW the grass, TOUCHED her gloves (her hands were inside them), HEARD the birds, and SMELLED her brother. (LOL)

_________________________________________________________________

THEN we came inside out of the COLD (30 degrees outside this morning) and after a quick snack, Alan got started on his work. Today, we focused on MATH and MUSIC. 

In math, Alan completed a probability statistics worksheet that was from his school. He also worked on estimation with time. He verbally answered questions about if certain listed activities (reading a book, cooking a pizza, making toast, etc) took SECONDS, MINUTES, or HOURS to complete. He also answered questions about whether activities took MORE than one minute or LESS than one minute to complete. 

For Nora's math, she identified and counted the numbers 1-10. We did an activity where I put the numbers on the floor in a random order, and she had to identify the number I called out and jump to it:

For music, Nora and Alan listened to different classic pieces of music and identified different instruments and sounds using the book, "Can You Hear It?" 

Finally, Nora had dance instruction through a video my former dance teacher made for pre K students. She LOVED this (note that she had to put on a dance costume first in order to participate), and was so inspired when the dance class was done, that she has been watching the Nutcracker since we concluded. 

We are excited for a live stream that is happening in less than an hour here now from the facebook page McHarper Manor, which is doing daily live videos at 1:00 pm with art instruction, so I told the kids their "special" is art today. I can't wait to see what they create. 

Stay healthy, happy and safe!

I want to talk about Social Distancing SHSH Day 2

Good afternoon! It is Day 2 of Operation Stay Home, Stay Healthy!

The rest of yesterday went very well. The kids ate lunch together, did their chores (Alan unloaded the dishwasher and Nora picked up shoes that were scattered in the hallway). I also was on a laundry spree for hours yesterday, I think I did at least 4 loads, and of course, whenever Alan empties the dishwasher, I load it back up again! Since it was Saturday yesterday, and the kids did so well all morning and all the way through chores, they were basically allowed to chill the rest of the day and have screen time until dinner. We did brave a quick trip to Family Dollar to check out their stock and get some things that were needed (we did NOT buy anything in bulk!). It was not too crowded, and only a few things were low stock (baby wipes, bread, milk, and canned goods. And weirdly, plastic hampers). We observed National Potato Chip Day yesterday by eating potato chips, of course! And also celebrated National Learn About Butterflies Day by watching a few life cycle of butterfly videos on youtube. Nora really enjoyed the live time lapses the most from egg to butterfly. I thought Alan would enjoy observing the national days each day, as I did as a child, and it looks like I was right. I made ground chicken chili for dinner.

 I am getting my list of national days here: https://nationaldaycalendar.com/march/

The youtube videos we watched yesterday:
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5RSpMQQOpw
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocWgSgMGxOc
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jivWeOrCaeI
and of course, we had to finish with The Very Hungry Caterpillar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75NQK-Sm1YY

So this brings you up to speed from where we left off. Today after breakfast, the kids and I went outside for almost two hours! It was under 40 degrees out and damp. The kid had a blast and dug through the dirt finding worms and grubs. They will be doing their chores soon, but otherwise, since in is Sunday, the rest of the day is going to mostly be chill. Nora is having tea on the couch and watching Pokemon right now.

________________________________________________________________________

So let's talk about social distancing. Right now, the phrase going through my mind has been "better safe than sorry." I am fine with staying home. I am fine with my kids staying home. Sticking to our schedule has been keeping us on track and feeling productive, and going out to the yard has been still giving us that "going out" feeling. I told the kids to think of it like it's their recess time at school. Yes, we went out to the store yesterday, but we had plans to just leave if it looked crowded or picked over. We went home and immediately all washed our hands after. Right now, we are going on what we need to do to feel safe. Sure, we are not at the greatest risk for the virus to do much harm to us. But none of want to be sick, either. It has been a very sick winter for all of us. I was recently in the hospital for tonsillitis, so yeah, I'd like to stay healthy now.

Here are some of the resources I have seen and shared, and find helpful to keep in mind. Be smart, and do what is the best for everyone!

This article: https://medium.com/@ariadnelabs/social-distancing-this-is-not-a-snow-day-ac21d7fa78b4

I can't get the image I found to upload here, but it basically summed up the points in the article by saying:

AVOID: -group gatherings -sleepovers -play dates -concerts -theatre outings -athletic events -crowded stores -malls -workouts in gyms -visitors in your house -non-essential workers in your house -mass transit systems -playgrounds (I added this one because I saw it in other posts)

USE CAUTION: -visit a local restaurant -grocery store -take out -pick up medications -parks -library -church -travelling

SAFE TO DO: - Take a walk/hike -yard work -play in your yard -clean out a closet -read a good book -listen to music -cook a meal -family game night -go for a drive -group video chats -stream a favorite show -check in with friends, elderly neighbors.

_______________________________________________________________
What do you think of this list?
I agree with the avoid list. The only thoughts I have there are the biggest challenges for me will be keeping my in-laws from visiting. But they are in the at-risk category for the virus making them very sick. My father in law also travels a lot, and they live and work in DC, so we think we should all be cautious. Good thing phone calls and emails still work!

I think I would still put restaurants under avoid for us. Not worth the risk, in my opinion. Same with library and church. Our library has closed, anyway, and we don't do church, but before the library closed, I had plans to avoid going there for the time being just to be safe. I would do the same with church, if I went, because of groups of people being close together like that is not worth the risk to me.

I like the ideas on the safe list. As you know, we have been going out in our own yard every day, and doing chores here at home, of course. I am so encouraged by seeing all the fun ideas and support people are posting on Facebook, things like streaming dance parties, dance classes, art lessons, read a book and video it for others to tune in. An online book club would be so cool! I also saw something about writing letters to people in nursing homes or hospitals, since they can't have visitors right now. I love that idea. I had in our plans for this week sometime to write a letter to a community helper to thank them for their help and hard work during this time, because all of them have to keep working!

I will leave you on this note. No matter what your situation is, embrace what you DO have, and do what you CAN do. We'll get through this, and normalcy will return sometime soon. Until then, I'd rather be safe than sorry!

Stay healthy, happy, and safe!

Posting on here again amidst school closings and all the craziness in the world... SHSH Day 1

Welcome back to my blog!

Because of the Corona Virus, my kids, like many around the world, are off school for a few weeks starting this Monday. 

I am calling the next two weeks Operation: Stay Home, Stay Healthy, or #SHSH2020. 

Ever the aspiring at-home early education enthusiast, I have started a new schedule for the kids during this time, so we all don't lose our minds. I modified it from the one that was going around Facebook yesterday, seen here:

 Our daily schedule until at least March 29 is as follows:

______________________________________________________________________

Daily Schedule:

7-9 am: (IT MUST BE LIGHT OUT FOR KIDS TO BE OUT OF BED. I could not stress this enough to Alan- 10 years old, the past few days) Wake up, get dressed (Nora-age 3, disposes of pull up), breakfast, AND another thing I saw on Facebook: mark hands with stamp or washable marker. I told them if those marks are gone or mostly gone by the end of the day, they are allowed to stay up until 9:00. Otherwise, bedtime is 8:30.

TL/DR version: 7-9: wake up, get dressed, breakfast

9-10 am: Observe weather from the window. What color is the sky? Are there clouds? Other weather elements such as wind, rain, snow, sunshine? Also look up current outside temperature, and the high for the day and discuss. Is it going to be warm, cold, or in the middle today? Also during this time on weekdays, the kids will be doing some simple activities. Nora will continue working on tracing and writing her name like she was in preschool, and Alan will be working with some quotes (will explain this more on Monday, when it starts.) THEN, we will use our knowledge of what we observed from the window to decide our footwear, and if a jacket is needed, etc. I am letting them make these decisions completely by themselves. AFTER THAT, we find ourselves outside, where I have a loose lesson planned for each day (more on that below) and when that is completed, they can have free time outside for as long as they want. ONCE BACK INSIDE, hand washing, snack time, and discuss National Days (more on this later as well).

TL/DR version: 9-10 am: weather discussion, writing on week days, then outside time, snack, and national day observation.

10 (ish)-12: academic time. Thurdays: Nora to gymnastics at 11:15, as long as it remains open. Saturday and Sunday: screen/free time

12:00 pm: lunch

12:45 pm: chores. I can post a chore chart for each person if this is of interest, but basically, we all have a different chore to perform each day. Chore completion determines whether more screen time will be allowed.

1-2:00 pm: MWF (week one): art time on Facebook (I can post more on this Monday)

T, TH, Sa, Su: family together time (kids will pick an activity for us to do together)

2-6:00 pm: free time/screen time (as long as chores have been completed). 4-6 pm will be QUIET TIME (basically this is the time where I tell them not to bug me or be loud unless an emergency occurs. I am also cooking dinner during this time)

6:30 pm: dinner

7:00-8:00 pm: no screen playtime. screen time may be earned for 45 minutes of this time if the schedule was observed without complaints.

8:00 pm: bath and bedtime routine.

8:30 or 9:00 pm: sleep

________________________________________

So either you have left already because you think I'm a crazy person (don't worry, I know I am), or you're still here! Yay! Of course I know every day won't go smoothly, and I'm planning on certain activities going over time or having to switch some things around, but this is where I'm starting. My kids and I like structure and routine, so that is why I have made this. It is totally okay with me if you think I'm crazy. You don't have to do what I do. You can give your kids screen time all day, or send them outside, or make them read until bedtime, or send them to their grandparents' house for two weeks. Those are all great! Do what you have to do to keep your family sane, happy, and healthy during this crazy time. You're doing a great job!

Anyway, I know you read some things in that schedule and are probably wondering, "what does that mean?" I am here to explain it to you. If you have further questions, do not hesitate to ask! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The first thing I wanted to talk about today was our outside time. Upon observing out the window, Nora said, "The sky is blue, and I see sunshine and wind." So when we went outside, we could feel the sunshine, and I am so excited for more springlike weather! Today, our outside explore lesson focused on a sight scavenger hunt. 

The kids went around the yard and found something that is... (I will post their answers here. I have made a clean copy of this in image form for your use)

-red (Nora's slide)

-yellow (daffodil)

-green (leaves)

-purple (periwinkle)

-brown (stick)

-wet (grass)

-dry (driveway)

-shiny (The reflected sun on the driveway)

-pretty (a daffodil)

-smooth (Alan's skin)

-rough (rock)

-tiny (white flower)

-big (tree)

-blows in the wind (leaves, wind chime)

-living (flowers)

-not living (brown leaves, and sticks on the ground)

Until tomorrow, stay healthy, happy, and safe! -Andrea

I Got Mad Today

I got mad today, or I guess I should say I got frustrated first. As everyone does sometimes...

My husband and I have in the past been the type of couple to gossip about other parents behind closed doors. We are not perfect, and we will admit that this is a mistake. For the most part, we try not to judge others. But as I said, in the past, we have talked about "THAT mom".

That mom who is coming across as unnecessarily frustrated. That mom who is angry. In public.

We've heard her in the store, at the swimming pool after swim lessons, at an amusement park or skating rink, or other public place, especially when it is a place that is supposed to be fun for kids. We've heard her yelling at her kids, telling them they're being bad, they're not listening, they're being brats. And we've heard the mostly empty threats she's given her kids as a result of what seems to be more about her behavior than theirs. "If you don't stop whining/crying/carrying on/arguing, we're going home. We're going to stop this current activity, and we're leaving immediately." And the kids continue being kids. And they stay. And the mom keeps up her threats and anger. And we judge her.

The other thing we hear moms say when this scene occurs is "I'm done." And THAT, right there is the key phrase. Yes, she is done.

Perhaps Mom didn't get enough sleep the night before and/or enough caffeine the next day as she set out into the world with her kids. Maybe she's dealing with some sort of bad news in her personal life. It could be she's anxious about something, or her routine is off, or there's a chance that her kids really are acting up, and have been pushing her buttons all day and she's at her breaking point. It could be any of these situations, or a combination of them, or a million other things not listed here. But the result is the same. She's done. And we see and hear her acting out.

But the thing is, we really have no room to judge. Not only have every single one of us been here in some shape or form (I guarantee it. ALL of us, moms and dads alike), but we probably will be again. So we shouldn't judge. We should accept. We can accept that that mom is probably having a moment. Or a day. Or a week. We've all been there. I've been there. We can offer our solidarity and recognition and say, "Hey, I know how that feels. It gets better." In some cases, maybe we can even go further and offer to step in and help, let Mom take a minute to breathe, if possible. Wouldn't you like to hear that the next time you're going through something? I know I would.

So even if last week, I said to my husband, "this lady at the kids' gymnastics class was CRAZY today. She was yelling at her three year old, and the three year old was just running around, being three," this week I could be the crazy lady who is telling her overtired toddler to shut it in the grocery store before Mommy LOSES IT, and next week, I could be the mom saying, "hey, are you having a rough time? How can I help?"

These are just my thoughts on this topic, because as I started this blog post, I was THAT MOM. Today. I was stressed that I was tired even though I've had rest and caffeine, and it's a holiday, but my daughter still had her regularly scheduled gymnastics class, so I was glad to get out of the house with her. My husband got me the lunch I wanted. I ordered grocery pickup for tomorrow. My daughter is starting to really CLICK with the potty training. All these things were good. But I have anxiety, and anxiety can translate often as ANGER. So when we got home, and it was time for my daughter to nap, I walked past all the housework I hadn't done, and the chore my son didn't finish, even though I've sent him to complete it the past two days, I thought about what I needed to get done that I hadn't yet. And then I saw my daughter's room, which had been getting messier and messier the past few days. It was past time for her to take her nap. But I asked her to clean. And she did. She picked up most of her toys. But she put some into the "wrong" bins (I have been told I'm a control freak, yes). I told her to pick up books and hand them to me so I could put them away on her bookshelf. She didn't move. She kept rubbing her sleepy little eyes. So I got mad. I yelled. I yelled her name. I yelled for her to pick up books and hand them to me. I threatened timeouts. I told her to HURRY, because it was nap time and she needed to sleep. She said she had to go potty. I didn't want to take her BACK DOWNSTAIRS to her little potty, because that would just take up more time, so I took her to the upstairs bathroom to sit on the regular toilet. She was scared. I assured her she was fine, while rolling my eyes. I got frustrated at myself for being mad at her, and worried that I'd scare her to use the toilet again, when she has been doing so well the past few days. She wouldn't pee, even though I could tell she had to. So I took a deep breath, and I did what she and I both needed me to do. I put a diaper on her, and I put her to bed. I didn't read her a book, so she cried. I was still too frustrated to enjoy my reading time with her. I sang her our special goodnight song, I gave her many hugs and kisses, I apologized to her, I told her I loved her and goodnight, I looked at the books and toys that were still under her bed, and shut her door, still feeling frustrated and annoyed with myself. I had to take a bath to get myself to calm down.

So don't be so hard on yourself. Practice self care. Offer support and solidarity to others when you can. Don't gossip about what you see another parent doing, because you don't know what they're going through. You're no better than them. And forgive yourself.

You're doing a good job, Mama.

March Madness

We've had a leprechaun in the house since yesterday. 
His name is Larry the leprechaun, and he left this note:

 We tried the green muffins. They were pretty good! Leprechauns must eat a lot of green things.

Last night for Alan's science (trying something different this week so sorry it hasn't been a daily post, but we'll get there...), he had a challenge to build a leprechaun trap with assorted materials I had gathered. He made a trap door sort of system in a box and made a system of boxes with chambers he could fall into (with egg cartons). Not pictured is a tiny ladder he had leading to the top tower. Here is what his trap looked like:

This morning, Alan found a note at the table that said his trap didn't work and he was pretty disappointed. The trap was all knocked over, too. Here is the second note:

 And then, it started becoming clear. The leprechaun pranked Alan by putting shamrocks on his stuff! We found one on his lunch box, and that was the start. Then, getting ready for school, Alan found several on his backpack, as well as on three different shoes, and some of his toys! The more shamrocks he found, the more he giggled and the morning continued very silly and smiley after that! 😄 Happy March! 🍀

Why is the Sky Blue?

Today, we answered that age-old kid question: "Why is the sky blue?"

We needed:
1. clear container to hold water
2. water
3. milk
4. LED white light flashlight

We talked about why the sky is blue. I told Alan, " The flashlight will be our sun. The water is the sky and the milk is the particles that are in the air outside. The cloudy milk, or the particles in the air, show the blue most easily with the light and that is why we see blue in the glass and in the sky."

When we shone the flashlight at the milky water, we could see a blue tint!
To do this experiment, we followed this link:
http://www.rookieparenting.com/why-is-the-sky-blue-science-experiment/
They have a better explanation for the science behind why the sky is blue on that page.

We also did a follow-up to the experiment also from Rookie Parenting on why sunsets are red and orange. To do this, we simply shone the flashlight behind the glass and saw an orange color in the glass. Their video and explanation for that is here:
http://www.rookieparenting.com/why-is-the-blue-sky-orange-at-sunset-science-experiment/

Alan recorded all of this in his science journal.

Sorry I still don't have pictures to share! Today was a pretty sleepy day here, meaning I was feeling sleepy, so that's why this experiment was pretty simple as well, but I still found it neat. Until tomorrow!

All Updated! So........ It's Been Awhile, to Say the Least....... and SCIENCE!!!

Yes, this was a blog that I started when my son was in preschool.

Well, he's a first grader now. Wow, how time flies.

I could have started a new blog, or erased the previous posts. But those are some serious precious memories now that my first born is in school full time. Plus I really like that play dough experiment post!!

So the most significant things that have happened since I abandoned this blog are:

1) We moved from PA to VA in March 2015

2) We got married in July 2015

3) Alan started kindergarten in August 2015

4) We welcomed a baby girl, Nora, in May 2016

So, now you're all caught up... for the most part, anyway. Life goes on. I will fill in details as necessary as we go on.

So anyway, the reason I find myself returning to this blog is because I find that since my son started school and I gave birth to his sister, we've been connecting less and less, and I don't want to lose that special connection we once had. I know things change over time and that change is good, so it's not about that, it's more about wanting to do something special with just him and me while he's still little enough to appreciate it a little. They grow up too fast. (Did any of this last paragraph even make sense? I'm tired.)

So I went back to this blog because in an effort to connect, I started a daily science journal with Alan where we will record science experiments that we attempt. Today was our first day, and I didn't take any photos or video of our fun today because I kind of just thought of doing this blog again after he went to bed so that I can have a record of what we're doing each day in addition to his journal.This week, I thought we'd start with exploring weather, as that is a subject of interest with my kiddo lately. Today, we did two experiments, and recorded the second one as the first entry in his journal. The two experiments from today dealt with clouds. The first one explored why clouds make rain and the experiment we replicated can be found here:
http://laughingkidslearn.com/rain-cloud-science-experiment

Alan loved this simple activity because the clouds and the blue water were FUN and I used hair mousse instead of shaving cream, so he liked that the clouds smelled nice. Since he is a bit older, he understood right away when I asked him to guess what the mousse/shaving cream represented. He had fun loading the clouds with rain and watching the blue "rain" swirl through our "sky" (the clear water) in a mason jar.

After this, we made our own cloud by following this:
http://www.playdoughtoplato.com/cloud-in-a-jar/
He had a lot of fun with this and again, the hairspray made it smell good! ;) He begged me to do more experiments and was upset with me that I only prepared for two for today, but I assured him we'd be doing more after school tomorrow. I promise YOU that tomorrow I will be prepared with photos of our experiments, as this is a LOT of text, so you get a gold star if you've made it this far in this post! I will also talk more about our experiences with our experiments as time goes on, I just thought that today the cloud ones were pretty simple and straightforward to follow, and I wasn't prepared to blog them!!! Whoops!

We recorded our findings in his journal using this worksheet as a model:
 http://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Science-Journal-Printable-Pages-for-Kids.pdf

Until tomorrow!!

A Fun Experiment

I kind of gave up on writing for a bit on here because of the lack of readers, but school and life are going well. I did want to post this on here though, because it was so fun. Today, we did a bit of an experiment. I found 4 different play dough recipes online and we made them all and then reviewed them. Alan and I talked about how each one felt and tried each recipe out with cookie cutters and other fun things we use with play dough. Below, I will post each recipe and our review of each dough.

Play dough number 1:

Recipe: Emily's Fantastic No Cook Playdough Recipe

2 cups of plain/all-purpose flour
1 cup salt
1 cup cold water
1 tbspn oil (vegetable oil is fine - baby oil smells lovely).

Drop the ingredients into a plastic bag and seal. Let the children knead them together inside the bag - then tip it out for modeling fun.

Notes: The fact that this recipe was no-cook and that it could be mixed in a bag made it very easy to make. Our biggest problem with mixing in the bag was that we couldn’t get the color to disperse evenly through the dough, and we used a lot of food coloring trying to get this to happen, so we used green and yellow dye and ended up with a bit of a marbled effect. When we took the play dough out of the bag, it was mixed very well and had a nice dough-y consistency, though I could feel the salt grains throughout it. It took shape well and worked with the cookie cutters and did just about everything that good play dough is supposed to do, so I gave it a 4.5 out of 5. Alan gave it a 4.5 as well.

 

Play dough number 2:

Recipe: Homemade Modeling Clay Recipe #2

• 1 cup salt
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup water
• food coloring (optional)

Mix and stir the ingredients together over low heat. Cook the mixture until it has thickened. Remove the clay from heat and allow it to cool before using it.

Notes: this recipe is similar to the first one except that this is a cooked recipe. The ingredients were easy to mix and stir together. We added yellow coloring to this mixture, and it came out a nice sunny yellow. The dough took a bit to thicken over low heat on our stove, which isn’t the greatest stove. When we removed it from the heat and let it cool, it felt about the same as the first one. I could feel the grains from the salt in it again, except with this one, it seemed that the more I worked with it, the salt seemed to mix in more and it became a little less grainy over time. It took shape well and worked with all the cookie cutters. I gave this one a 4.5 as well, so I would recommend that if you want an easier, quicker time to make play dough for kids, go with the first one, because you don’t have to put it on the heat at all, and the doughs are so similar otherwise. I would say that this one is my favorite.

Play Dough Number 3:

Recipe:

Colorful Sugar Play Clay

Bag of Powdered/Icing Sugar
Tepid Water
Food Coloring

This is a nice simple edible play dough recipe.
Pour some icing sugar into a bowl and slowly add water (1 tablespoon at a time). Stir until you have a soft play dough.

You can make separate colored batches of this clay by adding a drop of food coloring to each bowl before your add water. Or make up one large white batch, then divide and knead in the food coloring. This method gives you a pretty marble color effect.

Notes:

This one was made from powdered sugar, so it was basically a cheap frosting stiffened into dough. We did not eat it. We added blue food coloring to this one which turned out to be the prettiest looking one, in my opinion. It was tough for me to mix this recipe because I like defined units of measurement, so just adding water a bit at a time was tricky for me to get a consistency that I liked. Also, I didn’t use a whole bag of sugar, though it was close to it, because I had 2 open bags that were a little under half empty each. The dough was moldable, but it was sticky and stayed on our hands a lot. It wasn’t as easy to use the cookie cutters, but was still fun to work with. I added a little flour to this recipe to try to make it a little less sticky. I would recommend this recipe to someone who has very small, young toddlers because of the edible quality of the dough (although the other two can be eaten without harming a kid, salt in that high quantity can’t taste all that great). I give this recipe a 3, and Alan gave it a 4. He said that this one was his favorite, because of the blue and because it was made out of sugar, his favorite thing on the planet.

Play dough number 4:

Recipe:

No Cook Lotion Dough

You will need:

• Baby lotion 
• Baking soda
• Water

If you are starting from scratch, fill a small bowl with baking soda and slowly add water to it.  You will want to be sure to add a little water at a time and mix it in well. If you are using food coloring to color the dough, add it now and continue mixing. You are going for a texture that is somewhat moist and can be molded, but can also be crumbly. 

Mix the lotion in with the dough until something resembling play dough forms. 

Notes:

Again, this one was a bit harder for me because of the lack of measurements. I used a nice smelling lotion that I have and we did just a bit of red coloring in this one so that the end result was a pinkish hue. This dough was also a bit sticky, and I ended up adding a bit of flour to it as well to counteract that a bit. It came out a bit crumbly, so I had to add more water to it, too. This dough was nice to mold in our hands but didn’t work well with cookie cutters very much. It was crumbly, and so we ended up giving up on it pretty quickly. The big selling point for this one was that the lotion made the dough smell nice, but then because of the lotion, this one is the LEAST edible. I gave it a 2.5, and Alan agreed, also giving his a 2.5.