Tuesday was one of those days that I could just sense the kids needed to play. They were full of energy, which the 90+ degree weather was not accommodating for release of said energy outside (at least not for this girl), and so it felt like our living room was gonna split at the seams. I had slipped out into the office to try to get a little ‘mommy’ time in at the computer, connecting with a few friends via social media, when Natalie asks if we can “do school.” Y’all – seriously. You know something is working if your daughter is asking to “do school.” And by working, I mean that they love Mother Goose Time. I know I do – I’ve said that it’s stinky cute a million times – but it’s even more exciting for me that they are really getting into it. It’s like ‘school incognito.’

And because everything has been so well packaged and laid out for me, it really allows me to choose well what best fits that day’s emotional temperature. Because when you have a highly emotional five-year-old girl (and mama has been known to have a few moments as well), you try to make wise decisions for the whole family with that in mind.  So, if I know the kiddos are restless and wanna play, we choose some of the really fun games that are built into the daily topic and start there, and natural organic learning opportunities come out of that.

Tuesday was a prime example of this.

There were these stinking-cute (I said it again!) little hand-outs of the 5 Monkeys Story – you know the one, “Five little monkeys jumping on the bed. One fell off and bumped his head…” My pictures aren’t going to do it justice, but the little handout folded up, so as the story progresses down to less and less monkeys, the hand-out folds up so the images match the story, each picture making the bed smaller and smaller with less monkeys.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the same day’s lesson plan, there was another activity with these little bed-like bowls, a napkin, and five little paper monkeys so the kids could create their own scene.  I didn’t show them the picture of the examples other kids had made that was included in the packet and just let Natalie go with her own imagination.

Here is her version.

(apparently she wanted to accomodate for all five monkeys with her large bed, the little bowl being the pillow and the napkin became the comforter/rest of the bed)

(I can see how she’d think the bowl would make a good pillow, can’t you?)

The images on the example sheet used the bowl as the actual bed, with the napkin as the blanket. She recreated  this once I showed her the images and, of course, brother was following right along, learning through mimic play.

And then she decided she needed to bed and apply the little number band-aids to the monkeys. Little nurse in action.

And all the while, we’re talking about bedrooms and beds, about numbers and subtraction. And they were loving it, which makes me happy. Learning through play for the win!

And sure enough, before the day was over, I heard Peter singing in his room by himself, “no more monkeys jumping on the bed,” all the while jumping on his bed. Oh well…one step at a time.

 

 

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