I found this little fellow playing in front of our circle time board today.

Since we started Mother Goose Time this past May, he has loved when we get together for ‘circle time,’ a time when I play this little song and we sing and dance around the board. “1,2,3 come learn with me. 4, 5, 6 calendar and weather pics. 7, 8,9 it’s circle time.” This is the time where we talk about the day of the week, add the date to the calendar, identify what weather picture is appropriate for that day, and usually review the sight word flowers (what Peter is holding up above).

So he has always been a fan of the circle time board. I just didn’t expect to find him there by  himself today since we weren’t in the middle of a lesson.

He surprised me by role playing with the sight word flowers, calling the smaller ones “friends” and then making a family out of 3 of them (“daddy, mommy, baby”). And as you can tell from the picture, even wanting to sort them by color. It’s neat to see him develop these skills, because it was just a couple of months ago that I wondered if he was interested in anything other than shapes and categorizing by shape.

We had also already put some of our August material up on the board, so he took down the ‘b’ card with the blue ball on it, and matched the blue flower to it, and then found his red ball on the floor and put it on top of the ball picture. I just think it is so neat to see him utilizing all the different materials all by himself.

This was him explaining something to me, which I was having a hard time understanding, but he was so serious that I just let him get it all out.

I guess this just goes to show there is at least one blessing to not having a designated homeschool room that is off in another part of the house. When our school supplies are visible, they tend to take advantage of them. That makes me feel a little bit better about things seeming to always be a cluttered mess. At least it’s accomplishing something. 🙂

  As an official Mother Goose Time Blog Ambassador,
I receive curriculum in exchange for posting about our honest and authentic experiences with the curriculum.
Click here for more information on Mother Goose Time.

This past Thursday was a bittersweet day. My sweet niece MacKenzie is moving to FL next week, so today was the last day we got to spend the day with her. We enjoyed it, making a trip to the park and eating Chickfila for lunch, and playing around the house.

After a full morning, the kiddos went down for their afternoon naps and we got to spend a little bit of time together just hanging out, relaxing, and reading. Sometimes it’s not just the time we’re sitting and talking, but the moments when you can enjoy each other’s company while doing separate tasks that are great, too. I love those types of relationships.

Once the kiddos woke up, we heard thunder outside, so I knew we needed to find an indoor activity or two. So, I just LOVE that when that happens, I can pull out my Mother Goose Time supplies for the month and see what fun activities we can do. To think – using ‘school’ stuff to just play and enjoy each other. What? So neat.

So that afternoon, we pulled out the little colorful plastic keys that came with June’s Alphabet House theme box, and I did a few math challenges with Natalie that were included in one of the day’s lesson plans.

We also made little mops out of materials provided in the packet for Day 11, “Cleaning Up,”

although I refrained from adding the sand or dirt the activity recommended to the top of the Alphabet Sheet so they could clean it up. I wasn’t that committed to the activity in the middle of my office! But I did promise we could replicate the activity the next time we could go outside, so Natalie resigned from her pleading.

 

Peter watched on while enjoying his afternoon snack of popcorn. He quickly mimicked her play afterwards, playing with his mop so much that he quickly demolished it before I could get a good picture. Such is life with boys, I suppose.

We then moved into the kitchen to make our washing machines! What a fun idea! This came out of Day 12’s focus on laundry.

I have already started asking the kiddos to help me load the dryer on occasions that I’m doing laundry during the day while they are around, so it was fun to ask questions and see what kind of information they had been gathering from their experiences.

I pretty much had to make Peter’s completely, but he was able to load the washing machine with the items he wanted (all of the options provided) and then changed my design by wanting the plastic covering to be on the outside of his machine instead of taped to the inside, so I accommodated his request to give him a little bit more ownership in the design process.

Natalie needed to add lots of knobs and options to her machine (maybe an indicator of a desire for wanting the top of the line appliances in the future? Watch out, future husband!), and so we discussed what they were all for. She had some great ideas, suggested that maybe one button was for cold water, another for hot. We had never discussed the different temperature settings on our machine at home, so I was surprised that was something to came to mind for her. Not sure if she picked up that information from a TV show she has watched or what. I also explained the different speed settings on our machine as well, and how we select that depending on what we are washing and how dirty it may be.

I so appreciate the conversations that this curriculum has given us the opportunity for. Because on my own accord, it would not interest me or occur to me to talk to my daughter about everyday stuff like that, at least not in this season, but I love the holistic approach it provides so that as we incorporate more of her roles and responsibilities around the house, she’s also being informed of the purposes and functions of them as well.

We are Dave Ramsey, Financial Peace University people, and so it’s already in our plans this year to start incorporating Financial Peace Junior into our homeschool schedule. I’ve asked the hubs if he would be willing to take the lead on this extracurricular adventure. And so we’ve aleady started discussing the general ideas of what responsibilities we all have around our home, just because we’re part of the family (personal responsibilities like making up our own beds, cleaning up our own rooms, etc.), but how she will also be able to earn a ‘commission’ by taking on tasks that serve the whole family, like feeding our two cats in the morning. She has been interested in money for as long as I can remember, so it’s very important to us that we give her some good tools and help her approach it in a way she can steward her money wisely in the future.

So, all that to say, when shes’ a little older (and taller), laundry very well may be a task that she chooses to take on for some extra commission, and it’s neat to think that we’re laying the groundwork for that now, and hopefully giving her a new appreciation for the modern conveniences that we are blessed to have in our home. Although, as I type this, I am reminded of a conversation we had a few weeks ago where she informed me that she would be the one to do the dishes when she gets married, and her husband would do the laundry (the roles are reversed in our household), because she does not like doing laundry. So, there ya go. 🙂 Maybe we will start talking about the dishwasher next! 🙂

 

  As an official Mother Goose Time Blog Ambassador,
I receive curriculum in exchange for posting about our honest and authentic experiences with the curriculum.
Click here for more information on Mother Goose Time.

Here is a glimpse at one of our fun ‘freeplay’ moments this past week.

The kiddos were playing in the office with some of the manipulatives that came with our August Mother Goose Time box, Fables and Folktales. (Oh man, it is SO cute! Can’t wait to get into it next month)

Natalie decided she wanted to construct a tree (but of course, sharing with her brother meant she didn’t have enough for her grand design).

So we took some time that morning to talk about doing the best with what we have, not ideal situations, etc. Honestly lessons that the Lord has been speaking to me about pretty much all my life, especially as I’ve started working through my lovely perfectionistic tendencies, and so the kids are definitely getting the overflow of what I’m learning. I’m sure they are thrilled. 🙂

I joke, but it’s been neat to see how the mornings that we’re more relaxed with our schedule and agenda, how opportunities come up to address real life issues and encourage them towards certain character qualities that I pray they exhibit as they grow up – contentment, diligence, generosity, etc. So it’s been a good reminder for me to have a plan, but also to be flexible and available for the Lord to direct our mornings as He sees fit, within or outside of said plan.

Peter, well – I’m not really sure he had much of a design in mind. He just started making lines. Probably some sort of ant or bug line.

I had pulled out one of our shape puzzle while they were playing, wondering what they would do if I introduced something new.

Natalie started filled the hollow pieces, and Peter used the board to put in the same number of ‘jewels’ in each row. I was actually pretty surprised that he had a method to it. He wanted 3 in the triangle, and 4 in each square and octagon. So there ya go. Some method to his madness sometimes.

 

And then a bit later, after Peter had moved on to the next thing he could scavenge from the craft drawer in the kitchen, Natalie calls me over to talk to me about her spoons.

 

Apparently her spoons each had 4 jewels, which allowed them to talk. So they were all talking to each other. And then she decided that the jewels were making the spoons melt, while they were talking.
So I guess they had to finish up their conversation quickly before they disintegrated. (She’s a weirdo, but she’s my weirdo and I love her.)

It was fun to see their little minds and what they chose to do without my instruction. I’m sure they enjoyed the freedom, and I enjoyed watching their little hands create.

 As an official Mother Goose Time Blog Ambassador,
I receive curriculum in exchange for posting about our honest and authentic experiences with the curriculum.
Click here for more information on Mother Goose Time.