Happy Groundhog Day

Happy

One of my favorite movies. If you haven't seen it... you are missing out on something really funny!

Last night I waited for Miss Em's daddy to come home to participate in teaching her about Groundhog Day. Her daddy only gets to see the finished products of her schooling and her telling him of what she had learned. I thought it would be fun for her and him. Of course, I had to tell daddy to allow her to process and think about her work. He had a hard time not wanting to take over help, lol! She allowed him to help with the coloring but I was firm on letting her follow and complete the directions for herself. I believe that my kids will tend to stall long enough knowing that someone will start doing the work for them. Our boys are famous for that with their father :) When I first started teaching Miss Em I wanted things perfect and helped her alot...I realized real quick to let that go. This is her time to learn not mine. I am really bad when it comes to art projects. I am totally guilty of the "takeover". I just did it the other day when Hunter had to make something for Art. (We) made a really cute cool robot. Considering he came to me at 7 pm and started asking for random things for something that was due in 2 days. Now, Miss Em wants one and we will make one when she is doing her Letter R work. It will be a recycled robot like Hunter's and I will start collecting things for it now. I am envisioning a tutu :)

Last night I had Emily work on  really cute Groundhog preschool theme papers. You can print them free from the Blessed Beyond A Doubt website. Click HERE

She has other free printables too and I love them.

I read two books to her that I got at the library. They were adorable. 

Substitute Groundhog by Pat Miller

Google image

How Groundhog's Garden Grew by Lynne Cherry

Google image

This was her crafts project.

I got the idea from here

I printed the groundhog from a Google image and had Miss Em color it. She colored the white paper plate too.  I folded the paper plate in half and cut a small slit with scissors before she colored it. I made the groundhog shadow from tracing the groundhog onto black paper and cut it out. I cut the sun out of yellow paper and I cut out a cloud for her too. We glued the shadow silhouette to the groundhog and then glued both pieces to the tip of the craft stick (a straw or a tree stick could be used). I folded the paper plate in half and stapled the paper plate together. I left a space on top wide enough for the groundhog to peek through. Miss Em glued the sun and the cloud to the back of each side of the paper plate. The poem is from a search for Groundhog poems...here. I typed it and cut it out with decorative scissors. Miss Em glued it to the front. After I took the the first pic I realized that I had an error and fixed it for the end result. The poem is read with the tune of "I'm A Little Teapot". Really cute. I then inserted the groundhog stick through the top and out of the hole on the bottom of the plate. Miss Em loved pulling the stick up and down allowing the groundhog to come up from his hole :)

Groundhog Poem

Here's a little groundhog furry and brown.

He's coming up to look around.

If he sees his shadow, down he'll go.

Then six more weeks of winter...OH NO!

I gave Miss Em a little information about groundhogs and Groundhog Day before we started her projects. Just basic info...age appropriate. I told her the date which is Feb 2.  I told her that it is tradition that when the groundhog pops up and sees his shadow then we will have 6 more weeks of winter...brrr...cold. If not, then Spring is on it's way. Yeah for flowers :) I told her that the sounds that they make is a whistle and I whistled. She whistled too. Groundhogs also hibernate like bears do. I asked if she remembered when we talked about animals that hibernate (sleeping for a very long time in the Winter cold). They eat a lot and fill up their bellies so that they can have a nice, long, winter warm nap.

She also loved her dot printable of the Groundhog too. So cute!

I usually have her use her dot markers but I gave her magnets. I put yellow dot stickers on them and used a baking sheet that I got at the Dollar Tree. She has to put the magnet on the circle and no white should be showing out of the circle. Good concentration here and motor skills.

She also identified the groundhog's body parts. Anything that needs to be cut and glued she is very happy about.

I got both of these printables from the 2 Teaching Mommies website. Print them for free HERE 

This morning I showed Miss Em a video of  Punxsutawney Phil coming out of his little tree house and that he did NOT see his shadow. Her reaction..."he's so cute". That's it.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy December

Well the countdown starts...25 days till Christmas! We have all the outdoor decorations up and almost done with the inside too. Miss Em decorated the tree this afternoon. Decorating the tree made her so happy today and she was so proud of her work. I usually hang every single ornament that the kids make on the tree but not this year. Making it simple. I might change my mind later if I start to miss them.

I am doing something new this year. I saw this idea on Pinterest and there are a lot of pins on this idea too. It is a countdown to Christmas using books. Wrap 25 Christmas books and read one book a night till Christmas.

 I went around the house and gathered all the Christmas books I could find that would interest Miss Em. I have 16. I couldn't believe I had 16 Christmas books! We are book lovers in this house. So, I needed 9 more books. To be honest, I did not want to go buy 9 more Christmas books. I think 16 is a lot to own! 

What to do? The library! Miss Em and I are at the library at least 3 times a month, if not more. I thought it would be perfect. I get to check out the books for 3 weeks and that would be plenty of time to read them first. I love my library. I am able to go online, look for the books that I want , check the availability, request them and they will have the books on hold for me at the front desk. 

I got the books that I wanted and wrapped all 25 books. I did buy one book. I went to Kohls and bought the books that are in the front for charity and a reindeer stuff animal. This will be her reading buddy.

I set the books up for Miss Em to find and sat her down to explain to her what we were going to do.

Here is the set up. I wrapped the books in brown shipping paper, used scrapbook paper to dress them up, and added the numbers. Simple, right? Well, it did take me a while to wrap them. 

I am excited about this and the numbers will help with Miss Em's math too. 

Miss Em loved the idea and with the help of Daddy she named her reading buddy "Rainy". All her animals are named after what they are. Her pig is "Piggy", her sheep is "Sheepy" and her new pink tiger is...wait for it..."Tiger". Sometimes "Pink Tiger".  She did come up to me about 30 minutes after opening her first book wanting to open another book. I think this will also help teach her about patience.

Our first book was "If You Take A Mouse To The Movies". That was my first time reading it and I love this one. It is adorable. This is one of the library books and it also has some activity ideas to do that look like fun. I will use this book for some of Miss Em's preschool activities this week. I will be working on her preschool calender tomorrow. My goal is to get the whole month planned out and stick to it. I tend to plan and then change the plan . I am still learning myself. This month should be fun and she is already going to start on the letter J. I didn't post  G, H, and I.  I do need to work on my postings. 

Thanks for visiting!

Happy Birthday Son

I want to wish my son a Happy 12th Birthday today.

Dear Son,

I am thankful everyday for having you in my life. The day you were born I knew you were going to hold an important role in this family. Your precious, sweet soul brings peace, laughter, and humility to this family. When the house gets a little loud and crazy, your calm spirit brings the noise down. We can count on your fun and funny personality to bring out the laughter and smile to our faces. When tension is in the air and anger is building up, your sensitivity brings awareness to our hearts and minds. I love watching you grow, mature, and change before my eyes. You are a very special sweet boy and I cherish you. 

Thank you for being you.

Happy Birthday and I love you.

First sick day :(

No school for Miss Em today. She woke up this morning and her right eye was red...pink eye? No yucky stuff  (discharge) was present so I waited an hour or so and then called the doctor. She tells me that it doesn't hurt and hasn't tried to itch it. Eye infections seriously gross me out. It's hard for me to look at eyes that are infected or have blood spots. Miss Em's eye is really red just below her lower lid and pink throughout. I am so glad the she hasn't had any discharge...yet. I say yet because it typically comes out when you sleep. Oh, I hope she wakes up with clear eyes in the morning. Crusty eyes are horrible! The nurse called back and prescribed eye drops. I was so happy that I didn't have to go to the Dr.'s office for the prescription. If it's not conjunctivitis the drops will help with the redness. So, even though I didn't get a confirmation of an infection, I didn't want her touching the school supplies. 

Lots of hand washing and disinfecting today.

She did learn something today...nobody wanted to touch anything after her until it was disinfected.

Oh, I learned something new today too. Okay, Miss Em freaked out when I tried to put the first drops in her eyes. I expected that. So, I Googled about how to put eye drops in small children's eyes. Yep, there was a list of helpful tips. Have the child lay down and close their eyes. Place a drop on the inner corner of the eye and then have them open their eyes to allow the drop to run into the eye. Have them blink several times. The first time didn't go so well. She was crying a little and the medicine dropped too far away from the eye. The second time worked great and she actually got excited that it worked.
Don't forget to wash your hands before and after applying the drops :)

Hopefully tomorrow will be a good day and maybe she will be able to do a little school work.

Thanks for visiting and stay healthy!

Election Day!

Happy Election Day and No School! 

No school here on election days and the boys stayed home yesterday too. I took the kids to the polling place with me. I think it is very important to teach our children the importance of the voting process. I like how they are able to experience going into the booth with me. The one thing that I didn't like...I didn't get my "I voted" sticker. Since we have been here in Ky I have not gotten a sticker. For some reason, the place that I vote at never has stickers. I miss my stickers!

Emily still had gymnastics today and I made the boys go. She loves an audience! Emily is improving in her gymnastics class and will be moved up in January. She is starting to learn how to do a one handed cartwheel. This little girl is constantly doing cartwheels in the house. 

Gymnastic day is her favorite day.

I took this picture of Emily back in April.

I did get a nice surprise from my husband tonight. He found a polling place by his work that had stickers and brought one home to me!

I ♥ my sticker!

Thanks for visiting.