Catching Up--4th of July

I have been really bad about downloading pics from my camera lately, so here are a few pics from the summer.

We had a fun 4th of July. My parents were visiting, so that made it even more fun!

Breakfast!

Fourth of July kiddos with my parents:

I did make a sensory bin for them to play with. I mixed up some Oobleck and put out a few 4th of July themed things for them to play with.

I thought it looked so pretty with the sprinkles melting and swirling together.

My mom treated us girls to a fun pedicure:

We didn't really have a special meal, but we did make some fun strawberries and juice. Callie wanted to decorate, so she picked out a few things at Walmart and set the table all by herself!

The we went to watch the fireworks, though Jamey only stayed for the early festivities then headed home to put Riley to bed.

March Playdough and Sensory Bin

For our March playdough, I just reused the January one and kneaded in some green food coloring. I put some St. Patrick themed cookie cutters out and also some wooden playdough hammers I got from Discount School Supply. I had a lot of fun with this month's sensory bin. I added some dress up items. Callie and Josh were with me at the dollar store when I bought the dress up things, so both of them were wearing their headbands and glasses through the whole store. People were smiling and laughing left and right as we passed them. It's fun to bring a smile to a total stranger!

I used split peas for our medium. They are the perfect green!

January Sensory Bin and Playdough

I have had the sensory bin for about a week, and I made the playdough this past weekend. That's how long it's taken me to get back in to the swing of things after Christmas vacation!

The playdough isn't dyed, is scented with almond extract, and is sprinkled with white glitter. There are cookie cutters to spell the word "snow" and a snowman cookie cutter. In the box are spoons, a knife, and a rolling pin.

There are glass gems in the little white bowl.

Can't really see the glitter, but it's there! This playdough smells heavenly. I really want to eat it.

Contents: blue snowman bucket found in the Target dollar section, clear food prep bowls, various scoops and spoons, a nesting penguin, polar bear finger puppets, rubber ducks, glass snowman beads, and tiny snowflakes, all from Oriental Trading Company, plastic ice cubes bought on ebay, blue Christmas ornaments found at the dollar store, and finally acrylic gems from Michaels.

For the medium, I used clear plastic pellets, like what is found in bean bags. This was the first and last time that I will use those. Even though my kids are careful, these get everywhere and they are hard to see to pick up.

Christmas Sensory Bin and Playdough

I got our Christmas sensory bin and playdough all ready to go last week but am just now getting around to posting the pictures. The base of our sensory bin is the red and green rice that the kids dyed a few days before. I think they are both going to have so much fun playing with the bin and with the scented playdough!

In this box I put a couple plastic containers to scoop rice into. The peg game, presents, erasers, and green pine stems all came from the dollar store. The plush animal and basket are items I've had. The lacing beads came from the dollar spot at Target. The chipboard Santa ornaments and basket of elves came from Ikea and the wreaths and trees came from Michaels. The red and white baskets at the right were hand made in Africa and are supposed to be used to place messages in to your spouse to open on Christmas day.

Everything assembled in the bin.

The colored rice is at the bottom.

For our Christmas playdough, I dyed it green and added peppermint extract and glitter. I placed an assortment of Christmas cookie cutters in the box. I placed some random beads and jewels in a dish for the kids to use if they want to make a Christmas tree or wreath.

Our Classroom, Schedule, and Fall Sensory Bin

I took some pictures of our "classroom" so you all can see what we do every morning.

Our morning meeting area where we do our calendar and weather. We also do the pledge of allegiance and sing various learning and memory verse songs. The bookcase is one that my awesome dad made when I was a little girl and it has followed me everywhere. It works perfectly for our classroom, as I still have things I need to put on the shelves.

Our "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" tree. We read this alphabet book every Friday and put up the new letter that we have learned about all week.

My Montessori sensory play dough area. This month I made play dough and put cinnamon in it. It smells sooo good!

They have apples and stuff to make apple pies. There is also an assortment of fall cookie cutters that I found at the Target dollar spot.

The Sensory Bin all put together. Whenever they play with this, I set it on this cream fleece and everything must stay on the blanket, and they are also required to pick it all back up.

Here are the contents of of Sensory Bin. There are two real mini pumpkins, some fake gourds/flowers/leaves. There are two small animals I found at Michaels, and also some colorful acrylic acorns and pumpkins. There are green leaf buttons and some brown wooden 3-D shapes. The fabric pumpkin and felted acorns I bought on Etsy, as well as the wooden bowls and acorns. The real acorns were mailed to me by my wonderful parents who went on a hike and picked them up just for me! And of course, you can't have fall leaves without a rake!

I have a schedule that I try to follow every day. Of course, between play dates and swimming lessons, and the fact that not every day is perfect, it changes a lot. That's okay though, we try to be flexible. I like a schedule because I feel that I and the kids function better. There is less arguing and fighting when they have provided activities to do. I have also been doing "room time" with the kids since they were babies. I read about this in my Babywise books and I firmly believe that it has helped my kids be the independent kids they are today. It has helped them learn to play on their own, and it also provides me time to work one on one with Josh since Callie's room time is longer. The kids thrive on having this one on one time, and I love it too! Once they are both in room time, it also allows me to get some cleaning done their lunch ready.

Here is our schedule (all these times may vary slightly depending on how it's going):

8:30: rotate between music and science
9:00: go out to our classroom and have the morning meeting and sensory play
10:00: Callie's room time and Josh's school time
10:30: Josh and Callie both in room time
11:30: Free play
11:45: Lunch/Clean up/Free play
12:45: Art
1:30: Josh's nap time and Callie's school time
2:30: Callie's quiet time
3:30: DVD and snack
4:00: After 4:00 is just open. They play a lot with daddy since he is usually home by now. We do activites as a family and have supper together.

I know I have had questions about how I structure my day, so I hope this helps!