Screen Time Alternative!

If you have a child in your home between the ages of 2 to 6 years old, I can not recommend enough, for you to have a box of Mother Goose Time preschool curriculum.  Even if they go to preschool, daycare or Kindergarten.  It's a great, and easy, alternative to screen time.

I am a Mother Goose Time Blog Ambassador and I do receive this curriculum for free in exchange for writing about our use of the curriculum.  That being said, I get no commission or reward when people who read my blog buy a box of MGT.  My reason for sharing is simple, this curriculum, has had a huge positive impact on my family.  As a new Mother, I had no idea what my children were capable of, but Mother Goose Time did!  They gave us countless "Mother Goose Moments" that I am SO thankful for, even more so now that my oldest is 9, and my middle son is 7! 

I have had a box of January's Dinosaur Dig sitting on our dining room floor for months now.  This morning, Adam (age 4) and I had some one on one time as his older brothers and Dad were on an outing.  I have always wanted to make my time with the kids count, even before going back to work, but even more so now.  Our time together in the evenings and weekends is so important.  Of course, I still have all the house work and chores to do and less time to do them in, so I can't give them my full attention, all the time.  Please don't let this make you feel guilty.  My kids spend plenty of time watching cartoons, playing video games or playing on their own while I get stuff done.

But when I do have an opportunity, like this morning, I will quickly run out of ideas, especially out of ideas that don't cost money.  Because of course going out to eat or shopping is a lot of fun, but it adds up! Just when I am about to say "okay Adam, let's put some cartoons on" (because Mommy is out of ideas and wants to get chores done) I remember that box of Mother Goose Time. 

But it's not just a screen time alternative in this situation alone.  The MGT activities can easily be set out in an investigation station style and your child can discover the activity and play independently.  Often it will launch their imaginations into a new direction and keep them engaged and entertained for a nice stretch of time.

Today we lengthened our one on one time and got out day 12 to learn about Dinosaur Heads.  I set up the calendar for June and we sang the days of the week and months of the year song as he worked hard at cutting out his dinosaur teeth.

These calendar pieces work just as well for June as they do for January!  Instead of attaching the calendar pieces permanently, I use something that can stick and re-stick.

Then he glued the teeth on.  Carefully placing the tooth where he wanted and then lifting it back up, putting the glue down and sticking it on.

When the dino headband was fully constructed he put it on and turned into a dinosaur, it was SO scary!

After filming this little video I realized he had not eaten breakfast yet.  I was trying to feed him cereal but he said he couldn't eat it because he only ate meat.  Oh my!  But if you notice, with in that role playing is a lot of knowledge.  He knows that dinos with sharp teeth eat meat, that's something!

After he ate some cereal, I did finally convince him, we did some graphing!  Yep, graphing.  It was math, but he didn't know that!

He rolled the dino die, looked to see what kind of dino he rolled, then placed a penny on the chart.

As the pennies added up on the chart we talked about which one had the most rolls, which ones were the same which one had the least.  These words are all math terms.

I didn't even get pictures of the pattern he made using the dinosaur manipulatives.  But as you can see, we had a lot of fun, playing and learning and avoiding screen time! 

Please, please, trust me when I say, they grow up fast and life can change in a blink of the eye.  Don't take for granted these precious and silly toddler/preschool years.  Squeeze as many moments like these in as you can!

The Soccer Man

I asked Adam what he wanted to do for his 4th birthday party and he said he wanted a "soccer and chocolate party".  He had been starting to play soccer at his daycare and I guess he really likes it.  I was able to find a Puma soccer ball and a matching shirt at Ross Dress for Less. 

I was able to take his birthday off so that I could spend the day with him.  He will only turn 4 once and soon he will be in school.  We spent some time playing soccer in the front yard.  We can't play in the backyard because our chihuahua goes  bonkers over balls, even giant ones she can't fetch.  I was enjoying every second of our day together and just had to get some pictures.

Such a cool "soccer man".

 And when he was all done with me taking his picture, this is what I got. 

When it got just a bit too cold out, we came back in and played with his new Greek ship from Playmobil. This thing is awesome.

 Our new doggie Mia kept wanting to get into the photo.  Since I don't have a good photo of her yet I changed my target. 

 She wasn't sure if she in fact wanted to be photographed. 

 The eyebrows on this dog are just spectacular. 

 We are so blessed to have her.  I mean, look at that face!

Unfortunately, in the middle of the night with 30 minutes left of Adam's birthday, my little soccer man threw up.  Not a great way to end the day.  I am home another day with him and it has allowed me to document our day.  So I will try to see it as a blessing in disguise.

Losing Homeschooling

I am not going to go into the details, but my whole life got turned upside down this fall.  I had everything I had desired.  I had my three boys, I was staying home and homeschooling.  We had the best schedule and the best set up.  Spanish class at a local co-op, support from a teacher through a local homeschool charter school and a network of homeschooling families that are just amazing.  My kids had tons of wonderful friends and a well balanced day to day life.  Best of all, I got to spend so much wonderful time with them.

And then I faced a choice, save my family or hold onto homeschooling.  Of course, my greatest desire, is for my family to stay whole.  So I had to let go of the dream and hang on to Christ.  There were too many fears and unknowns for me to try to carry.  I just couldn't do it on my own.

Step one, get my boys established at school.  If we weren't going to be homeschooling I really wanted them to go to school at our church's school.  I knew they would be surrounded by amazing people because I have gone to church with many of them for years.  I knew they would be surrounded by prayer and Christ's love through a challenging time in our lives.  So I reached out and we were beyond blessed with a wonderful scholarship.

Next we set up a time to come visit their classrooms while I talk with the principal.  I pick them up from recess a little while later and the boys were BEAMING.  "Mom, sign me up!" Lachlan exclaims.  My heart smiles, just a little.

Now here comes the big day.  One of my biggest anxieties going into this day was what to pack for their lunches!  No kidding.  Food is not my strongest asset and having them home I could just grab anything.  But cold lunches, everyday, filled with stuff they will actually eat!! What!?!?!  It literally sent me over the edge.  I got that fear figured out by picking up a cool lunch Tupperware container thing.  :)  If I filled each section everyday, they should be good.  Not only that, but I had friends stock up on boxes of grab and go items from Costco.  I have the best community of friends.  Okay, lunches packed.

Up next, the waking up early part.  Suck.  It's still dark when we have to get up.  I tried to prepare us by setting an alarm and slowly moving up the time to the actual time in which we would have to get up.  When the day came, it wasn't so bad.  But they were also super excited.

We are up, we have our lunches packed and our backpacks on.

 Lachlan, ready for his first day!

One thing that really helped with this transition is that they were already attending the morning program at our homeschool charter school two days a week.  So the classroom environment and having to get out the door in the morning wasn't too big of a shock.

And then, I drove away, from MY boys.  I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed all day.

People, I missed them.

The first day the time moved slowly.  The second day, I still cried, but the time they were away went a little faster and then a little faster.

I had many people surround me and my family and pray for us.  And that is what got us through.

I had one person tell me, this change doesn't have to last forever, maybe you will be able to homeschool again.  That helped.  The same person told me that fears and anxieties are not of the Lord.  From that day forward, every time I had those feelings creep up I prayed and I let go.  This happened every hour for a while.  Maybe more often.

I was able to experience what another friend called "stupid peace".  Peace during a time when there should have been no peace in my heart.

We have had a few hiccups.  The boys weren't where they needed to be in their writing skills specifically.  Third grade seemed like a little bit too much for my oldest so we adjusted a few weeks in and tried second grade, where he is thriving.  We've had backpacks left in the car and one day it took an hour and a half to convince my oldest son to go to school.  There were some behaviors and disobedience to work through.  But God is good, all the time, God is good.

I was able to attend the first chapel the boys attended at school and a young boy in Peter's class got up in front and said he wanted to pray for the new kids at school, that they feel comfortable and love school.  It melted. my. heart.  It also turns out that school is a better place for Lachlan right now.  He really didn't see any reason why he needed to learn the things his Mother was trying to teach him and we were frequently butting heads.  I was beginning to feel like it was holding him back.  But he is a competitive boy, and seeing what his peers are doing has really motivated him, not defeated him as I feared.

But through another rocky patch the boys had consistency, and that is what I had hoped school would bring.

I still miss them.  And I often find myself in moments of despair wondering what's the point of this life.  I mean, is this what society wants of us, to never be together as a family?  It sucks.  I get my family on evenings and weekends.  My whole life consists of "getting through the week".

I just keep praying for God to give me a new perspective.  For him to continually refresh my spirit.

If you are in a time in your life where you also may lose homeschooling or have already lost it, you are not alone.  It's HARD, really hard.  But there can be good mixed in too.   I pray that God will carry you through, as he has for me.

Next up, going back to work and finding childcare!!!  Ack.

How to Set a Toddler Trap

Before you get worried, this type of trap won't hurt anyone but it will expand their mind and abilities!

**This post may contain affiliate links.

Sometimes it's hard to do an official "day" of Mother Goose Time lessons and activities.  When that is the case I have a lot of fun setting up "toddler traps".  I actually call mine "Adam Traps" because that is my intended target around here.  He is my 3.5 almost 4 year old little man.  So maybe, I should officially call him a preschooler, but I still struggle with not calling him baby Adam, so one step at a time please.

There are many names for what I call "Adam traps".  Some call them Investigation Stations or Invitations to Play.  It's a pretty simple concept, you set up an activity in a special location for the child to find and investigate on their own.  This is good for my Adam who has always been very independent.  When he happens upon an activity and he chooses to investigate it further you can just see him beaming with pride and he has a lot more commitment to the task when it was his decision.

Here is what you do.  First you set out an activity at one of their spots or you set it up on the floor or somewhere that will catch their eye.  Here is the first "trap" I set.  I put out this Mother Goose Time math activity.  We had done this once before so I knew he would know what to do.  The objective is to have them roll the pocket cube and then put that many "clouds" (cotton balls) in the sky on the paper.

The second trap I set was at the table.  I put his My Little Journal on the table with his name written in yellow.  We have done this a few times now, so again, I knew that he would know what to do.  I set the green marker next to the journal and he knows to trace his name.  I also included colored pencils so he could draw a picture on the cover if he wanted to.  You can also see his chocolate milk is sitting there and his favorite Wii controller.  I figured he might just climb up to the table to look for those items and discover his journal and I would catch him in my trap.

It didn't take long until the first trap was successful. Caught him!  I didn't want to scare away the toddler so I just took a quick picture from behind.  

Here is a side by side.

A little while later I was able to get him to participate in the second trap.  But I had to make it more enticing.  I sat down at his spot and asked him to tell me his favorite weather.  This was the journal prompt for the cover from Mother Goose Time.  He said the sun and I asked him what he liked to do in the sun and I started to draw a stick figure drawing of Adam flying a toy airplane outside in the sun.  He of course wanted to join in and then took it from there.

He wrote his name first.

Then he added his own touch to the cover photo.

The key is, I did not ask him if he wanted to participate because it's too easy for a toddler to say no.  I just got him intrigued and because it was his decision he was totally invested.  He did page after page in his journal.  He wrote beautifully!

 Big Cs and little Cs.

He did perfect #4s.

I love how these My Little Journals have the letter and then shapes or lines that, if practiced, will help in the formation of the letter.

On this page Adam drew his "heart beat" because we were at the hospital the weekend before because of a severe case of croup.  They had him on a monitor and we watched his heart beat.

On the very last page Adam was determined to write his very own A, with out tracing.  I gave him some step by step guidance through writing the letter on his own. "Line up, then down, then frog jump, and draw a line across."  He did a few that looked more like a triangle and then nailed his very own and very first A!!

You can find your own "Toddler Traps" on Pinterest, there are thousands of ideas.  Look for keywords of Invitation to Play, Investigation Stations, or Toddler Tray Play.  Of course, you can make it super simple on yourself and order a box of Mother Goose Time where all the Pinterest ideas are brought to life with stellar graphics, great printing, and delivered right to your door.  Not to mention the fact that they are guaranteed to be educational and easily adaptable to your child.  It's up to you of course and your budget, but I promise you won't regret it if you do decide to buy a box.  Either way, set a Toddler Trap for your little one, and see what happens!

Random Mother Goose Time and Experience God Learning

*This post may contain affiliate links.

Although my follow through of Mother Goose Time lessons may be random, what they teach and how they teach it is not.  That I know for sure.

We have implemented the new 10 drawer system which has lead to bits and pieces of Mother Goose Time done here and there.  I don't see that as a negative though because it has given my 3 year old much more choice and freedom in how he wants to do "school".   He is able to initiate school time which has lead to some really amazing time together.  So this post is going to include random MGT and Experience God activities we have done here and there.

First up is an Experience God lesson.  We have taken a long break from Experience God because I just didn't feel like I was using it to it's full potential.  What we did instead was read little daily devotionals from the Jesus is Calling book or spent some time memorizing scriptures from our Awana book.  Although these are great and quick options, Experience God really makes things interactive and brings a whole new level to biblical truths.  This month is called "God is Eternal" and in week one we are learning that God Always Was, Is and Will Be.  All three boys were sitting at the counter eating breakfast and I was across from them, I thought it was perfect time to pull out the tri-fold paper I had pre-folded.  I painted a pattern on the center section, then folded one side in and then the other.  Then I showed them that the shape was the same in all three sections and I pointed to them and called the first section, "yesterday", middle section "today" and the right section "forever".  Each day has a little blue box with a simple synopsis of the lesson.  "God never changes.  We can trust him to always love us."  Then I added, He is the same yesterday, today and always.

And then we went to the beach for our anniversary with a plus one and ate gelato.

Now onto day 1 learning about islands. We actually completed most of this days lessons.  First Adam got to explore the new foam letters and numbers.  I sent numbers one through six with him to the bathroom sink.

The Great Kite Rescue

This story is a classic tale of childhood - the kite that got stuck in the tree.

Lachlan got his new kite on Easter.  We took it to the park a few days ago and he got his first real experience with flying a kite all by himself.  Since then he has been obsessed with flying his kite.  An obsession I can fully support. Thankfully our neighborhood doesn't have power lines, everything is under ground.  So he can fly in our front yard and in the street.  There are a few trees though, so we warned him and warned him again - keep your string short and don't get close to trees.

Well, a warning is one thing, but don't we all learn better by making our own mistakes?  I think it is safe to say, Lachlan has learned his lesson.

I tried pulling on the string to see if I could get it loose and it was not budging.  It looked too high for a ladder and Lachlan, who normally loves to climb trees, was a little nervous about the height.  I knew my husband would have some ideas when he got home from work but I couldn't stop my wheels from turning.  I even put it out there on Facebook for my friends to give some advice.  One idea was to train a squirrel to fetch. ;)

I said to Lachlan, I wonder if we could call someone to help.  His first idea was to call Mayor John, because he can solve any problem in this town.  We had a special meeting with him a while back.

But my first thought was a cherry picker truck.  Hmm ... do I know anyone who would have one.  Don't think I do.  That's when MINET fiber popped into my head.  I knew they had some because I have seen them working around town.  I also knew that they were a local company with roots in this community and we have always had great experiences with them.  So I sent them an instant message through Facebook.  I figured I didn't need to tie up the phone lines with this request, but if someone happens to see our message for help and wants to lend a hand, then great!

The next thing I know I get a message back asking for our address, then they let me know they would send a tech out AND there happened to be one in the neighborhood.  Not even 10 minutes later he was here and rescuing Lachlan's beloved kite.

I really couldn't stop laughing.  It was such a fun and special moment.  I am just so thankful for our wonderful community and it warms my heart when we humans help each other.  I would even bet, that when this gentleman got the call to save a kite and make a little boys day, it brought a smile to his face.  He seemed happy to help.

Once the kite was finally safe and back on the ground we asked for a picture with the kite rescuer - our hero.

Everyone wanted to be in the picture with him, so they crowded around.  The sad part is, I didn't even ask him his name!  Thank you, to whoever you are and to MINET for saving the day!

Thanks to you, the kite got it's chance to fly once more!

"Mom, can I do school?"

My almost 3 year old has been sick as a dog all day and the first thing he says when he wakes up starting to feel better is "Mom, can I do school?"  This kid.

He specifically asked to review his colors.  So I grabbed the color ribbons because I thought I could get away with doing an easy "school" lesson.  But nope.  He wanted the whole display board on the counter like we always do it.

Here he is, so weak, sitting at the table as I ask him his colors.  He has his brothers All About Reading lesson on the table in front of him.

I thought that would be the end, but he wanted to continue.  I hadn't really seen or spent much time with the bigger boys all day, so I called them out to join us.  Peter opened a market which was something we got with our day 1 of Nursery Rhymes.

Adam rolled the cube and would count out the money to buy the item.  I read the directions on this game a few times, I wasn't sure exactly how we were supposed to do it but I went ahead and wrote a number or a "price" for each item on the cube cards themselves.

 Here he had counted out 2 dollars to buy a carrot from the market.

 Comparing his purchase to the cube card.

 He was very happy with his purchase, which was an apple, and now he wanted a real apple.

 So I brought him applesauce and got a thumbs up.

 Next I got out day 2's supplies.  On this day we learned the rhyme "A Song of Sixpence".

So we baked a pie.  Mother Goose Time provided us with the pie tins, the starch noodles and a recipe card to make our own play doh.  Again, this impromptu "school" time was followed by a full day of a two year old puking and laying on me.  So putting together a recipe in the kitchen was not an option.  Instead I got out our already made play-doh.  It worked just fine, but I do look forward to making our own, we never have, and I know all the kids would love it!

Adam flattened a top and bottom for his pie and I showed him how to layer it in his tin.  Then Lachlan made just a top for his pie and pushed the filling in and then set it in his pie tin.  When it was all done baking he dumped it out and I said it was like an upside down cake.  My poor children and their lack of experience with cooking and baking.  GG, if you are reading this, I think we need to come bake a pie at your house!?  GG stands for Great Grandma but she was my Grandma first and we spent many summer days picking buckets of blackberries on her farm knowing our reward would be one of her blackberry pies!

Peter made me a birthday cake.  My birthday is next in line in the birthday craziness for our family.  It goes like this Christmas, January (Lachlan's birthday), February (Peter's birthday then mine) and then March (Adam's birthday).  Jeff was the only one left out of the mix, he has to wait until October.

 I was cutting out the bead cards for the next activity involving the awesome manipulatives (Check out our giveaway) and Adam reminded me that he could do that part.

 I only had one left and handed it off to him.  I had my camera ready with a low f/ or aperture 1.8.  That's the top photo, see how blurry the cards are?  I had plenty of time to adjust my camera because he sat there, making sure that his scissors were perfectly lined up before he started cutting.  I bumped my f/ or aperture up to 3.something and now you can see the cards a little more clearly.  Just in case you wanted a little photography lesson mixed in with your preschool run through.

Our pocket cube was already in use so I set these cube cards face down on the table and had him flip one over and then scoop those beads from the bowl into the pie tin.  He had already done this a couple of time successfully by the time you get to the moment captured here.  Adam needed to grab a blue circle but he said it was just too hard.  The reality was, he was just getting tired.  Poor sick kiddo.  This is where big brother stepped in to help.  Makes my heart so happy.  I almost didn't take a picture, I was just enjoying the moment.

 This help and support from brother really motivated him to keep going.

 The two older boys kept recreating their pies and this was Lachlan's finished "balloon pie".  

All in all this time together was maybe about 30 minutes.  But it was so precious on this super rough day.  Normally I shy away from diaper only pictures of the babies.  But I just had to make an exception because this moment was so exceptional.  My little guy spent all day puking and sick and Mother Goose Time was his first request!!!  How amazing is that!?!?!

This isn't the first time he has asked me to do "school".  He loves school time because it is together time.  He often says "teach me Mama, teach me."  Melts. My. Heart.

I call these moments "Mother Goose Moments" and I treasure each and every one.