Good Friday

I had a good day with the kids today.  There were a couple times during the day when I had to leave the room and pray for patience but overall today was a good Friday.

I had a horrible time pulling myself out of bed this morning from a lack of sleep the last two nights.  Not the sickness this time, a guilty pleasure I would say, Dexter.  It is one of my favorite shows.  Problem is I can't watch it with the kids so we wait until the kids are asleep but that is also time for blogging, checking email, and (another guilty pleasure) gaming.  So all of that packed into a few small hours does not leave much time for the hour long episodes of Dexter.  I end up watching it after I finish everything else and am laying in bed.  I also end up watching TWO episodes.  Therefore I am foolishly not getting sleep.

Anyway, I wanted to crawl back into my warm bed but thought about how productive my day would be if I lay down.  I was not feeling sick.  I wanted to be lazy.  I am a mommy, I can't be lazy.  I made some coffee changed into my work out clothes and started to sweat!

This was nice.  After being away from physical activity for almost two weeks getting my body moving felt good.  I am excited to see results on the scale :)

I prayed, read my bible, then went down to start preschool.

Preschool
After reading more about home schooling I switched up our schedule a bit.  Instead of doing the music and dancing first we dove straight into math.

It worked! 
The math lessons went really well without any hesitation from either little dragon.  I may have found a training technique. 

We also pulled out the alphabet magnets because the kids were responding so well. 



















We started the letter H today.  While the kids completed a helicopter dot to dot we talked about the letter H and I presented some visuals.

I printed out book for Athena to start reading and we read and colored the second page today and wrote down the vocabulary words on the top of the page.

After circle time and lunch we did the physical activity.  Dancing.  My kids love to dance.  It was a good time in the day to add the H videos.  They were able to get out some energy to music that encourages them to learn, plus it is too cold outside to play.  I was planning on a science experiment but it got late fast and I had extra cleaning to do to host a Scentsy Party.



Stations

Our mural this week is a coloring wall mural of the alphabet that I will be using as a station.  I found it at the dollar store. 

Sensory station included a mixture of a bunch of different items.  

I still have rocks but knew the kids would not be interested in just looking at them again after being able to paint them so putting them out by themselves would not pull their attention.  I added some blocks, dinosaurs, horses (to add some H), trees and little people. 

Reading station equipped with new library books and magazines.

Before starting circle time Athena and I spent some time cuddling and we prayed together.  Spencer and I also did this before his early nap.

Circle Time

We read My 'h' Sound Book then completed the activity in the back.  

The completed Horse wearing a Hat drawing.

The discovery pack I picked out for the next two weeks focuses on community helpers.  We have not talked about community helpers or people in our neighborhood before but I started talking about it with the kids after reading The Little Red Hen.  We also watched Anthony's Adventures making bread and Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood to go along with this topic last week.  The pack includes information on many different people who help out in the community so our focus will not be on one particular person this week. 

After some energy releasing music we played a game I saw on Pintrest.  

I call it Find the Kisses.

I numbered some circles and placed them strategically (hehe) in the shape of a heart.  Then I numbered the bottom of the kisses.  

The best part.....I hid the kisses! 

They loved the game so much we played twice.

It was fun to see Spencer's confidence go up as he continued to find the kisses.  Athena told me it was a little too easy.  The second time I made it more difficult and she enjoyed the challenge. 

After collecting their kisses they sat down and emptied their bags to match the kisses to the papers. 

                                                                                  Athena helped Spencer with his matching :).  

After the game the kids and I were exhausted. We briefly reviewed the second day of Creation and I gave the kids a coloring page.  Neither was interested.  I put on some cleaning music and we cleaned up together. 

The problem I mentioned a couple blogs ago about snacks was a problem again today.  It has been the last couple of days.  It really heightens my anxiety when both kids start whining especially right when I start doing something, like cleaning.  

Talking to my sister today though I think I figured out why it is an issue.  I bought fruit snacks this month for the first time, ever.  I usually don't buy them because they are not filling and usually are just sugar disguised as fruit.  The kids have fallen in love.  They want to eat them instead of meals and want to eat multiple bags during snack time.  When they have crackers and peanut butter, or cut up fruit they tend to eat more during meal time and don't cry of hunger for snacks all day long.  I think they want the sweet taste of the fruit snack.  I almost caved today giving more then the usual snacks in a day because I was pulling my hair out in frustration at this continually happening.  Thank goodness my sister was on the phone.  She told me to stay strong, if they were hungry they would eat any snack not cry for fruit snack and they would finish their lunch.  I do provide them with other options I know they like but they refuse to eat them.  I must stick to my guns.  They are being fed. They get fruit snacks occasionally but there are other healthier options too. 

I am not buying fruit snacks again.