Big Energy-Little Learners...Can I do it all?

Yay for a good kids day! After two weeks -at least- of me being to sick to want to plan anything, today we finally had our Wednesday kids day! I am excited about it. I originally planned on painting the castle in the playroom and making play dough.  We have been working with colors this last week so I thought making the primary colors of play dough fit. After my Bible time and morning prayers with Athena I was reading some of my favorite blogs and stumbled upon sensory sinks.   I thought the idea was really neat and started brainstorming ideas of what I had around the house and a theme.  I wanted to recreate the St. Patrick's Day sink, it looked so adorable, but don't really have anything I could use for it. As I brainstormed I made myself some oatmeal (a nice healthy beginning to my day) with cranberries.  CRANBERRIES! I have had this huge bag in the freezer for, like, ever and thought these would be great for a sensory sink item.  So I was thinking of using Red as th

My alarm went off at 7:30 am this morning, but I did not roll out of bed.  I lay awake for awhile thinking about getting up but my throat was sore and my nose stuffy so I decided that some sleep may do me some good.  My sister is a nurse and knows I have been fighting this sickness for, like, ever and suggested I try allergy medicine.  Perhaps I am not sick but have allergies.  I bought the wrong type of allergy  medicine...lol of course, so I have yet to buy the correct kind and see if my problem will go away.   Even though I did not wake up as early as I would have liked I was still able to start preschool at a good time and get everything I needed done.  Stations Reading station- this station got good attention in the morning hours when the kids enjoyed cuddling up with a book and favorite stuffed animals.  Clothes line- I strung a piece of yarn between two tables and set out clothes pins and pieces of paper with clothes from The Hat  printed on them.  Here the ki

We have lived in the same place for about two years and have not made use of the basement.  It leaks so we never wanted to put something down there and it get ruined.  I talked to the landlord about it and he said it was a foundation problem and there was nothing he could do, if we wanted to use the space we would have to place things around the water leaks. Alright then. I bought a rug that was on sale for $20 last week because my in-laws were bringing over some chairs.  I knew with the chairs and the rug I would be more likely to start getting the basement in order. My original plan was to use the basement space for preschool.  It was a big area and it would be designated just for learning not double as a living space. After buying the first rug I realized I could use more space then I originally planned and got to work moving/organizing some storage boxes.  This took me a couple hours.  When Jerry came home from work he went down stairs to check out the space.  We talked bri

I had six kids on Monday which is not custom.  It sounds like a lot, it sounded overwhelming when I agreed to do it, but it ended up being a good day.  The kids did a great job keeping each other occupied so they were not looking to me as much for entertainment.   I liked it! I could leave the room and prepare snacks without having three to four people in the kitchen, and I have a very small kitchen.  They all were so excited to play together that I was able to leave the room  unnoticed. My plan was to let the kids entertain each other and I was going to plan a few activities for them but I ended up structuring into more of a preschool environment.   The big reason I did this is because Athena's sister was over visiting on Monday.  When I was tucking her into bed Sunday she asked if we could do Athena's home school and a craft.  I couldn't say no. I did not set up stations.  During free time they played with stuffed animals together.  The kids were using their imag