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

Even though our days are pretty full and busy of fun hands on activities my children never stop moving!  I am not exaggerating either.  When I say Big Energy I am not joking.  After all the preschool we do The Dragons are still ready to run around and have a good time. Here are a couple activities we have done outside of our curriculum.  Played Lego's.   We play Lego's often.  When Barbies are out so are the Lego's.  When cars are out so are the Lego's. The Dragons play Lego's in the tub a lot too. Go on a quest.  This is an often occurrence.  We give The Dragons a quest like finding a special flower at a far away lake to heal their precious stuffed animals.   They ride their pet dragon to far away lands to complete their tasks.  Play with Play Dough   Play dough comes out a lot.  It is easy to get to and easy to play with.  The most common thing played wi...

After waiting a week to start preschool I was definitely ready to get the ball rolling this morning.  I was up and out of bed with coffee going as soon as the alarm went off.  No slouching on the couch trying to get another 10 minutes of sleep. Jerry headed off to work and to pick up Athena giving me some time to set up a couple things.  I could have done it the night before, which was my original plan, but knowing I had a few hours of extra time in the morning I decided to wait.  Spencer really enjoyed setting up with me too.  He was so excited to start while we were prepping. His favorite prep was the Forest Dramatic Play area int he playroom.  When we were finished getting ready Spencer and I headed upstairs so I could quickly  make new behavior cards and check in with Jerry on his ETA.  There was no good news.  After the week of vacation we were excited to see Athena again.  Jerry contacted the mother and she said Athena wou...

Letter D Dragosaur We used:  White paper with the capital D written on it  Colored triangles for spikes Googly eyes Markers Glue Scissors Crate paper (optional) Give the children the capital D picture and encourage them to color it.  Then glue on the spikes and eye(s).  Cut it out.  Add some crate paper for fire breathing if desired.  This was my little dragons favorite.   To read the blog post on this craft click  here .

Dragon Snack I made dragon snacks on Tuesday to incorporate the letter D with food.  We had donuts last week and I didn't -or couldn't think of-another food that started with D so I made this. The kids were really excited when they sat down to the dragon.  I will have to think about doing this more often. We started our day off with a review on Adam and Eve and I gave each of the kids a card with Adam, Eve, or the Snake on it so they could act out the story. The role playing was fun! Stations:  Reading station- again today this station had a lot of attention.  I don't know if it the dinosaur and dragon books or they just like reading right now.  Discovery bottle- the kids all liked looking in the bottle.  I did not sit and encourage searching for specific items but it was our first discovery bottle and wanted the kids to have a chance to look first.  Dice sensory station- I put a tub of dice on the table with some small metal cups and a...

Thinking rainbows?  I got off to a late start...again.  I realized today that it is partially due to the fact that I am not waking earlier but mostly because once I am able to do something successfully I want to add something new.  For example, I can wake up, feed the kids, read my bible, and shower and start school by 10 am.  Now that I know that I want to do all of the above and work out, do the dishes, and start the laundry.  I was frustrated after doing all of this to find it was 1130 am! I need to seriously get myself out of bed early or drop something from my  morning to do list.   I want to get everything done every day and am getting frustrated that I can't.  >:/ Today I did realize that I am trying to much in too little time because my back is buggin me.  I had a back injury about 8 months ago and the last week it has been irritating me, more so today then the rest of the week.   I need to w...