Homeschooling Week 2 - Wrap-Up

Seems like we're getting into the rythm of our homeschooling. As I look through my notes, I see much more successes and only a few activities that Mr. M didn't like or didn't care for. Then again, we only did 3 full days of homeschooling this week, not the usual four and a half (more on this later).

Monday was a warm-up. First, we made a little "scarecrow" out of a brown paper bag. To be perfectly honest, Mr. M didn't really care about it all that much. Since I had to pretty much take care of the whole project, we were done very quickly. And then went to the Kids Together playground for a couple of hours.

Then we had a great session with our occupational therapist and I felt that Mr. M got plenty of fine motor work done. So instead of playing the stickers game, we made painting dough. That was a huge hit! Gotta do it again soon.

As much as I tried, Mr. M simply refused to participate in the body trace game on Tuesday. Nor did he want me to trace his favorite teddy bear. He just wasn't in the mood for anything that morning. Anything but the Marbles (our awesome kids' museum). It's always a huge hit with him. Except that the place is usually packed in the mornings and I try not to take him there until about noon time. Nevertheless, we had great time there for a couple of hours and Mr. M even built (and instantly demolished) several of tall towers out of foam blocks.

Wednesday was our best day EVER. Every single thing that we did, he LOVED. Early in the morning we played with bubbles and that got me thinking about trying some bubble art. Simple really - just mix some paint into the bubble soap and put a big sheet of paper on the floor. We both had great time.

And then I showed Mr. M paper clips and how they can be picked up with his magnet. I've never seen anyone so excited about paper clips before. His eyes went big as he saw the clips practically jump to the magnet and he said "WOW!!! LOOOK!!" (accidentally, that was his reaction to a trailer for the 2012 movie).

The "what's missing" game (I dubbed it the line-up game) right before lunch was a success. I chose 5 small toys - a toy train, a dinosaur, a small nesting doll from his set, a wooden block and a red marker - lined them up and named each object. I then directed Mr. M to close his eyes and "no peeking" and hid one of the objects. Then I asked him to tell me which of the toys was playing hide-and-seek. We repeated the game about 10 times before Mr. M started getting distracted and a bit bored.

The only activity that we didn't do from Wednesday was water play. But that's ok since Mr. M got to bake pie crust (from scratch) with Papa. Needless to say, he loved that (he loves all kinds of cooking and baking).

Then came Thursday and Friday when we didn't do anything of what we planned because Mr. M got sick again. Yes, this is the third time in less than 2 months - a new record for us (and not the one we're happy about). Understandable, he didn't care to do any of the activities.

Today, Saturday, he's feeling a bit better though. So I asked him if he'd like to have a birthday party for one of his toys. I thought he'd love the idea. He absolutely hated it though and kept saying "No, Mama, I don't want teddy bear to have birthday; I don't want Thomas have birthday; I don't want..."

Later in the day, as he was playing with Play Doh, we did have a tiny birthday party for Monster, complete with Play Doh cake, cupcakes, candy, Play Doh towers, a candy train and a birthday song. Which reminds me that I better put the Play Doh back into the container before it dries up and I have to buy more of it.

Preschool Toys List

When Mr. M was very little, we had lots and lots of toys for him that were mostly plastic, very bright and very loud, and all required batteries (I remember one toy that needed 4 fresh AAs and 2 D-cells every day).

I bought quite a few of those toys myself. Then one day someone gave Mr. M a Wiggles Car toy that made the most annoying noise every time someone walked by. Well, that was an eye-opener!

Immediately I hid the Wiggles Car and let everyone know that Wiggles "music" and merchandise are NOT welcome in our house (maybe it's just me, but I really think there are better examples of children's music than Wiggles).

A few days later I collected all of Mr. M's toys from all the rooms in the house and sorted them into two piles. One of the piles was sold to a second-hand store. The other, much smaller one, became the basis of our new "quality over quantity" toy collection.

Here's what we have so far:

Freestyle play

• Balls of different sizes, textures and bounce-ability
• Blocks - intelocking plastic blocks, jumbo cardboard blocks and small painted wooden blocks
• Play groceries - an ever expanding mix of Melissa&Doug stuff, plastic foods and empty boxes and plastic bottles
• Pretend play kitchen - we've got a tiny table-top one, but it's no longer sufficent (Mr. M is REALLY into pretend cooking). So we're looking into something more realistic, probably a DIY version
• Train set - in addition to our big Imaginarium set with 2 bridges, a loading crane and DIY tunnels, we regularly draw new train tracks and put together tunnels out of whatever's at hand
• Play vehicles - a small collection of wooden trains, toy cars and an Air Force 1 plane
• Finger puppets - Mr. M is starting to enjoy little puppet plays and even tries to join in
• Puzzles - mostly jigsaw-style simple puzzles
• Play animals - a mix of wild and domesticated ones plus some dinosaurs and bugs thrown in for good measure
• Lacing beads

Table games

• Fishing game - actually, we have two, the quite one (no batteries, just magnetic fishing poles) and the loud one (grrrhh, no volume control). Guess which one sees more action.
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar game - very sweet and simple, although we have to simplify the rules even more to the point that I simply tell the story and the caterpillar asks for particular foods
• Elefun - ok, it's actually a floor game and it does require lots of batteries, sigh

Math and science toys

• Sorting toys - the sorting cube (getting to be too easy) and the shape and color sorter. Also, one of the puzzles is a shape and color sorter.
• Pyramid - a simple pyramid (from IKEA) that I thought Mr. M would get over pretty quickly. But he still likes playing with it, assembling it in different order and pretending that the rings are cakes and muffins.
• Magnifier and magnet - new additions, so far so good
• Blocks - see Freestyle Play above
• Scale - it comes with a big set of counting/sorting bears (ok, in our household they are primarily train-riding bears)

Arts and crafts

• Melissa&Doug easel - a gift from grandparents served us very well so far. My only complaint is that the chalkboard is way too smooth and provides very little sensory feedback to the little ones. Oh, and the entire thing is huge, taking up the entire corner of the room.
• Paints, brushes and other painting implements - Mr. M never liked finger paining (getting even a drop of paint on his fingers is still a major upset for him). But he loves painting with brushes, especially with one in each hand.
• Crayons, markers and chalk
• Play Doh and implements
• Random bits of paper, stickers, etc for collages

Other toys

• Candles of all shapes and sizes - not for lighting, but for sorting and pretend play
• Buttons - theoretically, for sorting; practically - for throwing around jubilantly as well as for sweeping with a brush
• Kitchen utensils - and pots and pans - used for pretend cooking as well as for drumming
• Photo albums (including digital) with pictures of family and friends - Mr. M loves going through them and finding grandparents and himself. Now we frequently discuss what's going on on each picture.
• Containers of all shapes and sizes, paper towel and toilet paper tubes
• Plastic jars
• Rocks, shells, uncooked rice, dry beans
• Cans of food - for building towers and rolling

Musical toys

• Anything suitable for making into a drum or using as drum sticks
• Bee Bop Band set - Mr. M mostly uses the drum and the tambourine. I'm very impressed with the strudiness of the drum - it withstood a whole year of daily very intense drumming (including with real drum sticks)!
• Kazoo
• Keyboard - it's an adult keyboard, but a low-end one
• Toy guitar - thanks to the generousity of Mr. M's second cousin, Alisa who found it in her heart to part with it
• Jar lid - yes, that's the latest addition to the musical toys - a lid from an apple sauce jar (if you press it in the center, it makes a "pop" sound, cool!)

Wow, that is a long list! But if you look at it, most toys are used for at least 2 different kinds of play. Most are very open-ended. Many are not even toys at all (in a sense that they are just everyday items).

My (No Longer) Messy Built-Ins

BEFORE...

Ok, a couple of days ago I said I would really-really get organized really-really soon. I figure, if I make a promise to myself and let others know of it, I'll be much more likely to get it done. Of course, feel free to cheer me on and otherwise support my committment (not-so-subtle hint - please leave a comment).

My first organizing task was to take care of the very messy built-ins in the family room. BTW, here's a little-known fact - I designed these built-ins myself (I wish I could take credit for building them, alas, 'twas done by an awesome carpenter).

Anyway, the challenge was to create a more organized and more functional space to store books, magazines, clippings, pictures, games, and toys and do it on for under $20.

Well, as far as the budget part goes, I outperformed the goal by 100%. I spent $0.00 on this project! Hooray to me! I might even make a few bucks if I sell some of the nicknacks that used to clutter the shelves.

Of course, I was lucky in that I had plenty of matching baskets (bought them a while ago from Target). I used the baskets for storing some of the books (mostly paperbacks) and for the overflow toys.

I also had some white storage boxes and magazine holders that I bought years ago from IKEA. These are great and very versatile. Easy to label too. I store various clippings (vacation ideas, cartoons and articles I particularly liked) and little mementos in these. Will pick up some more next time I drive by an IKEA.

I kept 2 shelves for Mr. M's stuff, like play doh and books. No doubt these shelves will continue to get messy, but that's ok. Also, notice that one of the shelves is absolutely empty. I keep it reserved for great games for family game nights (and maybe even some jigsaw puzzles).

AFTER!

The hubby is loving it (or so he says) and Mr. M doesn't seem to care at all. Tell me something nice before I dislocate my shoulder from patting myself on the back for the second day in a row.

Simple Placemat

I'm all about teaching Mr. M some self-sufficiency skills. I know a little girl his age who uses a potty all by herself, properly washes (with soap!) and dries her own hands, dresses/undresses by herself, and stays busy with puzzles and little self-directed QUIET games for hours on end. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not comparing Mr. M to her (or to any other kids). I'm just being very envious of the little girl's mom, that's it!

And so, the little thing that I'm trying to teach Mr. M now is to set his table for each meal. To help him out, I wanted to get some kind of placemat with simple graphics showing what goes where - plate, cup, utensils.

I looked for it at a couple of local toystores and at Toys'R'Us, but couldn't find anything (although there are wonderful placemats with shapes, colors, dinosaurs, cars, maps, etc). I would've searched online, but I kept forgetting.

To make the long story short, I simply traced Mr. M's plates, utensils and cups on sheets of construction paper and glued them (the cut-outs, of course) onto a large sheet of white paper. I then drove over to the nearest Kinko's and got the whole thing laminated. Took a total of 30 mins and cost me about $4 for a two-sided placemat.

Mr. M absolutely loved the idea. He not only put the plate, the cup and the fork in the proper places, but asked for a knife and a spoon to "complete the picture". The unexpected benefit was that Mr. M ate at his table (instead of while running around the kitchen) and was much neater than usually - almost no mess. Hooray! Now let's see how long this novelty will last.

The Case for Organizing Everything

A couple of years ago I added Peter Walsh's How to Organize (Just About) Everything to my Amazon Wish List. And sure thing, someone (I think it was my brother) got it for me as a birthday gift.

Now, two years later, I still have the book and a very disorganized house. Now, I'm not a hoarder, except when it comes to books, of course. Nor do we buy much stuff (thanks in part to never being a truly dual-earner household).

But now, sitting in my toys-strewn family room, I'm ready to change things around BIG TIME. The problem so far has been not so much lack of time, as lack of constant effort. There are lots of unfinished and even un-started projects laying around cluttering the space. There's also stuff that we bought or made and ended up not using.

There's also lots of information clutter - books, magazines, bookmarks, starred items in my Google Reader, etc. So I'll be dealing with those as well.

And speaking of Google Reader. Today I went in, unsubscribed from some feeds and re-organized and re-tagged others. And I added my favorite and most inspiring family and arts/crafts blogs to the blogroll (in case you want to check them out).