We had a Mom & Tot Outing with our Mothers & More friends
this morning.It was simply free play
time in a multi-purpose room in a church basement, but the kids had a great
time with friends they don’t see often, different toys, and a new location.There were cones set up for an
indoor-obstacle course, a plethora of balls to shoot hoops (or whatever), a
variety of tricycles, scooters, and cozy coupes, as well as a variety of other
toys (a pretend grill, cash register, gas pump, grocery carts…) to encourage
interactive play. There was also a craft project for kids to do, as well as a
light snack for the kids.I was shocked
that Abby wasn’t interested in doing the craft project (it was just decorating
cut-out hearts with markers and stickers), but she was much too busy playing to
want to sit at the table.She did manage
to snag a sticker heart before we left, so that made her happy.Shawn’s lack of interest in the project didn’t
surprise me at all.I knew he wouldn’t
want to tear away from the toys.Some
friends from the playgroup invited us to join them at All Aboard Diner for
lunch – how could we turn that down?!On
the way home, both Shawn and Abby fell asleep.
My FaceBook post:
A fun and playful
morning with Mothers & More friends+ exciting meal at All Aboard Diner+ Full bellies+ Cozy winter coats+ Car ride in the warm sun= Not a fighting chance!
I was able to pick up Freecycled coupons for K-cups for my
new Keurig and then across town to Raj’s Wood Dale office to pick up a giant
box that he needed to take to his Bartlett office, but couldn’t fit into his
own car.The whole time, the kids were
sound asleep.They eventually woke while
I was telling Bill about our day when he came to pick up Abby.She’ll be well rested for fun a night with
her Papa Rock, but I’m a little nervous about how late Shawn will be up tonight
(and Raj has a late meeting, so I’m on my own to wear him out)!
Shawn and I took Raj to The Goddard School in Bloomingdale to tour their preschool program. Raj was hoping to enroll Shawn in a Montessori program, but the only accredited school in the area is +45 minutes away. Goddard is slightly more than 5 minutes down the street! Shawn and I had toured the school earlier this summer, but I wanted Raj to see it for himself before making a decision.
Shelley kept Abby home so they could spend the day together while we visited Goddard. It was a quick tour before Raj had to get to work, but we were pleased with what we saw. They have a lot of child lead learning opportunities, but still have specific lesson plans that the teachers work from. I like the guidance and structure of the lessons that Montessori was missing. Unfortunately, their outdoor play area is small and lacks almost everything that Richard Louv would hope for. The location of the school doesn’t help, seeing that it’s practically in the parking lot of a shopping mall, but still, it leaves a lot to be desired. I’ll just have to counteract Nature-Deficit Disorder after school hours! The rest of the school was much more promising: students’ work was prominently featured all over the small building, there are brightly painted murals in the hallways, the classes focus on various learning themes for a few weeks at a time (they’re finishing a summer theme ‘Passport Around the World’) to guide their lessons, lesson plans are posted outside of each classroom, lunch is provided (and breakfast, too, if the child is there early enough)… We’re planning on doing a half day program (8:30 am - 12:30 pm) on Tuesdays and Thursday starting September 4, 2012.
Is this really happening?? (sigh!)
After saying goodbye to Raj, Shawn and I picked up a few groceries at Meijer on the way home. Then, we made a fast trek around the Schaumburg Farmers’ Market for our essential crepe, some fruits that Shawn hand-picked, and some meat for grilling. We tossed our goodies into a cooler and headed to Gymboree.
Melissa and Blake met us there for a free trial of Family Music class. Again, the theme was Hawaiian music, but it was fun showing our friends the ropes. Blake was much more interested in getting out to the gym area rather than playing music, but he did very well for a first timer. He was thrilled when he finally got to explore the gym equipment after class. Melissa might actually register Blake for classes after all! We were just using it as an opportunity for a playdate, but they had so much fun that they might come back officially. (That works too, since we’d both benefit from a referral bonus.)
Though Melissa and Blake weren’t able to join us after class, Shawn and I went out to lunch to ‘the chicken restaurant’ (otherwise known as Chicks ‘n Salsa). Then it was time to go home and Shawn fell asleep in the car. He napped for a few hours – much more than I had anticipated.
Abby was feeling better today, so she joined us again. We originally had plans to go to the Children’s Garden at the Morton Arboretum with Melissa and Blake, but they had something come up and cancelled. We contemplated going anyway, but it was a nice change of pace not to have any plans today. So, we stayed home!
After breakfast, we played with play dough and a box of tools and molds. They really got into it today! We played with it all for over an hour! Abby really liked smashing the dough into molds and making play dough balls of every color, too. Shawn stayed busy pushing dough through his Play Dough Factory and conveyor belt. He liked using the molds too, but kept asking me to make them for him. I collected the pieces of dough that were drying out and crumbling, added some water and kneaded them back to life. We don’t have the same variety of colors that we once had (blue, green, yellow, and mud!), but at least we have more useable dough to work with.
Next, they changed into swimming suits and played outside in the kiddy pool and sprinkler. I brought a tunnel outside too. They had fun pretending there was a rain storm coming and taking cover in the tunnel and under the shade of the kiddy pool. Shawn and Abby were able to tolerate the +90°F temperature more than I could. Grant it, they were playing in the cool water much more than I was. Since they were having so much fun, I served lunch outside, too. Naptime was a good excuse to come inside and cool off.
They'd hide under the pool canopy when the oscillating sprinkler would shower over them.
While Abby napped, Shawn had quiet time. He asked if he could do a project with his paints and I was all too happy to get out the supplies for it. He started with some watercolors and then transferred to washable paints instead. I only got 2 paintings out of him this time, but he was very serious about blending the colors with his brush and watching them swirl into new colors.
After naptime, we played inside. Things got a little wild and very loud for no particular reason, but they had fun playing with airplanes, Legos, and calling each of the Disney princesses on the phone! When Bill came to pick up Abby, Shawn invited himself to play at their house until dinner time. Bill sent us this video of Shawn and Abby's basement rock concert.
Raj later retrieved him and we ate dinner while we watched Zoo Keeper in the cool basement. It's not exactly an excellent movie, but Shawn had fun seeing animals talk.
It was an easy and relaxing evening to a fun filled, yet still partially relaxing day!
It was a very wet and gray Chicago fall day today. Thank goodness we could burn off some energy at Gymboree! I was so anxious to get the kids going that I got my times mixed up. I thought our art class started at 9. So, we were running late and I bustled Shawn and Abby out the door. We got there well after start time, so the Ms. Kim (at the front desk) and Ms. Mary Beth (teaching a Play & Learn Level 4 class) asked me which class we were attending. I explained that we were running late this morning and were supposed to be in the art class that was well underway. After a few giggles, they both looked at me and said, “I don’t think so!” It turns out, the class that was going on at that time was a Level 1 Art class for 18-24 month olds (though no one actually showed up for it). Our class, Level 2 Art, didn’t start for another hour! Ooops!! Luckily, they are very accommodating and invited us to join Ms. Mary Beth’s Play & Learn Level 4 group, even though the other children were 16-22 months old. Then, we even got to participate in half of a Level 5 until our real class was ready to begin. Oy! I know everyone makes mistakes, but it’s not the first time I’ve done this! It’s been about a year since the last time, so it’s not like it’s a frequent occurrence, but… still! Get it together, woman!
While we spent all morning at Gymboree, Shawn and Abby did a great job playing with the younger kids. I think they had a good time doing some of the activities that they don’t get to do in the older levels anymore (like playing the Freeze game on the air log, a lap ride to The Noble Duke of York, etc.)
Shawn's a work horse pulling a wagon.
Playing with the Rainbow Rope (bungie)
Two horses going over a big hill.
Giddyup!
Abby shaking her horse tail
Shawn with running with his horse tail
It was fun to watch them interact with the little ones too. Shawn definitely recognizes that there’s something about the children younger than he is. He is very gentle and careful when he’s around them, especially babies. Other people that notice this make sure to point out, “It looks like Shawn’s ready to be a big brother!” Yup, I totally agree he’ll make a great big brother…
In Art class, Ms. Kim subbed for Ms. LouAnn, who was out of town for the holiday. We did a review unit combing all the shapes that we’ve worked with over the past few weeks. After free painting for a few minutes, we started our projects. The first involved stamping various shaped blocks into paint. Ms. Kim encouraged the kids to combine their shapes into new things, like stamp a triangle over a square to make a house or a triangle over a circle to be a face wearing a hat, but the kids (not just Shawn and Abby) were more interested in covering their papers with randomly stamped shapes. The grownups tried to point out their accidental creations like, “That line of circles looks like a caterpillar!” but after a while, the kids just stamped freely. The second project was a simple collage of paper triangles, felt circles, tissue paper rectangles, and circle smiley-face stickers. (Neither project were very creative or original – and, unfortunately, I don’t think it had anything to do with Ms. LouAnn having a sub today! I sure hope they pick up the slack in the next unit… or I may just have to start suggested some resources for new ideas!)
When we got home from Gymboree today, Shawn and Abby played while I got lunch ready. Abby was the first one eager to sit down to eat, but lately she’s convinced herself that she can’t get into her chair by herself - even though she’s done it hundreds of times before! As the problem solver that she is, today she got Shawn involved. Here’s how it unfolded…
What a team!
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
This morning, Shawn asked me, “See Daydo (Diego)? Play with Daydo’s (Diego’s) toys?”Yup!It’s Spanish Class today!Once we got to Language Stars, it took Shawn a little while to warm up, but he was chiming in before long.Abby made an attempt to say, “Me llamo Abby (My name is Abby),” but could only get out “Me… Abby!”Even when we’d prompt her for the missing word, she’d skip it and go straight to “Abby!”She knew exactly what was going on and what we were doing though.Both of them were fully participated in the Buenos Dias / Good Morning song, including giving two big thumbs up when we say, “¡Muy bien! (Very well!)”
Our project involved making funny faces on a piece of paper by gluing los ojos (eyes), las orejas (ears), la nariz (nose), and la boca (mouth), which were all a review, onto the frame of a face and coloring el pelo (the hair).Diego worked with Shawn while I helped Abby.When we were done, Diego confessed, “Mine is not as cute as you!”Now, I am absolutely certain that he meant, “The funny face project that Shawn and I made with cockeyed features did not turn out as well as the one that Abby and you made.”…But, I like the way his broken English version sounded better!
At lunch the kids really wanted to share their food!
While both kids napped in the afternoon, a neighbor pulled out of his driveway and hit both his garbage can and his recycling cart that were still on his curb from this morning.He didn’t stop to take them inside or even to move them out of the way.He just left them toppled over half-way into the street.I guess he must have been late for work or something!It would’ve been kind of funny, except for the fact that Baron jolted into guard dog mode and all of the commotion woke up Abby, somehow Shawn amazingly slept through it all.Baron calmed down pretty quickly, but Abby, who was scared out of her wits, needed a little help catching her breath and relaxing in order to go back to sleep again.(Thanks a lot, Frank!)About 15 minutes after she fell back to sleep, there was a delivery to the house next door.The delivery truck’s door made more racket which woke Abby up.Luckily, this time she wasn’t frightened.She just thought Daddy was here to pick her up.When I didn’t go in to get her, she simply drifted off… again.Poor kid.
It has been a GORGEOUS day!!It’s only 45F, but the sun is dazzling, the sky is bright blue, and the big, puffy clouds remain to be giant, floating cotton balls and haven’t turned gray or threatening… so far.(Rain is in the forecast in the next day or so).Even though it is still pretty chilly in the shade, which includes half of our house at any given point in the day, I opened the windows and doors to let in the fresh air.On the sunny side of our house, it was actually a little warmer outside than inside!I did close the windows in the kids’ rooms at naptime, since the breeze cooled down the rooms considerably.Besides, the landscaping crew was out and about today, so closing the windows at naptime helped muffle any noise they might make as they go by.(It wasn’t enough to block out Frank’s garbage can collision or the clatter from the delivery truck though!)
