Monster Monday Preschool Camp

We had MONSTER MADNESS here on Monday for our preschool theme. I made sure to emphasize friendly monsters so that the kids would not be scared. I found some really cute monster cards and sorting mats here: http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/monster-printables.htm

We talked about the different attributes of the monsters – color, number of eyes, teeth, horns, and antennas.  We each chose two monsters to dance with and jammed to The Monster Mash. Then I had the kids go into the playroom while I hid the monster cards in the living room. They had a great time going on a Monster Hunt. Boogs was really sweet about making sure his friend was able to find some cards, too.

After all 28 monsters cards were found, we used the sorting mats to sort the monsters by color. Then we made a tally chart to see how many monsters were in each color. Next, the kids helped line up the mats from least to greatest.

I used the Colorforms Silly Faces game as our monster game. Boogs liked playing the game and started putting things in odd places, like hats for ears. We had to play it a couple of times. I found it interesting that Boogs wanted to continue playing this game as a monster game, but really has had no use for it as a silly face game. Maybe I should start renaming some of his other toys.

We read three monster books: Where the Wild Things Are, Go Away Big Green Monster, and Grover’s on the Case. We sang - If you are a monster and you know it grunt and groan, stomp your feet, make a face, show your claws, gnash your teeth.

For our cooking activity we made monster toast. The kids put a few drops of food coloring into small bowls of milk and used the milk as paint. I bought new paintbrushes just for this. We toasted the bread and enjoyed eating it with a little bit of butter.

For our craft today, we made monster masks. Michaels had a good deal on packages of face masks. I simply opened the craft cabinet and let them choose whatever they wanted to use to decorate their monster face. Boogs decided that he did not want to get too messy today so he used stamps and inks for his mask. The other child used mostly buttons.

It was a really good day. Boogs likes knowing that Mondays are for company.

Busy Weekend!

Whew! We had a busy weekend. After VBS on Friday, I took Boogs to my mom’s house. Saturday was my 40^th birthday, my mom took Boogs so my husband and I could go out and spend some time together. Boogs’ cousins were also visiting my mom. Boogs had a great time with them. I am not sure he really wanted to come home on Sunday.

Friday afternoon, I went over to a friend’s house for a pool party. I saw people I have not seen in years. It is hard to believe that it has been 4 years since I have been in an elementary classroom. It was a fun, childless afternoon.

My husband took me out to dinner Friday night. I can’t remember the last time we had a date. Saturday morning, he got up early with me and went to my yoga class. Later, I dropped him off at a posing session while I took Boogs’ carseat to my mom’s. Oops, I forgot to leave it on Friday. I picked my husband up from his session and then we went to our gym for a workout with our personal trainer. I had fun hanging upside down on the newly installed rope at the gym. I may be 40, but I am still just a big kid. We went shopping for accessories for my birthday present, an iPhone. Then we had dinner, saw a movie,  and  called it a day. This is the most time I spent with my husband since Christmas vacation.

Sunday morning I went for a run, the longest distance I have ever gone. 7 miles. Boogs came home a little while later and told me all about his weekend with his cousins and grandparents. He was very excited to give me a birthday card, gift card, and a homemade robot. I think he was most interested in the carrot cake. My husband bought one piece for us to split. Good idea…I could eat an entire carrot cake by myself in one sitting. It was a busy weekend, but a lot of fun.

Every year I pose with my cake and show how old I am. Man, I am looking old in this one!

VBS Finale

At the closing of VBS, all of the kids performed for their parents. It was really cute. I know it is hard to see Boogs in this shot, but he was definitely into the song. He is easy to pick out of the crowd with that blond hair.

VBS

Yesterday's VBS newsletter said, "Tomorrow is Clash Day, so let your kids run wild and pick their most obnoxious clothes combinations!" Sounded like fun, so here is what Boogs wore today:

Apparently, no one else reads the daily VBS newsletter. My boy was the only one dressed in obnoxious clashing clothing. I asked the person in charge of his age group why no one was dressed like that. She said she did not know about it. So, I showed her the newsletter. She did not realize that was in there. Neither did any of the other teachers or parents. Oh well, that is what I get for trying to be up to date on things. At least he is young enough not to be embarrassed about it. 

Slow week

It has been a slow week for us. Boogs is in Vacation Bible School (VBS) from 9 to noon each day this week. I am not feeling well, so I have not done much with Boogs in the afternoons. Hopefully we will get back into our groove soon.

Father's Day 2010

Father's Day...I am so happy that we get to celebrate it. It is such a miracle that we have our little guy. My husband is a wonderful father - patient, kind, loving, generous, silly. I could go on and one. I am so thankful to be married to such a wonderful man. Every year for Father's Day, I have Boogs pick out a daddy picture book and trace his hand on the inside back cover. It is so cute to look back at books from previous years and see how little his hand was. These books are "Daddy-read only" books. I am not allowed to read them with Boogs because they are just for the boys.  We went to Lakeshore Teacher Store yesterday and made a couple of  Father's Day crafts, a koozie and a post-it note holder. My husband said that his favorite part of Father's Day was hearing Boogs sing him a daddy song.

My husband got his own little Father's Day gift (well, it is for the whole family). Here is a picture of it.

We gave my parents a Wii for Christmas and have been talking about getting one for our house. We got the whole system with Wii Fit, Wii Sports, Wii Resort, and Boogs chose a racing game. My husband and I had fun playing it last night. Of course, I creamed him in tennis and bowling.

Monday Preschool Camp

Monday we had preschool summer camp at home with a Daddy theme. We read two books about Dads and their kids, made a rebus handprint Father’s day card, made a fishing pole bookmark, sang a few Father’s Day songs, played house, played in a pool filled with beans, and made pizza muffins to give to the Dads. Boogs has been practicing his Father’s Day song to the tune of Yankee Doodle. 
Here it is:

Daddy is my special friend,

The two of us are buddies.

I always like the things we do,

I’m thankful for my Daddy.

Happy, happy Father’s Day,

Happy, happy Daddy.

Happy, happy Father’s Day,

I love you very much.

(My husband says he never reads this blog, hopefully he won't start reading it before Sunday.)

Can Paper Float? & Smell-o-rama

We got out Boogs' Science journal for a few more entries. We wanted to see if we could make paper float. Well, Boogs found out that a piece of paper put in the water just gets wet and sinks. But, if we made paper into paper boats then it would float on the water for a little bit. We even added a few passengers to our boats. When the boats started coming apart, Boogs decided that we could just call them rafts and they could still carry passengers.

We had a mystery smell-o-rama experiment. I put cotton balls with different scents on them in small baggies for Boogs to see if he could identify the scent and decide if it was a smell that he liked. His answers were really good. Boogs insisted on being blindfolded during the experiment. Here are the scents we used and his guesses: 1. vanilla - "vanilla" 2. soy sauce - "something that goes on vegetables" 3. mint extract - "a toothpaste taste" 4. lemon juice - "lemon juice" (I had to get the lemon out because you could not smell it on the cotton ball) 5. pineapple - "pineapple" 6. chocolate - "is it brownie?" (I melted a few mini chocolate chips onto the cotton ball in the mircrowave)  Boogs said he liked all of the smells.

Dixie Cup Experiments

Last week for two of our science experiments we used Dixie cups. The first experiment was about freezing water. We filled up a cup of water and marked the water level on the cup. We wanted to see if the level would be higher or lower after freezing. Boogs liked the experiment but he also wanted to smash it up. So he put on safety googles got a hammer and went to work. He said that next time we do this, we should hide treasures in the ice.

The second experiment was to make a Bug Trap. We dug a small hole in the yard and put a Dixie cup in it. We put a little bit of fruit at the bottom of the cup to attract bugs. Boogs hypothesized that a ladybug would go in the cup because they like fruit. We looked at the trap after about an hour and the only bugs in it were ants. Boogs said the trap did not work because the ants could climb right out.

We left the cup in the yard overnight. Unfortunately, it rained and we decided we would have to try an overnight trap again on a dry night. Boogs' wrote a few words in his journal about his experiments.

Busy Weekend

We had a really good weekend. On Friday, Boogs and I went to a swim playdate. Saturday morning, I put Boogs in the stroller while I did a 6 mile walk/run. My hip behaved very well, almost pain free. Boogs had a cd player and headphones and was very patient. After our walk, we stopped at the sandbox park and played in the sand for a little over an hour. Then we had to clean off in the whale bone sprinklers. We were hot, tired, and hungry by the time we got home. My husband took Boogs to the toy store and played with him for awhile before the sitter came over. This is only the second non-family member sitter Boogs has ever had. We went out to dinner for Big Mike's birthday and had a really nice time. It has been a long time since we have seen some of the old group. On Sunday, we all got together at Patrick's for barbeque and swimming. Ended the weekend with some nice, quiet family time.

Dinosaur Racetrack

Boogs’ was super excited yesterday. He has been working very hard on his household chores to earn money for the Dino Mega Stunt Pack racetrack. Yesterday, his daddy helped him get his chore quarters and some of his birthday money together to go to Toys R Us to pick up his racetrack. At the store, Boogs immediately went over to the $80 dino track. His daddy explained that he would have to save up his quarters for months and months to be able to buy that one. Boogs quickly decided to get the smaller version and have some money left over in his piggy bank. Smart kiddo. He played with the track a long time yesterday and was playing with it this morning by 5:45. 

Little Gym Show Week

At the end of each semester, Boogs’ Little Gym class has a show week to show off their newly acquired skills. This is the first semester that the children got to show off their routines individually. It was so cute to watch them do routines on the floor, bar, and balance beam. There was also a group performance. I tried to video some it, but my camera battery was too low. 

Updates

Our salt crystal experiment is coming to an end. The crystals grew quite a lot.  My husband asked that it be moved out of the kitchen. It has been sitting on the counter for a few weeks. I am dumping it out because the crystals are growing in a glass jar and I am worried that the jar might get broken if placed somewhere else in the house.

Our puppets have been busy acting together. Boogs' alien is starting to loose his antennas. I am sure we will make more puppets soon. We need to get another play recorded so we can show it to Grandmaman. We had a lot of fun with the last one about the runaway cookie jar people.

Boogs' has one more week of earning coins for his chore chart before he can go get his Hot Wheels Dinosaur Track. He is going to use Aunt Joanne's birthday money and his chore money to purchase it. I still love the chore chart. We were at the store the other day and Boog's wanted a Spiderman Pez. I told him he could get it if he used his own money. He quickly decided that he did not really need it.

Monday Preschool Camp

During the summers, I take care of kiddos for extra money. This summer, like last year, I am having a "preschool camp day" every Monday during June and July. The kids are 3 and 4 years old. Last year I had six kiddos every week. This summer there are only three. Boogs has a lot of fun having friends over on such a scheduled basis, especially since his preschool does not run during the summer. This week our theme was rabbits. I chose rabbits because of an activity I found after Easter, http://www.gourmetmomonthego.com/2010/04/peter-rabbits-garden-snack.html

I realize this is an Easter kind of thing but we worked it into June. The kids did not mind. We read Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter, Barnyard Friends - Rabbits by Jason Cooper, and Grumpy Bunnies by Willy Welch.

The kids loved “digging in their gardens” using a toothpick for their gardening tool. They had to decide which food could not be found in a real garden – pretzels. After they finished their garden snack, the kids brought plastic bugs in from the playroom to put in their gardens. We had a lot of fun using tweezers to pick bugs out of the gardens. We even used magnifying glasses to see if the bugs damaged our gardens.

In Peter Rabbit, Peter hopped on the garden path to get to his tasty treats. So, I had a rabbit trail (poly spots) for the kids to hop along to get a treat. While they hopped on the trail we sang a rabbit song (can’t remember where I found it) with hand motions to the tune of I’m A Little Teapot:

I’m a little bunny, my name is Joe. (hands up for ears)

I hop fast and I hop slow. (hop up and down)

Whenever I get sleepy, my ears droop low (bend fingers down)

But after my nap, up they go! (hold fingers up)

Hop! Hop! Hop!

They liked this so much we had to do it four times. The treats were: graham crackers, tattoos, baby carrots, and bubbles.

 We spent almost an hour outside playing in the water, collecting june bugs, pill bugs, and caterpillars in some bug jars before we came in for lunch.

After lunch we moved on to a craft and a bunny game. For our craft, we made bunnies hiding in the grass because Peter Rabbit had to hide from the farmer in our story. I also had a rabbit color sheet and the easel out with paints. We played a game called Build a Bunny from Home School Creations. The kiddos had to use their counting skills for this game. http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/2010/03/build-bunny-printable-game.html

We finished our time together by blowing bubbles in the front yard while we waited for parents. These days make me miss teaching full time.