Friday when at playgroup I picked up a flier for a local celebration of Dr. Seuss' birthday. The kids made Cat in the Hat hats at playgroup, and we read Dr. Seuss books all day. My personal favorite is and always has been the Sneetches, so we read that three times. Eliza's current favorite is Green Eggs and Ham, CJ's is Mr. Brown Can Moo. CJ read part of Go Dog Go to me while at playgroup so Rich and I picked it up for his birthday this weekend. All weekend CJ has been reading words he sees, or figuring out words we were spelling out loud. Anyway, Friday night we went to Dr. Seuss' birthday party at a local community college. Free. They gave us pizza, cupcakes, a little gift bag for the kids, lesson plans, work pages, coloring activities. They read to the kids, there were games, music, dancing, and the kids learned to play musical chairs. There was face painting, which CJ and Eliza were totally uninterested in. There was a kiddie pool filled with fish that have letters on them and they could fish for or "swim" in the letters to make words. There was a lego table and several other things I am forgetting. What a wonderful thing for the community. I just wish it had been a little less crowded, or that some children and parents a little less rude. Overall a great evening for the kids. Ever since Friday the kids have been obsessed with reading their Dr. Seuss books, and watching the Cat in the Hat on the DVR. I love it.
Yesterday we went birthday shopping and picked up foam hats at the craft store. We got another safari hat so Mason can have one, we got top hats, cowboy/cowgirl hats, yellow construction hats, and pirate hats. Now I will make some eye patches. All those hats and the stuff I bought to make a few more learning centers cost far less than some dress up clothes. The kids have such fantastic imaginations I wanted some more things to help them, but dress up clothes at the store are ridiculously expensive and these foam hats were ridiculously cheap. Plus they adore them! I also bought a few things to help me make some more centers. I have some shoelaces and plastic cord with some large beads and cardboard shapes with holes. The lacing center. To make a math center I did a few things. I made patterns on index cards and they have to choose the next item in the pattern. I also did an addition center since CJ and Eliza are already adding things up on their own.
I was telling my best friend about CJ reading, and he said to me, "So when we have kids we can pay you to be their teacher, right?" The more I think about that, the more I like it. I am thinking that in a few years when the kids need my undivided attention a little less I would like to take on a few more children and do this as a job. I could limit it to 3 or 4 kiddos. Turn the house into a mini home daycare/preschool. I have to look into state requirements etc., but it seems like it could really work for me. I could continue to educate my kids, but still be bringing in a little money, and I could be teaching other children as well. I would be taking full advantage of my master's degree that took so much time and energy to acquire. The part about teaching that I loved, minus the parts that make me nauseous, namely administration. If anyone has any suggestions or information for me, I would be extremely grateful. I am thinking I could even take on 5 or 6 kids if I had someone work with me.
Plans for this week are to do some work with gardening as a theme, review seeds and plants, and plant a few seeds for the garden. We have several books on this theme, and we will visit the library to get more. Since my printer is dead, and the new one not here yet, we will be holding off on the next letter, number and shape. We will review all the letter books we have done, and finish the kids number books. We did number posters for each number up to 10, but wall space is in short supply, so each child is making a number book, with a page for each number. They started them last week, but we still have a few to go. I also have a snowflake bingo game, with numbers up to 10, that I would like to play with them this week. I may also begin a letter book for each of them. I want to spend some time getting CJ and Eliza to try drawing pictures as well. For the first time today CJ drew a person. A recognizable stick figure. I was way more excited than he was. I broke out the magna doodle, and their magnetic white board/chalk board combos. I think having a variety of materials may encourage CJ to draw a little more, as he is apt to shy away from doing it. Eliza will scribble on everything including books and walls if I let her. I am also going to try having the kids write in shaving cream again, hoping that CJ will try it. I will let you all know how it goes.
Tomorrow we are doing our weekly cooking project. Lemon friendship bread, as my grandmother gave me a friendship bread starter that needs to be used every week and a half. Later in the week our craft project will be a kit someone gave us that is to make sand art in a bottle. Since I do not provide enough opportunities for the kids to pour things themselves I thought this task would be a good one. I need to figure out a cheap and fairly clean way to make the kids a water table. Easy to make that outside in the summer, but this time of year inside, not so easy.
My personal goal this week, is to post some pictures of the kids using the centers, to post more consistently, and sound a little less frazzled in those posts. I enjoy writing this blog and conversing with people about our homeschooling experience, so it is important to me to make time. I thank you for reading this and welcome any questions, insights, suggestions or comments.
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