School was fantastic today. Again we started out the day with an action song, and then settled into reading books. Pierce was hilarious, and wanted to turn the pages so he could be the teacher too! I love it! Hopefully this means that my love of teaching is being passed on to at least one of my boys. :)
Anyhow, I had taken my own critiques and planned a lot for today. I certainly did not want to be left without options and things to do, just in case the boys powered through everything I had originally planned. Well, it turned out to be a great thing that I upped the level and gave them harder stuff. First craft we did was make our own apple trees. Instead of giving them a paintbrush, I left them with cotton balls and red paint to make apples. They both loved this, and I loved it because I was watching them figure out how to grasp them the right way in order to make circles. Carter's tree is on the left (Apple fall!) and Pierce's tree is on the right. They had to glue everything down. All I did was pre-cut the shapes. I think that pretty soon I am going to have Pierce cut his own shapes. That is certainly a skill we need to start practicing.
The next thing we did was cut an apple in half to reveal a star pattern on the inside. In one of the books we read this morning, it was mentioned that the pattern you see on the inside, is determined by how you cut the apple. I then gave them paper plates and had them make their own apple cores. They painted the top and bottom with the red paint and cotton balls, and then glued seeds into the middle. Unfortunately, I do not have a picture of them on the computer I am using, so I cannot include them tonight. :(
I also made a sensory bin for them as well. I used bird seed as the base (it gave them something to scoop and pour, plus provided yet another texture). I then added fake pumpkins, squash, and apples, with real hay as the final touch. They used their scales to measure which pretend item weighed more, and they had a blast with the bin. Yes, it went everywhere, but that is what they make vacuums for. Carter even stepped into the bucket to see what it felt like with his feet. I never even thought of doing that! And can you guess where the pictures are? That's right, not available right now. :(
Next we moved on to tracing the letter A with Wikki Stix. The boys were first introduced to Wikki Stix at a restaurant in Laguna Beach. Instead of giving them crayons, they received these to keep them busy. All of us fell in love with them. They are reusable and can be used for stand alone statues as well. However, I just wanted Pierce to get used to using them today, so I had him trace the letter A with them. Once he got the hang of moving them to where they should be, he had so much fun making different color combinations. I attempted to have Carter trace as well, but he was not having it today. And I am not going to make him do it. After all, he just turned 2.
The final indoor part of our "schooling" for today involved sorting apples into small, medium, and large. Obviously it was challenging for Carter, and he had more fun sorting by color. I thought this would be a challenge for Pierce, but he made no errors and was done within 2 minutes. No joke. But he loved it. And that is what counts. He had even more fun trying to teach Carter how to sort by size. Again, Pierce is trying to be the teacher, and it makes me have that happy fuzzy feeling on the inside.
We took a break from school to head over to our favorite skate park. There was NOBODY there, so I did not need to worry about anybody hitting the boys again with their bikes. And of course, since there is also a playground next to the skate park, that means that we were able to sneak in some more play time. We then went over to the grocery store and picked up what we needed to make homemade macaroni and cheese in the crock pot. Yum was the response that Pierce and I received about our cooking. We have been cooking a lot together, and I honestly love that we do it while Carter is sleeping. This gives us the chance to have our serious chats about why Ampy (my dad) is in heaven (a big question lately), why dogs have fur but we don't, when is mommy going back to college (I want to get my masters), etc. Not to worry, I get my questions from Carter while we snuggle after his nap, but his questions usually involve things such as, "Where Papa?" or "You sweaty?"
The final bit of (unplanned) schooling was weeding the garden. Pierce called it harvesting, and stuck to that all night. We were harvesting the weeds so that the other plants could grow really big. I let him use the scissors (obviously with supervision) and he had a blast cutting weeds apart. He then started cutting off the berries on the tree so that Carter could smash them into the ground. I love to see how the boys are helping one another and doing things together.
I honestly could not ask for better children or a better life. I have learned in my lifetime to Cherish today. There is no promise for a tomorrow. It does not matter how young or old you are, when your time is up, it is up. It may not be fair, it does not seem right at all. Too many questions will forever be unanswered, but at least you are guaranteed this moment right now. Cherish it. Live it. Rejoice in it. Pierce and Carter, one day when you see all of this and read this blog, I hope you remember those words. Never lose your sense of curiosity, and always strive to be the fantastic people you are. I love you boys to the moon and back, always and forever.
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