I thought a lot about Valentine's Day and decided I wasn't going to do anything special. I'm tired, we're busy, my kids are too young to know the difference, etc.
Then I woke up this morning and couldn't stand the thought of doing nothing. So, I donned my heart socks and improvised!
Breakfast: cranberry-white chip muffins. This was a mix given to me at Christmas . . . of 2010. High time it got used, and I figured I could talk about the red-and-white theme. My 2-year-old is extremely conscious of matching -- his socks to other articles of clothing, clothing among family members, etc. -- so he appreciated that our muffins matched my socks. Hey, whatever works.
After breakfast, I declared that we would play a game with the bean bags. I quickly cut some hearts out of scrap paper, and then in a flash of inspiration, wrote a sight word on each one (and, the, you, can, has, red), and taped them to the floor. [Note that this link is not the most informative site about sight words, but you can find them on any early-childhood activity blog or website.] Levi is still more likely to walk up to something and drop a bean bag on it than to actually throw it, so we also sat on the couch and threw the bags down at the hearts, and that seemed to help him get the idea.
After Owen went down for his morning nap, I printed several pages from a truck-themed Valentine's Day printables pack that I'd downloaded a while ago, just in case. Levi (with my help) did: circle what's different, circle the biggest, count and match cards, finish the pattern, find the missing number, shadow matching, pre-writing (tracing lines), and find the letter H/h -- all in about half an hour! I was surprised to find out that "circle what's different" was a little difficult for him, but not at all surprised to find out that "finish the pattern" was hard. We've never worked on patterning before, and I flipped the page over and drew some more patterns of my own (letters and shapes) for him to tell me "what comes next." I have dozens of these printable packs downloaded from all over the web, and I'm glad to know which things Levi could use some extra work on (as well as how long it takes us to do a few worksheets). [I didn't take any pictures of this, but I do suggest you click over to the site just to see the cute pink trucks! I also have this pre-K pack downloaded, but opted for the trucks for today. Most of the activities are the same, but there are more options in the second link.]
At this point, Owen was still asleep (unusual for him), so Levi and I spontaneously made some heart cut-out cookies. I think I scored myself an easy nap time by promising a cookie-frosting activity post-nap (and threatening "no cookies" if he didn't sleep)!
Then I woke up this morning and couldn't stand the thought of doing nothing. So, I donned my heart socks and improvised!
Breakfast: cranberry-white chip muffins. This was a mix given to me at Christmas . . . of 2010. High time it got used, and I figured I could talk about the red-and-white theme. My 2-year-old is extremely conscious of matching -- his socks to other articles of clothing, clothing among family members, etc. -- so he appreciated that our muffins matched my socks. Hey, whatever works.
(I could have at least taken a picture showing more cranberries, right?!)
After breakfast, I declared that we would play a game with the bean bags. I quickly cut some hearts out of scrap paper, and then in a flash of inspiration, wrote a sight word on each one (and, the, you, can, has, red), and taped them to the floor. [Note that this link is not the most informative site about sight words, but you can find them on any early-childhood activity blog or website.] Levi is still more likely to walk up to something and drop a bean bag on it than to actually throw it, so we also sat on the couch and threw the bags down at the hearts, and that seemed to help him get the idea.
After Owen went down for his morning nap, I printed several pages from a truck-themed Valentine's Day printables pack that I'd downloaded a while ago, just in case. Levi (with my help) did: circle what's different, circle the biggest, count and match cards, finish the pattern, find the missing number, shadow matching, pre-writing (tracing lines), and find the letter H/h -- all in about half an hour! I was surprised to find out that "circle what's different" was a little difficult for him, but not at all surprised to find out that "finish the pattern" was hard. We've never worked on patterning before, and I flipped the page over and drew some more patterns of my own (letters and shapes) for him to tell me "what comes next." I have dozens of these printable packs downloaded from all over the web, and I'm glad to know which things Levi could use some extra work on (as well as how long it takes us to do a few worksheets). [I didn't take any pictures of this, but I do suggest you click over to the site just to see the cute pink trucks! I also have this pre-K pack downloaded, but opted for the trucks for today. Most of the activities are the same, but there are more options in the second link.]
At this point, Owen was still asleep (unusual for him), so Levi and I spontaneously made some heart cut-out cookies. I think I scored myself an easy nap time by promising a cookie-frosting activity post-nap (and threatening "no cookies" if he didn't sleep)!
While the boys napped, I cleaned the kitchen and headed downstairs to dig out my Valentine's Day paraphernalia. Right about the time I opened the lid on the tub of holiday decor, I remembered that a few months ago, in a de-cluttering frenzy, I decided I'd probably never actually use the silly little candles and such (all gifts from old piano students) and gave them all to Goodwill. Only one stacked-heart candle remained . . .
Owen blissfully took an extra-long afternoon nap as well [God's Valentine's Day gift to me, I think], so Levi and I had ample time to decorate our cookies. Rookie-mom mistake: I knew it would be hard to get him to decorate, not eat, but it was nearly impossible! That kid loves his M&Ms (and his sprinkles, as it turns out).
The finished cookies.
Dinner was nothing special, though I did rather sneakily convince Isaac to do the preparations. ["Would you mind chopping an onion for me? And as long as you're in there . . . "] We lit the single heart candle, read 1 Corinthians 13 instead of our regular Deuteronomy readings of late, sang "And Can It Be," and finished off with our heart cookies! (They look dark, by the way, because they're made with white whole wheat flour and sucanat. But don't worry, the powdered-sugar icing more than made up for the healthier cookie.)
Finally, Owen gets in on the action!
Not a bad day, for very little prep!
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