(And All My) Work Be Praise

A quick and very belated look at the few things we did to celebrate Fathers' Day this year: Reading stories with Daddy before breakfast (since he was the only boy awake): A giant cinnamon roll made in a cast-iron skillet : Before baking. I made it the night before, and did the second rise slowly in the fridge overnight. In the morning, I whipped up just a basic powdered-sugar icing, since Isaac doesn't like cream cheese. Overall, fun to make and fun to eat (though we did have trouble determining when it was baked all the way through). I have a 10" skillet, not 12" as the recipe called for, so I baked the extra  as a separate not-quite-as-giant roll. Also, we had bacon. Shirt-and-tie cards . We made this as a group craft with the kids from my moms' group at church. I just eye-balled the ties to cut them out, no template or anything. The kids glued squares of construction paper to the cardstock ties.  The collar is easy to make but hard to e...

Even though I put this on my list from Teaching Montessori at Home: The Preschool Years , I thought it was sort of silly until I caught Levi dragging a chair behind him through the kitchen today. Hello, teaching moment! To pick up a chair: one hand on the back, one hand on the seat. Carry it at your waist. Put it down gently, without making a sound. Pause for the briefest of moments so Mom can snap a picture for her blog. This is hardly blog-worthy, but hey, it was in the book. And now the next time Levi starts dragging the little chairs around (which does happen fairly regularly), I can remind him that he knows how to carry a chair correctly -- and perhaps, save my floors from a few more scratches!

Silas turned two last week! As we did with Levi's last birthday , we celebrated in two chunks -- breakfast donuts from our local bakery in the morning, and a family party in the evening (actually, in the evening a week later, since that's how schedules worked out this year).  Also like Levi, Silas went straight for the sprinkle-covered donut . . .   . . . but then refused to touch it with his hands and ate most of it leaning over his plate. Silas doesn't usually get any plates at all, let alone something breakable, so this was quite a special occasion indeed!  Silly, silly boy. Confession: a small part of the reason we waited another week to celebrate with family is because we didn't have his gift finished yet. Check out the wall behind Silas's high chair in the above picture . . . and now in the picture below.  Yep, while he napped, we installed and "wrapped" (with a sheet) what may be the coolest present ever. (In my ...

My third son is a delightful boy, but he turns destructive when left alone for too long. A few days ago I went through all of my appropriate pinterest boards and made a big list of activities just for Silas to do while the big boys do other things. Today, he was willing to play with playdough with Levi and Owen for a while, but lost interest much sooner than the others. I scanned my brain quickly for something else to occupy him while I finished cleaning the kitchen, and this sprang to mind. A big piece of paper, a Sharpie, and a little masking tape later, Silas was happily matching letters at the fridge. Truth be told, he lost interest in this pretty quickly, too, but has gone back a few times to add another letter here and there. Anything that will take up a few moments of his attention . . . I'll take it! Also fun: later in the morning, Levi and Owen both wanted to make their own page of letters to put on the fridge. Owen has only recently (within the past week)...

We have fallen head-over-heels in love with the 2014 Caldecott Medal winner, Locomotive by Brian Floca. Isaac picked it up spontaneously at the library a few weeks ago, thinking that the boys would enjoy it, but I don't think even he anticipated how much every one of us would love this book. In short, it tells the story of a family traveling on the brand-new railroad from Omaha to San Francisco. But that doesn't begin to cover it: the history, the geography, the engineering, the literature. Isaac loves the detailed map inside the front cover, the equally detailed diagram of a steam locomotive inside the back cover, the informative and yet beautiful artwork throughout the book. Levi loves the onomatopoeia, the excitement of hearing the train move. Owen and Silas love to shout "alllllllllll a-BOARD!" and "tick-ETS!" as we read. I love the adventure, the history of invention and innovation, the wide-eyed wonder of it all.  Mommy truth: it's also...

While I've read several things about Montessori education, I must confess that I still don't know a ton about how it really works. With apologies for actually linking to Wikipedia, this isn't a bad explanation of the various tenets. In layman's terms, here's what I do know: My husband went to a Montessori preschool, and my mother-in-law says it was fantastic. Children are expected to focus quietly on a task for a looooooong time. (Like, 2-3 hours.) There is a focus on being neat and orderly. It is largely child-driven work, in that the child chooses an activity from a set of options (all within reach).  It requires "trays" or "bins" or something to organize the materials and have them within reach. Montessori children practice a lot of real-life skills. It's that last point that really caught my attention while reading through a book recommended by a few different sources (at least two homeschool blogs, one of a friend and anot...

Books: Memorial Day Surprise , America the Beautiful Scripture: Psalm 133:1 Craft: red, white, and blue U (with tissue paper) Food: star sugar cookies with red and blue decor Gross motor: American flag hunt (walk through the neighborhood)   Resources: Oopsey Daisey Mommy School The weeks surrounding Memorial Day seemed like a fitting time to do a USA week. Without knowing my plans, my mom brought Levi a big state puzzle on her most recent visit! He and Owen completed it on two different occasions (mostly Levi, but Owen did get more pieces in on their second go-round). Levi wanted to take a picture of the puzzle . . .   . . . and then Owen wanted to take a picture of Levi. Our craft was, for once, entirely out of my own head and not from Pinterest or a blog! That, of course, explains why it's so simple. :) I've been emphasizing beginning consonant sounds for Owen a lot, just naturally within our daily conversation and book-reading, so I...

At 9:15 this morning, I realized we would not be making it to the library for story time. I'm okay with waking Toby up from a morning nap occasionally, and I'm okay running through rain with all the boys occasionally, but I'm not okay with waking Toby up from a good nap to run through torrential rain with all the boys. Inasmuch as we have not had terribly peaceful days so far this week, I knew I'd need an activity, and fast. Thank God for Google ("rain preschool craft"). Seriously. Half a bag of cotton balls later . . .  A cardboard (gift box) and cotton ball cloud . . . tissue paper and contact paper raindrops . . .  a silly boy who loves the "smile" (camera) . . .  Ta-da! (Raindrops are hung with ribbons.) Owen was quite concerned that our cloud was white, when rain clouds should be gray. He's right, of course, but I wasn't about to go painting cotton balls. Happy rainy day to you! Find the instructions...