Not really school time: Weeks of Dec 12-18, and 19-25 2010

Well, the first week was quite the uneventful week.  Monday, though we didn't get anything done because of an appointment, I was able to put together a cool muffin tin for Muffin Tin Monday.  The theme was Christmas for the second week and I decided to focus on Baby Jesus.  If it hadn't been for going to the appointment, I wouldn't have found all the items for the meal as our small town store has a very limited selection.

Tuesday we went to play group as usual.  We took Oreo Balls to share.  I found the recipe at one of the blogs I follow, just don't ask me which one just now.  Will update as soon as I figure it out.

The rest of the week was completely unstructured.  Mommy has been feeling blah lately.  I'm not sure why.  I have no get up and go when it comes to organizing lessons.  Of course I spent quite a bit of time entering giveaways this past week too.  That took away from my planning time.  I really am not sure what we have been doing all week.  And that bothers me.  When one day runs into the other and they all seem the same I feel like there is not much meaning to my life.  I know I need to get back on the ball, and get out of the vicious circle.  This coming week the plan is to clean, wrap presents, bake cookies, and make some more decorations, maybe some to give away as gifts.

I know some would say I don't need to have structured lessons for my young preschoolers.  I have seen how our days go when I am letting the girls do what they want and I have decided I CAN NOT be an unschooling parent . I need to have the structure to keep me focused.  I also know the girls enjoy their lesson time.  In fact, I believe it was Amelia who was coloring something a day or so ago and when we talked about it she said it was her lesson time.  

While I don't feel comfortable just letting them do whatever every day, I did catch them doing some interesting things this week.  While they were playing with there magnet letters I noticed that Amelia was making her letters curve around a bit.  She was copying what the pig does in Super Why!  in the episode Jack and the Beanstalk.  The letters help them climb to the top of the beanstalk in the show.  Tabitha then took the letters and had them chasing each other up the coconut tree (refrigerator).  We haven't read that book in ages!  

Later in the week daddy says he was playing with Amelia using the letters and she told him the name and sound of the letters and sorted them by color.  

They have been taking their word cards (Tabitha) and letter cards (Amelia) out and reading them to get stickers.  Reminding mommy I really need to get some more made, as Amelia knows almost every letter from a-h and Tabitha knows her "at" and "ad" word family words, no problem.  

We enjoyed our last Story Time of the year on December 17th.  The children made angel ornaments

And sang songs with jingle bells

They missed the party because the library combined both the Tues and Friday group (we attend Fridays) on Tuesday the 21st and we were at playgroup.

Last week we had our last Christmas themed muffin tin: "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas"

And we actually got our white Christmas!

They spent some time playing (of course)

Hannah loves the musical toy that Tabitha bought herself from the thrift shop a couple of weeks ago.  Each button plays a different type of music, like disco or rock and features different characters from the Backyardigans (which we personally know nothing about, but my 14 and 18 year olds do).  Hannah likes to bounce to music.

Amelia was building next to Hannah.  They like to build and then stomp their castles down like Jill does in the one episode of Super Why! to the pigs buildings.  This is what they say, "Up a hill, up a hill, stomp, stomp, stomp."

And Tabitha and I were bouncing the ball back and forth to each other.  She is getting really good at catching.

Then we made Hand and Foot Angels.  Tabitha made one a couple of years ago but I had the instructions for a while.  I know I didn't get it off a blog.  Possibly from one of my trainings when I was working.  So, no, I did not think this up myself, but I have no idea where the credit goes.

First I traced there feet.  First the one, then the other overlapping.  Then the girls decorated them with pieces they ripped off the garland as we didn't have glitter.

I traced their hands onto white paper for the wings.  Tabitha wanted to put her own glue on.

Then they drew on faces with gold marker I happened to have.

Of course the angels needed halos.  The girls pushed them through holes I cut in the heads.

They really loved flying them around until I hung them on the wall.

Of course we had to bake Christmas cookies.  We assemble cookie tins to give as gifts.

First we made Caramel Thumbprint cookies found in the Family Fun Magazine.

Sifting flour and cocoa together with a couple other ingredients.

I don't have any pictures of the dough being made the rest of the way, I was too busy helping the girls mix it together.

We rolled the dough into balls and dipped them in egg white then rolled them in chopped walnuts.

Time to press the thumbprints.

Then we added Rolos after they baked for 10 minutes.

Can I mention it is very important to follow recipes.  We wanted to make these:

But ended up with these:

Because I left them in the refrigerator too long causing them to crack as they rolled out and were bent into canes.

Tabitha and I have continued to read chapter books at nap and bed time.  Amelia joined us for a while, but recently has opted to go straight to bed. I am fine with that as it was supposed to be a special time for me and Tabitha. In addition, I think she is not ready for the longer stories yet and is bored.  We read the first three books in the Henry and Mudge series.  I don't really feel these are the kind of chapter books I really want to be reading.  They have really simple language as they are meant to be easy readers and there are pictures on almost every page.  I prefer the Animal Friends books by Janette Oke, but we have finished all that our library has available.  We have read two books in the Elliot's Park by Patrick  series.  I avoided the one about Haunted   .  Tabitha seems to be enjoying these books, but there are no more available yet.  I will make a separate post describing these and the other books I have been reading with the girls.  The new series of books we are reading is about fairies.  

I'm am linking up to

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