Daddy's Office

They weren't in the room with the write on walls for long before they discovered some of the chairs have wheels.

"Daddy, show me how it works!"

"Wait, I can push him faster!"

"Ok Daddy, now you get on!"

So much for them realizing Daddy does serious work here, haha.

Visiting Daddy's Office, part 1

Every trip to Daddy's office turns into fun and games. The kids have gone to festivals, parties, played mini-golf, fuse-ball, visited the baseball diamond, and basketball court. This time Wonderful Husband was trying to show them the more serious parts of the office.

Video conferencing was highly entertaining

Meeting rooms where you can write on the entire wall

She decided to teach the times tables while she had our attention

Come back tomorrow for other "business" experiences they discovered. It's clear why they think he plays at work all day.

New Job

I stopped working when I was pregnant with my awesome kids. Then they decided they wanted to go to school 5 days a week - still mornings only. It was time to start looking for a job.

My request was simple - I wanted part time, mornings only, in the field of Education. Hah! I did eventually find a job. I teach part time at a local private school. I'm teaching high school Math and Science, which is a nice change of pace. There are times they have a lot in common with preschoolers, but I refrain from pointing that out to them.

I hope to be able to keep up this blog, but my time is more and more torn and my main focus will always be my kids.

Watering the Lawn

We have trouble keeping our grass green in the Summer. It's too hot and we don't typically water, which certainly doesn't help.

 

Luckily, now we have kids to do that for us! (Both modeling their Canada shirts.) Some people even prefer to get automatic water sprinklers that go back and forth. We prefer child labor... I mean teaching them responsibility.

Cooking and Laundry

Summer is a great time for a chore bootcamp. I decided the kids needed to be doing more around the house. We were able to spend time each day learning how to do different tasks around the house.

We have always done cooking together regularly, but this was their first time to be allowed to use a knife. (Yes, they were plastic.) We made banana ice cream - cut bananas into small pieces, freeze, blend until smooth. Much healthier and my kids loved it. (I also suggest mixing in some peanut butter or strawberries for more flavor.)

 The kids seemed to think clean clothes just appeared in their dressers. This was a great time to teach them the process. They had to put the clothes into the washer. I took them out of the washer and they put them in the dryer.

Once they were dry, the carried the clean clothes to put them away. They quickly learned how to put their own clothes away. They may be dressed in wrinkled clothes, but they did it themselves, which means much more to me.

The kids actually enjoyed doing laundry so much they kept asking for more. Being the over indulgent mom that I am, I allowed them to do our laundry as well. Then they got to wash the sheets, towels, and on and on. At one point they did mention that we do a lot of laundry in this house, but they kept doing it.

The farm in Poland (Zajaczkow)

After our visit to Lodz, we headed to Zajaczkow, or as we call it "the farm." Being from the city, usually a trip to a farm would be more like a field trip for us, so getting to visit family on a farm was exciting for many reasons.

My kids love dogs, so finding one who just hung around waiting to be petted was a treat every time they went up and down the steps to the front door.

They fed the chickens and even got to pet one. We got to eat fresh eggs and it was fun watching the kids make the connection to where eggs really do come from.

 

Riding in a tractor and being able to help drive? Pretty much a dream come true for a 2 year old. 

 

When we visit farms around us, they never just open the barn and let the kids explore. The kids spent a lot of time climbing on this and taking turns trying to pull it to give each other rides. (They couldn't get it to move.)

 

We ended the day by climbing on the hay. It's more fun than a playground any day.

Wordless Wednesday

Puzzles

We spend a lot of time working on puzzles around here and it's good to have variety. In addition to the more traditional puzzles, here are some of our favorites.

 

These are called pattern blocks. We have a couple of different sets. The set you see abovehas foam pieces and many different pattern cards. My favorite setis magnetic, but comes with fewer pattern cards. We also use the pieces from each set for sorting by color, shape, and size.

Not a typical puzzle, but with different types of locksit keeps sweet son entertained for long periods of time. If you have a child who likes to open child locks this is a puzzle they will love, but it will only increase their skill, so be warned.

This is a Montessori inspired puzzle. The pieces fit in multiple places and the child tries to arrange them by height. This is one of sweet daughter's favorite puzzles. You can see in this picture and the one before it that the kids are doing puzzles on their "work mats" which is another Montessori concept. When they are doing work on their mats they must put it away before they get something else because otherwise there isn't room. It has helped keep our playroom much cleaner and everyone is happier.

I know I've posted this puzzle together and in the process of being assembled. Floor puzzles are always more fun and this is sweet son's favorite. We do have a few other floor puzzles - a farm and the Lorax - that get used regularly, but still not as often as this one.

Work and Duck-tifs

 Wonderful husband was working from home one Tuesday and I was trying to explain it to the kids. After going over this many times we have the following conversation:

Sweet Daughter: "Mama go to work?"
Me: "Mama's job is to make sure you grow up to be happy and productive people."
Daughter: "Mama all done work?"
Me: "Not quite yet" (laughing)
Daughter: "I happy. Brother, you happy?"
Sweet Son: "I'm happy."
Daughter: "Mama all done work."
Me: "I'm glad you are happy, but you must also be productive."
Daughter: "Po-duck-tif?"
Me: "You need to go to school and to be able to support yourselves."
Daughter: "I work at school. No more duck-tifs." (She walked away)

Using scissors is work

 This is one of my favorite Fall art projects. As you can see on my son, I paint their arm brown and their hand with dots of yellow, red, orange, and just a bit of green. Then they lay their arm on the paper and wave their hand back and forth to make a tree. Not completely child done and certainly not open ended, but it's always fun to have paint up to your elbow!

Little Hands on the Farm

The State Fair of Texas has a children's experience called "Little Hands on the Farm." This is great for all kids, but especially for city kids. It's all designed for kids and at their level, which is awesome.

Of course we have the kids posing at the board for the photo opportunity. He wasn't happy that she got to be on the tractor first. Taking turns isn't fun when you are two years old. 

They did both get a turn riding the tractors around, but were too small to push themselves. We had to help them.

They got to put on an apron, grab a basket and start about their farm chores. Here they are picking peaches from the apple trees. Um... yeah, I didn't design the place, just took the kids so don't ask the logic behind that one.

They got to feed the chickens corn and gather some eggs. My children were concerned that the chickens weren't moving. 

I was excited to let the kids milk the cows. I thought it was going to be like the cow at the museum that sprays water when you pull it's teat. Instead, they were able to hook up a milking machine. Not quite as much fun, but still educational. 

Here the kids are digging a hole, planting seeds, and then watering them. After this, they went to another garden and picked different types of fruits and vegetables.

Another chance for sweet son to sit on the tractor just couldn't be missed. Who cares if you can't reach the ground or the pedals? It's a tractor!

This was actually in a different area, but fit with the theme. The kids got to feed many different types of animals. They actually preferred to watch as we fed the animals, but they talked about it for weeks. The goat tried to eat the entire cup, the sheep wouldn't stand up, the bull looked mean, the pigs were pooping, etc. You know, all the important things in the mind of a two year old.

Work

Teaching abstract concepts to young children is a challenge. We spent a lot of time talking about "work" when the kids were a year and a half old. We talked about Daddy going to work, things Mommy does (taking care of them), and even the type of work they are expected to do.

 

As toddlers, most work is fun. They love doing art and we told them that is part of their work. They make the art and I hang it on the wall. If they weren't making the art our walls would be boring. We do stress they are not to decorate the wall, they are to make art and I will hang it on the wall.

 

Cleaning the garage door is also fun. When is the last time you clean your garage door from the 2ft level down? haha Using the spray bottles is also a great way to develop fine motor skills. This is also exciting when it's hot outside. I don't mind if they spray themselves or each other because it dries so quickly in the heat.

The kids help me cook a lot. Here we are mixing the dough for some whole wheat bread. The only annoying part was cleaning the floor before and after so we could do this cleanly!

Yes, this is a toy lawn mower, but he really wanted to do some work like Daddy and we are all about indulging when they want to work!

We had this conversation every morning. Sometimes with both kids. Sometimes with one of the other. Still, it was a ritual around here.

Kid: Bye Bye Dada
Dada: Bye Bye
<Dada leaves for work.>
Kid: Where Dada goin?
Me: Where is Dada going?
Kid: to work
Me: Why is he going to work?
Kid: make money
Me: What do we use the money for?
Kid: air-dish-nin (air-conditioning)

Then, and only then can we get on with our day.

 Here are the kids walking the dog.