The big kids started back to homeschool co-op this morning. They were crazy excited. I’m pretty sure they were up at 6 am. They appeared downstairs at seven, dressed and already wearing their backpacks.
This particular morning, Andrew was able to keep the Littles with him while I drove the “bus” to co-op. When I returned home, Finn was down for a nap but I was greeted on the front porch by two very excited little girls. “You come do something fun with us now, Mommy?”
And I realized that this co-op day is just as much for them as it is for the older kids. For five happy hours, they are the sole recipients of my attention. We do preschool things and they can talk as much as they want to me because I’m not trying to teach math or reading.
The volume in our house goes down and we take a slower pace. And inevitably, I feel brave enough to drag out the paints.
After our painting party, we had a dance party to their current favorite song from the Aristocats, “Everybody Wants To Be A Cat.”
I will spare you pictures of my crazy cat moves, but I sure wish I could record Mira singing every word, perfectly on pitch. The girl has pipes, y’all.
After our opening performance, I curled my little kittens up on the couch to watch Aristocats.
Just to continue the theme, I steamed some warm milk and added a hint of chocolate to their cups. Then we sat and watched their movie and drank our “creme de la creme” like the cats on TV.
When we signed up for co-op, I knew they would benefit from some focused Mommy time, but I didn’t really expect them to notice the difference in their days. Coming home to two wildly excited young ladies today made me realize that they treasure their Special Time and it’s up to me to intentionally make it special.
So, any ideas?
I’ve got a whole semester’s worth of Tuesday mornings to fill. What are your best preschool websites, craft ideas (NO GLITTER, PLEASE), or theme suggestions? We’re all ears…
Are there any mommy and me dance classes through the city? I can see the three of you tapping along together.
I wanna see your cat moves.
Chinese New Year is February 10th, it’s the year of the snake. I found a TON of cute ideas on Pinterest, here’s a link to one of the pages. http://www.redtedart.com/2012/01/14/chinese-new-year-crafts-kids/
Fabric markers and sheets or pillow cases that they can decorate and then sleep on each night. When I did it years ago, I wrote a verse for each child that we then repeated each night and they “decorated” the pillowcase. Psalm 4:8 “I will lie down and sleep in peace for you alone keep me safe.”
Have fun!!!
Oh my word, I lauged out loud at “NO GLITTER!”… I can so relate. My family calls me the glitter scrooge, I simply can’t stand the stuff.
As for ideas, I don’t have any links right off the bat, but our standard fallbacks for little ones are: cook something together, paint something together, or go somewhere together (simple, like the local nature center or kids museum).
coffee filters + washable markers + spray bottle = “tie dye” filters, then cut them into snowflakes!
Or hearts, as we’re getting closer to Valentine’s Day…
Oh! Another one (that keeps my 2, 6 AND 7 year-olds all busy together) — a cookie sheet or baking dish with a layer of baking soda, little dishes of tinted vinegar, and an eye dropper (I found plastic pipettes for cheap on Amazon).
My little guy loves baking. When we have time like this we go to the store and I let him get everything we need of the shelf and put it into the cart. Then let him put it on the belt to ring up. He loves helping at the store. Then we go home and bake. And if I’m feeling adventurous I will get a can of vanilla frosting and scoop it into a couple of bowls and dye it with food coloring. Of course he picks the colors and I let him decorate his cookies. We talk about the colors and count ingredients and things like that so it incorporates education too.
My girls love cuddling on my bed with me and reading ‘new’ library books. An trip to the library and letting them pick one out and take it to home has been a consistent pleaser.
They are 3 and 17 months so crafty stuff is simple and a little bit crazy unless the 17 month is napping. =)
I loved reading how you delighted your girls. The creme de la creme was perfect. =)
I just LOVE sensory activities and dramatic play with preschool age kids. We just set up a play post office (which can be used with the older kids too). Next we will gather and play with a pretend grocery store. We also love making different play-dough and goop and such things.
I always end up baking when I just have one or two children.
My fave sites for preschool:
Prekinders.com and lets-explore.net
Hand cookies look it up on Pioneer Woman.com they are SOoO cute and your littles would love them.
Make butterflies with coffee filters, markers and spray bottle.
Makes snacks for the older kids when they get back. Ants on a log, etc.
Make jewelry with macaroni noodles and string.
Oh this could be fun!
Hi. Found your site this past weekend. Loving it!
I have 7 children, my 3 middle ones are adopted. My oldest is in college and 1 is in ps. After taking a break I signed back up this year for my two school age boys to do co-op. My hubby offered to bring them. At first I was reluctant, especially since my friends all do co-op and I could use it as social time for me. He was looking at it as if he brought them it would give me time to spend with my littles (ages 2, 3 and 6). After the first week I was hooked!!! We all look forward to Thursdays. My hubby calls it “Rug-rat Academy” and usually buys a special snack for us to have.
Like you said, it is a slower pace that day. Just being able to concentrate on 3 children is such a break. I too like to do things that I don’t get to normally do when everyone is home. Play-doh, painting dots and brownie making are on the top of the list.
Love that you call them “bigs” and “littles”– we use those terms too, except our bigs are 6, 5 and 3 and our littles are 10-month-old triplets.
Just bought our Nissan NV- you review put us over the edge (esp. since you dissed the Sprinter!)
Kristin – Hats off to you, Mama. That’s a lot of Bigs and Littles! (I think we had 6 under 6 for about 3 weeks. But I remember nothing about it. Am assuming I blacked out.) Enjoy the van!!