We head away each summer to a cottage with my parents, sisters, brother, and all the spouses and kids between us. It is always busy, but something I look forward to every year. Lots of time to laugh and visit and catch up. Last year, the apple juice cups outnumbered the wine glasses. And this…
Learn to Write with a Scavenger Hunt
We are in the middle of an exciting adventure right now – Sammy is completely taken with learning to write. He loves it! As you may know, I am a proponent for waiting to have little ones learn to write. There are SO many other things for those little hands to do! Playing in many…
Still Tracing Shadows
A photo on Friday, because sometimes all you need is the photo. I might need to rename my Friday posts to “It’s been 3 years and we are still doing the same things” Because quite truthfully, we are. Ben and I were building some shadows the other day with blocks and we decided to trace…
Teaching Kids to STOP and THINK
My little boys are incredible people. Kind, funny, and smart—and impulsive as the dickens. They are certainly not alone. In the kindergarten classroom, I see the same things again and again and again. Little ones hitting, pushing, interrupting, yelling, grabbing, and tattling. Why? Simple. They are still very little. And making good choices is a…
Woven Heart Basket: A simple tutorial
We made these simple and beautiful woven heart baskets again, so I thought I would share this post again too! Hard to believe I first wrote about these two years ago. Boy time flies, and apparently very little actually changes in our house … well except the house. Anyways … Here it is: We have…
Storytelling Social Stories
I have quite taken to this idea of storytelling. I have done it at home with my own little ones for quite some time, but since September I have bravely taken it outside my home and into the Kindergarten classroom. Storytelling captivates little ones like nothing else (Well, Quiet Bins are a very close second)….
A Mapping Scavenger Hunt!
What a weekend! It was full to the brim, and full of snow too. So much so, in fact, that we wound up without internet for quite some time. Given that our phone, television, and pretty much any other electronic entertainment we have runs off internet it was kind of like Little House on the…
The Art of Reading Aloud to Kids
When I started teaching Kindergarten, I was given this book called Reading Magic by Mem Fox. I read it before stepping foot in my classroom, thought it was good, and went about teaching Kindergarten with those skills in my teacher’s toolbox. It wasn’t until many years later that I truly and completely saw the value in that…
A Snowflake Printmaking Art Project
For those of you lovely folks who have asked or wondered, we are well. We are settling into our new routine. The kids adore their new little sister and we are taking things slow and easy. It’s a very nice time of year to welcome a new babe into our family as we are naturally…
Sight Word Games on the Pumpkin Patch
I have been wondering for a little while what to do with my older posts. Since I have been doing this for quite some time now, some of my old posts feel a bit awkward to me. I sort of feel like I was in that awkward teenage phase where I was trying to impress…
