Teacher Appreciation Week: Door Decorating

Kindergarten Room Mom: Halloween

So I found out 2 weeks before Halloween that I was going to be Room Mom. No one had volunteered for it… and you know…. Yeah…. YOU KNOW.

My daughter’s teacher liked his holiday events more like activity stations that the kids can rotate through. I thought it was a great idea too, because then the kids have lots to do, and its not all about eating sweets. So with 2 weeks to pull it together, I combed Pinterest for about 6 activities related to Halloween that would be engaging and cover an array of areas (art, fine motor, science, etc). Here’s what I ended up with:

Food Activity: Spiders and Monster Mouths

I choose these in an effort to avoid cookie decorating. I figured the oreo and the marshmellows would be offset by pretzels and apples.

Spider Web Lacing: For some fine motor skills!

Original Pinterest link here.

Science: Fizzy Eyeballs

I wasn’t able to find plastic eyeballs as the original I found on Pinterest. But I did already have these glow in the dark bouncy balls that I had from a previous projects. They were perfect because the kids were excited to be able to keep their ball afterwards.  We did them in individual plastic cups to contain the mess. And the kids were able to select from various colored “potions” to drop on their eyeballs.  See original Pinterest link here.

We also did a fine motor activity adapted from this Pin I found. We used chopsticks instead and had the kids pick the spiders up with them and sort them into cups.

Lastly, we did some scissor skills by having them make pumpkins from this Pin here.

Back to School

Wow… where did the summer go? In fact.. where did September and October go? I just sat down to catch up on the blog and realized that I didn’t say a word about the first day of school!?? Shame on me. Perhaps its because I have been adjusting to this new wake up time of 6:30am!! For a night owl like myself, caffeine is my new best friend.

So off to Kindergarten went my daughter… and off to preschool went my son. And surprisingly, it was much more heart wrenching to drop off my son. Maybe because he’s my youngest… my baby… my last one. Or maybe because it was so streamless as he just gave me a hug and kiss and walked off without even looking back? *sniff* whatever it was… I had a little “moment”.

As they both started a new chapter… so did I. A new routine for all of us. And even a little downtime in the morning a couple days when they are off at school and I don’t have to work until a little later. ahhhhh. Kind of nice. What will I do with myself!?!?

Preschool Graduation Goodies!

Seriously. I’m that kind of mom that is looking for any excuse to put together a goodie bag. HAHA. Picked up those felt Owl stickers 50% off after Halloween at Target last year + 50% the bags after Valentine’s Day + some clearance graduation tattoos and gift tags from Oriental trading + recycled Graduation bubble favors from my own graduation party over a decade ago….  Ta da!

The perfect desk for my soon-to-be Kindergartner

Miss V is about to turn FIVE next month…. *sniff* and then off to Kindergarten she goes this fall. *double sniff*

So as she has been starting to have “homework” assignments from preschool and totally getting into drawing/writing, I’ve been on the hunt for THE desk. For me, I was looking for something simple, modern, dark wood, and little-people sized…. and look what I found!!!!

I fell in love with this KidKraft desk the moment I saw it on Amazon. It looked perfect! But… it was selling for about $168 on Amazon and Walmart too. I had it in my Amazon shopping cart for months and months… until finally this week I found it on Craigslist!!! OMG! And for $100 LIKE NEW. Seriously. I was ecstatic. I picked it up the next day and it was in darn good condition. I must say that its pretty well built in my opinion and perfectly sized for my daughter. She definitely has some room to grow with it. Product info says its recommended for ages 3-8. So I’ll be happy to get a few good years of use with this desk.

Funny thing is… I was definitely more excited about this desk than she was. I mean, she liked it… but the first thing she ended up saying to me was “But mommy, I don’t have a computer.” hmph. I’m assuming she’s just wondering because she sees that the two “big” desks downstairs both have computers on them. 🙂

In any case, once I showed her that she could put whatever she wanted in “her” desk drawer and that she could decorate it with a picture frame… she got into it. I’m going to be in search of some cute desk accessories now. Oh. And I’m still on the hunt for a second one – for my lil’ man.

Thank you Craigslist!!! You came through like a champ!

Peeps on a stick.

Thank you Pinterest for showing us that everything sweet is good on a stick! So…. I guess we could also call these “Peep Pops”? Hahhaa. Call it what you want… but they are simple to put together and that’s what I was looking for this week for my daughter’s Easter Party class treats.

I got the peeps at a good time too. Rite Aid sold them at buy 1, get 1. So I only paid $1.99 for the two dozen packs. Perfect since I needed 24 anyways. Combined that with some supplies from Michaels and basic address labels that I printed off my computer.

Then I sat down to watch a show on my DVR while I put everything together. Not bad!

On my To-Do List: Daily Lunch Notes!

I just read this inspiring story about a father who has been leaving lunch napkin notes for his daughter since she was in 2nd Grade and plans to do so until she graduates high school. His goal is to reach 826 notes!

I love the idea. I think that its certainly something a person would look forward to…whether it be a little “hello”, a funny joke, or inspiring quote. This is definitely something that I want to adopt into my parenting and look forward to doing for my kids.

Best of luck to Garth to meeting his goal!

Happy First Day of Preschool!

Well… my 4-year old finally started her new school schedule this week! For this next year, she will be doing 5 mornings of preschool. Whooooo. She was totally excited. She tells me “I love school!” and in the back of my head, I’m thinking “You better! Because you got A LOT more of it! HAHAHHA SUCKAAAA!” j/k. I’m glad she likes school. Its certainly a good way to set the tone for a life-long journey of learning.

As for me, I went through a mixture of emotions. I mean, I’m excited because she is excited. This week I kinda feel like I miss her a lot already now that I don’t have her around in the mornings. I’m also depressed because of the fat tuition check I have to write every month. Ha! But you know… I gotta look on the bright sides: I am finally getting a lot of one-on-one time with my lil’ man now (who’s 2)… and am one year closer to getting one kid into Kindergarten (aka – one more year closer to going back to work and making my money back).

What I did thoroughly enjoy this week though: all the cute First Day of School pictures that ran through my Facebook newsfeed. *sniff*

P.S. The lil guy and I just started “his”  version of school this week too! Its a parent education class for 2-yr-olds. Its what I call “pre-preschool”… I did that for a year when Vy was 2, so I’m looking forward to doing this with K now. He was pretty excited that he got to get ready and head off to “school” as well.  If you check with your local COMMUNITY/CONTINUING EDUCATION programs… you might find parent education courses nested there… and get this: they are FREE (or very low cost). Worth a try and something to do before the official preschool days come.