Memorial Day

Children will color the flag using red and blue crayons appropriately.

Living room with a BUILT in...

BASEMENT to do

Your ONLY a Stay-At-Home-Mom???

1. I am blessed enough to be financial stable while being home with my children. It is FANTASTIC! When they go to school, I will get a TRADITIONAL job! In the meantime, I will hold them, nurture them clothe them and educate them. I will continue to provide them with educational activities and healthy treats; I will continue to explore the world from the comfort of our home and the wilderness outside. I am calling it my JOB to be home, and I take it seriously. It is WORK and it should be WORK, NOT a vacation!

2. June Cleaver, THANK YOU. She enjoyed the WORK, and embraced the dedication that came along with being a STAY AT HOME MOM.

3. I am home and taking it seriously, I am tired and SHOULD be tired… I should be well,... WORKED!

4. A couple dozen brownies, will take maybe an hour, so I’ll just do it. And write it down, that’s a favor I'll can cash in later. While I'm baking I will be teaching my children the importance of friendships, and being dependable. They can assist me in the preparation and learn how to measure, count and cook.

5. All day with my kids, no you cannot imagine! I am so blessed for the opportunity to be the sole provider of care, education, health and nutrition. THANK YOU for reminding me.

6. I would be lying if I said it were easy. We all make sacrifices for the greater good of our families and our children. I pick up part-time jobs whenever I can just so we can grocery shop, vacation and send the kids to private organizations and activities.

7. I wake, make my children a REAL breakfast, clean the kitchen, spread out an activity I pre-organized for the children to complete so I can work-out without tripping over them the WHOLE time, discuss the schedule for the day with the children, complete a reading activity, complete a mathematical activity, prepare lunch while the children play with a ‘daily special’ (musical instrument, physical movement activity, computer, library book, art project), serve lunch to the family, shower while they eat, put the little one down for a nap, set up an independent activity for the older child, wash – dry – fold – put away several loads of laundry while cleaning each room one at a time and playing a board game with the older child, prepare a nutritional snack, wake the little one, serve the snack, read a themed book to the children for either science or history and perform the associated task or activity, play outdoors or indoors WITH the children, prepare dinner while the children continue to play, serve dinner, while the children are eating – run a bath for the smallest child, bathe the child while the older child completes an independent activity, read a story to the children, put the small child in bed, bathe the older child, read another story, place the older child in bed. When the house is quiet, I wash the floors, surfaces and remaining laundry while MAYBE watching a few moments of television… Why? What do YOU do all day?

8. I have several degrees, I utilize them every day. My degree in education assists me in creating curriculum for the shoreline school districts, BUT even if I didn’t do that, I create, plan, and implement educational learning experiences for my children SEVEN, yes SEVEN days a week. My degree in child development has enabled me to land a FOURTH part-time job in creating, recruiting and impending physical activities for kindergarteners --- and even if I didn’t have THAT job, I use my degree daily in confirming my children are at or above level in ALL the tasks they will need to perform at the age and ability levels.

9. My children do NOT cling, they understand that I, their MOTHER am ALWAYS here and available for them to love, nurture and care, to listen, guide and support.

10. My house is lived in, loved and utilized, anytime anyone enters it is a safe, organized, germ-free, clutter-free environment, but by the time our children are done... it is lived in once again.

MAKE-your-OWN crayons

Homemade Bath Time Soap Crayons 1 cup grated Ivory Soap 1/4 cup warm water Food Coloring Plastic Cookie cutters Mix water, soap & food coloring together in med. size bowl. Stir the crayon mixture until it begins to stiffen. Remove the mixture from the bowl and knead until it is the consistency of a very thick dough. Spoon Crayon Mixture into plastic cookie cutters or other plastic molds (playdough molds work great too!). Press down firmly. Place the plastic cookie cutters in your freezer for 10 mins or in your refrigerator for 30 mins. When firm, Pop the bath crayons out of the cookie cutters (or other molds) and allow them to air dry overnight or until hard. Homemade Bath Crayons Add food coloring and warm water, a few tablespoons at a time, to the soap shavings and mix until it forms a thick dough. You can add more water or soap shavings to get the right consistency. Once the dough is firm, you can shape it into crayons by hand or press it into candy molds. We pre-heated an oven (gasp!) to 300 degrees F., turned it off and popped in our tray. (We should have just topped with aluminum foil and sat it on our front steps). Things got goopy very slowly, so I relit the fire for a few minutes. And then things got very liquid. We scribbled them to make sure they worked, and then packaged them up for gifts for friends. We made another batch the next day and they came out even better. Here are a few tips if you want to try this yourself: Use only one brand/kind of crayon. The batch we made of only regular Crayolas melted more evenly. When you throw in the washable ones (very hard to melt) and all the freebies from dining establishments, differential melting becomes a problem as some melt to water-like consistency while other are rock hard. Also, some are more brittle (the washable ones?) and didn't make very strong Cookies for the over-active scribbler. Don't refire the oven if you are too impatient. Just wait and get over it. It'll be a character-modeling lesson for the kids. Right, the kids. 2-3 highly contrasting colors gave the best scribble. The all-shades-of-blue Cookie looked great, but was a little underwhelming when it came to performance testing. 3 full crayons are about all that you'll want in a mini-muffin tin. It looks like it will hold more, but you don't want them coming over the edge and spilling in your oven. Use a pan underneath while the Cookies are in the oven. Last hint: Hit the back-to-school sales now for supplies for Christmas crafts.

Yogurt covered Pretzels

10 dozen small pretzels

2 cups vanilla yogurt or 2 cups strawberry yogurt

5 cups confectioners' sugar
Directions:
Preheat oven to 250°F.

In a large mixing bowl, mix the confectioners sugar into the yogurt, one cup at a time with a hand blender. >/br>
Using tongs or chopsticks, dip the pretzels, one at a time, into the frosting and place them on a wire cooling rack (place a cookie sheet under the wire rack to catch the excess frosting that will drip from the pretzels).

Once all pretzels are coated, turn your oven off and place the wire rack and cookie sheet in, leaving the oven door slightly open. The excess heat will help the frosting dry without leaving the pretzels soggy.

Allow frosting to harden for 3-4 hours, remove from oven, and store pretzels in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Measurement

When teaching measurement to young children provide lots of opportunities for the students to order objects by size. Use everyday activities and real objects to help children understand measurement concepts.

The terms non-standard and standard are often used when describing prescribed learning outcomes for measurement.

Measuring with non-standard units means measuring things with blocks, pencils, hands, feet, etc. As long as the items used to measure with are all the same size, e.g. identical blocks or brand new pencils, they are suitable to use.