Our summer has been a bit chaotic. I consider myself a stay-at-home-mom. But the reality is is that I juggle much more than just the kids and the household (and I don’t mean “just”!) I am in the Army Reserve and had to leave my kids and work a whole lot this summer. I love serving in this way, and I love having this part-time job, but it has become overwhelming. I am also juggling my time as an Usborne Books Consultant which has opened so many more doors than I ever imagined, but that has taken a lot of my evening time as well. And of course my beloved blog takes time and effort to maintain (you may have noticed that I was absent for the last weeks).
Thus is life. Trying to juggle. But I NEVER want my children to get the brunt of it. Aside from my mandatory Army training, I try to do all my work in the evenings. I want to enjoy them, take a step back, yes, but enjoy them and watch them and just be there and present. (You can see my recent thoughts on this at I don’t like to play with my kids — definitely check out the most recent comment there which has given me some amazing advice.)
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Practical life activities are a party of every day life here in our household, this includes:
- helping with laundry or blanket or towel folding.
- empty all the silverware from the dishwasher,
- set the table,
- sweep the kitchen after meals,
- and use the mini vacuum regularly.
The children also pick up their things every day before quiet time and before daddy comes home. John has the BIGGEST smile on his face when I thank him for performing these tasks.
John made a pirate ship that was beautifully symmetrical during play dough time.
We brought out our wipe clean cards for a fun activity while waiting for lunch. Here is a video I made about wipe clean activities.
“Tri” the triceratops wanted to eat dinner too. John absolutely loves pretend play with his beloved stuffed animals. Cow, Hippo, Tri, and Ant(eater) are always following us where ever we go. May’s animal of choice is her Panda.
We had lots of dinosaurs out for a while. We love our dinosaur bin with big and small dinosaurs. We have many books about dinosaurs that we like to explore together as well.
Daddy reading about dinosaurs from the See Inside the World of Dinosaurs.
Our Brachiosaurus on our Big Book of Dinosaurs.
Our Tyrannosaurus Rex large dinosaur with our Dinosaur Fact Cards.
John made a reading nook. He allowed May to join him one morning while eating snacks and listening to books on tape.
We always find reasons to work on John’s penmanship. We have notebooks for handwriting (you can see our preschool handwriting notebook and our kindergarten plans), and here, I had him make a card on my birthday ;) He also works on I’m Sorry notes and Thank You notes regularly.
Working with creating number to object one to one correspondence with sandpaper number cards and Spielgaben rods.
May is always reading, reading, reading. This is The Little House, which is part of our 120 Best Picture Books {free printable}.
I recently shared my latest two videos that I made for Usborne — warning — I’m a bit goofy in them. But if you want to know what Usborne is all about, take a listen! (This is a still shot from the below videos!)
Here is the one for New Titles: Baby & Toddler.
Here is the one for New Titles: Preschool thru Middle School.
If you want to have a Facebook Party and earn lots of these books for free, simply email me at wildflowerramblings @ gmail . com!
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