This was a fun one for my 2yo, but also managed to captivate my 3yo and 6yo for a bit.
We also used some Montessori style bead chains to practice our skip counting.
These are just brown lunch bags stuffed with newspapers and painted.
These are made by placing construction paper cut outs between 2 pieces of wax paper and then ironing. We had a lot of fun with them.
I forget where I got this idea. I think it was from the workbox Littles yahoo group. I covered our table with white paper (from a roll), poured paint in a tray for them all to share, and let them have at it. Of course, by then end we had just a bunch of grayish blackish paint, but the process was enjoyable. And the finished product was something like a mural that now hangs on our wall.
We read Charlotte’s Web a while back. If you have read it you know it’s about a pig named Wilbur who is afraid that he will be killed by the farmer at Christmas time. His Spider Friend, Charlotte, resolves to keep him a live by making everyone believe he is “some pig”.
Well, more than once in the book, Wilbur laments his situation by repeatedly saying, “I don’t want to die….I don’t want to die….”
Poor Sofia was truly distressed by these passages and started asking me lots of questions about death. How do you die? Why do you die? Am I gong to die? Are you going to die? When? And then she would always end the conversation in a sad whiny voice with, “Moooom. I don’t want to DIE!’ and then I’d do my best to console her.
Well, then about a week ago, I was in the bathtub reading the Ensign (a magazine published by the LDS church). Sofie sauntered in and stood next to me, looking at pictures in the magazine. She pointed to a picture of Christ (I can’t remember which picture it was) and asked me about it. Our conversation, led by the picture, was about Christ’s death and resurrection. I explained very simply that Jesus died. "Oh, He did??"
And then I explained that he is alive again. "OH HE IS????" And that because he died and lives again, we can all live again with him after we die.
Her reaction to this glad news was so sweet, so sincere, so pure…I can hardly describe it. Her face literally brightened and she smiled so big. “Oh mommy! That makes me so happyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!”
And for one second I was able to look into a child’s heart with all it’s innocence and purity. She didn’t doubt or question the resurrection. She accepted it fully and with joy. She understood it immediately and laid aside her fears of death. We’ve never had a sad conversation about death since.
Being “mom” is sometimes draining, EXHAUSTING, mundane and very demanding. These special little moments when we get a glance at the bigger picture are the best, sweetest rewards. And there’s no other way to earn them. So glad I get to be mom and be part of these little awakenings in each of their little souls.
Brush the tortilla with vegetable oil that has been tinted with 2 parts yellow and 1 part red food coloring.
(here's one that hasn't been munched yet)
? Scarlett O'Hara, in times of great stress, uses a phrase that is characteristic of her approach to facing difficult challenges. "I won't think about that now," she says. "I'll think of it all tomorrow. . . . After all, tomorrow is another day."
We see another approach in the popular play Annie
The third approach is found in the musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown
. We see Molly at the beginning as a backwoods girl with few opportunities, no education, and no refinement. While wrestling with her adopted brothers she is pinned down, and one of them yells, "You're down, Molly! You're down!" Molly responds, "I ain't down! And even if I was, you'd sure never hear it from me 'cause I hate the word down, but I love the word up 'cause that means hope. And that's what I got. Hope for someplace prettier and someplace cleaner. And if I gotta eat catfish heads all my life, can't I eat them off a plate and in a red silk dress?"
Scarlett O'Hara tells us something about waiting for another day if we cannot handle any more today, and that is an important lesson. We can live with the hope and maybe a promise that tomorrow will be better, since it may seem at times that it can't possibly get any worse. Annie has great faith, knowing that as bad as things are, the sun will shine tomorrow. And that's only a day away. But Molly Brown won't wait until tomorrow. She believes that the promise of tomorrow rests in her hands today. She refuses to be down for even a day—and even if she were down, no one would know it. Molly realizes that if happiness is dependent on tomorrow, then when tomorrow comes she can still be living in expectation of a better day. She plans for tomorrow by taking care of today."
