Christmas Tree, Oh, Christmas Tree!

Since it is December, of course we've been reading some Christmas books and singing a few (non-religious) carols.

Here's a picture of my Christmas tree.  Every day the kids love to spend time looking at the ornaments.  They've been very good about only touching them gently.  I always remind them, "Gentle.  Only use one finger." which seems to be working since they haven't broken any yet.  Even so, next year I think I might use only shatterproof ornaments, just so I don't have to worry about it so much.

Conversations about food

Kids love stickers.  I bought a Melissa And Doug Make-A-Meal Sticker Pad from Amazon.  With a variety of table settings and lots and lots of food stickers, kids get to design their own meals.  My daycare kids loved it!

It was fun and also a great way to start a conversation with young kids about food.  We talked about which foods they liked best, what a balanced meal looks like, and about which are healthy foods and which are unhealthy food choices.

To the left are some of the first meals that L created using the stickers.

my easy day

I call Tuesdays "my easy day" because it's just the two girls.  They play together pretty well and they play very peacefully separately.

Our only real difficulties come from the two of them competing for my attention.  They both seem to develop an uncontrollable need to be held right when I start to cook lunch, complete with whining and crying if I don't comply immediately.

V sometimes gets annoyed with S's lack of understanding about personal space, but she is still a baby after all.

Overall, it's still a pretty easy day.  There's never any hitting and very rarely any crying.  It's the least messy day, toywise.  The girls are good at cleaning up after themselves and they like helping me.

I could earn stars too!

L's Good Behavior Store

Items in V's Good Girl Store

After seeing D's Homework Store, L asked if there was a way he could earn stars too.  So I planned out and set up L's Good Behavior Store with items chosen specifically for him.  Most of the items are from the dollar store.  L can earn stars by not hitting, pushing, or grabbing, by taking a 30 minute nap, and by going pee-pee on the potty.  L gets paid in stars when he behaves well and then he can save and spend his stars on items in his store.  The items cost between 2 to 5 stars.  The goals of this are behavior modification, for L to learn and practice self-control, and also counting with meaning up to 5.

A few weeks after I set up L's store, V asked if she could earn stars too.  So I set up V's Good Girl Store with items chosen just for her.  She can earn her stars by going pee-pee on the potty and by not having her "horsie" pacifier at the table during meal times.  The items in her store are priced between 2 to 4 stars.