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.

Learning about Argentina

D and I have a deal that she will spend a month learning about a country and if she passes a quiz at the end of that month, she gets to open a Barbie Doll of the World for that country.

The first country we've been working on is Argentina.  In a few days D will have a 13 question quiz to determine if she can open this doll or if she needs to spend another month on Argentina.

She needs to be able to locate Argentina on the globe, tell me what continent it is on, what the main language they speak, know the capital city, the most popular sport, about the tango, Eva Peron, the Andes, and more.

I really hope she gets them all right!

Crickets in the house

We've had a variety of crickets, grasshoppers, and moths as our house guests for the last couple of weeks.

L loves bugs, so Pops caught a bunch of insects for L to examine.

We read a book about crickets and another about grasshoppers.  And we've been feeding the crickets fruit, plant clippings, and water.

They seem to be doing ok.  However, I've informed L that this will be the last day with the bugs since I plan to free them all tonight.  He decided he ought to give them one last look and he got out some magnifying glasses.

I love how much L enjoys nature.  He's such a cool kid!

Kid Art

V paints with brushes & her hand prints

V:  "I'm making polka-dots!"

V really gets into painting.  She always starts off using paint brushes but quickly moves on to using her fingers and then her whole hand.  If nothing distracts or interrupts her, she'll produce more than a half dozen little masterpieces in one painting session.

L:  "I'm drawing a ghost."

We've been painting with washable tempera and watercolor paints.  A while back, I purchased some kiddie paint smocks from Ikea and they've turned out to be the perfect size for the kids.  They really help keep their clothing clean while still allowing the kids to really get quite messy.

A couple of L's best paintings

One of the best things about L's works of art is asking him about them.  One of his favorite things to paint or draw is water.  He's produced several waterfall, river, ocean, and just plain water paintings.  Sometimes he will make up words for what he's painting and then he'll explain to me what his invented word means.  Often he'll have a whole story to tell about what he has painted.

Hawthorn Glen Park

Today we walked all the way to Hawthorn Glen Park, which is a little over a mile away.  It was worth the effort though, because the kids had a great time!

On the way there, we talked and I pointed out different things as we passed by them.  We went under a few overpasses.  We saw a monarch butterfly and a little yellow butterfly.  We saw our mailman, a forklift, big trucks, a loud motorcycle, and a person on a bicycle too.

There are 2 big kid playgrounds at Hawthorn Glen, but the little kids did pretty well on them.  V always waited at the top of the slides for me to go down with her.  And L would call me if he needed help while climbing on anything.

V's favorite thing was the tire swing.  The whole time she kept smiling and saying, "I'm on the tire swing!  Wheeeeee!"

L invented a pretend game where he and V were little monkeys and I was a big hungry bear that wanted to eat monkeys.  When I caught him and gobbled him up, then he changed into being a hungry baby bear.  V made it known that she preferred to remain a little monkey.

I tried to entice them into taking a walk on one of the nature trails, but they were set on staying at the playgrounds.  There were a lot of dragonflies buzzing about, but the kids just weren't interested.  Maybe we'll try again next week!

Exploring the new playgrounds at Washington Park

This morning we took a walk to Washington Park to explore the several new playground areas that recently opened there.

Each little playground area was about a different topic in nature.  The first one we stopped at was about bees.  The next ones we went to were about leaves and how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly.  One playground area had a giant spider web.  There was also one about pond life and another about fungi.

Pops came with to help make sure the little climbers were safe from any falls.  And it was a good thing because climb they did!  I kept a really close watch of them and I was really impressed with their skill and bravery.

It was a fun day for both kids and for me too.  I love it when I can send them home really happy.

There are a lot of parks within walking distance from my house, so next time we might check out another one.  It mostly depends on how much energy I have in me because it's quite a workout pushing a stroller!

Week in review

Since I was getting tired of the multiple outfit changes each day that accompanied water table play, I decided to shell out the money and buy 50 lbs. of Sandtastik playsand.  To me and my wallet, that sounded like a lot of sand, but as it turned out, it wasn't enough to fill a sandbox.  It was enough to fill a plastic storage bin though.

I thought that the kids would kneel next to the bin and play in the sand, but the first thing all the little ones did was climb into the bin and sit in the sand.  Oh well!  The other thing that I didn't foresee was that the sand would not stay in the box.  This has been driving me crazy because in my mind every bit of sand that is lost is like money that is lost.  But I know I've got to get over it and stop thinking that way.

Why did I buy such expensive playsand?  It's because I found out that the normal playsand that you buy at a hardware store contains crystalline silica and asbestos tremolite which are know to cause lung disease, cancer, and cause reproductive harm.  You can read more about it at Safe Mama.  Better to be safe than sorry.

Other new things include finally getting a stroller and remembering about this play tent that had been sitting in the closet for the last few months.  With the stroller we've begun taking walks in the neighborhood.  The tent I thought of one afternoon when S was cranky from teething.  I was hoping it would distract her for a bit and it did the trick.  She just liked to sit in it and look at the colors.  We also played peek-a-boo with the door to the tent.

L likes to hide out in the tent.  He plays in it with toys, pretends that he's a baby bear and that it's his cave, and also uses it when he wants to have a pout.

We also played with play-doh, painted with watercolor paints, named the animals on some animal flash cards, and we read a lot of books this week!

D's School Homework Store

This is D's school homework store.  When she arrives at daycare after school, D's first job is to bring in the mail and sort it.  Then she has an after school snack.  Then she must work on her homework.  If she gets it all done, then she earns a star.  Each star equals $0.25.  She saves up her stars and then can use them to buy items from her homework store.  On Fridays, she gets a choice of whether she wants to do her homework or not.

This is not bribery, it is reward and it also incorporates some learning objectives.

D is great at adding pennies, nickels, and dimes - but needs some practice at adding quarters.  All the items in her homework store are priced in multiples of $0.25.  The items range from $0.50 to $6.  So one of our goals is to get her to memorize some facts like:  4 quarters equal a dollar and how to count by 25's.

Other learning goals include learning about delayed gratification and the value of a dollar.  D can only earn one star each day, so she has to save them up before she can buy anything.  She could start trading her stars for items that only cost 2 or 3 stars, but she'll never save up to buy the higher priced items that way.  In addition, there are a few snack food items which I suspect may turn out to be regrettable purchases but probably good learning experiences.

Plus it's just a good habit to get into, doing her homework right away each day.  I thought it would take a month or 2 before D would opt to do her homework on Fridays but today she surprised me and got out her homework folder right away after getting here.  She even delayed her after school snack until after she finished her homework.  I'm so proud of her!

All the items in her homework store were chosen specifically for D.  There is a Barbie Wedding coloring book, a Jewelry & Nails sticker book, a pink rhythmic gymnastics ribbon, a Sweets & Treats sticker book, nail polish, glitter crayons, a Lego Friends kit, lip gloss, hair accessories, jewelry, sugar free gum, hot chips, and more.

This week...

It's been a bit of an adjustment for me going from a school-age child mindset to toddlers.  Art projects, aren't so much projects as they are sensory experiences.  Painting is about what the paint feels like between their fingers and about how various colors blend together.  Play-doh is about how it squishes in their hands.  L is more interested in sorting crayons than coloring with them.

This week was much better than last week.  There was only one bad day, which looking back, was totally because I tried to delay a nap.  I should have known that when someone needs a nap, they need to nap right then - even if it means that they will be woken in the middle of it by people arriving at the door.

These are some of the books we read this week.  Many of these were read multiple times.  There was one day where I was asked to read "Can I Just Take A Nap?" about 10 times before I finally hid the book.  I also read "At The Zoo" and "Ernie's Cheerful Smile" at least 4 times each. "Shark VS. Train" was also read more than once.

I've been letting the kids pick the books, for the most part.  We're still getting to know and be comfortable with each other, but soon I'll start creating weekly lesson plans for them with books to accompany each week's theme.  And of course I'll continue to read the books they choose too.

Books we read this week

These are most of the books that we read this week (plus Keeley who decided to lay on them right as I was taking this picture).

D and I were planning on learning about South Africa, but we only got around to reading 2 books about it and watching one travel DVD.  There was just too much going on now with more kids.


But Friday was just me and D and it was our last full day together for a while.  We did all of D's favorite things.  We played ball outside, we played Barbies, we had tacos for lunch, we baked a cake and decorated it, we played some games, we talked about the meanings of different words, we looked for Halloween costume ideas, we drew with window crayons, and we discussed how things would be next week with school starting.  It was a rough week for her with the new little kids so I hope she had a good day.

What a week!

Pops (that's what the kids call my dad) caught this huge moth for L last night.  The picture doesn't really do it justice.  The thing is more than 3 inches long and looks even bigger with its wings open.

I presented it to L when he arrived in the morning and he looked at it with D several times throughout the day.  After D saw the moth, she put in a request for Pops to catch something just for her next.

In the afternoon, L announced that he was going to take a nap and that his moth was going to nap with him.  I set up his mat w/ sheet, blanket, and pillow and L put the moth next to his mat.  He didn't actually do any napping but I thought it was still cute.

After a little while I moved the moth back to the table so that no one could accidentally kick the container.

It was quite a week getting 3 new kids at once.  It was an adjustment for me, for them, for D, and for the dogs.  One morning Keeley demanded that I hand feed him and another night I found Teagan had put herself to bed in her crate which normally she hates sleeping in at night.

I'm sure next week will be better though.  I'm making the adjustments that I think are necessary.  I plan on setting up a separate room for V to nap in so that she doesn't have to listen to S who only seems to cry when she has an audience.  And I'm going to set up a special place for V to play in the kitchen while I'm cooking so that I can talk to her the whole time.   D is starting school and I'm going to set up a place for her to work on her homework in the afternoon.  Plus I've got a stroller on order so that we can start taking morning walks in the neighborhood or to the park.

This week was an adjustment but next week, I think we'll fall into a routine that works for everyone.

A few other things we did this week include:  listening to the ocean inside a big conch shell (every kid seemed to enjoy this), reading books (it's the best way to get L to be still), playing with the water tables outside (they all get completely soaking wet but I think it's worth it), guessing which objects will sink or float (led by D), games, puzzles, music, hide & seek, and we watched Lilo & Stitch.

We also did some painting.  These 2 pictures were painted by S and I think they turned out rather amazing considering her age.

The first day, I didn't intend to have a 1 year old painting but she was so interested in what the other kids were doing.  To keep S from pestering them, I set her up with her own piece of paper and paintbrush.  At first she kept trying to eat the paint.  It is non-toxic and washable but don't worry, I still stopped her from eating it.

The second day is when she produced these 2 pictures and this time she seemed to understand that the paint goes on the paper, not in her mouth.  Whenever she looked as though she was considering tasting it, I just reminded her "no, paint goes on the paper".  She likes to be praised for doing a good job and she especially likes it when we do a high-five.

In the morning I had read L a book about Henri Matisse which I thought was too advanced, but he proved me wrong.  Right away he says to me, "That's silly, you can't draw with scissors!" and later when we were painting he said, "I need more beautiful colors".  So I asked, "You mean like Henri Matisse?"  And L replied, "Yeah, like Henri."

New Dollhouse

 With three kids, all under the age of 3, starting this week, I decided I  needed to get some more toys appropriate for their ages.  I chose this Fisher-Price My First Dollhouse because it is rugged but still has plenty of detail.

It was a big hit with the kids.  Even D (7 yrs old) likes it.  When she plays with it, the Fisher-Price people are from "Little Land" and they visit the Barbies who live in "Barbie Land" or the Barbies visit them.

When L (3 yrs old) plays with it, he moves all the people out and instead the dogs and cats and the baby hamster live in the dollhouse.  You can see in this picture, they all sleep in the same bed.  The dogs also drive around in the mini van.  And sometimes the frog family comes to visit.

When V (2 yrs old) plays with it, she likes to make people and animals enter through the front door.  She also likes to have them take baths in the bathtub and often someone needs to be potty trained.  I told her that the little blond girl looks like her and so now we call that doll "Little V".

S (1 yr old) doesn't get to play with the dollhouse much because the other kids are constantly using it.  But when they are occupied with other things I've sat with her and the dollhouse and I point to furniture and objects and name them for her.