Sometimes You Need A Break

A to Zoo Animals with Mother Goose Time

T is for Tiger

The other day, I asked Mr A what animal he wanted to learn about. The response I got was, "I'm not ready for that question." I tried to explain that we didn't have to do anything right away, but that I just wanted to get things prepared. He reluctantly picked out Tigers from the the MGT daily discovery bags because he saw that it had a craft inside.

I looked through the guidebook and found the idea of making a collage. So, I figured that would be a hit since it was an additional craft. I gathered different colored scrapbook papers, in a range of tiger colors, for them to cut up however they wished and to glue onto a piece of construction paper. In the guidebook it suggested to use different old wrapping papers or tissue, but I didn't have any of that. After I gathered all of the materials, I called over the boys. I guess that was a mistake and it was too early for any type of learning discussion or activity.

A whole lot of whining ensued and fits over little things from both of them. Mr A only cut a few strips and Mr Z didn't want to do any cutting. He just wanted to glue and only got 3 shapes onto his paper before deciding this activity was not what he wanted to be doing.

So, I called it quits and sent the boys on their way to play how they wished. I guess I didn't listen very well when Mr A implied that he really didn't want to do anything for awhile. Sometimes you just need a break from anything structured.

The boys went the whole without doing anything MGT related... until almost bedtime. Mr A realized that they didn't do the Tiger Mask craft that he had originally wanted to do. So, we gathered up the materials provided from MGT and some crayons & markers and got to it.

For a few minutes the boys got distracted by tearing paper off of crayons. Looks of concentration on kids is so amusing. Focus shows on all parts of their little faces and it makes me happy.

 Mr Z scribbled all over his mask... with his tongue sticking out for more concentration and focus. (His daddy does it too. LOL)

 Mr A was insistent that I didn't look at his mask until he said I could. So I tried hard not to see it while I took a picture of his. He was trying to make his look the one on the instructional sheet.

 Mr Z finished his and was a tiger for a little while before sitting down to look at the pictures of the book, Leo the Late Bloomer.

 Mr Z needed to capture a picture of me and my tiger too.

Mr A finally finished and was satisfied with his. I had little tigers scampering about the house before bedtime.

I do give the boys so much time to be kids and play and imagine and be outside without any structured time. I'm grateful that they are allowed to be kids. I guess some days I do get a little selfish and want to get lessons done and I get too stubborn about it. I should have listened in the morning that they just wanted to play for awhile. I pushed them to do a craft when they weren't ready for it and it did not go well. That's my fault. They usually tell me when they are ready to be productive. I should listen better. We needed a break, I guess. That's okay. We ended up getting one craft done out of 6 activities from the guidebook. Some days that's just how it goes.

Noah and the Ark

Noah's Ark with MGT's Experience God

Experience God is an add-on program that Mother Goose Time offers. We like the simplified version of the bible stories that are featured in the lessons.

This whole week I've been a day ahead of myself for some strange reason. So, I thought today was Sunday and planned to do the Experience God lessons. Well, I guess you can talk about God any day of the week and so we started our discussion.

Mr A was interested in the story since it was about a big boat and a flood. The packet includes a featured scripture to talk about throughout the lessons/month and so I tried to come up with examples that the boys could connect too to help understand what was meant. Mr A just said that non of it made sense. Oh well, it may click later.

We made a list of things that you may need or would be helpful to build a boat. I think Mr A's idea of paper was funny... because you may want to keep busy by painting pictures while stuck in a boat. Then talked about that if we "listen" hard enough to what God is asking us to do, He will provide everything we need to accomplish it, just like He did for Noah. Then I read the included story cards about Noah and the Ark.

The boys were rather antsy after all the discussion and the story. So, we hopped straight to the craft... the Ark Art. In the children's packets there are four crafts, one for each week that corresponds with the theme of the week for the story.
The boys cut out their animals and log strips. You can kind of see what the project should look like from the tiny picture on the right of the guidebook.

Mr Z chopped his papers up and began gluing all over the place.

Love Mr Z's tongue sticking out while he is concentrating so hard.

I thought this was clever from Mr Z. He added glue just to the feet of the rhino's. Then of course he added more animals on top of them.

Mr Z's Ark Art.

It cracks me up how he just piles things on top of each other and is just happy with it.

Mr A took a different approach to his ark. He wanted it to look so good. He was singing a song while he added his wood paper pieces to the roof... "I'm patching up the roof, with these squares. I'm patching up the roof to the boat."

He added some small fabric flowers to his ark to decorate it and make it look pretty for Noah and all the animals. Mr A also added his animals to the front and back of his ark so that they could be inside the boat.

While I was doing something in the kitchen, Mr A came out with this puzzle. He mentioned that it would be a good thing to do because it had all the animals and a boat on it. I told him it was actually perfect for the story we learned about because it was called Noah's Ark. I had completely forgotten about this puzzle in the closet. Mr A was pretty excited that it was actually about Noah's Ark and got right to putting it together.

The boys like to put together the boat first and can do the puzzle by themselves. We hadn't really noticed before that there were actually 2 of each animal in the picture.

What a fun way to spend the morning. The puzzle was a happy surprise that connected the story in a different way.
I'm grateful MGT makes it easier to bring these lessons into the home in a fun way.

Vulture vs Urchin

A to Zoo Animals with Mother Goose Time

V is for Vulture and U is for Urchin

As you may have noticed, we are not doing this month's curriculum in alphabetical order. Mr A likes to pick what animal he wants to learn about. I think that it gives him a sense of control and sparks more interest in the lessons. Because why should I prep a lesson and spend tons of time getting things together, if he doesn't even care about it. Well, I mean, sometimes I choose... but not very often. My favorite conversations with the boys is when I don't have anything in particular planned and one of them starts by asking, "What are we learning about today Mom?"

Now, I'm sure by now you know that MGT sends some pretty awesome things in each month's box. Since the theme is zoo animals, we got more animal figurines to use for various activities. These are always the boys' favorite. However, these animals are a softer plastic/rubber and are a little bit flimsy. They get frustrated when they won't stand up properly or the tails eventually get pulled off. But, those things don't actually make them love the figurines any less. Mr A and Mr Z will play and play with all of these shape counters/manipulatives/figurines... whatever you want to call them.

The boys started off by playing with these and sorted by color and animal type. They put them "into families" as they like to call it. It usually works out great with the colors that they are made in for when they like to divide them up... Mr A gets yellow and blue while Mr Z gets the green and red. It rarely differs from that. Luckily, they have pretty much settled when new shapes are sent in the box.

For the rest of the activities and discussions today, it was like pulling teeth. Mr A would say he wanted to do something then completely change his mind and go do something else. When I finally gave up trying to "do MGT", they were ready to sit and do some things.
So... we talked about the differences of the urchin and vulture by looking at our zookeeper animal cards. We noticed that they are pretty much opposite animal types. One living in water, the other in the sky/on land. One having (maybe) soft feathers, the other sharp pokey spikes.
 Then they sat nicely and painted a letter U paper, provided by MGT with a porcupine ball. I was surprised that they both actually used the porcupine ball the entire time. Both boys normally ask for a paint brush or something that is easier to hold.

 Mr Z likes to add lots of color right away.

 Then mixes it all together to make brown.

 Of course, swirling the paint all together in his bowl is a must too... so he gets even more brown.

 Mr A said, "My U is getting really sea urchin style with of these spikes," after he filled up his letter.

 Once a month, MGT also sends a postcard in the box somewhere. After talking about different animals that live at the zoo, they colored a picture on the front. Mr Z drew some kind of rainbow I guess. Mr A copied his favorite animal toy, Little Howler, and called it a coyote snow fox on his postcard. Mr A also dictated what message to write on the back and who to send them too

Some days are just a pain to try to do lessons and activities. This was one of those days. But, finally, it came together and we were able to do a few things. Even if we only get one or two activities done, I still feel accomplished or better that we did something productive.

G is for G-G-Gorilla

A to Zoo Animals with Mother Goose Time

At about 5pm last night, Mr A mentioned that we hadn't done any activities. So, I told him to go pick an animal picture from the Zookeeper booklet that he wanted to do. He picked gorilla. While they ate dinner and had a bath, I gathered a few things and looked over the MGT lesson. We ended up only doing two things since it was already getting late. But, I'm happy he was eager to do something from the lessons since they were busy just playing all day.

One of the extra things (manipulatives) that came in the month's curriculum were alphabet tiles. They remind me of plastic scrabble letter tiles. We used them for Mr Z to match the letter on the Gorilla Letter Search Card. Mr A liked to give him the letter and help Mr Z find the letter if he was taking too long himself. We went over the sound the letter and the name. 

Mr A did a great impression of a gorilla. He walked on his fisted hands, pounded his chest and made several grunting noises around the house.

The Gorilla Mask craft.

This is what the instructional sheets look like. It has a focus question, explore/play idea and instructions on how to do the craft. Mr A likes making his look like the picture. I tried to tell him that the comb that was included in the materials was to paint a textured hair look, but he had already decided that he was going to glue his comb onto the head of his mask... because that is how it looks in the picture.

We talked a little bit about gorilla's grooming each other. They thought it was gross that they had bugs that may need to get picked off and sometimes eaten after one is found.

Mr Z decided he wanted to use his favorite color paint to use the comb... after he had brushed his own hair for a few minutes with the comb.

Mr A just wanted to color his with marker. He left a space on the gorilla's forehead, where he had traced the comb, to glue it on when he was finished coloring.

Mr Z painted away with his comb, flicking his wrist to try to get a different texture. He ended up just getting too much paint in one spot and couldn't really make the hair-like lines.

It looks like Mr Z's gorilla got into a battle with the red paint... and of course, he needed to glue the comb to the forehead too like his brother did.

Mr A was proud of the ears, nose and mouth he colored on the face.