Monkey School

My sister keeps requesting that I do a blog post about some of my preschool ideas.  I have been hesitant to do this because of all the other AWESOME homeschooling type blogs out there.  Blogs with much more polished ideas and projects.  Don't get me wrong, I usually feel pretty positive about my activities (although I have had some major flops) but I don't go the extra mile to make the projects cute, and professional looking.  I just make them kid-functional.

Anyway, Miss M. started *real* preschool so I wanted to do something for Buddy.  He turned 2 in August and has spent his whole life being dragged around to Miss M.'s activities.  So, I invited 4 other moms to bring their 2 year olds to my house for an hour of "Monkey School" (I let Buddy pick the name) once a week.  And because I am a cheap-skate, I requested that they give me 5 dollars per month for supplies.  I don't have a formal curriculum, and I am not trying to teach them letters or numbers.  I just want them to get use to group activities and following directions in a group.  My basic goal is to do a story, a song, a gross motor activity, sensory experience and a project (either science or art). Here is the run down of our last lesson.

Opening Song:  If you Like Monkey School (to the tune of Happy and you know it).
If you like Monkey School, clap your hands (or say hi to so and so, stomp your feet etc.)
If you like Monkey School, clap your hands.
If you like Monkey School and you think it's really cool.
If you like Monkey School, clap your hands.

Book:  The Little Old Lady who Wasn't Afraid of Anything. ( I have props for the kids to hold up and do the actions at the appropriate time)

Gross Motor:  Pumpkin tells dance.

Sensory Bin:  Rice with orange and black spiders.  I put a black circle in the bottom of a pie tin and an orange circle in the bottom of another.  Then I wrapped spider webs around the tins and had the kids dig threw the rice to find spiders and then color sort them into the right web.

Project:  Water color surprise.
I drew Halloween pictures onto white paper with a white crayon and then had the kids water color over it to discover the surprise.

Song:  Oh Once I had a  pumpkin (to the tune of Have you ever seen a lassie). I premade pumpkins on a Popsicle stick and had face shapes cut out.  The kids glued faces on the pumpkins and then we sang the song (flipping the pumpkins around to show the face at the appropriate time).

Oh once I had a pumpkin, a pumpkin, a pumpkin
Oh once I had a with no face at all.
with no eyes and no nose and no mouth and no teeth.
oh once I had a pumpkin with no face at all.

So I made a jackolatern, jackolatern, jackolatern.
so i made a jackolatern with a big scary face.
with big eyes and a big nose and big mouth and sharp teeth.
so I made a jackolatern with a big scary face.

And that is it.  The kids had a good time.  although, it is still a little crazy because this is the first preschool type thing most of the kids have done.

Facebook Withdrawals Day 5

Andy will be so disappointed in me but I am back on facebook.   I missed the connection with my family.  I love my giant extended family (both my parents are the oldest of seven) and facebook truly is the best way I've found to stay in the loop on what is happening in everyone's lives.  So I deleted half my friends and am now down to family and a few good friends. My goal is to check it less (once or twice a day) so it isn't such a time sink.  We'll see how it goes.  

Facebook Withdrawals Day 2

I know this is ridiculous but I miss facebook.  I find myself sitting aimlessly at the computer, feeling lost and unconnected.  I have thought a several things to post (e.g. "brownie batter for lunch was probably not a good idea) and wanted to email a couple of women from church.  but I couldn't because I don't have their actual emails, just facebook messaging.  ugh. 

If I had to decide today, I would undelete my account and just try to work on my willpower to only check it once a day.  But, I committed for a week.  No feeling is final.  Maybe I'll feel differently on Sunday. 

Facebook Withdrawals. *updated

I deleted my facebook account a little over an hour ago.  And already, I am mentally writing status updates about how hard it is to not post status updates.  So I am cheating and posting them here.

• Taylor is surprised by how many times she has typed http://www.facebook.com/ just out of habit.

Wish me luck.

...........................................................

There has been some interest in my reasoning for quitting facebook.  So here goes.

Pros:

• feel more connected with my extended family, ward members, and some friends that I wouldn't be in contact with otherwise (my immediate family and close friends keep in touch anyway)
• my extended family, ward members, some friends etc. have more access to what is going on with me.

Cons: 

• (and this is really my main reason) lately I have had a hard time posting things on facebook because it feels a little narcissistic to me.  I say that without intending any criticism of other people.  I truly love reading updates about my friends and family and I never feel that they are being narcissistic but for my own self, I just haven't wanted to post as much because it feels weird to announce to all the random people I am "friends" what I had for dinner.  
• Facebook is a time sink.  I waste so much time on facebook.  And I simply do not have the willpower to only check it occasionally.  I am an all or nothing girl.  

So after much internal debate, I decided to delete my account.  Although, for better or worse, facebook allows you 14 days to change your mind.  So I'll reevaluate in a week to make sure.  I am sad that my extended family won't know what is going on with me (most are unwilling to sign into my private blog) and I know I'll miss updates from my friends but my close friends will fill me in no matter what (or at least they'd better).