First Day of School 2012

This morning went amazingly well and Madison was very excited and didn't seem nervous at all!  Yes I am making my senior hold a sign.  That's what happens when you have a sister 12 years younger than you, however I don't feel too bad since you get to reap the magic of Christmas and Easter for many more years than you were intended to. :) I found the signs on Pinterest!

After pictures Alyssa gave Madison a huge hug and wished her a great first day of school!

Madison's backpack is almost as big as she is!

She was very excited to get to school, but once she got there and sat down, I think reality set in. I think her expression speaks for itself...

She's getting read to color her sheet.

And then I gave her a hug and said goodbye. She asked me if I was going to cry..after giving me a very concerned look and me feel immediately guilty for having her worry on her first day of school, I quickly lied and said no and then she gave me a great big smile. The teacher than proceeded to ask me if I was ok. I wonder if she was afraid I just wasn't going to leave...lol So I took one more picture on my way out. 

Then I went home and bawled like a baby. I am sure she will have a great time in Kindergarten and now I just need to focus on all the projects I've been dying to do the past 5 years. :)  The next post will be on the preparation for Kindergarten...I'm doing the posts a little backwards, but I was so excited to post the pictures from today I couldn't help it. :)

After school we are going to do a 'First Day of School Interview'. Just a great time capsule keepsake. :) We'll also do a Last Day of School Interview as well and make it a tradition.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie...

It's ironic how this is the book we focused on this past week and somehow it seemed to be the theme of the week...wanting one thing after another! LOL.

I hope everyone had a great Forth of  July! We decided to take it easy and went to Vista Ridge Mall during the day for our festivities. It was an air conditioned event which is key in the middle of the summer in Texas. They had crafts and facepainting so Madison really enjoyed it! Later that evening we watched fireworks. It ended up being a late night, but that's ok once and awhile.

Madison enjoyed making her take home craft from the Lewisville Library

This week we enjoyed reading "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" by Laura Numeroff. We have it as part of the Mouse Cookies and More Treasury.

It has activities and songs and a CD that is the audio version of each book and the songs too. Madison listened to them over and over. Then we did some activities. She drew a picture like the mouse did in the book, she made playdough cookies and molded a mouse out of molding clay.

Then we did some great If You Give a Mouse a Cookie activities I downloaded for free from ingles360 that have activities for preschoolers as well as grade school! For more activities to make books and reading fun visit my Book Lists and Activities Pinterest Board.

If you have a post that you would like to share with activity ideas to go with books please leave a comment below with your link!

Life of a Five Year Old...Weekend of Brave, Swimming, Science and Fun

This weekend was a busy and fun one! Every Saturday for the summer, Madison takes ballet and tap in the morning at Sacred Dance and loves it! Then Daddy takes her to Michaels for their Passport to Imagination craft. This past Saturday was Canada. She made a picture frame and a maple leaf pin to place on her lanyard with the rest of the pins she has been collecting from the different country crafts.  On Sunday morning DH and Madison worked on her Science Kit. You mix liquids to become crystals. She loves doing these types of Science experiments with her Daddy. :)

Then DH attempted to teach her to ride her bike, however she just isn't wanting to balance on it. I am going to try to have her ride her scooter more so that hopefully she will learn that you have to balance. :) It was only 92 degrees which is perfect here for the middle of summer in Texas so we went went to the pool for a bit. Madison loves to jump off the diving board and loves to swim.

My husband took Madison to go see the movie Brave. We have read the books (I got her an easy reader, a picture book and a chapter book) and so she has been anxiously awaiting the movie. She loved it, despite the scary bear scene. Yes, he thought it would be funny to line her up with the bow and arrow for the picture...

I am getting all prepped for next week. I decided that we are going to pick a couple of books a week to do extra learning activities with. The books for this week are 'If You Give A Mouse A Cookie' and 'Runaway Bunny.' I choose this one because my aunt gave Madison a treasury book that includes this story.  It has a CD with the author's narration and a couple of songs for each of the stories. At the end of each story it also includes some recipes and learning activities. I have also found some good resources on Pinterest and from my Story Stretchers Book. Each week I am going to give her options for morning free play. She can choose to do whichever options her heart desires. :) I do not let her watch much TV.  I am not found of it at all. Last week I let her watch one episode of SuperWhy. I also limit her iPad use to 20 minutes a week as well.  I have found that when I let her watch TV or play electronics that she looses all interest in learning and playing and is constantly begging as if she's addicted so now it's once a week and that's it.

 I am looking forward to a great week! We are going to be doing our regular weekly events:

• Preschool Time at the Lewisville Library
• Swimming Lessons at Aqua Kids
• Passport to Imagination Crafts at Michaels
• Kids Yoga at Yogi Kids
• Developmental Team gymnastics class at Best Gymnastics
• Clue Finders Program at the Lewsiville Library
• Kids Ballet and Tap at Sacred Ground Dance

 We are going to finish reading What Your Preschooler Should Know. It is a GREAT book that has stories, songs, history, science and more!

We also should finish up the BrainQuest cards for ages 4 -5 years.

And we are working on sight words. I found this great colorful set for free on Pinterest from education.com!

I was able to complete her room organization. I still have some laundry to put away before I post pics of the closet, but here are the hair bows and her new dress up area in her room:

Here is the before picture of all of her hair accessories

And the after..I put them in bead sorter boxes from Michaels. We ended up having a total of 4!

Here Madison is sorting her jewelry. She had it dumped together in several little conatiners.

Here it is sorted in little pockets. This organizer hangs up in the closet and is two sided.

I used to have her dress up clothes on the lower level of her closet, but I wanted the closet to just be for regular clothes so I had DH take out the shelves in her bookshelf and added a tension rod (hopefully it will stay). She has three bins to the side that hold dress up accessories. Now it's accessible and organized.

After her room is complete I will be moving on to the Toy Room. Ugh. First I think we are going to try to find a way to organize the doll area first.

And...Madison lost her 3rd tooth today!  The front left one. It is going to take some getting used to for both of us! LOL

A great summer of fun so far!

I am determined to make the most out of the summer before Kindergarten and we are doing just that! Our summer has been filled with different lessons, crafts, treats and fun! I promised myself I would blog about our summer NO MATTER WHAT! :) So here I go.

Madison was extremely excited to turn 5 so she could get her very own library card! I am so delighted with everything the Lewisville Library has to offer for kids over the summer. They have a phenomenal children's summer reading program! Madison is able to read over the entire summer and earn really cool prizes! They also have GREAT children's reading times and programs. Here are some pictures of Madison with her library card and a picture of Zooniversity who presented endangered animals at the library program today. We are so lucky to have a library close that offers so much!

 

Madison completed the first level of her summer reading program through the library and one of the prizes was a free kids meal at Chili's. 

 And the best part of eating out is ordering desert!

 In the morning while I'm still waking up, Madison has free time. She built her Lincoln Logs all by herself by following the instructions! I was so impressed and she was so very proud!

 Here are other pictures of her morning free time activities.

Playdough Fun!

Building a castle

Painting on aluminum foil

Painting

Sand Art

Mosaic Art

Coloring

 

Madison just finished up a two week swimming
camp at Aqua Kids. She passed to the next level and will be starting once a week lessons next week. I am so very, very proud of her. Here are the details for the class/camp she just did:
Requirements to enter the class: 10 second breath control, jump turn and swim to wall, swim 25 feet, get independent forward breath with good recovery, back float, back glide
Goals for the class: Proper body position with forward swim, swim 1 length of our pool with rollover breathing, finning on back 1 width of our pool, introduction to frog kick, underwater swim

And here are the details for the next class she begins on Monday:
Requirements to enter the class: Proper body position with forward swim, swim 1 length of our pool with rollover breathing, finning on back 1 width of our pool, introduction to frog kick, underwater swim
Goals for the class: Freestyle 1 length of our pool with rollover breath, finning on back 1 length of our pool, frog kick 1 width of our pool, underwater swim, diving
Yep, I am one VERY proud momma!

We have been participating in every Passport to Imagination craft at Michaels. Each craft represents a different country and she gets to make a pin as well. A super cool fun activity. We go every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.  (She dressed herself that day)

Madison is continuing to take gymnastics at Best Gymnastics and is loving it.  She is on the Developmental Team and loves Coach Josh. She is excited about becoming a team girl one day and is even more excited to practice hard after watching the Olympic Trials.

Yogi Kids and Sacred Dance opened a new studio together in Flower Mound and are offering $5 classes all summer long. Madison has been taking Kids Yoga, Hip Hop, Storytime Yoga, and Ballet and Tap. I don't currently have pictures, but will be posting some soon!

Downtime is also very important. I have finally discovered how to implement it for both Madison and I for an hour every day....books on CD. I checked out a bunch of Magic Tree House books on CD and downloaded them onto her iPod (temporarily we delete them after she listens to them). She LOVES them and lays down and listens for an hour or more.  It's GREAT!

We also have started a reading list of books that I read to her and she is on Set 2 of BOB books that she reads to me. Next week I am going to start Story Stretchers to go with the books we are reading.  Lots of different activities. I also hope to involve her in cooking and start some music. Trying to find a balance without putting anything off for her can be very difficult sometimes. I am very, very lucky to have a great helper (Madison's sister). She has been wonderful this summer.

I can't believe it is already almost July! It is crazy how fast time is flying by, I need a pause button! I am very fortunate to have a 'cheat sheet' website with all the activities for kids in North Texas right at my fingertips. Thank goodness for FamilyeGuide or I'd miss out on all the fun things to do this summer!

So far it's been a busy and productive summer and his doesn't even include all of the organizing of Madison's room! I'll save that for the next post!

Updated with file link!!! Zoo scavenger hunt printables (Dallas Zoo)

I am so excited! Madison loves to zoo so we got a season pass and we are going tomorrow. She also loves scavenger hunts.  I printed off a zoo scavenger hunt for our first visit to the zoo this season, but she was a little bummed that the animals listed weren't all the ones we were seeing ( it was pretty basic).  So I quickly threw together a zoo scavenger hunt that has all of the animals at the Dallas Zoo.  I have only completed Giants of the Savanna and Wilds of Africa (not including the monorail ride) but it will be good enough for our trip tomorrow and I will create the rest before our next trip!  Here is a screen shot of one of the pages I created.

I am going to laminate them and then she can mark off each animal she sees with a magic erase marker and we can reuse them for each trip!

I hope once she knows the names of ALL the animals I will create cards with facts associated with each one!

Click HERE to access the files in a public Dropbox folder.

Spring is in the air! Time for lots of fun!

It is warming up outside and I am getting so excited for Spring! We're gearing up for our St. Patrick's Day activities and Spring activities as well! 

Here are some links to great St. Patrick's Day activities that we are currently working on!

St. Patrick's Day from Home made Preschool

St. Patrick's Day from PreKinders

St. Patrick's Day from 2 Teaching Mommies 

Check out my Spring Pinterest Board for lots of fun activities and ideas!

Here are a couple pictures of Madison completing a project from The Printable Share.  Just click on St. Patrick's Day on the site for many more fun activities. 

Madison has also been keeping very active!  She is taking gymnastics once a week and dance class once a week.  I just signed her up for a sports skills class that she will be starting tomorrow too.  We took her bowling for the first time this past weekend and she LOVED it!  She also likes to do yoga on the Wii for fun!

Here is a picture of Madison during her class at Best Gymnastics

Here is a picture of Madison bowling

And a picture of her attempting to do the yoga on the Wii

I always love finding great ideas for kids!  Here are some great articles worth reading from Family eGuide:

Imaginative Fun

Girly Fun

Family Activities Any Time

I look forward to working on our Gardening Unit from Homeschool Creations and planting seeds for her to watch grow! I am also looking forward to having a lot of fun doing activities with Madison that I find on the Family eGuide Calendar and having her get her energy out at Best Gymnastics Spring Break Camp!

Kindergarten registration is next month...it is all happening too fast!  Getting one child ready for kindergarten and the other for her senior year and choosing a college has been an eye opener of just how fast life goes and I'm enjoying every minute of it! 

End of 2011/Beginning of 2012 - Full of learning and fun!

Madison has kept busy over the holiday break and is ready to start back to preschool tomorrow. :)

She really enjoyed attending camp at Best Gymnastics last Thursday.  A good 1/2 day of exercise!   The weather was beautiful so when she got home she went to play outside and my husband taught her how to swing by herself!  Yay!  No more pushing her for hours!  :)  She is so proud of herself.  She has been swinging everyday since.

She also got a super treat of getting a spa pedicure with mommy.  She had little snowflakes put on her toes.

She also attended Open Gym on Friday at Best Gymnastics.  It's 3 hours in the evening of fun.  Thank goodness for these opportunities for her to run all of her energy out! I am very  fortunate to have such a wonderful gymnastics instruction program right down the street!

Madison jumping on the trampoline

 We were able to squeeze some homeschooling in as well!  We worked on tracing, cutting, matching words with the pictures and beginning sounds from the The Snowy Day unit.

 

She absolutely loves her Candy Cane Sight Words and wants to do them every day.  She wants to get them all so she can circle the 'Good Job' at the end of the page! :)

She also wrote her thank you notes for her presents.

I took a couple of pictures of her playing with some of her Christmas presents.  First she enjoyed making her Wuggle Pets that Santa brought her.

And Moon Sand :)

Here's to a GREAT 2012!  A fun filled year with learning!