Library Loot

We tried taking the children to the library when Ava was 1 and Michael was 2. That didn't work out so well. I would go on my own occasionally, but the trip as a family didn't seem productive. We tried again when Ava was 2 and Michael was 3. That was a little better, but still not great. Instead of trying to let the children choose their own books, I would reserve them online and just run in and check out the reserved books.

Recently I decided to try again. It's amazing. I remind the children of the library rules (quiet voices, slow feet, books treated gently and respectfully, etc.) as we walk from the parking lot to the entrance. The children independently head to the children's section and begin to choose books for their piles while I head over to pick up any books I've reserved. Then I join the children and try to cut them off when their piles start to approach a foot high.

The first time we went I forgot to bring a bag. Helping a 3 year old and a 4 year old get a pile of books each out to the car carried in their arms was interesting. This time they each brought their backpack. They brought books to return in their backpack and thoroughly enjoyed pushing them through the return slot. After checking out, they filled their backpacks to overflowing with new books to come home. They begged to choose books to look through on the drive home. All in all, the trip was a complete success.

Such literary riches.

The Weekly Review: Week 59

Weekly Theme:

Overwhelming Fatigue - I think the past few weeks caught up with me this week. A huge work project has had my husband working about double his usual full time schedule for the past 2 1/2 weeks. Consequently, I've been doing many, many consecutive hours of solo parenting. I'm exhausted in a way I can't seem to shake. I've been making a concerted effort to get a minimum of 7.5 hours of uninterrupted sleep for 4-5 nights in a row and I still can't seem to shake the fatigue. I need to catch up because it's starting to effect my mood, parenting, and productivity.

Weekly Highlights:

• Ava is humming and making up songs in all our quiet moments. I'll hear her singing from the back seat of the car on the way to school or singing to herself through the monitor I still keep in her room. It's adorable.
• Pattern blocks have taken over our kitchen table for half the week and we're all having so much fun with them. Michael's experimenting with all the different ways he can make hexagons.
• I was informed that Ava only has two more regular speech sessions and one assessment session left in the school year. How did that sneak up on me? I'm grateful that we'll be continuing her private therapy through the summer.
• Michael had a stomach bug. I'm crossing my fingers and sincerely hoping that he'll remain the only one.
• Ava's preschool teacher was fired. They won't tell me why. I adored her. Ava adored her. She was Michael's first preschool teacher when he started preschool and he adored her. All said and done, I've known this woman for 2 1/2 years and I was always happy with how she cared for my children and how she ran her classroom. I am finding this situation really unsettling.

And now, the fatigue dictates that this is the end of the cliff notes version of the weekly review. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Fun With Pattern Blocks

After watching the children have so much fun with the colored tiles that came as part of our RightStart Math kit, I decided that they needed more shapes to play with. I found this set of pattern blocks on Amazon for about $5-10 less than all the other sets. It shipped quickly and the quality is great. I don't know why it costs so much less, but I'll take it.

Then I found an amazing set of printable patterns at Prekinders. She has the patterns in color version and in black in white. I printed them in black in white. It is a bit more challenging for the children and saves color ink.

When we first started the children were really frustrated because their pattern blocks kept sliding around. I cut some large pieces of contact paper from a roll I got a while back and taped them sticky side up in front of each child. This allowed me to slide the patterns under the contact paper. They could build their designs and then slide the pattern out from underneath to see the pattern. You can also just slide blank paper under the contact paper and let them make up designs of their own. I played too. We all had great fun and our kitchen table has been taken over for two days now.