Tot School

You know what's the coolest thing about having a sister with kids the exact same age as yours? Everything. But especially having fabulous mom ideas to share with each other. The latest, our attempt at Tot School. At home. God, forgive me for ever mocking homeschoolers. For this household has officially started our homeschool preschool. And by official, I mean we have completed Day 1 of "studying" Apples!

Today we've been doing lots of apple projects, singing apple songs, reading apple poems and duh, eating apples. Here's a little glimpse at our first day of school. And as my student said herself, "Mommy, I didn't even cry at school!" I must be an amazing teacher.

We colored apples

We played a little matching game

(which we looooved)

And played again, and again..

The masterpiece

And then we stamped big A's and little a's (and a few random's)

And made an apple tree

Then we traced Lucca's hand/arm for a tree trunk and glued it to a blue sheet of paper, which Lucca fingerpainted. We were attempting to create green leaves on the tree, but she is 2 years old with a creative mind..

So our tree became a painting of "Whole Foods"

Which is just fine by me.

We had a ton of fun, lots of learning for Lucca and mama. My main goal today was just to get Lucca to listen to my instructions and then follow directions. She did great. We are planning on doing this a couple mornings a week for 30 minutes. Upcoming themes we will study include farm, pumpkins, dinosaurs, turkeys and other rad 2 year old appropriate topics.

Happy homeschooling!

Oh October

Now that I'm a mom, October is quickly becoming my favorite month of the year. Which is funny since it used to be my least favorite. Kind of like when I used to not understand why the state of Oregon even existed, then I spent a year in Portland and love the place tremendously. Ah, life.

But, October! Fall is here. Which means holidays are around the corner. Halloween costume planning is in full effect. A trip to the pumpkin patch is in order. Our daily chatter is about harvest festivals, hay rides, scarecrows, apple pickin, trick or treating and leaf hunts. And don't forget about pumpkin pancakes and baked apples. And hot cider! Which reminds me of Apple Hill and pony rides. So many fun kid things to do at this time of year. Meaning fun for mom (and dad) too.

I've always loved the holidays, but everything is becoming much more fun as Lucca gets older.

October, you aren't so bad after all.

Backyard fun

Lucca is so happy to have a backyard, she doesn't even make it past the deck steps sometimes!

Songbird

This mama's heart melted when I caught a glimpse of Lucca singing to her baby brother to calm him down. He was crying so she ran over to him and (in case you don't recognize the song) sang "hey little baby, it's gonna be alright..."

He stopped crying immediately. Coco Wins.