Goosey Goose

For the past few months, I have been doing an at-home preschool program with the boys called Mother Goose Time. The boys have decided to call it Goosey Goose and get really excited when it's time to start. It's basically a prepackaged program that comes with all of the supplies you need to do "school" at home. Each month has a theme and, quite frankly, the program requires little planning on my part, which is a big selling point with me. Each month includes a music CD, a book of some sort, arts and craft supplies, games, letters, numbers, and so much more. In all honesty, I would never have the time to come up with half of these activities. Even if I skip a day here or there, it's really easy to catch up. The bottom line is it gives us something fun and productive to do and allows me to tap in to my teacher side. However, I must admit, there is a reason I didn't major in early childhood education--it takes far more patience than I seem to have these days. This month's theme is Tree House. I thought I'd share some of the boys' latest artwork.

When I saw this project, I literally laughed out loud. I thought, "Are you kidding me? Toothpicks and two year olds?" But, I will say the boys took the project very seriously after I poked each of them with the toothpick to drive home the point that they would hurt if they played with them. Don't worry, I wasn't mean about it. They just needed to know that this was a serious project with serious consequences if they played with it. Then I had to explain why they couldn't play with the finished project. Luke's response was, "I hold him by the tail mommy."

Each month comes with a calendar and a small poster to reinforce the theme of the month. September's theme was the rain forest, and next month is transportation. I love the graphics and find the materials to be of a good quality.

This gives an idea of the types of things we do. I try to hang their artwork up for the month to just simply reinforce the theme. It's amazing the connections they seem to make. One of the activities had them feel a pine cone in a bag and tell what they thought it felt like. To my amazement, they said that it felt like a porcupine.

If you look closely you can see where they tried to scribble their names.

Today's project involved a skunk and finger paint. Luke freaked out about the paint. He's very particular about having things on his hands.

This has been my favorite project by far. It came with a cute story about a moose, and the boys had a grand time acting it out.

Paci Free Thanks to the Paci Fairy

Brody has been paci free now for an entire month! I had tried getting rid of it several months ago but failed miserably. He was hysterical and kept gagging himself. It felt too much like torture, so I caved and gave it back to him. Unfortunately, he regressed and started needing it all the time again. After seeing pictures of him from the change of command with his paci in his mouth, I knew it was time for it to go. I opted this time for the Paci Fairy to pay him a visit. On the last full day Joyce was here, we had him put all of his pacis in a box in the playroom. We then went out to run some errands. It was at this time the Paci Fairy came and took his pacis for all of the new babies in the world and left him a stuffed dog in return. I must admit I am amazed at how easily this worked! While he cried a bit, it was nowhere near like the first time I tried to take it away. After a few days, he stopped asking for it at all. Yesterday was the first time he's mentioned it weeks. It was funny because he said, "My paci" and then looked at me with sly eyes to see what I would say. I just ignored it, and he didn't mention it again. Now, if anyone has any suggestions on how to get someone to stop sucking his thumb, I'm all ears. I have a feeling that one is going to be a battle far greater. When I told them that the Paci Fairy had taken the pacis to the new babies in the world, Luke's response was, "Mommy, the Paci Fairy no take my thumb away." As you can tell, I'm already losing on that one.

It's a Potty Party

Today marked our first official foray into the world known as potty training. While I worked in several day care two year old rooms in college, potty training your own children is quite the different task. In the daycare setting, it seemed as if one simply followed the other, and there always seemed to be someone who knew what they were doing. Up until today, Luke has already been pretty consistent about peeing in the potty in the mornings and at various times during the day. He's a very reward driven child and loves getting a sticker for his efforts. Brody, on the other hand, could care less about stickers and has not been going potty at all.

It is for this reason and for the fact that I am over changing poopy diapers and spending money on Pull Ups that I threw the boys a Potty Party today. After lots of research (aka time browsing google), I tried a mixture of some different methods I had read about. We started the day with their taking off their diapers and throwing them in the trash on their own. For the party, I basically loaded them up on junk food and juice. This tactic seemed to work for Brody, for he loved the fact that he got to have chips for breakfast. And, he did indeed go to the potty about 8 times today. Unfortunately, all of the juice also resulted in a few accidents as well. As the accidents happened, I could see this look on his face that seemed to say, "Ooops, I don't think that's how that is supposed to happen." Luke had just one accident, and this occurred when he was in time out, so I can't really fault him on that one. The biggest accomplishment for Luke was that he actually pooped in the potty! Up until today, he had not done this.

After each time they went potty, I gave them a choice of getting some candy or a small trinket (think plastic dinosaur, army men, and slinky). They could also choose a balloon. Once again, Brody seemed very lured by the promise of a "PRIZE!" I also set a timer to go off every 20 minutes as a reminder that they needed to try to go to the potty.

All in all, I would classify today as a success. What is it they say about success? Something about beginning with a single step? Well for the boys, the journey to potty success started with a party and lots--and I mean LOTS-- of bribes. Hey--whatever works works!