Little Froggies Preschool

By majority consensus (2 out of 2), this is the name of our at-home pseudo-school. I am hoping that naptime is enough time to cram in a blog entry, clean up and get in a little work work. P.S. I'm tired... to anyone out there who thinks taking care of a kid is easy work read this.

This week I decided to work on spelling/reading a bit because Zoë seems very comfortable with her letters but still doesn't realize that the order and placement of letters have any relation to each other or spell words uniquely. She does write in a neat line when mimicking writing. On Tuesday, after nap, Zoë made her own sandwiches and cut some peaches. Then we worked on some spelling games (sorting magnetic letters and numbers and using a magnetic board to spell out some words, etc.). That was fun and she's sounding things out a bit more now.

Today, we made flashcards! I gave Z some old magazines and she cut out her favorite things and we glued them on cards and then on the other side I wrote out the word with her. Now it's part of our game to use the cards to spell. The bad part is that she chose some pretty tricky pictures! Still, it was a fun and great activity that practiced her fine motor skills (cutting and pasting) and hopefully is building her spelling skills too. Afterward, we relaxed and let loose with some wild toddler dancing to Pandora's assortment of kiddie tunes. Z showed me some of her yoga moves and we did a few partner yoga moves. We even managed a 10 minute meditation (surprised I didn't fall asleep!)

p.s. The dresser behind Zoë will be highlighted in a coming attraction... once we put the finishing touches on her new space and post pictures then! Stay tuned ...

A new chapter

In the beginning, Mom stayed home with Zoë, then we moved to Maryland and Dad stayed home with Zoë. Then Zoë went to school, while her parents worked full time. This summer, I decided to spend more time at home, working part time, so Zoë and I could have more time to play together. Today's the first day of our new adventure (since last week we were relaxing in San Francisco -- need to catch up on those stories! teasers: pedicure, entertaining FAA security officers with Chicken Dance, tons of gifts for Ninamashi, and more...)

I hope that I can document this experiment here a little bit. So far, this morning was spent at the dentist office. Here's a photo for fun. We are also redesigning (all grown up: crib repaced by big girl bed!) her half of the bedroom. Photos to come... Also as a practice run, the storm took out power a couple of weeks ago at school and Zoë had to stay at home; we played fort! Here's a video of our fun picnic, complete with gourmet felt sandwiches, pretend tea, and plastic brownies for dessert. Yum!