Avi - 05/27/2021

Avi's least favorite breakfast. (French Toast and Dried Plums.) For lunch she ate three servings of pulled pork, ate whole wheat toast, peas, and strawberries. 

First picture: Left over from yesterday afternoon. As usual Avilene wanted me to take a picture of her creation and here it is. 

Today was Science with Lauralea and we did one project (Lauralea has a busy day today) that I would probably label more Art than Science. Going forward we are going to do more of that during Science Time; more elaborate Art Projects some of the time. I'll call this the early years of STEAM (originally it was STEM) education. The "A" has been added for Arts. (You get a bonus point if you know what the acronym stands for.)

        Today we were making "Crystal Art." They were instructed to make thin lines/designs with the glue all over their paper and try not to puddle it for the best results. In the second picture we were pouring salt over the papers to stick to the glue. This particular paper was Nora's and you can see she did a large N and O with a small r and a below. In the third picture the kids were using the syringes to apply the color of water they chose for their picture. It was easy to get too much water; the instructions were to carefully dribble the water along the glue lines. We'll see how it looks when it dries. 

Last picture; The three oldest girls playing another game today; "Spot It." This was a different one than they were playing yesterday. This relies more on simply spotting two identical objects quickly and doesn't rely on memory like the matching games. 

Avi - 05/26/2021

Avilene ate half of whole wheat toast and ate mangoes for breakfast. For lunch she ate a large serving of ground beef with marinara sauce on top of whole wheat spaghetti noodles. She ate 2 bites of cauliflower and ate fruit salad. All of the kids have enjoyed watching the new pictures we loaded on the digital frame and at meal time they frequently say, "new one!" "new one!"  

This first picture is the same as the one in Svea's Blog, but the 3 Big Girls were doing something totally different. They're playing a game called "Spot It." (This one is actually "ABC Spot It") They are doing so good following the rules and taking turns now (along with other skills they are learning too) and I love how much they enjoy playing various kinds of games. This is a game they played with Lauralea while I was gone and then I found 2 more of the same games with different themes. It's amazing how much stuff we have here if you keep digging!! :)

Next picture: Well this is one of the rare times today the Big Girls left the Preschool Room. This was shortly after breakfast when I was still cleaning up and the table was not yet available! Ha. You can see Nora's hand coming out from below the Griz pillow and Avi is also under the cozy corner rug at the other end of the couch. As you probably guessed, Atley was piling pillows and blankets on the other two!

Last two pictures; The girls are back doing activities in the Preschool Room. Nora and Atley working on Art papers and Avi was doing a puzzle type activity. Then in the last picture they were all working on the same tray and talking about the magnetic properties they were experimenting with!! Well done kids!! I love how long they will stay on one task. 

Avi - 05/25/2021

Avilene ate blueberry bagel and grapes for breakfast. For lunch she ate shrimp, bites of brown rice, no broccoli, and bites of marion black berries. Atley made an announcement at the breakfast table: "When I grow up I'm gonna give all my toys to you guys." LOL. Geez that made me laugh. Everyone seemed to be quite pleased with that announcement. Avi said, "She's gonna give me her toys when she grows up." Ha.

This is kind of random, but in case anyone was wondering; I stopped doing the Spanish color words for the kids because - after listening to Alexa and Siri - I wasn't getting them correct and I didn't want the kids to have to unlearn and then relearn at Paxon. :)

This first picture is leftover from yesterday and I'm posting it primarily because she asked me to take a picture and I like to validate her work. She screwed all the different colored bolts in with the drill. (Following the color pattern under the holes.) Second picture: Working on a puzzle this morning. She said, "I can't remember if it's Lightning McQueen or Queen Lightning." Ha. It's a rare moment that I know an answer about a movie, character, action figure, etc that she can't remember!! Very rare.

Next picture: Avi practicing and perfecting a new Art Technique using two markers at the same time. Ha. And in the last picture she's reading some books to the boys. Thank you Avilene and the boys were loving it too. 

Avi - 05/24/2021

Avilene chose not to eat breakfast. For lunch she ate chicken, toasted whole wheat pita bread, ate avocado, two servings of cucumbers, and two servings of pears.

We did a toy, book, puzzle, Preschool Activities, and art (supplies) exchange this weekend so the kids were busy all morning. As usual I've always been interested in what each child goes for first and this is what Avi was working on; puzzles. She did puzzles by herself and then joined the others when they were all working on the new puzzles too.

Next picture: Art was the next choice for the three big girls and they basically migrated together from one activity to the next. :) They were just getting a good start when I took this picture, but you can see the end result of Avi's first piece. I asked Avi to tell me about her picture and she said, "I was out of ideas so I just did some coloring and some stickers." :)

Last picture: Now they've migrated to the carpet to play a matching game. They had the table cleaned off from Art work, but said they still wanted to play the game on the floor. They always ask me to help them draw straws to see who goes first. AND they always sit in the same order even on the floor as they do at the table. Nora won the first draw so Svea played next, then Avi, and then Atley.

Avi - 05/21/2021

Avilene ate two large servings of whole grain cream of wheat cereal and one bite of dried plums for breakfast. For lunch she ate bites of chicken, half of her brown rice, no broccoli, and ate pineapple. Because of Avi frequently mentioning her love of "cream of wheat" now Atley and Nora are chanting the same thing and eating more than one serving. And so did Callahan. :) I made a total of 8 servings for breakfast and they ate it all. 

First picture is from yesterday and as usual Avi said, "Take a picture Please Please Please Please!!" Ok, why not!! This picture even made the cut and into your Blog Avilene!! Ha! Great smile Kiddo!!

One thing I've been noticing is the length of time the older girls are spending on one activity or some of the same type of activities. For example you'll see in today's Blog 3 Board Games. They spent all morning on these 3 games and they were totally engaged. They are doing well meeting my expectations of taking turns and encouraging one anther. Also I let them struggle with some conflict and try to work it out for themselves unless it's obvious they need quick intervention. 

Next picture: Avi was leading the next two games - my role when I'm involved - passing out the cards in the first picture and spinning the wheel and calling out the answers in "Farmyard Bingo." Notice how Nora is raising her hand; "I have a blue horse!" Last picture: Playing the new Disney Memory Game. Again I like Nora's body language; "Dang, I need to remember where I just saw that one!!" :) This is the "Princess Edition," but thankfully it has many more characters as well so Avi was happy about that. :) Actually there are lots of characters!! 36 matches to be exact. 78 pieces. 

Avi - 05/20/2021

Avilene had no waffle and ate three servings of fruit salad for breakfast. For lunch she ate two servings of ground turkey, ate whole wheat tortillas, sweet potatoes, and two servings of cherries.

Today: Science with Lauralea and the theme is Clouds and Rain. Avi said, "We already did rain." Haha. And that's true, but guess what!?!? There is lots more to learn. :) We're also doing Clouds this time AND we have all new experiments. (Do NOT try to sneak in a "repeat" with Avi. Ha.) First picture; Make a cloud using hairspray. In the jar we put hot water, lid upside-down on jar, ice on the lid, let sit for 30 seconds, take off the lid, and squirt hairspray in bottle. And guess what?!? You got some clouds! :)

Next picture; Nora was totally sure it was gonna be loud (it wasn't) and explode! (It didn't) Haha. However she was ready just in case!! Lighting a match for the experiment is what caused her nervousness! We put warm water in the jar, light a match and put it in the jar, stretch a balloon over the top, and poke down on the balloon like you see Lauralea doing in the picture. This changes the pressure in the jar. Take off balloon and clouds roll out. :)

More experiments: Small amount of rubbing alcohol in the bottle and put air pressure in the bottle using a hand pump. Release the cap and you have clouds. Middle picture: Hot water in glass cup, paper bowl on top with ice cubes in the bowl, watch the condensation form on walls of the cup, and then rain drops start falling off the bottom of the paper bowl. Last picture: More hands-on for this one as they saturated the sponge with water and watched the drops start in their cups. 

Avi - 05/19/2021

Avilene had no French toast and ate oranges for breakfast. For lunch she ate a large serving of Whole 30 Chili with meat, peppers, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, tomato sauce, and lots of good spices. She ate whole wheat dinner roll, and three servings of tropical fruit. 

First two pictures: This is officially "Puzzle Week" I guess. :) Everyone has been doing more puzzles and I think part of that is because of Svea's extra interest in puzzles right now. Whenever one of them gets super interested in some particular activity it always looks more inviting to the others as well. This first puzzle Avi is working on is pretty challenging in my opinion. Callahan was watching Avi work on it and you can see his feet in the picture standing on the gate. :)

Next picture; Three Big Girls at the Doll House playing together. As you all know by now this is simply not Avi's thing, but she'll agree to play here as long as she can be the "Delivery Person." Ha. And they did that activity for probably 15 minutes or more.

I think this last picture is pretty special! The Love on Avi's face is amazing. I know you can't see this in "Live Mode," but it's even more precious there. Avi is a super big Sister for Svea and I'm so glad they've been able to be at Little Treasures together! 

Avi - 05/18/2021

Avilene ate half of cinnamon/raisin English muffin and ate grapes for breakfast. For lunch she ate pork roast, two servings of whole wheat toast, ate beets, and applesauce.  

First picture: The girls were playing the matching game; Svea is doing something different and you'll read about it in her Blog. They were also talking at the same time about Avi's "Bouncy House." Avi told Atley, "You can come over and play in the bouncy house, but I think you're too big to do a somersault on the slide down." :)

Next picture: The three oldest girls creating some pictures at the Art Table. Probably 10 minutes after I took this picture Nora was looking at Avi's piece and gave Avi the sweetest complement!! She said, "You are good at SO much stuff." Isn't that sweet and adorable. I was SO proud of Nora expressing that to Avi and we followed up by talking about what she said. And having Avi express "Thank You Nora" for telling me that. A pretty cool moment. 

This next picture is the one that Nora was very impressed with; especially the fish, car, and the flag. I asked Avi if that was Mommy's new van. She said, "Yes" and then directed my attention to "the pipe where the smoke comes out the back." LOL. (Well Mom should get that checked out!)

Last picture: You'll see a picture with Svea how Avi is introducing Svea to these Preschool Activities. I really liked this because Avi decided to make her own design and not follow any of the patterns. She said, "This is where the Indians lived." A Teepee. "Yup." Nice work Avilene.

Avi - 05/17/2021

Avilene ate two servings of peaches and no corn chex cereal for breakfast. For lunch she ate ground beef, toasted whole wheat sandwich thin, tomatoes, avocado, and two servings of mandarin oranges. 

Well like always it's really a lot of fun to come back to a sweet loving welcome from the Daycare Kids. Avi and Svea were giving tons of loves and of course Avi wanted it to become a regular mauling session! Haha. I missed my Nelson girls. I give a huge Thank You to Lauralea for giving me the week to see precious family in Louisiana. Here's a picture from the Gulf on Friday and the water was so nice and warm.

Lauralea had some nice pictures from last week, but she wasn't able to post them so I picked out a couple random ones that I like. Avi's giving Cal a big wild ride in the swing. Lauralea said Avilene did very well while I was gone. She'd frequently question Lauralea especially when Lauralea did things her own way and "not how Gary does it." Haha. Lauralea and I have identical lap tops and Avi asked, "Are you supposed to be using Gary's computer?!?" Haha. Good job Avi! 

Last picture: Doing a "spotting" book with sister Svea. Avi is such an awesome teacher for sister. Especially when she's teaching Svea good things. Haha. 

Avi 5/10/21

 

Avi ate about half of her Cheerios and all of her banana at breakfast.  At lunch she ate thirds on olives and everything else (hamburger, avocado, strawberries, and pita bread). 

I decided to have the “big” girls be my helpers today and gave them several jobs throughout the morning.  One of Avi’s was to make sure Svea didn’t need help washing her hands (especially getting the paper towel ripped off) when it was time to wash for meals.  She also checked to make sure Miles was in his chair and buckles correctly then put his bib on and tighten it up while I got the food on the table.  She really loves having jobs.

We spent about 40 minutes doing table stuff, because that is what they wanted to do this morning. That included both play dough and drawing.  She wasn’t so sure that Calahan should be sitting at the table for these endeavors, but didn’t fight me on it too much.           

One of the other favorites of the day was me introducing them to the “Goldfish Song” with Alexa and doing the motions with them.

Another one was teaching them a new game call “Spot It”.  She and Nora played one game of it after I laid Svea down.  If you aren’t familiar with the game, each round card has about 8 different pictures on it and you have to find which of the pictures on the two cards are the same.  Whoever finds it first gets that card.  She is very quick to spot the pictures that match! 

I put some new pictures on the electronic photo frame and she and Nora were really focused on watching them and saying “old” or “new” as a picture came on the screen during lunch.  It was great! It always amazing me how much they take in and how “right” they are. 

Avi - 05/07/2021

Avilene ate brown rice and no raisins for breakfast. For lunch she ate two servings of salmon, ate whole wheat dinner roll, 2 bites of cauliflower, and ate mangoes.  

This first picture is from yesterday afternoon The kids had on their sunglasses and were ready to do some bubbles. Avi likes to chase bubbles with that noodle. Also yesterday Avi said, "Hey Gary, this is the hottest day of the year! It's breaking ALL the records!!" Oh really, who told you that? She said, "Hudson told me." Haha. Well then it's gotta be true.

Next picture: Atley is not here for a few days - back next Thursday - but Avi and Nora were having fun. It started at the breakfast table and Nora got the giggles and Nora LOVES to giggle. When she's in that mode everything makes her giggle and Avi was taking advantage of it! So after breakfast Avi had Nora on the mattress and Nora continued to giggle as Avi was tickling her.

Next picture: Avi and Nora were playing the matching game again. I have them draw straws before every game to see who goes first and they always sit in the same order at the table. Obviously today it's just these two playing - Svea was taking pictures of them - so sitting order didn't matter. Last picture; Making some Mother's Day cards to put in their sack. We had 5 different gift sacks for them to choose from so we used straws again to see who picked first. :)

Avi - 05/06/2021

Avilene ate two servings of strawberries and no French toast for breakfast. For lunch she ate a large serving of Hearty Paleo Stew with meat, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, green beans, carrots, and tomatoes. She ate two servings of saltines and two servings of tropical fruit.

Atley was drawing this picture and said, "It's the Northern Lights!!" Have you seen the Northern Lights? Atley said, "No." Avilene said, "I have!" Really, you have!?! Avi said, "Yes, I have them on my pants at home." Hahaha. Sorry, that doesn't count. That made me laugh. 

Science with Lauralea! We did something different today and the kids loved it and had a great time. For one week we replaced it with: "Art Project For Mother's Day." And it's a secret!! Ha. We'll see how that goes. So maybe the Blog will be shorter than usual; especially short on pictures because they did about 3 art Projects I think and the camera was NOT allowed to show their work. So here's a picture at the beginning as they waited with their paint shirts on. 

Last picture: And Avi agreed to a ponytail in her hair! We used acrylic paints for one project and we didn't want that in the kid's hair. So I thought I better get a picture of her; she was actually focused on her painting when I took this picture.

Avi - 05/05/2021

Avilene ate cinnamon/raisin English muffin and two servings of mandarin oranges for breakfast. For lunch she ate two servings of ground beef, ate whole wheat elbow noodles, peas, and applesauce.  

This first picture is left over from yesterday afternoon during Nap Time when the little people were still napping. These three had been reading books; you can a couple books still laying on the floor. So what are they doing now? Basically just what you see!! Atley and Nora are having a conversation about something very important in their world. And Avi, well I've no idea!! Just checking out Atley's toes is what it looks like to me! Haha.

This picture is also from yesterday afternoon. Big Willy, our neighbor across the street, bought treats for the Daycare Kids. He flagged down the truck and had her back up to our gate. Ha. Thank you Willy! That was very sweet of you. He said, "Hey, it's the least I can do for my fans!" Ha. That's about the truth too. He loves it when they all pound on the window and wave when he's getting his mail!

Next picture: Avi was building with the legos and Miles was watching very closely! When she was done she just handed it to him and he took it apart. That was sweet of you Avi. We read a book about Friends and when I asked Avi, "who's your best friend?" Avi said, "Miles!" Last picture; Avi displaying some Art Work. Then she cut it out and it became her mask. Nice work Avi. She occasionally asks to "color," but I'd much rather let them be creative and make their own pictures. And Avi has lots of creativity!!

Avi - 05/04/2021

Avilene had no waffle and ate grapes for breakfast. For lunch she ate chicken, whole wheat tortillas, corn, and two servings of baked cinnamon apples.  

I'm gonna mention it today and again on Friday: There will be no Blogs next week while I'm in Louisiana. (I'd be more than happy to post pictures of Gideon from there!! Just let me know!! HaHa.) Blogs will resume on Monday the 17th. 

This first picture of Avi's is from yesterday and I LOVE how much detail she has here. Lots of hard work and very creative. She has curly hooks on all the Christmas Tree balls. In the upper right hand corner its' (in Avi's words) "Santa and his reindeer surrounded by Elves." :) Second picture this morning Avi was doing a special kind of rainbow. :)

Next two pictures: Avi was happy to have her buddy Miles back with us today. And I think he was happy to see her as well. He still feels a bit puny and in the second picture he was content to just stand/lean there with his head resting against Avi. Very sweet and precious. 

Next picture; Avi was busy with puzzles again today; just like yesterday. It's so interesting how they'll go weeks and not touch something and then do it everyday for a week straight!! Last picture: The three big girls playing the "Feelings Matching" game. The two oldest girls are closely watching Nora's cards in case they get a chance at another match. :)