Survival instinct

I have a confession to make. Week 9 at the preschool of Mommy had less to do with teaching my children anything and more to do with simply getting through the day with three kids. After finding out I was going to be on my own with two toddlers and a one week old, I realized I needed a plan if I was going to make it to lunch without losing my mind (or one of the children). I'd planned to take a break from preschool while we settled in with Jacob, but decided that having some organized activities was better than just wandering aimlessly around the house chasing down toddlers.

So I pulled out my giant preschool notebook, stole some craft ideas from other creative mommies, and mapped out my day in 30 minute increments. It worked like a charm. The kids had a blast, as always, and were hardly fazed by the addition of our newest pupil (who slept through most of the morning, thankfully). They loved having Jacob join them for story time, and Abby was deeply concerned that he couldn't work on crafts or play play-doh with them.

All in all, Preschool Lite + Newborn went surprisingly well. Caleb really got into his watermelon letter w craft this week, and we worked on counting to ten as he sorted and added "seeds" to his creation. He's great at counting out loud to ten, but doesn't quite understand the concept of applying a single number to each item as he counts. He was perfectly content to yell out "one-do-free-four-five-six-ehven-eight-dine-den" over and over as he pointed randomly at the beans in front of him. He's also become obsessed with being meticulously clean during craft time, which makes working with glue a bit of a challenge. "Nakkin, Mommy?"--his request for a napkin--is the only thing that interrupted his counting.

Lap space is at a premium for story time now, but thankfully all the kids are still quite happy to sit through about a half an hour of stories at a time. This is the longest any of my kids will stay quiet and still at one time, and I welcome the rest that comes from finding a story they love and reading it as many times as they want. Currently, they're loving our book of ABC Bible verses and such classic fairy tales as The Princess and the Pea, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood and The Gingerbread Man. We're still working through our Bob books as we focus on our letter of the week. Abby's sight words are paying off, and I'm finding that if I pause long enough when I come to a word I know she recognizes, she'll chime in and read it herself. She's super proud of herself whenever she reads a word now, but gets embarrassed if I make a big deal out of it. So I try to quietly affirm her and move on. (Although inside, I'm bursting with pride myself for my little girl. There's nothing quite like seeing her figure things out on her own.)
And for no other reason than they're delicious, and it takes up lots of time, we made sugar cookies this week. Caleb wanted to make "ninzerbed men" like the gingerbread man in the story, so he cut out plenty of those after Abby meticulously flattened out the thickest roll of dough I've ever seen. Later we frosted and decorated them before dining on our creations after lunch, and I realized that I probably hate those sugar crystal sprinkles about as much as I hate glitter. But I'll continue to allow it in my home, because my kids love it and, let's face it...sugar cookies just aren't the same without sprinkles.

Good thing these kids love to take turns vacuuming.