Music and Movement!

This post is inspired by a few different things:

 1. I am a stay-at-home mommy to two busy, WIGGLY preschoolers living in a COLD climate.  They I depend on them getting adequate physical activity during the day for life to run smoothly around here, and our options for physical activity in the winter are very limited.  The majority of our indoor options involve yucky germs and can be a little overstimulating (i.e. fast food play places, indoor mall play areas and the like, so we try to limit the frequency of our visits to such places).

2. I believe in music and its many, many benefits to our lives.  Not that I am at all musically gifted... I can't carry tune, and I never learned how to read music, but I grew up in a family that absolutely appreciated and promoted music.  When I worked as a caseworker for kids and adults with intellectual disabilities (before our kids came along) I remember attending a seminar about music therapy, and I really enjoyed learning about how music has been instrumental in helping kids who were non or pre-verbal learn ways to communicate and gain language.  Now as a mother to a child with Mixed Expressive-Receptive Language Disorder, I can vouch for how beneficial music is to these kiddos.  Lucy didn't start verbalizing words until she was past the age of two and her initial vocabulary came directly from songs that we would listen to with her or sing to her.  

3. I am a dancer at heart.  I spent the better part of my childhood taking dance classes- tapping, twirling, leaping and doing the running man in my spare time.  I don't formally dance any more, but it will always be a part of me (for a good story, ask my friend, Shannon about the time she showed up at my house for coffee and learned heard my love for tap dancing) and it will likely always be a way that I bond with my kids.

And so, over the past year or so, Lucy, Collin and I have gathered some favorite tunes that we have enjoyed  together.  Some of these songs have simple choreography that we like to do with them, others have little instructions built right into the lyrics and we need only listen and participate when they show up in our play list. Some encourage dramatic play, others we simply free-dance with, and still others we enjoy best when we grab a simple rhythm instrument and enter into the beat.  It occurred to me on this bitterly cold January day while we were having a dance party, that some of my mommy-friends might enjoy taking a peak at our playlist and seeing what we do with the songs to help them get through the winter doldrums with their little ones too!

So HERE are 15 songs that we enjoy together on a regular basis!  **All of the songs I mention below can be purchased/downloaded from iTunes with the EXCEPTION of the two songs that were produced by Group Publishing for their Vacation Bible School programs from 2009 and 2012 I have included Youtube videos for those.** Also, for the ones that have choreography that was NOT created by me, I have included the Youtube videos that I used to learn the choreography.  I normally just use the videos to teach myself and then I teach the kids using the audio only.

Hope you enjoy:

1. "Shake Your Body Down" by Laurie Berkner Band.  Can be found on iTunes with their album, "Party Day".  This one has choreography that is built right into the lyrics.  It is super fun, really cute and has been a huge hit, especially with Miss Lucy.

2. "No Matter How I Feel" from Group Publishing's 2012 VBS program, "Sky". I discovered this song when my parents gave me the"Sky" music CD after their church did this program for their VBS last year..  It is really upbeat and it addresses something that we have been trying to help our kids understand: negative emotions and how to bring them before God.

 

3. "I'm a Gummy Bear (The Gummy Bear Song)", available on iTunes.  This song and the choreography came to us directly from the goodness that is "Just Dance Kids 2" for the Wii.  It is nothing more than sheer silliness.  You're welcome.

4. "Rag Mop" by Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra. We love this one so much.  We normally do free dance and grab some instruments like maracas or rhythm sticks and play them in time with the spelling of the word "Rag Mop" or rather "R-A-G-G M-O-P-P" in the song.  Get ready to tap your toes! We got into this and the next two songs when we received  this awesome music compilation CD, "Jazz for Kids: Sing, Clap Wiggle and Shake".

 5. "Old McDonald", Ella Fitzgerald, also from  "Jazz for Kids: Sing, Clap Wiggle and Shake".  This rendition of "Old McDonald" redefined the song for me and now if it comes to mind, this is the version that plays in my head. We love to free dance, jump on our mini trampoline and of course, sing along with this one!

6. "Chicken Rhythm", Sam Gaillard, again from "Jazz for Kids: Sing, Clap Wiggle and Shake". Another song for sheer silliness.  We just strut around and squawk like chickens. Pretty much impossible to put this song on and not smile! 

7. "Shaking Your Maracas", Julie Wylie on the album "Do the Bean Bag Bop" available on iTunes.  This one is mellow and a good exercise in listening to and following instructions.  Engaging and sweet. Make sure you have a pair of maracas or another shaker instrument if you give this one a try.

8. "Bean Bag Rock", from the album, "Children's Songs and Activities" on iTunes. I came across this when I was searching for fun ways to play with bean bags. It's pretty old...I'm thinking 1970s? Makes me think of School-House Rock songs.  Anyways, each person needs their own bean bag and we just listen and do what it tells us to do with the beanbags. Pretty simple. Very silly.  Quite dorky.

9. "Ring Around the Rosie", from the album, "Mickey's Party Songs".  If you can stomach the sound of Goofy's voice singing this old classic multiple times in one track, your kids will find it delightful.  It definitely won't be your favorite, but que sera. It has been a hit when we have a larger group of kiddos over for playdates.  We put the mini trampoline in the middle and let each kid take turns jumping on it while the others circle around them.

10. "Mambo Italiano", Rosemary Clooney from the album, "16 Most Requested Songs: Rosemary Clooney".  When I was a sophmore in college, one of my hallmates in the dorm would play this song extra loud and we'd all congregate there and belt it out and dance to it for study breaks.  I introduced this song to my kids for the express purpose of reliving those memories.  Turns out they (and most kids) love it.  You'll love dancing with your kids to it too!

11. "When Will my Life Begin" from Disney's "Tangled (Soundtrack from the Motion Picture)".  If you have seen this movie, you will know why it made our playlist.  My kids and I like to sing and dance while waving around a super long piece of tulle. We pretend that it is Rapunzel's hair.  Cute. : )

12. "We're Going on a Bear Hunt", Chalfont Singers from the album, "Kids Dance and Play".  This is a classic and so fun to act out.  Bonus points if you build a cave out of sofa cushions.  Extra bonus points if you do this at night with the lights off while toting a flashlight.

13. "Life's a Happy Song" from "The Muppets (Original Soundtrack)".  I have a weakness for anything "Muppets" and I have a dream to organize a tap-dancing flash mob to this song... Until that dream becomes a reality, I settle for dancing with my kids to it.  This is another fun one to use rhythm instruments with. 

14. "Pass the Beanbag", find it on iTunes on the album, "Children's Songs and Activities".  This is another old, fairly dorky song.  We enjoy sitting in a circle and passing the bean bags along with the song, and it is especially fun to vary the speed when the song instructs us to do so. It's another great one for practicing the skill of listening to and following instructions.

15. "Hah-La-La" from Group Publishing's 2009 VBS program, "High Seas Expedition".  I also received this CD from my parents after their church used this program for VBS in '09.  This is another good one with a decent-sized group of kids.  It gets them interacting with each other using appropriate friendly touch ("shake a friend's hand", "pat a friend's back", etc.) Great for peer interaction and learning some social skills.

And that does it!  I hope this post finds its way to my friends who are also at home with their pre-school-age kids and could use some fun ideas for interacting with their kids, especially during these long winter months.  I'd love to hear feedback if you introduce any of these songs to your kids and how you and they like them!  Please share this post with friends too if you feel so led. 

xoxo,

Survival Mode

In my first post I wrote about how from the time our second child, Collin was born in July 2009 up until I began blogging, I felt like our household had been in "survival mode".  The earliest years of parenting Lucy and Collin had knocked my socks off, but I finally felt like we were finding a rhythm as a family.

Well, the months of October and November seemed to have been a (hopefully temporary) lapse back into survival mode. Yep, only one month after joyfully announcing that we weren't "there" anymore and started to blog all about it, we ended up back in "that" place.  I want to be a voice of authenticity about the joys AND challenges of parenting, so I decided to describe what October and November 2012 have been like and share how I am seeking to persevere in December. : )

Early on in October I discovered the possibility (which turned into hope) that I was pregnant with our third child.  My hope was realized two weeks into the month when I had a positive pregnancy test! I figured out that my due date would be just a week before Collin's birthday and it brought me right back to the joyful experience of learning that I was pregnant with him four years ago.  Almost like clockwork, my pregnancy was mimicking the experience of my first pregnancy.  Same symptoms along the same timeline during the same time of year.  Along with that first trimester exhaustion, life with Lucy and Collin became once again a bit more like "survival".  I was okay with that, knowing that those "suck-the-life-out-of-you" early pregnancy days would be temporary. I had my eye on the second trimester "prize" of renewed energy and figured that we could slip back into our rhythm at that time.

We got through October and jumped into November which is traditionally our busiest month of the year.  I was looking forward to having my first prenatal appointment on the 19th.  Unfortunately, during that appointment when the doctor took me for an ultrasound, we discovered that there was no baby.  We learned that I was experiencing a "blighted ovum" which means that at the implantation stage of pregnancy, there was no further development of the baby, even though my body continued to progress with the "pregnancy" along with all the symptoms and feelings of pregnancy.

Darin and I were (are) definitely disappointed.  I allowed myself a good long day of crying and there are weepy moments that are still popping up here and there.  At the same time, I just keep looking at my sweet Lucy and Collin who are here with me and feel so thankful for them and thankful to be their mommy.  I remember the most valuable thing I learned from the infertility we experienced before Lucy and Collin came into our lives and Psalm 127:3 sums it up-

 "Children are a heritage of the Lord, offspring a reward from Him".

 In other words, children are a gift from God and not something that we deserve or are entitled to. When God allowed Darin and I to adopt Lucy in 2008 and give birth to Collin in 2009, many sweet folks told us that they were happy for us because we "deserved" those children. I knew the heart and intentions of those comments, but I have never felt that God gave me children because I deserved them.

I am sure glad I had that settled in my mind BEFORE the nitty-gritty last few years of parenting came along for Darin and I!  In the moments when my kids' demands have driven me to the end of myself, I am sure glad I haven't had to wrestle with the question, "What have I done to deserve THIS?"  In the sweet (almost-too-good-to-be-true) moments when I have been the object of the most pure forms of Lucy and Collin's affection, it is a good thing I haven't felt like I deserved it because I surely would have spoiled those moments with my own pride.

Now with this miscarriage, I sure am glad that the Spirit of God settled in my mind years ago that a child is an undeserved gift, otherwise, what range of emotions and questions might I be visiting right now?  Instead, along with the disappointment, I can view the experience of this very short pregnancy with thankfulness.  A sweet friend articulated this feeling of gratitude for me when I couldn't put my own finger on it when she wrote to me after I told her the news. She said,

 "My guess is that there are some precious little treasures that only you get to keep because you were fortunate enough to get to make a home for this baby for awhile." 

 Her guess was right.

So, October and November 2012 in our household were about "survival".  The routines that Lucy and Collin function so well on fell by the wayside and life wasn't always so smooth.  I only fit in preschool lessons when I had the energy.  I may have let them watch a few mores PBS shows than I normally would. They saw their mommy's emotions and may have felt a little confused by them.  I am pretty sure that all of that is OK and I am pretty sure that we're slowly getting that "groove" back.  AND I can remember amid all my mothering efforts that Lucy and Collin are actually in the much more capable hands of the One who gave them to me. ♥

My three greatest earthly blessing having fun together in October despite being in "survival mode" again. : )

xoxo,

Preschool at Home: Caps for Sale

With the arrival of cooler fall temperatures in Cental Iowa, increased exposure to GERMS has naturally begun as well.  The last two weeks, both of my sweeties had a miserable, drawn-out upper respiratory cold that resulted in sinus and ear infections.  Truly, this made me pause and realize that our family has enjoyed a long HEALTHY stretch for some time and I am so glad that we made it through the summer and most of the fall with virtually no sickness (at least none that I can remember) and this is indeed something to be thankful for.

We stretched out our next Before Five in a Row unit, Caps for Sale, over the course of two weeks and enjoyed reading, learning and playing in between coughing, sneezing, washing hands, doctor visits and slurping down medicine.  

I am so glad we had such a fun and spirited book to learn along with, as Lucy and Collin were often needing cheering up.

This is the classic story of a cap peddler who makes a poor decision to sleep on the job and ends up losing his wares to a treeful of monkeys!  As the story goes, the peddler unsuccessfully tries to get his hats back by making angry demands of the monkeys and ends up accidentally getting them back when they mimic his frustrated act of throwing his own hat to the ground and storming off.  I remember this book capturing my attention as a young child in elementary school and it did the same for my two little "monkeys". We definitely enjoyed multiple readings and it was especially fun to "act" out the story together.

We enjoyed lap book activities from Homeschool Share as well as the trusty printable pack from Homeschool Creations. Notice that the majority of our school times in this unit were spent in our PJs and with rumpled hair (mommy was no exception!).  Yep, that's how we roll on sick days. : )

This little activity from Homeschool Creations was a great exercise in fine motor/cutting skills as well as sequencing.  They did a great job with the task of ordering the caps just the way they were in the book. I expected them to need more of my help, but it turns out they didn't need my guidance at all with this little project.

Simple fun trying different hats on our monkey "paper doll".

We of course, had to try our hand at balancing a stack of hats on our heads, just like the peddler.  That's no easy task!  No wonder the guy was tired and had to take a nap. : )

Poor Lucy, you can tell by her face that she felt miserable that morning!

My hat-loving boy loved this activity the best.  No surprise there.

Despite being sick, these sweeties were happy and engaged with our Caps for Sale unit.  I think it definitely helped that we stretched it over two weeks and took a very relaxed approach.  This week they are back to their normal, healthy selves and we are currently taking another break from Before Five in a Row to enjoy a Thanksgiving-themed unit.  More on that to come. 

xoxo,

Preschool at Home: The Big Green Pocketbook and The Runaway Bunny

The month of October has been a wild one in our world including wonderful visits from out-of-town friends and family, a garage sale, a weekend trip out of town for my beautiful cousin's wedding and the addition of FIVE new pets (that would be two chickens and three bunnies-more on that later!).  Thrown in were some technical difficulties with my printer (which I depend on for planning and putting together lessons for each school week) and we had some real threats to our little homeschooling routine around here.

Despite the changes to our schedule and lack of normalcy, we still managed to fit in some decent learning times with the next two books in our Before Five in a Row series, so I'll recap both of those weeks in one post here:

The Big Green Pocketbook

This sweet book easily became a new favorite for both kids!  It is the story of a day spent between a mother and daughter riding the city bus to accomplish several tasks and errands.  The main character starts her day with her mama with an empty green bag and fills it up with various bits of ephemera and trinkets from each stop.  Perhaps it was the simplicity of the tale that made Lucy and Collin connect to it so well, or possibly the emotions experienced by the girl when she loses her bag at the end of the day were relatable but they NEVER got tired of reading and connecting with the story.

Here's just a quick look at our activities together with this book:

Letter "P" collage with pipe cleaners:

 Practicing writing the letter "P".

We had some great fine motor practice with cutting and story sequencing with this lapbook activity from Homeschool Share.  They each created a paper "pocketbook" pouch and then cut out pictures of each item that the girl in the story placed in her book.  Both Lucy and Collin enjoyed listening to the story and filling their pocketbooks along with their "friend" in the book.

Perhaps the highlight of the week was getting to experience an afternoon of riding a bus and making stops around downtown Des Moines with our sweet play group friends!  This week was my turn to plan our activities for our get together, so I arranged for us all to meet downtown where we read our book at the sculpture garden and then hopped onto a free shuttle bus for an adventure. 

Each child brought an empty backpack to fill with treasures from our stops, our final and most productive stop being the public library where each enthusiastic little one picked out a stack of books to take and enjoy at home!  How fun!

The Runaway Bunny

The Runaway Bunny is a story about the enduring love between mother and child.  No matter how hard the little bunny in the story determines to run away from his mother, she is doubly determined to never let him far from her sight. This is another book that has special meaning for me as it was also one that was a part of my childhood.  It definitely ranks as one of my mother's all-time favorite children's books and our copy was a gift from her and my dad when Lucy was a newborn!  It just so happened that my parents were visiting from out of town during our week with this book, so it was wonderful to invite my mom to participate in our school time while they were here!

The kids with my parents, "Mama Gail and Grandpa!"

Here's some highlights from our week:

The recent addition of BUNNIES to our household made the book's subject matter particularly meaningful.  Here Lucy and Collin share a moment with little Cottontail:

We used paper straws to blow pom poms across the table, just like the mama bunny said she would become the "wind" and blow her baby bunny where she wanted him to go should he "become a sailboat  and sail away from her."

We also made the bunny masks which you see on their heads.  This was an activity from The Runaway Bunny "Fold and Learn" printable pack which is available for purchase from the Five in a Row website.  (Sidenote: the fold and learn packs are fun but a little pricey, so they are not something I can afford for every unit!  But it was fun to give it a try and we did make use of it!)

We also enjoyed various activities from the wonderful Runaway Bunny printable pack from Homeschool Creations:

This ended up being a fun and fairly relaxed learning week. It was also nice to let my mom and dad have a little peek into what our learning endeavors are like, which was a rare opportunity as we only see each other about twice a year. I love the memories we made together this week!

xoxo,

Preschool at Home: Fall Fun

This week the kids and I took a little break from our Before Five in a Row curriculum and did a Fall-themed unit. With the help of this wonderful Fall Fun Printable Pack from Homeschool Creations and the GORGEOUS Fall weather and colors in Cental Iowa this week, this proved to be a fun and meaningful week together.

Rather than working with one book in great detail, I just found several fall-themed books we happened to have on our shelves to read and enjoy throughout the week:

 My Happy Pumpkin by Crystal Bowman

Amelia Bedelia's First Apple Pie by Herman Parish

From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer

We took another trip to the apple orchard that we visited with our playgroup friends during our "Ask Mr. Bear" unit. We had a great time once again and Lucy and Collin both enjoyed picking out some pumpkins and gourds to take home.

We used Q-tips and "fall"-colored paints to create these tree pictures. (An idea from this website which I discovered on Pinterest)

We did a lot of early/pre-math activities with all the wonderful Homeschool Creation Printables I mentioned above.  These activities really held their attention this week.  It was particularly fun to see the concept of sorting by size as well as pattern recognition begin to "click" for them.

Towards the end of this week, I also spent some time thinking through and rearranging the layout of our little "school room" (which seems to always be a work in progress.)   I ended up removing/relocating our wicker loveseat and papasan chair frames, and kept the papasan cushion to create a cozy little nook.  We're going to try to sit here together for our read-aloud times and memory verse practice.

They seem to like this new spot and I'm pleased with how much more space and "wiggle room" we have to work with now. In case you are interested- the little "posters" on the wall there behind the kids were free prints that came from another one of my favorite online learning resources, Mr. Printables.

(Alphabet, Map of the USA, Baa, Baa, Black Sheep)

I loved bonding and learning with my little ones while we enjoyed the beauty of Fall.  I can't help but think that all the time we spent admiring and enjoying the beauty of God's creation made a difference- it was a much more relaxed and peaceful learning time than our last couple of weeks and I was sorry to see it come to an end.  But so grateful.

Thanks for reading!

xoxo,

Preschool at Home: Goodnight Moon

We spent this week of preschool with the classic book Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown.

After a tough time in preschool land last week, I went into this week with a bit of a more relaxed approach, planning activities that weren't so heavy on letters and numbers.  Instead we spent more time with creative story-telling, music, fine motor skills and crafts.  I wanted to just bond with the kids with some intentional PLAY this week and if, while we were enjoying each other's company, we also got in some good learning, then great!

To keep the flow going, we did continue with a letter for the week: "M" and made our weekly collage with macaroni and "do-a-dots" in the main colors from the illustrations in the book.

One morning I made our version of "mush" for breakfast - pumpkin pie oatmeal!  Yum!

In addition to our readings of the book this week, we also enjoyed the story by watching this sweet Goodnight Moon video.  It was very calming and fun to watch before bedtime in the evenings.

Going along with the "M" theme, we did some simple counting and matching exercises with our "M &M Counting Books".  Suffice it to say that there were very few protests with this activity!

Since the book references the nursery rhyme, "Hey Diddle Diddle" and the fairy tale, "Goldilocks and the Three Bears", we thought we'd have some fun with both of these classics! 

 I found a simple version of, "Hey Diddle Diddle" set to music in iTunes and we used this multiple times for some music fun.   During some listens, we used rhythm instruments to join in with the beats in the music.  We also built on that by adding a "marching" element to our merriment with each of them having several opportunities to be the leader for the duration of the song.  We also had our fair share of dancing to the music with ribbon wands and sashes.  They SOOO got into this and I saw that it inspired them toward more creativity-after one of these music sessions, they created their own game of "jumping over the moon" with a balloon.  Pretty cute. : )

We enjoyed the story of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" by reenacting it with finger puppets and doll house furniture that we already had.  This encouraged lots of creative collaboration and fun!

I used their hands to trace out "mitten" patterns on foam craft sheets and had them cut them out, decorate them and pin them on to a length of yarn I strung up in our school room.  This was a great fine motor and creative activity.

I find that when we are practicing cutting with scissors, it's better to use something other than plain paper, because often they will just rip right through the paper when their efforts with scissors aren't going their way!  I have found that using craft foam sheets, felt fabric sheets and heavy card stock seem to facilitate better cutting practice for them.

We also enjoyed a picnic and a trip to the zoo with our playgroup friends! Taking inspiration from the red balloon in the story, we thought it would be a fun surprise to bring one for each kid.  That was also a big hit!

This week (like any week) had its highs and lows.  I had my moments as a mommy when my patience ran thin and I caught myself thinking that I just wasn't cut out for this "homeschooling thing".  I ALSO had chances to observe their creativity blossoming, see their satisfaction when they grasped a new idea and watch their affection for each other grow.  And getting to be present in THOSE moments, makes the perseverance through the difficult ones worthwhile.  All in all, our week with Goodnight Moon was a meaningful and memorable one.

xoxo,