Friday Focus- Stitch

Stitch. Ah, my Stitch. She is divine. :) I love when she finds something that she likes. It's always, "HEY! LOOK! LOOOOOOK!" until you do, and fawn over her appropriately. OH! LOOK! She finds wonder in small things and gets so happy.

She loves her some headbands. We try to make as many as we can, and even though she's very likely to rip it several times during the day taking it on and off, she loves to wear it and makes me staple it back together every time.

During our Very Hungry Caterpillar unit, she spent a lot of time wrapped up in a cocoon and squirming around. Sometimes she would suddenly fling the blanket out behind her and flap it like wings for a few minutes, but then she'd retreat back into the cocoon some more.

Okay, so her form needs some work. A one-handed swing doesn't have much power. But she can still hit the ball just fine! She and O'Malley like to get out there and see who can hit more balls. They jump up and down and yell HOME RUN!!! after each one.

Working on muddy piggies with Aurora. She's gotten quite good at staying in, or at least near, the lines and her painting is improving with every project. It's one of her favorite things to do here and she's never happier than when I say it's time to paint.

Cheesy happiness with yet another headband.

Let's see... what else is she up to these days? She's perfectly capable of climbing out of her pack and play during naptime, as is Aurora, and I think before too long it will be time to transition them over to cots. I've been putting it off, but they're ready. I hear she's begun to climb out of her crib at home too. It's just that time. She is awesome at two-foot jumping now and frequently requests the Jumping Song that we sing during circle time every day. "Stitch, Stitch, jump up and down, jump up and down, jump up and down! Stitch, Stitch, jump up and down, and sit right back down..." That's how we usually begin circle time, to call them all together, and it's her favorite. She always reminds me if it's getting late in the morning and we haven't done our jumping yet.

She's coming out of a stage where she was eating like a linebacker. Some meals she would eat more than the other four Pink Ladies put together. I have no idea where she puts it. Maybe she needs all that energy for the jumping or something, but the chick is HUNGRY. And lets you know. :) She likes almost everything and will eat seconds and thirds, but if I happen to make something she doesn't like, she gives me the stink eye in a big way. "I don't like it. Don't want it." And she always gives special emphasis to the ending Ts and Ks in that phrase, so it's very separated and distinct. Don'T liKe iT. Don'T wanT iT. Sounds hilarious. I have a feeling that may have come from big sis Lilo. She looks very like her when she says it.

Big Red Barn

We just finished up five weeks of Big Red Barn curriculum. I think we all have the book memorized now and there's been lots of fun activities with animals and hay and playing outside. Everybody has their own favorite page- Aurora loves the tiger tomcat (yeow! yeow!) and Silvermist is all about the "golden weather vane, of course"... (horse don't fly! that not real! so silly!) I hear that Stitch is obsessed with the copy of the book that we gave her at the end of the unit and wants to carry it everywhere. That makes me happy. It also makes me happy that there are some hayfields around here and that the kids can all see cows and hay and point them out. Her mom came in a couple weeks ago and asked if there was hay in our barn book because Stitch freaks out now every time they drive by some. :) Love it.

We played a lot of games using various animal sounds and they've all acquired a few new ones. I think I talked in Roo's post about the confusion of the word "pig" sounding just like "moo" in Thai. That cracks me up. My other favorite is the rooster. Each kid has their own special way to cock-a-doodle-doo and they are all hilarious. One of the games we played was learning about how the rooster is the "alarm clock" of the barnyard, so they all pretended to be other animals sleeping and then I was the rooster and woke them all up by making loud rooster noises. Then they all wanted to have a turn being the rooster. I was actually kind of concerned afterwards that O'Malley would wake me up at 5 am by cock-a-doodling in my ear. Thankfully that hasn't happened. But I do have to say that his snoring sheep is the funniest thing ever.

They love to make headbands and this unit especially offered a lot of opportunities for that. We did a pig and a chicken. I don't think I remembered to get pictures of Hercules or Tigger wearing theirs, but it's fun that there are things even the littles can do with us.

Since O'Malley has dropped his nap I try to do some big boy work with him in the afternoons. Most days it's fighting a losing battle. He really wants to play Wii and isn't nearly as interested in doing school the way his big sister Duchess was. I think homeschool may be out of the question for this one. But anyway. This activity was called Bats in the Barn and it had cards where you count how many bats there are, and then match them to the numeral. He had a good time and I was pleased to actually have a day where he got something done, even if he did make faces at me.

Miss Bianca, hard at work painting a muddy piggy. I think when we're not doing a Read It Once Again unit, the thing they all miss the most is the painting. (Well, except for Chip. He doesn't like to paint for some reason. Not sure why.) We're doing some Thanksgiving books and getting ready for our big feast the next few weeks, and they're always asking me when they can paint again. I'll have to find some turkeys for them to do. :)