School life

Healthier version of a favorite:

My girls love Lunchables and I would let them get one every once in a while for an easy lunch to take to the park or to have at home.  I didn't like buying them but those little pleases and innocent faces would just get to me sometimes :)  On Monday night, after all the usual ideas for lunch got turned down, I told Harper I had an idea...."why not make our own "Lunchable?!"  (She always picks out the pizza ones.) We got a whole wheat English muffin, tomato sauce, mini turkey pepperonis, and a mix of shredded mozzarella & cheddar cheeses.  I put tomato sauce on each half and put the halves together (she takes them apart at lunch time to make 2 pizzas).  The next day she came home and said, "I loved my lunch and it was so yummy!"  So guess what she's taking for lunch again tomorrow....

"Is this the right foot?"

This question comes out of Palmer's mouth almost every time she puts her shoes on.  Having to get three kids out the door-one to kindergarten, one to preschool and one back for his morning nap-I knew I needed to eliminate anything that would hold us back from getting there on time.  So I decided to help Palmer out with getting her shoes on in the morning and in the car.  I always make it a race for her because she loves beating Mommy in the car (its just usually with her shoes on the wrong foot).  My solution was to take a larger sticker and cut it in half.  I put the left part of the sticker in the left shoe and the right part in the right shoe.  Now when Palmer grabs her shoes to put them on, she has to put her butterfly together.  








Easier school mornings:

I knew with school starting, mornings might be a little difficult for us.  Normally my girls get up around 8:00 but Harper's school started at 7:40.  What in the world was I going to do to not make every morning miserable???  I knew giving the girls a poptart or frozen waffle or pancake would be the easiest thing to do to make breakfast quick BUT I had already decided to eliminate as much of the pre-made, packaged breakfasts as possible (yes the occasional bowl of cereal but no more p.  So before school started I let Harper and Palmer help me decide what kind of breakfasts they would want and we set to work making and baking and stocking up.  Here is what we came up with:

~Several batches of buckwheat pancakes. We mixed in almond milk instead of cows milk so Archer (who has a milk allergy) could enjoy some too.  Some of the different kinds of pancakes we made:  regular, apple cinnamon, chocolate chip, mini M&M, blueberry, smiley face, nut (chopped walnuts).  

~Pumpkin muffins.  All three kids love these. Check out my recipe section to make these yourself.

~Fried 18 eggs and use them for egg sandwiches or egg wraps or just by themselves.

~Homemade poptarts-Although I haven't tried these yet, I was super excited when a friend posted the link on Facebook and she has made them and said they were delicious.  We will definitely be attempting these soon! **Just found another recipe for homemade whole wheat toaster pasteries.

Harper's first day of kindergarten

Learning new words:

When Harper was four she went to half day preschool a couple of days a week.  About half way through the school year, her teacher started sending home little easy readers.  These books usually have two focus words that are repeated throughout a very short little story.  I decided to do something with Harper that I had done with my first graders when I was a public school teacher...make a word wall.  I knew I needed to make these words available for her to see often or she would forget them.  So at the end of our kitchen counter, I made a little word wall out of poster board.  Nothing fancy, but she loved it and couldn't wait to bring home new books so we could add words to her word wall.  Now that Palmer is four and starting preschool this week, she has also started pointing to and reading words on the WW. Hopefully, she will enjoy adding to it as much as Harper has.

Palmer with her princess pointer

Practicing her Word Wall Words

Kindergarten Sight Words:

At Meet the Teacher night at my daughter's school, we came home with a packet with all kinds of info and what to expect from kindergarten.  There was the first list of 40 sight words that kindergartners need to know.  Well, the teacher in me came out again and I wanted Harper to know these words by the first day of school (most of the words were on our Word Wall so it was review for her.  I would never expect her to learn 40 completely new words in a few days time).  So I came up with a little game for her.  I wrote all 40 words down on index cards (cut in half to save paper) and put them all over the house, in places she would frequently look.  I told her whenever she passed by a word, I wanted her to see if she could say it or sound it out.  If she could walk up to the word and read it, without any problem, she could take it and put it on the binder ring I gave her.  Once all 40 words were on the ring and she came and read them to me, she would get to go to my treasure box and pick out a prize.  She was so excited, I could hear her going around the house and reading some words and sounding out others.  Three days later, she brought the ring with all the words on it to me and read every one of them.  To the treasure box she went!  Now when she has a few extra minutes in the morning or while she's eating breakfast, I'll get this out and have her read a few words to me. She loves being able to read!