Umma-fied

I had another full week of babysitting last week, after Mr. B's "other" babysitter's 4 yr old daughter went into the hospital. Mentally, I'm not sure I was quite ready for it, but what can you do? It is what it is. I wanted to start some preschool activities with Mr. B., and found many, many resources for "lapbooks". Lapbooks are simply file folders re-folded to create books that have an educational purpose. Our first lapbook was the letter "A". We did several activities, practiced writing the letter "A" and found words that started with the letter "A". Mr. B was... less than enthusiastic. But this week, we did a lapbook on "Feelings" and oh my! He was not only interested, but several times when I was busy doing housework, I'd turn around and find him looking through the related books we read or playing the games in the Lapbook by himself! Yay! We read the two books first, and talked about the different feelings - happy, joyful, angry, surprised, excited, etc. Mr. B was fascinated with both books, but Duck & Goose was the one he sat down and "re-read" on his own. Today I Feel Silly: And Other Moods That Make My Day Duck & Goose, How Are You Feeling? The photos below show the Lapbook. The first photo shows the outside cover.

This photo shows what's inside the lapbook. (I believe I found the downloadable set at the 1+1+1=1 blog.) In the upper left hand is different smiley faces to color. Center top is lots of smiley faces showing different feelings. Top right hand is a "match game" with sets of cards showing feelings to match up. Bottom left envelope has more smiley faces, which also has a list of questions you ask the child about how he would feel if xxx happened, and he puts the appropriate "feeling" face on the body. Bottom right is a little book on how boys and girls are feeling.

It was really fun to do this, and important for me to have Mr. B understand that ALL feelings are OK. It's OK to be mad, OK to be scared, OK to be whatever he is feeling. I think that's an important lesson for small children.

Another thing we've done in the past week is to go on a picnic. We have some great parks with playgrounds in our area, so we pack up a picnic lunch (including a "fancy" tablecloth for the table, which Mr. B thinks is the Bomb), and have Umpa meet us for lunch. Mr. B and I arrive around 11am so he can get some playground time, then Umpa arrives around 11:45 and we have our lunch. By the time Umpa has to go back to work, it's time to head home for nap time. A great way to spend a day for both of us!

Mr. B always brings his bike to my house. I live on a cul-de-sac, and it's perfect for bike riding. After a good rain, we have a nice puddle at the end of our driveway, and I'm not sure there's anything Mr. B would rather do than ride his bike back and forth through that puddle. For the past several times he's brought his bike, I've had to spend at least an hour of our precious outside time putting the chain back on his bike. It was a WallyWorld special - and definitely a case of "you get what you pay for". It was fine for Mr. B to learn on, but at less than one year old it was falling apart and we spent more time fixing it than he did riding it. After I spent an hour getting the chain back on yesterday morning, I found out the training wheels (plastic) had bent and couldn't be re-aligned. I had enough. I packed Mr. B in the car, took him to a reputable local bicycle shop, and bought him a new bike. Pricey, yes. But it is well made, all steel and no plastic, and sized so he can use it for at least the next five years, if not longer. Here's Mr. B on his new bike. This is one happy, happy child! And this is Mr. B after riding his bike back and forth through the puddle. See how wet his shirt is? He went through four outfits yesterday!