A Day In The Life...

Since my blog is so new, I thought I would give you a glimpse into my ROCKSTAR routine.  Whether we are at home or on the road, one thing is for sure: our days are never dull!  I think it will give you some insight into me, my objective as a SAHM (other than survival!), and may just convince you to follow me.

I promised I would try to accomplish a shower everyday, given I'm pretty new to this SAHM thing, so I was showered, dressed, and fed before either of the princesses woke up around 8.  I used the couple of hours to check over our grocery list and organize some things for next week's vacation. 

Time for breakfast.  Here's how breakfast rolls out in my house.  When I'm making my grocery list, I plan for 3 breakfasts.  I figure if I'm making a casserole, pancakes, or waffles there will be leftovers for other days of the week.  My family's opinions are always welcome because if there's no "buy in", then I'm not buyin'.  There is nothing worse than fixing breakfast (even if it's cereal) only for it to be wasted.  Not to foget the budget!

I will usually play some children's music while they eat and let them dance around while I'm cleaning up the kitchen.  Today we Mousercised, which was a blast! 

Time to play school.  There are several educators in my family and sometimes I think I missed my calling.  I think it's very important to have some structure and education worked into your daily routine.  I have invested in several curriculum books (which I cross reference when planning) and a couple of kid science experiment books.  I also love to scrapbook, so my art supplies would put many businesses to shame.    Not that I plan our entire day, I also believe that you have to have FUN as much as possible.  Life it too short.   In fact, most of the educational activities I do with my kids are hands-on, interactive, and FUN! 

Every Sunday I sit down with my curriculum books and plan out the week.  I focus on three "subjects":  Science, Our World, Art, and Reading.  I try to come up with 3-4 activities per day, per subject.  So, we are doing 12-16 different activities each day.   That seems like a lot, but most activities only last about 5 minutes.   My children are young and still have very short attention spans, so it's important not to lose your child's engagement in learning my making anything to long....(insert personal flashback here).  I also try to incoporate special occasions, holidays, etc.  For example celebrating "National Pancake Week" by making different kinds of pancakes all week!  Or National Picnic Day, by talking about all things picnic (bugs, baskets, food, etc.) and then having a picnic! 

This week our focus is on Father's Day, Butterflies, Bedtime, and Colors. 

Father's Day.  I always like to "play" teacher with my little ones because it gets them interested in what we are doing.  If they think it's all a game, they are more in-tune with what's going on.  We started today talking about Daddy; his characteristics, what he likes to do, eat, what kind of car he drives, his job, etc.  Then I helped them start a Dad Book.  We will talk about Dad each day and they will complete a total of 5 pages in their books, which will become a gift to Dad on Sunday.  I also picked up some books about dad from our local library, like: My Dad is Awesome (My Relative Series), When Daddy Came to School, and Just My Dad & Me.  We're going to dress up in Daddy's shirts and ties (shhh...he'll never know!)  And, we're also learning a song.

Butterflies.  To be fair, we are starting the week reading Very Hungry Caterpillar, watching the movie, and making the cutest paper caterpillar puppets.  Our snack today consisted of some of the things the very hungry caterpillar feasted on in the book.  We will also make paper butterflies, watch a movie on the metamorphosis, and do some coloring sheets that I found (free) on-line.  I ordered some caterpillars and they are to be delivered this week, so we will actually be watching the metamophosis first hand!

Bedtime.  We have several books on bedtime and we actually did today's lesson on bedtime while the girls were snuggled up for quiet time.  (Yes, my oldest child is 6, but her brain needs to decompress just like the rest of ours!)  We read a couple of the books, talked about night and day and what we did to get ready for bed.  We will be doing play-doh stars, talking about dreams, animals that live at night, and looking at constellations (made with t.p. rolls and black construction paper w/ pin holes in it).  Friday we are going to have a pajama day!

Art.  The girls started making color wheels today.  We did red, blue and yellow.  Since there are 4 years between my children, I have to find ways to challenge the oldest while still keeping my youngest engaged.   The color wheel worked great!  My little one was able to learn colors while my older daughter and I talked about whether the color was "warm" or "cool".  We will add the other colors to the wheel, talk about things these colors, do some science when mixing colors (white) and have a snack that will mix yellow & blue to make green.  Yummy!

 

Today we ran errands between Butterflies and Bedtime and had a snack before Art.  We even managed to build some forts in the living room, do a little potty training, visit the girl's old daycare (they wanted to see their friends), do a load of laundry, make a birthday present, eat lunch, and have dinner ready when my husband got home!  We had a little family game time, the girls got baths and are settling in for the night.  Today ROCKED!