Learning In Grace: Sometimes we Just Play....

TOT SCHOOL

Cowboy- Currently 49 Months

Butter- Currently 23 Months

Sometimes we just play....

Every now and then, we just need a break or I will have the whole week planned out and we just end up learning through play... This particular week... we just played :)

Our weather here has been ridiculous, hot one day cold the next... wish spring would just be how it is in books... not too hot and not too cold but justttt right!! Well this day it was just right! So I took advantage of this gorgeous day and laid out a table cloth and asked the kids if they wanted to play outside? Of course they started naming all the things they wanted to play with ! They all agreed on little people... and we have a lot of little people, so they brought them all out and used their imaginations in which they are super good at doing!

Usually the two older ones play and Butter joins in from time to time, but he still likes to play and do on his own. He came to the door and asked for skool skool ... meaning he wanted to do some school work ... so I pulled out some crayons and paper and he colored.

He also mastered the art of taking the crayons out of the box, AND putting them back in :)

Learning some Fine Motor Skills and didn't even plan on it :)

We worked on Colors, Sorting and Stacking with Melissa & Doug Stack and Sort Board

Some More Sorting with Mancala

Even though this Puzzle is very advanced for Butter, he still enjoys taking out all the blocks and then putting them back in the tray.

We attempted to do some lacing with Jumbo Beads .... but he wanted put them on the string without holding the bead, and once he figured out that it wasn't going to work that way... he quickly wanted to move on to something else.

So I took out Pop-Onz Pop 'n Build Blocks set and he played with those for quite a while. He loved pressing the button to watch them spin on the Pop-Onz Table.

The Bigger Kids and I played Charades for Kids one Day. It was so awesome seeing their little personalities come to life!

I didn't think Cowboy would get the idea of explaining something to us with out saying anything, but he actually did very well!!! He thought of it as if he were keeping a very important secret. Although he did spill the beans a few times, he really impressed me :)

Lou is very dramatic and should really be in some sort of acting class. She never ceases to amaze me with her ability to use her imagination !

One day while the boys were taking a nap, Lou and I played Scrabble Sentence Game for Juniors. I LOVE THIS GAME!!! It is just like scrabble but with words, and you make sentences. On one side of the game board, it has actual words for you to match up, on the other side it is blank, and you make your own COMPLETE sentences :) We like it best when its on the blank side! It gets very funny, and at the same time, we have to remind each other of all the parts of speech!

Butter really liked the Imaginets board, he is fascinated with magnets and how they only STICK to certain things.

I love when my husband just lays out on the floor and plays with all the kids. This day in particular Cowboy got to play with Daddy all by himself. (handyman is usually always covered in some sort of home makeover agent...)

They Built a fire with Alphabet Blocks , and Used some sticks that go with another set of blocks, to roast, to me looks like cheese?? But I was quickly corrected by Cowboy, who said, " No mommy, we roasting Smarshsmellows." Cause that's how he says marshmallows... and I love it :)

Bigfoot was not impressed with the Smarshmellows, and demanded that they roast a hog... according to Cowboy!

Then the whole gang showed up and apparently Bigfoot needed a few extra hands to help with the Hog Roast... but in this picture, I am kinda scared for Mr. Incredible, who looks like he may be taking the Pigs place :(.....

OH- Cowboy says no, he had a hurt Leg and Bigfoot was just holding him so that he didn't have to stand on it LOL !

It is days like these that I am reminded... Education isn't about filling a bucket, it is Lighting a fire inside our child's heart to love learning and making every moment an exciting and teachable one.