Arts and Crafts Oh My!

This week Olivia began Pilgrim for her last year before kindergarten and so now we have fallen into our groove.  This week we will be focusing on tactile fun...lots of arts and crafts experiments...all we will do during the day with the younger crew and after school with the school age kids...a few things we need for the week:

1. Plastic jars with screw top lids
2. Diamond Glitter
3. Glow sticks
4. Bars of Ivory Soap

If you have any of these lying around the house send them in...if not we will gather them up.  Thanks to Lydia's mom, Katharine, for the yummy blueberry muffins.  Here's to another great week!

Talley

Back in the Swing

Now that we have one full week under our belt things are starting to fall into place.  We had a great time at the zoo...who knew that 9:30 was the best time to go...all the animals were out and being fed and the kids had the run of the zoo...we got to see the kangaroos hopping all around, including babies.  Hypos that were almost close enough to touch, bears sunning themselves in the water...and dolphins and seals...Maya and Lydia loved anything swimming!  Ethan's favorite was the bears...Once we figured out how to turn the water on at Anderson it was so fun...with the park right there they ran and played in the water, and then to the park and back again.  My favorite was all the girls hanging their heads upside down in the fountains, Lydia's hat even stayed on with her head upside down!

Next week we begin the trek north to Pilgrim nursery school for Olivia.  We will be leaving around 8:30 Monday through Thursday. Pick up from Pilgrim will be at 11:15 am each day...then we will come back for lunch..or a picnic there on the lawn..depending on the weather. 

For the school age kids it has been a great week getting into the grove of homework and after school.  One thing I love is that I get to see what comes home from almost every teacher in the school...that being said, please let me know how you would like me to handle your child's homework.  If there is a special event in the evening, or you specifically need something to be completed please let me know.  In addition, if there is something you think your child needs extra attention to please let me know and I will do my best to help out there as well. 

That being said, I am trying this school year to make it a little more fun after school...so beginning this week, or the week after, we may have extra activities, or projects that they can choose to work on, or not.  After being in school for 7 hours, unwinding a bit is always a nice touch...and as the kids have gotten older, hanging on the playground is not what they want to do all the time...so having the option to do art, science experiments, or just build something might be a nice change...we will see how this goes.

This week we will celebrate Lia and Grace's birthdays on Tuesday...cupcakes again...

Please don't forget to fill out the contact form at the right if you want your information included...and check the menu and schedule each week...and as always, please let me know if there is anything I can do to make your time away from your kids easier.

Talley

Welcome Back

Summer seemed to fly...we were so busy that we had no time to even chronicle the summer...hopefully I will be able to do that in the next few weeks.  Most of you know, but in case you did not, the Murphy family (Joe, Jame and Jack) have moved on and are staying home with their Mom, Meg.  After taking care of the family for the past 4 1/2 years it was hard to say goodbye, but I am sure we will see them around the parks and school!

We have added one new little one...we welcome Lydia Klette to the mix...that makes Lydia, Maya and Olivia my only full timers as Thomas has even moved on the Kindergarten!  What a change from so many boys, to three girls...and Ethan...This week we say goodbye to Ethan Wojcik (Grace and Maeve's brother).  He has been with us all summer and we have enjoyed having his wonderful brand of make believe in the mix.  He goes out with a bang this week as we celebrate his 4th birthday on Wednesday.

I know often times families would like to contact each other.  If you would like to be included on a contact list of families, feel free to add your information...it will be available on the blog and updated as I get your information.

A few other things that I have added: A weekly calendar of meals and activities for the full timers.  Once we settle into a routine I will post a loose daily schedule, a link to each school's calendar, vacation days for 2012-13, and a schedule for the after school program.

I know many of you have been so wonderful in passing my names along to other families.  As of now I am not taking any more full time children, as we will have a new baby beginning in January, and another one beginning in the late Spring.   I do still have a few spaces after school open, but Tuesdays I am full.  So if you, or anyone you know needs a day here or there feel free to pass my name along.

Have a great week!

Face/body painting

Since they were all trying to draw dragon scales on their hands with permanent markers like Miya....I decided face paint was a better option....of course they took it a bit farther!

The week that has past

What swimmers we have! All the kids have made such great strides....Olivia was freely going around the baby pool and even putting her face in during simon says, Jimmy started running full face through the fountains...not minding at all that his face was wet, Joe started jumping in and swimming back tot he walk all by himself!, Thomas has now refused to wear swimmies, and so is trying to swim all around the big pool...even though he can't quite. As for the big kids Zeno has totally taken to the water...swimming all by himself, where last year he wasn't even sure he would get in the water! Maeve and Grace have almost every stroke, and are just working on mastery, which I have to say has put a fire under Elliot's belly to learn his strokes...and Miya was not in swim lessons this week as she helped out in the Right Brian Studio and took a doll making class...what cool dolls she made...the boys called them Zombie dolls...not sure how she liked that but they were really cool.

Here are a few things to ask the kids about from swim lessons:

Preschool and younger:

Ice Cream scoop arms
Doggie paddle
Popsicle Stick legs
Blowing bubbles

School Age

Laps were the name of the game for all but Zeno and Thomas...
Learning how to use the leg buoys
All the strokes, Freestyle, Breaststroke, Back Stroke and Butterfly
Front and back blast offs into strokes
Going off the diving board

This week we will work on diving for the big kids and strokes for the younger guys...

This week it will be hot...please remember to send the following:

Water Bottles
Books
Library reading logs
Library Cards if they are allowed to check out books

We will also start keeping a journal for the next three weeks, so let them know there will be a bit of writing coming their way. For the preschoolers we will be focusing on our letters and numbers....identifying as well as writing them.

As always...have a great week...I know we will!

Talley

Recent hapenings...

Well so much has happened since the past post that I am not sure where to begin...the end of tball season really threw our family for a two week whirl wind...and just now are we getting back on our feet....the butterflies arrived, Joe and Olivia got married, we went to Navy Pier, and swim lessons started! Check out the new links to the photos to read all about it...one of my favorite things so far has been the paper mache the school age kids did...they had to have a moving part...Miya had a head, with a mohawk, Grace had a soccer ball with flowing flames, Zeno had a telescope, and Maeve made an army truck with wheels that moved...great job!

Anne is our swim teacher for the next few weeks. The little guys, or group one, will be on Mondays, and they had their second lesson today...she was so impressed with all the improvement in just 4 days! Way to go...ask the kids about blowing out the candles under water (blowing bubbles), ice cream scoop arms, and Popsicles legs, and the noodle train we made today.

Anne will work with group 2 on Tuesdays...but let them know...Maeve and Grace did laps today with their intro lesson!

I have updated the summer schedule to include the swim lessons...

As always, please let me know any questions you have, suggestions, and how the summer is going...specifically how you like or dislike the summer experiment with PayPal...

Talley

The Week in Review

Digging in the dirt! So fun....at least the took it from one side and put it on the other...

Paper mache galore...Zeno even tackled his dislike of the feel to make his! The goal...make a paper mache sculpture with a moving parts with things you can find in the house...look for them coming home soon...fun all around!

Light saber battles galore since the street is closed...extra battle space!

On Friday Thomas started the Santa game...he sat in a stack of chairs, and Joe, Olivia and Jimmy pretended to sleep, and "Santa" delivered presents to them...only after they navigated the stack of chairs to sit in Santa's lap!