home school preschool circus week

another super fun theme fo rthis week!

Circus week!

we read books

sidewalk circus

If I ran a circus

Cliford at the circus

and watch this video of circus proformers

we practiced our numbers with sprinkles (beads) on our ice cream cone (paper)

  made a clown using fabric scraps a paper plate and wooden nose.

 I really was looking for a gymnastic place that had open gym time for us to play. I didn't want to commit to any classes, just was looking for a Thursday morning fun that some how tied into the circus theme. After days of looking and asking other moms, I couldn't find anything that fit. there are some jump houses close but they wanted 20-25 bucks for Belle and Stella to jump for 1 hour!!! that's silly to me. so I found a ball pit playground at the indoor Sharon woods park! it was only 5$ and unlimited time! they loved it, for the most part, it was dark and some of the tunnels you had to go through were a little too little for me to fit while carrying Hazel. so I stayed at the bottom trying to follow their voices but it was hard and Stella got really scared at one point, sat down and cried until Belle came and helped her get through.
 Then my momma bear had to come out while two boys pushed and knocked Stella to the ground and they ran off laughing!!! oh I walked over to them and with my very obviously angry stern voice I said "Please, do not push."

they had that dear in  the headlights look.

then ran off and made sure not to come near my girls again

hey, I said please!

we will go back again sometime but we might wait a while.

 We attempted to make some caramel popcorn using this recipe

it turned out more like mushy caramel popcorn but the big kids ate it up of course.

 we also made a ring toss game.

in her work book she learned the letters Nn and Oo

and we talked more about Rhyming words.

she is getting the hang of Rhyming!

There isn't a real Circus in town right now and I am not completely in favor of them any ways.
so I don't think we will be going to it when it does come in. But Miss Belle's absolute favorite movie has always been Dumbo. (her Dumbo theme 3rd birthday pictures ) so I knew she would enjoy a circus theme week for home school preschool.

remodeling plans!

you remember the forbidden bathroom right?

ugh!

it's now not forbidden but it's still in desperate need of a makeover!

well we are in the very begining stages of finally remodeling it!!

I am so excited!

so I went pinterest shopping

you know like window shopping but with pinterest.

heres some things that I have been looking at.

The hubby wants to go with a grey bathroom but he's willing to let the girls have pink accesories.

since this will be their bathroom.

something like this:

 I am loving this mirror!

 since the bathroom is so tiny we are planning on taking the tub out and making it just a standing shower. freeing up lots of room! which means we can actually have storage in there!!

 i love this too!

 the I saw this and knew I had to share it! lol how funny. I don't think I would be able to comfortably use this

are you planning on any remodeling soon?

do you pinterest shop?

or just really want to pee on a fish tank?

Silhouette craft project!

 it's been a while since I posted any craft projects

but we have been crafting a lot here!

in fact all of our gifts we gave for Christmas was homemade.

I meant to share all the gifts but never got around to it. 

sorry.

anyway there has been a certain project I have had my eye on since well forever!

here is the tutorial

it's pretty easy as long as you have all the supplies...

well I guess that could be said for any project really...

 ok

so first I took a picture of each of my girls profile. 

tip: try to avoid the shadows on the wall. I didn't pay attention and it caused some issues later on.

upload the picture to the computer. turn it black and white and edit it to make it high contrast meaning make the lights super white and darks super black. (this was were the shadow gave me an issue) pint it on regular paper and cut out the outline of the head. I was trying to save ink so I erased most of the face just left the parts I needed.

I had these wooden plaques saved specifically for this project.

it had some Indian symbols and I had spray painted it white a while ago. I don't mind the texture it left on the plaques but if you want a plain wood they have them at your local craft store!

after your image is cut you will trace it and then paint. I choose to use a plum color paint just because I love color. then I hung them on the wall.

can you guess who is who?

Stella

Hazel

Julia

Belle

I love how it turned out!

home school preschool All by herself week

We had a busy week planned this week so home school preschool was a little laid back. 

I tried to make a conscious effort to include some sort of learning in with all our activities to make up for the business.

But two HUGE things she did learn was

how to write her last name!

like I had stated in the very beginning of home school preschool I was fully expecting learning her first name was going to be a big thing we would have to practice over and over

but my amazingly smart girl picked it up that first week and has been a rock star at it since.

so I wanted to introduce writing her last name and again I was thinking this would be a hard lesson

I should have know better though

We also started working on how to tie your shoes.

she does have a little trouble with the bunny ears part but I am sure she will get it.

I always make her try first by her self and then I help a little if she gets stuck.

 

We worked in her work book on letters Kk and Ll and Mm

matching and picking out differences.

we didn't read any books this week and I hate that but seriously we were busy!

yesterday I had to take a trip to a big federal building to pick up a copy of her birth certificate.

on Sunday we will be taking that certificate along with other paperwork and dropping them off at a real school. 

yep, it's time for kindergarten sign ups!

the thing that I have been trying so hard to prevent is just not showing signs of stopping.

She is growing up 

this is going to be one of the hardest things for me to do

but she is so beyond excited

so I am going to have to figure out how to get along with out her

it's not like I don't have 2 other children still at home right!!

Gosh what is wrong with me!?!?!

my new photography adventure!

  What inspires you?

my kids

all of them, babysitting and the ones that call me momma.

everyday they say something, do something or play pretend and it just sparks all kinds of picture ideas.

this year I really wanted to push myself to do more creative things with my photography. 

and I thought what better way to practice than with all my kids?!?!

Harper as Queen Elsa

 Belle in "shooting magic"

 Kylan in the princess and the frog

 Stella in "painting the night sky"

 Julia  "dream"

Tanner reading adventures

 

I am loving this fun project and am excited to continue to do more. 

Hazel is upset that she didn't get a turn so I have to come up with something for her.

and if you would like to do something like for your kids let me know!!!!

Home school preschool Dr. Seuss Week!

This was a super fun week! 

Dr. Seuss week in home school preschool!

We have quite a few Dr. Seuss books in our personal library so we reread those:

Mr. Brown can moo

I can read with my eyes shut

are you my mother?

1 fish 2 fish red fish blue fish

hop on pop 

and

Green eggs and Ham.

she's still a little awkward at cutting with scissors so we cut out hands and made them into fish for a craft.

  check out her handwriting skills! (I wrote fish because she didn't want to for whatever reason)

 then we experimented in the kitchen and made some green eggs and ham.

she is a very picky eater

 but we both were shocked when she tasted the ham and loved it! in fact she's had Ham sandwiches everyday for lunch since! I ate the eggs.

 all week we talked about rhyming words.

on Monday I introduced the concept and then tried to see if she understood.

"the word caR ends in a R sound like staR and faR. can you tell mommy another word that ends in a R sound?"

"Pickle"

P spent a good 15 minutes laughing!

But after a few more days talking about rhyming words I think she understands at least better than before, we will keep working on it.

we played a matching rhyming word game with green eggs.

 Then we crafted a board game out of the Cat in the Hat's Hat. we counted the amount rolled on a pair of dice and covered the number. our friend Korben was over to play this day so he joined in on the game.

in her workbook she reviewed her letters to date and then we moved on to the letter Kk.

She also did a bunch of pages about same and different patterns.

Dr. Seuss was a favorite of mine growing up, I was excited for this week. my favorite book is 

Are you my mother?

it's not written by Dr. Seuss but is included in the series of cat in the Hat easy readers. 

I love how the baby bird goes searching for his mother never having met her and he ask anyone he comes in contact with. He meets a construction machine called Snort!! and asks the machine if it was his mother and it just lets out a loud SNORT! I remember laughing and laughing at

 the silly bird when I was little and guess what?! 

Miss Belle did the same thing at that part too! 

now that I think about the story more it's pretty deep. I mean this poor little bird is so desperate to have a mother he doesn't care if it doesn't look like him or is even a live. he just wants to be loved. 

 I may not feel like the perfect mother that knows exactly what she's doing everyday,

 but

  my kids don't need a perfect mother they need me just the way I am and they just need lots of love and acceptance from me.

that's deep Dr. Seuss very deep!

or maybe I am reading to much into it..........

all I post are pictures of my kids!

"every post she makes is pictures of the kids!"

 my dad and sister were talking about me.

It made me smile.

it's true.

  I am a photographer and if I didn't take pictures of my kids

 it would be pictures of me cleaning the house

so be happy you see cute kids instead of mops and dishes!

I have officially been posting regularly to instagram for a little over a year now.

and I love it more than I ever thought I would!

It's easier to save my big camera for special occations and planned out photo shoots.

my phone is for all the everyday little moments I don't want to forget.

anything that might tug at my heart and a little voice says soak this moment in. it wont last and you will miss this.

in the mean time here are a few of my absolute favorite instagram pictures

if you want to follow me click here!

and let me know your link and I will follow you!

 \

this year 

along with taking everyday moments that I want to remember 

I also want to start a little personal project.

I want to take capture the same subject anytime I see it.

I got the idea here

she did american flags

so everytime she saw an american flag she photographed it.

I wanted to do something similar but tie it into our family. 

our last name is Taylor and the meaning of it is "tailor; to cut"

so I am going to take a picture of scissors anytime I see one.

it's strange I know but that's why I like it

 I hope to get tons with in the next year and then combined all the pictures into a collage, frame and hang it in our dinning room/craft room. so if you do follow me be ready for tons of pictures of my kids and scissors! :)