Home Preschool

Now that Roman is 3, I've been thinking about preschool. Around here kids can start pre-kindergarten at 3, but I've always been a little leery about it. In my experience, boys usually don't enjoy school as much as girls or the novelty of it wears off quicker. Case in point, my brother proudly proclaimed to my mom in grade 3 that he was all done school. Nothing like the harsh reality of being told you have another 9 years to go... I'm hoping to get Roman to at least grade 5 before he tells me he's done. I'm also not sure Roman is ready to be sitting and focusing in a structured environment for an extended period of time just yet. I mean, he did just turn 3 a month ago.

After talking it over with John, my mom, Trellyn, Roxy (who also happened to be Roman's camp counsellor this year), I decided to hold off on pre-K for this year. I do however feel like he would benefit from learning certain things, like his alphabet, and I'm always looking for activities to keep him busy and engaged. So, I decided to make my own preschool. Obviously I'm not a teacher so this likely doesn't meet or follow the school systems curriculum, but it will help Roman learn different skills that will benefit him farther down the road.

I found a binder and some loose leaf in the basement, picked up a few dividers at Wal Mart and set down to plan a preschool program for Roman. I made a section for each month, and divided the months out one week at a time. A simple search online yielded an endless supply of ideas. I wrote out the materials, directions and learning objectives for each activity out and allocated the activities throughout the weeks. I wanted a pouch to hold some of the smaller items, so being the resourceful person that I am, I decided to punch some holes in a freezer bags and add it into the binder. Works like a dream!

My plan is to have the lessons planned and prepped one month at a time. I'm almost done with September's prep, I only have a few items left to pick up, so I wanted to share what I have planned for September.

September 1-10: Spelling our name - dinos & Alphabet sensory play
September 11-17: Exploding paint bags & Spelling our name - sentence strip
September 18-24: Alphabet fishing & Dramatic play Spaghetti shop
September 25-30: Ziplock quilt alphabet & Wash the dog - pet sensory activity

I've also added in some alphabet recognition sheets to most of the weeks. I decided to only have 2-3 activities per week since we will still be attending play group on a fairly regular basis, and I'm also planning on registering Roman for the preschool story time at the library.

I LOVE planning lessons like this. I know all my teacher friends are probably cringing because I know planning can be a daunting process. but sometimes I feel like I could do this all day. Maybe I should have gone to school for education in stead of business administration. Maybe that'll be my second career!

5 Days of Preschool Snacks

Roman experienced another first this summer; day camp!! I remember attending the YMCA day camps when I was little and they were so much fun! So when I found out that Roman was old enough this year, I immediately signed him up. Unfortunately he didn't turn 3 until camp was almost done so he was only able to participate in one week, but it was awesome! Not only did I get a break to get some things accomplished around the house, but Roman got to experience life away from me. The best part about this camp was that Roxy (who facilitates playgroup and is good friend of mine) runs the camp, and it takes place at playgroup! This made the transition of being without me seamless because he loves Roxy, and he's obviously familiar with the building. So seamless in fact, that when I stuck around for a few minutes to talk to Roxy, Roman came over and loudly proclaimed "Mom, go!". Alrighty then....

My favorite part of camp, other than the free time, was packing Roman's snacks! Maybe it's because I'm new to the world of lunch packing, but I loved it!! I picked up this bento style lunch box by Starfrit at Wal Mart for $6 and it worked perfectly. The sections allow you to separate foods and they come out for easy cleaning. I also used some silicone muffin wrappers to further divide the compartments. All of these snacks are nut free as required by the YMCA, but I feel like that's pretty standard these days. Oh, how could I forget! I also added a sticker into the snack box each day! I really wanted to send little notes in his snack, but the fact that Roman can't read kinda put a damper on that parade.

Day 1
Banana bran muffin, graham crackers, sliced peaches, Babybel cheese, fruit snacks, water.
Roman is usually a very predictable creature, and this time he didn't disappoint. He ate all the fruit snacks and cheese, one graham cracker, one peach slice, and took one bite from the muffin.

Day 2
WOW Butter roll-up, chocolate chips, carrots, tomatoes, Babybel cheese, watermelon, juice box.
Tortilla roll-up are always hit and miss with Roman, and this time he only ate one. Obviously all the chocolate chips and cheese were gone, as well as a few carrots. I wasn't surprised that the tomatoes were left, but if you don't try there is no chance they'll eat it!

Day 3
Bread, deli chicken meat, cheddar cheese, apple slices, fruit snacks, water.
Deconstructed sandwich day! Roman loves deconstructed sandwiches. What I should say is he has been deconstructing his sandwiches since he started solids, so now I just serve them that way. The only thing that came back from this snack was a few apple slices.

Day 4
Hard boiled egg, crackers, Babybel cheese, avocado, garden carrots, chocolate dipped granola bar, water.
This was by far Roman's most loved snack of the week. Even Roxy laughed that he was very excited about the egg. He gobbled everything up except the garden carrots, which I promptly ate.

Day 5
WOW Butter banana sushi, hard boiled egg, orange, Babybel cheese, grapes, water.
So by now you've probably noticed that Roman has a thing for Babybel cheese. I always made sure to send at least one thing I know he'd eat for sure so the poor guy didn't get hungry. They were on their way to the park this day so he didn't eat very much of anything, likely because he was excited to get going. I also mom failed and forgot his sticker this day! Luckily he didn't notice or I would have felt like a bum.

Hopefully these snacks will give you some inspiration for upcoming school or daycare snacks/lunches! I had a blast making these snacks. I should have registered Roman for preschool this year just so I could make lunches every day! I think I'm going to have to keep this up for playgroup because we saved a ton of money from the typical snacks that he normally eats. Plus these are so much better for him that the pre-packaged stuff.

I'd love to hear your ideas for snacks/lunches as well! What is your kid's favorite food to find in their lunch box?

Construction Birthday Cake

This cake was so much fun to make! Originally I was just going to make an average square cake with a construction site on top of it, but I decided to up the cool factor a bit. I'm not going to lie, I was a little concerned about making this cake when I first started, but it actually turned out to be easier than I thought! By far the best part of this cake is that it's supposed to look like a construction site so the icing doesn't have to be perfectly smooth!

I start out by baking a 9" round vanilla cake. I thought for sure that Roman would want a chocolate cake, but apparently not. Once the cake was completely cool I turned it out onto a cutting board to start making it look like a 3. I started by cutting the came in half with a bread knife, which seemed to work fairly well.  I'm not one to free hand much when it comes to cakes, and heaven knows I wouldn't be able to cut a smooth half circle, so I found a cup to use to trace for the centre of the 3. I then used those inside pieces to cut pieces to fill in the centre of the 3 and to give the ends a bit of curve.

 Now the delicious and fun part; icing and decorating!! The chocolate buttercream I used for this cake is literally the best icing I have ever had in my life! It tastes very similar to the premade frosting you get at the grocery store but without that oily/fake taste the premade stuff has. I actually froze the leftovers to use later on because it's THAT good!

I start by putting a good sized blog of icing on the pieces I had cut out and sticking them to the body of the cake. Then I slathered the entire cake in a generous layer of chocolate frosting. I found that the cut pieces were crumbling on me a bit, so I popped the cake into the freezer to set up a bit. Just a few minutes was enough for the cake to become firm enough that it didn't crumbled when I was spreading the icing.

I found the small plastic construction equipment at Dollar Tree and they were the perfect size for the cake. I filled the cement mixer with icing and left a bit hanging out the top. I then filled the back of the dump truck with icing and chocolate rocks that I found at Bulk Barn. I decided to use the same technique with the loader bucket so it looked like the loader was filling the truck. A bit of icing on the wheels of the truck was enough to hold it in place. I crushed up chocolate cookie wafers and sprinkled them onto the cake to make a bumpy road of sorts and had the roller "smoothing them out" while another dump truck looking thing dumped the crumbs onto the cake. The chocolate covered caramel balls between the candles was a bit of a throw on because I had them, and felt like I should use them. This is why you should never buy you decorating materials until you know what you're doing. Now I have an entire bag of these balls that I'm going to have to eat. Oh the horror! I finished off the cake by lining the base with chocolate rocks. I really liked the way it love the way it looks, and it saved me from having to bust out the piping bag at 9pm!

Roman was PUMPED when he saw his cake in the morning. He pointed out all the equipment and was really excited that he could eat the rocks. I love making cakes like this for Roman (and soon to be Bianca) because I love the reaction I get from him. There is nothing better than seeing his eyes light up at the cake I've spent so much time on.

Do you make your kid's cakes? What was your kid's favorite cake and what was their reaction?

Construction Birthday Party

Roman is 3 years old!!! Going on 16 if you were to judge by his attitude. Three-nagers are no joke yo! He has grown into quite the little man and right now he is obsessed with everything construction. He is in his glory right now with all the summer construction every and is constantly pointing out cement trucks, excavators, bobcats, loaders, not to mention the "working men" that run them. I recently explained to him that there are also "working women" and his mind was pretty blown.

It was really no surprise when I asked him what kind of birthday he wanted, and he responded with "a construction birthday!". Well, technically his first answer was cake, but the second answer was construction. This was a blat of a party to plan, and super simple. All you really need for an amazing construction birthday is construction equipment and large quantities of substances that can be moved; sand, water, dirt, as long as it can be scooped, loaded and dumped, you're golden!

Since Roman's birthday is in July it's pretty much a given that we are going to have all the water activities out for the kids to play with. It might not actually mesh with the theme, but the kids love it and sometimes I don't think the kids even realize that parties have a theme at this point. This year John came up with the idea to build a second sandbox of sort and he filled it with a ton of topsoil. We lucked out and actually found some free topsoil, and the boards were leftover from other projects, so this didn't cost us a dime. The kids had a BLAST playing in it all. Even the night we put it together, it took some work to get Roman to take a break from "building a construction site" and come inside for supper.

I kept the decorations pretty minimal, just a few yellow and black balloons tied to the fence with fishing line. I did however pick up a 3ft tall cardboard excavator because how do you have a construction party without one? Now that the party is over, I'm going to stick it up on Roman's wall with some Command tape so he can enjoy it for as long as this obsession lasts.

This year I decided to keep the food simple and just have snackie type foods. The party was from 10am-12pm so it's a bit of an awkward time when it comes to food. Do you serve breakfast? Snacks? Lunch? These are the things that keep me up at night. As I've done in the past, I like to serve the birthday boy's favorite foods, so this year we had:

• Ham & Cheese pinwheels
• Pizza twists
• Strawberries & blueberries
• Broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, peppers
• Chips & salsa
• Water and juice boxes

Roman loved the loader plates and hauler napkins. I always wrap my utensils in a napkin and secure them with piece of paper. It just makes it easier for people to grab when they are filling their plates, and they won't forget their napkin, like I always do.

Now for my favorite part of a birthday; cake! I was a little surprised that Roman requested a vanilla cake, but that's what he wanted so that's what he got. He always wanted vanilla frosting but that wasn't going to work with the cake I had planned in my mind, so he had to make do with chocolate. This chocolate frosting is the most amazing chocolate frosting I've ever had! Think pre-made frosting from the grocery store without the oily, fake taste. So amazing! If you want to see how I made this 3-shaped cake and where I got all the decorations from, check out this post. (I'll link it once I've published it). For the frosting recipe, click here. Roman was super pumped to blow out his candles, but it was really windy so he had to pretend. He still blew them out and cheered for himself so I don't think he minded at all. I also made some emergency chocolate cupcakes as well because I was scared there wasn't going to be enough cake. We didn't end up using them for the party, so John, Roman and I ate them over the next few days. They were amaze balls!

 

One of the most irritating parts of Roman's birthdays for me are the presents. Everyone always asks what he wants or needs, and while he wants a lot of things (as does every kids) he truly doesn't need anything. He has more than enough toys to keep him occupied for months, tons of clothes in his closet, and his snack cupboard is well stocked. But some people aren't so lucky. So this year I stole an idea from a friend of mine (thanks Lisa!), and instead of gifts, we asked that everyone bring a donation for the food bank. I know there are some people that might think that I'm depriving Roman by not letting people buy him gifts, but the truth is that he still received gifts from family and that was waaaaay more than he even needed. John and I explained to Roman that some people don't have food, or enough money to buy food, so his friends were bringing some food for us to give to those people. Roman really seemed to think about this and you'll be happy to know that he didn't miss opening gifts at all and was really excited by all the great donations his friends had brought him. Today we took the donations down to the local food bank, where he promptly reminded me that some people don't have food so we were giving them this food. He also told the lady working at the food bank where the food had come from and why we were donating it. I'm not going to lie, listening to my little man tell this woman what he was doing brought tears to my eyes. I'm so blessed to be raising such an amazing little man that has empathy for other people. Unless that person is trying to take one of his toys, then he's out for blood.

I went simple with the take way gifts for the kids this year. Each construction worker got their own personalized hard hat as well as a pylon cup. These cups were just too cute to pass up. However, major mom fail on forgetting to give the cups to the kids before they left, so I had to deliver them after wards but that's OK.

After everyone had left and Roman was down for his nap, John took to setting up our gift to Roman. We don't normally buy such large gifts, but I found this gem on sale and it wasn't outrageously expensive. Plus, when you factor in the wear and tear this will save the couch and Roman's bed, I think it's well worth it.

Roman had an amazing birthday playing with all his friends and we are so thankful to everyone that was able to spend it with us!

Want to have a construction party of your own? I found all of the awesome construction items at Oriental Trading!

Organize it, organize it all!!!!!

I can't pinpoint exactly what started this organizing adventure, but now that I've started I don't want to stop. I recently started listening to podcasts while I'm at work or washing dishes, and have really fallen in love with ClutterBug.me. Cass has a blog and Youtube channel in addition to her podcasts, and she is a fountain of knowledge and advice! Her podcasts and videos have been a great help in figuring out where to start.

For me I find that when the house is in a state of chaos my mind is also a wreck. I feel like I'm going in 10 different directions and I'm not quite sure what I should be doing. Not to mention it makes cleaning a momentous task that I try to avoid like to plague because it takes FOREVER. I also find that the clutter makes the house feel claustrophobic. If you think about it, when you see pictures of beautifully staged homes in magazines or on Pinterest, there is never a ton of stuff in the room. Just the base essential furniture and a couple décor items or accent pieces. We Pin those photos to our "dream house" board and wish we lived in a house like that. But we can by getting rid of the clutter!! Nobody wants their house to look like an episode of Hoarders. At the same time there are things that I don't want to get rid of, so I need to find an attractive way to store them so it doesn't look so cluttered.

The first thing I did before I got started was purge! Get rid of anything you don't need. That giant mixing bowl I got when I graduated high school that I could literally bathe Roman in and I've never used, time to sell it. All those toys Roman gets in his Happy Meals that I keep because maybe one day he'll want to play with it again, donate them. The tank tops that I've been hanging on to because there might be an occasion at some point I want to wear it to, let's face it, it's never coming. When I stopped thinking about how much things cost, who gave it to me, and emotional attachment to things, it was a lot easier to get rid of things. A lot of this stuff has been with us since we moved into our house three years ago, and if I haven't used it in three years, obviously I never will.

If you're house is anything like mine, organizing on a large scale is no small task. I know it's going to take a long time to go through everything and get it all sorted and looking all purdy. My plan of attack is to tackle small areas at a time; entertainment stand, toy bins, baking cupboard. If I didn't have two kids "helping" me, I would probably attempt to do entire rooms at a time, but for the time being I think small is the way to go.

On the topic of getting rid of things and living with less. I recently made a trip to my favoritest (yes I know that's not a word) store in the whole, wide world; Dollarama! It also happens to be Roman's favorite store as well. Usually I let him pick something out because "it's only $1.25", but on this trip I decided we weren't getting anything. With my purging going so well, I didn't want to bring more stuff into the house. Of course Roman asked for something in just about every isle. I explained to him that we were just looking today and that we weren't buying anything. I managed to make it out of the store with him without and major meltdowns, which was actually pretty spectacular. Having Roman listen when I say "no" is something we've been struggling with so I was really proud of him. As we left the store, with all our tears still in our tear ducts, I couldn't help but notice the feeling of.... what's the word I'm looking for....relief, that I felt leaving the store. Which is a really odd feeling to get when you leave a store. I mean, it's not like there are high-pressure, commissioned sales people working at Dollarama trying to sell me another chatchkie that I really don't need. It was eye opening to me to finally see that I really didn't need the things that I usually buy. I've been buying things that I think I'll have a use for at some point, and then they just take up space in the house. So from now on I'm only going to buy things that I have a use for at that exact moment. I'm really hoping writing that last sentence down, and sharing it with the world, makes it easier...

Okay, I'm starting to sound crazy, but I think it's time to wrap this ramble up. I'll link all the organization posts I do at the bottom of this post so that they are easily accessible if you're interested to see how it all works out. At the very least you should probably check them out because it's the only time you will ever see photos of some of the dark corners of the house that I NEVER let people see, mostly because they are a disaster.

Organization: Under the Sink
Organization: Dressers
Organization: Bathroom Vanity
Organization: Linen Closet