Hard at Work

Last week was unusually busy and I did not do as much work with Big Kid as we usually do. It was kind of a nice break though, and we got quite a bit of cleaning done around the house- hence all the towels and cleaning products in the background of some of the pics. I got the kids busy working on things, and then worked on cleaning up around here!

You'll also notice that most of these pics are of the boys doing work while in their pajamas. It was that kind of week last week. I got dressed first thing as usual, but the boys stayed in jammies until at least 10 a.m. just about every day last week.

A few pictures from the work we managed to do last week:

First up, Little Bit coloring in his high chair. Little Bit is obsessed with using Big Kid's things: his cup, his plates, his toys, his crayons... so even though I have not felt comfortable graduating Little Bit up to the wonderful fat triangular crayons that are waiting for him (since he still wants to take bites out of them!) I gave him a few of his brother's crayons to color with while I was standing right there. I usually give him colored pencils to color with, but look how serious he takes his coloring work!







I give Little Bit a regular spiral-bound notebook to color in. A single sheet of paper gets torn to bits and slides around a lot since he hasn't yet learned to keep one hand down on the paper. It frustrates him so much that he doesn't try anymore. Since giving him the notebook he has started to color with colored pencils for 5-10 minutes at a time.

The next pictures are of Big Kid and his shapes worksheets. He is really stuck on shapes right now- they are the only thing he's interested in drawing right now. I printed a page for him that includes several shapes to trace, and directions to follow. He treats it like a game. When I say to draw a red circle he hunts for the right color of crayon then finds the right shape to complete it, and he laughs every time.  





Little Bit's favorite spot- sitting on the steps by the front door, trying on everyone's shoes. He's very interested in the shoe process and he's pretty good at handling the velcro on his sandals. He's *really* fascinated with the laces on Big Kid's new shoes, and so is Big Kid! We've been talking a bit each day about shoe tying, and on the evenings when Daddy doesn't have school he sits with Big Kid and shows him over and over how to tie a shoe. I thought we'd be doing this next year, but Big Kid is determined to learn to tie his own shoes *right now*!

 



This next picture is not actual work- Big Kid announced to me one day that he would like to make something, and he asked to borrow a few things from the kitchen. I asked him what he needed, and he asked for the tongs, a pot and a big stirring spoon. I told him that was fine and after helping him find what he needed I went back to my own work. A bit later I observed him sitting on the couch using the tongs to put duplos in the pot, then he stirred the pot and took the duplos back out with the tongs. I asked what he was making, and he looked at me like I was stupid, "Mama, this is block soup." Of course it is, Honey!



In the next picture Big Kid is working on a circle collage. He made the circle first, then started gluing pieces on the circle he'd made. He only made it half-way through, but it was a really great idea that I hope he comes back to.