Monkey, Monster, Mermaid and I in the OBX May 2021
So it all started just over 11 years or so ago. Pregnant, 24, and making barely over minimum wage as a 2’s teacher in a daycare. Let me just say my paycheck wouldn’t have paid for the daycare bill. So a choice had to be made. Staying home wasn’t something I had ever wanted. I wanted to work, I wanted to contribute, and to make a name for myself doing something. It was just supposed to be a season of life. One day it would change back to normal.
After giving birth, I loved that little boy with everything I had. It was an adjustment but more in that I was taking care of one little potato that cried rather than herding 16 cats children around a classroom all day. I was tired and stressed and very over whelmed (sleep deprivation and I have never gotten along, but that is another story) but I couldn’t have imagined leaving that little Monkey with anyone all day long. I hated to be away from him. My heart physically hurt leaving him anywhere.
I still can’t imagine it. While I have grown a little bit and let myself get breaks in the form of child-less weekends or nights occasionally, I still can’t imagine missing all the little things in our day to day. I get stressed and yell and I get overly critical about things at times but I also get to snuggle, read, teach, and play with them all day. I can’t imagine not being there when they read their first sentence. Celebrating when they did their first multiple digit addition problem. Or taking the day to go to the park to play with friends or family just because it is a beautiful day and we can’t waste it inside.
So, 3 (soon to be 4) kids, almost 11 years, lots of tears, lots of laughs, and here we are. I may lose my mind before they are all out of the house. I may have already lost my mind and that is why I continue on this journey. But this is my path. I am the semi-crunchy, yelling, homeschooling, crafty, pinterest-worthy party throwing, feral (because there is definitely nothing domestic about me) housewife and mom who attempts to help with family finances buy selling handmade clothing, shirts, sweatshirts, tumblers and more. I struggle with being enough and I continue to question every choice I have ever made in my life (oh, hey anxiety!). But I honestly do love my kids and my life and I am thankful for everything it had brought me. So if you are new here, Welcome! I can’t wait to share my life and musings with you.
Water play is important all through out childhood. It helps with fine and gross motor skills, eye hand coordination, it encourages sensory acclimation, and it is just plain fun. And what better time than in the heat of summer to make it a regular time each week? So this summer we are getting it in every Wednesday after being out in the heat with riding lessons in the morning, there is nothing better than coming home, grabbing a quick lunch and then going out and cooling off in the water.
This summer I started by grabbing a new sprinkler and a new baby pool. We have dogs who have no boundaries (Yeah I said it, lol) They aren’t trained perfectly and they tend to tear things apart. So we need things that are easily picked up. I would love a bigger pool (if only for selfish reasons) but this one is plenty for the kiddos. What is really great, is I can set it up with minimal effort each Wednesday morning and fill it. While we are out at riding lessons, the sun will be warming it up and getting it perfect for play when we get home.
Target.com Colorful 3 Ring Pool
Some other great ideas the kids have wanted to do this summer are water balloons and the slip and slide. I am not sure about the slip and slide because my kids have a tendency to hurt themselves and I don’t want any hospital trips. But I love water balloons. You can find them cheap at the dollar stores or even get the easy fill sets for not a completely unreasonable price if you want that ease. If you have young children or pets, be careful of the little pieces (we make it a game to see how fast they pick them all up).
I do plan on taking them to the beach on the river or bay. We will hit a small local beach rather than going some place more populated because with 3 kids who love the water and a husband who works in an office 5 days a week, I will be doing it on my own. That means I need to be able to keep a hold of the Mermaid while Monkey and Monster run in the waves. Bigger waves means a bigger chance of one of them wiping the boys out. I will say, I did this one last year. After driving an hour and a half to get there, precisely 1 hour and 10 minutes later, my oldest got stung by a jelly fish. (A few tips are below!)
And last but not least water guns! Anything from cheap dollar store ones to high end “super soakers” (Are those even a thing anymore? I may need a few!) This one is great as a quick cool off also. Fill it up and let them run around for 10 minutes squirting each other, and I bet 10 minutes later they will be dried off. No need to even get in bathing suits.
As you can see this isn’t a in depth list. Mainly because most weeks we will keep it simple with the pool and the sprinkler. My kids love them so I don’t see it getting “boring”. They will also get trips to Nana’s and Grandma and Grandpa’s house with big real pools. And we will try to make it down to Granddaddy’s house again so they can fish on the marina (which they absolutely loved). We also have a water table on the porch they can always play in (mainly Mermaid). Water play doesn’t have to be scary, even for toddlers. Don’t want to put a pool up or have room for one? A simple bigger bowl with a couple cups and scoops and they can keep themselves entertained for a while.
What ways are you looking forward to incorporating water into your summer? Want to see other ideas for everyday of the week? Check our my original post Summertime Fun!
Ok so for tips for Jelly fish stings: I am by NO MEANS a Doctor but thank goodness for smart phones and Former Coast Guard Dads. – Tip 1: DO NOT believe Friends and DO NOT urinate on the area. – Tip 2: Ice really helped him. Wiping it did not. Tylenol may have helped a little. – Tip 3: Watch water and food intake. He got really nauseous from the pain and ended up throwing up (poor kid!) – Tip 4: This is going to sound really weird, but he had started feeling better and we decided to stop at a Mead shop to get a surprise for Daddy and the amazing Sales Associate there said that honey can help. He popped open a jar and slathered his arm and covered it with a paper towel and Monkey said it started feeling better by the time we got to the car! (BTW if you are in VA and want to try some amazing Mead, check out Silver Hand Meadery, Glenn and his crew are amazing!) – Tip 5: Know what kind of jelly fish if at all possible. Where we were, it was a Sea Nettle and I found out (thanks Dad!) that carrying some meat tenderizer and sprinkling it on helps neutralize it and ease the pain.
🎶🌞Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun Please shine down on meeeee.🌞🎶
I seriously love teaching preschoolers. I love the relaxed curriculum while learning big things through play. Before being a mom I taught infants to 4 year olds for almost five years on top of babysitting most of my teen years and helping my mom in her daycare out of our house in my middle school and elementary years. Needless to say, if there is one thing I confidently know, it is children. I know some of you are lost when it comes to preschoolers. What do you teach them? How do you teach them? Where? When? Do they ever stop moving? (No!) Is everything messy? (Yes!) Do they have to sit still forever, because I don’t know how long they will last if they have to sit. I will admit, I am not scared of a mess. I don’t like it when they make them but it is just a part of life these days
We use unit study themes for our house at this age (Mermaid is 2 years and 2 months) because it gives them a long time to work within a theme and continue working on the same skills and knowledge. Repetition is key for children. But so is fun and engaging learning through play and reading! I will pull these out to keep her busy for 10-20 minutes so that I can work with her brothers on their school work, clean something up, or get dinner going. When she is done, we clean it up and move on. While she is playing, even if I am not right next to her, I will still be talking with her about what she is doing and experiencing.
Our pillars of learning: 1- Reading- A basket of books relating to the topic. These are always accessible for her and we read them at least once a day. Maybe not all the way through if she is being busy but we will read as long as she will sit. 2- Sensory- Sensory play is SO important for cognitive development. It helps with emotional responses, it helps with problem solving, language skills, aids in memory development, and encourages motor skill development. 3- Motor skill work- Gross and fine motor skills are the building blocks to almost any kind of movement your child will ever do. When thinking about motor skills you want them to focus on the big muscles (GROSS: think legs, arms, back) and the small muscles (FINE: think fingers, hands, and feet). 4- Art- Fun exploration of different mediums encourages them to find creative ways to model the world around them.
So each month we will focus on these things and will switch them our daily, weekly, or monthly depending on the activity:
Weather Reading: (Switched out monthly based on theme) Our book basket this month includes: The Sunny Day- Anna Milbourne The Windy Day- Anna Milbourne Lift the Flap Questions and Answers: Weather- Katie Daynes Oh Say, Can you Say What’s the Weather Today?- Tish Rabe
Sensory: (Switched out weekly but played with daily; Could also be prepped and allow them to choose which one they want to do each day)
Bin #1: Stormy weather: Black Beans, Cotton Balls, Pipe Cleaner Lightning
Bin #2: Snowy weather: Floof and mini snowman pieces (these pieces are choking hazards so please monitor your children)
Bin #3: Rainbow dyed rice, pom poms, tongs, and color sorting cups
Bin #4: Blue water beads with Ivory soap clouds (this was really fun to do with my 7 and 9 year old and then use it for Mermaid’s sensory bin
Microwave Ivory soap for 1 minute. Remove what expanded and do it again for 1 minute
Motor Skills: At least one of these is done daily. If she chooses to do more, we will do one but that is also why they are pretty easy prep and mostly easy to clean
Puddle Jumping– Construction paper “puddles” and jump from one to another. (Older kids, add letters of their name or numbers and have them jump in order)
Sponge cloud: Use a dropper to pull up water and then drip it on a sponge. How much water is needed before the sponge starts “raining”
Rainbow Color mixing– Put sizable dabs of paint in a zipper storage bag. (Red and yellow, red and blue, blue and yellow, red blue and yellow) Seal the tops. Allow children to use their hands, rollers, etc to mix the colors together. What new colors are they making?
Cloud writing: This can be a pre writing or writing activity. Use lines, curves and angles for pre writing, or use letter and number to develop writing skills. Use shaving cream, whipped cream, or similar and put on a plate. Have them use their fingers, paintbrush, cotton swab, or other utensil to write the same letter/shape that is on an index card. Spread the cream back out and start a new one! (Be careful of some shaving creams and the menthol level, it can burn some children and watch for food allergies if using whipped cream or other food based product)
Make and decorate a rain stick– Using a paper towel tube, glue a few cotton balls at different intervals inside the tube. On one end create and glue on a cap from card stock. Secure with a piece of ribbon glued around the edge to get a better finish. Fill 1/4 with beans or rice. Create a cap and secure the other end. Allow to dry and then paint and decorate.
Art: This is done just a couple times a week (No you do not have to keep everything your child ever makes. Put them on the fridge for the week they did them until they do something different and then, in the words of Elsa, “LET IT GO!” Some of our art projects this month:
Cotton ball clouds glued to paper Paper Kite Solar Prints on Constructions paper Rolling Pin Rainbow Water Drop Printing Rainbow Milk Jug Wind Sock Paper Plate Sun Wind Painting
So that is it. That is the type of things we do on a daily basis. It probably wouldn’t even take an hour to do all of it at one time but that rarely happens. I hope you enjoy the weather activities. If you want to see where I got most of the ideas you can check out my Pinterest Board for Tot School: Weather here. I will always change mine up a bit from what they do though because that is just who I am.
If you want to follow along with some of our activities, you can also join my group on Facebook. I will be reading one of the books live for story-time each week on Tuesday at 10am (EST) and I will be sharing recipes, going live and doing other activities!
Want to get these ideas in more detail? Sign up for my email list and get a monthly email with more in depth activities lists and instructions.
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