Color Learning Activity

I read a lot of blogs.  A.LOT of blogs.  Many of them have activities to do with young children.  I watch what those women do with their children and think “I could totally do that!” and then I don’t do it.

Poor Jack.

So, today, I’m starting a new schedule for us.  I’m adding more learning activities into his daily routine.  I should have already been doing this, but I’m a lazy mother, so I haven’t yet.

Poor Jack.

Today, I came up with an activity off the cuff.  (which is a nicer way to say “I pulled it out of my you-know-where”) Jack already knows his colors very well.  He sometimes mixes up pink and purple, but other than that, he’s got all his colors down pat.  So, I decided to start with an activity where I knew he’d have success right away.

I traced a roll of masking tape onto plain white drawing-pad paper.  Then I had him color each circle (which I also asked him to name for me since I knew he knew it) a different color.  I handed him a crayon and told him which circle to color.  Next time I would let him pick which circle to color, but I was moving things right along today.

After he colored each circle a different color, I put the paper on the living room/play room floor and said, “Now go find a red toy and put it on the red circle.”  He did!  He did the same for all of the colors.  It was pretty quick, but he did have to go searching a bit for a few of the colors.

I cleared the paper, and asked him to find another red toy for the red circle.  You could tell by the look in his eye that he wanted to use the same toy he’d already used, but I’d put the toys in my lap so they were ‘out of play’ for this round.  He found a new round of toys without much trouble at all.

We did it a third time, which I could tell was the last round for him.  When he put a plane down on the red circle (for it’s red wheels), the plane wouldn’t stay on the circle.  Jack said It kept flying away. 

He was so proud of himself and what he was able to accomplish.  I only had to help him find one toy through all the rounds.

I think he’s going to love his new learning activities thrown in throughout his days.  Now, Mommy has to learn to plan ahead.  It’s like writing lesson plans all over again!  AAAAAHHHHH!!!

Please Don’t Read This Post!

I want to tell you to disregard this post, because it’s about a giveaway that I want to win.  If I blog about Rachel’s giveaway, I get another chance to win.  And I WANT TO WIN this giveaway.  If you go to Dreaming of the Country and see how fabulous this giveaway is, you’re liable to take away my chance to win.  So, please, PLEASE disregard this post.

I don’t want you to go here and see for yourself the most beautiful bag that I want to win.  I don’t want you to enter as many times as you can.  I don’t even want you to still be reading this post about the best giveaway ever!

So, just disregard this quick note.  M’kay?  Thanks!

*Did I mention that Rachel lives in Aberystwyth, Wales?  And I’ve been there before.  And she’s awesome enough to allow us “foreigners” to enter her giveaway?  And she’s just plane awesome anyway?  But don’t let that make you go read her awesome blog.  Really.  Just wait until after the giveaway, then go see how cool she is.  'M’Kay?  Thanks.

Foto Friday–FOOD

What a great topic for Foto Friday.  I love food.  You can tell by my picture.  I love food A LOT.

I love sugar most of all.  Sour Patch Kids and Swedish Fish are two of my favorites.  One of my friends on our Girls Trip 2011 brought candy for our gift bags.  I love her!  She brought Sprees and a sour patch type gummie bear.  I did my friend duty to collect anyone’s extra candy that they may not have wanted.  Who knew that there are people in this world who don’t like sugar!?

As I was editing this shot, I couldn’t figure out which picture I liked best, so I decided to put them both up.  One shows how bright and vivid the colors of the candies are, and the other one is just a cool processed shot with a new texture.  I have been corrupted by Kim at Mom Tried It, because she keeps sending me links to actions and textures for Photoshop.  I love her!!  It’s so fun to play around with my picture editing now.  It’s even more fun to have someone to go through this learning and experimenting process with. 

Here ‘ya go.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend! Enjoy some sugar! I’m sure I will at some point.

Oh, and a big THANK YOU to Kim for featuring my picture on her blog today.  She liked my train track picture from last week’s Foto Friday, so she featured it on her post today.  That makes me feel like a real photographer or something!!  Thanks so much, Kim.  I’m the Photoshop junkie I am because of you!

Birthday Dinner Or How I Traumatized My Son

Because it was my birthday yesterday, I got to pick a restaurant for my husband and son to take me out to.  It meant I didn’t have to cook OR CLEAN last night, so I was happy with anywhere.  But after giving it a lot of thought, I picked a local Japanese steakhouse.  Rick and Jack had never been to this place, and I love their food, especially their Yum Yum sauce.  YUM!

It was a lot of fun to watch him cook and do all the fancy flipping and chopping and banging with his knives.  I’m always amazed at how huge the tower of butter is when they come out to start cooking, and how much butter they use in their cooking.  That could be why it all tastes so good.

Jack kept asking if he was putting syrup in the food when he’d use one of his squirt bottles.  I did have our syrup in a squirt bottle like these for a  while, sot I thought that was very clever of him to figure out. The food was very yummy.  I splurged and ordered a shrimp and steak combo.  It was my birthday after all!

Now, Jack was a well behaved boy the whole time, charming the ladies at our table with his grin and peek-a-boo antics, but when the guy came out and turned on the grill, I knew we had picked the wrong place to eat.  As soon as the flames started to tickle the ceiling, Jack hid in my armpit.  He covered his eyes and stayed that way almost the entire time the guy was cooking, banging, and clanging.  At one point, he even put my hand over his eyes. He only cried once, but I think he was too terrified to cry while the flames from the ‘volcano’ (where they stack the onion rounds up and light the center) were climbing ever higher.

He didn’t eat until the chef had been gone for a good long time, and then he only ate a few pieces of onion while sitting on my lap.  The bad thing about these types of restaurants is that as soon as they finish serving you, and the chef leaves his place, they come out with the checks.  They try very hard to move you out quickly.  There is no time to sit and enjoy your meal or conversation after the pyro techniques are over.  So, when Jack finally decided to start eating, we were being kicked out.  Needless to say, we have a great lunch planned for today.

The worst part of the whole night wasn’t just when Jack was hiding from the ‘bad guy’ chef, but that he woke up a few times last night shaking and asking if the fire was done.  He had a few nightmares, and I ended up sleeping with him most of the night.  Poor guy.

Needless to say, I felt like the worst mommy in the world for even considering taking my child to such a place.  The only thing that kept me from total self loathing was that as we were walking out the door, there was a cute little girl no older than Jack sitting at another table.  So, I’m not alone in being the worst mommy in the world.