Playing School

This morning, we decided to play school again.  Sophia has not really been feeling like doing this for the past few days, so I am not pushing it.  When she asks to play, I am all over it with something to do!  Today, she did some painting, played with puzzles, looked at books with her brother, and did some tracing and coloring on these great A, B, C prinable pages from this website, 1+1+1=1 Blog,  I just love this site and all of the fun and creative ideas that this momma has!  Check it out, even if you are not homeschooling your peeps, there is probably a bunch of things that you could do at your home to entertain those kiddos!

Here are some pics of the busy bees at work this morning!

I decided to give her crayons to write with on the transparency paper holders.  This was much easier clean up for me, I did not have to spend so much time cleaning up Red's hands and face!  Today she really wanted to color on all of the letter sheets, so I would just ask her what the letters were and if she did not know what it was she would ask me.  I was excited that she knew "Y" and "Z".  Who can figure why they know one letter better than another!  We would also talk about things that started with whatever letter she was tracing at the time.  I am also impressed that her tracing is getting better, but do not fear, after she kinda traces the letter she is quick to scribble all over it!

It is just fun to hear her babble about the letters and her telling me that she scribbles on the "yogurt picture"!

I gave little man puzzle pieces to keep him occupied.

Coloring the alligator

Reading/ singing Frosty the Snowman to her brother.

Thank you to the readers that have been sending me curricula ideas and sites to research.  I am really looking forward to this experience and what the future may hold for us.  So far, I am planning to do this for their pre-school/ pre-k year, and if it is still going well, then I may continue it further.  Red is going to be 3 in August, and I am not pushing her to do anything that she is not ready or wanting to do!  I also said in a previous post, I am not being a "knowledge pusher" onto my 1 year old (things are just given to him to keep him entertained so I can focus more on Red for that moment!)  So please, if you do have any ideas I am open to any suggestions that you may have or things that worked for you on your journey.

Good Day Sunshine!!

Another fun day spent in the sunshine!  We went over to G-Daddy and Honey's house this past Saturday, and the kids enjoyed playing in the water table and running through the sprinkler.



so serious when playing in the water!

She decided it was better to get into the tub!

My little dolly!

Baby Bear roaring at the water sprinkler!

I going to see the a-maminals!!

 Let me translate, for those of you that do not speak "Sophia".  "I am going to see the animals!"  This was the constant phrase last Wednesday night and Thursday morning.  I drove the family wagon over to the, Gentry Safari.  We spent the morning feeding animals, kangaroo hoppin', snake wranglin', goat chasin', monkey watchin', and everything else that you could ever think of doing while on a safari!  It was a fun time showing the kids the animals and being with family.

I've never met a stranger.  I am a talker and I love to visit with anyone!  My most favorite type of people to start up a conversation with are people that are holding an animal... or a boa constrictor!  Yes, this is me sitting next to a snake.  I even pet the thang!  I am officially a snake wrangler!!

While driving at the safari, you could sometimes run into a roadblock.  When this happens, you sit in the car, sometimes honk the horn (this only upsets some animals and makes them approach your car), you update your Facebook status and ask for assistance, and you munch on snacks.  This made for an interesting few minutes.  Since Richard, my brother, would not get out of the car to lure the animals off of the beaten path, I did what any country girl would do drove around them, through their pasture!

Yes, all that separated us was that metal fence.  We weren't scared at all!

geese crossing the path to get to the waterin' hole.  It was filled with deer and buffalo!

such a peaceful place for the animals to be

the alligator pond.  I found it a little bit questionable that the alligator enclosure was also home to about 7 miniature ponies (humm?)

tigers

the zebras.  If we would have disobeyed the rules and rolled down the windows we could have pet them for sure!

my precious cargo

Baby Bear and the Baby Tortoise

She could not believe how small it was!  The tortoise was a year old!

Annalee the lion tamer!

scoping out the Emu

The peacocks just roam all around.

Look out Jane Goodall

Mercedees and Sophia

She was not so sure about these goats, and they were not too sure about her!

She found safety with Mercedees!

Poor brother!  We tossed all of the bread to him since the goats were rushing us, then they bombarded him!

Big ole girl!

Kangaroo watching, yes we were standing that close to them!

If you live in NW Arkansas, this place is so much fun.  I suggest you bring hand sanitizer, snacks for yourself because the drive through can take about 40 minutes (so much to see), bring bread from home and you can feed the animals (in the petting zoo part), and go in the morning (this is when many of the animals are being fed and it is not hot yet so they are out walking around and not sitting in the shade resting!)  For sure to be a fun morning for you!

B... R... A...Y...I don't know Momma

The A, B, C song has become a regular tune in our house lately.  Last week, I really introduced the letter A to Sophia.  Letting her do color sheets, talking about things and foods that begin with the letter A, playing with magnets.... just "playing school".  A few weeks ago, I bought these sponge bathtub letters from Wal-Mart, stuck some Velcro sticky dots on them and stuck them to the back of our small chalkboard.  I really wanted Lil Red to see the letters as we would sing the letters.  I think that the kids really just enjoy pulling the letters off of the board and trying to peel of the Velcro and stick it to their clothes, but whatev.  At least I have them playing with letters. HA!

Well, yesterday, Red was sitting at the table painting, and the Bear was sitting in his highchair.  I gave him a sticker and a piece of paper.  Sophia tried to swipe it from him, so I told her this is Bub's paper.  Then to further show her it was his, I wrote his name with a crayon onto the paper.  BIG letters, B-R-A-Y-D-E-N

She, my Lil Red, looked at the paper and said, "B-R-A-Y."

I started to clap and say that she is so smart and clap some more then I did some jumping!

She looked at me, mad that I interrupted this genius moment of hers.

So, I said, "well, what is this next letter?" (pointing to the D)

Girlfriend looks at me and says, "I don't know Momma, I done with that."

Humf.  Alrighty then.

Friends, she knows some letters!  She is picking something up!  It is sinking in!

Hooray for tiny tot university!



Splish Splash

Happy Friday friends!

Today was just one of those days where the kids decided they were just going to play in the water.  They kind of just do whatever at G-Daddy and Honey's house.

G-Daddy + Honey = Most Fun Ever

Most Fun Ever + Nap Time When We Leave G-Daddy and Honey = Happy Mommy 

Every time the water would splash, the Lil Bear would laugh and roar with excitement!

The water table kept them entertained for at least 2 hours!  O the joys of being a toddler!

My Cups Runneth Over

Yes, I know this will be a post where the 10s of people (my parents and sister in law included) that read this blog will say to themselves.... "oh no she di'int post about this and show a picture."

Well, o yes I di'id!
(Sorry people, but here at Sophia + 1 Makes Four, I blog about stuff that really matters.)

Let me set up the story:

Yesterday, while squatting down to Lil Red's eye level to tell her she made a poor choice in whacking her brother over the head with a dinosaur squishy toy, I heard a little snap..pop.  Yes, folks, my big ole bubbies busted my bra underwire.

This is just pitiful.

The sad thing is it is the 2nd (yes.... 2nd) time that this has happened in the past 3 weeks!

Yes folks, this is my life.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Last night we went to watch the Arkansas Razorback baseball team play Missouri.  Not a bad way to spend an evening:  munching on Kettlecorn, being with your family, and calling those HOGS!!

Lil Red calling the Piggies!

My sister in law, LeAnne and my nephew Aidan

Daddy and his girl.  She was calling the HOGS in this picture.

This Baby Bear just loves his sweet cousin.

 Me and SIL

Me and Loverboy.

Sweet Annalee



 We had such a fun time, and are looking forward to going to another game next week!