A day of quiet play...Well who am I kidding, it is NEVER truly quiet in this house! LOL! We began the day with our friday playgroup with our homeschool group. It was raining so we moved from the park to a coffeshop. This coffeshop has the right idea though, one room is the typical coffeshop setting with the counter and tables and a couch or two, the other room is WONDERFUL for parents and children. The room is a big playroom with couches, chairs and a few scattered tables. There are climbing toys (including a big one with several slides), riding toys and a bunch of other toys, a piano for them to bang on and a computer they can fiddle with. This coffeeshop was doing a booming business in the mother and toddler/preschooler demographic, why aren't there more of these wonderful places? The kids had a great time playing with their friends and the moms were able to have real conversation over coffee and tea. Some of the topics included extended breastfeeding, breastfeeding in public, the family bed, Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, homeschooling, sock puppet doll making, kids sleeping (or more often not sleeping) through the night, waldorf schooling, curriculms used or not used, pregnancy and some other personal stories.

After playgroup we headed home for lunch and our son took a nap. I tried to read some more Harry Potter but decided a better use of my time was really to have quiet time with our daughter. So we had some special mommy and me time, during which I let her pick what to do. First we read some stories, then we did some school worksheets (practicing tracing and drawing straight lines and shapes and her entire alphabet), then it was dancing time. This is one of her favorites to put on some tunes and dance around the room together - I do have fun once we are doing it. Then we cleaned up the room and decided to do a project. We made some felt letters and numbers by tracing punch out letters onto felt and cutting them out. She helped punch out the letters and then just wanted to practice cutting. So I worked on the letters and numbers and she used her scissors to cut paper, felt, cardboard and anything else she could find into strips, shapes, fringe and patterns. We made 4" high letter and numbers out of felt and put the numbers into a handmade book of cardstock so they could practice tracing them with their fingers to learn how to draw them and for our son to learn to recognize them. The letter we kept for use on a felt board to learn phonics, spelling, or whatever else we do with them. Then we built castles out of wood blocks and she practiced "bowling" with a wooden bowling set she has. She cleaned up while I did the laundry and then our son was awake.

Upstairs for a snack and some free play for them - today it was hide and seek and some imaginary bug hunt. Then they each played independently, our son with a big wooden busy block with different activities on it and our daughter reading books to herself. Next it was group play with a Jumbo Music Cube that teaches shapes and some basic life skills in a fun and easy to remember way. Then it was time for dinner and now they are back into imagination play. They have been trying on different shoes and being princesses and mommy and all sorts of other things. Their imagination never ceases to amaze me. I love that they get along so well and can entertain each other now for periods of time. I think I will set up some markers and paper for some free draw now while I finish up dishes and cleaning up and then into the bath and off to bed. Another rewarding, yet easygoing day here.

Peace,
Tenn