Five Ways Mother Goose Time Makes Effective Mommas

Being an effective momma is no easy task by any means.

Whether you are a mom who works out of the home, stays at home, or works from the home, I am sure we can all agree that the struggle to be effective is real.

Time.

Time is short.

Time is fleeting.

Time slips away.

And we all wish we just had a little more

Time.

I decided to be a stay at home because of that very factor.  I wanted all the time I possibly could to soak in every minute with my little girl.  But there are things that just suck time away from me and my girl.

One being Pinterest.

Don't get me wrong, I love Pinterest.  Especially finding great things for my girl and I to try to do together.  But you know how it is... click on this link, read all this stuff, download and print... (no color printer) now I have to color, cut, and create stuff for her, and stop at the store and buy the things for us to create with.  Before I know it, that one little unit study I wanted to do with my girl, has now taken me hours and several evenings to prepare, cost quite a bit between the store, gas, and time spent there, and has basically worn me down before we even start!  I am sure I am not the only one.  

AND... I haven't even mentioned having some quality time with my husband. 

Why do I love Mother Goose Time?

Because my time- my precious and beloved time- is spent with my loved ones.

It's spent watching her grow, learn, create, and read.  Time is spent as a family when my husband  participates in the games with her or when she describes what she learned today as he walks through the door.

Mother Goose Time (MGT) gives me time which helps make me effective.

I spend those precious moments with the ones I love doing the things that mean something instead of searching, scouring, and building something from nothing.

 This little school bus box comes to my door with 20 daily packages filled with games, crafts, books and learning opportunities.  I can use how much and how little I want.  I can save it for later, or for daddy, or fit a bunch in on a rainy day.  

MGT sends us everything we need and saves us money in the long run! 

I spend time making and learning with my girl instead of running to the store or Hobby Lobby for something to make a craft with. I don't know about you, but I can never walk into Walmart or Hobby Lobby and just buy that one thing I need.... before I know it I've spent extra money that I really didn't need to.  

MGT helps me stay focused.

It supplies me with a list of books to check out at out local library.  Walking into the library can be overwhelming and sitting at the card catalog computer with a toddler is no easy task.  Having my book list prior and being able to go online and see what is available at the library, helps me be effective with the time we have at the local library. 

We aren't walking in, demolishing shelves, and grabbing books without a care.  There is a theme with the books we check out and that keeps my girl constantly learning, even if she doesn't realize it yet.

MGT sends me educational toys.

This is a big deal.  I love open ended toys and manipulatives that can be used over and over, growing with the child, and morphing into new ways of learning and playing.  Just this month, we received 4 magnetic wands (always have wanted some of these) and magnetic letter tiles!  My mind is already reeling with ideas of games we can do outside of our daily suggestions by MGT.

MGT fills my house with music and learning.

Our monthly CD stays in a player that my girl can easily turn on whenever she likes (right now she's still into Alphabet Island's ABC song track #7...it's on repeat).  Her little journal sits on her table ready for her to draw or color whenever she likes.  Her "I Can Read" books have become a game.  "Mommy let's play game," she'll say as she pulls her sight word arrows out of the bag I have taped to the front, anxious to match the words to her arrows.   

Is MGT worth the money?

For me and my family... absolutely.

I get the most valuable thing in return for my money-

Time.

Time with my girl.

Time to try new things on the fly.

Time making memories.

Time watching her learn and grow.

Time- that precious and priceless thing I can never get back.

Starry Night Sky

Please forgive the awful grainy and spotty pictures. My nice camera could not be used at the time, and my phone lens is shattered to high heaven which is why they look this way. #momlife

This camping theme from Mother Goose Time has some of Sweet Pea's most favorite topics:

Bears, Stars, Racoons, Moon, and Pinecones are just a few and today we did our star activities.

She loves to change our Topic poster.  We talked about the stars and I asked her to place her finger on the brightest star which is what she is pointing to below. 

I explained that the star is called the North Star, and stars can make up designs in the sky called constellations.  It was time to do our Constellation activity. 

Sweet Pea didn't make her own constellations, but we did the "Play" section from above and she really enjoyed matching all the stars and placing them in the correct spots.

When she finished the Constellation activity it was time to make her own starry night sky during our Invitation to Create. 

I gave her white tempra paint and instead of a paintbrush, MGT sent us a toothpick to make tiny dots on the paper.  I'm sure you can guess how long that lasted... 

like 3 dots maybe.  But fingers make great dots too, and sure enough, her fingers were in that paint. 

One thing I didn't expect was how the white tempra paint would turn the blue paper purple in some areas.  It was a great galaxy look!  Love it!  Sweet Pea added glue and was anxious to put on the glitter.  I handed her a quarter teaspoon to pour the glitter with, which worked great and definitely good practice with coordination and fine motor skills.

But you know kids... it only lasts for so long before they get to pouring. 

A starry night galaxy sky.

These were the perfect quiet and peaceful activities we needed as we had a baby napping in our home while we did our Star Day activities.  Such a blessing to be able to just open a bag and be able to make, do, and most importantly learn.

Happy learning! 

  

Camping Indoors

Rain, rain, go away.... come again some other day!

It's been raining just about every afternoon 'round here, but that's not stopping us from camping out with our Mother Goose Time!  In fact, rainy days are the perfect days to build tents indoors, which is just what we did on Tent Day.

A queen sized sheet, dining room chair, and old high chair were the perfect supplies to build our tent before we started solving some sticky situation cards that Mother Goose Time sent to place in our pocket cube.  Here was one of our dilemmas:

As soon as I read the problem, Sweet Pea took off to her bedroom and walked out like this...

She grabbed every blanket from her bedroom, dragged them to her tent, and built herself a pallet on that "rocky and uncomfortable" ground.  She then decided to add couch pillows and books for me to read to her.  How can you pass that moment up?

After reading our books and camping out in the living room, it was time to create a tent in our Invitation to Create.  MGT sent us red paper, blue paper, yellow tissue paper, and 2 little craft sticks.  We began by studying the photograph of the red tent provided, and Sweet Pea remarked about the trees in the background.  

I asked,"What can we use to make trees in our picture?" She exclaimed, "Leaves!"

So we went outside and gathered some leaves, twigs, and pine needles.  After collecting our nature stash, she went to work gluing down all her outdoor items. 

I cut her red paper into a semicircle and Sweet Pea chose to place it on top of her leaves. She then snipped (but really tore) her yellow tissue paper and glued it on top of her tent.  

I loved watching her layer her work. 

Like most two year olds, Sweet Pea can not get enough stickers.  After seeing a random sheet laying around (tell me you do to), she decided to add some stickers to her tent artwork.  Here is her masterpiece, now displayed on her wall:

Friends, don't let that weather ruin your plans!  Just bring the sunshine into your home and watch your kids become happy campers :) 

Happy Camping! 

Tot School: Bear Counts

It's Bear Day during our Camping Unit with Mother Goose Time, and my girl loves bears!

We started our day with the book Bear Counts that we checked out from our local library.

We love all these Bear books!  With this one, we would go back and forth between the pages finding what the bear saw a certain number of.

Reading that book was the perfect way to introduce our bear counting game.

Mother Goose Time sent us:

-Red pompoms (berries)

-Berry cards to go in our giant die

-Bear cards

How to play:

- Place the berry cards inside the die pockets and roll

-Count the number of berries

- Place that number of berries (red pompoms) onto one of the bear cards

-Roll again and repeat the process with the other bear cards.

We added our own Bear mask.

Sweet Pea has been obsessed with wearing her animal masks especially the bear one. 

(24 Foam Animal Masks) She loves to run around the house "Roooooar"-ing like a bear.

This activity was perfect using one-to-one correspondence.

Sweet Pea would count and I would ask her questions like,

"Which bear has the most berries?"

"Which bear has the fewest berries?"

By looking at what she had done and counted, 

Sweet Pea could easily point and tell me which bear was which.

Once we finished our Bear Counts activity, it was time to move on to our 

Invitation to Create: Bears!

Mother Goose Time supplied us with:

-Green Paper

-Bear Stencil with Bear punch out

-Foam Piece (use as a paintbrush)

-Bear and Cubs photo

All I had to supply was the brown tempra paint. 

Because tempra paint doesn't stain and washes out of clothes easily, 

it is the perfect paint for toddler and preschool crafts.

Sweet Pea struggled with holding the stencil and painting at the same time, so I helped her by holding down the stencil.  If you have more than one child doing this at a time, you could tape the stencil down or use sticky tack to hold it down while the child paints.  

She loved this!  After Sweet Pea finished her painting, she still wanted to paint more bears.  So I went and found a piece of 12x12 green paper in my craft stash, and she kept on painting!  I adore it when she desires to keep on doing one of the art projects or games over and over.

She whipped out her magnifying glass (one of our monthly manipulatives from this unit), and studied the bears she painted and other things in her play space. 

When Dad came home from work, she ran to him exclaiming about her bear artwork and showing him her paintings.  I love that she is so excited about her work.

Happy Bear Day!

Click here to order your camping box from Mother Goose Time!

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Products we used today and use constantly in our Tot School:

               

The Fiery Furnace for Preschoolers

First of all, I must apologize for the simply AWFUL pictures in this post.

My Bible fell on top of my phone and shattered the camera lens. No amount of filtering can fully restore these images.  (my nice camera was borrowed over this week)

I am in love with the Experience God pack from Mother Goose Time.

Reasons why:

1. It spends the entire month studying one truth about God.         (This month is on FAITH.)
2. Each truth focus' on a particular Bible Scripture.                      (This month is Daniel 3.)
3. One memory verse for the entire month for kids to memorize. (This month is Proverbs 3:5)
4. There are 20 Daily activities that could be used as devotions, 4 main crafts for kids to create, and 4 coloring sheets that match the story cards.
5. This can easily be used as a weekly Sunday School lesson or use at home.

Let me share what it looked like for us one day this week.

Daniel 3 is one of my favorite narratives about how to have faith and stand for God even when no one else around you is.  In Daniel 3, King Nebuchadnezzar decreed a law that everyone should bow down to a golden statue. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refuse to bow even when threatened to be thrown into a fiery furnace. One of my most favorite verses in the Bible comes from their response to the King when he threatens to throw them in the fire:

Daniel 3: 16-18

“King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” 

Such faith!

As I told Sweet Pea that the 3 friends were placed into the fire, she immediately noticed there were 4 people in the fire!

"Who else is in the fire with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?" I asked.

She actually responded with "Jesus."

Oh, how I love His blessings!  

I told her that Jesus always meets us in our scary situations if we believe in Him.  He might not save us from them, but He is right there with us.

We have read this several times prior to doing this lesson.  

Her daddy reads her a chapter from her Bible each night.

Mother Goose Time sent us the supplies to create a fiery headband to complete during our first week studying this Scripture.

Sweet Pea worked on creating triangles by cutting and tearing the yellow and orange cardstock MGT supplied for us.  She then glued all the orange triangles on a red strip of cardstock that would later become her headband.   After attaching all the orange pieces, she then glued all the yellow pieces.

This double sided stick tape is perfect for making these headbands!  You can adjust them easily and when you get the right fit, then you can easily add a drop of glue to make sure it all sticks together. 

Sweet Pea and her fiery headband!

She wore this for quite a while after making it and danced around to our Truth and Tunes CD.

I pray she has faith in the Lord like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. 

Keep the faith, friends!