Gummy Bear Math

"Write what you think when I say we're going to be doing math all morning," the guest teacher, a mathematician, instructed the group of parents of two-year olds.

As long as we're doing preschool math, I'm okay with it.  Counting, sorting... I wrote on my notecard.  A guest teacher talking to us about math with our two year olds, I thought.  At least mine can count to ten.  That's pretty good for two and half, right?

We brainstormed together what "math" means when it comes to our kids, to learn her definition of math is very broad.  B-I-N-G-O is math?  Sure, it's a pattern of subtraction, she tell us.  Okay....

Then we are instructed to arranged gummy bears any way we wanted on our paper plates.  Well, it beats our previous weeks' discussions, I thought, and arranged my dozens of gummy bears into a rainbow on my plate.  Our guest teacher then taught us that however each of us arranged the candies, it was math.  Grouping, patterns (which is where my rainbow - the only rainbow, I might add - was classified), order, etc. were all considered math.  Okay, we're getting the point.  EVERYTHING is math.  We all use math EVERY DAY. 

Of course, we were encouraged to go home and do this activity with our kids.  She was kind enough to give me and the other twin mom yet another bag of gummy bears.  Thanks.  I had absolutely no intention of doing this activity because I knew exactly what would happen, but M saw me stuff the candy into the backpack (thanks for reminding me to take it home when I was going to conveniently "forget" them on the shelf!). 

He nagged me all morning to play the "game" I told him it was.  He's no dummy.  He knows what candy looks like, especially 2 big quart sized ziplocs full of gummy bears.  I promised him after nap, and wouldn't you know, he remembered?  (Speaking of memory, when I asked N what we were going to do yesterday morning, he suggested the fair!  That was 3 months ago!) 

Fast forward to this morning, 4 days later.  We haven't touched the game since Monday afternoon, the kids haven't seen Hubs since Monday at breakfast.  The first thing M wants to do?  Play the game!  Play the game!  Play the game!  He's nagging my husband all morning, and the poor guy doesn't have a clue what that means because I haven't had the chance to share this nugget (he came home at midnight).  So I tell him the game is in the cupboard and hand him two cutting boards.  It's a math game we got at school on Monday, I say. 

"Oh." He says when he sees the bears.  "You're supposed to count and sort them but all they do is eat them." Handsome AND smart!  I picked a winner. 

"Have fun!" I say, because now the munchkins are dancing and jumping around his knees at the sight of the gummy bears, screeching in delight at 9:30 in the morning, at the thought of inhaling dozens of gummies.

"Ugh!  These are as hard as a rock!" he cried.  They were on Monday, too, I said.  

Let me tell you, I've never enjoyed washing the breakfast dishes and cleaning the kitchen as much as I did this morning, listening to my husband try to teach the kids how to count and sort gummy bears, how to create a pattern, then eventually, subtraction.

I love math!

Daddy, this morning's math teacher

Look, N actually paid attention for a minute!  He made a row of yellow bears!

School Days

The boys are loving their new class, Terrific Two's!  Aunt L is with us here this week, so, OF COURSE we have pictures of their Monday Morning class.  Thanks, Aunt L - you're a great photographer.

N and M bedeck themselves with the jewlery, then thread beads

N LOVES the activity table - colored popcorn was this week's media

Wee!

Pop! Pop! Pop!

They are learning to wash their hands themselves in this class - yay!

N doing art - I wonder what he'll call this piece?

Aren't I a pretty kitty?

Mommy lends a hand

First Day of School!

It finally arrived, the eagerly anticipated first day of school!  We were in a big rush to get out the door, so I didn't get a cute little pic of them standing next to the door like I'd planned.  What goes like I plan, though? The class starts at 8:30, so I had to wake up N (early bird M was up at 7) at 7:30, which did NOT go well.  Ok, the dressing and eating did not go well.  Guess I should take notes from those experienced moms who do practice mornings before school starts.  Nah, that would be even crazier!  Fortunately, Hubs was here to be "action chugger" and get the boys to eat their frozen chocolate chip waffles and dress the flailing baby alligator for me.  Thanks, honey.

We are in a new school district, so everything was new for me today, too.  New building, new teachers, new classroom - yes, I missed the "meet the teacher" day last week, which would have been useful because I parked at the wrong side of the building and walked through the entire senior center and community center wings before reaching the 'youth' wing!

M and N, above, are playing with flaxseed.  N LOVES this activity table and spent much of the morning pouring the flaxseed into the cone which made the paddlewheel spin.  So that's it, our official first day of school picture.  As a "new" parent today, I didn't feel very comfortable taking a dozen pictures right away on the first day, but I'll try to take more in the future.

And of the 12 or so kids in the class, there's only ONE girl!  Apparently, there will be another next week since someone was ill today, but it looks like there was something in the water 2 years ago.  Their class is nearly all boys!  And two of them are ALSO fraternal twin brothers.  I'm so happy to have run into yet another twin boy mom in my new town.  There's just something about having other twin mom friends that makes my weirdness more normal. 

I'm also happy to be starting our fall schedule.  Summer is great for the first two months, but I guess I'm not the supermom I thought I was because I LOVE that school is back in session!  Know what's also back in session?  Signing up for snacks!  My calendar is already filling up with food dates, and as a matter of fact, I need to assemble an egg bake today because my church's Mom's Group starts tomorrow and - you guessed it - I have to take a dish to pass. 

But I love the first day of school, even though now it looks different than it used to - you know, flaxseed, eggbakes, and long walks through the senior center.

Happy Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day weekend, as a kid, meant going back to school on Tiesday. (the letter after "t" does not work on my iPhone). Since I chose a profession in teaching, it meant going back to work. Now, I'm a stay at home mom of two year old twin boys and it means returning to the fall scedule: back to school, in other words! More than ever, I know why moms love school so much, despite mine being only two.

Soon, the boys and I will attend ECFE, where they play with other two year olds while the other parents and I attend class together. Even though it's a new clas, we don't have any first day jitters- only excitement for a separating class. We'll also be going back to my chirch's Mom's Groyp once a week, another welcome break to talk to real, sane adults while the boys play in the nursery.

Those two 90 minute events each week keep me sane, and whenwe need another activity, we can pop into the library's toddler storytime, which has also been on hiatus.

While I thoroughly enjoyed Jine, Jly and the first half of Aigist(seioisly too many you) the last two weeks are just crawling by? I think many moms of school aged children feel tis way, bit am I the only toddler mom looking forward to "school" starting?

We do have some fn planned with parents, visiting MNfor the first time since the fellas were born: the state fair, the zoo, and maybe even choochoo bob's train store. So things are lookng good for smmer's last hurra, then school starts. I can't wait. :)

Autie L's Snapshots

Going out for lunch...no, not to the VFW!  To a local pizza place!

N played hidey-hole for a half hour last night

The fellas LOVE reading picture books to us

N left "circle time" at school and hid - he LOVES to hide and be found!

N and a little girl in the library boat

Me and M reading books at the library

Big boy juice boxes!  (Never mind they got them because all the sippy cups were dirty.)

M tossed his snack wrapper all by himself

Auntie L and M singing at school

Peek A Boo, I see you!

 This morning we visited the library for some Saturday fun with Auntie L - and scored the Minnesota Children's Museum pass again, so that's our adventure for tomorrow!  The boys, N especially, have been playing lots of peek a boo with their auntie - check out these pics!

Bonus Pics:

Thanks to Auntie L who babysat, a truthful friend who said my roots ARE getting darker as I age, and my great hairdresser, yesterday I went from this....

N loves "Goodnight Gorilla"

to this!

Mommy's new hair and M's new bucket (why buy toys?)

Take Your Grandma To School Day

Apparently, the third week of school is Take Your Grandma to School Day!  The grandmas were sweet, sharing what antics their (only) twin grandkids do.  Grandma A shared during the "parent education" time that she was amazed at how the boys follow directions.  And it's true!  I haven't mentioned it here because...well, I'm with them every day and it seems a tiny bit less amazing, especially when the brilliant children in question are throwing grilled cheesed on the (carpeted) floor. 

But they do  follow simple directions. 
When I say, "It's time to eat," they run to their high chairs. 
When I say, "It's time for night night," they run to the gate at the bottom of the stairs.
When I say, "Daddy's home!" they run to the gate at the top of the stairs.
When I say, "Don't throw that grilled cheese on the floor!" they do it anyway.

After us parents and grandparents got educated, we all sat together for circle time and played with the shakers for the "Shaky, Shaky" song.   Then, today's storytime was better than last week's because Grandma was there to wrestle one little fella.  I've decided my "goal" for this class (because we have to state one!) is to sit in the circle during storytime.  (We have to sell Butter Braids for a school fundraiser, too (!) so uh, if you're in the market for Butter Braids, I'm your woman.  Thus begins my stellar career of hawking my kids' fundraisers on all my friends and family.  How many more years of this?) 

N shaky shakin' it

Grandma A and M read a story during circle time

Mommy and N shaky shakin'

Our girlfriends H and B with their Mommy and Grandma

My MVMOM friend M and her 18 month old daughters are in our class.  School's more fun for us adults when our friends are there, too!  And SHE brought her mother in law to school today, too!  Here are the girls shaky shakin' their eggs.

N's favorite part of school is gym...and snack.  

Heavens, my boys are such BOYS already.  They LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the gym time and CRY if I make them share their favorite Little Tykes vehichle, the pickup truck.  Wow, it's like they're middle school already, loving snack and gym, not liking reading. 

First Day of School

vocab words:
ECFE: Early Childhood Family Education, classes offered to families by local school districts in MN
MVMOM: Minnesota Valley Mothers of Multiples, a club to which I belong and LOVE

Today was the first day of our ECFE "Managing Multiples" class and the boys had a BLAST!  I can tell that I'm going to enjoy it, too, because several of my MVMOM friends enrolled their kiddos.  Starting next week, our class time will be half separated, meaning the parents get their "education" separately from the kids (to which I am greatly looking forward).  This week, we were all together, learning the ropes.

I had every intention of taking dozens of photos to show you how adorable their classroom is, how cute they were all dressed up in their jeans and T-shirts, and how much fun they were having with the other kids, all of which is true.

But another truth is that the boys were SO BUSY investigating every item and taking each toy apart, not to mention one who dirtied his diaper not once but twice, I only snapped two pics during the 5 minutes they were still: snacktime.

Well, they're not exactly the "first day of school" pictures I was hoping for, but they do show me something about the fellas.  When there are a dozen other kids sitting at the table, NOT going anywhere, but focusing on those animal crackers, LO and BEHOLD, my kids can, too!  Ah, the power of group conformity.

They're the smallest in the class and have a lot to learn, but I also see that the skills they do have serve them well.  See, while they wouldn't sit still on my lap for reading time, (they won't at home, either) they had absolutely no qualms about jumping into the mix and playing with the other kids, big and small.  I'm not at all worried about separating next week!  N is SO curious, twice when I looked around, I couldn't find him!  The first time, he'd gone back into the classroom (we were in the gym) to watch the fascinating bulldozers laying pavement in the parking lot, and the second, he'd found the dark bathroom and shut himself in - but he DID need a change, so that's pretty smart, right? 

Overall, I think it was a successful, albeit exhausting (but what day isn't?) first day of school.

Get Us Out of Here!

I carried the boys into the "moon room" like a pack mule this morning: one in the Snugli, one on my hip, and the diaper bag on my back. I set them down to play by the mirror because they (ahem, Nathan) like to kiss themselves, so my plan was to let them admire themselves while I checked us in, hung up jackets, etc. Know what the fellas did?

Matthew made a break for the "sibling care" room adjoining on one wall, where his classmates' older siblings play with fun and exciting big kid toys while we are in our (apparently, boring) baby class. While I retrieved him, Nathan made a break for three year-olds' room!

Through the other open door and around the back side of a curtain, I find Nathan, sitting on the floor, looking up at a dozen or so three-year olds, who are starting at him as if he were an alien! The 3 year olds' teacher discovers him the same time I do, and is ecstatic! "I love Thursdays! I love babies!" She asks to hold him, and I let her, because guess what's happening in the "moon room?"

Yep, Matthew's making a break for the "sibling care" room again! "Would you like to meet his twin brother?" Teacher's eyes sparkled, little kids smiled and giggled. I again retrieved Matthew to show him off to the "big" kids. After much oogling and hugging, the three of us returned to the "moon room" for our baby class and I closed the doors on those other teachers.

That's not all - Nathan likes to crawl right over to the entrance, pull himself up, and bang on the glass!  (It's actually quite hilarious, but it's never done at a picture-appropriate time, otherwise you'd see it here.)

Think they're trying to tell me something?

Staycation Report Two

The boys are loving all the attention and action this week!  I'm afraid they'll be bored out of their skulls next week when we're back to the ol' grind, but until then, let the good times roll!

Like I said, the boys and I opted out of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts/Punch Pizza/Downtown Tour on Wednesday, so I don't have any great pics of that adventure for you.  You all want to see the boys, anyhow, so we'll move on to Thursday, Staycation Day Four.

Thursday is ECFE for us, so we took special guest, Grandma, to class with us!

I caught Nathan kissing himself in the mirror!

Just had to snap this cute shot of little girl friend A, Nathan, and Matthew all dressed in green stripes and playing with the green balls in the green bucket.  Too cute!

Here we are at our favorite restaurant, Teresa's, celebrating Grandma and Grandpa's 32nd wedding anniversary.  The boys are sitting in big boy chairs like the pros they are!

Aunt L and I made their anniversary cake from scratch: Silver White Cake with Lemon Filling and Fluffy White Frosting.  It tasted delicious and was worth the humongous mess we made in the kitchen.

Here's where I would add the family photos we took that evening at a local portrait studio, but the proofs aren't yet online as of this writing.  But I can tell you they look great!  Aunt L gave me the salon treatment before we left so my hair and makeup looks incredible!  Oh, and everyone else looks good too! The boys behaved well and Matthew was smiling like crazy, so we got some beautiful shots.  Nathan refused to give us his million-dollar smile in the studio, though.  He reserved it for the car rides there and back, of course.  But no fear, we got some good shots of him, too.  I'm glad to finally make it into a family portrait!

Then we sent Grandma and Grandpa on a surprise anniversary date complete with prime rib and roses.  They seem to have had a good time.   Daddy and Uncle A were in charge of the baths last night, and they did a great job because the fellas conked out and we didn't hear a peep until 7 am this morning.  The rest of us who weren't on a date or sleeping played Wii bowling all night.  Unfortunately, I'm out of practice and lost my pro status (Boo!), but developed an interesting running-at-the-tv technique that scored me 4 strikes in a row!  So maybe I can earn my pro status back tonight!

We're off to Waterpark of America right after morning nap, so stay tuned for some cuter-than-cute baby swimsuit shots at our next update!

Thursday Morning Snapshots

 

Who's that handsome guy?

  

Mom, stop with the pictures!  Can't you see I'm busy?

  

Nathan was tentative about the tunnel and the Big Red Dog.

  

Exploring, exploring, exploring - here's Matthew discovering shelves of toys

  

 Ha ha!  We're in here with all the toys and you're out there with none!

  

I love you!

  

 Super Nathan!