Chores...they can be fun

We recently implemented chores into our daily routine.  I'm learning to surrender this little piece of me that has become OCD since becoming a Mom.  I want things done a certain way and put away in a certain spot and if it's not I feel like all the balls drop and the list inside my head begins to scramble, this is usually what ends up happening.  I'm sure this bit of OCD developed after having twins because I'm not by nature an organized person and the pile of things to go through on my counter may look like a complete disaster but in my head it makes sense  so please don't touch it!  

But like I said I'm working on this problem and I'm finding certain chores can be fun and it really is helping me out.  Here is a little video of the girls mopping the floors today.

A little white vinegar and water sprayed onto the tiles, some mopping slippers and good music makes for an excellent mopping dance party and my floors like amazing!

Other chores they do:

Vacuum

collecting dirty laundry

sorting laundry

folding kitchen towels, dish rags and pants

finding matching socks and folding them together

dusting

toilets (they LOVE them)

sweeping floors (we're working on it)

wiping down baseboards

wiping down cabinets

clearing table

setting table

making their own lunch

and

depending on the meal they will help cook dinner

Don't get me wrong it would still be easier to do most of these things by myself, I'd probably get them done a heck of a lot faster, but I'm training up good helpers and its just going to take a little bit of time.

Sidewalk chalk wash - Letter test

I've been spending time in the morning doing individual homeschooling time with each girl.  I wanted to know where they were at before school starts in the fall and I wanted to be able to help them in their weak areas as well as progress them in the area's they excel at.  

It has become very clear that one of them is blessed with their Daddies brain and the other with mine... the good thing is I'm able to relate to her frustrations and when she cries, "I loathe letters!" I'm able to smile at the clear example of her other strong suits.  (Thank you Musical Theatre and classical novels for her ridiculous grasp on vocabulary)

Since I really dislike the idea of any kid sitting still and doing worksheets I needed a different and fun way to engage them in a secret test that they didn't know they were taking.  So using our back porch I wrote out all the letters with sidewalk chalk and when I gave them a letter they had to go wash it off with a spray bottle and rag.  

I'll quiz them on their letter sounds next.

Playing the Bells

Every night I try to set up something for the girls and I call it "The Daily Challenge".  Really it just gives me a few extra minutes of blessed sleep since we decided to get rid of the TV this summer.  On a scale of 1 -10 I give this an 8 since I was able to sleep in till 7:30!

I have hanging on the wall a pocket chart that I filled with the colored circles that coordinate with the bells.  The challenge this morning was to figure out what song I had set up for them.  I made quite a few extra colored circles so that when they had finished and found the answer they would then be able to create their own song.

I can't take the credit for this one, although we do a similar activity in our music program.  The girls pre-K teacher set up a similar station during music week and when I saw how she had them creating their own music with the colors I knew I had to still this idea.

Music Review - Part 2

We did it!  We are all caught up with our musical review.  Obviously we didn't add anything new to our lessons from last year but I will give you on overview of what we did.

Using our Rhythm sticks and some music flash cards we tapped out the music

This gave us a chance to work with our quarter rest.

We then used the song Old McDonald 

We matched the lyrics above with this rhythm

Next we repeated the finger play song and with the numbers fresh in their mind they took their turn at the piano as each of them played two songs.

"Bear's Song" using their left hand 

and

"Mouse's Melody" using their right hand

We then took a closer look at the sheet music and I showed the girls the bar that separates each measure.

Currently I am only teaching them about music in 4/4 time (4 beats to each measure).  We use this for our reward system too.  Here is the link to that earlier post.

How many beats earns a mommy dollar?

answer: 4

Next I gave the girls a project, giving them legos, notes and pencils.

picture from last summer

Each beat got 1 lego and so a half note got 2 lego's and a whole note got 4 and so on.  Each measure of music could only hold 4 beats or lego's.  Once they had used up their 4 beats or lego's they laid down a pencil to start a new measure.  When we were done the girls had each created their own musical score that we were able to play together with our rhythm sticks.

After the lego's were all cleaned up we warmed up our vocal cords and bodies with Julie Andrews.  We sang and danced to "Do-re-mi" from The Sound of Music.  The girls had no trouble remember the movements to this one!

Then we followed up with the simplified version from Music For Little Mozart focusing on just Do, Re and Mi.

Phew, we are now all caught up!!!

For the extended lesson plans where we used these activities visit

Lesson 1

Lesson 2

Lesson 3

Lesson 4

Lesson 5

Lesson 6

Music Review - Part 1

Today we pulled out our dear old friends Mozart Mouse and Beethoven Bear as we began our review of our musical journey.  We ended up learning quite a bit last summer and I realized when writing this lesson plan there was absolutely no way that we could do a complete review in 1 session so I ended up splitting it into 2 days of review.

Last year I added movement to all of our songs and although the girls didn't remember all the lyrics they could recall specific moves used in the songs.

We had to reintroduce the 4 P's.

piano
posture
poise
and
Performance

We then went over glissando and used a dance with rhythm sticks.  We use the song "Racing Car" from the music for little Mozart's CD.  In the dance when we hear the glissando in the song we jump up and when hearing the horn honks we tap our rhythm sticks.  I let each girl take a turn playing the accompaniment on the piano making a glissando and  horn honks (we use the black keys for horn honks) while the other girl had a chance to perform the choreography.

We then brushed up on some music vocabulary and symbols

Forte - Loud

Piano - Soft

We then danced to "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star Variations" by Mozart

This is an excellent example of how the loud and soft sounds change our movements and emotions with the movements.

We then did a quick review on note value

Whole note - 4 cts

half note - 2 cts

quarter note - 1 ct

quarter rest - 1 ct

  We use notes as currency in this house so the review wasn't much trouble for them.

We then built a piano using our pattern pieces

everything is more fun inside the tee pee

and then went on a search for all the C's

Lastly we put on our gloves and did the Thumpkin song

We used the Thumpkin song wiggling our fingers along to the lyrics to freshen our memories for tomorrows music review part 2.

Mama School is back in session

We've added some new elements to "Mommy School" this year.  We still plan on sticking with our core subjects, art, music, dance and theatre but I've decided to add some individualized "normal" school time giving me a chance to cater to their individual needs using arts integration (because thats how we roll).  We have also decided to go with no TV for the whole Summer!  The messes seem to accumulate much quicker but at least their imaginations are running wild.

Coppie ready for her alone learning time

I decided for this first week we would take the time to do some review.  They learned a lot last Summer and I hope to be able to build upon that without having to start all over.  For the individual learning time we began review our letter sounds using a montessori approach.

For our first Art Monday kick off project we went BIG!

I promised them that this summer they would learn how to sew on the sewing machine.  So with much excitement we took on a project that although simple was very big and time consuming for our first day.

But the end result... 

WORTH IT!  

A Teepee big enough for the whole family!  We built the frame using the directions from thehandmadehome.  On their version they used scraps of fabric and just weaved and tucked until the teepee was covered. Although I love their version I knew I wanted to make more of a slip cover for it so that I could easily store it and  move it around the house when needed.  We ended up using 5 painters drop cloth canvas to cover it which was cheaper then going to the fabric store.   The plan is to use some textile paint and give it some color but we will see.

Music Reading Chore Chart

So excited that Summer break is finally here!  I've been counting down the days since they went back to school in September.  There is just so much I want to do with my girls including finishing up last summer's "Mama Performing Art School" themes and I have had no time for any of it.  I'm ready for some artsy fun, lazy swims and hopefully my little crazy's telling me they are bored!  Yes, I look forward to that, because it's what they decide to do when they are bored that is so wonderful, they have a chance to let their imaginations run wild and their creativity take center stage!  

This summer, in order to keep up with all our artistic adventures, I  decided to add chores.  I knew that when I was creating a chore chart the girls would be looking at it throughout the day and I wanted it to teach an artistic lesson in the process and so I created this...

Each chore and note is magnetic.  Once the chore has been completed the girls can match it with it's corrected note.  A, B, C, D ...ect. I am also able to swap out the chore magnets each day for different ones.

On the bass clef I have all of our morning chores that must be accomplished each day, pajamas in the laundry, get dressed, eat breakfast and brush teeth.  They are on the bass clef because they are like the cords building a foundation to the music. On the treble clef are the chores that we swap out bringing a different melody to each day.

I've got only one board that keeps the magnets that they will use for the day along with a little cheat sheet as they learn where the notes belong.  The other is used to store the magnets not used that day.

As they grow older and progress with their music reading I think I may create a board for learning the circle of fifths.

but I don't foresee that happening this summer....