This past week has been much of the same as far as learning goes – independent learning with LeapFrog Tag, Max in BrainQuest, Toddler Signing Videos, and Alphabet and Counting.  But, then Gigi and Pa invited us to join them for a quick trip to St. Louis, MO.

First Stop: The Magic House.  This place was seriously AWESOME.  Although, I must say that it would’ve been much more awesome with fewer (undisciplined) children.  I love kids, I really do…I just have no patience for kids that bully other children and who are “cut loose” from their parents (and apparently any sort of civilized behavior) as soon as they get through the door.  Taking turns, being patient, being courteous and polite are all things that  I THINK children should learn at an early age.  It’s one thing to have unrealistic expectations (like expecting a baby not to cry or a toddler not to have little breakdowns when they’ve not had naps or are hungry), but it’s another to totally let them be disrespectful on account of them being CHILDREN.  Seriously.  Seven and Eight Year Olds should know better than to shove two year olds out of the way because they couldn’t wait 30 seconds to have a turn.  They should know better than to shove their shoe into another child’s forehead JUST BECAUSE they weren’t paying attention to what they were doing.  Repeatedly.  But, apparently, some didn’t…

We finally had enough, though and used a little bit of our “grown up size” to er…block them off…and make them wait their turn.

Climbing through a tunnel with Lala.

Sitting at the “President’s desk” with my secretary.  Ah, the life.

Look at us.  All ready for court!

You, there!  GUILTY!

Lala playing with plastic coated pins and making hand-prints.

Next stop: The City Museum in St. Louis, MO

The magic house had tons of fun (including mini-me grocery store and house and other set ups), but the City Museum had much more fun stuff for the “older kids.”  The floor and walls were filled with beautiful colorful mosaics, and there was art EVERYWHERE.  Not framed art, but beautiful structures made from odd and everyday objects.  It was amazing!  There were surprises everywhere, from the underground cave system to the tunnels in the walls and ceilings!  Lala was able to do a lot, but then got to rest with Gigi and Pa as Sir, myself, and Amburger (Sir’s sister.  Not her real name.) all went to “play” in the tunnels.  Outside, there was more climbing…3 stories up.  We climbed through iron structures where one could easily lose a flip flop, and then slid down a two story slide, after walking through small planes.

Last:  The zoo.

Lala loved the snakes and monkeys and turtles.  We were running on almost zero sleep at this point from a late-night tummy ache, but she held out pretty good.

Lala focusing on the …railing?

Ooooh…there are the turtles!

She also got to see a HIPPO swimming closeup!  She was SOOO excited.

We’re already thinking about taking a return visit to the Magic House, but hopefully we can go DURING THE WEEK, when most kids are in school.  That, and not on a holiday weekend.  We had a blast though, so thanks Gigi and Pa and Amburger for letting us tag along!  Lala loved getting to see some animals in real life that we’ve been learning about for a while now in our books, and she had some great one-on-one time with Aunt Amburger (now, they’re big buddies) and learning a new sign: Hamburger.

Welcome back!

I began my day with a couple a couple of Bible Study sessions, and then some random work projects in a haphazard manner.  My overall plan for today was to clean the house and to begin clearing up the “craft-room.”  But,  as I began trying to clear off the kitchen counter, I realized I would need to really re-organize the kitchen cabinets if I ever wanted to fit ANYTHING else into them.  So, 3 hours later a few cabinets were cleared out and organized…but the rest of the house?

Ew.  Think sticky toddler hands EVERYWHERE and man-germs and UGH.

The rest of the house is still in the disarray it began.  3 hours of organizing plus three loads of laundry later…and you can’t even tell.

But, it’ll be okay because tomorrow we set out for St. Louis with Lala and Rora’s Gigi and Pa and it’s gonna rock.

I have a feeling all of this will be waiting for me when I get back…I don’t know that that necessarily makes me feel any BETTER, but it is what it is.

That…and my couch has totally been graffiti-ed.  Apparently Lala wanted to test her writing skills.  In ink.

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Everyone has begun their homeschooling, and in an effort to feel like we aren’t completely letting our child’s brain waste away, we thought we’d do a little bit of PRE-K with Lala. She’s 28 months old (2 years and 4 months), so we aren’t pushing it too much. Mostly, lots of play time with some focus to vocabulary, ABCs, numbers, songs, and the like. A few days ago, I hopped on Worldbook.com and looked up the Pre-K curriculum list (which is AVERAGE across the US). I printed the list off and began marking through the skills Lala had so we would know what to work on. I was pleasantly surprised to find that she’d already mastered HALF of a list that was intended for 3 and 4 year olds.

Sir and I have been prompting Lala to save money here and there – from birthdays to money she finds when she helps do laundry, etc. Yesterday, we headed to town and she found what she wanted to spend her stash on – a leapfrog tag game. Originally, she bought the starter set and then leapfrog tagjunior books (2 of them). But…after I had downloaded everything, we realized that the Tag and Tagjunior books WOULD need different sets. I had been hoping that you could use the same stylus pen for both, but NOPE. So, we explained it to Lala and told her we’d need to take it back. However, she had a different idea. She calmly told us that she’d like to keep her starter set but we could take back the two JUNIOR books. So, that’s what we did.

Here she is with the carrying case and all…

She LOVES this thing. We thought it’d be too old for her, but actually…I’m thinking it’s best that the simple aBC 123 Junior books didn’t work out… She’s having a good time with a book that actually has a plot. These are also super cool because they will tell the story, have extra sound effects, and other little games included. PLUS it tracks how much she plays with it and what she clicks on so when I attach it to the computer, it can kind of gauge how much she was exposed to each thing. Pretty cool, right?

This book actually came IN the starter kit and look! ABCs! Woohoo! Oh, and one of my favorite things about this thing? It comes with a headphone JACK! OH YEAH!

Still going…

Another favorite of Lala’s has been this Brainquest set. We found it at Walmart for about $10 for a set of 3. It’s for ages 2-3 and it’s pretty great! The little monkey’s name is Max and it basically asks questions about what Max is doing as well as introduces new vocab words!

I had only planned for a short round of this, but she wanted to keep going. And going.

We also have a set of inexpensive ABC flashcards with the letter and a picture on the front and the letters again on the back. We’ll identify the letters, the pictures, and then I’ll ask her to find certain letters for me. Sometimes she will, sometimes she won’t. I’m thinking it’s more of a matter of she doesn’t feel like doing this activity. SOOO…maybe this should be one of those things we do before she gets too tired but when she’s not as riled up about the “more exciting” activities. She adores singing the ABCs with one of the online toddler websites BUT the catch is…she likes doing it with her Mimi the most. *sigh* I was trying to find an ALTERNATIVE to that. She’s a very independent learner, so I think the LeapFrog Tag stuff will be great for her.

Oh, and did I mention we’re exploring circles? Yeh. She LOVES drawing circles.