Sick Days with MGT

Miss M developed a bad cough last week and Littlest has since fallen into the ranks of the ill with her.  This week consisted of a lot of cuddling and jammie-wearing and not a lot of traditional "school" as we normally do it.  However, we still needed things to do because apparently you can't keep two toddlers in bed while they are sick (at least mine refuse to stay there).  Thankfully we had our Mother Goose Time curriculum so I didn't have to rely entirely on Daniel Tiger, Diego and Little Baby Bum. I picked a few of the activities and we added them in sporadically throughout the week.

The frog craft was fun for both of them.  I had them sponge the paint on with cotton balls.  When it was dry, they put the eyes on while I curled the tongues.  Miss M refused to use is as a headband and instead had me punch holes in the side and add ribbon for a mask even though I explained that it didn't have eye holes so she wouldn't be able to see.  She worked around the issue by wearing it like a visor as she hopped around looking for bugs to eat.

The stretching spinner game has been a hit all week long.  Their favorite stretch is the one where they rock on their tummies.  They have a hard time balancing on one foot but can do it if I hold their hands.  We go through all of them two times, holding the stretches for 6-10 seconds while we count out loud.  Littlest is trying to mimic us as we count, which is super cute. 

"Reading" the book by
naming the letters in the title.

We read our book of the month, "How Are You Peeling?" by Saxton Freeman and Joost Elffers.  It's actually a Caldecott winning book boy Scholastic.  Littlest wasn't as interested in it but Miss M loved looking at the pictures and deciding how the vegetables were feeling and coming up with scenarios to explain their emotions.  I was really impressed with how well she was able to determine which emotion most of them were illustrating and she could give me examples of times when she has felt that way.  I think it is vital to give children the vocabulary they need to express how they are feeling and why; it greatly helps to reduce frustration and gives them a better outlet than throwing a fit (although we still have plenty of those here).

One of the units this week was kicking but I couldn't get them to actually do any of the written activities.  So, I used the general theme as inspiration to get out our pop-up soccer goal and balls they got for Christmas have a kicking contest, which they loved.  This activity kept them entertained for about 10 minutes without irritating their coughs too badly.  You could use a large box (if you order from Amazon with any regularity, I'll bet you have one around) instead of the goal or just put down a tape line for them to get the ball over.  Littlest is in more of a rolling phase than a kicking phase but she liked to watch her sister.  I am trying to teach her to kick with the side of her foot rather than her toes, especially since we don't wear shoes in the house so they aren't protected, but for now I've been overruled by the threenager.  I guess this is one of those times you let them learn by experience, right?

Her look of glee belies the nasty cough
and fever she's been battling all week.

One evening before Daddy came home, we had some fun jumping over a ribbon.  Littlest tries her best, crouching down and giving the cutest grunt as she heaves herself upwards but she still hasn't quite managed to get both feet off the floor at the same time.  Her sister does her best to model proper form.  They jumped forwards and backwards and used the ribbon for a balance beam and eventually a road for their cars as they naturally transitioned into other interests.


We finally got out our geoboards, which I had been nervous to do since Littlest still likes to put things in her mouth.  Both girls were fascinated with making shapes on it although each needed some help in stretching the tighter bands.  I can see this being a great way to develop fine motor skills.  With Miss M, we concentrated on making a variety of shapes and with Littlest we worked on color recognition as I named the color of the bands she chose to use.

I personally loved the throw and catch craft/game.  I set out a variety of markers, crayons and stickers and let the girls decorate their cups while I tied the pompom to the string.  To insert the craft stick, I used scissors to punch a narrow hole that allowed the stick to poke through but kept it pretty tight so it doesn't fall out easily.  I taped the other end of the yarn to the stick inside the cup and it worked quite well.  I have fun seeing how many times I can catch the pompom.  Both girls were excited to try but quickly grew frustrated since they aren't quite coordinated enough yet to make the game work.  Littlest wandered off to play in her kitchen and Miss M invented a new game using additional pompoms from our craft stash.  She rolled them to me following a color pattern she made up (red, blue, green, red, blue green) and then dictated how I was to roll them back to her (blue, blue, green, green, red, red).  She liked it until Littlest showed interest and then we were done.   I tried to interest them in playing golf with them using paper cups tipped on their sides and large mixing spoons but the moment had passed.

I tried to sneak in a little more school with the ball patterning strip but Miss M refused to do it as written because the strip with the pattern wasn't long enough to fit the second repeat and she could not be persuaded that it was ok to put the cards on the table next to it.  A new game was required so we flipped the cards over so she could pick one and sort them into piles on top of the correct ball on the strip.  At the end we counted them and determined which we had the most and least of.

Fingers are crossed that better health is on the way since we are headed out on family vacation at the end of next week.  I am also hoping to have a chance to do more the fun activities in our final week of Food and Fitness.