PICNIC but it's not even Spring!!!

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY.........our first "official" picnic of the season! What a gorgeous day....we were busy little leprechauns today. We've painted and played outside most of it. And at the last minute we decided to have a picnic on the porch. You can see we are surrounded by our "artwork". So please take a look when you come in this afternoon. It's a great way to see how much your child is progressing in the "arts". Everyone's favorite thing about our picnic's would be the sippy cup with straws! It has become a MSC tradition to blow as many bubbles with your milk as you can....this was something I stumbled upon years ago. All the kids love it and have made sure to pass on the tradition. All I can say is be careful with what you "allow"!! It's been good for me to let go a little LOL and it's always a pleasure to see them so happy......like they are getting away with licking the ice cream bowl. Speaking of ice cream.......after nap we have mint chocolate chip ice w/green m&m's sprinkled on top......no worries.....we are doing our silly to calm yoga afterwards as we bask in the late day sun. Hopefully they won't be bouncing off the walls.....I promise to give only a little :-! Oh my gosh.........I just saw a little green man run across the classroom!!! I better go and try to catch him before he wakes everyone up.

TRAINING: Get Moving and Feel Great

My training class this month was focused on our children moving! Georgia is in the middle of a SERIOUS HEALTH CRISIS. 33% of middle school students, 26% of high school students, and 61% of adults in Georgia are overweight OR run the risk of being overweight. This is steadily increasing!! Type 2 diabetes is running rampant and heart disease is the #1 killer in America.

Check out this 33 second video:
Childhood Obesity PSA

Fit Kids KEEP Moving...let's do our part and encourage movement and exploration by providing a healthy diet that gives them ENERGY. Introduce a variety of physical activities (outdoors if possible) that speak to them! BE A POSITIVE ROLE MODEL....children learn BY what they see much more than what they hear. Limit TV/Electronics. And last but not least....keep it simple and fun so they want more!!

Our good friend...THING 1...but where's THING 2?

AKA: Brady Paire
(Lucy Paire not shown)

Rainy Day Fun w/Cat in the Hat

I know it is wet and the sun is not sunny
But we can have lots of good fun that is funny!

We started out this gloomy gloomy day with a yummy breakfast....Cheese Toast, Strawberries and Milk! Then we read Cat in the Hat. He suggested we do a few things on this rainy day.....for example:

• Jump on one foot
• Wiggle our eyebrows
• Flap our arms
• Shimmy our sholders
• Curl our tongue
  
• Make a funny face
• AND do them all at the same time!!! Crazy cat!

We painted RAIN AND CLOUDS by the "gloomy rainy" light of day! Then we colored a "sunny" picture of Cat in the Hat coming to save the day. We used bright fun colors. We displayed them on the window so we could remember......WE CAN HAVE FUN ON A RAINY DAY. Then we ate lunch quietly so we could hear the rumble of the skies.....we even heard birds chirping out there!! Amazing...did you know birds stay out in the rain :-)!!

Have you filled a bucket today?

Have you filled a bucket today?

This is a guide to Daily Happiness for Kids! I love this concept.......it is so simple. Basically everyone in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD walks around carrying an invisible bucket. The bucket has ONE purpose to hold good thoughts and good feelings about yourself. The book gives colorful examples of people with full buckets and people with empty buckets. I think this is a wonderful way to teach children the "Golden Rule". I am teaching them to be "Bucket Fillers". A bucket filler is someone who shows love, when you say or do a kind thing, or when you just give someone a smile. You can also be a "bucket dipper" and that is someone who says or does mean things to others. Here's the trick........when you fill a bucket you get some happiness in your bucket too! But when you dip from someone's bucket your happy thoughts can leave your bucket too!!

So basically.......All Day Long, we are either filling up or dipping into each other's buckets by what we SAY and DO!! I have special tattoo's showing a full bucket and each child came home with one today on thier hand.....to help them remember to be a BUCKET FILLER not a bucket dipper!