Weekday schedule including some tot school!

With a one year old and 7 year old of my own and a 2 year old and two 1 year old foster children, it is imperative I have a good schedule and routine!  I have been working on adjusting my schedule and routines and finally it is working quite well for us.  Of course with appointments and parent visits and things like that, we sometimes have to make adjustments but that is just a part of life.  I would like to share my daily schedule with you but keep in mind that even though it looks like everything is running smoothing in the pictures it is not always as easy as it looks.  I have to deal with temper tantrums, children not wanting to share, and many other problems that complicate the schedule and routine each day as I'm sure you all know if you have children of your own or work in a childcare setting!

So I guess I will start at 7:00am which is when we all wake up each morning.
These are the things we do in between 7:00 and 8:00:

• Change Diapers
• Get dressed
• Wash up for breakfast
• Eat breakfast
• Wash up
• Brush teeth
• Do hair

Dino leaves for the school bus at 8:00, so we all give him hugs and say bye to him.
From 8:00 until 8:30 I let the 4 girls have free play time and I try to drink some coffee and get myself ready for the day.  I also give the girls some milk at this time as we drink water with our meals and snacks and sometimes juice with breakfast but not very often. 
By 8:30 the girls are ready to start Tot School so I start singing our tot school song and then they all join in the singing and know that we are going to do some activities together!  Our song is very simple, I just sing:  it is time for Tot School, Tot School, Tot School, it is Time for Tot School, we are going to have lots of fun!  I also repeat this in french afterwards because the foster girls don't know a lot of English yet.  It is so cute how they all try to sing along with me, I actually sing a short song before each and every activity we do because I believe this helps the children with transitions.  For example when we are going to brush our teeth, I sing:  We are going to brush our teeth, brush our teeth, brush our teeth, we are going to brush our teeth and make them shiny and clean, and as always I repeat it in french afterwards.
8:30-8:50  Here we do fine motor activities using our tot trays which are changed weekly.  Each Sunday I change up the tot trays and I usually make about six of them.  If I find that the girls really enjoyed one of the tot trays, I usually leave it the same or just change it a little bit because I know they are still interested in it. 

8:50- 9:10 Here we do gross motor activities such as bean bag toss, bowling, pretending to be different kinds of animals or cruising around on our ride on toys.

9:10-9:30 Here we do our letter binder, we are currently on letter B, but we also review the letter A.  We use our letter binder and dry erase markers and crayons to trace the letters and color the  pictures that start with the letter we are working on.  I print these letter worksheets at 1+1+1=1, they are great and Boo and the other girls are really enjoying them!  I sometimes bring out our various letter magnets and the magnetic whiteboard for the girls to play with.

9:30-10:00 Here we do a messy but creative activity such as painting, playdough, finger painting, or sensory boxes.  The girls really love these sorts of activities and I do one each day even though it is sometimes very messy and takes a lot of effort on my part to clean up afterwards.

10:00-10:30 Clean up and wash up for snack time.

10:30-10:50 Here we do more gross motor activities since the girls seem to have a lot of energy after eating their snack.

10:50-11:10 Here we do some kind of construction play such as duplex blocks, mega blocks, sticky blocks or our trio construction kit. 

11:10-1130 Here we do more fine motor activities using the tot trays again.

11:30-12:00 Here I bring something out for the girls to play with such as the puppets, books, or dolls and give them free play time so that I can prepare the lunch.  We wash up and start eating lunch at about 12:00, but sometimes a little bit earlier depending on how long it takes to prepare.
12:00-12:30 Here we eat lunch and wash up, the girls continue to have free play until I am done cleaning up in the kitchen.  I also give them some milk at this time.
12:30-1:00 Here we clean up from free play and have a quiet story time.  We do things like read books, play with and tell stories using the flannel board, and do finger plays.
1:00 is nap time, usually they all wake up by about 3:00.  During nap time I do my daily chores which change each day of the week.  Sometimes it is clean the bathroom upstairs or downstairs, dust the living room, wipe down appliances, sweep and wash the stairs, and different things like that.  This usually takes about 45 minutes each day and then I finally have some well earned me time!  Sometimes I choose to take a nap on the sofa, work on my blog, or just watch some TV and relax.   I do small daily chores when I get the chance during the day and sometimes the girls like to help me with doing laundry and wiping the tables and fun stuff like that.  The girls and I  always clean up the toys and supplies after each activity and after free play so that we don't have a huge mess to clean up at the end of the day.
3:00-3:15 I wake up all the girls and we have some quick cuddles and then wash up for snack time.
3:15-4:15 Here we go outside to get some fresh air and run off a little bit of energy.  I can't wait until summertime when we can go out in the yard and play on the swing set, trampoline and bikes.  Right now we have too much snow and the three one year olds can't walk in it.  I have tried it a few times but they just end up sitting in one spot and can't do much playing in the snow because of their mittens.  I sometimes take them for sleigh rides if my husband is available to help me.  I put Boo's little slide out on the balcony and some balls, so we go out there a lot and sometimes we even blow bubbles and play chase.

At 4:15 Dino's bus arrives at this time and so we all drink a glass of water, although Dino usually has his glass of juice at this time.  Boo and Dino's Grandmaman comes upstairs at this time to dance with the girls while I make supper or if my husband is home we make supper together or I do some chores while he makes supper.  Dino has his half hour of computer time, he sometimes plays on y8 or looks at videos on YouTube such as beyblades, dinosaurs or bakugan.  We have a laptop in the kitchen area where we can see what Dino is doing on the computer at all times.  So the girls dance and sing for about half an hour and we eat supper at 5:00 each day.
5:30 Next we wash up and the girls have free time while we tidy up in the kitchen, I usually give the girls a facecloth and they wash the chairs and tables!  Dino's job is to sweep the floor and help loading the dishwasher and sometimes drying the dishes.
6:00 Here I give the girls their bath and then put on their pyjamas, Dino takes his bath or shower after the girls and puts on his pyjamas.
6:30 I give the girls some milk and then we brush our teeth and read some books together to calm down before bedtime.
7:00 Bedtime for all the girls, Dino has a snack and brushes his teeth.  Sometimes we play a board game together or just snuggle or read a book before he goes to bed.
7:45 Dino reads or writes in bed.
8:00 Lights out for Dino.
Now I have some time to spend with my husband and I sometimes work on my blog.
This makes for a long day but seeing the happy faces on Boo, Dino and the girls makes it all worth the hard work!
I still haven't got into a good routine for the weekends when Dino is home but am working hard on making this work well for all of us.  I am going to put up this schedule when I finish it and have the time to post it.  I will have a lot of practice with the weekend routine as this week is spring break for Dino! I try to have one outing each weekend and I try to spend as much time as I can with Dino doing special activities, reading books or just listening to him talk about different subjects he loves, which right now is planets. 

Go visit Homeschool Creations for some great homeschooling ideas.

Did I mention I am a foster mom?!

Wow, we recently welcomed 3 foster girls to our home and our lives have sure been busy and exciting!  Boo just turned 18 months old,  and the other girls are 15.5mths, 19.5mths, and 2.5 years old so you can imagine that I have been quite busy lately!  Dino really enjoys having the girls here, he likes to come up with little activities to do with the girls, his favourites are reading them books, playing hide and seek with seashells and letting them play with his lid collection.  Unfortunately I cannot put up pictures of the foster girls but I do all the activities with the girls that I do with Boo.  I have always had a schedule for Dino and Boo, and have continued this schedule with the girls as well.  It is going really well and the girls already know the schedule and are coping very well with it.  I am going to be posting a copy of this schedule as soon as I have the time because it works really well for me and I would like to share it with others.  I am also trying to plan Dino's 8th birthday party which is coming up on March 12th, he will be inviting some of his friends over for cake and ice cream so if anyone has any ideas for his party, like games or activities I would really appreciate it!  We always have a pinata at his party, and play spin the bottle to open his presents but besides that I don't have any good ideas for his age group.  Boo had her 18 month vaccine yesterday and did really well, she cried for maybe 20 seconds but after a cuddle with mama she was happy again!  I also took away her soother not only in the daytime but at night as well, she isn't too happy about this but it is getting easier for her each day. 

Here are a few pictures of activities I have been doing with Boo and the other girls in Tot School the last little while:

We have been going outside a lot, I brought out Boo's little slide and she loves it.  We practice taking turns with the other girls and this is going really well!

One day we took the bubbles out and I blew bubbles for the girls to catch, they really liked this.  I even let them take off their mittens and pop a few bubbles with their fingers since it wasn't too cold out.

We have been doing a lot of gross motor indoors with the push toys and ride on toys.  Boo is becoming an acrobat while mama is trying to teach her to be careful.

The girls really like these toys especially when Dino chases them around the house!

We recently bought this shopping cart from Walmart and the girls enjoy pushing their dolls and stuffed animals around in it and filling it up with toys!

Each day before supper Grandmaman comes upstairs and dances with the girls, we made some dancing ribbons by tying different colored ribbons to plastic shower curtain holders.

We did a couple of activities with our paper towel holder, this was one of them and the other was using plastic shower curtain holders.  We also practiced taking turns with this activity.

I have to show you Boo's new pyjamas, they are a little large for her but so cute and she loves wearing them!

This is my favourite picture of the week, Dino and Boo cuddling together on the couch watching a show on wild animals.  This was a very special moment for Dino because it is rare that Boo will cuddle with him for a long time like this!

For some more great Tot school ideas go to 1+1+1=1.  For some great home school ideas please go here, this is the homeschool creations site.

Happy Valentines Day!

Dino enjoyed making these Valentine heart crayons.

He peeled all of the paper off the crayons, broke them up into pieces and put them in the heart shaped tray.

We put them in the oven until they were melted, then let them cool off and this was the result!

Boo enjoyed coloring with them!

We made a Valentines Day sensory bottle using baby oil, water, sparkles and sequence.  I glued the lid on with a hot glue gun....I hope it holds!

Boo and I rolled it to each other.

She pushed it around a lot and even kicked it with her foot!

Boo did some stamping with Valentine stamps I picked up from the dollar store.

This is our Valentine Sensory Bin!

Boo first checked out the texture of the rice and then dug around for the little heart jewels.

She liked filling up the little heart containers and dumping them out on the floor.  She hasn't quite got the hang of trying to keep the rice in the container yet, but that's okay because cleaning up is part of the learning experience too!

I hope the kids sleep well tonight because as you can see they had a lot of chocolate and candy!

Boo really likes chocolate, she just has to learn not to put so much in her mouth at one time!

My wonderful husband gave me some beautiful Valentine flowers!

He always knows how to make my day special!

Our little man Dino made us a card and a Valentine craft at school, he is so sweet.  Moments like this are what makes life worth living for!!!!  Thank you to my wonderful family for making the day so special!

I hope everyone else had a great Valentines Day too!