Today was Workout Wednesday. The children were asked to wear their favorite sports gear and my daughter dressed in a St. Louis Cardinals shirt. The absence of sports is simply bizarre, like a scene from the Twilight Zone. Although I’m not a huge sports fan, if the Cardinals are playing, the game would surely be on in our home. The non-existence of the announcers and cheering fans is unsettling. My husband is a loyal University of Kentucky Wildcat basketball fan and he rarely misses a game. The abrupt ending to their season, along with the cancelling of March Madness, leaves me heartbroken for college and high school athletes across our country.
Today was about something more than sports, it was about moving, building and playing. When children build and play together they experience teamwork and develop their social and early literacy skills.
Get Moving– My daughter and I enjoyed moving to the sounds of Koo Koo Kanga Roo. I wrote about this dynamic duo last month. CLICK HERE to learn more. We also enjoyed dancing to The Freeze. CLICK HERE to move along with Greg & Steve and CLICK HERE for another popular freeze game. 
Constructing a Cat Condo– Although I had plans for us to play a movement game with dice and another game with bean bags, my daughter had other plans. She asked if she could use some of the recyclables laying around the house for a project. She wanted to construct a cat condo, or exercising station, for her cat stuffed animals. This construction occupied her attention all afternoon. Without any direction from me she proceeded to get a tape measure and used it to determine how long she needed to cut the piece of string for the feather toy. She used two lemonade containers as the foundation and taped a paper towel around one bottle to create a scratching post. The structure included a cat walk across the top along with an automatic feeder in the middle. I was a bit unsettled because we didn’t complete the suggested plans sent by her teacher. But her teacher reminded me that my daughter had done tremendous work!! She was using math, science and problem solving skills and gained a sense of accomplishment as a result!
Today was another reminder that things don’t always go as planned and that is…OK! As our family of three navigates this time of uncertainty we need to continue to be open and flexible. For wondrous things can happen from the unexpected!
Pizza– My daughter and I made pizza for lunch. She topped her pizza to look like a funny face complete with pepperoni eyes, ears, and mouth, and dressed with cheese hair. My little one doesn’t like cooked cheese so that’s why her pizza face only had a wee bit of cheese hair. In keeping with the pizza theme we read one of our favorite books
Making Music- My husband and I are both active musicians so our daughter has grown up attending our concerts and sitting in the balcony at church while mommy and daddy play their instruments. Today we let her play. With our help she played a few notes on the trumpet and on the clarinet. Our daughter has a basket full of percussion instruments that she pulls out and plays on a regular basis. The jury is still out on what band instrument she will play but for now percussion is her favorite!
Make Your Own Instrument– Look around your house and make your own instruments out of recyclables. Make a shaker by filling something with rice, beans or rocks. Make a drum by decorating a plastic container or tub. Full glass bottles with various amounts of water, blow across the top and hear a note. How much water do you need in the bottle to make a low note or a high note? Have a parade and march around the house playing your new instruments!
The picture of my daughter blowing seeds off of the season’s first dandelion is accompanied with talk of the abrupt shift to virtual learning. I am brought back to our new reality when she says, “I wish I could go back to school, I really wanted to plant lettuce. I could plant lettuce with you but it won’t be as special.”
Outdoor Picnic Lunch– What a delight it was to eat lunch on a blanket in our backyard. While eating. we read some favorite books and closed our eyes and listened. What sounds do you hear? (lawnmower, birds, dogs, a siren). The ability to differentiate sounds is the beginning tier of phonological awareness, an umbrella term that incorporates phonemic awareness (differentiating sounds) and a range of oral language skills necessary for reading and writing development.
Writing a Story- My daughter’s preschool class loves to write! They had just completed a project on writing a book prior to the quarantine. The culminating activity was working together to publish their own class book (a fairytale) and then having a book signing party. Her teacher used School Mate Publishing and turned the book written and illustrated by Mrs. Stanglein’s preschool class of 2019-2020 into a published book! My daughter created the skunk character who sprayed the princess. Every child got to illustrate two pages. Our family of three have happy memories of the book signing party where we visited with her teacher, talked to other parents and watched our daughter joyously play with her friends! With an abrupt stop to attending school in the physical sense, with her teacher and friends, the book and book signing party is a sweet preschool memory we’ve been dearly holding onto during this time of isolation.
This week my daughter’s teacher assigned the task of writing an original fairytale. We completed Step One: Brainstorm ideas by writing or drawing characters, a setting, and a problem and a solution for your story. 
Noteworthy Mommy 