We suffered a manic Monday with Daddy going back to work after being furloughed for two weeks and my daughter and I missing having him at home. To cure the Monday blues we spent a lot of time playing outside and on our daily walk my daughter told me she was ready for all of this to be over. She wants to go back to school, she wants to get a forever hug from her best friend and she wants to celebrate Easter the way we do every year…by going to church and gathering with grandparents for an annual Easter brunch and egg hunt. All I could do was give her a comforting hug and say, “Me too baby, me too.”
Koo Koo Kanga Roo– If you like to dance you have to check these guys out! Described as the Beastie Boys meet Sesame Street, this dynamic dance duo is the perfect cure for a manic Monday! Our favorite dance songs are Cat Party and Double Scoop. You can find all of their videos on YouTube and their music streaming on Spotify. 
Chickens- Scholastic Learn From Home has proven to be my favorite on line resource during the isolation. Today we did the module on Roosters, Hens and Chicks. After that we used construction paper and markers to create a chick hatching out of an egg. 
Eggs– After hard boiling eggs we turned them into Easter eggs by decorating them with the Egg Mazing egg decorator. Purchased at a huge discount after Easter last year we found the Egg Mazing to be an easy, fun and non messy way to decorate eggs. My daughter has difficulty using a pincer grasp when holding a writing tool but to my delight the Egg Mazing forced her to hold the marker with a pincer grasp! She was having so much fun she didn’t even realize it and until her teacher pointed it out neither did I! We practiced patterning by creating AB, ABC and ABCD patterns on our eggs. We will decorate plastic eggs with the Egg Mazing tomorrow. 
Egg and Chicken Books– My daughter enjoyed the book Daisy Comes Home about a chicken that goes on an unexpected adventure down the river. Written by Jan Brett you can CLICK HERE to read the book. Before bed we read The Golden Egg Book by Margaret Wise Brown (author of Goodnight Moon.) We read from the actual book that belonged to me when I was a little girl. I smile at the memory of my mother reading it to me when I was around my daughter’s age. CLICK HERE to have the book read to you.
Holes in the Jelly Beans?– We cut out our jelly bean shapes and punched holes in the jelly beans by using a hole punch to punch the correct number of holes on each jelly bean. Then we strung them together and made a necklace. My daughter needs to work on hand strength and this activity suggested by her teacher really challenged her. 
Backyard Animal Discovery– My daughter’s teacher shared the brilliant idea of watching for animals (in our backyard and on our daily walks) and graphing how many of each animal we found. We watched for ducks, cardinals, sparrows, robins, rabbits and squirrels and after printing out pictures of each animal my daughter helped me create a chart that we hung on the wall. We enjoyed looking out the window to see if another duck took a swim in the pond or if we could spot a robin on our daily walks around the neighborhood. My daughter loved adding tally marks on our graph and sharing the final count with her teacher. The activity was such a hit we are going to do it again next week!
Noteworthy Mommy 