Joy of Obedience & Decisions - Day Three

Today the kids were in high-gear with energy level, which can make things extra fun, but also took more managing. To burn energy, we'd transition from place to place in the house doing different parts of the schedule, then choose a way to get to a different area with a new body movement(ie, swimming in the air, tip-toeing, making a train, etc). The transitions were always great because the kids could make decisions and everyone enjoyed doing them. I don't know if it was because it was the 3rd time at our place. It seemed each one had trouble focusing today at some point, with, of course, the boys feeding off of each other. We had a few time outs and I had to use my stern schoolteacher voice I used in Junior High for the first time today. It's no fun having to be stern; I hope they could all still have fun when I was disciplining. Despite all of that, hopefully your cuties still came away having learned some important things and had a good time today. I'd love to hear their feedback -- please let me know their comments, good or bad!

Today we reviewed RULES/LAWS and DECISIONS by playing the Question Game. By saying it was a game made it more fun to answer questions. We sang the Rule Song again with a new activity, and learned the words to the song "Decisions" we listened to last time. It seems that each of the friends have a good grasp on what these concepts are. We talked about the FEELINGS associated with decisions, how we feel good when we make good choices and repent. We discussed how we sometimes make bad decisions. We also talked more about repentance today, in that we can make up for doing something wrong by saying sorry, doing our best to fix it, and trying not to make the bad decision again. We had a few opportunities come up for friends to "repent", and it demonstrated the concept nicely.

We did the letter M today in their notebooks -- they did fantastic. We talked about how we carry around the letters "L" and "M" on our hands with us, wherever we go (can create with our fingers).

We practiced following rules and making decisions in everything we did today:

* Reading Time at the very beginning -- each of the friends read books when they first arrive for a little while. I've gotten new books from the library each time. They all did a fantastic job -- the cutest part was Isabel reading the "No No Yes Yes" book from Day One to Joseph. They were engrossed. They wanted to finish the book before coming to sit down for Circle Time. She was a great little teacher :)



* Circle Time

* Music Time -- singing the Rule Song, Decisions, and we played "Simon Says". All of the friends could take a turn being the leader. They all became really good at this game! And very creative. :)

* Finishing our picture frame craft -- we had to share the different colors of glitter glue as a rule, but could make decisions what to glue onto the frame. We had a lot of options to choose from, but most friends only wanted a few things on their frames. Most of the friends wanted to hurry and finish so they could go out to the sandbox. Grant was the trooper who stayed at the table until the end to carefully place his stickers. How did your cuties like making their frames? We'll get a good picture of the kids and put it inside! Maybe one outside the theatre on Thursday?

* Storytime & Snack were combined -- see below!


We made cake mix cookies and followed the recipe exactly. Each friend put in an ingredient or helped mix. Each put their own cookie dough scoop on the sheet. They all did a fantastic job helping each other and taking turns. The friends are all very good following the procedures of each block in Joy School -- they've got it down!



While the cookies were baking, we read the Berenstein Bear's book "The Bear Scouts" which talks about how the little cub scouts :) were following the guidebook. Papa Bear wanted to be their guide but did everything his own way. It never turned out well for him, while the cubs always were successful because they followed the rules of the book. We returned to the kitchen and talked about how we just did what the bear scouts did -- we followed the recipe/rules and we'll taste the results & see how they turned out. The friends all guessed they would taste very yummy.

Before we could taste the cookies, we had to try making a batch the way Papa Bear did -- do everything our own way and not follow the recipe/rules. A few of the friends knew from the start that the end result would not be as good. Each one could choose an ingredient from a bunch of options to add to our cake mix cookies. Evie added about 1/3 cup salt. Kai chose to add about 2 Tbs. Lowry's season salt, which the friends thought looked like sand. Emily wanted to add 5 eggs, and Joseph helped. Isabel chose to add about 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips. Grant added about 2 cups oil. Joseph really wanted to mix.

They chose to bake it for however long it took to read the last story, called "Franklin Gets Lost" (actually suggested in module). It was a good book to demonstrate following rules, how not doing so makes people worried or sad and it's dangerous, and how we can repent from bad choices. The kids then ate each kind of cookie with a clear favorite. They decided it's always best to follow the rules because we get good results when we do. They also chose which kind of Cheerios to eat (Honey Nut, Fruitie, or Multi-Grain).

The friends each brought one cookie from each batch home to share -- I'd love to hear how they described them.

We didn't have the chance to get to a few other neat things planned for the lesson and playtime/interest centers, but the good thing is that I think each of the friends understands the concepts well.

Looking forward to Thursday's play about decisions!