This post was a long time coming….
This year my youngest daughter was starting the 3 year old class. It was very important that she was completely potty trained prior to the start of school. So in true Shonte tradition we did a last minute push to be potty trained before the first day of school.
She was doing very well. Not many accidents, but I wasn’t still 100% convinced that we were in the clear. We even did a couple of practice trips at Open House, so she would know how to get to the bathroom, lock the door and wash her hands ALL BY HERSELF!
When I dropped her off I said “make sure you tell your teacher as soon as you have to go potty.” “Yes, MOM, I know.” she replied.
When I went to pick her up, her teacher said “Well we had a little accident today….”. I quickly looked at her and noticed she was still wearing her school clothes. I figured if she had an accident then she would be in her ‘back-up’ clothes. I must have looked puzzled, because the teacher continued…”well, she fell off the potty.” I was like….huh? “she fell of the potty?!?” “Yes, she was on the BIG potty and went to slide off and fell off and hit her head on the floor.”
Aw, now I was worried. “Honey let me see your head…” Sure enough right on her forehead was giant knot. She fell right off the toilet and hit her head.
Only my child….
After our first week home for the summer and of course being completely “bored”, my husband and I decided to take the girls to Disney for the day. Our 2 year old has been asking to go to Epcot (not sure why, there’s not lots for her to do there) so we finally said ok.
On our way, we decided to go to a new Park- Wild Florida. The advertisement says its only 45 minutes from Disney so we thought that since we would be on that side of town.. why not? We put the address in the gps and was surprised to see that we were only a little over an hour away (from our home).
Once we got out there we were in just AWE by all the natural beauty. I personally have lived in Orlando all my life, but with all the tourist traps and commercialization, a State park was as close to nature as I usually get.
According to their website, Wild Florida is located on the shores of Cypress Lake, at the headwaters of the Everglades. The views were so pure and beautiful! It was truly what Natural Florida looks like.
Wild Florida offers a bird atrium, a sightseeing dock, airboat rides and pictures with alligators. On this particular day, we did not ride an airboat, but we will be back soon to do that! That is something that I have always wanted to do and Wild Florida seems like the perfect place to do so. They have a video posted on their site, click here to watch it.
We did, however, visit the birds, walk the property and then each of us held and posed with an alligator. Both of the girls (and even my husband) thought that was very cool.
The staff at Wild Florida was A-MAZING! The gentlemen who assisted us with the alligator and the pictures, was so nice and genuine. He made everyone laugh and feel comfortable holding a 45lb gator (his mouth was taped shut.. but I was still scared).
So my recommendation is to take the whole family to Wild Florida! You can follow them on Facebook and Twitter now for deals, ideas and/or coupons!
If you get out there, email me and let me know how it was!
You can email me at mom@talesfromthenursery.com or tweet me on Twitter.
I am toying with a new experiment on homework this year. Last year, we would come straight home from school and get to homework. Some days it would take a little longer than others… but otherwise we would have it done in no time.
Today I started thinking about schedules and routines. I started to think about how difficult it is for a 7 year old to be in school from 8:30-3:00 5 days a week and then come straight home and do homework for another 30-40 minutes. How is that keeping them motivated?
This summer she excelled in reading. Her grade goal for AR (accelerated reading) was 20 points. With one week left to take AR tests, she has already reached 60.4 points. Mostly because she has already read 4 books of Harry Potter (remember she is only 6) and most of those books are worth over 10 points. #3 was worth 18 points and she scored a 100%. I believe her success in reading came from her “freedom” of learning this summer.
So back to my ‘idea’ for homework this year, is to allow her to come home, have a snack, watch some tv, play, run around, etc. and THEN do our homework when its time to start dinner. I am hoping that this will give her some down time and when its time for homework she will be willing and ready. Hopefully it will give her the much needed break (especially since the “Playground time” at school has been drastically reduced) from learning. Now, yes, I NEVER would have thought that I would be trying to give my daughter a break from learning. But if this will help her to be a better student, I will do whatever I can to help her.
So let me know what you think about my experiment? Is this something you have tried already? Facebook me or tweet me @Nurserytales.
My husband and I have decided to put our 2 year old into a Pre-school. We searched high and low; received recommendations and looked online; we finally found a great Christian preschool that fills our needs.
So our 2 year has been enrolled in a 4 day a week, 9-1 school. We are very excited about her new curriculum; circle time, learning centers, lunch, church and playground are just some of the advantages of preschool. We are really hoping that she will learn how to follow directions, socialize, how to share and be nice to others.
Since we enrolled her, I have been asking her if she wanted to go to school. Her reply “NO” (even though she has picked out her Toy Story 3 lunch box). Kind of makes me have second thoughts, although I know its in her best interest. One thing we have been doing to prepare her for preschool is to say “Hi” to her school every time we pass by.
Today we happened to pass by TWICE… first time we passed by we said “Hi School”, she waved and yelled and got excited! The second time we passed and said “Hi school” “bye school”… we seemed to get stuck on the “hi school”. She said “Hi School” for almost the next 15 minutes.
I hope this means she is FINALLY excited about going to school!
