Do you remember these?

Do you remember these books when you were little? I think it must have been my mum who bought them for us, she used to love paint by numbers too. I have been looking for this kind of paint with water book for ages - and I finally found it again! I don't know why it wasn't easy to remember where I originally got it from, it's just from any normal grocery store, but this one comes from Woolworths and as you can see only $3. The reason for me going on about it so much is that Asher LOVED it! He realIy isn't into art and craft as much yet but little things here and there he gets into. My all time favourite thing is that there is NO MESS! It's simply water and a paint brush then the colour runs from the pages. He is obsessed with trucks and diggers and with every page comes a new truck to paint. He stayed with this activity for almost an hour the first time we did it. That is an absolute miracle activity in my books.

Another favourite activity in this house are these Disney audio books. They have completely captivated the little guy. I have our stereo in our kitchen so I can just pop one on and Asher just sits there listening and 'reads' along. Again I vividly remember I had one of thse when I was little {It was Duck Tales and I still remember some of the lines}. Seriously, these books give me 10-20minutes of stillness...He just is so compelled and I loved how his imagination is ticking over with it all.

Another idea I've seen is giving them some headphones, they could sit in a quiet corner and really enjoy their special books all to themselves. Something important that I've tried to do is to not be totally disengaged from this activity but to then go back to him after the story isover and ask him to tell it back to me in his own words. That helps his memory and his language skills improve as he describes the storyline.

To get an idea of our routine and how these little 'school time' activities are incorporated in our day, this is how things 'usuallu' go {usually, meaning how I aim for things to go}

7am - Wake up. Milk. Toy room time, Ashers favourite thing right now each morning is playing 'shop' with our pretend food and cash register. If I have the energy and no morning sickness I'm all for pretending with him and being his favourite customer. I'm talking EVERY morning he wants to do this. So sometimes I just cant as baby might need me or I'm lying down dying with sickness.
8am - Breakfast. Clean up.
8:30 - Sesame Street. Sometimes we jump on the Letter of the Day band wagon and remember to focus on that letter throughout the day. Sometimes. But I would like to do it more often.
9am - We get ready to leave the house for the gym {or kindy 2 days} most days its the gym.
11am - Head back from the gym maybe a grocery store stop on the way home. Then its a light lunch while listening to audio books. Jet will then have a nap and then its Asher's special time with mummy in the Toy Room. I play whatever he wants me to as its all about him. This strategu really helps with getting him down for his nap.

12-2pm Nap time. Everyone is out including mummy! Nap time is starting to get harder with Asher but he {usually} will stay in his room at this time reading to himself til he falls asleep. This is a critical time of day for me, like any stay at home mum.
2-3pm - Snack time. Easy to do school time activity, or possibly Ipad time - Play School app only is the preference, lucky he loves it.
3-4pm - Outside play. Soccer, trampoline, water play or we go for a walk.
4:30 - Play School if we have come home in time or the outside play is done.
5pm - Dinner. Then Asher helps with tidy up.
5:30 - Bath time.
6:00 - Milk and Reading, Scriptures
6:30 - Jet off to bed. Then mummy and Asher time, reading and snuggling is the favourite.
7pm - Off to my other job of domestic goddess with clean up from the day and prep for tomorrow. I like to have a bath with candles as often as i can to just wind down.

Like I said this is the aim of each day. John is not around mostly and when he is home he has studies, his calling and continuing work commitments so it can really be one loooong me and the kids only adventure. This routine really works for us and asher responds very well to a regular pattern. Of course we try to go to the library, playgroup or other activites too which will always happen in the morning or afternoon. NEVER AT NAP TIME.