Its Friday , I can BARELY stand it !
If I showed you my calendar and my obligations for the week you would commit me so I wont. But lets just say… I was a tad stretched this week. Today was a welcome slow down as there was nothing planned. Ms Dallas had a planned day off today so I took advantage of the situation and decided to be ” present.” You know you can be ” with” your kids all day and not really there ? That is how I felt most of the week. My mind was racing to what I had to do next. Today , I played. I calmly worked my way through my lesson plan instead of rushing . I was present.
Kilee came back today after a week of being gone. Our preschool family really missed her.
Do you LOVE gummy bears ? Mr Randy thinks they are the nastiest things ever but they are one of my secret pleasures. Most of the kids like them too . Today we graphed gummy bears . Many times we point out what is most of more. ( Probably because that is what preschoolers are most concerned with – who has more. ) Today after graphing I tried to focus more on the word ” least .” Which of the rows has the least amount of gummy bears. ( I forgot to take a picture during the actual activity but here is a picture of the sheet we graphed our bears on. )
We ate bear toast for breakfast !
Another thing we did today was read two books about ” bear .” One of the books was ” Bear Feels Scared.” We talked about how Bear could use our calm down techniques when he was scared . On each page when it said he was scared we talked about which he would use . Sometimes he used the balloon or the drain and others he used the Santa. We made that one up last year. You hold your hands out in front of you like a big santa belly and as you breathe in you pull your hands up and as you breath out and your arms go down you say Ho Ho Ho…… The kids love it.
We also read a page that described bears friends getting worried and wondering where he was. We decided they would wish him well.
I challenge you this weekend to incorporate the conscious discipline techniques that your child has learned into your life at home. When you see they are getting upset or angry use it as an opportunity to tie home to what we practice at school. ” I see you are angry. Would you like to do a calm down technique with me ? Which one? ” If they are past the point of conversation ( cant talk… crying …screaming… ) they are in survival state. Just hold them and take deep breaths … eventually they will begin breathing like you are breathing and when they are calm you then go to the next step.. oh there you are.. Your face was doing this. It tells me you are angry. Which calm down technique would you like to do with me now? ”
Happy Friday.