This Mama is back in Teaching mode. I'm still a little under the weather, but I thought that if I didn't teach today, I'd fall way behind. So we got it done.

Today we learned about how happy families are when new babies come to them. This was a fun lesson.

We started off with a story that J and I both illustrated while I told it. (This was interesting to say the least.) The story went like this... and you can look at the picture and see how well we followed it.

Once there was a young man - his name was Darren. Darren was a happy guy, but one day he thought to himself, "Something is missing". (We drew the young man)
I asked J what he was missing. It took J a few times of this question for him to catch on, but he caught on.
"Amber." (We drew a young woman)
These two liked each other for so long that they fell in love. (We drew a heart over them)
After a while of being together, they thought, "Something is missing".
This is when we drew the red house, the tree, the path, and the grass.
Then Darren and Amber said, "Something is missing".
I asked J what was missing. He still kind of didn't get it.
"A Baby."
Darren and Amber decided that they wanted to make their family a little bigger. So they planned on having a baby.
"Do you know who that baby was?" (I drew a boy)
"Me" J said.
You're right, it was you.
And then Darren and Amber became Daddy and Mommy.
This went on while we drew J's little brother and sister.

While J colored in the picture we drew, I told him the story of how his father and I decided to have him in our family. I told him about when I went to the hospital to have him and that when the doctor helped take him out of Mommy's tummy, that J screamed SO loud that I'm sure that the whole hospital heard him. I yelled like a baby to show him how loud he was, and J laughed so hard - he got a real kick out of that.
I told him that when I held him in my arms for the first time, he stopped crying. I told him that I remembered looking into his eyes saying, "My baby boy, oh my baby boy, I love you so much!" J just sat there looking at me with those same eyes smiling. I love this boy!!!

After that, we played a game. I drew pictures of our family and he had to guess who they were. (Yes, I know, the one that is suppose to be J looks kinda weird and creepy LOL)

Next we talked about J's baby sister. I asked him things like how does Mom care for her. And how does Mom show that she loves her. I told J that I love each and every one of my babies. And that I will always love them.

After the lesson was pretty much over, J started to work on his Book Pages and working on his Shapes. He did so good! I'm so happy with his progress. He is such a smart boy - and his father can take all the credit there. I just supply him with his more crafty side haha.

Teacher (me) has called in sick this week. So class will resume and catch back up when I'm feeling better. J is so bummed out. Makes me sad when he asks me if I can still teach Joy School while I'm sick and I say, "Sorry buddy, I'm just not up to it. But I promise we will do Joy School as soon as Mommy is better".

I Love You My Wonderful Child!

Today's lesson was - The Joy of Family Security, Identity and Pride Part 4

We started off with working on the "Joy Song". J is getting so good. We worked on the body motions for the words and he caught on really fast. 

We then made Puppets of our family. I tried to turn the old 1985 cartoon family the Joy School instruction book into looking like our own lil' family. J was pretty excited about them. I did some Puppet shows for him. Reminded me of when I played with dolls. I talked for the Puppets. I even did a thing where if the Mom Puppet was asking the Oldest Boy Puppet (Jason) what he should do... I moved the Boy Puppet over to J and had the Puppet ask J what he would do. It was cute because J would whisper to the Boy Puppet the answer and then I would talk for the Puppet again and have him tell the Mom puppet what J told him to say.

Next I told J a story - which I used our new Puppets with - about a boy asking his mom why she loves him. At the end of the story, J said, "You love me like the Mom Puppet loves the Boy Puppet right mom?" And I said yes of course. I love that boy!

Art Activity!!!  "Making a Family Home"

Because we have been talking about Family, Identity and Pride, J made our family home. He chose the outside to be Red - his Favorite color, and 4 windows - a window for each one of our family's rooms. He even let Dad and Mom share a room :) 

While J worked on gluing windows and shrubbery to his house, I discussed with him what he thinks makes a happy family. He said things like, "When we have fun" and, "When we are nice and not mean". I'm so surprised with some of the answers he gives me. He's such a smart lil guy - just like his Daddy.
We also discussed a new word - Traditions. When I was trying to describe this to J, he said, "Is it like Santa?" and I said Ya! When we leave cookies out for Santa, that is a family tradition we like to do.

J also was able to work on his "Book" work. For the first few pages, we are concentrating on Colors. I offered for him to use more colors on the page than the "Color" the page was about but J said, "No, (and then he pointed to the title of the page) see, this says 'What is Black', so I should only use Black."

This is the little note that would normally be sent home with the kids - but since I'm the mommy, I'll just show you what it said - 

Dear Mom and Dad,

     Today I learned that what makes a house a home is love. I'm so glad our house is a home! It makes me feel secure.

Over all, another great day at Lewis Joy School.

Today was the First day of Lewis Joy School! It was a little unorganized because of the lack of desk, and space, but my lil' man and I worked things out. We had Joy School in our living room on our coffee table. It actually worked pretty good. In the future I have plans to make him his own little desk/work area.

Anyways.... Today's lesson was - The Joy of Family Security, Identity and Pride part 3

We had a nice little discussion about Family Names. Last names mainly. This is one of the ways other people know who we are, who our Mom and dad are, and who our brothers and sisters are. We also discussed that we should be proud of our families.

Later we sang some songs, including "I've Got Joy".

J worked on some of his "Book" pages. Today's pages were about colors...

Then J drew his family in a house. He did such a great job. He used all of our family's favorite colors when he drew each one of us. 

I didn't get everything done that the lesson manual instructed that I do... but J had a fun time and so did I. He even started calling me "Teacher" haha. I told him that he could just call me "Mom" but he insisted that if he were in class and if I were teaching, that I were to be referred to as "Teacher".