Thinking about school...

I came across this quote the other day and it hit so close to home. My children go to a private school, and we have been sending children there for 3 years now. We fell in love with the school at the beginning and continued to love what they were doing. They have an excellent curriculum and a dedicated teaching staff, which is what has always bound us to them. Recently though, our feelings have  been changing and I keep wondering to myself; if I am so upset with a school THAT I AM PAYING THROUGH THE NOSE FOR, then why do I continue to do it?

I don't doubt the excellent academic available at this school but this year they have felt the need to begin accepting children that ARE NOT ready for a school environment. On top of doing this, they have also allowed them in class with Kindergarten and First Grade (combined class) with one teacher and no assistant. These children are as young as 3 and NOT called Preschoolers, from the official standpoint of the school, they DO NOT have a preschool. This is a GREAT opportunity for children with the WILL and DESIRE to learn, children that WANT to learn and are able to sit still. Instead the classroom is full of children that get up out of their seats throughout the day, some even leaving the classroom!!! There are children that cry all day, to the point of screaming, where it disrupts the rest of the class and then there are the children that are not even potty trained. Are you catching my drift here? 

My frustration is NOT geared towards these children AT ALL, they are just not ready for school. These children are too young to be in such a structured environment and should in fact be in a play filled preschool. This teacher has been pitched too much with all these different levels of learning and it's causing the children to fall behind from where they were. My youngest is in the class right now and is a full quarter behind of where my older 2 were when they were in the same class. This is the first year that there have been so many unruly children in the same room as them and it's a new teacher. When my children come home and tell me about their day and how unhappy they are, I wonder why I continue to pay for something that I am not happy with. That sounds so ridiculous and yet I don't know what to do?! What do you think?

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Circus Theme!

On my Facebook Page, I was recently asked to share some ideas about a Circus Theme! Please head on over and read the ideas I came up with and share some of your own! I love the internet community of creative forces, because we can always come together and make some pretty awesome things!!

Fulfilling Our Bucket

Friday Morning 7am at our Garage Sale:

Bucket list #25 is in action on this cold and rainy day! It's supposed to keep warming up, so let's hope it sticks with that thought and decides not to get any colder! haha!! I parked them into the far back of the garage where they could keep warm and also stay out of the rain! They surprisingly made some decent money in here!

12 noon and we have moved outside with the stand! The kids are still having a blast, but have decided that taking turns at the small table may work best! I had to frisk my daughter as she left, because she was keeping all the quarters of the lemonade glasses that she sold! hahha!! I told her it all goes into 1 pot divided 3 ways at the end of the weekend and I don't think she was too thrilled on that!

One tip that I read in a local paper was to put a donation jar at your lemonade stand, many people won't want the lemonade, but will throw in a dime or 2 just to help out the kids! It worked out really well so far. It's 12:45 and we've been open about 4.5 hours and the donation jar has about 6.00 in it! People are really sweet to little kids and I love that!

1pm and we are over halfway done! Looks like I have to make up a new batch at lunch time for the second half of the day! The best parts of this entire experience so far have been the kids learning about money and giving change and measurements when mixing the lemonade too. They are also learning about sharing, when they take turns behind the table.  So many lessons to be learning in such a small task and of course fun is being had by all!

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3 Kids 2 Parents 1 Awesome Summer

With the close of the school day yesterday, we said goodbye to daily classes and hello to Summer! It's time for us to begin our bucket list and prepare to learn a whole new realm of things. Summer holds adventure, excitement and fun. It's a chance for us to grow closer as a family and for the little ones to grow closer as friends too. We have a list of things that will dominate our free time, but we also will be open to the unexpected, the unknown and the last minute. With the official start of the Sottile Summer, we are ready for this brand new chapter and cannot wait to report all that it holds for us. We will still have a daily Spanish Lesson, Geography,Science and Math too, but we will make it fun and interesting too. We are also going on a Trip Around The World and have plans to go on several small vacations built into the Summer too, but for the most part we plan on just being together! So come on Summer 2011, bring it on! We are ready for you!!

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Up in a Minute!

 

With the end of the school year upon us, we are getting a lot of artwork coming home! I know I want to definitely keep some in their grade folders, but there are some that are just too bulky and such. I quickly grabbed some rope and baby clothespins and within 5 minutes had art lines in all of their rooms! I told the little ones straight away that in order to pin up new artwork, they had to take down something old. So far it's been working fabulously!

Friday's Finds!

With the weather finally warming up and the rain being held at bay, we started walking to school for my son (less than a block away) and we happened to see a garage sale!! We popped in and came out with these awesome books and this Eric Carle game for a total of 1.25 spent! I love garage sales! How about you?

I won a giftcard to our local teacher store and couldn't wait to spend it! My son is VERY into the solar system right now, so I let him have his pick of goodies and then I of course rounded out with a couple things for my other 2! We have been having a blast so far and I will post later what we have done!! Nothing beats the smell of new school supplies! haha!!

Any plans this weekend? We are headed to a fun fair at my oldest sons school tonight and then hopefully turning the garden!

ETA:

We just stopped at another garage sale and I picked up these awesome plastic ladles for the water table,  Super cute leaf cups that will work on our nature table in the Fall and a penguin book all for .10 each. I also found the cutest Vintage Walt Disney World drink stirrers and an awesome vintage metal tea strainer that has already been taken to the sand table by my little guy also .10 each. Total spent .90, but the lady kindly told me .75! WOOHOO!!

Our Summer Bucket List!!

Our Summer Bucket List!

This Summer is going to be one to remember! We have so much planned and even more unplanned! I found a blog that was talking about doing a bucket list of things that you would like to accomplish this Summer and I figured this was right up our alley! We have 93 days of Summer, so I will have a list of 93 items, even though some are ongoing and we can do multiples in one day. I just like the thought of 1 fun thing for every day of Summer Break!
1. Go Around The World!
2. Go to the Children’s Museum of Rockford
3. Children’s Museum of Chicago
4. The Zoo
5. Science and Industry
6. Petting Zoo
7. Small Town Carnival
8. Have a beachside picnic
9. Take a train ride somewhere new
10. Camp under the stars
11. Go to the Mall of America
12. Have a yard sale
13. Make a new friend
14. Field Museum
15. Planetarium
16. Spend a lazy day on a pontoon boat
17. Build a robot
18. Make a wishing tree in a local park
19. Volunteer
20. Go to the Aquarium
21. Be Super Heroes!
22. Make Smore’s over an open flame
22. Catch fireflies late at night
23. Go to the drive in
24. Make our own ice cream
25. Have a lemonade stand
26. Go on a date downtown with my husband
27. Purge each of our rooms of 50 things!
28. Go on a scavenger hunt
29. Have a huge water gun fight
30. Go Berry Picking
31. Go to a large Farmers Market
32. Make Wind Chimes
33. Join the Library Summer Reading Club
34. Take a Trolley Ride
35. Spend a day at the arboretum
36. Go Bowling
37. Play Miniature Golf
38. Go to the Children’s Theatre
39. Lego Land
40. Listen to a professional Outdoor Music Concert (ravinia)
41. Fly a kite
42. Go puddle jumping in the rain
43. Let the kids plan a full days meals
44. Make Jewelry to give to someone else
45. Fall in Love
46. Take one photo every day of our activity
47. Train Museum
48. Jelly Bean Factory Tour
49. Camp out in the living room
50. Make Soap
51. Go to an Amusement Park
52. Do a LARGE puzzle throughout the summer
53. Find Chic-Fil-A near my dads house
54. Eat every single meal outside in 1 day
55. Family Game Night
56. Make a 100 link paper chain to be ready for the first 100 days of school countdown!
57. Play with ice in a wading pool on a hot hot hot day
58. Create an entire outfit from thrift store finds (everyone picks their own)
59. Take after dinner walks
60. Go to the water park
61. Go to the splash park
62. Go to an outdoor movie at the park (not the same as drive in)
63. Go on a nature hike
64. Write letters to friends and family (at least 8)
65. Have a movie marathon on a rainy day
66. Get REAL Italian Lemonade
67. Go to the SEARS TOWER (I will always call it that)
68. Go to a baseball game
69. See a civil war re enactment
70. Play with paint
71. Play with clay
72. Bake Cupcakes and give them away! (Take to Daddy’s work)
73. Go to church every Sunday
74. Go to the Butterfly House
75. Go to a farm
76. Take a class
77. Meet friends for ice cream
78. Go for sushi
79. Read books outside
80. Play in the pool!
81. See my grandma
82. Go on a road trip
83. Watch the sunset
84. Go on a boat tour
85. Roller Skate
86. Race Go Karts
87. Race Remote Control Cars
88. Play at a new-never-been-to play ground
89. Visit the Japanese Gardens
90. Kidnap Nana and hang out with her for a day
91. Kidnap Grandpa and hang out with him for a day
92. Build a fort
93. Go on a bike ride


That’s it! We did it! I have so many more ideas! hahaha!!!
Do you have a bucket list? If so link up in the comments! I would love to read everyones!

ETA:
Okay, I just can't stop! I want to do more!
94. Build a Giant Sandcastle
95. Make Lollipops
96. Make hotdogs over a fire!
97. Have a YES DAY!
98. Make a hummingbird feeder

 Linked up with other lists here:

~Michelle!~

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The Nuts and Bolts of it All!

 The hardware store can be a fantastic place for getting toys that the kids can play with for hours!

I went and bought Nuts and Bolts and a Wrench! That's it!! All 3 children played for 2 hours in many different ways. There were counting games, races, contests, sorting and just so much creative fun, I couldn't believe that a total of 4.67 was bringing in this much fun!

One of their contests was to see who could put the most nuts on their bolt and they figured on some of them, they could get up to 8, but on others only 4!

My daughter liked working with the wrench best, it's a great lesson in patience, trying to get everything adjusted just right in little hands.

They also sorted them into the different sized nuts as they unscrewed them. They cooperated really well together and made sure each one had a job at all times. For a little bit of money, this bought me some nice quiet time!!

**PLEASE NOTE**

My children are older and do not put toys in their mouths, please be careful and watchful at all times with children when attempting this activity!

Thrifty and Easy Sand Box on the Go!

 Roman and I were dying to get out and play in this perfect weather, yet it was too chilly to be at the water table and I didn't want to start on the garden without the big kids there. We put our thinking caps on while sitting on the grass waiting for Gabriel to get out of school and came up with a fantastic idea, SAND!!

 Let's backtrack and talk about the big sandbox that the kids could fit in from last year (Step2) it was nice and luxurious, but the kids were always all sandy when they came in and it was a pain when they wanted to play quick and we had places to go. I wanted something EASY and Portable that could come with us when we went to grandparents homes and other visits where they get bored or antsy after 10 minutes of sitting there staring at eachother!

First, I had a large under bed storage container that was just sitting around empty. (Sal got it at the Salvation Army when he went and donated items, a man asked if he wanted to trade bins with him! haha) Next, a trip to Menards got us 2 bags of sand and random pieces that I found while strolling up and down the aisles! (toys can be made from ANYTHING!!) Finally I poured in the sand and tossed in the toys and we were ready to party!! I like this, because we can only use 1 half if that's all we want to play in OR the entire lid comes off! It's also on the wheels to make it easier for the kids to wheel around the back patio if they want to move it out of the way.

This Week in Photos!

When making my daughter's Bento lunch, I always like to create an appropriate card for what activity she has going on after school! This days lunch was on Monday, when she has Chinese class after school. I wrote I LOVE YOU in Chinese! On her art class day, I usually draw a photo for her or on Science Club day, I have to really get creative and this week just made her lunch note in the shape of a beaker with a science fact in it. Thursday is Ballet, so I tucked a little ballerina cupcake pick into her cheese cubes and Friday brings the weekend, so I made sure to have Daddy write her note, so she knew that he would be with us all weekend long (no work on the weekends!!)

Finishing up the plane tickets for our trip around the world! We are getting so excited to learn about places that we have never been and to 'revisit' places we have been!!

Hello old friends!! Time to dust off my gym shoes again! The weather is getting warmer and my mother signed us up for the Chicago Marathon in October! WOW! I have a lot to do to get in that kind of shape!! I'm thinking of hiring a personal trainer, but still not sure! YIKES!

Things I Am Loving Right Now....

This week, I am going to share normal every day things or inexpensive activites that have me swooning in love!

#1 and the entire reason for this post this week is the library self check out station! It is ALWAYS empty, even when the 6 staff members are all 3 people deep with lines, nobody ever wants to try this and it's so so so simple!! The best part? You don't have to print out receipt, you can just have it e-mailed to yourself!! (I love this, because it allows me to incorporate it into my online calendar, where I can pop in their return date and the list of books that we have out!)
Rub on letters! These were .99 from Michaels and are a total dream to a Mommy that needs a craft that all of her kids (3,5 and 6) can do together!! We've put them on rocks, paper, wood cut outs and easter eggs! All in preparation for Easter!!
Our new magnetic chore chart that is as simple as library pockets, popsicle sticks and paper men! We had fun creating it and also assigning jobs for the week!

Join Us on a Virtual Vacation Around the World!

This Summer Break, join us on a Virtual Trip around the World!!! We are so excited, I hope you are too!! We will visit 1 or 2 big cities around the world every week of Summer Vacation and will learn what we can about that city! The language they speak, the food they eat (we will eat it too!), what there is to see! Join us up the Eiffel Tower, on a Safari in Africa, to see the Mayan Pyramids and so much more!
Grab your passports and be ready to get them stamped and don't forget your tickets and suitcases and maps! We are so excited that we've already started to prepare! We've made our luggage tag, decorated our suitcase and purchased some of our guidebooks!
Care to join us? Please do! I will have an itinerary soon, so you too can prepare! Remember that old guide books can be purchase for less than 1.00 at most thrift shops and you can download so much for the internet! Have any questions? Please ask in the comments! If you want to join, we can start a blog ring and link to each other! I have so much planned, so just ask and I will answer!!

Our Plane Tickets!!

Vacation Update 1
Vacation Update 2

~Michelle!~

Headed to the Zoo!

Headed to the Zoo and I got their gear ready the night before, so they can investigate things on the nature trails that are all around! There is so much more to look at than just the animals!

We are members of the Zoo, and we know how much the kids loooove their maps! We decided to have the maps laminated (1 for each child), so that they could use a dry erase marker to mark off what we have seen, our path walked and what they want to see. This is a way of keeping GREEN and not wasting every time we go.

Their to-go kit is all tucked away into our re-usable Zoo bag along with some snacks and a water bottle to tide them over between meals. They have their laminated maps, dry erase markers, magnifying glasses on a lanyard for them to keep at hand whenever they want to check something out up-close! There is also tissues and wipes for allergies and messes and the much needed hand sanitizer! The final item is just a reusable container that they use to store any specimens they may find along the way that would fit into their nature table. Let's hope we get some good weather! By the time you read this post on Tuesday, we will have already gone (we are going Sunday), so I will hopefully be able to post photos and an update on my Friday WEEK IN PHOTOS post!

The weather was definitely rainy, but you know what? We had a BLAST! Dance in the rain is what we did! We had our umbrellas, a wagon and smiles galore! The kids still managed to find some things on our nature walk through the trails at the zoo and we all came home exhausted!
They found this twig from a tree, but the kids insist it is a birds foot, so it got PRIME placement in the specimen box on our Nature Table!
All in all a wonderful day that left us feeling blessed and happy!

Box Tops!

Box Tops University is coming to Chicago and I'm going! Anyone else planning on attending the April 1st event?

I am the box top coordinator for our school, are you? Share your tips and blog posts concerning box tops!! I am hoping to remind everyone to keep on collecting all through Summer, so that we can come back with a bang!!