Pages

4.29.2013

NAT NESTS: ASTRONAUTS IN TRAINING PLAY SCHOOL


as you may remember, we've been hosting play school for the month of april. is it almost over yet? oh gosh. leave it to me to pick the month that has five tuesdays.

for our first week, we had a circus theme. for our second week, we cancelled due to illness (oh the poops). for our third week we had a rocket theme. huck was thrilled right out of his skin for this one. it was a huge hit with all the kids, we had a really great time. 

a little peek at what went down two (two?) tuesdays ago: 

⩓⩓⩓ the evening before i made eight rocket pbjs, two disastrously ugly rockets out of toilet paper rolls (i gave up on that idea pretty quickly), and one last minute space landing photo booth. i mean, it was actually a wall. i feel like all the time we're being really loose with this "photo booth" term. 
⩓⩓⩓ we read roaring rockets and learned how space rockets work (this is huck's favorite bed time book, we found it HERE), and then i had the recruits complete a little basic training to make sure they were all fit for space travel. you'll be pleased to know every recruit passed, so for craft time we made our very own, ultra official astronaut badges and personalized flags for planting on the moon. 
⩓⩓⩓ a rocket shaped pbj means 100% more sandwich will be eaten than usual. caleb brought his real life space shuttle for all the kids to inspect while they ate. thanks for bringing it for us, elise! 
⩓⩓⩓ after lunch we held free play and had us a little photo booth time. here we have miss elsa on the left (i'm hoping one day huck and elsa will get married, shh), and on the right, space captain huck, claiming the moon on behalf of god, country, and his mother.
⩓⩓⩓ free play is what we really hold play school for. these children are practically teenagers.
⩓⩓⩓ a loaf and a half of rocket pbjs means i've been eating rocket-shaped toad-in-a-holes for lunch ever since. 

31 comments:

  1. what an adorable idea! love the rocket theme!

    www.modernsuburbanites.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. this looks like FUN!! when i moved to west jordan (worst 9 months of my LIFE) i desperately wanted to do a play school but no one would talk to me in that ghetto fabulous neighborhood. but now we live in a much happier, nicer city with real neighbors and i'm dying to make new friends and force them all to agree that play school is where it's at.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "ghetto fabulous", really? Your whole comment comes off ignorant and small-minded. Edit your words.

      Delete
  3. What great ideas... I love how you had a photo booth.. what fun (for the kiddies and parents!) xx

    www.hammeringnotes.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. Play schools are great. The rocket theme is so cool. Hanna

    ReplyDelete
  5. Man, this makes my ovaries hurt! The kids all look like they're having a blast (ho ho, I'm not funny at all)
    Charlotte @ ginandginger.co.uk
    xx

    ReplyDelete
  6. This looks so fun! I wish i was still in preschool. :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love this! The rocket ship pbj's are so cute, as is the "photo booth"/wall/excuse for adorable pictures. :)

    xo

    ReplyDelete
  8. Uh you are too cute!!! I am stealing this idea! So thanks for the inspiration;)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Lovely! The rocket ship "toad in a hole" is great. We call it "roast ghost on toast" around Casa Burtch.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Love the rocket space egg and bread! You should start your own littl menu for boys. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  11. so much cuteness!

    xx
    http://thepocketbookblogg.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  12. Well, shucks, aren't you guys just THE cutest...! You've stolen ALL the cuteness, I tells ya! Heh heh.

    Hahah, I love how you've already unofficially scouted the adorable Elsa, awwww. Hilare!

    ReplyDelete
  13. AMAZING! this is great what yourself and your friends have set up regarding child care. back here in the uk nursery is crazy expensive, so this is such a good idea. is it safe to say your the coolest mum on the block after the spaceship theme?! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Your play school spaceship day looks like so much fun, with a little bit of work for the mum thrown in :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. host your own playschool is such a great idea! i am tempted to see if some of my mummy friends want to club together and do the same when our littles are a bit older!

    i like that you call that toad-in-a-hole. in england, toad in the hole is sausages cooked inside a yorkshire pudding. both delicious but very different dishes! {incidentally we don't have a word or phrase to describe and egg cooked inside a piece of bread like that...}

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, must be a family thing for her cuz I'm american and the only toad in the hole i know is the one you just described.

      Delete
  16. The rocket ship PB&J sandwiches are really cute! (And, who knows...maybe you will start a new trend with rocket ship shaped toad-in-a-holes!)

    ReplyDelete
  17. It does look like a lot of work, but I'm sure you have a great group of mothers to work with. I love a good toad in a whole or "frog in a hole" as my mom called them.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Those are such cute ideas!
    I love the rocket ship "egg-in-a-basket"!

    xo Lisa
    Making Life's Lemons

    ReplyDelete
  19. You are meant for play school even if it stressed the day lights out of you! I want to go back in time and take playschool from Miss Nat.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I.M. Healthy brand of soy nut butters (chocolate, chunky, smooth, etc.) are excellent, and, according to my husband, taste just like PB but are free of peanuts.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I would love, love, love for you to do a whole post about play school--- how you guys set it up, what the general idea is, etc. You make it look so fun!

    ReplyDelete
  22. It's to bad you had such a horrible time doing it. Next time you should just do something simple and not put yourself through the trouble. You might actually enjoy it better if you simplified and then have something nice t o write. Remember they are just kids and for the most part they can entertain themselves without the help of over stimulating parents. Sorry it wasn't a fun thing for you. :(
    P.s. sorry for my b ad english. I'm french.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. oh no i think you misunderstood me, i did not have a horrible time at all! we've loved it, it's been very fun. every monday night when it's time to plan it i think to myself "i hate this! but it always turns out very fun the next morning. kind of like exercising, or other things that are fun and good for you but require some effort. ;)

      Delete
  23. I totally get it. A few of my friends and I do the same thing with our 3 and 4 year olds here in Salt Lake City. Except we rotate houses each week so that we each end up doing it once a month through the whole school year rather than each of us taking a whole month at a time. But I absolutely get the love-hate relationship, just ask my husband. Every time it's my turn, for at least two days beforehand, I whine and complain and torment myself over great ideas. But now that we're at the end of our second year doing this (with my older daughter I never did playschool, she just went to a neighborhood preschool from age 3 on), I have learned one big important thing. Just like with teaching primary, I am at my VERY best at the VERY last minute. True story: when I hosted last Thursday, I woke up at 7:15 like I usually do. Made breakfast for everyone, made lunches for my 1st grader to take to school and my husband to take to work. Got the 1st grader's hair done, made sure homework was in her backpack, and took her to school. When I got home, my husband was ready to walk out the door. I looked at him and said "playschool is in an hour and a half. I haven't showered. 4 year old is still in jammies and hasn't eaten her breakfast. The living room and dining room are disasters. And I haven't prepared a single thing for playschool." Absolutely serious. By 10:00, I was showered, dressed, hair done. 4 year old was dressed, hair done, teeth brushed, breakfast eaten. The living room and dining room were spotless. I had posters on the front door showcasing two of our activities for the day, and I had supplies out for a third activity (a craft that turned out darling) and snacks all set out in the kitchen, ready to go. An hour and a half! And let me tell you, it can take me a full hour and a half to just have myself showered, ready, and kids dressed--it's not like I'm a super fast person. I'm clearly proud of myself, which is probably annoying. I just wanted to share the lesson, which is that instead of a week of angst beforehand, just give yourself a couple hours (the night would before would be smarter than my morning-of tactics) and see what you come up with. You'll probably surprise yourself. And I promise, the 2 and 3 year olds will never know the difference--and honestly neither will the moms. Oh, and the other lesson: if you do it again next year (or do you keep going through the summer?), ask the other moms if they'd consider switching houses every week. Now that you all know each other's homes, getting to a different location each week probably wouldn't be a big deal, and trust me, only having to do it once every five weeks or whatever is SO much less stressful than having to do several weeks in a row, even if you only have to do that once a year. Spreading it out is, in my opinion, less stressful and also easier on the bank account--if you're like me and buy supplies and snacks specifically for it. But nice job! Looks a whole lot like the space-themed playschool I did last year--except I was just using everything that was left over from my older daughter's space-themed birthday party, so I didn't have to buy or make anything new--AND I got to use all of it a second time, which just thrilled my frugal heart!

    ReplyDelete
  24. We always call them eggs in a basket!

    ReplyDelete
  25. You are absolutely the most darling mother! The kind I aspire to be like someday!

    ReplyDelete
  26. They're known as eggs 'n caves around this house.

    ReplyDelete



  27. :-) oh! your photo booth site is great......
    Thanks for share..........Ez photobooths

    ReplyDelete

Comments are moderated because mama ain't no fool.