Pedigreed Housewife World

Last week the Montessori Kindergarteners (MKers) at my kids’ school did research projects on the animals of the Amazon. They all did such a fantastic job and my kids were blown away. They look up to the MKers in the class and really wanted to do a research project. I, on the other hand, told them “It’s Spring Break. Let’s relax.” And somehow we ended up making our relaxing into a research project anyway. Hey, Spring Break is all about fun your way, right?  So how did relaxing turn into research? I suggested that the girls and I lay on the deck and enjoy the fresh air. While outside, I closed my eyes. The kids were stunned. Mommy never closes her eyes (of course not – I have preschoolers! J ) I told them that I was listening to the birds chirp. They couldn’t see the birds but we could hear them.  Briana ran in to get her binoculars. Then we found a pair for Abby and started looking for those chirping birds. Bree wanted to draw her birds so I show

There’s a ton to do outside as the first beautiful, soft flakes of snow fall to the ground. But what about the day after? The snow is too icy to roll into snowmen, make snow angels in, or sled on, but you still want to have snow day fun. This is the perfect time to make snow cones! Not the edible kind! Please do not eat these! Don’t eat the yellow - or purple, or green, or other colored - snow. My girls are dying to get back into the snow the day after we got enough snow to have school cancelled. The problem is that somehow it’s 50 degrees out and the snow is virtually gone. Except on our winter wonderland of a deck. The deck is covered in frozen, packed snow. So we invent a new snow day activity. Snow cones! If you do not have Do A Dot paint markers, go get some right now. It’s the best! The paint is held in tubes so the kids can dot it on without making a mess or creating mounds of cleanup with brushes and water cups, etc. We take those Do A Dot mar

Have you guys seen the McKenna American Girls movie? My kids love it. In the movie poor McKenna fails a test and has to get a tutor or she might have to quit gymnastics. I won’t spoil the ending but there are more twists and my girls both agree that it’s a nail biter. As such, Briana has decided that she wants to take a quiz really really really really badly. She knows she won’t fail, but she just wants to find out what a quiz is like. Of course she’s taken the Kindergarten Readiness Test, but she doesn’t think that counts as a real quiz. So with school snowed out, we have the perfect opportunity to practice quiz taking. By the way, this is entirely the girls’ idea. I was hoping for the perfect day to sleep in today. So at 7am on a snow day we start our quizzes. Each girl gets her own quiz based on what she is working on. We start, by demand, with “a words and letters quiz that requires you to circle stuff like McKenna did”. I ask the girls if they are nervous abo