thirsty mind

Last week my mom took Anna and I to a local store where many teachers buy their teaching supplies. It's a great store filled with supplies for all sorts of teachers, as well as learning toys, games, crafts and more. Walking in with all of the teachers preparing for their first day of school I got wrapped up in the fever as well!

Thinking ahead to the long months of indoor time, I thought I would pick up a few things for Anna and I to do together - both to learn and to share some special time together. I walked out with a new game, some crafting supplies and a few "workbooks".

Yesterday morning we had some spare time before we were to leave to meet a friend at a lake downtown, so I thought "why not?". I asked Anna if she would like to have "learning time" in the basement for a little while. "Yeah! Learning time mommy! Let's go!" I had no idea how this was going to go but the reception was good thus far so I went with it.

We sat at her little table and I presented her with a few math "worksheets" from our book. Math at this age meaning opposites, learning numbers, matching, etc. Anna loved it. She ate it up. I asked her to point out the biggest pig and she pointed with such excitement, and then drew the sweeping strokes around it all by herself. We continued through a few more pages and then she colored, we read books and our "learning time" came to an end. I don't know if much was actually "learned", but it was fun quality time together. She even asked later in the day if we could do learning time again another day, or maybe even after nap? HA! I am hoping that this will be a special time that she will look forward to that we can share after the baby is born, just the 2 of us. Perhaps that will help ease the transition.

We then headed to the big lake downtown to meet my friend Andrea and her 2 children - Bella and Eli. Bella is a little over a year older than Anna and it was so fun to see Anna imitate all that Bella would do. The 2 little blondies played in the sand by the water, picking rocks, building "castles", rolling in the sand - Anna copying all that her idol Bella did the whole morning through. Meanwhile I was able to enjoy baby Eli (8 months) and Andrea. It was a great morning!

(Just for fun...if you ask a nearly 2 year old to smile so pretty for the camera, you will likely end up with a picture like this:)