Grom's Kindergarten Gallery

apples three ways
- chalk pastels-



frog
- washable felt marker-



puffin
-washable felt marker-



mixed media man
-mixed media collage-



pumpkins
- ink and watercolor-



field of flowers
- craft painted paper cut collage-



flowers
-tempera paint-



love
-tempera paint-



fish
-ink and pastels-



vase of flowers
-watercolor-



beach collage
-torn paper collage-



a beautiful day
- craft paint-

Grocery Shopping with Grom and a GIVEAWAY!

giveaway closed

Grom and I do our weekly grocery shopping at Trader Joe's. It's a great place to shop. Have you seen this video?

It's so true. I'd be one of those beautiful moms if only I had some yoga clothes.

Anyway... just about the time that Grom got to big to pick up and throw in the cart seat, grocery shopping became a bit of a pain. It's like Grom decided that Trader Joe's was the perfect place to misbehave and act like a hooligan.

Our Trader Joe's has Sally the Seal. She's a stuffed animal who is constantly hiding around the store. Grom and I joke that she works at TJ's and is hiding to get out of work. She is one naughty seal. Looking for Sally used to keep Grom occupied enough so that I could shop. Here she is snoozing amongst the toilet paper. Finding her gets you a handsome reward.

Grom still looks for Sally, but there are only so many places a sneaky seal can hide so he usually finds her pretty quick. I decided I had to come up with another idea. Enter the picture shopping list.

Each week I spend a couple of minutes adjusting the last list with some of the new things that we need. Some of the items never change as we are creatures of habit and Surferman loves his green apples. I find the pictures through Google Images. Just type in your grocery item and a picture will come up paste them into your document and voila. I have found that if I search for "Trader Joe's" and the item, I often find a picture of the exact product. Those crazy bloggers love to post pictures of everything.

At first, Grom's shopping list was pictures only. Recently I started adding the words to encourage Grom's learning to read. He looks for the items and then crosses them off as he puts them in the cart. It doesn't slow me down any more than when I used to have to take him to the bathroom to threaten talk some sense into him.

So here's where the giveaway starts...

First - Grom's Printable Grocery List. Feel free to download and use it with your kiddos. I made a pretty generic one to share. Everyone wins!

Second - I was contacted by CSN stores with an offer to sponsor a giveaway. CSN is a bunch of online stores offering many different items for the home like kids bedding, kitchen items, toys and games and so much more. CSN has over 200 stores. I could get lost shopping at everyespressomachine.com and cookware.com Next time you need something, go check out CSN.

I had a hard time deciding what to choose as a prize. Finally, I picked Learning Resources Pretend and Play Teaching Cash Register. I know it's something that Grom would really like to have. He has wanted a cash register forever, and money math is a very important skill to master.

Here's a little about this great register...

Cha-ching!! Playing store comes to life with this talking, interactive cash register that rewards transactions with lights, sounds and voice messages. Holds actual-size money and includes a built-in scanner, scale, coin slot and volume control. Engaging play helps kids practice basic math skills including addition, subtraction and recognizing different coins and bills. The automatic shut-off saves batteries and reminds kids to 'Come and play again!'.

So, some of you are thinking... great Robin... I don't have kids why would I want to enter your giveaway. Well... that's what I was thinking too. So I'm sweetening the pot.

Third - To complete the grocery shopping experience... A $25 Trader Joe's gift card! I think that'll buy you about 7 bottles of juice with a crazy name or 25 organic yogurts or 18 bottles of sparkling water or... well the possibilities are endless aren't they. If you are unfortunate enough to not have a Trader Joe's close by, I'll get you a Starbucks card instead. Starbucks are everywhere.

So... How do you enter? There are three ways to win.

1. Leave a comment with your favorite item from Trader Joe's or something you'd like to try from the video above.

2. Subscribe to my blog . If you already subscribe, great! (let me know in a separate comment)

3. Post or tweet about my giveaway on your blog or on Twitter (let me know you did in a separate comment - leave a link to your blog or your twitter username).

Of course, make sure I have an email address to contact you if you win.

Winner will be chosen by random number from eligible comments. Entries accepted until 10pm PST March 25, 2010. Winner announced Friday March 26th. Prizes can only be shipped to the US and Canada.

Whoever you are, I hope you win.

Happy Shopping!

Grom's Bookbag - Cake

I probably shouldn't ask Grom what he'd like to read about when we are watching TV. We were in the middle of episode of Ace of Cakes. Guess what he chose? If you guessed CAKE you are right.

I found some great books. It was a lot of fun.



Here are some more books that aren't currently available to the carousel widget.
A Cake All for Me! by Karen Magnuson Bell (this was Grom's favorite book for December and the one he chose to draw about for his lap reading homework for school).
Don't Forget by Pat Lakin
The Woman who Flummoxed the Fairies: an old tale from Scotland by Heather Forest

The only thing we have left to do... bake a cake. Maybe Wednesday?

Run! Run! As fast as you can!

A baker took some gingerbread dough
And shaped a man from head to toe.
When it was baked, the cookie fled.


Here is what the cookie said:
Run! Run! As fast as you can!
You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!


Run! Run! As fast as you can!
I'm the little Gingerbread Man!


The cookie man ran past a cow
Who said, "I want to eat you now!"
The cookie man just laughed and fled.


Here is what the cookie said:
Run! Run! As fast as you can!
You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!


Run! Run! As fast as you can!
I'm the little Gingerbread Man!


A farmer saw the man go by.
He chased him low, he chased him high.
The cookie man just shook his head.


Here is what the cookie said:
Run! Run! As fast as you can!
You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!
Run! Run! As fast as you can!
I'm the little Gingerbread Man!


He finally reached the river wide,
A fox asked, "Would you like a ride?"

The cookie sat on the fox's head,
Here is what the sly fox said:
"You can't run! That's my plan!
I'm going to eat you, Gingerbread Man!
You can't run! That's my plan!"

And he ate the gingerbread man!

I helped with Grom's Kindergarten Christmas Party. They made gingerbread men. I had to take pictures. They did such a good job and made some cute gingerbread men.

Grom's Bookbag - Christmas

Here are the books were reading this week. Happy reading!

Grom's Bookbag - How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World

We have a fun Five In A Row book to read this week, How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman. It has a bunch of books to read along. It will be a week full of apples, other apple pie ingredients and the far away places they come from.

The Amazing Apple Book by Paulette Bourgeois
A Cow, A Bee, A Cookie and Me by Meredith Hooper
How to Make a Cherry Pie and See the USA by Marjorie Priceman
Johnny Appleseed: The Legend and the Truth by Jane Yolen
What Food is This? by Rosemarie Hausherr
Apple Harvest by Calvin Harris
Children Just Like Me by Barnabas Kindersley
And Everything Nice: the Story of Sugar, Spice and Flavoring by Elizabeth K. Cooper
Apple Valley Year by Ann Warren Turner
The Apple Pie that Papa Baked by Lauren Thompson
Robert Frost by Robert Frost
The Growing Up Tree by Vera Rosenberry
The Biography of Sugar by Rachel Eagen
The Biography of Spices by Ellen Rodger
The Apple King by Francesca Bosca
Pancakes, pancakes! by Eric Carle

We also have a video - Apple Farming for Kids

It's going to be a yummy week. I'm sure we'll make an apple pie and do some apple projects.

Grom's Bookbag - Falling into an Autumnal Mood

I didn't choose a FIAR book for this week. Instead we picked up a bunch of books about fall and seasonal things.  A couple of random book found their way into our book bag.

"Apple Harvest" by Calvin Harris
"Did You Say Pears?" by Arlene Alda
"Fall Leaves Fall!" by Zoe Hall
"Leaf Jumpers" by Carole Gerber
"Leaf Man" by Lois Ehlert
"The Letters are Lost" by Lisa Campbell Ernst
"The Blueberry Shoe" by Ann Dixon
"Are You a Horse" by Andy Rash
"Johnny Appleseed: a poem" by Reeve Lindbergh
"I Like Bugs: the sound of B" by Alice K. Flanagan

Happy Reading!

Not this momma's tattoos

I remember temporary tattoos from when I was a kid. If you were lucky, they were the toy surprise in a box of Cracker Jack. Lick your arm, press the tattoo on and hold still until the ink transfered. They lasted until your next bath - maybe 3 whole days.

Let me tell you, they don't make kid tattoos like they used to. They are more colorful and more detailed. Grom found some in our bathroom cupboard (I have no idea where they came from) and talked Suferman into putting one on. I wanted to get them out of our house so I applied the rest.

Doesn't he look tough, rough and ready for a rumble?

Just wait until you try to get them off... not as easy as the package describes. They would have you believe that a little baby oil and off they come. I don't think so.

We googled and found that a mixture of baby oil and alcohol should remove them. Apply equal amounts liberally to the tattoo. Let sit 30 seconds (or more) and then rub to remove. Surferman scrubbed... I scrubbed and they are mostly off.

No more tattoos for us.

The Wheels on the Bus

Three days in and Grom was ready to ride the school bus.
Truthfully, Grom said he was ready on Monday.
It took me a couple of days.

We waited at the bus stop with the other kids. His nose itches, promise.

"Bye, Mommy"

After he got on the bus, I hightailed it to school.
I knew he'd make it, but wasn't sure what he'd do when he got off the bus.

He kept walking and pretended he didn't see me.
I stalked him all the way to his classroom.
Of course, he did great.

I think this going to school thing might be harder on me than on him.

I didn't follow the bus today.

Grom the Kindergartner

Monday was the first day of school for Grom. After much going back and forth, Surferman and I decided to give our local elementary school a try. It was a really hard decision, there were good reasons on both sides.

Grom and I are going to continue reading and discussing our Five In A Row books. We had settled into a nice habit of reading first thing in the morning that we plan to keep.

Please pray for Grom's transition and that we'll both make some friends.

Watch for pictures tomorrow of Grom's first school bus ride. Yikes!