It’s nice to have a mother-in-law that’s also a preschool teacher. She brings you things that either she’s made or photocopied from her curriculum. I’ve yelled at her to follow her dream to retire and make literacy-based curriculum, she’s so creative! It also makes me feel good to know she thinks reading is one of the best ways to teach, since I fall back on books any chance I can. Mostly for the snuggles, though.

So when things spiral to the point that Ruth spends her evenings slaving away on the computer:

I break out the homemade toys from Jama.

First up is the Feely Cup Thingamaroo. It’s just a plastic cup with a sock around it, filled with various things… soft, hard, round, square, etc.
Ruth isn’t to the point where I can ask her to pick out the soft ball, so we just discuss whatever comes out. And then it’s my turn to be creative…Uh, yeah. How about I just dump a bunch of colored gem stone thingies on a tray and let you scoop them up. Ta da!!!I don’t know what it taught her besides the fact that Walmart sells some hard to maneuver shovels, but this did also kill the time it took for Ryan to cook dinner.

Now back to Jama’s.

Her eye-spy game is still a hit. Ruth pulls it out every so often and goes back to find the camera.

Now back to my mine.

What? Colored gem stone things again? This time in WATER?

Ruth never saw that twist coming.

Neither did I, actually. In fact, I couldn’t see much of anything with this big ole belly in the way.So we go back to Jama’s creations where she actually learns something. You may remember her little flannelgram dress-up doll from a while back. Well, a Pete The Cat has been made as well. Mamas – go buy these books, they crack me up!

One book is all about his buttons, so she included some buttons to place on the cat.

I think Ruthie thought she was bedazzeling his shirt, which I fully approved of.

And of course Jama didn’t leave out his belly button, only the climax of the entire story!
The second book was about his shoes, so several pairs were included as well. Apparently we’re still trying to work out where shoes go on the body.
And I’ve been trying to get Ruthie to recognize numbers out of order, by asking her to place buttons on them randomly. It’s a hit or miss. I probably asked her to put this button on 3. She was more concerned with touching her nipple, I think. And of course, nipple is one of the words that comes out of her mouth perfectly. Lovely.
Anyway, don’t you think Jama should retire and follow this passion? I do. Or at least set up a blog and help us come up with ideas.

Now where did those gem stones go….