Last year a group of girls in the ward decided to do Joyschool. It has been such a fun experience for my boys and for me. We had a group of 4 last year and it was easy, and fun. The kids became best buddies and I finally met some girls in the ward, who are just darling I might add. This year our number has doubled and it has been a little overwhelming at times and I really do wonder if they care about learning or just the playing part - which is equally important. Anyway today I was the host and it was Awesome! I don't know if they're getting into the routine or what, but the 3 hours flew by and fun and learning? was had by all. 

Today was brought to you by the letter M and the number 7. M is for monkey, moon, moose, mouse, mitten, mommy, money. We focused on Mittens and Moose. We played memory, we learned some poems: 

1 mitten, 2 mitten, 3 mitten 4, 

how many mittens are on the floor? 

5 mitten, 6 mitten, 7 mitten 8, 

please help me lay them straight. 

9 mitten, 10 mitten, oh let's see 

how many mittens will there be? 

I threw a mitten down every time I said a number and let the kids help me count and lay them straight.

I gave them each a pair of mittens and we learned this one:

Mittens, mittens always two

Mittens is red, green or blue

Mittens keep us warm in cool weather

Always keep them safe together

We then passed around a big mitten as they each took a turn telling a story. We proceeded to the kitchen and decorated paper mittens to hang on their Christmas trees. 

We later read "Moose Tracks", a family favorite:), and made a moose with their foot print as the head and their hands as the antlers. 

For the number 7 we talked briefly about the 7 days of the week and did a little math. I had 7 mittens pinned to a clothesline and we added and subtracted 1 or 2 mittens and came up with the answer. I couldn't believe it was time to go when mom's started showing up! I have really learned to love these kiddos and hope they love Joyschool and have happy memories from it.