Leapin' Lily Pads!

Today we started off our morning with some unscheduled  snow fall.  This allowed the kids some fun snowball throwing, snowflake licking fun in first part of our morning, but aside from that I had other kind of fun planned for our day.   You see today is of course Leap Day!   While us adults understand it (the best we can) to be some extra day to make up for extra daylight the space time continuum (that's not it?... well sounds good to me.)   For kids it is a fun opportunity to learn more things about the calendar and frogs.   Yes frogs!

I found a fun idea while trolling Pinterest!   To make lily pads and have the kids jump around.   The idea of hopping around on lily pads comes from Toddler Approved (she has a template for the lily pads too.)  I went a little more freestyle with mine and made some 'smooth' and some 'wavy' lily pads to throw in some additional instruction options.   I numbered them and we began our fun!

Before we began jumping we looked at a calendar from last year and one from this year.   Showing him the extra day and then talked about how that happens every 4 years.  In fact the year he was born and now once again! (I can't believe he's FOUR this year!)   After that I asked him what animals jump and he excitedly said FROGS!    So from there we did some Bing image searches and looked at frogs and then moved into the lily pad elements.   Marry the two lessons together by talking about synonyms.  Yes, yes I did in fact broach the subject of synonyms with my son (and yes in fact spell check had to correct every attempt at my spelling of synonym.)  I told him that synonyms means that two words have the same meaning and it's an alternate word that can be used.  (Yes, I use words like 'alternate' also with my children.)   He said 'oh ok' and then I prompted him to see if he knew a synonym for jump... and he thought for a moment and said "leap?"  BE. STILL. MY. HEART.  YES!!!!   Hooray!  So we lept around the room some for the connection there!  

Next up was the activity!  Ace started the activity jumping in a row from 1 to 5.   He had a lot of fun (but mommy forgot to get her settings right for 'action' before we began, so alas the quality is less than stellar... but you can get the idea!)

After some in a line jumping I moved the lily pads to a more open space and moved them around and out of numerical order.   I had him jump from 1-5 again.  Then I had him jump on the lighter colored ones and then darker.   Then jump on the 'smooth' ones.   There was many different combinations that we tried out and he had a blast throughout.  

Mae even joined in on the jumping which was adorable... and her outfit is living proof that I don't stage all my photos.  Isn't  her outfit just smashing?   Yes, that's post snow-wear while her matching pants dry.  She had a good time cheering on her brother and jumping, stomping on the lily pads herself.  It was cute and adorable and an excellent energy burning indoor activity!  

Happy Leap Day from our lily pond to yours!

Ace's Latest Antics

It's been a bit of time since I've blogged about what Ace is doing and saying.  It's been quite an adventure let me tell you!   The threes truly are his time to shine and challenge and while we are loving this new chapter in Ace's life - it certainly has presented the biggest challenges as well.   

Things that Ace currently loves:  PUZZLES!  And he's good at them too!!   We have a few floor puzzles and they are 48 piece puzzles that he will do entirely on his own. He prefers help and company, but he's capable and we're so proud.   I also have a few smaller table-top puzzles that are roughly 25-30 pieces and he loves to just do it over and over and over - so one day his father presented him with a different challenge - do it upside down and he did...and does.  :)

He loves to wave goodbye when his dad leaves for work, and is very disappointed when he is unable to. He wants to call his dad to say hi "all day long" and recently asked for a real cell phone for Christmas next year, so that he could call people and talk to them.  

I find Ace to be a lovingly typical boy who loves guns, sticks, fighting monsters, and shooting and sword fighting!   Lots of great things flow from his imagination.  Ace enjoys wearing his Halloween costume regularly and protecting his identity!!  He also loves to be silly!  He makes the greatest faces!

He still is sticking with the future job of 'nothing' - he just wants to be an adult when he grows up.  We try to impart on him the fact he'll need to make money to support his wife and kids - but he doesn't seem terribly interested in that right now.   Which is fine - although I'd love for him to want to explore his options!  So far his job list has included:  nothing,  paleontologist (for a brief aspiring few weeks this past summer) and we are currently back to 'nothing'.     Well ok then...
Ace has started to eat a lot more these days, but still during meal times often takes fooooreeeevver or requires a lot of reminding, prodding, timers... etc to get him to eat the food.  He's currently on this kick of wanting to graze all day long - and wanting 'snacks' rather than actual meals at meal times.   It's a work in progress, but gone are the days I worry too much about calorie intake with him.

Humor has really started to sink in around here with him.   He occasionally will tell jokes and his biggest kick right now is to say "Hi Bob" and you are required (and if you don't - corrected) to respond "Hi Larry"  -  Yes Veggie Tales are a big hit in our house currently.  :)   He'll also switch it up and say "Hi Larry"  prompting you to say "Hi Bob"  and he'll go back and forth and try to trip you up.   It's amusing 75% of the time.     In a similar twist all in his own making he's taken on an alternative "bag" and "baggage claim"  - I have no idea where he got it or why - but the game typically involves saying "Hi bag" and/or "Hi baggage claim"  most of the time he's baggage claim and he has the bag (even though I am the bag?? I don't know...)  but then he asks me to ask for something in his bag.   He's had (imaginary) tuna, pickles, diapers, towels, my kindle... all sorts of things have come out of these "bags" that he has.  Often we play this game while driving in the car.   It's silly and time consuming but it really makes him excited - so we play.
Ace has also really started to memorize a lot of things - I've been practicing with him Bible verses - but the other morning he came in and surprised us with his knowledge and memorization of a flip book about Moses.   Now when he 'read' it to us he had it 100% correct.  When I had him do it again for the camera there were a few flubs - but still CRAZY impressive!   The Moses book is not one that we typically read a lot, recently certainly, but it's not like Cuddle was every night for months on end.  We are still a ways off from officially reading, but he's doing great memorizing things!

He loves his sister - but she is starting to wear on his patience some.  There is a lot of gritted teeth "NO SISTER!!!"   He still tries his best, but she is a little sister and really wants to be anywhere and everywhere that her brother is and because of this she is a follower, a snatcher, and a loving pest.  :)  We're trying our best to help Ace find better ways to help redirect the negative and embrace the positive and their loving moments still far outweigh their fighting ones. 

I made them a car to sit in to watch a movie

Sleep? He's sleeping through the night - bed time is frustrating - it involves a lot of stalling, bathroom breaks, water requests, etc... on the litmus test of toddlers - he's right on track.  :-/   We're hopeful that bedtime can be less stalling and more sleeping in the near future.   However, we are really not complaining on his sleep once he IS asleep!   We began potty training the Monday after he turned three and for some time now - he has been fully day time potty trained.    We haven't had an accident in the day in about a month.   At night he also is getting up and going potty in the middle of the night if he needs to and as a result of that we will cease the use of pull ups at night when we are at home.   If we are traveling or staying the night else where for a few more months we'll still use the pull up.  He's a bit nervous about that, but I'm amping him up to be excited about it.  :)

Overall, Ace is doing great - he's a month away from his half birthday - 3.5 when on earth did that happen?   I just can't believe it.  He's loving school,  goes to Sunday School without fuss (although still met with an initial anxiety and protest in the car on the way there)  and he's just overall a great kid!   Can't wait to see what the near future holds for him!

Cloud Viewing

Living in the south we are privileged to have a sky full of beautiful clouds.   All the various kinds of clouds are a part of our daily viewing pleasure and where better way to teach Ace about the different types of clouds.   

As part of his school we take time every now and then to review the types of clouds.    I printed out Cloud Type lesson kit for free from ETC Press.   It included the nomenclature cards and and a few other helpful tools to help show Ace about the various types of clouds.   He's still pretty young to really absorb a lot of the science - but the visuals are great.  

While on Pinterest I came across a great idea of a view window for the clouds, although when I clicked to obtain it - it was for a classroom and cost over $30 for the kit... so I decided to make my own (if you'd like a copy for personal use only please email me and I will send you the PDF.)  It took a naptime to get everything lined up and all the clouds properly identified.  It's not perfect, but it is accurate and for my toddler it is a fun way to 'hunt' for clouds.   :)

Ace had a lot of fun trying to find the different type of clouds.   I think that he'll really enjoy this activity when he's a bit older and can read for himself.   For now he likes to use the view window to poke his head through it and look for clouds that way.  It makes me smile.

So while I don't think he's learning a lot of the accurate names, he's having fun looking at the sky.   We also started to make up the shapes of clouds and that is probably the most fun of all! 

Linking up on:  Living Montessori Now, Sun Scholars, It's Playtime on The Imagination Tree, Preschool Corner on Homeschool Creations, Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas and Classified: Mom.

Seuss-y School

It's school with a Seuss-y twist!  I had been finding lots of great ideas for what to do with Dr. Seuss books and so I wanted to apply some of those with an educational twist.  I didn't own all of the Dr. Seuss books in fact I was missing quite a few of the classics that are really necessary for something like this and so I headed to Half.com and ordered several books for $0.75 (don't get too excited, I still had to pay close to $4 to ship each book, but it was still the cheapest option.) It's always a gamble of their quality at that price but I'm happy to report that I had a 60% success rate with the books I purchased and a 100% "we'll make it work" success (although I probably will rebuy One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.)   With our books procured, I began developing the lessons that would be loosely themed to certain books.  Not all books had a lesson associated with them, some of them were just used during reading time.

Ace's first tray has cards with mom/baby farm animals.  I found them for free at Counting Coconuts, printed, laminated and stored them in a pencil pouch.     This was very easily paired up with Are You My Mother? (an idea that my friend Carrie came up with, thanks!)  And actually by total coincidence all the animals in the small board book were also within the flashcards.    Ace enjoyed this one and has learned some mom and baby combos.  Although he's thoroughly confused about the whole goat baby being called a 'kid'.  He keeps going in circles regarding the fact that he is a kid and that is NOT a kid.  I'd object too if a goat was being compared to me too.  :)

The next tray we have focused on learning some new terms for sizing things.  Ace is pretty good at understanding big, medium, little/small.    So I wanted to introduce another concept with Big, Bigger, Biggest and Small, Smaller, Smallest.   I found this idea with an entire Dr. Seuss unit here, but that unit was too advanced for Ace and I wasn't a fan of the printouts they used for their 'big/small' items and so I went on the hunt and made my own.  Ace did pretty well with it all thought he kept morphing 'medium' into the mix dispite his best efforts. 

The book that accompanies this lesson is Horton Hears a Who!  Ace liked it ok - but since it is one of Dr. Seuss' longer books it wasn't his favorite.  Perhaps he might enjoy the movie.  Although he did like the line "A person is a person no matter how small."  Which I've always loved and kind of consider it my mantra.

For Ace's math skills (which currently are just counting into the teens at the moment) I introduced some sandpaper numbers.   The idea is that he can trace his finger on them and get a feel for how he would later write them.  I ordered the sandpaper numbers here.  Since they were new the first few times it mostly was an exciting pile of them.  They'll become more educational as the exposure to them increases.  The books that accompanied these numbers were Ten Apples Up on Top and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.  

I also had a food activity included with One Fish, Two Fish which I was inspired by from here.   Which was a huge hit with the boy.   I am not sure I've had 'blue' jello before but this stuff was yummy.   Ace enjoyed making it and I am patting myself on the back that I got the Jello to set.

In honor of Thing One and Thing Two that often are seen with the Cat in the Hat on his tv show I created a matching game using pictures of his family members.  Our family of four and the four grandparents.   This by far is the biggest hit.   Ace LOVES to do this tray more than any other.    He likes to line them up, play the matching game, and sometimes just bring them over and smile saying that's our whole family.  It's really sweet.  I plan to expand this game with some of his other friends/family as well and rotate in some new faces every now and then.   

The book that accompanies this tray is The Cat in the Hat's Great Big Flap Book.   Ace enjoys this book in spite of it being one of the books that didn't win the $0.75 half.com lottery.  ;-)  He also received a pair of fun socks when I first gave him that book, which he thought was "pretty cool!"

His final tray was his movable alphabet that I blogged about here and was accompanied by Dr. Seuss' ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book! Which the book in general was a huge hit - although filled with very silly not real words.   He enjoys it. 

Overall, Seuss-y School was much fun.   We still need to make some green eggs and ham (to go with the obvious choice of Green Eggs and Ham)  and paint his feet and make an art project in correlation with The Foot Book. I'll be sure to post about those activities if and when we get to them (they're really more involved and require a lot of time that Mae can't participate in - so it's difficult to execute.)   It's been a lot of fun to create and help Ace learn some very non-seussical things with a very seussical theme.  :)

UPDATE: 3/1/2012  **Thank you for all the Pinterest Interest**   Please if you are pinning (or repinning) please do not pin the pictures of my kids. I try my best to always include pictures that don't include my kids so that you have something to pin.   Thank you!
Linked up on: Living Montessori Now, Sun Scholars, Mom of 2 Posh Divas, Classified: Mom, Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers, and Preschool Corner.

UPDATE: 3/10/2013 - Another Suess-y blog on food and bath fun is here!

No TV Tuesday

Today marks one month since I implemented 'No TV Tuesday'  - to be fair this applies (currently) only to my children.   I still typically watch something during nap time or after they go to bed.    Although I am sure I could benefit from an entire day sans television as well.       

I implemented No TV Tuesday because my son (and every rare once in a while my little girl, nooo!) had started to get sucked in and would just watch way too much tv nearly every morning.   Now before you start screaming evil anti-tv messages at me - most of what he watches are the PBS shows that promote reading, learning, and he has mastered his alphabet as a result of these shows. Yes, I am fully in control of the remote so I simply could turn it off, but some many days the tv will go on, I'll get busy around the house or with Mae - and the tv remains on.   To be fair he doesn't often stay glued to it indefinitely, but there are some days he does.  

Tuesday was chosen because it is usually a day that we are home most of the day. I did not want to choose Monday, that just sounded cruel to me. Mondays are already well... Mondays.  I wanted to have it be a day where he'd have to find alternatives to the television for entertainment.  Whether that was to go outside or to play with his plethora of toy options indoors.   He does a fairly good job - mostly on Tuesdays he simply asks WHY can't the tv be on, but otherwise he finds ways to entertain himself.

To be honest, I have woken on a couple of these Tuesdays and have seriously thought about lying about what day of the week it was.   Half way through last week's Tuesday morning I almost caved due to severe sleep deprivation.   I've held my ground and Tuesdays have now for the last four weeks been TV free.   It's gone so well we might even expand to Thursdays (we'll see!)

In general due to the fact we've been doing school a little bit each day the tv has been off more and more.  We're finding alternatives to the boob-tube and ways to help Ace find entertainment aside from the television.    In fact the main alternative during No TV Tuesdays is the fact that it is Music Day.    This is where I get out Ace's instruments (a growing collection) and we play various types of music.    Pandora has been helping me out some and we've been focusing on Classical music lately.

Ace like Music Days when he gets to play his recorder,  his guitar, or other things that we turn into instruments.   He's learned a little bit about various composers and types of music - all because we turned off the TV.  

Learning for Mae

I have been helping Ace with school now for a couple of months - helping him learn his alphabet, practical skills, and even some more adventurous subjects about outer space.    All the while M toddles around among us, snoozes in her swing, or tries to get in on the learning.     So while shopping for additional 'school supplies' for Ace,  I have been keeping my eye out for learning tools for Mae.  

While on Lakeshore Learning I went to the 'infant' section and found the Colorpillar.   I was a bit skeptical about the quality vs. price point - but I am 100% satisfied!   The colorpillar is made of a good quality and rolls up well.   Helping M learn her colors is one of the first task on my list of things 'to do' in her education.   This mat and the toys that come with it will allow us a variety of methods to help her learn her colors.  

We have removed the wooden toys for now - partially because I'm not convinced about their 'edible' qualities and partially to not overwhelm her with excess.   Her favorite activity with this mat is to start at one in and race down it - trampling all the toys on her way.

She loves to chew on all the the toys and carries the bean bags around in her mouth - which I love are in shapes all with different fabric selections for a fun texture element.

Mae approves of this toy and she's pretty darn adorable playing with it...  Ace enjoys it too. He likes to help his sister her her colors and find other objects around the house to match with the colors.  So while for Mae it is a tad early for her to have immediate application of the educational value - there is extreme value in repetition and so we will continue to show her, play with her, and explore her colors using her colorpillar.

Reinforcing Faith

As parents it is our duty and privilege to help them learn about God, to teach the to pray, read their Bible, to have a thirst to desire God. To find faith in God a joyous experience and not a confusing abstract concept.  Loving Husband and I try our best to find loving, instructive and meaningful ways to talk about our faith and share it with our kids.

For nearly two years now we have said prayers with every night before bed. A little over a year ago we introduced devotions before bedtime. As Ace and Mae grow older, I want them to have prayer throughout the day, not just at bedtime or after a timeout.

I came across the idea of the Prayer Pail, where you place people's names on wooden sticks and you leave it near the dining table and then at a meal you take one or two out and pray for those people.   We used Ace's art time during school to create these sticks.  We used some of the sticks to write things Ace was thankful for and put them into the jar as well. 

We have had this jar for a few weeks now - and while we don't do it every meal, or even every day it still is a nice additional reminder to take the time and pray for someone.   Helping reinforce talking to Jesus, praying for others, and being faithful to God.   I won't lie, it's a good reminder for mom too.

Money: Thanks and Tithing

Last night, Ace opened his birthday card from Grandma Carol and out popped TWO $5 bills.  He was SO excited.  This morning he was still excited and wanted to SPEND his money and he wanted to buy a toy.  What kid wouldn't?  :)    I briefly reminded him of past 'lessons' I had tried to teach him regarding the concept of saving... since most adults fail to find the benefit or strength to do this I can hardly have any faith that my little (gasp) three year old will, so instead we moved onto other lessons:  thank you cards and tithing.

When I was younger my mother always was quick to have me write a thank you card to my great aunt whenever she would send us money or around Christmas time an ornament.   Before we could spend the money we had to write a thank you.   I remember as I got a little older that it was funny that we wrote my great aunt a thank you, but never my grandparents and they always gave us a lot too.   As I got a little older I began to understand that I thanked them in person, whereas my great aunt I wasn't able to thank in person and thus the thank you note was a polite way to say thank you from afar.  

I want my kids to have a similar understanding of the complexities of the 'Thank You' as they grow up too.  To at least have a written a thank you or two in their existence.    In today's day and age there are even more mediums by which to thank people and for Ace's birthday gifts he has now used them all: in person, digital format, and the written word.  Grammie (and others) gave him his present in person and so he said thank you to her directly.  Gran and Pop Pop mailed him his present and he thanked them digitally on Skype.  Grandma Carol mailed him his card with his birthday money and Ace 'wrote' her a thank you card.

I talked to him about the importance of being grateful for the people in his life and if they give him things, thankful for those too.   I further pressed upon his the concept that he is not entitled to anything.  He is not owed anything.   It's possible all of these concepts went over his head, but repetition and the questions of 'why' will help it to eventually sink in and hopefully help prevent him from becoming a spoiled brat.  No one likes those kids and I don't want to raise one certainly.    It isn't his nature and so I think we'll be fine, but a little explanation and understanding never hurt anyone.  :)

The next thing we discussed regarding his money was about tithing.  In our household we hold to the truth that everything is from God and that because of that we should without question 'give back' to God with what He has provided us. This is summed up in short with the word 'tithe' and today I introduced Ace to that concept.   It's kind of a big concept to press upon a three year old, but I think starting early on generosity and Godly giving is key to raising a Godly man and therefore whenever the opportunity presents itself Loving Husband and I will happily bring it back to that.

Ace and I discussed that everything belongs to God (a concept we talk about in terms of sharing and his toys often) and that includes money and that we should give some of that money back to God and be obedient to what He asks of us.   Ace did ask why and we continued to talk about it, but he never hesitated with a 'no' just more a curious understanding.    I asked him how much did he think he should give to God out of his $10 (me holding up 10 fingers to make the impact of how much he really did have) and he said a 'tiny bit'  I asked him what a 'tiny bit' looked like to him (still holding up my fingers) and he said $1.   Well considering that's 10% and often a very standard # many Christians choose to give I said that would be a good idea.      Then he remembered he had another $1 in his room and he ran upstairs to get that one and excited to say "Let's give this one to Jesus!"  and I asked the clarifying question you want to give $2 to Jesus?  And he said "No just the one, THIS one."     Well ok... $1 out of $11 when that's all the money in the world and to give it without hesitation is still a pretty good amount. In fact, to Ace's credit - he had been saving that ONE dollar for a long time, so to give it up to God is pretty huge.    And so with that $1 set aside to take to church on Sunday we headed to the store to buy something!

We went to Michael's.  Weird place to buy toys, you say?  Maybe, but they do have an entire aisle of Melissa and Doug toys and I had a 40% off coupon to use.  So I knew that he'd have several choices of things that he'd love.   He decided on a guitar!  $14.99 with a 40% off coupon, + tax and Ace left the store with a guitar and $0.38 - which when the lady handed him the change he squealed with elation "I get MORE MONEY!"   Yes, I suppose you do, son.   :)    It was a good morning.

Ace Schooling - Practical Skills

With 'Space Week' being such a huge success and Ace appreciating the one on one attention and focus on learning new things, I decided to push forward and create 'school' for Ace.    I have been following a lot of blogs that observe the Montessori Method and appreciate what that philosophy's objectives are.   The grossly over-generalized idea being that it's 'child led' education.    In Montessori 'classrooms' the activities, 'lessons', and objectives are all out for the child to choose which activity they'd like to engage in as they choose.   Parents/Teachers rotate these over the course of weeks or months depending on their personal preference.     Since Mae is now mobile and given our limited space here in Mississippi, I had to come up with a more contained but still 'Ace accessible' method - which ultimately became drawers with 'trays' or letter boxes in this case within those drawers that he would take out one at a time to engage in.   Then when he was completed with the task/activity he would put it back and get out another one.

The last two weeks of 'school' we have been focusing on 'practical skills' that  help practice Ace's fine motor skills and provide him with some instruction for things he sees on a regular basis.   The following are the trays and/or activities for the last two weeks. 

First up is his sensory tub for the month.  My plan is to spend one week on 'weather' - I have been slow moving on getting all of my science and educational materials in order and so we haven't officially had that week yet, but in light of that his sensory tub is based on 'weather'.  :)  Inside the box it has aquarium rocks of two shades of blue to represent the sky (unfortunately the dye comes off on your hands, so it's not as free to play with 'whenenver' this time around), square glass beads to represent hail/ice, white pom poms to represent clouds, snowflakes, a sun, rainbow, and pipe cleaners in the shape of lightening bolts.  Ace has enjoyed it - but it's not as big of a hit as the space themed one.

Pencil sharpening was one of his trays the first week of Practical Skills.  He took a little bit of trial and error to get his hands to work just right, but he did successfully sharpen the pencil over a few attempts. 

Pouring.  This is something he does very well with at first but then forgets after time to hold the cup and the mess is made.  No worries, he also learns the art of cleaning up when that happens and practice can only make perfect. So while he's pretty good at the onset of pouring the follow through still has some improvement to be had. 

Cutting.  A while back I posted about obtaining a kitchen and play food for the kids.  This garage sale find came with a TON of food and some of my favorite food was the kind that is velcroed together which allows to teach the idea of 'cutting' and thus one of Ace's trays this time. 

Tweezing. Another fine motor enhancement skill is the art of tweezing objects.   We as adults think nothing of doing this type of activity, but for little hands it takes a lot of concentrated effort.   Therefore, Ace's tray for this activity was to tweeze each of the 12 cotton balls into each of the spots and then back to the center.  When he began he had to use two hands, one to hold the cotton ball and place it just right so he could tweeze it, but as he went on he was able to do it with just one hand.   It was really need to observe the improvement!

Table Setting.   Another important life skill is simply 'how to set a table.'   We put a table cloth on his table (a yard of fabric I had nearby)  and I brought over the supplies.   I had him observe as I set one of the place settings and then he mimicked that and set the other one.    After the two place settings were properly in order, he and his tiger set down for some dinner and he poured them something to drink... and practiced cleaning up a spill as well.  :)  After they enjoyed dinner Ace learned how to clear the table as well.

Bead Threading & Pattern Matching.   Another tray of Ace's that in the second week replaced pencil sharpening was beads.   This was a fine motor skill along with pattern recognition and duplicating.   He had to lace beads onto the string to match the one that I had set up for him.  As the week progressed when he was doing this activity he himself would create the pattern and then tell me to match it.  :)  It was cute and a great example of him taking the initiative to go to his school boxes, take out a tray and execute the task unprompted.  

Art.  This past week we enjoyed doing an art project that involved stamping with pencil erasers.  Ace had a lot of fun with this unconventional tool and creating something out of nothing.   He made a dragon and what I find most successful is that this activity kept him still and focused for over 10 minutes!   I've been reading that for a three year old, if they concentrate for 3-4 minutes that's GREAT!  To not expect more than that - so it's always a thrill when he will focus on one task for longer. 

Overall, Ace's school time is going great.  It's a lot of fun to come up with new things for him to do and it's even more fun to get excited about doing them!  Learning in the process (right now) is just the added bonus. Weather week is still to come, as is our previously post poned Dr. Seuss week!