Fontenelle Forest _ Bellevue, NE

Thursday I started going Stir Crazy - ever feel that way? Tuesday/Wednesday I had a lighter version of one of my migraines thanks to not getting good sleep on Sunday/Monday - it started with the over sensitivity to sound on Tuesday and left me feeling limp and irritable. By Thursday though it was over - so after being more or less housebound for 2 days and sleeping 14 hours on Wednesday night and waking up feeling more myself on Thursday we were ready to go do something - ANYTHING.

I thought about taking the girls to the Zoo but to be honest I've never really liked going to the zoo. Usually we just go to the Acquarium and the Lied Jungle. Now that Gigi is mobile and I have her walk 99% of the time (actually we haven't had the stroller in the car for a couple months) or in a cart if we go shopping I'm sure the zoo will be much more enjoyable since she will want to be up close and personal with ALL the exhibits. I'll let you know....

At the last minute I decided to hit Fontenelle Forest. Fontenelle Forest is located in Bellevue, Nebraska about 15 minutes from my house via I80 & Hwy 75. It's one of Nebraska's oldest conservation organizations and one of the largest private nature centers in the nation. It also owns Neale Woods and encompasses about 2000 acres of forest, prairie & wetlands along the Missouri River which is part of the Loess Hills. Ok, enough history. You can read more about that here.

If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder.... he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in. ~ Rachel Carson

Fun & Educational for kids....
Fontenelle Forest is a wonderful playground for kids & their parents. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday they have a program in the morning for preschoolers called Mudpies. Mudpies is a toddler & preschooler focused art, storytime & social time designed to bring kids closer to nature by playing with nature. They paint with flowers, fingerpaint, do playdo, play with blocks, puppets, watch the birds in the birdhouse, go for walks on the boardwalk, do sensory play, etc... Gigi is finally getting old enough I can take her & hopefully I can find a day it isn't so crowded so we can enjoy ourselves. Fridays they are open to daycares and preschools but since I only have 1-2 kiddos we'll go one of the other days. During the summer they have camps for older kids who can also volunteer and during the school year there are mini camps of just a few hours for the little kiddos.

You can also walk over 26 miles of trails and the handicapped & families with strollers are welcome and provided with a beautiful boardwalk to make it easily accessible to everyone! Gianna was initially afraid of the boardwalk but once she started running it was hard to get her to stop. She loved looking over the rails and seeing the birds & "quirrels" as they ran or flew around. 

Scary wobbly treehouse

Our focus as we walked was to find Acorn Alley where they have put in a natural playground for the kids to explore and play. The only toys to be found are sticks and of course the group of homeschool kids there decided they made fantastic guns. The girls basically blew them off though and played around them. Both girls fell in love with the Zylophone - they have 2 of them set up and they run the entire scale from higher to lower notes. There is also a neat natural pond that Gianna promptly walked into the water to explore and a cute little bird hopped around drinking. 

From there you can walk a bit further and Tom's Treehouse comes up. The girls were a little afraid of the back portion of it. This section wobbles as you walk up the stairs and I'm not sure if that is intentional or not (and I forgot to mention something to the staff) but once Gianna got over being scared of the wobbliness she went up it several times. Then she came across the bridge that went between both sections of the treehouse & got scared all over again. 

I think if the "Wild Boys" hadn't been there we might have stayed a little longer. We went over lunch time and Maddie wasn't starting to build a real attitude so we ended up needing to leave. Next time I will make sure we go to Mudpies first. I think both girls would of really enjoyed that and then eat a little lunch around 11, play for a bit and then head home for an earlier naptime. Even though I made sure Gigi had about an hour nap in the AM she could of benefited from a longer one so she would cry the whole way home...

Invest in a membership card....
Membership with Fontenelle Forest is much more reasonable than the Zoo and the Children's Museum and as the girls get older it will be the one that I keep yearly. At $35 for an individual (Me) I can get in even when they are closed to walk the trails and I can bring friends for 1/2 price anytime ($3.50/adult or $2.50/child over 2) and at $55 per family I can bring 2 adults & 2 children & I've already asked and since I have such a small daycare they said I could do the family membership so we can take advantage of the classes such as Mudpies and the outdoor nature playground. Families with older kiddos can take advantage of Canoeing trips, lying out and looking at the stars, exploring with a guide and so much more! To me that is worth it!

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Bible Based Preschool Curriculum through Play ~ for Toddlers!

This year Gianna is turning 2 on December 5th and I've finally made a decision on our pre-pre K activities. =D I've found a wonderful bible based curriculum that starts at age 2. She has been showing me that she is ready to start Tot School and begin learning in a more "formal" way. What do I mean? Let me explain.


Gianna (Gigi) has been growing in so many ways. I've seen a huge change in her speech in the last couple of weeks - she not only is repeating everything we say but we can ask her to do simple things, bring us things located at ____, or indicate to us that she wants water, "yo-yurt", mama or dada. She calls kitty "Meow" and is more and more using words instead of sign to communicate with us. Her latest big word is "oie oie oie oooooo's". (Anyone know what she is saying?)

Otherways we've noticed her growth:
1) She LOVES the slide! to the point she scares me & I have to get a big kid over 7 to help her sit on their lap and ride down.
2) She is beginning to love to SWING - and often has a great big smile!
3) She loves to look at her ABC book and using her finger trace the cutout letter in the correct way.
4) She uses her pointer finger to count the birds (etc).
5) She is very outgoing - loves bounce houses, Meow's, doggies (or woof woof),
6) She walks around the house and points at things for us to tell her the word & then she repeats it.
7) When I tell her to do something she will turn to that thing (the book, the door, the bedroom to change her, the POTTY ).
8) When I go to put ponytails in the 4 year olds hair she will go and pick out the colors she wants, wait till M is done and then place herself in the right position and she won't move till I put something in her hair! (ponytails, headband, ribbon, whatever)
9) She loves riding her trike (she still scoots on it) or that little tikes car.
10) She loves babies!
11) Favorite videos: anything Elmo, Pottytraining, Praise Baby, Treeschoolers.
12) She's not scared of anything - except a stranger & the chiropractor! (if your a chiropractor step out of the room or you'll be deaf sooner than later!)
Gosh, I could continue the list.

Mostly what has made me decide to start Tot School at 21 months is that she WANTS to read, color, paint, count, try to write, do Fine Motor and Large Motor activities. She has a long enough attention span to listen to a couple pages of a Magic Treehouse book and watch a 1/2 hour toddler video.

I have found a WONDERFUL online preschool curriculum called ABC Jesus Loves Me. All 4 years of the program are FREE unless you want to purchase the curriculum. There are a few added benefits to actually buying the curriculum - but if you can't afford it, want to try it out for a year or want to wait till your child is 3-4 to purchase a curriculum this is the way to go.

What is provided: I haven't looked at anything but the 2 year old curriculum at this point so that is what I will share with you.
- Bible Story & Verse of the Week/Month, Verses are put to music and flashcards are available to print FREE
- Book of the Week & Activities
- Number, Letter, Colors & Shapes (an introduction to learning about them)
- Songs & Fingerplays
- Self-Care & Manners (I love this!)

I personally will be doing mostly sensory type, crafts, books and activities to go with them. I love the idea of the verses put to music as Gianna is VERY musical. We will continue to sing our ABC's and 123's. I'm also planning on scattering this throughout the week. Likely we'll be doing the crafts & book activities in the afternoon so M can join us when she gets home from preschool. Lastly, I really like that she has a chart to keep track of how Gianna is progressing.

Stay tuned as I share some of our activities and how much we are enjoying this.

I am not an affiliate & I haven't been approached to do a review for the program. I'm sharing this because I'm impressed with the curriculum and I really like the online assistance I can get from the FB pages and the author herself.