And the Mom of the Day Award Goes To...

 This morning after dropping some flyers and business cards off at our blog buddy's playgroup: www.ladybirds-playgroup.blogspot.com, I stopped by my friend Kissy's house to drop off these-

and I ended up staying and enjoying this

yummy cappuccino made with rice and soy milk--no sugar needed 'cause it's already just sweet enough

and an hour and a half of great conversation.

"Come take a look at what we've been doing!" she exclaimed with all the excitement of a mom who has been doing impressive stuff.  She took me on what was nothing short of a learning tour of her living room, the hallway, and her kids' room.  This is what I saw and immediately had the urge to snap pics of:

door to her kids' room--her oldest is into stickers, and she supports that
(love the invented spelling hanging on the door)

Remember my chalkboard wall?--Yeah, this was the original idea I stole.  She uses hers daily...and well.

adorable paper bag puppets hanging on the fridge

story time and dictation--her kids make up the story, she writes it down and illustrates it...
and validates the importance of their learning by hanging it in the hallway


and my personal favorite...

she transformed her hallway

into a bowling lane

did the green thing and made pins out of recycled plastic bottles (she suggests leaving a little water in to weigh them down)

and labeled each pin with numbers to encourage her kids to master number recognition

After seeing all of this, I told her I was going to post it on the schoolhouse blog under the title, "Seriously, Kissy?"  As in, you seriously have all of these great ideas and you're not sharing them?!  I mean, you are obviously a funny lady with tons of talent (see: http://www.theamericanmag.com/article.php?article=3669) but the fact that nobody is seeing this stuff is a tragedy.

Kissy, I have a message for you.  In my BEST Jenny from Forest Gump voice I urge you, "Blog, Kissy! Blooooooooooooooooog!"

In closing, hats off to my homegirl Kissy--the official recipient of the Mom of the Day Award.