Thanks!

I have been trying to find a good way to teach my son and care for my toddler at the same time. It became a HUGE problem that I couldn't find a solution on my own. I am so blessed to have some wonderful friends who have given me lots of great ideas and support with this. I need to say thank you to Ellen in Texas, Lori in AZ, and kcaarin in Pa. Without them I might have given up on homeschooling. I feel that I am now starting to get this all figured out. This week was a trial run with school. My son so far has done great. Most of the time when his little sister is hitting him with a toy trying to get him to play with her he will say it's OK Mom, she isn't bothering me. My DD has done much better than I thought she would. She will play with a toy, books, and such and let us work on things. She is happy to ride on my back (in a mei tai) and let me read a history lesson. DS is able to pay attention to the story as I walk around the room in circles (to keep DD happy). I am making up centers and busy boxes. I am working out at good routine. I think this is going to be a good year after all. I need to say again I am so grateful for the wonderful, smart, and helpful friends I have! THANK YOU!! I am also very grateful for my wonderful children.

Toddler play

Sponges! I got 2 packs at the dollar store. That is 20 sponges for $2.00. I put them in a basket we already had. We have been using them to toss, stack, sort, build tall buildings, hide and they even stick to our felt board. My children have already got $2.00 worth of fun out of them. I hope they can keep her busy so I can teach DS school. I am making up a bunch of what I call busy boxes to keep her busy, happy, and quiet during school time. She loves to SCREAM when she is happy or sad. Her screams do a number on our school time. I will let you know how this works out. I know other people homeschool with a little one. I just need to find out how they do it.

play and eat.

My favorite playdough is the kind cooked on stove with cream of tartar. I decided NOT to make that one this time. My son never put anything in his mouth when he was young so I never tried this with him. My DD is nothing like him. She puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. She eats crayons! YUCK! I made up PB playdough for her to try.

Edible Peanut Butter Playdough
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup honey
1 cup powdered milk
knead until smooth.

I had to add in extra powdered milk because it was WAY to sticky for a 1 year old to play with.
I think they ate more of it than they played with. Once DD gets the hang of playing in the dough I will give my favorite recipe a try with her.

DD can draw!

We have tried for months trying to help DD to draw. She tosses pencils and eats crayons. I let her use markers today and she got it! She had a lot of fun with it. Soon as she saw that she was making bold colored lines on the paper she got that "look what I can do" expression on her face! We had lots of fun offering her colors and new paper. She now will hand you the paper when she is done and she says paper more paper.

PARACHUTE!

I have wanted to get the children a parachute for 5 years now. We found some in Target a few weeks ago. We said we would come back and get it but forgot all about it. Yesterday I was thinking about what school stuff we still needed for the year and I remembered the parachute I wanted. I talked to DH before he came home from work and he surprised me by comming home with a parachute! Our Target was all sold out of the larger ones. At first I was sad about that but I now know that the small six foot one is PERFECT for us! We can use this with only 2 people (good for when baby lets go) it has 8 handles so 4 people can use it at the same time. My youngest is only 1 year old. If it was larger she would get hurt. The 6' one fits in the house with no problems. I don't even have to move furniture around. This will be a great help come winter. Being small I can reach across to help my children grab hold of it again. We spent the morning playing several games with it that I remember from elementary school. My DD cried when I put it away. My son said that it was a lot of fun. I think what made it so fun for him was the loud happy jumps and giggles from his little sister. We made wind, waves, a T storm, used balls as popcorn on it, hid under it, and let the baby run under it from side to side.

My favorite books.

If my family all had to get out of our house and we could only take a handful of things. I would first make sure my DH and children got out OK then I would grab my favorite books. My favorite books cannot be replaced. They where made by my son. It all started about 2 1/2 or 3 years ago we finished up a devotion book sooner than I expected. I ran down to our local Christian book store to find something to hold us over until our online order came in the mail. I picked up a small book of devotions. It wasn't what I was looking for but I thought it would be OK until our new stuff arrived. The book had very short Bible stories on one page and on the other page it had a picture of the story. The pictures where made by young children I think in a few of them children where only 4 or 5 . My son liked looking at the pictures. He asked to draw a picture like the one in the book. I will add some of his first Bible pictures...

It might be hard to tell what he wanted to write this is what he was trying to write.

1. Creation God made the world.

This was when God made Eve. This was back when every picture people had belly buttons. LOL! I noticed that Adam had breast but Eve doesn't. LOL!

This was when Adam and Eve sinned. That is a tree between them. OH! Notice Eve has a belly button! LOL!

The year after he labeled his picture God made people. The Adam and Eve had clothes on God is naked and green. LOL! On the back of the page I wrote.

I praise God for.....

He wrote.

1. House

2. Sun

3. Moon

4. Stars

The second story from that year (5 year old) he labeled Adam Eve Sinnd. LOL! I know you can guess he was trying for Adam and Eve Sinned. On the back of that one I asked What sad things happened when Adam & Eve sinned?

DS wrote.... eve would have pein havinga baby. They had to leaive the garden! LOL!

pein=pain havinga=having a leaive=leave

This year he named his picture creation.

I wrote on a paper

1.What was everything like before God created the world?

His answer- lonly

2. How did God make Adam?

His answer- dust

3. How did God Make Eve?

His answer- ribe.

LOL! I guess he still needs help with spelling!

4. What did God tell Adam and Eve that they must never do?

his answer- not eat from one tree

If you want to take a look at how his pictures and writing have changed over 3 years you can take a look http://tinyurl.com/mulvr Pictures 1,2,and 3 are the ones already posted. Pages 4,5,6, and 7 are from when he was 5 years old. Pages 8,9,10,11 and 12 are from around his 6th birthday.

Things have been busy and I haven't had time to update this blog. I am now getting ready for our new school year. When that starts I will be able to keep up with this (I hope).

For Baby play we have been spending lots of time on books. She has learned to kick a ball and she is very good at it. She has taken up doing somersaults. I spent a lot of time trying to get her to not crawl on the coffee table or run on the sofa. Needing to work hard on that every minute she was awake was hard and that kept me from doing lots of things like working on this blog. I am so happy that she isn't doing that anymore. We have been playing a lot of hide and seek, stacking blocks (she is only stacking 2 or 3 high), and following directions. She does very well with directions. We have tried to color for a very long time. She still has a very hard time with that. She only wants to eat the crayons. I don't expect her to color a picture yet. I am trying to help her see that the crayons make marks on paper. She loves to pretend. She knew to pretend to eat plastic food before we showed her. I got her a tiny plastic pink tea set and I am working on teaching her to pour water. She will pour into the tiny cup sometimes, other times she will pour on the tray and splash her hands in it. I laugh with her. I think having fun splashing small amounts of water is OK.

My son (6 year old) He has a need to be a boy. He wants to fight pretend things. He was using sticks to cut down the evil weeds along our property line.LOL! I tried to get him to stop. I asked him over and over to not run with an 5 foot long stick! I took a step back and thought about this. I decided that my son had a need to do this type of thing. If he was going to do it I need to make it safe for him. I took a pillow case and stuffed it about half way full then tied it shut. It looked sort of like a ghost except it has large flowers on it. I took a rope and added velcro hook to it. I stitched some velcro loop to the stuffed part of the pillow case. We have the rope hang down from a tree in the yard. My son can go fight his creature with plastic swords. I don't think fighting is right but I felt that fighting a pillow with a flower print was better than fighting other children or running with a stick. He is having a lot of fun knocking that thing down from the tree. He has been making lots of forts in the house with blankets. I have been working with him on how to be neat when washing dishes. He always does great with the wash and rinse but he has been getting lots of water on the floor. I think playing in the water with the sprinkler, hose, water table, and the pool have made him think water can go all over even inside.