First 3 weeks of "preschool!"

I can't believe how fast August is flying by! We are at the end of our 3rd real week of preschool(homeschool). Taylor LOVES school time. She begs for it all the time. -Literally, all the time. First thing in the morning, after breakfast, while outside playing, when we are at the store, in the bath tub, getting ready for bed, etc. I think she really loves it:)

In the past 3 weeks we have done A TON of stuff. And I can't believe how fast she learns! She already knows her entire alphabet, uppercase and lowercase(she does get a little mixed up sometimes but practice with it all will help her). She knows her numbers 1-12(sometimes up to 15, depends on how she feels that day) she knows all colors and shapes.

We have made our own calendar that we go over every day. We made clocks to show the time of Lunch, School, and Bed time since those are about the same every day. We are working on our days of the week. Then moving to months of the year. She loves to write, anything. She can write her name, when she wants to.



What we need to work on for the next month(if baby Denver doesn't make a surprise appearance!) :

Letter sounds   -tons of fun games for this. Example: Do a treasure hunt for toys/books/etc that start with the specific letter sound of that week/day/whatever.

Journal Time   -I LOVE to write, and always have(along with reading:). I would love to some how pass this down to Taylor and the boys. I'm thinking of getting a journal(pad of paper) just for Taylor. And maybe Daily/or every other day, have a topic for her "write about". Maybe I will write down whatever she says, or maybe I will let her write it down or draw pictures about it. I WOULD LOVE to do this for activities like nature walks, have her draw things we see while out on walks etc. Could even turn this into an activity for at the grocery store. Get her in a cart with pen and paper and let her draw things she sees while I grocery shop.

Sorting    -By colors, shapes, amounts. -I have egg crates put up for this! Can't wait to start. Going to use pinto beans for counting and sorting into groups. Then use lego's or blocks or gravels(big/little)for sorting as well. Should be fun!

Patterns  -Recognizing patterns and creating/finish patterns. Could use cut out shapes(scrap paper would be neat!), legos again, beads(really need to buy some of these!), and regular patterns on paper.

Pre-Reading skills. - I will post pictures of what we do when we do this!

Theres more. But for now I can't think of the rest! :/ I will add them later though!

Don't sweat it.

I have this problem where I over thing everything. From bills, to birthday gifts, to what the kids need for NEXT summer.  I've always been this way, but its starting to drive me crazy. I worry about money constantly, but there is no reason to worry. It always works out.

I'm going to start praying every time I want to "over think" everything and I'm giving it all to God so I can enjoy the children and life that God has blessed me with. I know everything will happen according to his plan and me worrying 24 7 isn't going to help things one bit.

So, my new motto is "Don't sweat it". Lets just enjoy life, and let God handle all the unknown. Everything will always work out.

Fun with flash cards.

Over the weekend I went with my sister, mom, and step dad to look at wedding dresses for my sister. Its actually alot of fun :) And it only took 3 dresses! The 3rd was PERFECT! I'm glad she found a great wedding dress!

While out riding around with David and the kids(we went to look at the church my sister plans to get married in) I saw the big sign up at the school by our house. It was letting everyone know that Pre-K registration for 3-4 year olds is going on now. And it hit me. BAM. Taylor could actually start SCHOOL this year. I mean real school. As in back packs, leaving me in the mornings, being at school etc. I've planned on doing preschool this year with her anyways, but I guess it didn't really hit me. My baby girl is starting school. :(

And she LOVES school at home of course. We do school everyday, whenever she wants to. It's not really school. We just play, color together, paint together, draw pictures, practice our letters and numbers and colors and shapes(she has them all down, so now moving on to different things. Letter sounds, numbers higher then 13, etc.) She loves her little work books and every day she learns something new. May not be anything major, but to her it is. Today we played with flash cards while Ryder was napping.

I laid out 4 random cards at a time. And I would ask her where is letter K? And she would look at them and hand me the letter K. We done all the uppercase and then all the lowercase. She knows them all! Theres a couple she stumbles on but with a little more fun practice she will have them down with out any trouble. I'm starting letter sounds with her, its a little more difficult for her. B,C,E,D,P,M,&N give her trouble. They all sound close to each other(E&P M&N etc.) Since she loved playing the flash card game I'm just going to work on letter sounds with the flash cards.

Here are some pictures of the flash card game :)

The little things

Life goes by SOOO fast. You don't really realize it till you have kids. But it flies by. And life with two children only twenty months apart is super hectic, so it feels as if it goes by even faster, if that's at all possible. Every day is a run on from the last, filled with tantrums, screams, tears, fights, hugs, kisses, and sometimes me locking my self in the bathroom long enough to pee and just take a deep breath before returning to the madness that is my house :)

But as these days run on and on and on together, we forget the little things. The snotty kisses we get and the mommy I miss you comments. We forget how our children used to be babies, and now look at them. Walking, talking, and driving each other crazy :) But life is so full of demanding things, especially for mothers, we honestly forget the little things that make everyone happy.

Ice cream cones for desert one night. Extra long bubble baths with toys & splash fights (which ends with one of them screaming because it gets in their eyes). Or, as in the picture above, playing cars on the porch. Ryder laughed so hard and had a blast playing with that little car. The little things always make us happy. 

So as life goes by, hectic and crazy and the days running together, take a second every little bit to remember those little things. 

My little moments from today? - Taylor telling me she missed me and loved me very much(while crying because it was Ryder's turn in the tub). Ryder giving me big snotty kisses and a huge hug because he didn't want to go to bed yet(he was crying because it was bed time, and it's night 5 of No Binky, and he knows he can break mama's heart) But still, even though it's rough with him screaming etc. that hug and those kisses made my entire day. Just like that little toy car made his day.

Painting beans

While letting the kids paint today I had an idea to paint the pinto beans I had put back to use for a counting game. (Have a bag of pinto beans, and an egg crate, and permant marker. Write the numbers in the bottom of the buckets and then have fun with the kids putting the right number of beans, beads, etc. into the buckets. also good for sorting colors, shapes, etc.)
Anyways. I had just planned on using the regular pinto beans to count out into the right buckets with the kids. Then I thought I could go a step farther and paint the beans, then we can sort by numbers, and colors in the same game!

Of course, with the kids helping they aren't perfect! But they loved helping and once they are in bed tonight I will finish them up and then have the game ready for tomorrow! 

Preschool

Taylor is going to start preschool this year. So I've been making lists of things to buy for home schooling. And I had it all set out to start around August 13th. That would give me time to get everything, and get organized, and have it all planned out. But as soon as I bought the big work book, page protector, and her folder, she was off! Everyday she asks for school. So, for the past week we have been doing school. We have most of the supplies, and she is LOVING every minute of it!

I hate wasting money, and since we will have 3 children going through these materials at some point, I am trying to find little ways to help save money/.materials/etc. So here is how I do work sheets. I put each page in a page protector and then put tape at the top, and then put them in her little folder. I let her use dry erase markers on the page protectors and so far its worked great!

Of course preschool is also ALOT of fun activities. I have a few activities planned out for the week, and we do them either once or twice(or more!) times that week. This week are doing activities that deal with counting and numbers and sorting.

Again, I'm all about saving money when possible! I used white paper and a marker to make the counting mat. Then we used cheerios(that both kids ate while we were doing the activity!) to count out each number. It was a lot of fun and Taylor LOVED it! I plan on putting that paper in a page protector as well, and having a big binder full of fun little things like this to help teach her things. 

I'm working on making bingo games for both. Each game will be with either numbers, shapes, colors, or letters. And as Taylor learns more we will add in small sight words, and things like that. For Ryder I'm thinking about making a special game with pictures of cars/trucks/planes/etc. And then I will of course have to make a special one for Taylor. But you get the idea. Just fun ways to teach them things-and save money at the same time :)

Our 4th of July

Taylor will be 4 this year, and Ryder will be 2. And neither had EVER seen fire works. David worked at a different place all the other years and wasn't off on the 4th so we were never able to really do anything fun at all. This year he had the whole day off, and I knew I wanted the kids to have a great 4th of July.

I added the photos but now I don't have time to get them in order, or the right way :/ So here is how our day went!

We went to the parade. (The kids FIRST parade!) And they loved it! The fire trucks, loud cars, and of course the CANDY!

Then we went to eat and come home for naps. Went back around 8 30 and found a spot to watch the fire works at 10. The kids were GREAT! And had a blast with glow sticks, pop corn I made, and of course watching the fire works. Ryder tried to sleep through them tho...........

David and Ryder at the parade.

Me and David :)

My Taylor Grace

David and his youngest brother Adrian

This is DURING the fire work show. Ryder laid down right when they started and David decided to join him. Ryder was almost asleep but David was watching the fire works lol

Before the fire works

Getting ready to leave to go see the fire works

Kids playing with glow sticks

Right after the parade

Waiting on fire works. David was either doing the duck face or trying to give me kisses..

Me and Taylor during the fire works

Ryder playing with the necklaces

He fell over as soon as the fire works started

Taylor fishing after the parade to win a prize

She got a shark!

Cheesing before the fire works

Patiently waiting on the parade

About to grab some candy

Taylor excited because she had "money"

And finally the last picture, Taylor grabbing up some candy :)

Pictures from our weekend.

Over the weekend David's mom Ann came in to visit. And some how again I didn't get a picture of her with the kids. I MUST do this next time. But for now, here are some pictures from our long weekend!

Ryder plopped down in daddy's lap when Daddy was playing with Taylor. It was really cute :)

Taylor and Ryder went swimming every day of the weekend, but Ryder is a handful. We have to force him to stay in the floatie because he thinks he is a big boy and can just swim on his own.

Both kids playing together in mamaw's yard. Holding hands.

Ryder, holding his ears in the durango. Taylor has the Veggie Tale DVD in the car, and makes us keep it on the theme song so she can sing along. He got tired of it after the millionth time. :)

Taylor sitting with Daddy and watching Cartoons. 

The kids hugging each other. I love pictures like this and moments where they hug on each other. 

Ryder playing Sunday afternoon.

Ryder found a new "hat". He really thought it was a hat. 

Taylor resting while in the pool.

Manic Monday

Mondays. Everyone talks about them, about how rough they can really be. And honestly as a stay at home mom Monday's aren't really too much different from any other day for me. I still do the exact same things I do all week and weekend. 

But yesterday, I had a Manic Monday. Before 8 AM I had swept my kitchen 4 times. Ryder was in time out 5 times, and Taylor had had 2 melt downs. ;/ It just wasn't a great day. 

I kept telling my self, cout down to nap time- count down to bed time- todays not a good day. Tomorrow will be different.

And then, while Ryder was napping and Taylor was watching cartoons, I was thinking all of that again. And then I felt horrible. I'm their mother! I shouldn't be counting down all the time till times when they are asleep. (Granted, they are much better behaved when sleeping, most of the time). 

And just because its a hard job, that never ends, I shouldn't let it get me so down that my patience is gone and I'm just holding on for David to get home so I can go cry because I can't handle them anymore.

God gave me these children. And He knew ahead of time all the things I would face. And He knows that I can do it. And you know what? I made it through the very long rough day. And my being grumpy didn't help the situation at all. My new goal : Try to always be happy. OR to at least not get into the grumpy moods where I let every little thing drive me crazy. They are my children, we will get through this rough phase, and hopefully I will have my well behaved children back :) -SOON. lol

You can tell just by drivving by my house that we have children. The back yard is fenced in with a swing set and a billion toys all over the yard. The vehicle in the drive way is a huge Dodge Durango-Seats 7(8 if needed) and fits 3 car seats perfectly across the middle row. The front porch is covered in random out door toys.

Step inside and hopefully you smell my wonderful wax burner-candle warmer whatever it is. But you will see right away that children are indeed living here. Toys in EVERY SINGLE ROOM-even rooms that the kids are not in. Such as the master bath room. David is the only person who is in that room. Yet I find toys in there all the time. My living room is a mess just about every day. No matter how many times I clean it, toys are still every where, sippy cups on just about every table, children's DVD's on the book shelf. No No's on top of the book shelf-remotes, air freshner, controllers, gum, binkies, etc.

Sit on the couch and you will find cheerios in the cushions, and a random little boy shoe sticking half way out-we still can't find the other! Glance into Taylors room and you will see a million toys covering the floor, random clothes hid under the bed and stuffed in the dresser, because she loves to play dress up and can't reach the hangers to hang the clothes back up. Step into my laundry room and you will see laundry. Everywhere. Clean clothes hanging up and folded ontop of the dryer. My home made laundry detergent covering the shelf above the washer and dryer. Random clothes and towels and wash rags folded neatly on my huge storage shelf. Glance to your left into Ryder's room you will see again toys everywhere and a ton of baby stuff sticking out from his closet. -I'm running out of room!

Go into the bathroom and you will see a bath tub full of bath time toys. Tons of baby wash, bubble bath, etc. hopefully put up high where they can't reach them and squirt them out everywhere. Kids tooth paste and tooth brushes in the sink. and 3 different potty chairs. :)

If you happen to wonder into my kitchen, again you will see toys in random places. Under the cabinets, under the high chair, and under the kitchen table. The table is usually covered with crayons and paper. A sink full of dishes, that never ends, and possibly a couple diaper bags waiting on the deep freeze to be cleaned out and everything put away.

The master bed room? Toys in there too. And a ton of thigns we try to keep from the kids- DVD's, David's video games, my E reader and all chargers to anything at all.

Hopefully you will leave happy, and hopefully you will have had a great time. My life is a crazy mess all the time, I've got a 3.5 year old, almost 2 year old, and another on the way. My house is never spotless for long and toys are yes, everywhere. But this is my life and my house and I love it-even when I'm complaining about cleaning it all- I still love it, maybe just a little less at that time:)