I've come to think that this summer will not be as restful as I had hoped! Last week became so busy! We had two weeks of Bible school in a row, and last week little Zach was sick. So between baseball, a sick kid and bible school we are exhausted!!
I am looking forward to this week and having no plans at all! I am looking forward to some rest and checking some more items off of our bucket list.
I have also slowly, very slowly, been revamping our school room. I began by doing some major purging. To say that I was a bit of a curriculum hoarder is an understatement! So I have come to the conclusion that less is more. I went from having about 10 boxes of unused homeschool items down to 4 boxes of items that I am saving for future use or record keeping.
This is the mess that I was making.
Since moving into our new home last fall I put very little thought into the arrangement of our school room, and needless to say it was not working too well for us. I have been moving furniture and arranging items and having so much fun doing it! Stay tuned to see the finished product in a few weeks!
We were able to purchase some new items for our school room from the money made by purging the unused items. I am excited about these new trofast systems from Ikea that we were able to buy.
I am hoping to get everything put back together this week and share the finished product by the end of next week. After that I will be putting together our curriculum for next year and getting ready to begin school at the beginning of August. Wow, that will be here too soon! My kids are already asking to start school! Not yet kiddos, this mom needs a break!
I am so excited about how our summer bucket list is coming along. Honestly I think that having mentioned it on my blog is helping me stick to it! My kids are loving the activities and I am feeling a bit more creative since I already have things written down and don't have to come up with stuff on the spot to entertain them.
We once again got to check an item off, this time it was a water balloon fight! I must admit that filling those water balloons was enough to make me want to pull my hair out! I ended up only getting about 28 filled before I called it quits. Twenty eight balloons for three kids is not a lot! They unfortunately ran out pretty quickly, but they did have a great time! After the balloons were gone they got out the water guns so all was well! We were also able to check off making sno cones! They were delicious, but I forgot to take pictures of us enjoying them! Maybe next time I make them I will get a picture!
If I had thought ahead and wanted to spend a little extra money I would have gotten this awesome thing! It fills like 100 balloons at one time and they are all tied and ready to go within 30 seconds to a minute! How cool is that!
Since that is a kind of pricey option and you can only buy refills and not use your own water balloons, I opted to get this cool item from Target! Basically it does the same thing but you supply your own balloons and it was a much cheaper solution. I haven't used it yet, but hoping it will work well enough to justify the money spent.
One thing I have been trying this summer is to become a 'yes' mom. I often would find myself saying no a lot, when the kids would want to do something that messy or takes prep time I often tell them no. I wanted to do better for them. I am now being more conscience and saying yes as much as possible. In doing that I think my kids are having a lot more fun and I am not as grumpy because they are entertained and being creative!
The other day I was speaking with a friend who has five children, the last of which are twins. We were getting ready to pack up after a baseball game and she was struggling with one baby in her arm while trying to fold up a lawn chair. I asked if she would like some help, and of course she said yes!
As I was helping fold up the chair we began chatting about the reactions she gets from people when they see her walking around pushing the double stroller with three other children following along. She gets the "Oh, wow! Look at that!", or "Glad that's not me!!"
One comment she made that stuck with me is, "Don't feel sorry for me, help me!" I think that is a great thought to ponder. I have to admit that sometimes when I see people with babies or a lot of children I do tend to "feel" for them. I don't feel bad for them, necessarily, just a sense of relief on my part that I am done with that stage! When my friend made that comment it made me think a bit about my own reactions. Lately I have been convicted to think of children not as a burden but as a blessing. What great responsibilities we have to raise them in the Lord. Its not an easy task!
In further conversation with my friend, she pointed out that she loves her children, she didn't ask for 5 of them but is so happy to be blessed with them! Her children are a blessing! My children are a blessing! Children are a blessing from the Lord to be treasured and cherished!
My point in writing this is to make us aware, and to not feel sorry for our fellow mothers, but to look and think about how you can help them! When they are struggling with a stroller and a toddler how about asking them what they need! Could you help by taking that toddlers hand, or by pushing the stroller? I can guarantee they will not turn down a helping hand!
I think as my children grow and become more self sufficient I am more aware of what is going on around me. Maybe that is why I am feeling so strongly about this topic lately, and instead of looking at the mom struggling in the store or parking lot with pity, I am giving them a smile instead.
Today I am encouraging you to find another mom who may be struggling with a infant or trying to wrangle a group into the car after church or Vacation Bible School and give them a hand! A hug! An encouraging smile!
This summer I decided to create a reading incentive program for my kiddos. My main goal in doing this is to keep Noah reading! Elijah I am not concerned about at all, that kid loves to read! I knew though that if I didn't give some sort of incentive that Noah would regress and in August we would be starting behind.
I decided to use a very simple chart system that they will mark off when they have read books and then get prizes along the way. I went to the dollar store and picked up a few items that they can earn as prizes and then they can also get some candy as prizes if they want. In the past we have done the reading programs offered by our library, but this year I wanted something different and I was not sure how often we would make it to the library.
Noah's chart looks like this:
For every 5 books he reads he gets to pick a prize, and his goal is 30 books.
Elijah's chart looks like this:
His goal is just 10 books, because he reads longer books I am letting him count every 80 pages as one book. For every two books he reads or every 160 pages he earns a prize.
Of course once Zach saw that the older boys had a reading chart he needed one too! So here is the one I made for him:
We are going to work on these charts until we leave on vacation at the end of July. When they complete them we will have a "big" prize for them. Not totally sure what we will do but it will probably be either bowling or a movie or something.
So far they have been doing really well!! Noah has already read 8 books, he is so excited about reading and earning prizes! Elijah has also read enough to earn one prize so far.
Last week we tackled our second summer bucket list item, a visit to the zoo! My boys love going to the zoo, we love the animals and just walking around and doing some observing. We have a zoo membership and visit quite often. Our local zoo is a bit on the smaller side but still has a good amount of animals to observe. It always seems that when we visit the animals are either napping or just laying around, but that day we got to see a lot of action! I'm not sure if it was because of the cooler temperatures or what but the river hogs were chasing each other, the monkeys were swinging and the snakes were moving! A great day in my boys minds!
Only the second day into summer and we did our first bucket list challenge! My boys had a great time doing the outdoor obstacle course. I was amazed at their creativity and what they came up with. There was a bit of bickering in the beginning because they each had their own idea as to how they wanted the obstacle course to go. We resolved that pretty quickly though and it was a great time for all of them!
It started out pretty simple, with about 5 obstacles. It then evolved into a course with about 10!
Here is a video of Elijah doing his version of the obstacle course:
Here is one of Noah doing a simple version of the obstacle course, this was the beginning:
Homeschooling is a challenge! Homeschooling with a toddler is a big challenge! When our third child was an infant, I didn't find schooling a very big challenge. We would work on school when he napped in the morning and in the afternoon. Then he stopped napping in the morning, ok still not too bad we just did more work in the afternoon. Then that infant turned into a toddler! A moving, running, jumping, crazy toddler! That's when the real fun began!
He was always a clingy baby/toddler. He wanted my attention all the time! So the only time I could really focus on my other two was when he was napping. Thankfully he was and still is a good napper. Although lately he's not been sleeping during his nap time, but he stays in his room and plays until we come to get him.
So what did I do to keep him entertained while working with my other boys? Here are a few little tricks and tips that I had up my sleeve! I will list what ages I think these activities are good for, although please use your good judgment. For instance, my toddler did not put things in his mouth very often so playing with rice and beans was ok for him at 15 months.
**This post does contain my affiliate links for Amazon. Anything you purchase using these links helps to support my family and our homeschooling adventure.**
12 to 15 Months Old
-Shaker Bottles (beans, rice, a mixture of water/oil with food coloring in an empty water bottle and then super glue the lid on. Maybe even add a few hidden items for them to find!)
-Board Books
-Bead Maze (we had this one from Ikea)
18 to 24 Months
-Pouring and Dumping Beans
-Rice Play (here is a step by step tutorial on how to dye rice for play)
-Felt Books (we have a Zoo one, but this Safari one looks similar)
-Using Safety Scissors (these Crayola Safety Scissors are wonderful and fun!)
-Dot Markers(A great fine motor activity that isn't very messy! And these last a super long time, we have had ours for about 3 years and they are still going strong!)
-Water Color Painting (I bought these amazing no tip water cups, what a life saver!)
2 years old to 3 years old
-Play Dough
-Tracing Pages (there are tons of great resources online to find pages to print off or make your own!)
-Lacing Cards (these are pretty simple and fun, great for fine motor development)
-Stickers (I have found that just giving him a blank piece of paper and a page of sticker keeps him busy for a while!)
-Finger Painting
-Tot Books (I find great Tot Book resources here)
-Imaginets
-Sorting and Stacking Puzzles (We have this one, this one, and this one)
-Wooden Blocks
-Crayons and Markers
Using a Tot Book, this one is a Cars theme.
Working on some scissors skills, we have moved beyond the safety scissors at this point.
Gluing sequence and jewels onto a paper that he colored. This activity kept him busy for a long time!
Using water colors and that awesome no tip water pot! I have also found some paint with water books at the dollar store that he loves!
Doing some q-tip painting, this was the first time we tried it and he wasn't too sure what to do.
Obviously there are so many more things that can be done with your kiddos! Just remember to have fun with them and expose them to lots of different things! One thing that I really tried to do every day was spend my first 30 minutes with our toddler. I would read to him, play a game or do puzzles, build blocks, and then get him started on an art project. He was always in the same room with us, so I could keep a close eye on him. Also don't be ashamed to use a video every once in a while to occupy them. There are some days that he gets to be particularly fussy or crazy that I need him to just be quiet and still for a few minutes in order to help an older child with something. In these moments a video comes on and he gets a snack, that keeps his attention for at least 10 to 15 minutes!
I hope these ideas will help you to get through these crazy toddler years!!
