Home Schooling: Preschool

Slow and Steady Get Me Ready is a book that was recommended by the online school Bubs is enrolled in. They referred me to it because it helps teach patterns and rhymes which is a sort of prerequisite to start their kindergarten program. I bought it off of amazon.com and got it in the mail today! I read the introduction and skimmed through the book. I am more excited to use it on Boo and Baby than Bubs really. I believe he already has the skills the book teaches, but it seems like an awesome resource for preschooling children at home. I don't want to take much time blogging on this because both Bubs and Baby are sleeping and this will give me time to cuddle and teach my sweet Boo! Happy learning!

I Heart Faces: Pets

Our only pet right now is a hamster and he's not very photogenic.  

For the I ♥ Faces photo challenge this week I decided to go back to about three years ago when we had Freckles.  

Austin ♥ed Freckles!

:)

I ♥ their faces!

What faces do you ♥?

Are they for real?!

Sometimes I wonder if I'm raising a baby, a toddler and a pre-schooler or if somehow I've been relocated to an alternate universe where my children are all of a sudden pre-teens.  Austin wasn't really a sassy toddler.  It was just him and me,(no siblings to compete with for attention) and he, as far as I can remember, seemed to listen wonderfully.  Nayeli has been a little more demanding.  I expect this from her, because she's my little princess.  The fact that she now defies me using complete sentences is a little disheartening.  I wonder why she's so reluctant to just come when I call her name... When I call for her a second time she yells back, "Why?"  I call her again and she says in a snobby tone, "What mama?!"  I don't think I talk to her, or anyone else like that.  Does she get it from Disney movies?  TV?  Or is this just how she is?

(She hasn't put her "cell phone" down in three days!!!)

Austin has become more of a free thinker than he was in his toddler days.  He too now questions my authority.  For anything I ask or say it seems I must have an explanation.  My least favorite thing is when I tell him not to do, or to stop doing, something he asks, "What will happen if I don't?"  It's not an unacceptable question, but I feel like he should know the answer...  a time out, or grounding from a game or toy, depending on the situation.  When he asks it feels like I can tell that he's weighing what he wants to do with the consequence.  This is probably a good skill for him to develop, but inside I'm thinking, "Do what I say because I say it.  I'm your mother and that's how it should be!"  

(Is he telling me to talk to his hand?!)

Kheaven got upset today because I wouldn't let him have a plastic bag.  He LoVeS crinkly things.  There's no way I'm letting him play with a plastic bag though.  I replaced the bag with a crinkly toy.  He was very upset and proceeded to start crawling toward the bag.  (It had the supplies I needed for cleaning out the hamster's cage in it.)  I moved it again and it was the end of him.  He pushed himself up on his arms as far as he could and threw himself over.  It was a fit.  Nine months old and throwing his first fit isn't too bad I suppose.

(Time for music lessons, already?!)

:-)  I "complain" but I wouldn't trade it for the world.  I guess I didn't expect my children to be this way so early in life, but I'll just use practice for when they're this way and their older...  I pray by then they understand respect and have enough for me to not do some (if not all) of these things.  And of course, the wonderful things that fill my heart with enormous amounts of love and joy occur more than the "teenagey" things.

Where We've Been and What We've Been Up To

Spring/Summer has brought many adventures this year so far.  We have enjoyed rock/fossil hunting near Wilson Lake, several trips to Wichita for various reasons, including the NDSSW Annual picnic, and we've also been to Kanopolis Lake and Mushroom State Park as the picture collages in the previous post show.

Wilson Lake

Gramma Glora's Porch (During visit for NDSSW)

Sleeping on the way home from one of our excursions.

Kheaven is crawling now!  He mostly does the army crawl, but he is starting to alternate his legs when he moves.  He can also stand while holding on to furniture and/or fingers.  He loves to give kisses, sing and play pat-a-cake.  The coolest thing he's done as far as motor skills go recently is pop open a flip top on a water bottle!

Nayeli keeps learning new words and using them in sentences.  She is starting to have real conversations and she loves talking on her toy cell phone!  At the park she compliments other little girls, saying how much she likes their shoes or hair.  She is quite the entertaining sprite!  This past week she decided she wanted to try and sit on her baby brother twice.  He didn't seem to mind, but I wasn't ecstatic about it.  She climbs on him like she wants him to crawl around with her on his back.  Silly girl!

Austin is having fun running around outside, kicking the soccer ball around, and playing basketball.  We had a couple of storms last week and they didn't knock the basketball hoop down, but instead bent and snapped.  We may need to work on getting a new one.

Austin with some of his best friends.

I have been going through all of our things getting ready for my very first rummage sale.  I can't say I'm excited because I have NO IDEA what I'm doing!  I am far too much of a perfectionist to just have things outside for people to buy... and working in retail for ten years isn't helping.  I want everything to look like it would in a store to optimize selling, and that's just too much work!

Some things we're looking forward to doing in the near future are visiting our local water park and possibly visiting WI in August just before school starts!  We've been busy and had so many fun times during that busy-ness!  Hope all of you have been having a great spring/summer as well!!!

Home Schooling: Online School and Other Updates

Bubs is now enrolled in an online school. I am being blessed with the opportunity to play a major roll in his schooling and I will still have the security of being with a public school. I am considered a learning coach and he will still have an education specialist who is a certified teacher from our state. He will have regular assessments so I will be able to see if I am adequately teaching him. I am SO excited!

As of late, part of our bedtime routine is singing with baby. Both Bubs and Boo are doing a great job matching pitch and tone with me. Bubs is even beginning to harmonize. I am so excited and proud! Baby is also impressing me with his desire to sing at nine months old. Boo was the same way though! My children are truly amazing!

The only other news on the "home schooling" front is that Bubs love of reading seems to have been rekindled. He's doing a great job on word recognition. He's also been doing some neat things, teaching himself to write words by looking at DVD/VHS cases and writing what he sees. He knows the words as well, since he is familiar with the movies. It's great!

:) Enjoying Summer :)

♥Kansas♥