Journal: I think it is going to be Winter forever

TODAY

Out my window:  Um, Spring?  Where are you?? In case you haven't looked at the calendar, it is now mid-April.  Come on already.  That said, we have enjoyed some time outdoors on the (seemingly few) nicer days we've had.  And oh, regarding the snaggle-toothed furry mis-predictor of Spring of whom I spoke quite deprecatingly last week...there was a bit of confusion on my part regarding the opinions of a certain reader in Denver who shall remain unnamed.  While he is understandably experiencing much angst about their current weather, no "hate" is actually being felt toward the mangy perpetrator.  He did however mention something about a bounty...  OK, inside joke over.  In all seriousness though, this kind of weather in mid-April is ultra-depressing.

Clothing myself in:  Jeans and a t-shirt.  So original. So classy.  

Around the house:  Packed away a bunch of the kids' clothes.  I toss stuff they've outgrown on closet shelves, and then when there's enough I haul it downstairs and toss it in a laundry basket.  And then when it piles up into a big, scary, unruly pile of randomly-sized sort-of folded clothes, I whine and complain and then sort through them all and put them away in the correct tubs.  I do the same thing with my paper filing.  And as soon as I'm done I vow I will always file things the minute they leave my hands.  And I never. do.  Now you know.

The laptop hunt is on.  A friend's hubby (thank you!) took a look at the Toshiba, and even if he replaced the motherboard there is a good chance the same thing could happen again with the USB's.  Ugh.  I'm  managing OK without the USB's, but I'd really like to get a new laptop with Windows7 (read: not Windows8) and I don't now how much longer that is going to be an option.  Stupid technology. 

 

The baby:  Oh goodness he's not crawling yet but boy can he get around!!  Wowza, life is about to get even more interesting (is that possible?) in this house once he takes off.  He can go from belly to sitting now, and is pulling up on his knees.  He had his 9 month well-child last week, he weighed 17 lbs 6 oz and was 28 inches long.   He really likes to feed himself little chunks of food, so much so that I actually gave away the baby food I had made for him.  I do not miss baby food.  He has tried many various veggies, fruits, meats, beans, fish and whole-oat cereal.  He still nurses a lot too.

 

The kiddos:  Gemma is sounding out words and writing left and right.  Her spellings crack me up.  I got confirmation that we will have half-day kindergarten available at our Catholic school next year, so for that I am grateful.  I think it will make our family's (and Gemma's) transition into school much smoother.  I am beginning to really look forward to next year, it'll be a huge change for our family no doubt, but I think school is going to be a very good thing for our Gemma-girl. 

Kolbe had his speech screening last week.  He was very quiet and nervous but the gal doing the screening was really sweet and got him talking even so.  His language (ability to communicate and understand) tested fine, but she gave him a referral for speech, so the next step is to have him tested in our district and see if he qualifies for services.  And then go from there...  We'll see what that brings.  Everyone seems to think that it is quite odd that I'm not planning to send him to preschool, so that's a little frustrating.  I just want him to have the help he needs (IE speech pathology) while still meeting the needs I am able to meet in our home.  Does that make sense?

In the kitchen: Pork cutlets, mashed potatoes/cauliflower, steamed broccoli; Beef/Italian Sausage and Veggie Lasagna with green beans; crock-pot chicken, still debating on sides; Fish Crisp and maybe a fruit salad.  Hubby made sushi over the weekend.  Yum!

Crafting: ahhhh, nope.

Learning: Nothing terribly exciting or out of the ordinary.  Thinking about this Letter of the Week program for Kolbe next year.  And this.

Reading: Finished Bible Basics for Catholics.  Nothing earth-shattering, but a nice overview of Salvation History never-the-less.  Still working through the Catechism.  Started Navigating the Interior Life and A Father Who Keeps His Promises this week.  Those fictions from the library are still on the end-table, but the thought of reading four books at once seems silly.  Yet I haven't taken them back...  So many good books, so. little. time.

Watching:  We're about 3/4's the way through (TV) Episode 4 of The Bible.  I'll just come right out and say I liked the way they portrayed the Old Testament better.  The New just seems really disjointed, like they took a bunch of the stories of Jesus' ministry and just kind of mashed them together so they could cover all His "most quoted" moments.  I don't know, it's just weird to me.  We have about three hours (really probably closer to two once we zip thru commercials) to go, so we'll see what the final verdict is, but honestly I've liked it less the more I've watched.  The thing I DO like though, is it's got me thinking and kind of lit a fire under my butt to read the Bible more, and that's a really good thing.    

Bringing me joy: A date with Aaron.  We went on a walk around the neighborhood and actually visited instead of having a dog and three kids strung out a block-and-a-half between us.  Then we sat at the dinner table.  At home.  For FIFTY minutes.  Yes, five-zero.  And we had our wine and food ON THE TABLE!!  The whole time.  And nobody spilled anything or threw any food.  It is funny for me to think that this was the norm for us five years ago.  We had no idea how good we had it!!  And don't get me wrong, I love my life, love my kids, wouldn't trade it for the world, all that cliche stuff.  But oh, it was nice to have a couple hours together away from the kids. 

Thinking about: Prayer.  How to live a life of prayer amidst my vocation, rather than in spite of it.  My relationship with Gemma, how to help her through the anger and tantrums that she so struggles with.  And just my relationship with her in general.  We are a lot alike and I feel like we are constantly at each other's throats.  And while I don't want (or need) to be her BFF, I'd still like us to have a happy, healthy, loving relationship, and right now it just rarely feels that way. 

Pictures to share: 

Silly monkeys.  Errrr, monkey and dragon.  (Halloween costumes are fun year-round!!)

Kolbe is my child who will fall asleep (and stay asleep) anywhere.

 Look-alike brothers.

Pumpkin books

Here are a few pumpkin books we are enjoying this week.

Too Many Pumpkins is the story of Rebecca Estelle and the unruly pumpkin patch that happened upon her and her cat Esmerelda "quite by accident".  Rebecca continually makes the best of unexpected situations throughout the story.  The illustrations are quite cute, the story is cute and well written.  It really was the trifecta of a good picture book!

Patty's Pumpkin Patch is a nice, rhyming story that follows the activities in a pumpkin patch from spring to winter.  While "fiction," it still gave some good, factual information about pumpkins and how they grow.  At the bottom of each page is an alphabet letter that corresponds with an animal, bug or plant in the above illustration, so there are some great options for further discussion/learning on each page.

The kids are also having fun painting/coloring this pumpkin template and painting, cutting and gluing these eyes - noses - mouths.

"Learning time"...what's been working

We've finally settled into a nice groove with our learning time since finishing our Letters of the Week back in May.  Since baby Clem has come, I've gotten really lazy loosened up a bit on the amount of TV time I let the kids have. Good, bad or otherwise, I let them watch an hour or more after we finish lunch.  They have recently started to really enjoy Max and Ruby (which I think is a bit over the top, but definitely nothing objectionable) and/or some DVD's from home or the library.  Kolbe is no longer napping (which I still can't believe, but oh it makes bedtime infinitely easier and earlier), and Gemma doesn't nap either, so this gives them a nice chance to rest a bit and kind of hit the reset button on the day.  After that we read stories that go along with our weekly theme (I've just been choosing a loose theme and then getting a stack of books from the library that goes along with it...IE: farm animals, bugs, colors, flowers, certain holidays or seasons, etc.).  Then we turn on the classical music (we're doing a different composer each month) and sit at the table and work on projects for around an hour or so.  For Kolbe this is either colors, markers or watercolors and a stack of paper or coloring sheets that go along with the weekly theme.  He also participates in the occasional craft.  For Gemma we are rotating each day between a handful of Kumon workbooks, some handwriting worksheets, faith formation as it ties to current saints and/or feasts, a craft that goes along with our weekly theme on Friday and Mass prep on Saturday.  She also enjoys coloring or painting on the coloring sheets I print each week.  Sunday is "quiet time" (IE entertain yourself quietly), and that is starting to work out OK although it was definitely a little rough at first.  ;-D  The kids can look at books, work on puzzles, have some "free art" time, or work on another quiet activity that doesn't require adult help.  Works better some weeks than others.  They're learning.  And that's what's been working for us!!  We'll see what the coming year holds...I can't believe a year from now we will be gearing up for Kindergarten, WOW!

Preschool 2012-2013

I've been thinking a lot about preschool for Gemma (who will be 5 in January) next school year.  I'm still planning on keeping her home, but I've learned to "never say never" when it comes to preschool.  I don't know, it just doesn't feel right for us now, but I'm not going to completely write it off for future children.  We'll just see what the years bring.  But for now, while we're home, I am excited about the opportunity to continue learning together.  This awesome post from Kansas Mom has been a great resource that I know I'll reference throughout the year, and my good friend Michelle always has a wealth of information and resources she is willing to share.  But without further ado, my "plans" include but certainly are not limited to:

READING:  Gemma is definitely showing signs of reading readiness.  I don't want to force the issue, but if she's willing and eager to work on it, I intend to start working our way through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons at some point in the near future.

I am looking forward to some more "substantial" read-alouds as well, I think we'll start with:

• Mary Poppins and subsequent titles in the series. -or-
• Little House on the Prairie series, which I snagged in its entirety from Scholastic at some point while teaching.

We'll continue to read our Poetry at lunchtime most days.  I think I may need to break down and purchase The Bill Martin Jr. Big Book of Poetry.  We've checked it out (and enjoyed its variety of poems and great colorful illustrations) numerous times.  I continue to stumble upon more and more great poetry books.

We'll continue keeping those book-baskets full with weekly trips to the library, and are currently enjoying the Summer Reading Program at our library.

MISC. PRESCHOOL SKILLS:

I hope to work through various Kumon Workbooks including:

• My book of Pasting: Jigsaw Puzzles
• My First Book of Mazes

I also have a growing handful of random workbooks, coloring books and flashcards that I've picked up here and there (Target, Joann's Michael's, etc.) that I intend to pull out for both kids over the course of the summer and school year.  ABC's, numbers, shapes, etc., the usual suspects.

I like so much of what I've learned from Teaching Montessori in the Home: The Preschool Years, so Gemma and Kolbe will both continue with those activities.

We have acquired some really great learning toys that I'm always glad to see the children use, such as:

• Pattern blocks
• various puzzles from easy to difficult
• dominoes
• Stringing beads
• Lacing cards
• Counting bears
• AquaDoodle

I always have my eye on the activities our library has to offer.  It will be nice when Kolbe is 3 and he and Gemma are in the same age-group for their various offerings, I think we will participate in much more when that time comes.

HANDWRITING:  I've heard nothing but rave reviews about Handwriting Without Tears (teacher guide here) so I think I will take the plunge and make the purchase and we'll give this a try come Fall(ish).

My friend Michelle also shared this site with me, that has some great free printable pre-writing worksheets (among other things).

MUSIC APPRECIATION:  I have a nice, eclectic set of classical CD's (not to mention the library has just about everything) and I've recently started pulling these out regularly for listening during our afternoon/quiet time.  We started with Bach, and I think we will continue through Baroque, Classical, Romantic, etc. with a new composer each month.

The library also has some great composer and instrument children's books we've been checking out to go along with our monthly composer.

ART, ART APPRECIATION and CRAFTS:

• I hope to continue taking Gemma (and Kolbe possibly when he turns three) to Art Class monthly at our local art museum.  It is a very neat program.
• We will also continue to do various seasonal/religious art and craft projects.  Some great resources I've found to work with:
• CRAFTS
• Crafts for Kids who are Learning about Weather
• Catholic ABC's preschool curriculum from Catholic Icing
• Discovering Great Artists: Hands-on Art for Children in the Styles of the Great Masters
• The Little Hands Art Book
• Sing! Play! Create!
• ART APPRECIATION
• A Child's book of Prayer in Art
• Museum ABC (and other books in this series)
• A is for Art: An Abstract Alphabet
• Come Look with Me series 
• S is for Smithsonian

SCIENCE: 

• We enjoy immensely the small amount of nature our neighborhood has to offer, with lots of trees, a "lake", an open field and all the various wildlife that goes with all that (ducks, geese, snakes, frogs, fish, birds, worms, butterflies, etc.).  My husband is very "outdoorsy", and does a great job exposing the kids to all kinds of critters and nature, et al.
• Trips to the zoo are always a favorite.
• We may try some experiments and activities from: 
• Bubbles, Rainbows and Worms: Science Experiments for Preschool Children
• Science Play (which happens to be illustrated by a friend of mine!)
• Play and Find Out about Nature

RELIGION and FAITH FORMATION:

• I am very excited that Gemma and I will be participating in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program at a nearby parish starting in the Fall.
• We will continue celebrating the Church year and liturgical seasons in our home with various activities from numerous sources, including:
• The Big Book of Catholic Customs and Traditions
• Catholic Cuisine
• Catholic Icing
• The Year and Our Children
• Advent, Christmas and Epiphany in the Domestic Church
• Lent and Easter in the Domestic Church 

• We'll continue praying a Decade of the Rosary each time we go somewhere in the car (soon to be van) with our Holy Heroes Rosary CD's.  I'd also like to check out some of the other offerings from Holy Heroes, they appear to have so much great stuff.
• We enjoy some of the weekly Gospel activities (namely the coloring sheet and info sheet to go along with it) from CatholicMom.
• I am always pleased with anything we read from one of the numerous St. Joseph Picture Books we own.  We use these often during our Morning Prayers.
• Our liturgical-themed centerpieces have been a really nice addition to the kitchen table.  Besides giving my non-decorative brain some concrete ideas with which to work, they are a great "focus point" for morning prayers.  I try to incorporate our candle and other items with the current liturgical color, a statue or crucifix, and a prayer card with the Saint of the Day/monthly theme, etc.
• Several times a month we go to the assisted-living close to our house to visit our dear friend Bertie who we met through the new "visiting ministry" at our parish.  This has been a great opportunity for the kids (and me) to learn and practice the Corporal Works of Mercy.
• Along with the above idea, we have a sponsor-child through CFCA with whom we communicate by letter and pray for daily as a family.

MATH:

I recently checked out Math Play! from the library, and thumbing through it gave me some really great ideas for Math activities for both kids.  Easy stuff, using common items around the home.  Things like:

• taping numbers inside a muffin tin and having child sort various items
• counting and sorting socks
• sorting measuring cups or spoons smallest to largest, experimenting with how much water each will hold
• use play-dough or clay rolled out into "snakes" to form numbers or shapes
• and many, many more...I "jotted" down ideas in a Word.doc as I was going through the book, and now have a nice list of probably 20-30 fast and easy to execute Math activities to do around the house

I'm excited about making some of these activities available with very little work on my part.  If you're looking for Math ideas for kids ages 2-6, this books is well worth checking out.  Along with that, I also plan to take a look at:

• Number Sense and Nonsense
• Play and Find Out about Math
  

Small successes XLVII

1. After getting the kids set up with their new beds and moving Gemma's queen bed to the basement spare room, I decided it was time that room got a bit of an overhaul.  We have a ton of storage in this house (most of which is taken up with tub after tub of children's clothing...) but the spare room (which is also my sewing room and the room where I keep our "school" things) had starting ending up the "catch all" room and it was driving me nuts.  Now the storage area is more organized and the spare/sewing/school room actually looks like a spare/sewing/school room, and not a mess.  This was a bit of nesting that brought me a very huge and nerdy amount of joy.  

2.  Got my hair cut (trimmed).  I will shamelessly admit, this was one of my big priorities on the "to do" list before baby arrives.  

3.  I've gotten a lot of planning/ideas organized for our "preschool at home" this coming summer/school year.  I'm finishing up on a blogpost about it that I hope to share soon, but it feels good to have so many resources explored/available and I've come up with what seems to be a realistic system for implementing all these ideas. 

4.  As I mentioned as a goal in my last Small Successes, I finished reading Walking With God A Journey Through the Bible.  It was very good.  If you're looking for a great, easy-to-read (and understand) overview of Salvation History from Old Testament Genesis through the Acts of the Apostles, I would highly recommend this book. I enjoyed it so much, and would love to participate in the Great Adventure Bible Study at my (or another) parish at some point.

5.  Currently enjoying lots of good books with the kids as part of the Summer Reading Program at our library.

6.  Reactivated my Facebook account.  I'm not a huge fan of Facebook, it's kind of a love/hate thing I guess anymore.  But after a several month hiatus, I decided an online FB presence was a good enough thing in my life, so I'm back.  Ahhhh, always striving for balance.

Head on over to CatholicMom to join in Small Successes each Thursday.

Morning Prayers

Morning Prayers have been a work in progress at our house since I started saying them with the children about a year-and-a-half ago.  I finally feel like I have a good balance of something that really works for us so I thought I'd share.  I'd love to hear others' ideas as well! 

I like to have our prayer candle lit (we have a church votive that correlates with the liturgical color each day/season) and the saint of the day card on the table when the children come out for breakfast.  If Gemma asks about the saint of the day I will tell her a short story about him or her.  She still seems a bit young for our saint stories books.  We also have a weekly saint who's name we invoke each day from An Alphabet of Catholic Saints.  This saint correlates with our letter of the week.  After we finish up with breakfast and see daddy off we begin our prayers at the kitchen table.

• Sign of the Cross (I've really been working with Gemma on doing this correctly)
• sing monthly song (a traditional/seasonal [when applicable] hymn I choose and we sing all month, except for Saturdays and Marian feast days when we sing Immaculate Mary)
• Morning Offering (children's version with actions: Our Father in Heaven, I give you today, all that I think and do and say. Amen.  -- This was the same morning offering I said as a child!)
• daily Guardian Angel prayer from our Prayers for Everyday book
• daily prayer (this can be a variety of things ranging from the opening prayer for Mass that day if it's a special feast or saint, the morning prayer from MagnifiKid, a prayer from our Prayers for Everyday book, a Psalm or the Memorare on Saturdays or Marian feast days).
• sing monthly song again
• Sign of the Cross
• invoke weekly/daily saint(s)
• weekly Scripture memory Verse (when we started doing weekly verses I used a passage from the Responsorial Psalm from the previous Sunday and this worked very well.  Now that we've started our homeschool preschool, we're using the weekly verse from the Catholic Icing preschool curriculum that correlates with our letter of the week.  I like this because it has us moving around the Bible a lot more, Old and New Testament.)

After prayers we sing our day of the week song, Gemma does the weather chart and we have our circle time.  At the end of Circle Time we say this prayer, also with actions:

Jesus sees me when I sleep,

Jesus sees me when I play,

Jesus sees me all the time and cares for me each day. Amen.

Then we make the Sign of the Cross, invoke our weekly Saint (St. XX - Pray for us) and repeat our memory Verse one more time.