Numbers, Numbers Everywhere!

I made these quite awhile ago and despite the homemade look I just love them! I used a small cup to trace lots of circles on card stock, then did LOTS of cutting. The font is called "Peeps" from dafont and I think works great for those tricky 9's and 6's. I printed the 10's in one color, 20's in another and so forth, then attached them to the card stock circles. In hindsight I'm not sure why I didn't just print the numbers on the card stock directly, I think I didn't have the patience to figure out the spacing.

I want these to last for a long time so I covered them with contact paper. I would really prefer a heavy lamination but this has been working fine. They slip and slide all over the place so keeping them together was a problem until I stuck them in a cleaned out cottage cheese container - because that's the cool thing to do.

Honestly it was a time consuming project, but super easy and worth the effort. They are helping us with number recognition, number order, and grouping (the colors come in handy here!). It's fun to pull them out and find so many different uses for them!

Teach Your Kids to Read - Because You Can

     Even now I can hardly believe that I taught my 4 year old to read! Almost every day over last summer we spent about 15 or 20 minutes on reading, following the lessons in "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" by Siegfried Engelmann. I think I've mentioned this book before, I really love it and will be using it for all my kids.

 
     The lessons really are easy, and take the worry out of it for the mom (or who ever is teaching). You have everything you need to say right there, almost like a script. But it's not long before you and your child go through it all like a pro.

     There were certainly days where we were not working well together. He wanted to play and I was using way to much energy forcing him to do it. Part of the problem was the writing required at the end of the lesson. Doing both reading and writing together was just too long, especially when some reading lessons went longer than others. So we split it up. He did not like the writing at all, so we did it in the morning, when we were both fresh and happiest. Then reading in the evening.

     Oh, and there were days when I felt completely frustrated and like I wasn't doing it right,...That's when a good support person comes in handy. My husband was kind enough to remind me that our little boy was reading more than he was before, so I must have been doing something right. Then there were days where I was completely amazed at how far we had come, and I couldn't believe that this little, wonderful, smart boy was reading stories to me!

     When we finished the lessons I confess that I didn't keep up with a reading routine like I should have. I blamed it on having a baby. :) But I'm starting to get back into it, trying to find what will work for us. A cute blog that I like just posted this today - 50 Ways To Teach Your Child To Read. It was a good reminder to me that it really doesn't take much to encourage reading and learning. I look forward to going through the whole learning process again with my E. She already knows her letters and the sounds they make, just a little more practice to cement it into her cute little head.

A Lovely Tradition

I have been reading to my kids more! I'm excited about that because "not reading to them enough" had been a guilty feeling that clung to me. We would have a huge stack of library books, and only read half of them. Now the stack is smaller, we read more of our own books, and we repeat books quite a bit. Evelyn loves it. Picture books are still her favorite, and she even "reads" the easy ones to herself.

Ever heard of the "Mr. Men" and "Little Miss" series? My sister loaned her books to us and they are definite favorites! There are allot of words to one picture so it's helping to increase the kids' attention span, and they always address topics that are very interesting to kids, like Mr. Clumsy visiting Mr. Fussy and wrecking his house, or Mr. Tickles trying to contain himself from tickling everyone. Oh, good times!

Our library here has a pretty good collection of used books for sale - super cheap. One day I let the kids each pick out one book to buy. John did a blind grab, pulling out whatever his hand touched first. Evelyn looked a little bit, but I saw one I knew she would love, pop-up ABC's! Yup. And then, in a matter of thirty  seconds I saw and grabbed 5 books - I felt a little greedy but I knew I had to have them :

"The Robe" by Lloyd C. Douglas
"Raggedy Ann & Andy the First Treasury" by Johnny Gruelle
"The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame
"The Treasury of Children's Stories" books 1 and 2 

The Treasury books have been a special delight for me. They are filled with nursery rhymes, poems, songs, and the classic stories like "Hansel and Gretel", and "Rumpelstiltskin". They aren't the watered down versions either - when Humpty Dumpty falls and breaks that's it for him, there are no doll hospitals. I love it! They are perfect tools in teaching real life thinking skills (yes, even though they are fairy tales), as well as imagination. And of course there's always a good moral to talk about. I try to read something from these books everyday.

I still have to remind myself to stop whatever I'm doing, sit down and read to the kids. Sometimes they grumble about having to turn off a game or a show, or having to stay quiet. But I've noticed that they really love it. I know we will get better at it with more practice and I am so happy to have this tradition in our family. I am especially excited by reading the classics and seeing how it stretches all of our imaginations and thinking. I used to worry that the kids wouldn't listen to or understand the stories, or that there would be too much other "stuff" that wouldn't get done because I was reading. But really, listening comes with practice, as does understanding, and all that other "stuff" will wait for me.

Books to Help the Beginning Homeschooler

When you are deciding to homeschool, or even just barely toying with the idea, the normal response is to read up about it. We always want to be well informed and make decisions based on our own educated reasoning, and of course with the help of the Holy Ghost. There really are allot of books out there on the "whys" and the "how to" of homeschooling. Every family is different and finding out what works for them specifically is the best thing to do, but that is usually easier with a sound springboard to jump off from.

Here are some books that have helped me gain confidence in my ability to teach my children. I always check my library before I buy any book, but I did attach links to the following books so you can get a better look at them.

 Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood - This book was a big help to me. I agree with allot of the teaching and disciplining strategies. I don't follow it to the letter, but I feel like it's about time for me to read it again. This is not just for homeschoolers, it's a big help for anyone trying to teach their children obedience and good principles of behavior.

The Homeschooling Handbook - This was a very encouraging book. Helping me to feel like I could really do this! It has some great ideas and lots of experiences of other families.

Managers of Their Homes - I really like this method of scheduling. I have yet to fully implement it into our day but when we get into the full swing of things I feel like it will help allot!

A Thomas Jefferson Education - This book is for everyone! Not just homeschoolers. It addresses the importance of teaching our children through classic stories and books. Really learning from the great minds past and present. I love it!

Teach Ye Diligently - I just started this book and I KNOW it is going to be a big help for me and my family. Right now I am borrowing it from my Ward Library (meaning from my church), but I'm pretty sure we will be adding it to our home library. It's exciting to learn about how the Savior teaches and then try to copy that. If I can teach like Him I have nothing to worry about!

I hope this is helpful to someone! If anyone else has a suggestion, feel free to share it in the comments. I would love to check it out!

"We have to decide what is important and then move along"

"We women have a lot to learn about simplifying our lives. We have
to decide what is important and then move along at a pace that is
comfortable for us. We have to develop the maturity to stop trying
to prove something. We have to learn to be content with what we are."
— Marjorie Pay Hinckley

 

I feel like a how a caterpillar must feel when it is turning into a butterfly. I think it was happy being a caterpillar, eating and crawling and munching. But it soon felt the need for more, like it needed to be different, better. And there is a perfect plan for this caterpillar to change and become something more. It follows that plan and ends up in a cocoon. It's in there for a long time, and it must be uncomfortable, and maybe even painful. Does the caterpillar ever wish it had just stayed a caterpillar? Does it wonder if the change is worth it? Is it worried about what other bugs will think of it? It has to stay there, all wrapped up, to the very end. There is no backing out of this metamorphosis.

 

I'm in my 'cocoon'. Feeling like the Lord is molding and changing me. My wants and desires for myself and my family need to be His wants and desires for myself and my family. My testimony has always been such where I said I would go and do all that the Lord required of me. But I feel like I am finally putting that faith into action. I'm finally beginning to let go of my 'caterpillar' self. Every now and then I panic and want to go back, because forward seems hard and different. But it's also beautiful. I'll wait it out. I'll be uncomfortable but I decide to change. I might even worry what other people might think of me, but my Saviors opinion matters most.

 

Sometimes I wonder if I will ever reach the "end" and come out a perfectly delicate and beautiful butterfly. I will! We all will! There is a perfect plan for each of us, and I'm not just talking "scriptures, and prayers, and going to church". But through personal revelation Heavenly Father will let us know what to learn and do in our individual lives, our individual families. So, what am I getting at? My own personal revelation.

We are going to Home school our children.