ABC Jesus Loves Me – Week 1

This week marked the beginning of our pre-school homeschooling journey. We are using ABC Jesus Loves Me curriculum for 2 year-olds, and so far it has been great. All of the worksheets are available on their web site for free, and the crafts use basic household and craft supplies. It’s also easy to break up into the day, which is great for my son. Sitting still is not his strong point. Even so, he has enjoyed the stories, crafts, and songs.

Here are a few pictures from our 1st week….

The first two pages of the Creation Book

Coffee Filter Earth

This project was modified. We didn’t have any of the regular, circular filters.

Circle foods: raisins, crinkle cut carrots, hot dog circles, crackers

I had a lot of fun tying in our lessons at mealtime. I also served most meals on round plates and used lots of foods and drinks that coordinated with the lessons. Week one was pretty easy because the lessons included circles and the color red.

Here are some red/circle food ideas:

Pizza (with red sauce, pepperonis, jalapeno pepper slices, olives, etc.)
tomato slices
red Kool-Aid
jello
cookies
cheerios
raisins
crinkle cut carrots
Ritz crackers
strawberries
M&Ms
waffles
pancakes
bologna
hot dog slices
banana slices
cucumber slices
biscuits
sausage patties
Lunchables (the ones with circle crackers, meat, and cheese)

We also added an extra craft, using the heart coloring sheet as a template for making some Valentines for a few friends and family members. I can’t post pictures of those yet though.

You know you have THAT kid….

if you get an email from his church group leader, asking you to preview a new room divider system and give an opinion based on whether your child has the ability to climb over it.

Oh yes, the future of the Littles’ classroom setup depends on my son’s climbing abilities. He’s 2. I probably should not have laughed when I read that email…or made jokes about him climbing over it for Sharpies in my reply e-mail. What can I say? My kid’s a leader. I will never ask him, “If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump too?” If his friends are jumping off a bridge, he’s already swimming for the shore.

“I see you!” {joy and blessings…and fear}

So I’m tip-toeing into the waters of homeschooling. I’m still afraid to completely commit to it. God’s working on me though. God laid it on my heart more than 2 years ago, right about the time The Boy was born. I’ve always said it was an option, but leaned toward the “no” end. After all, I survived public school, and loved it, why shouldn’t my kids? My husband felt differently about it though. Honestly, I don’t have much confidence in myself as a teacher, especially for rambunctious boys! Nor am I excited to hear the negative comments that I know some friends and family will feel the need to express to me. Even as I type that, Deuteronomy 31:6 comes to mind. “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

I’ve had all kinds of excuses why I couldn’t/shouldn’t/wouldn’t do it, but God keeps pushing them to the side. I was worried I would be going at it alone. Most of the people I knew who were involved in homeschooling had children much older than mine or had no children at all, but they had grown up in a homeschooling family themselves. In the last few weeks I have found out several families I know are homeschooling, and I had no idea. I also found out that several young moms I know (that also happen to have children the exact same ages as mine) are researching it and considering it. Even two of my own relatives with children the same ages are considering it. One of those, my aunt, lives a little over an hour away, and her little girl is 8 weeks younger than my oldest son.

I began worrying about the cost of curriculum, especially since I was wanting to start a preschool curriculum soon. My aunt told me about ABC Jesus Loves Me. It’s FREE and looks like it is going to be fabulous. We are starting it this week.

I began feeling overwhelmed every time I tried to research anything or look into curriculum. I sent a quick message to another homeschooling mom I know via Facebook, hoping that she might have a minute to send me a couple of links to web sites or book recommendations. She does have 4 kids, so I wasn’t expecting much. She did have time though, and she also sent a longer reply than my original message and invited me over to look at her stuff and share info and ideas with me.

Through each of these little blessings, God has reminded me, “I will provide. It will be a JOY.”

Last week He started working on my insecurities about my teaching abilities. I am very concerned that I won’t be able to teach my children everything they need to know – that I don’t know enough. One morning last week, while the boys were eating their breakfast, I read them the story of Zacchaeus and we talked about the story. I even looked up a video on YouTube of the old song I learned in Sunday School 20 years ago at First Baptist Church of Almyra. The boys weren’t nearly as excited about the song as I was. After breakfast, Lincoln stood up in his chair, told me to go to the couch, and started saying, “I see you! I see you!” He loves to hide, play peek-a-boo, sneak up on people, etc. so I hear that phrase a lot and really didn’t think much of it. He was getting frustrated though. I paid closer attention to what he was saying. He instructed me again on where to go. Then I got it! He wanted to act out the story! I asked him if he was Zacchaeus, and he gave me an excited, “Yeah!” I was shocked. He really had been listening! I gave him a playful, “You come down!” and he scrambled down, grabbed my hand, and pulled me to his house (the kitchen). I was overjoyed. I’m so glad that God allowed him to be excited about that lesson and show me that it can be done – my rambunctious 2 year old can listen, understand, and retain stories and lessons spoken by me. I’m still terrified, uncertain, and feeling overwhelmed and incapable, but that definitely planted a seed of confidence. Maybe this can be done.

one less reason to write a check

I recently read THIS POST about technology and our relationship with God by my friend Naty over at The Rising Muse. I’ll admit, I’m one of those people that gets strange looks in church services because I’m using my phone. No, I’m not playing on Facebook or Words with Friends. I often use a bible app from YouVersion.com to look up the readings during services. Attending church with two little ones requires two diaper bags and my purse. My husband brings his bible, so I prefer to leave mine at home and have one less thing to carry. Now when it comes to sitting down for some quiet time and studying on my own, I prefer my big ol’ pink bible. I’m a book lover, and I love the feel of the pages between my fingers, highlighting, making notes, and all the little devotionals it contains.

This isn’t really about traditional books or iPhone apps though. Today I did something I never thought I would do. Friday afternoon I sat down to pay the bills and realized I had run out of checks. Normally this would mean trying to remember to go to the bank, to get some cash to drop in the offering plate on Sunday morning, but that wasn’t the case this time. This afternoon I logged on to our church web site, created an account, and processed our weekly giving online.  When I first found out this was being offered, I admit, I was a bit weirded (WordPress says that’s not a word. Ha! I beg to differ. ) out by it.  I wondered just how often that option would be used by anyone, or why would anyone need to? Even for weeks that we have missed services because of sick kids or been out of town, I’ve always just written out the check and tucked it away until the next week, or I’ve subtracted it from our account and added it into the following week’s check. Well, I shall confuse myself no more. It was really easy, and I guess it is no different than paying our bills online or making online purchases. I might just be using even fewer checks from now on.

If your church offered this, would you use it?

Lesson #1 Let them eat dog food.

Lately I’ve I’ve been thinking back over some of the parenting lessons I have learned over the last two years. Today I’ll share one of those.

Often parents remark about how you hover less as the number of children in your home increases.You realize the little things aren’t going to harm them and are able to let them be more independent, messy, dirty, loud, messy, adventurous, silly, and did I mention messy?

I was told many times before The Boy was a year old that I was, “extremely laid-back for a first time mom.” I always shrugged it off as being a result of my personality and my husband traveling so much. I also think it had a lot to do with me being exhausted though. Have you tried being 6 months pregnant and chasing a crawling baby across the house, only to have to hold that baby down and attempt to change his diaper while he, quite literally, stood on his head and left elbow to get away, kicking you the entire time? Yeah, it left little energy for dragging him down off whatever he was climbing on for the 100th time that day. It didn’t help matters that he was very coordinated from the beginning and didn’t fall when climbing. I knew he could do it, so why worry?

There was one thing I was constantly battling though. The Boy’s obsession with eating things drove me crazy! Baby gates blocked every doorway and I put everything away – dog food was moved to my bedroom and crayons were in a drawer and hardly used. No joke, he ate finger paints until he was 2. (Rarely was painting done in our house until recently. )

Then Brother came along! If I was “extremely laid-back” about things with my first son, I probably really scare other moms with my second son!

Lesson #1 (It wasn’t the first thing I learned, but for writing purposes that’s what we will call it.)
Let them eat dog food.

Now, before anyone panics and calls Child Protective Services, I’m not recommending you feed your children pet food. Definitely not. However, there are only so many hoops you can jump through, and so many places you can hide stuff. Millions of kids have grabbed a handful of Kibbles or a dog biscuit and crammed it in their mouth before mom or dad could get it away from them. I did it, and I’m betting you did it if you grew up with pets in your home.

Thankfully, Brother has not shared in The Boy’s habit of eating everything. He does, however, show the same love for dog food that his older brother did. Today was no different. The dogs had left a few pieces in one of the bowls in the kitchen, and I didn’t realize it until I was halfway between the refrigerator and the counter, arms loaded with leftovers I was getting out for lunch, and little brother was 2 feet from the bowl. I started toward him, immediately realizing it was pointless. “Have at it son. If you think it’s that tasty…”

It was not just about dog food though. It wasn’t even about realizing it was not necessary to drop everything, trip over the open dishwasher, and accidentally kick the dog just to pry open his mouth to dig out dog food, crayons, dirt, or any other non-food item I knew to be non-toxic that he could safely chew.
It was about that word I posted about yesterday. Joy. Today, like so many other times, keeping the boys out of the dog food, paint, or whatever mess it might have been, was not about protecting them. As usual, it was something that I know isn’t actually harmful. I just didn’t want to deal with a big mess or having to clean a dirty face and hands again. Was it really worth the fight of trying to pull the dog food out of his hands, making him furious, and probably causing me to spill our food everywhere? I decided it wasn’t. A little extra mess would be okay. If only I can remember that more often! If they want to get muddy and dirty outside, that has always been fine and dandy with me, but inside…oh inside the house is a different story. Well, where’s the joy in that for a little boy? Next week I’m planning at least two messy activities. (There. It’s in print, so I have to do it now.)

I went on with making lunch, and Brother happily helped himself to the last few pieces of dog food. Oh well, someday he will realize it tastes disgusting. Until then, I guess I won’t have to worry about him not liking anything I cook!

Isn’t it amazing how children teach us things through the smallest everyday events?

my word

A few weeks ago I read this post by Beth B., over at Perspective of Love . Immediately I knew what my word for the year was – JOY. I didn’t even have to think about it. That was the word God had laid on my heart for two weeks prior to reading that post. Last year was not the easiest year for me. I was working a lot of weekends, chasing two kids under the age of two during the week (that had opposite nap schedules until a month ago), and I was utterly exhausted for months at a time. I honestly feel that I didn’t stop and see the JOY in my days enough though. God has given me lots of blessings to enJOY.

“Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation,” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky.” Philippians 2:14-15

Even worse, I didn’t often take the time to  share with others the JOY of having God in my life and the ways that I have been blessed.

Just today I made a rare phone call to see about getting my car serviced for a recall on the headlights. I say rare because if I can’t text you, I’m probably not going to call you. This has nothing to do with an aversion to talking on the phone and everything to do with my children screaming hysterically and climbing on me the moment I’m connected to another individual on the telephone. (Maybe that happens all the time, and I only realize it when I’m trying to make/take a phone call?) The man that I was speaking with could obviously hear my children in the background, and he asked how old they were. When I answered (1 and 2) his quick reply was the one I so commonly hear, “Oh…bless your heart!” While I have talked to many mothers that are offended by this response, I always laugh. I find it humorous that so many people think I’m doing something extraordinary by raising two young boys. Yes, it is difficult, but two under two definitely has advantages too. I’ll have to post those for you sometime. Anyway,  when I got off the phone with him I realized I should have told him, “No, bless your heart!” There I was, barefoot, hair in a ponytail, lying on my couch in the middle of the day, with two laughing toddlers climbing all over me. That poor man was sitting behind a desk somewhere across town, waiting on 5:00 to roll around. Thirty minutes later, my oldest son was down for his afternoon nap and I was standing in their bedroom, swaying back and forth to the music from the kitchen radio with my youngest in my arms. JOY.

“Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.” Deuteronomy 4:9

Everyone needs a good cheerleader

If my husband comes home and finds the house to be exceptionally clean, exceptionally being a relative term , he is pretty good about mentioning it and giving me a “Thank you,” or “Good job, babe..” He’s not home every day though, and sometimes I get a little discouraged, frazzled, or just feel like I’m not doing a good job at the mommy/wife stuff. You know, I’ve discovered that keeping my house clean while keeping my children from killing each other  well fed and entertained isn’t the easiest job around. The second part there gives me lots of fits in itself. Who knew?

Being the mom of little ones isn’t always easy, but one thing I love about having toddlers is having built-in cheerleaders. Today my oldest hasn’t been feeling well and has wanted nothing more than to snuggle on the couch with mommy, nap, and watch a little Signing Time. He did wake for a while this afternoon though, so when he asked to paint I got out the supplies. I helped him pull off his shirt and tied on his painting apron. When I went to toss his shirt into the dirty clothes I heard, “Good job, mama.” This was just the pick-me-up I needed, and God knew it.

‘

Something I want to remember

Just a video of me and Lincoln making a memory.

I’m gonna miss this sound when he’s older.

Just a snapshot from this week

Every trip to a small town Dollar General should include a little boy wearing a dinosaur hat and wielding a foam sword.

Sneak Peek: Barnyard Bash Designs

Here’s a little peek at all the fun stuff I’ve been designing for my wee man’s 1st birthday party!
This is the front of the invitation. I’ll post pictures of the finished product later.