Indoors but Active!

Colorado winters are COLD.  Some days (like today) the high is 2. Yes thats in Fahrenheit, and yes that's the real projected high for the day.  BRRRRR. So what do you do with little ones that need to burn energy?  How do you help them when they're bouncing off the walls?  Here are 5 things we do when we need to occupy our full bodies, and all we need is a bit of space.  This is also a great thing to help our kids stay healthy during the winter months.

1) Cosmic Kids Yoga:

These are simply AMAZING.  My 5 year old and our 3 year old babysitting kiddo love to do yoga with Jaime.  She spins an exciting story with actions for the kids to do with her.  We have traveled to the moon, under the sea, and visited unicorns. 

2)  Fireman Letter / Word Stomp: 

This one we did during our Career Week, but it was fun enough the kids have asked for it again. I started by creating little red "fires" and writing lower-case letters on them.  Then I created water drops and put upper case letters on them.  It was a matching game and it was fun for them, and easily adaptable to burn (pardon the pun hehe) energy.  Write several words or letters on "fires" and have them stomp them out as you call them.  

3) Simon says: 

This is an excellent game for helping kids listen.  When the energy is high and the activity is low its hard for little ones to focus, but this takes both listening skills and energy building. 

4) Dance Party:

As simple as it sounds, clear a space and turn on some pumping-and uplifting-music.  Kids can't help but dance when there's music.  If you have a flash light or colored lights you can turn on as well they'll eat it up!

5)  Toilet Paper Roll Bowl:

This isn't as calorie burning as some of the others, but it still requires motion.  Simply using old TP rolls and a lightweight ball set up a bowling alley for the kids - have them keep score to practice math skills!

All Things Are Possible

"It always seems impossible until it's done." ~Nelson Mandela.  This quote has just become my favorite of all time.

In September I gave birth to my second dear daughter, Ky-Ky.  While I was pregnant woman, I was nervous.  Would I be able to juggle life with a new baby and a 5 year old?  Would my homemaker duties suffer?  Would my oldest think I don't love her enough with a new baby stealing so much attention?  Would I be overwhelmed and curl into a fetal position and hide in the closet watching eagles?  (Name the movie! Video at the bottom if you give up!) 

I must admit, I think having two children has helped.  I feel more focused.  My days are spent with my dollies, my house is cleaner, we eat more dinners at home, heck we do preschool on a regular basis!  When I posted this on my mom's group on Facebook (Are you part of one of these? OMG They are my GIRLS man!  I love seeing their posts and there are days where everyone just needs to vent and these ladies get me!) some of the ladies asked for tips - so here you go.  

What's changed:

1) Humility.  I was on bedrest for almost 4 months.  During that time I had to humble myself and ask for help.  I'm not supermom, never have been, but asking for help allowed me to...

2) Balance.  My cousin-in-law whom I love dearly came over on a daily basis and whipped my house into shape.  Now I don't know if its because she's worked hospitality at some major hotels, or if she has a certain level of OCD (Love you sweetie!) or what, but I have never had my house be and stay as clean as that.  She was at our house for only a few hours a day, and most of that was spent with me and my first daughter, not cleaning-cuz it was done!  She'd done it!  I watched her balance and learned quite a bit.  And I realized that I have never been able to find that balance myself.  Now I love my mom and my MIL who have both helped me out, and I learned how to clean from my mom, but for some reason seeing Ari do it I learned it.  

3) Accountability.  I gave myself too much slack.  I used to always whine about how awful I was for not doing stuff...instead of doing it (makes sense right?)  Now if I catch myself thinking "wow I'm such a slacker." I make sure to stop slacking and set myself a mini goal.  I hold myself to an end goal and its made me happier.  

4) Happiness.  I didn't realize that I could be happy without a lot of down time.  This too came from my 4 months of bedrest.  There is a LOT of time for self-reflection when you can't do anything!  I always thought I was happiest when I was playing video games or watching TV or out shopping and going to festivals.  But I have realized that I can be just as happy by taking pride in what I own, by organizing the house and keeping it clean, by playing with my dollies and watching a Disney movie. 

5) Acceptance.  Allowing myself to say enough is enough.  I have always berated myself, I've never been "enough".  For some reason this aforementioned movie struck home and made it 100% clear to me, maybe it was because I felt so like Ally so much of the time.  This scene is incredible, whether you believe in God or not, and sums up much of what I have been trying to live by recently. 

6) Inspiration.  Dozens of things have inspired me, my two dollies do, absolutely.  My husband, my cousin, my parent's, my in-laws.  Media too: Mom's Night Out, a book called "The Gabriel Method" which oddly enough is about weight loss but has inspired me in hundreds of other ways, The 5 Love Languages...

In the end...well there is no end.  That's something I continually am trying to accept.  Every day is a journey.  Some days I'm awesome at following these changes in my life, and some days I find myself regressing.  But I'm changing.  I'm learning and accepting myself.  So if you're planning on making a long, or at least grueling, New Year's resolution, remember that "It always seems impossible until it's done."

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The movie:  Mom's Night Out

Bella-Boo's Water Obstacle Course

This is actually a project my sister and her man did for my niece's birthday, but its so clever and fantastic that I had to post it up for the world to see!

All that was used for it was PVC Pipe, waterproof glue, and a drill or hand saw.

To quote my sister, "You take the PVC pipe.  With some glue.  Make a cut here and there and TADA!!! Obstacle course! Lol."

I'm thinking next summer this is on my to do list!

Bella-Boo and Z runnin' through the obstacle course!

Playing School - Preschool Style, 6 things to Get Ready for Homeschool

My She-she is five years old this October, missing the cut-off for Kindergarten by only a few days.  I could have tested her to see if we could force her into Kindergarten, but we have big changes, a new baby and possible move.  I knew I wanted her learning and growing, but I didn't want to put her in a preschool only to have it change within a few weeks or months.

Last year I "home-schooled" her, which is to say that I got several cute books, printed out a few hundred alphabet printouts and did a few projects I found on Pinterest, like this Tree. 

She-she wanted more.  She craved it.  Begged for it.  Constantly asked if we were going to do preschool projects again.  

So this year, despite a brand new baby coming in Sept. I am planning out an in depth, very detailed, 5-10+ things to do a day away from computer time, TV, and general play.  I really am going to "Play School" with my daughter!  

For the past few weeks I have delved into the realm of Pinterest, TpT, and countless blogs reading about teaching as much as I can.  The good news is I have a bit of experience, I was a substitute teacher with the Meridian School District, a toddler teacher in a day care, and nursery provider through church.  More good news is there are thousands of resources.  So what's the bad news?  There are SO MANY resources!  I am spending hours at my computer (which being on bed-rest these last few weeks has been a good way to pass the time) trying to find the best way to teach, play, and have us look forward to school each and every day.

So in my final week of "prep" for the start of this school year I figured I'd share with you guys how I'm going about doing it so if you have a young child (3-5 year olds) and want to get them involved and ready for school you won't have to spend the 200+ hours I'm currently rolling into this.  You can, of course, adapt this to you however you would like, I hope you enjoy the research I've done!  

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First, print off a calendar/day planner for yourself, I found this one (2015) and this one (2014) from HandmadeHome.net to fit my needs spectacularly.  I will say that the monthly calendars, the weekly calendars, and the reading chart were the only ones I needed for school.  I am scheduling Sept - May and 41 weeks, I printed off 9 reading charts with the goal of 20 books a month to be read to She-she, not counting her own library books, and the chapter book we read at night as a family.

Second, decide what your goals are.  Last year Ashleigh pretty much mastered 90% of the alphabet, she's still a little iffy with her W's and V's.  So I'm hoping to get her involved with some sight words, and bump up her numbers (she's only adding 1s and 2s, easily) and increase her color play.  I also discovered my school district likes to have kindergartners know the days of the week and months of the year, she has no clue on those, so we'll be practicing those daily. 

Third, outline your week/year.  I'm a full-time stay at home mom, but I know that Monday's and Wednesdays my husband will be out playing soft ball in the evenings, and we'll likely want to go so I don't want to do a lot of running and physical play those days (remember I'll be recovering from birth and have a new baby!).  I know her dad also has Friday's off from work, so field trips on Fridays would be ideal because then he could come along.  If you know you're flying to Disneyland the first few weeks of Dec. don't plan school!

Fourth, and this is the part that gets hugely personal, start planning what you'll teach.  I know we're going to do generally do a series of "Wow's." (that's what I'm calling them.) They will include a Word, Color, Number, Letter, Animal, and Food.  That will consist of roughly 30 of my 41 weeks, 26 letters of the alphabet, with 4 as review weeks (particularly for numbers and letters).  The other 11 will be holiday weeks, we're Christian so we celebrate Christmas and most "standards" like Halloween, Thanksgiving, Valentine's Day, etc.  I will also be including a unit on the four seasons, the body, what I want to be when I grow up, the five senses, and maybe a few others depending on my mood.  

Fifth, set up a shopping / check list to get basics.  There is nothing worse than deciding to do a major project with your child and mixing everything together only do discover you ran out of corn starch!  And put them all in a big box together. Here's my list:  (Most can be picked up from the Dollar Store or you'll already have laying around your house.)

Felt / Fabric Scraps

White Liquid Glue (2 bottles +)

Beans or Beads (For counting, gluing, etc.) 

Liquid Starch (For Goo) 

Glitter

Ink Pads

Paints

Shaving Cream

Sticky Stick (That stuff that's like gum to stick paper to your walls)

Googly Eyes

Pipe Cleaners

Paper Plates

Clear Cups

Stickers

Balloons

"Holed" Cereal (Cheerios, Fruit Loops etc.) 

Buttons

Yarn / Thread

Corn Starch

Baking Soda

Vinegar

Crayons

Markers

Construction Paper

Glue Sticks

Safety Scissors

Salt

This list, minus the food I want (for snack time and play with your food time) is pretty much what I plan on using all year, most all crafts I've found can be satisfied with these things.

Sixth, set up a Pinterest board for preschool.  This is the greatest thing you can do for your planning, there's so many great ideas.  

Yummy Fruit "Cake"

So my dear She-she turned four in October (thus the painting of a jack-o-lantern on her cheek) her birthday party was on the Saturday after her birthday, but her grammy wasn't able to be there on the day of the party so we wanted to throw a bit of a party on her actual birth day.  We are striving really hard to reduce processed sugar in our diets, striving to make changes with the level of red meat, the level of unhealthy foods, and we already had cupcakes planned for the party, but honestly Grammy was a life-saver in the cake department.

I was concerned; how can you ever say, "no birthday cake" to a young child?  So when Grammy suggested a fruit "cake" we gently asked She-she if she'd be ok with it.  I was floored when she got excited.  Part of it I'm sure was our excitement (even if a bit mocked on my side) and promises that it would be special.  So then we hit Pinterest, hunting for kid's style fruit cakes... I was...less than impressed.  Again Grammy came to the rescue and brought up the idea of a ball gowned princess fruit cake.  Frankly it ended up being adorable.

Watermelon, grapes cut in half, blueberries, strawberries in half, oranges, peaches, and a bit of cream cheese and marshmallow fluff fruit topping, all of it was designed to bring joy to my baby girl and joy it did, with not near so much undesirable calories.