Bumper Crop

Pecans for sale! Seriously, it is a little out of control here. Recently it has been beautiful outside so little man and I have enjoyed our backyard. Sometimes while he is playing I work on ridding our backyard of pecans. There are so many! Today Paul Harvey reported that there is a bumper crop of pecans this year - well my backyard proves it. While I gathered pecans today my friendly neighbor called over the fence to offer us some pecans. NO THANKS! We only have one tree - they have two. You literally can't walk without stepping on a pecan. My neighbor did offer an encouraging word - she says that they only come every other year - so no wonder we didn't have this issue last year. None of our friends want pecans because they all attended another friend's pecan picking party. It's sort of like an easter egg hunt in the fall. Anyway, all this to say - do you have any good pecan recipes?

. . . and then he popped a tooth

This week has been a little crazy at our house. About a week and a half ago pretty much our whole coop group was exposed to a yucky stomach bug. Little man got it and couldn't keep anything down (for about 5 days). Then my hubby got it. Somehow I avoided it (so far). Hubby (and everyone else's) only lasted for about a day or so. But little man's kept dragging on. So, we ended up at the doctor's and he sent us to the outpatient pedi care at a local hospital to pump him full of fluids. Fortunately he fell asleep for about an hour of the two hour treatment. He is feeling much better but he is now dealing with diarrhea (which happens every morning right around 6 am!) He is still not too interested in drinking ANYTHING - which is frustrating. Yesterday as I was hanging out with the boy I noticed an extra white spot in his mouth. Apparently in the midst of all of this one tooth busted through and another seems to be working on it. So now he is up to almost six teeth. It has been quite a week.

Here's a little ditty . . .

As I was playing around today on other people's blogs I found a link to songs from the 19th century. If you scroll down it has the whole list of songs and when you click on it the sheet music and words appear (it's sort of like a hymnal for children). Reading the text is amazing because the words are all 5 and ten cent words. The meaning behind them are great too - although it does seem like they are from a different century in SO many ways. If you are looking for "new" old songs to expand your repretoire this is a great little site - especially if you can pluck out a tune on the piano.

A little early but . . .

So this year little man might be able to participate in some Christmas activities. I am glad that we now attend a somewhat liturgical church because that means they might observe Advent. I think that Advent is a great way to help prepare your heart and life for the real meaning of Christmas. I really hope to make this a special time with lots of good memories for our family. I am still collecting ideas but here are a few that I have found so far:

The Jesse Tree - This is a neat idea because it really tells the whole story of the Bible and God's love for us in the course of the 25 days leading up to Christmas. Although the graphics aren't great on this site they give you the right idea. This site gives you an overview of the days, symbols and scripture readings.

Advent Ideas - this is truly "no frills" but it has some really good ideas about helping families prepare their hearts for Christmas - worth the read despite it's plain presentation.

Sticker Advent calendar - I saw one of these on amazon - but you could make your own from clip art and the self made lick and stick - I honestly don't know how long the adhesive would last but it would be fun. So you could do a bunch of Christian symbols, symbols of the season etc.

Old Christmas Cards - It's probably a good idea to save them for future projects - don't know exactly what to do with them - but they could be used again.

One blog I read last season talked about having a family activity for every day of advent. Some of them were simple like smile at your friends today. Some were memory making like baking Christmas cookies. Other were spritual - read part of the Bible. Anyway, they were all mixed up and each day the kids would pick the activity out and do it. (With older kids they suggest you brainstorm together the ideas at the beginning of December- or maybe during the long weekend of Thanksgiving). There are lots of ways you could expand on this.

Some of these sites are a little more Catholic than what I would pursue - but they have great ideas. So, if the stores can start setting up for Christmas, we can start preparing our families hearts to engage with the real meaning of the season. We'll see what my family actually ends up doing this year!

Makin' a list, checkin' it twice

If you need help choosing fun and educational toys for Christmas this year (or birthdays) I will pass this little gem on to you. Many of the items are for kids 4 and older so I will have to wait to buy these goodies - but they all look so fun. There are a few preschool items on there. Have fun browsing!

Coop Week 2

Well despite some of the kiddos getting sick - overall week 2 was a great success. I amazed at how well the students are doing - picking their own work, really working at it and having fun. Yesterday I introduced a basting activity where kids transfer colored water from one dish to another with a baster. One of the little guys really loved it - he kept showing his mom what he was doing and he was all smiles. Another student kept telling me how "cool" everything was. It is really hard for them to just watch me demonstrate - they really want to get involved and do it all. Which is the point.

So, I think I have sort of figured out the language stuff for now. I am also reading through Reading Reflex again. It is a similar approach to Montessori - without the sandpaper letters and with cards instead of a "moveable alphabet". Reading reflex basically teaches that letters represent the sounds we make with our speech. Both methods focus on the sounds that the letter makes- not the name of the letters. This makes so much sense - but somehow the A, B, C song seems so popular it's hard to overcome. So children get confused - the letter c - see; however, its sound is cuh. So when we ask them to spell or read they have to go through the process of naming and then sounding - if we just teach the sounds - they just sound it and don't worry about the names.

I have not tried Explode the Code - which also seems to be very popular. Has anyone tried it? I have looked at Teach your child to read in 100 lessons - but it was too visually confusing for me. I do admit that I didn't try very hard.

So, I think it will take all of Christmas break for me to figure out how to teach the math section - but that's okay.

Is the library overwhelming?

Today Reading Rockets pointed me to another great resource Just One More Book. It seems to be similar to Trelease's read aloud handbook - but since it is basically a blog and podcasts it keeps up with current literature. One of my cousins gave me Trelease's book as a baby gift - it was a GREAT idea! She even put notes about what her family liked - a very nice and helpful personal touch.

Anyway, I haven't explored everything on the site - but it looks like you can search by author or by subject area. It is an act of passion and love by the people who collect all this information. So, if you are looking for new books this might be the place to start. This is the type of thing I might do if I wasn't doing so many other things. I'm glad someone out there is doing it for the rest of us.

Look what I can do

I mentioned that my mom was here last week. As she left she mentioned that little man would be able to do so much more when she came back (in just two weeks!). She was right. Here are some new things he is trying out:

1. Standing on his own - it was for split seconds but now it is a little longer
2. Sitting on his little potty - sometimes he will stay there, sometimes he won't
3. Trying to put tops onto his "dishes"
4. Rolling and throwing balls
5. Reaching and trying to open door knobs - he doesn't have enough leverage - yet
6. Turning on and off the lights - repeatedly

I am most excited (and freaked out) about the standing on his own. I think this means he will be walking soon and it is ALL down hill from there. I think once he can stand well our table tops will never be the same.

From 0 to 60

I can't believe it's been so long since I've blogged. My mom came into town last week and I took it easy for a while - so that's the zero. Now that the coop has started, my classes are still going and I have board meetings next week to prep for - so that's the 60. On Tuesday we had the parent meeting for the coop and it went really well. It is a more diverse group than I thought- which is GREAT. Many of the kids are right around the same age which is helpful.
Today was the first day of "school". Some kiddos got new backpacks, some took pictures for the day - I was surprised. They are all excited about school though. Overall the older students did very well. They seemed to enjoy the activities and catch onto some of the basic routines. I am realizing that our older kids are more advanced than I expected them to be - so I am playing catch up with that.
Two moms agreed to take care of the younger students. I think overall they had a good time except for the fact that little man spent most of the time crying because mommy wasn't paying attention to him. This is all part of the process I guess. The younger kids (18 months and under) are going to focus on baby signs, singing songs and some physical development activities (fun things to help baby stretch etc.). I am so thankful for these moms that are stepping up.
I hope to update weekly on how our coop is going.