Chalk Art

The Easter Bunny took Liv's binkies and left some wonderful gifts in return. The transition to life with out the binkies has been challenging but I'm am glad to say she is sleep okay with out them. We have some nights and naps that are not great, but it seems to be getting easier. One of the gifts the Easter bunny left was a small chalkboard with colored chalk. This has been a great source of entertainment for Liv and its great for learning. She loves coloring with it, drawing and also cleaning it. I have to say I really forgot how nice it is to color with chalk. There is something so easy about it I enjoy playing with it too.

Liv often tells me things to draw. She learns a lot from observing. She usually doesn't jump into things or just try she watches and watches over and over again till in her mind she thinks she has it then she tries it, usually with great success too. I was not to found of drawing with crayons on paper so it is nice now that I can enjoy drawing while she studies my techniques, or lack there of. But I guess it really doesn't matter much to a 2 year old. She is still working on drawing simple shapes so her watching me draw the sun or moon is teaching her about circles. She also watches me to see how I hold the chalk. Once she gets shapes down better I am planning on using a Montessori method for teaching her how to write her letters. I plan to make sandpaper cut outs of the letters and she can use those to copy the letter on the chalkboard. I am not one to push learning on my young child so I don't think we will start this till the fall, if I think she is ready now. But we do work on letter identification now. I will draw letter and she names them. For the most part our chalkboard is used for art but it amazes me how something so simple could be such a great source of learning for her. Simple really seems to be best when it comes to learning for children and most enjoyable.

For the Birds

Over the winter I sat down and tried to make up a preschool syllabus for Liv. I am not sure if she will ever attend preschool so I wanted to start homeschooling at home. But after working on it for a few months I stopped. Liv is 2 1/2, which around where I live is probably the average age kids go in to preschool. I am not a huge fan of this, especially if it is an academic preschool. I don't think young children are made to sit around and be taught at. They need to experience life, learn with their hands and hearts. So I've been doing an unschooling approach for preschool so far. I just try to "teach" Liv things she is showing interest in. Recently it has been birds.

She was asking me what type of bird that was one day. Luckily I knew it was a blue jay, but there was so much I didn't know so I though what a perfect way to teach her about natures, categorizing, her colors and so many other skills that I probably don't realize. So the first thing I did was go to the library and get a bunch of books about birds, bird watching and how to attract birds to your yard. Blue jays are blue, cardinals are red, Baltimore orioles are orange and black. We spot these birds in our backyard almost daily and I go over their colors with her. We put out different feeders and seeds for different birds. She is learning which birds eat seeds, and how other like suet. We watch robins in our lawn pulling worms all day. Today we sat in our bathroom and spied on a cardinal singing for a mate. In addition to learning bird calls and how they attract each other she is learning how to be quiet and patient while watching these birds. Teaching a 2 year old to whisper and be still is hard, but when the motivation is watching a beautiful bird she does much better. Sometimes we listen to bird calls in the car. She loves it. She is learning all different types of birds, about the seasons, where they live, what they eat, what songs the sing, how baby birds come to be, about migration and so much more. So of this goes over her little head, but I know she is absorbing so much from just watching the birds and looking at the books with me. This also keeps us outdoors. We will go out and fill the bird feeders every couple of days so she is gaining a sense of responsibility too. This is just one thing I have been doing with her, but right now it takes a large part of our "schooling" since the birds are flocking to our yard and we often just stop and sit to watch them. She really enjoys looking through the bird books too. I love watching her get all excited about learning and wanting to know more. I hope this helps instill a life long love of learning. We are also working on a garden, but it is very early in the season for to be taking up too much time of our day. We have a nice weekly routine of activities but when ever we have nothing to do or a empty spot in our day I go to my some of my unschooling ideas to keep us occupied in a fun way.

6 months is enough

My newborn is no longer a newborn anymore.

In way you look at it 6 months is way out of the newborn stage, yet in many ways I feel I have been slacking like I'm still dealing with a newborn. I still take naps most days (with Ev) my excuse has been well she is not sleeping through the night. I am often in sweats, partly because I still need to lose some weight so I have a limited amount of clothes. Our routine is lacking, the tv is on more then I like, meals are done on the fly and I just feel like a general slacker. I decided 6 months is enough. Today Eve is 7 months so for about 2 weeks I've changed things up and am slowly starting to get back into a routine. I'm not jumping in head first, I'm slowing adding things back into our days and week to get us motivated, keep us happy and productive. The first thing I have done is eliminated my morning tv time. It just started the day off wrong. When Eve was waking several time I needed to sit and watch some morning news, that would role into some tv time for Liv then aroun 930 10 our day would start. We were still in our pjs and got nothing done. I've got Eve sleeping better and am trying to go to bed earlier so now its breakfast then right upstairs to get dressed. Some days I will let myself be in sweats, but I'm trying to limit that too. Its not possible 100% since I still don't fit in lots of my clothes, but I'm getting there. 10 more lbs and some toning and I will be at pre-baby weight. That is another reason why I wanted to get back into a routine. To fit in exercise time. On nice mornings I get everyone dressed and we go out for a walk while Eve naps in the Ergo. For our week we are now doing: Monday-market, grocery shopping in the morning afternoon-free Tuesday-storytime in the morning at a local library, then park afterwards if nice afternoons-free Wednesday-laundry day, outdoors garden day Thursday- cleaning day/errand day Friday-playdate, park day Sat-free Sunday-church I am trying to incorporate some more activities in our day so we don't depend on the tv anymore. I would love to get tv time back down to 1/2hour. Some days we are as high as 2 hours, most closer to 1. Right now Liv is loving birds so its taking up lots of our time. We bird watch, listen to bird calls in the car, identify birds from books, make sure there is food for them and try to listen to bird calls while outside. I'm trying to get some of myself back. Dressing nice, doing my hair or make up daily, knitting or reading in the evenings, yoga and pilates some nights to help get back in shape. I think 6 months is enough time and time to move on out of being all about the new baby. Spring is here so its the perfect time to refresh and get back to living life the way we enjoy.

St Patrick's Day

I just love St. Patrick's Day. I worked at an Irish pub for years and even though it was a crazy busy day it was filled with good food, good friends, dancing and music. Now with young children I plan to keep some of our Irish heritage alive on this day. In the morning I will start an Irish stew in the crock pot for dinner. We will also make Irish soda bread to have with dinner. Then on to some crafting. Since Liv is only 2 we will just do the simple craft of dipping a pepper in green paint to make shamrocks. When they are older I will explain who St. Patrick was and how the shamrock is often shown to explain how the Trinity works, 3 leafs but really it is all one. There is so much history behind the story of St. Patrick, but much of this will go over their heads. Right now I just explain how St. Patrick was a very important person in Ireland because he led so many people to believe in Jesus. We will listen to some Irish music and sing some old songs. I will also show Liv how to do the Irish jig. I may also let her watch some of the St. Patrick's Day parade. Hopefully one day we will go get to go see it. I did in my younger days, but being 22 I was doing it more for the drink then the entertainment. When they are older I plan to take them out to some places that have Irish step dancing and bag pipers, but at their young age it is just too much for them right now. At night when they are asleep I will enjoy a drink with my husband. Happy St. Patricks Day!

Walking with Children

One my favorite forms of exercise is walking in a wooded area. Maybe because I did this so often as a child, but I really enjoy nice country walks. We are lucky to live in a rural area. Just out my door and a short walk down the road are some woods, then an old church and a small farm with cows and some chickens. I strap Eve in the ergo and put Liv in a jogging stroller I got from my neighbors for $5. After about 5 minutes Liv wants to get out and explore. I try to time it with Eve's nap so she can just sleep and enjoy being nice a close to momma. She usually passes out in 5-10 min. Now comes the patience. Most people want to walk, move, get going, keep their blood pumping. But with a toddler this is hard to do. She wants to explore. I let her as much as possible. Her new thing is looking for nuts. I am no expert so I'm not sure what kind of nuts she is picking up, she calls them acorns. Liv collects them for our backyard squirrel she lovingly named Jumpy. She is a big Curious George fan. In the spring and summer she collects flowers. We stop to look at the cows, talk with them and moo at them. We listen, to roosters, the wind, a train whistle or maybe a tractor in a near by field. We feel the sun on our face, the wind blowing. We may cloud gaze or look at the blue sky. Sometimes we sit on the steps at an old church and have a sip of water. Occasionally we will look at a small creek, if we are lucky we will see a frog. We might talk with a neighbor, but since we have only a few that is rare. We just listen, look, explore and relax.

It is not much of a work out, but having Ev in the ergo helps. Eventually Liv tires and wants to go back in the stroller. This is where I can work out. Its a pretty nice work out up and down small hills with a baby strapped to your chest and pushing another one. In the spring we will do this twice a week. Liv never bores with this. There is so much for her to see and discover on our walks. She is learning so much about nature, animals, weather, sounds, and much more while getting some exercise too. When she wants to explore we walk at a very slow pace. I also have some rules since we do not have a sidewalk. She must always stay to the inside of the stroller and when a car comes she must hold my hand. But other then that I give her the freedom to learn as much as she can. I carve out up to a 2 hours slot in our day. Our walks usually take 1 to 1 1/2 hours. I do not want to rush this. We go in the late morning and have a snack when we get home. This is a lovely way to start our day, gets our blood flowing and gets us in nature. I sometimes through in an impromptu lesson about nuts, cows, clouds, colors, corn, tractors, trains, whatever we see. And often we will go to the library in the afternoon and get a book about what ever lesson I "taught." I don't spend too much time on this, I don't want it to become to school like. We might talk about th

e nuts for the squirrels, maybe I will point out they are round or brown, or which tree they fell from. I might tell her what squirrels eat and how they hid their nuts. She gets excited and brought the nuts home and left them in our yard for Jumpy to eat. This is our little nature walk, preschool study time. I love these simple things and the simple way I get to teach her about nature and more.

Lent Season

Today marks the start of Lent. Lent is traditionally a time of abstaining. Fridays are meatless and people often give up something such as sweets or drinking. In my younger days I always gave up drinking, with a dispensation on St. Patrick's Day. But there is something very flawed with this simplistic view of Lent.

People fasted and gave up certain foods, traditionally, because food was scarce this time of year. Its a time before spring crops have arrived and many people would go hungry. The idea wasn't just to fast for the sake of fasting, but to give then food you would of eaten to the hungry. But many people go with the no meat on Fridays, and eat fish or even lobster, which misses the point. At my church there are recipes of traditional meatless meals from third world country. We have little donation boxes to put in the money you would of spent on a modern American meal since a meal of rice and beans does not cost much. This goes with the point of Lent, not to just give up, but to also give. So instead of just giving up something for its own sake, think of something you can do positive instead. A common theme I have seen of my facebook page is people giving up facebook for Lent. I know for myself this would not be easy and may not be the best for my mental health, as unfortunately it is lately the main source for adult conversation. But for those who plan to give facebook think of a positive twist to use the time you not spending online, such as spending time with family, reading the bible or volunteering. This year I am not giving up anything per say, but just trying to make some time to be more healthy for myself. Even though this is a time of giving, being a mother and a wife I feel making this a priority in my life is not just for me. A healthy and happier momma means a healthier and happier family and a good role model for my children. I will be spending less time online and watching tv and just being indoors in general to achieve my goals. I'm hoping to take more walks with my children, exercise, eat healthier and cook healthier family meals. Part of this is to help lose the remaining baby weight I have, but part is just to get myself back on track. I do not have the easiest pregnancies and then when the baby was little exercise and healthy meals took a back seat to sleep and caring for a newborn. It is not much easier to grab a cookie over an apple, I just need to make the conscious effort in my mind to go for the apple, and make sure they are stocked in my house. Being a good role model through out Lent is important for my children to see and hopefully they will see how important Lent is. That it is more then just not eating meat and the time before Easter. Its a time of prayer, almsgiving, family, being center and working hard to be the person you want to be, the person for yourself and for God.

My Favorite games

One of my favorite things to do with Liv and now Eve is to sit down and do some fingerplays. They are a great distraction when Liv is upset, keep her entertained during down time or while we are out some where. They are also a great little activity when we are stuck inside during the winter.

Round and round the garden like a teddy bear (walk fingers around babies belly) One step, two step tickle you under there ( take 1 step with fingers, 2 steps and tickle under chin) 5 Little Ducks 5 little ducks went out to play (hold up 5 fingers) Over the hills ( move arm in a wave hill motion) and far away (put hand above eyes to look out) Mother duck cried "Quack quack, quack" (Clap) But only 4 little ducks came back repeat all with 4, 3, 2, 1 No little ducks went out to play (say with sad tone and hold hand up to make a zero) over the hills and far away But mother duck had hope and prayed so still cried "Quack quack quack!" And all 5 ducks came running back! (say very excited and tickle child with 5 fingers quickly running back) Beehive Here is the bee hive (make a fist) here are the bees ( point to fist) Hidden away where no body sees Here they are coming out of the hive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (open fingers one by one) They're alive..bzzz (tickle withthe bzzz) Alligator Alligator, alligator (take arms one on top of each other open at end with hands long and green (open and close extended arms that are together) Alligator, alligator ( repeat above) Teeth so mean ( hold finger tips together, curved open and close them) Alligator, alligator what's for lunch (open and close alligator arms) Liv(you child's name) is, munch, munch, munch (munch child with arms)