Author Spotlight: Bonny Becker

We love to read at our house.  Library visits happen about once a week to replenish our supply of  books.  I wish I'd kept better records on our favorite stories.  Some have been forgotten, but others we've actually purchased because we loved them so much.   

Bonny Becker's books A Visitor for Bear and Bedtime for Bear are two beloved favorites at our house.

I think a good children's book needs to have: rich vocabulary, engaging pictures, and an interesting story.  If I don't like the illustrations, forget it!  I don't even bother with the book.  Kady MacDonald Denton does a fabulous job of portraying the stories.  Besides great illustrations, the vocabulary is fantastic in these books, and my kids use the words correctly in daily life.  (Recently my 3 year old used the word mournful.) The teacher in me loves that!  The stories are hilarious, which makes for an enjoyable read aloud.

Plus we've had all kinds of fun having tea parties and impromptu dramas to recreate these books.  One day we went out to eat at a restaurant that had a working fireplace.  My son flopped down in front of the "crackling fire" to warm his toes...just like Bear and Mouse did in A Visitor for Bear.  I was a bit humiliated as he made quite a fuss about the crackling fire, but he was absolutely delighted.   

(All of the photos were taken in 2012... I've been meaning to write about these books for a long time!)

I need to mention that there are two more books in the series about Bear and Mouse (small and gray and bright-eyed), but review them before you share them with your kids.  I waited for quite a while on The Sniffles for Bear as it mentions writing a will.  (Bear, over-dramatic about most things, has a cold and thinks that maybe he's going to die.)  A Birthday for Bear, was written to be an "easy reader", so the vocabulary was simplified for beginning readers to be able to read it on their own.  It lacks the charm of the other books, and honestly I think Bear is so rude that I didn't want my kids to hear the story.  They've since published a full-sized version of the birthday book, but I don't know if they've enriched the text or kept it simple.  Either way, preview it first to see whether you feel the message is appropriate for your little ones.

The kids and their cousin listening in as Gram reads AVisitor for Bear

Series for Young Readers: Trucktown

My son (age 5 1/2) is sometimes a reluctant reader.  He is always eager to have stories read to him, but he's not always keen to read books on his own.  So, I'm always looking for books that are interesting to him and easy enough that he can read them without help.  If he does engage and read an easy book, it builds his confidence and he's more apt to try it again.

One series he really enjoys is called Jon Scieszka's Trucktown.  The illustrations are funny and full of personality, and the characters are wacky and always in motion.  The text is very simple, but the stories are still interesting.  This is rare to find all of these qualities in an easy reader.  Most boys will really enjoy them.  My three year old daughter also finds them entertaining, probably because some of the vehicles are girls and the pictures are very colorful.

We just finished reading Truckery Rhymes together.  It is a hilarious re-write of common nursery rhymes.  For example, instead of "Pop Goes the Weasel", it says..."Pop! Blows the Diesel".  This book was more complicated than the other Trucktown stories, so I read it to the kids.  I think your family might find it entertaining as well.

Do you have any suggestions of fun books that are great for beginning readers?  Please share your suggestions in the comments.

Our Reading Curriculum for 2012-2013

One of the biggest tasks of homeschooling is choosing what curriculum or learning plan to use.  It is overwhelming to choose as there are so many options available.   Talking to other families who homeschool and doing a lot of research on-line has been invaluable in the decision making process.  Although I've been "homeschooling" our kids from the moment they were adopted, this school year was the first official year for us as our son is now five.  I wanted to share with you what we've done this year for reading. (Keep in mind that he's doing 1st grade reading this year.)  I apologize for how long this is, but hopefully it will be a help to you!  

There are tons of products out there for teaching a step-by-step approach to phonics.  In 2011, I purchased Hooked on Phonics (pre-K thru 2^nd grade pack) to teach my son how to read.  It was a season in my life where I was constantly tired with one child who was energetic all day and another (newly adopted) who would not sleep at night.  I had to have a reading curriculum that would require little or no prep from me, and be engaging enough to interest my high octane four year old.  H.O.P. is definitely all of that, and it doesn’t require any handwriting in the early books.  It’s pricey, but a lot cheaper than preschool!  Now that I’m not exhausted all the time, I would not choose Hooked on Phonics as my go-to reading curriculum.  Since we have it, I’m using the preschool activities with our daughter.  However, I rarely use it with our son as we’ve found other books that suit us better.  We do use H.O.P. as a supplemental to get more practice in areas (like consonant blends) that challenge him.  We skip the companion videos completely as they seemed to decrease my son’s ability to focus.

What we really love for learning phonics…Explode the Code workbooks.  Yes, there’s writing, but we modify whenever possible to keep the frustration level down.  These workbooks are simple with silly illustrations and goofy sentences.  They teach phonics in a step-by-step sequence with lots of opportunity for practice, and the kids like them because they’re funny. There is a great three workbook series for pre-readers that I just purchased called Get Ready for the Code.  My daughter (age 3) and I are really enjoying book A, and it’s perfect for her ability level.  My son (age 5 ½ ) is currently working on Explode the Code book 3. We started using Explode the Code when H.O.P. got too challenging (it moves along quickly) for my son, and he began to strongly resist learning to read.  We took a break from the hard stuff and had fun going slowly through the blends in Explode the Code book 2.  Once we got through that book, he was back on track with reading and eager to read out loud with me again.

Rather than go right back to H.O.P. where we’d left off, I decided to start something fresh so we could distance ourselves from the frustration that had caused my son to plateau before Explode the Code.  Thanks to a good friend who homeschools, we decided to try the Pathway Reading Series.  There are 13 books in the series that range from first to eighth grade.   The first book is called First Steps, and is considered a beginning of the year first grade book.  It's hard to find these books, but Exodus Books always has them in stock as so many homeschool families love them.  They are very also very reasonably priced at $6.00 for a hard-bound book, and $2.50 for the workbooks.

Pathway Reading Series begins with First Steps (1st grade) and ends with Our Heritage (8th grade).

We all love this series of books!  My son and I read the stories aloud together and my daughter eagerly listens in.  I love the books because they are similar to what I had when I learned to read back in 1981.  I also chose these books because they teach values through the stories like sharing, obedience, kindness, and being helpful.  The characters are fascinating to my kids, and the stories engage their interest.  The books have simple black and white drawings.  These books were created for the Amish, so there are no pictures of people in them.   I like this because my kids are free to invent their own images of what the characters might look like.  They do enjoy the black and white illustrations of animals and farm life.

There are also workbooks that go along with each book.  The workbooks are very basic in appearance, but that’s fine with me.  I pick and chose which pages to do, focusing on activities that test comprehension, critical thinking, and grammar.  We skip a lot of busy work, and often I will write in the answers as the lines are too tiny for my son’s level of handwriting.  There are auditory tests where he has to circle the word I say, or chose the picture that matches the scenario I read about.  I especially like to do these pages since his answers give me a better understanding of his listening and comprehension skills. 

To round out our reading curriculum, we read aloud twice daily to both of our kids.  We often visit the library to have fresh stories to enjoy together.  I try to get books to engage each of my children individually and some books that they both will like.  We also get books with a CD so they can sit together and listen to a story being read to them.  Most nights, my husband has been reading a novel to the family.  He’s read: The Hobbit, Wind in the Willows, Little House in the Big Woods, Stuart Little, and the entire series about Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary.  Of course, there was some editing of certain things when it was inappropriate for little ears to hear.  I’ve been impressed with the kids’ ability to listen to a chapter and actually comprehend some or most of it.  They really enjoy this family time and often beg for another chapter.  Love it!

My husband reading The Gruffalo's Child to our two cuties.

A great resource to inspire reading together is a book called First Favorites by Veritas Press.  It recommends 13 different fairly well-known children’s books, some classic and some more modern.  After reading the book aloud, there are activity pages to do together.  It’s writing intensive, which we skipped for reasons already mentioned.  However, it was still fun for us to go beyond the story and do something fun together.  For example, after reading the story Blueberries for Sal, we learned about how bears hibernate.  We colored pictures of bears and then tucked the pictures away in closets so they could hibernate.  When spring arrived, we took our pictures out and celebrated that the bears woke up.  I also bought some blueberries and we made a blueberry pie! 

In a 2012 post, The Next Steps Toward Learning to Read, I mentioned some great books to check out for beginning readers.  These books are very easy so your just learning to read child can delight in reading a story to you. 

Got some great reading books or ideas to share?  Leave me a comment.  I'd love to hear from you.

My Fitness Pal

After my 30 day No Sugar Challenge, I decided to use an app called MyFitnessPal to help me track how many calories I eat every day.  My goal is to keep off the extra pounds that I lost during the sugar fast.  I'm not sure if I will only go 30 days with this new challenge, or keep it up for longer.

MyFitnessPal works. If you are wanting to lose weight, it really works!  Check out my husband's blog to read about his weight loss journey.  He has lost 35 lbs. in 100 days!!  I am so proud of him and how he has inspired many others to join him.  My husband's example and using this new app are definitely helping me keep myself in check.  In fact, I've even lost a pound in the 15 days I've been tracking my calories.  I'm happy with that since I'm eating enough to maintain my weight rather than trying to lose more.

M.F.P. is a free app, and easy to use.  Of course, it takes time (and can be a hassle) to track down labels and barcodes to find out how many calories are in your meals.  But the benefit is you start to develop healthy eating habits.  One of the most important habits is portion control.  We've learned to budget our calories.  We can eat whatever we want, but since we only get 1400 or 1500 calories a day we don't want to blow 1/3 of them on a cinnamon roll!  We have found that we eat more fruits and veggies and fewer processed foods since they are so high in calories.  At the end of the day, if we still have calories left we enjoy a treat.  Actually, I think we both aim to have leftover calories so we can have a cookie once the kids are asleep.  :-)

Here's one other bit of good news, you don't have to exercise!  If you do exercise, MyFitnessPal will give you more calories to eat on that given day.  So, if you really want that piece of pie you might go for a walk or run up the stairs for ten minutes.  My extended family is also using MFP.  My sister and mom were wanting to have dessert the other night but had both run low on calories.  So, they went for a jog around the neighborhood!  We all had a good laugh about that.

Well, what about you?  Are you tired of feeling like you are losing the daily battle to control your food cravings?  Try using MyFitnessPal, and get a friend or spouse to join you.  I promise that if you stick to the calories suggested you will see positive results!  Let me know how it goes.

October 2012, this picture really motivated my husband to make
some dietary changes.  

April 2013, after three months of using MyfitnessPal, my husband is 35lbs lighter!
This is the thinnest he's been in the 13 years we've been married.

A Typical Homeschool Morning

When we started on the adventure of teaching our kids at home, I had no idea what a normal day should look like.  Perhaps you are also wondering how to get started.  Let me share with you some of the details of this morning so you can get a glimpse into our routine. (My son is five and my daughter is three.)

Here are the resources we used for today's lessons.

We started off at 10:00 am with handwriting pages that I’d printed out from Starfall.com.  Yesterday, I noticed that my son was not writing his e’s or u’s properly, so I printed out the worksheets for extra practice.  Some of the pages were too simple for him, so I gave them to my daughter.  She likes to be included, and my son is an extrovert and prefers to have someone else working with him, so they were both happy.  

While my son worked independently, I sat on the floor next to my daughter and we counted eggs on her letter e worksheet.  I helped her write the numbers in the box.  Then we colored eggs that had capital E and lower case e on them.  We also had time to do the letter u page.  Once we finished that, I gave Marisa markers and she colored her pages.

That gave me time to help Kieran think of words that started with E, and write out the word egg.  We focused on staying in the lines and writing as neatly as possible.  I could tell he was getting frustrated after one page of handwriting, so I gave him the option to move on to math.  He was happy to skip the letter u worksheet.  I decided we could tackle that tomorrow.

I gave my son a brief explanation of the two math pages and hopped back to my daughter.  She was done coloring, so we moved on to reading.  I used a flip chart to review the –at words she’s been learning to read. The few words she needed to sound out, my son chimed in and sounded out with her.  (He gets distracted easily, so I had to remind him to move away from us and get his math done.)

These are the activities I did with my daughter today.  

Since Marisa got through the flip chart so easily, I pulled out her Hooked on Phonics preschool book and we hunted for pictures that started with the letter L.  By the end of that page, she was getting antsy to do something else.  I let her choose some stickers for her good work, and then she was off to play.  She plays quietly and independently- which is a huge blessing- so now I was able to give Kieran my undivided attention.

I must add that throughout the time I was helping Marisa, Kieran was interrupting to ask for help, or just to show off his work.  He is a brilliant boy, but often needs reassurance.  He is progressing at being able to finish a whole page, but when we first started kindergarten, he was not able to do three problems on his own.  This may be typical for some kids.  Thankfully, they all mature eventually and get past needing someone to hold their hand all the time.

Back to math…my son is doing Horizons math book 1.  It is actually quite easy for him, but because of his struggle with handwriting we are moving through it at a slower pace.  Today he was enthusiastic about the pages and wanted to do two extra pages.  Great!!  This is the beauty of homeschool.  We go at the pace of each child.  Too hard, slow down.  Too easy, move ahead.  Not working, find something else that does. 

Here is a peek at some of the pages my son did today.

So, we breezed through math and moved on to Explode the Code book 3. I modified the assignment to focus on just the phonics and skip the writing portion.  Asking him to do more handwriting at this point in the day would have pushed us both over the edge! My son did well, but struggled with reading plate vs. plane.  This was a clue to me that he’s not really looking at the whole word, but just enough of it to make a guess.  I made a note in his book to practice more words like these next time.  

After Explode the Code, we moved on to our final assignment: short and long vowel words.  I have a list of 18 short vowel words on a page. I put a plastic cover over the sheet so we can write on it with a Vis a Vis marker, erase, and use it again later.  I had him read the word can, then I wrote an e behind it to make cane.  When we got to man/mane it prompted an interesting discussion on the definitions of mane, Maine, and main.  Once we were done, I made a quick note of the words that were difficult for Kieran so we can practice those next time. 

I got this idea from working at Sylvan.  It's a great way to help your child practice the silent e rule.

By 11:00 my son’s attention span was spent.  He was eager to run to the window and watch his daddy mow the lawn.  While the kids watched my husband, I made brief notes on my iPad for our next class based on the progress and struggles we had today.  It took me about five minutes to complete.

That’s a fairly typical homeschool day.  Although the official learning time has ended, we are never really done teaching.  All day we will have teachable moments where we are imparting something to them.  But that’s a post for another day. 

Next time I will post more specifics on the books we are using this year as choosing curriculum can be one of the most daunting parts of jumping into homeschool.  

No Sugar Challenge Day 30 and Beyond

I did it!  I went 30 days without eating sugar.  It was harder than I expected, especially the last week as PMS struck and I found all my cravings for sweets came back.  I wanted to give up on the final few days, but why quit when the end was in sight?  So, I hung in there and completed the challenge.  Although it was tough, I'm so glad that I did the sugar fast.  I gained some valuable insights, both spiritual and physical.

First, I discovered that I was relying on sugar to help me feel better.  When I felt stress, exhaustion, self-pity, or frustration I would turn to sweets to alleviate the negative emotions.  Going through 30 days without my "sugar fix" definitely made me more understanding toward people who struggle with other types of addictions.

Second, I learned that God wanted me to turn to Him - not sugar - for emotional support.  Psalm 34:8 says, "Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who trusts in Him." There is a sweetness to God's presence, and as I turned to Him in my frazzled moments I was refreshed.  This is still a work in progress.  It's easy to reach for food to comfort, but turning to God takes discipline and practice.

There are three books I am reading that have been a great source of inspiration on this topic:
-Made to Crave: Satisfying Your Deepest Desire with God, Not Food by Lysa TerKeurst
-The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence
-Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence by Sarah Young

Third, I realized I don't really need sugar.  Remember how I loved chai tea?  I broke my sugar fast on Easter by having a chai.  I was surprised to discover that it tasted like maple syrup mixed with hot water.  Crazy, that is not how I remember it tasting thirty days ago!  I've had a few chai teas since then, but I don't really care for it anymore.  Chocolate, on the other hand, is still delicious!

What's next?  I'm starting to plan ahead each day rather than waiting for hunger to strike and then deciding what I'll eat.  For the next thirty days, I've also decided to use My Fitness Pal.  It helps me count calories so I don't fall back into bad eating habits.  (I'll post more about My Fitness Pal in the future as it deserves a post of its own.)    

Although my challenge has ended, it is just the beginning of a journey to eat better and live better.  It's not just eating habits that I need to change, but also heart habits.  Every day I'm working at changing my perspective on things.  When I need help, I'm retraining myself to ask God to help me instead of seeking a momentary fix that doesn't really fix anything.  

No Sugar: Day 20

This challenge to avoid sugar for a month has been so educational.  After about two weeks of fasting sugar, I noticed that not eating sweet things wasn't hard anymore.  I didn't crave it insanely, and fruit seemed to satisfy my desire for something sweet.  I still wanted sweet things, but I was content without them.

Then I invited a group of ladies over to my house for coffee.

One gal brought muffins to share.  I thought it would be rude to not eat one, and I didn't wish to offend her.  So, I ate half of a muffin.  It had chocolate chips in it, and I tried to savor every bite.  It was a store bought muffin and wasn't bad, but it wasn't as amazing as I expected it to be.  Even though it wasn't fantastic, the other half of that muffin was so tempting to me!  I looked at it and longed to eat it for a day.  Finally I gave it to my kids so I wouldn't eat it.

After eating that half of a chocolate chip muffin, I felt like I was starting over on day one of my sugar fast.

I had terrible sugar cravings for about three days!  My mind was screaming at me, "Give me sugar!!"

I was so surprised at how my body reacted to just that little treat.  Thankfully, the feelings of insane craving have subsided and I'm once again content with my sugarless diet.

One thing that has helped me immensely is to find replacements for the foods I used to love.  I've purchased all kinds of tea to replace my beloved Chai.  When stress strikes, I get a cup of tea.  When I'm craving a pastry type of sweet, I eat gluten free rice Chex.  When I just want sweets, I have some kind of fruit.  When I make peanut butter and honey sandwiches for my kids, I have a pb and banana sandwich.  It's not bad!  I've tried applesauce on my peanut butter sandwich too.  That wasn't so great.  By far, my favorite treat is home made fruit smoothies.

As I'm nearing the end of my fast, I'm wondering what I should do now about sugar.  I don't want to avoid it for the rest of my life.  But I also don't want to be a slave to it.  I definitely don't want to go back to the sluggish, tired, pants feeling-too-tight living that I had before this challenge.  I guess these thoughts will be explored further on my day 30 post.

No Sugar Update: Day 10

It's been ten days without sugar.  The first week was REALLY tough; I wanted to quit every day!

I was so cranky and feeling so sorry for myself whenever I couldn't have a treat.  My poor family had to put up with me being a grouch for a while.  Around day four, my husband joked about pinning me down and pouring some sugar down my throat!

After a week went by, it seemed like I turned a corner and avoiding sugar has been easier since then.  I'm not craving it as much or as intensely.  I miss treats, and I still want something sweet four or five times a day.  But, I'm not feeling irritable or cranky anymore.

It has been an eye-opener to find out how my body and my mind has been so reliant on sugar.  For example, I will eat dinner and feel full but my brain will send out signals that I'm still "hungry" because my body is craving something sweet.  I also still find myself yearning for chai or chocolate when things get stressful.

However, there have been benefits too, and that has kept me going.

One change I didn't expect is that I'm less tired.  Before the challenge, I'd eat a meal and then feel like taking a nap about twenty minutes later.  Not anymore.

Also, food has more flavor since I quit eating sugar.  Some processed foods that I enjoyed before, like chicken nuggets, don't taste good to me now.  I can detect the additives that aren't natural.  It's really weird.  Other foods that were just o.k. before are now delicious!  Fruit is so much sweeter than I'd ever realized.  Tonight I made a fruit smoothie and added unsweetened chocolate.  Wow!  What a treat that was.  (The kids didn't think so though.)

Another awesome result is that my too-tight pants aren't so tight anymore.  I have known for a while that I needed to make some changes to my eating habits because all my jeans were getting uncomfortable.  But, I had been ignoring the problem and hoping it would go away without any effort on my part.  HA!!  Other days, I'd feel like there was no solution to my pants shrinking and I'd just have to live with my body expanding.

So, here's the crazy thing, in just three days of no sugar I could tell a difference.  I tried on my too small pants and found out they were wearable!  I now have three pairs of pants that I can wear again.  (They were actually on their way to the "donate" pile because I was giving up on ever fitting into them again.)

Seeing physical improvement has been the biggest motivator to keep going with my No Sugar for 30 Days challenge.  I am so happy to be taking charge of myself.  (Apathy was a miserable place to be!)  Although self-discipline is not fun, it sure has it's rewards when you keep going for a while.

I'll be checking in again on Day 20.

I'd love to hear from you.  What changes are you making in your life?

30 Days Without Sugar

Character training is a major part of parenting.  Right now, the lesson of obedience seems to be the theme with both of our kids.  (I've been quoting Ephesians 6:1 to them a lot!)  As I prayed about the issues of disobedience that have been cropping up, the Lord reminded me that He'd challenged me a month ago to give up sugar for a while.  I'd ignored it and kept on doing what I wanted to do.

Then I saw the irony of it, how could I continue to ask for help with my children's disobedience without addressing my own?  Well, what better way to teach obedience than to model it?

Yesterday I decided to say good-bye to sugar for thirty days.

Yesterday was a rough day!  My mind kept screaming..."Give me something sweet to eat!!"

Chai is my morning "coffee".  I think this has been the hardest thing to give up!

Today hasn't been easy (or pretty) either.

I'm realizing that sweet foods and drinks are my go-to snacks when I'm feeling stressed, tired, or sorry for myself.  First thing in the morning, and during the tired times in the afternoon, I love to drink Oregon Chai tea.  If the kids are being unusually loud, rowdy, or naughty... I surreptitiously gobble a Dove chocolate.  Late at night I often have cold cereal before bed.  Problem is, all our cold cereal options are high in sugar too.  Telling myself no to these treats is a bummer!

My favorite go-to stress reliever.  One chocolate, not the whole bag :)

However, I know that eliminating sugary foods is good for me.  If nothing else, it's helping me to eat better.  Oh, and food already tastes better too.  Crazy, but the natural flavors are more obvious when you're avoiding sweets.  Another bonus is that I do feel better about myself.  It feels good to do something healthy and a bit radical.

When stressed, this was my snack of choice today...sliced and dipped in Adam's peanut butter.

I wonder what other benefits there will be from this 30 day sugar fast?  I think God has some things to teach me.  Things that have nothing to do with food, sugar, or eating per se.  I'm praying that He'll do a good work in me, and help me to not have a bad attitude about what I'm giving up for a while.  I'll be blogging now and then to share the journey and the lessons that go with it.

What changes are you making in your life?  Is there something you've felt challenged to do, but haven't started yet?  Maybe today is your day to start.

Color Study: Yellow

Being in a drab environment is depressing to me.  The days without sun here have been too many this winter.  Once again, I find myself looking for beauty to override the gloom outside.  Today I've posted random photos that I've taken over the years... the only thing they have in common is that they focus on the color yellow found in nature.  

For some reason, yellow makes me think of heaven.  I guess because God is described as being bright like the sun.  It's no surprise to me that when the sun shines warmly on my face on a cool day, I feel like God is sending me His love.  As I write this, the gray outside is lifting and a bit of glorious blue sky is being unveiled.  Time to wrap this up and go outside in search of some sunlight to warm my face.  

I pray about all kinds of things.  Once I prayed that God would help me to take beautiful pictures while on our coastal vacation.  This is the result of my prayers.  Awesome!!

 Fall leaves are an obvious place to look for yellow.  I never tire of the visual variety that fall has to offer.

One day, my husband sliced the tops off of some bell peppers.  The patterns we found inside were intriguing.  I had to photograph them.  I love how God hides beauty in unexpected places for us to find.

Color Study: Red

Winter is such a bleak time of year.  The sky has been gray for days here.  The landscape seems drab and gray too.  I found myself craving color yesterday, and all the gray outside was driving me crazy!  So I started looking through our photos from 2012.  I was intrigued to discover the variety of shots I took that focused on one or two colors.  For fun, I thought I'd share some of my favorites with you.  I'll start with the color red.

Ah, spring, please come soon!  We do have a few primroses unfolding in the backyard now.

While reading the book 1000 Gifts, I was inspired to look for beauty everywhere.  I found it in unexpected places, like inside these humble strawberries.

Last Valentine's Day I received a dozen roses from my son.  So sweet!

Tomatoes freshly picked from our garden in September.

We have a beautiful maple tree that creates a gorgeous display of fall colors.  I love the red leaves most of all.

M&M Valentine Card Idea

Last year I got my craft mojo on and decided to make little Valentine cards for my kids to send to their  friends.  I wanted to post the photos last year, but I didn't want to reveal the surprise before they received the cards in the mail.  So, here are the pictures now...perhaps they will inspire someone to make homemade cards this February.  I used little treat cups from Stampin' Up!  The pink tag at the top pulls out so the M&Ms can be released through a little circle inside the card.   Some clever person came up with the idea, not me.  You can finds TONS of card making inspiration and clever ideas like this one on http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/  That's my go to source for card ideas, but Pinterest is great too.  Happy crafting!

Kindergarten Homeschool: Handwriting

I've been wanting to share about our homeschooling curriculum, but it's hard to find time to post these days!  Today I'll focus on our handwriting workbook.  A big part of kindergarten is learning to print.  We are really enjoying A Reason for Handwriting.  The pages are in color.  Each one features an animal to color on one side, and lots of room to practice the letters on the opposite side.  The lines are spaced well so a beginning writer doesn't have to write tiny letters.  Also, they introduce letters according to how they're written rather than alphabetically.  That way the same motions are being practiced for a while before learning something completely different.  One other thing I like is that the pages can be torn out so he doesn't have to battle keeping the book open while he's trying to write.  My son always has a positive response when we pull out the handwriting book.

Next year, the 1st grade book will introduce writing out scripture verses.  Once the child has written out a verse, he or she can send it to someone as a way to share God's Word and also show off their best handwriting.  I would highly recommend this series of workbooks (K-6th) for non-homeschooling families as well.  It could be something to do at home for more practice, or over the summer to keep their skills sharp.  Today I chatted with a mom whose kids are in public school.  Her daughters' school is no longer teaching cursive, so she's planning to get this series and teach her girls cursive at home.  Love it!  I think cursive is still important and should be taught.  What are your thoughts about that?

This is my son's kindergarten handwriting workbook.

Thanksgiving Tree

Long time since I've posted here...sorry!  Things are going well, but it's busy home schooling the kids and keeping up with the daily stuff as well.  I thought I'd share our latest project in case someone else might be inspired by it.  I wanted to do some sort of art project for Thanksgiving with the kids that would focus on the reason for the holiday: gratitude.  So, I pondered for a while and came up with the idea of a Thanksgiving Tree.  It was easy and fun to do.  We had a great time and actually didn't get extremely messy, which was good since we were not in paint clothes!  While the kids were "napping" in their rooms,  I painted trees onto the back side of wrapping paper.  I used FolkArt paint from Wal-mart.  It dries fast and washes off easily, plus it's only .97 cents per bottle.  Once the trees were dry, I painted the kids' hands to make the leaves.  We put twenty two "leaves" on each tree since Thanksgiving is on the 22nd this year.  Each day, starting November 1st, we'll write one thing that they are thankful for on a leaf.  Then, on Thanksgiving day, the kids will have a tree full of blessings that we can talk about while we enjoy our turkey dinner.  Here are some pictures in case you want to make your own.

I painted the trees onto the back side of wrapping paper.  Older kids could paint their own tree.  If you want to make it into an art lesson, have them observe trees outside to see how the limbs look without the leaves.

Next I added a bit of grass at the base of the tree so it didn't look like it was floating on the page.  I also added a title so we'd know whose tree belong to whom.  Before we started painting our leaves, I asked the kids to look outside at the variety of leaves on the trees in our backyard.  We named the different colors we saw so the kids would know why we were using the variety of colors I chose for this project.

Time to get messy!  I folded the paper so the kids could reach the limbs of the trees without ripping up the paper by crawling on it.  I opted to do one kid at a time, and just one hand painted at a time.  Marisa wanted to try painting her own hand.  I let her for a couple of leaves.  She did amazingly well for not even three years old!  (We did eleven leaves with the left hand then washed and took a break so those could dry.)

While Marisa's eleven leaves were drying, Kieran had a turn to do some leaves on his tree.  I did most of the painting on his hand, but let him try a couple on his own.  He was a bit more enthusiastic with the paint, but only got a bit on his jeans.  It washed out no problem.  Once his eleven leaves were done, then sister had a turn again to do the rest with her right hand.  The key for these guys was to do one kid at a time, and only one hand at a time...making sure to escort them to the sink so we didn't paint the whole kitchen.  :)

Here's Marisa with her finished project.  (She loves her "Penny the Penguin" from Koala Brothers.)

Here's Kieran with his Thanksgiving Tree.  (Love that smile!)

Both trees are on the wall in the dining room where we do our home school lessons.  We'll write one thing that we are thankful for on a leaf each day in November till Thanksgiving.  Then while we eat our meal, we can review all the amazing things God has blessed us with this year.

Next it was time to let the kids photograph mom.  Kieran decided to go artistic and slant the camera while he snapped the picture.  I think it turned out well.  :)

With a bit of trepidation, I let Marisa (the two year old!) hold my giant camera.  She actually got a decent photo of Kieran and me.  Everybody was all smiles after having a good time painting.  There were tense moments, but overall it was just fun.  I'm eager for November to arrive so we can start writing on our leaves.

Parenting is hard work, and not every day is all smiles and silliness like we had this afternoon.  However, it's the moments like these that I blog about so I can remember and know that there are a lot of good times mixed in with the tough ones.  Perhaps my blogs are a kind of Thanksgiving tree for me. How do you help your kids (and yourself) develop grateful hearts?  I'd love to hear from you.

Koala Brothers DVDs

With the "too hot to play outside" afternoons, we have been finding ourselves looking for indoor fun.  So, we've been checking out DVDs at the library this summer.   There are A LOT of lame movies for kids.  It's a rare treat when we find something that everyone enjoys watching repeatedly.  The Koala Brothers DVDs are awesome!  The message of each episode is: "Always try to help others".  What could be better?  The characters are cute, they work together to help solve problems, and they have adorable Australian accents.   My son has a Fisher Price airplane that he's crammed two of his stuffed animals into.  Then he zooms his airplane around the house looking for anyone who needs help, just like Frank & Buster (the Koala Brothers).  I love that my kids are copying the show and looking for ways to be helpful.   My husband and I actually like watching the shows too.  Your preschool kids will love it, and moms you probably will too.

There are four DVDs that I know of:
Meet the Koala Brothers
We're Here to Help
A Day in the Outback
 Outback Christmas
All are available on Amazon for about $8 each

Potty Training Again

Our big girl is now sporting big girl underwear...no more diapers during the day!

It's potty training time again.  I'm finding that already having been through this with our son is making this time around a bit easier. (Just a bit, a tiny bit.)  The reason being that I know eventually my daughter will be potty trained.  However, my kids are just about as opposite as can be so M is not behaving at all like K did.  I feel like I know nothing, and am not sure how to best help her!  After all the drama we went through with our son and potty training- we were on again and off again until he was three and a half!- I wasn't eager to start training our daughter.  But, she has a problem with holding her pee in all day.  I've been concerned about bladder infections, etc... The doctor suggested that maybe our daughter is ready to potty train.  Ha!  Both of my kids love(d) diapers and were not willing participants to graduating to big kid pants.  I will say, M is doing well overall. We've only been training for three days now.  She's peed in the toilet twice, in her pants three times.  Pooped in her pants three times, none in the toilet yet.  Mostly, she pees in her night time diaper when she's asleep.  We don't put the diaper on her until she's sleeping though.  The girl just doesn't go often...which makes it easy on clean up, but she's not getting much practice.  Today was a complete failure, no potty victories but I really don't care. Wish I'd been this easy going with our son!   My new philosophy on potty training is: it's not so much about the kid as it is about the parents being willing to persevere.

Oh, I have to add a P.S....We are having great success with her sleeping through the night now!  She's moved from the floor to her mattress.  Somehow, she's learned how to sleep more calmly and doesn't thrash around and end up falling off her bed or crashing into the wall.  Hallelujah!  We are now getting some much needed rest.

Recipe: Outrageous Cookie Bars

If you like chocolate, coconut and pecans...you will LOVE these cookie bars!  

I discovered a recipe on the back of my Nestle chocolate chip bag for Outrageous Cookie Bars.  (We buy our chocolate chips at Costco in the jumbo bag... a ridiculously huge package of chocolate chip morsels!) The recipe claimed they were quick and easy, plus I had all the ingredients so I decided to give them a try.  These bars need a better name...they are so scrumptious that I found myself tonight scraping the empty pan hoping to gather up a few crumbs with my spoon.  (Yes, we devoured the entire batch of cookies in less than 24 hours!)

They only require a few ingredients, and are simple enough that the kids can help you create them.  Want to sample them?  Here's the recipe:

Outrageous Cookie Bars

½ cup (1 stick) butter

1 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs

1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk

2 cups (12 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup flaked coconut

1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Melt butter in 9 x 13 inch baking pan in oven; remove from oven.  Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs over butter.  Stir well; press onto bottom of pan.  Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over crumbs.  Sprinkle with chocolate chips, coconut, and nuts.  Press down firmly.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until light golden brown.  Cool completely in pan.  Cut into bars.  Makes 2 to 3 dozen bars.

Absolutely delicious!!

100 Ways to be Kind to Your Child

A quick post today...check out this great link for some fresh inspiration and ideas on how to show your kids that you love them: http://creativewithkids.com/100-ways-to-be-kind-to-your-child/

I tried #79 today and just sat and watched while my kids did silly little dances to their favorite song.  (It was hilarious to see them try to boogie!)  I found it refreshing to slow down and just observe them, and it also rekindled the wonder and awe of being blessed with these two little miracles.

My #100, be more patient and let them know it's ok to make mistakes.

My little miracles...having a blast with their water table.
We added some dish soap to the water for a fun new way to play outdoors.

Sleep, or the Lack Thereof

Our daughter is delightful, but she doesn't like to sleep.  I think this might be normal for some kids.  We don't know much about her first eleven months of life, but I often wonder if nights were a rough time for her.  Maybe that's why she struggles now.  Or perhaps she'd have the same issues with sleep if she had grown in my womb.  Anyway, we've tried all kinds of things to help her sleep through the night...with the goal of all of us getting some much needed uninterrupted sleep.

Here's our most recent sleepless adventure...
Last night our dear daughter woke me up at 3 am with a soaked diaper.  I changed the diaper and escorted her back to bed.  As she started to protest, I gently reminded her that she could play in her room if she wasn't tired, but I needed to sleep so she must stay in her room.  She chose to play in the hallway outside our bedroom door and I guess she got bored, so she popped back into my room at 4 am.  Lovely.  That time she got a consequence and I calmly returned her to her bed.  I was proud of her that she didn't melt down but accepted the circumstances.  She finally went back to sleep in her room and slept till 8 am.  At nap time today, she opted to skip the nap and played in her room instead.  By dinner she was exhausted and took a brief nap while I got the meal prepped.  I woke her- have to admit it was sort of fun to wake her since she woke me twice last night!!- so she could have dinner with us.  She was an angry bear!  But, finally she ate and we went through our normal night time routine after eating.  Funny thing, while we snuggled and read books she repeatedly told me, "I'm not tired!"  But all her body language shouted, "I'm exhausted!"  My husband and I laughed and laughed.  I figured at bedtime she'd drop off quickly.  Nope, an hour later she was cruising the halls again- which she is not supposed to do.  I reminded her that a consequence awaited her if she roamed around again.  As I write this, all is quiet and our sleep fighter has finally given in to slumber.

Our sweetie in her toddler bed. The bed didn't last long as she kept falling out in her sleep. Not fun.

Like I said, we've tried so many different "solutions" in the 18 months that our daughter has been home from China.  Some things work for a while, but then we revisit the struggles all over again and new solutions have to be found.  I've read the books, and I've dialogued with other adoptive moms from our travel group.  Still, I'm reaching out again to see if there's an idea that we haven't tried.  (Please share your thoughts in the comments section!!)  Also, having her out of the crib is still quite new and presenting a whole new set of "adventures" for us to figure out.

Here's our list of trial and error attempts to help our girl rest well:
-stick to a night time routine
-night light and ocean sounds in room
-no night light (now she has one again)
-bottle before bed (when she was a baby)
-no bottle before bed
-rock her to sleep in desperation
-investigated food allergies (none we know of)
-bumper in the crib
-no bumper in the crib
-parent sleep on the floor in the room (when we are desperate)
-change diaper around 10:30 or 11:00 pm
-scripture lullabies playing in room
-daughter sleeps in our bed (she thrashes around, chats, and nobody sleeps!)
-switch from crib to toddler bed in her own room
-switch from toddler bed to twin mattress on the floor
-she prefers sleeping on the floor since she rolls off the mattress in her sleep
-digital clock in her room so she knows what time it is (still learning her numbers)
-sleeping on the floor in parents' bedroom...a solution when we are desperate
-allowing her to play with stuffed animals in her room until she's tired
-snuggle with her till she falls asleep, another desperate measure
-always...we pray.

The one thing that is working for me is to stay calm in the midst of loud crying in the middle of the night.  I tend to get really ticked when I don't get good sleep, so this has not been easy for me.  I know God is using this whole experience to smooth the rough places in me and make me more like Jesus.  I also know that this is only a season.  Eventually, our daughter is going to be able to sleep through the night regularly.  Still, it can be really rough being in the midst of it.  That's why I so appreciate conversations with other moms.  We usually discover as we chat that our life experiences are strikingly similar at times.  Sometimes one mom will have a brilliant idea that is so helpful.  Other times it's just a balm to have somebody to talk to that can honestly say, "I know what you mean!"  Thanks for listening to me babble on tonight!