Our First Day Of Little School

Letter - N

Verse - Psalms 3:3

"Don't forget truth and kindness. Wear them like a necklace."

Craft - Noodle Necklaces

Book - The Best Nest by PD Eastman

Friday was our first day of Little School!

We had it over at Tiff's house since she was planning on taking some pictures of Josie anyways (which explains why my child has 3 different outfits on in these pictures!)

The kids did great and I am even more excited about all the things we can do to teach them!

Tiffany sang songs with the kids while I set up our learning table.

We are going to take turns planning the lessons and I went first. I did the whole plan over a verse that I wanted Josie to work on memorizing (Psalm 3:3) and came up with everything else around that.

We showed them the letter N and talked about the list of words that start with N, then I read them the verse and explained the craft.

All they had to do was paint the noodles, which they loved.

If we do this again we will get the big fat noodles so they could string them themselves, but we're on a budget of $0, so we made due with what we had!

Then we read the verse again and read our book while Tiff made lunch.

Nuggets of course!

Here they are showing off their Noodle Necklaces that remind them to tell the truth and to be kind!

I was really impressed with how well they did!

I know that it will be important for me to keep talking about the letter and showing it to her all week to really let it sink in, but for their first time doing something this structured it went very well.

And I couldn't believe how many teaching opportunities were wrapped up in this simple craft. Colors, shapes, sounds, manners, patience. Once you start paying attention, there are plenty of ways to teach without making a huge deal about it!

Next week we have a lot planned for the letter F. We are doing a fish theme since Josie's party will be the next day!

Breakfast Is For Lovers

I decided that one day is not enough time to celebrate our love. So we're stretching Valentines Day out over the next couple weeks!

We started our celebration with heart shaped chocolate chip pancakes and strawberry yougurt!

The way she gobbled them up, I may be cutting her food into shapes more often!

Poor, Poor Amber

One of my besties has an awesome blog.

Wait, let me rephrase that, she had an awesome blog until she deleted her email account and it wound up locking her out of her blog forever.

So if you were a one of Amber's followers or if your just looking for a new blog to add to your ever expanding Blogroll, head over to Moments With Mabrey and let her know it's all gonna be OK.

Quiet Work

I love my Stay At Home Mom gig.

I feel like I am exactly where God wants me to be. And while I'm still working on slowing myself down enough to actually enjoy the little moments, I feel like I am getting the hang of it.

And as much as I love spending every second with Josie Kat, she's a talker.

I remember talking to Andrew around her first birthday wondering if she was ever going to talk. Oh, we couldn't wait to hear what her little voice was going to sound like.

Well, we get lots of practice listening to her little munchkin voice and as sweet as it is, around my 10th hour of talking with her, I start to crave a few minutes of quiet.

So I came up with Quiet Work.

It's a spin on the Montessori Shelves that has not only been nice for me, but something Josie looks forward to.

Quiet Work is just what it sounds like. Work that she has to sit and do quietly. They are things that are interesting and challanging for her.

I only put out 6 options at a time. I rotate an old thing out and a new thing in every week. It's all at her level on a shelf in our bookcase.

She gets so excited when I tell her it's time to do some quiet work!

She knows to pick her work, sit at the table, and then to put that work away before she picks anything else.

And did I mention it's cheap?!?!

Here's what is in her Quiet Work area this week:

A shape puzzle from the Dollar Spot at Target.

A sewing kit from Aunt Suzy!

A Magnetic Storyboard from Aunt Suzy!

The Ragtag Alphabet that I made her.

Melissa and Doug Beading.

2 Jars.

Seriously guys, I've started saving jars and toilet paper rolls and all kinds of trash and finding way to make them into toys!

This quiet work was meant to just work on her hand eye coordination, but she uses it for a ton of other things!

Yesterday we rotated in a simple strip of metal and some colorful magnets to work on colors.

She was quiet for a loonngg time! That's successful Quiet Work!

And I love working with her.

Now that we are starting Little School I'll be adding more things that can help her learn.

Thing One

Not sure we're ready for Thing Two!

Fit For A (Mermaid) Princess

I'm almost done with the party prep for Josie's party!

I finished up her birthday shirt and her crown yesterday. This is my favorite crown yet!

Little School

Tiffany and I have been talking about starting a Preschool group for a few months now.

Andrew and I are planning on Homeschooling Josie all the way through, but I've been having a hard time getting motivated. I have a couple valid reasons.

First off, she's only 35 months old.

Wait, you don't still count your kids age in months?!?! She'll be three in a few weeks and I'm still in denial so I'm sticking with 35 months.

Part of me subscribes to the school of thought that a child is best taught through play. The kid will only be this creative and full of imagination for so long, and I want her to get as much out of it as possible. Originally we had planned to just look for teaching opportunities in our everyday life rather then actually setting aside time to "do school" until she was 7.

Secondly, I'm kind of intimidated by the thought of teaching her. She seriously learns something almost immediately when I start an activity so I'm not sure how to structure our learning time.

I'm trying desperately not to compare her to other kids.

But since the weather is too cold to play outside all day and since I've been seeing SO many fun preschool activities, I figured now was as good a time as any to start with just a wee bit of school.

Tiffany and I are still working out the details and I'm sure it will be a work in progress for awhile. Right now the plan is to just get the two kids together and to take turns teaching.

We're planning on doing a letter, a number, a Bible Memory Verse, and some sort of craft.

We are going to have Little School every Friday and Josie and I are going to spend a couple hours on Wednesdays doing activities that go with whatever we learned the previous Friday.

So if you have Preschoolers and have any ideas for fun lessons, send them our way! And check back here every week for updates on what we are learning!

And The Mother Of The Year Award Goes To...

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a tie!

Poor babies.

Our Clubbin Cardigans

Friday Night was our monthly "Mommy's Time Out."

When I was getting ready I looked at Andrew with a sad face and said, "I look like such a Mom with my cardigan on."

When Amber pulled into the driveway, I felt a flood of relief when I saw she was wearing a cardigan too.

When we picked Amy up I laughed when I saw that she too was wearing a cardigan!

And Amber and I both about died when Tiffany AND Jacquline showed up wearing, what else?

CARDIGANS!

Poor Sheena doesn't own one so she was way more stylish then all of us with our Mommy Uniform on!

During dinner, Sheena suggested we go clubbing for our next Mommy's Time Out. Amber did a little strip tease and informed us that her teal caridgan was in fact, her Clubbin Cardigan so she was good to go!

Amy, Amber, and I had a whole Mommy's Day Out and spent it shopping. Then we met up with the other girls for dinner at a popular Mexican place in town.

We weren't quite ready to go home after dinner so we headed over to Target for coffee and to walk around.

I had to laugh at us when I looked around and all I saw was my friends scouring the clearance racks for stuff for our kids! We didn't even look at our section!

We are doing a fun activity next month and I already can't wait! I love Girl's Night Out!

Toe Pointer

Josie is l-o-v-i-n-g ballet.

And I am guessing that she is learning. I was only allowed to watch the first week. So now I spend the hour reading and listening to the other mom's tell the same stories every week to eachother.

I think if I started sharing my stories I might get kicked out so I just keep to myself.

Each week, when we get home, Andrew and I ask her what she learned.

She usually just talks about who cried or got in trouble or what sticker she picked at the end of class.

This week she said she learned to point her toes.

And once she started getting into it, she started teaching me upstage and downstage and how to properly twirl.

Which, according to her, I need to work on.

I cannot wait to see her in her recital costume!

Ballerina

It Can't Be Good...

When your "Angel of Healing's" head falls off...

Getting My Feet Wet

Alternatly titled:

So Many Fish In The Sea

or

Gone Fishing

or

Holy Moly, Josie is almost 3!

After wondering around Hobby Lobby for well over two hours, I finally came up with what I wanted to do for Josie's invitations.

I walked out with brass fasteners and 8 sheets of scrapbook paper.

An hour later, I was surrounded by fish!

I love invitations. They set the mood for the shindig!

The fishes eye is a brass fastener so the fish swings open and I wrote the info on the inside.

Josie's Turning 3 Under The Sea!

And while I was in Birthday Execution Mode, I finished up the sheet for the game.

We are hanging this up and letting the kids "fish" for prizes!

I'm starting to get excited!!!

The Man Of My Dreams

Saturday night this handsome man:

Brought me these gorgeous flowers:

And a super sweet singing card:

And took me out on a great date.

We even got to send this sweet little thing to her Nana's for the night!

She was packed up and ready to go about 3 hours before it was actually time to leave.

She's a fan of her Nana!

One of our goals for the new year is to have a scheduled, planned out, actual date night once a month. We go on a lot of random, spur of the moment outings together, but rarely ever take time to put together something intentional.

Saturday night was going to be our first one of the year and when we found out our church has a ministry called Diner Car we decided that was what we wanted to do for date night.

Diner Car is a awesome ministry. Basically once a month, married couples in the church go out together to a place they probably wouldn't normally go.

We had such a great time! We are still new to the church so we don't really know anyone yet and this was the perfect way to start plugging in. We met everyone at the church and then rode with a great couple to Franks Steakhouse in Fayetteville.

We sat with a few couples that we probably never would have gotten the chance to talk to (we were the youngest couple there by quite a few years!) and they were so much fun! We fit right in and I think the only time we weren't laughing was when the yummy food came out!

We topped the night off with fresh strawberry cheesecake that pretty much knocked the Cheesecake Factory out of the water!

On the way home we talked about how great the night was. It was so nice to get dressed up and taken out. I felt like we were dating again.

I am already super excited to see what we decide to do for our February date!