Good Morning Mamma

I have never been a morning person by any stretch of the imagination. There are still tales circulating among our extended family of the legendary tantrums I would throw when I woke up as a toddler. This wonderful morning mood followed me all the way into adult hood.

I don't want to wake up early, and when I get up it takes me forever to get moving. If I don't have a plan for the morning the night before it takes me until lunch to get my momentum.

Of course knowing what I know now about how little I was actually sleeping before I was fitted for my Oral Systemic Balance Orthotic (OSB), it all makes more sense.

But even before I started the OSB treatment I had felt the Lord tugging at my heart. He was telling me that I needed to get out of bed before my family and become a Morning Mamma.

My first response to Him was "OK, How?" Before the orthotic getting out of bed was next to impossible. I wasn't really sleeping during the night. I would finally get into some deep sleep by the time it was time to get up. It was my husbands unhappy duty to try to wake me. I would be a groggy lump on the couch as he left for work.

I could see the need, I had the desire, but the 'how' of the matter was still an issue.

Well, God answered my prayer with the 'how' of the matter. He provided me with my first restful sleep of my life. In my OSB treatment one of my main goals has been to be that Mamma that bounces out of bed in the morning. I am not there yet!

As the season has turned to fall and the mornings have gone black the verse in Proverbs 31:15 keeps coming to mind. "She gets up while it is still dark." This verse comes from the section outlining the attributes of a wife of Noble Character. She gets up while it is still dark.... and she is industrious!

It has occurred to me that the only way the chores, my exercise and Bible and prayer time are going to get done is if I get up while it is still dark. Imagine if I were to get my chores for the day done and dinner in the crock pot before the children even got up! That would be crazy!

This would also ease the tension between getting things for the house and myself done verses doing home school and keeping the family routine during the day. With my chores already done and dinner ready and waiting, I can focus on other things! Namely, Thing 1 and Thing 2, my two daughters.

This charge to get up while it is still dark requires two parts. #1 Help from the Lord. #2 The discipline to choose to obey by making choices that will lead to obedience.

In order to get up earlier you have to go to bed earlier. I need to choose to turn off the computer, and do what it takes to get in bed at a decent hour. There is no point in getting up only to be grumpy and lumpy. I might as well sleep if I am going to be like that.

I also have to prepare. I need a plan for when I rise. This means having a list waiting for me telling me what to do first. This list has to include when and what to eat and when to get dressed and what chores to do first. Until I get into a routine, I can't count on myself being able to move and think at the same time.

With the Lord's help I hope to become an Early Bird, cheerful, chirping and industrious even while it is still dark.

Home school Journal- Month One-- Looking back

Searching for the moon!

Well, I thought it would be a good idea to journal how things have been going each month and note a few things I have learned along the way.

Last year we did the Preperatory Curriculum through the Letter of the Week website. This was an awesome program and really helped me get my feet wet as a homeschooling mom.

When I would tell people that I was doing homeschool preschool with the girls I often got a bit of a negative response. People kept saying, well you don't have to do much with preschoolers. This is true. You don't have to plan a full day of school. In fact an hour a few days a week of focused activities would do it. Here is the thing, you have to plan to do it, or else you won't do it.

The Letter of the Week program gave me enough of a structure so that I was motivated to do things with the girls, but flexible enough to work. Each week we had a theme. I would check out books from the library on that theme and then we would read them through out the week. We also had a learning poster that we could add the letter, shape or color, nursery rhyme, verse and vocabulary word to.

Sometimes we would have structured time where we would put everything on our chart. The program was designed to add things to the chart through out the week.  We would ususally add them all in one day, or sometimes they went straight to our poster review book. I made a book of all the pictures and things we would put on our poster. This is great because we can sit on the couch together and review.

There was a lot of trial and error as I went along. We had to get into the habit of school. I had to find out what times my children were most ready to do an activity with me and most ready to learn. After a while we got into a routine of sorts.

Here are a few things that were invaluable to me:

1. Book Basket: For us the best time of learning was just sitting and reading together. On Monday morning I would fill our book basket up with all new library books that focused on our theme. The theme each week was a surprise which really built excitement.
* Since this worked so well for us, I realized that a literature based home school curriculum would probably be the best choice for us in the future.

2. I tried to do field trips that had to do with the theme through out the year. This was great motivation for us to get out and do things as a family. I also rearranged the order some to meet our scheduling needs. We went on a road trip when we were learning about cars. We visited my Aunt who works at an airport when we were learning about Airplanes. We visited a friend who raises rabbits when we were learning about rabbits. We went to a farmer's market and watched someone spin wool to yarn. These out and about, hands on activities were so much fun. With out having the themes in place I would have never thought to go on those field trips.

We got out Daddy's train set the week our theme was trains.

* I really want to keep this active and adventuresome side of learning alive in our homes schooling. So I was looking for a program that would inspire and get us out and about. If I couldn't find it in a program, I wanted to make sure I planned for it myself through out the year.

3. An activity basket. Children (especially preschoolers) can learn so much by doing things with you. These side by side moments pop up through out the day. The more I can involve them in what I am doing, the more they learn. I also learned that keeping an activity basket on hand worked great. When the children needed some kind of activity I would just grab out the paints and craft supplies and we would start crafting. Having crafts and learning activities on hand made it easy to grab something and do it when the timing was right. This worked much better than trying to sit down for a structured school time.

Doing preschool was as much of a practice and preparing me for school as it was for the girls.

I am thankful for this learning year. It really laid the foundation for our second year. I wanted to take our homeschooling to the next level.

Like A Latte: A pen for all reasons

I love it when a normal thing that is just laying around the house gets taken to a new level of usefulness. As a writer I have a thing for pens. But there is a certain kind of pen that gets used to the max around here. The dry erase marker gets the gold star! (Wet erase markers work great too! Just be sure you don't confuse it with that other pen that is often despised by mother's everywhere.... Mr. Permanent Marker)

What can you use a dry erase marker for... other than a dry erase board? Glad you asked! Let me count the ways!

1. For laminated charts (take a trip back in my blog and see a few that my children and I use daily) These charts are great visual reminders of what needs to be done. They are also wonderful teaching tools that can be used again and again.
5210 & Chore Chart
Weather Report Chart

2. Ever have water glasses sitting out all over the house? One great way to cut down on confusion and dishes. Simply write everyone's name on their glass every day.

3. Decorate your mirror. I am notorious for writing notes to myself on the mirror. This is often where I put my 'To Do' list. I also write items that I have to remember to take with me the next day. On a romantic and more encouraging note.... you can substitute the dry erase marker for lipstick and write your husband a love note or encouraging words of scripture.

** This is an especially wonderful idea if you have a daughter that spends a lot of time in front of the mirror. The mirror can often be a place of self scrutiny and a spot where we focus on the beauty we lack rather than what our Creator sees. Take the chance to counteract those negative thoughts with beautiful words and scriptures that will point your children back to the One who made them and loves them.

4. Prevent leftovers and meals in the freezer from turning into mysterious monsters of grossness. Label the food and put the date on it. Then just wipe it off when you are done with it!

Who knew that a pen could be used to prevent so much waste and clutter? Happy Marking!

(A word of caution: Do make sure the pen is in fact a dry/wet erase marker and not permanent. Also test out the surface before you write all over it. I made this mistake by writing on my oven hood....oops!)

5210 Let's Go!

A couple of years ago I came across an article in Parents magazine that highlighted a program to educated parents and children in order to prevent childhood obesity.
5210 stands for a daily standard of what kids should be doing each day to stay healthy.

5- Five fruits and vegetables a day
2- Two- no more than two hours of television/TV/ or video & computer games per day.
1- One hour of physical activity
0-Zero sweets and foods that have no nutritional value.

It was a very small article, but it really caught my eye... what a simple recipe! I used this concept when developing our family schedule. I also wanted a way to keep track and stay accountable to the 5210 guidelines 
So I created and laminated a chart that I could mark off through out the day. This way the whole family could see where we were in each day.

I added a vitamin check list and my chore list to the chart. Whenever I complete any of those tasks I can just mark them off with the dry erase marker.

Now a couple of years later this program has really caught on and gained notoriety. Our local elementary School is doing this program as a school. There are lots of resources you can use to implement this program into your home.
Check it out: 5210 Let's Go!

(Let me know if you would like a chart of your own. I hope to make my charts available on PDF soon! If you want one it will probably make me get it done faster!)