Love for Little Einsteins

Can I just say again how much I LOVE Little Einsteins??

We are still trying to figure out exactly what "style" of homeschool we are... are we Christian Classical homeschoolers, Delight Directed, History or Literature driven Unit Study, or Eclectic homescholers? While the style and method are still unclear -- and, yes, I do know we have some time still :-) -- what I do know is that I want to instill a love of the arts into my girls.

I must admit, I was never really "into" classical music or really appreciated art until I started thinking about homeschooling and realized that I want something different for Jordan and Cali. While I have this desire to instill this love for the arts in them, it is the 'how-to' that has had me floudering. How do I teach them something that I do not know? And, how do I teach them the arts when the majority of the curriculum and books that I have seen for this bores me to tears??? Enter The Little Einsteins!!!

My girls LOVE this show! They get up and dance with June, sing with Annie, play pretend instruments with Quincey and wave their batons with Leo. They go around the house throughout the day "conducting" me! For Christmas and for Cali's birthday, they were given tons of Little Einsteins books and toys. The books are awesome -- they have musical ones that play classical music, they have ones that are geared to teaching you Social Studies and Science topics while incorporating beautiful artwork and musical terms, and they have REALLY COOL ones with Slideviewers! We have two of the ones with the slideviewers, one on Space and the other on Australia, and they have my three and two year old EXCITED to learn about the solar system, the planets, animals and the globe! All while dancing around like June and singing like Annie, I might add!!

This morning, after having them bring me two of the books to read, we sat down and went to Playhouse Disney's site to see what kind of games they had online for Little Einteins and had a blast reading more stories online, interacting with the characters, painting and playing music!!

I know there are a lot of educators out there who frown upon television viewing, but I just had to share how much we are enjoying using the Little Einsteins in our homeschool. It is most definitely delight driven, as they love it and think they are playing, but they are learning so much -- and to be honest, so am I!!

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We're just a bunch of bunnies. . .

This week is Bunny Week at Keep the Way Christian Academy!

Today we snuggled up and read Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney and The Tale of Peter Rabbit based on the original story by Beatrix Potter. Then we got on the computer to use a little more of our awesome free trial to United Streaming and we watched animated videos of Peter Rabbit, Brer Rabbit and The Tortoise and the Hare, a cute cartoon about rabbit holes, and an Animal Discovery Fun for Kids segment on baby rabbits. Jordan is a very visual learner, so she gets so much out of these videos..... I LOVE United Streaming!!

After our videos, it was time for lunch so I made them a fort under the kitchen table but told them it was a rabbit hole. I brought them their lunch and told them to be good little bunnies and eat all of their food. . . not sure if that is the reason, but today they both cleaned their plates in one sitting, which is HUGE! As a result, the rabbit hole is still in tact and it might be where they eat dinner tonight, HA!

Tomorrow we will be using the awesome guides and information for Guess How Much I Love You provided by Christina at Mustard Seeds and incorporate the Rabbit Theme Week from the Preparatory Curriculum at Letter of the Week. As soon as Runaway Bunny comes in, we will start "rowing" that using Before Five in a Row and Homeschool Share.

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Birthday parties and parades....

We got back from New Orleans last night a little after 11pm, hyped up on cake, ice cream and pizza! Gregg is finishing up his Tulane MBA and while he is enrolled in the Houston location, they wanted the class to at least be on the main campus for one weekend of classes prior to graduation. Luckily for us, the class voted for it to be this past weekend, which happened to coincide with Cali's 2nd birthay and parades for Mardi Gras!!

We had a really great weekend back home.... not great for the diet AT ALL, but it was great to visit with family, take the girls to their first parade and celebrate Cali's birthday with loved ones. I must confess, I am a bad mommy. . . I left my camera at home!!! I will update with pictures from the party once I get some emailed to me :-)

The girls had a blast at the parade! (I should say, for those that do not know, that they have TONS of family parades outside of downtown, and that is what we took them to!) They loved everything -- of course they loved the beautiful floats and got a kick out of getting beads and toys thrown at them, but I think Jordan's favorite part was the marching bands and dancers! Every time they would pass, she would scream "Look, look, Mama!!" Then she would bite her lower lip and nod her head in tune with the beat..... so cute! And totally a Mama's girl :-)

Unfortunately she did catch a couple beads with her face at one point.... she didn't cry but was a little nervous after that. Not even five minutes later, my good friend Nicole screamed "Ack!" and we noticed that Cali, whom she was holding, had leaked out of her diaper and left a lovely tell tale sign all over Aunt Nicki's sweatshirt!! Um, check please! So we did leave the parade early, but armed with a HUGE bag of beads and toys. A very successful first parade!!

As for the birthday party, can I just say that I love the presents at least as much as the girls do?!? Especially now that we are homeschooling, I get so excited about all the wonderful educational toys, products, videos and books they have out, and our family is so supportive with buying them things like that! We were blessed with so many awesome books, games, videos, Cd's, and clothes! WOO HOO!!

The girls had a blast with their cousins making sidewalk masterpieces with chalk, hunting for Pluto's bones and attempting to play pin the nose on Mickey blindfolded. Gregg and I had a blast watching and visiting with everyone! The six hour drive back home wasn't even that bad....and anyone who has toddler and preschoolers understands how crazy those drives can be!! But, praise God, it was pretty peaceful!

We are glad to be back home, but we feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family and appreciate every opportunity that we have to visit with them! Now, to attempt to clean this disaster that I call a home......

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Leading Little Ones...

“God made me. He makes no mistakes. He loves me, just the way I am.” Every night, before my girls go to sleep, we say this together. In fact, if mommy forgets, they quickly remind me!! We often repeat it throughout the day as well, whenever we make a mistake or can use some encouragement. This is just one small thing that we do every day to incorporate God’s love in our homeschool and daily lives, but I believe it is a powerful message we are sending our girls, and a reminder that not everything has to be hard.

I think homeschooling parents, especially those of us who were led to this journey by our faith, can get caught up so easily in wanting everything to be perfect. And when it comes to instilling our faith in our children, it is one area we definitely don’t want to “mess up.” But I have seen moms get so bogged down and worried about how to have daily Scripture and Bible time, especially with their little ones, that they forget to have fun. My advice is to RELAX!

Please visit Heart of the Matter to read how we incorporate our faith and scripture into our daily lives!

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Review: Leap Frog's Letter Factory video

(***This is an extended review of The Letter Factory, which was posted previously. You are not experiencing a severe case of deja vu!**)

I have said it before, and I will say it again - teaching my children how to read scares me! I have this fear that I will totally mess it up and not know what to do or say that will cause the "light bulb moment" to happen. But, wouldn't you know, in the midst of all this worry, my girls have been learning!

I knew before this week that Jordan (who turned 3 on Thanksgiving) knew all of her letters by sight and most of the sounds, but they didn't exactly just flow off the tongue (she had to think about them and did have mistakes). And I thought that Cali (who is two years old TODAY) knew a few of the letters by sight, but they just AMAZED me today and it is all thanks to Leap Frog's Letter Factory!


I had read on several blogs by fellow homeschool mommies that Letter Factory by Leap Frog was the bomb and after having it recommended to me again this past weekend, we decided to get it. We started watching it on Saturday evening, watched it once the following day, and then watched it again this morning on the way to the grocery store (gotta love built in DVD players! How did people go anywhere with kids before?!?).

When we got home from the store, we went outside to play and they immediately ran for the swings. As I was pushing them, Jordan just started rattling off EVERY SINGLE letter sound, as quickly as if she were singing her ABC's! Cali even started jumping in to say "B says buh" and "D"!!

Letter Factory is geared for children ages 2-5, but I think children younger and older will enjoy this video. It runs 35 minutes long, but it is so full of catchy songs, silly antics and beautiful animation, that the time flies! The story involves a fun journey through the Letter Factory with the popular characters from the Leap Frog family: Leap, Lily and Tad. Professor Quigley, the same zany voice from the Leap Frog Fridge Phonics and Word Wammer toys, takes Tad on a tour of the factory to help him learn his letters and sounds. The way he teaches new letters, Tad, and your children, is so memorable and fun! F's are flying, K's are kicking, and my personal favorite, E, who is an old grandfather rocking saying "Eh?" TOO CUTE!

We also love the fun learning games that are included on the DVD menu. After watching the video, my girls find it a special treat to play along, guessing the letter that makes the sound heard. Of course Professor Quigly cheers your child along for guessing the correct answer, which just adds to the enjoyment.

The only thing I can see missing form this video is the feature for "Repeat Play" like Baby Einstein videos have, as my girls are constantly saying "Let's watch Tad again!" This feature would definitely be a plus!

I completely recommend this video, and the rest in the series, to all parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles who want to help that special child in their life really grasp the foundations of phonics. Sure, they can learn this information by other means, but this was effortless for me as the teacher, and it allowed me to sit and have fun with the girls....and let's face it, I learned right alongside them! Before, when I would try to teach them the sounds, I would always add an "ah" to the end of the sounds. For example, it teaches Z says "Zzzzz" but before Letter Factory, I would always say "Z says 'Zah.' " See the very important difference? Thank goodness for this video!

Letter Factory can be purchased online or in any store. We purchased ours from Target at right under $12. This is such a value for this quality product, and that statement does not come easily from me as finances are a bit tight right now. In fact, after witnessing our children's knowledge, and the excitement they had about that knowledge, my husband asked if we could get anymore of Leap Frog's videos! That is a glowing recommendation if I ever heard one!!

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I'm SO Excited!!

Ok, please allow me to share my excitement with all of you! I am so new to this blogging thing (less than a month!), and it completely amazes me that anyone would want to read my thoughts and ramblings at all, much less people that I GREATLY ADMIRE!

Robin Sampson is an amazing godly woman who wrote The Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach (see my Personal Time Book List for 2008) and runs the site, yahoo group and blog associated with it. Although I am still reading the book itself, I have been a member of the yahoo community for almost a year and an avid reader of her blog. She is an amazing writer, who is blessed with the spiritual gift of encouragement. I have grown so much by her posts and articles over the last year and am being BLOWN AWAY by the way God is using her book to minister to me right now.

She is also a co-contributor/columnist to The Heart of the Matter online magazine with me. Although we haven't spoken yet, maybe that is how she was exposed to my recent post Lessons I am Learning.... I really don't know HOW she found it or read it, but what has me GIDDY WITH EXCITEMENT is the fact that today, on her Super Simple Spiritual Sunday Meme, She has a list of posts or articles that touched and encouraged her this week... there are seven of them listed and if you look at the post listed first, you will see MY POST!!!! WHOA!

I strongly encourage everyone to stop by her blog, visit for awhile and subscribe for updates. She will encourage, inspire and bless you more than you can imagine! Thank you, Robin, for making my day.... for prompting a happy dance around my living room and A LOT of giddy giggles!


Blogging is so much fun!

Love in Christ,
Rachel

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Tips and Tricks

The Heart of the Matter is hosting a "Tips and Tricks" Meme today! I have had a blast reading all of the other responses so far... we have some early birds out there!

I wasn't sure what I would write about since my girls are in the preschool years. What could I offer as a tip or trick that would inspire or help moms who homeschool much older children? What I came up with is a list of things that are fun, that I have started to learn and that I am hoping to make a habit in our homeschool:

(1) Start the day with a praise song! Singing in the morning seems to wake us all up and just sets the right tone for our day. I am not sure if this will continue to be the case when the girls get old enough to realize that I cannot carry a tune in a bucket, but hey, for now it works (as my mama always said, this is the voice God gave me, so it must be the key He wants to hear me sing in!)

(2) Don't try to reinvent the wheel if you don't have to! For our learning adventures, I use a mixture of the Prep Curriculum at Letter of the Week, Before Five in a Row and the awesome units at Homeschool Share. All of them are packed with fun ideas, projects, book lists, experiments, etc, YET I always feel the urge to say "what can I add to this?" Sometimes, it is great to make it your own, but I am learning that when I relax, have fun and just pick from the choices already provided, it allows me much more freedom to enjoy the process along with my children!

(3) Take the time to have a quiet time, even if it is in the middle of the day. In some ways, I think this might even be better, if you can do it. It shows your children that it is important to you and that you make time for your relationship with your Heavenly Father. I admit it is great to begin your day with intense one on one time in the Word, but there are seasons in our lives (like toddlerhood) when it is difficult to wake up early in the morning. Even later in life, when children aren't keeping you up at night, if you only take that time in the early morning, your children miss seeing it. I think by allowing your children to see you make it a priority in your life, and actually witness you doing it, sets a really good example that they should do the same. Easier to follow when you see the leader practicing what he preaches :-)

(4) Follow your instincts. As I mentioned before, I felt guilty for liking educational programming. Even though I saw how much my children responded and learned from it, I was afraid of what "they" would think of me watching PBS or even Playhouse Disney. But I realized that every family is different and that we have to do what we think is best for our own families, not for the family down the street. I do think moderation is important, but I also no longer think it is the end of the world if they watch a little Dora!

(5) HAVE FUN! Incorporate as many games as possible! I thought this was something I would have to wait longer to do, since my girls don't really have the attention span for a lot of board games, but over the past few weeks, we have been making up our own games and having a blast! It almost feels wrong, like we should be doing "work" but they are learning so much and having a blast while doing it. It could be as simple as tickling them every time they get a right answer or dancing around and making up songs for what we are learning (most recently our address), or that awesome ABC Stomp game that I got from Jammin'. Relax, Have Fun, Enjoy!!

Have a blessed weekend!

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Lessons I am Learning….

I was sitting next to my husband when it happened. We were watching a video tonight with our church group on setting personal boundaries in our lives when I finally heard the message that God has been trying to tell me for the past six months. “Busyness is the enemy of intimacy.” Before the speaker had the chance to extend his statement beyond our familial relationships, I immediately thought of my relationship with my Heavenly Father. Busyness is something that I know all too well.

I grew up in the church and had many seasons of intense involvement in youth organizations and retreat groups, but that involvement significantly decreased upon entering college at LSU. I was too busy being on my own for the first time and experiencing life. Later, as an adult living in North Carolina, life seemed to always have a way of keeping me too busy to make time for church or even really praying. It is not that I didn’t want to go to church or that I didn’t believe in God, I just had my priorities all mixed up.


After giving birth to my oldest, my husband and I took an inventory of where we were in our Christian walk and decided that if we wanted to set the right example for our children, we needed to make some changes. We started visiting a few churches and were beyond blessed to find a church home in our neighborhood. It was full of kind, godly people who encouraged and inspired us. We grew tremendously in our personal relationships with the Lord at that church, both joining a small group and my husband joining the praise team. However, we soon learned that God was blessing us with another addition to our family. Facing a future of having two children under the age of two, and being twelve hours away from any family (or babysitters!), we made the difficult decision to leave our wonderful church family to move closer to home. We prayed that we would be able to find a church home in Texas where we could continue in our growth and that we wouldn’t fall into old patterns.

God does provide abundantly more than I could ever dare to dream sometimes! We did find another church home, and this one really took us to a whole new level. We were now leading Sunday school classes and taking bible studies - a real accomplishment having lived a life in the church yet never actually reading the Bible for ourselves! I was so hungry for knowledge that the one bible study led to more, and before I knew it, I found myself, at one time, taking two bible studies, following my Bible-in-a-year plan, reading Christian books with women’s circle groups at church, leading and preparing Sunday school lessons and trying to be super mom at home! Complete and utter busyness! But all of this had to be pleasing to God because it was for Him, right? Every study I did and every book I read taught me something new about my Lord and Savior and I felt myself growing by leaps and bounds in my faith, but at what cost?

A few months ago, a dear friend suggested that I attend a leadership training weekend in Dallas. It is not a religious retreat, although it is run by amazing Christian men, but she strongly felt that I needed to go. I didn’t know much about the training, but did know that it made you take a hard look at yourself, and made you examine your life. I went in ready for God to show up in a major way, but was scared of what He might reveal. What if He wasn’t pleased with me? What if I wasn’t doing enough?

Through that training, I learned that fear is a major factor in my life. Fear of judgment, fear of rejection, fear of only being liked if I am the best at something or stand out in some way. Fear of not doing all that I could, whether it was for my husband, my children, or the Kingdom of God. All that busyness had led to severe feelings of constant guilt that I wasn’t doing enough and caused me to completely forget that we are saved through faith in Christ Jesus alone!

They helped me to see that while I was doing many wonderful and good things, they were for all the wrong reasons. What started as a means of learning became a way of pleasing others, often at the expense of my family, and finding self worth in what I was able to do and not who I was – a Beautiful and Confident Princess of the King!

I would love to end by saying that I found complete balance in my life, but that’s just not reality. What I can say is that since completing that training, I have stepped back from many obligations and realized that my first ministry is to my family – namely the amazing husband and beautiful girls He has blessed me with. It’s still a daily battle to not feel like I didn’t do enough around the house, or with my girls or even with Him. I constantly have to give myself grace to make mistakes and not be perfect. But now, when I start to feel guilt taking over, I remind myself that things are only as important as I want them to be . . . and I take a nice bubble bath! Sometimes, if nothing else works, pampering yourself gives life a whole new perspective!


Tonight, God showed me that we still have work to do, but I’m learning to trust in His unconditional love for me. My personal covenant with Him this year is that I will crawl into His lap and LET Him love on me daily. That is the step and lesson that I hope I master by the end of the year, because what better example could I set for my girls than of being completely secure in His love? My prayer is that everyone reading this masters that same lesson.

Love in Christ,
Rachel

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Note to self: Patience is a virtue....

I got a steal of a deal the other day at my local homeschool store! Jacqueline had told me about The Christian Mother Goose before, but at the time it was out of my budget (gotta love Dave Ramsey!) but I got it this weekend for $1!!!! I am leaving the price tag on this bad boy as a wonderful reminder that good things come to those who wait!

This book is so adorable and it works wonderfully with the Preparatory Curriculum at Letter of the Week. With this curriculum, every week we have a different theme and each theme has a Nursery Rhyme to go with it. I am not completely crazy -- I do read the real Nursery Rhymes to my girls and that is our primary focus, but it is really nice to then pick up this book and have a different take on it. This book has "over 150 Rhymes and Stories" and puts a Christian spin on all the classics that we love! For example, we were learning about Dogs last week. The Nursery Rhyme that the curriculum suggested was "Old Mother Hubbard." We printed the classic version of this story for our Learning Poster, but also read the Christian version which added a teachable moment.

Classic Version:

Old Mother Hubbard

Went to the cupboard,

To get her poor dog a bone;

But when she got there

The cupboard was bare,

And so the poor dog had none.

The Christian version added:

She went down the street

Her good neighbors to meet,

And they all gathered round her in prayer;

And when she got back,

She found bones in a sack

Saying, "God wants us all to share!"

Isn't that ADORABLE?!? And such a good lesson for all children to learn, in particular toddlers and preschoolers going through that lovely "IT'S MINE" phase, HA!

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Maybe it isn't so scary after all....

I have said it before, and I will say it again - teaching my children how to read scares me! I have this fear that I will totally mess it up and not know what to do or say that will cause the "light bulb moment" to happen. But, wouldn't you know, in the midst of all this worry, my girls have been learning!

I knew before this week that Jordan (who turned 3 on Thanksgiving) knew all of her letters by sight and most of the sounds, but they didn't exactly just flow off the tongue (she had to think about them and did have mistakes). And I thought that Cali (who will be 2 next month) knew a few of the letters by sight, but they just AMAZED me today!


I had read on several blogs by fellow homeschool preschool mommies that Letter Factory by Leap Frog was the bomb and after having it recommended to me again this past weekend, we decided to get it. We started watching it on Saturday evening, watched it yesterday, and watched it again on the way to the grocery store (gotta love built in DVD players! How did people go anywhere with kids before?!?). When we got home, we went outside to play and as they were swinging, Jordan just started rattling off EVERY SINGLE letter sound, as quickly as if she were singing her ABC's! Cali even started jumping in to say "B says buh" and things like that!


It started to rain, so we came in and played with a game that I made earlier that afternoon. I LOVE Jamin's blog and I recently read about her game, ABC Stomp, that she created to help her children learn their letters and sounds. My girls LOVE it! Basically, I took Cali's shoe and traced it on a piece of felt. I then cut out 26 pieces. I wrote a letter of the alphabet on each, writing both the capital and lower case letter. I then laid them on the floor and called out "Jump on the letter that says 'duh'" and Jordan jumped on the letter "D". I would call out the sounds or the letters themselves, and she would jump to whatever I called out. She calls it 'Hopscotch' and loves jumping from letter to letter! She has such a look of excitement and triumph when she jumps on the correct letter and knows it. Cali can play as well, although she can't quite keep up with Jordan... but she loves when you hold up each one and ask her what letter it is. Again, she isn't even 2 yet (ok, she will be next week BUT STILL!!!) and she recognized every letter, even out of order, and could say a lot of the sounds they made.

We then had fun saying different words and guessing the letter the word starts with, like "ta-ta-tickle" and tickling each other while saying "T" or "ha-ha-hug" and all saying "H". Daddy was home for a lot of this, so it made for really good quality family time!

I apologize for all of the Exclamation Points, but this was one of those GOOD DAYS, ya know? When you feel like maybe you can do this after all, and maybe you can actually have A LOT of FUN while doing it! I am so glad to have this blog now to journal days like this. Tomorrow, it is back to learning about Cows, which is also going really well -- we are loving Click Clack Moo, but more on that later.....

WOO HOO!

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My first article for The Heart of the Matter!

I am so excited! The featured article for today is by yours truly! Please visit this wonderful online magazine, filled with encouragement, wisdom, laughter and joy!

People often ask me why I have decided to homeschool. Even veteran homeschoolers look at me strangely when they discover my oldest “student” is only three years old! But I just smile, knowing that I am following the wonderful path my Heavenly Father has laid out for my family. He laid it on my heart to homeschool when my girls were just toddlers and for that, and many other reasons, I am so grateful!Teaching little ones is a fun endeavor! If you are reading this, I can only assume......

To read more, please visit The Heart of the Matter!

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A Day In The Life...

The first Meme for The Heart of the Matter is a "Day in the Life" of your homeschool. I know that for most homeschooling families, the typical day doesn't really exist, but I think this is particularly the case for the homeschool preschool set!

For us a planned day would entail me waking up by 6:00am, exercising and reading my Bible before getting breakfast on the table for DH and the girls. We would then start a load of laundry, make beds, clean the kitchen and then begin our studies. We would "do school for an hour" and then they would have free play outside before coming in for a snack and a structured activity. The day would flow with ease from there.......

Now for a REAL day! Again, I have preschoolers, so to be honest, I am happy if we get about 3 solid days in of what I had planned! I would LOVE to wake up earlier and do what I mentioned above but that rarely happens. Lately, since the holidays, it is more likely for the girls to wake me up and we get the morning started feeling like we are already behind..... but I am getting things under control and we will get our routine back!

But for today's meme, I think the best thing would be to let you in our Wednesday, which was a pretty good day!

Wednesday
7:30 Woke up (not 6:00 but hey, it was before 8!) and got breakfast on the table for the girls. I brought my breakfast to the kitchen counter where the laptop is and checked email.
8:30ish I picked up breakfast dishes and started to get our materials together for the day. Put on Word World for the girls ( see my post on "I Admit" about my love affair with PBS)
9:00 The girls and I went on a Shape Searcher hunt for squares... in the process, also found a lot of rectangles, circles and hearts. Then we went on a Letter hunt for the letter "A" and "D"....I just started supplementing B4FIAR with the Prep Curriculum at Letter of the Week and although they wanted us to do letter "A" for week 1, we decided to do Week 24's theme, which is dogs, this week so I thought we would also look for "D".
9:30 Sat down and watched United Streaming -- we are studying Angus Lost and Harry the Dirty Dog. They have animated videos of both of these stories!! The girls loved them and while we watched, we followed along in the books!
10:00 Sat down for a fun project, courtesy of Homeschool Share on the letter "D" -- we cut out and pasted a dog, dinosaur, dolls and door behind folded D's for a fun piece for our future lapbook.
10:15 Crawled around and pretended to be dogs. Jordan immediately said she was Harry, so we named Cali Blue (Blues Clues) and I named myself Angus. Did the whole dog bit, tail wagging, panting and barking... I hope none of the neighbors saw in our windows!
10:30 Free play upstairs in the playroom..... well first we had to clean it because it was a disaster zone from Cali being sick for a few days and Mommy letting it get that way due to pure exhaustion, but now it was clean up time... so clean up and then play. Yes, it did get messed up again, but not nearly as bad and they were able to clean up after themselves this time!
11:30 Came down to start lunch
12:00 Ate lunch while I read the stories Angus Lost and Harry the Dirty Dog again. We discuss the steps to take if one of us ever get lost.... (1) Take a deep breath (2) Remember, I am never alone, God is always with me, and (3) Find a neighbor or police man to help, and tell them our address. We are working on identifying police officers and are working on our address, but it is helpful to at least include this part in the process even if they can't totally do it yet!
1:00 Go upstairs for story time before nap. Read from our daily children's devotional and a few other books. Sing "Jesus Loves Me" and naptime it is..... or should be
1:30 - 3:30 Jordan and I battle for a bit on the concept of staying in her room for quiet time -- she has TONS of toys in there, why she can't at least play quietly in there when she isn't tired (in the hopes that she will go to sleep eventually) is beyond me... finally I let her come out of her room, and rest quietly on the couch while I get some housework done.
3:30-5:30 Free play, interrupted by occasional story reading, singing, dancing around, watching more of Harry on United Streaming, Little Einsteins, Super Why, and Between the Lions.
5:30 Clean up, start dinner
6:00-8:00 Family time... eat together, played games, read stories and tickled each other :-)
8:00-8:30 Baths and Bed

That was our Wednesday.. Thursday involved Jordan waking up at 4am after going to the bathroom and not wanting to go back to bed... after both of us crashing around 7 and waking up at 9, the day was spent being very lazy, but I am sure some learning took place, I promise! Today, Friday, we went for a playdate at my new blog friend (and fellow contributor to The Heart of the Matter) Marsha's house... had a BLAST playing with her three sweet boys, pouring over her awesome homeschool books and supplies, and eating a delicious lunch! Then we came home and explored more outside for some playing -- er, nature study :-)

What does a good day look like for you?

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Which face do you see?

I recently read Jennefer's awesome post Confessions of a Homeschooling Mom, and it got me thinking about how I often try to be as transparent, real and open as possible in "real life," yet since starting this blog, I have yet to talk much about my real life, nor let my true spazzy self shine through! So in an attempt to "Get Real for a Moment," here are my own confessions:

(1) I don't exactly love every moment of Motherhood -- you know those moments that you have to laugh to keep yourself from crying? I understand that they happen, and that they help you to better appreciate the really good times...and that these moments are few and far between....BUT, I don't love 'em! So you can better feel my pain, here are just a few examples that happened in the last few days.

I have:

- been puked on (several times)

- been peed on

- had noses wiped on me

and

- had to clean up after my potty training princess clogged the toilet and proceeded to flush over and over until the entire bathroom and carpet in the hallway were soaked (but it is hard to be mad when she did make it and was trying to clean up after herself the whole time water was flowing around her toes!)

(2) I love to act like a big kid, dancing around the house, laughing and singing made up songs with my girls.... yet when I get in groups with godly women from church, I clam up and put on this People-Pleasing front. I worry that the lovely ladies, who all seem to have the 'gentle quiet spirits' that the Bible mentions so often, would judge my silliness as immaturity. I so desperately want my girls to grow up and not worry about what other people think of them -- to just care what they think of themselves and how God sees them, yet I fail to live up to this desire myself so often!!!

(3) I have to strongly fight the desire to Keep Up With The Joneses. Since moving to Houston, my husband and I have met very few couples around our own age.... most are at least 10-13 years our senior. Needless to say, they have had a lot more time then we have had to accumulate "stuff." To have their homes just the way they want them, to have a beautifully landscaped front yard and a relaxing oasis in the backyard. I LOVE to entertain (according to the spiritual gifts test, I scored the second highest in hospitality), yet I feel this need to have the house clean enough to pass the white glove test and to erase all signs that preschoolers live here, in fear that I won't measure up in their minds. Do I really think my friends and acquaintances are so shallow? Why can't I simply invite people over to my house, the way it is at 3:30 every day with toys and books everywhere, leftover snack on the table and a collection of sippy cups sitting on the counter next to the fridge?

(4) I don't like to wake up early! Yes, I know you should, and that it is the ideal time for me to read my Bible before the girls wake up, exercise and get breakfast on the table before DH leaves, but I like my bed... I like my covers....I love my soft purple eye mask that says "Dream" on it!! I can't seem to get myself to go to bed at a reasonable hour or take a nap when the girls do, like I always tell myself I will. This is definitely something that needs to be added to my New Year's Resolutions List.....but it is just so hard!!!

(5) Since getting married, I have lost the ability to hang pictures, call service people, make complaints, or order at a restaurant. I know, feminists everywhere will hate me --but then again, they probably aren't reading my blog --but I like to see my husband be manly and I really hate being mean.....maybe it is that I am lazy, which is definitely a possibility, but there is so much security and freedom in knowing that you are being taken care of and are cherished :-)

(6) I don't like talking on the phone..... what is up with that?!? I LOVED it when I was in elementary school and high school! I was always on the phone... in fact, I would call up friends to watch tv over the phone together! But now, if you call me during the day, I have to fight the feeling of being frustrated. Between keeping up with the kids, homeschooling, the housework, and trying to make some time here and there for "me" things ( bible studies, fun reading, blogging, writing, exercising, showers), I just don't have the energy to talk on the phone anymore!! Please don't feel like you can't call me, but if you would be just as happy emailing me, it would make life so much simpler for me :-) (Side note: Is that completely horrible? Or am I just worried about other people's opinions again.. Blah!)

I am sure there are many other things that I need to "Get Real" about, but the time is ticking on the girls nap time and I need to do a few of those "me" things, so until next time....

Love in Christ,
Rachel

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From Good to Great in 2008

In a sermon I heard recently, the pastor used Jim Collins book Good to Great as the inspiration for their church focus for the upcoming year. He said that many of us have been blessed in so many ways in 2007, and we are doing good.... but, if we can get out of our Father's way, He can move us to GREAT in 2008!

Change is hard. I am stubborn! On the one hand, I think I am pretty easy and "go with the flow," but when it comes to those big decisions and commitments, I dig my heels in! How many blessings have I missed from my heavenly Father because I was standing in His, and my own, way?

My list of New Year's Resolutions are all things that I have been working on already. Some resolutions are old friends, others developed over the last year, but they are all struggles and strongholds in my life that I need to give over to Him. I try to maintain such a white knuckle grip on all of them, instead of TRUSTING control of my life and all of the issues and baggage that comes with it, little or big, into His very capable hands. Why is that? Do I honestly think I know better?

So, here is my list of New Year's Resolutions... beginning with the most important, which will affect all the others:

1) Every morning surrender control of my day to my Father, and live out my day for Him.
2) Start my day in the Word
3) Daily exercise
4) Keep Food Journal and stay within recommended calorie allowance.
5) Stretch myself out of my comfort zone -- as a contributor to Heart of the Matter, on this blog, and in reaching out to others in general.
6) Relax more in my homeschool. Realize that they are preschoolers and the point is to have fun and instill a love of learning!!!
7) Continue in my own "pursuit of Proverbs 31". This past year, I worked on expanding my cooking skills, trying new recipes and experimenting with new ingredients. While I will continue to do this, I am adding Gardening and Sewing into the mix. Originally I was going to take a year on each of these, but I think I will start with some basic sewing skills ( right now, I can't even sew on a button or hem a pair of pants!) and in the Spring, work more on basic gardening.
8) To not let my Gmail inbox grow to 6000+ again!!! Delete emails that I won't need again immediately and respond to emails as soon as possible!
9) Make time for myself. Know that it is ok to daily take some time to read for leisure, enjoy a bubble bath, or even watch some mindless television (gotta love TLC and HGTV!)
10) Look for opportunities, and make time for the ones I already have, to encourage and inspire other women, moms especially!

What are yours?

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