To the Mother with Only One Child...

This is such a beautiful blog post that I have to share it. And, hopefully, this won't offend anyone. Hopefully it will lift all mothers up (even the mothers with only one child).

http://www.ncregister.com/blog/to-the-mother-with-only-one-child

I wish I had read this 5 years ago! Though I'm not sure if would have had the same impact on me as it does today.

Experience Book

While we played outside this morning and I attempted to insert some of the Bible activities from Little Hands to Heaven into our play, Annabelle got a mind of her own (as usual) and decided she wanted to make an "Experience Book" as she called it.

She ran inside and grabbed two sheets of blank copy paper (though she had requested three but got turned down by her mean mom) and stapled them together using two staples along the vertical edge. She then insisted that I tell her how to write "Experience Book" at the top of the first page. So this was a perfect opportunity for me to correct her letters formation.

After she had written "Experience Book" in blue at the top of the first page, she wanted to go back outside to record her "experiences." First, she glanced across the street at a young tree growing in a neighbor's yard. "Is that the same type of tree that is in our backyard?" she inquired. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding! I realized even more at that moment how important it is to just let a young child play without the pressure of reading, writing and arithmetic. She WILL learn the three R's! But if I had pressured her into early reading and such, she would have missed out on so much! Her imagination continues to explode! And I'm astounded by her observation skills at such a young age!

We studied the two trees together, and she noticed so much! And as a result, she learned more than I could ever teach her from a textbook.

While pulling English ivy in our backyard later this afternoon, Annabelle broke down into tears! Her experience book had been pooped on by passing birds. Hubby and I both tried to calm her down by explaining that she could use this opportunity to practice her handwriting by rewriting what she had already written. And I tried to explain that this was just another experience for her. She didn't seem to buy into that one though!

By the way, she insisted that she wanted to record her findings with words. I tried to encourage her to draw pictures, but that wasn't in her plan of attack.

Valuables

If someone were to ask you...

"What is the most valuable thing you own?"

How would you respond?

Annabelle shocked us with her answer to this question in front of the entire church congregation during children's time this morning. Annabelle almost always wants to answer the questions asked. We see her hand raised and waving constantly because she is so anxious to answer any and all questions. We'll whisper to each other, "Uh oh, she's got her hand raised again." It is frightening the beans she is going to spill in front of the entire church congregation!

Well, this morning, her answer took me by complete surprise. And it literally brought tears to my eyes!

Ms. Cody (to all of the children): What is the most valuable thing you own?

Annabelle: My Bible

We laughed when we got home about how we should tell her to only respond to any of these questions in front of the entire church congregation with Jesus, God, Lord, or Bible. But, we've never had this conversation with her. Her answer was honest and sincere. The girl LOVES her Bible, and she cries at night if she doesn't complete her chores fast enough to read the Bible every single evening. I had decided that maybe it wasn't right for me to take the Bible reading away from her at night since it is so important to read the Bible often. But I've learned that she'll dawdle long enough to forgo anything else, but if the Bible isn't read due to time constraints, it hits home with her.

I know. I am a horrible mom to take away something so precious from her. And I am really struggling with this. So, I need to figure out something that is going to upset her enough to do away with the constant dawdling. And I don't want her privilege to read the Bible to be it. Any ideas?

Wired

I have never seen the energy level of a child escalate at bedtime as much as my Annabelle. Granted, I haven't been around that many children at bedtime, but the girl seems to get ants in her pants every evening right around 7 p.m. The jumping on the bed only occurs every night after 7 p.m. Literally.

This is not anything new. And I have ALWAYS (well, almost always) struggled with this with her. And, yes, I am sure it is something I have done wrong in the past because I am sure someone out there will make that claim. But, comparing my two children, I believe this just has a lot to do with her personality.

She's a big dawdler. That is probably definitely a discipline issue based on her age. But, she has a very difficult time staying focused. Again, I am certain this is an age and discipline issue. And I think the two go hand and hand along with blatant disobedience. Again, disobedience is obviously a discipline issue. So it IS obviously something I've done wrong! :)

I made her these awesome chore cards. I got this fantastic idea from Our Family for His Glory. This young mom of six children has the most amazing ideas for raising Godly children. I absolutely adore her blog!

And the chore cards have actually worked out quite nicely as Annabelle is actually very excited to grab her chore cards to get started in the morning and in the evening. The nagging has greatly decreased which makes for a much happier mommy. On some days, she has actually been dressed and ready for breakfast (including having already emptied the dishwasher) within 30 minutes of rising. And this is a HUGE accomplishment from the 1-1.5 hours that it usually takes her. As for bedtime, she is definitely much faster with the chore cards, but she is definitely still a work in progress.

But, this system doesn't work out so well when she loses the chore cards, and we can find them absolutely nowhere for over a week! I did finally find them this evening, and I'm not really sure who was the true culprit...the absent minded 5-year old or the tag-along almost 2-year old who wants to do everything that her big sister is doing. I think I am going to have to make Sophia her own set of chore cards so she'll leave her sister's cards alone!

As for the rowdiness, I cannot seem to figure out how to end this battle. I have hope that we will figure it out. We've come a long way with her in the past 6 months. The whining is definitely beginning to dwindle, and she is much kinder and more understanding with her sister.

As for me, my patience has been shot! I'm pretty sure I lost all patience I ever had when I got pregnant with Sophia back in July 2009.

Does anyone have any tips for disciplining and changing the bad habit of dawdling? Any help is greatly appreciated!

Just Chillin'

This picture is so fitting for my usually sweet Sophia. She is typically my very mellow child, especially compared to my high energy first child!


Though when she gets mad, she makes sure that everyone knows it!

One Big Onion

We studied a one page spread from our November issue of God's World News today. We learned about a man who claimed a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for growing the world's biggest onion.

So this afternoon while we were waiting for Sophia to wake up from her nap, Annabelle and I weighed items using our bathroom scale to find items weighing the same amount as the onion (17 lbs, 15.5 ozs).


Annabelle wanted to see just how much that onion weighed!

We also pulled out a world map to find where the onion had been grown. This was all learning in disguise! She had an absolute blast!

The Reading Lesson

I know, I've appeared from absolutely nowhere! I guess I took a sabbatical from blogging.

I decided that perhaps I should start teaching Annabelle a little more to get her ready for reading. So we started using The Reading Lesson today. It went well, though I'm not sure it was entirely worth the money. We will see.

I have learned that I need to focus more on the short vowel sounds. She has the -a- as in alligator down pat, but she struggles with the other vowels. Vowels are hard to teach! She used to know most of her consonants, but based on discussions with her lately, I can tell she needs a refresher course. Our first lesson in Heart of Dakota's Little Hands to Heaven focuses on A as in -a-a-Adam. Even little Sophia has the -a- sound down pat! She places her hands on her cheeks and says, "A-A-Adam." So cute!

Here is the first stanza of the fingerplay from Heart of Dakota so you'll know what I'm talking about:

A-A-Adam! Hands on cheeks in surprise
Can you believe? Hands out, palms up
God made animals Point out sweeping arm across
And you and me? Point out and then to yourself

I've been questioning whether the Little Hands to Heaven guide is too simple for Annabelle's age, but I am feeling more confident that it is the right fit for her now. Some things are obviously too simple, but I don't think the reinforcement can do any harm, and I LOVE how she's learning to hide God's word in her heart through the lessons. Honestly, I am learning how to hide God's word in my heart alongside her.

I think I am going to switch gears with using The Reading Lesson though. I may pick it up occasionally, but my heart has found another method that I absolutely love. Though I haven't purchased anything to use this particular method yet. I don't plan to start more formal reading lessons until she is 6 years old. My heart is telling me to follow the Charlotte Mason approach and use Delightful Reading. It just makes so much sense to me! In the mean time, I am going to approach reading readiness using the methods explained in these blog posts from Simply Charlotte Mason.