tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32423400915864071502024-03-05T02:51:07.148-05:00Life and my journey in itcarriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15350862581145580555noreply@blogger.comBlogger347125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3242340091586407150.post-32504149848125302402014-08-14T14:33:00.001-04:002014-08-14T19:17:06.460-04:00Prek 4 week 1Our first full week of Pre-k 4 was great! I had a lot of fun working with Oliver and he had a lot of fun doing his school time. Some things I learned:<br />
<ol>
<li>It's important to really sit and have one on one time with Oliver while we are doing his different activities (especially writing, or new challenges to him).</li>
<li>Lot's and lot's of praise goes a long way in encouraging him to continue and push him a little when he wants to give up.</li>
<li>Having activities ready for Aleksandr to play with is a must. </li>
<li>Also including Aleksandr where I can is helpful too (paint dots for him while Oliver is coloring patterns).</li>
<li>Preparing a bit the night before so that the flow of our work time is smooth.</li>
<li>Breaking up sitting work time with lots of exercise related activities (singing and moving, marching, going on a bear hunt together, or rather alligator hunt etc.)</li>
<li>Prayer. Lot's of prayer for help, passion, love, compassion, guidance, discipline and fun!!</li>
</ol>
My husband is such an encouragement to me and I love sharing my heart with him, as well as areas that I just am not disciplined in. Teaching is certainly an area I feel inadequate in, as it's not my background. But I know the Lord has called me here to this place, at this moment and until He shows us otherwise I will continue to do the best I can in homeschooling. I am thankful so much for my husband's insight and wisdom and I encourage other mom's to seek out the council of your spouse, as well as prayer with the One Who made those sweet kiddos you are training. I think I often will let Oliver give up or quit on something when just a little bit of encouragement and a lot of praise when he finishes goes sooo far. I learned this after talking with my husband one night about quitting, or giving up easily. This very thing came into play when Oliver worked on some patterns. They were tough for him (some may have been too hard for him at this point), but I stayed right with him and encouraged him to keep going and he was so proud of himself when he finished them. Seeing that little smile of accomplishment will teach him much as he continues to grow and learn. Hard work is worth the effort for all it teaches you!<br />
Here is Oliver working on some train themed patterns.<br />
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<br />carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15350862581145580555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3242340091586407150.post-66041390006432060192014-08-14T14:08:00.002-04:002014-08-14T14:08:52.066-04:00Preschool Year 4! It's a new school year here at home as we begin year 4 for our Oliver. I had spent much time praying about what curriculum we should use this year. I was debating using ABCJLM (Abc Jesus Loves Me) versus so many other great options that are out there. My criteria were essentially: free (there are so many options online, there really isn't a need to purchase for these little years), Christian, and fun! I didn't want a rigid scheduled, long drawn out school day for him. I wanted to be able to teach him basics, heavily influenced around the Bible. God is the center of our home and I am daily trying to pour into our two little boys with the help of Jesus!!<br />
This year it was also a little different with little brother wanting to participate in all that his big brother is doing. Between a 4 year old and a 2 year old I knew I'd need to think out some activities geared towards both, and also specific play things that a 2 year old would want to play with for a little bit of time.<br />
Ultimately after researching, praying, talking it over with my husband, and seeking out the wisdom of veteran mom's that are homeschooling I decided to once again use ABCJLM. Allowing myself a little planning time in the evenings was a tremendous help in making the day run smoothly. I wrote out a loose lesson plan (following an example on ABCJLM's site) and filled in what activities we would cover for the week. The first day I wasn't prepared enough, at least for our 2 year old little boy that wanted to do everything Oliver was doing. Overall not a very smooth day, filled with lots of tears and whining (from Aleksandr). Soooo, I learned from that and made sure to have something special just for him the next day.<br />
Today is our third and final day of school for our first week and it was so much better once I had something set up for our 2 year old. Oliver did so great and worked hard, and I'm so proud of him and the effort he put into it. I am learning so much as I again start up another year. I am thankful I had a year to get my toes wet at the homeschooling thing because it feels a little easier this year.<br />
I think one thing that helped me as I started thinking through schooling this year was sitting down and determining what my goals were for the year. What was I wanting him to learn? How was he going to learn? How will little brother be able to participate?<br />
And like I mentioned above, my heart is to tell our boys who God is, and the rest is centered around that. Including character traits was a big goal of mine as well. There are a lot of sites out there that can help in this and I found a printout actually from the Duggard's blog that has a full page of character traits with Scripture relating to it. It's a great reference and I hope to start memorizing them in our own home. Right now though we are using the character traits that are mentioned each week at ABCJLM. This week was faith and trust, and went along with the Bible story.<br />
I'm having a lot of fun so far, and I am continuing to pray for this. May the Lord continue to guide me as I train and teach these little boys!<br />
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<br />carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15350862581145580555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3242340091586407150.post-26851214023851615372014-01-02T20:41:00.003-05:002014-01-02T20:42:40.670-05:00Christmas time! 2013 part oneMerry Christmas! (and happy new year, since it's actually a new year at this point)<br />
This year I was determined not to get too busy with things that didn't matter (excessive shopping, excessive baking, excessive anything for that matter) and really wanted to pare it down to what mattered. Jesus, love, giving.<br />
Looking back I can see that we did a good job of teaching what Christmas is about to the boys. This was the biggest thing on my heart as we approached Christmas. Each year Jonah and I talk about what we will give and how we will teach the reason of Christmas.<br />
This year we didn't get to send our Christmas cards, or hand out gifts to neighbors. It was on my 'wouldn't it be nice' list in my head, but when it came down to time those just had to come off the list.<br />
However I must say, Jonah went above and beyond a card this year and made a VIDEO of our Christmas. It's amazing. He's picked up this skill all on his own, and has learned a lot about videography. It's time consuming (edit process) but it's pretty amazing when it's done.<br />
I did make two gifts this year though, one for each of the boys. I made Oliver a pizza set made of felt (he's really into play foods and making his own things). And for Aleksandr, ah, I was sentimental about his. You see I was looking on etsy and found an old pattern of a toy I had when I was little. I had forgotten all about it until that moment. It's a fabric toy carrot that holds little bunnies in it. It brought back memories and I called my mom to see what had happened to it and who had made it. As it turns out my grandma made it for me years ago, and it has since been swapped up by one of my sisters (somewhere in a storage box). My grandma was an amazing woman that was skilled in so many domestic areas, I only wish I could now sit down with her and just LEARN from her. She has been with Jesus for several years now though. I searched ebay for the pattern and found it, ordered it and eagerly set out to make this thing.<br />
I'm an amateur at sewing in every aspect. But I really wanted to make this toy. After many ripped out seams, torn out thread, and a little blood (I pricked my finger), sweat and tears (I may have cried a bit when it was finished) I succeeded. I made this carrot toy (complete with zipper, what??!) and was happy with the result and happy that it will be in our family for our own kids to play with.<br />
<a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/150242734/vintage-farmer-bunny-family-in-a-carrot?ref=shop_home_active">Here </a>is the pattern that is similar to the one I bought on ebay. My bunnies and leaves were a bit different but still like the one I had when I was little.<br />
It was so much fun making things for the boys. I didn't make a gift for Jonah but still enjoyed picking out his gifts too! It's so much fun to give to others!<br />
It was a lot of fun watching the boys this year too. Oliver had much more excitement about everything as he is older now, and Aleksandr just enjoyed getting excited when his big brother did.<br />
I think in the end Jonah and I again realized we would do just fine to only give the boys one gift, but we know ourselves too well to try and stick to that rule. The boys were SO excited after opening one gift. We could have stopped at that point and they would have been thrilled to play. But maybe we will narrow it down again next year. We are thinking maybe just 3 gifts each (one you want, one you need, one you give away) but we'll see....<br />
We continued our traditions this year: baking cut out cookies and decorating, visiting local Christmas lights, watching a Christmas movie with cocoa with Oliver (polar express, first time!), opening our chocolate advent calendar, having Oliver choose a gift to buy and give to a friend, and having amazing bacon on Christmas morning...along with so many other little things that have become our traditions. It's fun to add things as they boys grow and as we find new things that work with our family. I love this time of year. I kind of wish we could keep it all year round, but then again I guess it would hold as much excitement. I love that we can celebrate because of the most precious gift given, Jesus. I always loved being pregnant during Christmas as it reminded me of how little Jesus was when He came to earth. Perhaps another Christmas I will experience that, but it was sure special celebrating and remembering our Savior. I hope I can keep that part of the season passionately in my heart all year.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">oliver on Christmas eve last year</td></tr>
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<br />carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15350862581145580555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3242340091586407150.post-13571829670453791472014-01-02T20:09:00.001-05:002014-01-02T20:09:38.170-05:00thanksgiving 2013Thanksgiving recap! Yes, I realize it is now January. BUT these past couple months were busy. BUSY. I wasn't planning on it being so busy, but I have some wonderful memories from the holidays, and for that I am so thankful. We spent our Thanksgiving with family and were at great Grandma's house (hence the sweet, vintage decor). Aleksandr had started to get better at walking but was still adorably tipsy as he tottered around. I love the photos of him teetering down the hall. We also spent some time catching up with one of Jonah's old buddies from childhood and it was great to hear stories of their past. Overall, we had a nice time eating a lot of food, laughing at the kids antics and enjoying being together.<br />
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<br />carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15350862581145580555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3242340091586407150.post-76446811709408046572013-11-22T19:15:00.000-05:002013-11-22T19:15:32.604-05:00Preschool week 12 (letter Hh, number 6 and Gideon)For this week we covered a lot for our Bible story. We covered the letter Hh, number 6 and the story of Gideon. After reading through the story of Gideon in the Bible I wasn't sure how to go about teaching it to Oliver. Everywhere I looked for resources the only part covered of the story was the very end when he used torches to march around the city. There is SO much more to the story and it's awesome how God worked through this man, and prepared him to lead. So I decided to break up the story through several days and focus on different parts each day. The first day we covered the part where God spoke to Gideon by causing fire to come out of a rock.<br />
I had Oliver find a rock and we tore up orange tissue paper and glued it down to the rock (with only elmers glue too!)<br />
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The next day we read about the fleece Gideon put out on two nights asking God for a sign (one night the fleece stayed dry and the ground was wet, the next night the ground was dry and the fleece was wet). I tried to explain this to Oliver as it's something he doesn't quite understand, seeing how I am not able to create a miracle (ha!). To physically show this, I got two pans. One had water in it and Oliver dropped a napkin in it to watch how it got wet. The next pan was dry and I put a napkin in it and let Oliver put water on it. I explained how they both got wet and how God was able to make a miracle by keeping the parts dry that shouldn't be. Oliver may not have understood this, but he enjoyed doing the physical activity. I know once he's older he'll understand :)<br />
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Another day we focused on the next part of the story, when God had Gideon separate out his men that would go into battle with him. Gideon had thousands of men for his army, but God wanted him to take them to the river and watch how they drank the water. If the men were down on the ground, drinking water directly out of the stream they would not be chosen. The men that used their hands to cup water up to their mouths would be part of his army. This dwindled the number of men down to merely 300. I'm amazed at how few God required, but it showed how great He was and that it was not on account of men that they defeated the Midianites.<br />
I had Oliver build a stream out of his legos, then showed him how the men were chosen by how they drank from the stream. He liked practicing this one, but only a couple times, then he was done! It was a good visual I think.<br />
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Our final part of the story. We read through the final part when Gideon led his men around the camp of the Midianites, blew their trumpets and broke their pitchers to reveal their lanterns. The Midianites were defeated by simple shouting, but by the mighty work of God. I helped Oliver create a torch and trumpet, using some paint, glue, tissue paper and toilet paper rolls. I have to admit we never finished his torch as we were letting the paint dry, but that's okay. Oliver didn't seem to mind as we became busy with other things!<br />
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And for our letter Hh I did something recommended from ABCJLM. I took a mirror out and had Oliver breathe the "h" sound into it until he saw it fog up on the mirror. It was a great way for him to make the sound correctly and he continually says it correctly whenever I ask him what sound "H" makes. A great way to learn it! And he worked on the number 6, with some play doh, a favorite. I helped roll them out, as he's not that good with fine motor skills yet, but he's getting better at it.<br />
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Finally this week we started making thankful leaves in honor of the month of November with Thanksgiving. I cut out some leaf shapes in construction paper and strung up some yarn for us to tape them to. We are daily writing new things we are thankful for on our leaves and it's fun to see the string of leaves get longer and longer. We have so very much to be thankful for. God is so good and I am so grateful for all He has allowed us to have, and all He continues to teach us!<br />
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<br />carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15350862581145580555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3242340091586407150.post-19560576027050476572013-11-08T14:21:00.000-05:002013-11-08T14:21:04.709-05:00Fire Station Tour!The best toddler trip ever!<br />
Really, we had a great time touring a fire station about a week ago. Oliver is really into cars of any kind at this age and fire trucks are pretty high up on his favorites list.<br />
I had looked up fire stations in our area and called and scheduled a tour. They are free and you can also bring a group. So I invited some other friends to come along.<br />
It was so much fun! The firemen were so polite and friendly and showed us around the fire house. We watched a safety video, and checked out the everyday space the firemen lived in (they actually stay on shifts for 24 hours). I love the unity and family aspect they convey. Living in the same space so long, cooking meals and doing chores together (they actually rotate what chores they do each week, it was window washing day when we were there) can't help but bring these firemen together. It was a really neat experience.<br />
Plus the boys were able to see some big shiny firetrucks, a police car and a police bike. The officers were so kind to my boys (to all of us that were there, really) and I got to sit in a fire truck!<br />
Granted there wasn't a dalmation dog keeping watch, or a fire pole to slide down, but I guess I've read to many books :)<br />
The boys had a great time. And it was free! I am thinking I'd like to bring some baked goods to them in the near future. It will be fun to do something for them to let them know we appreciate them.<br />
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<br />carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15350862581145580555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3242340091586407150.post-46304021775242247262013-11-08T13:41:00.000-05:002013-11-08T13:41:04.381-05:00Preschool Week 11 (Gg, 5, Bible story of Jericho)For week 11 we focused on the letters Gg, the number 5 and the story of Jericho in the Bible. <div>
For a Jericho craft, I used the printout from ABCJLM and had Oliver color it, then cut out some pieces of paper to glue down on the wall pictured in the illustration. I thought it would be a good exercise for his fine motor skills, since we haven't used his scissors in a while. He enjoyed cutting and did pretty good with it. I started the cuts for him so that it wasn't such a large cumbersome piece for him. Then he glued them all down. </div>
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I also used a free printout I found online that had G for goat, and a bunch of other G (and goat) things with it. One was sequencing, where I had Oliver match the largest to smallest goat picture with the correct numbers (1 with the biggest, 2 with the middle etc.). He did pretty well with it. </div>
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While we were reading about the story of Joshua and Jericho, I was trying to think of something we could do that was creative and hands on for Oliver to really remember the story. I finally decided on boxes. Ha!</div>
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I pulled a bunch of boxes out of storage (are we the only ones that tend to save perfectly good boxes for future use?) and stacked them up. Then we talked through the details of the story ( 7 days marching around the walls of Jericho, until the 7th day) and on the 7th day, after marching around 7 times they made a bunch of noise and God pushed those walls down! And at that point Oliver shouted and knocked down the "wall" of Jericho. He loved it so much! This was a fun way for him to be involved in the story, and he LOVES being an active part. He wanted to do it over and over, and started to build it by himself, including some cars, a stuffed animal and anything else that would fit on the "wall". (also take note of his baby brothers fascination with mom taking pictures, ha!) So much fun!</div>
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And finally, I used some more goat printouts. This one had about 12 different goats with a new color name printed on each one (in corresponding color). I let Oliver find the matching crayon for each one and color the square that had that color. I remember trying something similar to this with him months ago and he had no interest, and gave up easily. His attention span and observation has grown so much since then, and I can clearly see that while he colored away at these! It's neat to watch him grow in these areas, and also good to remember that there will be things he isn't interested in right now, but may change in another month or two. </div>
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carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15350862581145580555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3242340091586407150.post-70364457519291270602013-11-08T13:14:00.001-05:002013-11-08T13:14:23.034-05:00Pumpkin PatchAs I mentioned a few posts back, we took a trip to a pumpkin patch this past month. It was a beautiful, clear, blue sky kind of day and we had a wonderful time. Last year we started this tradition and had such a great time, decided to keep it as our annual fall trip. Because we live in a pretty urban setting, driving out to a farm was a breath of fresh air (literally!). The boys could roam freely in the open country space, and they loved it. It reminded me of my growing up years, as I was raised in the country.<br />
I shared these photos on our website <a href="http://itstheeveryday.com/blog/2013/11/7/pumpkin-patch-2013-personal">here</a>.<br />
I loved the oranges and blues in these photos (and the sweet faces of my dear family)!carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15350862581145580555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3242340091586407150.post-79109812022735746232013-11-03T21:03:00.001-05:002013-11-03T21:03:53.744-05:00Preschool Week 9 and 10 (letter F, number 6, the ten commandments)This I am actually a few weeks behind posting.<br />
As we are actually in week 12 as I write, I know that I have become a little more relaxed in our day to day the past couple weeks. And it happens. I've had several things in my life that have taken me away from so much focus on schooling. We still do our schooling, but it was not as planned out as it had been when we first started.<br />
This weekend I finally felt like I was at a place where I could sit and think through our upcoming week and really plan for it. I had to say no to some things so that I could focus on my "lesson plans" (I say that very loosely!). I love teaching Oliver and whenever I sit and think through our week I get so excited about how many things I can include in our everyday. Pinterest is such a great source for me for helping in my planning. When I know we will be working on a specific Bible story I can look up related ideas for crafts for it. Or for our letter of the week, or number. And since it's fall, with Thanksgiving approaching, there are numerous things we can include in our days that relate to that. So much fun!<br />
The biggest thing that I notice about taking time to plan is that I feel better, and prepared mentally for Monday morning. My preparation makes our days smoother and Oliver knows what will come next. Now that he's three he really thrives on a consistent schedule. He has a lot of play time in the day, but he really enjoys our time together having "school time". He gets so excited to work on new projects together.<br />
But for weeks 9 and 10:<br />
Week 9 was review of the previous week so there isn't much in pictures of that. Week 10 was the letters Ff, number 5 and the Bible story, Moses and the 10 commandments.<br />
I had Oliver work on drawing Ff and 6. We also did a few "f" crafts. This one was making the letter f into a frog. He glued down all the parts to a letter f. I showed him where they would go and let him use the glue to make it all happen. He did great, even with the excessive amounts of glue! :)<br />
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I also pulled out our chalkboard to let him draw f with chalk. I just love the chalkboard! And it was a new texture for Oliver to use.<br />
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We worked on a new game too. I had printed these files from this <a href="http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/">great site</a>. It has pictures and words that you can match to the corresponding page with the same pictures and words (written in a dashed line). I didn't know how tough this would be for Oliver since he can't read yet. He had to find the matching letters in the words to match them correctly. He surprised me at how well he did. I talked through the letters of the words with him to help him know to look at the first letters in the words to make sure they matched. He is such a smarty pants! He matched them all :)<br />
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A little puzzle fun. He still needs help with big puzzles like this, but he really likes puzzles.<br />
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This week we were learning about Moses and the ten commandments. To go along with that ABCJLM suggested teaching about rules had this game idea on their site. I found some paper plates in our pantry and we used them as steering wheels for our "cars". We drove around and pretended to come to stop signs while we waited for other cars to pass. I explained to Oliver what would happen if we didn't follow the rules. We would crash and we could get hurt. And we talked about other rules in our lives, both at home and from God. How they keep us safe and protect us. Oliver LOVED driving around and doing this physical activity really grounded what I was trying to teach him. </div>
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We did another F craft that I saw online (failing to remember where now, maybe Pinterest?). I placed a large F and a small f on two separate pieces of paper. I had Oliver find all the small f's on logs and all the large F's on logs and glue them on their matching paper. Then we glued down fire on top of the logs. I helped him with this one since there were so many parts. I had this craft ready to go the day before too since I cut out all the pieces out of construction paper. A cute little f craft!</div>
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Finally we ended our week working on a little painting. I had Oliver paint two pieces of paper cut out as rectangles for our ten commandments. When they dried we crinkled them up really good. I had intended to glue them down and write the commandments on them, but we never made it that far. I have them ready to go, so we can pull it out another time :)</div>
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carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15350862581145580555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3242340091586407150.post-54340890769194817932013-10-26T14:37:00.000-04:002013-10-26T15:31:14.458-04:00Pumpkin<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We took a trip to a pumpkin patch this week. A favorite and somewhat new tradition. We took the boys for the first time last year and had such a great time, we repeated it this year. The patch is a farm north of us and it's a great open, country space. Reminiscent of my younger years, where I grew up. I lived in the country so I well remember the open space and big skies. Oliver loved the chance to run freely (we live in a suburban area) and Aleksandr loved the pumpkins and gourds. He took a bite out of one actually. Woops.<br />
But I picked up two pie pumpkins while we were there. I've been roasting and pureeing my own pumpkins since Oliver was a baby. I have been on a food journey for several years and the more I learn the more excited I become about it. Food is so healing, and eating for those purposes just makes sense. The old saying, "you are what you eat", is so true in my own life. I started this food journey because of my personal health issues. I feel like the Lord has led me along this road and He continues to bless as we make better decisions for our food and health choices in our family. I can start a list of how good He has been to us, but I know that it would be LONG. I may post about it in the future, because I love to tell of what God has done. Entering into a cleaner way of eating, cutting out processed foods and focusing on nutrient dense meals (and snacks) is not easy. It's time consuming, it's expensive, and it can completely become an idol in itself. All of these keep me in prayer whenever I learn something new that I'd love to include in our food budget, as well as keeping everything balanced and in perspective. What is the most important thing? My relationship with God first.<br />
If I am struggling with finding a balance with our money and time for foods, putting God, my husband and my family after food, well, then it's time to refocus and eat a bag of doritos. Ha! Maybe not the doritos, but definitely take a breather and get my focus back where it should be.<br />
Really, I have seen a HUGE difference in my health (physical and mental) due to what I have taken out of our diet and what we've added in. Cooking from scratch, eliminating processed foods (as much as you can), reading labels, switching out refined sugars for natural sweeteners, and using real fats is a great way to start if you are wanting to go down the path of eating real foods.<br />
SOOO, with that said I love sharing something that is easy and good for you!<br />
Pumpkins!<br />
It's the time of year when they are in season and the "pie" pumpkins are easily available just about anywhere.<br />
I like to use pureed pumpkin in anything I can. It's considered a superfood and is packed full of vitamins. (I love that seasonal foods deliver such a punch with nutrients for our bodies. I think God did that on purpose! :)<br />
Roasting a pumpkin. I know it sounds like something your grandma would do, especially when you can buy a can of it on the shelf. But I take satisfaction in the freshness of getting it straight out of the ground!<br />
To roast your own pumpkin:<br />
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<li>Chop the pumpkin into two pieces (I chopped the stem off first), and scoop out seeds and that stringy stuff (I set my pile of seeds in a bowl to roast later).</li>
<li>Wrap in foil and place on a cookie sheet. </li>
<li>Bake at 375 degrees for about an hour. </li>
<li>Scoop out pumpkin from shell.</li>
<li>Puree ( I added a little bit of water to make it blend easier) and store. You can freeze it for later!</li>
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My one pumpkin made about 4 cups puree. What to do with it?</div>
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I am searching out pumpkin recipes. I have never tried it savory, so maybe I'll be brave and do that (soup?), but I usually add it where I can easily like in oatmeal, as muffins, breads and of course my favorite holiday treat–pumpkin whoopie pies. They aren't a nutritious option, but we look forward to them each year! </div>
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When all this was done, I was thinking of how long this pumpkin would last when I looked on the counter and realized I had another pumpkin waiting. Yah for forgetfulness!</div>
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Meanwhile, I'm drying out my pumpkin seeds to roast later. Hoping this time they taste a little better than the last time I tried roasting. Any favorite pumpkin recipes you'd like to share? </div>
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carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15350862581145580555noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3242340091586407150.post-28071215622956546182013-10-22T20:35:00.000-04:002013-10-22T20:35:27.512-04:00Preschool week 8: letter E, number 4, Moses and the Red SeaFor week 8 we covered the letters Ee, number 4, and Moses and the Red Sea. I created E and e out of felt for Oliver to work on. This kind of thinking (using your hands for letters) is challenging for him and I don't push him too hard with it. I know he'll get it eventually, I just want to give him a variety of mediums to work on forming letters.<br />
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This week we also headed down to our communities story time. We actually ended up getting there a wee bit too late. They had read the story and were starting on the craft when we got there–woops! But Oliver didn't mind as they had a snack (a huge pile of raisins for him!) and his focus was on that snack for sure. Nevermind the craft :)!<br />
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We also made pear/apple sauce this week! Oliver loves to sit on the counter and help me make anything, so because I had a lot of pears that were soft and we all love sauce around here (pear, apple, whatever!) I thought it would be great to make it this week.<br />
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For our Bible story about Moses and the Red Sea, I found a craft idea like this one online, and made it similar to that. You trim out two pieces of blue for the water and fold up the inside of them to look like water parting. I had Oliver glue down the pieces and all the little men (red were the Egyptians and purple and black were the Israelites). He did great with this and kept all them men in neat little rows. Something that is very much an Oliver thing! :)<br />
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I used another section from the <a href="http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/BrowBearBrownBear.html">print out pack</a> I talked about <a href="http://cfishy.blogspot.com/2013/10/preschool-week-7-letter-d-number-4-and.html">here</a>. This one was a matching one–of course Oliver loved it. My favorite part of it all, was when he was "sharing" his raisins with the little picture of the people. Sweet boy! And we also played another game from the print out where you roll a big cube with an animal on each side, and when it lands on one you mark it on a corresponding sheet. It's a graph but Oliver liked rolling the big cube and finding out which animal would reach the last number first!<br />
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We finished our week heading to visit family. We celebrated Jonah's and Aleksandr's (again) birthday with some cake, much to Oliver's delight! And we enjoyed visiting with family for a couple days.<br />
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<br />carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15350862581145580555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3242340091586407150.post-2009481486610131192013-10-17T16:22:00.000-04:002013-10-17T16:22:16.949-04:00Out of Darkness: bringing light to a very dark placeAmidst the everyday of being home training two little boys and all the going on's that go along with that, Jonah and I have been praying and seeking the Lord about a specific ministry we feel led to serve in. I was asked to write a blog post about it for a site called the Middle Places, a place where several women come together to blog about their own "middle place" and how God is working in them. I wanted to post it here for my readers, and for my own access, so I can remember my thoughts at this point in the journey.<br />
You can read it <a href="http://middleplaces.com/2013/10/16/out-of-darkness/">here</a>.<br />
We are slowly going through the steps now to become a part of this organization as volunteers, and I'm eager and waiting to see where God directs. I know He is before us on this journey and I'm praying for His Spirit to lead, to prepare us now for helping bring His light to these women. Please pray for us as it's not a place that the Enemy wants exposed. But HE is GREATER and He is victorious!<br />
<br />carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15350862581145580555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3242340091586407150.post-743206345248085892013-10-15T14:33:00.002-04:002013-10-15T14:35:07.359-04:00Preschool Week 7, Letter D, Number 4, and baby MosesThis week we focused on the letter D. Again. I actually jumped the boat when we started preschool and wanted to include letters even though the curriculum waited a couple weeks into it...you can read that <a href="http://cfishy.blogspot.com/2013/08/preschool-day-3.html">here. </a><br />
But after a week or two into preschool, I realized it was better for us (and a lot easier for me) to just follow the curriculum regardless if Oliver already knows the letters, shapes etc, of what we are covering. I can add to the curriculum each week if it's just too simple for Oliver and I love doing that.<br />
But back to the week, we focused on D, the number 4 and the Bible story of when Moses was born.<br />
I created a page of words with "d" in them for Oliver to find and circle. He still gets frustrated with this because it's hard for him to make small circles around the d's. But I talked him through and helped him find words that started with the "da, da, da" sound.<br />
Also, I love this picture of our sweet boy. I can see his boyish, childhood all wrapped up in that little face. :)<br />
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We played with some <a href="http://cfishy.blogspot.com/2013/09/preschool-week-4-day-4.html">play sand</a> this week again, which is ALWAYS a huge hit.<br />
And I also let Oliver put a puzzle together that I printed for free online. It's a puzzle that is in strips you stack, with the number at the end of the strip. You can find the numbers and line them up (1-10) and then the pictures line up too. It's hard to get them (with three year old hands) perfectly lined up, so Oliver wasn't a huge fan. But as his fine motor skills and attention span increase I think he'll like doing this one a little more :).<br />
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We read the story of baby Moses this week too, and our craft was very simple for it. I printed the free printouts from ABCJLM and used those. Oliver painted and glued the pieces down on a sheet of paper. He did good gluing them all down in the right sequence (brush, basket, baby).<br />
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I found a super cute theme packet for <a href="http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/BrowBearBrownBear.html">brown bear</a> that I printed for free! I used the sequence bears for Oliver. He's gotten really good at figuring out sequences. And Oliver worked on matching letters (big and little) from his name <a href="http://cfishy.blogspot.com/2013/09/week-5-days-3-and-4.html">on this car</a> that I made him.<br />
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Another counting activity we did: I used the ladybugs previously and instead of matching them to leaves, I had Oliver count the dots on the lady bugs and match them to the corresponding numbers I had made on sheets of paper. (I just made numbers 1-10 with simple matching dots under them)<br />
He really loved doing this! He counted each dot on the ladybug <i>and </i>on each sheet of paper. He really likes counting and matching!<br />
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We are enjoying some lovely weather here in Georgia and it's wonderful to take lunch outside and enojoy these mild fall days together. The boys love being outdoors so any chance we get is always a hit! I am so thankful to be home with the boys to be able to do this with them. Such a huge blessing!<br />
Also, nevermind that my foot looks completely out of proportion with my body. What the?? It's what you get from self timer. ha!<br />
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Our week ended with a little paint project. I had created these balloons for Oliver to paint for his daddy. Whose big birthday was that weekend. He did fabulous painting them with much gusto. He really likes to paint shapes. Aren't they pretty in all those colors?<br />
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<br />carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15350862581145580555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3242340091586407150.post-79799508832618700032013-10-09T13:25:00.000-04:002013-10-15T13:32:19.495-04:00Preschool Week 6: letter C, number 3, Joseph and his coat of colors <br />
All right. I am a bit late posting our progress, since we are actually in week 8 as I write, but I've decided to just post some things we worked on that were particularly interesting that I'd like to remember for later use. Considering we do a lot of things consistently (like our routine things, and working on drawing lines, tracing numbers/letters etc.) it will help me overall not spend too much time here, when I need to spend my time in other places.<br />
So with that being said, and the fact that I may be boring all those faithful readers (hee, hee, all two of you? ;) I will post weekly, or maybe biweekly, but let's not get too hopeful of that!<br />
For our 6th week we were working on the letter C, number 3 and our Bible story was Joseph and the coat of many colors. These along with our weekly Bible verse kept us busy.<br />
Here are some things we worked on {also, I'm warning you now it's going to be a picture heavy post}:<br />
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For the letter C, I had Oliver glue down puff balls (pom, poms maybe?) in C and c. He did a great job squeezing out his glue bottle and tapping down all the puff balls. He loves to make lines, so this was right up his alley!<br />
I also introduced him to a new art: q-tip painting. You paint with a q-tip onto a letter that has little circles for you to fill in. I think this was a little too detail oriented for him at this point. He started out trying to fill in the dots and it turned into a great big mass of one blob of color. Which is okay too. He had fun using something new to paint with (q-tip)! I found the templates online for free. We'll keep them handy for more practice.<br />
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I created a "C" filled basket for him. To help him with the sound of C (what sound does C make?) I found a lot of items starting with C, and added in some things that didn't start with C. We pulled them out one at a time and talked about what their names were. I asked him each time if that item started with c and he got about half right. Sound is a hard thing to learn, and we'll get there. It was a fun visual way to work on letter sound.<br />
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I also drew some items starting with the letter C for Oliver to circle. We'd look at each picture and say what it is, then I'd ask if it started with "C". He circled the things that started with C. Also, I love old fashioned chalk boards. They are not used in schools as much, so I love being able to use one at home. I well remember working on chalk boards in my own schooling days. Is there anything better than a fresh clean slate? (I'm the nerdy one that loved washing the board down, so satisfying)<br />
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Oliver practiced cutting with his safety scissors (picked them up at the dollar store), and we had fun counting with a firefly game I printed free online. You put fireflies in the sky then count and find the matching number. He did great on this! He loves math, so far :)<br />
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Worked on a matching game (free online) where you match heads and tails.<br />
Another easy game for Oliver. He actually started matching these months ago, and he loves matching games! He also glued down some circles I had cut out of different colored sheets of construction paper, into a caterpillar pattern of his choice. The head may have been in the middle of the body, but that's okay! ;) C is for caterpillar! </div>
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A new thing we tried this week was drawing what I draw. I would draw something and have him copy me. We started with a circle then added to that to make a snowman. Oliver was frustrated at not being able to duplicate it, so we tried again with a simpler picture. A wavy line for water, a curve and line for a boat, a straight line and a triangle added for the sail. He did a lot better with this than the snowman. I'd like to keep doing this with him as it teaches him how to make shapes and lines and also follow direction. He'll be on his way to drawing his own pictures one day! </div>
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And our Bible story craft this week was for the story of Joseph and the coat of many colors. A craft suggestion of ABCJLM was to paint colors on a brown grocery bag that you cut into a coat for your kiddo to wear. The first day we painted Oliver had no interest after about two strokes of paint. So I put it away for the next day. The next day I put paint on a plate for him and he liked this better than using a watercolor set. He painted with his brush, then turned to use his hands. </div>
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Funny thing is, I loved the way the look of the dried paint was all mixed up on the paper plate he used. So we later cut out a coat shape from the paper plate and glued this to a piece of paper. I like that craft better than the original idea! Look at that bright colored coat! </div>
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And<i> that </i>was the end of our week.<i> </i></div>
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<i>Also, congratulations for making it through this long post.</i> </div>
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carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15350862581145580555noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3242340091586407150.post-36856071251164145032013-10-02T20:50:00.002-04:002013-10-02T20:57:53.282-04:00the SAHM. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I have been thinking a lot about what it's like actually being a stay at home mom.<br />
I had a chance to speak with a friend recently about this very thing, and I realized I don't get to stop and think about this very often.<br />
Well, yes, I do think about it often as it is my life day in and day out, but really think about the blessing of it as well as the hard parts.<br />
I'm not sure why I am writing about this but I feel prompted to, and often that prompting is from the Lord saying, "Go ahead, do this!"<br />
Being at home.<br />
Hmm.<br />
I have been home now a little over 2 years. I'm a "new" stay at home mom if you think about it. I don't have years and years under my belt yet. I love to think back to the point that started this all for us. When Jonah and I sought the Lord for an answer and felt clearly that it was a big YES for me to stay home. I wrote about this <a href="http://pouredforth.wordpress.com/2011/05/23/spoken/">here</a>.<br />
What is it like to be a stay at home mom? <i>it's a blessing, it's a calling, it's a tremendous gift to me.</i><br />
Is it hard? <i>yes, there are hard times.</i><br />
Do you miss other people (adults)? <i>no, there is freedom to meet and talk with fellow mom's and friends.</i><br />
Do you miss your job away from home?<i>mm, not so much.</i><br />
Is it hard to make it on one income? <i>is anything too hard for the Lord? indeed there are sacrifices you make, but He is FAITHFUL to provide where He has called you.</i><br />
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These are typical questions that come to mind, and I had all these questions before I actually was at home.<br />
Now I can think of these questions:<br />
Is there anything else that is more fulfilling? <i>living in the calling God has placed on your life is THE most fulfilling thing. </i><br />
Are you receiving blessing upon blessing simply by watching your very own children grow and learn and play and love you?<i> yes, yes, yes.</i><br />
Is your heart feeling overly full on some days? <i>how can it not?</i><br />
How do you find that there is more to give on the days you are nearing "empty"? <i>I am reminded God's grace is like an ocean, and fills me up again and again, praise Him for this!</i><br />
Do you see the heart of God in the daily role of being a mom? Of loving your family? Of doing all you can to make your home a loving, safe, God loving place? <i>over and over.</i><br />
Are these days going entirely too fast sometimes? <i>yes, yes, yes.</i><br />
Can you still remember those days out in the world working? <i>yes, still do, but not often.</i><br />
Do the harder days outweigh the lighter ones? <i>many times over.</i><br />
Is it worth it?<br />
That last question is really it. Is it worth it? I want to shout out, HOW IS IT NOT????<br />
But I can just quietly say in the blog world, <i>yes.</i><br />
<i>It is worth it to wake up and have two little ones seeking you to pick them up, to care for them, to love them. To have love given back when you never deserve it. To watch them grow and see into their hearts moment by moment. To teach them what it looks like to love, to serve, to pray, to be a friend, to encourage, to clean, to work hard, to live this life with a heart bent on loving Jesus.</i><br />
<i>Because I get to be the one that daily shows them a small part of WHO Jesus is, and what His heart is, even if I know I fail again and again. I get to be the one to sing with them and cheer for them and laugh with them over silly,silly things, and I love it. </i><br />
<i>So I say if you are questioning yourself about being a stay at home mom, I am reminded again to say that God is faithful in every single doubt and fear you have. If He has placed a calling in your own heart for this, He will provide, and get ready to have your heart filled up and overflowing. </i><br />
<i>It's worth it. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15350862581145580555noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3242340091586407150.post-76892530347655770722013-09-27T13:46:00.002-04:002013-09-28T08:54:27.235-04:00Movie nightFridays are now free days as I mentioned <a href="http://cfishy.blogspot.com/2013/09/preschool-week-4-day-5.html">here</a>. On this Friday I didn't have anything special planned, like a park day or field trip etc. After all you can't always take field trips, as much fun as it would be, as budget allows. I have to be creative with what we do since we do have a small budget. Thankfully God has blessed me with a creative mind, so we do low cost things that are still great fun for the boys.<br />
(It really doesn't take too much to amaze a 3 year old and his little brother :))<br />
But Jonah and I had a day date planned this day! So Oliver and Aleksandr had some play time with a great friend of ours that watched them for us.<br />
Our fabulous date was kayaking, and it was a gorgeous day! We had so much fun rowing (6 miles. that is SIX miles) down the river, splashing each other, jumping in the very bone chilling water and just hanging out kid free for a few hours. It doesn't happen often, and while we love our boys, time alone is essential for building our relationship. I love spending time with my sweetheart!<br />
For that night I had planned something special for Oliver. We had a "movie night" with him. This is a rare treat because we don't have TV. This might be strange to some people, but honestly we don't miss it at all. We decided to cancel cable a few years back (I believe since Oliver was born) so it's been a while since we remember what is like to have a TV! When we watch movies, it's on the computer. Oliver watches some shows here and there so he knows where to watch them. He knows what a TV is but doesn't miss it either as he doesn't know any other lifestyle. But he knows what a movie is and when we said we were going to have a movie night with him, his little face lit up. This was a special thing indeed!<br />
After dinner, bath and pj's (and little brother was in bed) we went down to pop some popcorn. I thought Oliver would enjoy watching it but he was a little freaked out by the loud noise (air popper) and didn't really want to eat it. So I ate it begrudgingly. (um, did you know popcorn is my very favorite snack in all the world?? truly. no lie here.)<br />
Our movie was Mary Poppins. We got through about an hour of it before there were yawns from the little boy. So we ended it there and had him go to bed. I think he loved the special night (even though he doesn't realize he didn't see the whole movie) and time with mommy and daddy. We'll finish the rest of the movie once he is feeling better from his chest cold he's picked up :(. A fun night with good memories!<br />
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<br />carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15350862581145580555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3242340091586407150.post-11680489890055779192013-09-27T13:26:00.000-04:002013-09-27T13:26:20.497-04:00Week 5, days 3 and 4Why hello!<br />
I have been having a crazy week with two sick kids. SOOO that means I am behind on updating LAST weeks school days. I am lumping them together for the sake of my own sanity.<br />
Here we go.<br />
Day 3:<br />
After routine things, we worked on some counting. Oliver can count very well, even into the 20's but he doesn't yet recognize what the 20's look like. And he gets some of the teens mixed up. I thought it would help him see the numbers both in order and out so that he can remember what they look like. Here is my attempt at capturing me in the frame with him. It's a sad attempt. I set the timer on the camera and took a few shots but Oliver was so fascinated at the blinking light on the camera that I didn't really get him counting. But it's a very real moment! ha!<br />
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We moved onto some letter sorting. I made the whole alphabet (lower and upper case) in wheels, and made a car for him to put the wheels on. Cute concept but once it was all done, I realized it was WAY too much for him to sort through. A wee bit overwhelming. Thanks for that idea Pinterest.<br />
Well, it's not a Pinterest fault.<br />
I think the thing about some pins is that they don't specify age. And you have to take into account where your child is and what they know at their age. I switched it out (when I realized it was even overwhelming <i>me</i>) and only pulled the letters in his name. We made it into a memory game at that point and I had him flip over the letters to find their matches (lower with upper), then we put them into his name. A better plan!<br />
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Day 4:<br />
Our final day for the week.<br />
It was a low key day for sure. Oliver started the day with some play at the table (see the friends he brought along? I do believe these are Aleksandr's toys). We did our verse together, and read a book about words, and I had Oliver tell me what words started with the letter B. He then did some painting with the letter B. Meanwhile Aleksandr was enjoying his new found skill of balancing on the the choo choo train. Silly boy! This one is a wild one for sure!<br />
And that ended our week!<br />
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<br />carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15350862581145580555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3242340091586407150.post-13808949421833185002013-09-25T16:01:00.001-04:002013-09-25T16:01:59.336-04:00Preschool Week 5, Day 2Today Oliver was busy putting things in very long straight lines. A habit he developed when he was in his 2's. Not sure what month this started! But all this time later and he still thrives on making things orderly, in a row, organized. I marvel at his organizational thought process. I know it does not come from my side, but rather from his daddy!<br />
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After our routine things we focused on our Bible story, Noah's Ark. I think having Oliver be involved hands on in the story helps him learn it all that much better.<br />
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We reviewed our verse. Here's my meager drawing of it.<br />
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And the rest of our day–Oliver worked on drawing the number 3, his name and finally some felt. I created the letters Bb for him to put together. Kind of tough since the B has two curve pieces that manipulate easily because they are well, felt. I ended up putting our printout of Bb for him to use as a template, this was a great way to help him learn the shapes of the pieces. But he did a great job going through so many things today!<br />
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<br />carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15350862581145580555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3242340091586407150.post-15599244335894575892013-09-24T13:30:00.000-04:002013-09-24T13:34:01.455-04:00 A shared school day (preschool week 5, day one)Week 5! Done!<br />
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I am a little late in posting this but I will try to remember what we did last week. </div>
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Starting with day 1.</div>
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It was a special school day for us because Oliver's little buddy Elijah came to share school time with us. He is very close in age to Oliver and they enjoy playing together whenever we do get together. His mom is thinking about starting a school time with him as well, so to encourage her and to do something different in our routine we started the week together :). </div>
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It's quite a bit different preparing for 2 kids as opposed to only Oliver. I really didn't fret about how it would go, I just made sure I was ready with activities for the both of them. Because Oliver has been doing school for a little while now he knew what to expect. Elijah was new to it but I think he enjoyed participating in the activities and seeing how we did our routine things. I know his mama was encouraged to be able to start something on her own (she told me as much) after our day was over. I am so glad for this. I think it's a wonderful blessing to be able to sit and teach your little ones. I know we already do day in and day out just by being mom's. But investing the time into schooling is so fulfilling. I know that she will reap so many rewards just by watching her little guy learn, and get excited about new things that they cover in their schooling. It's a special time (even if it is only 30-60 minutes) each day that is set apart for just the two of you. There may be interruptions from other children, but the focus is still there and I know that Oliver knows this too. When he learns something or figures out how to do a new skill I am quick to heap lots of praise on him and he just beams. I love seeing his little face light up in understanding over something. Praise, praise, praise! I don't think you can over-praise your children. I am learning this in my daily walk just as a mom. I think this can go along in life too. Praising others when you see something that merits it. Praising my husband, praising my God, praising friends. Encouragement goes so much farther than we think it does.</div>
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Okay, so to our schooling. </div>
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We started the day going through our routine together. Prayer, weather, calendar time, song about days of week, and pledge of allegiance. Elijah enjoyed it all, and participated quite well, even doing the weather card. We moved onto our Bible story, Noah's Ark. I read through the story in Oliver's children's Bible. To help keep them focused, I pulled out our toy ark we have and let them participate in putting all the animals into the boat with Noah and his wife. They thoroughly enjoyed this part. It was hard to wind it down back to the story!</div>
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After our story and ark time, we went ahead and started our craft to go with the story. I had drawn out rainbow templates for them to fill in with paint dots. It was a little slow going as Oliver was not very excited about sharing the paint dots. But we finally had them equally fill in their rainbows (and once they got going they did a fabulous job) and then moved onto glueing down clouds. </div>
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After the rainbow, they moved to Oliver's little table to work on their names. I had drawn their names with boxes under each letter and taped the papers down to metal cookie pans. I had some scrabble letters with magnets on them that were stuck down on top and they sorted through and placed the letters on corresponding letters in their names. They both did a great job at this. I kept this activity for Oliver to keep practicing on all week. </div>
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After names, we moved onto an activity of choice. Since I had one set of each thing, I pulled out counting lady bugs and color finding. Elijah chose color finding, and Oliver chose counting. </div>
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I have to say that they did not sit quietly and do these activities independently. They are 3 years old. This photo was the moment of stillness before they both gave up on counting/color finding and decided to run around and play. And that was the end of school time! </div>
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It was a great experience and I know Oliver loved having his buddy there. We hope to do this again often. I'm excited about it and may even branch into inviting a few more buddies. We'll see how it goes!</div>
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carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15350862581145580555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3242340091586407150.post-67326688186221969912013-09-17T13:59:00.000-04:002013-09-17T13:59:06.550-04:00Preschool Week 4, day 5Day 5.<br />
{A small recap over our last month, and where we are now.}<br />
Well it took me about a month to get to this point, but I decided we'll take off Fridays. Given the fact that we haven't really been entirely consistent in a 5 day week anyways, I was encouraged to do this because of a couple reasons. One, it's preschool, it's not high pressure in any way and doesn't need to be 5 days a week, two a chance to have days for free time and field trips is great! I can use the day to do something special like picnics at parks, lunch visits to daddy at work, or special trips to museums, zoo's or visiting a fire station (we are planning that in an upcoming week, although it isn't on a Friday).<br />
I know a few homeschool mom's that do a regular 4 day week with Friday's off. They are reserved for family days. I love this and feel it will be great for us too.<br />
I love how each week I learn things that work and don't work for our schooling methods.<br />
I love watching Oliver teach me new things about himself, about how he learns, what he gets excited about, how he follows direction, listens in story times, and comprehends what we are talking about. I have been able to ask him in depth questions about what we are reading/learning and his responses are blowing me away. His memory is also amazing. I believe he takes after Jonah in this area, I'm not sure. I've never had a 3 year old, so I'm not sure what they are capable of memorizing, but really, I'm so impressed with his memory! I feel that I should encourage this as he gets older and I'm praying for wisdom with what I should do in this area.<br />
I pray over our boys to be able to encourage them in areas they are gifted in, and strengthen and help them in areas they are weak in. I love seeing glimpses of who this wee man is becoming. What an incredible blessing it is to be a mom, but to be able to teach daily is also a new experience that is SO rewarding. I know it's also a responsibility as God instructs us in the Bible, but He leads and provides what you need if you keep relying on Him.<br />
It's been a good month, and I'm excited to look ahead at our calendar and think about all the things we can learn together, things we can make together, holidays and seasons we can prepare for, ways we can grow in character as we look to serve others. There are just so many things to learn. Not even for our little 3 year old. For me too.<br />
Homeschooling. Is it really for the kids after all?<br />
Ah makes me think.<br />
Well, back to our Friday. I took the boys to a park and museum, and we ended our outing having lunch with their daddy at work. Such a great day, with beautiful fall weather! A very good end to our week!<br />
(Also we picked up a flag for Oliver, and he was thrilled. He held it so high and watched it wave in the car the entire drive to see his daddy.)<br />
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<br />carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15350862581145580555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3242340091586407150.post-4736632743712075832013-09-17T13:30:00.000-04:002013-09-17T13:31:22.771-04:00Preschool Week 4, day 4Day four.<br />
Oliver had a snack on this morning, which was unusual. We don't do snacks early in the day, but for some reason (maybe an early breakfast) I let him have some raisins. I let him play with his food later, by putting them on the number 2. He really enjoyed that :).<br />
To start the day though, after our routine things, Oliver worked on the letters Aa with felt.<br />
Today he did excellent! He could tell he got it right took, and when I praised him he just beamed! A little confidence went a long way with him. I could tell his confidence carried through everything that morning.<br />
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We moved onto counting afterwards, and like I mentioned earlier, his confidence was high today! After counting 0-5 with the ladybugs (and matching leaves) he wanted to try to keep going and made it ALL the way to 12. This is a tough thing to do, with all the matching and I was so proud of him! He initiated it and did great!</div>
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That wrapped up our school time for the morning. Later in the day (at my favorite time of day, the cranky hour) I made this <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/202028733254929763/">play sand</a>. I had seen a pin with this recipe on it before and I forgot about it. The actual pin calls for baby oil, which I didn't have, and 8 cups of flour, which I was pretty sure I didn't have. I was also afraid of failure (um, has anyone else experienced failed pins before?) so I thought I'd make a small mix using what I did have. </div>
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I used regular canola oil mixed into flour. And for the exact ratio, I just started small, maybe a couple cups of flour to oh, 1/4 cup oil? I mixed in oil as I went until I felt like it was a good "sand" consistency. Basically when it was still coming apart but could hold when I squeezed it together. I then added more flour and oil, since as it turns out I had more flour than I thought. I try not to bake with all purpose flour in general because it's just not good for you (we use whole wheat) but every once in a while I do use it for sweets. And it's very handy to have on hand for crafty projects. </div>
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Did Oliver like it?</div>
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It was such a hit! He loved it! He did want me to sit and play with him which was in between cooking for me, but it was highly successful and highly messy. But it wiped/vacuumed right up. Aleksandr really, really wanted to participate. Looking up at both me and Oliver sitting at the table he couldn't handle being alone on the ground. Poor guy. So I held him while he dug his hands in. And surprisingly he didn't eat it. I think he remembered the sand at Charleston. He LOVED it and sat and played contentedly for quite a while on the beach. After a few mouthfuls of it, he gave up eating it and really just played. I think he may have thought this was similar. So successful pin for both boys! Now this is something worth doing again!</div>
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<u>Play Sand</u></div>
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5 cups all purpose flour</div>
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1 cup canola oil (or less, just slowly add in)</div>
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Mix up, slowly adding in oil until the texture is "sandy" (falls apart, but will still be moldable when you squeeze it). Dump in a big pan and watch your three year old explore, dig, pour and generally make a big, fun mess!</div>
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carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15350862581145580555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3242340091586407150.post-74714537849767884012013-09-16T21:26:00.000-04:002013-09-16T21:28:40.413-04:00Preschool Week 4, day 3<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Day three.<br />
We started with routine things, then moved onto a little review of our Bible story (Adam and Eve). I had Oliver color a printout from ABCJLM of Adam and Eve. He colored a little, but not much. Coloring is just not his thing. I've introduced him to it over and over again, but he has yet to really get into it. Maybe he just won't, maybe he will later. Either way, it's okay. I love exploring different creative things with him and seeing what makes him excited.<br />
So far, I know he loves using the glue by himself.<br />
Using his own scissors is exciting for about 5 minutes.<br />
Searching games are up there in his list of favorite activities (searching for <a href="http://cfishy.blogspot.com/2013/09/preschool-week-2-day-4.html">colors</a>, <a href="http://cfishy.blogspot.com/2013/08/preschool-day-3.html">letters</a>).<br />
And getting his hands messy, or building/playing in stuff. Like play-doh, play sand, dirt etc.<br />
I guess that's a boy for you. We finished our flag today! The final thing to add were the stars, so Oliver was thrilled to squeeze out <strike>gobs </strike> a small amount of glue for the stars. Can we say hurray for finishing the flag? It only took us well over a week :).<br />
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OH, I also wanted to add that we are now including the pledge of allegiance into our routine things. I forgot to post that along the way...so there it is.<br />
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We moved onto some practice with line drawing. I have these cute printouts that have different lines (curvy, straight, spikey) from little campers to a tent. I love them because they are perfect for Oliver, who loves outdoor things (like his daddy) and was excited to make a path to the tents. I wish I could remember where I printed them from. If I find the link I'll post it. {okay I just found the link and it's <a href="http://homeschoolcreations.com/campingpreschoolpack.html">here</a>. Great site for free printables!}<br />
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We did a little counting after that.<br />
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And I found time to organize all my printables I had stored up over the past year, so I pulled out an old sequence printout. I remember Oliver was frustrated with these when we tried them months ago. Sequence is a hard thing to learn and it was just too early for him to understand. He did a little better this time, but I'll let him try them again soon to see how he thinks through it. I cannot remember where I printed these from either :/ But it's easy enough to search for "sequence" printables at sites like, <a href="http://www.homeschoolcreations.net/">Homeschool Creations</a> or <a href="http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.net/">1+1+1</a>.<br />
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We moved onto a puzzle I had printed out a while back. Since Oliver loves puzzles I thought he might enjoy this one, but it was pretty much a fail. It's a tough puzzle. Because all the pieces are square, it's hard to know what goes where. Also the way the pieces and art of the actual puzzle are, it's tough to know what direction which puzzle piece is supposed to go and where they go. I think I'll look for a different puzzle for him, with a picture that has lots of different colors on it.<br />
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We ended our school time at that point. BUT later that day I had a fun project planned for Oliver. I looked up science for preschool on Pinterest and found a popular post about mixing vinegar and baking soda. I was inspired to try it for our own science time. I also had the notion to do this while I was getting dinner ready. For some reason, the time period from about 4-5ish in the evening is the worst time of day for crankiness. From both boys.<br />
Having an activity that thoroughly captivated him was a huge plus! I didn't know how long this would interest Oliver but I was amazed at the length of time he played with it.<br />
Here's the simple recipe for it:<br />
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<a name='more'></a><u>Vinegar and Baking Soda Science</u><br />
White distilled vinegar<br />
food coloring<br />
baking soda<br />
muffin tin<br />
medicine dropper<br />
cookie sheet pan<br />
muffin tin<br />
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Pour vinegar into your muffin tin. Drop in food coloring, mix whatever colors you'd like.<br />
Dump baking soda onto a cookie sheet pan. Let your little one pick up vinegar with the dropper and drop out onto the baking soda. Easy.<br />
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Oliver did have a hard time figuring out the dropper. It was a process to squeeze, release, carry over to the tray and sqeeze out. It was a great fine motor skill exercise for him. I'll have him work on it some more another time because in the end he had abandoned the dropper for his fingers. Which was okay.<br />
He was mixing up all sorts of things and told me all about them, "I'm making pancakes!, I'm making muffins mommy! I'm making a pizza..." Oh that boy makes me laugh!<br />
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<br />carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15350862581145580555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3242340091586407150.post-16428897396086496072013-09-16T20:26:00.000-04:002013-09-16T20:37:02.358-04:00Preschool Week 4 day 2<br />
So for our second day of the week, we started out with our routine things (prayer, weather, calendar/song time, verse/Bible story) and Oliver wanted to color a sun. SO, I gave him some markers and paper and let him create whatever he liked.<br />
That lasted a couple minutes until he was done.<br />
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We then worked on glueing our apple (craft recommended from ABCJLM) and "worm" to one side. Oliver did great controlling the glue and putting the worm together (pom pom's).<br />
This was to be used after it dried for a prop in reviewing the story of Adam and Eve in the garden.<br />
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We glued the flag together. It took a while to get this flag finished! Between waiting for paint to dry, we now had to wait for the glue to dry to keep the whole thing together.<br />
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We finished our day with a little drawing. I think Oliver just wanted to circle shapes in this shot. I honestly cannot remember what we did. (I catch up on posts a week later so I'm so glad I have photos of what we do, because as you can tell my memory is TERRIBLE)<br />
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And at the end of our school time we pulled out play-doh and made cupcakes. And spaghetti and different shapes that Oliver could mix and pull and squeeze. (We picked up this <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Play-Doh-24373-Cake-Making-Station/dp/B0037BMCFK">play-doh set</a> for a steal at a consignment sale- $4, and Oliver LOVES it)<br />
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<br />carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15350862581145580555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3242340091586407150.post-5775126190108771662013-09-16T19:12:00.000-04:002013-09-16T19:16:20.775-04:00Preschool Week 4 day oneI glanced at the weeks lesson plan for week 4 on Sunday night (or it may have even been Monday morning) and I clearly remembering thinking "phew, thank you Lord," as it was listed as a "review" week. I was still pretty wiped out after our busy week the previous week (to Charleston). A review week was actually ideal since we didn't finish a full week last week, but also I am tired, and not very motivated to create new projects (admittedly lazy over here).<br />
So off we went to start school on week 4.<br />
We were still finishing up our flag that we started on last week, painting the final white stripes.<br />
{Also his shiner is looking much better this week!}<br />
Oliver then worked on making the letter's Aa with felt. He is getting better at this. Good thing we have a review week for this, especially since we had a short week last week. It's so encouraging to see him learn things!<br />
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I pulled out my Aa printout (in a page protector) and used this as a play-doh template. I had seen this idea on a lot of preschool sites and thought Oliver could try it. It wasn't really a success. Oliver has a tough time rolling out pieces on his own still, and putting them on the template wasn't fun to him, especially once play-doh is out! He'd much rather just play with it, and that's what we ended up doing. But before I brought out more play-doh, I had him try writing the number 2 as well as Aa with a dry erase marker. He is getting better and better at tracing/writing.<br />
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Aleksandr was up from nap, so there was that going on :) At his age the things we are covering with Oliver are not things he can do quite yet. Soon enough little one, soon enough.</div>
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Also, with the play-doh, Oliver made an H and said "Wook mommy, it's dancin', the H is dancin'!" Hee hee. He's so silly. And that was also a cue to me that the play-doh on letter thing wasn't working, I just needed to let him create something on his own :) </div>
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Finally the day ended with this. Little brother was desperate to get up and see what all the fuss was on the table, and why in the world wasn't he involved in it? Yup, lots of tears (from baby boy) usually means schools over! </div>
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carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15350862581145580555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3242340091586407150.post-90102885889619873892013-09-10T13:59:00.003-04:002013-09-10T14:05:35.772-04:00my easy peasy home made felt boardSo I had an inspiration one day while I was wrapping up our school day. My creative thinking process works like that. I'll think of something and just do it. Just like that.<br />
I wish I could tackle every project in my life with that much gusto!<br />
But I mentioned back<a href="http://cfishy.blogspot.com/2013/09/preschool-week-3-day-one.html"> here</a> how we worked on felt letters together, and how I made my own felt board. I love felt. I love the hands on playing and learning you can do. I love the textile feeling of it. I'm a hands on kind of girl and find that I learn best by physically being involved in something. I knew it would be great for Oliver too, it seemed like he would love to be able to do it by himself (that seems to be the theme for a three year old) and he would also learn how to think through his letters and how they are built.<br />
SO, when the boys went down for a nap I pulled out materials I thought would work for my own felt board. I considered using a big piece of cardboard for the actual board and covering it with felt but that probably would have been a big unfinished looking mess. I remembered that we had picked up several cork boards from a neighbor and they were literally sitting around waiting for us to do something remarkable with them. Well today was the day!<br />
Maybe not remarkable, but they were a perfect match for my felt board. I pulled out the larger one, some felt material I had stashed away with my fabrics, scissors, a marker and some thumb tacks.<br />
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I didn't plan on making this a permanent felt board, as I like to have my options for our cork boards. So I took the temporary route. I laid my piece of felt over the whole board. It was an odd sized piece of fabric so I just made sure it covered the board. Then I pressed into the edges of the board, where the trim met the cork. I used thumbtacks to press the fabric down, while I used a marker to gently draw along the edge for my cutting line. Then I trimmed my pattern out. Done. Right?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdWxLT9xjm26DSbivJOoSSTprklImFo_OCMkSUhZ5OA0xPO3g20MkrE4DhxGJP5wSSvimfdqIREyFc9Tv7NmbXaVBkE0Iy_PYoWIzFbtXbLiDP4q1bYUIlcDLAtZ-hIjTFnZL6MCpvoxaj/s1600/felt+board_02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdWxLT9xjm26DSbivJOoSSTprklImFo_OCMkSUhZ5OA0xPO3g20MkrE4DhxGJP5wSSvimfdqIREyFc9Tv7NmbXaVBkE0Iy_PYoWIzFbtXbLiDP4q1bYUIlcDLAtZ-hIjTFnZL6MCpvoxaj/s640/felt+board_02.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaaCFEuHDWM1ZiNj2-7zTG932YokxNdiZT38WdRQX_a4WYPiMNRi3KNcggeFdgxmE77fKpzSkvWYHmzUWFZllHkv7hjbrUjmSuPL_d-dzuKSezSF2fj39-f_U_xUq2GiCTrzOvWn1i5TuV/s1600/felt+board_03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaaCFEuHDWM1ZiNj2-7zTG932YokxNdiZT38WdRQX_a4WYPiMNRi3KNcggeFdgxmE77fKpzSkvWYHmzUWFZllHkv7hjbrUjmSuPL_d-dzuKSezSF2fj39-f_U_xUq2GiCTrzOvWn1i5TuV/s640/felt+board_03.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9PApVeDvakwopEPk4GRh2nj5nsOBXT6PIWmggjVRUmEFKlEuddiNQnWxuKB6BUbH53EH2sTMJW00duWQkmWFSbYWPT_nEw9BEoluJ5nsbjOWMAPboKxH_gqmDj616cmES5TuAnveMkgGl/s1600/felt+board_04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9PApVeDvakwopEPk4GRh2nj5nsOBXT6PIWmggjVRUmEFKlEuddiNQnWxuKB6BUbH53EH2sTMJW00duWQkmWFSbYWPT_nEw9BEoluJ5nsbjOWMAPboKxH_gqmDj616cmES5TuAnveMkgGl/s640/felt+board_04.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">see that big gap? yah, this was attempt number one. fail.</td></tr>
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No, not done. Failed actually.</div>
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I realized that I shouldn't have drawn right on the edge, I should've gone beyond the edge a bit. About a 1/2" or so. Felt is stretchy, so once you make it taut it bounces back, sort of, when you release it.</div>
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SOOO, I did the whole process again, and just set the first piece aside for using in something later.</div>
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While I was making my second piece, little boy woke up from his nap, so there was that going on beside me :)</div>
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I did it correct the second time around! After I had my piece, I used thumbtacks to press it into the edges. I may get some smaller tacks, or use staples as an low profile option. But for now, this is working fine.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi56_oBOYKrweeYxVdZQd_gAQg-pAjYoAL_-TYHVs13EEalhJ031G4LC7gcjAUgoVkVKydWlbK6-4I-Pjx1NNtwch2TVvQv0BeRIp0lJXhtb-2aE5hLAX_6kqukZYq1IFIu0I4-bF2tAeAA/s1600/felt+board_07.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi56_oBOYKrweeYxVdZQd_gAQg-pAjYoAL_-TYHVs13EEalhJ031G4LC7gcjAUgoVkVKydWlbK6-4I-Pjx1NNtwch2TVvQv0BeRIp0lJXhtb-2aE5hLAX_6kqukZYq1IFIu0I4-bF2tAeAA/s640/felt+board_07.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzy4g82QSGXgRf5d26E0JSP-gYtuQGcIuL-W_GeAZm1QsHjZFJMdEp_xv-Qu2zNoPTX-MKvSSciGj4JbdCrrrIyRSZlAL0FMEnAsu3lB7X2XehjhCTkgylING7KkhyphenhyphenBqbv6CVmOK9rvUU6/s1600/felt+board_05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzy4g82QSGXgRf5d26E0JSP-gYtuQGcIuL-W_GeAZm1QsHjZFJMdEp_xv-Qu2zNoPTX-MKvSSciGj4JbdCrrrIyRSZlAL0FMEnAsu3lB7X2XehjhCTkgylING7KkhyphenhyphenBqbv6CVmOK9rvUU6/s640/felt+board_05.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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I then cut out some letters for Oliver (I used chalk to outline my letters).<br />
I made his name, and the letters we are working on right now, Aa.<br />
Such an easy project. Well, once you figure out the measurement correctly :)<br />
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<br />carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15350862581145580555noreply@blogger.com0