Ballet here we come

According to The Enquirer(heehee-not that one) exposing your child to the arts will help them exceed in both school and socially.

I was planning on getting Ady involved in some dance or tumbling this year. After reading this I think I will look into ballet. She has been preparing for months. She is always saying "You wanna see my ballerina moves?"

When we go on vacation this year I hope to find an art museum or something of that nature to take the kids too. We don't have much here in central Il, so I think we need to take every opportunity that comes our way.

Our Learning Home

It has been about a year since Steve and I decided to start homeschooling. Even though it hasn't been as wonderful as I had planned, and some days I want to scream(some days I DO scream) I am seeing the benefits to having a learning home. In the past month I have seen all 3 kids learning new things, and they are all willing to learn more and more everyday. Jonas is wanting to add and tell time. Ady has really learned alot since August. She turned 3 and knew her address, could recognize W, A, O, and Z, count to 13, plus the other things she already knew like her shapes, colors, animals, and body parts. It has only been 3 months and she can spell her name, she knows what some words start with(Bubble, bath, Bryan, Brandon-start with B) We hung an alphabet poster in the toy room today and she shocked me when she was able to tell me about 75% of the letters(not in order-she knows them all if she sings and follows along with her finger) We made sugar cookies this AM and she turned her candy cane into "the number 1"
I love watching the kids grow and learn like this. Sometimes I think my kids are very smart. Jonas is leaps and bounds ahead of other kids his age, but other times I wonder if it isn't so much that our kids are advanced but that we haven't limited their learning to what we think they should know. Seriously---Jonas is 4, and he won't have to know addition until 1st grade, but he is very very interested in knowing it now. Adylynn doesn't need to tell time but she has the coolest Dora book to help her learn so why not let her. By not limiting our children's desire to learn are we setting them up to fail socially? Do you limit your child's knowledge do to the fear of them becoming labeled? OR do you ride somewhere in the middle? I think we fall in the middle. We do not push our kids to be the greatest or smartest but we more follow their lead.
In the end, however it ends up, I spend most of our home learning days in awe over my children.

Home Schooling starts next week

It is here, I said I would start next week I am a little behind on things but I do plan on getting some kind of structure to our day. Since some days she isn't up until 830 I have to be careful about when I start things--Ady likes to cuddle in the mornings--So I think we will have "school-like" stuff start at 9am, I'm not sure how long to go. Maybe just from 9-12 everyday(but that means I would need to get Jaden on a eating schedule that won't mess up Adylynn's "school" time. Maybe we will go 9-11, then after nap start again from 2:30 -430. I just don't know. The first few weeks we will just see how things work out. I will also have to plan more stuff for the weeks we have Jonas, that will be exciting because he can do more stuff than Ady. I am almost done with the sign language class, now I need to read the book too. There is also a parenting class that Steve and I are doing. It is helpful but not something I think we can fully implement into our house right now. It wants mom and dad to pick 5 rules that have to be followed in order for mom and dad to have fun-then wants punishments for breaking those rules-and suggest making a sign for it and all that good stuff. Problems with it are, I don't have 5 rules to keep me happy, and Steve has like 600 to keep him happy, and also my kids are too little to follow a written sign, and I don't have time to make a picture chart. Oops guess I wandered from the home school subject-oh well-I will make Steve show me how to scan and post my lesson plans this weekend. First week of March is WEATHER, always a fun one.

The kids having a GREAT time making valentines. 

Potty Training Basics

For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of doing this before keep 1 thing in mind:

If your child is playing in the other room quietly they are POOPING their pants!!!

I have been a part in the potty training field for years(daycare teacher) I know how most kids handled the experience and I pushed parents to potty train or not based on the readiness I observed in them during the day. So why is it so hard for me to do this with Ady? We will be at this for 2 weeks tomorrow and over all I would say she is doing GREAT!! However yesterday and today before 11 she went upstairs played "nicely" in her room for 10-15 mins then came down and proudly announces "poopy on Dora" UGH! Oddly enough for poor Dora, it is the exact pair she did it in yesterday.

The positive spin is- she has only had the poopy accident, she has stayed dry. This morning she woke up dry and went to the potty first thing. We seem to be on our way to 100%. I was so afraid I was starting to soon with her, but she wanting to start wearing underwear, I just keep her going.

A Learning Home

I have been researching homeschooling for about a month and I am pretty sure it is the path we will take with our kids. I like the idea behind "unschooling" but will probably do my own as a classroom type learning. Not always workbooks and tests but definitely a scheduled day with written plans and time allotted for those things to get done. If we need more time for things then we will take it or if something doesn't interest the kids we will modify. I found a site today www.adventisthomeducator.org I really like it. I searched for preschool homeschool and found this almost immediately. On one of the pages it discusses "Creating a Learning Home" this it what I hope to achieve. Basically it talks about the importance of teaching all the time not just sitting at a workbook at a dining room table. When you think about it there is stuff everywhere just waiting to be taught to a young mind. Nature, hobbies, shopping, sports. All of these things have different elements of all those important things you are taught in school. Maybe I would have a better understanding of math and the value of $ had I been taken to the mall and given a "word problem" to act out. Heck maybe I would enjoy sports more if I understood everything that went into planning a play, practicing the play, and then seeing it achieve the goal on game day. Teaching my children at home not only gives me the chance to academically educate them but also morally and physically educate. Hopefully giving them a better and more accepting attitude of the world around them.

Jonas' Alphabet at 4 years old.

Requirements for Homeschool

I opened my mouth to my ex mother-in-law this morning about my intent to homeschool Ady. I shouldn't have done this and I certainly didn't think about what I said before I opened my mouth. So to avoid the next 3 years of crap that I may get from Ady's dad I went ahead and called the Dept. Of Education. Much to my surprise there is nothing that you have to do for homeschool in IL. No testing, no letter of intent, nada. The requirements for homeschool is 180 days, 5 hours a day, and age appropriate materials. I then asked if a non custodial parent could prevent the custodial parent from homeschooling. The lady I spoke to said she didn't believe so and there isn't anything written specifically about that. That makes me feel better. I don't have a problem with public schools, I just feel that my children will be better off learning in an environment where they are allowed to take as much time as they need on subjects.

The purpose

Finally after months of being hounded to start blogging I caved. Well not actually caved, just more of I found a use for it. We are planning to homeschool our children and getting started has become a bit overwhelming. There are lots of sites out there on homeschooling and all of the many topics around the homeschool issues. In order to be a better prepared and more organized mommy I decided to post the sites I visit. Good or bad, helpful or not. I also would like to put some of my own curriculum up and pictures of the kids enjoying there homeschool experience. I guess I am officially a blogger now