My Favorite Early Learning Math Materials!

I am definitely not a math expert. And while math was never my personal favorite subject in school, I find that I really enjoy doing math activities with Lucy and Collin in our home schooling efforts. As a kid I had a few experiences in school that caused me to lose confidence in my ability to understand or be successful with math.  Looking back,  I realize how those moments really affected me negatively and I wish I could somehow go back to my younger self and undo some of those confidence-shattering math encounters... Of course I can't do that, but I CAN do whatever I can to help my kids experience a level of success in math at an early age and try to bring some joy into their learning process.

This is just a smattering of materials and activities that I do with Lucy and Collin to supplement their main math curriculum (they both do kindergarten level math at this point).  They seem to genuinely ENJOY these activities, and if we can tackle math in an enjoyable and playful manner, then all the better in my opinion!

1. Inchimals by Fat Brain Toys

We LOVE Inchimals!  This is a set of 12 beautiful wooden blocks, ranging in length from 1" to 12".  Each block is represented by a different animal, and includes the inch markings on the sides.  Not only do my kids love using their inchimals to measure things all over the house, but they love using them to solve the math equations included in the spiral-bound dry erase book included with the set.  The math equations are presented using the animals that are assigned to the blocks.  Below is an example of a simple addition equation that Lucy solved by finding the "lady bug" and "mouse" blocks.  One she determined the length of each block and wrote their numerical value below, she was ready to add the two pieces together and then search for the inchimal that was equal to the sum of the two original blocks.  In this case, she figured out that "mouse" + "lady bug" = "rabbit" or 4".  As your children work their way through the book they'll encounter subtraction and more complex equations to solve.  I love that they can grow along with it!

2. Do A Dot Art Markers, Ready 2 Learn Giant Number Stamps, and Ready 2 Learn Giant Math Signs Stamps

I snagged these jumbo number and math sign "Ready 2 Learn" brand stamps from Zulily sometime ago, and we are sure putting them to great use!  The number set includes stamps for numerals 0 through 9 and the math signs set comes with stamps for addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, greater than and less than and equals signs.  My kids love it when I pull out our giant ink pads, construction paper, giant stamps and our Do A Dot markers! They get to pick out the color of paper, color of ink, and number stamps (which they truly find thrilling!) and with my guidance, stamp out an equation at the top of their paper.  If we work with addition, then they use the Do A Dot markers to stamp out the number of dots indicated by their chosen numbers and solve the equation visually.  When doing subtraction, they stamp out dots representing the larger number and then use little squares of paper to cover up the dots corresponding to the second number in their equation. My craft-loving kids just love the process and feel so pleased when they solve their equations.  It may seem like a lot of trouble to go to for a couple of math equations, but their delight in the activity makes it worth it for me.

3.  Eeboo Preschool Lotto Game and Mr. Printable's Simple Printable Numbers

During Lucy and Collin's preschool days, our family spent a lot of time playing the delightful Preschool Lotto Game together!  Now they go for games that are a little more complicated during free time, but we have found ways to breath new life into this game by incorporating it into subtraction lessons! 

 

I printed off and cut out several sets of these simple number cards from the Mr. Printables website and keep them tucked inside the game box.  To play the game, each player takes their own game board which has six illustrations on it arranged in a grid. Players take turns drawing tiles from the center of the play area and matching the tiles to the identical illustrations on the board.  The first player to fill their game board wins. 

To turn this game into a subtraction lesson, the kids and I play until everyone has filled their game board.  Then I have each kid find a number 6 card, representing the total number of illustrations on their board and a subtraction sign card (which is included in the set).

Then I call out a color, and each kid looks at their board and removes from their board every tile that has that color in it.  Once they have removed and counted those tiles, they find the corresponding number card and arrange it with the other cards the found before and create a subtraction equation to solve. Then it is simply a matter of them counting their remaining tiles on their board to identify the difference. 

 

We normally refill their board with all the tiles and call out more colors several times to work in as many subtraction equations as they have the attention for.  Obviously the lesson is a bit limited by the fact that the highest number we are subtracting from is 6, but I found it to be a good introduction to the concept of subtraction.

4. Learning Resources Primary Bucket Balance and Learning Resources Centimeter Cubes

It is pretty hard to teach kiddos the concept of measurement without giving them something tangible that invites them to personally explore it.  The Primary Bucket Balance and Centimeter Cubes make it easy to introduce the ideas of measuring mass using items found around the house.

Sometimes I will take a basket and fill it up with small household objects.  Then I present the items to the kids along with the bucket balance and tub of plastic centimeter cubes and have them discover how many centimeter cubes are equal in mass to each object.  They are instructed write down the number of cubes for each object and once they find the number for each object they then arrange the items in order from least to greatest. It is also fun to have them guess the answer before they take the measurement and see them experience delight when their guess was close, or wonder to learn that their item had much more or less mass than they guessed.

Of course there are so many more things you can do with these items! This little activity is just one way we enjoy them. It is also pretty great just to put these items in the kids' hands and see what they come up with on their own. 

5. Kathy Troxel Addition Songs and Subtraction Songs (with addition and subtraction flash cards)

For the most part in our home schooling efforts, I emphasize foundational mathematical concepts over memorizing rote facts. But, memorization definitely has its place in our curriculum and when I do introduce memorization tasks I try to make them as pleasant as possible! Kathy Troxel's music has made these efforts seem effortLESS! 

To make the most of the memorizing attempts I wanted to pair these songs with flash cards so there would be a visual and auditory component.  I looked for the most simple addition and subtraction flash cards I could find and ended up with these by Trend Enterprises:

     

  

We are slowly downloading our way through Kathy Troxel's Addition Songs and Subtraction Songs albums. I simply stack the flash cards in order before playing a song with the kids and we sing along and flip through the cards together. Pretty simple but my kids seem to enjoy it and haven't protested once when I pulled the cards out and played the music. 

6. Dot to Dot Books

Often I find that when I am doing school with my kids one of them is needing individual attention while another is left without much to do.  It is nice to be able to point them toward something that they can enjoy and do independently!  When I want to point them towards something that will reinforce math-learning I frequently gravitate towards dot-to-dot pages. It seems like such a simple suggestion, but my kids  rarely tire of them and I like the way they help them in recognizing and putting ordinal numbers together from least to greatest. 

If you are wanting to invest in some supplemental early learning math materials for your kiddos, I sincerely hope this has given you some ideas that will be helpful!  Do your kids have some favorite math activities?  Please tell me about them! I am always on the look out for fresh ideas!

xoxo,

Fabric Party Hats Pattern for SALE (here goes nothing!)

Hey Friends!  I want to thank everyone who downloaded the "test" version of my little Fabric Party Hat Pattern this past month!  I have had fun tinkering with and revising it over the past several weeks and I feel like I have gotten it to a place where I am ready to list it for sale.

 

I had the pleasure of sewing and shooting the photographs included in the pattern at my favorite local shop for fabric and yarn.  Many thanks to Jessica over at Stitch for graciously allowing me to use your beautiful space! Should any of you find yourselves in Cental Iowa  (which is a way cooler place than you might think!!) you ought to stop by!

As for my little pattern, I sincerely hope that if you give it a whirl, you will find it to be a fun and creative endeavor.  As this is my first attempt at pattern-writing, I would love feedback or questions!  If there's any way I can make your experience in making this hat more pleasant for you, I hope you will contact me!

Lastly, as I am just getting my feet wet at this, I would appreciate any help in terms of sharing the pattern with others you think would enjoy it!  I would especially be so honored if you felt it was worthy to pin on any of your boards on Pinterest. : )

The link to the pattern can be found here as well as on the side bar over on the right!

Thanks and much love, friends!

xoxo,

My First Attempt at Writing a Sewing Pattern (and how you can help me out!)

Like I said in my last post, I love crafting! And a few years ago I decided I loved it SO much that I started selling some of my original creations locally and online. It was such an honor when others chose to spend money on something I had made! It contributed to my joy in life. After having fun with that for a couple of years, though, I recognized the need to phase out of it (at least for awhile) due to the stage of life our family was in.

While I'm definitely still not in the position to invest as much energy and effort as I once did in selling my creations, I have been considering dipping my feet back into the craft-business waters just a bit!

It didn't take me long to realize what my first step back in this direction ought to be. I knew it had to have something to do with my most popular offering from my craft business days... My little fabric party hats:

I created my first fabric party hat almost five years ago when I was preparing for Lucy's second birthday. I had sewn her a special party dress for the occasion and was attempting to use card stock to make a classic party hat for her celebration. Right as I was wrestling with the paper trying to get it into the perfect cone shape I looked down at the scraps left over from making her dress and I thought, "Hey! I wonder if I could use THESE to make a longer-lasting hat to coordinate with her outfit?" This is what I came up with:

It was  a wonderful surprise to discover that other folks seemed to like these about as much as I did!  They experienced their share of popularity in the local shop where I was privileged to sell crafts.  One of my favorite memories was when I was perusing the blog of a local photographer who was going to shoot our upcoming family photos, and my hats turned up a few times as photo props in her galleries. Fun!

I have had others express interest in making my hats in the past, but I would tell them that I would happily make one for them but wasn't quite ready to divulge my hat-making-process.

Well, I have decided that the time has come to offer my party hats up as a detailed sewing pattern for sale in digital download format.

It turns out pattern-writing is its own skill set!  It is one thing to come up with a design simply for my own crafting pleasure. It is quite another thing to put my thought process in written and visual form so that others can successfully create their own versions of my design.

But I am excited to try.  I now have a rough draft of my pattern put together and I am looking for some friends who possess basic machine-sewing skills to test-sew my pattern for me and give me feedback before I start...you know... asking people to pay up before I give it to them. : ) When I put an initial inquiry on Facebook yesterday, I was thrilled with how quickly people volunteered!

I have decided to go ahead and throw the link to my pattern up here on the blog and list it for FREE from now until January 30th, 2015.

So!  For any who are interested in trying it out, I invite you to download the file (included at the end of this posting), give it a whirl and give me a little feedback.  Here are some specific questions for you to consider:

1. What do you think about the level of detail included in the instructions? Too much? Too little? Too confusing?
2. What typos or grammatical errors did you notice?
3. I think I already know the answer to this one but... is the "pretty" font too much?  Should it be simpler?
4. How was your experience working with the pattern template provided?  Should it be redrafted in any way?
5. Give a price range you think would be fair to ask of a potential buyer.

**A note on the photography: The photos included for instructional purposes are rough and not intended for the final draft.  When I have been able to work on drafting the pattern so far, it has not been at peak times for natural lighting nor have I a great place to stage the the hats to be photographed. I am currently working on finding some help and a better location to take high-quality photos for the final draft. But the rough images you'll work with will be representative of the content I am going after.  Do tell me if you think there are some steps that don't have photos but should, or if any of the photos provided are unnecessary in your opinion!**

I do have a goal of getting the final version up and listed to sell by February 1st. So if you intend on giving meaningful suggestions to be incorporated into the final draft, then I would ask that you aim for giving me feedback by Monday, January 26th!  

All feedback should be e-mailed to: erikajoyfuljourney@yahoo.com.

If you don't get around to making the hat by then and can't offer feedback, no problem.  Please just enjoy the pattern and know how much I appreciate your interest! 

I do also ask that you all enjoy this pattern for your own personal use only, and do not sell the pattern itself or hats made using the pattern!!

If you do make the hat and have a positive experience, I would be ever so grateful if you would also help me when the final pattern is for sale by sharing  the link with others who may be interested. Maybe add it to one of your Pinterest boards (if Pinterest is your "thing"). Instagram a photo of your final product and let curious admirers know how to get the pattern for themselves! You get the idea. :)

Finally, here is a link to download the pattern itself. 

You can also grab it from the side bar over on the right.  

Thanks for your interest and I am looking forward to hearing about your experiences!

Xoxo,

My First (maybe only) Online Craft Tutorial

Ok, y'all.  I love crafting.  If you know me at all you know that I love crafting.  Also, I am a sucker for a great online crafty tutorial (no big news there either, right?).  But I have yet to venture into the world of offering my own crafty tutorials on this little blog. At any given time I have about five or six ideas of crafty projects I could share in tutorial form, but I have refrained to do so for three reasons:

• There are just so many out there! Been on Pinterest much? I've often thought it would just be "white noise" to start sharing my own.  And really, how original are my ideas anyway?
• When I have a crafty idea and set to work creating, I rarely bother to stop and take pics of the individual steps or think it is worth it to take the time to write out instructions.
•  I am prone to immerse myself too much in projects and allow myself to use my creative outlets to avoid the mundane but important responsibilities of every day life. I want to avoid the temptation to let a new "hobby" of producing online craft tutorials take more of my time than is healthy and wise.

But tonight I have decided to break my online-craft-instruction-silence and share my first (and maybe only) tutorial on this blog. This project was just too delightful, quick, simple and sweet. I must share.

Who remembers doing "Shrinky Dinks" as a kid? I have fond memories of coloring in little images on flimsy plastic sheets and handing them over to my mom to place in a hot oven and watching them magically shrink down into sturdy little charms and trinkets.  Good times!  Except, I don't really recall what we ever did with the final projects. (Do you, Mom?) I am guessing not much before they eventually ended up getting thrown away.

Recently I got my hands on some blank sheets of "shrink film" and have been experimenting with creative ways to use them while enjoying all kinds of warm fuzzy childhood memories.  Also: I am constantly looking for ways to cherish Lucy and Collin's original artwork and preserve the especially sweet drawings without allowing the piles and piles they produce to take over our household. I decided to use shrink film to transform some of their most treasured drawings into these quirky keepsake Christmas ornaments and key chains.

Here are the supplies and tools I gathered:

• shrink film (my stash was given to me by a friend who was clearing out some of her craft supplies) I haven't found a place to purchase it locally, but it is available for online purchase at Amazon.
• sharpies in a variety of colors
• baking sheet
• standard sized hole punch
• scissors
• metal jump rings (found in the beading section of craft stores)
• metal key rings (also found in craft store beading sections
• bakers twine (or any yarn or thin ribbon works)
• metal spatula
• selection of children's drawings

While you can have your children (if you are comfortable with them using a permanent marker!) draw directly on the shrink film, I enjoyed the process of looking through and picking out some of my favorite of theirs that I had been holding onto for sometime. I just placed the shrink film over their drawings, matched the colors as best as I could and traced their drawings.  There was something sweet about the experience of tracing their artwork. It helped me enter into their little hearts and minds and I gained some insight into their creative processes while paying close attention to the details they deemed important.

 

 I made sure to write in each child's name and the year when I traced the drawings. When the tracing was complete, I just cut each image out and punched a hole in the top.

 

Next, I arranged them onto the baking sheet and placed them in the oven at 275 degrees.

I stayed close to the oven and kept watch while they were baking. After 3 minutes they had shrunk down quite a bit but I knew they weren't done because the edges were curled up and the images looked a bit distorted. Don't let the curled up edges make you think that it's not working right. 

After 3 MORE minutes I knew they were done because they were perfectly flat and the images were no longer distorted.  Just cute tiny little perfect versions of the originals. : )

 

They cooled off super fast and were ready to be turned into key chains and ornaments. For the key chains, simply attach the jump rings to the hole at the top of the finished little trinket.  I used my fingers, but would probably have been easier with pliers. Then just attach the metal key rings to the jump rings.  The jump rings aren't necessary, but I feel like the pieces hang better and look more appealing with the jump ring attached. For the ornaments I just threaded a length of red and white bakers twine through the hole and tied a bow.

Here's a look at one of the finished key chains next to the original drawing to give an idea of how much "shrinkage" occurs. There are a lot of fun family gift possibilities here.  I know a few grandparents, aunts, uncles and older cousins who would get a kick out of receiving these. They also make a great Father's Day or Mother's Day gift option. Make up a few for yourself or even for the little artists themselves to keep and treasure. 

Since this is my first time putting my own craft tutorial "out there" do me a favor and let me know if you decide to try it yourself.  And if so, do tell how it worked for you and if you modified it at all or ended up with a different final product. : ) Thanks for reading!

xoxo,

My Favorite Learning Materials for Social and Emotional Skills

While social and emotional skills are not overtly academic in nature, I suspect that most parents and caretakers of littles would agree that when a child is struggling in his or her ability to interact with others and manage their emotions, academic learning comes with greater difficulty.  Add in the fact that early childhood is a time when most kids are concrete and literal thinkers, it is not an easy task to help them to navigate their way through such a grey "subject".  But it is an important task.

A couple of things I try to keep in mind when it comes to helping my kids learn and grow in their social and emotional regulations skills:

• I try to remember that Darin and I are in this for the long haul.  Our kids' hearts are tender and precious and right now they trust us with their feelings and they take their social cues from us.  The way we handle their feelings now could lay the foundation as to whether they will trust us with them later in life.  The examples we set for them in social interactions now is likely to influence how they relate to others as adults.
• It definitely pays off (at least in our experience) to "teach" about emotional regulation and social skills when they are not already in the midst of big and distressing feelings or a difficult social scenario.  My hope is that when Lucy and Collin need redirection and/or correction in such moments, that the instructions I give are already familiar to them because they were addressed in a less escalated moment.  Of course, sometimes, we don't realize specific areas that we need to work on with them until a situation becomes escalated, and other times it does not matter how much groundwork has been laid, things can just go badly.  But you get what I'm saying!

Now, for the materials and resources that I have compiled for emotion regulation and social skills!  

Here's what I have for ya!

                                     

1. Ready 2 Learn Giant Feelings Stamps
I found this set of giant feelings stamps on Zulily and snatched them up. The set has ten face stamps, each one depicting a different feeling.  Some of the feelings include: content, nervous, tired, scared, happy, sick, etc.  Lucy and I have an ongoing project with these stamps.  I give her a sheet of construction paper and ask her to choose one of the face stamps and the color of ink she wishes to use. After she stamps the image on her paper I tell her what the feeling is and I have her print the word on the sheet.  Then she and I collaborate on making a list of what kinds of things bring about this feeling in her. Then she and I have fun looking in a mirror and making the facial expressions that match the feeling we've just talked about.  She LOVES this activity, and when we have made a page for each of the ten feelings, I plan on assembling them together in a little booklet for her to revisit as she wishes.

2. Kimochis Mixed Feelings
This is a simple set of cute and quirky little softies that depict facial expressions and are labeled with the corresponding emotion.  They are good for introducing and defining a variety of feelings in a gentle and playful way.  Each "kimochi" is small enough to fit inside a little hand or be carried around in pockets, if that provides any comfort to little ones who are learning about BIG feelings.

3. Mr. Printables Emotion Flash Cards
The Mr. Printables website is so. Awesome.  This is NOT the last time you will hear about Mr. Printables from me!  They offer so MANY high quality FREE printable educational materials.  LOVE them.  These are some robot-themed emotion flash cards that provide another fun opportunity to expand a little one's awareness of emotions.  These may especially appeal to any little boys out there who, like my Collin, love robots.

4. Mr. Printables Make a Face DIY Toy
See, I told you I would be talking about Mr. Printables again!  This is such a clever little printable/DIY project.  Print and cut out the face and individual facial features. The tutorial suggests mounting the pieces on cardboard but I printed mine on card stock and laminated them instead. The features are then attached to the face with brads. Once the piece is assembled, it can be used to show and talk about SO many different feelings.  Children have fun experimenting with all the features and can see how just changing the position of the eyebrows can show an entirely different emotion. I also like that it includes teardrops-was able to use them along with the smile to help my kids start to grasp the concept that someone could cry "happy tears" which can be a very puzzling concept for them to consider.

5. Eeboo Polite Pig Activity Book
Eeboo is another name that I'll refer to often as well.  I love Eeboo products for their beautiful visual design, physically sturdy materials and frequent depiction of cultural diversity, or, in the case of this charming little activity book, diversity and good breeding in the animal kingdom! : )  "Polite Pig and His Good Friends" is a simple coloring and activity book that I appreciate, not only for its introduction to good manners and politeness, but also for the exposure it gives to some basic mathematical and visual-spatial reasoning concepts.

6. Eeboo Make My Day Chart
Another offering from Eeboo, the "Make My Day Chart" is great tool to help little ones start out their day well with realistic expectations and goals.  It is a sturdy cardboard wall hanging that incorporates little dials for kids to spin and select what day of the week it is, the calendar date, the season, current  weather and what kind of clothing would be appropriate to choose.  Children can then use the board to communicate the feelings they have as they start their day and express what things they wish to "try".  At the end of the day children and parents can even use the board to choose a descriptor for how the day turned out and select a reward sticker if desired. This product is set apart from the other items I have mentioned so far because it makes the important connection between social and emotional functioning and an awareness of what is going on in our physical environment and how to begin orienting ourselves, our goals and our decisions according to the calendar.

7. Melissa and Doug Bear Dress Up Wooden Puzzle
This little puzzle from Melissa and Doug has been around for awhile, in fact I believe ours was handed down from my nieces who have practically grown up despite the fact that I specifically asked them not to! : ) This is a great addition to any toy and puzzle collection and proves to be another helpful way to introduce and identify moods and emotions as children can give the bear a different facial expression to go along with each outfit that may be interchanged on the puzzle.

8. The Big Picture Story Bible
I saved the best " learning resource" (in my opinion) for last  When it comes to guiding my children through the difficult work of understanding and managing their feelings, it could be pretty easy to lead them down a path of self-absorption which will not serve them well. As a follower of Jesus, it is my conviction that the best way I can serve Lucy and Collin in this area of their life is to point them to our Heavenly Father and endeavor to show them the joys of entrusting their hearts to Him.  We have several "Bible storybooks" in our home library and each one has been helpful in our efforts to introduce the scriptures to Lucy and Collin. The reason I highlight the Big Picture Story Bible in this list is because I feel that both the author and illustrator did a stunning job of portraying the emotional responses of mankind to God through the ages including joy, sorrow, fear, anger, etc. as well as God's response to mankind. Additionally, I appreciate the way the authors keep the individual stories flowing together to present the Bible as one big story about a great God. A great and loving God who invites them to trust Him with their big feelings, find forgiveness and be made new and whole through the cross of Christ Jesus.

Thanks for allowing me to share. I hope this collection of resources will be helpful for many of you, and if you feel so inclined to share with any other parents who are interested, I'd be honored. Also, would love to hear about any other resources or materials along these lines that you might recommend! I'll be working on adding more lists of my favorite learning resources little by little as I am able.

Xoxo,

The Happy Home-School Helper

I am a total nerd enthusiast when it comes to quality learning materials for my children. Whether I am scrolling through my Pinterest feed, checking out what's new on Zulily, pawing through the shelves of TJ Maxx or walking the aisles of my favorite local educational supplies shop, I always have an eye out for high quality learning materials that I believe will be an asset in my efforts to facilitate joyful learning experiences in our home. 

I also keep finding myself talking with other mamas who are either contemplating home-schooling or are looking for more ways to engage their children in joyful learning outside of school or during the summer months. I have been asked by several of these ladies "where to start" with curriculum and materials, and though I am certainly not qualified to advise anyone on "where to start" I am a total extrovert and will happily tell anyone about materials that help the kids and I to delight in learning together.  After recommending the same websites, products, and book lists to three different mamas recently, the thought occurred to me that I could attempt to compile some lists of my favorite early-childhood learning materials and share them here in hopes that it could be helpful if only to my small circle of friends who are interested.  So that is what I hope to do over a series of posts when I am able to make time amidst all my other responsibilities.

I hope to organize my lists by category and share one post at a time, but before I jump in, I thought would finish out this post by defining what I even mean when I refer to "learning materials" and sharing the "criteria" that guides my decision-making process when I purchase the items. I would consider learning "materials" to be any books, craft supplies, games, toys, workbooks, flashcards, songs, apps, or websites that contribute to a child's joy of learning.  That is a pretty wide range and the market is saturated with "educational products" to choose from.  It can be dizzying to choose what to bring into our home from all that is available.  The following criteria are not rigid for me but a basic list of what I look for when choosing "high quality learning materials" and most of what I will try to share in future posts should reflect these "values":

• Simple, yet can be used to address more than one set of skills. When choosing games, educational toys, books, or manipulatives to engage my children in playful learning, I don't want items that are complicated for me to assemble and figure out or will overload them with sensory stimuli. I also love it if an activity addresses more than one skill, for example, fine motor through manipulating small objects as part of an activity that addresses mathematical concepts.
• Physically Durable and Timeless Content. When I consider purchasing a non-consumable item with my children's education in mind I ask myself if I expect it to stand the test time.  Is this item physically built to last as my kids play hard with it and makes memories with it? It may show signs of wear, but would they be pleased to present it to their own kids someday? Also, is their content too dependent upon the times in which we are now living? Or will it aid me while I try to show my children that things were much different before their time and that they are certain to see rapid change in the world around them in the years ahead?
• Visually Well-Designed. I love to see children's materials that give evidence that someone took great care to consider the importance of artistry in their visual design. I like to see visual design that is not dependent on the most popular current children's fads and television characters. I like design that embraces child-likeness without being childish; that honors the intelligence of the child as a whole person. (This is a concept from the Charlotte Mason Educational Method that I have come to embrace during my short years of parenting so far.)

My life is pretty full right now and getting blog posts up hasn't been a high-priority lately, but this is a "project" I am excited about and hope will benefit friends who are like some of the ladies I have talked to lately and are just looking for a "place to start".  Thanks for reading, and I hope to be back soon with my favorite materials for a very difficult skill set: social and emotional regulation skills.

xoxo,

Remaining in Him

Lucy and Collin's bedtime drew near this evening and if asked to describe the day with only one word, I would have said that today was "satisfying".  But things can change quickly.  And they did.  But I will get to that later.

The kids and I did some hard work today.  I'd like to spare some detail, so suffice it to say that I endeavored to tackle some poor habits that all of us have been practicing at home and attempted to introduce some new habits that I believe will serve our family well. 

I was really proud of both of my "big kids".  They received and followed my instructions and exercised diligence that defied their developmental stages.  By the end of the day we were all tired, and Darin had to work late.

Sweet 9-month-old Nora was pretty worn out too.  She had been along for the ride throughout our busyness and ended up being awake for much more of the day than I had anticipated.

So I made a plan to get her down for bed and be "Fun Mommy" for the rest of the evening by doing a movie and popcorn night with Lucy and Collin.  It was just going to be the three of us and it was going to be great.

And oh boy, was I ever "Fun Mommy".  I popped the corn, I sprinkled in the M&Ms, I made up chocolate milk and we were JUST about to snuggle in front of Curious George, when one of the kids acted upon an impulse that started a chain reaction that ultimately brought the movie, popcorn and snuggling plans to a halt. Nora woke up.  Chaos ensued. All three of the kids were crying.

I am sorry to say that when I scolded the child who made the impulsive move, I overreacted and laid blame.  I could have responded with grace, I could have overlooked the "offense", especially after a full day of this child doing so beautifully with the tasks of the day. But I blew it.

After Darin got home from work he was able to help me get the older two kids to bed while I was working with Nora to help her sleep again. I began to replay the events of the evening and go through all the ways I would have handled myself differently if I could. In those moments, if you had asked me to describe myself in one word, I might have said "scum".

But then, the Holy Spirit brought to mind something that I had written five and a half years ago.  Once I tracked it down and read it, it gave me goosebumps. I realized that God in His sovereignty just might have prompted me in January of 2009 to pray for the very things and write down the very words that I would need on this balmy July night in 2014.

Please allow me to share:

" When Darin and I face difficult parenting issues, I can trust God to supply us with the wisdom we need to be the parents that our children need. I can also trust Him to forgive us when we make parenting mistakes. We can ask God to heal our children when we hurt them.

As I pray for our children and for Darin and I as their parents, I want to ask God to protect all of us from pain that we might inflict upon each other. But now I'm sensing the Holy Spirit reshaping my prayers... and rather than asking God to keep us from hurting each other, I start to focus more on asking God to bring our children to faith in Him at an early age. That we may all have our Savior in common and that we will all be able to run to Jesus together when we inevitably hurt each other, or deal with disappointment within our family. That rather than shielding my children from pain, I would be able to guide them to the One who can heal them of their hurts.

I don't know the challenges that lie ahead for our family. But I know the One who is building our family and I have faith that He is building it for His glory. That gives me more peace and more confidence to parent our children than anything else."

Revisiting these words and prayers from years ago was a gift.  And now, if you were to ask me to use one word to describe what I am striving for, I would have to break the rules and give you three.  "Remaining in Him" (which is what Jesus invited his followers and friends to do in John 15:4).  Incidentally, the kids and I listened to this scripture (set to music) several times today. While we were hard at work, this album was in the playlist:

 I can't say enough how much I am enjoying the music from Seeds Family Worship which just so happens to be available for free audio streaming for Amazon Prime users.  Click on the above image for the link.

And thanks for allowing me to share what is on my heart tonight.

xoxo,