Tot School Blog

Making Your Spouse a Priority is Key to Having Happy,Confident Children

05/19/2012

A few months ago I took a wonderful parenting class at my church it was based on the book Being the Parent You Want to Be by Drs. Les and Leslie Parrot. I went to the class hoping to get a few tools for my parenting tool belt but what I got instead was a Divine Intervention that quite possibly may have saved my marriage. Now there isn't really anything wrong with my marriage right now mind you except that all my time and energy is spent taking care of my kids and then what little I have left I use to attend to my Spouse.
I've been to two different parenting presentations and told by two different Marriage, Family, Life Therapists that you have to take time out for your self (happy, recharged mommy = better mommy for the kids) and time out for just you and your spouse. This as we all know is so much easier to say than to put into practice. But in all honesty I've noticed that in the 14 years I've been married I feel like my spouse and I have drifted the farthest apart in the last 4 years (post kids). This is not his fault and it is not my fault. Life just happens.
This weekend my husband and I attended a marriage seminar at church titled The Art of Marriage, and guess what. There it was again, this idea that the marriage has to be before the kids. WHAT?! But here is why and it makes sense. The kids will grow up and leave when they marry their own spouse. They will Leave their mothers and fathers to Cleave to their own spouses. This is God's design and how wonderful that is. Our spouse is God's Gift to us. Our spouse should be valued above all others with a certain reverence that demands our attention, our love, our understanding and patience and our forgiveness. Our loyalty should lie with our spouse. So often I hear other women talking negatively about their Husbands- his short comings, his latest offenses etc. I too am guilty of taking part in this. But NO MORE. I get it now. My Spouse is the one person who is a true confidant, the person I can be myself with, the one person who will cheer me on to be a better person always, the one person who will be there- ALWAYS.
Now I LOVE my children, they are the world to me and I want all sorts of happinesses and successes for them. But the GREATEST gift I can give to my children is to love their Dad first and always. This will give them confidence, security and a great role model of what a healthy loving relationship should be. When I think of the marriage I want for them (happy and loving, with attentive and forgiving spouses) I realize that I need to first have that and model that. I can not do that if they get 95% of me and my Husband gets 5% of me.
I don't want to find out in 15+ years as my children leave for college that my spouse and I have grown so far apart that we are really strangers with little to nothing in common because I was so busy taking care of the kids that I neglecting his needs. I am living intentionally in the present making time for my spouse and I to reconnect often. It might just be making a special dinner once a month for just the two of us after the kids go to bed, or taking the time to walk into his office and rub his shoulders for two minutes while he's working. I make sure to kiss him before either of us leave the house and to acknowledge him as soon as one of us return home.

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We have Sam's test results from the Vet

05/11/2012

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We found out the results of Sam's blood work. He has cancer in the lungs, in fact the xrays show several tumors. He is coughing a lot and we have him on predisone. We had a nice talk with the Princess so she now knows that Sam has a "doggie sickness". We didn't want to use the "C" word or say he was sick because he is old or anything else that would scare her. We were honest and told her that he would die sometime soon and that he would not be with us for another Christmas. We told her that he had hard lumps in his lungs and it made it hard to breathe. We explained that he would get sicker and when he got really sick Mommy and Daddy would take him to the vet to get some special medicine that would make him feel a little better but wouldn't heal him and that he would not be coming back home when that happened. It was hard to talk about it and I was so glad my hubby and I had discussed what we were going to say ahead of time. I started to get all teary eyed and got a huge lump in my throat so the my dear hubby did most of the talking.

I thought she would ask if he was going to go to heaven and what would happen when he died. I had read up in my 200 questions kids ask about God and the Bible and 104 questions kids ask about heaven and angels and I was ready-- but she didn't ask. So, now we will try to make Sam as happy as we can for the time we have left with him.

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Life happens, sometimes it's wonderful and sometimes not

05/07/2012

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This weekend we had an impromptu visit from Grandma and Grandpa. The kids were over the moon. Friday night Grandma and Grandpa took them to a pizza place for dinner (one of those places that has games and tickets), while me and my dear husband got to have a nice dinner out together at a restaurant we hadn't tried yet. Saturday my sister joined us and brought her daughter and we all went to the Duck Pond together. Grandma and Grandpa got to spend time with all three of the California grandchildren.

My hubby didn't get to join us at the Duck Pond because he had to take our older dog to the vet. Our dog, Sam, had been coughing quite a bit and seemed to be running a fever. He called me while we were at the duck pond to tell me that the vet had taken x-rays and it looked like Sam may have lung cancer, but it also might be a viral infection and we could have blood drawn if we want to rule out the viral infection. So $220 for the x-ray and $240 for the blood draw later--- we are waiting to hear the results. The vet seemed pretty sure that our boy has cancer though. He is eleven and we've had him since he was 10 mos old. So, he is an old guy. Now we have to figure out how to break the news to the kids.

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Our ABC Nature Walk Power Point is finished.

04/13/2012

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So I finally finished the power point for the kids that has the pictures from our nature walk. (read original post here.) I still haven't gone back out to find "n" so that page is blank in our show :(. The slide show is inspired by the book ABC A New Way Of Seeing by Arlene Alda. I used a green color scheme since our theme is nature. She uses a black and white theme in her book. I think it came out pretty nice. I hope the kiddos enjoy it. You can click the file below to see it.

naturepps.ppsx
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Griiibit!!! A Pond Theme CVC Game

04/13/2012

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Here is a pond theme game I made a couple months ago for the Princess to practice short vowel sounds. The frogs mats have a short vowel on them. Players choose a mat and then take turns drawing bug cards that have CVC word parts on them. If player can make a real word by inserting the short vowel on their frog they keep the card and thus feed their frog. (For example if I have the short a frog mat and I draw a bug cart that says m_p I can make map and thus keep the card. But if I draw b_x I have to place my bug card in the pond and that bug is set free. Game ends when all bug cards have been played.)These cute graphics are from the Pond http://frompond.blogspot.com

pond_theme_cvc_game.pdf
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Popcorn ABC game- Free

04/12/2012

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Here is a freebie for all.
When I play popcorn with my daughter to practice her sight words my son always wants to play with us. So I made him this ABC version. Just like the sight word version players take turns drawing popcorn pieces out of a container. Players identify the letter on the popcorn kernel if they are correct they get to keep it. If they are incorrect the kernel is returned to the bucket. I bought the buckets that look like theatre popcorn containers at the Dollar Tree so we use those. We end the game when a "pop" piece is drawn. This set has capital and lower case letters you can combine them or use them separately. I added a number game too. Enjoy.

a_popcorn_game_for_preschoolers_abc.pdf
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a_popcorn_game_for_preschoolers_123.pdf
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Lazy week

04/11/2012

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So this week The Princess is on Spring Break, my Little Man and Husband are sick with colds and I am feeling quite lazy. We have done a few activities here and there (mostly with The Princess) but I have not had camera in hand. Today I took the Princess with me to my MOMS Club monthly meeting for an egg hunt but it was kind of soggy since it rained last night and has been sprinkling on and off all morning here.

My church is putting together a community outreach project, a Mentoring Moms group where the kids can get together and play on the BRAND NEW tot yard and the moms can get together to offer support to each other. I have a feeling that this is group is about to be my next project. My term as Vice President of my MOMS Club is coming to an end and I feel ready to branch out now that my kids are getting older. We did enjoy the Preschool group I got started but it never really turned into the Co-op I had hoped for. That too is coming to an end for the year. So now I am thinking what next. I really like this Moms group that is getting started at the church so I will put some energy into getting that going.

My husband and I have been deciding what to do with the Princess for Kindergarten next year. We looked at our home school, which is the second best school in our district, we entered the lottery for the fundamental school (the first best school in our district) and we went to the Kindergarten orientation at the private school where she is this year. She will be entering Kindergarten but she already reads at a late 1st grade level and has mastered the math standards for Kinder and is now working on more advanced math skills. I don't push her mind you, she is just interested and is like a sponge when it comes to all things academic. I found a hybrid program at a school about 19 miles from our home and I think that this is our best option for her with her social issues and academic success this year in Jr. Kindergarten. I've been praying about the decision as well as the option of homeschooling for several months now. I have a great group of prayer sisters that have been praying as well. I feel that if God pu the desire in my heart to homeschool than maybe that is His plan for us. I was a public school teacher for ten years and as such I am not a huge proponent of homeschooling although I know there are benefits to it. After much prayer and research and consideration I applied for the interdistrict transfer from my home district to the district that houses this hybrid program. My mom really thinks that I should not homeschool her so I'm sure there will be some tension there but this program will allow her to have classroom instruction one day a week with multi age kids (K-3rd) which I think will be excellent for her since she will not necessarily be the brightest or most knowledgable in the group all the time. She will also still have some traditional classroom experiences while being able to grow as a learner at home studying things that are interesting to her.

I also just signed up for the Great Homeschool Convention which is coming to my area in May. Although the program I hope to enroll my Princess in offers curriculum at no cost to us, I am not sure that it will be the right curriculum for us so I am going to go take a peek at what is out there. So stay tuned to our schooling adventure. The next step after we get confirmation that our transfer application has been approved will be to get my husband to add a sun room onto our house so we will have a space to homeschool. Otherwise my living room (my favorite room of the house) will have to get a makeover :(

If you know of any great blogs of parents who homeschool their

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Easter Fun

04/05/2012

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This week we focused on Easter. Jesus, eggs, bunnies, and all. The kids have really been enjoying the Resurrection Eggs. (See my beginning post on the Resurrection Eggs here).I was too until we got the day 5, 6 & 7 where the eggs contained a whip, crown of thorns and nails. So hard to discuss something as ugly and the crucifixtion with a 3 and 4 year old. Naturally I focused on the Love Jesus shared and I knew in my heart that the story of Easter rally is pretty dark up until Easter itself. Even the whole story of Judas betraying Jesus for the thirty pieces of silver.My kids couldn't understand why his friend gave him (Jesus) to the authorities. Again so hard to explain. None the less they continue to ask to open the eggs each day and get quite excited in anticipation as we read the scripture passage for the day.

I made the week a light fun one because we had quite a few activities to attend out side of the home this week and Daddy was on a business trip. And wait for it... the big news... we were POTTY TRAINING! I didn't think Little Man would ever decide to go for it. He was pretty committed to his diapers and very vocal about wanting to keep them. I kind of felt that Daddy telling him often that Big Boys don't wear diapers and he needed to be a big boy was having a negative effect on him. I asked Daddy to stop saying that and waited a week. I admit that i had to kind of push the first two days and we were not very successful but by day four we had an accident free day- Woo Hoo! An Easter Miracle has occurred in our house.

This week I just lacksidaisically (sp?) put out various Easter themed activities for the kids. One the Princess enjoyed was tossing small wiffle balls into a Spring Themed Basket. She was pretty good at it too. We lined up and took turns tossing the balls from a few feet away. My Little Man really liked the felt board Easter Eggs he played with them almost everyday. I used a few Easter Themed printables as well. Here is a little peek at what we did this week.

We link up with Preschool Corner at Homeschool Creations, 1+1+1=1, Montessori Monday at Living Montessori Now, Science Sunday at Adventures in Mommydom, Fun Stuff Fridays at Toys in the Dryer, Teach me Tuesday at Preschool Powol Packets and the TGIF Linky Party at Living Life Intentionally each week. Be sure to check them out to see what others are doing.

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R is for Rainbows

04/05/2012

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Last week we focused on the letter R and Rainbows. See my Rainbow Trays post here for a look at our trays (activities for the week with links to the original sources). See my Fun Friday post here for a more thorough look at our science investigations- using shaving cream, color paddles and milk. See my ABC Nature Walk post here to check out a cool nature walk we took this week based on a book we read by Arlene Alda titled, ABC A New Way of Seeing. Here is just a quick glimpse of us in action this week. Again for more specific information about what you see here click on a corresponding link.

We link up with Preschool Cornerat Homeschool Creations, 1+1+1=1, Montessori Monday at Living Montessori Now, Science Sunday at Adventures in Mommydom, Fun Stuff Fridays at Toys in the Dryer, Teach me Tuesday at Preschool Powol Packets and the TGIF Linky Party at Living Life Intentionally each week. Be sure to check them out to see what others are doing.

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Huge Montessori Print Shop Giveaway

04/05/2012

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Deb over at Living Montessori Now has an amazing giveaway going on right now (through April 13th) be sure to head over to her site to enter. You could win big! While you are there be sure to peruse her site there are so many amazing ideas for working with your tot/ preschooler. I lover her site!!

2 VERY LUCKY grand prize winners will win a Montessori Print Shop Deluxe CD Rom 2-Disc Collection – 1118 Montessori Materials AND 4 Primary Teaching Manuals! $599.00 value. Click here to be redirected to the giveaway.
There is also second prize as well a $100 MPS in store coupon.

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