A Papa Forever

I said our family prayer tonight.  It was just me and Adam because Nat is out of town on business.  I prayed that my Dad’s chemo treatment tomorrow would go well and that he wouldn’t feel sick for too long.  I prayed that he would be healed.  This is nothing new, we pray for Papa most nights.  But when I finished praying, Adam asked questions.  And it broke my heart.

He asked why Papa was sick and what a ‘treatment’ was.  He asked why he had to go to the doctor.  I answered his questions and proceeded on with the our bedtime routine.  I randomly chose to sing “Families Can Be Together Forever” and while I sang, I cried.  I cried because I realized that whatever happens to Adam’s Papa, he will be his Papa forever because he made the choice to marry his Nana in the temple and because I made the choice to marry his Daddy in that same temple.  We will forever be together and I am so grateful for that!  Because of my choice and the choice of my parents, and my grandparents, and some of my great-grandparents, we will be a family forever.

I have faith and a spiritual confirmation that my Dad will be fine.  But someday, Adam will lose his Papa and although that day will horrible, it won’t be the end of the wonderful and powerful relationship between a Papa and a grandson.  I can’t put into words how much I love my Heavenly Father for giving that to me.

Tot School–“We’re Going on a Bear Hunt”

- Adam is 40 months old -

We finally actually did something for Tot School this week!  I started doing a Circle Time in the morning when I was ready to start Tot School and it really helped to focus my attention (not theirs…I’m the one lacking focus lately!) on purposefully playing and learning with Adam and Abby.  See this post all about it!

We are winding down our ‘study’ of books from the Before Five in a Row manual.  I only have one more left!  I’m fighting the urge to begin a Letter of the Week theme with Adam.  It’s just so much work!  But Adam really loves when I have things planned for him to do.  Which I’m worrying has turned him into a little robot who can’t think of anything to do on his own.  Any suggestions?  I want him to be able to play with anything and everything but he’s always asking me what to do and it’s driving me crazy!  I want to foster creativity and freedom but it’s not going too well.  Is there such a thing as a child who just likes and needs direction?  I suppose I really shouldn’t complain about that huh? :)

This week we read “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” by Michael Rosen.  It’s the classic story about a Dad and his kids going on a bear hunt and coming across all kinds of things that they can’t go over and can’t go under, so they have to go through it.  Adam really loved this book and now we reenact the story all the time on our own!

We watched a funny video on YouTube of the author reciting the book.  Here is the link.  On the page where they are wading through the river, they are each carrying their shoes, except for the baby who is riding on Dad’s shoulder.  I asked Adam why he thought they took of their shoes and then why the baby still had her shoes on.  It’s fun to watch him think about things!  Activities and ideas came from the Before Five in a Row manual and Homeschool Share.

Coloring/Patterns
He would only color one of the 3 strips.

Painting with “Mud”
We had chocolate pudding for our Monday night treat and the next day the kids painted with it!  Here Adam is “squelching and squerching” in the “mud”

“Yummy!”

I made a felt board and felt pieces to place as we went through the story.  Adam loved using this so I think I’ll be making more felt story pieces in the future.

Story Sequencing
Adam did pretty well remember the order of the story.
(see Abby’s feet on the right side….she is making school time VERY difficult!)

“Hooing and Wooing”
Adam’s favorite part of the story, the snowstorm that goes “hooo wooo”!

Counting Bears

Other things we did during the week:

Handwriting Without Tears
He did two pages where he worked on coloring and his crayon grip.

24-piece number puzzle.
He got frustrated and gave up right after this picture.

Kumon: Let’s Color! Workbook

I don’t know what got into him but he colored a lot this week!

After he colored the first page, I encouraged him to color small things in the picture instead of all over it.
Then he colored each of these ducks.  After the first one, he asked how to turn the duck back to white.  I explained that once he colored it, it was that color forever.  Then we had a nice talk about how we only color on paper because if he colored on the floor or the wall, they would be colored forever too and Mom and Dad would not be happy about that! :)  After that, with every duck he colored he said, “Ohp, now this duck is _____ forever!”

Adam’s First Drawing!
I encouraged him to draw a person and suggested he start with a circle for a head.  He then knew right where to put eyes, a nose, and a mouth.  Body parts….not so much!  He made me label them….including the pee-pee.  Such a boy! :)

He used several kinds of stickers this week, these ones are 7-Eleven labels (Daddy works for corporate 7-Eleven).  First he counted them and then asked me to write names on them and he stuck them in a coloring book.  This is the order he had me write them:  Adam, Abby, Mommy, Daddy, Nana, Papa, Grandma Great, Grandpa Great.  I guess that is is line-up of favorite people!

He had a lot of fun with our Garanimals memory game from Wal-mart. 

Playing Starfall.com and a matching game on my iPad.
He does either of these at least once a day.  It’s a good place to stick him when I’m trying to get Abby down for a nap!  I try to get him to have equal screen time between Angry Birds and educational games!

That was our week!  Busy, but good.

Teeny Tot School–Week 5

- Abby is 14 months old -

Tot School with Abby is completely random and unorganized.  Oh well.  She makes doing Tot School with her big brother very difficult, but he needs it and loves it so we plow ahead.  I tried pulling out many different activities for her to keep her occupied but this is what usually happens:

She played with pom-poms and liked putting them into cups and then dumping them out.

She colored!
This is the first time I’ve given her crayons and paper to color with and she loved it!

She loves to sit at Adam’s table.

And climb on it.  Look at that look she’s giving me!  Stinker.

Pretending to color on Adam’s picture.
Notice what a genius she is…she’s using the matching marker!
Coincidence, I’m sure.

Counting Bears

She spent quite a bit of time stacking the cups in and out.

 

While Adam and I were playing a memory game on his table, she was happily putting cards away for us.

Baby Signing Time
Even though she loves Baby Signing Time and asks for it several times a day by signing and saying “beh-bee”, her attention span is about 5 minutes.  But Adam is re-learning all the signs he knew as a toddler and loves it!

Abby participated in Adam’s “mud” painting (chocolate pudding) that we did while reading “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” this week.

She loved using a paintbrush…..

Not so much her hands!

Cute Brother and Sister working.

Just for fun….this is the first time I’ve let her on the counter while using the mixer.  She was fascinated!  Notice Adam’s careful grip on her leg.  He’s already such a great, protective, big brother.

Circle Time

In an effort to give us a better routine, and let’s face it, to help me be more motivated to actually do Tot School with my kids, we’ve started doing Circle Time each morning.  The kids are loving it!

We start with a fun song like “Do as I’m Doing”, “The Itsy Bitsy Spider”, or “Old McDonald” and/or a finger play, and then have a prayer.  I am looking for a Bible or Book of Mormon picture book that we can read a story from following our prayer.  I have one in mind but any suggestions would be much appreciated!

We then do our calendar
I got this pocket calendar from Oriental Trading.
Adam counts up to the current date and then finds the number from the cards I put on the bottom row.  I’m hoping this will help him learn to count past 12 (he currently gets to 12 and then inserts random ‘teen’ numbers)

Then we do our Morning Board.  I got the idea and printables from 1+1+1=1 and Confessions of a Homeschooler.  I used a foam board and removeable adhesive squares to mount the laminated pieces and then used rings for the top 2 pieces so I could flip them over to save space (great idea from Carisa at 1+1+1=1!)

Here is a close-up of the first 2 pages.  We sing songs for all of these and Adam changes out the day of the week card.  He has loved learning these songs!

The other pages hiding underneath the top ones.
We don’t sing the month song every day, maybe just twice a week or so.

This is Adam’s favorite part…the weather!  He hops up on his bed to look out his window and then sticks up the corresponding card.  By the way, the card pieces are stuck on with velcro circles.

On the bottom I have a sheet protector that I trimmed down a little and filled with the Primary songs for this year.  We sing this one song every day and will keep at it until I feel he has really mastered the song and then I’ll switch it to the next one.  I want my kids to really know these wonderful songs and to build their testimonies from them.  Plus, he’ll be the kid in the Primary program blurting out every song from heart!
(and he has pretty good pitch for a 3 year old boy if I do say so myself!) :)

So there you have it!  This only takes us about 5 minutes and then we’re off to do whatever I have (or don’t have) planned for Tot School.  Once I get a scripture stories book, it’ll take a few more minutes but I can’t think of a better way to start our day!

First Park Day of the Season

Last Friday was a glorious Spring day!  It was in the mid 60’s and we had a great time at the park.  Sadly, today it’s in the 30’s and snowing.  Gotta love Utah.

This was Abby’s first trip to the park as a “big kid” and she was in heaven!  My timid boy was constantly wanting my near him and my fearless girl was running like a mad woman in all directions.  I was exhausted trying to keep up with her!

She did LOTS of climbing

And lots of sliding.  She even went down by herself!

Adam on a “rollercoaster”

They were both so happy to be out digging and getting dirty

Look at how big she looks!  I swear she will walk for miles if I let her.  She just happily clomps around with no real regard to where I am or who’s in her way.

The park was really crowded so we didn’t get to swing but if this Mother Nature ever decides it really is Spring, we’ll be back.  This is also the “duck park”, as we call it, and I have a feeling Abby will love the ducks!