Our Halloween

So, I have some catching up to do in the blogging department. For now, here are some pictures of our Halloween fun.

Trip enjoyed an orange and black lunch of some of his favorite things- nachos, olives, carrots, and mandarin oranges.

After his nap, there was a special treat waiting for him.

A little later that afternoon, he got to have a Halloween bath. I painted the walls with washable finger paints

 and added some orange spaghetti and googly eyes to the water.

Trip was excited to see his bath, but didn't want to get in. He had been sick the previous weekend and we had to give him a lukewarm bath to bring down his fever. That really ruined baths for him! 

Once he finally got in, he explored the noodles with his feet.

Then, he started putting them all over his body.

After bathtime, we got on our costumes and headed to church for a party. My only "costume" was some googly eyes on my nails.

Trip was a puppy thanks to some friends who passed down this cute costume.

We hosted a trick or treat pit stop at our church where families could come warm up for a few minutes and let the kids play some games. Trip enjoyed the magnetic rocket toss.

 

We had a ducky matching game in Trip's water table. Kids also got to reach in a container of water beads to find a hidden prize, which they loved. The balloon pop game was lots of fun too. We put prizes in balloons and blew them up. We then tacked them on a sheet of plywood and each child got to choose a balloon to pop. As soon as they popped it, their prize fell out. The cupcake walk was a highlight for many kids and parents as well.

"Mommy, Where Are Going Today?"

We spent the last couple of weeks out of town and on the go. It was a fantastic time, but a crazy one too. After so much excitement, even though we've been home for a few days, Trip keeps asking, "Mommy, where are going today?" He's sure that we should be going on some more great adventures whereas all Daddy and I want is to stay home and catch up.

Our travels started with a couple of days with our friends. We caught up on each other's lives, ate wonderful food, did some shopping, went to a few meetings, and enjoyed a day of fishing. Trip had lots of fun playing with his friends while the dads fished. At the end of the day, the boys decided to hold hands on the hike back to the car.

We were away for Trip's birthday and we got to take him to the Oregon Zoo. He had a great time and loved getting close to a few animals. The penguins were definitely a highlight.

Since it was his birthday, we decided to get tickets for the train. He enjoyed the ride immensely.

Trip was very brave and crawled through the little tunnel so that he could see some animals up close.

He was thrilled to feed the birds,

and was quite calm and gentle with them- for a few minutes, at least.

After our time with our friends, we were off to camp. We got to make a stop at Ikea, which was fun for all of us. Trip couldn't resist climbing in this bed and getting comfy.

We had a great time at camp. Daddy was one of the directors and there were about 250 high school students, so Trip got a lot of attention. He especially loved the bounce house,

the pool, and trying on some sports equipment they had.

He was pretty sad to come home, but the promise of his upcoming birthday party made it a little easier.

Hmm, What's Next?

This spring has been a crazy one for me. As I have mentioned a few times, it has brought a lot of work, which has been good in some ways, but hard in others. I'm very thankful to substitute teach, though, so I am not complaining here. I taught full time in Colorado for four years before Trip was born. I worked at a bilingual school, which was right up my alley. I threw myself into my job wholeheartedly. They were years full of growth, challenge, fun, and lots of learning. I went back to work full-time when Trip was seven weeks old. That was a tough school year, but we made it through. At the end of that year, we moved back to Oregon, and I got to go back to subbing. I get the opportunity to be in the classroom and interact with students, without the planning, grading, report cards, parent-teacher conferences, and staff meetings.

Now, as the school year is coming to a close, I just have a few days of work left. I'm excited to get back to planning fun learning activities for Trip. We have now spent a week (and sometimes more) on each of the letters of the alphabet, so I'm at a crossroads and need to figure out what we're going to do next. I think that we will probably go back to doing a letter of the week in the next few months. Until then, we'll do some little thematic units. Right now, we're doing some general alphabet activities. We will also spend some time focusing on the letters in Trip's name. We have several fun things planned for the summer and I'm looking forward to incorporating those into our learning activities. Daddy will be directing a week of summer camp for high schoolers at the end of July and we get to go along, which will be lots of fun. We also hope to go on a couple of camping trips, do some fishing, take swimming lessons, attend a rodeo or two, and spend a day at the water park. Plus, living in the mountains, we have to take advantage of all the warm weather that we get and spend all the time outside that we can.

I hope you'll join us over the next couple of months for lots of summer fun!

Chicks!

As you have probably gathered, life around here had been extra busy lately and I have chosen to let blogging be one of the first things to go. I substitute teach and this spring has brought a lot of work. I'm very thankful for the consistent work lately and for the opportunity to make some extra money to help us out during the summer when I don't work and therefore don't get paid either. We are blessed to have a great babysitter and Trip loves going to her house to play with his friends. We've been working on our last letter, the letter Y, little by little so I will share our activities in the future.

Something exciting that has happened in the last few weeks is that Daddy bought us five chicks. I have been wanting to have chickens for a long time so that we can have fresh eggs. Daddy hasn't been so thrilled about the idea, but wanted to make it happen for me. One day, he came home with a small box of cute little black chicks to surprise Trip and me. Trip has been loving them since day one. He likes to help take care of them and wants to pet and try to hold them.

He has loved pouring food into their tray, filling their water bottle, and putting clean wood shavings into their box.

It's been fun to watch the chicks change and grow over the last few weeks. They are getting more feathers quickly and have grown quite a bit. A friend of ours graciously offered us a small chicken coop that he isn't using, so once they are fully feathered, our little chickens will have a nice home in the backyard.

Easter Recap

Easter was extra special this year since Trip was actually excited about it and understood more about what we were doing and celebrating. As pastors of a small church, though, Easter is also a crazy time.

We decided to remodel the foyer of our church the week before Easter, which was a crazy but worthwhile endeavor. With the help of many people, we sanded and re-stained the wainscoting, painted the walls (half of them twice because our paint had not been mixed properly at the store and was darker at the bottom of the can), and built a coffee bar/information table. The transformation was really spectacular and it's very refreshing to walk into a warm contemporary space rather than a very outdated one.

Another group of volunteers helped us stuff a thousand plastic eggs with candy and put on our second annual Easter egg hunt for the kids in our community. We had a great turnout and will probably have to double the number of eggs we do next year. Last year, Trip didn't care about finding eggs, but this year, he was much more interested.

He was also very determined to get to the picnic tables and see what was in those eggs.

With so many projects going on, I was thankful that we had done some fun Easter activities before things got crazy. Trip did enjoy a couple of Easter egg baths. One with just some plastic eggs

and the other with some glowing eggs. With a little work, a glow bracelet will fit inside a medium/large plastic egg and makes for a fun bath toy or nighttime egg hunt.

Trip also enjoyed lots of surprises from our extended family, including a large egg filled with goodies that his Aunt T sent him in the mail.

Going Crazy and a Little Christmas Organization Trick

This Christmas season has been a good one around here but we have been so busy that our letter of the week and blogging have definitely suffered. First, after slowly getting worse and worse, my laptop battery decided to completely die, meaning that it has to be plugged in constantly in order to stay on. That was annoying but fine for a couple of weeks until my power cable died too. So, it looks like I will be spending the rest of my birthday money and some Christmas money to get at least a new power cord and probably a battery as well.

Last week I was scheduled to work two days, but ended up working every day. Many teachers have been sick, which keeps those of us who substitute teach very busy. I'm always thankful for the work even if it does keep me from doing all the projects I had planned. We also had three Christmas parties to attend last week, each of which was delightful in its own way.

In the evenings and this weekend, I have been working on some last-minute gifts and decorations, some of which I will share with you this week.

In an attempt to keep the clutter down in the house and specifically in our guest/craft/office room, I decided that once I got the tree decorated, I would take the Christmas boxes back out to our shop. The only problem was that there were a few items that I wanted to have close at hand. I then had a realization that may only be exciting to me, but I couldn't believe I had never thought of it before. It dawned on me that I could put some small things in the Christmas tins that had had held our ornaments and place them under the tree. They look nice under the tree and keep small gift and decorative items easily accessible.

Our Holiday Fair Booth

Since it has been consuming so much of my time recently, I figured I would share some pictures of the booth my sister and I shared at the Holiday Fair. We had two tables that were in an L shape. The larger table faced out and was right next to the door, which was great. The other table was against the wall, which was awkward, but we managed. We tried to move the table away from the wall, but the lattice behind it was falling over and having both tables in the front would have blocked access to the booth next to us, so we just had to go with it as is.

Our main table featured flower pins,

ear warmers,

hair clips,

and headbands.

On the table against the wall, we had chalkboard frames, countdown to Christmas frames, and sticky note holders.

Then came mitten and tree chalkboards, mini chalkboards (made from the trunk of a Christmas tree that my dad chopped up for me last year),

and some beautiful hats and scarves that my sister crocheted.

The lattice against the wall was handy to display headbands,

 

cards,

 

and the two things that Kirk made: a Christmas tree dinner bell

and a candle holder.

We didn't sell nearly as much as we had hoped, but it was nice to have some time together as sisters. From what I've heard, most people didn't do as well as they had in the past, so we were relieved to know it wasn't just us. Fortunately, I made things that I was also going to give as gifts, so what didn't sell means fewer things to make in the next few weeks.

By the way, if you see something you want, let me know. There's a good chance it's still available!

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

I grew up in Belgium, where December 6, St. Nicholas Day, is a big deal. My sister and I attended Belgian public schools, so we always had special activities on this day. Traditionally, children received many of their gifts from St. Nicholas and then a few more from Father Christmas on Christmas Day. Although Christmas was still when we got most of our gifts, our parents always made sure that we had some presents waiting for us when we woke up on December 6.

It's fun to be able to carry on this tradition with Trip. Last night before he went to bed, he chose a pair of boots to put next to the door. He didn't really understand why we were doing this, but he sure was happy to find them full of goodies this morning. He got clementines, gummy bears, and a Thomas bath toy.

Once Trip discovered his treats and we got Thomas out of the packaging (which is not an easy task these days!), he wanted to watch a Thomas DVD while he ate breakfast. Of course Thomas joined him at the table and he was kind enough to offer his new friend bites of his food.

The other surprise this morning was that we got our tree in the house and lit last night after Trip went to bed. He has been admiring it ever since he got up.

Letter of the Week

Trip has begun to show an interest in letters and has learned a few of them. For some reason or another, he usually recognizes G, O, and T. All letters used to be A and B but are now mostly G. The alphabet song is called "A-C-G." He likes to point out words and letter and says whatever letters or sounds come to mind. These things are very cute, but are also a great sign that he's getting these concepts of letters, words, and reading.

In order to build on this interest, I have decided to do a letter of the week with him and do as many fun activities as possible each week to reinforce the concept of that letter. A great place to start for toddlers is with the letters in the child's name. With this in mind, I set out to plan our first four weeks for the letters T, R, I, and P. If you have more than one child, start with the first letter of one child's name the first week, and then do the first letter of the next child's the next week, and so forth. You could also alternate days and work on two or three letters for two weeks. After the first letter of each child's name, go to any letters their names have in common or any letters that represent a common interest of theirs (like a toy, activity, sport, or character). If you have older children who already know the alphabet, get them involved and have them help you put this all together.

My first step was to make a list of all of the words that I could think of that start with T, R, I, or P. I also thought of foods, friends/family members/characters/sports teams, and songs that start with each letter. I initially wrote it all down on paper and left it out so that I could easily add words as I thought of them throughout a couple of days. Once I had the words, I came up with activities that could go with each letter as well. Later, I typed this all up in a neat list so that I can share it with you each week.

Next, I went about collecting items around the house that start with my chosen letters. I have a bowl or container for each letter so that as I see a toy or household item that fits into one of the categories, I can just add it to the collection. This makes the whole process less time-consuming because it naturally builds as I find a few more items each day. Plus, these items give me ideas of projects that we can do. Thinking ahead also makes actually doing the activities easier because everything is ready, so I can just pull something out when Trip is in a good mood or when he needs a distraction.

I gave myself almost two weeks from when this idea first came to me to when I actually started our first letter of the week. If you choose to do something similar, you may only need one week, or you might want three or more. Do what works for you. This is meant to be something fun to do with your child, not something to add to your already stressful life. Once the school year starts in a few weeks and I start substitute teaching again, I may not have as much time each day to prepare and to do activities with Trip. We will just continue to do this as it fits into our lives. The days when I am home, we will do more, and if I am working, we'll just do a quick game in the evening. A lot of this has to do with being purposeful in pointing out the letter we're studying and bringing it out in our normal daily life.

On Monday, I will begin to share about our experience with our first letter of the week, T.

Where Do I Begin?

As Trip approached the age of two, I knew I needed to become more purposeful in providing learning opportunities for him. Sure, we had been reading together since he was an infant, listening to our Spanish and French CDs, counting, singing songs, pointing out letters and words, thinking out loud for him, and all of the good things that parents do, but as he has grown, I knew he needed more. As a teacher, I am acutely aware of how important the early years of learning are and how much of an impact parents can have on their child's success at school and in life by the learning activities they facilitate at home. I also knew that the things we do don't have to be complicated, expensive, or original, they just need to be happening. I have boxes upon boxes full of books, games, materials, and ideas for elementary and even preschool-aged children, but I wasn't so sure what to do with a two-year-old. It was time to get some help...

Where does any mom in 2011 turn with such questions? Why the internet, of course! I had read about busy bags on Money Saving Mom (one of my favorite places to find coupons, deals, and freebies) and figured that I could figure out some similar activities for Trip. That lead me to My Delicious Ambiguity and a great post with links to well over 100 busy bags and projects for toddlers. I promptly went out to our shop, opened up a bunch of boxes from my old classroom, and got to work making things. Money Saving Mom also lead me to I Can Teach My Child through a link about edible playdough (which I still haven't tried yet, but look forward to). It has become another favorite site and a great source of inspiration. My journeys online have helped me discover many sites (look for them on the sidebar) that have flooded me with great ideas and have given me the push needed to get me started purposefully teaching Trip.

So here I am, a mom wanting to teach her son with love to help him grow, a teacher who loves to teach and needs to grow in how I work with my toddler. I hope that my adventures can help you to teach, love, and grow as well!