The Evolution of a Homeschool Mom

Yes, we homeschool. No, we don't use a formal curriculum. Yes, it IS fantastically fun and my kids DO learn! It has taken a lot of observation and prayer (and more stress than I would like to admit) to figure out how to best teach my little tykes. One of the driving reasons (among many others) for homeschooling is because I believe that a child will thrive and enjoy their learning experience if they are allowed to learn and explore using their innate and organic learning style.

Well, it took me a while to realize that Evie's learning style did NOT include those lovely workbooks that I love flipping through and imagining all the fun, quiet, sit-down learning we could do. I noticed that Evie got frustrated and upset with herself and those around her when she was not able to perform on or even understand the worksheets as well as she felt she should. I'll admit that some of that is probably my fault as there were a few times where I got very frustrated with her "not listening" and "not focusing" the way I thought she should. BAD MOMMY! Sigh. We are both learning. 

I noticed she enjoyed and absorbed SO much more of the material when she was participating in a hands-on, energetic way, or working with her hands while watching a video. I can say without a doubt that she gets these traits from her father! I started doing research on how to teach a child who was a kinesthetic/visual learner. When I started learning about kinesthetic strategies, and specifically the Montessori philosophy, it was like the growing pit in my stomach that had been nagging me to change my approach and stop trying to pound my poor little square peg into a round hole, dissolved. 

Nailed it. 

I was so excited to get started with Montessori learning! I got on Oriental Trading and bought some activity trays which turned out to be PERFECT when they came! I still have a lot to learn about how to accomplish a successful Montessori homeschool style but because of some constraints, we will be doing a Montessori based learning, not a strict Montessori classroom learning (although I wish I could, I'm just not there yet). 

Dare to dream. 

This is our journey! We have started a few activities and I have a list that we are going to do in the future. I will be blogging about our educational adventure both for your enjoyment and my record keeping. I hope you like it! I would love to hear your comment, suggestions, and questions. 

Dump Chairs

I know what you are thinking, and yes, it is exactly what it sounds like.

I'll confess, this is the most white trash thing I have ever done but I am not ashamed. In fact, I'm pretty proud of myself!

Yesterday, I drove to City Center where Eagle Mountain city provided a bunch of dumpsters for citizens to dump their junk instead of where they used to be dumping it along the mountain side - classy I know. But don't worry, I'm about to go there.

Apparently, the city was late putting the dumpsters out because people had already made a huge pile of trash and junk that they decided they would abandon on the ground instead of waiting for the dumpsters to arrive. Again, way to keep it classy Eagle Mountainites.

But I'm not going to complain too much because in the pile of nastiness, I found some gems, these gems...

Bar stools! I have wanted to buy some stools for quite some time now but I couldn't bear spending at least $40 a chair for something basic to just do the job. 

So yes, I channeled my inner dumpster diver and snatched the chairs. The downside you may ask (besides picking them out of a garbage pile on the side of the road of course)? This...

NAST-AY!!

Okay, yes this is truly disgusting. I may be pretty trashy at this moment, but I'm not about to bring these in my house and sit on those, um, food (lets hope) stains. 

This is the part where I get past feeling like a hobo and start feeling thrifty (a nicer word for a resourceful hobo). 

After a trip to Joann's and a lot of disinfectant I came out the other side with this...

Pretty, huh! It looks even nicer in person. The other stool is still in progress because I need to get a couple of bolts to make sure the metal seat frame is secure. That will tomorrow's project. 

This is the part where you tell me your thoughts. Love it? Hate it? Still can't get over that they came from garbage? I want to know!

Another Combi Giveaway!

http://www.combicorner.com/promotionscontest.html

Combi Contest

Today I am entering to win an awesome Combi walker and you should too! Look how cute this thing is...

http://www.combicorner.com/promotionscontest.html

Is Spring Here Yet?!

I'm getting really excited for spring to officially be here! Yeah, I know its still a little ways off but this warm winter has been teasing me (not to say I'm complaining). I've been planning our first garden and I cannot wait to get started! Yesterday I went to Lowes because my indoor plants somehow got aphids over the winter and I've been battling them with homemade remedies but nothing has worked really so I finally caved and went to buy something to get rid of the little buggers. While I was there, I also wanted to look into a small indoor green house or really just anything that will work to keep my seedlings warm in my intemperate house. I originally had this one in mind:

Its $40 and I had it in my cart until I went outside and happened to see that they had one of these on clearance:

There was only one left for $23 (originally $60). I was so stoked! I put the other greenhouse back and decided to get this cold frame. I'm going to have this set up in the sunniest place in the house right now (the office which is south-east facing and then when it gets a bit warmer stake it down outside to harden off my seedlings. I was so excited that I built it almost as soon as I got home. With Evie's helpful screw-stealing skills, we got it built in an hour or so.


When Evie saw me taking pictures, she wanted me to take pictures of her as well.


Today we are going to plant all of our leafy plants (spinach, tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, peas, onions). I'm excited to get started and I hope Evie is into getting her hands into the dirt as I am! She was a little weirded out when I was digging around our indoor potted plants with my fingers. She thought it was weird that I was putting her "coloring" (crayons) into the dirt. No, I was not actually putting crayons in my soil, but they were plant food sticks that did look like crayons, I'll give her that. After holding one she realized it wasn't a crayon but a "yucky" and let me do the rest. Lol! Speaking of which, I discovered that my Star of Jasmine soil has been growing mushrooms! What the heck?!

Chaos Extraordinaire

This week it has felt like my house has exploded! I've been trying to get on a more manageable and scheduled cleaning routine before the baby makes his/her grand entrance. My goal is to do one load of dishes and one load of laundry a day, even if nothing else gets done. I know it doesn't sound like much but having that little goal has really helped me in my cleaning ventures! I think is largely because if I do a load of laundry, it is very easy to do two or more so rarely do I do just one load, the same goes with dishes. Then, once I start by doing one little thing, like a load of dishes or laundry, it motivates me to want to other cleaning projects and more of them. I've run into a little hiccup when it comes to laundry because we are painting the back room where the laundry machines are so I haven't been able to do any laundry for over a week. Not to mention, potty training has been put on hold because I don't have a way to wash all the close that would become victim to accidents. I'm going to have some catching up to do along with battling Steve and Peter for machine time. That leads into what seems to be the trend in our house - CHAOS! 

Our front room filled right now with all the odds and ends we had tucked away in the back room and bags to go to DI. I'm going to try to get it looking more presentable today because it is driving me crazy! I feel like I'm living in a disaster zone right now. The biggest problem I am facing is learning how to organize and keep things organized with very limited storage space. I like looking at sites and blogs like Better Homes and Gardens and such but they always make me wish I had the money for those really cool cupboard, drawer, pantry, and closet organizers. I've been slowly learning how to be creative with around-the-house items that help with organizing but whoowee is it a challenge! My biggest trouble areas I would say are storing clean laundry (I hope this will be easier when Evie can have her clothes in her own room), pots and pans, bathroom toiletries (our vanity is only 32" and painfully lacks drawers), and of course, toys. I'll keep you updated if I think of any creative, free, ways to get more organized! 

I'm not dead!

Its been a while since my last post so I feel like I have a lot to catch up on! It has been REALLY eventful around here lately. I'm officially in my 2nd trimester of pregnancy now (there are 3 "trimesters" in pregnancy each consisting of 3 months). The 2nd trimester is supposed to be when pregos,like me, stop feeling literally sick and tired ALL THE TIME and start feeling like they can get stuff done before they become so big you could topple them over by breathing on them wrong. I am LOVING the 2nd trimester with the exception of one thing. Because I'm such a natural control freak and I want to do everything myself, I'm finding that I can't do that anymore with things like painting, or heavy cleaning, or lifting, or any of those things I'm prone to start doing on a daily basis. Its driving me a little batty! As we speak, Seth is downstairs painting the floor in the back room and I'm up in the bedroom with windows open watching anime with Evie. Its taking everything I've got to hold myself back from storming downstairs with a towel wrapped around my nose and mouth and doing the painting myself. Because, of course, I could do it better. Right?...That's what I thought.

Seth has been really good at helping me do all my projects that I can't do and helping out more with Evie. Last night, he even took her to a Daddy Daughter Princess Ball that I had bought tickets for and "suggested" they should go. They had such a blast and Evie was exhausted after, which is always a good indication that she had fun. I'm going to try to get the pictures and videos off of his phone and I'll post them. Meanwhile, I also had a good while trying to distract myself from the painting that needed to be done. I picked up a smothered pork burrito with hot sauce from Cafe Rio and rented a "Midnight in Paris" from Redbox. I can't remember the last time I had a night to choose what I wanted to eat and watch. It was AMAZING! But I was excited to see them when they got home. I miss my little princess when she is gone! When she came home, she was so wiped that she laid on the couch with me and watched the end of my dialogue dominated movie. This never happens. Maybe she just liked Owen Wilson.

Well, until next time, here is a video to tie you over.

This was taken while I was cleaning the room and she was watching one of her favorite shows "Timmy Time."