Fun stuff...

Well, my computer is still down. :(
I'm very thankful for smart phones, :)
although I can't guarantee this post will turn out well.

My 19 month old has become very interested in Destinys school work, and wants to be involved.
He let's us know how unhappy he is when he's not.
So I came across about 15 links to cool activities on other blogs.
Out of the 15, there were 2 things that I think are very cool.

The first is an Alphabet I-spy jar.
http://mama-jenn.blogspot.com/2009/06/alphabet-i-spy-jar-keepin-em-occupied.html
It looks awesome and can be used for many different games over the next few years.
Plus it looks super easy to make. I plan on using a plastic Voss bottle like I saw in another blog.

Second one is what we have named "The Wave Bottle".
http://tenkidsandadog.blogspot.com/2009/02/tools-for-tots-ocean-waves-in-bottle.html
This project also looks fun, easy, and mess free.
I was a little careless and made a mess. :/
We added the water, then the blue food dye. (FYI don't use gel food coloring.)

Then the glitter. I do not recommend dollar store glitter.
While, yes the dollar store is your friend when buying craft materials, this makes the glitter less "flowy" with this project.

Then finally we added the vegetable oil.
We do not own a funnel, so I made one out of a piece of construction paper.
I ripped it into 4 fairly even pieces, put them all together, then formed it into a funnel shape. It works great! Where we went wrong was Destiny was pouring the oil and neither one of was watching it come over the top of our home made funnel.
Great way to learn that oil is thick, and does not move as quickly as water... Not!
So it made the outside of the bottle oily.

We had just enough oil to do the project, so because of the spill we were short on oil.
It really does need to be about 50/50, because without that oil, our wave bottle isn't very wavy. We couldn't get the last bit of label off the bottle, so we made a "label" and taped it on. Clear packing tape is also a friend.
We did have fun doing it, and my 4yr old didn't know she was missing out on anything,
so in the end it was a success, and I looked like the coolest mom to her.
An added bonus is, when we eventually make it again, she'll be wowed when it does what it's supposed to. :)

I'll add pictures soon. And update once we've made the ABC spy jar.

FREE Printables and Ideas for home! A-E

Yes, I said free!
The inverter on my laptop (whatever that is) keeps going out.
In other words, my screen is black.  :b
I was going to do some research on "green" homeschooling, but that's not happening right now.
So, instead I bring you links to (what I think are the best) free printables for preschoolers.
The first one is simple enough to find what you want yourself,
so >HERE< is the link to a great site with worksheets for letters and numbers.
And I just found >THIS<  great dot to dot for beginners, and Bubble Guppies letter tracing pack.

I will add more awesome links as I find them. 
Follow me on Pinterest for more ideas.  :)



A
A is for Apple by Confessions of a Homeschooler
A is for Ant by Confessions of a Homeschooler
Nick Jr Letter A pack

B
B is for Butterfly by Confessions of a Homeschooler
B is for Ballerina by Confessions of a Homeschooler
Nick Jr. Letter B pack

C
C is for Caterpillar by Confessions of a Homeschooler
Nick Jr. Letter C pack

D
D is for Dinosaur by Confessions of a Homeschooler
Nick Jr. Letter D pack

E
E is for Elephant by Confessions of a Homeschooler
Nick Jr. Letter E pack

That homeschooling info...

Homeschooling to me was like a last resort. 
It was the only planB I could come up with when we were no longer considering private school, because $800+ a month for private school is unrealistic at this point.
So in the midst of my yahoo/google/bing headache, I found this...

" It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiousity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom. "
- Albert Einstein

Suddenly I had a whole new attitude about this crazy homeschool idea.
As I continued my research (quickly skimming through links), I became more excited about our decision and stopped thinking of this option as "planB".




Here are the pros and cons I came up with.

Pros-
She gets to work at her own pace.
It would be 1-on-1 learning time instead of 30 kids to 1 teacher.
The curriculums we would choose are more advanced then the local public schools.
She can spend more time in extra curricular activities, such  as dance or sports.
We plan on doing a lot of field trips and hands on experiments.
The fact that she will learn to love learning, and not be "forced" to learn.
The list goes on...

Cons- Lack of social interaction
I don't get a much needed break.

Well, both of the cons lost, because there are A LOT of people that have decided to switch to homeschooling this past year, due to the fact that the public school system is slowly turning into a major FAIL, one budget cut at a time.  
I found local homeschooling groups, and co-ops.
The homeschooling groups do field trips, playdates, science experiments, etc. together.
The co-ops are when there's a group of moms that take turns watching each others kids.
The idea is, you get 3-4 other moms involved, and each mom takes all of the kids once a week.
So each of you winds up with a few hours 3-4 days a week kid free. :D
I love this idea!
...But I was still freaking out.
How the heck was I going to teach my daughter how to read and write?!
I'm not cut out to teach.  So then I found this...
(Keep in mind we all have different reasons. Some of what she addressed happened to be the things
I was worried about)
Why I Homeschool (fears &concerns addressed)
And then people started questioning the fact that we had decided to homeschool.
I started to lose some resolve.  Then I saw this...
Being a homeschool mom...This post reminded me of why we had fallen in love with planB.
Destiny is doing wonderfully. She has learned a lot in such a short time.
Isaac (the toddler) likes to join in during school time, and is running around yelling out random letters, and can count to 3. :)
Whatever you choose to do for your kids education, know why.
Not that we owe any one an explanation, but it doesn't feel too great, when you're standing there stammering.(trust me, I know)

Dishwasher vs. Hand washing...

Ahhh! I ran out of dishwasher detergent!   :o
My grandmother is visiting from out of state, and I had a dishwasher full of dishes,
and no soap to wash them.  Just leaving them to hide in the dishwasher wasn't going to work either, because dishes were starting to collect in the sink.
So... with much hesitation, I started transferring dishes, cups, & flatwear from the dishwasher into the sink to prepare for the daunting task that lay ahead. (Honestly, if she wasn't coming to my home, I would've left them in there until tomorrow afternoon when I had more dishwasher detergent.)

What you see here is less than 2 days worth of dishes, and the sink is fairly deep.
There are 5-6 plates stacked under all that.


I'm sorry, but I do not hand wash dishes. 
Growing up I had heard that relying on a dishwasher is lazy.  Um... I beg to differ.
I try to wash all bedding, clean the bathrooms, and all the floors once a week, and wash towels every few days.  I try to make a point of cleaning the kitchen counters, and stove top everytime I use them.
All this on top of laundry, cleaning messes, cooking, recleaning messes, homeschooling, (oh look another mess) taking the dog out, screaming 20 month old needs a nap, nursing, (yes my son still nurses *rolls eys) pull vacuum out for some crazy mess of shredded paper, cereal, or crumbs from preschooler trying to establish independence.......and so it continues.
Oh the joys of mother hood. ;)
I'm sorry, but I just don't hand wash dishes.  And to the mothers that have no choice, kudos to you!
My MIL and my brother in laws long distance gf (visited recently), were bragging to each about how they have dishwashers and don't even use them.
I sat quietly, and smiled, imagining their daily lives...
Go to work 8-10 hours a day, come home, watch some uninterrupted tv, eat an uninterrupted dinner, wash a few dishes by hand, put them away, take a nice uninterrupted bath, and get a full night of uninterrupted sleep.
I thought, I'd love to have just one day of that.
But then I imagined living the life of a single woman and decided, only one day. 
I love my busy, interrupted life.
The messy smiles that shine past the messes of my house make my heart mushy, and I want to spend every spare moment I can with them, because they really are growing too fast.
So I'll take my dishwasher please!

                           Btw... I did wash those dishes by hand.  It took me an 1hour 20min. 

Update: 8/28/2011
When I told my grandmother I had washed all of the dishes by hand,
she said that sometimes if she's out of dishwasher soap, she puts in a very small amount

of dish soap.  ;)
I love my grandma!

The choice to homeschool...

To homeschool... It still makes me nervous.
I'm not a homeschooling kind of mom.
Don't get me wrong... I have lots of patience, and I've always been great with kids.
My children are well behaved, and don't make me feel like I want to pull my hair out (although there are times).
But the idea of trying to educate my kid is, well for lack of a better description, slightly frightening.
With the help of a friend I met through WTE 5 years ago,
I was able to find, what seemed to me, the most helpful information and resources to aid
in our decision making process.
I decided on the curriculum my friend was using for her son.
It's called Letter of the Week.
It's a cheap($10), downloadable curriculum that consists of a full 26 week core program for preschoolers, and has a lot of material for making puzzles and other games that seem to be modeled after games that cost $10-$20 at Lakeshore.  Be prepared to buy a printer, because there is A LOT of material and it would cost hundreds of dollars to get it printed up at Kinkos.
(I almost choked when I realized that A-D cost me $76!)
There's also a lot of cutting and laminating involved, but in the end you do save money.
There is also a K-4 curriculum.

We started homeschooling about 3 weeks ago.
But you know, stuff happens, so we will hopefully get to day 13 tomorrow.
I couldn't be happier with the curriculum we chose. :D
Destiny has gone from not recognizing any letters, to recognizing half of them, and we're only on week B! We have gone on a few field trips that were amazing and cheap.

I will post more about our homeschooling experience up to now tomorrow.
For now, I'm going to join the fambam, and watch the end of Shrek2 before sending the kiddos off to bed, and catching up on some Greys Anatomy with the hubby(or as WTE junkies say, DH).  ;)
GN fellow mommies!

What it's all about...

Wow. My first post on my first blog.
I've actually been talking about creating this blog for awhile now.
Well, here it goes...
You can call me Nikki. (It's a nickname)
I'm 24 years old, have been married to a wonderful (sometimes) ;) man going on 4 years,
and a mother to a preschooler & toddler.
It's almost kind of hard to believe.
Anyways, this blog is not all about homeschooling,
although a lot of it probably will be, because it is going to be a large part of our daily lives
Um... (stage fright) Well, we have decided to homeschool our preschooler.
Destiny turned 4 this summer. Our original plan was to enroll her into 1 of 2 private schools we had narrowed our choices down to, but being affected by the economy, we were grasping for a planB we had failed to plan... 
Preschool is not offered by the public school system in our state, unless of course, you are very
low-income (eligible for welfare), or your child has some kind of disabilty, speech problem, or behavioural problem. 
Our preschooler doesn't fit into any of those categories, but she NEEDED to get schooling now!
Hence the idea to homeschool. I tried to Google, Yahoo, & Bing info, but I'm one of those people that have issues looking past the first few links.
So I will post those links over the next few days for those of you that are also one of those people...