Tot School / Letter A - Creation Story

((Hannah is 41 months))

((Danny is 16 months))

And here it is, another couple of weeks have passed. This might or might not become a regular occurrence. I'm not just behind in blogging tot school but we actually ended up doing the letter A for two weeks. The night I was supposed to order the letter B books from the library I forgot and then remembered later in the week. But I didn't let that stress me out and just rolled with it. So what, we're going to cover the same letter two weeks in a row and my "school plan" is off now. It's really no big deal, Sissy already knows the letter A and all of the alphabet for that matter. But sticking to a letter of the week plan just gives me some structure. We might even deviate to a certain book, movie or character of the week here an there. But the letter of the week will be my fall back plan. We may or may not get through the whole alphabet.

Now, let me show what we did for the letter A. We're working on an Alphabet Art Book. We'll see if we get all 26 letters. But Sissy had so much fun stamping with the apples from our apple trees. A couple of days ago I saw someone did this with a stamp pad instead of paint and you could see the apples more clearly but this still worked.

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The biggest accomplishment of the week is that baby guy is always on his knees. He's been able to discover a whole new world. It's so amazing to see him catch up so quickly. In July he wasn't even really sitting up on his own, now he sits up all by himself, army crawls everywhere and starting to crawl on hands and knees. 

Then...later in the week he started to pull himself up to standing. You can see that he's so proud. He so desperately wants to do what Sissy does. This is still a very rare thing for him, but it's just amazing to see him accomplish in weeks what others do in months.

We had lots of reading time, with Alligator Shoes, Oliver and his alligator, Apples by Jacqueline Farmer, Zack's alligator goes to school, Ten apples up on top! and Apples by Gail Gibbons. We also went over the whole creation story again and Sissy was finishing the story for me.

Then lots of play time.

One of his favorite toys, Bubba's light saber.

Tot/Life School Past Two Weeks

Where are these weeks going? I don't know if it's the time of year or just me but these weeks are flying by. I think "oh I'm going to post about Tot School" and then when I sit down to write I realize that I have to blog about two weeks. Crazy!

The week before last was Sleep or Rest theme based on the seventh day of Creation. But of course I didn't get any pictures of the wonderful books that we read. We read Little Hoot, The Napping House, A Book of Sleep,  and Russell the Sheep. None of them pertained to Creation but they were still good.

 I couldn't really think of or find any good "rest" activities other than napping so that's what we focused on. It was wonderful. I had been pretty lax lately with naps and our schedule and house was unsettled because of it so I took this week to really figure out a good time for Sissy to nap and made sure she went down whether she slept or not. If she didn't want to sleep she could stay in bed and look at books or play with one of her "quiet time boxes". This has been wonderful and has really relaxed our house again.

The next week was our break from Tot school week and planning for the upcoming "school" year. Of course you really can't take a break from tot school because the kids are going to play and learn anyways. Which is another reason why I love doing tot school. It's so effortless if you want it to be. You can make it as structured or unstructured as you want. I want to relish in how laid back things can be right now because I know as we continue on this homeschool journey things will get a little more demanding.

I did however manage to get some unedited photos of what was going on last week. Baby Guy is getting better and better at climbing, so he was practicing on his Sissy.

They are in love with this tunnel.

And this tent. Sissy decided all on her own to put pillow and blankets in it and read some books. My heart melted.

Cannot seem to break this habit. If I'm not on her every minute they sneak their way in. Even if I put them out of reach she'll steal her brother's. I want to remember this though, even though she is getting bigger, she is still my baby.

Baby Guy so proud of himself. He started sitting up all by himself on 8/25/13. Another moment I want to remember. He's 16 months old and it has taken him a long time to get to this point. He moves at his own pace but is doing new things all of the time.

A finger painting  master peice.

Note to self: do not use shaving cream on surfaces you will eat off of or with kitchen utensils you will use with food. It takes a while for the fragrance to come off completely after washes. But she had a blast anyway. Weird seeing her in the high chair this is Baby Guy's throne now.

Being Remade

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Working at Resting

 She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Proverbs 31:27

Lately, I've been really struggling with my priorities. Just like right now I should be cleaning or doing something important but I really feel the need to post this. Thanks to @nataliecreates over on Instagram with her Question of the Day: How do you prioritize self-care? or her blog Natalie Creates I really felt the need to talk about this.

I feel like I'm always trying to get my priorities in check or in balance. I know what they are and what order they come in but actually keeping it balanced all the time is a struggle. I don't think I am alone in this but in my mind I feel like I am. I feel like I'm the only one who doesn't have it together, no where near together. But thanks to Natalie's post I am reminded once more that most people don't have it together and if you think they do, there are probably other areas you don't see that they struggle with.

The older I get though the more comfortable I am getting with "things just are the way they are". I'm doing the best I can, to keep my family happy, me happy and sane. The house is just always going to be in a perpetual mess as long as I have a 3 year old and 16 month old trashing it. That's the way it's supposed to be right? Messy house means happy kids or so I'm told. There are days when I wake up and once diapers are changed and breakfast is doled out, usually whatever self-feeding food we have around I will just start cleaning. I won't shower or usually even change my clothes. I just clean clean clean, then the afternoon comes and I realize I stink, look horrible and feel horrible and the house still isn't the way I would like it and the areas that are nice won't be like that in a couple of hours. There are days when I feel like not even trying. The only area I really work on daily is the kitchen and without a dishwasher and no help it really is a chore. How did they do it back in the day? I realize they didn't have several electronics and blogs pulling them this way and that but I've tried days with no phone, computer or TV and it's still a huge struggle. The Greatest Generation is my favorite generation though I'm not a part of it but sometimes they make me feel bad. Not their fault and I'm sure there were plenty of families back then that didn't have it all together, you just don't see that on TV or in photos.

This post isn't about giving up though or feeling bad about things. It's just about sharing the truth and stating that I'm not giving up but I'm also not striving for perfection. It's about the fact that I can rest in Him and He doesn't care if my house is messy. He's that best friend that will come over for coffee amongst all of the mess and really talk about real things. He will rest my soul and remind me that all I need to focus on is Him and all else will fall into place.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest".  Matthew 11:28