Tot School

~Krash is currently 36.5 months old~

I didn't get many action shots of Krash working this week, but we had lots of Tot school fun! I think I am just going to set up the shelves for the week for the summer and then supplement with a few extra activities each week. It is easy for the summer and gives him something to look forward to each week! Here's what he did this week...

Spooning jewels from his new $1 (Target) bucket, into a paint tray (from AC Moore). He was able to make a pattern with my guidance, it was neat...

He "read" to Pac Man...He loves these Vehicles in a Box Puzzles and did all 4 in the box with my help. I put the corners in for him and then he can usually find the pieces from there...We made the Hh projects that were shared on Totally Tots today, K LOVED this, and was so proud of his work hanging up, we need to do more projects like this!!! Eventually these will be added to his ABC notebook.
Here's photos of the rest of his trays, I didn't get action shots of...

Monkey Math--this is a neat addition game, you place the bananas on each side to balance when the numbers are equal. Obviously K is not working on addition, I just put it out for fun and some number ID. I put out Perler Beads to string onto a pipe cleaner...He loved playing with the Connect 4 game. I used it to practice taking turns with him, and also red and black :)Finally, his soft ABC blocks...He had big-brother practice with our sweet ladybug...And here's my favorite Krash shot of the week...

• Read more about Tot Trays here
• Visit Totally Tots!!!
• Want to see more Tot School posts? Click HERE
• Visit our Tot School Webpage HERE
• Visit our Tot School Tools store HERE
• Tools for Tots HERE

If you have a tot (approximately ages 1-3) at home, join in the fun and share what you're doing with your tot! Here's how to get started if you're new...

If you've never read this: Go HERE 1st for more details- please do!!! Then if you have any ideas you'd like to share, link up your exact post to Mr Linky (if you have questions about how to do that, let me know in a comment or email-links to homepages will automatically be deleted).

New: when you add your name(blog name) to Mr. Linky will you put your tot's age (in months) after it, like this: 1+1+1=1 (36 mos)? I think this will help new readers a lot as they look for ideas for their specific aged tot!

If you are unsure of how to add your direct link to Mr Linky-I added a tutorial with photos here, scroll down to see it!

Summer Plans

As May comes to a close I am anticipating the summer months and wondering exactly what we will do for schooling. We have had such an OFF year and Pac Man has had tons of week long breaks during our many issues this year. Thankfully he was over 1/2 year ahead and is still about 25 lessons ahead (he technically should be entering 2nd grade in the fall and is on lesson 25 (out of 160) right now). Because of this, I never really worried about all of the time we took off from school this year.

We do plan to continue with school this summer, although we did not last summer. I don't plan to do *real* school, but a very scaled down version. My thoughts are to have 3-6 Workboxes each day for Pac Man, mostly only 3 per day. I only plan to do this when we are home all day, if we are gone I am not going to worry about it. My hope is to complete at least through lesson 40 by the end of the summer.

For Krash, I do plan to continue to set up his trays each week, and change them out throughout the week. He needs the time with me and I need to be focused with him or his behavior will be off the wall. He is so high strung and needs that focused time with me each day.

I did start something new with Pac this week. If he can finish his boxes before K wakes up from his nap, I will spend the rest of nap time playing games with him. That way I can be sure to spend focused time with him each day, AND it motivates him to complete his work in a timely fashion (something he really struggles with).

I also plan to get our Summer Challenge going again, if you weren't reading with me last year, you can read about it here. I plan to alter it a bit, but stick with the general concept, as it worked really well last summer.

What are your summer plans as far as Tot School and homeschooling your older kids?

Romans 7:18b

This is my husband's favorite! If you can't tell, that's Pac Man when he was about 2! For myself, I had one of these days today. I was all thrown off by getting up late today and by about 10am I was wishing Krash was in a preschool program!!!. Now as I reflect on my day tonight, I realize it was me who was off-not him. I am praying I can carry out what is good tomorrow!

2-Day Sale

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Plus, as a bonus, new subscribers get 5 FREE WeE-books of their choice. Only good until midnight on May 26.

Psalm 141:3

Oh how I pray I can do this today.

Tot School

~Krash is currently 36 months old~

I am happy to say we are slightly falling into a new normal and it feels great. Thanks for the kind words and prayers from my posts this past week. I am feeling so much better and can see the light at the end of the tunnel now!

Krash is still in love with Ladybug, he likes to, "pet him," yes he calls her a him...it's so funny!We are enjoying our new deck SOOO much! What a blessing this is to us, living in the inner city. We almost feel like we are on vacation when we are out there! I am trying to bring different toys out there for the boys to play with, they loved having the block table...I snapped some photos this week of just the trays and will probably continue to do this. I don't ever want to take away from my focused time with K to take photos, and I miss a lot of sharing that way. This tray is a perfect example! I was completely engaged with K as we played "Tot Ball." He used the bat like a golf club and we rolled the ball back and forth on the ground together. Great for releasing some energy and for coordination! It was a very soft squishy ball, so perfect for inside.

Here's another tray I put out for Krash. I gave him a bucket with colored ping pong balls and little craft cups with matching colored dots, for him to sortI had him close his eyes as he reached in for a ball, he loved that!!!I also put out counting bears with stacking cups. I only put the matching colors out of the bears so we could sort.He did perfectly with the sorting, and really enjoyed it...Then we worked on stacking, this was the first time he really seemed to get the size sequence. He couldn't do it on his own but I was able to just talk him through it and not do it for him!

Starfall was a big hit this week, and K is finally learning to use the mouse on his own a bit.

The exploring tray is still up and continues to be a big hit, he is finding new things to do with it every day. He calls the pom poms his gumballs!

We had fun making letters and reading How to Build an A, this is SUCH a great book, I highly recommend buying it if you don't already have it!!!I brought out his name cards, he only wanted to do Pop Pop!

I loved seeing K do this in the pool, knowing he learned how to use a funnel from his tray work!!!Krash and Pac Man spent TONS of time outside this week too! K learned how to use the super soaker and the boys are so funny to watch together!!!Finally, my favs of K this week, here he is saying "punch me" which he learned from Wii Boxing ;)...And hanging in his car...

• Read more about Tot Trays here
• Visit Totally Tots!!!
• Want to see more Tot School posts? Click HERE
• Visit our Tot School Webpage HERE
• Visit our Tot School Tools store HERE
• Tools for Tots HERE

If you have a tot (approximately ages 1-3) at home, join in the fun and share what you're doing with your tot! Here's how to get started if you're new...

If you've never read this: Go HERE 1st for more details- please do!!! Then if you have any ideas you'd like to share, link up your exact post to Mr Linky (if you have questions about how to do that, let me know in a comment or email-links to homepages will automatically be deleted).

New: when you add your name(blog name) to Mr. Linky will you put your tot's age (in months) after it, like this: 1+1+1=1 (36 mos)? I think this will help new readers a lot as they look for ideas for their specific aged tot!

If you are unsure of how to add your direct link to Mr Linky-I added a tutorial with photos here, scroll down to see it!

EDITED: If Mr Linky is not showing up, please leave your link in the comments below. Mr Linky is having major system issues and is not showing up here or on Totally Tots. If it isn't resolved soon, I will go to listing your links in the post myself so we can all continue to share.

Psalm 55:22a

I am sharing these on my personal blog and it occurred to me today that I should probably share over here, since this blog has about 15 times the number of readers!

I have found a new hobby of sorts, combining my love of photography, God's Word, and graphic design! I am searching back through tons of old photos I have taken, like this shot above, and finding verses to go with them. My prayer for myself is that I will hide God's word in my heart more and more as I do this. My prayer for you is that some may be encouraged by seeing and reading these from time to time. I am also uploading these to my public Phanfare account in case anyone ever wants to print one out. If you do want to print it, you just go to the menu box on Phanfare and click to "Download Hi-Res" then you can print it yourself or upload it to print from wherever you order photos.

I hope these bless some of you as much as making them blesses me.

Blog Trouble

Will you let me know if you are having trouble with this blog shutting down with an error code? Every time I load it is shutting down on me. I use IE8, and have researched and found that this does not happen with Firefox. I am curious to know if any of you are having these problems. If you are a subscriber, will you please jump over to the actual blog and let me know if it shuts down on you?

THANK YOU!!!!!!! If it is a big problem I will spend more time trying to fix it. In the meantime if you are having a problem and can't read my blog, I recommend reading in Firefox for now (I have both FF and IE8 on my computer and split between the 2).

Edited-I removed Mr Linky code and Followers on this blog and Totally Tots, everything should be fine now. Let me know if you still have a problem with either blog. Thanks to those of you who gave me feedback on this today!!!!

Update on my Mommy-Status

Prayers were answered in the way I had hoped for, I can honestly say I feel SOOOO much better. I am reflecting now, what did I do differently? What do I need to keep doing?

One answer is VERY clear to me and I don't know why it took me so long to get back in the groove. About 4 days ago I began reading my Bible again, I mean really reading-not just a verse here and there. I chose Romans. When I read, I study a particular book. I read through it every day for many days, reading the same book over and over again. I read notes, I highlight, I pray. I will be reading Romans for awhile and am already on my 3rd read-through. I made a promise that if I was able I would read my Bible while nursing Ladybug. What a blessing this has been to me.

I also feel physically better so I was more able to be actively involved with the boys, which made for a much better day. We played out on our new deck...Played in the backyard, did Tot school, did 2nd grade, and had a very "new normal" day. That's what I meant in my last post about finding normal again. I am searching for our new normal, I know it will be so different, but aspects will be the same and I long for those and the new of normal to set in. Yesterday it did a bit and it felt so good.

Ladybug even napped outside on the swing while I hung out with the boys. Spending time with them (instead of avoiding them) was a big plus for me, they were better behaved and I tolerated the naughty moments much better.
As I sat on our backyard swing, I noticed our beautiful plant blooming in front of me. My husband bought this plant 2 years ago and it bloomed beautifully the first year and last year it only produced 1 flower. As I sat and started at it this year I was amazed...look how many flowers it has...God's blessings are abundant in my life, just like the flowers on this plant. I am so thankful. I am thankful I am in the Word again, I am thankful for the grace I am offered not only from God but from my husband and children. I am thankful to have a blog with so many friends I have never even met in real life. I am thankful for my real life friends who just know when I am not right and step in to help me. I am thankful for this morning. The fact that it is 6:55 am, I am up, all is quiet, all is well. As I said, God's blessings are abundant.

Confession Time

It occurs to me every now and then that this blog makes me appear WAY better than I actually am in real life :). As I look back through photos posted here I sometimes laugh at how much they DON'T show. A picture is a split second in time...with NO sound. My Tot School weekly reports are so cute of Krash, I love looking back at them, but often think, "man I wish it was as good as it appears to be!"

We're having a rough time around here. Ladybug is 5 weeks old and is a dream baby-seriously, she is the perfect example of a perfect baby--sooooo easy. The boys on the other hand-NOT SO EASY-to put it mildly. And me as a mom? Let's just say I am not so easy right now either. I am easily frustrated with them, big time, and I find myself longing for the next time Ladybug needs to nurse so I can just sit quietly.

I just had to get this small bit of info out there for you all so that my blog doesn't *lie to you.* I am real, I am struggling to get my act together as a mom, I am praying for the day I feel 100% physically better (cuz I still don't). I am longing for normal, thought we had it, but realized it's not quite here yet. I'll let you know when I find it (if ever).

Tot School

~Krash is currently 36 months old~

Krash had a great week this past week! We are still struggling with the schedule transition but we're getting by!

He worked on his new file folder game, but this one was a bit much for him, he didn't really understand that you had to match the 2 colors.

He had fun hunting for bugs...
He learned to use the electric pencil sharpener and LOVES it...Noah's Ark...Music Time!!! We got out our song notebook and had fun singing through most of our songs!!! He got these new Vehicles in a Box Puzzles and I was surprised that he LOVED them!!! He did really well with them too, which also surprised me!New pouring with new $1 items from Target! I gave him one puzzle and just the shapes for that puzzle. He did a good job with it!I added 2 bottles (coffee creamer and almonds), more pom poms, and colored clothespins to his exploring tray...He LOVES the bottles and the pom poms...The boys drove cars through the tubes... And K, wanted to put his snack into the bottle too...
We built a new deck!!!!! K had a blast watching it be built and helping during the final stages...K went to a wedding with us on Saturday, this was how I kept him quiet. He's got a helicopter and yes he is laying on the sidewalk. My hubs was in the wedding, so it was either let K have a bit of freedom or everyone hear him scream in protest as I force him to sit still.

He had tons of fun after the wedding!!!!

This is his best buddy, Daniel. His Mommy is one of the biggest reasons I am a homeschooler!!!!

• Read more about Tot Trays here
• Visit Totally Tots!!!
• Want to see more Tot School posts? Click HERE
• Visit our Tot School Webpage HERE
• Visit our Tot School Tools store HERE
• Tools for Tots HERE

If you have a tot (approximately ages 1-3) at home, join in the fun and share what you're doing with your tot! Here's how to get started if you're new...

If you've never read this: Go HERE 1st for more details- please do!!! Then if you have any ideas you'd like to share, link up your exact post to Mr Linky (if you have questions about how to do that, let me know in a comment or email-links to homepages will automatically be deleted).

New: when you add your name(blog name) to Mr. Linky will you put your tot's age (in months) after it, like this: 1+1+1=1 (36 mos)? I think this will help new readers a lot as they look for ideas for their specific aged tot!

If you are unsure of how to add your direct link to Mr Linky-I added a tutorial with photos here, scroll down to see it!