My Favorite Quotes:

A person's a PERSON no matter how small... -Dr. Seuss

I am a little pencil in the hand of God who is sending a love letter to the world. - Mother Teresa

The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to THINK, than WHAT to think- rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with the thoughts of other men. - James Beattie


Sunday, February 28, 2010

Raising a Well- Mannered Child (ideas from Love and Logic Conference)

Go Graham Go

When I saw that Go Graham Go! was having a Raising a Well-Mannered Child series on her blog I was excited since I just attended a Love and Logic conference geared towards younger children (up to age 6) just yesterday!
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My 3 year old daughter has been really pushing the limits lately- I am embarrassed to say this actually-in fact I wasn't going to even blog about it because I thought I'd just handle it as quickly as possible and "make it go away".  I have always thought of myself as a pretty competent mommy... I am the oldest of a family of 8 kids and whether I wanted to be or not I was kind of like a second mommy at times (or at least I felt that way.)
I am also a teacher (taught 5-8 grades before having two sweet little girls) and I love all things children. Sooo... I guess I thought I could just handle everything and my child would be the gleaming example of perfection at every playdate and event (okay, I exaggerated on that part... but you get my drift!)
So I decided it might be wise for me to check out some different parenting ideas and I attended Love and Logic yesterday.
 I learned some GREAT things (some of these were DUH moments for me... I knew them... I simply wasn't DOING them!)

1.  Adults set limits in loving ways without anger, lecture, threats or repeated warnings.
Okay, I can already tell you I suck at this! LOL  I talk, talk, talk, my daughter to death... and I always warn quite a few times (is this because I am busy?  or maybe a bit lazy on follow through at times?  YES!)
2.When children act up or misbehave, adults must hand the problem back in a loving way.
I am the queen of getting too angry, upset, or just emotional and making a bigger deal than necessary (your kids pick up on these "emotional cues" from you!  I need to prove empathy  with (FEW words) and help to solve the problem or let them make a mistake so that they will have that learning opportunity! 

ONE MORE AWESOME THING TO KNOW:


1.  Remember Dory from  Finding Nemo? ---"Just keep swimming... just keep swimming..."
Or for us with feet... Just keep Walking!
Why? For kids under 5 years old (if you feel a tantrum coming on... or you know things will get heated)-- CHANGE LOCATION!   -keep on moving--- don't stop and try to console a crabby kid at the grocery store who wants a pack of skittles... Just. Keep. Moving.  
(try this out- it really, really works- changing location will calm your child down and keep it from becoming a very big scene- as soon as the child knows you are NOT going to give them the attention they want... things will start improving and you will have time to decide what to do next.)

**I am so thankful I was able to go to a Love and Logic Conference- the two speakers were Jim Fay and his son Dr. Charles Fay and they really did an excellent job.  Check them out if you get a chance!

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** One Last Note: 
If you have had people say things such as this to you about your child... " My, she is such a busy little thing" or "Wow, does he ever stop moving"... or "Gee, she just goes a mile a minute..."  (I have been told all of these about my 3 year old) then you should check this book out called   Raising  Your Spirited Child by Mary Sheedy Krucinka (bought this on Amazon)   
- I am still reading it and plan to share with you any little gems of knowledge once I am finished- so far it has been very interesting!
 

Good luck to all of you on your parenting quest!! :)

xoxo,

Friday, February 26, 2010

2 little LENT lessons... (Lent Link-Up and Sunday Snippets)

Lent Link-Up
Hiding the ALLELUIA until Easter...

Found this adorable idea from Lacy at Catholic Icing (one of my new fave blogs!)
I just took what I found from around the house... brown paper bags, purple tissue paper, markers, glue, wide yellow ribbon and letters I printed off the computer that Lacy found on Martha Stewart- sooo pretty!

 


The Lamb of God (found this on Ten kids and a dog and Karen Edmisten)

I found a picture of a lamb online (because I am TERRIBLE at freehand) - printed it out and had my kids glue a cotton ball on (one for each day of Lent). We talked about Jesus dying for us so that someday we would be with him in heaven.  They seemed to have fun putting on the lamb's "wool"!! 

For some AWESOME Catholic Lenten activities check out:

Catholic Icing

and 



Tot School Week 12- R & Thurs. Preschool Playdate!

Thursday Preschool Playdate and the LETTER R

R is for RICE and RED  (TRACE the letter R in glue stick and then cover with rice!)
Shake the excess rice off of the red letter R and (ta-da!) a RED, RICE LETTER R!

**Then, we read The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter and talked about rabbits- I don't have many pictures but you can see in some pictures the bunny ears each kid received as well as a little wind-up bunny (they Raced those later on in a RABBIT RELAY RACE!)


Next was the cute 'Roll A Rainbow" game from a favorite blogger- Erica (Confessions of a Homeschooler).


   


Painting Rice Cakes-  "RAINBOW RICE CAKES!" (such a cute idea from: Mom Tried it)


(I used condensed sweetened milk mixed with food coloring- and they painted it on the rice cake- yummy!)


Then we got our letter R exeRcise!!
We played Ring toss...
we Rolled...

we Raced and had Relays...
 
(notice we also had a Red drink... cranberry juice to be exact!)   :)

Earlier in the week Scarlett and I worked on a few other things as well...

I made this nifty recycled color game... this cardboard piece is from a quilt that I bought for Scarlett's bed at Target.  It had these slits in it (where they had a ribbon to tie around the whole quilt). I almost threw it away but the slits were perfect for putting poker chips through it!  So I whipped this up- very quickly! On the underside (you can see colored tape above the slits) I taped baggies to catch the colored poker chips and to see if she matched them correctly!- FUN! (and I recycled- that felt good too! ha ha!)


My tiny tot LOVED to play this with her big sis!



We also did a really cute color match cross game that I printed and laminated 

We had a RRRReally fun week! :)

For more great ideas check out:
Tot School
AND





Happy Friday Follow- Week 7!

HAPPY FRIDAY FOLLOW!  :)   
I hope to "meet" LOTS of fun new bloggers and their fabulous blogs today!

Friday Follow

Click HERE to join Friday follow!


xoxox,

Monday, February 22, 2010

Interviewing a VERY IMPORTANT person :)

I saw this cute interview on the Rogers' Family Blog . I thought this was such a funny idea! It will be neat to see how her answers change in a few months... also when Lily can talk a little more (she is talking quite a bit!) it will be fun to do it with her as well :)

Here is Scarlett's first interview, Age 3 (or 38 months):

What is your name:Scarlett
When is your birthday: December
How old are you: This many (holds 3 fingers up) Three!
Who is your Mom:You
What does your Mom do: Get me food  (sheesh!!)
Who is your Daddy: Daddy
What does your Daddy do: He does funny things!
What is your favorite color: Red
What is your favorite song: Do Re Mi  (and then she sang it to me!)  lol
What do you want to do when your grow up: Be a Circus clown and a Rock star too   (oh my goodness!)
Where do you want to live when you grow up: In  Dallas, Texas
What is your favorite food: Peanut Butter and Jellyfish (this is PJ&J in laymen's terms- lol!)
What is your least favorite food: no spicy things
What is your favorite animal: giraffe
What do Mama and Daddy do after you go to bed: go on a date   (hee hee!)
What does Daddy say: I love you, Scarlett!
What does Mama say: I love you too, Scarlett  and then she said--What does Lily say? Hello, Scarlett!
Who does our family love the most:  Lily baby
Where do we go to church: at Sunday 
Why do we go to church: Because we say our prayers and sing songs there.
What is your favorite movie: Cinderella
What is your favorite Ice Cream Flavor:  Red icecream---( huh?!? )
Where do you like to eat: Chuck-E- Cheese
Who is your favorite person: Mommy   (aww- and I didn't even prompt her I swear! lol  )
Who is your best friend: Lily   (awww!)
What is your favorite book? Cinderella books
Who is your sister:Lily
Where did your sister come from: From Mommy's tummy!
What is your favorite thing to do: go run and play and have Lily chase me all around!
Then she wanted to ask me lots of questions too- but most of them she answered for me- LOL!

Have a great Monday! :)

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Tot School Week 11- Letter R

Tot School
This week we started with the Letter R (we do 2 weeks of focusing on a letter because we only do REALLY planned activities on Tuesday and Thursday).  I think Scarlett (who just turned 3) needs lots of unscheduled, unpredictable PLAY time because that is what a child should be doing at this age- lots of PLAYING!  :)

We also talked about the Olympics this week and the color RED! :)


Working on copying the capital Letter R

Making RAINBOWS (Letter R and color RED) with coffee filters, droppers, and food coloring!

 

SOOO PRETTY! :)  She had LOTS of fun doing this- I think she would have done it ALL day!

THURSDAY PRESCHOOL PLAYDATE:   They made people with shapes, rectangles, circles, triangles, squares, etc. VERY COOL!
 They did lots of fun little indoor "Olympic Activities" and then made the cutest #1 Ribbons with sticky foam paper - Scarlett LOVED this and wore the ribbon all day!

More Letter R tracing practice and R is for RAINBOWS!

Letter R word search on dlk-teach.com-- she colored the letter R's that she found!


I have to admit this week looks very scarce... we did LOTS of random unscheduled activities and not so many pictures were taken.  Not to mention my girls were a little under the weather with colds and some sinus allergy stuff.  So... I know it looks like we were slackers! LOL
I have more letter R for this coming week and lots of cool ideas for my Thursday Preschool Playdate- so stay tuned!

xoxox,

Points for Pampers.com !

My BFF and Fairy BlogMother, Juliet, sent me this- thought you all might like this as well (if you have kids in diapers, that is!) LOL


This was in the coupon section of the newspaper:

30 free Gifts to Grow points in honor of the Olympics:
GTGTEAMUSA2010


Enjoy!

And the Winner of my first Giveaway is.....

NUMBER 23:Blogger 
Jerri said...
I really like the Serene Green Crystalline Vase and the Apple Green Crystalline Glazed Sake Set. Thanks for the giveaway!
February 19, 2010 10:05 AM

CONGRATULATIONS TO JERRI FROM SIMPLY SWEET HOME!  

**You have 36 hours to please send me an email with your home address so we can mail you the beautiful ceramic fruit bowl-YAY!



Saturday, February 20, 2010

BEAUTIFUL POTTERY Giveaway ends TONIGHT! :) (Only 31 Entries!)

 
 There are only 31 people in the running for this giveaway!! That means there is a VERY good chance YOU could win!  :)  
Plus there are 8 ways that you can sign up to win this Giveaway- Dont' forget...it ends tonight!


Thanks for stopping by! Have a beautiful, relaxing weekend! :)