A refreshing break

With much excitement we headed interstate this week for a Catholic homeschooling camp and our first real holiday. We spent the week attending the Latin mass, going to the beach, doing catechesis and getting to know our new friends. A great, relaxing, fun time was had by all. This time marked a new step for dd within our Catholic faith. Whilst on camp she completed her first penance and her first holy communion. In the space of one short week she has done two sacraments and received communion in 3 different settings (with a Bishop, in the Latin mass- on the tongue and at our local church. We are so proud of our gorgeous girl. When quizzed by relatives dd proudly stated that she prefers the Latin mass and receiving communion on the tongue. We are already looking forward to camp next year. Spending time with other families of the same beliefs was truly amazing and something we wish we could do more often.

Curriculum success for a visual spatial learner

Well it's only taken us 2 years but we have finally found the type of learning that fits dd, she seems to be a big visual spatial learner. Every difficult area we have had is sumed up by this. Plus with some minor tweaks we are finally making progress. Who would have thought that just putting a spelling word in a sentence and allowing the child to imagine it would take us from 20% to 90%. Now if only I could stumble upon the key for math facts, after a year of addition facts and only addition facts I'm kinda getting bored. Doesn't help that I'm no math whiz myself and have not fully memorised said addition facts either lol. We are making progress but it is soooooo s. l. o. w. We have built the facts, written the facts, drilled on a computer, played computer math fact games, we have done page after page of addition sums, our latest minor success is colouring and decorating addition math facts. My next step is to introduce food into the mix but this must be done when my 2 bottomless pit boys are not around. I have read heaps of people saying finding patterns in math facts work for these kids, but miss dd isn't too successful at finding patterns. Meanwhile very simple, direct curriculum is working wonders, rod and staff and apologia are great. Dd is now a reader and fancies herself quite the scientist lol, I don't have the heart to tell her that she needs lots of maths for this.

Quick update

No I'm not returning to blogging but may do occasional updates as life permits lol. So what's happened in the past year:
-I am no longer live on an island.
-I now have 2 boys and 1 girl. We welcomed our second son into the world in a lovely home water birth, born in the caul.
-I've spent more days in hospital then I would like to count. Dear son #2 was quite sick for the first half of his life so far.
-Dear son #1 has been diagnosed with autism and has been through some tough times.
-I am learning a new vocab with words like asd, ot, floortime, sensory integration disorder, brushing protocols, ecdp, iep....
-I am laughing at being a pensioner in my 20s.
-I am loving baby smiles, children's giggles and small achievements that are huge to us.
-I am still homeschooling with the assistance of a great teacher whom God sent to us just when we needed it.
-our black sense of humor has gotten blacker, the rings under our eyes have gotten bigger, but our smiles are wider and laughs much more appreciated.

Peace and Play

After a stressful few weeks I finally feel peace starting to creep back into my life. As mothers we need to be aware that peace that is so necessary sometimes needs to be given the place and time in which to thrive. This is especially true when it comes to child's play, not acting out t.v. show scripts or playing with electronic items but real imaginary play, in which a child explores and learns about their world. It is saddening to see that the play based learning that our prep students are supposed to be engaging in is not occurring. I have heard many accounts of late from prep children's mothers of which reader their child is on and that their child already knows xxx amount of academic work but there is no mention of their child's enjoyment and play. I used to believe that I valued an academic start fairly early (as in starting abc's in prep) but when number 1 and I encountered most children reading and writing at the start of kindergarten (or preschool) it was a rude awakening. Now we are starting prep and hear of even more learning expectations and I can't help but feel that we are rushing our little ones into an adult world with giving them time to properly comprehend and analyse it. Most of us have a wonderful memory of childhood play, I just wish we could value creating these same memories for our children. Doesn't the saying go all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.. The article below provides some food for thought
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/10/09/the_hidden_power_of_play/

Preparation for having little kids

Just read this one and couldn't help but laugh. Not sure where the lady got it from but its brillant

FOLLOW THESE 14 SIMPLE TESTS BEFORE YOU DECIDE TO HAVE CHILDREN.
>
> Test 1: Preparation
>
> Women: To prepare for pregnancy:-
> 1. Put on a dressing gown and stick a beanbag down the front.
> 2. Leave it there.
> 3. After 9 months remove 5% of the beans.
>
> Men: To prepare for children:-
> 1. Go to a local chemist, tip the contents of your wallet onto the counter and tell the pharmacist to help themselves.
> 2. Go to the supermarket. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.
> 3. Go home. Pick up the newspaper and read it for the last time.
>
> Test 2: Knowledge
>
> Find a couple who are already parents and berate them about their methods of discipline, lack of patience, appallingly low tolerance levels and how they have allowed their children to run wild. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's sleeping habits, toilet training, table manners and overall behaviour.
>
> Enjoy it. It will be the last time in your life that you will have all the answers.
>
> Test 3: Nights
>
> To discover how the nights will feel:
>
> 1. Walk around the living room from 5pm to 10pm carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 4 - 6kg, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly.
> 2. At 10pm, put the bag down, set the alarm for midnight and go to sleep.
> 3. Get up at 11pm and walk the bag around the living room until 1am.
> 4. Set the alarm for 3am.
> 5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2am and make a cup of tea.
> 6. Go to bed at 2.45am.
> 7. Get up again at 3am when the alarm goes off.
> 8. Sing songs in the dark until 4am.
> 9. Put the alarm on for 5am. Get up when it goes off.
> 10. Make breakfast.
>
> Keep this up for 5 years. LOOK CHEERFUL.
>
> Test 4 Dressing Small Children
>
> 1. Buy a live octopus and a string bag.
> 2. Attempt to put the octopus into the string bag so that no arms hangout.
>
> Time Allowed: 5 minutes.
>
> Test 5: Cars
>
> 1. Forget the BMW. Buy a practical 5-door wagon.
> 2. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment. Leave it there.
> 3. Get a coin. Insert it into the CD player.
> 4. Take a box of chocolate biscuits; mash them into the back seat.
> 5. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.
>
> Test 6: Going For a Walk
>
> * Wait.
> * Go out the front door.
> * Come back in again.
> * Go out.
> * Come back in again.
> * Go out again.
> * Walk down the front path.
> * Walk back up it.
> * Walk down it again.
> * Walk very slowly down the road for five minutes.
> * Stop, inspect minutely and ask at least 6 questions about every piece of used chewing gum, dirty tissue and dead insect along the way.
> * Retrace your steps.
> * Scream that you have had as much as you can stand until the neighbours come out and stare at you.
> * Give up and go back into the house.
> You are now just about ready to try taking a small child for a walk.
>
> Test 7: Conversations with children
>
> Repeat everything you say at least 5 times.
>
> Test 8: Grocery Shopping
>
> 1. Go to the local supermarket. Take with you the nearest thing you can find to a pre-school child - a fully grown goat is excellent. If you intend to have more than one child, take more than one goat.
> 2. Buy your weekly groceries without letting the goat(s) out of your sight.
> 3. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys.
>
> Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.
>
> Test 9: Feeding a 1 year-old
>
> 1. Hollow out a melon
> 2. Make a small hole in the side
> 3. Suspend the melon from the ceiling and swing it side to side
> 4. Now get a bowl of soggy cornflakes and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon while pretending to be an aeroplane.
> 5. Continue until half the cornflakes are gone.
> 6. Tip the rest into your lap, making sure that a lot of it falls on the floor.
>
> Test 10: TV
>
> 1. Learn the names of every character from the Wiggles, Barney, Teletubbies and Disney.
> 2. Watch nothing else on television for at least 5 years.
>
> Test 11: Mess
>
> Can you stand the mess children make? To find out:
> 1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains
> 2. Hide a fish behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
> 3. Stick your fingers in the flowerbeds and then rub them on clean walls. Cover the stains with crayon. How does that look?
> 4. Empty every drawer/cupboard/storage box in your house onto the floor & leave it there.
>
> Test 12: Long Trips with Toddlers
>
> 1. Make a recording of someone shouting 'Mummy' repeatedly. Important Notes: No more than a 4 second delay between each Mummy. Include occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet.
> 2. Play this tape in your car, everywhere you go for the next 4 years.
>
> You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.
>
> Test 13: Conversations
>
> 1. Start talking to an adult of your choice.
> 2. Have someone else continually tug on your shirt hem or shirt sleeve while playing the Mummy tape listed above.
>
> You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.
>
> Test 14: Getting ready for work
>
> 1. Pick a day on which you have an important meeting.
> 2. Put on your finest work attire.
> 3. Take a cup of cream and put 1 cup of lemon juice in it
> 4. Stir
> 5. Dump half of it on your nice silk shirt
> 6. Saturate a towel with the other half of the mixture
> 7. Attempt to clean your shirt with the same saturated towel
> 8. Do not change (you have no time).
> 9. Go directly to work
>
> You are now ready to have children. ENJOY!!

angels and big things

we are finally slowly making progress in getting back on track with all that fell by the wayside with relatives and number 1's birthday. My little boy is still recovering, the influx of strange visitors wasn't his thing. So lots of cuddles and reassurance are his thing right now. His coming up to 2 years old in 4 months time, which is the time in our family when the big things start, big beds and toilet training, should be interesting. Speaking of big, number 1 announced to me that now she is 5, she is a big girl lol. Number 2 getting up to his usual mischief escaped down the stairs whilst we were fishing the jigsaw piece out of the toaster (don't ask). Upon discovering him 1/2 way down we said his guardian angel must be watching over him to which number 1 said ' an angel? well it couldn't have been me, cause I was inside!'

the written and spoken (or unspoken) word

Only 5 weeks in and number 1 is reading! ok ok so its only a couple of words like cat, fat, sat but im in shock, she started not knowing a single letter sound. if she keeps up at this rate she'll be able to read number 2 some baby books before the year is out, not that she doesnt already but i mean actually reading them lol. Now if only i could keep number 2 from switching on the oven and standing on chairs long enough to listen to a book. I found a great art book yesterday at the libarey so looks like we can add abit of art appreciation to our day alongside our poetry and sose treasures we found at the libarey awhile ago. I have decided to work on number 1's listening skills with a few books on cd. Number 2 is currently learning eyes, ears, mouth, nose etc and having great fun pulling everyone elses. His also learning some more signs, I don't know whether to be happy or not that this child picks up signs more than words and he now has more signs in his vocab than words. Now I just need to learn to sign stop the tantrum, maybe he'll listen to that lol, my parents are convinced he is as stubborn as number 1. Anyways I'd better get a start to our day as we only have today and tommorrow before all learning will likely abandoned eithier due to relatives arriving or the effects of relatives visting. Problem is it is such a rainy day today that one really does feel inclined to be lazy lol.