Keeping the Littles Busy

 This girl has such a desire to learn.  I am homeschooling her for kindergarten next year and I couldn't be more excited because she loves learning!  I have been creating experiments for her and she is so easily engaged.

 We put some apples in different liquids to see what would happen to the fruit if they were left out for a few days.  She even helped me choose which liquids we should use as variables and, boy, did she think she was big stuff designing her own science experiment.

 She was very serious about recording her results too.

 This little lady is right in there no matter what we are doing.  She can snip with those scissors like nobody's business.  She even found the scissors on my desk last week and did a bang up job snipping most of my papers.  Oh to be two again!

 Making puzzles for daddy, aka cutting paper into a million pieces for Daddy to reassemble, is Anna's favorite cutting activity right now.  She is so determined to stump him that she will cut and cut!

 These two littles are always under my feet when I am in the kitchen.  The other night, as I was trying to prepare dinner, I kept them busy with tongs, scoops, bowls, and some ice in trays in the sink for a good thirty minutes.

 Molly was engaging in great fine motor practice while Anna Mei was experimenting with the science of ice.

 We have a tent full of rice and dried noodles.  The girls can go inside and scoop for hours with shovels and containers.  Each time I get an interesting new container, like this plastic cookie tray from the kitchen, it keeps this little lady busy scooping and filling it up.

Anna continues to need to work on writing her name.  This girl has, unfortunately, inherited her Daddy's penmanship.  This was just another way to reinforce her name practice.  She used aluminum foil to squeeze and form her name which was great fine motor practice.

Painting is classic.  This little lady hates to be messy so painting with her is a breeze.  I love that smile.  These two fill my days with endless joy, but man are they busy!

A New Sensory Bin

I finally took some more time to organize our home school area. 

(Having the social worker visit for your full house inspection can be very motivating.)

Thirteen years of teaching treasure equals lots of new fun therapy stuff.

I found these colorful feathers and some bead necklaces.



I had an empty bin or two.

 

And while they didn't stay inside the bin for long, Jillian loved interacting with them.

She was so cute getting the feathers out from between her precious toes.

A year ago she could have never jumped right into interacting with these strange textures and colors.

She's come along way baby!

Closing a Chapter

Almost three years ago, I felt that God was beginning to write a new chapter for my life.  I love to go back and read my journal entries from that time.  We were new to our congregation, getting used to full time ministry (my husband had just taken a church job), and counting our blessings as parenting an almost ten year old was pretty darn easy...  I wrote lots of entries in my journal about how I felt that God was beginning to set up some great adventure for me.  I mentioned (aka complained) to Him daily about how I felt there was some greater purpose for my life that He needed to reveal.  I thought it might be writing or speaking because God was communicating clearer than ever with me through His word and I was loving it.  I was hearing His voice so clearly and writing my own bible studies, speaking messages straight from Him to the ministry classes that I taught, and it seemed like this would be it..this was my new purpose-writing and speaking!  My friend even bought me a website domain as I was sure this is where God was headed with me.  I was growing tired of the day to day grind of teaching and while I still found great pleasure in my students the rest of it was growing well...dull.  So I have countless entries about my heart's desire to do more for Him and to surrender my life fully to Him.  I went on mission trips in those years to Guatemala and was moved by God's presence to provide financially for me.  While He was speaking a lot to me then, I grew impatient at His insistence to keep me where I was.  I hate to wait and He didn't seem to be opening any doors!  Looking back now, I laugh at the thought that I had any clue what God was up to because He was about to close a chapter alright, but the new one that He would write has nothing to do with writing or speaking (at least not so far). 

So it is now that the newest chapter of my life begins as I officially resigned my teaching job permanently recently and am officially a stay at home, homeschooling momma teaching a beautiful, yet completely unexpected, Chinese toddler.  Who could have guessed?  Being a stay at home momma was ALWAYS a dream of mine, but one that I never thought God would ever grant.  I never believed in a hundred years that I could be staying home and I never imagined that I would home school.  (Please don't take offense, but I used to think home schoolers were jumper wearing weirdos who were a little too protective.)   So after thirteen years of teaching kiddos with autism and other unique, special characteristics, I packed up my room into over twenty boxes and hugged my colleagues saying good bye. (Now I am using all that experience to teach my beautiful daughter who just happens to have autism herself.  Don't you just love how God works? That whole time I spent in anguish waiting for Him to begin writing a new chapter, He was using every experience I had in the classroom to bring me to a place where I could be Jillian's momma. In awe!)  

My stuff isn't staying in boxes too long though.  I have taken over the spare room upstairs and decided to move our school time in there.   Our school room can be 100% devoted to our schooling supplies and set up just for that.  The office space we are currently using for school is a bit too cramped so were moving on up..stairs that is!  My baby girl continues to do really well working with momma.  We have had days that she didn't feel warm and fuzzy about working..BUT I love teaching and teaching again feels so good that I wasn't even discouraged.  I just keep plugging away, watch her learning, and plan even more for her to do!  It is the best of both worlds for sure.  SO stay tuned for pictures of the new classroom to come.

Why I Love "Home Schooling"

These are a few of my favorites things about schooling my baby at home...

1. We get to wear our pajamas until 10:00.

2. Making crafts with my baby girl is so fun!

I never let my self dream she would be doing this..We have come a long way baby!

3. That little pincer grasp picking up the googly eye is just too precious to miss.

4. I am the one cheering her on when she colors on a paper plate for the first time.

5. It is my voice she hears screaming with delight when she touches play dough.


6. It is my nose she covers with the play dough shapes she cuts out.

7. I never miss any of her accomplishments.


8. I get to see her growing and learning every second of the day.

9. I don't miss tearing up when she mimics my circular motion with her crayon for the first time

and I can take a picture.

10. I get to know her. Truly know her deeper because I get to be the one who is shepherding her heart everyday. If we need to take a little bonding time, we can swing at the park. If she is hungry, I can feed her. If she is crying, I am there to comfort her (or push her to finish). I can hug, kiss, and love her every minute of the day because we are always within arms reach and it is so, so good!

Blessed to be able to do this!

Look at Her Go..

One of the best things about being my baby's teacher and her momma is that nobody cheers her on as enthusiastically I as do. She has taken off this week. We just started "instruction" using this peg board in the video this week. In six days, she has mastered it. She can sort them out-all 15 of them- and put them on the correct peg every time without any help from me. It's incredible how fast she picked up on this skill. She is a little anxious in this video because I am using the camera. She usually claps for herself after every peg and makes everyone in the room praise her for her work. Next week, I will change up the sorting and see if she can generalize the skill to a new task.

See for yourself..



She has also mastered the two puzzles we have been working on. So, I wanted to see if she could generalize the skill of putting pieces in a puzzle that she has never seen before and get it right. If she could do it, it meant that she is likely matching the piece to the picture behind it in the opening. So, I used some of her birthday money to buy her this new blue puzzle. She has never seen it before I took this video. I gave it to her with all of the pieces out in front of the base and she did it! She instantly put the pieces over their matching pictures and into the correct spot. Just a short time ago, she had no clue what to do with a puzzle. She was more interested in looking at the back of the board or banging the pieces together..BUT now she is working them by herself.

Check her out..


She has endless potential my baby girl and momma is going to drag these skills out of her each day! I am so lucky to get to be home with her and teach her myself. I am not taking a minute of these accomplishments for granted.