Tot School: Color Green

We're on our second week of tot school, and we're still discussing different colors. (Milestone note: Even though we took a break over the weekend, Emma learned how to say yellow! So, even if you don't think your child is picking up on anything during a tot school lesson, don't worry - they're listening more closely than you think!) Today was all about green.

We got dressed in green clothes, of course. (I noticed the closest thing in Emma's wardrobe is mint green, which is odd because green is one of my favorite colors to wear. I'll have to fix that!) As we're past the primary colors, I taught her a new song today. The Rainbow Song reviews all the colors, which ties in nicely for this week. We then read all of our colors books on Emma's green blanket.

Today's Book of the Day was Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox. I've never heard of it before picking it up at the library, but it is super cute! Emma really enjoyed it too! I definitely recommend reading it to your children. After we were done reading, I printed out a sheep and had Emma color it with her green dot marker. She did so much better with it this time around.

 
After a while, she asked for the blue dot marker, so her sheep ended up being green AND blue. When she was satisfied with her colorful sheep, we played hide-and-seek with it! While she was in another room, I would set it down in a very obvious spot and then ask her, "Where's the green sheep?"

She didn't get too into it, unfortunately, and after a few attempts she wanted to just play with the dot markers again. So that's what we did until daddy got home - though she proudly showed him her picture as soon as he stepped through the door, so at least I know that she enjoyed herself!

Tot school: Color blue

For our last tot school lesson of the week, we talked about the color blue. Emma didn't seem to be too into it today. I'm thinking maybe my activities were a little too much for her? I'm trying to do something different every lesson so it keeps her interest, but today wasn't one of those days! Anyway, here's what we did.

We started, of course, by dressing up in blue, singing Our Primary Colors, and reading all of our books about colors in our personal collection. Our special book of the day was The Artist Who Painted A Blue Horse by Eric Carle (see, I told you we liked his work). This book would be really good to use for learning colors in general, so I'm thinking we'll continue to read it next week as we finish up colors.

The first activity we did was go through Emma's toys and put all of her blue ones in a box. She didn't seem to understand this concept as she kept trying to put other colors in the box, but she enjoyed doing it!

We then went into the kitchen where I had stacked our blue cups into a pyramid and tried to get her to knock them over with her blue globe ball. This really concerned her, however. She much preferred just stacking the cups. So, I improvised and put a couple of her little blue circles under the cups, mixed them around, and had her find where they were. She actually enjoyed that pretty well.

Afterwards, I tried to have her separate her blue blocks from the rest of her blocks, but she was just not getting it. I ended up doing it myself and had her stack them as that's what she's into today, apparently!

We ended with her coloring on her little while board with a blue marker. She's been wanting to do this again since Monday, so we ended the lesson on a happy note. Again, the lesson took around 30 minutes. Overall, I think our first week of tot school went well. Having them on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays work great. My friend, Nicole, wants to start going to the park on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so this works perfectly with the tot school schedule. Yesterday, we walked through the local community garden together with our kids (a great way to review colors and talk about different types of food). Emma seemed to really enjoy herself! I think this routine will be good for her.

Tot school: Color yellow

Today was our second day of tot school. It went so much better. Today's color was yellow. I didn't take as many pictures today because we were just having too much fun! But, I'll give you the lowdown on what took place.

First, I got Emma all dressed up in yellow, of course. We sang Our Primary Colors and read all of the books on colors from our personal collection. (Milestone: Emma learned how to say spider today while we were reading Very First Colors. Seriously, I don't know why she's obsessed with the black color page, but I'm excited she learned a new word from it!)

Our featured book of the day was 10 Little Rubber Ducks by Eric Carle. (I love reading his books to Emma!) She was enthralled with it! She loves ducks and knows how to say "quack", so she was really into it. I love how at the end there's even a button on a rubber duck that you can press to make it squeak! That was definitely Emma's favorite part.

After we finished reading it, I brought out the yellow dot marker and a duck printable (which you can find for free - along with a variety of other options - at www.getcoloringpages.com) for Emma to experiment with. This was the very first time either of us have ever used a dot marker and, though she didn't exactly grasp the concept, she enjoyed herself immensely. It's a learning process!

When she was done coloring (about half of the duck was yellow at this point), I gave her a bubble bath where she played with rubber ducks we own, as well as other yellow bath toys on hand.

While she was playing, I sang "Five Little Ducks" to her and kept repeating how yellow her toys were (with the exception of the red rubber duck - that acted as a review from our previous lesson). In total, the lesson took around 35 minutes!

Tot School: Color red

Emma has been going through a lot of transitions and milestones since she turned two in August. We've moved on from binkies (which was way easier than we thought it would be) and have upgraded to a toddler bed (which she likes to hang out in, but not necessarily sleep on). She started to get bored of our usual daily routine, so I thought I would implement tot school as a change of pace.

I did a lot of research and I decided to follow Simply Learning's tot school themes. I like how it's flexible enough that you can really pick it up whenever or jump around lessons. And, I love how she has a ton of suggestions to go along with each lesson! At first, I was overwhelmed at the idea of buying so many arts and crafts supplies that she suggests, but I decided that I didn't need to follow every single activity (yay flexibility). So, I did my own thing! Michael's had an AWESOME Labor Day sale, so I picked up these items for just $20 (which is super exciting as the dot markers are typically $16 by themselves).

The first week of lessons is on colors. We start the day off by dressing in the color that we're going to be discussing. We're using these books from our own collection to be read every day we have a lesson. I also grabbed a bunch of books from the library to highlight a specific color during each lesson.

As today's lesson was on red, I introduced Emma to The Little Red Hen. See, tot school does not have to cost you a pretty penny! If you're in the market for books on colors, though, I highly suggest these from Usborne Books & More. (If you want to order one - let me know! I can help you out!)

I started the lesson off by singing Our Primary Colors. This is going to be our Song of the Week. We then read through all of our books on colors. Emma was most interested in Very First Colors, especially the black and white pages. She kept asking was certain objects and animals were. We then read through The Little Red Hen, followed by our first craft. It was very simple and to the point. I had a paper bag, cut up red construction paper, and a glue stick. I slathered glue all over the bag and encouraged Emma to put the construction paper on it - "feathers" for the chicken. Unfortunately, she was more interested in the glue stick, but after I hid it from view and a small tantrum, I got her focused on the task at hand. Here's the result.

Her favorite part of the lesson was probably coloring on her little white board with a red marker. I just kept repeating the word "red" and asking her what color she was using. It took a bit, but finally she got the hint and kept saying, "Red, red, red."

To go along with the tot school theme, we're going to have our Family Home Evening lesson on Joseph's Coat of Many Colors. All in all, the first lesson (which only took about 30 minutes) didn't quite keep Emma's attention as well as I hoped it would, so instead of having a lesson every weekday, I think I'm going to split the theme up into two weeks (I want to make sure to cover all the colors in the rainbow) and only do 2-3 lessons each week.

Questions? Comments? Let me know below! Thanks for reading!

Daily Stay-At-Home-Mom Schedule

Lately I've been really frazzled. Ever since Emma turned 1, she decided to completely change the daily routine we comfortably had for months. It's taken me a while to get back into a good groove, though there are some days where I feel nothing gets accomplished on time - or at all. That being said, here is how our new daily schedule looks like (that I will try my best to maintain):

8:30 a.m. - Emma wakes up. We have breakfast.

9 a.m. - We get ready for the day. This includes bath time, brushing our hair and teeth, getting dressed, etc.

10 a.m. - I clean up the apartment as best as I can while Emma follows me around and "helps" (aka, throws a bunch of things back onto the floor).

10:30 a.m. - Story time and sing-a-long time. Emma loves when I read and sing to her! It's also snack time.

11:30 a.m. - I prep lunch while Emma plays (whether it's structured or self-led).

12 p.m. - Phil comes home for lunch.

1 p.m. - Nap time (hopefully). Emma tries to fight taking naps as much as possible, so this period of time is really iffy. But, when she does fall asleep, I have some me time where I can go through my emails, pay bills, set up necessary appointments, read, etc.

3 p.m. - Phil comes home from work for the day. This is when I go to the gym in my apartment complex and work out while Emma gets some quality time with her daddy.

4 p.m. - Snack time. We just chill as a family (Netflix may or may not be involved) and catch up on how our day went.

6:30 p.m. - Dinner time. Phil is usually in charge of it - yay!

7 p.m. - Phil relaxes and Emma plays while I tidy up (by doing the dishes or finishing up the laundry for the day). On Mondays, this is when we have Family Home Evening. Otherwise, we use this time to play games, watch a show, relax, etc.

9:30 p.m. - Emma has never been one to go to bed early like everyone else her age. She hangs out with us as we read scriptures, have family prayer, and get ready for bed.

10 p.m. - Lights out!

Hopefully, I'm doing things right at this point. I'm trying my best! What does your daily schedule with your child(ren) look like?

Improving Sabbath Day Observance

About a month ago, the bishop in my ward talked about how church leaders were counseled in recent leadership training meetings to encourage members to improve keeping the Sabbath day holy. One way our ward has striven to do this is to have a child in Primary stand before the congregation with their arms folded before Sacrament begins. They act as an example of what reverence should look like for those walking in and a reminder that we want to invite the Spirit into our day.

For those who want to hear more about this announcement, you can find it here.  

Personally, this was a bit of a wake-up call. Though I know better than to shop on Sunday or go out and spend money for other entertainment purposes, typically when we get home from church, we act like it’s any other day. Phil plays his video games, I browse the Internet, and Emma plays with her toys. We’re together, but we’re not together. We’re all doing our own thing and not really thinking about anyone else. That’s not exactly Christ-like.

Sunday should be all about the family and service, and I realized that I wasn’t focusing on that. So, I looked up ways on how to keep the Sabbath day holy. I found this awesome list of suggestions here. 

Some suggestions from the list include:

• Going home/visiting teaching
• Reading church magazines (Ensign, New Era, Friend, etc.)
• Planning the next FHE lesson
• Skyping with family who live far away
• Visiting the temple grounds with your family
• Having the ward missionaries over or writing to a missionary
• Watching a church video together (Meet The Mormons is on Netflix now!)
• Updating the family blog
• Making a meal for the sick or elderly

To make more time to be with loved ones, make a crockpot or freezer meal so you’re not spending so much time in the kitchen, and get all the cleaning done on Saturday - or wait until Monday - so you’re not distracted with a messy home. It’s going to be an adjustment, but we’re slowly working on it. I know this will improve our relationship with our Heavenly Father, as well as with family and friends.

How do you observe the Sabbath Day?

    

New Year Resolutions 2015

It's a new year, which means kicking things off with a clean slate! I, for one, am terrible when it comes to keeping new year resolutions, but I do enjoy writing them down anyway! I had such a good year last year - with moving to the Sacramento area, celebrating my 5th wedding anniversary, and having my first child - and I hope that this year will be even better.

While I don't have any huge goals I want to accomplish this year, there are so many little tweaks I would like to adjust in my life to become a better person in general. And I think sharing these little tweaks of mine can help keep me accountable for them. So without further ado:

Becky's 2015 New Year Resolutions

• Marriage - Our marriage is pretty wonderful, actually. But, with Emma in our lives now, the focus has constantly been on her and barely on each other. I would like to make it more balanced this year, and I am going to do that by following the love calendars by the Dating Divas! It's so easy - once a day you just do or say one kind thing for your spouse. And on Fridays, you go on dates - whether it's out and about or free at home. I love how they have these daily suggestions for a full year! I think it will do wonders for our relationship!

(I know this is from last year, but it still applies! Find more at www.datingdivas.com.)

• Finances - Last year, we successfully met our goal to stop using credit cards. But, we still have a long way to go. We are still in a lot of debt, we have no savings, and some of our bills are going up, so we need to review our budget and see what we can change or cut. Thankfully, we have a couple of resources that will be so helpful in achieving these goals. Have you heard of Dave Ramsey, the financial guru? Apparently, he is amazing and his advice really works! So we are going to be following the plan below:

 Another resource we have found are the finances calculators on www.providentliving.org. (There are 15 different ones!) According to this calculator even if we stuck to paying the minimum each month, then snowballed the payments (after paying off one debt, put the payment you would have used on said debt on top of the payment of the next debt), we would be completely debt free in less than 5 years - and that is including Phil's student loans. After we have paid off all our debt, if we put the money we were using towards the debt into a savings account every month, we would have enough money for a down payment on a house after another 5 years. And, boy, am I ready to settle down in a house! Obviously, this resolution isn't going to be completed in one year, but the plan is to at least set up the emergency fund and pay off one (if not two) credit cards.

• Church - We currently live in an amazing ward and, for the most part, are very involved. But, there is so much that we can improve on. A big one for me is going visiting teaching. I had only done it once last year. Being a full tithe payer is another (need to work it in our budget a lot better). I would also like to be more active in volunteering in the ward - whether it's to read a scripture aloud in Sunday School, pray in Relief Society, or make dinner for the missionaries. There is always something more I can contribute in the ward. And, of course, I can always improve at home too. Such as having Family Home Evening every week (even if it isn't on a Monday night!), and having daily scripture reading and prayer with Phil.

Suggestions on how to the accomplish the above goals are appreciated - and I hope that the listed resources will help you out too! But, enough about me, though - What are YOUR New Year resolutions???