Tot School Time

We've started back to school again after our Christmas break.  One of my goals during this semester of school was to find things more constructive and learning activities for Atlie.

I've taken a few ideas from other homeschooling blogs, but haven't been consistent with it.  Another issue for me is time.  I don't mind spending some time getting things together for Atlie, but it's frustrating to spend an afternoon on something that she ends up not being interested in or only spends 5 minutes doing.  So, I've been collecting ideas that are easy for me to construct and that I think will keep Atlie busy... at least for a little bit.

This week, we had felt pizzas and button snakes.  The felt pizzas were super easy to make.  First I cut out a dough-colored circle and glued it to a firm piece of paper.  Next I cut out toppings: tomato sauce, mushrooms, ham, pepperoni, black olives, and green peppers.  As you can see, Branna enjoyed it just as much (if not more than) Atlie.

The button snakes took a little more time to make than the pizzas, mainly because there was alot cutting, but they were still relatively easy to make.  After cutting out shapes (I did squares, rectangles, and triangles) and cutting a slit in the middle of each, I sewed one felt piece to the end of a piece of ribbon and a button to the other end.
The ideas is to thread each felt piece on the button and down the ribbon.  This activity didn't interest Atlie quite as much, but I think it was because I called them "snakes".  Maybe I'll bring them back out in a few weeks and call them "worms" instead.

And of course, we still fall back on the usual free play.  Here is Dr. Atlie making a very careful examination...

... and the girls painting.  (Branna's picture is of her dog, Cooper.)

My projects for next week's Atlie Tot School include magnetic letter fishing and color matching activities.  What are your favorite Tot activities?

December 6

I struggled this December about what to say in Saige's memory.  No words can ever really describe my grief of losing her, but at the same time no words can really describe my happiness in knowing that she is safe for eternity.  In the end, after a few attempts of trying to write something, December 6 came and went and I decided to not post anything this year.

And then I came across this picture and poem.

Memorial Of Unborn Children by Martin Hudack of Slovokia

“Do not judge the bereaved mother. She comes in many forms.
She is breathing, but she is dying.
She may look young, but inside she has become ancient.
She smiles, but her heart sobs.
She walks, she talks, she cooks, she cleans, she works, she IS,
but she IS NOT, all at once.
She is here, but part of her is elsewhere for eternity.”

-Author Unknown-

50 Days of School

This week we completed our 50th day of school!  To celebrate it we had a 1950s party!  I found a small lesson plan to go along with 50s theme that had word searches, math, and other fun things for Branna to do:

Atlie also joined in on the fun and added to '50s theme by dressing up in her poodle skirt...

At the end of the school day, Branna wrote a how-to book about making a root beer float...

...and I surprised her by letting her make her own!  She was VERY happy.

Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving was a little different this year... not just because of a new baby, it was also the first time that our family hosted it at our house.  Usually we alternate years between my family and Branyon's family and we travel to someone's house.  However, this year that we knew we wouldn't be able to travel, and asked if the party could come to us.

Things were a little crazy at times...

but we were so glad to have everyone with us and to have the additional help.

This picture was taken a few days after Thanksgiving, but I wanted to throw it in.  I love the zebra print and footies!

Aisley Jade

Born November 17, 2012 12:41 am

8 lbs 4 oz, 21 inches

Fall Festival 2012

The girls had so much fun at our church's Fall Festival!  Along with playing all the carnival games, getting candy, and taking a hayride, the girls loved their Halloween costumes.  Branna was Simba and of course, Atlie was Mickey Mouse.

In true Branna fashion, she certainly got into character and roared at everyone she could in the first 15 minutes...

Then it was off to play some games...

The girls also decorated pumpkins.  So that they could be part of the process, we didn't carve them but painted and glued instead.  With our help, Branna made a penguin and Atlie made Elmo.  (Branna's won "Coolest Pumpkin" and Atlie's won "Most Lalala-lalala... Lovely" :) )

It's always fun to look back on previous years and I'm very excited to see what next year hold in store for us, too!

Mickey Mouse Birthday Bash!

Since Atlie has been a little baby she has loved Mickey Mouse.  Because of that, we decided to go with that theme for her second birthday... and she was super-excited about it!

We had the party at the neighborhood park and had lots of friends and family come.  Everyone had lots of fun, especially Atlie since she got to be the center of attention. :)

Can I just say, "I love Pinterest!".  I'm not obsessed, but I do enjoy getting on occasionally and finding ideas, especially when I have a particular project in mind.  There were so many great and easy to make components for the party.  I think one of my favorite was the Mickey Mouse cupcakes:

I also found these easy to make Mickey ear hats...

and favor bags and center piece.

Besides all the attention, I think Atlie's favorite thing about the party was the life size Mickey balloon... and it almost didn't happen due to a helium shortage.  Who knew, right?  Fortunately, after much looking and calling, Branyon found the only store in about a 50 mile radius that had helium.  Seeing how happy Atlie was, made it worth all the searching!

66 Books of the Bible

One of my biggest goals this year in school is for Branna to learn more about the Bible.  We've always done something Bible related each year, but I wanted to ramp it up some.  The My Father's World curriculum is very Bible focused, which is definitely helpful to attain my goal.

Since the beginning of the year, we've also been working on learning all 66 books of the Bible.  By our 3rd week of school, Branna was familiar with all the books and we recorded this video. 

 However, what is even more impressive is after we got done recording, I wanted to see if she could do it without looking at the chart... and she did!  Then, we took it a step further and I had her say all the books instead of singing.  Once again, she did it!  I was quite proud and so was she. :)

Ant Farm

During our first week of school, one of the ways we were supposed to enjoy God's creation was to explore things outdoors that were close to the ground.  The curriculum also suggested purchasing an ant farm.  Living in Texas, I really thought that we wouldn't have any problem finding large ants (they needed to be large so that couldn't climb out of the air hole in the ant farm), but after several days of looking in various places with no luck, we broke down and ordered ants.
The ants arrived earlier this week.  Branna was super excited... I'm still getting used to having ants in the house.  It's rather startling to be cooking dinner and see out of the corner of your eye something crawling on the cabinet.
It is pretty neat to see how hard they work, though.  After only a few hours, they had burrowed out several tunnels and transported alot of dirt out from their mound.  Watching them, I am reminded of Proverbs 6:6:

Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.

God's creation truly is amazing!

As I mentioned early, Branna was thrilled when the ants finally arrived.  However, that almost didn't happen due to a "mishap".  Someone (who will remain anonymous) that was helping her get the ants into the mound read the instructions wrong and put the ants in the freezer instead of the refrigerator for a brief time.  (This was to help slow them down for an easier transition.)  After a scare of seeing them balled up and not moving, the ants eventually thawed and most survived.

After observing the ants for a while, I thought it would be fun for Branna to make a short video of what she had learned.  This is what she said:

Flag Football

Branna started flag football!  This is her second time to play an organized sport and even though she was familiar with soccer from playing last spring and enjoyed it, she was insistent to play football this fall.  I was a little worried that she would get on the field and be clueless.  But, she actually did really good!  I don't know much about football, so in my book, running in the direction that you're supposed to is super.  Branna did all that and more. 

The hand-off...

and she actually made it pretty far down the field...

...before the biggest boy on both teams tagged her!

Of course, Atlie watched the entire game with the utmost concentration. (Haha!)

I think Branna must have seen other players in this stance (or maybe from watching football with Daddy)

And she even got the ball again at the end of the game!  She was so excited, as you can see from her expression, but almost right after this picture was taken, her flags were taken... by her own team mate. :(

Now, we're talking 4 and 5 year olds, but over all the first game went pretty smoothly.  Her coach is great and gave each of the kids a turn playing the different positions.  I felt like he also gave Branna really good direction.  We're all looking forward to seeing and playing more football this season!