Thursday, February 24, 2011

Learning Time!


School has become part of our daily routine at the Davis house. And we've been busy with it! I've been trying to do a weekly theme, for example this week is transportation. It is a lot of fun and keeps us out of trouble.


Our day starts with morning routine and chores, then "School Time!" as Jman puts it. I created a big posterboard calendar that has velcro add ons (date, names of the days, month, year, birthdays, etc). The boys help me put on the new date every day and it literally takes about 30 seconds from beginning to end. But we do it every day and the repetition is what counts. Next, we look out the window and decide on what the weather is like. I have yet to laminate my weather cards, but I plan on adding those to my velcro add ons for the calendar so we can track what the weather is like. Then, we tell the time. After reading The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle, Jman has been pretty good at telling the time. So, we do it every day as well. Finally, we finish off our school intro with flashcards. We're working on sight words. They are mostly words in our routine (like 'bed', 'brush teeth', 'breakfast', etc) and the theme of our week. So far we've done 'Bird', 'Bug', 'Ocean', 'Me', 'Dinosaur' and 'Transportation'. I just added color words after my mother-in-law asked if Jman knew them. It's amazing how fast he can learn them. (He already knows 'red' and 'blue' and 'me' without hesitation...some of his favorites of course!)


Then comes a little playtime, while I get the books together for reading time. We read and then do our art project. Jman is really good at sitting and listening for books, while BG likes to explore during reading time. When we start our art project is when BG gets interested. They have a little playtime after art, then we do an activity, cooking or a science/math project and then they play some more. If there is any other activity or science project we've missed, we do it after playtime. And by science/math, I mean that they are counting cars, matching pictures, looking at flashcards, etc. During our week of birds, we put an egg in a jar, filled the jar with white vinegar just covering the egg and let it sit for a few days. It was fun to check on it every day and finally to take it out and examine it. The boys enjoyed it a lot. We're usually done by lunch. Our afternoons consist of playing, our bible time, sometimes followed by a coordinating Veggie Tales movie if we have one, quiet time and then dinner.
School time is short, but fun and they are learning. We get in lots of playtime too, so it doesn't get boring to them. There are days where doing school activities just don't sound like fun to the boys. We just play a little and when they get out of their funk (usually after 30 minutes or so) we start it again. Jman is 3, almost 4 and BG is only 19 months old. They are still really young, so I just focus on making this time fun. I want them to enjoy learning throughout their lives!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Baby Quilt #3




It has been too long since I've posted anything. To sum up the past few weeks: school, sewing, basement completion and staying healthy!


To start off, this week marks the last week of my second trimester. It is amazing how fast it has gone. Each pregnancy has gone faster than the last. I had another regular checkup today and baby is doing great with a heart rate of 145 beats per minute, within the normal range. The nurse told me I had an "outie", which I mistakenly heard her say "owie." I replied with "Where?!?!" Once she clarified, we both got a good laugh! Really? Where is my outie? My belly button has been popped out for quite a while now! It's one of BG's favorite games to try and push it back in.


As I wrote above, I've been sewing a lot lately. I make quilts for my children and just completed the quilt for baby #3. The pictures are a close up of the bugs I appliqued on: 2 bumblebees, a butterfly, 4 ladybugs and a dragonfly. The full picture shows the yellow backing on the upper left corner flipped over. I just love quilting. I'm a perfectionist, so when my corners don't match up exactly, I get a little stressed, but it is a good way for me to work on letting go of my Type A tendencies. This is the earliest I've finished one, so I'm proud of myself. I've saved time to attempt making a couple of sundresses. It should be fun. I'll keep you posted!


And for a quick update, we have completed the basement! (Didn't know we were working on it? That's because it's been a long time coming and I couldn't bare to keep saying it was YET to be done! Ha!) There is still trim to put up around the base in a few places, around the doors and window, but besides those things, the walls are up and painted, the carpet is in, the crown molding is up and we have a couch, chair and TV down there. It is great! I'll be adding pictures of that in the near future.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Who's the Wise Guy?

After putting the boys to bed tonight, I decided to do a quick workout with my sister. In the process of changing into workout clothing, I noticed a sticker on my bra. It was a classic "mom" moment. I mean come on, how does one get a sticker in there? The funniest part was what the sticker said, "Hangin' Around." Is it crazy that I should find this inappropriate, but don't? All I could think of is how true this statement really is! Needless to say, my sister and I got a good chuckle out of it.

Reflections

Quiet time with the Lord is something that I have struggled to fit into my day, especially since having kids. I really wanted to remedy this, so I just picked a book in the Bible that I had heard a verse from recently. It happened to be the book of James. I have read through it before, yet I'm always amazed at how much I learn that I never did before. God knows exactly what we need, when we need it. It has been convicting and eye opening. I have been focusing on developing a more intimate relationship with Christ and I've realized that even though I think I'm a very patient person and keep a lot of thoughts to myself, I have a lot of work to do! I keep getting the message that my kids see my impatience too often and I interrupt much too often. It is almost in neon: Quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; Watch your tongue; We are justified in faith by our actions; We should not praise God and curse man with the same tongue; Wisdom from heaven is all pure, peaceloving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere; We ask God for things with selfish motives; Do not judge others or speak slander. I am getting the hint that I have much to do! My character is never done and I can only continue to mature in Christ and grow in wisdom. Every chapter has caused me to write and write and write about my downfalls in my journal, but I am uplifted after it all. I know that I am realizing that I am not complete and will never be, especially without the continual interaction with God that I so desperately need. It is very liberating.

Today, I focused on the lesson of being arrogant. I was most struck by the single point, "What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes" 4:14b. I took a moment and pondered this. I chuckled and thought, I am always so caught up in getting things done, keeping this clean, worrying about this or that, when really, I need to focusing on the big picture: my heavenly prize awaiting me at the end of my short existence. As long as I do this and continue to guide my children towards Him, I can be assured that I am running the race the best that I can!