What Does Your Birthdate Mean?

I don’t usually waste a lot of time on cutesy quizzes, but I thought this one was pretty good. I found another one while I was there that I’ll share with you later, too. Be sure to follow the link at the bottom to take the quiz yourself and then you can post your results in the comments field. Let’s see how good this quiz really is…

Here are my results:

Your Birthdate: January 31

You’re a pretty traditional person. If it’s lasted, it’s probably good. You seek stability - both in your career and your romantic relationship. In return, you’re very loyal and predictable. Which is usually a good thing. Without a partner, you feel lost. Being with someone is very important to you. Your strength: Your dependability Your weakness: You hate being alone Your power color: Midnight blue Your power symbol: Shell Your power month: April

Okay, I don’t know about ALL that stuff (especially the part about being alone), but I about fell over when it picked my EXACT favorite color as my ‘power color’. How many people even know what Midnight Blue is???

Home Schooling for Me?

If you’ve known me for a while, you know that I used to be a school teacher.  I taught 8th grade Earth Science in the school district I grew up in, Cy-Fair ISD.  While I love teaching, I grew weary of the negative parent interactions, the lack of discipline in most students, and the inherent politics of any large organization.  So, I came home to work for my graphic designer husband.

Shawn and I have debated about whether or not to homeschool children since before we even had any of our own.  While he was homeschooled for some portion of his own education, I grew up in the public school system here in Houston.  While I understand the pros and cons on both sides, I just never really wanted the responsibility of educating my own children and have felt (believe it or not) ill-equipped to do so.

But over the past year, the I’ve had a growing sense that we were going to need to homeschool Kate, at least for a few years.  (You know how the voice of God sometimes sounds like your spouse?  Yeah.  It was like that.)  And then there was just one situation that sent me on over the edge of that mountain and sealed the deal for me.  I won’t bore you with the details.  Let’s suffice it to say, I realized that Kate needed a little more attention in being confident with who she is before we throw her into any system that might try to say otherwise.

So, then the real fun began.  The oh-my-god-i’m-really-doing-this feeling hit and I started emailing and calling on friends that have been down this road and could give me good advice.  They were all very sweet and calming and encouraging, which helped tremendously.  *Lesson #1: Get a good support group.*

So, for the past few months I’ve been researching curriculums and educational models and philosophies and realizing I didn’t learn very much of this in college, surprisingly, and what DID my father spend so much money on anyways, and oh my gosh this is all so overwhelming and many other thoughts that would make this run-on of a sentence way longer. (well, at least we know I’ll be able to teach her the basics of grammar, right?)

I think I’ve found the path for me with a Charlotte Mason approach and an online curriculum called Ambleside Online.  I’ll be sure to keep you all posted on how this new chapter progresses.  And I would LOVE to hear from all of you who have homeschooled or are currently homeschooling.  I realize I have much to learn still….

Overheard at Our House II

Ethan was lying on the couch next to me watching tv when Shawn came over to tickle him.  Ethan was giggling uncontrollably when Karis marched over and pushed Shawn’s arm away from Ethan with a very stern look on her face.  Apparently she was trying to ‘protect’ her big brother from the big, mean Daddy.  :)

Shawn saw her look of concern and said, “Oh, baby.  I’m not hurting him, I’m just tickling him.  Besides, he’s Daddy’s boy.” and he ruffled Ethan’s hair.

Karis looked at him, shook her head and said, “Un-uh” (her version of ‘no’.), then pointed at me and said, “Mama.”

Shawn and I looked at each other and started to laugh.  ”You think Ethan is Mama’s boy, not Daddy’s?”

Karis nodded her head firmly and said, “Ya.”

Story Time at The Rienzi

When I was skimming through all the indoor Houston activites for kiddos on NinaLoca, I ran across some information that just really excited me. There is a mansion in the River Oaks area that has been donated to the Museum of Fine Arts, complete with all of the artwork and collectibles that the Masterson family had acquired over the years. It houses other collections from time to time and you can regularly tour it. But, during the summer time, they offer Rienzi Storytime Tours, every Wednesday in June and July at 10am, for kids ages 4-8, as well as other family activities.

I emailed a friend of mine and we decided to take our kiddos today to check it out. We loved it! They gave us a tour of some of the larger rooms in the home and would stop in each one and have all the kiddos sit down on the floor. The docent then gave a brief piece of information about the room or something specific in the room and then read a children’s book that somehow fit. In the Dining Room, she read “Bear Wants More” about a bear that wakes up from hibernation and wants to eat more and more. In the Drawing Room, the docent read a book about 3 mice who painted (Get it? We were in the Drawing Room?! hee hee ). In the Ball Room, she pointed out some of the Masterson’s collection of Chinese porcelain from the 1700’s and then read a book called “The Empty Pot” about a little boy who was trying to become the new emporer of China.

They have several different docents that rotate each week, and they each have different books that they like to bring and read to the kids. My 5yo absolutely loved getting to hear stories in such a new and exciting place. My 3yo actually paid attention and enjoyed kicking off his flip flops to listen. While my 21mo didn’t exactly listen to the stories, she absolutely loved pointing at all the paintings and statues throughout the house. Obviously the age range of 4-8 is best suited to the tour, but they don’t limit it to that age group.

After the tour was over and all the kiddos hugged our docent, “Ms. Mary”, we went out into the back yard to see the beautiful pool and grounds. We wound up playing hide-n-seek in the shrubs of the side yard until we were too hot and sticky to stay any longer.

All in all, a wonderful experience, and one that Kate is anxious to repeat!

Wordless Wednesday: Corny Boy

Potty Trained!!!

We finally did it!  The boy is potty trained!!!!!!

(Yes, I meant to put all those exclamation points after that sentence.  That’s how EXCITED I am that he’s finally wearing ‘big boy underwear’.  If you’ve ever potty trained a boy, you understand my elation. )

After months of fighting, pleading, bribing, arguing, and disappointment, I finally found the right combination of things for Ethan to want to potty train.

We had tried bribing him with candy corn (the treat HE picked out at the store for just this purpose) and that wasn’t really working.  We tried putting him in pull-ups and telling him to let us know when he needed to go - yeah, right.  Then, one day, I got so tired of it, I just put ‘big boy underwear’ on him and set the timer.  Every 15-30 minutes the timer would go off and I would say, “Time to go sit on the potty!”  The first few times he fought me on it and didn’t want to do it.  It took a few times, too, before anything happened when we were ON the potty.  When it did, there was HUGE celebration, much clapping and cheering, and candy-giving.  

The few times that he had an ‘accident’, we went immediately in the bathroom and sat on the potty just to see if there was any pee left.  A friend of mine said that sometimes when they have an accident, they stop themselves before they’re completely empty.  This way you have a chance to praise them for going potty in the toilet, even in the midst of an ‘accident’.  (Thanks for that idea, Shannon!)

We also checked out a book from the library called “Time to Pee”.  It’s a great little book about potty training that starts off “If you ever get that funny feeling… don’t PANIC!”  Cracks me up!  I’m not sure if it was the book, the underwear, some cosmic alignment of the planets, or the combination of things, but suddenly it clicked with him!  And now, I don’t even know most of the time when he’s going pee, because he just gets up from where he’s playing, goes into the bathroom, and goes potty!  Yippee!!!  :)

Now, to work on wiping his own bottom.  That’s the part that no one talks about!  :P

How about you?  What were your tricks that helped get your little on to finally potty train?   

Daddy’s My Hero

Kate turned to me today and said, “My Daddy’s my hero.”  So, I asked her to tell me more…

Why is he your hero?

“Because I love him.”  ”Because he helps me with spelling.”  ”Because he loves me.”

What are some of your favorite things about Daddy?

“He has fun with me and tickles me.”  ”I like to color with him.”

How would you describe Daddy to someone who’s never met him?

“He’s really cool.”  ”He’s tall.”  ”He looks like a daddy.”

“He has short, black hair… blue eyes… he has a beard.”

“He likes to be funny, to tell me jokes, to read, to tickle me.”

 ”He likes to eat Special K cereal.”

 

Happy Father’s Day, Shawn!

NinaLoca.com

If you’re a mom or dad living in the Houston area and you haven’t heard of NinaLoca.com yet, BOY are you going to L-O-V-E me for telling you about it!  :)

NinaLoca is a great site full of ideas for summer fun for kiddos.  She’s got everything from jumping places, to local parks, to museums, to kids-eat-free restaurants.  I’ve already found 2-3 places that we just HAVE to go check out this summer because of her great information.  Most of the places she’s listed she has a brief description and her own experiences (if she’s been there), too, which is MOST helpful!

Here’s her description of her own site…

Welcome to Nina Loca! Summer Fun Listings for Houston, Cypress, & surrounding areas. We list everything from kids eat free, play places, VBS, camps, volunteering for kids and teens, stuff for Moms and Dads, pet resources and more! We are Houston locals and we know the best places to visit with family and kids. Texas is cool!

So go check it out and then tell me where YOU just HAVE to go this summer because of this list!!

Wordless Wednesday: Princess Cheerleader

She did all of this by herself, too.  From the crown, to the purse, to the shoes - all HER idea!  Looks like I have another GIRLY girl on my hands!

Earth Day: Kid-Friendly Ideas, Follow-Up

I was just writing an article on using fresh herbs and realized that I had forgotten to give you all a follow-up on our herb-planting Earth-Day fun.  And we took a LOT of pics, too!!  Shawn was great and kept the camera handy as we planted herbs and then made our Rice Krispy Treat Globes.

I started getting everything set up during nap time so that we would be ready to go when the kiddos got up.  Kate helped me choose some cans from our recycling bin, take off the labels, and wash them out. Then I smoothed out the tops to make sure there were no ragged edges to catch little fingers on and poked holes for drainage in the bottoms by tapping a screwdriver into the can using a hammer.  Then I painted a generous coat of gesso on each of the cans to give them a white background to start with that the acrylic paints would stick to.  I even painted a little on the inside of the top of each can since the dirt probably wouldn’t reach all the way to the top rim.  We also made labels on popsicle sticks for each of the herbs.  Kate enjoyed using her new writing skills to make these…

By then, the little ones had woken up and were ready to paint.  I gave each kiddo a ‘palette’ of all the different colors on the inside of a cut up recycled cereal box.  Kate was very particular and deliberate about painting pretty flowers and such.  Ethan immediately started swirling all of the colors on his palette together to make a lovely brown color… eww.  He then commenced to spreading the brown color over as much of the can as possible in very specific horizontal strokes.  Talk about contrasting Kate ‘the artist’ with Ethan ‘the engineer’.  You could almost hear his internal conversation where he was determining the quickest and most efficient way to cover the can with color so he could move on to the next step…  :P  Karis was just happy to dip her fingers paint brush in every color of the rainbow and splash it on the can.

Next, it was time for the herbs.  First we put some rocks at the bottom of each of the cans to help with drainage, and then put in about an inch or two of potting soil.  I had six different plants (2 basil, mint, oregano, rosemary, and parsley), so we each then took a plant to put into a can and then fill in around it with more potting soil.  (Did I mention that this was a very ‘dirt’y craft???  hee hee)  Notice the dirt on Karis’ face which blended in quite nicely with the purple paint she had been trying to taste earlier.  Geesh…  But, didn’t our project turn out pretty??  And the kids had a blast making them, too.  (Oh, and I sprayed the cans and labels with a matte finish acrylic sealer later that night after they went bed to make sure it would all stay perty.)

Then, it was dinner-time, so we made our Rice Krispy Treat Globes.  Yeah.  I’m weird like that.  The hardest part was mixing in the food coloring evenly.  By the time you’re done stirring one in, the other half of the hot mixture is cooling which makes it even more difficult to stir.  But, somehow we wound up with half blue and half green and then had the kiddos smear some butter on their hands, grab a little handful of each color and smush them together into a ball.  Great sticky and sweet fun.

We had a great evening playing together as a family and talking about the Earth.  The kids still love to water their herbs that sit on our windowsill and especially enjoyed the Rice Krispy Treat Globes, too.