First week

Well, this is Sunday, the first day of the first week of the preschool thing. I am getting excited and nervous at the same time. I am going to start doing this without telling our families I'm doing it. I decided that I can't deal with negative criticism at this point. Brian said last night that he's on board if I want to do this but he thinks it won't work because I won't keep up with it. I guess I have to prove him wrong, then, don't I?

So today I'm taking the time to prepare for the upcoming week. I've already organized a binder with information and a calendar breaking down the week and days. If I take a look each day, I will know what I'm supposed to be focused on and that should keep me on track. And if I don't get to really work a lot with her during the day on a particular thing, I can always use the night after Kylie goes home, or spend more time on the weekend before we change the information. The way the program is set up gives you an entire week to really spend time on a subject.

Here's the information for this week, courtesy of letteroftheweek.com :
Theme- Cows (Monday)
Vocabulary- Calf (Monday)
Shape- Square (Tuesday)
Letter- A (Wednesday)
Number- 1 (Thursday)
Nursery Rhyme- Hey Diddle Diddle (Friday)

I also decided to go ahead and buy her a book involving cows since it's a special milestone- the beginning of her schooling! We bought Click, Clack, Moo Cows that Type by Doreen Cronin. I have several songs on CD that we can play involving cows and letters/numbers/shapes/colors. I've already cut the pieces needed for a few art projects and have color pages ready to go. I am going to look up videos on youtube of cows being milked, mooing, etc. We will probably play a lot of games involving a hunt for squares, and she has a sticker book where she gets to put the correct number of stickers on a page. That last one I'm a little nervous about trying this week only because she loves stickers and won't appreciate doing only one.

My most pointed effort needs to be getting her out to play with others more often. We hardly have gone out for a few weeks because it's been so cold. I finally got a library card this past weekend and got their monthly schedules for lapsit story time.

Here are a few pictures of the things I've done so far to prepare. I hope to have better pictures once we get more involved in this.


This is a picture of the Learning Poster we made. Each week, every day, we had the week's information. Monday we had pictures of the theme and vocabulary word, Tuesday the Shape or color, Wednesday the Letter, Thursday the number, and Friday the Nursery Rhyme. The poster is now hanging in our living room and is easily visible as a constant reference for her. The pictures stay up a whole week and are only changed when the new theme, shape, number, etc. change.





This is a set of number-matching cards I made for her. The idea is supposed to be for her to count the number of stickers and know the right number written on the other card, but I also read it might take a while for her to actually get it. I figure I will start by showing her what I want her to do, and hope she catches on. I also might start out by only giving her two or three of the cards and asking her to try to count them and match them to a certain number. We shall see. There are a few options for these.



Here is a look at our little 'preschool corner'. I only call it that because it happens to have a few things over there that we will be using. The poster, obviously, and her CDs and Books on CD, and her "Feed the Bunny" game for fine motor skill development. Of course there are some random books, puzzles and blocks over there, too!




I went to the dollar store and got a few things, too. Dollar Store= awesome.

Some posters...







Baskets. For each new color that we learn, I figured I would get a basket or container in that color and use it for a scavenger hunt type game where we collect different objects of that color. The first coming up in two weeks is green.



And although I don't have pictures of it, I made myself a binder to keep myself organized with this stuff. I have several folders in there with coloring pages and art projects ready for the week ahead, as well as future projects. I keep her number matching cards in a zipper pocket with a small book where she will be able to put stickers on pages in the number of the week. I bought a Monthly calender that fits in there and on each day, I've written what I'm supposed to be focusing on with her. I think I'm more than organized at this point, I just hope I stay that way.

VERY Tentative Preschool Plans

Since there is nothing set in stone at this point, I think I'll just share my thoughts and the goings-on around here.

Brian and I have been talking about doing preschool from home for Kayla. I know that when I mention this to the families, it will cause an uproar. To put it simply, they are all very pro-preschool. The expected her to be in one by the age of 3, so I know the topic will be coming up soon.

Financially, it's just ridiculous. We have looked for some options that wouldn't put us in the poorhouse in two months, but it's just not happening. So, we decided to look into just doing preschool at home. Surprisingly, I'm loving the things I'm reading and the prospect of it. I'm so excited that this may be happening that I can barely focus on anything else lately. I've stayed up late to work on projects for it, putting together information and organizing papers and outlines. I have found two websites that I really like and have been using them as my basis for 'lesson plans'.

Five in a Row-
http://fiarhq.com/fiveinarow.info/index.html

and Letter of the Week-
http://letteroftheweek.com/

Both are awesome, awesome sites. Since my original goal was to have her in preschool at around age 3, anyway, I figure that I will begin immediately with the preparatory curriculum from Letter of the Week. I have plenty of time to go through all, or at least, most, of that before September, when I thought would be a nice time to begin the Five in a Row curriculum. I would also continue the Letter of the Week in addition to the Five in a Row, too, because I just love it, and it's very simple and easy to incorporate. Five in a Row is highly literature-based, so I am loving that aspect of it. I also have a friend who's has first-hand experience with it and is even sending me one of the Volumes. (Thanks, Jen!!)

Since I don't really feel like taking and uploading more pictures at the moment, I'll do that soon. I raided The Dollar Tree today and found a bunch of cute things to help with some lessons I've already been working on for week 1 of the the preparatory Letter of the week program. The great thing about this entire thing is that it's mostly based on play. A toddler learns best through play, so it's not difficult at all to teach them things. All I have to do is think of creative ways to keep her interested in the themes and subjects I'm focusing on that week. I also love that this program breaks things down into days, for some of the topics, and gives a few suggestions for activities to reinforce those themes. The first week's theme is Cows. The vocabulary word is 'calf'; the shape of the week is a square; the number is 1; the letter is A. On Friday of each week you learn a nursery Rhyme or song that pertains to the them, so this week's will be "Hey Diddle Diddle" and throughout the week, you sing songs, read books, and do art projects all about that particular theme- in this case, cows. I'm very excited about all this.

Since socialization is an important aspect of preschool, as well, I have to make it a specific effort to take her different places on a regular basis, especially once the weather warms up a bit. I have posted on a several message boards asking for advice, and a preschool teacher responded to one of my posts explaining that most Kindergarten teachers can't expect much more than at least a 10 minute attention span and for them to be potty trained. Aside from the INFORMATION aspect, which will be much easier to provide for Kayla, there are certain other things that she needs in order to be successful in Kindergarten. She has to learn how to play with others, how to share, and how to take turns. She also has to be able to sit still for extended period of times when she may not really want to and learn to speak in turns. The poster suggested that I take her to story time at the Library, book stores, and other places that may offer it. That will not only give her time to interact with others but help her to learn to sit quietly while the reader is reading. If I also take her to parks, zoos, museums, science centers, activity/jumping places, and other public places to give her time to explore the real world, then I should do enough for her for Kindergarten. I can also plan 'field trips' for her by finding apple orchards or other places that are unique. For example, if I wanted to wait to do the theme on cows, I could have possibly taken her to a farm nearby (we live near several) to see actual cows in person.

Anyway, that's the general idea of it all. I will post more, I'm POSITIVE. I don't have a huge outlet for this stuff just yet so I'll need to vent somehow!!

Wish me luck breaking the news to the family!

Crying Baby

http://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/baby/crying-colic/pages/Responding-to-Your-Babys-Cries.aspx


So, if you knew me personally, you'd know that Kylie has a bit of a crying problem. Not really a huge problem, but a problem, nonetheless. She's a baby who is blessed enough at home to have two older brothers and parents who are always around to immediately tend to her every sound. I truly, truly believe that the immediate and constant response to a moment of frustration for her has led to her being very sensitive to any obstacle. She's very inquisitive and loves to explore, but she will get frustrated over practically nothing and let out a wail of utter distress. And it's not usually something that she will get over quickly unless you help her with what she wants. In other words, she's very dependent on her parents and me to do things that other infants might not be so needy with.

I'll give you an example of some of thing things I've noticed with her. When she was a little bit younger, she would be sitting and holding a small toy. If the toy dropped from her hands and landed next to her leg, well within grasping reach, most of the time she'd just scream and scream until I handed it to her. Even though all she'd have to reach her hand down and pick it up, she wanted me to hand it to her. Since she's become more mobile and crawling, that issue hasn't been that frequent.

The other big problem is her sleeping. Nap time was a nightmare for a long time. She wouldn't want to be put down to sleep, so we'd have to get to her fall asleep (just holding her, rocking, swinging, whatever) and then try to transfer her to the pack and play. Problem is that Kylie is the lightest sleeper ever, so moving her up the stairs or placing her in the pack and play always woke her up. So we decided to keep her in the swing to fall asleep. For a LONG time, the only way she would ever sleep was if she was swinging, music playing, with me sitting in front of the swing pushing it past it's normal limits to swing higher and faster. I also had to be looking at her. If any one of those factors wasn't right, she would just cry hysterically. If I was sitting there but not pushing her, she'd scream. If I was sitting there and pushing but looking away from her for even a moment, she wouldn't sleep. If I thought she was asleep, but she wasn't, and I'd get up to leave she would scream immediately. Falling asleep took a process of sometimes an hour worth of swinging, opening her eyes every couple of minutes to make sure that I was still there. It was... as I said... a nightmare.

Now she is 9 months old. I have been trying to find information online for a while now about normal behavior for babies this age, and help with the situation. I understand a clingy baby, and I am a firm believer that babies cry for a reason, even if it's just to say they want a hug. However, I was convinced that this behavior wasn't normal, and was totally unnecessary. After many weeks of debating, I finally decided to try a day of letting her cry for short periods to see if she would calm herself. And honestly... she did. I put her in the swing on that first day, and told her it was nap time. I gave her a kiss on her head, and I put the swing on. When I walked away, she cries as I expected. But I stood around the corner of the room and waited. After 3 minutes, I walked back in and gave her more kisses, calmed her, and walked out again. After 5 minutes, I went back in and did the same. The third time that I left, she cried for only a couple of minutes and then fell asleep. And it was the first time in... I couldn't even tell you how long... that she managed to get a nice, refreshing nap in. So from that point on I do this to let her sleep. At around the same time each day now (In the morning, it's about 10 AM, sometimes later; and around 2PM for her afternoon nap) she starts to act sleepy and sometimes cranky, I put her in the swing, and she almost always falls immediately to sleep now. Sometimes she gives a little fuss, but it never lasts more than a few minutes.

My point?

I read that article and it made me feel better. I think the most important part of it is that sometimes babies just have to cry a little. There's no reason to let a baby scream for long periods of time when you're available to console them, and I don't believe that crying-it-out is ever a suitable method for very small babies. But once a baby reaches about 6 months old, I do think it's important for them to learn to be frustrated a little bit. Not a whole lot, but just a little.

Kylie was also able to roll at a very early age, and she has always been a little ahead of the game as far as movement goes. But she also went through a phase where she would refuse to attempt to even move. She would fall over (gently, no injuries) and just lay there and cry unless I sat her up. She was more than capable of rolling and even sitting herself up, but because she was always sat-up by someone else when she fell over, she wouldn't try it herself anymore. I'm convinced that the only reason she even learned to crawl was because I encouraged her to work through her frustration and at least try it.

Needless to say, Kylie has given me a run for my money over the course of the months that I've watched her. She's one particular little baby sometimes, and knows what she wants. But I can't help but look at that little smile and love her!!

Some past Crafts that I never posted.

So, I'm really terrible at updating this bloggy thing. Here are some of the crafts that I'VE been doing over the past few months. Nothing spectacular, but just felt like posting.

This first one is one of several I'm working on for Kayla's room.



Muno, from Yo Gabba Gabba.


Here is another from the set:



I'm pretty proud of this, except that Muno's eye didn't turn out a perfect circle. =(



The following is cat's Halloween costume paw. She was a black cat with white paws. I also made the tutu, as well, but the paw is the impressive part! Hand-sewn, too!






This next one is sort of saddening. I made this 'tag' for my sister-in-law's baby shower. We created a clothesline decoration of baby clothing for her, and I was going to pin this to the clothesline so she knew who the things on there were from without having to go about it in the brash way we wound up doing... just telling her. But there was QUITE a lot of things on the line, and there was nothing on there to tell her who made it. We lost the tag somehow on the trip over to the shower. Still haven't found it.



I think it looks really cute!


And of course, the thing I make the most and hardly ever get around to showing off... a bow. This one was made for my niece for Halloween.




I have so many plans for stuff to do, and so very little time to accomplish a single thing. Sigh.

Some of Kayla's seasonal art

For loving crafty things as much as I do, I really don't have my projects that Kayla has done to show off. Or that I've done, for that matter. I have a lot of ideas and not enough time to execute any of them, because when I do have a free moment, I usually use it to allow my mind to wander aimlessly, leisurely, before being ripped back into reality with a screaming infant and destructive 2 year old.

And not to mention that trying to do any craft with Kayla is like torture. She either doesn't want anything to do with it, or has a nuclear meltdown when it's over because she wants to keep doing it.

Anywho.

These are some of the stuff she's made From the past few months. I think they came out pretty cute. Granted, some of these were very little of what she did, and mostly my effort in cutting out shapes and putting it all together. But still, her heart was in it, and I consider them her creations.


For the fall, she made an autumn tree:















Then for Halloween, some ghost feet:















Then I got really ambitious for Thanksgiving, and she did a few:

































One is just hand cut-outs, one is made with hand-prints for feathers, and the other is made with fingerprints. These were extremely tiresome to make. This is one example of when Kayla would scream because we had to wait to paint. In between each of the layers of feathers, you had to wait for the paint to dry. Oh boy.


And finally, this is the only Christmas one we've done. It's pretty basic, but still:


And that's it. Sadly. I have another idea for Christmas, which involves more painting and waiting for things to dry, so I'm sure it will be a nightmare. Worth it, of course, because she gets to paint and have fun, we get a cute end product, and the world keeps on spinning.

Another long gap!

As a very basic update to things around here..... BAHHHHHH.

Halloween was fun. Kayla was a tutu kitty cat, and she went trick-or-treating with Kylie's family. It was really great to see Kylie in her own home. I think that if it's possible, any caretaker should take any opportunity to see their children in their own homes for a little while. Whether there's any merit to it or not, I really felt that seeing her play with her brothers in her own home, eat dinner at the family table, and just observing her where she lives really made me feel closer to her. When I see her now it feels like she's extended family instead of a stranger's child.

Thanksgiving was also very nice. We spent the weekend following it at Brian's parent's house. Kayla got to see Emma, Gabriella and Tom.

And December has been hectic. We didn't even decorate outside this year. It kept getting put off for one reason or another, and now it's just too late to bother. All that work for only a week or two of enjoying it... no thanks. The tree is up and that seems to amuse the girls enough. Christmas cards are addressed and ready to be sent, but I just have to get more stamps.

Not much as changed around the house as far as the babysitting has gone. A gate has gone up across part of the kitchen blocking some shelves with appliances and the cat litter box. Kylie has free run of both rooms, which is more that we did for Kayla. She likes sliding around on her bum. We also installed a fridge lock, which is the greatest thing ever. Although, it broke recently. So I guess it's not really the greatest thing ever, but it's still a neat little thing that saved a lot of headaches.

Kayla and I have done a few cute projects over the past few months that I'll have to upload in another post.

Wow, all over the place. Plans for Christmas are very unsettled. All we know is that Christmas day, we will be with my family for dinner at 2. Other than that, I have no idea what's happening. I guess we shall see.

Ok, that was a very, very short updated on the past couple of months. Off to read, and then to bed!

Another Random Day

Today is October 13th, and it's just an ordinary Wednesday. I don't have anything significant to write about, but I just figured that I haven't in a while so I should.

Kylie is a little more than 6 months old now and she's already sitting up, pulling herself up, and trying to move in ways a normal 6 month old doesn't. I am pretty sure that Kayla was only rolling at this point, and perfecting sitting up. Kylie is ridiculously strong. I guess having two older brothers and Kayla to watch all day makes you really want to get going. The only problem is that she's so anxious to really move that she gets frustrated because she can't. You can tell she's trying to do things she's just not ready to do and it's understandably upsetting her. Once she does take off, though, I think I'll be in trouble!

Kayla's finally coming out of her terrible-twos. At least I think so, and at the risk of jinxing it. She's still got moments of total terror, but she's also more even-tempered and cooperative. She understands what we tell her almost completely now so she's follows directions really well. We can tell her to throw something in the garbage and she'll walk over and do it. We can tell her to wait by the stairs for us and she'll go and stand there until we come to get her. Little things like that that seem simple and unimportant, but it's a world of difference when it comes to the battles we normally have.

She is even starting to climb less, but it's not done completely.

Kylie went through a phase for a while where she was pretty much inconsolable all the time, and it was a rough few weeks. Nothing you did helped her... and when I say I tried everything, I mean EVERYTHING. Kayla was colicky so I know all the tricks. I think part of the problem was that she wasn't drinking well from the bottles we were using. It was either lucky timing or the bottles were the problem, because as soon as I switched to the standard sized Playtex Ventaire bottles, she drank like she had never eaten before in her life, and everything else started to even out as well. She still fights her naps and she's a baby who definitely needs a nap, so sometimes the days are pretty long come the afternoon. But we're getting there and I'll take this over what we were doing before.

That's pretty much what's been happening around here. We got rid of the outside stuff for the winter, so we've already started our hibernation. I sure hope that it doesn't snow a lot this year!!