Why I am well suited for raising a preschool/kindergarteners...

I sometimes ponder the fun I have with the kids and think to myself, I have so much in common with the boy, it's no wonder I find him so entertaining.  I was never the girliest girl growing up, but there's just something about playing with Caleb for which I just feel so well suited.  Here are some of my ideas why:
1.  We share similar literary and television tastes... In Caleb's case, in particular, we love all things superhero.  An actual excerpt from our car conversation today:
Caleb: Mommy, what does the Green Lantern do?
Mommy: He channels green energy from his special Green Lantern ring to create all sorts of special weapons and crime-fighting tools. 
Caleb: How did he get his ring?
Mommy: It chose him after its former owner, another member of the Green Lanterns, was killed. 
Caleb: So is he a hero or a villain?
Mommy: Definitely a hero, Buddy.
Caleb: So what about Iceman?...
You name the hero, and Mommy knows his background, origins, and the villains associated with him.  And if I don't, you betcha I'll look it up. 

2.  We both have a deep and abiding love of base humor. - I'm sorry, but the word "poop" still makes me giggle, though I have to, as Mom Law states, pretend not to think it's funny and remind him it's inappropriate for social circles.  I also think that farting can be really quite funny, as well.  Esp. when it's done around Daddy, and not me.  Yep, my sense of humor hasn't evolved much beyond my three-year-old's level. 

3.  We both would rather play soccer than dolls. -  I just get the love of kicking and throwing balls (though I stink at it, thus my negative school sports record) and vrooming cars around the house.  Doll play, not so much, though I try hard to show interest for the girls' enjoyment.  Thankfully none of my kids are that into dolls except for occasional stints. 

4.  We both find bugs fascinating. - I love a cute little wiggly worm or a neat millipede from the sandbox.  We'll sit and study them for long periods of time.  We name our garden spiders, and sit entertained for hours watching them wrap up their prey in their webs.  I do, however, draw the line at slugs.  Do NOT bring Mommy a slug.  The consequences may involve vomit.  Sorry for the mental picture, but I don't do slugs.  Worms are somehow kosher in my mind, but their smaller, black, slightly slimier relatives must die.   Irrational, yes.  Logical, no.  Nonetheless true. 

5.  Simple games are awesome. - I'm sorry, but in my stage of the game, when I'm exhausted all the time, I HATE any game involving much brain power.  I am not cognitively alert enough for monopoly or chess, or even really the game of Memory, but I can totally hang out for a game of Candy Land, Twister, or War.  Just don't ask me to remember what color my game piece is.  That's my kids' job to remember that little detail for me.  :)

6.  We both think brussel sprouts suck.  Unfortunately being the adult, I have to choke them down and pretend their AWESOME in order to broaden the horizons of the others in my home.  I guess that's what makes me the adult in this zany madhouse.  In fact, I can think of a whole list of things I hate that I have to pretend are great for the sake of the littles, including (but not limited to): car trips, grocery shopping, most raw vegetables, brushing my teeth and flossing (dirty little secret alert... I totally hate the feeling of the toothbrush on my teeth), healthy cereals (OH MY GOSH, would somebody PUHLEEZE sneak me some Lucky Charms?!), and being outside on a cold day, etc., etc.

 I do so enjoy getting to hang with my little peeps all day, especially at this particularly fun and adorable age where practically anything could fall out of their mouth at any moment (like Sarah pointing to a Muslim woman with a headdress and asking, loudly, "Momma, what kind of a person is THAT!?"... I swear I've explained other world cultures, but she had a moment of forgetfulness).  And hopefully some day I'll mature with them, so that I can continue to enjoy the things they're interested in, but for now, who's in for a game of Spiderman vs. She-Ra? 

"I'd totally kick Spiderman's tail, by the way." 

First let me apologize...

    I am a terrible blog-keeper.  But I beg your forgiveness, being a Momma of three (four if you count the hubs), and a homeschooler, and a Jane-of-all-trades lately has made it tough to log in and share my experiences.  I find myself at the end of some days with my head spinning from all the busy-ness and wondering how I ever got it all done.  So here I am, playing catch up.
    First of all, I can start with the girls' sixth birthday.  They didn't have a party this year, but they did get some good celebratin' in with Ryan and I and my parents, and a small to-do at Ryan's parents' house during Easter.  We had a nice night out for sushi (their choice) and presents all around.  This year their big present was a soccer goal.  They've started playing again this year with the Upward organization, and Mommy can't get enough of them running up and down the field.  Hannah loves it, and scrambles back and forth in the yard every day to her little hearts content trying to shoot her ball in the goal.  She's turning out to be our little sports-enthusiast, who knew!  Especially since normally she hates all things competitive. Sarah, on the other hand, informed me after practice 1 that, "I only wanted to sign up so I could play the games, not PRACTICE! (rolleyes)"... I call her "the entemologist"- too busy looking for bugs and butterflies to take the time to practice.   So I have a braniac and a jock.  Ok by me :)
   And then there's Caleb.  Ah, Caleb.  Sweet and sparkly, full of mischeif Caleb.  He's really starting to enjoy school now, as long as it's on his terms, and he can't wait to play soccer, either, once they let him.  He's a total trip, trying his hardest to figure out how to make jokes, singing lyrics to our favorite songs at top volume and with hilariously mispronounced wording, and finally starting to try to do things for himself (like put on his own no-tie shoes... COME ON, You're THREE already! Men!).    And he still lives to make his sisters crazy.  Sometimes it takes only an otherwise-innocuous sound, aptly timed and at the appropriate volume at the breakfast table, and he masterfully can have his sisters squealing and writhing in agony and angst, begging me to intervene. 
    Meanwhile, Ryan and I have been house hunting... searching for a quasi-home-of-our-dreams.  Mostly we'd like to find a place with another room for homeschool so that we don't have to take down all our stuff when family comes to visit.  And we'd also love to find a place with a pool and some land for things like gardening and maybe keeping some livestock (because, oh, I don't know, I don't have enough beings to care for as it is?! I think maybe I must have contracted mad-cow disease or some other brain eating disease to think I need more work, but I've somehow convinced myself it will be fun, ha!).  I'm finding house hunting to be harder and more emotional than I expected, but I'm trusting that God will lead us in the right direction, or tell us to keep our butt right where we are.  Either way, it'll all work out. 
    Anyway, just wanted to explain what's up lately, and let whoever cares out there know I'll try to get back on real soom with more posts, but if your still here, thanks for listening and I'll try to do better :)  Or I'll collapse from exhaustion and then it won't matter, will it? 

Tea Party!

Today we had a real tea party in honor of our week studying the United Kingdom. The girls got to dress in full costume, and Caleb even got a cute little stove-pipe hat we made him. It was a big deal, and for my favorite quote of the day: "Mommy! Ladies do NOT scratch themselves at tea parties!" (Sarah) - for the record, I was scratching under my hat, not under my dress ;) Enjoy the pictures!

p.s. if you want to see larger versions of the pictures, you can double click on the top pic. and it will switch to slideshow view.

Math Games- Playing Banker

I'm recording this here because 1) I have no idea how to pin things to Pinterest, nor do I want pictures and names of my kids floating around on there, and 2) I wanted to share this with some of my other homeschool moms so they can use it, too. We invented a new math game for the kids this morning after trying to find creative ways to teach 1 to 1 correspondance and numeral recognition to Caleb. I noticed they all have a deep and abiding love of coinage and putting things in their piggy banks, so we invented "Banker". There are two versions, one for preschool, and one for school age.

In Caleb's case, on index cards I made card "dollars" with a numeral on each card made to look like a dollar amount (from 1 to 5, in his case). On the back of each card I drew a corresponding number of penny-sized circles (ex, on the 5 dollar "bill" there are 5 circles on the back of the index card), that way he can lay out the appropriate number of pennies in the circle if he has trouble counting them out. Caleb used his magnetic fishing pole to fish for a dollar amount (with paper clips on each "dollar" index card), then he matched the appropriate number of pennies up with the number on the card he fished out. After that, he got to put that number of pennies into a piggy bank, made from a raisin can with a slit in the top.

Here are the pictures:

After that, the girls were clamoring to play, too, instead of doing math worksheets, so I quickly modified the game for them. They're goal lately has been to recall plus 8 and plus 9 math facts (ex- 8+4= , or 9+7= , etc.), so I made more "dollar bills", so that we had numerals 1 thru 9 on the cards, and then I glued a number 8 to one side of a quarter, and a number 9 to the opposite side of a quarter. Their goal was to fish for a "dollar" amount, then flip the coin to reveal either an 8 or a 9. They then had to add up the number from their dollar bill with the number from the coin (ex- they fished up a number 5, and flipped the coin to number 8- meaning they had to sum 5 + 8). When they arrived at the total, they then had to determine the right coins and the right amount for each coin to add up to that total. Since they're very unfamiliar with coin values, I made a guide for them showing that dimes are worth 10, nickles 5, and pennies 1. That way, they got to put the combination of coins that best fit their amount into the bank. (ex- Hannah summed 14, so she wanted more coins than just a dime and 4 pennies, so she decided on 2 nickles and 4 pennies).

The game was wildly successful, and the kids are still up playing without my assistance as I'm typing. Here are the pictures for their version of the game:

You might have Mommy-brain if...

OK, so this is a list of thinks I thought in the last 24 hours. Seriously... I have not been able to put two thoughts together in a straight line today, and I'm chalking it up to Mommy-brain. If you are familiar with Mommy-brain (the grouchy, caffeine-aholic, not-so-cute-and-cuddly cousin of Pregnancy-brain) then you can relate, I'm sure, but if not, this is what your brain looks like "on kids," in the form of a 24 hour (not organized chronologically because did-you-read-the-first-part-of-this-paragraph?) synopsis of all my lovely screw-ups:

-I shampooed my child's hair twice. Because I couldn't recall if I did it the first time.

-I threw out two batches of baked goods. Because sugar and salt look too darn much alike.

- I lost my broom on three separate occasions. Really? How hard is it to lose a 5 foot stick with a day glow yellow straw tip? Kinda tough to miss, you'd think. I had to send a five-year-old off to find it.

-I discovered I have a delightful form of sleep-deprived language disorder (aphasia) which makes me able only to produce intelligible speech when it is made up of words I shouldn't say in public. Kinda like motherhood-induced Tourettes. (ex- "We gotta go! Get in the .... DOH... DAMMIT... you know... the big 'ole mess with wheels that we take to the library. And where is your... CRAP! You know... the warm thing you wear outside?!!")

- I salted my hubby's veggies for his lunch tomorrow twice. This is because I forgot that I did it the first time, until I noticed that the scene playing out in front of me looked hauntingly familiar. I cannot WAIT for the call at 1 pm tomorrow asking why his lunch tastes funny. And yet, I still haven't fixed said error. Shhh.

- I have been blaming the kids for the shortages of silverware in our drawer, thinking they have been tossing it in the trash when clearing their plates (which, I'll note, is true since I've caught them red-handed doing it), only to notice that I just threw a spoon the trash while clearing my own plate (face-palm, sigh).

So there you have it- Can you relate?

"Shh, I'm working hard to convince her she's lost her freakin' mind. Tee hee!""

If Our Lives Were a Fairytale...

Hannah, in the eyes of her three-year old brother

Apparently it would be written by the Brothers Grimm.

Caleb's favorite story lately has been "The Three Billy Goats Gruff." I must have read it to him about a million times lately, and today was no exception.

"Read me THIS!" he ordered as I was putting him down for a nap.

"Ooh, let's give the Billy Goats names today, instead of calling them just 'little Billy, middle Billy, and Big Billy,'" I suggested, desperate for a fresh change in the oft-told tale.

"Yeah! That's a ger-ate idea!" (My son says "great" like Tony the Tiger")

"Ok, so this one's Caleb (little Billy), this one's Hannah (middle Billy), and this one's Sarah (big Billy)," I told him.

"NO MOMMA! You're wrong! This one's Caleb (little Billy), this one's Sarah (Middle Billy), and this one's Mommy (Big Billy)."

"Well then, where's Hannah? She's gonna feel left out," I warned.

"She's right here, Momma! (pointing to the Troll)"

So I clarified, "You think Hannah should be a troll?"

"Uh-huh, Hannah's the Mean Troll!"

Sorry Hannah, but somebody had to be the Troll, I guess. Don't worry, you're still Momma's Princess, even if you're a Troll in your brother's eyes ;)

Another Homeschooling Fail, Courtesy of Mommy :)

I have always dreamed of sharing my love of literature with my children. It's a true joy for me that they can now sit and listen to stories I've loved all my life, and to see them really grasping what they hear. For the last month, they've been listening to me as I read "Charlotte's Web," and we finished the last chapter yesterday evening before bedtime. I'm somewhat ashamed to say I broke into ugly tears on the last paragraph- but I digress...
Tonight, in celebration of completing the story, I got a copy of the movie version for them to have a movie night. They were so thrilled, and all the more so when Ryan made homemade caramel popcorn and they got to decorate little popcorn bags with stickers (have I told you about how I'm repulsed by stickers- my children treat them like diamonds or million dollar bills when they're allowed to use them). It was such a lovely evening!
The girls, in their excitement, also decided to make little puppets for the movie before showtime and during Caleb's naptime. Hannah made a little pink bug on a Popsicle stick, while Sarah decided to make a "spider" for her puppet, though it looked less like a spider and more like a cross between a bumblebee and a centipede. When she proudly brought her "spider" downstairs after the movie to show Daddy, Ryan asked, "Hmm... that's really interesting. Do you know how many legs spider's usually have, Sarah?"
"Sure Daddy, that's easy. Eight!"
"But why does your spider have 16 legs?," he asked.
"He doesn't...see, there's 8 on this side, and 8 on the other," my little sweetie answered.
"Ummm, that means 16 legs... see. One, two...[counting thru 16].

"I guess I probably should have taught her that 8 legs means 4 on each side, huh?," I remarked sheepishly from the kitchen, seeing his barbed look my way. I knew full well the meaning of that look... "Do you teach them NOTHING?!," it said.

So Ryan then turned to Caleb. "Caleb, what has Mommy taught YOU about Spiders, Buddy?"
Caleb's in the midst of hopping and crashing cars into each other, looked up and swiftly answered, "Dey come from SPIDERMAN!"
"Greeeeaaaaatttt job Hunny! You are doing a bang up job teaching!," said my sarcastic love.
...
Another homeschooling fail brought to you by Mommymel. :)
(I swear I really taught them a lot more about spiders, and basic addition/mathematics... really! If it weren't Ryan doing the asking, I bet they could spit out tons of incredibly accurate facts [she said while rolling her eyes, ugh!])