Preschool Homeschool part 1

I've wanted to home school for a long time now. I've looked at so many resources and read so many forums that I have been excited to jump in. So what if I was looking at curriculum when The Kid was barely 3? But there is no more "browsing." This is it. I am starting homeschool next week (yes, at the end of March...).

The Kid will be 4 in a month. The Other One will be 2 in June (though he is mostly a tag-along). I know that formal preschool is not really necessary. But you know what? Who cares?! I think it is going to be fun! Plus it will add a little more structure to our days (something we all  need) while giving The Kid the engaging and educational interaction he needs.

It is no surprise that we are on a tight budget at the Spirited household. For the foreseeable future, the plan is not to buy a curriculum (unless it is one that can finally teach me to use commas correctly, because I would pay anything for that!) but rather use the great resources available on the internet. I think that this is pretty achievable, especially in the early years.

One reason I put off doing preschool for a while is that, honestly, I got overwhelmed with what was best. Some say you shouldn't do anything formal, to just let kids be kids and learn through play. Then there are packaged curriculum teaching all kinds of life lessons along with art, science, math, etc. One popular option homeschoolers pick for preschool (especially those wanting something cheap-free) is the Letter of the Week curriculum at Confessions of a Homeschooler. I really liked it and originally was just going to go with that (especially since it is so stinkin' cute!), but it just wasn't exactly what I was looking for. The Kid has known his alphabet for quite some time and it all just seemed a little too repetitive and easy for him at the time.

Then I read about Lesson Pathways, which is a completely free curriculum. I thought that would be perfect, since it would give The Kid the challenge he needs. But then I realized that perhaps that would be too challenging. Then I thought about unit studies and creating my own. But then all the possibilities just got too darn overwhelming. And I gave up. For several months.

But now I have decided what I am going to do. I don't care if it is the right way to do things. I am doing mostly fun, interactive activities with the boys, just with a learning aspect to it. I went back to Letter of the Week curriculum as my base idea. Even though The Kid knows his letters, I am still going to focus on one letter a week as a sort of base to phonics/reading that we will start with in kindergarten. But in my version, there will be two different twists.

The first is based on Confessions of a Slacker Mom's Walk Beside Me preschool curriculum (an LDS twist on LOTW). Just like with LOTW, I will pick and choose the aspects that I want to include in our homeschool.

The other twist is based (very, very loosely) on the Before Five In a Row curriculum. Basically it gave me the idea to choose a book every week to explore and do activities based on. But keeping with the ABC theme, the book will correspond with that week's letter.

A lot of preschool/pre-k activities and curriculum you find online involve a lot of printing and using (wasting) a lot of paper. The LOTW and Walk Beside Me curriculum involve a lot of the same pages with only slight variations for each letter. There are also tons of tot packs you can find out there that are also great free resources, but unfortunately involve a lot of printing with only slight variations among packs (like one has pumpkins and P's while the other has rainbows and R's). These are great. I am not knocking these or anyone who uses them. When I see a new pack posted online my first thought is "print it all!!!" But I don't want to waste my paper, ink, or create all that waste. While I could make most of it reusable (which I will talk about), that would still leave me using lots of paper and ink while having to store lots of pages.

My solution is to pick and choose just a few from each letter. Many pages I will make reusable by either laminating or putting in page protectors. I will be very selective in what themed pages I print so that my resources can be used again and again in various situations and times of year.

Part 2 of this post will go into a little more detail of what I have planned for my curriculum. I am really excited about this and can't wait to share how it goes next week!

Ebay Is No Joke!

It has been over a month since I have posted - a month! Not because I want to quit blogging, I really enjoy it, but because I just haven't had the time!

After getting sucked into an Ebay post on Diaper Swappers, I decided to try my hand at selling. At the end of July/beginning of August I decided to get my feet wet by listing a couple things I had around the house. Then when those sold, I decided to brave the world of buying to resell!

While I certainly haven't gotten rich, and never will, I have made a little profit and am enjoying it. I even decided to stop wading in the water yesterday and jump right in and make a store! It made financial sense to do that with my plans for my inventory, so I figured why not?!

Selling on Ebay is no joke. There is some real money to be made selling online, but it takes work and knowledge. I am still learning the ins and outs of listing as well as taking the best pictures and what items sell best. I have a few long-term goals for my store, but at the moment, I just want to be able to pay my bill (Ebay bill) and give myself a little bit of spending money every month. A modest goal for the beginning, I think.

I've also been busy lately trying to prepare for a move. We are selling our home and renting a house closer to The Husband's job, cutting his commute in half! That means less time spent in a car for him (gas is not a concern, though) and more time with us! Yes! We are also just kinda ready for a change in our lives and think that this move will be just the thing for our family.

Let me tell you, packing is no joke either! Boxes and bins are stacked to the ceiling in the playroom and I feel like I have gotten nothing accomplished! There are some things that are just being packed and we will ultimately decide when we unpack whether to keep or not, but I am trying to take this time to really go through a lot of our things and throw out and get rid of! This is in turn growing my yard sale and Ebay piles. Fine by me!

I am going to try to make more of an effort to blog at least weekly. My life just feels like it is up in the air right now and I can't wait until we get settled in the new house so I can get back into some sort of a routine and really carve out time for Ebaying and blogging instead of just dashing to the computer when I have a minute.

Shaving Cream Pool

I few weeks ago I had a friend of mine over who has a 5 year old girl that The Kid loves to play with. The plan was to have an outdoor playdate with pool time and a shaving cream slide. The weather, however, wasn't aware of our plans. It was cold. And windy. So there was going to be no bathing suit time outside.

The kids did play outside for a little while on the swing set, but I was still disappointed to not get to break out the shaving cream. Until it hit me that we still could! We have a small, hard kiddie pool that I brought in the house and put in the middle of the living room floor. Then I filled it with shaving cream!

The Little One was the first to try it out. The Kid and his friend weren't so sure about it at first, but quickly decided that it was super fun!

 I should note here that I intended to put some swim trunks on The Little One as well, but he had different plans and was too impatient for that!

I dropped in toys like little dinosaurs and legos and added a rubbermaid box of water that they could use to clean the toys off.

They played in this for so long! And when it was finally time to get out, the older two decided that a game of crawling chase was in order.

Boy, am I glad that we ripped up the carpet last year!

After all this there was no wiping down of these kids. A bath was in order! So I filled the tub (luckily the bathroom is right off the living room!) and in they went. Again, they had a blast!

While the kids played and splashed, we mamas wiped down the floor. Let me tell you, that was a workout!

I'm pretty sure that this is what ended the shaving cream pool. Poor little guy put his face down in the cream! I tried to wipe it off but he kept trying to wipe it off as well...with his shaving cream covered arm. So yeah, the problem only kept getting worse! So into the tub he went!

 How about you? Would you ever consider having a shaving cream pool in the house?

Shape Mats

So I saw this pinned a couple weeks ago and immediately clicked over when I saw the shape mats the kids were using. I figured that there would be some printable shapes for me or a link to where I could find them. Nope. Neither. So I of course had to immediately make my own.

Only it wasn't immediately. Because in order to make my own I had to use the actual computer. And mommy doesn't get much computer time. Unless it is to tear The Little One (the new name for Michelin Man since he isn't so Michelin Man-y anymore) away from it - since his new favorite thing is to climb up on the computer chair and press as many keys as he can - and try to close out whatever he opens. And did I mention he thinks that all computers are touchscreens? Yeah, somebody likes the Kindle.

Where was I? Oh yeah. So eventually when I was given more than two minutes to use the computer by myself I whipped up some colorful shape mats. Then I got to laminate them! I use an exclamation there because I LOVE to laminate things.

When I was finished I excitedly showed them to The Husband, very proud of what I did.  He was watching Battlestar Gallactica at the time so I figured he was ignoring me. I expect him to pause the show and give me his full attention as I explain to him how these mats are going to help our boys get into Harvard...only he doesn't. I go on about how they can use yarn, pipe cleaners, and play-doh to mold around the shapes, and yada yada yada. When he continues to look at the television and doesn't respond I add "And you really don't care do you?"

His response? "I do, I think you did a great job. And since they are laminated you can also trace the shapes with a dry-erase marker."

I hate when he does that.

I've had these done for about a week now but just finally got them out today during The Little One's nap and The Kid loved them. We used the dry-erase markers first on them. He wasn't very confident in his ability to do it at first so I had to trace them all first, but then I finally got him to try it on his own (after helping him do it a couple times) and he continued doing them even after I had to leave the playroom.

These are great for shape recognition and the different colors means you can also turn it into an activity with colors, too.  The mats are also helpful for strengthening fine motor skills as kids have to manipulate different objects to form the shapes.

In case you are interested in making a set of these for your own kids, I have uploaded my printables for you. Just click the picture to get started.

Christmas In July

Every year I try to at least start planning for Christmas earlier. I hate trying to get presents made/bought/put together at the last minute. I have several ideas for people in my head (I actually started a list in Google Docs on January 3rd lol) and I've actually started on one that I am making (well, I actually make most of my presents at least in part).

Aside from the obvious not having to rush thing, starting early on Christmas presents means that you can take advantage of sales and online deals throughout the year. I try to keep an eye out for the photo deals that are run throughout the year (especially the last few months) because those make great gifts. I just got done ordering three personalized photo grocery totes from York Photo for $1 a piece. After shipping I paid $10.97, but I still thought that was an awesome deal. Now the hard part will be trying to not keep them for myself ;)

I thought the apple one would be cute for my mom since she works in a classroom...and since she is a grandmother she loves showing pictures of her family :)

I'm not exactly sure when this promo ends, but if you are interested in doing it, use code YORKTOTEAD at checkout to drop the price from $8.99 to $1 each. You don't have to get three, you can get two or just one if you want. If you are new to York Photo you get 40 free 4x6 prints, but I opted not to get those because it added around $3 to my shipping. I know, I know, that is still a really good price. But I am cheap and I know that free print deals come around all the time so I just have to be patient.

Hopefully I can get finished with the gift that I started like 2 months ago soon so I can show it to you guys. I am excited about it and hope the recipient loves it. That is the hard part of gift giving, being unsure about whether or not the person likes their gift. Sure, most people are very appreciative of whatever you give them. But I don't just want people to appreciate my gifts, I want them to enjoy and use them. Hmmmm....

This Is The Life

In the middle of the day today, Wednesday, I was sitting out in the sun next to the pool with my feet up, a cool breeze on my face, and a Kindle in my hand to explore Pinterest and read whatever I felt like.  Just the thought of what I was doing made me feel guilty about being a stay at home mom while my loving husband slaved away at work.

Then Michelin Man walks over to me and starts fussing at me because, well, he is 11 months old and that's what they do, playing with my belly fat and wiping dirt/mud all over me and The Kid joins in the fun by spitting at me (well, not spitting exactly, but making noise with his lips that also happens to make him spray saliva everywhere). Then The Kid drags me over to the pool (um, a kiddie pool) and makes me get in where they both decide to attack my chest (darn halter tops and their accessible boobies!).

Guilt gone.

$40 Ecomom Voucher as Low as $18

Plum District has brought back one of my favorite deals - half price Ecomom.com vouchers! Ecomom has all sorts of eco-friendly products, from toys and lunchboxes to baby carriers and food.

The current deal is a $40 voucher for only $20, but if you pay with a Visa card you can use code visa10 to get 10% off. Shipping on the site is free on orders over $50 and make sure to read the fine print on the voucher as always.

I think this is a great opportunity to get started Christmas shopping!