Learning about Rain

I was going to do a number theme this week since last week we learned about letters, but the wet Miami summers changed my plans. What better way to learn about rain than when its raining outside. Hopefully the weather will cooperate with me. Here is my plan for this week and we'll see what happens.

Music: Singing in the Rain. My kids are obsessed with this clip. We also sang "If all the Raindrops Were Lemon drops and Gumdrops"
Film: Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood - A Stormy Night (available on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime).
Activity: Rain science experiment. Like this one from Pinterest Requires water, shaving cream, and food coloring
Book: Rain! - Linda Ashman; Come On, Rain! - Karen Hesse
Art: Watercolors and rain. The rain didn't cooperate with us so we will have to go back and finish this. You have the kids paint with watercolors and then put the paper out in the rain to see what the rain will do.

Letters - Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

My son started PreK-4 last week and they began a lesson on Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Since we were hearing about it non-stop, I decided to make it our theme this week. Now everyone in our family knows the song and the kids have to read the book at least twice a day. Needless to say, I will be very excited when we move on from this one.

Book: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault
Music: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom song. This will be forever stuck in your head
Art: Make a Coconut Tree. We used construction paper but feel free to use whatever supplies you have. Pinterest is full of ideas.
Activity: Uppercase and Lowercase Letter Matching. I made a simple sheet that you can print on cardstock and cut out. You can find that here.
Food: Coconut Smoothies. Cococnut Milk, Pineapple, Banana, and Honey.

Creative Learning Intro

After a long hiatus, I've been encouraged by friends to blog again. And of course the day I decide to do this, my daughter has a crazy night of crying and tantrums that has left me with about 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep (with some cat naps). So, if what I'm writing doesn't make sense, just go with it.

I was in the process of putting together a music and art class for toddlers starting this fall, but the logistics of that got complicated and I realized that I was putting a lot of thought and energy into that while neglecting my family. I decided to put that project on hold and actually use my organizational and creative skills to be intentional with my children. What has resulted is a curriculum of weekly themes using music, art, books, activities, food, and movies. I'm trying to make it easy and not too structured because, let's face it, sometimes you have terrible nights and all you need to do is lay on the couch. It might turn out to be like three days a week where you have a planned activity. Here is a list of themes we will cover and I will add links to their separate pages as we complete them.

1. Letters - Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
2. Rain
3. Numbers
4. Shapes
5. Colors
6. Fall
7. Apples
8. Leaves
 9. Jazz
10. Pumpkins
11. Halloween
12. Tree
13. Harvest
14. Corn
15. Thanksgiving

Encouragement for the Failing Parent

Nothing makes you feel like a failure more than parenting. Especially when you are a new parent. You're never sure if you are doing things "right" and are constantly second-guessing your methods. Unfortunately for us, we felt like failures from the very beginning. Liam had colic and acid reflux for the first four months and didn't sleep through the night until he was nine months old. This was not because of a lack of resources or effort, that's just who he was. I remember crying all the time (both of us), reading books and blogs, trying to figure out what I needed to do differently, but nothing worked. Luckily, I was blessed with a very wise husband who told me I had to put away the books because they were causing more stress than help in my life. And he was right. These books and blogs created expectations about how a baby should act if you do A, B, and C, so I was really discouraged when I tried everything and it still wasn't producing the results I wanted.

I remember when Liam was teething and still not sleeping through the night, he had one fluke night and slept for like 9 hours. I attributed this to the medicine that I gave him and was convinced that this was the magic potion to get him to sleep through the night. In efforts to recreate this, I would give him the same cocktail every night. It didn't always work, but I was sure that it was helping. One night, before Dylan and I headed out the door for a date night, I realized that I forgot to give him teething medicine and started freaking out, "Oh man, he's for sure gonna wake up tonight!" I was so distraught that Dylan (the wise one) suggested we pray about as we were out on our date. I realized that I was putting all my hope in a little tube of teething gel (and my own discipline in applying it) rather than the God of the universe who is in control of everything. And you know what happened that night? Liam slept through the night. And the next night. And the next.

It didn't last forever but I was okay with that. Just experiencing the grace of God in an area that was so stressful was enough for me. It was his way of telling me to let go and and give him control. I relied way too much on my own intellect, logic, and parenting resources and not enough on the ultimate resource. I wish I could say I learned my lesson then, but that would have been too easy :)

So now I am in the throws of disciplining a three year old. For some reason I thought this would be easier but boy is it hard work. Every attempt at discipline fails. Time outs, spankings, quiet times, rewards, reasoning, etc., nothing works. The phrase we say over and over in our house is, "Please just listen and obey!" The most frustration comes with nap time and bed time. Liam will just not stay put no matter what we do and some nights it would take us over an hour to put him to sleep. Those are the times when I want to punch a hole in the wall and go on a long vacation by myself.

One day during what was supposed to be nap time, I felt completely discouraged and angry. I left the room and started reading my bible because I was fuming on the inside. God must have known because my mother happened to come by earlier than expected and was able to play with the kids so I could have some down time. This is when I was confronted once again with my control issues. I was upset because I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong and why Liam wasn't responding the way he was "supposed" to.

Over the last couple of weeks I've been collecting verses to encourage me during those times when I feel like I'm failing. Hopefully they will bring hope to you as well.