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Thursday, October 30, 2014

On Teaching My Boys

 First and foremost, excuse the horrendous photography.  Apparently these two picture are the ONLY two picture I have taken of our preschool at home adventures so far.  Now that that is out of the way on to what this post is really about...teaching my boys.  I have always been a fan of the mind set of not pushing my kids too hard in the beginning with things like preschool, i.e. letters, numbers, science, reading. I truly believe that children learn so much from play and interaction and being involved in what either I or Kenny are doing, and that formal learning comes with time, and a readiness that cannot be set at a certain age as per whatever society deems the right age is.  Children are individuals, and as such, have different readiness for different things at different ages.  I want my children to LOVE to learn, not to feel behind or pushed. I know there are many people out there, many of which I know and love, who would like to tell me that they disagree, but that isn't what this post is for.  It is to show you how we are doing and how, sometimes, your thought process evolves, and also, how sometimes, even if you want to do something one way, your child needs something else.

I hadn't planned on starting preschool at my home this year.  Because of the above stated feelings I have, I thought I would start seeing if Shiloh was ready for letters and such around 4, and if he wasn't, we would give it a break and try again in 6 months.  I am also pregnant, which makes for a lack of creativity and energy in my world, and since Eli is so close in age to Shiloh, I thought that maybe if I waited I could do some of same things with them at the same time. 

I am guessing that you are guessing that that isn't how we have done things, at least not totally, considering Shiloh isn't 4 yet, and I am writing this post.  About 5 or 6 months ago, Shiloh started asking me about letters.  He kept asking when he was going to go to school, when he was going to learn letters and numbers, and when he was going to start to be able to read.  I gave him vague answers at first, not knowing if he was serious about it or just wondering. He became more persistent.  I quickly realized, that for his personality and way of learning and desire to learn, I was doing him a disservice by not starting something soon.  Let me tell you, I WAS NOT READY!  I thought I had at least another year.  I hadn't decided how I was going to approach things, how I wanted to approach this teaching adventure.  It seemed daunting.  It seemed like the start of something that wasn't going to stop for the rest my kids lives at home.

I finally buckled down and chose something and decided to go with it.  It isn't super structured.  There is a lot of movement and room for improvisation.  It works on some levels for Eli too, which is a super big plus.  It has gone pretty well so far, and I think my boys are enjoying it.  We learn new words.  We talk about letters.  We pretend to be cows and pumpkins and all sorts of things.  We make crafts and treats and count things.  We check out books from the library that have to do with what we are learning. We make posters and at the end of the day we show it off to daddy, which might be both boys favorite things about preschool so far.
Here are the boys with their cow headbands they made. we crawled around and pretended to be cows for a little while.

I have learned a few things in this process so far, and I am sure there is plenty more out there for me to learn as I go, but it has been good.  I have learned that if I am not organized, preschool doesn't happen, at least not well, and sometimes not at all. I am not a "just wing it" sort of person. It is ok to skip preschool some days... If I am not feeling well or the kids moods aren't working with it, it is better to just bag it for the day and start again when we can all be more positive about it.  I know that at some point that attitude will have to change, but for now, they are little, and they learn so much just from being involved.  Having this mind set has made this transition so much easier for me.  I have also learned that my two boys are very very different learners.  I knew that, but I didn't understand how different until I started "teaching" them.  Shiloh wants to be pushed.  Shiloh never wants preschool time to end.  He asks for it when He wakes up in the morning.  We finish and an hour later he asks if we are going to have it again.  This was very overwhelming for me at first.  I thought that maybe I was inadequate to teach him.  I felt like I didn't have enough time to plan something that would fill up the amount of time he wanted to learn. After talking to Kenny and taking his suggestion, I have started doing the same lesson plan again in the afternoon for him because he loves it so much.  Eli likes the stories.  Eli loves the singing and the dancing and the movement, but he hates you asking him questions.  He gets frustrated, so I don't ask him any.  It isn't important to me for him to catch on this early.  If he was, then great, but he isn't and I am content with that.  I want this to be just as fun for him as it is for Shiloh.  He usually doesn't sit down with us in the afternoons, but Shiloh wouldn't miss it for the world.

Here's to hoping for some more learning in our house, for the kiddos, but especially for me.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Grannie and Pops Came to Town

 Grannie and Pops (Ken's parents) came to town and the very tail end of summer, over Labor day weekend.  It had been about 2 years since they had visited our house, so it was a good time having them here.  The boys especially loved all of the extra attention they got and had a hard time of it wen Grannie and Pops had left.  Kenny ended up having to work most of the time his parents were there, with the new hospital switch over coming up soon, but he did get to take a few days off.  We mostly just did normal everyday things (Sorry Grannie and Pops) but we snuck in a few adventures.

There was a tomato tasting and festival in Columbia.  I didn't get a single picture of a tomato, but we got one (a very poor one at that) of us on the tractor trailer being pulled to the event from the parking lot.

One of the days when Ken had to work, Grannie, me and the boys went to St. Louis.  Kenny's cousin Julianna and her little family live there, and her parents were in town. (her dad is Grannie's brother).  We had lunch, we played, and then we went to this magnificent, and very large, children's museum called The Magic House.  It was amazing, and the kids had a blast!!
 I just loved the above pic because I think the whole time we were at this station, Eli would just push his head into it.  He is such a ham!
 Shiloh learning all about water.  He was so methodical about the way he played.  His apron had to be on just so, the toys had to work a certain way, and he wanted to play with them the way they were "meant" to be played with.
 Eli, on the other hand, had a screaming tantrum over just trying the apron on.  He ran and slipped and squealed with delight.  He splashed and stole toys that we had to give back to other children and got generally soaked.  They both had the most fun in this area, even if they played completely differently.
 Eli fixing a car
 The construction zone... Great Uncle Brad Helping Shiloh with the machinery.
 Eli in the wheel barrow with the rocks.
 Grannie and pops showing off our large head of cabbage.
 I think half of their trip here was spent reading books to the boys.  Eli especially loved bringing books to Pops to have him read to him.  I am so mad that I didn't get a picture of that!  It was adorable.
We went for a walk on the Katie Trail. 

We are so glad that they came to visit and, as always, I wish I would have broken the camera out a little more, so that we could remember all of the fun we had, but I can't seem to remember to stop having fun for a second so that I can take a picture of it. Next time... maybe.

Balloons for Chairety

When Chairety passed away, her husband Yogi wasn't sure that he was going to do any sort of funeral service or wake.  They had talked about it being a happy event, not something that everyone cries over.  He finally decided on doing a "balloon Raising" as he called it.  They had done the same thing for Chairety's mom.  We went over to their church, grabbed a balloon and a sharpie, and wrote a nice note for Chairety to receive in heaven.  I wish we had gotten a pic of the cute pics the boys drew on their balloons for gramma Chairety.  It really was a great way to celebrate her life.  

 They actually did two different groups.  We were in the first group to do it.
 And they are off!

Monday, October 13, 2014

Canning

This year the garden and yard have been generous and plentiful.  We have tried to preserve some of their generosity.  We have also taken a few pictures along the way for yours, and our, enjoyment.  Some of the pics you may have seen, but I am guessing that some you haven't.  You see?  This is one of the problems of taking a blog hiatus...you can't remember which pictures you have posted, and it is overwhelming trying to look through every post for the past few months, so you just hope that with skimming through beforehand, you aren't repeating too much.
Mulberries.  Always plentiful.

 The mulberries don't always make it in to the jams and syrups we can. Some have to be enjoyed right then.
 Just some of the jars... We also made strawberry jam, but apparently there were no pics of the Berries beforehand.
 Eli enjoying the Mulberries.
 This year we had an amazing harvest of tomatillos.  We even had a purple variety.  The boys were good at peeling the husks.  Such good helpers I have. We canned them whole and made green salsa.
 One large tomato.  It is called a Kelloggs breakfast tomato.  Stupid name. Awesome tomato.
 Canning tomatoes.  We canned salsa.  We canned crushed tomatoes.  We canned tomatoes juice.  There was a lot of tomato processing around these parts.
 Eli "helping"
Shiloh Peeling tomatoes.

We also canned green beans.  We canned apples sauce and mulberry spiced applesauce.  We canned pickled spicy peppers and green chiles.  It has been a great harvest year.  It has made a lot of work for us, but it is totally worth it to us.

Chickens, Turtles, Butterflies, and Blue Tailed Skinks....

What do Chickens, Turtles, Butterflies and Blue tailed Skinks have in common?  They are all things that our boys love to chase.  Here are a few summertime fun pics. 
Here is Eli on the tractor. This is one of his favorite things to do. Climb on the tractor, Ride on the tractor, watch the tractor drive around, and pretend that he is driving the tractor while it is in park.
Feeding the Geese at McKay Park in Jeff City.
A blue Tailed Skink.
All of the turtles Sammy brought us.  The boys love to "rescue" them.  We keep them for a bit and then find a good place to let them go where Sammy won't bring them back.
We got butterfly nets in the dollar section at some store.  Shiloh took to it right  away.  We have so many butterflies and moths around here. He would spot one and do this funny little stance and sneaky walk.  It is soooo adorable.  He got pretty good at catching them too.

Here he is with one in his net.  Victory!
This is a brown thrasher.  They are very shy birds.  You don't often see them in the wild, but we happened to have one that nested in our bush right by our barn.  We got to lift the boys up to see the babies and the momma.  It was such a fun experience.
Another favorite thing at our house is chasing chickens.  The chickens don't seem to mind it too much either.
Our next door neighbors lease out their 20 acres to Chris for his cows and for bailing hay.  Chris and his family and his dad also live in Tebbetts.  They are so good with our boys.  Every year at bailing time, they let us know when they are going to do it and they take our boys for a ride in the tractor while they cut, stir and bail the hay.  It is quickly becoming a favorite tradition of our two boys.
In the summer, we do bath time every night, and sometimes twice a day.  My boys get sooooooo dirty playing outside.  One night we started the tub.  Shiloh can get in by himself, and apparently, Eli thought that we were taking to long to help him and he just climbed right in with his clothes on.

I hope you enjoyed the randoms of this summer!

I have been on a blogging hiatus... Utah Trip Part 3... FINALLY!

So some of this will be out of order, but I really want to chronicle some of the things that happened between June and now.  It seems daunting, but maybe in a few posts I can get caught up .... AGAIN.  I think that might be the story of this poor blog.

We went to an Aquarium in South Jordan. I was "sea sick" and morning sick the whole time, but the boys loved it!


The boys had a night out at Chuck E Cheese while the girls went shopping!
We went to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point.  I don't know the real name, but this was the biggest hit of the week. Shiloh still talks about it.

Dig Dig Dig

We really had a blast in Utah and the boys got to all sorts of fun things with their cousins on both sides.  When we came home, they were so disappointed that there weren't billions of people waiting to play with them like they ha in Utah.  We loved it!

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Chicken of the woods mushroom.

Today I spotted a beautiful orange and yellow mushroom out in the woods. I came inside and started doing some research.  It was an easy find.  If you look up large orange mushroom you get Chicken of the woods, a very popular and highly sought after mushroom, that does not have any dangerous look-a likes.  I checked a bunch of resources and they all agreed, so I took the boys out to the woods to get us some shrooms.  They were fascinated by the mushroom and helped me collect it into our sack.  It was about 2-3 lbs of mushroom.  We took it home cleaned it and did our first test.  Sauteed with a little olive oil, Salt and pepper, and you may not believe it, but it tasted like chicken!  Well at least it reminded us of chicken, even the texture was reminiscent of chicken.   Brittani does not like mushrooms, but she said she really liked it. What an amazing find!  On the menu this week is Chicken, vegetable, and chicken of the woods soup. 




Bugs (if spiders scare you then you might not want to look.)

 This is our friendly orb weaver spider.  He/she is a beautiful spider and an expert hunter. 
Look at that awesome web.
We found a few caterpillars on a walk and now they are living in a jar in our house.  One of them is now in a cocoon and we are waiting to see what it will turn in to.