A Pumpkin Prayer - Review and activity

This little book is so sweet, and short so Mr. T's attention stays put, that I know it will be a favorite for several Autumn seasons to come.

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A Pumpkin Prayer is a perfect little board book for little ones who are learning to pray and learning to be thankful for all God's many wonders in nature. Mr. T loves the little mice,who play their way through the many wonders and blessings of fall from crunchy leaves to pumpkin pie to "a God who loves me so". I love the colorful illustrations and how the rhyming makes it easier for Mr. T to say it with me. I also love that it is seasonal without being about Halloween. It is a dear prayer for the whole family to enjoy while baking a pumpkin pie.

To correspond with our  Pumpkin Prayer book, we are doing a tot unit on Pumpkins from Currclick, and adding a few fun activities of our own. We got some fall colored pom poms at Michael's and have been using them to practice our pincer grasp. We will be doing some color sorting later this week.

 Of course, we always have to dump. Mr. T is, after all, all boy :)

 We are also working on learning the Fruit of the Spirit. Mr. T has some issues with gentleness (all boy) so I though this was a good verse for us to work on. I made a little printable sheet (there is a link to it here) and we found some cute felt pumpkin stickers at Michael's and I used a sharpie to write an attribute on each pumpkin. If you don't have the stickers, you could print or draw pumpkins or other fruit to use this during other seasons.

Mr. T had a lot of fun pretending to eat the stickers. 

This is his concentration face. Toddlers have the best facial expressions!

And rearranging a little before he is all done.

Here is our finished pumpkin patch, which is now hanging on our fridge so we can go over it at least once a day. I can't wait to post the rest of our fun activities for this week and next week. If you have pumpkin activities, please share your links in the comments! We love learning together :) Have a blessed week!

To use our "Fruit of the Spirit" pumpkin patch printable, click here. (It's a Google doc so no sign up required)

Montessori fun: Planting plants and seeds

We put all our supplies (T's water pitcher, trowel, our new plant, and soaked morning glory seeds) into our toting tub.

I showed T how to dig in the same spot, and then let him have fun digging.

After we planted the pincushion butterfly bush, we made little holes for the seeds. And T got into sprinkling dirt all over himself. Such a boy!

We watered the plants (and we've watered them each day since, too.) It may be T's favorite part since he loves playing in water and mud so much ;)

The finished project!

B90Days and other happenings

 

I am currently reading the Bible with the Bible in 90 Days program with a great group of ladies over at Moms Tool Box which is really exciting. As a Christian, I'm a little ashamed to say I've never read the entire Bible from cover to cover, so this is a great way to meet that Faith Goal for myself. So far, so good! I'm praying for continued excitement and learning from this experience.

In other news, we are planning out our school room, which will hopefully be finished by October! YAY! I will be doing a lot of budget friendly decorating and using a lot of recycled furniture. I'll try to post how to's as we go, and then show the finished product! I can't wait to have an official school room!

Today I am praying very hard about homeschooling, and I am finding the more I pray the firmer my convictions are in regard to providing the best possible schooling for my child. I'm also realizing that I have become "that mom". What do I mean by "that mom"? Well, when I was younger (before I met my husband) I was the best parent in the world (you know you did it, too). I was never going to be "that" strict about what I let my child watch, read, listen to, or be around. I wouldn't have an "over protected child" that was "too sheltered" who would have issues dealing with the real world. Ahem. Yes, that was me. 

I have learned that my "wisdom" was very misguided, just as I was. I no longer view it a too sheltered and over protected. I see my son's innocence and loving nature, and I HAVE to protect that. I was given this child by God, with all the rights and responsibilities of being a Christian parent raising a God loving, God worshiping child in a Christ centered home. That means being vigilant. Right now I make the decisions of how carefully his little eyes, ears, hands and mouth are protected. So yes, there will be select TV shows he can watch. There will be certain books we will keep around for him to read, and certain ones he can choose at the library. There will be places he cannot go and people with whom I will limit his contact. I don't plan on locking him up in the basement till he's thirty, but I do plan on prayerfully planning out our sweet days together learning, exploring, and growing. 

How do you implement boundaries to protect you little ones?