Top 5 Posts for 2013

Homeschooling a toddler and a preschooler with Apraxia is a wonderful adventure I am so blessed to share with you. Thank you for being a part of our homeschool journey. Here are the top 5 posts from 2013! Enjoy revisiting old friends and we hope you will be joining us for lots more fun and learning in 2014!

#1 - Our 2013-2014 Homeschool Preschool Curriculum
We are still having a lot of fun with it all but have been making tweaks and changes as we go! The beauty of homeschool is flexibility!

#2 - Cinnamon Dough Fun!
This is a sweet and classic craft and we love making these. I also can't believe how little Mr. T is in this post. Boy time flies!

#3 - The Homeschool Room
Moving the boys into a room together has been awesome (except for Mr. F cutting molars and waking Mr. T during the night for several nights in a row!) Freeing up the second room to become a designated school room and play room has really helped us be able to focus our time and helps me keep the house in better, less toy-box exploded shape.

#4 -  Our Stone Soup Unit
This was our first lapbook. We had so much fun we have incorporated lapbooks into all our unit studies since and we are excited to try lap-n-notes this spring since we are working on Mr. T's writing skills. We used a lot of Montessori hands on learning in this unit and Mr. F is really beginning to love his Montessori learning, too!

#5 - The Power of Yet
My favorite post from 2013. As a special needs homeschool parent, it is sometimes easy to listen to the doubt and the fear that creeps in during the long days. When I share my hope with you, it reminds me of my hope and the One who give it.

2014 is going to be a phenomenal year! I hope to be seeing some of you at Teach Them Diligently in Nashville for fellowship and encouragement, and again at Great Homeschool Convention in Greenville! And of course, we want to see you here! Sign up for email updates so you don't miss any of our homeschooling fun!

Blessings and love to you and your families for this coming new year!

Toddler Manners: Loud and Soft Voices

Some days it seems like my toddlers only have one volume. LOUD. Not just loud as in your favorite song just came on the radio so you turn it up, but LOUD. Like someone decided it might be fun to switch your alarm clock out for a jet engine mid-take-off. They can rattle your brain, make your ears ring, and sometimes even send you looking for the ibuprofen. Teaching them appropriate volumes for different places can be tricky. Especially if they get excited going down the aisle where Clifford resides at the library. Maybe that's just my kids :)

We have a "volume button". (I wish it were real!) But with Mr. T when he gets too loud, I can use my pretend volume button and "turn down" the volume while telling him to "turn it down". If he's whispering and I can't understand I can tell him to turn it up while turning my pretend volume button up. It didn't take him long to understand and usually to acquiesce. This method is really useful when he's across the room because he can still see me "turning" the button and he generally knows which direction his volume needs to go to become more pleasant.

Another way to teach your toddler is to make a list, with pictures if you want to get crafty, of different places you go and talk about the proper volume for talking while you are there. The Post Office would be normal volume. Church would be super low volume during prayers and the message, and joyfully loud (not screaming) when singing. The Library would be a low volume. Outside on the playground can be a loud volume! Once you go over it a few times, you can make it into a game and just be silly and have fun. When you are out visiting the places, gentle reminders when your toddlers volume level isn't appropriate can bring them quickly back to the volume they should be using.

Try to learn your toddlers cues because sometimes the loud or soft voices are telling you they need a break from wherever you are. Especially in loud environments, toddlers can become overwhelmed and their need to drown out the noise makes them get louder. These episodes usually require removal of the toddler and a few minutes to calm down and process the environment. Keep your patience and show your little ones grace. They will eventually learn how to speak at appropriate levels wherever they may be.

What do you use for teaching inside/outside voices in your homeschool?

View all our 10 Days of Toddler Manners Series here.

Part of the iHomeschool Network's Autumn Hopscotch.

Hands Are For Helping Character Training and Incentive System

Our 10 Days of Teaching Toddler Manners is covering my Hands are for Helping system today. I wanted to come up with a character training system that I could use as an incentive system as well. And stickers just don't work very well for Mr. T. He loves to play with them but are not much of a motivator. I wanted a way to teach my toddler about good manners, caring, helping, listening, and more and I wanted to incorporate memory verses so those seeds would be planted as he is growing. Here is the system.

Our Hands holder is a little wall card box Mr. T made at a Home Depot workshop. It was the perfect size so I hung it on the wall of our school room where he can reach it to put hands in, but Mr. F cannot reach it to pull hands out. Not yet, anyway, that boy is growing like a weed!

Here is a close up of our "Helping" hand. I got these great foam hands in a dollar bin, but you could just as easily trace and cut out or print out hands and laminate(affiliate) them. I wrote the attributes I wanted to encourage on the front and a corresponding Bible verse on the back. I used our Child Training Bible to find appropriate verses.

The Hands and verses we have are:
Helping 1 Peter 4:11
Sharing Luke 6:30-31
Gentle Proverbs 12:20
Praying 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Kind Galatians 5:22-23
Cleaning Colossians 3:23
Learning Job 28:18
Listening Proverbs 12:15
I will continue adding hands and verses as needed. The next one will be for Bible memory work, I think. *On a related note, my sweet little boy with Apraxia said his first memory verse at our homeschool co-op today! Job 33:4, and I couldn't be more proud! I nearly cried. God is soooo good!*

So the system works like this. Hands get added when your child does something they are supposed to. Helping mom empty the dishwasher, cleaning up their toys when they are asked, sharing with their younger sibling, etc. When they get all the hands in the holder, they get a treat. Extra playtime, a filed trip, 20 extra minutes up, whatever it is that makes your little one extra motivated to help/clean/share again. I think it's easier for really little guys to do this on a weekly basis, but by the time they are 4 to 5 you might be able to do it on a daily or every few days basis. The general idea is to reward positive behavior, learn Scripture and have fun training your little one to be a caring and mannerly Child of God.

This post is part of our 10 Days of Teaching Toddlers Manners series with the iHomeschool Network's Autumn Hopscotch. Thank you so much for joining us, and be sure to check out the other great blogs that are participating!

Linked up with Mom's Mustard Seeds Resources for Mom.

Weekly Wrap Up: Homeschool when Mom's Down

Our homeschool this week: Mom's back is out so I've been playing with photo filters and I love seeing how black and white can really change the feel of an image. I did manage to take Mr. T to see The Velveteen Rabbit at the CPVA in Newnan. It was a great show and he sat through (minus one potty break) all 50 minutes! He even waved bye bye to the bunnies.

This is major progress and for you moms with 2-3 year olds, bite the bullet and start them early WITHOUT technology. If you want your kiddos to learn how to sit still and use their big kid manners, teach them from the beginning. If you provide an iPhone at 2 and 3, at 13 you will wonder why they can't get through a church service without "entertainment". Do the hard (and sometimes embarrassing) work when they are little. If you have to get up and leave after 20 minutes, celebrate the 20 minutes and shoot for 30 next time. It will pay off!

*This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting our homeschool by shopping through them. For more information see our Disclosure page.*

LEGO's! They are wonderful For speech practice, for encouraging reading, and for keeping little minds occupied while riding in the car. The creativity that these blocks bring out in children is wonderful. The DUPLO Read and Build sets are so cute and lots of fun as the story shows your little one how to build the characters!

Brothers: We have had a huge amount of sibling bonding. I would love some tips to encourage this to continue.

Family: We had family portraits made by the lovely Katie Snyder, Atlanta Photographer. Mr. F fell asleep on the way there. It was the first real family portraits we've had made since I was 7 weeks pregnant with Mr. F. They were a tad overdue. While we can't afford professional portraits all the time, I do want to be more intentional about making sure the 4 of us are photographed together more. Is there something you are trying to be more intentional about?

Phonics apps are wonderful and we got this one when it was on sale, but it is totally worth the $19.99! Phonics and Reading with McGuffey is one of Mr. T's favorite things to do on the iPad. Another great homeschool investment. There are so many great apps, I really believe it pays for itself in the workbooks and toner and paper it saves.

Mr. F is enjoying lots of fun sensory play and Montessori activities. He loves our Melissa and Doug puzzles. And playing peek a boo. Our read aloud time currently include Raggedy Andy Stories . They are so sweet and I just love reading them. The boys play quietly and I think they like the time together.

Gluten Free: We found Glutino Toaster Pasteries. GF pop tarts. Oh my! I was so exited and Mr. T loves them! Yay for a new treat!

What fun things did you do in your homeschool this week?

I'm not that kind of mom

Sometimes God calls us to share things we are afraid of. And I've had this on my heart for a while. I know lots of other moms and moms-to-be probably have, too. You see, I'm not that kind of mom. When I was pregnant with Mr. T, I prayed all the usual things, smart, happy, loving, sweet, for my sweet one to always love God first and foremost. But I also always prayed, "dear God, please don't let my son have autism." Because the "big A" scares me. It didn't before I began this journey of motherhood. But oh how those 2 pink lines change everything.

It wasn't the thought of my child having autism that frightened me. I have and do know blessings all across the spectrum and each one is amazing. God does not make mistakes, He makes miracles. But I am weak, and selfish, and fragile and so very human. I was terrified because all the moms I know with autistic kiddos, they are so strong. They are amazing. They are smart. They are warrior and tiger and saint mothers. And I am me. I am fallen, I am impatient, God is not finished with me yet. I was terrified of the mother I would be because of the person that I am.

And my prayers of pregnancy were answered. Mr. T is loving, sweet (most of the time), he is amazingly smart and he is growing in his understanding of "Gah" and "Ee-uh", and oh how this mama's heart melts when his sweet little approximations of those precious names come tumbling out when we are reading our devotions or saying verses, but I digress. As of right now, our diagnosis is Apraxia of Speech with sensory seeking and fine motor skill issues alongside. I don't know if we are clear yet, Mr. T does have some ASD tendencies, so we shall see. Sometimes God's answers are not what we wanted but they are so much better than what we planned.

But I have to tell you, I am still not that kind of mom. God knew what I could handle and He piled on so much more than that. My stubborn heart, my ugly heart, my weak spirit have all been tested and broken by these things I watch my child struggle with and through. And as weak as I am, the fierceness of the love I have for my child and the ache of how badly I want to help him, it amazes me that it itsn't even an inkling of how much God loves us. Amazing grace, indeed.

And all those years I prayed for patience, God is answering those now. Those prayers for a better understanding and more compassionate spirit, He's building those, too. He is molding me, and dear friends, He is molding you.

Our burdens and our crosses are made to break us. In our weak and broken state, He is our strength. He is our gentle response to the ultra tantrums in the grocery store, He is the deep breath and sweet words when our tongues want to scream, He is the arms we feel around us when we crumple onto the kitchen floor at the end of a too long day when we have fallen so very short. He is the nice words at the IEP meetings when we want to tell them what we think of "that" plan. And He is the gentle chiding we hear when we look at other moms and think how much better than "I" they are.

In all our struggles as wives, mothers, home schoolers and special needs parents it is so easy to forget that God is always faithful. His love never fails and it endures forever. As we continue on this journey together, I am so grateful and humble that God, even knowing my deepest fears and weakest spirit, gave me this perfect child. And I am so glad that you are here sharing this journey with me.