Our New Schedule here in Kings Mountain, NC (Advice Wanted)

Our main new problem here is that Jackson loves to nap, but it is looking like he does not need a nap anymore because he will not fall asleep till like 11 or even 12 at night if he has a nap during the day. He stays in his room just makes a lot of noise till way late at night.

Here is our definite with our schedule

From 2-4 pm is nap/rest time. No matter what, I try my best to have them both resting in their room during this time. It is fine if Jackson does not sleep but he has to stay in his room (we have a hard safety thing on the inside of his door knob so he cannot get out).

Monday: Car and block day. I play cars and blocks with my babies and they work on copying me
Tuesday: Bubble Day
Wednesday: Puzzle Day
Thursday: Animal Day
Friday: Art Day
Saturday: Ball Day
Sunday: Worship Day

Some good ideas I got from Heaven at Home

Blanket time with toys
Hair Chair time with coloring books
Computer time
Reading and prayer time...teaching toddlers to say, "thank you God for . . ."
Video time (not for too long)
Outside time (most recommend 1 hour a day outside)
"Sit time" with a timer teaching your little ones not to speak for short amounts of time with a book or crayons
"Chore time"--making up their bed, cleaning up toys, empty trash
Room time with toys

A Sample Summer Schedule Plowman posted for school age children

Monday

Make bed

Dress/ brush teeth

Breakfast

Devotion and memory verse

Play outside at least one hour

Reading time---30 minutes

Either clean house or play a game with sibling

Room time---1 hour

Jackson is staring to make up his bed in the morning and we are starting off with devotions after breakfast now. We usually go through Day by Day: The One Year Devotion for Young Children (Free), and we talk about the Sunday School sheet (if we just had Sunday School we talk about last weeks lesson... if it if close to the next Sunday we read over the lesson that is coming up).

Love to hear your schedule or what your little ones do at Preschool. I always love hearing great ways to plan out our days here better.

Thursday's Tip: Sesame Street Hip Hip Hooray for School!

Currently, Jackson loves learning!

I saw this workbook at CVS "Hip Hip Hooray for School" for 3 years old and up. It is perfect for Jackson right now and has 160 pages of worksheets. The first page works on the "m" sound and you say the name of each picture and circle the objects whose names begin the "m" sound.

We do about 2 or 3 worksheets a day (if it was up to him we would do a lot more). I know a lot of other moms who teach there kids at home have letter days. For example, Monday would be "m" day. They practice writing the letter "m" and finding objects around the house all day that start with the "m" sound. Have you tried this? Do you find this helpful?

We are also learning how to write letters (he does not get frustrated anymore when he cannot hold his crayon correctly).

Other suggestions from friends to do once your toddler turns 3 are:

• Handwriting without tears
• Brain Quest Worksheets
• Visiting Learning Express Toys. I recently got Jackson a matching memory game there.
  

I cannot believe that my baby boy is about to be three and half, and growing up so quickly!

What are some things you like to do with your three year olds at home that help them learn?

Tuesday's Tip: $150 Grocery Challenge/ Schedules

My new challenge weekly for grocery and out to eat is $150. This does not include diapers.

This week spent $99.97 on out to eat
$102.80 on groceries
Total of $202.77

What went well?

• One morning we got up early and took two cars to Walmart. Charlie went with me to Walmart because the kids were fussy and we need a lot of stuff. He kept track of how much we were buying and our goal was $70 for groceries (this included $24 formula). We did not have a calculator and ended up spending $71.67. Charlie is very accurate...I was impressed.
  
• We never went to a restaurant where we had to pay a waitress fee.
• Knowing I would be writing a blog post about how I am doing kept me motivated not to overspend too much.
  

Went went wrong?

• I bought $15 worth of candy.
  
• We went to way to many fast food places (even though they were all $10 for dinners and $5 for lunches).
• Took out money for the fair and have no idea where exactly that money went.

Do you have any tips on how I can actually meet my goal of $150 for groceries and out to eat for this week?

Revising The Cleaning Schedule

I have found making a cleaning schedule some things have worked and other things have not worked. So I have revised is based on what is realistic for us.

Week A Weeks have specific chores every day and Week B has different chores on that same day. You really do not need to vacuum every week in my opinion.

Mondays: Our laundry all day
Tuesdays: Kids Laundry all day
Wednesdays: Week A: Clean All hardwood floors clean bathrooms. Week B Clean tubs/organize bathrooms. Wednesday is clean the bathrooms day
Thursdays: Week A: Clean kitchen Week B: Dust kitchen and living room. Thursday is mainly clean the kitchen day
Friday: Week A: Vacuum the entire house (takes 30 minutes) Week B: Dust the kids room and our room clean rooms. Friday is clean up all the rooms day.
Saturday: Week A: Organize and clean the inside of the house (closets especially) Figure out what need to be given away. Week B: Clean out cars, clean outside Or just catch up on whatever I have not gotten done during the week.

I only do laundry two days a week so I do not feel like my entire weeks are spent washing clothes. I also have figured out that on the days I do laundry it is impossible to find time to clean so this is why this schedule is working for us. What about you? How do you keep your house clean?

Also you can click here to see different weekly schedules for a friend of mine who went to my youth group. She has four little ones under the age of five (I think), and I am pretty sure she still homeschools all of them . She is very inspirational!

Thursday's Tip: Weekly Teaching Your Toddler/Preschooler Bible Stories

This week we have been focusing on Zaccheus and I have read to Jackson about Zaccheus every day to him before his naps.

How did I choose to focus on Zaccheus this week?

Jackson's wonderful Sunday School teachers give him a sheet to take home for the week for children his age. This curriculum is made by Lifeway which is an excellent Sunday School curriculum. The story was about Zachheus so on Sunday I decided that we would focus on this story every day this week (I always want my 4th grade girls to do what I send home with them because it is an excellent resource for them, but these sheets have been way over Jackson's head, so I have been ignoring them for a while...). We have looked at the sheet that was sent home with him on Sunday every day this week, and he has loved it!

We also have read the first story from Read-Aloud Bible Stories Vol. 1 (Puckett) which is all about Zaccheus. I love this book and would highly recommend it. At the end of this first story, the author writes simply and beautifully, "Jesus knew Zaccheus was in that tree. He even knew Zaccheus's name. Jesus knows where you are---all the time. He knows your name too."

Jackson would love for me to read to him for hours every day and I am really enjoying this time with him. Not to long ago, he could not sit still for even a minute!

I do want to get him a real Bible soon. I want it so we can actually find where stories are from (this story is found in Luke). What would you recommend for his first real Bible? Is there any other books you recommend to help teach the Bible to my babies?

Today was animal day for school time. We played with all the animals we have (I got tons at the Tot Trade) and we had a zoo and then a farm. We learned that certain animals are at the farm, and certain ones are at the zoo. I strapped Abigail down in a seat and she learned as well.

We also read Brown Bear three times, and he can read the entire book to me! God has answered so many of our prayers for Jackson.

Homeschooling a 2 Year Old Active Boy

Even though it might not be the plan I have for my life, God's plan for me right now is to homeschool Jackson. It is not that I am against homeschooling, it is just a huge challenge for me in that I feel clueless in teaching little ones. I feel very comfortable teaching children who can already read (gradeschool and up), but I have absolutely no experience teaching children this young. I would love for Jackson to go to a Preschool but he will only be in a 2 year old Preschool next year because of his very late birthday (he will be 3 years old the entire year). We are very thankful that we have an extra year since Jackson lost so much time having a tongue that was completely inactive. Many days I really feel that Jackson is not teachable and that I need major help.

With all his issues, it is not God's plan for Jackson to go to a Preschool right now. I wanted to share a little bit of what I have learned on how to teach an active two year old toddler boy

• Have a plan! Plans can be changed, but what I have found is when I do not have a plan for the day it ends up being a very hard day.
• This is our "regular" plan for a the week. Monday Wednesday and Friday morning we go to the gym for my class 9:15-10:15. While Abigail is napping around 10:45 am we have "school" time (try to every day Monday-Friday). I make him sit in a chair and we pray and read the Bible and then we work on his speech saying flashcards. Next, we move to his tongue exercises on the highchair. After we are done working on speech, I try to play with him. On Mondays I play cars and block with him, Tuesday are bubbles, Wednesday puzzles, Thursday animals, Friday is art day--coloring, etc. Also, every other day after our "school" time we watch Signing Time dvd's that help him learn and say words. I really enjoy educational dvd's for little ones! They teach me so much.
  
• I would love to have worksheets for 2 year old to work on daily...such as working on knowing and writing ABC's, 123's, and learning words. Do you know any good place that offers worksheets for 2 year olds? I bet I could call local Preschools and see where they get their sheets. Whatever you do, I think it is good to daily have "school time" that challenges them to advance in reading and writing and learning what words mean. Or maybe that is another invention I will create one day. Homeschooling worksheets for 2 and 3 year olds.
  
• The very hard days are days when I choose to stay in the entire morning to get laundry done or organize their clothes. Jackson will bring me the keys to the car, and ask to "go, go, go." These days I think will get easier when we have a playset. I did not get the playset last week because they had no more in stock to order. I did get a "rain check" from Toys R Us and will get it at that price if they can ever order it. If they cannot order it in the next 3 weeks, we will probably be going the to Walmart to get it. I really believe that God create boys to want to go out and fish and hunt and provide for the family. This is hard for me because I wish he could just sit still some days and enjoy staying in the house.
  
• Tuesday and Thursday morning we do stay in because therapy comes to us that morning and it takes too long to get ready to go anywhere because I am helping during the therapy time.
  
• Do you have any suggestions on homeschooling 2 and 3 year old active little boys? As long as Jackson is not attending a Preschool, I must realize that I am homeschooling him. I must also realize that Charlie and I will always be his main teachers no matter if he ends up going to Preschool or not.