Mrs. H

#BreakYouMake

I recently heard about Chobani’s #BreakYouMake promotion- asking folks to tell the world about a friend of mine who needs a break… And could use some Chobani Flips in their life.

My first thought was wow what an awesome idea! My second thought was… I’m not fond of Greek yogurt. But the idea of the Flip intrigued me, because I do enjoy parfaits. So I decided to try the Flips before making any commitments. And, well…

I’m hooked!!! I seriously LOVE these things! I love the crunch of the add-ins and the fresh, fun flavors that are perfect for breakfast, snack, or even dessert.

I didn’t have to think more than about two seconds to know who of my friends would not only most love the Flips, but also to think about who most needs a break right now.

You know those days that Mama said would happen? Try linking those all together into a really tough year. A year where seemingly nothing goes your way. From moving and the door on the freezer gets broken (and the company subsequntly sending the wrong replacement part two or three different times to the tune of -$200 a pop), to Internet service randomly shut off for no reason, to numerous personal things I would never betray on the www, my dear sweet friend who is an amazing mom, an awesome nurse, and probably the strongest woman I know has been through quite a year. If anyone deserves to jet away to a tropical island on her two minute break while on her nursing rounds, it’s Johannah.

Not only is she working long twelve hour shifts three or four days a week, she’s supporting her two teenagers in their sports and all the while working out herself in an attempt to become a healthier mom. What a better snack for someone striving to eat healthy than Chobani Flip? I love that they are high in protein and fabulous in flavor and come in some really great varieties to please any tastebud. I know if she was to win some free Chobani Flip yogurt she would FLIP… And be super excited about the healthy break SHE could make while at work or on the go!

So here’s to my Super Mom-Nurse-Friend… Hoping Chobani Flips… For you! Love ya! blog signature

Want to nomiate one of your friends? Find out more about the #BreakYouMake project here on the Chobani website! And find out more about the Chobani Flip yogurt here!

Building Duplo Sentences and Pronoun Matching

I saw this idea from Allison McDonald, over at No Time For Flash Cards, and I thought it was really cool… but wasn’t sure how to relate it to Becca. Then one day it hit me. Sentences. Becca is always wanting to write. But due to her very asynchronous development paired with her perfectionism… she is unable to write in a manner that looks correct to her, so she doesn’t enjoy writing. She gets very frustrated. But this way… this way the world is opened to her.

I started by taking the Duplos that she already had and writing a bunch of words on them. We did the activity and then we discovered I had inadvertently forgotten to make any prepositions. And we needed color words. And adverbs. And… and… and… she thought of more words than I had ever dreamed of. SO, since we needed to go to Toys R Us that afternoon anyway, we got another set of Duplos. Because truly, we can’t ever get enough of them around here.

As of today, she has 169 words and punctuation marks. (And that includes three blocks with ” ‘s ” written on them.) She keeps thinking of more words she wants. I told her that she’ll need to wait a while because we aren’t going to buy any more Duplos right now. She wants me to write words on all of her brother’s Duplos too… which I have also held off doing because his go to specific sets.

I love the tenacity with which she approaches building her sentences. Sometimes she likes to build silly sentences just by putting words together that don’t make sense. Sometimes I think of sentences and have her hunt through all the blocks to find the words that are in the sentence. And sometimes she comes up with things on her own that just blow me away. When she wrote “I love my Mommy,” I couldn’t help but smile.

She has discovered that she can also build sentences vertically, and she loves sorting the words by type (which I made easy for her by matching the colors – all the verbs are yellow, food nouns are light blue, pronouns are red, etc.) It’s a great way to talk about types of words, appropriate punctuation marks, sentence structure. She can write stories by building them vertically, or by making them wrap around the table. It’s also a great way to practice sight words if you have some words your child is struggling to remember.

I love the flexibility that comes with this activity, and that she still has the ability to use her engineering skills to build fun towers as well. For example, yesterday I told her to forget there were words on the blocks, and just build something cool. Then after she was done building, we read all the words in order and giggled at the silly nonsensical story she had written!

I also made male and female word sets to reinforce male and female pronouns, and that can be an activity in and of itself sorting them into the correct stack.

We have a bunch of flat Duplos that I haven’t been sure what to do with… and I think I’m going to use them for math facts. Whatever I decide to do with them, you can be sure I’ll share. What ideas do you have for fun ways to use Duplos?

This post was not sponsored in any way by Lego Duplo… we’re just a family who loves Legos and Duplos and has an overabundance!

Involving Your Student in the Planning Process

So I was getting a little stressed out. I never planned to be homeschooling. In any form. When I found out that we had to “qualify” for pre-k here in Texas, and that we wouldn’t qualify, I thought, ok well, I can teach pre-k. It’s not like I don’t have the experience. Or we could just put our kids in a private pre-k. But that was before. Before either of our kids was born.

The journey we’ve taken the last three years with Becca has been incredible. We never expected all the challenges that come with being her parents. But we wouldn’t change a thing. Even the homeschooling first, second, and third grade curriculum at age three in the middle of the summer because she doesn’t ever want to shut down or take a break from learning. I wouldn’t change it, but it is definitely enough to stress ya out. Believe me, ya’ll. I was about to lose it.

And then I saw a post from one of my favorite bloggers, Colleen (from Raising Lifelong Learners), about this class called Bloom. It’s made for homeschooling moms and actually says in the title that it’ll help me find my SANITY. And boy. I kept seeing her post that Alicia from Vibrant Homeschooling was doing this Bloom registration for her class, and I kept seeing the word SANITY. But I kept telling myself I’m not homeschooling. Not really. I mean I call it unschooling, but seriously, I’m NOT a homeschooler. I was fighting it tooth and nail. Not the homeschooling itself, but the title. The “stigma.” The looks. The comments from, well, everyone who isn’t a homeschooler.

But then I gave in. And realized that whatever label I put on it, I am teaching school at home. And I realized I was flailing around out there in an ocean, looking for a life raft. So I decided to grab the next one that floated by, and I joined the Bloom class. After only completing two classes (of eight) so far, I’m already breathing sighs of relief. Sanity is possible!!! Talking with the other ladies in the group, watching the videos, getting encouragement, all of it has really started making an impact on how I focus on teaching.

And, I realized that I know some things about Becca. She does NOT thrive on specific curriculum guidance. She needs to have the flexibility to follow any little rabbit trail she comes across. A daily lesson plan might be much more comforting to me as a former public school teacher, but for her, it would never work. Because she sees a random cardboard box, and that makes her want to research how cardboard boxes are made. And we might spend all day on that. Or we might see the moon in the daytime and spend the rest of the week learning more (and more, and more, and more) about the moon! I seriously know more than any mom of a 3 year old should ever know about the moon, ya’ll. It’s kinda scary. But, I guess if my daughter is “someday gonna put a Texas flag up there on it,” I should know all this stuff. (Her words,not mine!) I also know that she is very opinionated. Once she feels like she knows everything she wants to know about a topic, she is done with it. And I best not bring it back up. Not because she’ll misbehave or throw a fit, but because it’ll be pointless – her mind will be somewhere else and I’ll be wasting my breath.

Realizing these things about her was a huge breakthrough for me. I knew these things, but somehow sitting down and thinking about them not as flaws but as character traits that impact the way she learns has made a huge impact on the way I approach teaching her. So I decided to sit down and make some lists of things that she might want to learn about this coming school year. (If you follow my Facebook page, you’ve seen a preview of this a few days ago – here’s the backstory behind the photo I shared.) I made a list of items from various subjects that I felt she might be interested in… but I wasn’t sure. So I decided I’d just ask her, and then we could sort of go through the lists little by little and cover those topics.

I’m always so fascinated to see how her brain works. When I went to talk to her about the theme topics, we were in her bedroom, and I sat on the floor. She was all over the room all the time. As she got more excited about the topics she wanted to learn about, she moved faster and faster. She was eventually spinning in circles next to me. (Enter her Proprioceptive need for input…aka Sensory Processing Disorder or SPD) She read the lists aloud over my shoulder and would say “yes, I want to learn ___” or “no, I know enough already about ____.” When we were talking about science topics, she kept going. “I want to learn about ____ and I want to learn about ____ and about _____ and then what about _____?” We ended up with an amazing set of lists of theme topics she wants to learn about, art projects she wants to create, and some physical stuff she wants to try, too.

It was a super productive meeting time, and she and I both left the room really excited about what all we’re going to learn about together in the coming school year. Then she hit me with a curveball. She basically asked me if we could start “tomorrow.” We talked about it, and agreed that this summer we will definitely do some things on her lists, but we’ll wait and pick up on the more “schoolish” things (math, according to her is “kind of schoolish”) this fall. I’m totally fine with that. Until such time as she’s actually behind in a skill for her age, I will totally let her determine what she wants to learn, and when she wants to learn (which of course is everything / every minute of every day).

I honestly don’t know how long this homeschooling thing will be right for us. I hope and pray that we can get her IQ tested next year and then advocate for the school district we are in to advance her to the appropriate grade level for her skills once she hits age 5 and should start kindergarten. But that may not happen. And it may be that we need to continue some form or combination of home, private or charter education to ensure that all of her needs are met.

We have to take each day at a time, and I have to be ok with the flexibility of all of it. This isn’t something that I can really plan ahead. I have to learn to roll with the punches. (Which is probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done thus far…) But here’s the SANITY portion of this!!!!: By letting her select and tell me things she is interested in learning, my curriculum won’t fail. And I won’t spend tons of money on themes she isn’t interested in!!! I know I’m guaranteed to have a happy, intent student who is eager to learn about the selected topic.

I would highly encourage other moms (homeschooling or not) to talk to your kids about what they want to learn. Don’t just assume they are interested. Ask them open-ended questions. Start the discussion by simply saying – what do you want to learn? And then sit back and be ready to listen. REALLY listen. And then be prepared to follow through!

Share some feedback – I’d love to hear from you! How do you involve your kids in their learning process? Do they get to help select their curriculum if you are homeschooling? Do they get to select topics of extracurricular study/activity if they are in another school setting and learning additionally at home? What works for you? I’m always eager to learn from others and get new ideas!! This was a first for us, and happened to be very successful, so I wanted to share.

Perfect… Or not.

So I have this picture in my mind. Always. Of every scenario. I can see the perfect, and then I can see the worst case scenario. Usually, in my life anyway, what happens in reality falls somewhere in between. So reality is somewhat unknown. And it’s the fear of the unknown that holds me back.

I have to learn to let go. The phrase “Let Go and Let God” often seems so trite. And yet, it’s scary how accurate it is. In our lives as parents, in our careers as business people, in our relationships as friends… If we just would let go of all the fears that are holding us back and just let God direct… Wow. The possibilities are limitless.

I never planned to have a gifted child. I mean, yeah, the smart kid who enjoys school would be a plus. Ya know, a teacher’s pet like I was- high achieving, reach for the stars kinda kid. But gifted? Nope. Never dreamed of it. Because I was too busy imagining the what ifs of having a child with a major learning disability or dreaming of having a kid who floated through school on a cloud.

I never imagined I’d have a three year old who could read. Like genuinely, pick up a brand new book, open it, and read 95% of the words inside. I was too busy worrying I might have a third grader who couldn’t read, or planning how much fun it would be to teach my three year old about shapes and colors and play little matching games to realize what my reality could be.

Some people might think it’s the most proud, bragging sort of thing for me to call a spade a spade and say that Becca is gifted. But that’s because they don’t know. They don’t feel the pain. They don’t see the anguish. They don’t know my fears. They don’t see her tears.

She knows she’s “different.” She is socially aware. She sees the kids her age, and then she sees kids much older, and she knows where her brain belongs vs where her body belongs. She struggles. And because she struggles, I do to.

I wrestle with just letting her do “whatever” and continuing to teach her new things. But I’ve come to a realization. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. She wants to learn. She has a drive and a desire to learn more and more. I have watched this week as she was devistated to realize she doesn’t understand the concept of rhyming… And seen her find every rhyming game on her Kindle, request every Super Why episode that involves rhyming, play her rhyming game, work her rhyming puzzles, and ask me a million times in a day, “Does ____ rhyme with ____?” She WANTS to understand. She WANTS to grasp this concept that has somehow managed to evade her thus far.

Because she wants to learn, I will teach. If it kills me, I will teach her. She may be stubborn. She may be strong willed. She may have sensory issues out the wazoo. But I love her more than any other human in this planet (altho her Daddy comes in an extremely close second!!), and therefore I am more than qualified to teach her. God placed me in every training class in college, every bit of research on my master’s, every student I ever taught in public school- they were all training me for THIS. To be her mom.

(Not to mention Grayson, who seems to be coming right along in her footsteps speaking in two-four word sentences and recognizing a couple of the colors already at 13 months.)

So am I perfect? Heck no. Is this “unschooling homeschool” perfect? Far, far from it. But it WILL be the perfect place for my kids with His help. And we’ll get through every step of the way – whether we be here at home, in a public, in a private, in a charter, or in an online school.

I don’t have this mom thing all figured out. I know I’m a pretty big screw up most days. But I have figured one thing out: I’m in love. The man I married is the most amazing man in the world. And our children are beautiful. These three humans are so precious to me. I can’t imagine life without them. Perfect, worst case scenario, or reality- I’ll take them any way they come.

I look forward to loosely planning our fall and sharing with you as I set up our themes and work with Becca to create our goals! I hope you’ll check in with my Facebook page to stay updated on the latest ideas!!

Mystery Messages

A super fun way to spread the word… about anything… is to make it a mystery! Whether your child makes the message, or you do, there’s nothing quite so exciting as taking what appears to be a blank white sheet of paper and turn it into a special message! Becca simply loves doing these crayon resist water color paintings, and with this activity your options are truly limitless!Just take your white crayon and write a message on white cardstock, then paint over it with water colors to reveal the mystery message!

Your mystery message could be a simple Bible verse, an I love you note, a reminder of your home address/phone number, or a sign for your child’s door! You could easily make math fact cards or illustrate the life cycle of a butterfly. The awesome part is the science lesson behind it all – water won’t stick to wax! The colored water just beads and rolls right off. Becca has decided that next we need to try mystery messages on other colors of paper. So we’ve been trying to pair up the right shades of crayons to our paper stash to see if we can make mystery messages in more than just white!

Have you already tried crayon resist paintings with your kids? Well, what about glue resist? It’s a little more complicated – make your glue design and then allow it to dry thoroughly before painting. You’ll have to also try different kinds of glue – what sort of results do you think you’ll get trying Elmer’s vs hot glue?

It’s so fun to get your kids to predict and then check their hypothesis!! Introduce the scientific method early and often to your kiddos and they will learn to love science… as well as see how much it relates to everything in our world!