Busy busy bees!

Just wanted to pop in today and let everyone know we are doing great and keeping very busy! I'm not posting as much as I use to and want to, but I will get there! :)


The Embark studies are going great! My son was really reluctant to using a mouse at first, but he is doing just fine now. He's a little pro! What helped me to encourage him to learn how to use the mouse was to go to his favorite TV show websites. Most of the kid shows will have online games for them to play. This is how my son started learning the mouse. At first he wouldn't do his online lessons because he was frustrated with the mouse. Not anymore! We used the website for Peep and also the Disney Junior websites for his other favorite shows. IT WORKS! :)


With all that said, I'm still a firm believer in limiting technology for the kiddos this young. He is now 4 years old and gets about 1-2 hours of TV and Kindle time. I still sometimes feel this is a bit much especially after adding in the 15 min. Embark lessons. So we shall see how that goes. If need be I will cut back somewhere. The good thing is that he will still prefer playing outside or with his toys over the TV or the tablet.


I'm still working very hard at eating healthier. We have come a VERY long way in the last year. I read about 2-3 books a month just on nutrition and health. I also follow a few pages on Facebook that encourage nutrition. I also watch many videos on Youtube when I have the chance. For me this keeps my health and awareness to the foods I eat front and center. It keeps it in front of my face so I am constantly reminded to take care of myself. If not I will slip back into my old habits. For me this works. I encourage anyone who is looking to become more healthy to do at least one of these things. It really helps to keep it in the forefront. Here are a list of the newest books I've read on nutrition. Click here for other great books I have read and recommend. As always check your local library first before you buy! Free is always good! :)

Get Naked Fast

Simply Raw Kitchen

Longevity Now

I have about 6 more new books other than these, but these I have read front to cover and I can easily recommend. I'll add the rest as I go through them.


I hope this helps and encourages you to look more into what you and your family eats. It's a slow journey, but well worth it! Plant those seeds of knowledge now by reading a book!

EmBark12 Course Review

So as stated in a previous post here is the review I promised! So it is still a bit early, but I wanted to try and list a few things anyway. First off I would like to state that when you are ordering the course to be sure you check your "Start Date". You will not have any access to any of the course materials until this date arrives. Until that date you are going to be locked out. This is because it is a yearly subscription to the course. I thought I was buying unlimited access to the course materials, but that is not so. So please be aware of this.

Another note is that I did order all of the extra manipulative sets for this course. There are 3 that you can add on. I think it is well worth the money and saves time from having to go hunt down these items yourself. I just want to state that if you have been homeschooling already or have older kids, that you might have some or most of the items on hand already. For instance I had the magnetic letters, counting bears, globe, etc. on hand already. I guess it's not a bad idea to have back-up, but this is something to consider. The book set that you add on is TOTALLY worth it! You get SO many books and it came out so much cheaper than buying them separately. Just note that if you have a well stocked library nearby then you might be able to find these for free at your local library. We have an amazing library, but things are never in stock. So for me, this was worth it.

I did our first lesson last week and it went really well. The course guides will give you lots of information on how to teach the material, what items to use, and what books to use. It also gives you ideas for group teaching and also one on one teaching. Then to break it down even further it also gives you ideas on how to teach the entire lesson to the younger kids. So there are defiantly different modifications given in the courses and exact instructions for each.

It really gave me some great ideas on extra things to teach my son that I didn't think of teaching a preschooler. Like parts of a book, past tense verbs, what an author does, what an illustrator does, etc. So it is expanding my teaching skills as well. Never under estimate how smart preschoolers are! When I went over these concepts with him he took interest and picked it up right away. Little sponges I tell ya! :)

We are also loving the online courses that came along with the course. My 4 year old is use to touch screens so it was a bit difficult to encourage him to learn the mouse, but he is getting there.

So I hope this helps anyone considering this course. I definitely would recommend it.

K12 Preschool Course!

So if you know me I LOVE teaching my son! Yes, we are going to do the whole "homeschool" thing. Why is that when I say that I feel the need to hide behind a wall to avoid shoes being thrown at me? I think it is actually more accepted today than it use to be, but you still come across those people that think homeschooling is for weirdo's. LOL! I'm not going to list all the "why's" here because it would take up the entire post. So I'll save that for a later date. :)


Anyways, I just ordered the K12 Preschool course. I didn't even realize they offered it. I don't think I will be choosing K12 for the majority of our homeschooling journey for various reasons, but I am really excited about the preschool course. I couldn't find any reviews on this course so I will do my best to give a good review on it when it arrives and after we have used it for a while.


If you haven't seen the course yet, you can check it out here:https://buy.k12.com/ecommerce/public/courseDetails.xhtml?courseCode=EMBARK12COMP&cid=199840


I chose the comprehensive course because I like the one on one with my child. I don't like the idea of sitting my child in front of a computer and walking away when I can very well be hands on with him. I'll save that for later when the more difficult courses come along. ;) So stay tuned! I'll be posting a review sometime this February.

Slime Putty Warning!

I just want to write this up real quick about slime putty. We see all those super fun things to make with our children on Pinterest. I see LOTS of slime putty type experiments to do with your toddler. My son loves slime! I found a pumpkin slime and made it for my son. In a nut shell it was 3 cups water, 2 cups white glue, and 3/4 tsp borax. Throw in a little food coloring and pumpkin spice to make it extra special!

Okay. I made this stuff and guess what? My 3 year old ate some of it. I'm still dealing with that right now. It happened around 8pm last night. It is now 11am as I right this (DH is looking after him right now). As soon as we noticed what happened we called the ER that directed us to poison control. Pretty much they said he "should be okay with maybe some vomiting and diarrhea." Well, as any mother now a days would do, I got online still worried sick. Look up borax poisoning and you will see how well I slept last night! Kidney failure and organ failure?! OMG! And I put this stuff in silly putty and then proceeded to make it smell like FOOD with pumpkin spice! There is no other greater Mommy guilt than this folks! I kept telling myself it was only a teaspoon at most, but then you read on and it says less than 1 teaspoon can kill a child or small pet.

Are you reading this!? Borax is lethal to small children and it is put in recipes for crafts that involve toddlers! Well, I let my son stay up until midnight so I could watch him closely. The worry of your child just grabs hold of every single cell in your body when something like this happens. It is gut wrenching! He woke up fine this morning and I finally felt so much better. Then he proceeded to drink some water and began vomiting. Just when I thought this nightmare was over he is now vomiting! Then you remember all the things you read on Dr. Google about borax poisoning and then the gut wrenching feeling comes back 10 fold now because he has actual symptoms. Is his kidneys shutting down? Did the man on the phone with poison control know what he was talking about? What if somehow our situation is different? Worse? Did we leave out any details? Should we bring him to the ER just in case?

People, this is the WORST feeling a mother can ever have! I can tell you this now. I just wanted a fun project to do with my son and this is what happened. If you have borax in your home and you have a small child, THROW IT OUT! Do not craft with it and do not use it! I have asthma as well and borax is a huge lung irritant. So if you have lung problems and don't have small children, still throw it out. It is not worth the risk. My nightmare will now continue on until I know for sure 100% that my son will be okay. :(

*If your child has eaten this stuff before, please let me know about it.


****UPDATE****

My little guy got VERY sick, but thankfully he is fine now! I have tossed the borax in the garbage and will never buy the stuff again.

Pond & Bug Preschool Theme Pack

The Pond & Bug Theme Pack is up and ready!! Check it out now!

This pack is FREE for our visitors and our followers! :) 

Welcome to my new shop!!!

Check it out here!

GRAND OPENING SALE! Use code "BLOG50" and 50% off your entire order!!! No minimums!!

As most of you all know by now, I homeschool my toddler. I have since he was able to sit up. He LOVES his lessons! The idea is to keep things bright, colorful, and fun! I opened my new shop on Etsy called Homegrown Love 101. I added a couple of new items this week!

Preschool Apple Theme Pack

Preschool Pack #1

GRAND OPENING SALE!

50% OFF ALL ORDERS!

Use code "BLOG50" at check out!

No minimums!!



Teaching my preschooler!

Sorry if it is a bit jumpy. My son was climbing on my back almost the whole time! LOL!

Grasshopper Kit "Getting Our Hands Ready" Reveiw

Here is a kit that you can buy that is ready go. Full of lessons for your preschooler! We used this for the first time this week. Little Man is just now turning 3 years old and I found that there were only a couple of things in this kit that he was ready for. So keep that in mind. I think the ideal age for this kiy would be around 3 and 1/2 and up.

Grasshopper Kits Kit 3: Getting Our Hands Ready

You can find this on Amazon.com for about $30

 

Here is a picture of what you get in the kit:

You can probably recreate this kit with some things you have on hand already. The thing that I really loved most about this kit is Mr. Crunchers (that green frog thing) and the reuseable sticker sheet.

 

You also get play dough, roller, play dough stamps, and raised edge coloring cards with crayons.

 

My son REALLY enjoyed Mr. Crunchers!!! You squeeze his cheeks and he opens his mouth. Then you feed him little foam shaped bugs. FUN! This is a very good lesson in fine motor skills. Squeezing his cheeks open makes for a great workout for little hands, making them nice and strong!!

 

The sticker sheet is great for fine motor skills as well. For this you can just get some fun stickers your child likes and draw a quick grass/sky scene for them to put the stickers on. The act of peeling the sticker and placing the stickers is excellent for fine motor skills and focus! He really liked this, but he did get bored with it quickly.

 

The spiral book has a good amount of information on different ways to use the kit. All in all I think it's worth it. It's fun and lets them work on their fine motor skills while being creative. I also think that this is one of those things you can easily create at home if you have the time to so. If not get this kit! :)



Apps for preschoolers!

Do you have a Kindle Fire?? I am so in love with mine. I have a first generation and a second generation. The second generation (the ones that ship out now) are amazing for kids to use! No need to go out and buy a second tablet for your little one! Seriously, we have tried Nabbi, Mobi Go, Fisher Price iXL, and many more and hands down Kindle wins every time! Why?

*Free books everyday!
*Free Apps everyday!
*Great for Parents and Kids! Win win!
*New Kidles come with a kids app called "Kindle Free Time"! LOVE THIS!

Kindle Free Time allows you to control what your child can and cannot do on your Kindle. It's so much better than Parental controls! You simply open this app, load what you want your child to use, and your done! Give it to your child in "Free Time" mode and your child cannot exit it without your password! So your games (maybe paid content games) are safe! So are all your other apps and other things kids shouldn't be playing with (such as youtube or interenet access). It has a kid friendly set up that is easy for even my 2 year old to navigate. The layout can easily be compared to that of the  Nabi. Best of all there is a time limit you can set for their usage. When time is up it goes off! So your not the bad guy for taking it away! LOL! I set mine for 1 hour each day. So through out the day it keeps track of how long he plays and when his hour is up, it's off! You can also set up more specific time limits within this time frame. For example I have mine set to 15 minutes video time, 15 minutes apps/games, and unlimited reading. AWESOME! I love this!

So what apps are the best? I will tell you that we have tried them all (just about)! Here are my favorites. Note some of these have "free versions" so get those if you can. You'll just have to search them straight from you Kindle ,in most cases, to see the free optons. Don't worry in "Free Time" mode they cannot open ads! :)
*Preschool Learning Fun
*Preschool and Kindergarten Learning Games
*Monkey Preschool Lunchbox
*Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood: Play at Home with Daniel
*Giraffe's PreSchool Playground
*Barnyard Games for Kids

Videos
*Make Friends with Pocoyo : There is something about this little guy that my son just loves! I have to admit I love it to! :)
*Blues Clues


What are your favorite apps and videos?? Please share! :)

Screenshots:

Toddler Discipline

There are many ways to discipline your toddler. I am all about positive discipline. This simply means kindly and gently guiding them and teaching them. I don't want to get caught up in the moment and loose control and take it out on my child. We are the adults and we actually have the ability to control our emotions, where as a small child has not yet learned self control. Make out a plan and stick to it, so when your child misbehaves it's not you acting like a two year old! LOL!

I have read MANY books on positive discipline. I enocurage you to do the same if your not sure what you want to try. There are lots of great resources out there on how to be loving to our children and guide them in a kind mannar. They are people to and deserve a certain level of respect to.

Discipline: To guide, to teach

I am a firm believer in time outs. Will they work right away? Probably not. It takes some patience on your part to find a time out method that will work for you. What I do is this: I put my toddler in his room for his time outs. I have a child saftey lock over his door knob so that he cannot get out. This was mainly for when we switched him to the toddler bed and didn't want him roaming the house at night. His crib was the original time out. I give him about 2 minutes in his room. Be sure to tell him why he is getting a time out. He is usally crying and screaming, but I stand firm and wait. When I go back in his room I squat down to his level and say "Okay, what did you do wrong?" if he cannot answer it, help him. Be calm and loving! Then ask him why is it wrong? Explain if they do not know. Then have them repeat it back to you. Our most common: "No hit", "No throw", ect. Then I give him a hug and kiss and let him know that I love him. This builds up his self esteem and lets him know that your not mad at them. We don't want to belittle our children and break them down. Build them up and let them know you love them.

PREVENTION

You can prevent most bad behavior. Yes, it's true! You need to first address "WHY" is he acting out? In most cases they simply want attention. We get so busy in our day that we sometimes forget to have that one on one time with them. This is SO important. You should try to have some one on one time with your toddler at least once an hour. AT LEAST! Sometimes when I'm doing dishes and getting lunch ready I go over this hour mark. He's playing by himself with his toys, but then gets bored. He needs some attention and to get it? He acts out, so is it really his fault? Yes and no, but my point is if we try harder to give them the attention they need then they won't try to get it in a negative way. Make sense?

Other things that will help your child behave through out the day?

*Exercise - Get your child moving! Let him run outside and get some fresh air! They are a bundle of energy and this is a great way to release that energy in a positive way!

*Learning - Teach your children! Get that brain working! Teaching them is a great way to get that one on one attention in. They LOVE to learn! It's good to get the motors running in their heads. There are so many positive benefits to this that I can't name them all.

*Creativity - Get out the crayons, paint, whatever you have. They need to express themselves in a creative way. Let them do it. I like to do these types of activities in the high chair to "contain" the mess! This is another great outlet for them and also another opportunity for one on one time.

*Contribution - They want to feel like they contribute to the family. They want to feel important. They want to help! LET THEM! Give them a task they can do to help around the house and use a sticker chart to praise them. This is a great confidence builder. Use it! It can be as simple as passing dishes to you from the dishwasher (my son started this at 24 months!) to picking things up in bins around the house. Be patient with them and let them do it. I know you can do it 10 times faster, but that's not the point here.

With these usefull tools in hand I can bet you that your toddler will misbehave about 75% less than they do now. It only takes a few days of using the steps above to see a difference in your child. Your child is growing person. They need all these things to build them into respectful young adults that come out in the end with a high self esteem!

Books I love:

The Happiest Toddler on the Block (though I don't do "toddlerease")

Your Child's Self-Esteem

 

How To Raise Emotionally Healthy Children: Meeting The Five Critical Needs of Children...And Parents Too! Updated Edition

 

This last one is my FAVORITE book!!! All parents should read this. It's only $2.99 on Kindle! VERY good read!

Make your own learning toys!

I just love this blog that I recently came across. Everything is made of cardboard! I think that is pretty awesome because cardboard can be obtained free or really cheap. Play and Grow is the name of the blog and here are just a few awesome projects you can find there:

Fun Developmental Toy

Cardboard Cubes

ADORABLE Chair!!!