Nooah's Ark, Happy Valentine's and a BIG Celebration

This week we talked about the letter "N" and we learned the story of Noah and his obedience to God. Jayce LOVED playing with the felt animals and talking about them all going in the "big boat".

I put together my very first "tot pack" from http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/ You can find this particular tot pack at http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/NoahsArk.html

We also had a little "praise dance" session to our favorite Noah song!

We did a few exercises working with fine motor skills. We picked up marshmellows with tongs and put them in little heart shaped ice cube trays (for Valentine's).

For Valentine's we melted crayon shavings between wax paper and cut out heart shapes. These decorated our dining room for a couple of weeks! It made such a nice ambiance.

Here's Jayce's special Valentine's mailbox.

And him making Valentine's for his friends and family.

And here was our Valenine morning. Complete with heart cinamon rolls and heart-shaped pancakes with strawberry syrup and of course, Jayce's favorite...BACON!!

To wrap up the week, we celebrated a big accomplishment for our little warrior. Jayce is now completely "paci free"!! He did a great job saying bye-bye to one of his favorite comforts and we are SO proud of him! Daddy brought him balloons...

He got a special "I put down the paci" Elmo award...

We got to go to Kangaroo Jacks...

We had lunch at Cracker Barrel (Jayce's favorite) and got a really neat train set. Accomplishments are good!!

We had a great week filled with lots of wonderful moments! God is so good to bless us in such new and wonderful ways. Looking forward to next week with the letter "O"!

Letter M and Number 14

So, I'm a little behind on posting everything that we've been learning. But we sure have been having a fun time in the school room lately. Here is our update on the letter M and the number 14. We started off with a search and find. I hid some M&Ms in a little cup of macaroni and had Jayce try and find them. This wasn't hard at all! :)

Notice his little puncture wound from his lamp injury. A friend of ours said it looks like he visited India :) But, it's all healed up now and you can barely even tell. I'm happy to report that it seems to be a distant memory now!

We got out some stuffed animals that started with the letter "M"and read "When you give a Mouse a Cookie". Jayce wanted all of his animal friends to read the book with him. It was so cute watching him "read" the book to all of them. We also counted out 14 M&Ms and placed them on 14 Moose. Again, a fun and tasty way to learn! We used magnets and placed them on mice that were in different shapes. I called out the shape, and Jayce placed a magnet on that shape. Then we used more magnet shapes on our white board. I would call out a shape for Jayce to find and he would put it up on the board. He LOVED that!
We also talked about the season of "winter" and how we need to dress warm to protect ourselves from the cold. Mittens keep our fingers warm when it's cold outside! I was able to find some REALLY adorable matching moose shirts on sale for the boys. So, we sported those when we were making a trip to the doctor.

For our art project, I found a really cool looking alligator at Michael's arts & crafts store. (Or maybe my mom found it, I can't remember). Anyway, Jayce had a great time painting it. When he was all done I said "We need to give this alligator a name. What is his name?" Jayce very intentionally looked at me and said "Jack." So, this is Jack the alligator. I know it doesn't have anything to do with the letter M or the number 14, but it was fun! :)

So, there's our journey with the letter M. Stay tuned for our adventure with letter N and Noah's Ark!

Josiah means "THE LORD SAVES"

This past week we didn't sit in our classroom much, but that doesn't mean we weren't learning. Our Lord has been taking us on a journey and teaching us much about His sovereignty and goodness. As most of you know, little Josiah has been sick. After being sick for a couple weeks, he was finally getting better, then Jayce caught a cold and gave it back to Josiah whose immune system was down and poor little Josiah got REALLY sick this time. He was diagnosed with RSV, respiratory syncytial virus, a couple of weeks ago. We have been up all hours of the night, holding him, trying to calm his coughing fits and giving him breathing treatments around the clock. He's been on so many different medicines in the past month and it has been discouraging not to see him getting much better. We have been constantly at the foot of the throne of our Lord seeking protection, strength, wisdom, and healing.
We traveled back to the doctor again yesterday evening because, after all the treatments and medicines, he just didn't seem to be getting much better. Talking to our doctor, he confirmed that Josiah still had a lingering cough that would need medicine, but the true concern was that Josiah had asthma. Asthma. After thinking that we were almost done with breathing treatments, wheezing, trouble breathing, coughing, etc, the doctor told us that breathing treatments would become a regular thing in Josiah's life for while. They can't tell us right now how severe it will be or how long he will have it. He could grow out of it in a year, but then again, he might not.
When the doctor looked in my eyes and told me that we were looking at something more than just a virus, it was something more severe, more chronic, a peace came over me. Yes, I was disappointed to hear that my lil' warrior would have to deal with inhalers and nebulizers and all that goes with a life with asthma, but God took a hold of me in that moment and whispered "My purposes and plans are good, for you AND Josiah, trust Me!"
How blessed we are that God chose our family to place Josiah in. God knew the care that he would need. I imagine God saying to me "Christie, I have a little boy that I need someone to take care of. Are you willing?" I answer "Yes, of course! I LOVE little boys!" He answers me. "This particular little one will need extra special care. It will mean you will have to sit up with him at night while he is coughing at 2am then again at 4am and 5am. He will need medicine faithfully. I need a family willing to pray for him and protect him." and I humbly answer "I consider it the greatest joy and honor imaginable to have this little boy be a part of our family."
When I was pregnant with Josiah, we were considering the name "Cademon" because it meant "wise warrior". We know we are warriors for our King and we loved the idea of having that meaning behind our son's name. But, as the day drew nearer, I felt that Cademon was NOT to be my son's name. His name was to be Josiah, which means "the Lord SAVES"! And how we have seen that Josiah is rightly named. Every breath that he breathes is in God's hands and I have no fear for the days to come! Fear will not be the dictator of our family or little Josiah's life, we will choose VICTORY in our Lord! And as we see our happy little boy's smile and the way he loves life already, we are reminded to delight in our Lord and see the many blessings He has poured out on us. He has and will sustain us, He has and will continue to save us and we know He will take this and use it for His glory!

"You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light. With Your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall. As for God, his way is PERFECT; the word of the Lord is flawless. He is a SHIELD for all who take refuge in him. For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God? It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights. He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You give me your shield of victory, and your right hand sustands me; you stoop down to make me GREAT." Psalm 18:28-35

Sweet Josiah, God will indeed strengthen you, be your sheild and make you GREAT, for His Name's sake. We are blessed and humbled that God would entrust such a sweet warrior to our family. In all things Lord, in ALL things, may Your name be glorified!

Letter L and a Lesson in Gravity!

This week has been rather adventurous! Our little SiahBug has been pretty sick and we've had to adjust our school schedule to make sure he got all of his breathing treatments.

We are thankful that he is on the mend and almost ALL better!!

But, in the school room, we were learning lots about the letter "L".

We connected the big letter "L" to the little letter "l". We're still learning to stay on the lines :)
Oh what joy!! Lollipop starts with "L"!!

Larry the Cucumber starts with the letter "L", and so does lizzard, lettuce, and lamb. Jayce is so particular, he's not used to his toys being mixed up. As soon as we were done playing with these, he immediately put the lettuce back in the food been, Larry and the Lamb in the tiny toy bin, and the lizzard in the dinosaur bin. I love this guy!
We read a story on his Leapfrog about a frog named Leap! Leap starts with the letter "L"!

Later this week, we also had a lesson in gravity!! Our little warrior had his first BIG booboo. A lamp fell down on his little head and gave him a pretty big gash. (Hey, what do you know? Lamp starts with the letter "L"!) We had to rush to the ER and get staples! Jayce was so brave and two minutes after getting staples in his head, he was up running around like nothing even happened. What a trooper! He's so brave!
We go back to the ER soon to get those staples out! And hopefully after that, we won't be seeing the ER for a LONG time!

Here are some other fun crafts we did this week. Colored bubbles and finger painting!! Thanks Aunt Susan for all the finger paint stuff, we had LOTS of fun!

This was an exciting week and we had lots of fun learning. Now, little Jayce has come down with a cold and we're not too sure how much school time we'll get this coming week. We'll be sure to update everyone about all of the fun we have with the letter "M" and the number "14".

Letter K & Winter Crafts

Jayce LOVED this exercise. He puts a dot on all the letter K's. To add a little challenge I would ask him to find the Big Letter K's first, then dot all the little letter K's. He did pretty good with that, but they look so much alike, it was hard for him to tell.
For this exercise, I would call out a shape and Jayce would take a little bear and place it in the middle of that shape. This is great for teaching shapes and following directions. Jayce LOVED playing with the little bears, he still asks to play with them everyday!


Letter Swat!! What a great idea for a little boy! Swat whatever letter I call out.


I LOVE his concentrated face in this picture!

The finished product!

Other highlights!

These are some of the other things we did this week. Verses and Animal Letters are from the Abeka curriculum, dot art and "tot trays" are from http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/

This particular tot tray exercise focuses on "pouring". Jayce had so much fun with this! We used pompoms, buttons, beads, macaroni (or as Jayce calls it "pepperoni") and poured them into different size cups. After we practiced with all of those, we graduated to water!! :) This is great for motor skills, following directions, hand-eye coordination, and of course, having FUN! Perfect for indoor fun when the weather is yucky or cold!

Our snowman snack!

I realized that this particular craft was going to be too difficult for Jayce, so I let him pick out the top of the snowman's hat and all of his buttons, then I hot glued them on for him. He enjoyed carrying that snowman around the rest of the week!!

The Letter K and the Number 4 were so much fun to do this past week and we're looking forward to the Letter L and Number 1 next week. Would love to hear your ideas or thoughts on what more we can do or if you have any questions about some of the things we did. More to come!! Visit http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/ for TONS of ideas for your toddler!