Mommy Time!

I have to been taking care of 5 kids all summer long. Let me tell you on the days I don't give me time to do what I want no one is happy. So a few times a day I have the kids do something that I can have me time. Here is what the kids do that gives me my time:

• tv-In the morning right after we get to work all the kids can watch tv. They do not always do it but they know for that hour I get a break. 
• quite time-most my kids are too big for a nap. We all do quite time in the afternoon. For an hour and half after lunch. The first 30 min I am getting Girlygirl down for a nap and cleaning up lunch.
• early bed time-When Mr. Man and Tomboy first got here I thought it would be good to let them stay up until 9 or 10. I soon saw I need that time for me.

There is nothing wrong with taking time for you. Sometimes I clean sometimes I read sometimes I blog. It is good for me.

Homeschool preschool: Table time!

Table time is something that I have start to bring into Girlgirl's day. I do it most the time when I am helping the big kids do work. We are all at the table then and she enjoys being with us. I give her a quite thing to play with. She will sit at the table for 30 min. She does two different things at table time things everyday. I don't just put something in front of her and walk away. I help her get started and show her what I would do. I then for the most part let her do her thing. There is no right or wrong way to play. Here is a list of things she does:

• bean & rice bucket-I just got a small plastic bin from the Dollar Store and filled it half way  dried beans and rice. I put a few little cups, old caps (like from the milk) and a few brushes.  Some times I do add small toys in it too.
• letter and number magnets- Again I got a small cookie sheet from the Dollar Store. I got a hug bag of letter and number magnets from a garage sale. With this one I often ask a big kid to sit with her and tell Girlygirl the letter and the sound. (this has helped Five learn her letter sounds)
• other magnets- when at a toy store on our last vacation I found some old ball magnets Grilygirl loved them. I have add more to them now. I give her the container (a small cream cheese container) and the cookie sheet and let her play.
• puzzles- We have gotten them as gifts, and passed down to us from friends with older kids. Girlygirl loves them. I give her one at a time and try to change them before she gets bored with it. When we do puzzles it is for the whole 30 min. but she gets about 5 different puzzles. (if you need to just go between a few it works good too.)
• the jar-I will do a post  about what the jar is soon. But is a cookie jar filled with stuff I found around my house. No toys.
• color-I sometimes just give her one pen and one paper and let her fill it up. Other times I give her a coloring book and her box of crayons. When she is really lucky I give her makers. (be ready for a mess with them)
• books-I just give her two or three books to look at and play with. Hey maybe she will teach herself to read. (lol)
• play dough-I use a place mate and try to get her to keep it on the mate. 
• stickers-I don't do this much because of the cost buy Grilygirl loves it. I give her a few sheets of stickers and let her put them in her note book. Girlygirl is still young and can't get the stickers off if the background paper is still on. I take the background paper off all but one sheet. That way I can see when she doesn't need me to do this any more.
• cards-I use a few different Sesame Street cards we have as well as a real deck of cards. It is fun for her. I am not sure why. We keep cards in her pack back too for when we are out.
• beads-I bought a some big beads (made for kids) she can string them. Girlygirl is not really ready for this. If she does something for a long time I will bring them out for a few min (5 max). She gets mad because she can't do it.
• lacing cards-we have truck ones that where given to us. I have not used them yet. I will let you know how it goes when we do.

I am sure there are many more things you can do. I will be adding to the list later in latter post if you add more things.  I will also be adding picture of Girlygirl at table time in the next few weeks. Keep you eye out for them.

Discipline from the Bible

Proverbs 23:13 Do not hold back discipline from the child, Although you strike him with the rod, he will not die. Ah, how is it when you need to hear something you find it. God is a great God. I have been wondering if I am to hard on the kids. I have been letting Girlygirl get way with more and thinking it is making my life harder. Then I read this. I need to remember that I need not hold back on discipline her. Then, today the big kids (Tomboy & Mr. Man) would not listen to Sweet dude. When I got home I went crazy on them. I took the Tv away for the week and yelled like no tomorrow. I felt bad and like I was to hard on them. Ah, but God then knew what I needed to hear and brought it to my. So remember this verse when you feel like what your doing is not right.

Car Games

In two short weeks I will be driving Tomboy and Mr Man home. I can't believe it. It will be hard to say goodbye to these guys and send them back home. With driving them home I will be in the car from Chicago to Dertio. That is a drive with a boy who has ADHD. I am sure we will do lots of the things from that I wrote about in the claiming your car back post but I fear I will need more. So today I have been looking for idea. I like to write them here to keep them safe when I need them again.

• Games

1. Buried Your Cows-You slept the care in the midle long ways. Esch side counts all the cows one their side.  However if the other side see a cemetery on their side they call "Bury your cows", then you lose all your cows. The team with the most cows when you get home wins.
2. Copy Me-Each player takes turns making a gesture. You must repeat all the gestures that have been made and then add your own. Eg. player one squeezes their nose. Then player two squeeze their nose and pats their head. The third player squeeze their nose, pat their head and add something new. Keep going until a person messes up.
3. Find 100-everyone needs to look for 100 of pick anything. Trees, trucks, cows, buses, ect. Work as a team to find 100 of whatever you pick.
4. The Queen's Cat- This sounds like a great game. Each person takes turn descripeing the Queen's Cat. It must go in alpabetical order.  
5. Three Words only- tell a story with each person only saying three words at a time. For instance, person one word say "I knew a" person two would add "tiger that could" person three could say "only walk like" and then go on until all are done with the story
6. Related words-take turns saying a work that is related to the last word said. For example words could be hot, cold, ice, tea, sweet, girl, ect going on until all are ready to stop.

Girls night In

Play with you kids. I may mean that your house is a mess but playing with you kids i a great thing you can do. When playing a game try to let the little ones join. Girlygirl doesn't realy play but we let her roll the dice and move her own guy. She come and goes thought the game. We had a girls game night with Mr Man and Sweetdude gone. We ate dinner and played a few games.

Adoption: Different thoughts

We have always planned to have two kids and adopt two kids when our two where about 8 years old. Things have changed for me. I think that the time is now. I don't even know if I want to have another kid. I don't like being pregnant and I hated the c-section. Even the thought of going though 9 months of all that make me want to sleep. (know weired but true) I feel that for some reason I need to adopt a kid now. Like start calling people today. Sweetdude is scared about adopting and thinks we should stay with our plan. So for now I wait and we try to have another baby like planned as I pray God changes Sweetdude's mind.

Friday Store

When Mr. Man and Tomboy came to stay with me I need away to teach them to listen with out yelling or punishments because of their home life. So I came up with the Friday Store. Each Friday this summer I open the Friday Store. To get things from the store they get Friday Bucks for acting good, helping out, ect. They love it and are good to get this or that that they wanted. From the day I got the idea I looked for cheep stuff I thought the kids would like. I didn't pay more than $5 for anything. Some came from the Dollar Tree but most came from the clearance bins. I will add picture after this Friday.

Claiming You Car Back

I don't know about you but my car and get crazy at time. Girlygirl crying while the big ones fight over who looked at who first. I have found that car boredom leads to all kinds of crazy things. The best way to bring the peace back to your car is have a plan to beat he boredom. I have learned a few great things.

• books on tape (if your car is new than my cds)- We just have picture books and each child has a turn holding the book. So we listen to each book up to 5 times. Most the time it works out good if they know when their turn will come. They have all enjoyed listening to the book even when they don't hold it. I do give Girlygirl a book to hold all the time.
• puppets- They do shows for each other or have them talk to each other. It can get loud at times but they do stay happy.
• play "I spy"- by saying "I spy with my little eye something..." then say a color, letter, number, shape ect. The bonus to this game is the little one will work on what the need to.
• play punch bug- We changed it and we all play together that way fights don't break out. On who saw it first. For those of you don't know it is a game that counts how many VW Beatles you see.
• I keep a bag of fast food toys under my sit. Then when I need something for the kids to do it is handy. For some reason kids love these and are small and good for the car.
• flash cards- Right now Mr. Man and Tomboy are working on multiplication so we do flash cards well in the card. They take turns keeping the cards they get right. At the end who ever has the most gets a "Friday Buck" (more about them tomorrow.)
• Bingo- (We have not done this yet because my printer is not working.) Make pictures/words of things find while driving red car, school bus, trees, cow, walking people, ect. on a bingo like board then give one to each kid and a pen. As a child see something on their list they call it our and mark it off.
• kids camera- (again I don't do this my old boss did. If i had them I would.) They are great you can DL pictures to your computer if you want or just delete them and let the kids go again. It will keep the busy for a long time. 
• magnify glass-you will be amazed at how fun they are. Keep one for each child or be ready for its not fair. Let the kids look at the world with them.
• coloring & activity books/pages- you can get them cheep at most stores the Dollar Tree has hundreds. With them you will need pencils, crayons, ect.
• Talk to them- If they are older talking to them about something you know they like. If you have kids in the car join in the talking. For little ones talk about what you see around you use colors of thing , reading signs whatever you can think of.
• King's Silence- You just have to teach them when you say 1...2....3...king silence that it is time to be quite. Remember it is good to talk to your kids in the car so don't over use this one.

Good luck in the car if you are driving near or far may it be in peace.

Learning with ADHD

I need a new plan for when Mr. Man comes back from boyscout camp. He will be gone all week that gives the girls a break and me time to think. I have been reading stuff on line and will be writing down what I needed to do to help him have a better time. Mr. Man is just staying with me for 2 weeks after camp before going back home. I thing I wish would never happen but that is a story for another time. Mr. Man's mom doesn't like the meds so he has none. He needs them. My goal is to give him a fun summer and teach him how to act. It has been harder than I thought. Now on to the planning:

• have a clear plan each day
• keep him near me most the time
• have him look at me when I talk
• have him say what I said back
• break up big task into smaller ones
• each morning have him write a to do list
• in same book have him write 5 good things he did each day
• allow him to do something as I talk *
• put up blockers when need: he doesn't need to hear or see what others are doing
• remember the good
• find was he doesn't have to write+
• break up the sitting time 15 min working 15 min playing
• keep work with one thing at time writing spelling math are not one thing and try not to make them.

*He may have a hard time just listening and be able to hear and understand what is going on better if he can do something else. Have silly putty, Lego's, block, make art, anything to keep his hands and moving so his ears can listen still have him respond to things from time to time. I know one thing I said is have him look at me this may work too. I am just trying this out here +Don't make him write down his answers with pen and paper use a white broad, stamps, chalk board, letter magnets, ect.

Be a kid too!!

One thing that kids love about me is I will take the time to be a kid too. Sometimes it is great fun other it is just fun to see their joy. Go for a bike ride with your kids but don't be the mom race them home. Sit down and do the craft with your kids. Play dough is still one of my favorite thing to do with kids. I can distress this way. Get in a water fight or maybe start a mud fight. Laugh when your child plays a joke on you.

Trash to Treasure

Here are the big kids making my trash treasure. They had great fun. I just brought the stuff and they made stuff without help. They made stuff for over two hours. Tomboy made a tiger poster. She plan to take it to the zoo. They have a program that she can get free stuff. I don't know what we have not gone.

Big Sis made member card for the work out room. It is a game the girls play

Five worked with Mr Man to make a I don't know what But is was great to see and hear them work.

Saving your trash for kids to do art work is a good cheep way to have art time. You can give them ideas like building a train, car, bug, drum, doll or any other thing your child may like they can make. As you can in some of the pictures I did add other stuff whatever you have bring it out it is a let them go at it kind of thing. Be ready for a mess make sure they help you clean it.