Less Tv For Preschooler

The Ten Way to Watch Less Television

1. No TV Before lunch This one is hard for me. On the days I do it works great.
2. Listen to music The noise and fun of the songs has help Girlygirl not think about turning on the TV.
3. Read When the TV is off and Girlygirl needs something to do I stop what I am doing and read a book. It takes but a few minutes and is great for her.
4. Have your child help you It takes more time to have your child help you but they love it. Plus if they learn how to do it slowly when they are young and want to "they" say it is easier to get them to help later.
5. Keep toys cleaned up This may be easier for others but I feel often why clean it for her to just take the same thing out again. What I have learned is Girlygirl plays a lot longer in a clean house.
6. Have quite time for your child daily This gives you the time you need on your own.
7. Move toys around There are a few ways you can do this. You can switch them from the play room to bed room or keep some up and bring them from time to time. I do both. Toys in a new place are like new toys
8. Art and Crafts They break up the day and give the child something new to do. I do some planned but she has a book and now collage tray she can do whenever she wants.
9. Play with your Child
10. Teach your child to play on their own You can read my post on that here.

Let me know some ways you keep the TV from taking over your house.

Teaching Preschooler about the Bible

Teaching your preschooler about the Bible can be over whelming but we as Christians know we want your children to understand God's truth. Therefore teaching your preschooler about the Bible is important. There are a few things that I have done to teach Girlygirl about God's Word. Helping your preschool memorize Bible verses is easier than I thought. After joining Awana she has taken off. If you never heard Awana of it is a great program. I loved it as a child and now Girlygirl is having a great time in her first year. Girlygirl is doing great at remembering the verses. She even asked to do two in a week. I do few things to help her meet her goal. I have writen them on index cards and taped them on the door frame between our living room and dining room. This helps me see them easly to say them over and over through out the day. At first I say a word Girlygirl repets me. Then later in the week I say 2 to 4 words and Girlygirl repts me. I also turn the verse into a song and sing it with her (sometimes she loves it others she doesn't it.) By the end of the week I just say the first word and can say the whole thing on her own. I think she wouldn't try as hard if wasn't getting a patch for her Awana vest every few weeks. More about teaching your preschool about the Bible in the weeks to come. Today remember to help your child learn the word of God and hide it in their hearts.

Collage Tray

Girlygirl loves to glue. She often can be found sitting at her little table making a collage. It is great open end craft project and now is out and ready whenever she wants to do it. The great thing about collages is you can put to match a theme or just random things.

I just keep a store bought veggie. I just ask for it after the church potluck. Veggie tray are great for a few reasons. It is dived to keep the different things in there own place and has a lid. What I like best is if you get them from a potluck like it did it was free. Now here are some list I found of stuff to put in the Collage Tray. Earth Kids has a great list that can be found here. This list is almost the same but has a few different ideas.

Goals for the New Year

I have made four goals for the new year. I have never done it before but I have decide I need a plan to get out of the funk I have been in. So far it is working good. I was not going to share my goals but have decide to because I'd like to keep a record of how I do. More than that if I know if I need to tell someone (any one who is out there) how I am doing I will feel like I need to keep it up. So here are my goals and how the first month went.

1. I want my house to be cleaner today than yesterday. I chose to word it this way because it will be easy to succeed. If I tell myself I need to clean a lot I do nothing but if I start small most often I will clean more. January was a great everyday but two my house was cleaner than the day before. Now at the end of the month my house is cleaner than it has been in a long time.
2. Join Bible Study. After moving from California I have gotten farther and farther away from God. So finding a good Bible study I thought would be a good step in getting close to God again. My good friend has been asking me to go to Coffee Break with her for a long time. I had lots of reasons I couldn't go. But I started at the new year and love it. (thanks Amy for not giving up on my)
3. Read though the Bible this year. I have a great book called the Life Journal that I am using. I started at the end of last year. I have read more days than not and I really love the look at the Bible.
4. Teach Girlygirl more. I do a lot with Girlygirl but after my summer kids left this last summer. I got very sad after hearing more of their story back home and not having a choice but to send them back there. After do the first three things this has just happened. I will be posting in tot school again soon.

There are my goals for 2010. I look forward to sharing with you guys how I do and what happens.

Valentines Day: family love

Sweet Dude and I feel differently about what Girlygirl should get for Christmas. For a few reasons I believe that we should keep it small. I want us to focus on Jesus on Christmas not gifts. We have so many people who love her and get her stuff our gifts would be lost in it all. I also want her to be happy for each gift she gets. So many kids in her in America think they should have what they want when they wanted. I work hard to teach Girlygirl that she can't have everything she wants and that gifts are special no matter what they are. Sweet Dude loves to give Girlygirl lots of things. Though he understands my point still wants her to have the things that she wants and would make her happy. We needed to come up with away to make it work for both of us where Girlygirl could have a day other than her Birthday to get gifts from us. I came up with teaching our children that Christmas is for Jesus and give gifts they are small. When then will have Valentines Day be all about family love and daddy will give gifts to each person in the family a gift and we each get him a gift. This is our first year doing this. At Christmas time we where able talk about giving to others and how that Jesus came to earth as a baby. We then made list of things we want for Valentines Day and when we talked about gifts it was what we wanted for Valentines Day. Though it is our first year it has worked out great. We hope to make it a family tradition.