Ooey Gooey!

A few weeks ago I shared at a MOPS meeting about ways to entertain your kids over the summer. The things that came to my mind were of course turning off the TV and reading but I also had to introduce this group of women to Lisa Murphy...the OOEY GOOEY Lady! It was so fun to "relive" this time in my life and remember how much she impacted me so many years ago. I heard her speak on September 18, 2002 when Connor was less than a year old! She was fantastic, hilarious and passionate. The main things I took away from her talk I still try to practice with my kids...

1) Lots of free play time - Goes well with our homeschooling schedule

2) Lots of play dates - I try to make sure my kids have lots of opportunities to learn all they need to out of playing nicely with others;)

3) Lots of real experiences through play!

I think the 3rd one was so much easier when they were younger. It should be the other way around now that they are old enough to clean up;) She encouraged us to always think about "why" we say no...usually because we don't understand why they want to do what they want to do, or because we don't want to clean up the mess! So, lately I have been trying to be more aware of both of those things as I work to be child centered still! They just have turned in the fingerpaint for watercolors and the play dough for modeling clay, but the concepts remain the same.

In my research...I ran across some old pictures that brought back memories. Someone asked how to throw an ooey gooey party so here you go.....in pictures....

Enlist good help...

Someone to help with the prep work and someone to hold the baby!

Invite lots of friends...




Have lots of paper....and paint!

Encourage Helpfulness....

Play clothes are mandatory...and a hose is just a good idea;)

You will never have too many handprints! Trust me on this one...

Have snacks.... or just put spaghetti in the sensory table!

AND...a critical component of the ooey gooey experience is the sensory table or tubs. Our favorite items were colored spaghetti, potato flakes, flax seed, coffee sand, rice, bird seed, sand, and of course water.

The best advice I can give took me a few playdates to realize....

Always separate the space where you have the dry and wet materials in your sensory table/tubs, or you get something like this and trust me....it isn't pretty!

What fun times! My boys still remember and the three of us had so much fun going through these old pictures. I love the experiences they were allowed to have and miss those days....So, let your kids dig in the dirt, and play in the mud puddles...they ARE learning something and they will love you for it;)

Happy 1/2 Birthday Connor!

Happy 1/2 Birthday to Connor..now 8 1/2 years old "officially"!!



He was very excited that we got to be home on his big day. He loved throwing on some sweats with holes in the knees! He also added a shirt that he turned into a jersey with red duct tape! Of course it wouldn't be a celebration without pancakes so that is how he started out the day! We had a nice day and he loves being closer to 9. They both iced and decorated the cake themselves again and couldn't even wait for me to take a picture before slicing into it!

I wonder when they won't want to celebrate 1/2 birthdays anymore?




Love that "thumbs up"!

Homeschool Happenings

It is the last week of school and I am having such a hard time staying focused, which of course rubs off on my kids. I don't know why but this year I am spending a lot of time and energy already planning for next year when I feel I should be closing out this year better! I know there are some things I want to change so I am trying to feel inspired before I zone out for the summer, I guess! I know that toward the end of this year I went away from some of my plans and was really feeling down that school wasn't fun and I was lazy in handing workbooks out and not following up on techniques (like narration) that I feel so passionate about. However I received a "gift" yesterday. While taking a break from reading through books and researching on the internet I looked around at how my kids spent their afternoon and the free time they enjoy so much.

1) Connor worked on a "book" he is writing about the geography of Africa.
We studied Africa for about two weeks and he loved it...he knows where every country is including the surrounding islands!




2) They were acting out Robin Hood!
We are studying this time period and reading a fascinating book about his story. What fun to see them fantasizing about this great story.









3) They devoted even more time, paper and scissors to creating knight uniforms for their Webkinz.
Now, this might sound a little sad to you...and my first thought was..."for goodness sakes mom, go buy those children some action figures!" Then I was reminded of something I read a long time ago...Every time you buy a child a toy you take away their ability to create it! They are perfectly happy with what they are doing and they are darn cute. The whole room is spread out like a knight army with foot soldiers, and horseback riders and they are armed with lances, swords and their fully decorated coat of arms! They also created a 3-d castle complete with a keep and a throne for the King! Of course I flinch at the forest they are destroying daily and I have to contain myself on that one...










4) They asked to make another watercolor butterfly.






This from an art lesson that we did at FIGS a few weeks ago!














5) I allowed 20 minutes of Wii Fit since it is still raining here and there haven't been many chances for bike riding, tree climbing, and hole digging!
Ok, this has nothing to do with school, but it is what they did!


So, with the exception of the last one, I realize that everything they chose to do in their free time revolved around school subjects! How cool is that? Obviously our strengths at this point revolve around History and Geography... but what a blessing it was to know they are digging more into the ideas and the subjects. It reinforced one of my goals..for them to love learning and enjoy it! It was a gift to know that it is time well spent. It was a reminder that I can reduce the pressure on myself and trust what God puts in my heart. Yes, there are things I want to change for next year and ways I want to re focus...but God just clearly wanted me to spend some time on the positive things and I am grateful for that. All in all, it HAS been a great year!

Every Girl Should have one of these!

I LOVE my new Traeger grill! Since we finally after a whole lot of years received an actual return on our taxes, we decided to splurge! This is the best grill ever and the best part for me is that I am comfortable operating it all on my own! It is is smoker and a grill and works kind of like a convection oven. You literally plug it in and turn the knob (no more fear of blowing myself up with propane) and it feeds smoked pellets into a hopper!

Tonight I had perfectly grilled (no black) tender steak on the table when my husband came home;) As much as I love a good steak once in a while, we hardly ever went to the trouble of starting the bbq...plus I love it well done and it would almost always get burnt on the outside, so I am in heaven. Of course I will be pulling some extra minutes of exercise to get the cholesterol out of my system, but it is worth it!

Chicken breast also come out perfect and I am told you can even bake cookies on it...however my pallet does not water at the thought of hickory smoked chocolate chip cookies! At least not yet anyway....

And the Blue Ribbon goes to.......

Brody's Artist Choice - A Border Collie herding a mama sheep to the barn and a little lamb by the barn. He worked SO hard on this and was happy that it won the blue ribbon for the "Crowd Favorite" category!

Connor's "Tear Bear" won the blue ribbon and he was so excited about that. He made a panda bear with a lot of extra detail on it including a bamboo tree and a squirrel in the tree!

Last Sunday we had a art show for our FIGS home school co op and it was a wonderful night! We had a great time sharing it with all our friends and with Grandma & Pa in town, we had family too! The boys were so proud of their artwork and they worked especially hard on their "artist choice" piece they entered. Each child had 4 pieces that we had done in class and one that they did on their own.

Connor won a special award from our guest judge for his "Fat Cat" for Best Use of Line. He was very surprised and proud of that one. It was one of his favorite pieces and he has made many more since!

We had a great time and look forward to doing it again next year!

One Fish, Two Fish...

One fish...

Two Fish...

This past week Grandma & Pa came to visit us here in Salem. We had a great time and they stayed in a hotel over by Costco with an indoor pool. They love to have the grandkids "over" for some fun and boy did they! Connor and Brody loved getting in the pool and I can't believe the difference in particular in Brody's skills over the week. By the end of the visit they were both jumping in the deep end! One day they swam for 3 hours straight and were so excited to get to do that! They even played their first game of Marco Polo with all of their cousins which was fun!

I loved it when they started jumping in together! What fun!There are probably two words that would sum up their visit....swimming and pancakes. The hotel shares a parking lot with Denny's so they ate pancakes every chance they got! We are always grateful when we get to spend time with family!

Saved by the Frog!!

Here he is...the one we got to see! Success! They also found some eggs, but I didn't get a picture!

Last week we (or most likely I) were having a "not so good" day for many reasons. Most of them little things adding up to nothing. Little did I know that our day would be saved with our first outing with our new nature study group! A new friend of mine runs this great website and organizes field trips and monthly nature outings for the homeschool community. I was so excited to find these trips because I have wanted to add these to our homeschooling experience but haven't yet for many reasons. I didn't feel safe going out with just the boys and don't know where to go just to name a few!

So, we headed off to Minto Brown park with our nature journals and backpacks to learn all about frogs and toads! We had such a great time and here is some of what the boys told me they learned...

Frogs have smooth skin and toads have bumpy skin

Some don't have any lungs and some are poisonous

The life of a frog..tadpole, back legs, front legs...Frog!

The frog soaks up pollution through it's skin if it is in the water

We got some great exercise hiking to a pond and were even lucky to see one little frog in the water! It was a great day and we had a lot of fun with friends and enjoying God's creation. We can't wait to do more and I am so grateful I found it!

Here is the pollution experiment..

Here is Brody exploring....

And here is Connor exploring the water....

A Love Note from my son

Tonight I went to a meeting with some local homeschool moms. These occur once a month and I enjoy the fellowship and the ideas that are shared.

A few weeks ago I had a meeting with a different group of homeschool moms and when I arrived home there were 3 stuffed animals wearing paper football uniforms that Connor designed and created along with a note that read...."Look mom, I finished all these tonight". They were adorable and I loved that he wanted to share them with me and he wanted me to see them first thing when I walked in the door. He had them staged on the kitchen island right in view where I would see them.

Tonight there was a note that read this....

"Mom, Look at this! Brody found it!"

He had a post it stuck to a book that we have been looking for and again had it staged on the island for me to see first thing. It hit me suddenly what a gift these precious little notes are. In that moment I was struck with an overwhelming feeling of love from my son. I also realized that I was secretly hoping to see something there although I didn't even realize it until I DID see something there. He might as well have written things like; "I missed you tonight mom" or "You are such a big part of my life that even a short absence has you not really absent." He really put in bold letters..."I LOVE YOU MOM". There is no doubt my boys are growing up and while it is exciting, sometimes it is hard knowing that I can leave now without my phone ringing....that they can get by just fine with mom gone. However the notes tell me that while they can absolutely get by, I am still in thought and present and what a gift to me that is.