I Can Trace Review

I was excited to receive the I Can Trace book and Prisma Color pencil crayons put out by Timberdoodle, who offers a large selection of homeschool curriculum.

The I Can Trace book is part of the Big Skills for Little Hands series and there are 6 other books in the series, each book focusing on building motor skills. The I Can Trace book has a large selection of tracing activities, with each page building on skills developed on previous pages.

I was so excited to open the book and spent a good bit of time looking through its colorful pages. Judah has also spent a lot of time simply looking at the pages and telling me "stories" about different pages.

The above image is the first tracing activity - the child is to trace from left to right, starting with an animal and ending with its food. This is about the extent of Judah's attention span and tracing skills right now :) We have spent about 10 minutes each day over the last several days working on this page and a similar one from the book.

Another fun tracing activity

In the days I have spent with him I have seen him improve greatly in his skills to be able to trace a straight line - both with his finger and with his pencil.

I had thought that Wesley would be able to sit and trace alongside with us, but Wesley (1.5 yrs) shows no interest in the activity other than to try to snatch his brothers pencil crayons away from him!

The I Can Trace book is labeled for 2-6 year olds. I think it is a bit too much for most 2 year olds - at least new 2 year olds. At almost 3 the book is one that Judah will be growing into, and yet has simple tracing (such as the first page, shown above) that he is able to work on it right now.

Overall I am thrilled with this book and would highly recommend it to moms for their preschool aged child.

Another bonus to this book: Each page in the book is one sided and perforated, which makes it easy to hang the completed work on the fridge.

The book is priced for $10.50 on their site and I think this is an excellent value for the book - we will definitely be using this book over the next few months and I will probably order a couple other books from the series too.

The PrismaColor pencil crayons that were included in our package for review make for beautiful, vibrant art. I love the quality of these pencil crayons, but at $8 for a package I wouldn't spend the money on them for my boys quite yet - they are still learning to respect their possessions and coloring tools - whether it be markers, crayons or pencil crayons- sometimes disappear or break. I would rather buy the cheaper packages of pencil crayons until they are a bit older, but once they are old enough to take care of the items they own I will be buying these pencil crayons for them as I love them!

While I received these items for free as part of the MamaBzz tour the review is entirely my own thoughts. I value my readers and have been completely upfront and honest with my thoughts.

Piano

We got our piano delivered yesterday evening and all three of my guys are loving it.
Quite surprisingly the two little guys do a pretty good job at playing it - I am hoping they'll take after their daddy and just have a knack for instruments, though we do intend on putting them both through piano lessons.
Here is one of Judah's piano and song duo - pardon the pjs and wet hair - he got sick in the middle of the day and this is him in "sick mode." Wish I was like this when I was sick!!

Banana Bread and Thoughts

Mmm. Homemade Banana Bread! We all love it and last night I made a triple batch of it - with most of it going in our freezer. I kept one loaf out as some of Paul's co-workers were suppose to help move a piano into our house this evening and I was going to feed it to them as a thank you. But with the Ft Hood incident they were kept later at work and it didn't work out to pick up the piano tonight. The blood that Paul and the others at his clinic draw was sent over to the Ft. Hood victims - it kind of hits close to home "knowing" who is getting the life saving blood as a result of the long hours and miles traveled that Paul and the others put into their work.

It breaks my heart thinking of the many families affected by this.

Not sure how I jumped from Banana Bread to Ft. Hood. The recipe is up on the recipe blog now.

Color on the Table

While on a family trip to Lowe's a month or so ago I found a huge roll of Contractors paper (about $9) and had the idea to buy it and use it for our Thanksgiving 'tablecloth' - complete with crayons incorporated into the centerpiece so everyone could color along with dinner.

I couldn't wait for Thanksgiving and last week I used some of it to test out my idea - it was a huge hit with the boys (Paul included!)
Monday evening we had four of our friends over and they loved it too - in fact they covered almost the entire surface of our table with their drawings.

The orange dude here is my favorite!


We had some riddles.

And one of the guests drew his plate of food - but got his fork and spoon on the wrong side :)

We played a few different games and kept score right on the table - it was lots of fun!
And cleanup was a breeze, we just rolled it up and threw it away.

I am definitely using this for our Thanksgiving meal, and probably several more meals between now and then! :)

Seeds Family Worship - coupon

I posted about the Seeds Family Worship cds a few months ago. We have two of the cds and we still love them - every single time we're in the car one of the cds is playing. Judah now knows all of the songs- each song is taken straight out of scripture so he is learning God's word and we LOVE that!

There are a total of 5 cds put out by Seeds Family Worship and I plan to buy them all eventually. I was sent a coupon code to get 20% off your purchase of any of their regular priced items from the Seeds Music Store and I am able to share it with everyone!!

The coupon code is PJMORRIS09 - just enter it when you checkout at Seeds Music Store.This code is good through Summer 2010.

These would make a great Christmas gift!

My Boys

The boys and I are a bit under the weather - and completely grateful for Paul being home with us for a couple days this week to help take care of us.

This past weekend I took these pictures of the boys - and if I was ever challenged to show someone a picture that best captures each boys personality, these would be the pictures I would choose. Judah. Bright eyed. Serious. Observing the world.


Wesley. Smiling Eyes. Goofy grin. Embracing the world.

Chalk

Thursday evening one of our friends gave the boys a few pieces of chalk - I'm not sure why I have never bought it for them before, but as far as I know they've never played with sidewalk chalk before.
It has been perfect weather for this activity and they have both been enjoying it!

I love how Wesley stands and bends over to do his coloring! :)

Our Morning

Paul finished his first half marathon this morning and we're so proud of him!! He finished with an average of just over a 9 minute mile.


The boys watching for Paul.


There were lots of people lined up down the sidewalk cheering all the runners on.

He was so focused he didn't even see us cheering for him.

Judah went up to him and said "Daddy, I am so proud of you. Yay daddy! Good job."

I am so proud of you Paul!

A Chicken and a Lion

We have chosen to not take our boys out Trick or Treating and in place of that we wanted to come up with a fun activity that we could do each year with them.
I thought about it for awhile and decided it would be fun to do something as a family for other people - what it is that we do will probably vary from year to year - this year we kept it quite simple.
I bagged up popcorn kernels, made a little label and instructions on how to make the popcorn and stapled it to the bag.


I only made 6 of these bags and it took us 3.5 hours to deliver them!! I'd originally thought of making more, but I am glad I had only done 6.

When the boys are older I think it would be fun to do something for more families and let the boys run out of the car, put the gift in front of the door, ring the doorbell and then run back to the car and we'd leave right away - I can see that appealing to young boys :)

But how we did it this evening was nice - we chatted with our friends, got to meet some of their extended family members, new pets and even see what some were eating for dinner :)
I feel like we got to know some of our friends better and we spent the time driving to the next home praying for each of the family members that live there.


I had bought these costumes for the boys ages ago when Old Navy had them marked down to 90% off - I a.d.o.r.e them!! Wesley is just so huggable and Judah looks hysterical as a chicken!!
Both of the boys enjoyed dressing up and I think I'll be watching for more costumes to go on clearance. I think after Christmas is when I got these costumes for such a steal.

Judah told me that he was "a monkey that says cock-a-doodle-doo!"

Have a good weekend everyone!

Judah Funnies - another collection

I can't keep up with the funny things that come out of this boys mouth. He keeps us laughing all.the.time! It's so much fun!

Recently at dinner time I was trying to get him to eat something that he didn't want to eat and he said to me in all seriousness; "Lick it mommy. Kiss it. Put it on your head." I don't know why it struck us as so hilarious, but Paul now quotes that line a lot.

Dinner time seems to be the time for funnies - he was in the middle of eating something and out of the blue he said quite seriously; "Daddy. I want to fart in a spoon."
Paul's response made me laugh even harder; "Well son. We can't always have what we want."

A few weeks ago Judah came to me and said: “Mommy, I don’t like it when Daddy talks to me like that. He said ‘No jumping on the bed.’”

I have gotten Judah all hyped up about Christmas, even though he doesn't totally get what "Christmas" is. He talks about it a lot - he knows things I buy are being put away until Christmas and I have told him the Christmas story and we've even pulled out the nativity set and played with it a few times. Two weeks ago Judah saw a nativity scene set up in a store and yelled out loudly “LOOK MOMMY! THERE’S GOD!”

While dressing him the other day he looked down at his bare chest and said "Oh! There are my nipples. Hi nipples! We are going to go to the gym nursery today - yay!"

Judah was playing with one of his little plastic army men and he brought one to me and said "Mommy, his arms are tired. Pull this off." (taking about the gun the army man was holding.)

Flipbook

I had SO much fun doing this activity!! I found the template and instructions Here at First Palette.
Judah is a bit young to play with this book on his own, but he enjoys playing with it with me.
I printed 7 or 8 sheets and colored characters that he likes - swimmer, cowboy, soldier, nurse, etc. He only colored one himself.

When he is a bit older I think I will do this one with him again, but let him color all the characters himself. He's just a bit young for that part right now.

Rainy Day Race Track

I saw this idea while blog hoping a while ago and I can't remember where I saw it but I love this idea!! It is the perfect rainy day activity to do with two little boys.

I started the tape in the middle of our stair case and it goes in front of the couch, loops in a circle, goes around the side table and then back down behind the couch.



Parts of the track have black lines down the center to resemble a road - making the lines was part of the fun for Judah!

We have been using this all morning for cars, balancing, chasing, coloring, rolling - there are so many activities to be done with a roll of painters tape!

The only bad thing about it is that I used Paul's painters tape (sorry babe!!) I think the Dollar Tree sells some and while it's cheap quality it would be perfect for this activity!

Buying a New Mattress

When we got married our first apartment came fully furnished so we didn't have to consider what type of mattress to buy as we didn't need to buy one.

A couple months later Paul's Sgt was moving and selling all of her furniture so we bought most of it from her for an excellent deal - included in that furniture was a Queen mattress and box spring. That was 4.5 years ago and while we don't regret the thrifty purchase it is time for us to invest in our own mattress that meets our needs.

We have been thinking about purchasing a new mattress set for a couple of months now and imagine my delight when Tyler from www.csnmattresses.com contacted me about us working together on getting their name out there. I asked if he could get his team to put together a post about what to look for when buying a mattress and they did just that!

If you are considering purchasing a mattress be sure to follow the link on the bottom as there are more details there about what to be looking for when shopping for a mattress.

Mattress Buying Tips

There are many important factors to keep in mind when trying to find the right mattress. Here are some important ideas to consider when you start shopping for your new mattress set!

Support- A good mattress and foundation should gently support your body at all points, keeping your spine in the straight and aligned with the rest of your body. Pay special attention to the heaviest parts of your body. If there's too little support, you may develop back pain. Another great indicator of support is the coil count of a particular mattress. Don't rely on product labels to tell you which mattress will give you the right support. One manufacturer's "firm" may feel harder than another manufacturer’s “extra firm." The only real way to find out if the support is right is to lie down and test it yourself!

Comfort- Gone are the days when a mattress was nothing more than a bag of feathers. While Mattress Designs have evolved over the years, comfort and support remain the most important factor to consider. No longer does a mattress have to be a stiff board to be healthy for your sleep. A hard mattress is good for little else than putting your shoulders and hips to sleep, leaving you tossing and turning all night. Your best sleep occurs when bed cradles you providing both comfort and security. Today's top quality mattress sets from companies like Simmons Beauty Rest are built for superior comfort. Innovative new cushioning materials and extra-soft surface treatments create a plusher, more comfortable feel. You no longer have to sacrifice comfort in order to have healthy night’s rest.

Space- The average sleeper moves anywhere from 40-60 times a night, including a good dozen or so full body turns, cramped quarters can turn sleeping into a nightly battle. You need freedom of motion while you sleep which helps you to relax while falling asleep. If you sleep with a partner, be sure to select a queen or king size mattress. Not only are these lager sizes wider, but they are each several inches longer than the standard full size, which is comparable to a baby in a crib.

Durability- To guarantee good mattress performance over many years, buy the highest quality sleep set you can afford. The quality of the materials used in the mattress and how they are put together determines how long a mattress and box spring will last. A warranty won’t tell you how long to keep your mattress; it is just there to protect you against any product defects. A warranty may say it is usable after 20 years after purchase, but it's likely not giving you the good night's sleep that you deserve.

This is a great guide to help you evaluate whether or not it’s time for a new mattress for you - the E.A.S.E. METHOD.

Dollar Tree Love

The last few weeks Judah has been super interested in making crafts - only his version of the crafts are very boy-i-fied. Like the above "Alien Caterpillar." I adore his imagination.
Sometimes I wish I could take a trip into his head just to see how that boy thinks.

Anyways. Back to the crafts.
Our town has tons of dollar stores and by far the best dollar store is Dollar Tree - everything in Dollar Tree is truly $1 (or less) and they have a marvelous selection of things!
I have gotten so many fun craft items for the boys from Dollar Tree.

I was in Micheal's craft store yesterday and they had a lot of the same items but for way, way more - at least twice the price for the same quantity or less as the Dollar Tree.

Some of our craft purchases from there have been:
-Googly eyes
-Pipe Cleaners
-Foam shapes
-Felt
-Popsicle sticks
-Paper Bags
-Paper Plates

I have also picked up a lot of really nice bins for organizing all of the craft items - similar to the ones I got for organizing my pantry.

If you have never checked out your local Dollar Tree I would highly recommend it!

And is anyone else totally excited that Christmas is exactly two months away?!?

Dealing with the "I don't want to" - Ideas Welcome!

I think we've just hit the hardest-to-deal-with (to date) stage of raising children. The "I don't want to" stage. For a few days I would venture to say that 90% of Judah's responses to us started with "I don't want to..."

We have by no means eliminated the "I don't want to" response, but we have seen a drastic decrease in the amount he says it and a huge change in his attitude over the last few days by changing a few things. We're not sure what specifically caused the change, so for now we're going to keep all of these things in play:


1. Paul (if he is home) or I sit down with him first thing in the morning and tell him that we don't want him saying "I not" or "I don't want to" today. We tell him what is punishment will be each time he says it (more on that in a minute) and we then pray with him and ask God to help him honor God by obeying without arguing. This is literally the first thing we do with him - it comes before changing his diaper even.

2. Even though Judah is only 2.5 and probably too young to grasp this concept we reinforce to him throughout the day that it doesn't matter if you want to do something or not - you still need to do it and you need to be joyful.
For example, Paul has casually brought up to Judah that he doesn't want to go to work and leave us at home because he misses us while he is gone but that he has to because it is his job to provide for us. Judah's response to that was "Oh ok. That's cool daddy."
I don't think he understands, but we want him to grow up with the understanding that we don't always get to do what we want to do but we need to always do what God has asked us to do - and for Judah that would be obeying his parents.

3. Because of the frequency of Judah's "I don't want to..." comments we had to get creative with a punishment - he would say it at home, in the store, at church - anywhere and everywhere. We tried many different things and the one we have found most efficient (we saw a HUGE difference within hours of doing this!) and have stuck with is making him do push ups. Each time he back talks and says "I don't want to..." I ask him to do 2-10 push ups depending on the situation. He has been doing push ups for several months now as a fun "lets be like daddy" type activity and so I wasn't sure at first how he would respond to it being used as a form of discipline.
I'm not kidding when I say that within a couple hours of using push ups the amount of arguing decreased noticeably.
What is really odd about it is that he doesn't mind doing the push ups - he would rather do push ups then be sent to his room, and yet push ups are a more efficient form of punishment than being sent to his room! I thought that was interesting.

4. On top of those things we have also completely eliminated all movies from his viewing - just prior to this "I don't want to" attitude he started to watch Bob the Builder or Curious George or a similar type shows once a day/every two days - we aren't convinced that his attitude is connected to the shows, but we decided to eliminate them completely just to see.


Like I said at the beginning, we haven't eliminated this attitude but it has decreased. We are finding ourselves ever more in need of God's wisdom and grace in knowing what to do and how to respond to our boys.

If you've been through this "I don't want to" stage I would love to hear your creative ideas for dealing with it! :) We're open to all ideas!

Contest Winner

Using random.org #8 was picked as the winner for the Sticker/Label Giveaway hosted by Uprinting.com. Congrats Amber!

Fish Food (Jello!)

Another fish related activity that I did with Judah this week was to make an edible fish aquarium. I found this fantastic see-through blue container at the Dollar Tree as well as the plastic water animals.

I washed those items really, really well before anything else :)

Then Judah and Wesley helped me make jello - this container held three packets of jello! We did it in layers and added fish on each level.

I added three straws at the very beginning and once all the jello had set I trimmed the straws so they only came as high as the jello and I stuck pipe cleaners in the straws to look like seaweed-y/grassy stuff. I know. It looks nothing like seaweed-y/grassy stuff. But use your imagination :)

Our final step was to add an alligator, seal, turtle and frog to the top of the jello.

Here it is from a side view:

I loved doing this activity with Judah - not only did it include "cooking" together, but he also got to learn the names of some water creatures he didn't previously know about (Seal!). We had a friend over for dinner the evening we served this and Judah was quite excited to show off his plate aquarium and his Jello aquarium.

Hooking up with Tasty Tuesday

Fish Aquarium Craft

We have been studying fish this week - as deeply as a 2.5 year old is able to study anything :)
I think he's had a lot of fun with it and he talks a lot about fish throughout the day.

One of the activities I did with him was to make a fish aquarium - it was so simple and I love how it turned out! We made two of them and put them back to back and currently have them hanging over our dining room table.

To make your own you will need:

- Two plates (I used blue to look like water)
- A baggie large enough to cover the hole you cut in the plate
- Scissors
- Double sided tape
- stapler
- fish stickers/shapes for them to color
- glitter glue (to make the waves and fish bubbles)
- ribbon for hanging

Cut a hole in the center of plate 1 and, using double sided tape, attach the baggie so you have a "window."

Attach fish and glitter to plate 2.

Staple the two plates together - making sure to staple the ribbon to the top and center.

Next up: Fishy Jello

Don't forget to enter yourself in the sticker/label giveaway that ends tomorrow!

An Evening at the Fair

Friday evening we took the boys to the South Carolina State Fair - we had so much fun together and Wesley and I even got to ride an elephant! Judah got scared at the last minute.
We didn't get there until after dark so I didn't take many pictures of the boys, but here they are enjoying some food:

I had packed some "fair like" food for them that I'd picked up at the grocery store the day before - it saved a TON of money and they were quite content eating their treats when surrounded by all the goodies sold at the fair.

The Midway was HUGE - there were three Ferris wheels and you couldn't see all three of them from the same spot. We didn't put the boys on any rides, but they loved walking through and looking at them all.
The lights against the black sky looked so cool: