How I Teach My Kids Their Colors

I don't know how other people do it, but with my five kids I have found this method to work when teaching young ones their colors.  I like to point out different objects of the same color (this works great on a walk-- I like the color red to start with, because there are things like fire hydrants and stop signs), or similar objects of different colors.  I have used these blocks to teach each one of my kids, because it fits the similar object theory, and we can organize the blocks according to color.  With my others, I started shortly after their first birthday and expect that the colors and concept won't click completely for six months or so.  I know this feels like a young time to start, but in some ways it reduces pressure because you know there is plenty of time, and they really are sponges at this age.

I don't know how many times I had to make a concerted effort to sit down and work with them on colors, but I'm sure it took less than ten.  Once they get it, it is pretty easy for them.

I waited longer than usual with my last little boy.  Today we finally got to spend a little more quality time together than we have over the last couple of weeks as we had no doctors to visit or places to be  (by the way, our little girl is doing well!  she got a "clean" X-ray yesterday and her blood markers are showing back to normal!  Wahoo!).  I'm not sure the color part sunk in, but he loved the tower building and matching up the colored cars to the different colored towers.  I forgot how therapeutic it can be to play cars with little ones.  So fun.

How do you teach your kids their colors?

Little Boy Playing

Off to the zoo today with the littles.  Enjoy this video.  I caught this little one playing and loved watching the world through his eyes for a few minutes.  Sure going to miss watching those new little eyes and discovery some day.  If you don't have time for the whole thing, skip to 1:45 (to 2:05) and watch how he spontaneously shimmies to the music.  :)

A Little Laugh

...to start your weekend.  (sorry I'm posting late today!  had to take little cute girl in again, this time for tummy pain, did another X-ray-- just some fun little blockages due to all the medicines and fun things she's gone through lately, nothing a little over the counter medicine won't cure!)

Here are some funny things the littlest boy has done or said lately.

The other day, after someone went to the bathroom, he surprised us by saying "bye bye poo poos!  Lub [love] you!"  and then blowing the toilet a kiss, by touching his chubby little open hand to his mouth and making a loud smacking noise.  So sorry if this is offensive to anyone, it's just so funny.

He has a little tiny Cars car he calls "Wa-weegie" (Luigi) that he will not reliquish for anything.  And if he does, and it gets misplaced, he will be sad and fussy until it is relocated (sometimes not for several hours).

The other night, we had some deer in our yard.  He noticed them even before I did, and he was so ecstatic I couldn't contain his excitement.  As you will see in the video below.  Sorry it is dark.  But you get the picture.  I was totally amazed the deer weren't scared away as he rushed back and forth to the window squealing "deer!  Deer!"



Happy weekend everyone!  

Happy Love Day

Happy Valentines Day everyone!  I used to feel grumpy on this day, but my kids just make it so fun.  That whole magic of childhood thing, or something like that.  Enjoy a few photos from my four year-olds Valentine class ballet and a special Valentine holder made by my girls that I thought was just so stinkin' cute (they did it with no help from me).  And my husband is taking me out for pizza tonight.  Little did he know that when he married me, he married pizza.  What a good sport.





Note that Mr. Snowman is holding a Valentine.  I found a similar one on my nightstand this morning, as did everyone else in the family.  One little girl in this family is so cute that way-- she loves the holidays and loves to write sweet notes.  She teaches me a thing or two all the time. :)

I hope you have a wonderful day!  Love from all of us.

A Little Side Goal

Just a quick little something about a side goal that started a couple of months ago.  Remember when I worked on organization?  Well,  that is still an ongoing project.  :)  But one upside was that I planned out activities for the whole year, like dates with the kids and with my husband.  This may seem like overkill, but I have gotten addicted to yearly planning over the last few years.  I find I'm so much better at finding a block of time to plan something out, after which I can let it run itself for quite a while.  I wanted to make sure I do all those things I always intend to do but never get around to, to be more purposeful about life instead of just going along for the ride.

One of my goals with the planning was to allow for more cultural experiences with the kids, again, in a purposeful way.  I did some quick research on the internet to see which art shows, plays, ballets, etc were visiting my state over the next year.  Then I did some quick budgetary calculations.  Turns out, even though I'd like to go to lots of plays, one good quality play is all the budget will allow when there are so many people to account for (and I've learned that I'd rather pay for good seats to one play than bad seats for two).  That said, in December, when I saw a deal for Symphony tickets for just $9, I snatched that right up, because cultural events were on my mind and I realized it was a great opportunity to get in some culture for a great price (and we didn't need great seats, as it was an auditory experience).

In addition to stage performances, I scheduled cheaper things, like one nice restaurant (of course nice is anything a step up from McDonalds)(we were supposed to do this in Jan, but when I was sitting at the dinner table a few nights before, and there was a lot of slurping and chomping and just general craziness, I decided we needed some more prep time, since the kids didn't know about it anyway, and prepping for something like that is kind of the point).  I also found that a semi-local university's art museum offers a few free Saturdays just for kids, and they even provide a craft.

I also scheduled out days here and there at our "pass of the year."  In general, we tend to do one pass a year and rotate that pass.  Last year we did the Planetarium.  If I didn't schedule it, I would sometimes forget for months at a time that I even had the pass (after I started writing it on the calendar, we went more regularly).  This year we are doing the zoo.  I budgeted enough to visit another museum or two on a one-off basis, like the science museum we visited last month.

In general I just tried to decide how often time and budget would allow us to visit places we wanted to go, then scheduled them in so we don't just get so into our daily rhythms that we miss out on something we really wanted to do.   So far, its been good!  I have one goal related to this I'm going to work on next month.

Whew!  Clear as mud.  Happy Valentines Day!

The Tooth-Brushing Fire Truck

More videos!  I aim to please, so here goes.  :)

Took this on the same day I took the last one.  Actually my oldest son took it for me.  I wanted to capture the way we make it through tooth brushing time with the little one.  I had to get creative, since he hated this time.  This has been a fun way to make it fun-- he suggests the vehicle sound and I brush.

Enjoy!

Little Things

I'm afraid you are over-saturated with our little health crisis over here.  Sorry, it should get better soon. :)

I took these photos the day after she came home.  It was such a relief that she is okay that the simple act of seeing her coloring touched me and I pulled out the camera.  These little things are so easy to miss on a normal day, but on this day I was taking photos at every angle (lol), and just generally enjoying watching the care she put into the various stages of her picture coloring, right down to crayon selection.  Thanks for indulging my reel of similar looking photographs, this momma was just so happy and relieved to have this little girl home again, even if her hair hadn't been washed for a really long time. :)