They picked me!

I have been selected by the preschool curriculum company, Mother Goose Time, to use their curriculum with the girls here at home and blog about it.  I am pretty excited, I have been intrigued by their products for a few months now but I'm a wimp when it comes to shelling out cash for things I've only read about and don't know anyone personally who uses it.  Now I get to try it and share our experiences.

I've decided to set up a separate blog where I can share the learning activities we do at home (Mother Goose Time and others) so if you're interested, head on over to Teaching My Littles (in a bit, not now...I've just started setting it up...give me a little while...I'll let you know. :)

Can it be? Another post?

Yay!  Both girls are napping AT THE SAME TIME! They have been kind of hit and miss lately but every afternoon this week, I have had two solid hours to myself to catch up on things.  Mostly I have been catching up on two years of scrapbooking for our family in general, each of the girls, my nephew and other family members.  I am getting caught up every day and it feels great.

So, my little Miss M is quite the precocious child.  She has known all of her letters (upper and lower case) plus their sounds for some months now.  She also rote counts to 10 with no problem and is getting better and better at counting to 20.  She counts up to 5 objects with consistent one-to-one correspondence, knows all her colors and basic shapes.  In fact, at a recent trip to a restaurant, she starting making her straw into triangles and rectangles.  Basically, she's a genius and I'm freaking out since she is only just barely two years old and I feel tremendous responsibility in regards to her education.

As a result of how quickly she picks them up with incidental teaching and our own experiences in the public system as "gifted" students, Jeremiah and I are extremely serious about homeschooling, where I will be able to tailor curriculum to the girls needs, interests and levels more easily than a single teacher with 30 students can.  I have been doing a lot of reading lately and think I have found the combination of philosophies that works for our family (theoretically for now), classical with a touch of unit study and Charlotte Mason/literature based study.  I have signed up for conferences, subscribed to blogs, newsletter and email lists, joined local homeschool support groups and generally done all I can think to do at this time.  My sister-in-law is going to start homeschooling her children this fall and I think we are going to start a little blog to help share our finds with each other and anyone else who might be interested.

Currently I'm trying to figure out if I start more formally teaching her now or if I continue with the teaching in the moment that we have been doing so far.  I go back and forth almost hourly.  I am looking into putting together a little joy school/neighborhood preschool with a few other moms in the area, even if it's just to work on social skills and give the girls kids to play with on a smaller and more personal scale than the library or children's museum (especially since so many babies around us are coming down with RSV, it makes me want to hole up in the house until spring).

If anyone still sees this poor, neglected blog and has any advice/experience they'd be willing to impart, that would be so helpful!

What? An update?

Wow, I can't believe it's been two+ years since my last post.  Motherhood definitely cuts into things you used to do but I love every minute of it.  In fact, I loved it so much we've had two babies in two years!  We are so grateful for our miracle babies, one an IVF miracle and the other a very unexpected (given all we had to do to get her older sister) surprise nine months later.  M was born at the beginning of December 2012 and her sister C was born 18 months and one day later.  I love them both to distraction.

I have not been as crafty as I once was, simply due to time constraints (and a toddler who likes to be a part of everything and a baby who doesn't go to bed until way too late to start a project) but I've been doing a little sewing, including a foray into repurposing my clothes into kid clothes. It actually worked fairly well, thank to fabulous online tutorials.

My arthritis retreated again during my second pregnancy (after a really nasty flare up a few months after the first) so I've enjoyed a respite that allowed me to crochet several afghans (including the white one in the photos with C), a hobby I've always enjoyed but haven't been able to pursue much.

This year I hope to delve deeper into photography again, I've missed using my big camera but with all the gear that comes with kids, camera phones are just so much more convenient.  I did manage to do a little shoot today with each girl, one for M's second birthday portraits and the other for C's blessing portraits (both completed more than a month after the actual events but hey, it's better than never).

Jeremiah and I are finding the transition to parenthood means a lot less time together (duh) but are trying to find moments to spend with each other.  I am also slowly (very slowly) warming to the idea getting babysitters on a regular basis so we can go on dates.

The cats are fine, they feel a little displaced and I'm a little/lot less amused by some of their antics (such as dropping dead things where the girls play) but they are and will always be a part of the family.  The girls love them but they don't know that yet, they just hear gleeful screaming and see running feet or grabbing hands and head for the hills (or under our bed, to be precise).

And that's it for the update.  We will see if this is something I continue or if it'll be another two years (but not two more kiddos, please, mommy needs a break and a chance to get her body back).