The first is when I am feeding Emma, he will hand me my breast pad and say, “Here’s your cap mommy, put your cap back on.”  I never thought of them as caps…maybe someone should contact the marketing department of Johnson and Johnson.

The second is when he wants to be held, he says, “Mommy, I want to hold you, I want to hold you.” This is way more refreshing than the demanding “Mommy hold me, hold me”  And I like it when he “does the holding” cause what mom doesn’t want to be held?

Right now, we are going cold turkey with George’s pacifier.  He only takes one for nap and bedtime but JJ and Henry never used one,  so I don’t really know how to master this transition. George only started to use one when he turned one-year-old, a little weird, but all his teeth came in at once and it seemed to help him in his state of misery.

So here we are 6 weeks before Emma is to be born and I am thinking the time is now for the pacifier to go.  Although, it may not be enough time before she is born to enter this transition with him, I’m calling it now. We are trying it for a week and if it’s a fluke, then we’ll try again in February.

Last night was the first night, and like other transitions it went better than feared expected. He cried a little but went to sleep and didn’t even wake up during the night. Nap today was fine again. We have been praising his all day for being such a “big boy” like his brothers and not using a pacifier.

Tonight, he cried for a bit longer, but then was quiet enough I thought he fell asleep…then I heard the thump-thump-thump down the hall that only George’s feet could make.  Sure enough, proud as ever, he comes out to the living room and says “Mommy?!?! Daddy?!?!”. He totally climbed out of his crib. Not the transition I was hoping to overcome before Emma was born.  I’ll keep you posted…

Kim was talking about how she was going to homeschool Tyler for preschool.

Me: “Oh, I could never homeschool, I’d go crazy , I’m not organized enough, etc”

Kim: “Jill, you DO home school your boys.”

Me: “Oh, I guess I do.”

I never think of it as homeschooling.

I don’t send my boys to preschool for two reasons.  First, and foremost, is that I know they have the rest of their lives to be in school -so why rush it?  Second, I’m cheap and don’t want to pay for something I can teach them myself.

I’ve watched other children in my home since JJ (5yo) was 9 months old, so socialization isn’t an issue.  These days, I have a three extra kids other than my own three, three days a week…wow I guess three is the magic number!  I think coupled with my own Montessori education and the the interest I had in early childhood education in college, it was natural that our days have become a loosely structured day with focused time for learning.

For the past four years, I have made my own “curriculum”.  Usually it was gathered through lots of surfing on the web and trips to the library.  Sometimes, the themes (that’s what I called them) would work beautifully and other times I would get very overwhelmed with because I would make it more complicated.

Fast forward to the last several months, I discovered Tot School and Totally Tots.  Both of these sites are specific for moms who keep their toddlers home to prepare them for a homeschooling future.  This doesn’t fit me entirely – JJ will be attending half -day kindergarten in the fall – go Hudson Hawks!  BUT, the ideas and community I have found thorough these sites have provided me a great relief.  I don’t have to reinvent the wheel, they have a simple curriculum that I feel I can pick and choose what works for us.

We do Tot Trays once or twice a day.  First in the morning and sometimes again in the afternoon if the 4 o’clock hour is especially hard.  Here are some pictures from using our trays this week.  In later posts, I’ll actually explain the specifics on what the kids are doing.

We implement ideas from Totally Tots on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays – when I have other kids with us.

It looks like this:

Mondays: Now I know my ABCs – weekly ABC ideas with tots

Wednesdays: Bible Bites and sometimes Crafty Corner

Thursdays: Once a Upon a Book

I’ll be doing a post on Sundays about what we did the week before in Tot School.  This might help me own more what we’re doing, going back to my conversation with Kim.  I think it’s so funny when friends give me a totally different view of myself that I don’t see.  It’s funny that I see myself so differently, I’m thankful that I have friends that will sweetly tell me the good, bad and the ugly.

I’m not going to do a book report on each of them, that’s what Amazon is for, so here’s our list from our “checked out” this week.  These are all great, you know the the kind of book that you actually don’t mind to read again, the books that the words just bounce off your tongue (love Dr.Suess) and then especially the ones that get a giggle out of me and the boys.

- Duck and Goose by Tad Hills

- Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankar

- Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

- Little Hoot by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

- One of those Days by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

To solve the problem, I took the advice of Amy Dacyczyn, author of The Tightwad Gazette.  When the boys are “done” with their apple I cut up the uneaten remainder into lil’ pieces, stick them in some Tupperware and stir some brown sugar and cinnamon in with them.  Then we have a a special treat for later, save some apples and the boys love them.  They call it, “Mommy’s Special Apples”.

So we came to a solution, we took pictures of the toys that belonged in each bin. Then using contact paper affixed the picture on the front of the bin.  I actually roped JJ (now 4yo) and a babysitter in to help.  JJ staged all the toys on the table and took the pictures, I printed the pictures, then JJ and the babysitter cut out the pictures and used contact paper to put them onto the bins.

So the final result is the boys clean up better because they know where things belong. And the added bonus is when friends are over THEY know where things belong even if they’ve never played at our house before.

I would suggest not being a perfectionist about this, I started to and was making it way more complicated then it had to be.  It was fun to involve JJ, he really enjoyed it.  A friend of mine found Picture Post-It notes that you can do on your computer and the back is sticky – that could be another way.   And someday,  I want to add the words under the pictures with the hope it will help with word recognition.

Side Note: Really I think these bins are not pretty especially in the primary colors.  What’s up with manufacturers thinking that everything “kid” esp. furniture needs to be in primary colors. Ours are in our living room right now and I will be so glad when we have room for them somewhere else!!!!  My friend Liz did get another color at Target later that are so much easier on the eyes.

I think the majority of the time,  our lives reflect the ideas this article. So this is one of the few articles that makes me feel like a good parent. (:   Most of the time it’s just my laziness, not my intention, that he plays with a cardboard box for an hour…and this article says he may learn more from the box play then a planned activity.  Yea!

As far as over-scheduling, this is a hard one. We just started JJ in “scheduled stuff” last year which includes summer day camps and soccer.  I don’t think any of the kids will be drastically over-scheduled b/c we are too cheap.  But I want to be aware of when enough is enough.

I think this article assumes that your child is more independent than not.  Luckily, all of my boys are, but I wonder if their independence is a result of their personalities or of my ignoring them…..I mean fostering their independence.  Any comments?

CAR/TRUCK WASH: All you need for this is: (1) baking pan; we use a brownie pan (2) water (3) toy cars/trucks; we use matchbox cars (4) different sponges/brushes; I cut up a kitchen sponge into thirds and use bottle brushes.

You fill the pan with an inch of water, sometimes I put a squirt of soap in it to make it bubbly.  Put the dishpan on the table with a hand towel under it to absorb spills. And then let the kids wash the cars with the sponges – yep that’s it.  My boys LOVE it and request once a week; it’s great for when you are getting dinner ready and you’re already in the kitchen.  I guess you can switch it up too if you have girls – maybe doll was…dunno a lot about that arena.

PAINTING THE SIDEWALK:  This is for outside.  And you need: (1) cup of water and a (2) medium paintbrush.  Dip the paintbrush into the water and tell the child they can paint sidewalk or whatever with the water.  I know it sounds dumb, but Henry loved it.  The sun was out so it dried up fast, but he didn’t care he just painted it again.

Love easy ideas – if you have some I’d love to hear them.

First of all, my definition for a “favorite gift” for a little person usually includes these parameters:

• Around $10: Unless its a niece, I try to stick to a $10-$15 budget.  You can find lots of great gifts for this amount and it keeps me from going overboard.
• Preferably something consumable.  Kids usually have a lot of toy “clutter” to begin with and I don’t want to add to the clutter.
• Some ideas of consumable gifts: Crayons, Passes to The Magic House, Movie Tickets, Craft Kits, etc.

My friend Greta gives a ColorWonder Coloring Book with markers – I love this idea b/c it’s consumable, it’s not something I would buy for ourselves and its usually unisex so you can stock up if there is a sale.

So back to the purpose of this post, my fave gift to give lil’ girls right now is a crayon apron.  It’s great for girls from 2-5 (although the safety says 3yo), it’s easy to take on and off, you can get it monogrammed across the band if you want.  Amazon has them for $16.99; so yes it totally negates my gift parameters – BUT I’ve tested it and its totally worth it and they will get several years of mileage from it.

You can check it out here: http://tinyurl.com/5bt3n3