This couple of weeks in pictures

A broken pair of glasses turns into a fun toy!

Do you think they’ll always be so excited to do laundry?

New favorite game: Chasing each other around with oven mits…???

How many Geesaman boys can fit into a Cozy Coupe? Again, they are not allowed in the car with each other until they are 28!

Aaron was sent to time out and in a show of solidarity, the twins sat there, too.

 

Hair vs. Vaseline

Aaron at the Round Rock Express baseball game with daddy.

I don’t know, I just think babies sipping through straws is cute!

Soon after the taking of this picture, Eric was released and went spinning like a helicopter…and loved it! Thankfully, no babies were harmed in the filming of this event.

In case you ever wondered…

In case you ever wondered what Vaseline looks like in a baby’s hair, this is it…and it doesn’t come out with soap and water. I’m taking suggestions on how to remove this! His brother got into it, too, but not quite as bad.

I have to admit, he does make it look pretty cute.

Super Mom or Abiding Mom?

In the course of being pregnant, raising twins, then deciding to home-school, I’ve been called a “Super Mom”. It’s a popular term that I think pretty much describes any mother who has a child or children and manages to keep them from running into traffic most of the time. This mothering thing is no joke. It’s a daily, 24-7, 365 thing for at least 18 years, but really I think it’s for the rest of our lives. They’ll never stop being our babies and we’ll never stop wanting the best for them. I’m never quite sure what to think of the Super Mom label…is it really a compliment or have I lost focus? Does it mean I’m trying too hard? Am I doing these things to impress people? These questions were rattling around in my brain and then I came across this great graphic from www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com that paints a clearer picture of my role as a mom in God’s eyes. Just read through the Super Mom list first, you’ll need a strong drink after it thinking of having to live up to all those expectations (if you aren’t pregnant, of course). Now, read through the “Abiding Mom” side and I find the comfort and peace of knowing that I am in the Lord and He in me through this journey of motherhood. I know that however much I fret about lesson plans, curriculum or whether or not to take a sick baby to the doctor, He is in control.

Here’s a printable version…

P.S. I like the last one on “Abiding Mom” side. “Her children arise and call her blessed.” Ahhh…doesn’t that sound nice? I’ll have to keep praying on that one because my children arise and beg for a diaper change and breakfast.

Homeschooling Challenge #1 of 1 billion

Sensory exploration tubs for table time with toddlers.

We’ve been doing some sort of official-ish Pre-K type activities at home the past couple of weeks. Right now this feels like more of a practice for me figuring out how homeschooling is all going to work with our family and in our home. I’m really enjoying the challenge of finding engaging and educational activities, learning Aaron’s learning styles and adjusting my teaching and parenting styles so we don’t both go insane. But, despite all that, the biggest challenge to our at home learning has been…dun, dun, duuuuunnnnn…the twins! Two 18 month old boys who’s only objective in life is to touch, feel, explore, climb every inch of space they can and then eat whatever has just been found and explored. As you can imagine this poses a challenge when I try to get into learning with Aaron. I found last week that the babies can sit in their booster seats for up to 30 minutes and do a lot of their exploring at the table. So, I sat them down and started giving them whatever scrap of paper, ribbon, q-tip (clean, of course), thing I had laying (or is it lying??, we’re in trouble when it comes to grammar time) around. So, cheap crafty momma brain turned on and came up with an empty coffee can filled with said bits of things that I can change out each day to keep things new and interesting. The twins can play nicely on their own for a certain amount of time. That quiet play combined with this learning will hopefully allow Aaron to get some learning done as well. I imagine for a while that we will have to have our reading time and any other focused learning happening when the twins are napping in the afternoon. Each day is a new and different. The home-schooling journey is beginning!

And, yes, I realize that we’ll be adding a newborn into the mix in 12 or so weeks. It’s all about adjusting and finding what works for the moment!

Bubble Snake Maker

 

Got this idea from Come Together Kids. It took about 30 seconds to make and they had at least 30 minutes having fun exploring it. This was so much better than trying to have Aaron blow bubbles from a wand. That always creates a drippy mess and someone ends up knocking over the bubbles. This is just a plastic bottle with the end cut off, put a sock or washcloth over the bottom and secure with a rubber band. Dip the cloth in a detergent/water solution and blow your bubble snake! Definitely a keeper!

Grant and Eric weren’t quite sure what to think. They were very interested in the bubble snake, but didn’t want anything to do with touching it for quite a while.

This week in pictures

Another fun filled and mommy tiring week with the boys. Baby Lance Arthur (yes, that’s his name in case you haven’t heard) is growing big and strong. He’s already measuring ahead…not a big surprise there! I predict at least a 9 lb-der this time. He’s doing lots of flops and kicks, which entertains biggest brother, Aaron, when we are snuggling and reading books. Aaron is baseball crazy, just like his dad. He’s forever telling us about all the different (made-up) scores by all the different teams and looking forward to going with daddy to see the Memphis Cardinals in Round Rock in a couple of weeks.

Aaron and I have been working on swimming all summer and today he figured out how to take breaths and keep swimming. He made it halfway across the pool!

 

After Grant’s first couple of steps a couple of weeks ago he didn’t try to walk much again until this week. Now he’s finally walking more than crawling. We call is the T. Rex walk, but he’s getting there, just shy of 18 months! Notice how I call him Eric at first? I mix their names up the majority of the time.

 

Eric has the giggles and a little fighting off of big brother.

 

Aaron and I made dinosaur fossils this week. Yet another fun project from icanteachmychild.com

Love this one of Grant playing with play dough while Aaron and I made the fossils. Eric has been taking morning naps again this week, so he was snoozing through this.

Here’s Eric ripping apart some old magazines I had. I just filled an empty plastic container with pages from a magazine and let them go to town. Fine motor skills and a few minutes of not opening cabinets and climbing on the table.

First Hair Cuts

 

It was hair cutting night at the Geesaman house. I’ve buzzed Greg’s hair for years, started with Aaron a couple of years ago when he finally started growing hair, and tonight we added Eric and Grant in on the fun. We’re gonna have many years of hair cutting line-ups around here! Eric watched with fascination as Daddy and big brother got their hair cut and was eager to take a turn. This kid doesn’t sit still unless he’s eating, sleeping and apparently, getting his hair cut.

I look pretty horrible here…I plead six months pregnant and 101 degrees outside! I had to include it because doesn’t Eric have the sweetest look on his face?

He doesn’t look too sure about it here, but he did a great job, didn’t fuss at all.

I had to get picture of his cute little pigtail before I snipped it off and put it in a little baggie to stick in his baby book.

My little peach fuzz boy!

Grant didn’t really need a hair cut, but he did not want to be left out of the action, so I took a little off around the ears.

The VERY Hungry Caterpillar

I have no idea what exactly this thing is, but it ate an entire (large, very nice) jalapeno plant we had growing in a pot in less than a day.

When we found it that poor thing could hardly move, kinda me when I eat too much!

But, the boys enjoyed taking a poke at it. Guess we’ll have to keep buying jalapenos from the store this summer!

Water Coloring Pages

Another idea from icanteachmychild.com on the books today. Just print out coloring pages from here onto white cardstock. You can either use water colors (there’s even a recipe to make your own watercolors) or watercolor pencils. I was cleaning out my office last night and came across ones I bought from Stampin’ Up years ago thinking I’d take on a new hobby (it didn’t take). I just made little colored marks on the sheets and then Aaron went to town with a wet paintbrush. If you’re using watercolors, just make dot with the colors and let the sheet dry. This will be a great quiet time activity and could even be a great on the road activity if you can figure out a way not to spill the water. This also lets me get out my occasional craving for some good ol' coloring time!

He was so into it, he could hardly wait for me to get the color on the sheet.

Of course, a Cardinals sheet for daddy who had to work on a Saturday.

This week in Pictures

A random assortment of thing that happened this week. A new weekly post? That’s the idea anyway…

Got this idea from www.icanteachmychild.com. I am LOVING this blog full of great pre-school activities using things you probably already have laying around. I am making little activity kits that I am hoping will keep little brothers entertained and learning while Aaron and I are “doing school”. I made segments up to the number 40 because that’s how long the noodle was. Aaron did well with it until about number 20 and then was ready to move on, but he came back later in the evening and asked to do it more. I need to stock up on containers to keep all these activities, and of course find places to keep the containers! 

He’s pinching his marker!! He held his writing utensils so weird. I bought one of those grasper things you put on the end of a pencil and he seems to have gotten it pretty quickly.

Playing dinosaurs with his friend Isabella. I’m not kidding you, these two have have played dinosaurs quietly and contently for up to four continuous hours on a couple of occasions. I need to read up on it, but I think girl/boy little friends get along better than girl/girl or boy/boy friends. Maybe less competition?

And this is what Aaron does with his boy little friends! I set up a blanket in the backyard to try to create more shade over the sand box in the morning. I worked marginally well for sun shade, but the kids had a much better idea and turned it into a stage. Here are Aaron and his friend James “fighting” out their drama.

These boys aren’t allowed in a car together by themselves again for at least another 20 years! And that “oh” look by Eric is something we see often. He has such a cute personality and tries to hide his little smiles with an “oh” face. Hard to explain, but very cute.

I have a shot like this from every fireworks show we’ve ever been to. We had a great spot for one of the only fireworks shows in Central Texas.

Here’s the one from his first 4th of July 2007. Look at his bald little baby head! I thought he would never grow hair!

This is how I spent my 4th of July before the fireworks. I totally cleaned out the junk cabinet. Thanks to my neighbor and friend, Melissa, for this idea!  It’s funny how clearing out cabinets has a domino effect. I had to clear the cookbooks out of this top shelf in the cabinet, moved those to baskets above the fridges (I don’t use them that much anyway!). Above the fridge was another favorite junk spot that got cleared. And, the organizing kept moving me from one cabinet to another until most of them were done! I’m discovering the key to organizing is having lots of containers and not packing them with too much stuff…leave room to find what you put there!

Sandbox Fun in the Sun

I usually try to send the boys out in the afternoon while I’m making dinner. It’s been 100 or close to it every day for the past month or so here in Texas, so we have to make sure our fair skinned boys are in the shade and keeping cool.

A couple of weeks ago we (meaning Greg) had to move the sand box one load of sand at a time from the sunniest part of the yard to a spot that is more shaded, especially in the afternoon and evening. We (really, it was me this time) put the umbrella in the center of the sandbox for some more shade. And today I put the hose on the “mist” function and set it up inside the umbrella while the boys played. Yes, it created wet and dirty sand, which created wet and dirty boys, especially the Eric boy.

He’s very into his sand box playing!

Teaching to Serve

This is crazy long, congratulations to anyone who actually makes it to the end! I should give you a ticket!  This is just to share what is working for us now. I’d love to hear about the kinds of things you do at your house.

The problem: Lots of whining when Aaron was told to do any chore.

The goal: Teaching our children (and giving myself a good reminder) that God teaches us to serve one another with a joyful heart. By serving one another we are serving God.

Serve one another in love. Galatians 5:13 

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others. 1 Peter 4:10

So, how do we get from here to there? And, what gifts does a four year old have to serve his family?

The world is full of parenting books offering suggestions of incentive programs and the like to get your kids to do what you ask. I’m not a fan of parenting books in general because they are really someone else’s opinion and I don’t usually have the patience to read them. However, I have gleaned some perspective from some books as well as other parents and try to focus on training the heart issues and giving it to God that everything else will fall into place.

I also hesitate with incentive programs because of the issue of misplaced obedience. Are our children obeying us because they are having obedient hearts or are they obeying because they get something? It’s one I still struggle with, but we have decided that we all work for something and children will learn the intrinsic rewards later, right?? I don’t know, I’m not there yet. This is what is working now and I do think we are still able to focus on the heart issue of serving. Also, he is still expected to obey mommy and daddy the first time with a happy heart on any other things we ask him to do (or stop doing is usually the case).

So, in an attempt to get from here to there, we’ve been using a new system to help teach Aaron responsibility and serving at home. It’s a hybrid using the chore pack idea from the Duggar’s book 20 and Counting (she got the idea from Managers of Their Chores) and Accountable Kids system that I saw recently at the homeschool conference.

About a year ago I made Aaron (he was about 3 1/2)  his first chore pack. It’s just a chore printed on notecards, laminated and attached with a key ring. He looks at these chores in the morning and is reminded on what he needs to do (is the idea, anyway). My main goal from this original chore pack was to get him to wake up and put his clothes on instead of coming down in PJs (or nothing at all) and staying that way until it was time to go somewhere and we were scrambling to get ready. I put other chores in there such as making his bed and picking up his room. However, I wasn’t consistent enough with encouraging the other chores. But, he did learn to come downstairs with his clothes on while I was knee-deep in taking care of 7 month old twins, so despite the failures, I declared it a success.

Fast forward to the past few weeks, Aaron is 4 1/2 and ready to take on and learn about more responsibility. So, I was very interested in the system I saw at the homeschool conference. Basically, children do their chores, they get tickets they can use for whatever works for you, and there are extra chores that they can use to earn money. The Accountable Kids has this little peg board system they sell for $30. But, I always look for the cheap way out before spending money, so the wheels started turning.

The chore pack had worked before, so I combined that system with earning tickets and money. The chores I chose this time just addressed things about the house that needed to be done and I thought he could handle (the gifts he has to serve with right now). These chores will change as he is able to handle others and the younger ones get their own chores to do. And, maybe then mommy can finish a cup of coffee before it gets cold???

Here’s how it works…

Aaron has three chores to do in the morning, three in the afternoon and three in the evening.

Morning Chores:   1. Make bed and tidy room

                                   2. Eat breakfast and brush teeth

                                   3. Water the plants

 

Afternoon Chores: 1. Pick up toys

                                    2. Take out recycling

                                    3. One hour of quiet time

 

Evening Chores:     1. Pick up toys

                                    2. Take out recycling

                                    3. Pick up back yard

1. Tickets… After each set of chores is completed, Aaron earns a ticket to add to the stash. He gets to save and spend these tickets on a TV show or computer time.

2. Sticker chart…At the end of the day if he has received all three tickets, he gets to put up a sticker to earn a date with mommy or daddy. I set this at 15 stickers, so he can get out by himself once or twice a month for an ice cream cone or a trip to the park without mommy or daddy having to chase his little brothers.

3. Extra Chores…He also has a set of extra chores outside of his packet that he can do to earn 10 cents each. The one he’s done mostly is cleaning up the sandbox, because that’s the most fun one. I’m hoping he tries and likes scrubbing the toilets and dusting soon! He puts his dime into his piggy bank and is able to save for whatever he’d like.

I got crafty and came up with this place to keep track of the chore charts, tickets, extra chores and stickers. I laminated the 12x12 paper and stitched the two together to create pockets to keep everything. If I had any sewing skills, I might have sewed something similar.

I’ve found that if I set a timer, he gets more motivated to complete his chores. Who knew? He is excited to check the time throughout his chore and try to beat the clock. Again, misplaced obedience? I don’t know, it’s working.

So, how is it working overall? We’ve been doing it about a week and here are some observations.

1. Doing his chores without grumbling: Well, most of the time. Serving with a joyful heart all of the time is one I definitely struggle with, so I keep encouraging him on this one. But, it definitely is getting better.

2. Learning about saving, spending and couponing: The first day, he spent the tickets as soon as he earned them to watch a show or play on his computer. But, he soon found out that his daily habit of watching a show before quiet time wasn’t going to work unless he had saved a ticket. So, one day he skipped TV and the computer and saved up tickets to be able to use later. We had a very quiet 4th of July at home and he spent a large chunk of his day being a couch and computer potato. But, we all need days like this sometimes!

On the first few days he kept saying he wanted to watch a show and keep his tickets. Sorry honey, I wish I could go to HEB, buy groceries and keep all the money too, but that’s not the way it works.

He was able to take two of the dimes he earned and a two $1 off one Hot Wheels coupons daddy found on-line (sorry, they’re all gone now or I’d put a link here) and take a trip to Target to get two Hot Wheels for 10 cents each. I loved his reaction when I told him that coupon was worth 10 dimes (10 extra chores!).

 

Above is a picture of Aaron at Target with his two dimes, two coupons and two Hot Wheels cars he had picked out. Notice the disappointed look on his face as he laments about wanting the packages with three Hot Wheels cars instead. Sorry sweetie, you haven’t earned enough money for those.

3. Learning about addition and counting by tens: Each time he is given a ticket or a dime, we count what he has and how much it would be to add one more.

4. Learning about honesty and earning vs. stealing: On about the second day of this program, he took my stash of tickets and said he was just going to take one. So, we got to have a little chat about how he is expected to earn the tickets and how just taking what you haven’t earned is stealing.

5. The house is all picked up at the end of the day! While Aaron is doing his evening chores, it motivates me to get the kitchen totally finished. It’s so much easier to start the next day on a clean slate. Of course, it doesn’t take long for the whirlwind of toys and dishes to pile up, but I like to try to stay ahead of the storm.

That’s about it. I’m not anticipating this working forever, but, again, it’s working for now. I’m sure our needs as a family will change as the other kids get older and we’ll adjust. It’s a wild ride!

Baseball Boy

He’s a chip off the old block and already knows more about baseball than me (which really isn’t saying a whole lot!). At 4 1/2 Aaron has taken a keen interest in watching baseball with his daddy. I think it’s a mixture of loving the sport, loving numbers, loving hanging out with daddy and loving getting to stay up late watching the games.

He’s really been interested in all the other baseball teams and who they are all playing, so Greg ordered these pennant markers from Amazon. I used an old fleece blanket and stapled it onto a bulletin board and the little fleece pennants stick so he can move them around. He likes to arrange them by color or which teams have animals.

Aaron kept asking which team the Cardinals were playing with next, so Greg printed off this calendar for him. He usually goes to bed before the end of the game, so we always have to ask daddy first thing in the morning who won. He also needs to know what the score was, and how many hits and errors each team had. So, we get to practice our hand-writing while Aaron (with much help from me) writes down all this information on his calendar. I’m sure in the next few years he’ll be keeping all kinds of stats just like his daddy used to do when he was his age.

 

Go Cards!