Whew……I have finally……

found my way out of the Lego Pile!
I have been searching for years for “just the right” Lego solution for our family. I had high high hopes of keeping all the pieces to same set in a Ziploc bag with the instructions….well no luck there. I have had many friends tell me to “just throw them in a bucket” but the problem with that in my family is called O-C-D.  Even though my orderliness has been WAY lax since the TripleSmiles have been born, I have hopes of one day being the very organized person I used to be. I am so much like my daddy in the “everything has a place…and everything SHOULD BE in that place”…….including Legos…ummmmm by color!
Also Levi likes to build step by step…and now he hopefully can put his hands quickly on “the next piece”

The other day during my “free” 90 minutes of childcare at Ikea….I found this amazing storage unit. (The Top) The bottom is an old block shelf out of our church before they tore down the old children’s building.
Levi’s addition….

Check back with us in a month…and hopefully all the colors will still look like……


I found the amazing color labels here.

Until then…..Happy Building and Organizing with your Lego Family!

Change…..Again

I think I mentioned last week, that I was working on a new schedule, but wanted to try it out for a while before sharing it. I think I am ready.
I have been struggling lately keeping it all together. My house is ALWAYS a mess…the laundry is NEVER finished….and the kids seem to be at each others throats on a consistent basis despite my efforts to teach them there is a better way!
I think part of my stress had been that I am a very organized, scheduled person and the week before and after Christmas we were all totally off our schedule.
Also as the calendar changed from  2010 to 2011….the realization that I am sending my oldest to kindergarten this year HIT HARD! Really??!! Wasn’t it just yesterday that he was born? I feel lots of pressure to “get him ready.”
So after putting my head together with some amazing professionals…I am trying at home a simple technique that I used in my 2nd grade class.
Last week, I took Zachariah’s picture doing everything we TRY to do in a day. Zachariah is the oldest and the example to the younger children!
I laminated the pictures and put a magnet on the back of them. I put them on my refrigerator.

Every day I put the pictures in the order that we are going to attempt to do our day. The goal is to TRY to do everything in the same order everyday. I have already noticed a HUGE difference when the children know what to expect next instead of me just pulling something out of the air.  I remember this was always a key in the classroom too. Kids do better with routines…and it has just been an amazing difference since implementing the cards.
Before you ask…..I do not usually get EVERYTHING done EVERYDAY! And sometimes…I can combine activities. 
I am hoping to share some of each category in the weeks to come.

Tweaking……

I am constantly tweaking my organization of our learning materials and or the best way to have them learn. Yesterday, I had the most fun play date with my friend Debe who has a son about Zachariah’s age…and she showed me her system. I couldn’t wait to get home and try it for myself. I LOVE IT!

I already had this craft supply rolling rack holding JUNK. So I threw out all the junk into a box….and created “Learning Boxes”

I have them labeled Z1 Z2….etc and L1…L2.

Each box has an activity in these areas….

1…Handwriting without Tears Activity (Sticks, Playdough, or Stamps, Workbook on the 4th day)

2 and 3 Confessions of a Homeschooler Letter of the week Activity. (This week is letter E)

http://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/2010/07/letter-of-week-curriculum.html

4. Fine Motor Activity (Stacking Blocks and Punching holes in these pictures)

5. Math (Pattern Blocks this week) \

Zachariah’s boxes for tomorrow…

Levi’s boxes for tomorrow….

Each day the boys will get new activities. But I will just alternate what is in each activity box.

Jessica over at Confessions also has a great version of these boxes! http://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Workbox%20System

Ava has already ask me “Where are my boxes?” I have an idea in my brain for her……will share later:)

Summer Begins….

with a virus on my computer! I have not been online much at all the past few days because of a nasty virus that attacked my computer. Thankfully my computer genius husband has me up and “blogging” again. Being offline has allowed me to clean out a closet that has been getting fuller and fuller since Zachariah was born. As most know we had about 6 weeks notice of this most wonderful addition to our family, and the closet has just gotten fuller since that time. This is what it looked like after I took everything out of the closet! Whew….good news! It has all either been recycled, donated, or stored in a more organized way!

So let me rewind a few days. Last Thursday, Levi’s friend Nathan came over for a most fun play date. The kids are pictured here…catching a show during lunch so that I could enjoy a rare conversation with an adult, Nathan’s mom ,Shannon over our lunch!!!

Then on Friday, we met more friends at a local new spray park! It is most fun to have finally reached a point where I can sit and visit with my friends and watch the children play and interact and not constantly be chasing them or “herding them back” to where they are supposed to be. I recently was watching the kids “pool side” and a mom came up to me and said…honey, it gets better. I thought to myself…Lady, this IS better!!!

This is a random picture of little missy that I just thought was funny and wanted to include it!