Teaching how he learns

So after my post about being more intentional with my time, it appears I have become more creative. Organization comes naturally to me. I love it and it loves me... being creative on the other hand is not my strong point.

 

 

I struggle so much teaching Crewe through play. I want to make learning fun for him and he is not one of those kids that likes to color and draw being in a confined area. He would much rather run cars into our baseboards or push his lawn mower in circles around the couch all the while screaming, "Don't chase Sophie (our dog), don't chase Sophie". Can you tell what we say to him.... a lot?

 

My first baby is pushing 10... too old to be terrorized by toddler toys.

 

 

 

It was also my mission to not spend a lot of money given the plethora of toys we always have scattered around the house, so this forced me to get creative and combine what he loves doing with learning material we already have.

 

 

I came up with this little game that holds his attention pretty well all the while we are spending quality time together and he is learning.

 

He LOVES animals and cars so combining them is a little slice of heaven for him. We will just play simple games where I will ask him to put his yellow car on the 2 ducks... or his blue plane on the 9 bees. Simple things that helps him with colors and counting.

 

We by no means do this everyday and most days I praise myself for the amount of "self play" I let Crewe do ;-), but coming up with these games really helps me sit down and engage with him.

 

 

Everytime we go to the store I let him pick out 1 Hot Wheels car to add to his collection. By the time he is 10 I am confident we will have no less than 500 hot wheels.

 

Nothing too impressive but I just wanted to share what we are doing to learn and play! 

Word of the year and Play

First,  I want to start by saying THANK YOU to everyone who takes the time to comment on my posts. It means so much to me and even though I am not always the best at responding, I intend to change that.

 

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There is no big surprise that my word of the year is the same word as last year. To be honest I feel like I miserably failed at being INTENTIONAL with anything. If I look back on last year I probably should have picked the word SELFISH because that is what I feel I spent most of the year being.

 

Thank goodness I have another year to try to improve on last, but this year I am picking 2 "Words of the Year". One for my family and one for God. For my family it is to be more intentional with how I spend my energy and time. For God it is, hands down, going to be TRUST.

 

While I LIKE to feel like most of my days are spent trusting God... I am plaqued by worry and fear most of the time. My biggest worry is about the health and well being of these two.

Crewe's hat kills me!

 

I have such a hard time releasing the tight grip I have on them and the feeling that by worrying I can somehow protect them... when really I am just robbing myself of all the current joys. Realizing that in your mind is great, but living it in your day is HARD. 

 

I really struggle with believing in my heart that GOD loves them and cares about them more than I do. That he always has their best intentions in his heart.

 

 I  AM incredibly greatful however; that my walk in trusting him is a PROCESS not a PROJECT. It is not something that in 30 days I have to be perfect at nor does God expect perfection. What he does expect of me is to keep growing in faith and trust.

Toilet paper rolls save my life when I am cooking dinner.

 

That leads into my family word, INTENTIONAL. I feel like so much of my days get caught up with checking things off my to-do list. While I do feel like a to-do list is good and necessary to have at times... for a Type A personality it becomes all encompassing... to where I don't sit down to play with Crewe or snuggle up on the couch with my honey at the end of the day until that to-do list is complete.

 

I don't want to miss all the enjoyments of life, simply to check a few things off the list. Things that are going to be right back on the list tomorrow.... doing the dishes, laundry, sweeping the floor, making the beds... Can I get an AMEN?

 

My point is that those things are always going to be there.

 

I want to take the time to let Crewe out of the shopping cart to help me find stuff at the grocery store  or let him do his balancing act on the curbs as we walk to the car. The rush, rush, rush of the day has got to slow down.

 

 

I want facebook and all the other social medias out there to not occupy so much of my day. I want to spend the time I would be on facebook getting dinner on the table earlier, engaging with my husband after Crewe goes to bed (take that how you will ;-) and I am making it happen everyday. It feels so good, so refreshing, so much more how life is supposed to be. CONNECTING with those my heart loves most rather than my phone or the computer.

They are like damn addictions I tell you. It is madness!

 

And here's another cool thing about it... I have noticed when I shorten my to do list each day my patience drastically increases. I deal with tantrums better, small kinks in our plans for the day don't stress me out, I am just all around a happier person, which makes for a happier family and isn't that what all of us want?

 

Like my honey always tells me, "Babe, the things that you don't get checked off your list today will still be there tomorrow." My sweet laid back husband has it all figured out.

 

So here we go again "Intentional". Please be good to me this year!

 

I'm weird and I know it!

Sometimes my brain works by song lyrics, so put this to "I'm sexy and I know it" and it makes more sense. Just one more little way I keep life exciting.

 

So I have been wanting to do this post for 2 reasons. One, to get it out there that I am kind of weird and kinda okay with it and two, so Crewe can know that weird is okay and cool, because of course his mama is the coolest of weird.

 

Oh and feel free to chime in at the end with how you are weird.... you know just to not make me feel alone here. ;-)

Here are some crazies about me:

 

1) I will wash, dry, fold and hang up 5 loads of laundry and it never fails I get to the last 3 or 4 items and just quit. It is like the thought of hanging up or folding 1 more piece is JUST.TOO.MUCH. Never mind that I just folded/hung 500 articles of clothing.

 

 

 

2) I take swigs of coffee creamer throughout my day as a sweet fix. In reality I probably drink about 200 of my daily calories in coffee creamer.

 

3) When the bath water runs at night I HAVE to have my feet right under it and I like the water to be like scalding hot.

 

 

 

4) Along with the coffee creamer. I snack on bacon bits all.day.long.! They have the perfect amount of salty and the texture is awesome (I really do eat healthy).

 

5) I absolutely, no questions asked, have to shave my legs every.single.day! I cannot stand the way unshaved legs feel on pants and sheets. I think I have some kind of sensory disorder.

 

 

 

6) I hate.hate.hate washing my jeans beacuase it makes me feel like I have gained 10lbs in my sleep.

Confession: I wear my jeans A LOT before I wash them.

 

7) I always have an organization project going on in my head... that will come to completion. Truth: my husband hates it.

 

 

 

8) I have been known, on more than 100 occasions, to make my bed 10 minutes before we get in it just so the sheets are tight. I hate feeling smothered in my bed sheets. Again... sensory issues much?

 

9) I could win an award for the amount of times I have rewashed clothes in the washer because I ALWAYS forget to put them in the dryer and then they will sit in the dryer until I have a load in the washer forcing me to fold them.

 

Daddy always ends up pushing the kiddie cart

 

 

I wanted to have 10, but that is all I can think of tonight. Trust me there are much more than 9 oddities about me.

 

Of course I mixed in some fun pictures, that have nothing to do with my post, which it make it that much more weird, to make me not seem quite as weird. That's a lot of weird.

 

Hope everyone has a great weekend