- Pick blueberries
- Pick strawberries
- Walk to the ice cream shop
- Go to a water park
- Walk to the Farmer's Market
- Swim a lot
- Take Puppy for walks
- Go hiking
- Play outside
- Visit friends in GA
- Visit family/friends in Chicago
- Bake a lot
- Ride bikes
- Learn to roller skate
- Go to VBS
- Go to Camp Invention
- Read
- Practice writing letters
- Do work for Papa
- Paint the living room
- Refinish the bay window seat
- Go to COSI
- Go to Aeros game
- Go on the merry go round
- Go to the fair
- Sleep in
At breakfast this morning, Sunshine was eating like you've never seen a kid eat. She at a two egg hairy man (eggs made into a patty and then a face cut out and cheese put on the head), blueberries, dates and strawberries. As I was doling out the blueberries, I was thinking of how I can't wait to pick blueberries this summer. That got me thinking even more of what I really wanted to do with the kids this summer. Monster and I had come up with some ideas a couple of weeks ago on a Mommy/Monster date, but now we can't find the paper. So, I'm starting again, and this time documenting it for the world to see. Here it is, the Rock Summer 2013 Bucket List, with ideas from everyone in the family, including Puppy (or what the kids think Puppy wants to do). This is what we've come up with so far. I'm sure I'll be adding to it the closer summer gets!
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Spring Break has come to an end, and none too soon. It was one hell of a break. It started with Sunshine throwing up. To kick off Spring Break, we decided to take the kids to get ice cream after dinner. Half way through her ice cream, Sunshine told us her stomach hurt and they gave her too much ice cream. Two hours later, she was sick. The first official day of Spring Break was spent sitting around watching movies. The following day was beautiful out. Husband and Monster went bike riding, Sunshine was feeling much better. Then, that night, Monster got sick. Unfortunately, this was the night before Easter. Easter Sunday, no bunny came to the Rock house. Our bunny was very understanding about Monster being sick. The bunny told us he would visit the following weekend. So, Monster and Husband had to stay home while Sunshine and I went to Nana and Papa's house for Easter. Sunshine had a wonderful time. She loves spending time with her grandparents. Monster was heartbroken that he could not go and "do some work" with Papa. He didn't care about the Easter basket waiting for him. He did care that the bunny didn't come. He was sad about the time he was missing with his Papa. Monday, we sat around and watched movies again since we were taking it easy trying to recuperate. Thankfully, everyone was feeling much better with energy and appetites back. Tuesday, the kids grandma took them for the whole day. This is something that has never happened. I've never had the house to myself for the entire day. Even though I spent the entire weekend sanitizing I felt as though I really got a chance to deep clean all the germs out of my house as well as go out and run errands that would have taken me three times as long with both kids. The kids had a great time and were wiped out! On Wednesday, we made a trip up to Daddy's office to take him out to lunch. We got to meet Daddy's "work friends", which Sunshine loved. She also loved that she finally got to go to her Daddy's work. After lunch is when Wednesday got a little crazy and I realized that summer vacation is going to be extremely hectic. The kids had hair appointments so we drove down to the city that the place is in, thinking I could kill some time. After doing just one errand, I realized that there was no way I could figure out how to spend the next three hours entertaining my kids. It was too late to go home, but too early to do anything. Thankfully, I've got an awesome stylist who squeezed my kids in early so I didn't lose my mind! Thursday, Nana came down. It was a nice surprise for the kids, especially Monster since he missed Easter. They had such a wonderful time. They played all sorts of imaginary games. My mom helped me fold the 4 sets of sheets that had been washed from sickness (I can't stand folding sheets). Monster made up a cute memory card game and another counting game for Nana. We taught Nana how to play Old Maid. To make it even better, the weather was beautiful so after Nana had to leave, we got to have time to play outside for a couple of hours. Friday was the icing on the cake of Spring Break. Husband took the day off and we went to COSI. For anyone who hasn't been to COSI, it's worth the trip. Since we've been there before, we started in the special exhibit room, which just so happened to be all about puzzles and mazes and finding the secret code. Just like spy work for Monster. There were four rooms in which you had to complete 3 puzzles. The first two rooms went smoothly. The third room is where we got stuck. Neither Husband, Monster nor I could figure out one of the puzzles. We finally had to pull Monster away to go eat lunch. After lunch, we explored the rest of COSI. My favorite is the Ocean room. I love the smell of the water. Plus, they have a yellow submarine. Surprisingly, I was the only one singing that song waiting in line to get in it. After we had made our way through every room, we went back to the Mindbender room to see if we could figure out the puzzle since we had some time left. By this time, the room was so packed we couldn't even get to the puzzle, so we never did figure it out. It's really going to bug me, but I'll eventually get over it. Husband and I were wiped out after 6 hours there. On the way home, we made a detour off our route to take the kids to Olive Garden. Amazingly enough, they have never been to one. The lines are usually so long that it's not worth our time. However, we placed us arriving at this particular one at 5:20 so we figured it would probably be OK. Plus, it's in a small town. You would have thought we told Monster we were going to eat bugs or something. The complaining he did for going to try someplace new was insane. After we got there and he saw he could have bread sticks and sausage with his pasta, he completely changed his tune. Olive Garden is the new Rock kids' favorite place to eat. Too bad the one closest to us is always packed. By the time we made it home, it was time for bed. It was a great, great way to wrap up Spring Break, even though we technically had two days left. Saturday and Sunday were beautiful days that involved a lot of playing outside. While the kids were playing, Husband got the garage cleaned and I got the flower beds cleaned out. The kids got a lot of bike riding done. I got my hair done all nice and pretty. Sunday, the Easter bunny came as a make up for the previous weekend with all the sickness. The kids got jellybean filled eggs that they graphed, because Mommy can always find a way to make thing educational. Not only did they graph the colors, but they then used the graph to add up the total jellybeans and then divide them equally. It turned out there was an odd number, so Daddy got the one remaining jellybean.
Spring Break made me realize how not ready for summer vacation I am. I was completely wiped out all week with both kids home all day. Thankfully, in the summer, I'll be able to send them out to play and run and blow off energy. I am starting now to prepare projects and fun activities for the kids for down times when they can't be outside. I'm also expecting that this summer is when Sunshine will completely give up naps. She gets very upset when we put her to bed and Monster isn't going to bed. I can still get her to nap during the week when he's not home, but when he is home, it's much, much more difficult. Even though I'm not ready for summer, I am looking forward to it. Time is moving so fast. It feels like just yesterday Monster couldn't ride a bike and now, he's going off on his own (just back and forth to the two driveways next to us, but still!). Sunshine desperately wants to follow in his footsteps, so I suspect she will have training wheels off by the end of the summer. Nine more weeks of school to go until the real craziness begins! I've completed two of the projects on my list of things I wanted to accomplish this year. I'm pretty pleased with them. The first is the "I love you because..." frame. I had the perfect frame, just needed to get off my butt and print up "I love you because..." We've been taking turns writing messages for each other on it. It sits right next to the coffee maker, since that's the most important thing in our house. Saturday, I had a few free moments before heading to our final Christmas celebration with Husband's family, so I made the snowflake ballerinas. Unfortunately, I only have white paper right now. They turned out quite well, but Sunshine didn't like they were just white. She, of course, wanted pink and purple. I also tried out a new recipe for our final Christmas dessert. I made what I would call Cherry Fluff, but the recipe is actually called Cherry Salad. Way too sweet for even my taste. I ended up just picking out all the cherries to eat. It also made enough for an army. I only used 1/2 a bag of mini marshmallows and 16 oz of cool whip and that was still too much, in my opinion. After the initial taste test, I decided to add almond extract, which turned out to be a good move. It was really easy to make, but not worth repeating.
I don't have resolutions. I also try not to set unrealistic goals. 2012 was a pretty good year for accomplishing and creating things. However, the last two months, I slacked off big time. This year, I'm creating a list of things I'd like to do. Here are my hopes for 2013.
Now the fun stuff. Here are the crafts/activities I would like to do this year: There are also so many recipes I'd like to try, but I'll just highlight a few here: I am realistic. I know I may not get some of these things accomplished, and that's fine. These are just hopes, not goals. If I don't, they go on the list for 2014. Even if I don't get one of the things on here accomplished, I plan on being happy, and that's what really matters most. I feel as though the past two months have just been playing catch up. Though I'm actually on top of tasks, I've been way behind on getting things posted here. I've also been extremely bad at taking pictures of, well, everything. Around Thanksgiving, I finally got my pictures organized on my computer from June on and realized that I stopped taking pictures. For all of July and August, I think I only have 40 or so pictures. This a hint to my friend, L, to get on emailing me pictures of my kids since I think she's taken more than I have. We did hand craft a lot of the Christmas gifts for neighbors and teachers. Sunshine made her teachers reindeer thumbprint ornaments. Since Monster's teacher this year is the aide from last year, he had already made her a reindeer thumbprint ornament. So, for her and the teacher on maternity leave, he made snowman fingerprint votive holders. To go along with those, we made essential oil hand sanitizer, hand scrub, and room spray. Monster had no interest in helping there, so Sunshine helped make all that. For our awesome babysitter, we made the reindeer ornament but with both kids thumbprints. Because we have plenty of beer bottle tops, I made bottle cap snowmen ornaments. They turned out quite cute. I've posted before how I can't stand party favors and how I'm constantly on the search for things that are not candy or just plain junk. Before Thanksgiving this year, I found some foam bookmarks and foam stickers to decorate them. I had also seen an idea on Pinterest for Christmas card display that I wanted to make. Funny thing is that a friend of mine made hers first, and I decided I really liked it, so I definitely had to make one. Pretty simple. Found a cute, cheap sign at Target, hot glued some ribbon on the back, and got mini clothes pins from Hobby Lobby. Whole thing cost less than $10. We also did a couple random crafts, some I got pictures of, some I didn't. This month has been different for the Rock household. This is the first time in 6 years we were in good old Ohio for Christmas. It was bittersweet. It was nice to have the kids open their presents here, but there's something really wonderful about swimming on Christmas day. Since we didn't have to ship presents this year, I procrastinated. All gifts were bought by December 1, but we had a wrapping marathon on Christmas Eve. For extra security, we set up the webcam aiming at the stairs so we could see if any creatures were stirring. Christmas itself was nice and quiet. We celebrated with my parents and uncle who was here from Florida. Sunshine got her Cinderella doll, paper, pencils, stickers and Squinkies (she promised not to eat them) she asked Santa for. Monster got more books than any kid should be able to read in a year, but, since he's Monster, he has most of them read already. He also got some great new spy stuff and Legos. I took about 3 pictures on Christmas. Can't believe I was that absent minded. We did take video though, so I guess that counts for something. Oee, our elf, was here again this year. He wasn't so creative this year, but much braver. He hid in a lot of places the kids could touch. He was extremely trusting this year and believed in the kids. Pictures of his spots are coming as soon as they are organized and uploaded from my camera. My worry for the polar bears is a bit less. We've had below freezing temps and lots of snow. In fact, the day after Christmas there was a blizzard that dumped about a foot of the white stuff. Since Husband has been home for a week, we've been taking advantage of the snow instead of damning it. When he goes back to work tomorrow, I'll damn it again. But, the kids sure have been having fun!
For the New Year, I decided to actually bake something fun for breakfast. I made some yummy caramel rolls. Well, at least Monster and I thought they were yummy. Sunshine liked the taste, but not he texture and Husband doesn't like sweet breakfast food. I have thoughts for another post about what I hope to accomplish in 2013, but it will have to wait at least one more day.
Hope that everyone had a great holiday season! Through all the craziness, I have done a couple of crafts and found some cool new products to use. Wash and Brush Timer. I had seen this a while back and bought it to give to Sunshine for Christmas. Her hand washing has been so fast lately, that I couldn't wait until Christmas to give it to her. It is great. Only problem is that Sunshine is three feet tall. I have it affixed to the mirror and she has trouble reaching it. So, I still have to be in there to push the button for her to wash her hands. Good thing is that she's doing a much better job of hand washing. Teeth brushing is also a little easier with this, but my kids are good teeth brushers anyway. Thankful Wreath. I had found some cute wreaths for autumn on Pinterest, but none were exactly what I had been looking for. I had thought of using this one and adapting it to make it into a thankful wreath. Then, I found the "Wreath of Plenty". It was exactly what I had been looking for. I sat down with the kids and Husband and we all came up with things that we were thankful for. Best part of this one is that we can add to it year after year. Unfortunately, I didn't have straight pins and the thumb tacks just didn't cut it for securing the leaves. Each time the door closed, leaves would fall off. Next year, I'll have straight pin ready to go! Number Balloon Scavenger Hunt. I had originally pinned this to help Sunshine with number recognition. I never got around to it doing it for her. A couple of weeks ago, Monster had a friend over. I decided to do this for them as a scavenger hunt. They loved it! Sunshine and I hid all the balloons before the boys got home from school. The pack of balloons I got had 15 balloons, so our hunt went from 1-15. The boys had a blast finding them. I promised the boys that I would make it more challenging next time. Next time, I'm going to put math facts on the balloons and they need to solve them and find them in order. A week after Monster and his friend played, Sunshine had her friend over and the balloons were still sitting in the laundry basket. I decided to try it with Sunshine and her friend. Once again it was a hit. Since they are only 3 years old, I didn't hide the balloons, just spread them out every where and they had to find the numbers. They played it three times in a row! Beer Cap Ornament. A friend of mine and I are going to be making snowmen bottle cap ornaments. We have so many bottle caps, that we will never use them all for snowmen, so I found this idea and loved it! I made this wreath for another friend. I used all Great Lakes Brewing Company caps because she loves Christmas Ale. Husband thought it was super trashy, but I knew my friend would appreciate it. Solar System Model. A friend of mine took Sunshine to swim lessons on day, so Monster and I had time to ourselves. For Mommy/ Monster time, we built a model of the solar system. Monster got an awesome science kit that had the model in it. It was so much fun to work on this with him and have some one on one time. He even let me paint Neptune, which is my favorite planet. Snack Skewers. For Sunshine's snack day, she wanted to take grapes and blueberries. I figured I'd try to make it easier for her teachers and I skewered the fruit. Since the kids are only 3, I cut off the sharp ends. This is about as creative as I can get with snacks. We are also currently working on transforming the train table into a Lego table. All the train pieces are packed up to be put in storage. We've bought the base plates. We just need some time to get it all together. Monster is very excited about it. He's asked Santa for Legos for Christmas so hopefully we get it all done before the man in red arrives.
I've got a ton of projects to finish up before Christmas. Hoping I get the motivation to complete them. The good news is all the gift shopping is done, so that frees up time for other things. Sunshine moved up a level in swimming, so the time is different. I'm hoping that gives me some time to finish projects up as well. Stay tuned! I can not believe that November is more than half way over. Thanksgiving is 2 short days away. What happened to November? I honestly thought that once both children were in school, I'd have a few hours a week to work on things that I needed to get done, make fun crafts, and bake. Why didn't anyone tell me I was wrong? Why didn't anyone warn me I was living in a fantasy world? I'm busier now than I was before both kids were in school. There is not one day on my calendar is that blank. Literally, not one. Little Miss Sunshine has also been boycotting naps, so that's added to my not being able to get things accomplished. I have not tried one single new recipe this month. I have not finished one creative project (though I've started several).
In three days, my favorite season will be "over". Christmas decorations will go up. Cookie baking will begin. We will start our Advent Acts of Kindness. Autumn will be just a memory. A blurred, chaotic, memory. This time of year always seems to sneak up on me. I start reflecting on all of things I wanted to accomplish at the beginning of the year and think how will I ever get them done in one short month. This year, I realize I have actually accomplished so much. Maybe I didn't get all the baking, pinterest activities, and organizing done that I wanted to, but it's been a great year so far. Normally, I start stressing out about all the things left to accomplish and I don't get to enjoy December. So this year, I'm going to enjoy December...as soon as I make sure my pie is baked for Thursday! Hurricane Sandy put a damper on Halloween this year. Literally. Because of the weather, trick or treating was postponed. Saturday was trick or treat day. We called it Halloween for Sunshine because was adamant that she is only dressing up on Halloween. Papa came to pass out candy and she was thrilled (Nana came, too!).
So, without further ado.... Monster, as a Monster and Sunshine as Tinkerbell! I am a firm believer in child led art. I remember teaching preschool. Most of the art activities that the kids took home were really done by the teachers. Then, I changed my approach. I started doing more child led art. Sometimes the activities taken home looked nothing like what they were supposed to, but the children had more sense of pride in these activities.
I really hadn't thought much about this until Sunshine started school. I love Sunshine's teachers. I think they are amazing. The projects that Sunshine comes home with are cute and creative. They are also not child led. Does she still enjoy them? Most definitely. However, the difference in her attitude towards crafts she did with minimal help and crafts she did with a lot of help are different. For example, at the beginning of the year, they did a Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See project. She got to glue on a picture of herself all by herself. It's sideways. The bear is completely crooked It doesn't matter though, she loves it and is so proud of it. Just recently, they made a lion. Super cute, but the only thing she actually did herself was drawn whiskers and eyebrows (and the eyebrows she added at home). Know what she's proud of on that one? The eyebrows. A week or so ago, Sunshine,her friend, and I went to a story time at Barnes and Noble. There was a craft after the story. It was a woven mat. Now, most of the people who went to this are my friends and read this blog, so I'm not meaning to offend anyone with what I say next. Sunshine and her friend's mats were the only ones that turned out looking like 3 year olds did them. In fact, as we were leaving, my one friend made a comment about how the craft didn't really matter since she was the one who did it and not her child. Sunshine loves her mat and is so proud of it. It's hanging on the fridge and she likes to show it off. She doesn't show it off because it looks just like it's supposed to. She shows it off because she did it herself. There are times when you don't necessarily want child led art. Last year Monster made his teachers Christmas ornaments. No child led art there. It wasn't for him though, it was more for me. A friend has some awesome artwork her kids did with hands and feet. Again, not really for the kids. The finished product is for the adults. It's important to have that kind of artwork as well. However, when it's for fun, I believe child led art gives the deepest sense of pride and allows for the most creativity. Being as I used to be an Intervention Specialist, I fully support education for all children, regardless of learning issues. The problem lies in what is considered left behind. Before discovering Monster is gifted, I went by the standard that all children have a right to education at their level, and trying to work their way to the correct grade level. Now, I'm re-evaluating my definition. There were a couple of things wrong with my other definition from a teacher perspective anyway. First, not all children will achieve at their grade/standard level. It's just a fact. I fully believe that there needs to be interventions in place to help children achieve. The part I've recently added to this is that there needs to be interventions in place to help children achieve at their level. Be that lower or higher. A lot of behavior issues in classrooms come from children who are either lost or bored. Not by any fault of the teachers, there are standards to meet. Teachers have to teach to the "majority". Unfortunately, my son is not in the majority.
At a very young age, we realized that Monster was different. He had different interests. He strived to learn all he could about everything he could, and he retained it. That was the craziest part...the retention. He could recall the minute details of something and apply that information to a different area. Once Monster started reading, there was no stopping his quest for knowledge. So why is it that I feel like my child is "left behind"? Even though Monster is advanced in many areas, he has fine motor issues. He was in private occupational therapy for a while and is now working with a private handwriting tutor, who is awesome! But why did I have to search this out on my own? Since letter formation and finger strength are Monster's only "weaknesses", he qualifies for nothing. He doesn't get help for an area in which he's behind, but he also doesn't get challenged in areas in which he's advanced. I'm really very fortunate to have the knowledge that I do have in the education field to help supplement his education on his level. I'm also very fortunate that we have the financial ability to get him help in an area that I know nothing about. Teachers do the best they can with the resources they are given, but, in reality, we have too many children "left behind". We have children who can't function at the normal classroom level, for whatever reason, yet everyone is expected to achieve the same way. Teachers have an impossible job today. Not only do they have parents who do not take the time to work with their children, but they have officials at state and federal levels making standards for our children but have never actually been in a classroom. With all of the budget cuts, special needs teachers and therapists have crazy case loads and can't possibly give their students the attention that's needed. Gifted programs have been cut completely. The parents of students in the "minority" are left to seek out help or challenges on our own, and that's those of us who take the time to do so. A a parent who cares, it's frustrating to have my child come home and tell me they didn't learn anything new today. As an educator, it was frustrating to have the children I worked with come to me and tell me they were completely lost in class because the teachers didn't have time to explain things to them. As a parent and an educator, it's frustrating to see the amount of children who are being left behind. |
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