Updating from could have been Water World

Hey so like most people here in Texas everything has been wet this last week. We are lucky we did not flood while I do have family on the river It looks like they may be lucky as well. From all the rain there have not been anything spectatular in my world We took the week off to really focus on some at home things we have been lacking like potty training and Chores.

Potty Training - Most people Do not realize how bad my family has sensitive skin and even then we take care of the issue so you Will not see any issues. Ive been trying to potty train Delilah since about 18m.  Each time it was the same thing she knew when she was going but she did not like to sit on the toilette. After 4 types of potty chairs and multiple attempts Im really quite Fusterated and I am at the point where Im not going to take a Toddlers No for an answer. Armed with a bunch of plain little girl pantys we have gotten farther than we ever have. While we are still having accidents. Out in Public we show interest in using the potty. And we try not to at least Poop on our self. Which means it may be a slow process but its working. And after doing the 3 day method and Once upon a potty, Bribing with toys and candy I can say each child is different and I hate to strong arm her but I am so ready not to be looking at a blistering butt because Cloth Diapers are holding too much moisture or The Disposable hypo allergenic diapers have Too much chemical  for her to not blister up.


Chores - This week after Living inside with no Outlet of being able to go outside and play or to a park the kids took their frustration out on well everything. Book Thrown , Toys scattered, It was becoming a mess to look at. So we started something. The Barney clean up song. We play it and begin to clean up. Now that is great for bedtime and during the day they just clean. If they spill something uh oh and they clean it up. Delilah has chores now She is almost three, She needs to Feed the animals, Pick up toys and books, Put up her clean clothing and  put away her dirty clothing, Pass mommy the clean dishes out of the dishwasher, help sweep. Dusting with a rag. Simple Things to make her feel wanted and useful And her sister follows in hand if delilah has the broom korrah has the dust pan if delilah has a rag korrah has a rag. And so far they like it and are happy.

Besides that This week has been boring Rain Rain Rain. So much Rain but I will say I hope it does not turn into a drought.

Science Museum. and asking for help.

This last week has been Pretty Fun for us a Few activities Like Play dough  going to a just opened Splash Pad and a trip to the Science Museum could not have been Better.

I know its not much but Playing with Simple Toys like play  dough will help her esp since she is young. There are the sensory aspects that the child needs to be given. The rolling and shaping and cutting for fine motor skills. All in all Little games and toys have benefits than just being messy on carpet.  

The Free day at the Science and History museum Was this last week. We even got to take my grandmother who had never been. Not once in her life. There really is not much to say Except Delilah Loves Dinosaurs but what kid does not?

Last but not least Summer is starting. Our City just opened up their first Splash Pad The other day, and this weekend they will open up the city pool .


Now I have a Favor to ask of Anyone in College. I need Lecture notes From History / Science Classes. I find that Finding a decent history/ Science  book/ Curriculum  is Hard Very hard to get. 

Greek Festival and fun time out

Yesterday was the Houston Greek Festival over off of Eldridge Parkway. The festival last 4 days The day its free is on Thursday and continues through Sunday.  A big part of me Loves History Including that of my ancestors or heritage. So usually any Greek,German , Irish type Festival or Local events you can be sure to find us somewhere among the crowds.

I did not get any photos sadly but I had a wonderful time when we got there. The 45 minute drive there took 2 hours. And yet only 30 minutes to get back home.  As we parked my grandmother gave my Little one a little bit of Coke which ended up everywhere.  AS we got in we quickly bought a cute shirt for the children and went to participate in the activities (food) Out of everything they had going for them the best thing to do was watch the Dancers on the Stage. a Type of Fiddler on the Roof Music and dance can make others want to join in. If you go on the other nights When you pay to get in They let you participate in the dancing on stage and eating contest help by local restaurants.

We didn't get to stay too long either as after an hour my grandmothers diabetes shot up and we ad to leave so she could get home to take her medicine.

As we do not celebrate much in Greek Heritage, We do not go to a Greek Church, I tried to learn the language once and at least I know enough Greek phonics to piece together small short words.( or did.)
nope we have family recopies that we cook and eat at certain times of the year. Chris proudly tells people that if they like so and so to try mine.

Though while we were there I found some Home school resources I really enjoyed. I really wish I could find something similar for  the German language But Greek 123 they had a little table set up with a few of the books sprawled out for people to flip through and no one manning the table to answer questions. But in all  I Really liked what I saw Coloring books and little Activity books. If you can find a copy to look at I suggest them as they look really done up.

On the medical side of things thanks to the children hospital in Colorado they are making small informative booklets for rare genetic conditions like my daughters. If anything Esp if you live in Colorado please consider supporting their project. no other hospital I have found in america has made  resource like this for their patients and for people like me trying to explain to someone gets hard and frustrating they are also working on a Children book and i just cant wait for it. 

Besides that We now have a new Radio for our Dance Party Mondays thanks to a BJL? speakers on sale at Target I Love it. 5 hours of battery Life and they get loud enough you can hear them in a flea market which in a home is loud enough. its a cute little hook speaker so i can clip it to my purse for when we go to the park also.

WE also got to enjoy a local farmers market where we enjoy paying double for our grocery's. But it was fun esp for the kids. They had a Giant Kids connect 4, Checkers. Toss game and Jenga. I think that was where we stayed for most of our time and letting Delilah soak her feet in the nice refreshing green water fountain/ ponds they had. 

We also talked about changing our future plans of using build your library to using Bookshark. I have two books coming in for the BYL but I am finding it hard to get books for a cheaper price. I know there are resources and websites out there to compare prices and to get it cheaper than new but combined with shipping your paying 500$ for a used curriculum Ex amazon lets you buy the book for 1 $ used and 4$ for the shipping depending on the books That is still not that bad of a deal but it adds up While people in groups want to sell theirs for the 5$ plus their own shipping.which then is about 8$ per book and new is anywhere from 13-16$ per book? My local library is a bust i can spend 1$ or do a inter library loan but then it can take up to 8 weeks and no gaurentee that someone has or will send the book.  Book shark is the same type of curriculum a reading heavy set. It is actually the Secular version of Sonlight made by the same people. Its is a expensive up front payment of 6-700 but there is no searching and looking for peices. its all new all bundled up I would prefer to get a used version but since it is new there is not much out there yet. It comes with Manipulates. If you would like to comment with what looks good to you. 

Last but not least a wonderful Couple gifted us with two Elementary school desk's for my girls. they were donating to home school family's who needed them and to the Local church. We may be too small right now and I do not have any chairs but I am so excited for these to come into our life.  

Preschool

Since Delilah is 3 years old we have been tossing this salad since she was 18 months.
Some of her accomplishments are what other 3 year olds' can or are already doing.

 She can count to 12. She recognizes her letters and has some phonics to go with them. She knows her colors and shapes.
We wake up and do some Yoga Thanks to some pintrest other blogger that I was able to download.
 I have a very mix matched Curriculum from Timberdoodle that i disassembled and through some other stuff together. I would eventually love to do the build your library curriculum but shipping for each book and finding the out of print books annoy me.
Learn through PLAY! =D

What we have as of right now is as follows

Inchamals
goki sliding board
silly sentences
Turtle magentic maze board
pattern Blocks
hide and seek bunny
day and night
what your preschooler needs to know
 ---- with activity books
Dr Suess books
Madiline Books
Building thinking Skills
Mathmatical REasoning
1001 things to spot
mommy teach me
language lessons for little ones
 Flintstones maze book
activity books from around
Little Pim
Perfection
Knoala
StarFall 
learning rescouces lab
Catipillar strining beads





I think this covers most of Preschool and kindergarten. My original thought was just to go Timberdoodle but I found that their maze books could be any maze book. Their dot to dot book could be any dot to dot book and so on. I still like them. I still recommend them. But I now I find myself searching for more or other things to get the job done. Mommy Teach me can be substituted for the Knoala App if you have a I phone. and I love it.

Things I have noticed with my kids DVD learning does not work very well. So things like Little Pim is worthless for us. I have both online and physical copy. I suggest if you do go the route to buy all 5 dvds because for them to learn anything it seams it has to be on repeat all day and its enough to make a person go mad. I suggest online version if your child likes to take DVD's out of the Player and toss them or eat off them ^^ But at the same time my links they give me do not work so i we don't get to watch them online. The flash cards are nice i really enjoy them and the stuffed little Pim is good material as well very soft until he needs to be washed.

Books like Building thinking skills was Delilahs and still is her favorite she pulls them out and we go. Because she is so young we dont start off  with the directions we just count, look at the colors or shapes and eventually start prompting her.

Games like perfection are great. esp around the coffee table
And Inchamals are a must in my home esp with basic addition.

Our day is 30 minutes to 1 hour.  First thing in the morning like breakfast and brushing teeth. The goal of ours is to make it routine.

We go to the living room and we do our yoga stretches. We make it a copy game I may need to do them by myself a few times before the kiddos start playing with me  but its worth it. Depending on the mood we may tumble and roll around the living room and on Mondays before the radio broke we had Dancing Mondays.

After that we may look at a work book. a work book is any book i am asking her anything about. It can be a look and find book or a book were looking and counting in.

Usually after that i have a little activity set up. When I had the I Phone knoala was good at giving me ideas like sorting coins.

And the rest of the day is reading. I am really starting to think she may be able to read before she is potty trained. Joking but she is starting to repeat some of the words as I point to them . Potty training is a different matter all togther.

I am the mom who has a IPad set up for her.  It has less than 5 apps on it. The big two are starfall and ABC Mouse. Abc mouse is a bit to advance for her because she dosnt know how to work it. While Starfall   is right on for her.  She plays it t bedtime. The rest of the day is playing in the backyard or a park almost all the time. Taking walks just being.

A School week for us looks something like this.
Monday-Dace Party Monday
Tuesday-Nothiing special yet
Wednesday-Homeschool group
Thursday- Library Toddler Time
Friday- Shopping Grocerys
Saturday-Explore the outside world
Sunday-Hanging at home playing
.

About US

Hi I am Mama Bean.
I have two Minions Delilah Faye 3 in June and Korrah Lynn 18 months in June.
I have a wonderful Family. My Husband and My grandmother. We live in suburbia. And that's all right.
I am starting this blog to have a place to keep our family's journey.
 Korrah Was Diagnosed with MCAD - its only a small part of our life.

Medium-chain acyl-coenzyme A dehydrogenase deficiency

Its a great reason why newborn screening is so important. 
But with that came the decision to home school at least until around 6th grade then we will re-access and evaluate.  

I feel that starting my kids now and making it routine will cut out some of the opposition than trying to get them to start a new schedule down the line.