Where has the time gone?

It's been so long since I posted. Between Sarah, my business making cloth diapers and our new blessing, David....Life is definately in fast mode.

I've been enjoying Sarah and David so much. Sarah is going to be 3. I can't believe it. It seems like just yesterday she was born. David is 5 months and is one of the strongest babies i've ever seen. He's trying to crawl already.

I'm back into researching home schooling curriculums. I can't believe that i'm already here at the start.
For me, teaching Sarah is part of our life. I've not really identified it as "Preschool". When she wakes up she usually likes me to read to her. So we read in the mornings. Then we have breakfast, clean up. I then do a "letter" with her using a Word World game, "Duck's Letters". www.wordworld.com  This is actually teaching her the sounds. She loves this. Then I have a work book that I got from our local Sam's club. This is great for writing, tracing and all the other little things she needs to learn. Then we cook, that helps with following directions. I try to add some counting into our day. She's not as strong there but only because i've not focused our play time on numbers. I guess it's time to start. Then I read to her more later in the day. She loves when I read to her. She can have me read the same book over and over and over. She doesn't seem to like coloring too much. This doesn't surprise me. My older son, Bobby didn't like coloring and Sarah reminds me of him. I think she may be a lefty. I'm still not too clear on that.

One thing i've learned is that consistency makes our children trust us. I try to be extremely consistent with Sarah which seems to make her very secure. The other day we sat to eat and she said, "I don't like this. I don't want it."...so I said, "oh ok, you don't have to eat it but that's all you're getting for tonight.". She said, "That's it?". Daddy said, "Yup"...she picked up her fork and started eating. She didn't even bother trying to dig her heals in. She knew that we mean what we say.

Today Sarah asked if she could bring her toy to the grocery store. I said, "No, you tend to lose them.". She said, "oh ok, I don't like when you say "no"". I had to laugh. I said, "Oh that's good because it's a great way to learn to obey. Sometimes you have to obey even if you don't like it.". I said this with a cheery voice and she said, "Oh ok, I will" , in a cheery voice. Sometimes struggles are a good thing. They teach us and form our character. We're teaching our children to accept these and handle them by our example. WOW..that's a HUGE Responsibility. I praise God for HIS Mercy.

I'm off to go and find some fun number stuff on the internet for Sarah. God Bless

Laura Paulsen