The thousand dollar advent calendar

I don't decorate on the cheap.  This baby cost me a thousand dollars.

• Felt $6
• 24 dinky plastic ornaments $8
• 25 gold star buttons $10
• Extra spool of hunter green thread because I suck at decorative machine stitching $2
• Vet bill for emergency surgery to remove stick pin from kitty's large intestine $955

That was almost three years ago to the day.  And now, for the rest of my days, every Christmas I get to relive the fantastic time in my life that kitty batted at my sewing pins holding down those silly snowflake dots, freed one and swallowed it in the blink of an eye.  Disgusted with the cat (and myself), I put away the calendar that year and finished it up the next year, in time for advent.  According to my husband, if the cat ever swallows a pin again, it's tough luck.   Kinda makes sewing a rare event in these parts nowadays....I have to lock up the cat each time and account for each and every pin.  Talk about pressure!

I made this calendar as a knock-off of one I saw in a Lillian Vernon catalog.  I tried to order one online, but they called me the next day to say there was a mistake and that they were sold out and would not be receiving anymore.  I was so ticked off about it that I scoffed at the challenge and declared I could make one myself.  And mine would look even better.  That was before I nearly killed the cat.  Or the next year when I realized just how hard it was to try and sew a decorative stitch and make a number at the same time.  I hate those stupid-looking calendar numbers.  I have half a mind to search the web for some embroidery patch or something and yank those nasty pockets off of there.  Oh well.... another day.  Here are some close-ups.  Not that I want you to get a closer look at my amature handiwork.

The ornament calendar reminds me of the one we used when I was growing up - which is probably why I wanted it in the first place.  My mom had made a felt one as well, but used snaps instead of buttons.  The 'ornaments' were cut out of felt as well, and you could just snap the ornament on each day.  The yet-to-be-used ornaments were kept in a butter tub on top of the fridge.  Ah, memories.  :)

Alas, one Advent calendar is not enough in these parts.  Each kiddo gets a turn hanging up an ornament, but waiting four days for your turn to come around again seems to last an eternity.  So, there needs to be something for each kid to do each day.  I found this wooden 'house' the year before last, at an end-of-season markdown at Kohl's.  The wooden compartments are tiny though, and are only just big enough to hold a couple of pieces of candy or some quarters or dollar coins.  When you have to stuff four of an item in there, it gets complicated.

There is the box idea (put a little giftie in a little gauzy gift bag - the kind you get at weddings for a favor - and make up 24 of them for each kid).  You can also hang a long, red Christmas ribbon with a bow at the top, and then hot glue 24 candies (like mini candy bars) in a long line, and attach a little bell ornament at the top.  There is even a poem that goes with it...

December 1^st to Christmas

is the longest time of year.

Seems as though Old Santa

just never will appear!

How many days ‘til Christmas?

It’s hard to keep the count.

So this little candy ribbon

will tell you the exact amount.

Undo a candy every night

when the sandman casts his spell.

And Christmas Eve will be here

by the time you reach the bell!

Merry Christmas!

I got the idea and the poem from the family that I nannied for years ago.  The grandma (Nana) would make the ribbons for the kids each year and they would arrive by mail around Thanksgiving time.  I took the idea and made the ribbons for my nephews for a few years, but it got to be too much.  I haven't made them here for about three years.  Not since baby Owen kept pulling off all of the candies.  I will probably revive it next year.

I kept thinking though that I wanted to do an activity-oriented type calendar.  The kids would open a little card, and printed inside would be the special holiday activity for the day (watch a movie, make cookies, make an ornament, etc...)  Then, because I was pretty sick last week and had nothing better to do than get caught up on the bazillion blogs that I follow, lo and behold I saw a post from Tsh on Simple Mom about how she made an Advent calender using cards that you could attach a daily activity to.  Just what I was looking for - and I had to have it - even if it was the first of the month already.  Which I guess means I had to make it - pronto.  So sick or not, I went out and hunted down the necessary supplies and made it over two successive evenings.  Here is my finished product..

I spent about $25 total in materials.  I decided I wanted a background on mine, and I had some really great fabric left over from a quilt that I wanted to use.  I just used duct tape to attach some thin batting and the fabric to the back panel of the frame.  I really wanted the bookmark cards that she (Tsh) used, but neither Hobby Lobby or Michael's carried them.  Tsh mentioned that she found them at Jo-ann's - we don't have a Jo-ann's....yet.  We had one, but they were small and their selection sucked.  They are reopening in a much bigger location very soon though.  Otherwise, I would have to drive to the next town, which I was not doing.  Not when the creative bug hits late in the evening.  It was a mad scramble to get to Hobby Lobby before closing time as it was.  And even then, I ended up at Michael's.  So I used some plain, rectangular bookmarks.

Now, I am not a scrapbooker.  There is some really amazing stuff out there, but it is too expensive of a hobby for me.  So I am not really aware of the full array of products, but would you believe, in all the plethora of materials available, the ONLY calendar numbers available (that I could see on my mad dash through Hobby Lobby and Michael's) are the exact same thing that Tsh (Simple Mom) used?  I was wanting something a little more green/white/red, but this was the only thing out there.  These calendar numbers were part of a collection housed within a Christmas-themed scrapbook paper book.  I found it on one of the last displays that I looked at - just as I was losing all hope of being able to create something like this - because there seems to be this thing about me and calendar numbers.  I didn't want to settle like I did with my felt tree calendar.  I whooped for joy.  Literally.  And even better - it was marked at 40% off. 

I have yet to finish the list of activities that will be hidden inside the cards, but I have held true to doing an activity a day, so far.

Dec 1 - Watch the movie The Santa Clause

Dec 2 - Play in the snow and drink hot cocoa

Dec 3 - Set up the Santa collection (we actually finished the next day)

Dec 4 - Watch The Polar Express and have popcorn (in honor of Jordan getting braces today)

Dec 5 - Work on special Christmas-themed puzzles and worksheets

and so forth...  I think I will play it by ear this go-round.  The goal is to keep it fun, low-expectation, and best-of-all, FREE...

Happy countdown!

The Christmas Closet

I have been spending a little bit of time in here the last few days, so I thought it was about time I'd share.

As I mentioned in the basement post a few weeks ago, we had a small (ahem) critter problem in our basement, and I needed to remove some stuff for safekeeping.  The thought of mice crawling through my Christmas things and leaving crap everywhere was really upsetting, so it was the first of the stuff to go 'elsewhere'.  Not that there is that much 'elsewhere' in this house, but there was the closet in Jordan and Owen's room that was only a third the way full of extra clothing tubs - sizes too small or yet to grow into.  I put them up high on the shelves in the family closet - and viola!  S - P - A - C - E appeared. (See?  If you put every one's clothing into one closet, you can designate other closets for other types of storage....)

Before I moved things into the closet I did a huge purge.  Then I spread everything out in the living room (this took the better part of a day), and bundled like items into bins and then printed off labels to tape onto the bins.  For instance: in the Christmas tree bin, there is the artificial tree stand, the living tree stand (just in case we ever get one again), the rubber pads that go under the stand to keep the tree from skidding off of it's platform, the tree skirt, the nylon string used to anchor it to the wall so the cat doesn't topple the tree over, all of the colored tree lights (each string in a separate plastic grocery bag) and the large spool of ribbon that gets wound around the tree.  All of the basic things needed for the tree set-up is in one bin.  So I kept filling bins and making labels.

* Outdoor lights (the strings and clips)
* Outdoor lights (the lit garland and clips)
* Craft supplies (for ornaments or whatever)
* Christmas cards (address list, old keepers, the left-overs, all of the past letters, etc..)
* Advent calendars and stockings
* Nativity collection
* Cookie tins.  (This embarrassingly enough took an entire tub)
* Linens and dishes : hand towels, melamine kid plates, Santa mugs, table runners
* Candles
* Books
* Toys set aside for Toys for Tots - which I add this and that to as the year goes by
* Santa Collection
* Gift bags, wrapping paper and bows

And then I put it all in - and crammed it absolutely full - including the tree.  We don't need access to this closet hardly ever, so Owen's bed is up against it in order to make more room in the bedroom he shares with Jordan.  It's nice that we can treat it like it was a wall, rather than having to keep that space clear.

So I haven't been in this closet at all since last January, except to add a couple of new items.  My mom brought back a Santa for me from Australia in February, and I inherited my grandmother Betty's Mary & Joseph after she passed away in April.  It was so nice to just open the doors and grab the specific bin I was looking for as I started decorating this past weekend.  I'm not feeling up to par yet, and I could only do a little bit and then rest for a long while.  I pulled out the Advent calendars on the first of December.  I went back and pulled out my Santas, nativity sets, and the tree box yesterday.

Here are some more pics...

Oooo!  Look!  Space to add stuff!!  (uh-oh)

I am glad that I took these pictures before I pulled stuff out, because now I can see how I have to cram it all back in there.

Boomer Sooner and pregnant teen vampires

I had a few goals while in OKC.

1. See Breaking Dawn at some point, because I could count on MIL wanting to babysit.

2. Visit the OKC Memorial (again) and this time, take pictures.

3. Take the kids to Orr Family Farms.

4. Drive around and look at Christmas lights.

Only number One was accomplished.  There was just never a long enough break in the action during the morning hours to get number 2 done.  Afternoons are out, due to nap.  Number 3 was slated for Sunday evening, but they were closed.  Number 4 just never materialized, which is a shame.  OKC does a stellar job with lights (especially the Chesapeake buildings downtown) and the Nichols Hills neighborhood is a favorite.  Those people go all out.

We arrived Monday eve and finally got the kids in bed around 11 (10 o'clock CO time), which wasn't too bad.  Tuesday morning we slept in and had a lazy day.  We went out for a late lunch at Ted's (Mexican food), which is an absolute must whenever we visit.  Late in the afternoon, my MIL picked up the two younger cousins from school, and they and Dean, Jordan and Rylan went to a bounce-house indoor gym type of place while I stayed home with the little boys and they (and I) napped.

On Wednesday morning, I took Rylan with me and we shopped for all of the perishables I would need to make whatever I was making for dinner and for Thanksgiving the next day.  I spent the rest of the day cooking.  Rylan helped her grandma open and unwrap several Christmas ornaments that grandma was giving to all of the grandchildren (16 in all), as she does every year.  They hung them on a little tabletop decorative ornament tree.  Colin promptly pulled down the tree a couple hours later.  Miraculously, all of the ornaments (most were glass or ceramic) survived.  One little ear from a Rudolf chipped off, which Rylan found under the dining table a couple of days later and we glued it back on.  BIL Jeremy, SIL Jill, and their four kids arrived from Texas later that evening, along with SIL Carrie and her daughter, coming from Kansas.  As soon as the SILs and teenage nieces arrived, I hatched a plot to accomplish goal number 1.  Dean would rather pull his eyeballs from their sockets than go to a Twilight movie, so I thought maybe a girls movie out would work.  An even better plan worked out: On Friday morning, we would ALL go to the movies.  The girls would go into the Breaking Dawn theater, and everyone else (and all of the little kids) would go into a different theater and watch the Muppets.

Thursday morning came and we cooked away.  The teens peeled 15 lbs of potatoes and then mashed them up.  MIL had the turkey in a roaster in the mud room, and a ham in the oven.  Stuffing was next in line for the oven.  I had baked 6 dozen rolls the day before, and all I had to bake was the spinach & artichoke dip.  I put it in with the stuffing.  All of the other food was arriving with the other two SILs and their families, and the oldest niece and her husband.  It was a very nice dinner, with way too much good food.  Dean and I sat with our kids and some of the older kids in the kitchen.  I joked that we will NEVER graduate from the 'kid table'.  After dinner, BIL Steve approached us and asked if we were interested in attending the OU football game on Saturday.  You could have lit a Christmas tree with Dean's face.  As it worked out, SIL Joyce offered to come over and help her mom watch the little kids, so it was a go.  Steve and SIL Karen are season ticket holders, and they weren't going to attend the last home game, so they offered up the tickets.  What.  A.  Gift.  It didn't occur to me until the end of the day that I didn't take any pictures.  nada. 

Friday morning came and we got ready to go to the movies.  The movie theater we like is located within a mall (Quail Springs).  We arrived plenty early just in case the mall was a mad house with Black Friday shoppers.  It was.  But not too bad.  We all got tickets for the 10 am showing, and as luck would have it, our theaters were right next to each other.  I was thankful that I got to see Breaking Dawn 'with the girls' instead of my husband.  I would have had to listen to 'This is so stupid' at least twenty times.  I sat between my SIL and my twelve year old niece.  I appreciate that the movie was pretty true to the book with regards to the whole honeymoon scenario (and kept things fairly tame... but my niece was giggling and squirming and I felt rather uncomfortable myself.  The target market is obviously the tweens and teens - they might have kept that in mind and kept things a little less risque.  I liked it okay, but I have a couple of concerns.  Young girls will idolize the 'thinness' of Bella - even in pregnancy?  The young age at which they married, and how a baby made everything better and brought them 'together'.  I loved the books, but the movie treads a little differently, and these aren't the messages that young girls should be receiving.  Overall though, I enjoyed it.  'Alice' is freaking beautiful... I'd love to have her hair.

After the movie we all went our separate ways, and Dean and I and the little ones headed to a sportswear store.  I have a hard and fast rule on Black Friday - BUY NOTHING - but we had to break it because we needed gear for the next day when we went to the OU game.  When we were packing up to make the trip, I asked Dean if he wanted his OU jacket.  He said 'no' - he was still pissed off that they lost to Baylor, so he packed nothing that said OU on it.  So we were stuck - you can't go to a college game and not wear the team colors, so we were in the market for some jackets.  Merry Christmas to us.  I had other things in mind - but oh well.  At least they were 20% off.  Friday night we left the kids with the grandparents and went out to dinner with friend Alicia for some grown up conversation.  We love you - keep taking care of you!

The next day, Saturday, was game day!

We made the 45 minute drive down to Norman, parked in a free lot on the edge of campus, and walked and walked and walked to get to the stadium.  Aptly named Owen Field.  :)

Karen and Steve (SIL & BIL) are season ticket holders and also members of the Booster Club.  So we also had passes to get into the Booster Club tailgate party.  There were about 40 food vendors there - you just walk by and pick up anything you want, along with beer and McCalister's sweet tea.  Yes!  There was so much red in this room my eyes hurt...

This is the marching band.  It is absolutely huge!  There is only one drum major - and when he is marching across the field he arches his head so far back that the top of his hat almost touches the ground.  It makes my back hurt just watching him.

These are the Ruf Neks.  I love watching the ponies. They come out and do a short lap every time OU scores.  I guess it is normal for the guy to hang out the back of the prairie schooner upside down and hold the OU flag like that.  It makes my back hurt just watching him too. 

This is the massive score board.  Football is big here.  Hence a. lot. of. money.

We had a good time.  It was cold.  It drizzled the entire game, and it was rather windy.  We luckily had gloves with us, and a hat to share.  I made fun of some fans that were wearing snow pants (secretly of course), but then I grew to envy them.  I bet they were warmer than we were.  On the way back to the car we picked up a new bumper sticker (our finally bit the dust last year) and new shirts for Rylan and Jordan - they had outgrown theirs.  I don't know if the kids will be encouraged to attend here or not, but just thinking about it on the walk back to the car made me very, very sad.   Not sad about them attending OU -  I just don't want them to grow up and go away.  College years scare the dickens out of me - there is so much trouble you can get into.  And so many wonderful experiences as well, I know.  I'm glad there are a few years yet left to go.  I also realized at this point in the day that I had been away from the kids, in the past 24 hours, longer than I ever have.  I genuinely missed them and felt an intense need to hug them and kiss their cheeks.  It was a long drive home!

Sunday was a quiet day - we hung around the house and went out for dinner.  Monday was the day to pick up stuff from all over the house, sort, count, wash and fold and get ready to go home.  Dean, along with MIL and FIL, spent most of the day over at another sister's house helping her husband pack up for a move.  The sister is already in California starting a new job, and the rest of the family is joining her this week.  They were preparing to leave town on Wednesday - so Monday was the do-or-die day to get everything in the POD, or pitch it.  Dean came home in a pretty foul mood.  Apparently things did not go very smoothly.  I am glad I stayed home with the kids.  If I had walked into that mess I think I would have had a coronary.  I feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about it.  They have two children - a teen and a little boy, who has chronic asthma.  He has to be hospitalized on a routine basis for asthma attacks.  Now we know why.  Thank God I have Fly Lady in my life.

So that's it!  Monday evening we started to feel sick, and then REALLY sick, and then we had a really, really, really super fun drive home.  We got home Tuesday evening, and I have spent the rest of the week either on the couch or doing too much when I had intermittent bursts of energy.  I wrote scathing blog posts.  And then went back and did massive edits.  And not because my mother told me to.  :)   I have only managed to throw away the pumpkins on the porch and pull out the Advent calendars.  I even made a new one.  Post will be forthcoming.  During the times Dean was up and around and productive (he took two sick days) he finally loaded my iPhone with music and pulled my pictures off of the phone.  Thank you honey.  I think I am ready to get back to the land of the living now...

In sickness and in health

We (Dean and I) came down with severe head and chest colds late Monday night.  We were prepping to leave OKC to come home - departure time 6 am Tuesday morning.  We went shopping at Target that evening to get drinks and snacks we would need on the way home.  We also went to get some meds.  Unfortunately, since my ineptness with present-day social issues clouds my thinking - I had no idea that half of the cold medicines on the market would be under lock and key in the pharmacy.  Dang.  We chose Tylenol Severe Cold and Flu and hoped for the best.

The pressure was building in my head and I felt like I had been run over by a truck.  I knew it was going to be a long night.  Another sleepless night, on top of six others, was not going to help.  I was hot, then cold, my skin hurt...even my hair hurt.

Dean and I have never been sick at the same time before.  A little overlap, maybe, as one is feeling better and one is getting sick.  But never down-and-out at the same time.  We were each begging the other to drag this or that out to the car.  Luckily I had been packing (and retrieving items from all over the inlaw's house) most of the day, so the brainwork was done.  But the physical work was taking its toll.

Dean complained of bad heartburn during the night.  We had no meds for that with us (but I will be adding that to the list), so I told him to go down to the kitchen and mix up some baking soda and water - the directions would be on the back of the box.  We left the next morning at 6:40 (almost on time...), and stopped by Starbucks, as was custom, on the way to the interstate... although hot tea sounded better.  We drove on a couple of miles, still heading towards the interstate when Dean began to complain of pain in his chest.  The 'close your eyes and scrunch up your face kind of pain' forced him to slump in the seat (I was driving).  We merged onto the interstate.  Pain continues, and then Dean begins to turn pale.  Then he grabs a plastic trash bag.  I don't do well with gagging sounds.  Not.  At.  All.  He starts to gag.  Damn.  He starts to sweat.  Double Damn.  We are flying by Edmond (on the north side of OKC), and I see a sign for the OU Medical Center.  I take the exit.  Kids are whining.  Annoying soundtrack of kid movie is playing.  Dean is complaining of numbness. 

I hate moments like these.  Over-react and you feel stupid.  Under-react and you regret it for the rest of your life.  I don't like being a decision-maker like that.  But, as a spouse, or a parent, or a son or daughter - that is what you do.  You have to because people are depending on you.  If it had been completely my call, I would have driven under the Emergency awning and had him hooked up to an EKG in ten seconds.  But.  We calmly parked (50 ft. from those precious doors), and I got into the back with the kids.  Dean asked for a Sprite.  I gave the kids juice, fruit snacks and crackers.  And we sat.  And waited.  Dean looked up information on his Android.  After ten minutes or so, Dean felt that the episode was over.  We drove to a Walgreens on the corner.  He went in and took his blood pressure and got some antacid.  His Dr. appointment is today.  I wonder if we made a good call or not.  Dean has been okay since, but the warning signs were scary.  I wouldn't think that indigestion makes you cold and clammy like that.

Anyway.... we're still sick.  The drive (after the initial drama) was very peaceful despite that fact.  We popped pills.  We played music trivia to stay alert.  I missed a couple of exits.  I managed to remember how to exit the turnpike tollbooth in Wichita, KS the correct way though - yeah me!  We passed up the last Braums without stopping.  Ice cream just didn't sound good.  I passed a trooper.  Whoops.  We fed Colin ghastly amounts of M&M's to keep him quiet.  We heroically suffered through an hour at a McDonald's PlayLand.  I napped on a bench.  We more or less survived.

The Battle of the Patio Door

Not the real one of course... but notice the proximity to the potentially stifling hot kitchen?

Oh my little blog....how I have missed you so.  I attempted to write up blog posts on the road on my laptop, but got as far as four sentences and then Microsoft Office crashed.  Damn.  So, I've done a lot of stuffing.  And not the turkey kind.

We've spent the past week at my inlaws.  It is an 80's era house.  The kitchen is centrally located, and is roughly a 12 x 16 rectangle.  There are two breezeway doorways on adjacent walls.  There is a window on an opposite wall, and one of the doorway walls also has a patio door that goes out onto a small deck.  The house is kept pretty warm - uncomfortably so for us CO folk, so cooking in a hot kitchen in preparation for Thanksgiving is, well, not fun. 

I spent the better part of Wednesday and Thursday in the kitchen.  I am not complaining - it was pleasant, the kids helped from time to time, and we worked at a leisurely pace.  My MIL made cornbread stuffing and prepped all of the cookware she would need for the turkey and the ham, and I made my artichoke heart/spinach dip (to be baked the following day), 6 dozen rolls and a large crockpot meal for that night.  It got hot and uncomfortable in the kitchen.  So I cracked open the patio door about 4 inches to get a nice breeze flowing through.   Aaaaaaahhhh.

Pretty soon, FIL arrived home, took a panicked cursory look around the kitchen, noticed the source of irritation (an opened, unlocked door),and strode across the kitchen, shut the door and locked it.

He left.  I opened it.

We repeat the scenario at least three times during the next hour.

Next day... Thanksgiving.  Now we have 5 - 6 people in the kitchen.  Cooking, helping, or just getting in the way.  Let's repeat the door scenario a few more times, just for kicks.

Holiday Road

 

It's a day early, and ready or not (which we are not) we are leaving this morning.  I still have a couple of suitcases to pack, some dishes to wash, and four children to get up.  Other than that, we are ready.  Oh... and a million little details that will fritter away at least a couple of hours.  Sigh.  I'm sure lots of different post ideas will be generated through out the day. 

If you are a regular blogger, do you find yourself always writing out a blog post in your head???

I do.  All.  the.  time.

Update....

Nope - that was the way it was supposed to go down at 6am this morning.  It didn't.  We hit the road at 4 am tomorrow morning.  And this time we truly are ready.  Funny thing is..  we are right on schedule!!

Keepin' it real...

Sigh.  One of my biggest complaints about my college education is that the pedagogy was weak on the how aspects of teaching.  HOW do you teach a child to read?  I got all sorts of ideas on how to support literacy, but not the nuts and bolts of the HOW.  Same with math.  I had one - O*N*E math class.  We mostly played games and had an incredibly boring textbook to read.  Ninety-nine percent of it was about aligning your lessons to the NCTM standards.  Super-helpful.

Most of the ideas I use (to compliment Rylan's MEP curriculum) with Rylan are either something I came up with on the fly or something I saw on some one's blog.  For me, the best blogs for ideas are Magic and Mayhem, No Time for Flashcards, and Homeschool Creations.  There are sooo many good ideas from these terrific moms!

Yesterday's math lesson was all about 0's, 1's and 2's -adding and subtracting, inequalities and writing practice.  We've been doing the same thing for the past two weeks, and each day it's just a little more involved.  I've noticed that Rylan does great when she is working with something tangible and not-so-great when she is working in the abstract.  Well, duh... kids aren't wired for the abstract quite yet.  I wonder why the curriculum developers, the so-called education experts that advise the curriculum developers, and some of the teachers that use the curriculum, keep pushing the issue that kids need to be reading, writing and completing abstract calculations at increasingly younger ages.  I think it is an issue of politicians needing quantifiable results to push their agendas - and true education just gets swept out the window.  I wish they (the out-of-touch politicians) could sit in the front lines and see what their unreasonable expectations are doing to kids.  I really, really do.  Once again, I am so thankful that I got out of public education.  But, still, even as a homeschooler, I feel compelled to get the reading/writing ball rolling - it is so hard to resist the pressure not to do so.

Rylan is five years and six months.  She can count to about seventy.  She can't skip count - and oh, how I have tried.  She can recognize odd and even, and knows about inequalities.  The 'Alligator Mouth' did the trick - except now she wants to draw the teeth in every time.  She can count objects, play along with a number story (I'll detail that in a moment), she can divide things out equally and group according to attribute.  She recognizes patterns and loves to play with unifix cubes and Cuisenaire rods.

But.

When I ask, pointing to the printed problem on the lesson's worksheet for the day, "What is one plus one?", I get a blank stare.  I pull out two counters and try again.  Then I get results.  I know this all takes time - but some days I just feel like abandoning the worksheets altogether because I feel like they are getting in the way.  I don't ever want math to become a negative thing between us.  She loves to do all of the activity stuff - and I want to keep it that way.

Yesterday we did the little flashcards for the first time (pictured at the top).  She happened to have her Lego Jessie with her, so Jessie 'helped' her count.  This is probably about the third time we have counted using a number line.  I've had this mat for a long time, I just never remember to pull it out.  We are working on jumping up the number line to add, and jumping down to subtract.  It just so happens that Jordan is also doing a lot of number line work lately- he is working with positive and negative numbers right now.  So he pipes up and starts telling her about negative numbers.  Then I have to send him to the kitchen table to finish his work before he completely confuses her.



In a part of her lesson we needed to demonstrate the concept of 'equal' with a balance.  That is a tool I wish we had... we had to settle for a good-old-fashioned wire hanger and plastic bags.  It worked for the most part.  I had to pull out the marble-jar, which has been in hiding for the greater part of a year.  Owen and Colin were delighted and of course begged and begged and begged for marbles.  I now have about 15 marbles to fish out from underneath the stove alone.  Doing 'real' activities like this works really well for Rylan, so I try and make the bulk of the lesson doing stuff like this.  I know that kids do this sort of thing in public school too, but with us, it's individualized.  Owen doesn't like using counters as much as Rylan does, give Jordan too much 'stuff' to work with and he gets completely distracted - keep it simple.  You can't quite expect that to happen in the regular classroom.

The dryer completed its cycle right in the middle of our math lesson.  (I have a hard and fast rule that you drop everything and tend to the clothes, immediately.)  So as Rylan and I stood in the closet and sorted and folded and hung up stuff, we counted.  "Rylan has three pants.  She puts one away (puts in on the shelf), now how many does she have?  Daddy has two pairs of socks.  If we put both pairs on the shelf, how many do we have left?  Two minus two equals zero."  And so on.  This works pretty well and we use this number story activity in sorts of different scenarios.

As long as we keep it real, a connection can be made.  I think that might be good advice for all facets of life.