At Home and Learning

Last week we didn’t do much for learning. I was sick as a dog and unable to even move. So we just took it easy. Thankfully we are doing a “de-schooling” time. It’s a recommended time to re-learn that learning can be fun and doesn’t HAVE to look like a classroom. We still read everyday and try to do some kind of math and writing activity, but I don’t pressure him right now to be perfect. Heck, I’m still learning my teaching style!

We are currently reading The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks – a childhood favorite of mine! We discuss what’s happening (Omri just made a horse come to life for Little Bear) and what he thinks might happen later in the story!

This week we are starting our “Friends Around the World” tour using The Friend magazine. They are highlighting a different country every month.  So this week we will focus on Mexico until this month’s edition comes in the mail. They even have a “passport” that you collect stamps in. Here’s Ethen’s

January was Mexico and since I didn’t have the subscription, we are getting a late start. Today we learned about a family that lives in Mexico, where Mexico is (in relation to the United States), it’s capital city, and what their flag looks like. It was a lot of fun! Ethen painted his own version of their flag for a craft today.

We then headed out to take Boomer for a walk. Boomer did great, of course he wants to stay with Ethen, but Ethen gets drug if he hold him.

We walked about a mile and a half total, stopping at a park at about the half way part for Ethen to play. While there I snapped some pictures of the pooch and this is my favorite!!! Look at that tongue!!!

After we got back, Ethen and I snuggled on the couch and watched Eragon and talked about how cool it would be to be dragon riders! We then headed outside for some fun. We looked for some smooth rocks for tomorrow’s activity and then Ethen was inspired to build – and he kept building! He built a cannon and rocket launcher…

and a parachute… (my little thinker)

He said the parachute failed and he was going to try again and had ideas about what went wrong. Of course that was with some probing and encouraging him to think about what he didn’t like about it!

We started dinner and Ethen wanted to help. Why not – he’s old enough to help peel potatoes! And that’s exactly what he did, then I helped him dice them too!!!

He was nervous about dicing because about 2 years ago he cut his thumb pretty bad because he didn’t wait for me. Tonight he was super careful and of course followed instruction to the “T”. I did the big quarter cuts while Ethen diced them and put them into the pan. After they were cooked he even mashed them! They were so tasty!!! Ethen then had an idea and I said “why not!” We ate dinner by candle light! It was fun and a special moment!

So, Ethen learned about Mexico, how to make mashed potatoes and even learned that failure doesn’t mean the end, you can always try again. Not all learning is ABCs and 123s, yes those are important don’t get me wrong, but there is so much more to learn in life that isn’t taught in a classroom. I am grateful for the time Ethen spent in public school, if it were not for their programs he would probably still struggle with speech, but I am loving being a fulltime mother and teacher to him. It is hard, don’t get me wrong, but I can see the benefits from it all ready!

Children’s Discovery Museum

What an eventful day! First we had to take Jonathon to work today (just like every Friday) so we could have the car for our Friday Fun Day’s – today we were going to the Children’s Discovery Museum with our friends the Smith’s. We get home and we find THIS…

I just about killed me a dog! Then I realized he was stuck and couldn’t figure out how to get down – that made me laugh. I’m still pretty mad at him, but I know I will laugh about this one day!

We headed out with the Smith’s and had a blast. The first thing we did was climb “The Tower”. Man who ever designed that, needs to be shot… or given a job designing gyms! My legs got a massive workout climbing the stairs, in which each step HAD to be at least 15 inches high!

They had this drum that shot air out – Ethen tried to figure it out on his own but realized it worked best if someone stabilized it while he pulled the plunger back!

One level was nothing but music and had a giant guitar, drums, chimes, xylophone and maracas! It was fun making music with the kids. I bet the person working that level had bleeding ears by the end of the day though!

Now that we are out of the tower of “Death to all Quadriceps” we moved onto the rest of the museum. They recently added a new exhibit for thinkers – a mystery room where clues were given and problems needed solving. It was a bit out of the scope of our young learners so we quickly moved on. The ONE game they enjoyed, a spelling game, other kids would interrupt the game so it wasn’t much fun after all! There was a mat with a bunch of random letters, you had to spell a word all the way to the end. If you stepped wrong it would misspell the word. The tiles were very sensitive and unsupervised kiddos kept running onto it, thus messing up our game! Oh well, onto the next one!

Next we hit up the “Invention Room” and this is where Ethen shined! They had several building stations. One was to build and test a racecar from Legos. They had ramps to test them on, if your car made it to the end, it was a good one. If not, rebuild until it does! Ethen set straight to work building his racecar and it made it all the way on the first try! WAY TO GO!!!

Ethen then started helping our friend, Ben, build his racecar!

This next table was the BEST one and by far Ethen’s crowning achievement! The task was to build a bridge from one ramp to the other that would allow a ping pong ball to roll completely through. It was tough and to be honest I had to step back and (which was the hardest part for me I think) let Ethen figure it out. It took him a few tries, but with encouragement and a few subtle hints he finally got it!

 

Watch as we test out Ethen’s bridge! For a brief moment you can see the pure satisfaction on his face! He was very proud of himself (and so was I) that he had done it all on his own! So glad I didn’t ruin that for him by trying to do it for him!

Our last station was the water station, for obvious reason! These kids had so much fun playing in the water. Building dams and learning about the power that water has. There was one part where you could close doors to let the water build and then open them again to let the water through. Ethen and I did a test to see if it would be easy or hard to open the doors with the water full. We tested the water low and he found the doors were fairly easy to open. We then closed them and allowed the water to fill. Then we tried to open them again and he discovered that they were definitely harder to open! He learned that water has weight and it’s force can make it hard to move objects! What a discovery!'

There was so much to see and do, we didn’t get to it all. Thankfully it’s not a one time thing. I’m sure we’ll be back for more learning very soon!!

Ethen’s ARK

Today I received an email from Ethen’s teacher, Mrs. Tilley. Ethen has started his second week of Kindergarten and is just having a blast! Last week they learned the story of the Gingerbread Man (fast as fast can be, you’ll never catch me). Ethen told me all about the Gingerbread Man, and even related the story (several times) but there was part of the story he did not mention… this is what Mrs. Tilley wrote…

“Ethen was so sweet on Friday. I'm sure that he told you about searching for the Gingerbread Man. We cooked a large gingerbread man for the whole class to share but he ran away. We looked for him all over the school, visiting various places around our school. When we got back to our room, the Gingerbread Man was nowhere to be found but he had left each student a little cookie. Ms. Julie (our kindergarten aide) had been helping in our room that morning and we had told her that we were going to share part of the big gingerbread man with her but we'd have to wait till we found him. Ethen immediately broke off at least 1/3 or more of his little cookie and walked over to Ms. Julie and said, "Here, I'll share mine with you." WOW!! Almost instantly, at least half of the class broke off a piece of their cookie and soon Ms. Julie had a handful of cookie pieces. I was so touched!! He was so sweet.... and I don't even think he realized what a great thing he'd done!! You should be very proud of your little guy! I know that I was :)”

I was literally brought to tears. Now, I do not share this to boast of my child, BUT each mother yearns to know if she is doing a good job, if the life lessons she is teaching are sinking in! This was one of those moments that Heavenly Father allowed me to have, so I may know that Ethen, really is listening and learning!

I just needed to share the story of Ethen’s ARK (Act of Random Kindness). He has made my day!

Financial Responsibility and Young Women

We all know that financial matters are nothing to take lightly. We, as a Young Women’s Presidency, felt that learning to budget, pay bills, file taxes and save money are skills that MUST be taught to the youth. Using the church publications One for the Money and All is Safely Gathered In,  and with the help of an H&R Block tax preparer (to help explain the ins and out of taxes) we decided to help the girls understand the importance of these values!

SO - this past Wednesday for mutual we came up with a game for the Young Women to learn about some financial responsibility. We based it off of the board game “Payday”. When we talked about this game during a presidency meeting we all thought the game would have been enough – BUUUUUUT- once I bought the game I realized it didn’t exactly portray the message that we wanted. The game is based on buying businesses and making deals – along with some gambling. Not exactly appropriate for a church activity.

So we came up with our own! I made cards to cover the board spaces.

 

With Spaces for Payday (everyone’s favorite), grocery shopping, mail days (when the bills come) and TAX day!!!

So of course on mail days they had to get SOMETHING in the mail… and what most people get in the mail is? BILLS!!! Yes, this game is all about budgeting your money and saving for things you want! I had a FUN time coming up with these bills! Waters of Life Water Company! Upon the Rock Realty! Word of Wisdom Health Insurance! Arise and Shine Light Company! All located on Narrow Path Way!!! I think I went overboard with it – but that’s ok!!!

Check out the girls playing!!! Thanks Jenn for the pictures!!!

Kristyn looks engrossed in her budget!

Keara looks a little stressed about filing her taxes!!! Thankfully we had a representative from H&R Block there to help her out when she got stuck!!!

So even though the girls were a little leery about playing this game it turned out pretty good and they seemed to enjoy it! WHEW – Jenn and I both thought this would have been a bust!

As a treat we gave the girls a handout that said “You don’t have to earn a 100 Grand to make a Payday count” then attached a snack sized 100grand and payday candy to it! (sorry no pic – I ate the candy before I could snap a shot of it – DOH!!!)

CERT Training

I am so excited about this experience and certification that I just received. The Stake sponsored a training through the Clark County Fire Department and City of Las Vegas called CERT.

Community Emergency Response Team (Training)

Basically they train you to become a responder in natural and man made disasters (a plane crash for instance). Now I have to admit – I wasn’t really thrilled at first to be giving up 2 Saturday’s for this training (only because I really didn’t understand what it was for), I originally thought it was CPR and first aid – I couldn’t fathom why on earth that would take TWO days!!! So the morning of Saturday, March 10th I was dragging my feet… until the first 5 minutes of the class! Then I realized what I was going to be learning and INSTANTLY became interested. Funny how that worked!!!

Here’s us in class!

This was the BEST burger I’ve ever tasted. Angus beef, cheddar cheese, pulled pork, bacon and topped with French’s Fried onions and sweet BBQ sauce… I about died from the caloric intake of it BUT it was SOOOOOO good!

And my certificate! YEAH I DID IT!

Check out what I got to bring home with me!!! The CERT pack! With a bunch of goodies inside!!!

I HIGHLY recommend this training to EVERYONE! The need for trained volunteers in critical in an emergency situation! Your towns/city/neighbors rely on it!

For more information visit www.citizencorps.gov/cert/

Ethen’s First School Program

Robert Taylor Elementary school put on a program with Pre-K and Kindergarten classes. It was all focused around rhyming! Ethen did AMAZING!!! I don’t think I stopped smiling the whole time!

The classes getting ready…

Ethen with his friend Jamari (Nathan is another of Ethen’s friends he is in the glasses on the other side of Ethen)…

Ethen with his teacher, Mrs. Jennifer…

Now time for some fun video of the performances!

Ethen’s Happy and he KNOWS it!!!

“And watch me scare the crows away” in case you couldn’t understand!

I LOVE the bushy tail part!!!

What does a turkey say?

Fly away Jack! Fly away Jill!!!

I had so much fun watching Ethen – he certainly loves to dance and sing! My favorite was watching Ethen shake his bum in the Squirrel song! SOOOOO Cute~

Hope you enjoyed them!

Brandy