Monday February 7 2011

Train blocks

a few rounds of Mastermind

Reading White Fang aloud

Working on Receptive tools Cognitive Function

Making cookie snacks

Learning about Brazil--making an info board

Working on behaviour and understanding our emotions

read,read,read

Mozart listening

song singing

snow play--indoor and out

map making

writing stories

learning about contractions

exasperating Mom with horrible penmanship--gasp!

wrestling

icing spoon licking!

Friday February 4th 2011-Chinese New Year

Gung Hay Fat Choy

We had some wonderful friends over today to celebrate Chinese New year.

My hubby was on hand for a bit and I got a few photos. Nothing makes me miss my camera more than a party

Here's some of the fun

Dragon making--egg carton dragons--see here

Read A Grain of Rice

Played Chopstick races

Made and ate Spring rolls, noodle wrapped shrimp, and won-tons. yum!

Homemade Chinese Fortune cookies with encouraging scriptures tucked inside

Ink drawings and characters

Creating a play out of a Grain of Rice

Red Jell-o cut-outs of rabbits--it's the year of the Rabbit!

Qwirkle

Painting

Outside play

Costumes and dress up

and the overwhelming feeling that my eldest said best: "When our friends leave, suddenly it feels boring and the house feels empty."

Thursday February 3 2011

Party planning

Bird making

Chinese ink writing

tea drinking

umbrella forts

connect four

more Pippi Longstocking

White Fang reading

map making

drawing, drawing, drawing

Diego games

Mancala

February 2nd -GroundFROG day

The day started bright and shiny. We had no groundhog, but a stuffed frog did the trick.

Our GroundFrog say his shadow :(

Pippi Longstocking read aloud--plllleeeease one more chapter

Dice games for math and spelling

Drawings for family

dot to dot

drawings of Pippi

Groundhog Day crafts (pop-up puppets)

silhouette drawings

tea party with dolls

Mastermind game

Watched Harry the Dirty Dog

hung bananas off the curtain rod so that we could play monkeys

Said that when you get married you want to have a wild wedding and have everyone dress up like fruit. You want to be a banana.

Update

Hey Everyone!

For those of you who have been checking my blog, you will have noticed that there isn't any new posts.

That's happened for two reasons:

1.My husband has been slated for surgery in the next few weeks, so priorities have once again shifted and the blog is low on the list in the oight of this event

2. I've also been working with the ML team on creating a few QuickStart Guides that you can use immediately following a workshop. Work is on going but I will have something to post for Workshop #2 shortly.

In the meantime, I appreciate your understanding and patience as I focus on my family.

Feel free to peruse the site. There are many articles that you may find helpful.

Back online soon

Garments of Praise

This mountain of clothes came to me slowly over time.

First, they arrived from a Greyhound bus from my older sister. She was passing down all the special clothes her girls wore.

Then my sister-in-law sent suitcases full of little girl clothes with family members. She was passing down all the special clothes her girls wore.

Surrounded by such abundant love, it was a year and a half before I had to purchase my first article of clothing for my daughter.

And the clothes kept arriving.

Because kids grow and they need special clothes that are filled with love.

These garments have been held close as I thanked the One who takes care of all my needs.

These garments have been washed and made clean reminding me of how God does that with my heart.

These garments have heard every prayer I've murmured over my babies, every supplication for their health, every whispered promise of trust for their future.

And today these garments were once again prayed over.

Garments of Praise, they are.

Garments filled with thankfulness for being so blessed and so loved. To have clothes and more importantly, to have someone to put into these clothes.

As I said "Amen," I wondered about the young mothers at the pregnancy crisis center who would be getting them.

Would there daughters take their first steps in the purple outfit or the soft pink jumper?

Would they gather their child in their arms and pause and give thanks that they had made the decision to keep their child?

Would these clothes once again become garments of praise for someone else?

I pray so.

The Power of "When I was Little"...

We've been working on empathy at our house lately.

We're having some discussions on thinking about others and learning tact.

One thing that I've found really helpful is telling stories about when I was little.

I marvel at how much my kids want to hear about mistakes I made, how I felt when someone said or did something to me, and any kind of crazy story about childhood.

So, my little ML tip for today is to include stories of your history to your children.

ML Criteria focus: sense of belonging

Battling Conflict the Mediated Way

Blocking Attitude

There have been a few issues in our house this week that have led to conflict.

My eldest is very expressive in her anger and it's not always demur, to say the least. While we're teaching her new ways to handle her anger and how to self-regulate, here is a scenario that might encourage you in your home.

Explosion of anger hits me in the heart and I'm staring into the hardened eyes of my eight year old.

I take a calming breath. This is the behaviour we are working through as a family.

Anger.

I've modelled it and now it's out performing me.

Sow to to wind, reap the whirlwind, so to speak.

"Calm down and tell me why you are so angry."

"No." The angst in the eyebrows tells me she means it.

I remember to employ a few things some counselor friends have taught me:

I sit down BESIDE my child. We sit shoulder to shoulder to talk together, not across from each other on different sides.

I take my child's hand.

This is sending an important message. It says," I care more about our relationship, than I do about this argument."

She tries to pull free.

"Please talk to me," I ask softly. "Why are you so angry?"

Her chest heaves a few times, and I pray that she will open her heart to me.

She starts slowly, "You aren't listening to me. That's why I'm yelling at you and talking rude. You aren't listening to me." (Intentionality and Reciprocity)

I know what that feels like. I think through our morning. I have been a bit demanding. I've made two changes in her sphere of living and didn't give her time to adjust. This isn't about obedience--this is about truly caring about what is important to her.

I pull her close and tenderly say, "I know what that feels like. It's hard isn't it when no one seems to be listening. I felt like that this morning during chore time. Do you remember me sayng, 'You guys aren't listening.' " (Bridging)

She nods against my chest.

"I am sorry for not listening to you. Will you forgive me? I really value what you have to say. Your ideas matter to me. Your thoughts are important to me. Why don't you tell me what you wanted to say about this change."

She relays her concerns. Concerns that I had written off as unimportant because I was hurrying to get through the task. Concerns that I brushed to the side and labelled as "stalling."

She apologizes for her negative behaviour and tries hard not to roll her eyes when she hears her consequence.

"Well, we do need to finish this task, and I think we can come up with a way to work together to solve it. Do you have any different ideas?" (Optimistic Alternative)

We think things through and come up with three possible solutions. I whittle away one of them for time sake and let her pick between the two. I talk about the MEANING of our task and how it will help us function more efficiently in our home.

After some consideration, she picks a solution and we work together on it...side by side.