Farewell

Bad news bears, everyone:  our blog has reached a stopping point.  I've had a great time sharing and blogging, but I don't have the commitment to keep it up like I once did.  I'm still going to be blogging, but not here on The Case of the Missing Cheerios.  If you'd like to check out my new blog, which is up and running, scope it out at http://reasonsforwaking.blogspot.com/

I'm also going to be spending a lot more time on my novel.  Hopefully you can look forward to that getting published eventually, but I have to finish it first!

Again, thanks for your support and thanks for reading!  Keep on being rocking parents and people, and I hope to hear from you all on my new blog.  Toodles! 

Mom hobbies~priddymomma

Me as McGonagall

Hey guys!  I’m getting totally excited about Halloween coming up.  We’re having a Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Halloween party on Halloween this year.  I have BIG PLANS, DUDES!!  I’ll share a picture or two afterwards.  My husband and I also got the chance to begin putting in some trails on our property.  I’m crazy excited to get to work on them.  Now we can enjoy so much more of our place!  Aahhh!  I’m crazy.  You can say it.

The Great Hall at the Halloween feast, complete with "live" bats

This week, I’m discussing mom hobbies.  Actually, I really want to cross off the mom and just call it “hobbies”.  The issue is that you won’t have the same kind of hobbies as a mom that you did when you were not a mom, so I guess the mom stays.  And at this point, I’m sure you can tell I am completely hyped up on caffeine while typing like a psycho.  IT’S TRUE!!  YAY!  (I’m running in circles only a little)

So…what was I talking about?  Oh.  Hobbies.  You need hobbies.  Going through life not excited about doing anything is super lame.  I’m excited about this party, for instance.  It is sort of a hobby of mine to throw elaborate parties.  Weird, but it makes me happy to see people surprised at the steps I took to set something up (and on a budget too!). 

I also like to sew.  I don’t make time for it often, but I always make time around Halloween.  I make my kiddos’ costumes (they want to be Elsa and Superman this year).  Not only do they turn out better than anything you can pick up in the store, but they are often times much cheaper.  And again, I have the excuse of sewing, which is great.  I sometimes make time before Christmas as well if one of the gifts is hand made. 

 

Confession:  No sew!  Princess Cheerio was 1, and I procrastinated.  Still not purchased costumes though (except the wings, because ain't nobody got time for that).

Singing is the hobby I make the most time for, but mostly because I can multi task as I sing.  I can sing while washing dishes, cooking, cleaning, and of course the old stand-by of singing in the shower.  I love to dance, so I try to make time for Zumba once a week. 

I love working in the yard, so I make sure I have time to do outside chores on nice days.  I like to read, so I plan my day around my book if it happens to be really good.  More than once I have turned down invites or activities because a book I have been itching to get my hands on is released that day or the day before.  IF THEY ARE TRULY YOUR FRIEND, THEY WILL UNDERSTAND!  I have no idea why I’m shouting.  Must be the coffee. 

OH NO!  My coffee is gone!  The horror!  Time for a refill. 

Drat!  Hubby turned off the coffee maker.  He will pay for this!  (I won’t remember by the time he gets home)

Crap.  Microwaved old coffee and burned my tongue.  Why doesn’t spell check recognize “microwaved”.  That’s a term, right?  Or maybe we can just call it “nuked”?  It recognizes that, but only because it is morbid.  Is there another term you use?  WHAT IS THE PROPER TERM??!

Anyway…um…I have no idea where I was.  Have a hobby!  Right.  I don’t even know where I was going with this whole concept.  That’s a lot like life.  Stop.  Breathe.  Okay.  New paragraph.  Maybe just ignore this one.  Of course, now you can’t because you read the whole thing.  Ha ha!  Sucks to be you.

If you don’t make time for your favorite activities, you will end up hating everyone and being bored out of your mind.  That is an opinion, obviously.  When you were a kid, you were probably pretty happy most of the time.  I believe kids are happy, because they spend large amounts of time doing exactly what interests them and not worrying about what they should be doing most of the time.  If they want to spend hours building legos, by gum they will!  And should something like hygiene or chores get in their way, a meltdown will occur.  Grumpy adults are just the grown up versions of these kids, meltdown included (hence the grumpy).  We would all feel a lot better if we took time to play our legos. 

See ya next week, Cheerios Parents!  Peace!

P.S.  Please take a moment of silence for 9/11.  Take a moment to appreciate the magnitude of what happened that day.  God bless.

Life update for Sept 2014~priddymomma

Hey guys!  Welcome back to yet another fantastic post about me!  Life update time.  You must be so thrilled. 

I have exciting news:   

I’M PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just kidding.  But now I have your attention.  Bwahaha!

I’m still in the process of getting Cheerio Champ evaluated for Asperger’s/autism.  We have another appointment on October 2^nd, so we should know more then.  Princess Cheerio is as smart and adorable as ever.  My husband has been really interested in conspiracy theories lately (IT'S A CONSPIRACY!), and I’ve been writing a novel.  Yes, a novel.  How novel!

The biggest thing going on this week for us is the start of school.  We home school and love it.  I will share with you what we covered our first couple of days (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday).  If you have any questions, feel free to ask.  We are eclectic homeschoolers and quite proud of that.  :)

 

Curriculum 

Cheerio Champ (6) has a curriculum (created by me) based entirely on volcanoes.  There are so many subjects related to or concerning volcanoes that I can’t even list them all.  It is plenty for one school year!  He’s in “first grade”, though he is participating in some of Princess Cheerio’s projects and can do some 2^nd grade work.  He also reads at a 6^th grade level.

Princess Cheerio (2) has her curriculum based on a book called, “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” by Michael Rosen.  She really adores the book.  In case you aren’t familiar, the book tells the story of a family going on a bear hunt to catch a big bear.  On their journey, they find obstacles that they can not go over or under.  They realize to their dismay that they must go through them.  They include such things as caves, snowstorms, and grasses.  The book allows us to talk about weather, bears, environments, etc.  I'm even planning to set up a bear hunt obstacle course.  I haven’t figured out how I want to replicate “snowstorm” yet, but I’ll figure it out!  Princess Cheerio will also participate in some of the experiments and such with Cheerio Champ’s studies.

Structure

Our school week is not Monday to Friday.  Instead, it is Tuesday to Saturday.  My husband is off on Sundays and Mondays, so our "weekend" is different.  Also, if there is a sick day or what not, we are able to flex the school week into the weekend or wrap into the next week.  We don't take time off for holidays.  We usually complete more than 180 days of school in a year.

Here is a "typical" school day schedule:

7:30 a.m.-wake kids, hygiene, writing practice (vocab words for Cheerio Champ, drawing for Princess Cheerio), chores

breakfast

9 a.m.-reading and discussion; any brief lectures on topics we're covering that day

9:30 a.m.-yoga and meditation

10:00 a.m.-short educational video for the day and brief recap

10:30 a.m. -quiet time/nap time (provides chill time, nap time, and play time)

12:30 p.m.- worksheets, playing, chores, lunch

after lunch until 2:30 p.m. - buckle down learning/projects (For example:  Wednesday we baked GF apple crisp and drew an orca)

2:30 p.m.- dad gets home; go outside (sometimes outdoor learning for no more than 10 minutes); play and explore

3:30 p.m. -school day over

Only about 3 hours of material taught over the course of 8 hours.  They learn plenty, don't get frustrated, burnt out, or bored, and sleep hard each night. 

Princess Cheerio drawing a picture of a volcano and a rainbow in the clouds.

Reading and discussion with Harry Potter

Yoga

Meditation

Letter of the day for Princess Cheerio

Unit books

Labeling parts of a volcano

Explaining "cone" volcanoes

Mentos-diet soda experiment

Mentos-diet soda experiment

Exploring

Watching "Magic School Bus Blows Its Top"

Baking GF apple crisp (Washington State apple).  We Covered some of Washington while talking about Mount St. Helens.

Drawing an orca (Washington State mammal)

Hanging a thistle sock for goldfinches (Washington State bird)

Painting like Michelangelo did in the Sistine Chapel (Italy).  We covered a bit of Italy with Pompeii.

Cheerio Champ insisted I take this picture of him completing a worksheet.

Princess Cheerio is very outside-the-box.

They got a bit freaked out by a Pompeii animation.  I also had the volume cranked.  It was awesome.

Italian flag

Italian flag. 

Waving arrivederci (learning a few words in Italian)

Meditation

Alrighty!  That's about it for me!  I hope you guys have a great weekend, and I'll see ya next week! 

Being more than just a mom~priddymomma

Hey guys!  Hope you all are having a fine week.  I'm late posting again!  Sorry!  I’ve put in long hours catching up on some long neglected yard work.  I also found some poison ivy.  Happily, I didn’t discover it with my limbs.

This post is for the ladies.  I’ll be discussing being more than just a mom.  Sorry to all our male readers.  I would love to give you some advice on being more than just a dad, but unfortunately I’m not qualified, gender-wise.  Hopefully you will find that some information in this post pertains to you as well. 

Parenting is one of the most rewarding experiences in the world, arguably the MOST enjoyable.  It is also one of the hardest.  Just like any activity in life, you can overdo it and burn out.  You must take breaks to recharge if you expect to perform at your maximum potential.  It is a very important job, and you do your best if you are relaxed, recharged, and refreshed. 

The trouble is that modern parents are often so busy that they struggle to find time to spend with their kids, let alone finding time for a break.  It just isn’t a priority.  My number one piece of advice is to MAKE time.  Jot it down in your appointment book and keep it as faithfully as you would for one of your kids’ appointments. 

My second tip is to get enough sleep.  Being tired adds to frustration and chaos, and your body needs time to repair itself and to fight off illness.  Yes, moms notoriously have little sleep, but what I’m telling you is that if you have the opportunity to sleep, seize it.  Being well rested will make a huge difference in your life, and in your kids’ lives.

 

SO not a mom...

“But Heather!  This is great advice and all, but I thought this post was about being MORE than just a mom!  You are just giving me parenting tips!”  Am I?  If you have a spare moment to yourself and you are exhausted, what are you going to do?  Uh-huh.  You bet your booty you will be napping.  “Me time” does not equal “sleep time.”  And new mothers, it doesn’t equal “shower time” or “pee time” either.  You need real legit “me time”. 

After you have cleared room for yourself in your schedule (and even an hour a week will do wonders), do something that makes your soul sing.  Taking a fitness class might be your idea of joy or maybe your idea of hell.  Don’t force yourself to do something you won’t enjoy.  That is a crappy way of giving yourself love.  Take the opportunity to do something worth it for you. 

Here are some suggestions:  bake, cook, garden, read, take a long hot bath, sing, swim, bike, run, play with your dog, go for a walk, hike, draw, play a video game, dance, sew, craft, meditate, go bird watching, try a new food, shop, hang out with a friend, play a sport, scrapbook, grab a coffee, watch a movie, catch up on your favorite tv series, plan your dream vacation, paint, check out an art exhibit, visit the fair, assemble a puzzle, etc.

In order to be more than just a mom, you have to learn to know yourself outside of being a mom.  It is perfectly okay if you have no idea what you enjoy anymore.  Great!  It means more experimenting and intrigue as you take yourself on dates to get to the bottom of who you are when you aren’t surrounded by children.  Yes, your kids may be everything to you, but that doesn’t mean they are everything you are.

Childhood hobbies~priddymomma

Hey guys!  Hope you have had a lovely week.  My family had the opportunity to visit the State Fair on Monday.  Fair season is definitely one of my absolute favorite things about summer.  My husband and I met during high school marching band, and every time we visit the fair, it takes me back to a time when we were first falling in love... 

 

Our band uniforms were sexy.  You can say it.

Enough of that mushy stuff!  You didn’t come here for that, I’m sure.  You came instead to read about what hobbies I encourage in my kiddos!  (Sure you did.  No arguing.)

I home school my kids, and I don’t currently have them enrolled in anything like dance or karate (though I’d like to enroll them in both eventually). 

 

 

My son loves to read and learn facts.  One of his more recent interests centered around pumpkins.  I thought it was kind of strange and out of season, but go for it!  We ended up working together to plant a pumpkin patch, which is doing really well and should yield 24 or so pumpkins eventually.  He can tell you all about the life cycle of a pumpkin, and all without me teaching him a thing.  I love the library.  

My daughter is interested in bugs and being outside.  When she isn’t looking at plants and insects through a magnifying glass, she’s trying to convince me to take her outside so that she can do just that.  She’s very observant (and argumentative).  She also loves to draw. 

 

I believe that kids will pick up on what their parents really love to do as well as going on to develop their own interests.  Cheerio Champ has lately developed a keen interest in the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber.  He can blame me for that, and my latest interest in “Jesus Christ Superstar”.  Both of my kids enjoy yoga (blame me) and tai chi (all hubby’s fault).  They have music and reading in their blood.

 

exercising with dad in our home gym

I guess to summarize:  I encourage my kids to follow their hearts.  That’s a great hobby/life goal.  If they get it into their heads they want to be acrobats, while I’ll probably have a heart attack, I will encourage their dream and do the best I can to support them as they pursue it. 

To be fair, they DO often fight over our hula hoop...

What hobbies do you encourage in your kids?  What hobbies have they picked up that they can blame you for?

See ya next week! 

Teaching your children to read~priddymomma

Hey guys!  Sorry this is late, but at least I’m actually posting this week.  I’ve had a ton on my mind and on my plate (and I don’t mean overeating, though I’m sure there was a bit of that too).  My best female friend is getting married tomorrow!  (my best friend is my husband, just to clarify.  I always feel like I’m a liar or cheating on him or something if I call her my best friend, so I call her my best female friend.  I’m weird like that)  I’ve been helping her out, getting nails done, crafting on my dress, freaking out a little about being in front of people while wearing said dress, putting candies in tiny tin hearts, etc.  It’s been interesting. 

So…on to it then!  This week we’re teaching kids to read.  By “we’re teaching kids to read,” I mean “we’re talking about the steps to reading success.”  And by “we’re” I mean “I’m”.  Just in case you didn’t figure that out.  As I mentioned, I’m weird.

Cheerio Champ could read by age three.  By two, he had mastered the alphabet, but he’s out of the ordinary in that regard.  Princess Cheerio knows most of her letters and is two years old.  I had an extraordinary advantage with teaching my kids to read.  Cheerio Champ just loved mastering the alphabet, and it was quite literally all

he did for at least a month.  In fact, his second birthday was alphabet themed, as he wasn’t interested in anything else.  Because Cheerio Champ is an excellent reader, he has taken to reviewing the alphabet with Princess Cheerio at least once a day with letter magnets.  He gets something out of it too.  We have two sets, and he likes to spell out words with them. 

• Suggestion 1:  obtain one or two sets of magnetic alphabet letters.  We like the nice ones offered by Melissa and Doug.  Totally awesome company.

Kids should be exposed to many different sources that have the alphabet.  Books that focus on individual letters are great.  “Richard Scarry’s ABC Word Book” and “Dr. Seuss’s ABCs” are great examples.  Cheerio Champ really liked flashcards.  Princess Cheerio enjoys alphabet blocks.  We even have a wall hanging toy (purchased by my mother.  I’m not sure why I felt the need to clarify that) that has Velcro letters and pictures.  The best way to conquer anything is by repetition.  Try watching Sesame Street!  Draw letters in the sand!  Anything!

• Suggestion 2:  repetition by many different sources

After children master the alphabet, the next step (or to teach simultaneously if you are ambitious) is to learn the phonetic sounds each letter is responsible for.  http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/index/play.htm?f is a great website for you and your child to play around on.  There are really cute songs available for teaching phonics, as well as videos on the market.  I highly suggest Rock N’ Learn DVDs for phonic sounds. 

• Suggestion 3:  teach phonics

Teach sight words next.  I really like Preschool Prep Company products.  “Meet the Sight Words” 1 and 2 are great for beginners.  (The next couple DVDs teach digraphs and blends, which can be worked up to and are great for kids that can make out simple sentences and just need help pronouncing combinations of sounds)  Cheerio Champ loved flash cards.  Sight words flashcards are widely available at supermarkets, convenience stores, and dollar stores.  They are usually to be found near the books and magazines, but occasionally near art supplies.

• Suggestion 4:  teach sight words

After that, work with your child on simple sentences that contain sight words they have learned.  Move on and slowly introduce more complex sentences and gradually work up to paragraphs. 

• Suggestion 5:  teach simple sentences, working up in complexity towards paragraphs

• And now, my number one suggestion:  READ TO YOUR CHILD EVERY DAY!

 

To be fair, this is a song book and I think they are singing, but STILL!

I’m not saying you are the worst person in the world if you miss a day or two.  I’m just saying that the more they are exposed to books, the more they will learn to love them.  Show them that words have meaning, pointing to pictures in the book as you read the words that describe them.  Read simple books and more complex books.  They will enjoy either.  Don’t feel like you have to read every page if they lose interest.  Let them skip around in the book.  Talk about pictures even if they are not an essential part of the story, “That man has a big blue feather in his hat.  Isn’t that silly?” Read yourself and invite your child to sit near you with a book of his or her own.  If you show them that reading is fun and important to you, they will be more likely to pick up on it and read for a lifetime. 

Alrighty folks, that’s it for me!  If you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer them.  And I’d love to hear if you have any other suggestions for teaching kids to read or requests for topics.  Don’t forget to like us on facebook!  Have a great week, everyone.  :)