Vacation Brings Awards!

We took time off last week for our annual trip to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, and what a welcome home surprise to open my email and find this:

Thank you, Julie, at Hey Mommy, Chocolate Milk!!

I looked around and discovered that Liebster means "dearest" in German.  The award is shared with new-ish blogs having under 200 followers in hopes of giving them a boost of support and recognition.  What a great little welcome home treat!

So, here's what it takes to accept the award:

11 Facts About Myself

1. I have 2-month old twins, making a total of 4 boys for our family
2. I come from a family of 6 girls
3. My husband is #10 of 15 kids 
4. Our twins are grandkids #56 & #57 in his family, but the 1st set of twins!
5. Definitely a night owl!
6. I LOVE cooking, but HATE baking.
7. I knew in 5th grade I wanted to play the bassoon, but had to wait until 7th grade to give it a try
8. I vividly remember singing, "Jimmy Crack Corn" for music class in 1st grade
9. I took my baby sister as my show & tell in 3rd grade
10. I plan on taking a 1-year round-the-world trip before my kids are too old to want to go
11. My dream home is made of glass along the entire back side.

Answer 11 Questions from the Blogger Sending the Award (Aye, aye!)

1. Who is your favorite superhero of all time? I already told you I grew up with all girls-I seriously know very little about superheroes!
2. What is your favorite book? Anna Karenina and The Brothers Karamazov
3. Which book have you read to your kiddos so many times you know it by heart? The Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen and Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems
4. If you won an all expenses paid trip to anywhere in the world, where would you go? Can my anywhere in the world include everywhere in the world?  I guess let's start with Scotland...
5. Favorite Outdoor Activity? Night-time glow-in-the-dark Frisbee
6. What Is Your Most Valued Possession?  My passport
7. Favorite Family Tradition?  Biking to the local donut shop for breakfast before hiking on National Trails Day (always the 1st Saturday in June)
8. Do you still have your wedding dress?  Yes, in a plastic bin somewhere.
9. Favorite Bible story?  Christ's Visit to Mary & Martha
10. What is your earliest memory?  Being chased by a top-notched goose across our country backyard.
11. What was your first car?  Ford Tempo

Create 11 New Questions for the Bloggers I'm Going to Award & Recognize

I can't wait to get to know the 11 of you a little better!

1. What's the most memorable place you've vacationed?
2. Favorite thing to do with your little ones?
3. What is your most favorite chore to do around the house?
4. Paper or plastic?
5. What is something from your childhood you want to make sure your kids know as well?
6. In high school was it sports or music for you?
7. What is your creative outlet?
8. You have a night free from the family-where are you & what are you doing?
9. Live Theatre or Movie Theater?
10. What is the best advice you've received from another blogger?
11. Do you hide the mini Frosty that comes in the Wendy's kids meal so you can have it for yourself? (My kids have no idea a yummy frozen chocolate treat comes along with their hamburger, fruit, & milk)

Choose 11 Blogs to recognize with the Liebster Award 

Please be sure to check out these amazing blogs!

1. Potlucks On the Porch
2. Mom's Thumb Reviews
3. Penny For Your Thoughts
4. Chicken Scratch 'n Sniff
5. Didi@Relief Society
6. Valerie's Attempt at Pondering
7. Homeschooling TNT
8. Adventures at Home With Mum
9. My Adventures In Preschool
10. Kindergarten Celebration
11. Making Boys Men

And, again, thank you Julie at Hey Mommy, Chocolate Milk 

for adding a little excitement to the end of my vacation!

(Are you one of the bloggers I've sent the Liebster Award?  

The rules are simple: Do the things listed above 

and be sure to let your bloggers know they've received the award. 

Remember, this award should go to blogs with under 200 followers. 

And feel free to link back to this blog as well!)

Veering Away From the Lesson

I never want to be that blogger who portrays life as one peachy world where everything goes as planned and nothing ever goes awry.  And to give you a perfect example of that, I'll tell you that today's Teaching Your Children Joy activity was met with absolutely no enthusiasm by my boys or the friends they had over.  None.  At all.

We were supposed to listen to different styles of music and encourage expressive dancing and movement based on what we were hearing.  I found the CD channels on my tv and gathered them all in to our small living room.  They pretended to care for about the first 15 seconds.  Then they were all bumping into each other and complaining that the song was boring.  Beck insisted he could be a car that was dancing and started running all over "vroom-ing" loudly.  He knocked Peyton over.  Peyton started crying.  The younger of our two friends disappeared into the bedroom to find more toys.  The older friend stood staring at me like I was crazy.

Today nobody in my house wanted to be dancing.  This is what they did want to be doing...

 

And so that is what we did.

The Inspiration

"The preschool years are not the time to teach reading or math.  We should use life's most impressionable years to teach life's most important lesson-how to be happy!"

-Linda and Richard Eyre

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My husband and two little boys once went to the grocery store and came back with a beautiful bouquet of flowers.  They made me close my eyes so I would be surprised.  When I looked at my husband in gratitude he shook his head and told me our 4-year-old had asked to buy them.  He thought they would make me happy and then I wouldn't get frustrated with him anymore.  

Being a mother has not come easy to me.  I lose my patience and lose my temper.  I overreact and criticize.  I watch my husband being goofy and attentive and slap myself on the forehead thinking, "Argh, that's the way I need to be!" It is time to step back from the busyness I've created in my life and make my four little boys one of my highest priorities.

  

When my oldest was younger we participated in an unofficial Joy School where parents prepared and taught lessons and activities for their preschool-age children.  It was a wonderful experience for all of us.  At the start of new school years everyone I knew asked if I would be putting him into preschool. With very little question, I decided not to enroll him into a structured preschool class.  There would be decades of structured school environments ahead and I wanted to give him the chance to simply be a kid for as long as he can be. 

One of the mothers from our class wanted to start an actual preschool.  Her focus was going to be heavy on learning to read, teaching math skills, learning foreign language words, and other extremely school-centric lessons.  While my oldest loved letters and learning, I didn't feel like he needed to feel pressured to learn those things so soon.  It was hard to say no, but I'm still proud for sticking up for what was right for my boys.

And so, this is how we got started on our homeschooling journey:

Using the quiet of afternoon naptime with younger siblings I focused on precious life skills kids need to always find optimism in life.  The purpose of this blog is to share how we continue working towards that goal each day.  Starting out, that looked like this:

• Use the book Teaching Your Children Joy by the Eyres as our base.  Packed full of activities and divided into 13 sections, we worked on an activity a day, making our way through the book at laid-back pace.  Occasionally we supplemented activities from other books and websites as well.
• Working through a variety of preschool curriculum workbooks, but with a fun, low-pressure pace.  Some phonics, some math patterns and counting, a lot of motorskills activities.
• Art, playtime, games, and more.  A wonderful opportunity for me to get down to children's level and play without interruption.  The kids need that, but I need it, too.  
• Storytime.  My husband and I both love to read.  It touches me deeply that our boys show such an intense love for books and stories.  Their creativity and imaginations are strong and I want to continue building a connection between a story on a page and the way that they play. 

I want to always see my boys smiling and happy.  I want them to not feel like they have to shower me with flowers so I will be nice to them (although that's not such a bad life-lesson, is it ladies?).

It has been 4 years since we started out on this journey, with many ups and downs, but our decision to homeschool is solidified each day. There's a lot to tell since those early days, but my guiding principles are still the same...

 We have precious little time to show our children they are the center of our lives,

 to be close to them and to build the confidence they will need

 in the future to find happiness within themselves.

Look for joy in what they are doing every single day!

Want to learn more about Teaching Your Children Joy?