A wonderful post

This post truly touched my soul. It was exactly what I needed to read.

Happy Halloween!

Busy Busy

I have a system with this move. The new house is only a few streets away and we don't have the moving truck until Tuesday, so every day I pack up a room in our current house and bring it over to the new house in our van. Then I stay and unpack it as much as I can without the furniture being there. It should make the transition easier. I am hoping.

Article

This link is to a wonderful homeschooling article I just had to share. It really is what I needed right now.

Update

We got a letter from the bank, and it is all okay! The landlord apologized for being short with us.

Stupid bank error

Stupid bank made an error that may have cost me Christmas! We had arranged to move into a new place with less rent. Than the stupid bank made an error causing our rent cheque to bounce. The money is there!!! They even gave us back the NSF fees because it was their mistake but now our new landlord doesn't want to rent to us because he thinks we are writing bad cheques!!!!!!! I am so upset. We did nothing wrong. The STUPID BANK screwed us over and I am heartbroken. What the heck are we going to do now!!

I am so upset, I am a puddle of tears now. Just when things are looking up, the bank messes it up again.

Dinner with my Father-in-law today. Spent money I shouldn't have to do it too. It was okay. He was nice. I spent most of the time trying to get Princess Belle to act less . . . less . . . hyper and excited to see him so that he would be comfortable.

Is it bad that even after a good visit, I am glad he lives on the other side of the Island?

Little Check-ups

Well, Princess Magpie and Princess Snifflefritz had their growth and development checked yesterday. I have been a little concerned with them both so I was glad to get them in.

We found out that my concerns were valid. Princess Snifflefritz is behind in her gross motor skills and she was referred to a physical therapist (or something like that) to work on her gross motor skills. She has also fallen on the growth curve. If she falls anymore she would have to be checked out. I knew she hasn't been eating as well and we will continue to work with her on that. She has never been a great eater from the day she was born.

Princess Magpie has been referred to a speech therapist and also has been referred for a check for high functioning autism like her older sister. She recommended that we put Princess Magpie in something to get her some association with kids of her own age to help with her development. So we are going to look into that too.

They are both having their hearing checked.

We will see what happens but I am glad to know that my instincts were not off and we need to work with my girls to get them sorted out.

possibly ??

There is possibly a light at the end of stress tunnel. I am pretty sure it will be okay, but I am afraid to say it out loud until we have all our i's dotted and all our t's crossed. I will let you know soon.

cell phone pics

Sunday Sum-up

I wish I could change the way that I am . I wish I could stop worrying and stressing and just go with the flow. But I can't. I feel like I need to make things better. I need to give my kids everything that I should. I need them to have the carefree, worryfree, childhood that I didn't. I don't know why but I feel like it is all my responsibility to give it to them. Right now, I am not doing so well. There are financial difficulties which are not easy to fix and with Christmas coming and with two of my girls having birthdays soon, I am overwhelmed with the stress of how I am going to make this happen for them.

On the other hand, I worry that I am effecting them with my worry too. (hard to explain, but I think you get it). I don't want them worrying about me and my health. I just want to shake it all off, go to bed and then wake up in the morning and it will all be better.

(a little secret, this house is costing us waaaay too much in rent and with our incoming decreasing soon, I just don't know how I am going to make Christmas special for my girls.)

Saturday PhotoHunt: Orange

The theme this week is Orange and I thought of this pink and orange hat that my two older girls just love. So here they are wearing it. And of course Princess Snifflefritz with her orange handle in her hand.

Stress

I am really feeling stressed right now. So much stress, I can physically feel in my fingers, my body, everything. I just need things to be fixed. Pray for me my friends that things turn around soon. I really need that.

Brill Kids Little Reader

Princess Magpie and I were given the wonderful opportunity to use BrillKids Little Reader Learning System. BrillKids Little Reader is a computer software program designed to teach infants and toddlers how to read. It is a flash card program for parents and educators who wish to teach children to read in an easy, powerful and efficient way. You can use Little Reader to teach your child to read basic words, phrases, and even complete stories.

Little Reader incorporates methods developed by experts in early education and takes advantage of the right-brain learning capabilities of children during the critical early years. It is such a simple program that very little preparation is necessary. Just sit down with your little one and start lesson 1.

There are a lot of programs out there that claim that you can teach babies as young as six months old to read. This is something I have to admit I have been very skeptical about as I have seen the advertisements here and there in the recent past. Which is exactly why I was so excited to review a really neat product from Brill Kids called Little Reader. I was excited to see how the program worked and to see how my toddler would react to the lessons.

There were several good things I have noticed about using Little Reader. First of all, your little one really enjoys having something of her very own to “do” on the computer. Secondly, she really enjoys the words and pictures and videos that played on the screen as you go through the lessons, and loves repeating the words that were shown to her.

One great feature of the software was that it gives you the option to print off picture flashcards for any lesson you wish. Using the flashcards there are lots of fun ways for you and your child to interact with the words they are encountering in the daily lessons. This is definitely a plus in my opinion.

Another interesting feature is the option to personalize your child’s curriculum. You may add your own photos and videos and add photos of Dad and Mom or other relatives.

I can see how this program would be an excellent tool to help you teach your child to read. The developers of this software have really done their research and utilized it to give you a very thorough and fun way to expose your young child to the world of words. I do think that use of the Little Reader software (along with reading to your child often and as early as possible) is a great way to introduce your child to written language and can easily see how it would give your child a head start in that area.

If you want to learn more about Little Reader, or any other Brill Kids early learning programs, you can visit their website here. BrillKids Little Reader Learning System Basic sells for $149.00 (basic is download only) and the Deluxe version is $360.00 (the in-your-hands physical copy with all of the flashcards, books, activity sheets, etc!). The BrillKids website also has many free downloads, including printable flash cards, writing sheets, and readers as well as powerpoint flash cards.

Also check out what other members of the TOS Homeschool Crew thought about Little Reader by clicking here.

Just to let you know: I received the product free of charge for review purposes but my opinions are my honest thoughts on the product.

Thankful Thursday

I am so thankful for my best friend. She took me out last night for an hour with just her and her other friend. It was a girl's night out and it was wonderful. It was nice to get me out of my head, away from my worries and to just relax and have some nice conversation with a couple of women who get it.

Wordless Wednesday - My Beautiful Girls

Click the pic above to get to other Wordless Wednesday Participants.

For more Wordless Wednesday go check out 5 minutes for mom and 7 Clown Circus!

Her baby monitor cell phone

Princess Magpie has decided that the baby monitor we use to listen to Princess Snifflefritz sleeping works better as a cell phone. She is too cute pacing the floor with the monitor in her hand chatting away into it. Copying her father's actions when he is on the phone. It just makes me smile.

My Girls

I love to watch my girls together. I love to watch the love blossom and grow between them. It cracks me up to see an 8 year old trying to argue logically with a 2 year old and then they wander off hand in hand to dance to music in the other room.

Cute Cute

Princess Magpie tries to sneak out of bed at night. It is so cute to hear her door slide open and then the pause. When I go to check on her, she is standing in her doorway, peeking out through the barely cracked open door. When I point to her bed, she toddles back off to bed completely unashamed and content to try again late. She just cracks me up. The sight of her little nose and one eye peeking out through the door makes me giggle. And the fact that she manages to do this without waking up her big sister is too funny.

Accomplishments

Lots of organization attempts at my house. When finances have me stressed I turn to other things to keep my mind off of it. So, I attacked my pantry. I have to say it looks a LOT better and it is way more organized and if you know anything about me at all, you know how much I LOVE organization.

I am working towards having a family closet again and I am getting there. We will be putting things on shelves instead of in dressers because this is how my family works better and it is easier for me to keep things organized that way (See . . . there's that word again. LOL) I will keep you updated on my attempts as they go.

I have finished organizing my coat area for the winter. It is really small and I need to keep on top of it to keep it neat but this really seems to have helped.

Every Day Moments

I love catching my kids just being kids and these days it is so much watching Princess Magpie doing her 2 year old things.

I know I must drive her crazy grabbing the camera every chance I get and now she even wants to be in on that action, when she sees the camera she comes running over to see what is on the screen, making pics of her difficult and pics of her baby sister tend to include her toes as she peeks at the camera.

But sometimes I catch her being so quintessentially her that I just fall in love with her all over again. I do this with all my girls but I just have some great examples today.

Ugh Payday

Went shopping today. No fun at all. Trying to get the Halloween stuff and pay the bills and get the groceries. It is just no fun spending not enough money on too much stuff. I really am loving our home now, but it just costs so much money!

Cool Organization Link

I was just looking around and I found this great link for Housekeeping tasks. You can download a printable calendar of the daily, weekly, and monthly tasks as well as a decluttering challenge! I thought it was pretty cool, so I decided to share it with you all!

Yay!

I would like to point out that my oldest daughter is finally able to stay dry all night long! Given her autism, this has been a real challenge for her and I am so proud of her that she is able to do this, even when she gets up and gets a drink at night, she still stays dry!

#Autism

Wordless Wednesday - Nine month photoshoot

Click the pic above to get to other Wordless Wednesday Participants.

For more Wordless Wednesday go check out 5 minutes for mom and 7 Clown Circus!