Potty Training

I've been potty training my three year old son for a few weeks now and making great progress.  Both of my sons were not excited at first about potty training.  Every day was a fight to get them to the toilet without having an accident.  But I learned a trick that really has helped with my boys.  We start out in the morning with only underwear on.  As soon as he has an accident we put a diaper on.  We use an incentive chart.  Every time he goes on the potty he gets a star and when he fills up the chart with stars he gets a prize.  He is on his way to being completely potty trained.  He's my last one so this is pretty exciting!  I found another really neat way to potty train your child but you really have to have a child that is excited to do it.  The potty training products are from Signing Time.  You should take a look if your think your child would love it.


Signing Time's Potty Time



http://www.signingtime.com/potty-time-you-can-do-it-pack


Here are some neat incentive charts:

http://www.freeprintablebehaviorcharts.com/toilettrainingcharts.htm#Boy_Potty

Social Studies in the home

We have a great time during Social Studies.  We make it very simple but very educational.  We just finished one of our curriculum books yesterday.  "The Story of the World, History for the Classical Child, Volume 1: Ancient Times," was an amazing book.  The activities, extra resources, coloring pages and maps they provided in the activity book were great.  I'm really happy we chose this social studies resource this year.  I feel my kids are understanding the history of the world early in life and that it gives them a broader perspective at an early age.  We are still working on "I Love America Volume 1," which is a great American history resource that has taught our kids a lot about important people and events in America's history.  My kids especially liked learning about George Washington at Valley Forge and making Fire Cakes (the tasteless flat kind of bread they had to eat and cook on hot rocks).

This is our Social Studies Schedule:  Every lesson lasts an 1 hr. to 1 1/2 hrs.

Tuesday:
History of the World chapter, map work, coloring page, narration (child writes two to three sentences about what they learned), and activity.

Thursday:
Read chapter from I love America, or other resource, and do an activity page.  Read library books about what we are studying.

History of the World reading book



History of the World Activity Book




I Love America reading and activiy book

The Art Museum

Today we visited the Cleveland Art Museum with some of our friends.  It was great to get out and see something new.  The art was amazing and the kids even enjoyed it.  It's been a long time since I've been to an art gallery, and I remembered how inspiring it was.  I loved the landscapes with their vibrant colors, and beautiful scenery.  It brought me back to when I use to paint. I saw incredible pictures in my mind of the Columbia River Gorge where I grew up.  I never got to paint it and I hope someday I will.

After the museum we came home and did a little school work.  On days like this I like to keep it laid back, so we did some quiz questions from Brain Quest.  These little packets are full of great questions and they really help me see where my kids are in their Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, Science, and just basic knowledge skills.  They have one for each grade level up through 8th grade and starting at the toddler years.  They are amazing!!!

You can get them pretty cheep on amazon.com.



http://www.amazon.com/Brain-Quest-Grade-revised-4th/dp/0761166521/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1334102033&sr=8-12

The Family Team

"The home is the great laboratory of love.  There the raw chemicals of selfishness and greed are melded in the crucible of cooperation to yield compassionate concern and love one for another." -Elder Russell M. Nelson

Lately I've been thinking a lot about how I can help our family become a stronger unit grounded in love and service toward each other.  An idea that keeps coming back to me over and over is one I got from a wonderful book called, "The Potentially Sane Mother's Guide to Raising Young Children," by Tamara A. Fackrell.  I've had it for years and have used a lot of the activities and great advice it gives.  In the first chapter she talks about having a family team, and just like any team for it to be effective it has to be working toward the same goals.  Here are some of the goals she mentions and I plan on implementing in our family team:

1.  Find satisfaction in work, love, learning, growth, and being together forever.
2.  Being a part of a family team is about helping one another and sticking together.
3. When something happens in the family that makes someone want to have a tantrum or complain we discuss it instead.
4.  As parents we try to help the children talk about their problems and develop a positive resolution.
5. Let children choose their consequences.
6.  Don't demand, compromise.
7. Brainstorm ideas together as a family, write a list of recent problems, and talk about resolutions.
8.  Follow through with commitments.
9.  Use rewards and incentives over punishments to encourage good behavior.

Not every situation is going to fall nice and neatly into these goals, but the more we try to implement them the stronger the family unit is going to be.  If our thoughts are on the goal the easier it will be and the more peaceful our days will become.   It's important to check back on how everything is going in the family at family counsel which we hold every third Sunday of the month, at Family Home Evenings once a week, and at family scripture study and prayer every day.  This will help keep our focus on the goals.  Having some activities to emphasise the importance of the goals is also great.  Tamara Fackrell's book has some great ones.



http://deseretbook.com/Potentially-Sane-Mothers-Guide-Raising-Young-Children-Tamara-Fackrell/i/4772963