Chicks 1 week

Chicks 2 1/2 weeks

I found some paintings on MOBA's site rather funny!

From a blog I enjoy reading! Such great ideas..

One of my "parenting frustrations" lately is a very common one -- getting my children to follow directions.
I send them upstairs to brush their teeth and put on pajamas, only to find them dancing in front of the mirror with the hairbrush. I send them outside to feed and let out chickens, only to find that they let out the chickens but forgot the feeding part.
There are lots of different reasons for not following directions--distraction, forgetfulness, sometimes even stubbornness.
So we've added a simple "following directions" game to our homeschooling day.

I sit a jar of colored cubes on the kitchen table and the girls start the game by waiting in the school room. We begin the game with very simple directions:
Walk into the kitchen and bring back 1 yellow cube.
I do not repeat the direction. And I am picky -- if they don't walk, they didn't follow directions. Slowly, the directions get more complicated.
Take 1 green and 1 red cube into the kitchen and bring back 3 green and 1 white cube.
Again, I don't repeat the directions, and I see them putting memory cues to work -- one whispers the directions to herself. One mimes the directions with her hands while she walks into the kitchen.
Then I begin to add some physical activity to the game :
Skip into the kitchen and bring back 2 green cubes and 1 brown cube.
Do 5 push-ups and then .... etc. etc.
Eventually I get really tough on them. I give them a task to do while holding in their minds what cubes they'll be responsible for. Yesterday, we played right before lunch...This was their final direction to follow. We had worked our way up to one this difficult and I did repeat it one extra time:
Touch your toes ten times. Walk upstairs and wash your hands. Come back to the school table and take 3 green cubes and 1 black cube to the kitchen. Bring back to me 3 yellow cubes.
This game adds so many great things to our day. For starters, they love it. (And the mommy with pregnancy brain has to write down the directions on a post-it note in order to remember them.) It gets them moving. And we refer to it often during our day, when I do give them multi-step directions. "It's just like the follow directions game."
It's nothing earth-shattering. It's simple. It's making a big impression. And lots of good changes.

This past Sunday after church we drove to a nearby

hatchery to pick up our 10 new day old baby chicks. Me and Isabella

fell in love instantly! They're so cute! Soon enough though

they will grow out of their cuteness

into full grown chickens.

It takes about 8 weeks maybe a little over that for them

to be full grown, seems fast to me!

We made them a home out of an old box we had just sitting around
taking up space. I cut a rectangle out of the lid and added
chicken wire so they could not
escape. Add a feeder, a water bottle and a heater
lamp and you're good to go! The heater lamp needs to keep
them at about 95 degrees for the first week, because
they arn't big enough to produce their own
heat.

I'll tell you what, this is a learning experience..and we've loved it.
We've never had chickens or any live stock..but I think
the chickens will be fun..good to start with. A month ago
we knew nothing about them! My brother in
has them though and he has helped a lot! Thanks Josh!

Every morning, afternoon and night. It's been the
1st thing Isabella wants to do in the morning and when
she gets home from school..I think it will be
great for her to help take care of..

Changes

Well, today is my last day of getting up at 530am! For work that is..Tomorrow I am officially part time. Wahoo! And I will be off on Sundays now, thank goodness. I love having Sundays off.

We're also getting baby chicks tomorrow! I feel like we're adopting more children! We're excited. We'll pick them up after church, I'll post pictures then..they'll be so cute!

Isabella got new skates recently, so she's slowly learning to skate....all over the house...

Ellie can now say me! Me, me, me, me, me..

And Chris, Chris sold another gun last night. Time to move on he says..

A new blog to add to my blog list.
A new artisan marketplace...ArtFire

My beauties

I happened to grab my camera at just the right

time to get this picture. I love it.

Abiyah