I found this picture awhile ago on the iPad. Kent took it from his car seat. We were parked in the Walmart parking lot. I think I was going over my grocery list. Seeing things from his perspective made quite an impression on me. I don’t often stop to consider what things look like through his eyes…
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Kent was 39 months old. Colt was 15 months old.
Dolphin puzzles from Memorizing the Moments.
Tracing a page from a free Make Way for Ducklings page. We read the story; it’s on our Sonlight P 3/4 reading list…
How did you fair this winter? I am DONE with winter, DONE I say! It was rough.
Continue readingAs I mentioned yesterday, we adhere to a strict budget for children’s supplies and learning materials. Despite that, I never feel like Kent lacks for things he needs. Here are some ways we keep the costs to a minimum: Always, always read the reviews and do research before making a purchase. A cheap product is not cheap if you have to replace it often. For example, Kent’s snack cup cost $16.99. Lesser models can be purchased for $2-3. However, we only have ONE cup to keep track of and it works infinitely better than the cheap ones. It has been going strong for well over a year now and still looks like new. We will purchase ONE cup for the new baby, too, because Kent still uses his in the car. They will surely outlast both boys. We like having one cup to wash, store, and keep track of. Plus, Kent is learning the value of having quality things and taking care of them. We’ve followed this same guiding principle when selecting everything from crib mattresses to shoes. Make it known what is needed! Kent is blessed to have wonderful grandparents on all sides. They know that we try hard
Continue readingI’m not sure why but I feel led to write about this right now. We’ll see if Kent sleep schedule agrees. 😉 In my post about our Montessori Inspired Kitchen Setup I shared some of the products we’ve purchased for Kent to use. We are on a tight budget around here so it is important to pull together nice materials for him without spending a fortune. You can read more about our financial situation by clicking on “Our Money Story” up above. We follow Dave Ramsey’s teachings and operate on a zero based budget by utilizing the envelope system. We have a line in our budget for “Kent”. This line will eventually changed to “Children”. As is stands right now the amount will not increase with the number of children. Right now it is $60/month and we put that amount, in cash, in an envelope for him every month. If he needs something, or there is something I feel we should have to aid his learning, I go to his envelope first. Here are some examples of what I have purchased from his envelope: sunglasses sensory materials (water beads, etc.) puzzles story books books to aid me in teaching him
Continue readingKent was 13 months old in August. We didn’t do much for structured Tot School in August and September. We had a lot of fun and did random activities as they fit in. His physical development exploded in August! If you think you see disposable diapers in some of these pictures you’re right. We had an issue with diaper rash that turned in to a staph infection so our doctor suggested we use a pack of disposables while he was healing. It was so weird to use disposables, it felt completely wrong! How was your August? Do you remember a certain time when your child’s development took a leap? Are you a fellow cloth diaperin’ mama who was forced to use disposables at some point? Tell me about it!
Continue readingI have a few weeks of Tot School to post about so I can get caught up. We started with Color Themes. First up was Blue. Kent was 12 months old that week. Have you done Color Themes? Any must-do activities to share? What does your kid do with a Magna Doodle?
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I mentioned Kent’s Moses’ basket when I talked about my favorite nursing spot. A few of you had questions about it so here is the story on how we arrived on a Moses basket and how we decided which to buy. I wrote this post when we had our first baby. If you’d like to see what we tried for our sixth baby to sleep in, see the note at the bottom of this post. Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. Moses’ Basket versus Co-Sleeper When I was pregnant I spent hours and hours, seriously, hundreds of hours researching baby products and reading reviews on Amazon.com. It has really paid off as we’ve been very happy with all of my our choices. All of the decisions we made selecting a place for baby to sleep was the biggest stressor for me. We already had a crib but I wanted a portable place for him to sleep too. I considered a co-sleeper like these ones. I was really put off by the appearance – plastic and mesh wasn’t my idea of a beautiful place for my newborn. The look didn’t fit in with our hodge podge of country decor. We
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