September 8, 2007

It is raining today and I'm loving it! I'm not doing much of anything today, except playing with the boys, reading and now updating this blog. It makes for a very relaxing day.

It was pouring down rain earlier today and the boys wanted to go outside. So they had their first day of really playing in the rain. They had the best time. Nick was laughing and running around and even climbed into the little pool, although he didn't sit down and I was kind of happy about that. I emptied out the pool last weekend and it is probably at least 1/3rd full already, just after rain from the past couple of days and today. Our rain gauge was even full today. Ben pushed the play lawnmower around and really didn't seem to notice the rain at all. They were both very funny to watch and my husband taped them, which is great because we have not been very good about getting the boys on DVD.

I am very into reading and learning about homeschooling these days. The boys are not quite two yet but I still find myself drawn to learn more about it. The more I read about it, the more excited I become about being able to do this with my sons. I feel so fortunate that there is so much information out there and so many blogs by moms who are doing this every day already. So much to learn and so little time.....actually, I have plenty of time to learn it before the boys are school age but I tend to want to learn everything and read everything NOW. I would like to find a good book about determining learning styles of children and also one about the various education styles. There is so much information available on homeschooling these days, it can be a bit overwhelming at first. Hopefully, since I am investigating it early, I will be ready when the time comes.

Yesterday, I made a trip to our local Christian bookstore, which is an awesome bookstore, and I bought three posters. One is very colorful and has shapes, another has the alphabet and the other one has the colors that are in the small pack of crayons. I hung the first two in our kitchen, where we spend a lot of time, and the third one is in the library. The boys really like looking at them. It's great because, while I am cleaning up the kitchen or preparing a meal and the boys are playing nearby, I can ask them "where is the letter B"' or "point to the circle". They love doing this so I think it will be a good way for them to learn these things. Our little preschool:).

I also found a great book on active devotions for children birth to three. They mix small Bible verses and prayers with a cute little activity that will have a rhyme or song to go with it, along with a little game, such as paddy cake or something like that. I thought it might be a good way to start setting aside some family time for devotions. We can start out with a very short amount of time and then build on it as the boys get older but at least we would be setting aside some time for this starting when they are young. We already do some reading from a bedtime book or their toddler Bible story book and we say a prayer but they are normally very tired by that time so it is short and sweet and it is not really a devotions time but more of a bedtime routine.  Boys are waking from their nap so I must go.