Teaching a Toddler

My 21 month old son LOVES to learn. He could spend hours a day sitting with me doing puzzles, coloring, pointing out things in books, making animal sounds and more. He absorbs so much and we are constantly amazed at how much he knows and how fast he picks up on things. Lately, I've been trying to come up with some sort of organized plan for activities for him. However, I can't seem to find much information about what kids his age can understand right now. I have a list of things we need to work on such as colors, letters, numbers, etc..but I don't know when is too soon to start. Don't worry..I am not trying to make my 2 year old a genius who knows the presidents in order. (have you seen those kids on tv?) But he WANTS to learn things. He is constantly asking what things are, pointing at things and looking at me for a response, etc. So I want to teach him.

I want to be careful not to push him too hard or expect him to know things that he can't understand right now. I feel like he should be saying more things than he does. For example, he can point out every animal in a book, but the only ones that he'll actually say are dog and duck. Even simple ones such as cow he seems either uninterested in trying to say or he doesn't know how. He can point to the cow if you ask him or says "MOOOOO" but never tries to say it. I have no idea if this is normal for his age or not. So I want to learn more about this. About how to help him learn because he is inquisitive and loves learning with mom by his side. I just don't know where to go from here. If there are any education majors, teachers, or parents who have already been through this stage..I would love your input! Please share ideas, links to helpful websites, books, etc. My growing boy would definitely appreciate it!

Internet Safety {PaRt 1}

This is going to be a 2 part post. Part 1 I will share some thoughts and questions I have about Internet Safety and Children. In Part 2, I will share some research I've done, solutions and ways to keep your family safe while still being a part of social networking and blogs.

My husband and I have been talking a lot lately about internet safety. I'm sure we got on the topic after a CSI episode or something, but whatever it was, it really got us thinking about blogs, facebook, etc. We have a personal blog where we post pictures of our children, their milestones, funny stories, etc. They are so young (21 months and 3 months) that we wanted to really capture all of these memories so we can look back on them. (Did you know that you can upload your entire blog to a website and it will make a photobook out of it so you can put those memories on paper?) Plus we wanted grandparents and other out of town friends and family to be able to see how they are growing.

However, last month I got some weird text messages and phone calls from a strange dude. And we've had a random person that we don't know leaving comments on our blog about how our baby was beautiful and his "fans" would really appreciate it if we'd post more pictures. It just seemed strange..it wasn't a normal comment just saying they thought our kids were cute. I've just really noticed lately how the internet can be a scary place and sick people can do some crazy things. So we started talking about how we could maybe be a little more wise in this area. Believe me, we are not extreme, jump on the bandwagon type people. However, we know the world is a sinful place and the safety of our children is extremely important. So what do we do....Do we totally eliminate the blog? Go through the tedious task of allowing only certain people to view it?

And what about Facebook? I admit that I love FB. I love seeing what's going on in people's lives. And I like sharing what's going on in mine. And, it helps my photography business by putting up photos that so many people can see. I have photos of my children on there bc I want to share them with friends from high school, etc. And my photography business...I have a website, Google ads, Facebook page, and blog that all have my contact information on it so that potential clients can contact me. (I think that's how the weirdo found my phone number). Are these type of things a danger to my children?

These are all questions right now. I have started researching this to see really what could be a danger and what isn't. I've got a post coming that will share what I've learned, what we've decided to do as a family, and ways you can keep your children safe as well. Maybe you've already taken all precautions possible and know that there's no way crazies can find your family. If so, please share! We'd love to hear!

Being OK with imperfection

Last night, I had a plan. I was going to get up early today, make breakfast for Matt before he left for work, do my quiet time BEFORE the kids woke up, and enjoy some time to myself. Then, the rest of the day was going to be a productive cleaning/organization day. I had an itemized list of everything to be done.

Then, last night happened. You know, the one night that the baby who has been sleeping GREAT at night, decides his tummy hurt all night and didn't want to sleep. So needless to say, mom didn't wake up as early as planned. So dad left for work without a homemade breakfast, my quiet time did not happen before the kids woke, and there was no time to myself. After getting Brody his breakfast, feeding the baby and grabbing a pop-tart for myself (real nutritious, right?) I was able to sneak away to get my reading in. Brody was strapped in his high chair enjoying some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (don't judge me) so I was able to sit back in my room for some quiet time.

My day didn't start off how I planned, but it still came together and hasn't been chaotic like I thought it might be. I have cleaned 2 rooms and organized those 2 closets. As I was changing the sheets on my bed, I was reminded that we need balance in life. I love my house to be clean. I love when my day goes perfectly according to plan. When everything has a place. When my kids act like angels. When I get everything accomplished that I wanted to. But I realized something, these are NOT the most important things in life. We love this blog and its goal is to share ways to accomplish all these things. But its not meant to make anyone feel that our homes are perfect by any means or that your home should be.

What should be more important to me is playing with my children each day. Reading the Bible with Brody. Praying with him. Singing his favorite songs. Loving on Carson. Who cares if I don't get around to mopping the floors today. An imperfect home is a lived in home.