Mission Accomplished!

Well, If you look back to the beginning of the month, I had followed Mama Jen's blog and decided to join up the with Mission of the Month. We share things we would like to accomplish and then at the end of the month we report if we made it or not!

My September mission was to get the routine going, figure out how it would all fit with the home schooling and Faith at school, have my meal plans done, etc. I thrive off routine and organization...without it I find myself scrambling, and I can't stand that.

Here is my lifeline...haha. My Daytimer!


I know you can't see it all that well, my camera is nothing special. But it's one of those "Mommy" daytimers that has a place for you to record your activities, and then the lower columns are to keep track of the kids. I use it differently. I put all the activities in the top Mommy portion. The lower areas I use for meal planning. This lives on my kitchen counter and I can easily reference to it to remind myself in the mornings where we need to be that day. First thing in the morning I see what I need to pull out of the freezer for dinner, and what I need to make for breakfast! That way I'm not sitting at 4.30 wondering what to do for dinner (although this does still happen on some days!)

We also have found a routine that works with everyone for school drop offs and pick ups, and home school lessons. I think I drove my gymnastics instructors nuts with changing the kids classes 3 times, but we finally found times that worked well with our schedule! Woot!

I feel like September was the month to get the bumps out, and now we can breeze into October!

Speaking of October....

My mission for October is to simply GET UP!! I find when I'm up early, the day goes better. Things are organized, I get to the gym, school goes better, etc. Everything falls into place a little better when my day starts relaxed and not rushed and scrambling to get 3 kids ready and out the door to the gym (I go at 8am to get it out of the way)

So October goal is to get up every weekday morning at 6.15! Instead of hitting snooze and then all of a sudden it's 7am! Should be easy, right? If only my bed didn't feel so good!! :)

September

September has been one busy month in the Snowden Household!

Here are a few of the things we've been up to!

1. Home School! I have blogged about this already, and it has been the BIG THING for this month. The kids are loving it, I'm loving it! And I think we are almost there on a routine that works for everyone!

Sam working on his letters. I love how he includes his favorite toy to watch him work. :)


Color Matching.


I call this "Creative Play". The kids built Disneyland for their toys!


And the most popular thing in the house right now! Chicka Chicka Boom Boom..which I had NEVER heard of until I started home schooling!


2. Faith starts Kindergarten! I know, but I thought you were Home Schooling?? Yes, primarily Sam for preschool. Faith is only in school for half the day, so she is also doing some home schooling in the morning before she heads to the "Kindergarten school"

1st day of school picture!


The picture she brought home from her first day. I LOVE that she included her "twin" Sam on her artwork. This is a treasure that is now in her school memories binder. :)


Faith is pen pal-ing with her friend Elly. She was delighted to get a letter in the mail last week.


3. Gymnastics! The biggies are in classes and they also offer "free play" hours a couple times a week. On these free plays, Nate can also enjoy the gym! He LOVES this, and I love that it gets TONS of energy out of this guy!


This month we have also been to the zoo and wild animal park. As well as some Mom's Club activities. It's been very busy, a little crazy at times, and a little all over the place some days. But I am nothing but thankful that I get to do everyday with these 3 amazing treasures!

Now to finish off September with a great week of school, prep for October, and endure this hopefully last heat wave of summer! Oh how I love this time of year. Time for the leaves to change, the candles to fill my house with the yummy smells of the season, and for the fall decor to come out of storage!

The Baseball Game

When Jake came home last week saying he had some tickets to the Angels game, I thought Great! He can take the biggies and have a great time! Well, after trying to get rid of the 4th ticket without success, Nate and I decided to join them...

Here is a picture of our evening for you.....

We get to the game, all is good, kids are excited! We have lots of snacks to keep them busy! Then Nate decides that the seat is a really fun thing to climb all over...ahh the reason why I didn't want to bring him are showing in the first 5 minutes!

Nate stands.....


Nate climbs....


Nate is back on the ground...


So this is going on and on and on...as it does when you take a 20 month old to a ball game...we knew what we were getting into and had prepared to be taking Nate for walks around the ball park.

But then....

Faith has a meltdown..the chair hurt her, and then when we switched everyone around so she could be beside me, she melted even more because we moved everyone around....


Daddy, should we call it a night??


Then Sam got stuck in the chairs and HE melted too!!


So at that point, we packed up our 2 crying kids and our exploring baby and called it a night to the delight of those sitting around us I'm sure! Haha! I had one lady tell me my kids were too young to bring to a game...well, we've been going to games since Faith was a baby...some go well, some go not so well.

We played some games on the way out to get some smiles back on some faces!


And got home to see the 8th and 9th innings on TV!! Haha.

On The Learning Curve...

Well week one of the school year is over, and now I am readjusting the routine to see if we can have week 2 go a little more smoothly.

Here are a few things I learned:

1. Do as much the night before as you can! For Monday and Tuesday I was all over this. Clothes laid out for the kids, lunches and snacks packed for everyone, lesson boxes organized, any pre cutting needed for crafts completed. I slacked off on this by mid week and Wednesday and Thursday I found myself scrambling all over the place!

2. Make sure the bulk of home school lessons (the stuff that needs more concentration) is done BEFORE Faith goes to school. She wants to be involved so much and not miss her lessons from home. Doing this after picking her up from school was just too much. She was the queen of the meltdown after school. She needs to go straight to a "quiet time" after school. I think I will save the more "crafty" portions of our lessons for an after school and rest activity.

3. Find some Tot School activities to keep Nate busy while I focus on the Biggies. I have found some great ideas online that I will incorporate into next weeks lessons. He was just causing so much interruption last week! He will only color for 2 minutes, and blocks are not keeping him amused for long. Then he's on the table getting into everyones crayon boxes. That's my boy!

Those were the 3 big issues. I have now redone (again) the schedule and we will see if this week goes a bit more smoothly! But we are all on the learning curve, and I knew it would take a few tries, weeks, different schedule plans, etc. until we find the routine that EVERYONE can groove with well!

I love it so much already. I love to watch my kids learning. I love to see Sam reading words all by himself! I love how much they LOVE and are excited to do school!

And Miss Kindergarten is LOVING SCHOOL! She has a great teacher and comes out of class every day with a huge smile and chatting up a storm about her day! Picks are coming!

She Got Afternoons! :(

Well at least I know now..and now I am off to change gymnastics classes, and see how we are going to adjust naps...oh and did I mention that on Wednesdays it's early dismissal...so the class is at a different time...oh so much to figure out!

We will get it all worked out...and it will be great! :)

2 More Hours Until I Can Schedule Our Life!!

So today is finally the day I find out what class Faith will be in for Kindergarten! It is now 11am...the lists are posted at 1pm. I plan to be first in line! Haha!

With this new decision to home school Sam for this preschool year, as well as add some more activities for Faith since she's only in half day (and in public school as well, no Bible learning there!) I have been in desperate need to get a schedule and routine in place. The last couple of weeks we have still been on Summer mode...just putting school work in between activities. So I am so happy that FINALLY I can get some stuff in order now that I will find out when Faith is in school.

I am really really praying she gets into the morning class. If she gets afternoons, this will mess up their Gymnastics classes as well as interfere with nap time for Nate. If she does get afternoons, we will be doing a LOT of schedule reorganizing!!

Will keep you posted on what we get! :) So excited for Miss Kindergarten..she can noy wait to get to school and make some new friends!

No More Training Wheels!

The Princess is an official 2 wheel biker!


Great job Miss. Faith! She made her deadline! We had the goal of no training wheels by the end of summer!

Other goals she has made have been swimming with no help (we still need a lot of work on this..but she can go a short distance!) One goal left...tying our own laces!

School Time Begins!

Well we have been making "baby steps" in getting our school time all organized and into the routine. I know that once Faith starts Kindergarten the routine will get more "normal" and I can really get the day better organized and planned out properly.

I didn't want to get into too much material right away. I didn't want to overwhelm the kids, or myself, with this new home preschooling stuff!

So right now our "School Time" starts with doing the calendar and weather chart. We then start on the Home Preschool materials I had ordered online. All 3 kids participate in the stories, songs, crafts, etc.

All 3 enjoying some School Time. Our classroom at the moment is the kitchen table!


When Nate is down for a nap is when I can sit and focus with the big kids. I got some workbooks from Staples, as well as printed alphabet and number tracing worksheets. I make sure they both work on their numbers and letters every day.

My Preschool Kid!


And The Big Kindergarten Girl! She loves that she gets to join Sam in his preschool lessons! I hope she will still enjoy this as an after school activity...


Our School time usually ends with puzzles, flash cards, or other learning games.

The Little Preschool Wannabe!


I'm hoping to get the hang of this soon. I did not realize how much time went into teaching your kids at home (even if it is just preschool and a little K) I find myself trying to juggle Mom's Club, the gym, School Time, gymnastics, errands...and the days just race away on me! I'm praying I can get into a groove, especially since next week I have to throw in taking Faith to school and picking her up!

I will let you all know how the routine is going, once it's all in place! :)