Ch-ch-changes!

We've had a lot of changes around here the last few weeks.  One of which is homeschooling.  I am now formally doing preschool with C.  I think littles learn so much just through their every day activities/encounters, but an actual curriculum makes me feel better.  I don't necessarily think C needed it at this age, but I like to know I'm covering all the bases.  It's going well.  He likes it, which is always a good sign.  He often asks me, "When are we gonna do school?" 

I'm still working on the balance of allowing him to be spontaneous and imaginative, ask questions, etc. with accomplishing the goals of the curriculum.  I'm using an all-inclusive curriculum and also several workbooks that he loves working out of.  And I've been doing an activity each week from a pre-k science book I picked up. 

We certainly have enough to keep us busy, we "do school" five days a week, anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, depending on how off-course I let him go. ;)  The curriculum is written from a Christian world view so I really like that bible stories are incorporated into each lesson.  After our very first day when hubby asked C what he learned during school his response was, "I learned 'bout God."  Can't beat that! :)

Our giant change was, of course, our move.  I think I've already said it, but we really love the new place.  It's a four-plex, but once inside it feels like our own little home.  We only have neighbors on one side so far.  The area is all new construction with a lot of unfinished units.  So, I'm looking forward to these places filling up and meeting more families with young kids!  And C is really looking forward to the playground down the street to be finished.  (Especially since it looks completely done and I took him down there the other day to play, but then the next morning it had orange fencing all around it.  Oops.  He's had a taste of the fun, so the waiting is hard!) :)

Here is C playing in the bouncer in the back.  All those units are still unfinished.

And here's the back of our place. 

 If you want to see the inside, you'll just have to come visit!

Another change we recently implemented is the "sad face chart."  (And when I say we I really mean me!)  In a moment of brilliance, after several weeks of incessant whining and recent talks with a friend about her daughter's new reward charts for good behavior...I thought, I'm gonna do a sticker chart too...Bowman style.  Every time you whine or talk back, you get a sad face sticker on your chart.

At the end of the day, we count up all your sad faces and that's how many toys go in the

"Sad bag."

  You get all the toys back when you make it through an entire day with no sad faces on your chart. 

It totally works!

Just a couple of days into our new little experiment, both hubby and I noticed a vast improvement in C's behavior.  I am all about positive reinforcement!  But, the whining was awful and we needed something that C would respond to.  Take away his "stuff" and you've got his attention.  Keep it and you've got improvement.  So far he's only earned the sad bag back once.  He probably shouldn't have.  There were several times throughout the day when I gave him warnings rather than just putting a sticker up.  But, I really wanted him to see how it worked to be rewarded for making good choices.  That night at bedtime hubby brought the bag up.  And it was really cute.  C remembered almost everything that had been put in there.  He frantically searched for his alligator, grabbed it up into a hug and exclaimed, "Oh, I love you!  I'm gonna sleep with my alligator tonight!"

And for our final change, I give you....

This child came home from his camping trip with Daddy a different person! (Partly due to the fact that hubby let him watch a Batman cartoon, which has been deemed, by me, appropriate only for camping trips)  But, mostly I think he is just coming into his own when it comes to this whole boy thing.  And he really is no longer a toddler...but a little boy.  You know, the kind that chases his mom around the yard with worms because it makes her scream.  The kind that has convinced us to slowly transform his room from dinosaurs to superheroes.  The kind that wears his Batman Halloween costume every day until we put it up because we're afraid it won't make it to Halloween.  He's that kind of boy.  He prefers Batman to Buzz Lightyear and Wolverine to Lightning McQueen.  He makes actual jokes and says things like, "I'll be right back, I've got it all under control."  He wants to "fight" with all the boys on the playground and hug all the girls. 

He is absolutely all-boy!

And I am still absolutely in love! ;)