Baby Storytime!

The highlight of my day was taking TC to baby story time today at the library! We are so blessed to have a wonderful public library right down the street from our house! And if you are a new follower here or need a little reminder I am a library geek!

I LOVE the library! 

I love everything about the library! Books, books, and more books, dvds, books on cd, story times, the children's computers, and our awesome librarians. 

Our library calls baby story time "Babies and Books" with a 20 minute lap sit session filled with songs, rhymes and sign language. This was TC's first time to Babies and Books. He has been to the preschooler story times many times with his big brothers. But today was all about him! He loved it! He sat or stood holding my fingers a lot during the songs and stories. He also showed off his crawling abilities. All the mommies sat on the floor with their babies in their laps and the sweet librarians encouraged us to sign, sing, and read with our babies. We sang a few songs, read a board book to our babies, and then the babies were mesmorized my an awesome bubble machine afterwards. It was so much fun!

Another thing I love about our library that they encourage early literacy skills at each story time session. As a former 1st grade teacher I know the importance of each of these skills, but it is always a good reminder. Here are six pre reading skills to remember:


Six Pre-Reading Skills

1. Vocabulary: Knowing the names of things. 
2. Print Motivation: Being interested in and enjoying books.
3. Narrative Skills: Being able to describe things and tell stories.
4. Print Awareness: Noticing print and knowing how to handle a book.
5. Letter Knowledge: Knowing letters are different from each other and knowing their names.
6. Phonological Awareness: Being able to hear and play with the smaller sounds in words.

So if you have a precious baby at home too like me, I want to encourage you to read to your baby! I know at times it is hard for me to remember the importance of it in the midst of teaching my bigger boys, managing our home, and just living life. But it is so important to sit with our babies to share new words, new signs, point to the pictures and the words, and just enjoy books .

Happy Reading!
Linked to some of these awesome parties this week! 

Shaving Cream "Snow"

I try to expose the boys to different textures such as salt, pudding, shaving cream, and play doh for fine motor, sensory and writing activities. We had a blast exploring our winter/snow theme the past two weeks. So what else makes a great snow activity other than shaving cream? I put some of Daddy's shaving cream on a tray for CA and he loved it! The house smelled great afterwards too!

I called out letters, shapes and numbers for CA to write in the shaving cream. I loved his enthusiasm and excitement! He is learning so much and is a lot of fun to work with!

One thing I love about JP's preschool is that his teachers are amazing communicators. On Tuesday afternoon they sent an email to the parents sharing the activities, books, and center ideas that the class would be participating in this week. I laughed out loud when I read that they too would be having "Shaving Cream Snow"! JP does NOT like "messy things" such as shaving cream. I immediately emailed them back to let me know how he does with the activity. I talked it up with JP that it is ok to try new things. He still wasn't keen on the idea, but come to find out he did try it! Here is the picture his teacher emailed to me:

His facial expression cracks me up! He is one honest boy and doesn't hold back his feelings! I was just impressed he touched it at all! He is one awesome boy!

I love how God created each of my boys so differently!

Linked up to some of these awesome parties!

Jumping on Pillows

What do my boys LOVE to do on a cold, winter day? Jump on all the pillows in the house! Many days I say no to this activity, but sometimes you just gotta say YES! They absolutely love to gather every pillow from all couches and beds and then just be plain silly and JUMP! Today they had a blast! The sound of their giggles were priceless today!

2013 Goals

Hello fellow readers and friends!
Happy New Year! I have not forgotten about my little corner of blogosphere called Teaching My Blessings blog. I've just been busy teaching them and getting settled into 2013. I loved setting new goals for a new year this year. I haven't set goals in a few years but I do enjoy it. It always feels like a fresh, clean slate to me. So to keep me accountable I thought I would share my goals here with all of you. I broke them down into categories.

2013 Goals

Family

• Give each member of the family 2013 hugs in the year 2013 (6 hugs per day)
• Read to the boys everyday
• Have a family devotional each day

Personal

• Keep balance with family and commitments
• Read one book per month
• Blog once a week or more
• Exercise 3x a week
• Drink 64oz of water per day.

Spiritual

• Get up before the boys
• Have prayer and quiet time daily
• Memorize one scripture per week.

Marriage

• Have one date night at home per week
• Have one date night out per month
• Read devotional and pray together on Sunday nights

Home management

• Use my weekly and monthly chore chart
• Use my Home Management Guide regularly

Educational

• Teach JP to read
• Teach JP and CA preschool activities each weekday
• Teach JP to tie his shoes

Feel free to ask me how it's going! Happy 2013!

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year, Friends!!

 I hope 2012 was a great year for you and that 2013 will be filled with 

hope, joy and love!

Today we are hanging out as a family running errands, playing games, and making chicken tortilla soup for dinner. We will ring in the new year quietly with all three blessings in bed by 8pm(hopefully). I plan to write my 2013 goals today. I am thinking a lot about commitment, vows, and goals. I plan to write out monthly goals by category. One of my goals is to be more intentional with my boys. I would also like to blog more. The sweet new addition of Corbin to our family in 2012 has kept me from blogging as much as I would like, but that's ok. :) He is a wonderful amazing blessing! 

May your day and new year be blessed! 

Merry Christmas!

JP's Preschool Christmas Program

I am loving where God lead us for JP's preschool experience! It has truly been a blessing to our family! JP goes to Pre-K 2 days a week at an awesome local church.

There are so many things I love about it! Here are just a few:
He has two amazing teachers who love him and the Lord.
He is doing so much for these two sweet teachers that he wouldn't do for me last year. 
He is meeting new friends! 
He learns about Jesus every day.
He is learning so much academically and socially.

I really love that they had a precious Christmas program where the kids learned and shared the story of Jesus' birth.  They began practicing their songs in October and JP ate this up! He LOVES to sing and he would belt out the songs in the car every day. In fact, once my husband asked me, "Does he have a solo in this program?" To which I laughed and replied no. I love that JP loves to sing songs about Jesus. My favorite part of the program was when they sang "Happy Birthday, Jesus" It was so precious!

JP was an awesome shepherd! He remembered all of his actions and signs during the play and sang his sweet little heart out!

They had an adorable nativity set that we snapped a few shots in. Love this crew so much!