First Day of Preschool

Eeks! And just like that, my baby is a preschooler!

 I officially started homeschool preschool with Zach yesterday.

He's just the cutest!

Oh, how I love this boy!

 He had fun with paint.

 He watched a couple of you tube videos on phonics and counting.

 He pasted all the "A" sounding words to his big A.

We read a lot. we played, and we swam. Overall, the day was just an introduction to "school" for him. Let's face it, at 3 years old, EVERYTHING is considered learning anyway. I had a few activities planned, just to make my time with him more intentional but other than that, he was just busy being his happy three year old self. I have a loose plan of doing school with him 3X's a week. At this point, it's probably going to be Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning. I might also take him to story time at the library now and then on Tuesday mornings. If I'm prepared with a few activities each day, school should take less than an hour. Starting in two weeks, he'll go to CBS on Thursday mornings and Friday will be a play day for us all, with the girls doing a little work in the morning.

I started preschool with him this week because next week. we're going on vacation. Woo-hoo! After that, we hit the ground running. I'd say Zach's first day went great. He is eager to learn and he loves spending focused time with me so it's a win-win for us all. I really do consider it a privilege to teach him new things and the joy I get to share with him through his experiences and discoveries is just so precious to me. 

What a gift!

If you haven't seen the video of him singing his ABC's on my Instagram (at the bottom), you should. Just click on the picture of him wearing glasses and his bright orange Awesome shirt. The video is full of antics and the cutest laugh you will ever hear. I promise, it's sure to make you smile! 😊   

Friday Favorites

 Last week, the girls and some friends helped decorate the Children's Room at CBS to get it ready for a new year. My super talented friend, Jill made all these pretty flowers!

 Our little sprout.

 Melissa, my sister from another mister.

It turned out so vibrant and beautiful!

 We're squeezing out every bit of summer around here and the pool is FINALLY cooling off!

One of my FAVORITE memories this summer has got to be Summer in the Psalms with these two girlies. At our church, each month, the women had a night of worship, a teaching on a Psalm, book recommendations, fellowship, and a sample of food.

The girls and I enjoyed this series so much together! We're already looking forward to next summer!

Trying on his new goggles.

Gotta love a man who vacuums. 😃

He's absolutely fond of anything LOUD... with wheels. 😜

Helping daddy around the house.

 Zach visited daddy's office and he immediately went to work.

His tip for the day: Buy low, sell high!

Giving Mr. Blodgett (our friend, Ben) a back massage.

Amen! SO SO GOOD!!

Most kids went back to school this week, including my niece, Kylie and my nephew, James.

Aren't they the cutest? Praying for a wonderful 3rd and 1st grade year!

Speaking of cute, another favorite niece of mine is this 16 (almost 17 year old) cutie, Christina. She started her junior year of high school this week. Where does the time go?! Waaaaah! 😭

I love that she texts me and we talk fashion, cheerleading, and most importantly, our faith.

She's so sweet and we're incredibly proud of the young woman she's becoming!

 Ok, since we're talking back to school, I made a new recipe this week and it's a great one for any busy weekday. Plus, as it was baking, it made our house smell like fall! So cozy and yummy!

All you have to do is assemble the four ingredients and bake it.

Chicken Sausage Sweet Potato Bake

-2 diced sweet potatoes

-1 sliced red onion

-2 sliced apples

-1 pkg. of good chicken sausage

Season with EVOO, S&P, rosemary, thyme, and sage.

Bake at 350 for 50-60 mins. (turning and mixing half way through). Bam! Dinner is done!  

  

This will be a favorite fall staple around here!

Aunt Mary Jo's TV chair broke this week so we bought her a "like new" recliner and she absolutely loved it! Morgan does so much for his 89 year old aunt who lives in Palm Springs. Always proud of my selfless and caring hubby.

Bear hugs.

And last but not least, Zach's eye prescription changed this week and since he's has his old pair since he was 10 months old, he needed a new pair of glasses. Eeks! Look at those adorable chunks!

Can he be any cuter?! 👓😍 #littleman

And that means all 3 of our kiddos got new glasses this month! Mostly, Zach uses them for reading and watching TV. Hopefully, he'll keep them on more often as he grows older and he realizes that he can actually see better with them on!

That's it for this Friday. Hope you all have a fun weekend!

Jill's Birthday Lunch!

Oh, how I love this dear friend of mine! We're back at Si Bon celebrating our sweet, Jill!

Jill has many gifts and talents and she is the Queen of Baking around here so what do you bake for her on HER birthday? Well, she loves Karen's brownies and thankfully, Karen was so sweet to bake them for us all!

We saw this cute canvas and immediately thought of our Jill.

I can't even tell you the countless ways she beautifies my life and the lives of all those around her with her thoughtfulness and generosity. She's someone who gives of herself, humbly and selflessly and she's a wonderful example of how LOVE DOES. She serves God by serving others and we are just so blessed to call her our friend.    

Happiest of birthdays, sweet Jill!

You are a gem of a friend and we love you more than all the cupcakes in the world!

(we missed you, Janette!)

Preschool Prep

A is for apple and alligator.

It's hard to believe but Zach is now 3 and that means he's the same age as when I started homeschool preschool with the girls.

Look how fast time flies!!

Back then, the girls did 2 days of preschool a week and I alternated teaching with my girlfriends, Shannon and Hailey. Our first ever co-op!

Those were some sweet sweet memories, for sure!

I spent some time this week thinking about some specifics I'd like to teach Zach this year. He loves to learn so I want to make the most of my time with him by being intentional. For me, that simply means joting down some goals and making learning a regularly scheduled thing for him. My boy thrives on a schedule.

I think most kids do. Like us, they like to know what to expect.

He's been practicing his scissor cutting skills all summer with this bin that I made for him. It's just a cheap bin from the dollar tree and I tied a pair of kid scissors to it with a rope. That way, the scissors STAY with the box. If he gets bored, he just grabs the box, plops on the floor, and starts cutting strips of construction paper. I think this will go a long way towards his fine motor skills and help with writing in the future.

Zach also LOVES books of all kinds and learns so much from them. I'm always on the look out for fun interactive books. I picked up this Cheerios book for $2 at Marshall's. It's the cutest!

  

Again, it helps him with fine motor skills and following directions.

He gets so proud of himself!

He does this book almost every morning.

And then he eats all the Cheerios!

Although sometimes, he eats them all before he fills in the pages. 😜

Preschool is a time for play and discovery so when I say I have "goals" for him, believe me, I hold them all very loosely. Plus, he's a boy and I'm learning that boys are just so very different from girls!   

He spends lots of time in imaginative fun play.

Making all the boy noises!

Oh my heart. Love this kid.

My sweet boy!

I'm always looking for ways to tire him out because hello, active boy?! The heat is still an issue so we're glad to have 6 more swim lessons left which will take us into mid September. Thankfully, he's typically wiped out after being at the pool.

Hangin' with his favorite girl. 😄

Just like Faith and Grace, my plan is to designate 2-3 days a week where I do a morning routine with him. Our morning routine shouldn't take too long because we move from one activity to the next pretty quickly.

These are some of the things I want to focus on this year with Zach.

• Bible Time
• Scripture Memorization
• Songs & Worship
• Days of the Week
• Months of the Year
• Pledge of Allegiance
• Counting to 20
• Writing ABC's
• Phonics
• Gluing and Pasting
• Cutting with Scissors
• Sorting
• Presentation Practice

Most of this will be done in the morning and others we'll simply incorporate throughout our day as we have time. He loves to learn anything by song so right now, we've been working on the Days of the Week and Months of the Year. It's SO cute! He also loves to watch educational you tube videos so I might do that a couple of times a week to reinforce phonics.

What we've discovered about Zach is that he's smart. He has a great memory and he loves to learn, as long as it's engaging, fun, and short. We've also learned that he's a jokester. He loves to mess up (on purpose!) just to get a laugh. For example, he's been singing his ABC's lately by adding the word "apple" to the end of each line. I have a class clown on my hands, y'all! 😱 

I took a peek back on the blog of the girls' preschool days and I got a bit sentimental as I recalled all the sweet moments we had together. They still remember all of the activities we did in preschool! In some ways, I wish I could go back to those times when they were little. I'd tell myself to have more fun and enjoy them more without the pressure of feeling like they had to learn something or the pressure of me, messing it all up. The girls are in 6th grade now and time just keeps moving more quickly. In spite of myself, they learned what they needed to know and them some.

Zach is my last baby. The fact that I get to homeschool him and have another chance to relive those special moments of discovery and learning is not lost on me. God is so good. He knew exactly what we needed and was gracious enough to bless us with Zach. I have never regretted the time I got to spend with my kids when they were little. What a privilege it is to teach them and grow alongside them. 

Here's to a fun year of learning, laughing, and living in the moment every step of the way!