Well, I'm a day late and a dollar short, but I felt like it was still worth sharing...

If you know someone who has lost a baby (or you have), but went on to have a happy, healthy little one, yesterday (August 22, 2021) was #NationalRainbowBabyDay. It's a day to celebrate the rainbow that came after the storm. I realize this really has absolutely nothing to do with homeschooling, but if you're like me and have experienced loss, you know this day is a day to feel thankfulness and joy as you think about the sweet rainbow that came after your storm. 

While on Facebook today, my memories showed me a post I had made about this particular day with one of my favorite pictures of my oldest. Every time I see it, it brings on the emotions -- tears of joy, immense happiness, you name it. It makes me want to go hug that ginormous kid and remind him how much I'm thankful for him, ha. Okay, okay...I already do that all the time, but still. 

This is what I had shared a couple years ago, but it still rings true...

"Today is National Rainbow Baby Day. I'm still in awe of how much our lives changed when our little miracle, Samuel Ryan, arrived. After 8 years of pain and grief from the loss of Jacob, Jordan, and Olivia, we sure didn't feel much hope. Sam's arrival renewed that hope and brought with him incredible joy. Just looking at this photo brings me back to that time and the indescribable joy we felt as we praised God to have him in our arms -- happy and healthy. He and Caleb have brought more joy to our lives than we could've ever imagined..."  

If you have endured the pain of loss in your journey to having kids, my heart goes out to you! I hope that you can share in the joy of National Rainbow Baby Day...

If you ever feel compelled to read our story, it can be found here at my old blog...

Four years ago, while sitting in a hotel after a long day of exploring Yellowstone National Park, I received a call from my sister back in Indiana asking if I could make her a printable for her first day as a preschool teacher. Happy to do so, I sat there while my boys chilled in front of the hotel TV and created her this printable -- not thinking about anything more it than it benefiting my sister and her new class...

Fast forward to now and this little printable is the best selling printable I've ever made! Funny how things happen like that! Over time, this has also led to me making other handprint craft printables for various holidays, etc. If my boys were still little, you'd better believe I'd be doing these with them -- I miss seeing those sweet little hands! 

I receive comments all the time about how much the parents love receiving these crafts as gifts -- I was the same way when my boys were little! Give me a thumbprint piece of art, a hand, a foot...you name it. Anything to document their size at that time and I was in love! I mean...now I look at my oldest and he's on the verge of wearing clothes from the Men's section! (insert tears)

If you're like me -- a sentimental momma with kids that are growing up WAY too fast -- grab this or make one that fits your needs. You won't regret it when they start to have hands the same size as you and you begin to miss those days of having little ones. It's super fun watching my boys grow up and see the little men they're becoming, but the days when they were little sure were fun! I love that I have various crafts to remember them by!

Clearly, I've completely dropped the ball on this blog. It's been over a YEAR since I've gotten on here! Between homeschooling while also teaching a set of classes, a cross-country move, then adding my youngest into our daily homeschool schedule -- this completely fell on the back burner. That said, this whole quarantine situation has given me a little extra time and with all the new temporary homeschoolers out there, I figured I might share some of the activities we've been working on...






So...my boys aren't exactly huge fans of fairy tales. Are yours? I have all sorts of versions of them -- some from my childhood, the Little Critters set that I had bought my boys during one of those Kohl's Cares promotions, and others I've randomly collected at garage sales. Sadly, when given the option, they're still not what either boy opts for when choosing a book. However, as part of our homeschool curriculum, we use the Jot It Down program by Brave Writer. This awesome program includes a fairy tales project that my boys have loved! (Though they won't admit it, ha...) Along with this program, I've also added the Evan Moor Literature Pockets: Folktales and Fairy Tales workbook to the mix for additional activities.

People approach this project in all sorts of ways, but this is how it has worked for us...

It has been a slow, ongoing, project for awhile now. So far, we've completed 3 fairy tales over the course of several months, but my goal is to complete 10 before putting them all together. I've seen some families make their collection into a book, but we have chosen to make large crafts for each fairy tale (some on 12x18 paper, etc.) so that won't work. My goal is to put them together with loose leaf binder rings when we're all done.

With each fairy tale, we read as many versions as we can get our hands on -- this is usually just from my own stash, but I'll go to the library if I need to. For today's fairy tale, we resorted to ABC Mouse. Social distancing prevented us from utilizing the library, but it still worked out wonderfully! Did you know ABC Mouse is FREE right now due to the pandemic?!?! We had used the app with my oldest when he was in preschool, but so much as changed since then! As it turns out, they have a TON of digital books on the app now. As luck may have it, we found out today that they had two different versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears on the app! Score! Between those two and my Evan Moor workbook, we had 3 different versions to compare!

After my boys read all three versions of the story, we compared each version. How were they different? The same? Which version did they like more? Why? Etc. We talked about the history behind the original story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears and then worked on a sequence activity in the Evan Moor workbook. The best part came next...

The boys LOVE painting! Any excuse to paint will win them over. That said, I let them paint a scene from their favorite version of the story. This brought joy in the midst of the craziness going on right now. They loved it!


After they completed their paintings, they presented them to me and explained the scene that they chose. They each retold the whole story in their own words as well. As part of the Jot It Down program, you are encouraged to dictate what they say. I adjust that to fit our style...



I then have him do a small piece of copywork based on his retelling of the story. Here's his finished product (with the dictation on the back). I love the look on his face after he completes any project -- beaming with pride. Hard work pays off!



At this point, we haven't had a chance to do it yet, but we usually end each fairy tale with a movie. I have yet to look up a Goldilocks and the Three Bears movie, but that will be on the list of things to do over the weekend.


We've been alternating between working on that and working on the fairy tales. (Perhaps I'll try and write about that next.) Once we finish these fairy tales, I'm probably going to let them pick a new theme and go with it. I have no doubt my youngest would pick super heroes and their origin stories if I let him, ha!

I love these types of projects. They incorporate so much! My boys willingly do more reading, writing, and discussion on both when we do these projects than with anything else. Having fun while learning in the process is all we can ask for, right?!

Have you done any projects like this? I'd love to hear about them!

*Note: This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. Also, even though I was compensated for this post, these thoughts were my own honest opinions. I wouldn't advertise something I don't personally love for my own family.*

With that said, Gymboree has asked us to share what makes us smile as part of their #MadeYouSmile campaign. This is such a fun campaign! We should all savor the joy in life and soak up those fun moments that bring smiles to our faces -- especially with our kids! I could go on and on about all the things that generically make us smile, but I'd rather focus in on something specific to today...

Our family has decided that after 3 years of not having a pup (our sweet basset passed away of old age in 2015), it is time to bring a little craziness back into our house in the form of a 4-legged sibling, ha. In doing so, we've also decided we want to rescue a dog from a shelter. Last time, we bought our pup at 8 weeks old and enjoyed all the fun (and madness) that comes with puppyhood. It's great being able to train up a pup from birth, but I also think there's something special about rescuing a pup and giving him a better life! So, we've been skimming shelter websites daily. We had a little hiccup earlier this week with a possible adoption, but today was the day that brought absolute JOY to my boys' faces. We went into a shelter specifically looking at a sweet 4 month old Chesapeake Bay Retriever. Nothing else struck us on their website. However, we got there and while he was a sweet little guy, he didn't strike us as the perfect match. So as we were leaving, the boys ran ahead and I heard a squeal of excitement from my little guy. As they turned the corner, they ran across (what I think might be) the perfect match! There, sitting in the kennel, was a 3 year old Boston Terrier that absolutely won over the hearts of my boys. This guy wasn't even on the radar for what my husband and I were looking for. I love Bostons, but in our minds, we had envisioned us getting a (much) larger breed. However, I think that's all about to change. My boys had the biggest smiles I've ever seen as they asked for kisses through that poor Boston's kennel gate. They giggled nonstop, begged for me to take him home and said "HE'S THE ONE!!!"

We decided to do a "meet and greet" and take him out to the yard to play. The boys could barely contain themselves as they waited for Mickey (the Boston) to come play. As parents, seeing this kind of joy take over your child(ren) brings an indescribable joy and absolutely melts your heart! The pup was so sweet, the boys were in Heaven -- it seemed perfect. Because my husband didn't get a chance to meet him, I didn't bring him home (yet). However, for the rest of the day, the boys couldn't stop talking about him. They told everyone they ran across about Mickey. One pretended to be Mickey in the car while the other gave words of affirmation and loved on him (ha!). They nearly bounced off the walls with smiles from ear to ear just thinking about the sweet pup the entire rest of the night!

That brings us to now -- bedtime. After doing one more "meet and greet" to ensure that he's the right fit, I think he very well might be coming home with us tomorrow. If it works out, I have no doubt the smiles on my boys' faces will be there from here on out. It's the most priceless feeling seeing how much happiness such a little thing as a pup can bring!

Depending on where you're from, teaching your students the difference between short I and short E might be harder than you'd think! We have this problem. It wasn't until I found a great blog post giving validation to my struggle that I realized this is a legit issue -- it's not just me, ha!

Over the years, our family has lived in several different states (and even overseas). All this time, I never really thought that I had much of an accent. That was until I started trying to teach my son how to spell, ha! No matter how hard I try, I personally can't separate the sounds of short I and short E (in certain words). It almost feels painful to deliberately say pen instead of pin or men instead of min. Every time I ask him to spell pen or men, he immediately jumps to pin or min. The same goes for get being spelled git. I find myself slowing it down and deliberately saying "g-eh-t" if I want to ensure he understands what I'm asking him to spell. I can't help but laugh about it, but it drives us both nuts!



Well, in the frustration of it all, I started looking up ways to help remedy this problem. Luckily, I ran across a fantastic article that validated our struggle! It helped me realize I'm not crazy. It's not just me. It turns out, there's a whole section of the country that typically struggles with this! Who knew?!

Thanks to the wonderful people at All About Spelling, I found a great game to help my son work on the spelling of words with the short I and short E sounds! I highly recommend checking out this free printable if your student has a similar struggle. I think it's something we're going to continue to play once a week to really reinforce it.





I would also recommend checking out the other great tips given by All About Spelling to help with distinguishing between the two sounds. If you're like me, you'll take all the help you can get! Hey...anything to make it easier on both you and your student, right?!

As I write this, we're 2 1/2 weeks into the start of our first year officially homeschooling (and reporting to the state!). We're definitely still trying to find our groove. Due to such a crazy summer and then a delay from the vendor with receiving some of our curriculum, I have yet to really sit down and do long term lesson planning. I still want to set goals for where I want Sam to be down the road and what I expect for us to knock out each quarter, etc. Right now, it's been on a week-to-week basis, or even nightly on some things. We've been flooded with information about all sorts of awesome field trips coming up between our homeschool co-op, our charter school, and our other homeschool group -- I hope to be able to incorporate what we're going to experience hands-on through our field trips with our daily lessons. I suppose that's the beauty of homeschooling! I love the flexibility! Hopefully as things become more routine in the coming weeks, I can have a better idea on everything. I feel like at this point, we're testing the waters with a large variety of curriculum and seeing what works vs. what doesn't.