A year of field trips

Last Wednesday we went on a school trip to a Paws with a cause demonstration. I was so tired and a bit cranky and I was leaning heavily towards backing out of attending. I'm really glad I sucked it up though. Apart from the fact that I cried several times during the demonstration (I'm going to blame hormones) it was very heart warming and informative. The husband and wife who did the demonstration were so down to earth and friendly. They also really knew how to speak to younger children and join them on their level. The dog was gorgeous and so well behaved (obviously) and so were all the kids. I feel like I learned quite a bit about the organization and the helper dogs and I know that little Abe did as well.

He does not look thrilled
but that's the photographers fault.

He is a VERY active, imaginative, ACTIVE little boy. He's also very smart but when it comes to listening... hmm, no, that is not at the top of his best qualities list. His mind wanders (normal), and his attention gets drawn by the oddest of things (normal) like NOT the adult speaking at the front of the room but rather something out the window, or a child who is squirming, or maybe a fly on the wall. None the less I think he retained every single word he heard at this particular school outing and that certainly made my day. Now, I'm fully aware that cats and dogs are his favorite two things on the planet but I love it when his interest is peaked and he's able to learn without any effort what so ever. It was a wonderful trip.

With that said, I thought I'd take this opportunity to do a field trip rundown from the past year (since I've kind of not blogged at all...) Little Abe and I have attended an average of one school trip a month over the past year. One of the field trip's that I'm including in my list wasn't a school trip. It was last May when we visited the Ark Encounter as a family in Kentucky, but that was as close to a field trip as any other so I'm including it. And two of our school trips were volunteer opportunities not necessarily field trips but we've been trying to do one volunteer opportunity a month this year and they have been with his school group so I'm including those too.

The list
Chocolate factory tour
The Ark Encounter
Local historical village
Apple orchard and pumpkin patch
County Sheriff's department, with K9 demonstration
Recycling center tour
Love INC volunteer
Sleigh ride through a farm
School V-day party at playland
Laser tag (first time either of us had ever played)
Love INC volunteer
Paws with a cause demonstration

My favorites were the Sheriff's department, the recycling center, and the Paws with a cause trips. I was trying to figure out why those three stuck out to me the most. They certainly weren't the most fun. The apple orchard, laser tag, and sleigh ride trips were much more exciting. But I realized that those three are the ones that I learned the most at. I guess learning is entertaining for me (I should have known this though since my favorite genre of book is history).

In reality though those three trips are the ones that my son seemed to learn the most at as well. He LOVED the K9 demonstration/ interaction at the sheriff's department. The officer was really good with kids and the dog was really cool, the way it was trained and could do it's job so well. We also got to tour the 911 room. It felt like we shouldn't be in there, like we were trespassing but we were able to see operators answering the phones, look at the many computer screens in front of them, hear the phones ringing, and view live camera feeds from around the city. It was a very informative experience.

At the recycling center is was utterly fascinating to hear the incredibly loud, huge machinery doing it's job breaking down all the different categories of recycle materials. It was wild seeing the enormous mounds of different things, glass, plastics, cardboard. Absolutely fascinating. I know that it left an impression on little Abe because the trip was a few months ago and he still asks regularly if something should go into recycle or not if he's uncertain. The presentation and video we watched before the tour was very interesting to me and I honestly learned a lot about recycling that I had not known.

Another trip that stuck out was little Abe's Valentines day party this year. We spent about two weeks preparing for it. We started by making his card box. Once that was completed we began making cards for all the kids. The cards were fun but we petered out about half way. Too much arts and crafts becomes torture after so long. Half the kids received a homemade card from him and the other half received some cute little cards from the dollar store that came with a little pin.

These are the cards he made and gave out.

The historical village that we toured was neat but I don't think any of the kids listened to anything the man said. He was terrific with facts and presenting and he was very friendly but he could have easily been talking to high school or college age students and this was reflected in how well the entire group paid attention. The historical village we toured is a collection of old buildings, all taken from various places in the county and set up at the county fair. It's only open during the country fair run times and we actually toured it as a group before it officially opened for the season. It was neat but I couldn't help being fascinated by how each of the children were paying attention to what each other were doing or looking at, they were considerably more interested in picking tiny flowers they'd find along the way between buildings and other similar activities. At one point several of them gathered around a dying bumblebee and observed it for a lengthy bit of time while the man went into great detail about the building we were currently about to enter.

In review, It's been utterly fascinating to see how even when children aren't learning what the adults might want them to be, they're observing and learning and growing none the less.

WAR OF MONSTERS AND THE GOOD GUYS (HUMANS)

Written by four year old little Abe:

Wonka and his friends Mump, Munk, Nunk, and Moniegulungie, they went to space to find some snacks to eat. They didn't find snacks. They just found humans. Then Wonka and his friends said, "Ooh, let's try to eat them." 

The humans said, "What do we do?!?!" and then someone found a bomb in their pocket and then they threw it at the monsters. But the monsters didn't blow up. They even got more madder. One of the other humans found a sword and he stabbed it in the monster. But the monster even got more mad. Then there was a huge war between the humans and the monsters Wonka, Mump, Munk, Nunk, and Moniegulungie. 

The humans got a big stick and they threw it at Wonka and his friends. The monsters got more and more madder than last time and then the monsters threw the huge stick at the humans. Then the humans died and the monsters ate them. Wonka and his friends Mump, Munk, Nunk, and Moniegulungie said, "Yum!" 

The End

__________________________
Transcribed almost word for word with only a few "and then"s omitted.


I think the moral of the story is that you can't fight off monsters with a big stick?

New Chores

The big helper jar will now serve a new purpose. We will no longer be going to the dollar store for a reward after he's completed his chores. This little guy has graduated to bigger guy chores and just started receiving cash. We're just into week two of the new chores but he's excited to save and to spend his own money on the myriad of toys he's dreaming of. Literally dreaming of too. He has a habit of creating toys in his mind that he wants to buy at the store but that don't actually exist.

I purchased the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace Junior kit (on sale for a little less than half price). It comes with this chore chart and three plastic zip up envelopes for cash. One envelope says SPEND, one says SAVE, and one says GIVE on it. At the end of the week when he gets his allowance (which right now comes to about $6) he puts one dollar in the give envelope, three in the save envelope and two into spend. The save envelope isn't for college or anything like that. It's savings for a bigger purchase like a $20 toy. The spend money he can spend right away if he chooses.

I'm honestly not sure how much he should earn for each chore. Right now I'm just winging it. Currently he has four chores but I've written in a bonus spot because he does usually help out with something each day like yard work or laundry or dishes. I'll add a few more after we're two or three weeks into this new routine. I picked just the four to get this new system started. I'm honestly excited to watch this little dude learn about saving and spending and to learn the value of a dollar; knowing that you don't just get what you want when you want, that you have to work for your money (and things), and that saving money is hard work but worth it. He seems excited too.

TV Time Tracker (Super frugal version)

I feel like my child watches a lot of TV. He only watches educational little kid shows (when he's with me) and he generally plays with his toys while watching TV but still. My husband grew up in a household where the TV was always on. When I was a kid my brother's and I were ALWAYS outside but towards the end of my days at home with my mom and siblings the TV was always on and someone was always watching it. I prefer the TV be off more often than not. None the less it feels like the TV is always blabbing away in the background at our house.

Many years ago a friend of mine showed me how her boys had to earn screen time. She used Popsicle sticks and cups. Her boys were school age and if I remember correctly the Popsicle sticks were assigned different time limits, maybe 5 minutes for some of them, and 10 or 15 minutes on others. Since my little buddy is getting bigger, comprehending SO much now, and I am a bit concerned about how much the television is on here I decided to finally (I've been meaning to do this for awhile) put into use the idea she gave me years back.

I am a huge proponent of re-using jars. Thus the empty pizza sauce jar came into play; peeled off the label, gave it a washing, and now we have a TV Time jar.

I don't remember the last time we ate Popsicles so we don't have any sticks lying around that can be re-purposed. I did price a bag of craft sticks at the store. There was one with something like 100 sticks in it for $2.99. Nah, too much. This spring when I was pruning the bushes out back I actually kept a bundle of sticks I'd trimmed that were nice and straight thinking I could maybe use them for something crafty in the future. I trimmed one of these sticks that had since dried out nicely into six equal parts and then spray painted them with a can of yellow paint I had. And there you have it, a FREE TV Time Tracker; my favorite kind of craft. I may spray paint the word's TV TIME onto the jar but for now my mission is accomplished.

We've used the TV time tracker for two days. Right now each stick is allotted 30 minutes of TV time. 30 minutes amounts to two little kid episodes. He has to take a stick out of the jar and give it to me when he wants to watch TV. Then I start the timer (I've had a timer specifically for him for a long time now; we use it mostly for time outs or if we say, "okay, only 15 more minutes until..."). When the timer goes off then we turn the TV off or he has to give me another stick and then I start the timer again. When the sticks are all gone then we're done watching the television for the day.

There are a few really great things about this simple tool. It helps him better learn to prioritize and make choices. It's a great way for me to keep track of how much TV he's watched/ how much the TV has been on during a day. It's a visual way for him to recognize that, say there's one more stick left in the jar, there's only a small amount of TV time left so once it's been used the TV will not go back on today. I have had this idea in the back of my mind since years before ever having a child so I'm pretty excited to have finally brought it out. 

We've started simple with a few sticks being in the jar at the beginning of the day and each stick holding the same allotment of time. As time goes on I almost certainly will have him earn sticks and I will probably give them different allotments of time (much smaller than 30 minutes) as well as adding, oh heaven forbid, video game time. (Maybe when he's 25 he can start playing video games)

Now please, don't get in your into your imaginations that I'm a super structured mom (I'd love to be actually). I'm not. I mean sometimes we eat dinner at 3:30 and sometimes we eat dinner at 8:30. We'll do five crafts in a week and then won't do another for three weeks. I've been an artist with an artistic personality all of my life and structure is, well, it falls pretty far off my radar. But things like this little trick are a great way for me to get structure into our lives and teach my son a few really simple but valuable lessons along the way.

The really great news, (mind you after only two days) is that the TV thus far has not been on nearly as much as I'd thought. He's only used three sticks each day, and one thus far today.

Free Fun - Visit a Local Farm

A local sheep farm hosted an annual event today: Sheep Sheering day. It was a free event that allowed us to see several different animals; cows, sheep, and alpacas. We also, obviously, got to watch the sheep getting sheered and learn a bit about wool. I'd have to say that visiting a local farm is a fabulous "free fun" adventure. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

The sheep were very talkative, not the ones getting sheered but the others in the barn. To my surprise listening to the sheep "maa-ing" was my favorite part of the experience. They really don't "baa." They actually sounded a lot like cows, with extremely forceful vocalizations that I really couldn't get enough of. I love the way sheep talk! It was such fun listening to the boys making sheep noises too.

Many of the sheep were pregnant. A few of the sheep had just delivered and had little new born lambs with them. And there were a bunch of "spring" lambs as well. 

Probably the most exciting and terrifying part of the adventure was when the man finished sheering a sheep he let it hop off the platform and run all the way to the back of the barn before it was corralled. Wow, a freshly sheered sheep running right past you through the barn you're standing in... adrenaline rush much?

They had a few local artisan's there showing how to spin wool into thread. The boys got to touch the wool that had just come off a sheep. It was so thick and soft and, well, awesome!

That's a huge bag of freshly sheered wool behind them.

Well, today goes down in the books as no spend day 20 for the year. I REALLY wanted to buy a pair of $35 handmade wool socks at the farm. They were beautifully colored; how I imagine Joseph's coat of many colors must have looked. They were made from the very sheep wool we were watching being sheered (not that they were made right while we were standing there but the wool was from those sheep at that farm). I mean, how cool is that? And my feet are virtually always cold. But $35. Maybe I'll save up for them. Not today.

This field trip exceeded my expectations. The boys had a great new experience. My friend and I really enjoyed ourselves with them. I learned a few things. I dare say little Abe learned a bit more than me. And I did not spend any money : ) Yes, that's always a highlight for me.

Average daily spending for 2015: $18.21

$291.41 left to spend in March

Monday Funday

Today was day 4 of learning with sheep. I did a craft with little Abe that involved working on shapes, colors, crafting, a little bit of exercise and counting. I laid out a bunch of shapes on a chair in the kitchen. I drew the outline of a sheep on a sheet of newspaper at the table. Little Abe got to "pick out a green circle" from the chair, climb up at the table, put a drop of glue on the sheep and glue the green circle to the sheep. We did this for a long time with the different shapes and colors and he counted all the shapes when he was done gluing them on. He LOVES using glue! He's also doing great with identifying shapes.

Our cat enjoyed the craft too

Later we went for a walk around the block (which ended up taking 30 minutes). There's a lot of snow out there right now and today is pretty cold but it's sunny and not windy so I just bundled him up good. It's always good to get out of the house especially since there's apparently another arctic blast heading our way. He enjoyed walking on the mounds of snow between the sidewalk and the road. He enjoyed cracking ice with his feet where there were thin patches of ice on the sidewalk. We found different foot prints; prints from people, dogs, cats, and bunnies. We even found bunny poop and bunny fur. He also collected some sticks, a flower, and a leaf while we walked. I hadn't expected it to take as long as it did but it was a fun adventure.

Today is NO SPEND day 15 for the year. I'm hoping for another no spend tomorrow too. Fingers crossed.

Average daily spending for 2015: $17.75

Things I Love - Every minute of my son

Little Abe and I just started a month of learning with sheep. I promised myself that I was not going to post every minute of our fun to the blog. But he finished the first sheep craft the other day and I am so in love with it that I've been having to hold myself back from posting it.

I waited "patiently" through eleven years of marriage for my kiddo. When he was born it was as if my every dream had come true. Even so I had postpartum depression (combined with sleep deprivation) pretty badly. I remember a few times holding him and bawling uncontrollably because my baby would be gone soon. Just looking at the sweet tiny baby face I'd waited so long for and knowing that he was even in that minute growing up was tearing my heart up. I wanted to keep him, that baby boy, the one I'd waited all my life for but he was going to grow up. Yeah, it was hormones and wild after birth emotions, and a whole world of craziness going on inside of me but I was heart broken that my perfect baby would soon be gone. "Time goes by too fast." Everyone says it. Everyone knows it.

I don't know if we'll have more children. It'd be a dream come true. But as it is we have one perfect son who's growing with abandon. It can be pretty easy when boxing up clothes he's grown out of to feel the loss of the years gone by (I know, we've only two years behind us). I cherished every moment of those years. But I am far beyond what words can express happy with the little boy I have in my life right now. I loved the baby he was but I don't miss that baby. I'm excited about the youngster he'll become but I am not eager to know what he'll look like or how he'll be when he's older. My kid right now is amazing; he amazes me, just as much, if not more than his brand new little baby self did (and that's saying a lot!).

And now I give you my son's first sheep craft because I'm in awe of this kid and I absolutely could not refrain from posting it:

I helped him with the placement of the head and I moved each of the legs a tiny bit. He did the cotton balls and the eyes and the tail all on his own. I should have let him do the legs on his own too. I just love that the tail is floating out in space.

I love every minute of my son!