Entirely random stuff and things and stuff

The view from my kitchen window yesterday- nonstop snow craziness!

And the kitchen window view today.  Blinding sunshine on all that white! 

Today was a strange day for me. Full of emotion, and then numbness. It is the one year anniversary of my mom's passing. Weirdly, I shed a lot more tears the day we flipped the calendar page over to February. Just seeing the word "February" was depressing. Also, our calendar is a homemade one. My husband puts them together online at the end of every year, and orders several copies that we share with close family. This month's main calendar photo is of my mom with her beloved partner, my brother and my sister in law. I can't explain it but I still can't bear to look to look at pictures of my mom! Just can't stand it without crying...

It's absolutely mind blowing that it's been a whole year. I have thought and thought about her final days so much this past year. It is so very fresh in my mind that it feels like I just came home from CA last month. I can't even begin to describe how badly I want to call her and hear her voice and laughter. The more time that passes, the more stories I have saved up that I want to tell her, the more painful it gets. So much has happened! So much I want to tell her! My mom, my friend. 

My silly baby fell asleep on my shoulder today with his apple chunk for a pillow. 

Our 8 yr old helped me with labeling some bins after my last big organization project. I love this one! lol Anyone need a gue sick?

Farm Girl singing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" to the ducklings. That's her favorite song these days. 

Today I accidentally dropped an entire, unopened gallon of molasses onto the floor! It exploded and oozed a gooey tidal wave across the laundry room floor. Might as well invite the kids in for some molasses fingerpainting! (And then a bath!!)

Look who's helping me with the dishwashing tonight. :). I love the way she copies me - it's so cute!

Here is our crazy dog in the snow! He HAS a super cozy woodshed all of his own! Yet he often prefers to sit just outside our door. 

The view out that door this morning. There is his woodshed down on the left! Doesn't it look cozy? Apparently not to him. 

Happy brother buddies. :) I love this picture. 

And that's all the randomness I have for today. :) It is time for bedtime stories. I'm reading Alice through the Looking Glass to the Olders these days. The Littles always pick the same board books over and over and over. You know, the ones that we have completely memorized! 

Good night everyone!

❤️

My preschool planning method

Here is my current preschooler, age 4, with Little Farm Girl who is next year's preschooler. :)

Can you believe our weather forecast said "chance of snow"? It hasn't quit snowing all day long today!

Preschool at our house follows a relaxed rhythm. The only time I break out the worksheets and math manipulatives are when my preschooler asks for them. Since my Littles always want to do all the cool stuff their big brothers and sisters are doing, I do frequently get asked, "mom, where's my schoolwork?" by my preschoolers. 

There's my goofy faced 4 year old down there in the corner of the photo, joining in on this morning's  flower dissection. 

That was really fun. We enjoy Apologia's science textbooks so much!

(This is our second grader's science journal)

But anyway, back to preschool. ;) My teaching methods here revolve around my letter of the week binder. Since I have so very many preschool related books around here, after having owned a home childcare business years ago, I can't justify buying preschool curriculum. I also picked up many little workbooks from thrift stores over the years. 

During our school vacation times when I do my lesson planning, I be sure to have enough letters prepared for my preschooler to be able to focus on one new letter per upcoming school week. I make photocopies from some treasured books, and I tear pages out from our consumable workbooks. Then I hole punch them and put them in the binder. 

This week he's working on letter "c". So I flip open to the "c" section of the binder and pull a few things out for him to work on. 

The Ninja Turtle folder is where we keep his unfinished work or crafts he's in the process of doing. I also keep his ABC book in there. Each of our children have completed an ABC book. It's just a simple book I make from construction paper where we glue each new letter as they learn it. We frequently flip through it for review, and celebrate when they complete it!

Here's the letter "p" section. I cut out everything ahead of time. I have learned about myself that if I don't pre-plan everything down to the detail, it doesn't happen. I just end up with a lot of great intentions and a chaotic school day! 

We'll cut out the letters on that sheet in front to glue into his ABC book, and he'll glue popcorn and add purple scribbles to that cut out construction paper P. There's lots of other little worksheets behind those that we'll work our way through. I focus very little on actual letter writing at this age.

At the back of the binder I have hole punched many simple math related worksheets and activities. Plain old counting and number recognition are the main goals. 

Here is how I keep the cut outs with the worksheet the in the binder. 

And here is where I stick the binder! In this handy cheapo wall hanging thing I got at Walmart. I also keep our flashcards and chalk in it. 

And that's it. We also sing lots of songs and read through mountains of books, but now you've been introduced to my letter of the week binder. :)

What we're up to this fine day

Today's view out the windows is one of my favorite- white! Big, fluffy puffy snowflakes have been floating down on us all day. 

The children decided that this would be a fine day to begin with creating some masterpieces. 

I had some work to do outside with the bunnies. Manure builds up beneath their cages. Now and then I go out and scoop it up and put it in the wheelbarrow. Today I did that, then my husband brought the wheelbarrow to the garden to apply the fertilizer/manure. I also frequently move the does around, putting them in with a buck if it's time for their breeding, or removing them if they are done with being bred. I talk to them- I tell them "it's time to go on your date now!" or "okay you are done on your date, time to go have some babies!"  When I come inside I immediately update my rabbit notes so I don't forget who I just moved where and who is due to birth when.

My little helpers:

Okay so they are kind of my little helpers but kind of they just steal the shovel I am using as soon as I set it down, and scare the chickens.

The sheep get excited when I'm cleaning out beneath the rabbit cages. Since rabbits mainly eat alfalfa, their manure is pretty much just a bunch of digested alfalfa. What we think of gross little poop balls, the sheep think of as tasty snacks, like Cheetos! They stretch their neck through the barbed wire trying to steal a nibble or 12. 

And then it was back in the house for me. I have dinner to prepare (a Dutch oven full of chuck roasts and potatoes is simmering away on the stove now), and my lesson planning to finalize.

There are five weeks before our next scheduled school vacation so that's how many weeks of school work I have planned out for all of the children.

We hit an interesting milestone this lesson planning session.  I finally reached a point that I felt making photocopies of all of our workbooks for each child to use wasted more time than it's worth. We rarely write in any of our books or workbooks. I like to invest in each workbook once and get use out of it for every child. But I think we just have too many children now! Lol! I found myself spending hours, making dozens of copies once again from our many Rod and Staff preschool and math workbooks. Rod and Staff materials are so affordable that spending many hours per year photocopying a three dollar workbook is just not making sense to me anymore! Hmm, now that I'm typing that out to you all, I feel a little silly admitting I've even been doing that all these years. :p I just don't want to be wasteful! 

So, tomorrow I will be handing my children workbooks that they will, gasp, write directly in! And I will, gasp, order new ones next year! But what a relief and a time saver it is to not have to spend so many hours making photocopies during lesson planning anymore! The only exercise my copy machine got this planning session, were maps and coloring pages from Story of the World, which is NOT a three dollar book. ;)

If we're really lucky, it will keep snowing all night and prevent my husband from being able to travel to the city for work tomorrow. ;) I much prefer having him by my side at all times. 

Today is...

Fuzzy...

Cozy...

Messy...

White...

Cute x three...

Silly...  (Ferdinand likes to munch on my dreads, as several of our animals do!)

Sad....  White Sheep, the one who had had the stuck lamb 4 weeks ago, very suddenly died today. :(   I had snapped several pictures of her (such as this one) this morning so I could bring them inside and research what on earth was wrong with her. Her eyes were super dilated, hence this picture. She had seizures, then died! There are certainly parts of farming that are depressing and frustrating. I still don't know why she died...

Today was productive for the chickens that discovered this unused bunny nest box...

According to my 4 year old son, today is a good day to sit on the kitchen floor and color on an empty butter box...

Organized! :) At least, this was the project I had been working on before I discovered White Sheep was sick... This is a school vacation week so I've been doing some organizing along with my lesson planning. I love organizing. :)

Today is a fine day to take a picture of my hair... 

And to watch the amazing sunset...

He's watching the sunset, too...

Today is chilly for this under dressed egg collector...

I trotted all the way out to the field to capture my teen son at work. He was bringing straw to the cow's windbreak out there. 

Tonight is lasagna night...

Left to do with today is...

Greet my husband home from work (I miss him so much everyday!), enjoy lasagna, read a pile of books to the children, and fall gratefully into bed. 

Linked at Simple Life Blog Hop

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