Preschool Prep: Tear Free Drop Off Tips

Now that we have pretty much wrapped up our second week of school I think I can give myself a little pat on the back for a smooth transition. I can't take much credit for Savannah being happy about going to school but I can offer you what we did to get ready for school.

Drop-off in the morning is always pretty interesting. Someone is always crying or begging their parent not to leave. Most of the parents have pretty easy drop offs. I would assume that's due to their child's previous experience with being away from Mom or Dad or maybe they were prepped really well for starting school.

We did lots of different things to make sure there was no drama during drop off.

I was able to find a cute book about The Night Before Preschool. We read that for our bedtime story every night for a couple weeks. It tells about the night before preschool and everything that happens the first day of school. I also mentioned her first day of school as much as possible. Not even kidding. If we were in Target and I saw a backpack I'd say, "Look at those backpacks! I bet all of your new friends will have their own special backpack!" 

We attended the orientation that was held the week before school started. She got a chance to meet her classmates and teachers. I think that was huge in getting her ready. We got to show her where the restrooms were and I made sure she knew where all the different classrooms were located. (it's all on the same hallway - not hard at all)

Savannah's program is an 8 to 12 school day. Official drop off ends at 8:15. I make sure that we are there as close to 8 as possible to avoid any of the kiddos that might not be having a "good" morning. That way, she's already in class at a center while little Johnny has his fit outside in the hall. She never sees someone not wanting to be left at school. I also think that helped a lot. I pick her up as soon as the pick-up window opens up. I never want her to think for one second that I "forgot" her. That evokes fear and she may not want to go back the next day.

In the mornings before school I make breakfast a big deal. We talk about what she might do that day and we say prayers for a good day at school. Like I said, she really gets all the credit for getting off to such a great uneventful start but I'd like to think all of my Mommy efforts may have helped - just a little.

Did you find these tips helpful? Anything I missed that you'd like to share? Let me know in the comments!

Preschool at Home: And at School

After giving it some serious thought over the summer we decided to put Savannah in a preschool program this year. This wasn't a super easy decision for my family to make but it was an easy one for me. (insert smile)

Over the summer I realized that I was doing her and myself a disservice. We were spending a lot of time together. Going to play dates here and there. But I noticed that many of our days were spent with just each other. Day after day.

Of course we were still going places and doing things but we were still going to those places and doing those things with just each other. She wasn't getting much time with other kids her age. I have to admit part of that is my fault because I am not really a playgroup person. I prefer personal play dates with people we know. You know, cause in order for play dates to work you have to like the Mom and her kids.

Then there's also the fact that I have a tendency to be in my little bubble where I forget to actually schedule things like that. So. I figured that a great way to give her the social time she craves would be to put her in preschool.

She can learn, have playtime and be back at home in time for lunch. It's perfect.

Preschool has actually changed my life. I'll talk more about that in another post though.

We're still learning at home because I want to make sure she continues to progress academically. Much of what she already knows will be reinforced in class. She'll be learning new things like geometry (on a preschool level) and spanish.  Then there are those life skills like - waiting your turn, working well with others and being quiet when someone else of authority (like a teacher) is talking that she needs to be learning.

I wasn't sure how I'd feel once she started going to school everyday. I think the fact that she really seems to love it has made it a smooth transition for all of us. Our new schedule/routine has been amazing. It's like we're getting the best of both worlds.

I finally feel like I'm checking off all my "Mommy boxes". How has "back to school" been for you? Any tips you want to share with me as we adjust to having a child in school?

Weekend Recap: Soccer and a 5K

This weekend was pretty busy. And full. I'm currently participating in a run challenge with my girls in Operation Snapback™. Our challenge is to run thirty miles in thirty days. There was a free 5k being offered on base in support of Suicide Awareness. I thought I'd go for it. 

I was lucky enough to be given my hometown area code as my running number. My naive mind took that as a good sign. That 5k kicked my butt.

I'm a treadmill runner. I want to become a street runner. Saturday's run let me know that I have a ways to go before that becomes a reality for me.

A couple hours after the race we had to trek over to Savannah's first soccer game of the season. It was also team picture day for her team. When I tell you it was hot out there...

Despite the heat we had a great time. Watching a bunch of three to five year olds play soccer has got to be one of the most entertaining things I've done since becoming a Mom. Sav scored one goal and had two assist during the game. Not too bad for her first game. I was so proud of her. I literally jumped out of my seat when she scored.

Sunday after church we headed to the mall to grab some sneakers for Savannah's first day of school. They aren't allowed to wear open toe shoes to school and I didn't realize that all she had in her size at the moment was sandals until the night before school. Mommy fail. 

Anyway, her first day of school was a success. I'll be talking more about that later this week. I hope you all had a great weekend!  Any big plans for the week?

Preschool at Home: Learning to Read at Home

I have decided that our main learning objective for the summer will be reading and handwriting. As you know I am constantly trying different things to find the right fit for Savannah and I. I also use all this research to form a blueprint for BabyM's learning path too. Of course, different kids respond to different things but at least by the time he is ready to learn to read I'll have a better road map for teaching him.

While doing a search on Amazon I came across this book, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. The title alone peaked my interest. The promise states that all you need is twenty minutes a day everyday for 100 days and you and your child should have a nice foundation for reading. That seemed right up my alley. I can do twenty minutes everyday.


This book has been amazing. Not only does it teach your child how to sound out words but it also focuses on reading comprehension and handwriting. I did things kind of backwards with Sav. I taught her the alphabet and each letter's phonetic sound then I taught her sight words. I wish I had found this book before we did sight words. It hasn't really hurt her but I see now where it would have been better to use this book to teach her how to take the phonetic sounds she knew and turn them into words with these lessons. 
Hopefully I am saying this all clearly, LOL…
Anyway. I highly recommend this book if you are a parent that needs a road map. The book tells you exactly what to say to your child. It doesn't get much easier than that. It is such a joy to see Sav sounding out words and actually reading. We are only about a quarter of the way through the book and I am really pleased with her progress so far. After her lesson we sit and read a book together. She reads to me and I help her when she asks me to.
Has anyone else heard of this book? Have you used it? What did you think about it?
*I am not a teacher. I am not in the education industry. I'm just a Mom teaching my child at home. I did NOT get paid for this review. I purchased the book myself.*

Preschool at Home: Reading Resources (Sight Words)

I have often found that when people know how to do something, like sewing or doing hair, they are often not interested in teaching other people how to do it. Some may not even be willing to share how they learned. That's so funny to me. It's like they don't want anyone else to learn how to do something they're good at. They may even tell you that they'll be more than happy to teach you or share the info but they never follow through on that…

Well. As I have said before, I am a girl's girl. If I know something and I think it can help you I am going to share it. If I see that something has worked for my daughter or son I will be more than happy to share that with you. Why not? Sharing is caring and at some point I know I'll need someone to care for me and mine.

Today I am going to share some of the resources I have found online to make introducing Savannah to reading a breeze. We first started off by learning letters and their phonetic sounds and then we moved to sight words. I am not a teacher or educator of any sort. I am fumbling my way through teaching my daughter. I try different things until I find what works. So please consider all of that when you are reading these preschool posts. I'm just sharing our journey and I am not trying to come off as an expert at all.

Teaching Sav the sight words extremely boosted her confidence in reading. She even sounds out words a lot better too. We still have a long way to go but I think we're off to a great start. My little lady should be reading by her birthday and that was my goal for 2014. With that said, here are all 220 of the non-noun sight words sub-divided into five levels.

I like making my own flashcards. Since Savannah already knows many of these I'll be making cards for the words we still need to work on. If you visit this site you can download bingo cards to go along with the sight words. That's another fun way to help them learn. You may also remember that we like playing "musical words" or "word hop". I lay all the cards out on the floor and I have Savannah hop to the word I call out or I play music, she walks around, when he music stops she has to pick a word and tell me what it is. Very fun!

Did you find this helpful? I'll continue to share stuff as we find what works for us. Feel free to share and pin!

Preschool at Home: Kindergarten Preparation

Now that we've gotten into a better schedule centered around learning I thought it would be a good idea to make a list of everything I wanted to teach Savannah before she starts school next year. This is my last school year having her at home and I want to make sure she is prepared for her first day of school.

This list is based off what Sav already knows and what she still has to learn. I'm pretty sure there are some things that I may have forgotten so I'll do an updated list and share it if I need to. I am still really loving the Preschool Prep Company's literacy tools. She's on their level 3 sight word reading books now. As we go through each book she gets better at sounding out words. It's been so neat watching her become a little reader.

I really need to do a lot better about teaching her numbers and math. I am a word person and I naturally gravitate towards books and writing. I plan to start alternating our lessons. One day we'll do Reading/Writing and the next day we'll do Counting/Math. That's my plan between now and next August when she starts school.

What do you think of this list? Anything I missed? Feel free to pin and share if you'd like!

Preschool at Home: Establishing a Routine for Learning

Whew. Hello. I feel like I have been neglecting the blog a lot lately. A while ago I talked about simplifying our schedule by taking a couple weeks to quiet my life and regroup. That's where I've been the past couple weeks. Quieting our routine so that I can get a good understanding of what can stay and what can go.

The weather here has been beautiful. Hello Spring. We've been hanging out at the playground a lot. Once the triple digits hit in a couple months it'll be hard to get out to play so I'm trying to let Savannah soak up sun while she can...


It has been really great enjoying them. Taking the time to worry less and play more has been a huge sense of relief for me. It also gave me the time to determine exactly what I want our schedule to be going forward. It's hard to revise your schedule/routine when you're always doing something or going somewhere. While all of her activities were on Spring Break last week I took that opportunity to really figure out what's going to work best for us.


I discovered a lot. Mainly that we were not getting nearly as much playtime in as I thought. Don't get me wrong we were going to play dates, classes and dance but my little family wasn't getting much play time together. We were playing with everyone else but each other, LOL!

As Savannah approaches the age of four and BabyM turns one I want us to settle into what I think is going to be the routine that works for us. It's a 50/50 learn and play routine. The best of both worlds. In the mornings we'll do all of our learning and development. When the baby goes down for his nap Sav and I normally eat lunch. Once he's up, we'll play together until it's time to make dinner. We can go to a playground or play some of her board games. Whatever she wants.

handwriting practice. she's getting better. we've got to work on that backwards N though.

During my little hiatus I also figured out exactly what our learning goals are going to be. I know what I want to teach them. I'll share my goals for learning in a different post. So far our new schedule has been working out really well. I still have some fine tuning to do with grocery shopping and housework. It's a work in progress but at least I can say we are progressing.
Have you changed your family schedule lately? Have any plans to?

Preschool at Home: Paintbrush Tip

The unusually cold weather we've had these past couple days has given Savannah a great opportunity to play with a lot of things around the house. She's recently gotten back into painting a lot. The other day she wanted to paint a picture of her brother. Since he wouldn't cooperate and sit still (imagine that for a second, haha) I happily filled in as her model.


Here's my tip for the day. Normally after she paints I soak her brushes in a cup and then I wash them later when I'm cleaning the kitchen. Today when she was done painting I couldn't find my 'soak' cup. Pretty sure I probably threw it away. So I grabbed a set of popsicle molds. I put a brush in each mold with it's own water and cleaning solution. This was just so much cuter to look at during the day, haha...


The popsicle molds are so inexpensive I can always buy another set. The molds work well for paint sponges too. I noticed during the day that the water didn't get all gross the way it normally does in a cup too. What do you think of this idea? Does your child's paintbrushes get nasty like Savannah's?

Preschool at Home: Upcoming Review

I have exciting news to share!

Savannah and I have been invited to review K5 learning! As you know, I've been working with her to build strong reading and math skills. I'm excited for the opportunity to review this online program. Her literacy skills are really growing so this could not have come at a better time. To be honest, I'm hoping it will help us get a better handle on where she is with math and numbers. I'm not a math person so I am looking forward to utilizing another resource to help us.

Stay tuned for the review coming soon!

K5 Learning has an online reading and math program for kindergarten to grade 5 students. I've been given a 6 week free trial to test and write a review of their program. If you are a blogger, you may want to check out their open invitation to write an online learning review of their program.

Preschool at Home: Dr.Martin Luther King Jr.

We are half way thru with January. Can't believe it. Savannah and I have been working really hard on sight words and reading. We live in walking distance to the library and we go there often to check out books or rent Wii games.

For this particular trip I wanted to focus on finding books that talked about Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr. Our library had a few books to choose from and we chose the three below. I have enjoyed reading these to her and introducing to her some of the facts about our nation's history.


Since we had been reading so much about MLK's vision I thought it would be fun to help Savannah make a vision board, but on a smaller Pre-K level. I started by getting some of her painting paper and my letter stencils.


Then I just asked her what her dreams were. I wrote them down in the color of her choice. As you can see, this activity had very little to do with her learning to write or cut. This activity was all about teaching her to recognize her dreams.


I thought she came up with some pretty good dreams for a three year old. I asked her simple questions like, "If you could learn anything what would it be? and " What do you want to be when you grow up?". I think it will be fun to do this with her every year at this same time and save them. When BabyM is old enough he'll do it too.

I plan to stencil her name at the bottom between the stars. I wanted to get this post up before it got too late. So. What do you think? How will you observe MLK Day with your little one? I know someone is out there thinking that this maybe too much for a three year old. So. I'll share something with you that I told a friend earlier today…

Preschool at Home: Learning Sight Words

Now that the holiday season is over we are getting back to our routine. Slowly but surely. For Christmas Savannah received a literacy set that focuses on sight words. I will share the set and my review on it in a separate post. It came with DVDs and books. We've started using it but I want to use it a little more before I do a review here.

Anyway. While we were watching the video and reading the books I was trying to think of other ways to get her to recognize her site words. Part of learning to read is recognizing these words without having to figure them out. Since repetition is everything  I thought it would be fun to make large flashcards that can be used in several different ways. This way, not only is she learning to recognize her words but she's also having fun. Double win. Go me.

In this particular picture I put the words down on the floor, called out a word and had her bring the word to me. She really enjoyed this. Savannah thought it was so fun to look for words. She starts a literacy class in a couple weeks and I can't wait to see her turn into a little reader.

The kit that she received for Christmas says that you can start as early as 15 months. When Sav was that age I was teaching her the baby book of 100 words. It didn't include these type of sight words but I think I will start early with BabyM. When you know better, you do better, right?

What do you think about this idea? Have you started doing sight words with your little one?

Preschool at Home: Using What You Have

Savannah is finally starting to feel better. She had no fever today and she was playing as usual. I didn't have an activity planned for us today. I was expecting her to still be a little sick. She asked me if we could do "homework" and that's when I knew she must be feeling a lot better.

So. I pulled out her workbook and we did a few pages. She then requested to do numbers. This made me happy because we really need to focus on her numbers. My focus has been on her letters, writing and phonics and because of that we haven't really focused on counting/numbers as much.


After completing a few pages, I remembered an activity we had done with her class. The teacher had us doing simple addition using candy. Since Sav loves marshmallows I added those to some m&ms. We counted from zero to twenty a few times.



Then we sorted the treats and counted them.  This was a fun activity. It was quick and luckily I had somethings in the pantry. We had previously decorated Christmas cookies so I just pulled the candy and marshmallows from there.


You could do this activity with anything you have that your child likes. You could use chopped fruit or nuts. Another cool idea would be to use colored pasta. My point here is to use whatever you have on hand. Everything doesn't always have to be so thought out and perfect. As long as your child is learning and you both are enjoying it that's all that really matters.

What do you think? Isn't this so easy? I love getting ideas from Savannah's teacher during class and using them at home.

Preschool at Home: Paper Plate Snowman

Here we are with a new craft idea. Today I thought it would be fun to make a snowman. We never have paper plates in our house. Since we have a few leftover from Thanksgiving I decided to use them for a craft with Savannah.

For this snowman you will need three paper plates, tape and whatever you'd like to use to decorate your snowman. We used eyes, puff balls, pipe cleaners and construction paper (for the hat). This was super easy and fun.

To start cut out your two smaller circles. I used a cup to trace the smallest circle. Then use the tape to build your snowman. We used tape because it was less messy and there's no drying time.


Remember to keep your left over paper plate pieces. You'll need them if you decide to do a scarf or use them for arms like we did.


At first we were going to use pipe cleaners for the arms but I'm really glad we went with the paper plate pieces.


And here is our finished project. I used a sharpie to dot on his mouth and we added the pipe cleaner (that was originally for the arms) to his scarf for a little extra flair.

What do you think about Savannah's snowman? Will you be trying this? If you like the crafts you see here please feel free to pin and share them!

Preschool at Home: Christmas Crafts

It has been really hard staying on our learning schedule with family in town. We have always used workbooks but I have a new appreciation for them now. When I don't have time or the opportunity to do full blown lessons with her it's great to whip out one of these workbooks. We can do a couple pages in a few minutes. I like that because it keeps us from totally abandoning our learning efforts while we have so much going on at home.

We normally always do some type of learning lesson before we start our craft. Today we did the workbook before moving on to some fun Christmas crafts.

I found a pin on Pinterest that used popsicle sticks to make ornaments. I found these colorful sticks at the Dollar Tree and we used super glue to make them hold their shape. She decorated them with glitter after they dried.

I also thought it would be fun to make a Rudolph face. For this quick and easy craft we used a paper plate, eyes, puffy ball (for nose) and pipe cleaners. I also used a hole punch to make the holes for the "antlers" but you don't have to. The pipe cleaners should poke right thru the plate. Savannah curved the cleaner in a U shape before I poked it thru the plate. Rudolph's smile came out pretty nice. 

Once we were done I felt like our face didn't look like a reindeer. I grabbed a brown marker and filled his face in. It made him look so much better. I would recommend wrapping your plate with a paper bag or painting your entire plate brown if you decide to do this. Hindsight being 20/20 I guess I could have cut off the white edge. Maybe next time (LOL)...

What kind of crafts have you been doing with your little ones to get into the holiday spirit?

Preschool at Home: A Blooper (Kind Of)

This isn't a real Preschool at Home post. It's more of a blooper. I'm sharing what happens when a craft goes all the way left. I had good intentions for today's turkey craft. It was going to be a cute handprint turkey with pipe cleaner feathers and goggly eyes. 

But like I've said here many times crafts are not where I excel. So today's turkey turned into what I will call a Fall Face. 

I'm still not sure how all of that turned into this but I do know that Savannah had a great time making her Fall Face turkey, LOL!

When I noticed that the pipe cleaners weren't going to stay I switched it up and went for the adhesive foam leaves that we had. She was able to stick those on herself. When I noticed that this craft no longer looked like a turkey (Did it ever though?) I told Sav to just make a face with the eyes. 

I shared this blooper because I feel like it's unfair for me to only post the super cute stuff that turns out perfect. Not to mention anytime I can make fun of myself I go for it! Hopefully this inspires some of the not so crafty Moms like me. Sometimes you'll get the perfect turkey and sometimes you'll get whatever this is but you'll always get the memory of doing something fun.

What do y'all think of this Fall Face turkey? Will you be making it? (LOL!!!)

Preschool at Home: A Christmas List

Whether you have accepted it or not there are seven weekends left until Christmas. I was going through the Sunday paper for coupons when I noticed that there were several Christmas toy books in the paper. After counting how many weekends I had left to prepare I thought it would be a good idea to have Savannah write her Christmas list and letter to Santa. 

Anytime I work learning in to something we have to do anyway I feel like I'm winning.  Because there were so many sales papers and toys books in the paper I thought it would be a great time to help Savannah get comfortable with using her scissors. I started by having her cut coupons. (teaching her to save money and cut at the same time -- win) Her job was to cut along the dotted lines on her page. She thought it was very fun to cut coupons for the toys. 

I told her Mommy and Daddy would use some of the coupons and that we could send the other coupons to Santa to help him save money. (and yes, I realize Santa does not need coupons) I liked having her cut coupons because the dotted lines on them made for the perfect guide. My only tip would be to make sure they are not practicing on a page that has coupons that you might actually need.

Once she was done cutting her pictures and coupons we wrote a letter to Santa. I helped her a lot. We both hold the pencil and I make sure her letters are as close to the real thing as possible. She can do a few letters by herself but for the most part she still needs a lot of guidance. 

"I have been a good girl. We will bake cookies for you. Please bring toys to me and Mikey."

Then I had her glue her pictures to a blank piece of paper using a glue stick. I wrote in a couple of the requests she had and we were done. I am currently looking for Santa's address. I would like for her to get a letter back from him in the mail. I'm not sure if the USPS is doing that again this year. I was able to find this PDF but I don't know if that's for this year. I'm going to do more research and I'll post what I find out about this year's Letters From Santa program.

And I just wanted to share this. She has developed a love for the letter H. It's all she writes, paints and scribbles.

Have you and your kids made Christmas lists yet?

PreSchool at Home: Mixing it Up

Today I thought I'd share some of the other activities we do to create days full of learning. I have recently figured out that chopping up activities and offering different learning opportunities throughout the day really work well for Savannah. It keeps her from getting bored with what we're working on. 

Another thing that I like about this new way of offering activities is that it limits her "free" time. There really isn't much time for TV when we're both actively engaged in an activity together. Now. I know for some people you're wondering how I can do other things if I'm so glued into this new way of learning. The truth is much of it is self directed by Savannah. I set up the expectation that we're going to do something and then she does it independently for the most part. 

While she's working on the Starfall site or doing a page in her workbook, I'm cooking. When she's doing her phonics board in her room, I'm folding laundry. It's a great way to multi task. I can get things done while she's learning. It's great. 

Here we are together working with her phonics board...

Other activities that we've been adding to our day include playing the matching game, playing alphabet bingo and she's recently really taking a bug interest in cooking.

She received this alphabet bingo card during her weekly PreSchool class and she's been playing with it ever since. 

And here she is in her kitchen. I've been letting her help me in the kitchen more since she seems to have a genuine interest in cooking. I think I'm going to let her be my little sous chef when I make the baby's food this weekend. She's going to love that.

By sharing how we've been filling the day I hope it's giving you more ideas. Does anyone have any ideas for me? I'm always open to trying new activities!

Teaching Your Toddler How to Treat You...

I mentioned recently in this post that I was giving myself a break when it came to my behavior expectations for Savannah. Her personality has blossomed quite a bit over this past month and I can not say that it is agreeing with me. Actually. Her sassiness is just not going to work for me. On any level.

Now. While I am still holding true to the statements made in that first post I am back with another "revelation". It came to my attention one day last week as I was repeating myself for the fourth (or fifth or sixth) time that just as Savannah begins to assert her independence this is a great time to teach her how to treat me. After all, she is in a learning stage. She is figuring out what she can and can not get away with, and I am here to let her know that certain things just aren't going to work for Mommy.

Somewhere between repeating myself and being told "No, Mommy." it hit me. "I am going to have to teach this girl how to treat me." Don't we do that with everyone else in our lives? We teach them what we will and won't accept. As a (somewhat) new Mom I had been focusing all my discipline efforts on teaching her what to do and not to do but not necessarily teaching her how to appropriately address me (and other adults). I grew up in a house where we said "ma'am" and "sir". Now that Little Miss Vocabulary has started getting a little bit too sassy for my taste it's time to start nipping this in the bud. I remember when my youngest brother went through this stage it drove my parents nuts. Now I understand why...

So while I still don't expect her to behave like a five year old I DO expect her to act like a very well behaved three year old. We never experienced the "terrible twos" so this has been a crazy past couple of weeks. She's real slick too. She doesn't yell and scream like you see the kids on TV doing. Her tone is very grown up which I think is more insulting, ha ha! Anyway. Moral to the story is if you spare the rod you'll spoil your child. If you allow them to be a sassy three year old they'll be cursing you out by the time they're in second grade. It's not happening.

Welcome to the Sassy Threes where little girls get their first attitude adjustment.

PreSchool at Home: Update

It's been a while since I've shared some of our PreSchool activities. In an effort to get into a really good routine I have been trying to simplify our schedule. Now that Sav is going to a Preschool class once a week I have been using what she's learning in class to guide what we do at home. We still do our own activities but I really try to reinforce the lessons she learns in school.

My main focus with her right now is reading and phonics. We've been spending the majority of our "learning" time on that. We had been doing letters and phonics for a while but I didn't really know how to take the next step to help her start learning to read. Her teacher suggested that I try Starfall. I had heard of Starfall before but never really looked into it. Sav loved the site.

This month we are working on the short "a" sound. At first, I couldn't tell if she was really reading or if she had memorized the book from reading it so much. When my husband came home from work I had her read it to him to see if she could do it and I was very surprised that she could read it to him with a little help from me. She was also very proud of herself.

Today we did our reading in the morning (after I realized a planned trip to the zoo wasn't happening) and some pumpkin painting in the afternoon.

 

So slowly but surely we are settling into a routine that I am happy with. Can't lie. Cutting out a lot of play dates and moving dance to the evening has given me more time to spend with her. I have also been able to get so much more done around the house. These past few weeks have been really great. Anyone using Starfall? How do you like it?

Mommy Reflections: What I've Learned So Far

I can not believe my baby girl is three already. Whoa. Time sure is flying. I remember the day she was born. She was a tiny little angel with bright pink lips. Her hair was jet black. I held her as much as I could and she went every where I did. Always. She was my precious sweet little baby.

Fast forward three years and here we are. She's a big girl now. She's full of imagination. Her bright eyes fill me up. She's still my baby but she's a big girl now. I find myself thinking about how we got to where we are. She's so smart and funny.

This past three years has taught me a lot. I've learned to be less stressed about the little things. I still struggle with it but it helps so much not to get all worked up over every little thing. Perhaps the biggest lesson that I have learned is to keep things simple. As parents we want to create all these amazing memories for our kids and I think sometimes we forget that you don't always have to be over the top and perfect. Savannah has reminded me that it's the little things that she enjoys. I don't have to throw her big parties or fancy play dates. I don't have to spend a lot of money or buy her the latest greatest toy. All she wants from me is my attention and time. Both of those things are free. 

I am reminded that children are just like adults in many ways. All they want is to know that someone is paying attention to them. They want to know that someone cares about what they have to say and how they feel. You don't need superMom powers for that. You don't have to be the craftiest Pinterest pinning Mama for that. All you have to be is yourself. After all, God chose me to be her mother so I am enough just the way I am. Of course, there's nothing wrong with trying or learning new things but I am enough just like this. 

As I am coming into my own as a Mom I keep reminding myself that the tough times are temporary. She won't always be this little. She won't always be this busy. She won't always need me. While she still does it's important that I soak it up. I have to learn to slow down and not just go through the motions of the day. I am learning that every moment that we have together (even her sassy testy moments) are times that I should enjoy. I've got to become better at taking a deep breath and not letting every time she misbehaves send me to a bad place. It's not always that serious.

I must remember that she's only three. It's not fair to her for me to expect her to behave any older than that. So I've learned to appreciate the days where she acts five and understand the days where she struggles with growing up. It's going to happen. I won't always be the perfect Mom and she won't always be the perfect kid -- And it's all going to be OK.