Gotz Dolls

I didn't like dolls when I was younger.    But they didn't have dolls as beautiful as this back then.  Here is Julie:

And this is Emily:

And Jennifer:

And Bobby:

OH!  Not a Gotz Doll, but a sweetie all the same.

MUD PIE KITCHEN

We love our sandpit, but I had another idea for this space off our verandah.

We hunted around our place and found some "stuff" (we collect "stuff" although we try not to), bricks, racks, paving stones, an old chip heater, a stainless steel sink bench ... you know, just the normal stuff people have ...

We moved the sandpit (that sounds easy when I say it, but it involved a LOT of hard work!) gathered our stuff together into one place and made the children a "mud cake kitchen" - now called a Mud Kitchen by our 3 year old.  

Today I spent $5 at the reuse shop and purchased some lovely enamelled bowls, a neat green saucepan and some snazzy weather-proof/mud-proof utensils.

The children LOVE IT!

We have here a mud cake decorated with sheepswool icing, served with runny mud chocolate sauce and some "whipped cream".

PUTTING LEARNING IN A BOX?

Is it physics?   Is it maths?  Reading?  Comprehension?   ....

Fun?

Oh - hang on, I don't remember seeing "Fun" as a heading on the curriculum ...

... and taking apart an old video camera - technology ... electronics ... I don't know!

And I don't care.

We don't put learning into a box - we don't give it a name.

It's just normal life.

I don't teach my children.

I observe, provide, facilitate, encourage, answer, question and I'm blessed to share many, many LIGHTBULB moments!

It works.    Our 19 year old son just went through a testing procedure - we didn't do tests when he was younger, so I was interested to see where he would score now that he's grown up.

When he was very little I got many books out the library about "Teaching The Gifted Child".  I thought he was very bright - gifted even.   Then, to my dismay, he seemed to take a few years off being bright.  Around 14 years off actually.

Unbeknown to me he was still learning.

And he was learning at his own pace, in his own way.

I put myself through many "I'm not doing enough work with this child" moments.  But I should have had more confidence.

The psychologist who tested our son said that they don't do IQ tests anymore, but the result he got in the test she did would be equivalent to an IQ of around 130-140.

So he is a Brainy-Brain-Box after all! 

That was a gift to me - knowing that I can continue with educating these younger children the same way I've always done it.    Naturally and Gently.

God Bless
The Mummalady

IMITATION ...

My husband used to know some people who would look around to see what was "new", "popular", "in" or "looked good" and immediately copy it.  Not necessarily because they really liked it, or saw it as suiting them, but it was their nature to just go ahead and copy someone.

It can be annoying to have someone copy you all the time (my Mum says her little sister used to copy her, I was the youngest of two so I didn't know how that would feel) - but as my husband always says "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."  And when it comes to our children they will surely imitate us - it's the way they learn!

My little guy in the picture above was "taking a photo" with his "camera" on the beach.  He had been watching me!

Here's a bit from my book about imitation:

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IMITATION ONCE AGAIN

Babies and children learn so beautifully from imitation. A baby and child's desire to imitate is so strong that we MUST ensure all our words and actions are worthy of imitation. Don't let your children learn to be grumpy, impatient, complaining or rude from your example!

Pray for a sweeter, kinder, more gentle and patient attitude. Be brave enough to ask someone close to you if they will point out when you are getting snappy or off-hand with your children – they don't need to announce it, perhaps just a “look” will remind you to bring your tone down, or remember to look at your child as you speak, instead of issuing commands as you walk out of the room.

A very practical way to learn a better attitude, worthy of imitation is for YOU to imitate someone else!   Find someone who speaks to children kindly, respectfully and is cheerful and positive.  As much as you can walk away from the negative, dramatic, selfish, demanding, moaning, whining, complaining people who come into your life.  My husband tells me of people he comes across who, when given a simple piece of cheerful information will always find something to complain about. 

“Nice weather!” will be answered with “Far too hot – can’t get any energy to get going and tomorrow there’s a rotten rain storm coming over.”  

Or:    “Lovely drop of raining we’re having!”  is answered with “I’ve got a load of washing on the line getting soaked and the garden is a mud pond.”

Then there’s:    “Got much work on?”  (this seems to be a fairly common phrase for tradesmen to ask each other).  The negative guy or gal will answer  “Coming out my ears, can’t keep up with it and everybody wants their jobs yesterday of course.”   OR “Nah, hardly anything coming in, don’t know how the bills will be paid this month …”  Sometimes these people can also be magnets for negative controversial information (mostly gossip), and like to file away, then share stories (definitely gossip at this stage) of the guy who was ripped off by the panelbeater and another fellow who bulldozed all his neighbours trees and made a path down the cliff to the beach even though he never got resource consent and the council never did a thing …

The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.   Proverbs 26:22  (KJV)

Negativity can be infectious (and gossip is sinful, damaging and poisonous).  If it is within your capability you might like to try and sort out WHY a person lives in a negative frame of mind – do they need practical help, positive interests/hobbies in their life,  an opportunity to serve others, encouragement, or a friend to talk to?  But overall if you can, try to stay away from being over-burdened with negativity for your sake, and the sake of your children.

GIVE A CHILD AN UNRUSHED CHILDHOOD

Speaking with one of our favourite supermarket ladies this evening I was reminded that I hadn't updated our blog for a while.

She was telling me about her grandson - he's nearly 5, and almost starting school.

I reminded her that we are "allowed" to keep our children to ourselves until they are 6.  After that time we have to apply for an exemption to keep them out of school.

I think the majority of parents are either happy for their 5 year olds to go to school, or else they are a little worried that if they leave starting school until their child is 6 then the child may have missed something out, or be behind.   If you are a loving, involved parent your child will NOT be "behind".  They will probably be waaaay out in front of their peers!

PLEASE parents - anyone reading this who is unsure - please ask me - or go to the Home Education Foundation website:  hef.org.nz  to check out all the lovely information there about home education.

I recently attended a session in a workshop run by Barbara Smith of the Home Education Foundation.  The session I picked to attend was entitled "Training our Children's Minds".   I've heard Barbara, and her late husband Craig speak many times over the years.  I came away, as always, even more confident about our choice to home educate.   This last year has been very hard for us - including a huge learning curve of the Autistic Spectrum Disorders type.   Barbara's talk was very encouraging and managed to clear away some of the rubbish that has accumulated in my head.

Barbara has the information from her workshops available as powerpoint presentations on the HEF website.  http://hef.org.nz/workshop-powerpoints/

You needn't have a long-term vision of home education.  I did, but that's me.  Perhaps you just want to keep your 5 year old with you for another year before they're sent into the world?   Perhaps you could review how you feel about it then?

Home education gives a child space, time, confidence, and most importantly - it builds beautiful relationships with those people who are REALLY important to them.


God Bless
The Mummalady

WOODEN PLAYSTANDS

At last!   We have playstands!!

After looking at them for years, and wondering how we could make one that would fit into our little house The Daddy has come up with the design above.  We made this model from recycled pine that comes apart and stacks up into a much smaller space!   The heights of the shelves can be changed, and right now the playstand is in our lounge covered in cloths and will turn into a shop tomorrow (I tend to like playing shops!).  The little boys were climbing in and under the shelves earlier - that's not my sort of game.

I highly recommend this piece of equipment for anyone with a child or children - extremely versatile, fun, long-wearing and beautiful.

Within New Zealand they can be ordered from us - go to our website  www.willowcottage.co.nz

God Bless
The Mummalady

FIDDLY THINGS BOX

Another piece from my soon-to-be-published book

RAINY-DAY-OR-NOT-FEELING-WELL-FIDDLY-THINGS BOX

I’m using a medium-sized camphor box (like a miniature camphor chest) for our rainy-day-or-not-feeling-well-fiddly-things box.  I think it’s important that the box that contains the fiddly things is special and nice – it adds to the care the children take of the items inside.

Some children are extremely tactile and love to hold and feel things.  Other children are very orderly and like to sort and order everything they come across – both these types of children will love this idea.

In the bottom of our box I have cut a piece of purple fur fabric to fit so that everything sits safely in the box without sliding around.      If you have room in the box include a nice piece of black felt or velvet rolled up for your child to set the items out on.  

These are some of the items you might like to include in your box:

-          smooth glass shapes like marbles or glass sea-shells

-          acorns

-          chestnuts

-          bits of chain – various thicknesses

-          smooth or bumpy shells

-          wooden rings

-          bells

-          acrylic, enameled or wooden rings or bangles

-          deep sea shells

-          polished rocks

-          “sea” glass (bits of broken glass smoothed by the waves)

-          Beautiful old brooches (take pin out of back if children young)

-          Various old bits of beautiful costume jewelry (not junky!)

-          large beads of various shapes made from various things:

o        ceramic

o        acrylic

o        glass

o        wood

o        enameled

Another idea along this line is a button tin or button box.  It can take several years to collect items of interest to put in this tin, but it’s a lot of fun for a child to sort through the button tin, and it can calm a restless child as they look for all the dark blue buttons with the triangle shape on, or all the red car ones etc.

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God Bless

The Mummalady

"PARCSHAL" ECLIPSE

Our daughter was emailing her 2nd cousin to tell her about the "Parcshal Eclipse".  I love how she has a really good go at spelling new things!  She has confidence that I didn't have.

Before the partial eclipse our 17 year old gave our little ones a reminder about the sun, moon and earth - using a torch to represent the sun, a model of the moon that he got from somewhere in his room and the globe.   Our 10 year old understood the whole thing because it's not the first time she's come across this information.  Our 7 year old was listening and will remember some bits (especially as he is going through a "space/solar system" phase).  Our 5 year old was more impressed by the fact that we'd drawn the curtains and were sitting in the dark at 9.00am.  Our 2 year old was listening ... sometimes ... probably.

Our big guy had made us a couple of "cereal box viewers".  Just as well our favourite cereal was on special last week - we normally don't get the stuff in the boxes!

This is the image on the bottom of the box that we saw through the "viewing hole" at the top of the box - about 20 minutes after the partial eclipse started.

Our little girl had a go at taking a photo of the view (her pink camera still works!).

A little later - probably at the peak of the partial eclipse this was our view of the moon blocking the sun.


Did you know that when Jesus Christ walked on the earth as a man HE looked at the same moon we look at?

And He created it - because He is God.

God Bless you all who call on Him sincerely
The Mummalady

A NEW CAMERA

This is my "old" camera.  I love it.  It's pink.    :o)

But sadly it seems to have come to the end of it's very short life.

Most of the photos on this blog were taken with my lovely little pink camera - photos like:

However, the other day I went to take a photo and ... oh dear!   It was all WHITE!   I checked the settings, adjusted everything, went back to "factory settings",  got our 17 year old to check it - but urgh - look:

This is supposed to be a shot of some darling little purple gumboots.  The man in the shop tells me that THE END has come for this camera. 

However, every cloud .... silver lining and all that ... we had a family conference, piggy banks were emptied, pennies were counted, bank accounts consulted ... and now:

We have a new camera - one we can have a lot of fun with - not just a point and shoot.   I used to have a good camera before I had children - a proper one!  A Pentax!  And I loved photography.  But over the years other things have been more important, so I've been happy with whatever camera I could afford, and whatever would do the job.

But in this season with a smidge more time to spend on arty things we are going to enjoy our new camera A LOT!

 

I just need to keep reminding myself to take the LENS CAP OFF!  Keep watching this space for some more beautiful photos.

God Bless
The Mummalady

DOLL RESCUE

This poor little doll had terribly neglected hair with a stuck-in hair band,  and worse than that - she'd been left stranded in her underwear!

We bought her for $1 from the re-use shop then attempted to give her a  makeover.

Most modern dolls have hair that frizzes in a second, and is ruined forever.  However, we managed to brush this doll's hair, wet it thoroughly then plait it tightly.    We wrapped her fringe down firmly with a strip of fabric.  After the hair dried, we carefully unplaited it, and were very pleased with the result!  Even the fringe was behaving itself!

Although we are not talented seemstresses we managed to make a modest little dress for her, and now our $1 dolly is called Gwendoline.

We see a lot of unloved dolls in re-use shops or op-shops.  However, we are VERY choosy about which ones we rescue.   Some have distorted features, distorted body shapes or the look on their face is rather smug or knowing.   Others have pen all over them or limbs missing!   But when we see a nice one, we'll bring her home and help her out a little.  It's great fun!

God Bless
The Mummalady

NOT ALWAYS CLEAN

This gentle, natural home education thing isn't always neat and tidy.

In fact, children often get the most out of life when it involves a bit of mess, dirt, water, sand or all four.

I've been doing more and more research on gentle, natural home education.   "Mainstream" is doing so much damage to the children of the world.

"Alternative Education" is becoming more and more attractive to the discerning, caring, aware parent.

But there are dangers there too.

Research carefully, or ask me!

I'm no "expert" but I'm right there in the thick of it - and I've learned quite a lot.

Those little sandy feet are so cute - and they belong to an absolutely darling little boy that I am so blessed to be loving, teaching and raising for God.

God Bless
The Mummalady

WHIMSY

Have you ever had an idea for a craft, and you had a really good try at it, but it didn't work out like the picture in the book, and you felt deflated and useless?

I'm so glad my children don't have that problem.

Our 9 year old made the little fellow in the picture above - she designed it, embroidered the face, sewed it by machine then stuffed it.  And even though she knew he looked a bit odd, and figured out what she might do differently next time - she was still pleased with the result.

That's PRECIOUS!!!!


Please don't compare your projects with THE ONES IN THE BOOK!   The people whose work is put in books have been honing their skills for a long time - otherwise they wouldn't be in a book.  Would they.

And don't pass a bad attitude on to your children about comparing your work with THE ONE IN THE BOOK!   


Encourage them to be confident in having a go, trying again or moving on when they've had enough!


God Bless
The Mummalady

ANOTHER PIECE FROM MY BOOK

ARE “PLANNERS” THE ANSWER TO ORDER vs CHAOS?

Just a note here about something that pops up regularly amongst home educators. There seems to be a natural desire for “order”. I guess it's because the opposite of “order” is “chaos”. A chaotic life is the fastest way to burnout. And so when a home educating mum reads encouraging or informative home ed books she will often gladly and sometimes desperately grab at things headed: “lesson plan”, “curriculum”, “scope and sequence”, “daily planner”, “easy-plan system” and on it goes. I KNOW this to be true because I have done it myself! Usually in the depths of winter, when everyone is suffering from cabin fever, the washing basket is overflowing, damp washing adorns all hangable surfaces, the rain has been relentless for weeks, our house feels a lot smaller than it did last year, the clutter is taking over even though I was sure we'd just had a major clean-out, our routine has gone completely mad, nothing is being accomplished and nobody is able to settle nicely to a task.

Order is from God. He didn't create the world in chaos. That wouldn't have worked! And we need order. But before you send away for an expensive lesson planner, or a new curriculum in a desperate grasp to retain some order think REALLY hard about what you are doing now that isn't working and WHY it isn't working. Talk to someone about it – often you'll figure out a plan all by yourself! Many people put down their precious money on SOMEONE ELSE'S IDEA OF WHAT YOUR CHILDREN SHOULD BE LEARNING – when they could have better spent that money on a massive Lego set or a scientific microscope!

There are people who call themselves “Planner Junkies”. If they are happy, I'm happy for them! If you don't believe me just google “Homeschooling Planners” or “Household Planners” - people are making LOTS OF MONEY from this racket! And other people are sitting at home looking at a great big thick binders with pretty covers, full of pages that require you to write down every item of clothing in your wardrobe so you never waste money on doubling up, or losing something in the back of your drawers. Or a weekly plan for teaching your child each letter of the alphabet/a specific colour/character trait/ – with a poem and a song for each one, from now till 8 months ahead. Or a master shopping list and how many of each item you still have in your pantry at any given time ...

Ok, maybe I exaggerated a little. But you go and see for yourself what people like to plan. If you see a planner you like and you KNOW you will use it, please get it!

However, if, like me, you desire order and simplicity, and are attracted by terms like FRUGAL, EASY and JUST FOR YOU - read on!

This is pretty much the easiest and cheapest organising system I've used or seen.

Get a ring binder, a lined refill and some dividers. Beccause we have a small house, with very few available surfaces to keep my folder open on I have used an A5 2-ring binder. To fill it I bought two A5 pads and neatly punched holes in them. This was a lot cheaper than buying ready-made A5 paper with holes already punched in it. Then I bought a pack of coloured cardboard and made my own dividers.

Name the dividers something like:

WE LIKE

WE WANT TO DO

THINGS WE SAID OR DID

PEOPLE

OTHER INFORMATION

HEALTH

In WE LIKE ask your children what they like to do and make lists! Come back to it again the next week and add to it. Add to it during the following weeks as something comes up in natural conversation. Note down what the children like to play with at certain stages, and also if you notice something you'd like to buy for them, or save up for that they would enjoy.

Record visits to friends, outings to various places, shops, library, great books you've enjoyed, things you have listened to etc. Go back through this list from time to time to remind yourself what the children liked doing/seeing/listening to. This can also prompt you to organise yourself a little better to make visits that will tie in with interests your children have i.e., visiting local historic sites, beachcombing, local walking tracks, photographic outings, bus trips, train trips etc. You might like to stick tickets or photos in here too.

Another really great thing to put under this section is a list of all the meals and favourite snacks and baking your family likes. This list may change, everyone may go off anzac biscuits one day (I don't think so!!). You can cross it off if they do, but cross it out neatly because later everyone may decide they like them again.

It can be fun looking at lists you made ages ago (not shopping lists that are designed to be taken out to the supermarket – not left on the kitchen table – used, then thrown away - unless you are wise enough to make a MASTER SHOPPING LIST which you photocopy - highly recommended!) but REAL lists, like one I found on the pantry door under some lovely artwork that I'd stuck over the top: finish deck, plant trees along south boundary … These were jobs I hoped would be finished by 2006 … most of them have actually been done now (six years later!) – that gives me a feeling of progress! If I had made that list in my folder I would have put it under the following section:

WE WANT TO DO - yes, make lists! Things to do around the home – short term and long term; places you'd like to visit; friends you want to catch up with; notes taken from books, websites, blogs or ideas/inspriation you gain when talking to friends. If your children are going through a phase – say cryogenics - then get them to draw a picture of what they think a cryogenic laboratory would look like, date it, and put it into this part of your folder!

If you hear of a book/website you might like to read, write the title and author/other details down here.

A list of Bible references to verses you'd like to memorize can go here too. Tick or cross off when you have written them onto an index card and got them into your memorization system.

Just a note here about getting good ideas from books: I have been inclined, in the past, to read a book too quickly. If it looks good after the first chapter, I'm so excited about getting good information that I run through it, promising myself that I will come back and make notes on the very best bits so I don't forget them. Well, inevitably something else catches my attention when I have finished the book and I never get back to it to make notes. Learn from my mistake! Don't do this!! If you're reading something encouraging or inspirational STOP AND MAKE NOTES – put them in this “WE WANT TO DO” portion of your notebook. Many times I have read a book – for example a book of art activities for children – and I have found ONE good idea that I'd like to try sometime. Well, this is the place that I will now record this amazing idea before it gets lost in time and space!

THINGS WE SAID OR DID should be available to quickly write down precious things the children say or do that you know you will forget! The other day I was organising everyone for a trip into town. I called down the hallway to one of our older boys “Do you have any library books that need to be returned?” Our 2 year old, who was already buckled into his carseat called out from the van “No! I'm too little!” Now I won't forget that because I've written it here! We actually have quite a large quantity of “Childlike Quotes” - I haven't written them all down - we only remember them because the older ones think they are so funny they repeat them from time to time. Much safer to write them down I think!

You might like to quickly note major achievements here also – riding a bike on 2-wheels, putting own gumboots on, tying shoes by self, showing great patience and hospitality with a difficult visitor ...

PEOPLE etc is like an address book, but give each person a decent amount of room – say quarter or half a page. Write their name, address, phone number, email, children's names, any birthdays you know of (and also note down ideas for presents as they come up naturally during the year - such as “likes beads and wire to make things with”)

The “etc” of this part is for any other information you might need to refer back to such as user names for various websites, a list of organisations you like to donate money to and their bank account details …

OTHER INFORMATION well – my section here is blank, but it feels comfortable to have a “safety net” where I can put information that might not fit anywhere else!

HEALTH My system involves a bit of double-handling, yours doesn't have to – and of course, you might be the sort of person who loves to put this on the computer. Once again – I stress that you should do what works for you and your family!

I have a page for each person, and then a page for the whole family in date order showing who was ill and when, and if we needed to take anything for it. When people have a cold I just write “A cold” but if it's more serious I write more detail. It's ever so easy to forget how long ago things happened if you don't write them down. If I was asked when Daddy cut the top of his thumb off at work I might guess … 2 or 3 years ago? But looking on Daddy's health page I see it was 5 years ago!

Setting up this sort of system can be time consuming; or fun, depending on what sort of person you are! One of our children loves to read back through to see what we've been up to! It actually makes more sense of “time” when a child can see what happened and when during their lifetime. And that's another page you can insert here somewhere – perhaps under OTHER INFORMATION: a timeline showing your life as a family: when the first child was born, when you got the cat, when the dog died, when you had a big holiday or moved house, when the next baby came along, when the goat had a kid, when the first chicks were born ... We once made a similar timeline that we put on the wall for a while, but a page inside your planner would be neat and be there longer for the children to read/add to. Yes, excellent idea – I'm just off to do that right now!

This simple and easy little system won't work UNLESS YOU USE IT! Have your folder out where you can see it all the time. Keep a pen or pencil RIGHT WITH IT all the time.

This planner might seem too simple for some people. Well – it is simple but it works! Feel free to make it more complicated/detailed if that suits you better!

CORRECT TOOLS FOR THE JOB

Here's a wee peek from my soon-to-be published book.  I would GREATLY appreciate any feedback!  Thank you!!

WORK WITH YOUR CHILDREN

      Having your children work alongside you slows you down and often makes more work – but it's often like a game for a small child! The long-term benefits of doing this are major and something that you can lose sight of during the early years.

    

      I like having special index cards (you can either write or draw quick pictures) showing jobs that small children can do by themselves that you have lead them through step-by-step quite a few times: i.e., tidy the shoe cupboard, clean the door handles etc.

      Add to the cards as you teach new jobs. Some children love the cards, others might like a list on a clipboard with a pencil they can use to tick items off, or a little notebook.

Please remember that we all need three things to complete a job correctly and well:

1. The knowledge of how to do a job
2. The correct tools for the job
3. A good attitude!

      Please tell your child this gently and often so they can be confident that if they lack any of the above they can ask you for help. Here's a quick rundown on my thoughts on those three points:

KNOWLEDGE OF HOW TO DO A JOB

     You can make it a whole lot easier for your child if YOU work out how to do a job properly for a start! Do you want your child to take responsibility for emptying the kitchen rubbish each day? Do it yourself a few times noting what makes it easier or harder. Are the replacement rubbish bags in a jumble in a drawer or are they each to reach? Is the lid of the rubbish bin outside hard to take off? Can you reach the bin easily? Go through step by step YOURSELF before taking your child through the steps. You can then be more confident when they come to ask you a question about the job.

THE CORRECT TOOLS FOR A JOB

      Once again go through the job yourself with a mind to WHAT you use that is efficient and makes the job easier and more pleasant. Have a bucket of tools that the child is allowed to use i.e., a toothbrush to clean in the corners of the shower, a squeegie to dry the walls round the bath. Think about whether you want to use all natural cleaners (HIGHLY suggested!) or a spray bottle of something from the supermarket?

      “Correct Tools” comes down to baskets and boxes to put things in also. When you're doing a major tidy-up in the whole house put a box outside each bedroom/cupboard door in the hallway. As you pick things up from around the house put them into the box of the room/cupboard they belong in. This saves having to actually enter the room, and find a place to put the item. Start in the kitchen, removing items that should be in another room, then go to the lounge and move down the hall from there. If you run out of time to complete the cleanup then you can just move the full box into the right room and leave it there for another day.

       The “tools” for this job are simple enough – a box for each room – but without the boxes the job is much harder!

A GOOD ATTITUDE

      If a child is really struggling with their attitude towards work I suggest praying about it because if a child (or an adult) has to find a good attitude from “within” when they're not asking God for help then they're possibly going to have a real uphill struggle finding one!

      Check that your expectations are realistic and pleasantly work alongside your child as much as possible. This goes a long way towards a good attitude from children.

      Although many times it may seem easier, quicker and involve less conflict for you to do the job yourself, in the long-run it creates bad feeling, cheats your child of a sense of belonging in the family, a sense of purpose and also stops them learning valuable skills and hidden things about themselves that they might not have uncovered if you hadn't taken the time and energy (and sometimes it requires a LOT of energy and patience from you) to have them working within the family.

      As indicated before we have “Job Cards” (see resource section – Steve & Teri Maxwell's  Managers of Their Homes). Although these took a bit of work to set up, I am very grateful for them now. They work for us – when I am faithful enough to follow-through and train diligently with our children. I have been very grateful for these cards and the training that I have put in so far – especially when I had to spend time away from home recently and Daddy was in charge – his job was made easier by the fact that the children knew what needed to be done at what time of the day.

      Using our job cards within our normal schedule gives the children greater comfort knowing when they will be expected to complete jobs, and when they will have time for free-play.

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God Bless

The Mummalady

STILL LEARNING

I am getting quite good at this Mummy thing - some days.

However, the computer baffles me.

I thought I had started a new blog over at our www.willowcottage.co.nz website, but it appears it's DISAPPEARED!!!!

So please stick with me while I spend as little time as possible on the computer achieving as much as I can in that short time.

In the meantime we wanted to share a great idea for a poster - shown above.   Draw a line down the centre of a huge piece of cardboard (the back of an old advertising-type poster is good to use).  Stick pictures of "Living Things" on one side, and "Non-Living Things" on the other side.

And now I am off to do what I do best ... the Mummy thing.

God Bless
The Mummalady