by admin -

Fasten Your Seatbelts

Something happened.

Something terrifying yet exciting all at the same time. A certain someone in my house  STARTED DRIVER’S ED LAST NIGHT!!!!!!

As much as I looked forward to and dreaded this day her whole life, I am not ready. Do you hear me world? I am not ready for my little girl to drive. My husband has allowed her to back the car out of the driveway a few times and each time I am struck with a massive pain in my chest.

I have read the statistics, I know how dangerous the roads are in my area.  We are taking all the required precautions before she gets her license; driver’s ed, online practice tests, and lots of practice in empty parking lots. 🙂 Even though I am not ready, she is ready, her dad is ready, and deep down I am excited at the thought of not being a taxi driver for the next 16 years.

The National Safety Council has created a program called Alive at 25 for parents like me. This program helps parents and kids work through real life examples that reinforce good driving skills. Midas is currently offering this program free to anyone who registers on the website. I’ll be taking advantage of every free program available to help relieve some of these chest pains.

I know she will take the privilege of driving very seriously. Maryland makes it nearly impossible to get a driver’s license and for that I am thankful. Someone once told me that raising teenagers was harder than raising toddlers. I found it hard to believe back then. Not anymore.

by admin -

JumpStart Giveaway

My kids were introduced to the JumpStart 3D Virtual World about a year ago. Since then they have enjoyed visiting the site during their weekly computer time. When JumpStart offered to extend my membership so I could review some of their new features my kids were very excited.

I sat down to spend some time in the virtual world the other day and immediately knew how my parents felt when they couldn’t program the VCR all those years ago! The whole thing didn’t make much sense to me, but I continued on, confident that if I could write a blog I could play an internet game designed for young children. While I sat in front of my computer visiting the different places in the virtual world I slowly gained an audience.

As my children gathered around to watch me play the games the excitement was building.

“Play the pearl game mom!”

“Watch out for the what-cha-ma-call-its!”

“Go over there to get a coin!”

“You almost earned a sand dollar!”

“Push the jump button!”

Turn around, go back, you’re going to miss it!”

It wasn’t long before I found myself thoroughly engrossed in the “roll the pearl into the oyster game”. I could actually feel my competitive side rising up as I raced against the clock. I needed to earn that sand dollar, for the kids!

I found the entire experience quite amusing because I never play computer games, video games, or even watch television!

I love how the JumpStart website makes it easy for kids to navigate with a large arrow and simple key strokes. I like that my kids can create their own characters and give them a silly name. The parental controls are also a nice feature, as well the chat option that is made up of appropriate phrases. Kids cannot type their own words, which cuts down on the bathroom humor my young boys are so fond of sharing.

All in all, I found the JumpStart 3D Virtual World to be a fun and safe place for my kids to play games online. There are virtual worlds for kids ages three to eight, but even my nine year old still enjoys playing during his computer time.

The folks at JumpStart have offered a free 6 month premium membership to one of my readers. To enter to win the membership leave me a comment. The giveaway ends Monday, April 12, 2010.

by admin -

Cora and Kit ~ One Year

Cora and Kit

Can you believe it has been a year?

1 week

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

8 Months

Photobucket


9 months

10 months

11 months

cora and kit

1 year old today

Cora and Kit

Happy Birthday Sweet Cora!

by admin -

Simplify the Morning Routine

As a homeschooling family it isn’t often we need to be out the door early in the morning. This makes Sunday mornings quite a challenge for our family, with seven children going in seven different directions it is easy for patience to run short. Anything I can do to simplify our morning routine keeps the Happy family, happy on the way to church.

A few years ago I started doing two simple things. It started just on Sunday, but it has become our routine any time we need to leave the house early in the morning.

The night before we lay out all our clothes for the next day. From shoes to hair bows, everything is grouped together and set aside for the next morning. Clothing is approved by mom or dad and we make sure it all fits before crunch time. This saves us from mismatched socks, missing shoes, too short pants, and stained shirts the next morning.

I know many people already do this, so I am going to share with you my other secret to getting seven kids ready on time in the morning.

I let my kids sleep in their clothes.

There you go, for those of you who wonder how I do it all, that is my secret weapon. I know all my ironing readers (like my mom and mother-in-law) are cringing at this idea, but it really works! My boys wake up in the morning dressed for church. For those of you who are picturing my children in wrinkled clothes, that is not totally true. My boys usually wear knit shirts and they don’t wrinkle too much.

Getting ready the night before applies to lunches, book bags, and anything else you need to take with you the next day. For some reason getting ready the night before is always a time saver.

How about you, how do you simplify your morning routine?

This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday.