Time's really been flying by. I think I'm going to continue with last month's theme since that month kind of poofed on me.
This means, I'll continue working my way through Dragonspell with Ty. I still need to sit down and work on some Perler bead patterns with Luke. I've been trying to make a conscious effort to spend more time in general with Logan; I still haven't found something specific that we can do together. He is only 4 though, so there's time. Ideally, of course, I'll continue doing these things even after I switch goals. Last month's needs a little more time though. With the chaos that is life for our family, I want to make sure something as important as making time for my family doesn't slip through the cracks.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Just a Quick Post
Today is Ty's 11th birthday. Instead of staying home, Logan and I traveled with Ty, Luke and Shaun to his work place for the day. We're hanging out here, and when my husband gets off we're all going to go to a Chinese buffet--Ty's choice--for dinner. =)
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Update: 9-20-11
I'm excited that I haven't forgotten about this yet, especially considering we're jumping headfirst into my convention season for art this month--I'll be leaving for AWA in one week and two days from now.
So far, I'm moving forward with some of my plans that I posted about in my last blog. I have a book to read with Ty, and I have until October to finish it. I've had it sitting on my bedside table for about a week now and I still haven't had a chance to start it--I blame convention prep for that since it's had me working right up until my bed time the last week or so. Shame on me though; I need to make more time to actually read that book because he's really looking forward to going out and talking about it.
I haven't made any specific plans with Luke yet. I showed him the blog entry series from Volpin Props on how he made his Daft Punk helmet. I told him that we wouldn't be able to do anything that complicated right now, but we will pick up some smaller, simpler projects that use similar techniques, so we can learn how to make stuff like that. Maybe after some practice we can work up to something a complicated like that. I think he likes the idea of putting together a Transformer suit eventually.
Nothing new with Logan; I'm still up in the air with him. We know he likes cars, blocks and movies, but that's fairly standard for boys his age. I have read a couple of books with him this week that he picked out. He hasn't really fleshed out what his more unique interests are yet; we need to work on him not 100% parroting his older brothers.
So far, I'm moving forward with some of my plans that I posted about in my last blog. I have a book to read with Ty, and I have until October to finish it. I've had it sitting on my bedside table for about a week now and I still haven't had a chance to start it--I blame convention prep for that since it's had me working right up until my bed time the last week or so. Shame on me though; I need to make more time to actually read that book because he's really looking forward to going out and talking about it.
I haven't made any specific plans with Luke yet. I showed him the blog entry series from Volpin Props on how he made his Daft Punk helmet. I told him that we wouldn't be able to do anything that complicated right now, but we will pick up some smaller, simpler projects that use similar techniques, so we can learn how to make stuff like that. Maybe after some practice we can work up to something a complicated like that. I think he likes the idea of putting together a Transformer suit eventually.
Nothing new with Logan; I'm still up in the air with him. We know he likes cars, blocks and movies, but that's fairly standard for boys his age. I have read a couple of books with him this week that he picked out. He hasn't really fleshed out what his more unique interests are yet; we need to work on him not 100% parroting his older brothers.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Update: 9-13-11
I've been giving some thought to what I'd posted last Tuesday. It's moving slowly, but I have come up with some activities that I can share with my two older boys; I'm still clueless as to what my youngest is interested in, aside from following his brothers around.
My oldest, Ty, really likes reading and creative things. I like reading too, so I thought we might put together a mini book club for just the two of us. We'll take turns picking books; that way he can share books he's enjoyed, and I can share books I enjoyed when I was his age. Once a month, we'll go out to breakfast or something, and we'll talk about the books. Another thought I had to try later is to try writing a story with him. He's really into writing his own stuff. I thought it might be a good exercise to reinforce the writing process, and it would be something we could do together. I don't want to bite off too much early on, especially since we're still adjusting to the changes that came with this last move.
My second, Luke, really likes building and creating things. Recently he's gotten into Perler beads. He loves creating neat designs with those. I'm thinking he and I can work together to make some neat things with that. I can help with creating patterns since Perler beads aren't too far off from the cross stitching I used to do. Moving on from there I might invite him to learn how to work with resins, plastics, and other supplies I use for costume prop-building.
I'm still not sure what I can do with Logan, my youngest, aside from give him more attention in general. I'm thinking maybe sitting down to read a book with him, outside of school time. It's kind of difficult to see where his interests are, like what he really likes. His ability to talk is still limited. He likes doing everything he sees his brothers doing or what they like. A lot of this is just copying them though; I'm trying to figure out what he likes that makes him different from Ty and Luke. Maybe I'll have something for next week.
This week, I'll be reading from Dragon Spell; I let Ty pick our first book. I'm thinking about working with Luke to come up with some Pokemon themed bead patterns, since he really like's Pokemon right now. Logan... I'm going to keep working with him to see what he likes.
My oldest, Ty, really likes reading and creative things. I like reading too, so I thought we might put together a mini book club for just the two of us. We'll take turns picking books; that way he can share books he's enjoyed, and I can share books I enjoyed when I was his age. Once a month, we'll go out to breakfast or something, and we'll talk about the books. Another thought I had to try later is to try writing a story with him. He's really into writing his own stuff. I thought it might be a good exercise to reinforce the writing process, and it would be something we could do together. I don't want to bite off too much early on, especially since we're still adjusting to the changes that came with this last move.
My second, Luke, really likes building and creating things. Recently he's gotten into Perler beads. He loves creating neat designs with those. I'm thinking he and I can work together to make some neat things with that. I can help with creating patterns since Perler beads aren't too far off from the cross stitching I used to do. Moving on from there I might invite him to learn how to work with resins, plastics, and other supplies I use for costume prop-building.
I'm still not sure what I can do with Logan, my youngest, aside from give him more attention in general. I'm thinking maybe sitting down to read a book with him, outside of school time. It's kind of difficult to see where his interests are, like what he really likes. His ability to talk is still limited. He likes doing everything he sees his brothers doing or what they like. A lot of this is just copying them though; I'm trying to figure out what he likes that makes him different from Ty and Luke. Maybe I'll have something for next week.
This week, I'll be reading from Dragon Spell; I let Ty pick our first book. I'm thinking about working with Luke to come up with some Pokemon themed bead patterns, since he really like's Pokemon right now. Logan... I'm going to keep working with him to see what he likes.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Building Bridges With My Boys
For September, my focus will be building bridges with my boys. In other words, I want to work on building a stronger relationship with each of them. Clearly, this is a good thing, but what does it mean practically?
Practically, it means I need to try and spend a little bit of time with each of my boys each day, whenever possible. Today it will not be possible to spend any time really with my two older boys. They are off with my husband today--my husband works about 2.5 hours away, and that is where Ty and Luke's scout troop is. Long story short: we own a house in the Raleigh area; my husband got a job after graduating from NC State with his PhD; we put our house on the market and moved closer to where he works (renting). After a year, our house still hadn't sold, and we were running out of money to pay for both rent and a mortgage, so we made the not-so-fun choice to move back to the house we owned. My husband would commute; we'd still keep the house up for sale, and if it sold, we'd move back down near to where my husband's work is. To avoid disrupting the lives of our kids too much, we opted to keep them with their scout troops, since our last move nearly cost Ty his Arrow of Light, which anyone who knows anything about scouts will know that's a fairly important achievement for those getting ready to move from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. Different troops do different things at different times, so changing troops created some overlap and gaps for Ty. But, that means, Ty and Luke will be hanging with their Dad today, and he will take them to Scouts tonight. They will probably not be home until really late tonight. We homeschool, so I'm thankful that our schedule is flexible enough to allow them Tuesdays off to travel like that, and then sleep in on Wednesdays since they get home so late.
Believe it or not, that was the short version of the story. XD Back on track... Things I can do to work on my relationship with my boys is 1) spend a little bit of time with them every day outside of school time, 2) set aside longer periods of time where I spend time doing things each boy enjoys, and 3) paying attention to them when they want my attention even if it's not especially convenient for me. Let's see how this goes with this first week.
Practically, it means I need to try and spend a little bit of time with each of my boys each day, whenever possible. Today it will not be possible to spend any time really with my two older boys. They are off with my husband today--my husband works about 2.5 hours away, and that is where Ty and Luke's scout troop is. Long story short: we own a house in the Raleigh area; my husband got a job after graduating from NC State with his PhD; we put our house on the market and moved closer to where he works (renting). After a year, our house still hadn't sold, and we were running out of money to pay for both rent and a mortgage, so we made the not-so-fun choice to move back to the house we owned. My husband would commute; we'd still keep the house up for sale, and if it sold, we'd move back down near to where my husband's work is. To avoid disrupting the lives of our kids too much, we opted to keep them with their scout troops, since our last move nearly cost Ty his Arrow of Light, which anyone who knows anything about scouts will know that's a fairly important achievement for those getting ready to move from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. Different troops do different things at different times, so changing troops created some overlap and gaps for Ty. But, that means, Ty and Luke will be hanging with their Dad today, and he will take them to Scouts tonight. They will probably not be home until really late tonight. We homeschool, so I'm thankful that our schedule is flexible enough to allow them Tuesdays off to travel like that, and then sleep in on Wednesdays since they get home so late.
Believe it or not, that was the short version of the story. XD Back on track... Things I can do to work on my relationship with my boys is 1) spend a little bit of time with them every day outside of school time, 2) set aside longer periods of time where I spend time doing things each boy enjoys, and 3) paying attention to them when they want my attention even if it's not especially convenient for me. Let's see how this goes with this first week.
Starting As I Mean To Go On
This blog is mostly for personal accountability. I have been reading Raising Motivated Kids by Cheri Fuller, and it's brought a lot of things to my attention that I could do to be a better parent. In many ways, they're just little things. In this blog, I'd like to post about things I want to work on and personal goals. Each week I want to post an update on how things are going. I'm not sure if I'll post more than that, but I know I'm much more motivated if I have something like this to keep me on my toes. I have an art blog and I post works in progress on Wednesdays; if I haven't done anything for my art business, then I have nothing to post, so it encourages me to make time to work on art, even if it's only an hour or two, each week.
Like most I want the best for my kids. I want them to grow up to be responsible, capable adults. I want them to be able to follow after and achieve their dreams. Over the years I've resolved to do many things to be more encouraging to my kids and be a better parent in general. More often than not I lose steam, get distracted by life and quite simply just forget what I was supposed to be doing. This has also applied to my exercise and healthy eating habits. My first goal then will be to maintain this blog.
Each month I'd like to pick something I'd like to work on, and that something is what I'll address in my weekly updates for that month. Conveniently it's still fairly early in September, so I don't feel obliged to wait until October to start. Does anyone else do that? There's something about starting at or near the beginning of a month. Anyways, for September, I would like to focus on building bridges with my boys. To keep myself organized mentally, I'm going to post more on that in another post.
Like most I want the best for my kids. I want them to grow up to be responsible, capable adults. I want them to be able to follow after and achieve their dreams. Over the years I've resolved to do many things to be more encouraging to my kids and be a better parent in general. More often than not I lose steam, get distracted by life and quite simply just forget what I was supposed to be doing. This has also applied to my exercise and healthy eating habits. My first goal then will be to maintain this blog.
Each month I'd like to pick something I'd like to work on, and that something is what I'll address in my weekly updates for that month. Conveniently it's still fairly early in September, so I don't feel obliged to wait until October to start. Does anyone else do that? There's something about starting at or near the beginning of a month. Anyways, for September, I would like to focus on building bridges with my boys. To keep myself organized mentally, I'm going to post more on that in another post.
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