Yes, Even Chores Create Wonderful Memories

Noah-the-Pooh and I have been reading Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls (yes the same Laura Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie). It is such a lovely book and Noah-the-Pooh is just loving every minute of it.

One of the things that I found interesting was how Laura Ingalls cherished the memories of everyday chores.

She describes in detail how much she enjoyed helping Ma make butter. I'm sure at the time Ma didn't think that her homemade butterpats with strawberry imprints were going to be one of Laura's cherished memories, but they were.

And when Pa was making bullets and cleaning his rifle oh so carefully, he sure wasn't thinking how this everyday chore was shaping his daughter's childhood, and later, her womanhood. But it did.

I've been thinking a lot about this lately, especially since I've been slacking on making sure the boys chores are done. Reading this book gave me a new perspecive on chores. Doing chores keeps the house clean and teaches life skills, as well as teaching character and creating lovely childhood memories.

Check out this blog called TeachingGoodThings were you can get a free 7 day course on how to teach your little guys and dolls practical (and fun!) skills that they are sure to cherish.

Sing Me A Lullaby Mama

I love singing and rocking my little rascals to sleep. Unfortunately, I found myself doing it less and less as my eldest rascal got older. But one special moment that Noah-the-Pooh and I shared last year reminded me that my rascals are never too old to hear their mama sing them a sweet lullaby.

Last year Noah-the-Pooh and I dove into out first year of homeschool. Rather than overwhelming ourselves with all sorts of subjects, we simply started with literature, a subject that we were both comfortable with. To our delight, our first lessons in literature would consist of learning new lullabies. We sang "Over The Rainbow", "Away In A Manger", and "Brahms Lullaby".

But the most precious moment came when we were learning "Baby Of Mine". He sat on my lap and I rocked him as I sang the lullaby to him. By the time I was done, Noah-the-Pooh was fast asleep! My 6 year old baby, rocked to sleep with a gentle lullaby.

Here are some lullaby collections that my little rascals enjoy :

Traditional Lullabies - classic lullabies

Rock Music Renditions of Lullabies - we love U2 from this collection.

Country and Folk Music Renditions of Lullabies - check out Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline!

Jazz Lullabies - with Judy Garland, Nat King Cole and June Christy!

Lullabies & Peaceful Worship - has beautiful prayers too!

Daddy's Lullabies- Now daddy can have sweet lullaby memories too!

This clip makes me cry whenever I see it *sniffle*.

Noah-The-Pooh Discovers "Dick and Jane"

Last year Noah-the-Pooh and I started our homeschooling adventure. Of course one of the measures of my success was teaching my little guy to read. We're doing it the old fashion way with phonograms and such, but it was still a slow go. He's quick in science and math, but struggles with reading.

I promised him that I would find the book that I learned to read from "Fun With Dick & Jane". I asked around at teacher stores and at the the library. Everyone gave me blank stares. Has the world forgotten Dick & Jane?

Well my sweet mama remembered. She gave Noah-the-Pooh a whole collection of Dick & Jane stories called The Storybook Treasury of Dick and Jane and Friends for Christmas and he can't stop reading it!

He is just so thrilled that he can read this big book all by himself that he actually told me "mama, you should write about this book on your blog. Everyone should have this book!". How sweet is that?

Now I know your probably wondering why I didn't search on Amazon. The truth is I don't know why. If I did I would've found a slew of Dick & Jane books at killer prices!

Here are some more Dick & Jane books you may like:

The World of Dick and Jane and Friends

Dick and Jane Fun with Our Family

Dick and Jane: We Play and Pretend

Dick and Jane: We Play Outside

All Aboard Reading Dick and Jane

Oh how wonderful it is that Noah-the-Pooh and I can share the memory of learning to read with Dick & Jane.

Do you have memories of having fun with Dick & Jane?

Are Nursery Rhymes "Too Old-Fashion"?

I recently read this disturbing article where some young London parents felt nursery rhymes were too old fashion or weren't educational.

"Britain's love affair with nursery rhymes is cooling, with parents telling a new survey that they are too old-fashioned to engage their children, a trend which educationalists say could damage reading skills."

What? Mother Goose too old fashion? Has the world gone mad? Is there such a thing as "too old fashion?"

As a vintage mama I feel that some of the best stuff out there for kids is the classic, simple, wholesome, old fashion stuff. And as a homeschooling mama I love using tried-n-true, fun, creative, this-isn't-school-we're-just-playing types of lessons.

Mother Goose is a treasure trove to a lifetime of reading. Nursery rhymes teach:

• that sounds are paired with specific letters or letter groups (phonetics)


• the unconscious rules governing speech


• to distinguish between sounds


• syllables


• rhyming (duh)


• that language is made up of a string of words


• letters and spelling

Nursery rhymes teach all of this and so much more! The best part is that they are so fun, easy and it opens the flood gates to your kids making up their own rhymes (though this could be a curse) which builds up their language skill even more!

So go now and read your little guys and dolls some "too old fashion" Mother Goose and give them a head start in language!

Looking for more fun language builders? Noah-the-Pooh and I play games from the book Phonemic Awareness . Written by some hoity-toity PH.D's that really know how to set the foundation for successful reading and spelling, this book is loaded with super simple and fun games. One of our faves is hide the alarm clock (or in our case "the cell phone"). Noah-the-Pooh steps out of the room while I hide my ringing cell phone. He tries to locate the sound to find my phone which is tougher then it sounds!