iphone apps for preschoolers

In our modern world of technology, many children are becoming "techno tots". Our children have learned how to navigate their way through their own apps on daddy's iphone. Even our two year old can show her grandparents how to play some of her games and work through the alphabet.

We have downloaded some specific apps that help them with skills they are currently learning as well as some apps just for fun. Most of the apps we have chosen are free, with a few exceptions of some that they really like.

Below are a few of their favorites:

This ABC Trace app allows them to trace letters with their finger or a special stylis for iphones/ipads.

This app is all about the basics of the alphabet, colors, numbers, etc.

This app helps them learn Spanish vocabulary. Que bueno! This is probably mommy's favorite since I am extremely passionate about the Spanish language and I am teaching them how to speak it : )

This app is a narrated version of the story of Noah's Ark. It adds images to the story as the child touches the screen. It's really cute!

This one is just for fun. The girls love to mix, bake and decorate cupcakes with this app.

This is another fun app. By touching the screen, they can dress the princesses and rearrange their outfits. They can even add their own face to the image.

Baby girl

You really are sugar "n" spice. Our littlest princess... you are three months today. Just like with your sisters, it seems like yesterday. The time goes so quickly. I just want to bottle it up. I want to catch it and hold it and savor every moment.

I cannot seem to hold you or kiss your little face enough. When I see you smile and when I hear you "talking", my heart melts in a puddle on the floor.

I look into your small bright eyes and wonder who you will be. What will you be like?

I pray. I pray for you and who you will become. I pray for us. I pray that we will guide you and love you like we should. That we will point you to Him and you will run to Him with open arms.

We are so excited that you have joined us on this journey of life.

Happy three months little one.

Nature's decor {this and that}

I am a lover of nature. Our Heavenly Father is the best artist! My favorite things to look at are the stars, rainbows, the moon, flowers and bodies of water.....all things natural. Aren't they amazing?!?

One day recently, I was looking out the window and spotted these little "green guys" hanging in a tree outside. I thought they would be so fun to decorate with.

They are hedgeapples and they were fun to create with.

Anyway, that's it! Just had to share.

(Another great aspect - they were free! )

Where's Doodle? {Third edition}

This is our third daughter… a sweet and very compliant one, who has inherited the nickname "Doodle". She takes daily naps and goes to bed like clockwork. She enjoys most everything from riding in the car to playing with her sisters and even entertains herself for long periods of time. She is such a joy to our family!

Let’s not be mistaken, however. She is full of energy and adventure. As to keep up with her older sisters, she began walking at eight months. We were so proud and she….oh so delighted.

Since then, she has been known to climb the stairs – on the inside and outside of the staircase….GASP! She has also scaled tables, chairs, drawers, the fireplace hearth, desks – you name it. We have found her in the most inconspicuous places. Each Wednesday, I will share a glimpse of them with you in the "Where's Doodle?" segment.

This girl is on the move, which means so are we.

What's your busy toddler doing these days?

Many hands make light work

One aspect I enjoy (and will enjoy in days to come) about homeschooling and being able to have the kids home more, is implementing life skills into their day.

Although our children are still pretty young, we are trying to encourage the idea of teamwork in light of family. As all mothers/parents know.....it's a lot of work to keep up a home and care for several people. It takes everyone pitching in to make it happen and to keep things running smoothly.

I've found that it's a beautiful thing that our kids LOVE to help mommy and daddy around the house. They are always asking, what can I clean? Can I help you cook? Can I help you fix that? Can I vacuum?

Many times I have said "oh, thank you honey, but I'm just going to do such and such real quick." You know...it always goes a lot quicker when you do it yourself and don't have little ones in tow. Then, I realized I was shooting myself in the foot. As they saying goes, strike while the iron is hot, right?!

What was I thinking?! These kids want to help and I'm telling them no?!

So, we've begun to give them age appropriate tasks to help around the house. Obviously, they've started helping by picking up their toys after they are finished playing. They also really enjoy cleaning the glass doors and windows within their reach. My husband recently bought a hand held vacuum that they also like to use to clean up little spills.

Yes, they are probably still in the "honeymoon" stage of blissfully doing tasks and I'm sure it will become a little daunting as they grow up. My hope is that we can always keep it somewhat fun by using our chore chart, singing while we work and giving out rewards accordingly.

Building good habits while they are young will benefit our family in the short term and benefit them as single and married adults in the long term.

What are some ways your children contribute around the house? How do you make it fun and rewarding?

Peace

Recently, while the babies were napping and the older girls played quietly, I sat with a cup of coffee and my favorite creamer. Ahhh....sweet bliss! As I looked at the cup I had chosen, it read:

“Peace. It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart." (author unknown)

That quote seems to sum up so much the season of life we are in. Maybe the season most of us mothers of little ones are in. Rarely, if ever, is there a quiet moment in this house. With four children under five, it may seem like peace is an impossible goal. It isn’t. Above many other things, I value peace. I continue to learn to find peace in the midst of the busyness and noise.

I wouldn't trade these moments for the world. In the midst of a toy cluttered home with laundry and dishes piled as high as Mount Everest, there is still room for a calm heart.

The Bible says, "Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4:7 NLV). This is a peace that supercedes present circumstances. A peace that trumps all conflict, ruckus, trials, and tragedy. A peace only He can give.

So, wherever you are in this journey called life. However “loud” your circumstances may be, I pray you find this peace.

In what ways do you quiet your heart?

Swagbucks {Frugal Friday}

This may be a familiar term to you. You may be an avid follower or you may not have a clue what I’m talking about.

Well, let me introduce you to the Swagbuck phenomenon. I was excited to be introduced to Swagbucks over a year ago. The thought of getting something for free is a very exciting concept for me and Swagbucks is just that.

Basically, Swagbucks rewards you for searching online. As you search, you randomly win digital “Swagbucks” for your searches (and other means on their site like daily polls, etc.). As your digital bucks add up, you can cash them in for various items.

It has become quite an event in our house. Even the kids get excited when mommy wins Swagbucks. I know, I know...we're a little strange.

I have gotten oodles of gift cards with my Swagbuck rewards and used them for gifts or to buy various items for homeschooling. I usually opt to use my Swagbucks to get Amazon gift cards. Since we are on our own when it comes to curriculum and school supplies, it has really helped to offset the cost.

I also use my Amazon gift cards to buy books on my book list. In fact, tomorrow I will be getting Calm My Anxious Heart: A Woman's Guide to Finding Contentment for FREE on Amazon. Woo Hoo!

If you haven’t signed up, I encourage you to check it out…heck you even get several Swagbucks just for doing that. Who knew?!? You can click on this Swagbucks link to check out what the craze is all about.

In future posts, I will be sharing how to rack up your digital "dollars".

Are you already a "Swaggernaut"? If so, share your Swagbuck strategy with us.

(Note: the links in this post are my referral links.)

Indian Summer

We've definitely reached winter here in the Midwest. Last week, however, offered an amazing surprise. Temperatures rose significantly for a couple of days. The sun brightened spirits.

On one of those beautiful sunlit days, we grabbed some jackets and hats and headed for the lake one last time until spring.

The girls loved having the sand between their fingers. The sun beamed on our faces. It was perfect. Beautiful nature. Making memories.

Where's Doodle? Second edition

This is our third daughter… a sweet and very compliant one, who has inherited the nickname "Doodle". She takes naps and goes to bed like clockwork. She enjoys most everything from riding in the car to playing with her sisters and even entertains herself for long periods of time. She is such a joy to our family!

Let’s not be mistaken, however. She is full of energy and adventure. As to keep up with her older sisters, she began walking at eight months. We were so proud and she….oh so delighted.

Since then, she has been known to climb the stairs – on the inside and outside of the staircase….GASP! She has also scaled tables, chairs, drawers, the fireplace hearth, desks – you name it. We have found her in the most inconspicuous places. Each Wednesday, I will share a glimpse of them with you in the "Where's Doodle?" segment.

This girl is on the move, which means so are we.

Tiny tots at "school"

As I said last week, I want to dedicate Tuesdays to discussing topics about homeschooling, curriculum, resources, crafts ideas, etc.

Although in the past two years I have searched through many books, followed several blogs, observed homeschooling families and prayed about and researched the whole idea of

homeschooling....we are just rookies this year. We are just skimming the surface of this journey.

With three of our four children being under the age of three (2 1/2, 1 and 2 months), it can be pretty interesting, at times. While working on preschool activities with the oldest, I try to find fun and engaging activities for the younger ones - the baby tends to prefer sleeping ; )

Below are a few of the activities that they enjoy and that keep them somewhat occupied.

(I'm not sure who likes these Do-a-Dot Art Markers more....the kids or myself?!)

(Everyone likes to play with these Guidecraft Rainbow Blocks . The kids even discovered that when you put the different colored blocks together that the primary colors make secondary colors.)

(These Counting Bears are great for sorting, counting, learning colors or just to play with.)

Another tidbit: I got two of these three items FREE using Amazon gift cards that I got using my Swagbucks, which I will discuss in a future post.

How do your tiny tots participate in your homeschool activities or if you don't homeschool, what fun activities do you do at home with little ones? We'd love to know.

(Note: the links in this post are my referral links.)

Who's in your village?

We've all heard the quote, "it takes a village to raise a child". Boy, isn't that the truth?! It makes me think of all of the people in our lives that make this parenting journey much smoother, more purposeful, more effective and more fun. Those people that invest in our lives or the lives of our children. Some of them include:

• family
• friends
• our awesome babysitter
• our church
• MOPS
• fellow "mommy bloggers"
• community programs (our city has a great public library and parks department)

This parenting thing is not something any of us can do alone. It would be impossible. It's a tough, yet extremely rewarding calling. As in other areas of life, we need one another for encouragement, help, strength, prayer, advice and accountability.

Although you may feel alone in your efforts of parenting, take a good look around you. Who is in your village?

By the way, if you are reading this and you are part of our village -thanks!

Slimming down for the New Year

Each Friday, in honor of "Frugal Friday", I plan to post some tidbits about being frugal and saving money in various aspects of life. As I stated in another area of the blog, if there were an 11th Commandment, I'm pretty convinced it would be "Thou shall not pay full price for anything". {insert laugh}

Since we have just entered a new year, the time when many people vow to make changes for the good including slimming down the wasteline, I thought it would be helpful to give tips to get all of us thinking on how we can slim down our expenses. Isn't it a good thing to constantly reevaluate where those hard earned dollars are going?!?

There are probably several ways we all could save money in order to be able to save more, give more and manage less stuff.

Here are a few tips to get you thinking:

• Cable/bundle packages - TV (one of the biggest time stealers we have), do you need all of the channels that you actually pay for? What about something like Netflix where you can pick and choose when and what to watch. Or even more radically....what about no TV this year?!

• Landline telephones - can you forego the landline and just use cell phones if you have them?

• Cell phone plans - do you use all of the minutes and messaging you pay for each month?

• Memberships - are you regularly paying for memberships that you are not taking advantage of; gyms, clubs? Can you work out it home or just enjoy the great outdoors this year?
• Insurance - are you getting the best deal to protect your cars, home, family, and possessions? Shop around.

• Fees - are you paying fees for services you can get for free? Bank accounts, late fees, annual credit card fees. There is a lot of competition out there and most likely you can get the same or similar service for cheaper or for free.

I've found one thing that really challenges me is to dig a little deeper than the surface and actually reevaluate perspective. What is necessity, really? Unfortunately, our American culture thrives on bigger, better, faster, stronger and newer. The things we sometimes think we cannot live without are luxuries that most people around the world will never possess in a lifetime.

Do you plan to slim down in 2012? If so, share some of your tips with us.

School Days

Last fall, we started homeschooling. Through much thought, prayer, and picking the brains of veteran homeschoolers, we made the decision to homeschool our kids. In later posts, I will describe our thoughts as we went through the process to make this decision.

Since our oldest is only 4 1/2, we are doing preschool at home pretty lightheartedly and just having fun learning new things and getting somewhat of a schedule to prepare for more "serious" school in the future months/years.

We are currently using the Letter of the Week Curriculum from another blog that I follow. It's a really fun way to go through the alphabet. Since our preschooler is almost five, it's pretty simple for her, but I supplement with phonics activities and other reading materials. Our two year old participates with us and the girls enjoy working on some of the activities and crafts together.

Each Tuesday, I plan to dedicate posts to homeschool topics such as resources, craft ideas, and a glimpse into our homeschooling world.

In fact, here is a glimpse into this week as we take on the letter "L". Take note of what happens when Presley joins us in the last two photos.

And here we go....

Welcome and thanks for visiting. I'm so excited because I've had a desire for more than a year to start this blog. A desire that has been sparked by being inspired, encouraged, educated and challenged by following other "mommy" blogs. I have learned so much and found that I'm not alone in the adventure of raising little ones or in any other area of life, for that matter. I couldn't help but get on board.

Having four small children has limited my opportunities to sit and read lengthy books, so I have thoroughly enjoyed hopping onto blogs that have nuggets of inspiration and resources for the things I enjoy and those areas of life in which I'm trying to grow.

So, I hope you will join me in this journey as I share about my experiences and passions for motherhood, homeschooling, frugality, health and fitness, foreign missions, life as a Christ follower and a little bit of this and that. I look forward to hearing from you, as well.