Christmas is Always December 25th

There are things or events that happen every year. We know Christmas is coming. We know we have to pay our car insurance twice a year. So, we need to save for these items, so we are not scrounging for the money when the bill comes.

We know unexpected things can come up, such as job loss. In fact, this past Christmas I had to get creative with coming up with money since I used our Christmas savings for things such as COBRA. One thing I used is Swagbucks. It’s a search engine that gives you points randomly for searching the Internet. After 450 swagbucks, you can purchase a $5.00 gift card to Amazon.com (there are other things to purchase, but this is the best one, in my opinion). I ended up having close to $100.00 saved up.

I know my dad uses a “Christmas Club” at his local bank. He deposits money into that account all year, and then receives one large check at Christmas time to pay for his gifts. There is no scrambling. The money is there. Also, you won’t have to worry about paying for those Christmas presents all next year due to using your credit card.

Also, it is okay to not spend a bundle on your family and friends. We had to cut our budget for our nieces and nephews to around $15.00 a person this year. I felt bad about doing it, but I managed to find a lot of good deals, so I could stretch my dollars. And, seriously, how much do we really need? I have found that Evan and I spend a lot of time racking our brains about what we want from other people for Christmas. Most of the time, we want nothing or very little.

Finally, we have a spreadsheet for our savings account. We have different categories within our account and I assign money to each category:

Some examples:

Emergency

New Car

Auto Maintenance

Insurance (Car & Life)

Christmas & Gifts

Vacation

Big Purchases

Medical

Clothes

By setting up categories, it allows us to plan for things that happen during the year. It also allows us to prepare for things that come up (such as a vet bill). You can put goals at the top of each one. If you want to buy a $7,000 used car in the future, put that amount at the top so you can see your goal.

Dave Ramsey suggests starting with at least $1,000 in your emergency fund. I think this is definitely a wise idea. Once you get your debt under control, you can save for three to six months of expenses. Job loss is scary. Unemployment isn’t that much money. Thanks to having money in our savings, we were able to weather that storm.

I suggest writing a list of all the expenses that you encounter during the year. I know that we pay our car insurance in January and July. Our AAA bill is in March. Our license plate is renewed in July. Our life insurance bill is due in August. I get contacts once a year. I know when everyone’s birthday is all year. And, Christmas is December 25th. If you want to save $500 for Christmas, then begin saving in January. For about $42.00 month, you can save for Christmas in small increments.

Also, some people get bonuses during the year. Don’t count on these ever! Don’t spend the money before you have it in the bank. If you do get a bonus, why not do this: Tithe it, take a small % for fun money (for those that have to spend), and then allocate the rest to your savings categories. If you get a tax return, do the same. I know if ours is what I expect it to be, we will be able to fully fund a couple of our categories for the year.

Be prepared for the things you know happen every year. Be prepared in case of the unexpected. Don’t expect your credit card to bail you out. We know that credit cards do nothing but hurt us.

Next time I want to share a couple of goals we’ve made. It is good to have goals!

If you missed it, check out Part 1 and Part 2.

Commercial Break: Nicholas’ School Update

We interrupt our financial series for an important post. For those of you who still need your Nicholas fix, here it is:

He is still doing really well in school. He’s working through his various workbooks. I’ll attach some pictures in a minute.

I am also impressed with his character. While he does have some issues we are working on, such as disrespectful talking, he really is such a wonderful boy. We, and others, have noticed that he often comes to apologize after doing something disobedient. He is still an awesome helper. On Wednesday I watched him take all of our trash to the trash can at Panera Bread all by himself.

He’s very creative and turns his blocks into all sorts of different things. I love listening to him play.  He has a great imagination!

His memory and sense of direction are both pretty great. He’s going to save me from getting lost one of these days.

He’s not a perfect kid, but he has a good heart and is becoming more teachable the older he gets. I can’t wait to see what God has in store for him.

We haven’t done anything super creative in the last two weeks, but we have been working hard on some areas that he hasn’t been able to say “that’s easy for me”.

Because I noticed that he was ready to give up when it started to get hard, I came up with something that he and I can say. Actually, it is something this struggling perfectionist needs to learn as well.

When things get hard


We don’t give up


We keep on trying


And do our best



I pray that he doesn’t strive to be perfect in all that he does, but to just work as hard as he can.

Here are some pictures from the last two weeks:

Practicing his handwriting

 

A little art time with some glitter glue

Hamming it up again

 

It is more fun to line up the markers than to draw with them.

 

Our newest student - Barbara!

 

She doesn't say much, but she's a great help with phonics lessons.

 

Learning to stay in the lines.

 

Cutting practice

 

The finished products!

I'll be back with Part 3 of my financial series in the next day or two.

Get Rid of the Debt

Another thing that really helps us financially is that we barely ever use our credit card. If we do, it is a couple of times a year just to keep it active. We always pay off the entire bill when it comes. Credit card interest can kill your finances and suck you dry. It’s not worth it. There are so many things that I want. I don’t necessarily need them, but I feel like I have to have them. I have to make a conscious effort to delay gratification. If I cannot afford it, I shouldn’t have it.

We don’t have the latest and greatest things in our house. I guess we use things to the fullest. Until recently, we had cell phones that were pretty old. If it weren’t for a great deal where we could use our current plan (a lot of minutes for a low amount) we wouldn’t have upgraded our phones. There was also the fact that my screen was shattered.

The bottom line is: You don’t need it just because everyone else has it.

I can’t begin to tell you how much I HATE debt! I absolutely hate it. I don’t want to owe anyone anything. I want to own it free and clear. Three and a half years ago we were in the process of saving for a car. Evan was driving a work vehicle and my car was getting a little old. We took it in for routine maintenance one day and were told that it was rusting out and we needed a new one right away.

We may have jumped the gun a bit, but we bought one that day and ended up with a car loan. I hated that loan from the first day it came into my life and began paying extra on our payments. We will have it paid off this year. Due to some unexpected tax law changes, we may have it paid off in the next two or three months. That will be a great day in my book!

Right now we make sacrifices so we can save up our money.  I can sleep at night. That’s a biggie for me. I don’t want to worry about money because we are in debt. We also have a smaller house with a smaller mortgage. When I was working I was paying extra on that too because I want that mortgage even smaller. We had to put the kibosh on that when I stopped working, but one day, I hope to begin that again.

If you are swimming in debt, take the steps now to get rid of it. If you have to sell things in your house for extra cash, do it. If you have time to take a second job for the time being, do it. If you are eating out all the time, stop and put that money toward extra payments. All that stuff that you had to have is not really yours if it isn’t paid in full. Somebody else owns it (and you)! If you were to lose your job or have an unexpected financial expense come up, you would be in big trouble. If you don’t owe anyone anything, then you can breathe a whole lot easier.

Dave Ramsey has something he calls the “Debt Snowball”. You can read about it here.  This is a great way to make a plan to reduce and eliminate your debt.

You’re going to be okay if you don’t keep up with the Joneses. The Joneses are probably broke anyway. It doesn’t matter if someone makes more money than you. You don’t know how much debt they’re swimming in. Foreclosures have happened all over the country. It isn’t just the small houses that are not paying their mortgages . . . Who cares if you live in a smaller house or don’t have a brand new car every few years? I am happy to say that we have a positive net worth. Even though we don’t have a high income, our net worth is probably larger than others who make more than us. This is not to brag, but to make a point. Don’t be jealous of others. You probably don’t know the whole picture anyway.

I'm not perfect and I've had times of jealousy myself.  But, then I hear that most of these people used their credit cards for all these "cool" things or have severe loan debt and my jealousy seems to fade.  I think we all (myself included) need to learn a bit about contentment.  Stuff isn't going to make us happy.  It really doesn't make you happy when you're paying for it for years and years.

Once you have eliminated debt, you can free yourself up for new opportunities. Start today saying “no” to new debt and get rid of the debt you have. Once it is gone, don’t go back to your old ways. If you want something, save for it. It feels so much better walking away from a store with no chains tied to your ankle. There is freedom out there!

Stay tuned! I want to talk about Christmas next.

 
You can read Part 1 here.

Do You, Miss Saver take Mr. Spender to Be Your Lawfully Wedded Husband?

I don’t claim to be an expert about finances. I’m just a natural saver. Well, this natural saver married a natural spender. How does that work? We both had to make changes. I see too many people struggling with money and my heart breaks. I just wish I could help. I guess one way I can do that is by telling you what works for us. This is not the way anyone has to do it. We are not better than anyone else. (It’s sad I have to put disclaimers, but people are too sensitive these days). In fact, I still have changes that I want to implement.

I am a stay-at-home mom. This has been my dream for as long as I can remember. My mom was home with me and I wanted to have the same for my children. Evan works hard to make sure that can happen for us. (Note: This is not a debate about stay-at-home vs. working moms. This is just about how we do things here.)  Since we want to live on one income, we need to make wise and frugal decisions.

I have taken Crown Financial and Dave Ramsey’s courses. I like talking about budgets. I like talking about saving money. Thanks to Evan, I am learning not to hoard all our money. I’m learning that it is okay to buy things for myself – if I have the money.

The biggest thing for us is that we live within our means. We have a list of bills we pay each month. I know when these are due and they are put into my budget, which is a spreadsheet I made up. We have bills that bill collectors would come after us if they are not paid. And, we have our more flexible bills.  Although, they are flexible, they are still assigned an amount in the budget that we don't want to go over.

Examples of Set Bills:

Mortgage

Utilities

Cell Phones

Cable

Car Payment

Flexible “Bills”:

Tithe

Groceries

Haircuts

Gasoline

Allowance

Target/Walmart

My goal (self-imposed) each month is to save money in some of the flexible areas. Groceries and Target/Walmart are areas where I use coupons to make these areas smaller. Anything saved here is money in the bank. I have had months where I have saved $50-100 in these areas by making lists, using coupons, and not buying non-essentials.

Our tithe is very important. First, I believe that our money is God’s money. Therefore, we are committed to giving him 10% each month. This was not always easy for me. I usually did it begrudgingly or because I felt obligated. Not anymore. I just feel like God gives us so many blessings. The fact that Evan has a job is a blessing in itself. He lets me keep 90%, so is it really hard to give 10%? I also feel like the church isn’t just about money. Our tithes support’s the church building’s expenses and the workers he has called to that church.

I think another big item on this list is our allowance. Even though we are adults, this works for us. Every two weeks, we each get a set amount of money to do with whatever we want. If we want to spend our money on fast food, then we can. If we want to see it grow in our wallet, we can. I usually don’t spend very much of it. I end up paying for things like Nicholas’ haircut, an extra gallon of milk, or a book that I wanted with mine. Evan’s allowance gives him the chance to spend money, which he is prone to do. If it’s gone, it’s gone.  Sometimes, if I've saved a lot, I won't even take my allowance that pay period.  I choose to save it in the bank instead.  Evan, on the other hand, would like it regardless.  I respect his decision.

We also use cash for our gasoline purchases.  Evan knows how much gas he uses on average and gets a certain amount every two weeks.  If we find that he is starting to average more, we will examine the reason why and tweak the amount, if necessary.  If he uses less, he can save it for the future, in case we have more driving to do.

What Do I Do With This Information?

The first thing I suggest is making a budget. It will take a couple pay periods to really get the hang of it, but it can actually make you feel more freedom. You’ll also be able to see where your money is actually going. I think you will be surprised. There are plenty of budget templates out there, or you can create your own. The biggest goal is to bring in more than is going out.  You want to see which areas you can eliminate or at least get to a reasonable amount.

If you can’t pay your bills, then you probably shouldn’t have “luxuries” like cable or the latest and greatest electronics. If you can’t pay your bills, then you shouldn’t be eating out all the time. It is important to make sacrifices in order to get yourself financially healthy. Once you have yourself in a better place, then maybe you'll be able to budget in for eating out or add cable back into your budget.

Like I said at the beginning, my goal for this series is to offer those struggling financially with some ideas for change.  You're also going to find as this series goes on that God is really doing a heart change in me as well. 

Before I get to that change, I have a few other areas I want to touch on.  The next topic is an area that takes away our freedom and leaves many of us sleepless at night.

Gabby’s Day at the Vet

One of my favorite pictures of Nicholas and Gabby - July 2009

Our cat Gabby had been acting a little weird this past weekend. She was going to the litter box constantly. This morning we made the decision for me to drive Evan to work, so I could take Gabby to the vet.

It was a very eventful morning.  First, getting her into her cat carrier is like getting an ox into a small box. She’s strong and determined not to be in there. Second, we had just taken our cats to the vet two months ago and weren’t really thrilled about this unexpected vet cost.

So, after ten minutes of unsuccessful attempts to get her in the box, I finally had her cornered and she surprisingly gave up. At least I know for next time that I should put her in the laundry room and put the carrier in front of the cat door.

Once we got to the vet’s, I soon found that we were in for more than we bargained for. She had blood in her urine. Her weight had gone up three pounds in two months. They wanted to keep her for the day for blood work and X-rays. On one hand, I was feeling sorry for my cat. On the other hand, I could see the bill going up far more than we had expected.

They ended up diagnosing her with a urinary tract infection. So, for the next 10 days, I have to wrestle the ox and give her an antibiotic. She’s home and verbally sharing her displeasure. Isabella’s ticked at her too because she doesn’t smell right. At least it keeps things interesting.

This post isn’t solely about my cat though. I love her to death, but today just gave me the affirmation I needed for some future posts that God has been really laying on my heart. This post is my way of announcing that I will be having a short series coming up on my blog. This series needs to happen because many of you would feel the same way that I do: upset that your cat is hurting, but more upset that you have to pay the vet bill. When you have pets, you need to expect the unexpected. So, starting this week, I will be posting about money. Believe me, I have plenty to say, and maybe some things you wouldn’t expect. I hope you’ll come back and read.

How to Diffuse a Meltdown

After swimming lessons this morning, Nicholas and I dropped off Evan at church for a meeting. We decided to kill some time by heading to a couple of stores. Nicholas did a fairly good job listening to me in the first store. The second store he began to feel a little more independent and was not staying as close to me. We had an agreement that we would buy chocolate milk, if he listened to me. I gave him a couple warnings, but he listened well enough.

We purchased the chocolate milk at the café before heading to the front check out. Nicholas was fine until we stepped up to the register. He asked me if he could look at something. I said fine, but stay right by me. He decided not to and walked away. I told him to come back. He argued with me, and I promptly took away his chocolate milk.

N: That’s mine! My chocolate milk!

Me: I told you that you could have it if you listened well. You are not listening well right now.

N: My chocolate milk!

Begin meltdown. We headed to the car. I acted if there was no screaming and crying child by my side. I put him in his car seat and headed around to my seat as he continued to cry.

Here’s the key to diffusing a meltdown properly: Don’t give the kid the chocolate milk just because he’s upset. The battle would be over, but you would lose.

So, he didn’t get the chocolate milk. I reminded him again why he lost it and then headed back to the church to pick up Evan. I popped in Nicholas’ CD and cranked it up enough that he knew I was trying to not listen to his crying. He tried to cry harder and louder. I just started singing and ignored him.

Halfway there, I came up with another idea.

Me: Nicholas, you’re doing a great job singing.

N: I’m not singing! I’m crying!

Me: No, it sounds like singing to me. Keep it up. You’re doing great!

N: I’m crying!

Me: Great singing.

N: I want my chocolate milk!  You hurt my feelings.

Me: Nicholas, I told you that you could have chocolate milk if you listened. You chose not to obey. The only one that hurt your feelings is Nicholas.


I kept on driving and singing as we pulled into the church parking lot. I parked the car and turned around and looked at him. I took out my cell phone and used it as a microphone and began to sing to him. He was mad at first, but after a few minutes I saw a smile start to crack. Then I gave him the scraper, so he could have a microphone too.

If anyone had walked out in the parking lot, they would have seen us fully rocking out to Psalty the Singing Songbook. Nicholas was no longer crying. I was having fun. Meltdown diffused.

Did Nicholas ever get his chocolate milk? Nope. Call me what you will, but he needed to understand that there are consequences to not listening. He did apologize to me once we got home and understood what he did wrong.  I will tell you one thing though – that chocolate milk sure did taste good!

This vs. That

I can’t begin to tell you how different I am feeling about this adoption compared with Nicholas’. I have been working on the birthmother profile. I had planned to have it done by the end of December, but finding good pictures has been hard. I have a few more pictures to scan and I’ll be done with the picture portion. Evan needs to write a couple of things, so when he has a free moment . . .

We still haven’t received our child abuse registry results. They said they are backed up 3-4 months. We are at the 3-month mark now. It’s frustrating that something so small is holding our home study up. I keep praying that it will come.

So many people have asked me what I know about this adoption. The honest answer is not much. We are not specifying a gender. So, Nicholas may have a baby brother (his current choice) or a baby sister. We are actually okay with either. We don’t know when any of this will happen. Our home study needs to be approved and we need to finish our birthmother profile, so I don’t think we’ll be chosen by a birthmother this month or even the next.

I am praying that this adoption remains drama-free, or at least less stressful than Nicholas'. We’ll deal with whatever comes our way, but I’m kind of ready for smooth and easy.

It seems like a lot of people desire to have their children spaced close together. This is what I always wanted to do as well. For one thing, your child has a playmate. You hope they will be the best of friends. Well, Nicholas will be turning four in less than two months. The other day I admitted to my mom that I am kind of happy that he will be four or five years older than his sibling. He can do so much for himself. He’s going to be a great helper. I won’t have two in diapers. He’s becoming great at playing independently.

The age difference doesn’t mean that they won’t be good friends either. There will be years where they will sense the age gap, but as they get older, that gap will close. My sister and I are five years apart and we’ve seen that gap close completely over the last decade.

Our first adoption was hard and difficult, but it changed my heart in so many ways. It gave me a passion for adoption that I don’t think will ever go away. When I was at Nicholas’ baby home, I saw all those children that needed families and it broke my heart. There are children all over the world that need families. This domestic adoption is different because there is no orphanage involved. There are one or two parents making the most difficult decision of their lives and we are there to see that unfold.

I think birthparents that choose adoption are incredibly courageous and strong. My heart breaks for them as well because this adoption isn’t all about us. I pray for our future birthparents. I pray for their comfort and healing. This adoption will probably be life-changing as well even though it is so different.

So, some of the emotions are the same with this adoption than it was with our first one. Many emotions are very different. The one thing that definitely remains the same is that our child is covered in prayers and definitely loved and wanted already.

Homeschool Highlights – Snow Edition

I did do away with weekly themes, but this week we did a couple of activities related to snow. To be honest, none of them involved going out in the snow. My little Siberian may be able to handle the cold with ease, but I don’t. So, we did indoor activities that involved cotton balls and powdered sugar. I had no complaints from Nicholas.


We made a snowman out of cotton balls. One thing that is easy to do in the homeschool world is to compare yourself to others. There are some really crafty moms out there and all their ideas come out beautifully. I decided that my son is a preschooler and his projects do not have to be perfect. I just want him to enjoy himself. With that said, I cut out the shape of the snowman, a nose, and some circles for eyes and buttons. Then, I let him do his own thing. It worked because he told me how much fun he was having.

He still does not like getting his hands dirty.

Later in the week we made edible snowballs. Basically, they are oatmeal, graham cracker crumbs, vanilla, peanut butter and honey mixed together and rolled into balls. Nicholas thought they were delicious. I thought they were okay. However, they had a pleasant side effect for stopped-up boys. Enough said.

He also worked on his workbooks.

We played Site Word Bingo. Again, I lost my nine pennies to his piggy bank.

My mom also got him a book called, Diggers & Dumpers Reusable Sticker Book. She knows how much he likes construction equipment, so she figured it would be a fun way for us to learn all the names of the equipment. He was excited to show the book to his daddy.

Finding the correct sticker

Checking out the finished product

Swimming lessons continue to go well. I noticed the head teacher usually takes the boys, while the helper gets the girls. It seems like she is pretty well-trained on handling the rowdier bunch. I’m so proud of how brave Nicholas is getting when it comes to the pool. We pleased that he loves it so much now.

We’ve been reading the The Jesus Storybook Bible as a family every morning, and I highly recommend it. It takes the stories of the Bible and shows how it all points to Jesus. I think Evan and I are surprised by how much we are enjoying it. In fact, it’s about time to read it now.

So, gotta go.  I’ll try to be a better blogger this week . . .

Cousins Who Rock

We celebrated our niece, Haley’s 9th birthday this past weekend. Until Morgan came along, Haley was the only girl cousin on this side of the family. She often played the role of “Little Mother”. However, I’ve noticed in the last few months that the boys don’t want to cooperate like they did in the past. They aren’t afraid to express their opinions. At one point I heard this from Haley’s room:

Haley: Sit down, Nicholas!

Nicholas: No.

Haley: Sit down.

Nicholas: I – DON’T – WANT- TO – SIT –DOWN!


But, there were some good times as well. Evan caught Nicholas, Carter, and Haley rocking out down in the basement.

Nicholas really loves music right now – especially dancing. He has a new move where he shakes his bottom. Some of you have already seen it. When we were at our New Year’s Eve party, he shared it with several of the people there. Two of his Sunday school teachers were there and said, “We’ve already seen it. He did it for us in class.”

I took a video of him dancing before swimming lessons on Saturday. He’s added a few interesting new moves to his repertoire. You’ll also notice Evan has a few crazy moves too.

It will be interesting to see if music is something he still enjoys as he gets older. But, for now, I'm praying he doesn't break any bones as he develops his "skills".

Proud Mom of a Little Swimmer

Nicholas' first swimming lesson went better than expected. I had been praying all week that he wouldn’t be afraid and would listen to his teachers. My prayers were answered. There are 8 kids in his class, four boys and four girls. Thanks to Nicholas being a little apprehensive and cautious about swimming, he wasn’t one of the hyper ones.

The main teacher of the class was very good. They did “Ring around the Rosie” and “The Wheels on the Bus”. This pool’s floor is able to move up and down which allowed the three and four-year-olds to stand in the water.

Nicholas learned to blow bubbles and kick his feet. At one point, he was jumping up and down when he must have slipped. We saw him go under. The teacher quickly grabbed him. There were no tears. He looked over at me and said, “Mom, I blew bubbles underwater!”

He also practiced jumping off the side of the pool with the teacher's help.  The hardest thing for him is to climb the ladder, but he'll get the hang of it with a little practice.

We are only allowed to take pictures at the first and last class, so I made sure to get plenty.

Waiting for his class to start

Listening to his teachers

 

Demonstrating to the class on how to lay flat

 
 
 
 

Having fun kicking



Waiting in line to jump



 



Finished his jump

That was fun!  He's ready to go back next week!

Our First New and Improved School Week

The first week of our revised homeschool went very well. Nicholas is enjoying the different Kumon books. He’s also working on spelling his last name. He spells out his name and I write it at the top of his workbook pages. The repetition really helps and after a day or two he was getting it right more times than not.

I also did a lot of things to reinforce his shapes. He knows them, but sometimes gets squares and rectangles confused. I did a mini-scavenger hunt this morning and he had to find the shapes by his kitchen set. He enjoyed this, but told me there weren’t enough shapes. He needed more. I guess we’ll have to use the scavenger hunt method again since he was hiding them and finding them by himself throughout the day.

We also worked on recognizing patterns. He liked this activity because he got to use glue. Glue makes everything more exciting.

Not exactly the smile I asked for

What a ham!

I also wanted to get Nicholas involved in some more hands-on activities. I told him that I needed his help making dinner tonight. He made mini pizzas for everyone almost entirely by himself. He was so proud of himself that when Evan called, he told him that he had mini pizzas waiting for him when he got home.

Our biggest focus right now is working on his fine motor skills. I know that Nicholas knows how to color in the lines, but he doesn’t like to take the time to do it. It’s easier and faster to scribble. So, I’m trying to get him to slow down. Also, we started his scissor practice again. This is the hardest skill for him to learn, but at least he thinks using scissors is fun, so he’s willing to at least try.

These are what he had to cut out of the workbook

Tomorrow is a super busy day.  Nicholas is finally going to be able to start swimming lessons.  He was supposed to take them last year around this time, but the pool shut down for several months, so tomorrow is the big day!  Hopefully, we'll have a good report to share!  If not, an amusing story instead. 

It’s My Homeschool, I Can Change It if I Want to . . .

I mentioned in one of my previous posts that I need to reevaluate our homeschool curriculum for the beginning of the New Year. Nicholas has been doing Hooked on Phonics, Pre-K , Level 2 for the last few months, but he isn’t finding it too difficult. We have another month or two, and we will be done with it. Instead of moving up to the next level, I’m going to focus on some different areas.

We’re still going to read lots of books together, but there will be no more weekly themes. I found that I was getting bored of the theme by the middle of the week.

We’ll still have crafts, but they may be tied to a book we read or a daily theme (this I can handle).

We’re going to work on his fine motor skills more and will be bringing back
Kumon My First Book of Cutting.

He will also be working through two other Kumon Books:My Book of Easy Mazes and My Book of Coloring. He enjoys these types of books, so it will seem like fun rather than work.

I’m also scrapping our monthly “Fruit of the Spirit” theme and Bible verses that go with them. Nicholas will still be memorizing two Bible verses a month, but I have another area I think we need to work on right now. First, he will memorize the monthly verse for Sunday school. Second, I think we need to work on verses about attitude and taming the tongue right now.

He will also continue with his other workbooks:  Getting Your Preschooler Ready for Math and
Getting Your Preschooler Ready to Read.

One thing I love about homeschooling is that we can have this flexibility. I am learning what kind of learner Nicholas is, so I’m adapting our schooling to that style. Also, I know his interests, so I can keep it fun and not a chore. 
Speaking of chores, Nicholas will be more involved with doing them. He likes to help out now and I have always let him. But, there were some areas I didn’t want his help yet. Then, he came in the bathroom today while I was cleaning the bathroom and asked to help. I thought to myself, why shouldn’t I let him? What’s the harm? So, if he asks to help, and it isn’t too big of a job for him, I’m going to let him. I’m not just teaching him about academics here anyway, but to be a productive member of our family.

Well, it’s been nice to have a very relaxed schedule these last two weeks. Most people just take it off completely, and I can see why. Next year we probably will have a nice, long break.  But at the same time, I also like our routine and welcome it back!