My Beloved and My Friend (Book Review)

You know that excitement that you get when you see a new book written by an Author that you already love? Well that is how I felt when I found out Hal and Melanie Young authors of a fabulous book called Raising Real Men had done it again.
 My Beloved and My Friend, How To Be Married To Your Best Friend Without Changing Spouses is due out in February, but I was lucky enough to read it early and share it with you. 

This book was hard to put down, I have pages dog eared, I have highlighted sections that I want to return to and I've shared several great passages with my husband. I love how Hal and Melanie Young shared their private life and the struggles that they have gone through. I felt like I was a special friend that they were confiding in and in return I was learning so much about myself. This book showed me the wife that I was when I got married, the wife that I am now, and the wife that I strive to be.

It's always wonderful when you here these stories or write ups of people telling you, that they have the perfect life, and that they have always been married to their best friend but I'm not going to tell you that story. In fact I'm here to say that after 20 years of marriage we have had sweet bliss and major wrecking balls. Am I married to my best friend? Why, yes I am. But we work on it everyday. This book opened my eyes to so many more things that we can do. In fact, I ended up getting so much out of this book, my hubby has started reading it. Woohoo!!

I love the part in Chapter 5 on Fidelity and Loyalty when they say to Practice love. "If you are each putting the other one ahead of themselves, you will both be tenderly cared for and loved. That's irresistible. It makes for a marriage that is a haven from the rest of the world- a place of happiness and joy." That sounds fabulous to me.

This book is a quick read, 250 pages filled with wonderful insight.
Thank you Hal and Melanie Young for doing it again.

If you would like to hear what others think about the book come on over here.

The best thing you ever did for your marriage is to pre-order your copy today for $12.00 at My Beloved and My Friend.

Disclosure of Material: I received "My Beloved and My Friend" in exchange for a review on my blog as part of the Bow of Bronze Launch Team. I was not required to give a positive review. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CRF Part 255: "Guides concerning the use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising." 

Teaching Toddlers Care of Self

Self care is all about actions taken to maintain personal health and human development. Why not start teaching the basics now when they are toddlers.

Maria Montessori made it well known that what she called "Practical Life Skills", were very important for children to master. Practical life skills can mean so many different things, here I am going to show you how a toddler as young as 12 months can start to help care for herself.

Welcome

Welcome to my new and improved little space on the web. I hope you will take a look around and stay with us for awhile.

It is still a work in progress, but should be totally completed soon. 

Ahhhhh, I hope you love it here as much as I do.

Dear Zoo Story Box

We love Story Time!!! Story time can be a time with figety kids that aren't in the mood to sit, or it can be a fabulous time for wonderful stories and lot's of learning. Therefore, I try my hardest to help the books come alive for the children by incorporating them into our curriculum and our imaginative play. This way they love and look forward to our reading time. 

Dear Zoo is such a great lift the flap book. It is perfect for any animal lover, especially if you add the animals for a fun story time. I knew it would be perfect for us today.

I added a little safari hat, I searched ahead of time and got together all of the animals that are in the book, then found a pretty box for them to go in.(In the story all of the animals are sent in the mail). I cut the top with an X-acto knife so it would fold out nicely and viola we were ready for a fun filled story time. 

Little B spent over an hour after story time playing with the animals. He absolutely loved it. We also read the book about 10 times, he kept requesting we read it again. 

I highly suggest using props and fun things for story time, it truly can enhance your child's experience with books. Not to mention it helps them comprehending what they are hearing in the story. OOOO and let them play afterwards so you can see their little imaginations take off. What fun!! 

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Schooling at the Beach Wordless Wednesday

Feeling lucky to be me ......

The Sunshine Award

WOW!! What an honor to be nominated for such a fun award. Thank you to Erin from Water on the Floor for choosing me for The Sunshine Award. 

So here are the rules for the award:

1- Acknowledge the blogger who nominated you. THANK YOU Erin from Water on the Floor.

2- Share 11 random facts about yourself.

3-Answer 11 question the nominating blogger has created for you.

4- List 11 bloggers who you believe deserve to be nominated and recognized (my list is towards the bottom of the page)

5- Post 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate to answer and let all of those bloggers know that you nominated them for The Sunshine Award. (You cannot nominate the blogger that nominated you).

Random Facts about Me

1. I am a total girly girl

2. My favorite color is Pink, I love everything Pink....

3. Seeing my family happy makes my heart sing. 

4. My son says I'm the cheapest person he know's, but really I'm just frugal/careful with how we spend our money.

5. I love to read and could spend all day snuggled up with the kids reading great books.

6. Did you all know that IIIIIIII LOVE THE BEACH!!!!!!  But the funny thing is, I'm scared to death of going in the water. That is right- This girl never goes in the ocean. I hit the pool to cool off.

7. Sometimes I think back to those days when I just had 1 child and my house was always immaculate, and know that I'll choose hand prints on the wall and a full laundry basket any day :)

8. The older I get the more modest I've become and the more I turn to God for answers.

9. I would have 10 more kids, if I had 10 more years to have them (lol). I love having a large family.

10. I love open ended natural toys- they are so beautiful. 

11. No matter how organized I am, I always have a pile of something around, a pile of books on the table, a pile of mail to go through, or a pile of papers to be laminated. O well, I don't think that will ever change. hehe!

11 Questions Answered  

1. What do you feel your biggest strength is? I have a lot of patients, which is great with a large family.

2. What is your favorite sport? Basketball 

3. What is the best book you've ever read? hmmmmmm, sooo many to choose from... as Drew Barrymore said in the movie Ever After, I could no sooner choose a star in the heavens. 

4. How many different countries have you traveled to? 3-4

5. What is your favorite school subject? Surprisingly, History and Geography are my fav's now. I'm sure it helps that my boys love it too, so it is so easy to devour it.

6. If you could be any profession, what would you be? I can't imagine being anybody but a mommy, but if I had to pick something I'd say I would own, run, and teach for my own school :)

7. What is your best childhood memory? another hard one... Taking trips in the fall with my family, my 1st barbie dream house (I loved that thing), Pool Parties, Scarecrow making with Laura, and Dance Team.

8. What 5 things would you take with you on a deserted island? My 5 kids of course, but if you are talking about material items- I'm going to go with a flint, a canteen, fishing gear, a toothbrush, and a razor. lol (Hey, I've seen Survivor)

9. What is your favorite month of the year? July because the weather is beautiful, hot and sunny. Perfect for the beach. 

10. How long have you been blogging? 8 months, I'm a newbie.

11. What kind of car did you have as your first car? My first car was a seriously old grey Mustang (my parents thought it would be responsible of me to buy my own first car) it was terrible. Thankfully the bottom literally dropped out and my dad stepped in and bought me a Super cute Tracker (I loved that car).

My Nominations are:
1. Delightful Learning
2. Racheous
3. P is for Preschool
4. The Kavanaugh report
5. Fun at Home with Kids
6. Stillparenting
7. Lavenders blue homeschool
8. abccreativelearning.com
9. Montessori Mischief
10. dot to dot connections
11. Lalymom

My Questions
1. How long have you been blogging?
2. If you had an hour to do whatever you wanted what would it be?
3. Coffee or Tea?
4. If you could eat lunch with one person who would it be?
5. How would you describe your teaching style?
6. Do you have any pets, if so what do you have?
7. What is your favorite Disney movie?
8. What is your favorite book?
9. What is your favorite season, and why?
10. What is your favorite thing to eat?
11. If you were stranded on a deserted Island what five things would you bring? (I like this question)

Have fun everyone and Congratulations on being nominated for The Sunshine Award.  

Exploring Pumpkins in Autumn

The days of fall are upon us. I honestly can't say that it is my favorite season because summer truly has my heart, however autumn is a close second. When the leaves are changing, the world looks a little more beautiful. In the fall you have pumpkins, mums, and the smell of apple cider filling the air.

I couldn't resist another nature table change. It is probably our 4th one this month, but there is just so much to see and so many changes taking place outside. Come join us for some pumpkin fun. 

Even though I like to make things fun, I always get our learning in. Maybe they realize it and maybe they don't. All I know is we are enjoying these snuggle up days of fun and exploring.

As usual Miss Bell joined us for our Life cycle of a Pumpkin learning, she really enjoyed looking at the cards.

No need for a Sensory play container today when we have the real thing. Dig in and squish away. 

If you are interested in some wonderful fall books you should definitely check out The Scarecrow's Dance, Nuts to You, The Pumpkin Runner, and Awesome Autumn. These are just a few of our all time favorites. 

In this house we are getting living math in by talking about guesses, educated guessing, estimating, and then counting the seeds to see actually how many we have. It was 290 seeds in this small pumpkin. After all of the counting was done, we washed the seeds, roasted them, and then all of the children. 

Little B did a few fun activities, like button sorting- small, medium, and large with autumn buttons. As well as color sorting the Jack-o-lanterns. 

Other activities that we have enjoyed this month can be found  here for our Kinder days, here if you are interested in Toddler play, and all of the free printables seen in my fall posts can be located easily right here.

Until next time...

 I am off to go get a delicious cup of hot apple cider. 

Fall Learning Activities

I'm one of those mom's that says every age and stage of a child's life is the best. I can't help it, each stage brings new fun, exciting things to learn and do. Activities are so much fun in the Fall, and so easy to put together. Check out how we worked on spelling, math, transferring and the best ways to share feelings and emotions.   

Here is a peek into Little B's Kinder learning this past week. If you are interested in any or all of the printable activities you can find them here, on our Fall printable page.   

Transferring beans activity from one pumpkin bowl to the other with a small spoon. 

Math with Pumpkins (addition)

I just love seeing him write. We are working on his grip, he seems to get it right 75% of the time. 

Practicing patterns with pumpkins and Jack-o-lanterns.

We worked on emotions/feelings this week reading the books It's Hard to be Five, When Sofie Get's Angry, Today I feel Silly, and many others.

We also printed out a cute book from 1+1+1=1 of pumpkins, that we turned into Jack-o-lanterns by showing their emotion.   

Fall color sorting

 One of the days Little B took a lot of time building up his Mr. Potato Heads, and then afterwards he decided they all needed a shower. What a great skill to learn (bathing). Plus it worked on his fine motor skills by using the sprayer. 

Little B is only five and I believe in a lot of play based learning. We spend most of our days, exploring, reading, talking, laughing, going on walks, playing outside, and spending time together. 

You can find a lot of other Kinder learning on my Pinterest Board Schooling the Little's. Plus check us out on Facebook. The best way is to Sign up for e-mails so you don't miss anything and we can stay in touch. 

Thanks for visiting  

 

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Orange Tot School in October

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Miss Bell and I have been having a great week exploring everything Orange in October. I must admit tot school is just as much fun for me. I'm enjoying the whole process, from planning, setting up, and then watching her explore.  It is so wonderful to watch her little mind and hands at work. 

Here is a peek into our Orange week. 

I love color treasure baskets. For this one you will find lot's of orange goodies, for example color puzzle cards, Duck and Goose find a pumpkin,plan toys Orange juice bottle, wood blocks, and of course pumpkins. 

Placing the peg into the hole is great for developing her fine motor skills.

Peg Stacker Shapes

Orange water with orange glitter for sensory. 

We worked on cleaning pumpkins with a sponge. 

Inspired by Reggio Emilia, working with light and mirrors. 

She truly enjoyed the book If Kisses were Colors. 

I would have to say her favorite things this week were definitely the fish activity and her books. She continued to go back to them all week.  

You can also check out our orange scented play dough, it would be a great addition to this orange learning week. 

You can find other toddler ideas on my Pinterest Board.

Follow Natural Beach Living's board Teaching Toddlers on Pinterest.

Thanks for letting me share our orange week with you.