So My parents have this book from the mid '70s that is about teaching your baby to read. It is an awesome book! Mom actually ordered a revised edition for me so it's a little more up to date. Glenn Doman is a Director of the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential. (or was when the book was written. He is still alive and has written many books since then on teaching your baby math and other awesome things.) My mom and dad used it with my oldest brother. It's called How To Teach Your Baby To Read. This book is so intriguing. He talks about how a group of scientists and doctors were working with brain injured children. They found that they were able to teach them to read before the age of three! Then they posed the question, if brain injured children can learn to read this early, what about normal children? Thus bringing about more research, and discovering that the earlier a child learns to read the better and happier they are! He emphasizes that from birth to age four children learn more than they do the rest of their life combined! Think about it, they learn to crawl, walk, talk, play with toys, differentiate colors and shapes, and tons more! So why not read! I am so excited!!
On TV they have this whole system that you can buy that costs at least a hundred dollars. I'm sure it's pretty much the same method, but who wants to spend hundreds of dollars right now, when you don't need to! This is just a book! And then I printed off words that it says to use in the book, and I got poster board to put the printed words on, and what, we've spent less than 20 bucks, including the book!
The first words are mommy and daddy. They are printed in big red letters. He gets excited when I get the words out! I'll let you know the progress. I'm using a twist on the method that he says to use, because I hadn't read his instructions before I started showing Landon the first words, but generations of moms and dads have been teaching their kids to read in different, but basically the same ways, with the same results! Happier children! It's fantastic!
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Completely Crafts #1
My Origami Paper Wall Hangings!!
So I am in charge of 'Completely Crafts' in my ward, which is a monthly craft night for Enrichment. The first craft was an "Origami Paper Wall Hanging". It isn't really what you first think it is. It's just a wall hanging that uses Styrofoam, mod podge, and origami paper. I took pictures of the steps so if you would like to try it, you can!
1. This is green Styrofoam board I got at Roberts. It's really expensive at JoAnn's. Green is also cheaper than white anywhere you go. The sheet I used is 12 X 36 X 1.
Materials: tissue paper (any color you want)
a cutting board/or scissors
origami paper (I would choose the color scheme before you start.
It will make things easier)
Mod Podge
a sponge brush
a paper template of the size of your cut styrofoam
2. Just as examples I cut 2 6 x 6 inch squares. I used a kitchen knife to cut it.
3. Mod Podge the Styrofoam using enough to wet the whole front side.
4. Apply the tissue and coat the top of the tissue with another layer of mod podge. This picture shows the entire block mod podged. You do not have to do the back, but the front and sides is important to do.
5. While the mod podge is setting up, get your template and origami paper out. Start cutting and arranging the BASE ONLY of your design. Trust me, it will save you a lot of time. General rule of thumb is to use 1 to 4 inch strips. Don't use bigger than that (unless you are using a very large board). Once you have the base figured out, you can mod podge it to the block. It is okay if the mod podge is still wet because you have to apply another layer if it's not. Apply another layer of mod podge on top of the paper. NOTE: It is okay if there are spaces between the colors; you will be filling them with smaller pieces.
6. Once the base is on, let the creativity flow! Fill in the spaces where the tissue is showing and add accent to the rest. The secret to having it look really nice is to mentally divide your block in 4 sections and see if there is equal color in all 4 sections. You can't really tell in this picture, but i have two colors of pink. And all four of my colors are in all four sections.
7. Cut 1 inch strips to do the sides. I also cut 1 X 2 inch strips to cover the corners.
8. Let it dry! This is the other one I was working on at the same time. If you are doing a large one, you could be doing a small one at the same time too. It helps the drying time go by faster.
**** You can use these as bulletin boards, wall hangings, picture mats, or whatever you want! That's the wonderful thing about them. They are REALLY light and can go up anywhere! You can make them any size and you can even use scrapbook paper! It's a great, simple craft the can be inexpensive if you do it with several people (the origami packs range from 5 to 10 dollars but come in 100 to 300 count packages).****
1. This is green Styrofoam board I got at Roberts. It's really expensive at JoAnn's. Green is also cheaper than white anywhere you go. The sheet I used is 12 X 36 X 1.
Materials: tissue paper (any color you want)
a cutting board/or scissors
origami paper (I would choose the color scheme before you start.
It will make things easier)
Mod Podge
a sponge brush
a paper template of the size of your cut styrofoam
2. Just as examples I cut 2 6 x 6 inch squares. I used a kitchen knife to cut it.
3. Mod Podge the Styrofoam using enough to wet the whole front side.
4. Apply the tissue and coat the top of the tissue with another layer of mod podge. This picture shows the entire block mod podged. You do not have to do the back, but the front and sides is important to do.
5. While the mod podge is setting up, get your template and origami paper out. Start cutting and arranging the BASE ONLY of your design. Trust me, it will save you a lot of time. General rule of thumb is to use 1 to 4 inch strips. Don't use bigger than that (unless you are using a very large board). Once you have the base figured out, you can mod podge it to the block. It is okay if the mod podge is still wet because you have to apply another layer if it's not. Apply another layer of mod podge on top of the paper. NOTE: It is okay if there are spaces between the colors; you will be filling them with smaller pieces.
6. Once the base is on, let the creativity flow! Fill in the spaces where the tissue is showing and add accent to the rest. The secret to having it look really nice is to mentally divide your block in 4 sections and see if there is equal color in all 4 sections. You can't really tell in this picture, but i have two colors of pink. And all four of my colors are in all four sections.
7. Cut 1 inch strips to do the sides. I also cut 1 X 2 inch strips to cover the corners.
8. Let it dry! This is the other one I was working on at the same time. If you are doing a large one, you could be doing a small one at the same time too. It helps the drying time go by faster.
**** You can use these as bulletin boards, wall hangings, picture mats, or whatever you want! That's the wonderful thing about them. They are REALLY light and can go up anywhere! You can make them any size and you can even use scrapbook paper! It's a great, simple craft the can be inexpensive if you do it with several people (the origami packs range from 5 to 10 dollars but come in 100 to 300 count packages).****
Monday, July 27, 2009
Landon my Sweet!
So my son is the cutest! We had so much fun taking his picture! My friend Leah went with me and Landon to Kiddie Kandids today and these are the result!
Adorable eyes!
I think this one is my favorite!
He looks so big in these!
My Little Sailor!
He loved that ball!
Validation
My dad sent this to me and I just had to share it! It is kinda long (16 min.) but TOTALLY worth it!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Picture Update
Thanks to Silas' (my brother in-law) suggestion, we were able to recover some of the pictures, if not all of them that we lost. We are still figuring it out, but we are ever so greatful for the suggestion!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Picture Devastation
I just want everyone to know that I do not blame Jeff one bit.
Jeff was getting ready for his little 'vacation' from me and Landon (he's with his family in California for his mom's b-day. I chose not to go for several reasons) and decided to put our recent pictures on our back-up drive, which is where we keep them. He couldn't get into the hard drive. When he looked at the properties, it showed that everything was completely erased. Everything was a backup EXCEPT the pictures.
ALL pictures from the birth of Landon until April or May of this year. Probably a couple thousand.
Jeff had to re-format the hard drive. I don't think anything will be able to be recovered.
There is a bright side:
I printed my favorite pictures from Landon's birth until March of this year, over 23o pictures. My mom and Jeff's mom have a lot of pictures of Landon of those times and the months that I wan't able to print yet.
I am absolutely devastated by this, but it wasn't anyone's fault and I do have some of the pictures on a website to print when I want.
Obviously we made some mistakes that won't be made again if this were to happen again, but sometimes that's what you have to go through to learn lessons.
Jeff was getting ready for his little 'vacation' from me and Landon (he's with his family in California for his mom's b-day. I chose not to go for several reasons) and decided to put our recent pictures on our back-up drive, which is where we keep them. He couldn't get into the hard drive. When he looked at the properties, it showed that everything was completely erased. Everything was a backup EXCEPT the pictures.
ALL pictures from the birth of Landon until April or May of this year. Probably a couple thousand.
Jeff had to re-format the hard drive. I don't think anything will be able to be recovered.
There is a bright side:
I printed my favorite pictures from Landon's birth until March of this year, over 23o pictures. My mom and Jeff's mom have a lot of pictures of Landon of those times and the months that I wan't able to print yet.
I am absolutely devastated by this, but it wasn't anyone's fault and I do have some of the pictures on a website to print when I want.
Obviously we made some mistakes that won't be made again if this were to happen again, but sometimes that's what you have to go through to learn lessons.
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