Making a change around here (blogwise)

So I have been really slacking on posting lately, this summer has gotten crazy! Our homeschooling summer has been up and down, one good part is the addition to the kid's cousin joining us a few days a week. Having that extra kid around has really pushed me to step up my game on planning and implementing things with the kids.

Dry Erase table with Dry Erase crayons

Homemade Cloud dough (8 parts flours 1 part Baby Oil) 

I've started using more communication methods with Chance although he still doesn't have much interest I'm at least making it available at every opportunity to model using it for him. We are now going to start trialing newer devices that may be more adaptable for him and grow with him. He starts school in a couple weeks and I'm looking forward to him to go back to be with his friends and teachers. He is not a fan of summers especially Texas summers which result in us staying at home almost the entire summer due to the extreme heat.

This is our PODD book I use in addition to our Conversa 

I've also stepped up on my painting. It is a passion of mine and I'm actually getting outside interests in it! Not just my lovely husband complimenting me! I've sold my first commissioned painting and have listed several new ones on Etsy and hope to get more interest soon! http://www.etsy.com/shop/shaunamoreno

I'm going to continue to blog as often as possible but not as many giveaway posts. I do have a couple reviews in the works and hope to have those out in the next week! I'm still new to the blogging stuff so I'm learning as I go and still figuring it all out.

First week of trying summer school

Now that my 1st grader is on summer vacation he is making it very obvious he misses school. I know he loves his friends and teachers but the routine is also so important to him. So since I have been attempting (unsuccessfully) all year to get organized with homeschooling Daniella, I thought this would be a good opportunity to get going again.

So I got some more supplies, planned it all out for our first week. We did fourth of july theme activities and had some fun doing crafts and worksheets.

Chance was more interested in playing bubbles and watching movies but did participate a bit with his ipad apps that went along with our theme.

This next week I'm going to try and do a bit more than last week, I'm still trying to ease in to this routine but hopefully we will have some sort of routine by the time Chance goes back to school! My favorite site I found for printables http://www.overthebigmoon.com/

Babbabox Review - fun stuff for kids!

My husband found this BabbaBox company in one of his entrepenuer magazines awhile back. It looked perfect for Daniella since she has become so creative recently and I've been struggling with activities to help with our homeschool adventure. So we signed up and it took about 6 weeks before we got ours (depends on when you place your order- but it ships out the 3rd of the next month after your first order then every 3rd week of the month after that). It's a monthly subscription of $30 so it didn't seem to much considering how much it would cost to drive around and pick up the supplies and plan and find ideas. So this past week was pretty exciting when we finally got our box! Each box has a theme and this months theme was 'you are what you eat!'.

Everything is packaged so nice and neat and the instructions were easy and fun for my 3yr old.

All the supplies we needed to make the crafts were included I didnt need anything extra.
I also learned you can add a sibling pack for $10 a month to get double the crafting supplies!

 We had so much fun making our place mate, shopping list folder and reading our story next we will download our free app for the ipad (or android) that was included. There was also measuring cups so the kids can help with cooking and a pizza cutter for homemade pizzas. And a sample of all natural kids toothpaste! 

Daniella's placemat where she drew all her favorite foods and grouped them together.

reading our story

Our picture shopping list we made!

 I cant wait for next month and will post some videos of Daniella and I doing the crafts together!

                         

                                  http://happychaos4life.blogspot.com/p/disclosure-policy.html

Click the picture below for a 20% discount code on your first box if this looks like something you'd like to try with your kids! 

Walker Edison Bunk Bed Giveaway Event!!!!

EEEK My 2nd Giveaway Post!! 

 I know as a parent of 3, one with special needs, nice beds are hard to come by. Here is the PERFECT giveaway for growing families!! 

I am so excited to announce   BunkBedsAtoZ - (http://www.bunkbedsatoz.com/) is giving away a Walker Edison Bunk bed worth ($549). Use the rafflecopter form below to enter and make sure to mention Happy Chaos Blog referred you to enter! 

Big thanks to our Host - Children Teaching Mama
 (http://www.childrenteachingmama.com). 


The giveaway will run from June 20th to July 10th at 12:58pm and is open to United States residents 18+ and older. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway 

Copy-Kids Eat Fruits and Vegetables DVD review & giveaway

I was asked to review this kids healthy eating DVD with my little ones and write a review. I was actually pretty excited since this is my first review and its with something I could include my kids on. 

Healthy eating is definitely a priority in this house and I'm lucky all 3 kids love their fruits and vegetables.  BUT they still get picky!! Some days Daniella will only want to eat Yogurt ALL DAY LONG. So I was hoping this would broaden her horizon a bit. The other two still just eat what I give them, so far. 

So I put the DVD in and Daniella loves movies so she was excited we got a new one in the mail, we sat down together, I had Chance with us and Isabella was napping. I liked that you can pick and choose which food segments you want to watch first and they are short segments so its kind of interactive. I let Daniella pick, so we watched the Avacado and she loved it, both Daniella and Chance were laughing and giggling along with the kids in the video! Then we watched a couple more and she asked to eat, so we went to the kitchen and found some of the same things they showed in the video and she sat down and we watched it all again while she snacked on Broccolli Avocado, Bell Pepper.

I would reccomend this dvd for anyone that wants a cute fun video for their kids to be introduced to some new fruit & veggies and make it fun and exciting to try! 

Enter below for your chance to win a copy!!

More information on the Copy-Kids company and DVD's::

http://copy-kids.com/

a Rafflecopter giveaway

First days of summer vacation

Day ONE::

Chance is off school now! For the next 3 months I need to keep him busy 24/7. Today we didnt do anything special I'm sure he thinks its the weekend he spent most of the day watching movies in his room. So I've been scouring pinterest for tons of ideas, most of them messy, so that means lots of baths around here.

Isabella is still almost walking , Chance is almost walking and Daniella is always looking for opportunities of mischief. In fact Daniella sprained her ankle 3 days ago pretending to be a dog around the house!

Maybe I will be able to have some big project fun with the kids.

But I've made it my goal to just get through the day. Yeah big goals for summer 2012.

Day TWO::

We spent today at the BEACH! I should clarify before we get too far, my 3yr old Daniella is convinced our boxes of sand are the beach :) Easy to get there ... just outside the front door!! Now my 7yr old with his sensory issues doesnt really play in the beach, mostly because he will eat it, but Today I ventured to keep them busy first we had an all out Dance Party in the living room after breakfast throwing around all our big bouncy balls, but then Chance shortly got annoyed -- by my Dancing I'm sure! So we went outside for a little gardening and beach time!!! I figured I'd give him just enough to feel it on his hands but not enough to just chow down on chunks of sand... and it worked!! Daniella made sandcastles and Chance played in the sand on his wheelchair tray!! Now its bath time then lunch then movies until Speech Therapy... I can handle days like this NO PROBLEM!!! :D

New Projects

So now that summer is about to begin, I've begun the organization of the house in preperation of having all 3 kids home 3 months straight!! And since we live in the oven of Texas (San Antonio) with 100+ temps pretty much all summer, we dont get out much, hardly even the back yard as its just too much for the little ones! Of course we do have SeaWorld San Antonio 15 min away so we certainly take advantage of their water park as often as possible.

So with that in mind I started thinking of ways to declutter and make summer easier to have all 3 kids fully entertained at the same time. Last summer was easier since Isabella was an infant and basically ate slept and pooped, as infants do.

My first project was to purge the plastic toys which I kinda did, about 50% anyway, then I organized them all and gave Chance all the bigger toys in his room. Then I decided to use all the left over diaper boxes I had to build a toy bookshelf out of them!

Cut tops off and laid them out

Poked holes with a screwdriver and attached the boxes to each other with zip ties

Lots of tape to support it up, could use duct tape

final product except I will be adding contact paper on the insides and cover in fabric on the outside

Mommy's day!

I love this day, the day to celebrate my lifes purpose. Being a mommy!! I've always known I was going to be a mom, I know its not for everyone, and everyone does it differently. I L O V E love it!! Some days are crazy hectic (well every day is really!) My kids are everything to me and I am so lucky to have them all 3 in my life :)

Trying to parent naturally

So I've always been interested in being eco-friendly and especially with the kids. It is so hard and sometimes I feel completely failed at this attempt as I clean with all purpose cleaner, and laundry detergent. But I keep trying and I usually remember to make my own all natural cleaners half the time... better than none of the time (right??). So in the past year I've come to realize the kids toys that are full of plastic and electronics may not be the best for them, learning wise or toxicity wise. Now this seems to be my biggest challenge because all natural toys are soo hard to come by! ToysRus has very little selection ... and dont even bother with Walmart, Target has introduced some more lately and I'm pretty excited about that. But I already LOVE Target!!! so I'm not surprised :) Well I managed to get rid of a ton of small plastic toys that have accumulated Since Chance was a baby, so that is progress. But I've recently discovered a ton of fun shops on Etsy that sell beautiful handmade toys! Now I just need to money to get them all! So I've started my collection with some handmade playsilks that I won in a contest with BeneathTheRowanTree!!!

 And I've found several others doing giveaways like this blog http://naturalsuburbia.blogspot.com. I hope I win some more of these fabulous toys for my babies!! As of right now I'll continue to purge the plastic and look for the more natural toys, but I am sure its all in balance since we still got Daniella a cute pink/purple keyboard for her birthday because she has gotten in to performing songs for us! We love this passion in her and will hopefully continue to find more things she will love! I'm going to continue to look for more natural ways of parenting and living too, and hopefully at some point the natural stuff will take over the chemical stuff but until then I will just keep trying!

Still trying homeschooling

I'm still plugging away at trying to homeschool  but she is definitely a challenge, I am having my own challenges of getting organized for it too, plus MIL has been here 5 weeks and totally thrown us off what little rythym we had, now D is watching way more TV than I'd like, and Isabella is not quite walking yet so its hard to handle her physically while trying to do stuff with Daniella so I'm kinda failing at it for now, I have 7 more weeks of MIL and I need to get something figured out soon. MIL has been great though, she does all our dishes and keeps the kitchen clean, so you'd think I have tons more time to do fun learning stuff with the girls, C has just started to get in to a good space neurologically so I think it will get better soon, hopefully before summer because all 3 littles home with me for 3 months we have to get more creative or I will lose my mind !! Last summer was great, although we were pretty much with out a vehicle I got through it. I think it will get better if we can move to a better neighborhood, and have a better living space for kids. We just ordered a subscription to a monthly kids craft box. So hopefully that will help jumpstart ideas! I am also hoping I start blogging more, I think this helps get my crazy thoughts more organized LOL ... I guess we will see!

Adventures in homeschooling and balance

Wow, I havent posted in awhile, but my lil sprite fairy D, decided it would be a fun experiment to spill milk out of her mouth on to my laptop keyboard! So I had to wait a while before we could buy another. I have started to explore homeschooling, and we are trying to focus on a homeschool program based on learning the nature and the natural rhythms of the home. I really really like the program but I'm struggling to find the balance in using nature to learn and our need of electronics in our home. We are very mindful of the TV the kids do watch, but at the same time I feel guilty for them watching. I think my struggle comes from the fact that we have C with his complex physical needs I cant always be fully engaged with D all day long, in fact I cant always be in the same room with her and she is still at that age where her curiousity over comes her and all sense of 'this might not be a good idea' goes out the window. So I'm working on balance, making sure when I have the opportunity the TV is OFF the majority of the day and her and I are side by side engaged and mindful of everything we do. I do also struggle with the fact that C needs the cause and effect toys and videos to get his playing done, he cannot handle the sensory effects of paper, crayons, sand, grass, flowers, dirt, etc. So I have to find alternatives things he can put in his mouth or be engaged in visually but not hands on. We are so lucky to have the ipad and the many wonderful apps that can accompany us moving in to a more nature based, mindful lifestyle. It's not perfect, I find some days our lives revolve around staying inside and I'm busy with things the kids cant participate in, we will get there, I have several role models to help.

I've also chosen to homeschool because I've been learning how kids best learn, and how the schools seem to be very counter intuitive to this process. Hours of homework in Kindergarten and Elementary school, Expecting preschoolers and kinder kids to learn to read and do math; which I KNOW I didnt have to learn to do math until first grade, the only math I learned in kinder was to count to 100. I really cant see how putting so much pressure on young children is a good thing. I know if our homeschooling doesnt work out, I will be trying my hardest to get the girls in to a montessori program, I wish there was a waldorf school in town too but I know the montessori school program would suit Daniella really well. For now I will try my hardest at home to nuture a love of nature and the miracles of mother earth <3

Mondays....

Since becoming a stay at home mom 2 yrs ago. Mondays have become alot different but also kind the same as when I worked. I still have to get up early, and do lots of paperwork and make lots of phone calls, the big difference is now I do all that with diapers, sippy cups, and kids that only get fussy when I'm on the phone with people I've been trying to get a hold of all day!! ugh! But even with all that and the sleepless nights, big huge messes, whining and crying, I wouldnt trade this life for anything. My kids can drive me crazy but at the same time melt my heart and make me laugh. They are waaaay better than working with adults!! : D

Potty Training Time!

So it's time to start potty training D. This is so difficult but needed. She shows interest in the potty so I'm hoping she's ready. She is my first potty trainee, I am kind of excited, C unfortunately is still not trained not sure he ever will, since I see no interest from him. But anyways, so we started out the normal potty training way : sit her on it every couple hours but then she started to hate it, I think it was more of asserting her independence, why should I tell her when to sit on the potty? (makes sense) then I couldnt even get her to put her but down for 2 sec. and its not that she didnt like being in the bathroom, far from it. Most days I cant keep her away from brushing her teeth and washing her hands. But sitting on the potty seems to be on of the worst things for her. Then I discovered stickers!! Oh my how my daughter loves to peel them off and stick them onto another sheet. So I taped up some paper on the wall next to her potty and now I get 5 min. of potty time while she decorates paper. yay! Except for the fact she wont do any of her business on there!! I just dont know how to explain to her to pee, she gets poop but she wont tell me when she's going #2 yet. and I'm just hoping we will get some random occurance of #1 during our sticker art sessions. I think I'll start saving her pages of stickers. Anyone know how many stickers it takes to get a 2 yr old potty trained?? --- I found the following on pinterest.. one day she will go potty.. I hope!!! http://www.parenting.com/gallery/how-to-potty-train

Source: parenting.com via Shauna on Pinterest