I’m ashamed to admit this, but sometimes… I forget that baby #2 is a little person all unto himself. I concentrate so much on baby #1 that #2 gets the short shrift way too often.  In fact, this is what I feel like I see from him more often than not:

But Donovan is Mr. Personality… even though he isn’t talking yet, his personality is fully developed – he’s a class clown that loves to make people laugh.

He’s a cuddler and a lover already, and his enthusiasm for the world teaches me something new every day.  He has an insatiable thirst for reading books…

…and he isn’t embarrassed when I sing.  In fact, he’ll try to join in and then start dancing like a crazy man!

His heart is also ready to be impressed with the word of God – I just need to slow down and start to see him as the little man God has made him.

When I was reading online about things to do with Elias to get him crafting and teaching him God’s word, I ran in to advice about what to do with younger siblings.  Of course, I didn’t pay close attention at the time… and I’ve forgotten a lot of what I read.  But I’m trying to incorporate Donovan into much of what I do with Elias.  Donovan is 23 months younger than Elias, so there is a gap in development – I know he can’t use scissors yet, and he’s more interested in pouring out and picking up crayons than he is coloring, but he can sit with us at the table and pick up his crayons, paint with water, and even tear up pieces of paper for Elias to glue. And while Elias is going through another “No singing, Mom!” phase, Donovan climbs up into my lap and asks for more songs – so I’m using simple songs to pour God’s word into his little heart.

My next step is creating a special box just for Donovan – a little easy craft box that I can pull out and let him at it while Elias and I work on more difficult things. I’ll also use something like this when I start homeschooling Elias.  I need to reorganize my kids’ craft space first to figure out what we have, so I’ll give you an update when I get Donovan’s box done.

Because before I know it, this little man will be a man all unto his own… and he needs my attention and the word of God in his life, too.

Now it’s YOUR TURN: if you have children of different ages, what do you do to impress the word of God on each of their hearts?  Any special tips for keeping younger siblings busy when you’re working with your older kids? I’m looking forward to your ideas… I feel like I need all the help I can get!

I know. I know. Halloween is over a month away. Try telling that to the party-supply store I took my kids to today. The store had about 5-8 HUGE demon costumes hanging from the ceiling. They had attached enormous pieces of fabric to make them look like they were zooming around the store. One was a giant red devil with giant wings and was a little frightening even to me. Lydia showed so much self-control and just closed her eyes when we went by. Which is awesome for her—she would usually start screaming and not stop till we left.

So, I paid for my wares (plates and napkins for Asa’s first birthday party on Saturday!) and pushed the stroller toward the exit door. Suddenly, I hear the cashier say, “You forgot your bags!” Oops! I turned around and grabbed the bags, leaving the stroller where it was. Well, right by the exit door–so you CANNOT get away from it– is a zombie-Michael Jackson that wakes up when you walk by and screams while his red lazer eyes glow. Sure enough, Michael Jackson-zombie awoke while I was getting my bags and Lydia AND Asa began to scream hysterically. The neon-blue-haired cashier did not remotely offer to turn off the thriller-zombie OR to open the door OR to help me with my bags. It was a literal nightmare.

I felt sick when I left. I had to apologize to both my kids for taking them in that store! It was a horrible feeling.

Now, here’s the thing. I’m not  opposed to a good trick-or-treat around the neighborhood. In fact, I love me a good costume. And I get excited about candy corn and Reece’s peanut butter pumpkins. I love all the churches that do carnivals and parties in October. The past 3 Halloweens I’ve let Lydia dress up. Last year we went to my mom’s church & their festival, once we went to the Atlanta Zoo’s party and once we went trick-or-treating at my aunt’s house. Lydia had NO idea what was going on. She was just excited that we got to dress up and have candy.

Now she’s 3 1/2. And thanks to our Michael Jackson-zombie she now understands that Halloween=scary stuff. So if we do an innocent dress up this year, it’s going to take some explaining…how do I tell her, “Oh, yeah, well, we don’t like this gross scary stuff. But we are going to dress up in a nice costume and hope we don’t see any scary costumes. And get some candy. So, yeah, we hate Halloween. But we also really enjoy it.”

I had a friend that told me her parents never let her do Halloween. She and her brother were mad and thought their parents were being unfair. One day before Halloween her parents came home with bags of candy and dumped them out all over the kitchen table. They told their kids, “This is NOT about candy.” They wanted to show their kids that they weren’t keeping them from something good (candy), they were really keeping them from something evil (insane zombies, etc.).

SO. I think I’m rambling. But I’m just wondering about what you do. How does your family do Halloween? Or how do you ignore it? It’s YOUR turn…

photo by vintagehalloweencollector

With everyone going back to school, I’ve been thinking a lot about…well, school. Lydia is only 3 but she loves loves loves all things school-y. She loves to read, color, write, draw, spell and sing. She loves doing things in order and learning new stuff. (Do you love my descriptive words—”things” and “stuff”?)

She’s got several school-y type books from KUMON, a Strawberry Shortcake phonics book and a random learn-how-to-cut book I found on clearance at WalMart. The other day I even picked up (are you ready for this?) Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I know, I sound like a freak, don’t I?

Right now we don’t do a scheduled “school” time. I’m not actively trying to teach her to read, write or spell. When we do crafts and other purposeful activities, I’m usually doing a scripture, Bible story or Fruit of the Spirit. We do some of her school-y workbooks while I’m making dinner or while I’m writing on the computer. She just really loves to do it. She makes me hold books right in front of her face while I’m reading so she can “learn to read, too!”.

It’s YOUR TURN: Before your kids were kindergarten age, what did you do about teaching and schooling? Did you just talk about rhyming, colors and numbers as it came up? Did you try some kindergarten-readiness books, websites or classes? Or did you just wait till they were in kindergarten and let the teachers do their jobs? If you are homeschooling, when do you start the “real” teaching?