I finally landed on one company that I love! I am using Heart of Dakota’s preschool curriculum, Little Hands to Heaven (for ages 2-5). This is a simple, open-and-go, 30-minute, 5-day-a-week, Bible-centered, structured yet informal, Charlotte Mason-styled (see also this text about CM philosophy) curriculum. Because of Cate’s upcoming arrival, I am only doing our “little school” two or three times a week, so we cover one unit over two weeks–but this flexibility is perfect for our life right now! We still have plenty of time for spontaneous outings, additional learning opportunities, errand-runnings, or tired “off” days.

Here are some quotes from the Heart of Dakota catalog that drew me to this company:

• “We wanted Christ to be at the center of our homeschooling so that all other learning radiated out from there.”
• “We also knew we did not want an approach to education that was mainly focused on textbooks or workbooks.”
• “The overall goal for each of our programs is to build a love for Christ and a love for learning without sacrificing academics.”
• “Our programs are meant to save you time planning, so you can spend your time teaching and learning along with your children.”
• “We want our children to know that the Bible is special and that it’s more important than anything else. To do that, we realized the Bible needed to be integrated throughout our day as much as possible… Our programs weave God’s word throughout our readings, our poetry, our history, our science, our writing, our music, our study of English, and our memory work. Using this method, our children are reminded to measure their thoughts, words, and deeds all throughout the day with God’s word.”
• “…our most important goal is to help our children glorify God with their lives each day… Glorifying God is the only goal that matters for eternity.”

We have finished two units in four weeks, and I must say both Anna and I love our “little school”! It lasts typically around 20-30 minutes (a perfect amount!), though sometimes Anna pouts and says she wishes it were longer, so I try to stretch out the art/craft activities. It is truly “open-and-go” and very easy to implement. At almost 3.5 years, I think Little Hands to Heaven is a perfect fit for where Anna is developmentally. Noelle either plays contentedly by herself or tries to join in. I love when she tags along, but — being only 18 months — it is a little too old for her, so when she is interested, I try to modify some of the activities for her. : )

While I don’t intend to “blog” what we are learning weekly, there are many sweet momma’s who use Heart of Dakota’s programs who do so — if you are interested to see what the curriculum is “like” in person, you should check out this blogroll! One momma in particular has an entire post answering her readers’ questions about Heart of Dakota curricula.

Here are some things I am also doing in addition to our Little Hands to Heaven school:

• Jane Moncure’s SoundBox book set  (our library has this set) along with our little Bob Book Alphabet set, adding the Bob Pre-Reading set eventually.
• Let’s Read-and-Find-Out Science Stage 1 books (our library has a ton!)
• prewriting worksheets from abcjesuslovesme & preschool-learners (read about prewriting here)
• books, books, books, and more books (see below!)

We are blessed with a great local library which has many, many classic children’s books. We are going to be borrowing many of those books listed above, as well as working through booklist recommendations from Classical Christian Education primary levels booklist, Ambleside Online Year 00 Booklist (this is a Charlotte Mason site), Simply Charlotte Mason’s Early Years Booklist, Living Math’s Early Concepts Booklist, Read Around the Year Booklist (another CM booklist) & Whole-Hearted Child’s Literature Booklist. I also just discovered a great, great resource of the importance of reading great books to your children (with a million booklists, too!) from Home School Marketplace. Our library has so many of the books on these lists! I am excited to slowly work our way through these over the next several years. I am in no hurry to rush out and speed our way through these… I love the idea of savoring really great books over several weeks. : )

When miss Cate makes her debut in late March / early April, we are going to take a long! break from “little school.” During that time, I intend to shower on Anna certain Kumon workbooks, Sesame Street sticker books, and Dover sticker/activity books to keep her busy while I’m nursing.

When Anna turns four in September, I have other things I am excited to add to our Little Hands to Heaven days–but I will wait to post about that closer to the time to use it! : )

As we take the plunge into doing our “little school” with Anna, I’ve either bought or have on my wishlist many, many books I want to read that will help me lay a foundation in home education, so, here is my daunting Reading List for the next five years:

• Ten Things to Do With Your Child Before the Age of Ten from Trivium Pursuit
• Teaching Preschoolers by Ruth Beechick
• Getting Started in Homechooling from Simply Charlotte Mason (free ebook!)
• The Early Years: A Charlotte Mason Preschool Handbook by Sonya Shafer (ebook)
• The 3 R’s by Ruth Beechick
• The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer
• Mommy, Teach Me! by Barbara Curtis
• Educating the Whole-Hearted Child by Clay & Sally Clarkson
• A Biblical Home Education by Ruth Beechick
• The Socialization Trap by Rick Boyer
• Homeschooling the Early Years by Linda Dobson
• Laying Down the Rails by Sonya Shafer

{And, sidenote: As of right now we are planning to homeschool our girls. We are so excited! While I won’t be doing any posts on the “why’s” behind this (of which there are many), if this comes as a surprise to you, or if you are just curious, you are welcome to ask us about this decision!}

Here are some wonderful things I want to remember about little Noellie at 18 months old:

She says so many words that I stopped keeping up. Even more exciting to me, she has even begun speaking in sentences! Not all the time, but the ones Rust and I have caught have been:

• “I want that.”
• “I want Daddy.”
• “Put it on.” (referring to a shoe)
• “I don’t like it.” (during a particularly poopy diaper change)
• “Good girl!”
• “Draw paper.”
• “Thank you Daddy.”
• “No thank you.”
• “I love you.”
• “Eww, yucky!” and “Stinky poopoo.”

For the past two months, she has been answering “yeah” (always in a whisper) or “no” (almost always loud & aggressively, usually: NO NO NO!) out loud to questions. Sometimes she says “uh-uh” for no and “mmm-hmmm” for yes. She also nods yes or shakes her head no. I LOVE this! We are really communicating! She is letting us know her preferences, choices, etc. Of course, she also does a fair bit of high-pitched SCREAMING when something bothers or offends her. And she has shown us she knows exactly what a temper tantrum is. : )

She knows the difference between hot and cold. She’ll say both, and blow for ‘hot’ and say ‘brrr!’ after saying cold.

She knows what a circle and a square are, and she can draw a circle. She just learned the color pink — and LOVES anything pink! Anna is also helping her learn green, blue, red, and yellow, too.

She loves her one-piece footie pajamas and will often bring them to me in the middle of the day in hopes I will put them on her.

Her favorite books are: Richard Scarry’s Cars & Trucks from A-Z apple book, Richard Scarry’s Biggest Word Book Ever!, Raindrop Plop, Goodnight Moon, The House That Jack Built, and any Little Blessings board books.

Whenever Anna or I sing, Noelle pauses to listen attentively, and as soon as the song ends, she exclaims, “Ginn! Ginn!” for again. She LOVES singing.

She has even begun singing along to these songs: “EIEIO” (Old MacDonald), the alphabet song, Rock-a-Bye Baby, Row Row Row Your Boat, Ring Around the Rosies, O Little Noelle (a made-up song my momma used to sing to me and both our girls LOVE). If she doesn’t know the words to some songs, she’ll just contribute by singing “ahhhhhh!”

Noelle puckers and smacks her lips when giving kisses. She will randomly run up to Anna and give her hugs. She is extremely affectionate with the few people she’s comfortable with!

Noelle loves accessories: her owl backpack, shoes, socks, hairbands. She hates hats, however.

She says and identifies all parts of the face.

She just learned how to go downstairs backwards and is learning to go downstairs standing upright while holding our hands.

With new situations, she is extremely nervous and timid. Within ONE minute of being outside in the snow, she slipped and fell and immediately ran sobbing into the house. She kept saying “no no no!” when I asked her if she wanted to go back out in it.

She still has a favorite plush doll (that was Anna’s) which is “My Baby” and whom she sleeps with every night. She gravitates towards anything that resembles a babydoll.

She loves to draw on paper with crayons, and she also LOVES the Magna-doodle Anna got for her birthday.

Other words she says in her toddler way: sorry, get down, all done, help, carry, paper, downstairs, pajamas (sounds nothing like it, though!), shoes, sticker, draw, paper, crayon, mine!, My Mommy!, put on, night-night, Grandpa, Grandma, Nanna, John, girl, My Baby, diaper.

One of her favorite things is a slide. “Wheeeeeee! Ide, ide!”

Noelle will point to pictures and says “Me!” even if it isn’t her.

She will also point to herself and say “Well! Well!” for Noelle.

If she has a poopie (which she tells me every time now), she will get out the wipes and diaper from her backpack and lay down in the middle of the floor waiting for me to change her.

She has been able to feed herself with a fork or spoon for the last month. Mealtimes are still messy, but she loves this independence and is often reluctant to relinquish her utensil at the end of meal time.

Noelle is affectionate and warm and cuddly towards family and those she is comfortable with. With others, it takes quite a while for her to grow comfortable with them enough to even SMILE and acknowledge them when they talk to her! She is slow to warm-up and tough to win over, and at times she seems determined to appear grumpy towards others and fight smiles when her natural inclination would be to grin right back.

She wants to attempt new things on her own at first. Any effort to intervene and help is met with frustration & protests. We’ve learned that we need to let her try for herself, first, and when she is good and ready she will finally ask for help.

I love my sweet ladylou!!!

{Just for fun: Noelle at One Year | Anna at 18 Months}

Olivia Ruth Walker

January 24, 2012 | 11:36 AM

Seven pounds ten ounces, twenty inches

Welcome, welcome to my sweet new niece Olivia!! Oh how I cried when miss Olivia was born!

{Her brothers’ posts… Jonathan Calvin & Jackson Lawrence.}

- I added a new page to the blog: Favorite Resources right at the top! It is a long, long list of blog posts or articles that have been particularly encouraging, influencing, and interesting to me.

- Noelle is 18 months! I can’t believe it! She amazes me with all that she knows and daily learns. She is a chatterbox. She will attempt any word. She loves Anna to pieces. I am going to do a post soon of “Noelle at 18 months” — so much I want to remember about this fun age! I am so thankful I did a post for Anna when she was 18 months.

- Anna is so, so fun. I have said to anyone who will listen: “Three is a magical age.” This has been our experience so far! Yes, there are new discipline issues to tackle, but on the whole — I love this age! I love the conversations I have with Anna, I love her desire to help, I love her blossoming friendship with Noellie… my days are filled with laughter and giggles and songs. (Yes–and quite a bit of messes, sister-scuffles, and discipline issues! Don’t want to give the wrong idea!)

- I am 27 weeks. I have really enjoyed this pregnancy once I passed the nausea stage (I think 20 weeks was the last time I threw up). So far I feel great physically, other than the typical tiredness by bedtime. One thing that has been WONDERFUL about this pregnancy is that I have zero to do in prepping a room for Cate! I think that has helped this pregnancy be less stressful… no major decisions or projects on decorating a room. Cate, you see, is going to move into Noelle’s room while Noelle moves in to share Anna’s room. Now, how I am anticipating THAT is a whole different story! : )

- Our Christmas was lovely. Rust used up his vacation time, and we enjoyed him home for a nice ten-day stretch. I am so thankful for the extended time with him. He taught me to play rummy. We caught up on TV shows. We sat in bed side-by-side and read tons of fiction novels. We played with the girls, ran errands, and spent time with family. And now we miss him now that he’s returned to work! Our extended time together as a family was much-needed.

- Posts I am planning: Noelle at 18 months, Goals for 2012, the girls’ current Favorite Things, and mine and Anna’s current “learning time” at home. Plus a million recipes I’ve been meaning to share.

- SHOP TALK: These Small Hours is having a SALE to rid my closet of the very last minibooks from the August update! I would LOVE to clear everything out before little Cate arrives! So far the only shop update that I am planning in 2012 will be in July and feature — yes, yes — Christmas- and winter-themed minibook kits.

- My sister is 38 weeks pregnant! Due any day with my first niece, sweet Olivia Ruth! Hurry hurry and arrive little girl!

- Finally, I am over-the-moon excited because one of my best friends from college just had her first baby — a sweet little girl — last night! EEK. I seriously wanted to jump in the car and drive the two hours in the middle of the night just to see that precious baby. I will have to make due with a phone picture until I can cuddle that sweet little Natalie Jane. One of the greatest, most enjoyable parts of this season of my life is meeting all my friends’ babies & watching my closest friends become mothers! I love it, oh how I love it.

Alrighty! Until next time!

We are doing a Jesse Tree for the second time this year. This year, however, we decided to follow RCA’s Jesse Tree family devotional. We considered the widely-used Ann Voskamp’s, but I think we will hold-off using that one until the girls are older. We like RCA’s because it is simple, to-the-point, and applicable to our young ones.

My new (favorite) Christmas albums for this year are all from Folk Angel — Christmas Songs, Headed Home, and Comfort & Joy. I bought all three with a little birthday money. I am loving their folksy renditions of traditional Christmas hymns & songs.

My Christmas Advent wishlist on Amazon is growing and growing as I discover great Christmas books and music. Fortunately, our local library is awesome and has copies of well over twenty of the books on my wishlist! I have already made out a list to cycle through this Christmas season, and we have already made a trip this week to the library to borrow our first batch of Christmas books. Some titles I’m looking forward to reading with Anna from the library this year are Legend of the Christmas Tree, Legend of the Candy Cane, Legend of the Christmas Stocking, Christmas in the Big Wood, Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree, On Christmas Eve, The Little Fir Tree, & God Gave Us Christmas.

We are also going to purchase three Christmas books for our own this year: The Story of Saint Nicholas: More Than Reindeer and a Red Suit (from Voice of the Martyrs–they also have a children’s book pack that looks very nice), Song of the Stars: A Christmas Story by Sally Lloyd-Jones, and My Merry Christmas: The Real Reason for Christmas Joy for little Noellie.

Anna is also excited to purchase some Christmas presents for children in faraway countries. We are using Compassion’s gift catalog & allowing Anna to pick some things to give to other families. There are also catalogs available from Samaritan’s Purse as well as World Vision.

And finally, it is just about time for us to break out our advent devotional, Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus. Though, I must confess I might break down and buy a new ”advent narrative” that Rust showed me, Behold the Lamb of God.

Whew, I think that is it! We are looking forward to this special season! It is so hard to not become consumed with presents & toys, especially as our girls get older, but we deeply want this season to be as Christ-centered as possible.

2010 Christmas Traditions posts:

Telling the Story of Christmas

The Touch of Christmas

The Sounds of Christmas

The Tastes & Smells of Christmas

The Stories of Christmas

The Sights of Christmas

DIY Photo Christmas Cards with Picnik

God has blessed us with a third GIRL! 

Cate Elizabeth Tatum!

We are so excited! We found out early November that our third precious child will also be a third little girl. In Loving the Little Years, she describes herself as having a “little flock of daughters,” and now I can say I will have one, too! Rusty prefers to call it his “gaggle of girls.”

She will be arriving early April, possibly late March if she comes early like Noellie did.

Hope to do more posting soon! Stay tuned!

1. Merry

2. Ella Jane / Eliza Jane

3. Maggie May

4. Lilly Ruth

5. Paige

6. Clara Cate

7. Emma

8. Gwyneth / Gwynne

9. Edith

10. Piper Grey

1. Emery

2. Boaz

3. Wells

4. Roland

5. Leland Gray

6. Elias Gray

7. Cole / Coleman

8 . Graham

9.  Jameson

10.  Conner

- I have not missed blogging AT ALL. This is surprising to me, because I have blogged almost consistently the past 3.5 years.

- Anna turned three in September. She had a party at my parents with all her little friends. Anna LOVES parties and she loved anticipating hers: the month leading up to her birthday party, she asked daily about it. She had so much fun with all her friends.

- When Anna turned three, it was as if a switch flipped in her in a good way: she has begun showing me how independent she is! She can do so much — take herself to the potty without help, wash her hands and face, undress herself, and for the most part dress herself, helps clear the table & puts things away in the fridge voluntarily, takes the time to put things back where they belong (not always,  but more and more).

- Up until that point, I had many moments where I felt pretty overwhelmed at the thought of having three under four in the spring. But, since Anna has just shown me how much she wants to do by herself, it has really shown me that I was thinking of meeting every need of three little babies all at once, and that just won’t be the case. While Anna still has needs to meet & things I need to help her with, it won’t be the same as having an infant and two toddlers–Anna is most definately not a toddler who is unable to always communicate what she needs/wants! I have begun to feel like: “Maybe this won’t be as daunting as I fear! Maybe I can do this!”

- Anna & Noelle (15 months) are best buddies and have all sorts of little games they play together. They can do round after round of “Ring Around the Rosies,” “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” (N sits in A’s lap–I have it on video, it’s the sweetest thing); plus a host of other little made-up games involving tea parties, rolling/handing the ball back and forth, spinning in circles in our living room, careening around laughing hysterically. Oh, yes–not only is Noelle walking, walking, walking, she is also mostly running — still wobbly, still duck-footed, still clumsy, but she loves walking!

- Noelle, at almost 16 months, talks and talks and talks. She has so many words, I’ve lost count. Here are some of her newer or more famous words: button, belly button, rock-a-bye (pronounced “bock-a-bye”), water (“wa-wa”), God, wheeeee!, cracker, amen (mehn-mehn!), sock (“gack”), sticker (“gicker”), draw (“gah”), bath, Anna, Momma, Daddy (“Dah-ee! Dah-ee!”) and her favorite, “My Baby!!!” prounced clear-as-day. Here are words we have heard her attempt a few times, but not enough to be sure: buckle, Grandpa, Bible, good girl, cheese, toothbrush, and upstairs. She also knows all the parts of the face, a handful of animal sounds, and her favorite toy (which has been the same the last 8 months) are baby dolls.

- Anna spent the day at dear Megan’s house one particular sicky day of mine. You should go look at the sweet pictures she took!!

- Noelle daily surprises us with her comprehension. We’ll ask Anna to do something, only to realize Noellie is following along behind her, doing it — trying to take off her clothes, trying to get her toothbrush, helping put toys away, throwing her diaper in the trash, or taking trash to the trashcan. I think I forgot how much a 15-month-old may know but not be able to communicate!

- I am in my 17th week of pregnancy! We find out in about 2 weeks. We very early settled on our names for each gender. (Can you guess our boy name? It’s been the same since our first pregnancy!) I am hoping to, yes indeedy, do another round of unusuable baby names like last pregnancy! Anna’s most consistent baby name for this baby is “Axty.” What do you think?

- Anna is in love with this baby. She gives kisses to my belly. She has tried once to feed my belly a bottle. She has asked how I am going to change the baby in my belly’s poopie diapers. She has already begun figuring out how this new baby will fit into our life. She has asked where the baby’s carseat is going to go, what crib the baby will sleep in, whose high chair is the baby going to take. I think part is curiosity, part is fear that she or Noelle may be displaced. We have tried so hard to reassure her that nothing will be taken from her or Noelle.

- At their most recent doctor appointments, Anna at her three-year appointment weighed 32 lb and is 38 inches tall. Noelle at her 15-month appointment weighed 30 lb and is 32 inches tall.

- And last, but not least, when Noelle gets offended  she sometimes lays face down on the floor, completely still and quiet. It is hilarious. Other times when she’s offended, she just cries really loudly. She definitely is a Hornet with a short fuse! She has a bit of a temper, she’s timid and anxious only about new people/experiences, but if she’s familar–she’ll be great, and most of the time she’s a jolly, playful, silly little girl who also smiles quite a bit.

- How’s that for an update covering the last two months? Sorry, no pictures today. I have taken a ton but haven’t sorted through them in two months. : ) That’s what two months of pregnancy nausea will to do ya!

- Updated to add: forgot to mention that I have been feeling the baby move for a good week now, and the last three days, I have been feeling the baby move multiple times throughout the day! Love it!!