Riedl Ramblings

We have been pretty busy finishing up the winter months here at the Riedl household.

For starters, we have had to do A LOT of hand washing! Lots of germs this season so with a little bit of bribing, our hands have been very clean.

Since it has been very, very, VERY cold out, our learning time has been done indoors. Kylie is our little reader. She has entered the era of chapter books. Sometimes, I have to tell her to put it down because she just loves to read. Right now, she is reading the Magic School Bus series. It has kind of brought the desire to homeschool to the forefront again. Kylie just loves to learn...and loves to be challenged but isn't REALLY challenged at school. hmmmmmm....I guess this is an area of prayer and a whole other discussion.


Cooper is my eager learner right now. He has 'mastered' his name and is in love with anything with a pattern. He is convinced we are having another boy since we have girl, boy, girl...

We have also done a fair amount of 'cooking'. They absolutely LOVE their kitchen set and are now into making mommy soup so she feels better (refer to the hand washing statement). Kylie likes to have picnics in the living room in preparation for the real deal in a few months.


*My soup!!


Addy loves most anything anyone else is playing with. She loves to feed her babies and we are in the process of attempting to explain to a 21 month old that there is a baby in mommy's tummy. Yeah...not going so well. We are starting the process of moving her into Kylie's room and have some big plans for some super cool bunk beds in the near future.

And me...well...I have been doing a lot of this... (great book by the way...again..another blog post)

and this...

and this...

Love my life as a mommy. I wouldn't trade it for the world. I have been blessed with some pretty amazing kids :-)

Entertaining the troops

I don't know about you, but some days I find it difficult to keep everyone happy. This snow and cold has kept us indoors for a while now and the kids are getting antsy.

So this mama has had to be creative....

A few ideas for those days when entertainment is NECESSARY!

Painting with pudding. Although I wish this was my idea, I can take no credit for it. I did it with Kylie back in the day but kinda forgot about this nifty craft idea. Recently, I read about it in a magazine and knew I had to let Addy get her turn with the pudding. Just give you kiddo some chocolate pudding, a silicone baster and some paper and watch what happens! It took her a while to figure out it was pudding (the other kids were painting with real paint) but once she did, she was entertained for a whole 30 minutes!


I picked up these really neat cookie cutters a while back on a free table at church and I have to say, they have been the best free thing I have every received! They came with the whole alphabet and number!! Since Cooper is learning how to spell his name, we had a playdough date with the letters. It was so much fun for the kids. Addy loved it just as much...even though she had NO idea what she was spelling.

Cooper was VERY proud of himself!

Christmas fun with your kiddos

Every other day, my kids and I do some "learning" together. We sit in a circle and sing songs, talk about what day it is, the weather, and then do some activities together. When Kylie is home, she joins us but most days it is just Cooper, Addy and I.

Anyways, I am always looking for new and creative ways to teach my kids. It's always fun during the holidays to come up with new crafts and activities for the kids. BUT...sometimes, I forget about all of the crafts we did as kids. It is also difficult to find activities for all of my kids. Kylie will come home from school and ask to do a "project" so I like to have some handy for her (preferably one I did with the others earlier in the day).

I figured I would share a few crafts with you all that you can use for ALL your children.

• The hand wreath...

Yes, some of us did this as kids but it is just fun....

• The Teeny Tiny Book of Christmas Alphabet for your preschooler
• Christmas Reindeer Craft

  Directions: Make a reindeer by shaping the pipe cleaner into a V shape and gluing it to the top, back of the stick; glue on wiggle eyes and nose, and draw a mouth. You can make this a gift tag by writing To: and From: on it; you can use the ribbon and make it an ornament; or you can make it a magnet.

• Egg Carton Tree
  
  Directions: Cup the egg cartons so you have one row of 6 cups, one row of 5 cups, and so on to 1 cup. Paint the outside of the egg cup green. When the paint is dry, glue them on a large sheet of paper as follows: Glue the 6 cup row on the bottom of the paper, just above that glue the 5 cup row, and so on until you have used all the cups. It should look like a triangle when you are done. Decorate with misc. craft items
• Christmas Necklace

  Directions: Cut 2-3 feet of cling wrap and lay flat on table. Starting on one end, place candy in the center of the cling wrap. Do this the whole length of the cling wrap, leaving 2-3 inches between each candy. Fold the cling wrap over a few times - the long way- to seal the candy. Tie a piece of curling ribbon around the cling wrap in between each piece if candy. Tie the ends together to make a necklace.

• Santa Hat
  

  Directions: Cut out a large triangle out of red construction paper. Glue on the cotton balls to make a white ball on one of the triangle tips, and glue cotton balls along the
  bottom edge to form the brim. You can also cut out two triangles and tape or staple them together to make a hat to fit the child's head.

Enjoy.....

Do YOU know what today is?

Some of you know that we have started to think about homeschooling.

Before you say it, YES, I know how difficult it can be and YES, I know how regimented one must be to make it work and YES, we live in a great school district...

BUT

Did you know that mama's should be with their little ones until they are at least 8 years old? AND did you that the teacher that will be teaching your little one has 20+ other students who are all learning at a different speed? AND did you know that children are the most impressionable in their elementary years? AND did you know that we are Christians and really want God to be a part of our daily "learning" time?

Okay, so I said it. Those are some of the reasons why we are considering it.

That being said, we have started to implement a daily schedule of "learning" time. I ordered curriculum through Little Acorn Learning (THANKS SARAH) and have started using it on a daily basis along with some of my own stuff. Kylie and Cooper love it so far (as does mommy). I will let you know how it all pans out over the next few months.

Here is our room right now...it will be painted in the spring...probably yellow with a nice cork board on the wall.

Well TODAY we learned that IT IS THE 12TH DAY OF CHRISTMAS.

We decorated kings (and queens) crowns to celebrate when the wise men came to visit baby Jesus. The cirriculum talk about making a cake but due to our allergies (and mommy's lack of GF products in the pantry) we made cheese crackers...with our crowns on of course.
I am going to share with you all the recipe because my SIL shared it with me just yesterday and it has been a HUGE success in both of our households.

4 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
4 tablespoons butter, softened
2/3 cup rice flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons milk

• Preheat oven to 400.
• combine all ingredients except milk in bowl. mix until mixture resembles a fine crumb. add the milk and beat well.
• on a greased baking pan roll out dough to 1/8 inch thickness. cut into 3/4 inch squares (I used a pizza cutter) or other shapes if you desire.
• prick tops with fork and bake for 10 minutes (I cooked for 15 minutes for extra cruchiness)

Now I like to give credit where credit is due but I HAVE NO IDEA the name of this book. I just have a copy of the page. Once I find out (from my SIL) I will let you know.

This is what Cooper thought of them....
and just because I have a picture of all my other children, I felt I should include one of my little "clapper" Addy....