Love Thursday: Little Fingerprints

I haven't written a "Love Thursday" post in years....  probably a good two plus years.  So, here's some background....

Love Thursday:  I try to write a post of thanks, appreciation...  of love.  It may be about our family, my husband, something in our home or community, or something we have done or people have done for us.  A couple of years ago, I used to give my husband a card each week on Thursday, with a handwritten note inside, typically relevant to whatever was going on in our lives or relationship at that time.  We have a lot of cards in our memory boxes!  :)  So, that's the story.

And here's what I'm loving today...  Little Fingerprints.

Last night I was cleaning up from our fancy pants dinner of brie & cranberry chutney crostini and creamy sweet potato & carrot soup, talking to the hubs, and listening to him play with the Toddler.  Making sure she's never far from the action, the Toddler came into the kitchen, played in "her drawer" taking things out and putting them back again, and looking at the stove and dishwasher.  Our appliances are stainless steel--which the Hubs said he really never wanted because there's basically no way to keep them free from fingerprints very long.  He's right, but as I pointed out, the Toddler won't be this little for very long...  and soon, her fingerprints won't be all over everything.

Little Fingerprints are Curiosity
Everyday she looks at the stove and dishwasher, and the water dispenser on the fridge, with great curiosity.  You can almost see the gears turning in her mind--how does this thing work, what does it do?  The buttons beep when I push them!!

Little Fingerprints are Energy
I often wonder how I will keep up when she goes from being a toddler who naps, to a toddler who is awake All.  Day.  Long.  Some days this sweet peanut wears me out as it is!  She's so full of energy and life--she finds a way to look at her toys and our house with a new vision every single day!  It's amazing to watch!

Little Fingerprints are Fleeting....
Someday, she will be bigger.  She will know what the stove does, what the dishwasher does--and the novelty and mystery she finds in these things right now will not be replaced with knowledge and awareness.  She will turn into a big kid, a teenager, a young adult, all before our eyes and yet it will seem like just yesterday...  that she was leaving Little Fingerprints all over our house.

The Big Girl is eight--and I love her Little Fingerprints too...  but already, just a few years older than the Toddler, the Fingerprints the Big Girl leaves are so different.  They are Littlest Pet Shoppe toys all over the floor.  They are books laying around the living room.  They are dirty clothes left laying around her bedroom instead of in her clothes hamper!  Someday, the Fingerprints in our house will only be the Hubs and Mine--the little Toddler giggles & Big Girl screeches of laughter will not sound through our house as they do now.

It's those Little Fingerprints I love.  It's those Little Fingerprints I want to remember.

Wishing lots of Little Fingerprints to you all,

Nic

Tisk, tisk! School Organization Binder

This girl hasn't written in a couple of weeks...  whooooops!

In my defense, I haven't written because I've been knocking out projects left and right!

I'm nearly done with our garage clean-up and organization.  I'd say it's "done" but I'm really hoping to add a mudroom locker type space in the garage next to the door.  That's not done yet.  And, we're seriously discussing what to do with the walls and floor in the garage--floor more seriously.  I'll share the progress on that space in the next few days.

School started for the Girl and she's loving it!  With the start of this school year, we also implemented some new organization strategies with her schoolwork.  I'm remarried so the Girl spends one week with us and one week with her dad.  Last year, we had some trouble sharing and organizing things like spelling words from week to week.  Things appear to be a little more consistent in her new class, with things like spelling words coming home every week instead of "sometimes, but not always".  Each household keeps a binder to organize each week's work.  This is helpful not only for organizing and sharing between houses; it's also enabled us to practice more at home with copies of sheets that were sent previously.  I also made a spelling Practice Test that we do each day as part of homework time.  I'm having her take practice tests for Math Facts every couple of days--the timed tests seem to be a challenge for my kiddo.

I use the front pocket to keep quizzes or worksheets that I am having her do throughout the week.  These are in addition to whatever homework she brings home from school.  I keep the colored pens in the purple pencil case--The entire binder is color-coded by week so they stay in there for writing on the index, calendar, and for scoring/correcting the quizzes and worksheets she does here at home.  You can see the spelling Practice Test we use, thrown together in Pages based on the layout of her real test at school.

I made the index in Pages based on the number of weeks the Girl has before winter break.  I couldn't find the Avery ones at Target and I wasn't running around to a bunch of stores looking for them (despite my LOVE of office supplies, I'm not so fond of carting around a cranky toddler just for an index and dividers).  Each section corresponds to a week and is color-coded red through purple.  We write the major assignments that were sent home that week and note upcoming tests and skills that need practice.

Monthly calendars follow the index and include week's that the Girl is with me and weeks she is with her dad.  Holidays and no-school days are also included as well as school events/activities that are scheduled.

Color-coded and dated dividers with plastic sleeves keep the original blank worksheets and her graded tests contained and organized by date.  I couldn't find dividers in the exact colors I wanted either so these are simply made with scrapbook cardstock and pieces of index cards.

And, some of the homework...  The spelling words actually come to us in a different format, but I like to type them in to a template in pages to keep them this way.  I'm not as fond of the format they are sent home in (it's like a box/grid and it's copied so the print isn't always ideal).  This way I can make the print as large as I want and they're in great condition to keep.  The continents and oceans page on the left is just one I pulled off the internet for the Girl to practice leading up to their test on that material.

When I started putting this together the Hubs said, "Do ya' think ya' might be going a little overboard here?"  I realize it's a bit meticulous, but this has turned out to be a great way to maintain communication between households, and a better way than expected to carry her school lessons through when she comes home.

Until next time.......  when we talk SHOP (garage kind-a shop, not shoppING.... boo!)

-Nic