Make My Saturday Sweet - Blog Hop #46

It's time again for another Make My Saturday Sweet blog hop. How can you make someone's Saturday sweet? By linking up your blog and visiting other bloggers who linked up before you! It's easy and fun.

I'm also linking up with two Friday blog hops and answering their writing prompts. Today's Finish the Sentence Friday is "I wasn't really myself when I..."

I wasn't really myself when I fell pregnant with Amanda, my fourth child. It's not that I didn't want more kids, but my three older kids had grown up to a large extent and I was enjoying having my life back. Not only was I emotionally not ready, but I also became physically ill with morning sickness. I lost 8 kilos during my pregnancy. My kids (and Hubby) rallied behind me and gave me lots of support. They were excited to be getting a new brother or sister.

When Amanda was born, she was the center of our family. We drew closer together and the kids learned how to help care for a little one. Their job was usually to take turns playing with her. This was a huge help. However, the first year was the hardest, as Amanda had terrible colic and couldn't sleep at all in the day. She slept at night, but not that well.

All my babies were born with colic. I don't know why I had to go through it four times around. My son's colic lasted till around 4 months, but the girls all had it for longer. Jessica had it the longest. She didn't settle until two weeks after turning two years old.

I always carried my babies around, because I knew they were uncomfortable and not crying for nothing. This put a huge strain on me every time. I suppose that's another reason why I dreaded having another kid, but Amanda has been the biggest blessing. She has thoroughly enriched our lives.

Amanda's foot prints made into a butterfly
Preschool Art 2013

Today's Friendship Friday's theme is "Back to School."

As many of you already know, we live in South Africa and our kids are on a different school system. Their school year begins in January and ends in December. Even their summer break, which is from Dec. - Jan. is not as long as in the States. I think that makes getting back into the swing of things not so hard, as there isn't such a big gap from the year end until the new school year begins.

My kids are now in their third school term. Jeremiah is in the 11th grade, Jessica in the 9th, Samantha in the 7th, and Amanda is in preschool. She will begin grade R (grade K) in January and is now preparing for that. Even though there is no perfect school system, all my kids are happy at their schools. We're really blessed.

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It's time for another Make My Saturday Sweet blog hop!

Join me (your host) for this fun and easy hop.

All family friendly blogs are welcome!

If you host your own blog hop(s), then feel free to
link them on my Blog Hops page!

I would love for you to follow me on

Google+

Pinterest 

Twitter 

Facebook 

Leave me a comment with your link and I will follow back!

Here are the easy rules:

• Follow Tina (your host) @ Amanda's Books and More.
• Link up your family friendly blog.
• Please try to add my hop button on your most recent post or on your side-bar.
• Share about this hop on Twitter, Google+ or Facebook.
• Visit at least the last two blogs before your link and leave a comment.
• Follow any new blogs that you like.

Blog Button Code:

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This is a blog hop!

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Teaching Amanda Her ABCs

Most of you know that Amanda turned 5 this year.

I was concerned that she had to remain in the

playgroup another year before graduating to

Kindergarten (Grade R in South Africa) and
that she'll only be in Grade 1 when she's 6

turning 7.

From what I understand, that's a
whole year later than in the States.
So, I decided to start teaching her at home,
after school. I only spend about 5 - 10 minutes
with her, but I've seen that it makes a difference.

Today I'm sharing about 3 of the books that

I've been using with her. We have several

other ABC resources too. Some are
battery operated with sound. I like variety,

so I don't focus on the same books or

teach with the same method every day.

I also like to be spontaneous. Here's

a peek into a few of our lessons. Enjoy!

First Fun ABC is published by Miles Kelly.

I like this book, because Amanda gets to

practice the alphabet at the top of the page.

Also, the letter that the page is focusing on

is highlighted in the alphabet row.

I noticed that Amanda

was running the letters L - N as one

word, so here we practiced slowing

the famous alphabet song down and

saying each letter name carefully.

I got My First ABC Glitter Book on sale.

It's published by Hinkler Books and they have

a whole series, including Colours and Numbers.

Amanda commented that it was for babies.

I liked the shiny pages. I also knew that

even though it's in a toddler's book style,

it's still right for her age.

I like that each picture has the upper case

and lower case letter. I think it's better

if kids learn both from the beginning.

What I didn't like is that the letter A

on the inside of the book stood for

"alarm clock" and R stood for "rubber

duck." Amanda saw the clock and said,

"A for clock" and saw the duck and said,

"R for duck." This was too confusing.

Amanda got this wonderful Animals, Wipe Clean,

Learn to Draw Activity Book for her birthday

a year or two ago. It's published by Priddy

Books. She used her marker until it ran dry,

so the one in the photo is not the one that

it originally came with, although it does

look similar. This book also comes in a

series, including Letters and Numbers.

What makes this book so versatile is that

it not only teaches drawing, it also teaches

how to write the alphabet in upper case

and lower case letters.

I got Amanda

to practice some of these letters on a

white board that we could wipe clean

and use again and again.

We could have used the book

for this, but I wanted her to

see how the letters make words.

In the last picture, Amanda had a word

with a missing letter. Each time I gave

her a different missing letter for the same

word, to help her see what letter was

missing and to put it in the right place. 

If your child isn't old enough to write yet,

you could simplify this exercise using magnetic

fridge letters. Let your child place the

correct letter in the missing space.

I found this neat ABC internet resource today.

It's called ABCya and has free games and apps

from Grade K to Grade 5. I'll let Amanda

check it out with me tomorrow. Maybe

you've already heard of it. I'm living in a

corner of South Africa, so I'm still

discovering these things.

I'm linking with the Kid Lit Blog Hop.

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Preschool Olympics

I've had a very busy day. When I got to my blog, I discovered that it was in a mess! Something was wrong with the template! I don't design templates and I don't know much about codes. It was a panic moment.

My hubby prayed for me and soon after that I discovered that my new blog hop button had made it to my top 10 popular posts. I decided to see if that was the problem, so I went to Layout, changed my top 10 to top 8, bumping it off the list, and voila!... the template went back to normal. What a relief! Now if it makes it to the top 8, I'll have to shorten my list again, so no more page views on that post! Hahaha! Don't worry; I do want the page views. I'll find a way around it if I have to.

So, you might be aware that I had said I would be doing a series on my marriage. I began with My Husband is a Martian - Part 1. I do want to continue with it, but to write it well, I need more time. Keep a look out for Part 2 in the near future!

Today my daughter participated in her first Olympics… at preschool! The teacher had invited the parents to come and watch. I was the first parent to arrive, bringing my camera with. (I was the 1 camera 1 mom at the event. Hahaha!) Later, one other mother also came to watch. The teacher put in a lot of effort, so it’s too bad there weren’t more spectators.

It was one hour of fun in the winter sun. Yes, we have winter here in South Africa and the kids are all in the middle of their school year!

The kids walked onto the field each carrying an Olympic torch. All the little Olympians took part in all three events. They had a stick-horse race, a bounce race and a foot race. Amanda was the winner in her group bounce race. At the end, all the kids received a coconut and chocolate flavored “gold” medal, a fantastic ending to a fantastic event. Amanda is fortunate to have such a pro-active teacher.

Amanda carrying her Olympic torch.

The stick-horse race.

The bounce race.

There's the teacher in the background.
Here Amanda is winning!

The foot race. On your marks, get set... go!

And their off!

Everyone was a winner!

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