DIY Preschool Basketball Game

Posted in Preschool Homeschool by Nykiah

I have not blogged in about two weeks. Happens like that at times. I hope you all can understand that my life is CRAZY!

My whole house has been under the weather for a few days so I have been trying desperately to press on and just get things done. I can’t help but think that my brain has been under the weather long before those few days. But I am so thankful and grateful for the great spirits that my children, hubs and I have been able to keep since then.

Hulk Smash and I took a week off from preschool last week to organize the madness of my husbands stuff. Being married to an artist? Crazy!

I managed to sneak in a few lessons here and there and I’d like to share with you today a game that might be helpful in your preschool journey.

I’m a fan of printables but not a fan of how much ink I use and the cost of it. The concept of this alphabet learning game came from a printable I saw once on pinterest. I am certain the game worked in a way that mine does but my preschooler enjoys the colors much more and the fact that we incorporate household items into our game.

Here’s what you will need:

7 sheets of construction paper

Scissors

A sharpie or marker of choice

Some laundry baskets and or a play basket ball hoop if you have it

A chalk board or dry erase board

That’s it!

1. Divide your sheets into four squares with your marker (make a cross on the paper that makes four squares. It should take up the whole paper because you want the letters to be big)

2. In each square, draw a circle and some basket ball lines like this

3. Mark the letters of the alphabet in the basketballs and cut out the squares ( You can also do capital and lowercase but I just started with general recognition of the letters so I just put the capital letter on my basketball’s)

For the game:

1. Lay out all your basketball letters in an aisle and place your laundry baskets at the top of the aisle

* For children learning the alphabet

2. Write the letter that you’d like them to choose on your board (Ex. Can you find the letter C?) When they find it (and they may not, help them along by showing them where it is and letting them pick it up. I usually do an announcer voice and pretend HM is an all-star) introduce the sound that the letter makes and have them repeat.

Here’s what it sounds like for us:

HM has found the (C sound) C!! HM what letter do you have? (He will shout C! Be encouraged to pump it up and let them shout!) HM what is the sound that C makes? (In the beginning I had to help him by repeating the sound and letter but we do this every Tuesday so he knows now what to do) Let’s see what he does with it!

Crumble up that letter C and take it to THE HOOP! (he usually is running to the basket at this point) Will he dunk it or just plain shoot it? He’s running down the court in high-speed and he SHOOTS!!!!! YES!!! Perfect score by HM!

Ideally this would be perfect for a little boy but you can improvise with all sorts of things to suit for little girls. I personally think a little girl would enjoy this game without all the noise maybe.

Well thanksgiving is coming! And I am patiently looking forward to a week off from preschool and food!

Please let me know how you like this game! And as always, with everything I post, I hope it helps and is an idea you’ll keep!

I’m so thankful for the holidays. It is always a blessing to me and my family to experience togetherness.

What are you thankful for?

You might also like: Encouragement for Preschool Moms:Pressing Through the Hard Days, Howto Homeschool a Preschooler

17Oct2013

I Confess I’m an Imperfect Mother

Posted in Gather, Soup for the soul by Nykiah

It’s so funny how this came about. Years ago I had plans to write a book titled Confessions of A Teen-aged mom. Don’t ask me what happened, I guess life took its toll and the book got lost. It may still come about one day.

I had plans of writing how my first child came and living through the pain of being shunned from my previous church. There were chapters on midnight feedings and how I was too tired and fell asleep breastfeeding. Along with many other chapters like anger and children, confessions of a single mom, suicidal roller-coaster and the like.

I feel like I’ve been through it all. I’ve got battle scars to prove my journey. Two failed relationships, one failed marriage, custody battles, living paycheck to paycheck paying for daycare and private school on my own and fears through the marriage I am in.

I’ve been compared, knocked down, looked over, mentally and emotionally abused and what have you. Who hasn’t?

Nonetheless, this day I get up every morning with new hope and a greater vision to seek God’s best in my life and the lives of my children.

But I am not perfect. I just laid that out. I’m not the screaming mom that takes single leaps in a bound when my boy’s cry. I am not the super organized mom or the mom that has her child in 10,000 biblical activities through the year. I’m not the mom that never catches an attitude or wakes up super early to start breakfast. I second that. I am certainly not the mom who get’s all her house work done, home school’s perfectly, nurtures perfectly or loves perfectly but these are very broad subjects.

If the chance comes I’m making a pizza and calling it dinner. I try to limit T.V. but sometimes, when I’m tired, there are pajama days. Sometimes dishes are left in my sink and the dirt on the floor may linger a few weeks.

Sometimes I don’t get dressed or even brush my teeth (don’t judge me).

But who is all these things?

Who has it together all the time? And if you do, then you are your own Saviour because there is no need.

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6 (ESV)

I fail and I fall. You got me. But I’m still growing. That’s the important thing.

I’m so imperfect and yet so glad that I am. Because through these imperfections God shows me how to slow down and catch up on life, the fun free one. He shows me to depend on him for his strength, his wisdom and his control. Not to compare myself to another mother or woman and what he has set before them. What God has given me is for me.

My crazy busy life, my personality, my husband, my struggles, my children, my ridiculous strength, my annoying yet amazing family, It’s all for Nykiah, because it’s apart of his work within me and the end of the story.

I am imperfect but He is stronger when I am weak and greater in my vulnerabilities. I am exactly what he wants me to be and how he needs me now. So that his glory can be completed in me. I’m just a dented, chipped, puzzle piece learning how to fit in his plan and stand where he wants me on the stage. I’m dress rehearsing for the real thing when all my responsibility will be to bow down and worship the king of kings.

I didn’t use to can but I do now. I never made pizza dough but I do now. I don’t have any girls, but I have boys. I don’t have a huge house but I have one. I don’t have long hair, but it’s healthy. I don’t always say the right things but I’m working on it. I love God and I love people. Isn’t that really the point of all of this? Aren’t these really what the Lord has asked of us?

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22: 34-40 (ESV)

So while I’m focusing on what I’m not and who I could be, He is looking at greater things.

Praise God if another mom does more than me, praise God if another mom does less. We all have one thing in common, Jesus, his love and his work; Or that we love what we do and we are crazy for doing it!

I hope you can see your imperfections as another reason to give Christ your life. For someone already perfect needing nothing, it wouldn’t be a lot.

Trust him today and walk on the path he has you. Whether crazy and blessed or worst and a mess. Trust Him. And by all means, rejoice with other moms and women for their strength, humility and work that they were called to! (In other words, don’t hate, congratulate!)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6

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Linking up with: Wedded Wednesday and thebettermom

30Apr2013

How to Train a Super Hero {Beginners Edition}

Posted in Soup for the soul by Nykiah

Since the year 2013 rang in, there have been a number of ways I feel the Lord has tried to get my attention. Over the past few weeks I’ve been going through learning about grace, patience, love and the depth of those two from the cross.

When I look at my boys I immediately notice their differences and the importance of me catering to their very “different” needs. What a year this has thus far been!

In previous posts I’ve explained how different my boys are and it’s not until this week that I’ve truly taken in their “boy.”

So when I think of my blog title I think of the reasons I named it what it is and those reasons didn’t start out with the deep meaningful background that it stands on today. I was going for a supermom theme-cute type name. But never could I have imagined that God would reveal far more greater things to me through blogging.

So what exactly is a super hero?

When we think super hero we automatically recollect on red capes, big ripped overly exaggerated muscles, ridiculous voices, spider webs being shot all over the house and the sound of “not so fast!” being used as a term of endearment.

Merriam-Webster defines a super hero as: a fictional hero having extraordinary or superhuman powers;also : an exceptionally skillful or successful person.

In real life my superhero is not so fictional. Instead he walks with a crown of Glory-one that he got through proving his love to the world. My super hero has suffered the scars of sin and affliction that were not his own. My super hero pushed me out-of-the-way of death when I was entrapped to a life of turmoil and mischief.

This man, this SUPER man sat at the beginning of earth with the Lord being Lord, came down to earth to experience my pain, my grief, my sorrow, my temptation, my sin; hung his head in love and rose to assume the role of Christ once for all to all people. My super hero is Jesus–and he is real.

You see, when I look at my parenting and as I look to rearing my children in the right direction, I can’t help but think “I’m not training them to be robots that adhere to all the standards of society, I’m training them to be like Jesus. My child rearing should be pointing them to JESUS and teaching them a daily lifestyle of confession and repentance. It’s important for them to know where they stand and where God stands so that they understand their roles in life as they grow.

What does that mean? What does life under the SON look like?

Life under the son is developing character and living in full submission to his lordship on a regular basis. It means we understand our lack of perfection and need to be rescued.

For so long I have tried to figure out ways to practically teach my children by sitting them in front me and reading the entire bible to them. But I realized that my children are watching me. They are learning how to love God and how to serve others through me. They are learning accountability and suffering, character and love through me. I can’t come to grips with that enough. That’s so overwhelming!!!

Training up my boys in the fear of the Lord means also that I need to understand them. What are their weaknesses, what are their fears, their strengths, their likes and dislikes. My oldest son very often falls into the line of people pleasing. He’s often too worried about what others think of him. I pray hard daily that the Lord will help him to understand his value as a young boy and the importance of his role as a growing man. My littlest is strong-willed to the point of no return. I pray daily that the Lord will break him down and help him to be humble. I’m still actually learning on that one. LOL

One thing I’ve learned in my journey of mommahood is to never stop praying and giving myself up to the Lord because when I do I miss things that are crucial to serving my children. Also, never to stop praying and giving my arrows up to the Lord. It’s a daily process that makes me grow so weary at times.

I fail. I forget. I yell a few times, I get exhausted, and I ask sometimes why me but that’s mothering. It’s a huge job.

I’m learning how to train a not-so superhero-Jesus’ way.