Teaching Tool Tuesday

A great tool I found online was this laminated folder clock to help teach "time."  I like how it looks and that it doesn't take up too much room.   Could I make this myself, yes, did I -- no, -- I ordered it but now I can't recall where I purchased it from.  I also use worksheets that I find online to help reinforce our time telling skills

Monday Mommy Quotes

I am late on my Monday post so here it is instead on Wednesday!!

I hope that I am giving credit to the right person for this quote.  I copied it several years ago so here's hoping I am right.  I believe it was by L. Elizabeth Krueger from Raising Godly Tomatoes:

"Life is often "hectic" around here, but my kids come first so I just have to practice saying 'no" to outside activities and anything optional that would prevent me from staying "connected" with my kids.

On a daily basis though, I work to maintain the habit of always being "available" to my children.  That means, that if they come to me for just about anything at just about anytime, I STOP WHAT I AM DOING AND GIVE THEM THE TIME AND ATTENTION THEY WANT AND NEED.  I make a conscious effort to never brush them off, whether it's a 5 year old who wants to show me his latest Lego creation, or a 20 year old who wants to chat about this day at work."

Monday Mommy Quotes…

Today's quote is one I discovered when reading a blog years ago and I don't remember the blog now but she got it from a little book called Gold Dust (and it is free for your kindle!) it was translated from French to English in 1880.  There is a word in the first sentence that I had never heard before and had to look up, it is the word importunities which means "making repeated or annoying requests or demands".  This pretty much describes what a mom hears all day from her little flock.  That is why I love this nugget (pun intended) of wisdom.  I have it typed and framed and hung above my computer desk as a daily, sometimes hourly, reminder.

Few positions in life are so full importunities as that of the mother of a family, or a mistress of a house.  She may have a dozen interruptions while writing one letter, or settling an account.  What holiness, what self-control, is needed to be always calm and unruffled amid these little vexations and never to manifest the slightest impatience!

Leaving the work without apparent annoyance, replying with a smile upon the lips, awaiting patiently the end of a long conversation, and finally returning calmly to the yet unfinished work - all this is a sign of a recollected soul, and one that waits upon God.

Oh! What blessings are shed around them by such patient souls…but alas! How rarely they are to be met with.