Do you have a little detective in the house? My son dreams of being a spy or detective when he grows up! He's always asking for a new spy costume or spy gear. In fact, you can often find him sporting a fake mustache or holding a little notepad in which he's taking notes on. He even loved when Encyclopedia Brown was our read aloud, etc. You can only imagine the excitement he had when we took him to the Spy Museum in DC! 

Well, with Caleb being my detective-loving son, I brought out an old set of printables that I had made years ago for a co-op class I was teaching and it was the perfect fit! 

I had originally made this as a fun way for my students to work on their grammar skills that we had just reviewed. Talk about the perfect match for my son, ha! His obsession with being a detective/spy made this activity exciting for him -- way more than his typical workbook assignment!

And because I love going down memory lane, here's a photo of my oldest working on this same activity way back when I taught in that co-op. Ahhh...it seems like just yesterday!

If this sounds like something your kids might enjoy, be sure to click here...

Well, I'm a day late and a dollar short, but I felt like it was still worth sharing...

If you know someone who has lost a baby (or you have), but went on to have a happy, healthy little one, yesterday (August 22, 2021) was #NationalRainbowBabyDay. It's a day to celebrate the rainbow that came after the storm. I realize this really has absolutely nothing to do with homeschooling, but if you're like me and have experienced loss, you know this day is a day to feel thankfulness and joy as you think about the sweet rainbow that came after your storm. 

While on Facebook today, my memories showed me a post I had made about this particular day with one of my favorite pictures of my oldest. Every time I see it, it brings on the emotions -- tears of joy, immense happiness, you name it. It makes me want to go hug that ginormous kid and remind him how much I'm thankful for him, ha. Okay, okay...I already do that all the time, but still. 

This is what I had shared a couple years ago, but it still rings true...

"Today is National Rainbow Baby Day. I'm still in awe of how much our lives changed when our little miracle, Samuel Ryan, arrived. After 8 years of pain and grief from the loss of Jacob, Jordan, and Olivia, we sure didn't feel much hope. Sam's arrival renewed that hope and brought with him incredible joy. Just looking at this photo brings me back to that time and the indescribable joy we felt as we praised God to have him in our arms -- happy and healthy. He and Caleb have brought more joy to our lives than we could've ever imagined..."  

If you have endured the pain of loss in your journey to having kids, my heart goes out to you! I hope that you can share in the joy of National Rainbow Baby Day...

If you ever feel compelled to read our story, it can be found here at my old blog...

 Do you use one? 

It's been a tradition in our house since my oldest started preschool. 

I absolutely love seeing the growth in my boys with each photo!

It's also fun to see what they each choose for their design each year. 

We typically turn it into a silly photo shoot, so I get to capture a hint of their personality as we celebrate the new school year. I love it!

Four years ago, while sitting in a hotel after a long day of exploring Yellowstone National Park, I received a call from my sister back in Indiana asking if I could make her a printable for her first day as a preschool teacher. Happy to do so, I sat there while my boys chilled in front of the hotel TV and created her this printable -- not thinking about anything more it than it benefiting my sister and her new class...

Fast forward to now and this little printable is the best selling printable I've ever made! Funny how things happen like that! Over time, this has also led to me making other handprint craft printables for various holidays, etc. If my boys were still little, you'd better believe I'd be doing these with them -- I miss seeing those sweet little hands! 

I receive comments all the time about how much the parents love receiving these crafts as gifts -- I was the same way when my boys were little! Give me a thumbprint piece of art, a hand, a foot...you name it. Anything to document their size at that time and I was in love! I mean...now I look at my oldest and he's on the verge of wearing clothes from the Men's section! (insert tears)

If you're like me -- a sentimental momma with kids that are growing up WAY too fast -- grab this or make one that fits your needs. You won't regret it when they start to have hands the same size as you and you begin to miss those days of having little ones. It's super fun watching my boys grow up and see the little men they're becoming, but the days when they were little sure were fun! I love that I have various crafts to remember them by!

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We all have them -- those childhood favorites that we can't wait to share with our kids. I still have my Gary Paulsen books from when I was a kid -- Hatchet and The River. I remember absolutely loving these books! Well, the day came when I introduced them to my son. I decided that even though I typically allow my boys to read whatever they want for their daily reading time for school, I was going to require my oldest to read a few specific books this year. They would be books that I either loved as a kid or that I felt were important to cover at his age. First up was Hatchet. To put it lightly, that was a total bust, ha!

He completely HATED it! I thought maybe once he got further into the story, he would enjoy it. Nope. Not one bit. And you know what? That's okay. It just wasn't his cup of tea. He loves documentaries about this sort of thing. He loves movies about this sort of thing. But apparently in book form, it wasn't a winner!

Do you require specific books for your children to read? Or have a set curriculum that requires books outside of the genre that they love? I think it's good to expose them to things outside of what they typically read and I'm still glad I had Sam read it, but I definitely won't be asking him to read the sequel as planned, ha!

That said, are there any novels that you remembering LOVING, but your kids hated?

*****

Update: So after writing about this, I had my boys sit down with me and watch the movie based on Hatchet. Thankfully, I was able to find it on YouTube. It must've been uploaded from a VHS tape, because the quality was absolutely horrendous! Nevertheless, we watched it. It turns out, Sam really enjoyed the movie! In fact, he's still talking about it randomly. On our way to an appointment earlier today, he asked why the pilot had a heart attack. At first, I had no idea what he was talking about so he had to elaborate. Clearly, the movie won him over way more than the book!

*****

Side note: For anyone wondering, when I have my boys read books of their choosing -- or books that I choose for them -- I have them knock out one of the activities in their Reading Journal that I blogged about last week. If you think that might be something you'd like your children to do, definitely check out that blog post here.