All by herself poems by Ann Whitford paul , very inspiring poems about 14 girls who made a difference ( tina loves it )
footprints on the roof ( poems about the earth )
found in a garage sale : Collins Treasury of poetry , lovely selection and illustrations , my kids are very visual , although they can  enjoy a chapter book , but books with special illustrations are big hit with them .

Skylark , i was htinking maybe we can compile links of you tbe animated poems or books that can accompany our readings ??
xxx
viv

A child's garden of verses is another favourite . i have an audio songs that goes with it . we love it .

AAMilne : Now we are six -when we were very young
Joyce Sidman : Butterfly eyes and other secrets of the meadow .
twinkle twinkle chocolate bar ; rhymes for the very young compiled by John foster

i have more just need ot find them on our shelves
xxx

We love AA Milne poetry books  my kids cannot have enough of them , and i just found the audio on apple store . We started memorizing poems with first language lessons . they have a system like one poem a week and you do review of already memorized poems and learn new ones . tina is so good at it and so quick , it takes her only few times reading the poem to recite it all from memory .
will check other books we have .
viv

oh and i didn't know classical baby has poetry show , i have art music and dance , when did they come out with this one ??
my kids loved the three i have .
viv

TTrampoline works  great for us too . Till the age of six tina never sat on a chair to learn and all she learned wasd eaither jumping on the trampoline or doing headstands or rolling on the bed

lookjing forward to your post on your blog skylark . Would be great help for me , sorry i should feel bad but these days i can do copying friends ideas , too tired to figure it out on my own
xxx

One of my new year resolutions is reading more poetry . We read a lot with my first and second child , I made sure to read poems every day , but lately we are hooked on chapter books and forgot about poems . No problem for my six years old , she reached to the bookshelf and took a poem book and started reading on her own . She said mama i remember this book you used to read it to me when i was a baby . i felt bad that i never read it for her younger brother . many things i didn't have a chance to do with him . many of our pictures books are forgotten on the shelf so i decided we will make sure to read poems this year , one poem a day is an easy goal , but i wonder if we should not make one poem a week and reread it ??? what do you think to encourage memorization ?? I started by looking through the house collecting all our poetry books and make a poetry section on our shelves , i was amazed how many books i have , i will try to post some titles we really love .
xxx
viv

more photos

[Happy Christmas & a wonderful , successful, joyful new year]

It is morning in our side of the world , I got on my computer ,reread my last and  realized it is all full of sad   and it is not right way to start a new year .
so instead I am writing back to wish you all with a big smile     Happy Christmas  & a wonderful , successful, joyful  new year .

Thank you so much skylark ,mela bela , lappy , manda ,keri , Tamsyn for writing back .
I would have gone crazy trying to deal with it on my own . My brother is a private person , he did sympathize with me after he read my post on my facebook page but criticized me for sharing it with others   being able to talk about it unfortunalty more online in my situation than with people around me had helped me a lot .
The first few days were really hard . It was a very tough week trying to process all what happened and accept it and move on ,  i couldn;t eat , i couldn;t allow myself to cry in front of the kids , i couldn;t sleep ,i loaded myself with coffee to keep going ,   i was full of anger and hatred for the strangers who hurt my family and violated our home .
Then i read all your replies.I am so sorry Skylark for what happened to you , i cried reading your post and wished i could be there with you when all that happened . Thank you so much for sharing with me , i cannot tell you how helpful your post was to put myself together .You made me stop crying and instead pray for both my family and yours ((..hugs...))
 I also received a wonderful email from another friend on montessori group i belong to that helped me how to approach the kids and discussed what happened with them . i like to ask her permission and share it here with all of you .
in all what happened my husband was amazingly supportive .   for him , the kids , the grandma , and the family who always spent christmas eve with us , i focused on Christmas and kept myself busy cooking which helped  forget all the stress and sadness of last week robbery and just enjoy the moment with our loved ones .
Kids still got presents from us .Lucky for them , in our situation present buying is planned always ahead looking for cheap online deal , educational material i order from UK  through friends working in a shipping company and i try to buy what they need for the whole year on christmas and their birthdays .
I save for it all year long so when shipment arrive , i open the safe and pay my bill . Unfortunately not this year we lost the money  .
 I am grateful that our friends understood the situation and are willing to be patient with us so we can pay slowly .
the next few days were full of excitement with kids using their new stuff ,... I was ok till 2 days ago when we got out of the house for a small drive for the first time after the robbery  .Coming back , we usually park the car, i stay with isa on my lap waiting for mike to go in open the house and come take Isa . This is when he , we found out we were robbed 2 weeks ago . the waiting yesterday was so hard , all the feelings of that sunday afternoon came back , i kept rewinding the events in my mind over and over again and felt so numb , hurt again .And yesterday exactly 2 weeks after , kids asked to go to the beach , like that afternoon when it happened  . I just couldn't go . i made my poor isa sad by deciding mike would take the young ones and i stay home with isa because I am tired . The truth is i was scared to leave the house
One other thing disturbing after what happened , i put on some weight the last 2 years and it is all related to stress , i never had problem with weight before , and i never needed to diet . I recently was determined to pull myself together try to detox , exercise and live healthier .I managed to stop coffee and was proud of myself , started exercising , ...
 The last two weeks I am doing the opposite , like punishing myself and my body , I cannot stop eating   and i don't feel good , I am too tired , don't feel like playing with kids . You know you are doing something wrong , you just cannot stop yourself from doing it
ok lots of issues crammed in this post . I am writing at 4 am after my 4 years old woke me up 3 times crying he is not able to sleep at night unless lying against me in bed and if i move away he wakes up crying mama i am scared i want you
thank you so much for reading so far , i will go back to bed and try to sleep a bit .

what are your plans for this evening ?? do you do anything special on new year ?? our friends organized  a special new year eve back in time party with everybody dressed up . I was very excited for us and the kids to join , but after what happened i had no chance to prepare our costumes and not sure i would want to spend money to join  , so we'll be home .
I pray that 2013 will be a good year fro all of us brings us peace of mind , joy and good health .
I feel blessed  to be part of such wonderful group and be able to share . I am thankful for good friends like you .
sending you all love and blessings
xxx
viv

i tired adding more than one coupon code , so far i went down to 125 dollars , what worked is newmember30 coupon code and the newyear10 coupon code . i hope somebody can use them xxx viv

sorry seastar i only saw your post now . i am getting emails from them every day   so i got the new year deal of 70 % off , then another one with 10 % coupon code for new year , and now another one that says private only for me with additional 10 % off and says not to share with anybody .not sure if we can use the 2 coupon codes which brings the discount to 90 % ?? this could be good for many  of you . like i said i wish somebody on the group will explain more how they plan to use the site .
xxx
viv

missed this ne . can you please recommend good science equipment?? telescope ?? microscope ?? something tested and worked for your family
viv

woof i have been out of it for weeks . my first post . wishing you all a very Merry Christmas , sending you love and God's blessings .
i never heard about testmum till now and i went to the site , to be honest with you i got lost , i tired to get the 100 free questions but i didn't know which tests to choose from . i am so unfamiliar with all these tests
anyway i just got an email from them announcing special new year offer 70 % sale and extra 10 % with coupon code so total 80 % sale for new year .
i am personally not ready for it although it looks interesting , my tina loved primary logic and would love similar workbooks but cannot afford it . we do love brain pop junior i used it with isa for years so if this is included in the deal , wonderful .
i hope somebody would explain to me more how to navigate the site and what to look for .
xxx
viv

I know i need to be strong for my kids but i cannot just put a smile on my face and pretend nothing happened . i feel violated , unsafe in my own home . It happened on Sunday , we took kids out for a walk on the beach and when we were back we found out doors open , they broke in to our house and stole valuable sentimental stuff gifts kids got at birth and baptism , my wedding ring and some other jeweleries  , money we were putting aside for my specialneed daughter yearly medical trip .
we come in and the living room was like a war zone , big mess . we were shocked kids start crying . my little one woke up several times at night saying i hear noises they came back , my little boy slept squeezing me . my innocent boy said afterward mama thank god they didn't take my chocolate calendar . they talk about what happened all the time making jokes , we'll buy i new safe but this time we hide it in this place so when the thief comes back he cannot find it . I told them he won't come back , my son said only when we go to the beach   I feel so defeated , vulnerable , angry , lost confidence , we were burgled at 5 pm in day light ,burglars must have been waiting for us to leave the house so they came in . I cannot imagine how evil  a person can be who sees us coming out of our house to the car carrying our quadriplegic daughter in our arms , we are average family , simple house , no sign of richness , struggling to make ends meet . The money they took was for my hurt child , how could they do that to my daughter , to my family . my husband is amazing i know he is hurt but is not showing it , keeps hugging me and asking me to be strong , reminding me to thank God that we are well and unharmed . i know specially when i think of the elementary school kids tragedy and the empty homes on Christmas . i want to be able to hug my kids and thank god we are safe , but i cannot , i cannot eat , i have been loading myself with caffeine to keep going for the last 2 days , rewinding what happened and thinking how could have avoided it ,  wondering if we can still enjoy  a walk on the beach without worrying and thinking about what happened . i think I am going through a depression and i don't know how to help myself . today i hid in the bathroom just to be on my own , my six years old found me and gave me hugs than started stretching my lips to make me smile . i felt awful , i should be the one taking care of them . i didn't like that i looked so miserable in front of her . They are in bed now and his is my first time on the computer after the incident . I want to close my eyes and forget about what happened and carry on my plans of a special week of cooky baking craft making for christmas , finishing gift wrapping , christmas dinner shopping and cooking ... They stole all this from em . At this moment i don't feel like doing anything .
yes i know you might want to slap me on the face and tell me to put myself together for my kids , i know i should do that but i cannot , i wish i know how .
Anybody had similar experience and felt this way ?? how did you deal with your feelings ?? did they last long ?? when did you feel safe again ??
viv

my son just turned four and is reading . He found a copy of star war movie in our dvd cabinet and kwpt asking us to watch it .  i did and now we have our own star war worrier in gambia .
He loves it asking for star wars leggo , star wars story books ,.. i was wondering would it be wise to get him star wars readers to encourage reading . i never used themed readers with tina , we just read regular books and borrowed some scholastic readers from a friend school teacher .
i always loved to spend money on real classics .
i am not sure why i am tempted to make my little boy happy and get him star wars dk readers     do you think this is bad and will make him more obsessed and better hook him on more realistic non fiction books ?? would like to know how you feel about it .
xxx
viv