Back to update you on our "Snow Dough" experience from this afternoon. It lasted for all of about 15 minutes. Once we made snowmen the boys took the snowmen apart and started throwing the play dough balls all around the kitchen. Lovely. Snow Dough balls covered in dog hair. While I was excited to try it, next time I think I need to wait longer in between play dough days. We brought out our play dough box on Monday and the boys played happily for over an hour. I guess they used up all of their doughmagination the other day.

It seems that the day goes smoother for Dill Pickles when it's structured and planned. Yea for figuring out what seems to work! Oh my for almost no time to get anything else done. This afternoon we plan on playing with "Snow Dough." The homemade recipe was inspired by a post on My Montessori Journey. Here's the basic idea:

1 c. flour
1/2 cup salt
1 T. cooking oil
1 T. cream of tartar
1 c. water
Food coloring of your choice
Add-ins of your choice (i.e. spices, extracts, glitter, etc.)

I added 1 tsp. of vanilla and 1 1/2 tsp. of a white/shimmering glitter and it doesn't seem like enough. It smells a bit vanilla-like, but I can still smell the salt. I think next time I would add 1 T. of glitter. We'll see how the boys like it this afternoon after nap time.

Maybe I really need to start making my Christmas gifts in March! I still need to make my sister's Christmas gift from 2008. I did make a bunch of gifts though. Dill and Sweet Pickles each received a wooden name train. They also got bean bags with a letter from their name on each bag. I think they really like them a lot. Of course I still owe one to my niece as a Christmas gift. My needle kept breaking and I was getting frustrated so I just stopped.

I added a Shelfari to the sidebar. We pick a monthly theme and check out lots of books from the library based on the theme. This month is winter. The boys really like all the books. I can't believe I actually checked out Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost. I had to memorize that and a ton of other Frost poems my senior year of high school for English class. I thought I was done with Frost. Aparently not.

I'm really going to try and write more here. I want to. I really do. I am just beat by the end of the day, especially is Daddy Pickles is at the fire house.

Each Christmas I say it's going to be a homemade Christmas. I've been sort of successful at it for the past 2 years, but not nearly as successful as I'd like to be. I still owe my sister her gift from last Christmas. So far this year I've made one Christmas gift and one birthday gift. I have one more birthday gift and five more Christmas gifts to go. Maybe next year I should start in oh, say, June instead of November.

Ahhh... the joys of semi-single parenting when Daddy Pickles is at the fire house. The bedroom monsters showed up tonight. They were purple and orange and blue. Shooing them into the kitchen didn't work. Ushering them out the front door didn't work either. Why oh why did the monsters have to visit on the night that Mama Pickles was supposed to make a pumpkin pie and pumpkin cranberry muffins for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow?

How hard can it be to find a measley 20 minutes a day to write a post? Aparently very hard in this house. I am trying to do better. I promise.

You know, the more I read and the more I learn about homeschooling, I'm thinking that it might be the way to go. :)

I don't know that I even have the means to put into words how I have felt for the past week, let alone the past month. As a special ed teacher I knew our state sucked at providing for its students with disabilities, but I never knew just how crappy Illinois was until I tried to navigate the system for my son Dill Pickles myself.

Way back in April, my mom's gut feeling that my son has sensory issues and possibly sensory processing disorder was confirmed. Occupational therapy helps treat sensory issues and yesterday, July 29th, was the first day my son actually received his first day of real therapy. You want to know how? Daddy Pickles and I paid for it ourselves. Sure, he has an occupational therapist through Early Intervention that provides services at our house- if he decides to show up. We got sick and tired of waiting for the "system" to start working correctly. Months of promises have turned into nothing. Transition to pre-school? Yeah, that's a joke. By law we should have had our transition meeting already. But you know, it's summer and heaven forbid our HUGE public school distrct dishes out any money for summer staffings. Our HUGE public school district is a joke. Part of me wants Dill not to qualify for early childhood services because maybe nothing at all is better than crap. And as a former special education teacher/administrator I know it's not always the teacher's fault. They can only do so much with what they are given. They can only spend so much of their tiny paycheck to supplement the little they get from the school.

I could go on forever, but I'm starting to get upset all over again after I finally calmed down a bit. Daddy Pickles and I have a feeling I'm going to end up homeschooling Dill. That's not a bad thing, but I really wish he could be in a classroom with his peers. Tell me, what teacher is going to go out of his/her way to help a kid who bounces around more than a Super Ball thrown into a ceiling fan? There aren't many. Teachers already have to do so much work in the classroom and then take hours more work home with them. I just pray we are fortunate to find one of the few that are out there.

I guess it's been a busy summer because I haven't been able to post here nearly as much as I'd like. I have all these ideas swirling around in my head- things I'd love to write about and activities I'd love to do with my boys, but I just never get a chance to sit down and blog during the day. Ever. By the time the boys are in bed I'm just beat. I'm hoping with the arrival of our new dishwasher on Tuesday the dirty dish monster will finally be tackled.



Dill Pickles is still very interested in reading dinosaur books. We just got a new batch last week at the library. One favorite right now is Edwina, The Dinosaur who Didn't Know She Was Extinct by Mo Willems. Edwina loves to bake chocolate chip cookies for everyone in town. Dill Pickles has been dying to make chocolate chip cookies and drink monkey milk (rice milk) just like Edwina and Reginald Van Hoobie Doobie on the very last page of the book. The other day Dill spotted a box of blueberry Jiffy Muffin Mix in the cabinet and insisted they were chocolate chip cookies and we just HAD to bake them. Sure sweetie, I'd love to turn on the oven when it's 87 degrees outside.

Dill Pickles says, "Stir, stir, stir."

Sweet Pickles wants a turn too!

The cookies are ready for the oven

We colored while we were waiting for the cookies.

It was so hard to wait for them to cool.

Sweet Pickles couldn't wait for the cookies, so he chomped on his crayon. Chocolate chip cookies and monkey milk just like Edwina. Yummy!

Teaching My Little Bookworm inspired me to go looking for a recipe for homemade recipe for puffy paint. I can't wait to try it!

What You Need:
For Each Color:
1 Cup of Flour
1 Cup of Salt
1 Cup of Water
Powdered Tempra Paint - Amount varies based on desired color
1 Squeeze Bottle for Each Color
Mixing Bowls and Spoons for Each Color

Here's How:
1. Mix the flour, salt, water, and tempera powder together in a bowl.
2. Stir until the mixture is thick and drips in thick, puffy drops from your spoon.
3. Pour or spoon paint into squeeze bottles.
4. Have students apply the puffy paint onto paper. When dry, the paint will remain puffy and will appear raised.

Tips:
1. As students work, if the paint begins to separate in the bottles, shake the bottles to mix the paint again.
2. You may refrigerate the puffy paint for storage for a few days. Check it for spoilage before using. As always, do not allow children to put puffy paints in their mouths or around their faces. 3. Wash off hands promptly.