Survival Strategies Thus Far

Over the last few days I've started making a mental list of the things that have worked well with the children so far, so I thought I would list them for future adopters in no particular order.

1) the famous M&M color learning trick
I can drill them on colors to my heart's content when M&Ms are involved. They love this game. It didn't take them long to figure out that they have to say the right color, or they don't get to eat it.

2) the Wiggles!
They love dancing to the Wiggles, and it is the only program that they will watch for more than 5 minutes. Currently we are daily Wigglers! :) This helps them work on coordination, develops attention span and teaches English all in one whack! I am ALL about multi-tasking these days--actually I've always been that way, but now more than ever. :) Dora is the next best program I've found to capture their attention.

3) prayer!
We pray all the time in our household, and Maya and Tristan learned very quickly from watching the other children that we fold our arms and pray before every meal and before bed. They enjoy this and even remind us occasionally. Maya especially loves to be the one to pray--with us helping of course. She also is known to say, "Amen!" if the prayer takes too long. This practice is good for their patience, language development and of course excellent training for a very handy life skill!

4) bedtime story and song
Routine is everything for these little guys and we are doing our best to stick to it. At night we all look at a scripture story picture and tell the 1-2 minute version of the story, then we do prayers, then one of us takes the boys and one takes the girls and we read a story, tuck them in bed and sing to them for a bit. As you can see in the picture, Maya has a very hard time enduring story time. She is not used to being read to, and of course she doesn't understand, but we stick to it, and she has gotten a lot better and is starting to repeat any English words she hears me say that she recognizes. Singing to the kids has also been great. They absolutely respond to music and today we even heard Maya humming the tune to "I Am a Child of God." If you're not familiar with this song, it is one of my favorites--and SO important for these children to someday understand.

The words are:
I am a child of God,
And He has sent me here,
Has given me an earthly home
With parents kind and dear.

CHORUS
Lead me, guide me, walk beside me.
Help me find the way.
Teach me all that I must do
To live with Him someday.

I am a child of God,
And so my needs are great;
Help me to understand His words
Before it grows too late.

I am a child of God,
Rich blessings are in store;
If I but learn to do His will,
I'll live with Him once more.

5) Super Porridge
I've already posted about what a hit this is with the kids, but some people have asked for the recipe. It is actually from a book called Super Baby Food. I made it for all my kids till they would no longer eat it. :) The book explains how to make your own baby food and freeze it in ice cube trays. Then, when you need it, you just heat a couple cubes in the microwave. This is what I do for the veggies I add to the super porridge.

For example, I throw a few sweet potatoes in the microwave, push the potato button and when it's done, wait for it to cool, scoop it out into a food processor (or you can use a blender), add a bit of water to make it smooth and then freeze it in ice cube trays covered with foil. The next day you pop out the cubes into a gallon ziplock, label it and keep it handy in the freezer. Or just use sweet potato baby food, you just lose a lot of the nutrients.

For the porridge, you either grind up grain like brown rice or millet or oats in a wheat grinder/flour mill contraption--or just in a blender again. You do the same separately with legumes like lentils or any kind of bean really. I make a double batch, so I only cook it every other day. To make it I boil 4 cups of water on the stove, whisk in 2/3 cup of a grain flour and 1/3 cup of a legume flour, then just turn the heat to low, set the timer for 10 minutes (unless you use soy flour, then it has to be 20 min.), stirring occasionally so it doesn't stick. This ratio completes the protein for the child. I keep ziplocks of grain and legume flour in the fridge where it stays good longer and is ready to go in the morning.

Right now I add half a banana and about 3 vegetable cubes to their bowl of super porridge--always one of kale (the super veggie!) and then either sweet potato or squash or cauliflower or carrot (cause that's what's in the freezer right now). They eat so much of this, that recently I have also taken to nuking some instant oatmeal in the microwave to add to it and give more texture. I also occasionally throw in some brewer's yeast for extra awesome nutrients.

That was probably more than most of you wanted to know, but there you have it! It's way easier than it sounds.

6) family night

We have always had the habit of one night a week where we do a family night. We come together and have a little lesson, then an activity and then a dessert. All the kids love this and Emma even helps remind us to do it. She sometimes gives the lesson too. Last Monday we actually got them to sit on the couch for our 2 minute lesson on what a family is and how our John family is so awesome! :)

Playing with water in our neighbor's yard.