Week 10

I found this week was filled with pyjamas days, cuddles & reading on the couch, and a lot of free creative play. It was great!! a nice break.

We made bird feeders!!

We talked about the seasons and how they are changing and what the effects are on the birds and animals. We talked about how it is hard for birds to find food in the winter so we made our own to hang in our back yard. 

We pretended we were home builders and designed and built our houses out of logs, we made all different types, ones with windows, without windows, with doors, even multi-roomed ones. 

I love his attentive look on his face, we used different materials spread between two books to see which one we could move metal with our magnets. We used tin foil, cloth, and paper. 

CRAFT TIME!!! 

Sorting

Dinosaur time! We have been enjoying our science labs at the Little Big Science Centre. 

This week was Dinosaur days. 

We dug for bones, made dinosaur heads, and even made a dinosaur fossil foot imprint. 

Isaac's Bags Of Hope

I went to a woman's conference a couple weeks ago and met some wonderful women that are world changers.  One of them opened my eyes to realize that I won't let my circumstances limit me from doing things from my heart.
One of her stories, how she brought her two year old down town calgary to give out bags, food, and to meet the people that call the street home, touched my heart and made me reflect.
I was inspired, I have always had a desire to give back, pay it forward, or share gifts (whatever you want to call it) with others less fortunate than myself and my family.
I had this new sense of purpose, something other than just my own life, I wanted to help people and some how show my children that life isn't all about how much they can accumulate, what they can acquire for themselves, and that a full life comes from being kind and showing love to other people.

The next week carried on, and I continued to think how I could explain to my son what this huge problem of homelessness was and how we could actually do something about it. 
While on a run one morning I had noticed a homeless person very close to my home all curled up on the river bank. My heart broke and I then realized that I don't need some elaborate way to explain this problem to him. When I got home I sat down with my older son and I explained what I had saw, we discussed what we thought it may feel like to be that man and what he thought about this problem.

He decided that we had to help those people, he first decided we needed to buy a bed and or a car for them which I then explained that we need to help them with what we have and what we can do now (eventually he could do that if he so desired when he was older)..I just love his heart, children don't see the impossibilities they don't hear all the judgements they just think something then believe it.

We figured out a way to raise money and awareness, the goal as I saw it was as much about the people that would receive the bags as it was about the people who purchased the cookies. We wanted people to know what this little boy could do by myself, only being 5 years old he could change the lives of 6 people if not more...what happened when we started this was amazing.

Every where we went Isaac would tell people, we are making and selling cookies for $5...even the cashier at Walmart was overwhelmed with joy to hear this little boys was wanted to help others..it sparked something inside of him that day. Everyone we told wanted to be a part of it. 
Even the donation spokesperson from McDonalds stepped up and donated 2 coffee vouchers per bag after they heard of our story. 
I did not have anyone that heard of our story shy away. They all felt something! Something this little boy was sharing with others..a piece of Hope. 

I pulled out my cookie recipe books and he decided which ones we would make, we bought the ingredients and started making cookies. We made about 9 dozen cookies! Both boys helped with all of them!

We packages them up and went out to sell them, we had an amazing response, special from the wonderful co-workers and owners at the hubby's work:)

We sold all 20 boxes! We even had a very generous donation from Nana & Papa that couldn't have the cookies as they live very far away. Ikes raise $120.00!!! I couldn't believe it. He had a goal to make 6 bags and we had enough money to fill them up!

The loot!! In each bag we were able to put a thermal long underwear, wool socks, shampoo, body wash, granola bars, several pepperoni sticks, candies or chocolate bars, tooth brushes, tooth pastes, hot packs, a gift card for McDonalds, coffee vouchers from McDonalds, and a special note hand wrote from Ikes. 

He wanted to have something in the bags to make this people feel special! 

We packed them up in cute Christmas bags and loaded them into the car to find people that would be in need of them. 

We met a fellow by the man of Michael, he was the very first man we met, he was very polite asking the boys if they liked soccer and telling them that God Blesses them. After the first bag was given out, I could see something growing inside of Isaac, he was grinning from ear to ear. He wanted to give more. 

Ikes was in control of who received the bags, I asked him to tell me who he felt would need them and I would pull the car over.

We found a younger fellow outside the library who immediately opened the package started looking at the stuff and eating the granola bar and shoving the pepperoni sticks in his pocket, obviously very hungry! 
I think that showed Ikes that there was a great need for this. 

The next two were definitely memorable, it was a man and a woman on a street corner with signs asking for change. You could tell that they didn't comprehend why this little boy was giving them these beautiful gifts or even if it was for real. After he explained that they were for them.. there was tears!! These two individuals were some of the most grateful people I have met in my life. They were crying and at one point they didn't even have words! They went on to explain to us their life and that they know being alcoholic's is wrong. We simple 
told them that's not why we are here, not to shame you, just to bless you. 

When we got out of our car for the 5th one, I noticed him and he noticed me, I could tell he didn't expect me to look at him or actually smile at him. He was thankful for the present but even more I think he was just thankful we looked his way and took the time to say hi. This fellow was kind enough to let me take a picture of him and he was willing to give Ikes a guitar lesson, lol! 

We have one more to give and will be giving it out sometime this week.

Though this adventure, the words of my son have changed me.."Lets just help them, mom!" 
It was so practical, simple, small, yet took courage and hope to be open to this. We can't change the whole world with 6 little bags but we did impact many lives and showed people that they are worth caring for. 

What if you listened to that childlike, possibilities are endless voice??

I challenge you to start with a smile, at someone who might not have had anyone even look at them today.

Blessing!

Week 8

Wow...Really it's only week 8?? it's seem so much longer than that...It feels like we have done so much already. I am happy to say that today I can't imagine any other way to have my son learn then at home with me. This year of kindergarten is a very special time for me and my little guys, whatever happens in the future we are committed for this year and I can't wait to see what the whole year looks in retrospect.

This week we started our fire truck theme off with books from the library, we talked about fire extinguishers and what they are for. We discussed what 911 is and how it works and printed out our address if he ever needed it for an emergency which we put in a easy spot for him to see and remember. 
We then had a great field trip, we visited a local fire hall. There was over 23 people and at least 2/3 of them were children. The boys had such a wonderful time, learning about the fire man, their jobs, trucks, and gear. 
I choose this fire hall because they have a great museum that has two old fire trucks, artifacts from house fires, and lots of old stories. 

My son found out that this is how the people use to call for help in our town if there was a fire, someone would turn a switch and the motorized hammer would hit the bell. It had different codes for different locations in the city. 

This was our tour guide, he was great with the children, patient with all their questions and showed the boys everything on the trucks. The boys all loved the buttons and gadgets as well as the jaws of life.  

This fireman was such a great sport to stand there with his very heavy gear on and listen to all our littles questions. It was such a great way to explain to the kids that he isn't scary and if your ever in a fire to not hide from these guys, that they are our friends.

Isaac at the BLSC. 

We had so much else to tell you about this week but will have to post more later. 

The one project I am very pleased to announce and will write about at the end of this week is called, Isaac's Bags of Hope. 

We spent most of our week working on them and this is something very special my little guy is working on. 

Blessing! 

Happy Birthday my son, and Happy Halloween everyone!

My sweet little Ikes' is starting to understand that he can pray for people and prayer will impact them. This week he prayed for friend's of his David and Liam. He prayed for their safety. I was one proud mama!!
It was my boy's 5th birthday this past week. I am amazed the little journey he has bless us with already. I never thought I could love my boys as much as I do. They inspire me to be real, to count my blessing, to watch for life's little moments, to stop and smell the flowers, to see what is really important here in this life. I love them dearly and they each have a special piece of my hear that only each of them could fill. I am so proud of my boys and they are the apples of my eyes.

The super hero dudes!

Our wiggly caterpillars, with goggly eyes.








I explained to Ikes the nature exchange at the wild life park, he was instantly excited to earn points and get rocks for prizes :)
Isaac picked zebra's to learn about for the exchange so we are busy learning about zebras' and their black with white strips.

Water beads always fun. 

We talked about what makes us sick, and how we are able to protect ourselves from germs. We talked about what we feel like when we are sick and what makes us feel better when sick. I was surprised how much he already knew of this topic. He knew where germs lived, what kills them, what our white blood cells do in our body to (eat) the bacteria. My science dude!

We took turns doing puppet shows, I have little finger puppets of different animals, the stories children come up with are so entertaining. 

We talked about guide dogs as we had a book from the library on seeing eye dogs, topics like this is so great for him to be exposed to to start to develop empathy for others.

I am really excited for this next week, I want to cover some Remembrance day as well as we have a trip to the local fire hall planned. 

There is also something special happening, I feel God upon my heart to learn more about empathy in the next few months. I had attended a conference this past weekend where God showed up and moved me with his power once again. Isaac and I have been brainstorming and figuring out what we an do for others.

There will be something great that will happen, not because it's my own thoughts or works, but God's. 

Week 7

The boys and I hatched our very own dinosaur egg this week. They were so excited to see it break out of it's shell. We talked so much about what the shell is for, that God designed it and some babies do not grow in a mommy's belly. Also we discussed what a new born baby needs to grow up healthy and strong. 

We watched attentively as the little dinosaur hatched out of his shell. I seized the opportunity to tell the boys that the dinosaur has very delicate ears and we were to be quiet when around him for the next few day ;)

It was adorable to see how vigilant and tender they were to the egg. They would be playing, being noisy, being their regular mad as a hatter selves, then they would stop.... tippy toes and whisper around the egg. Isaac was working hard on his mini book all about measuring here, after finishing this up he decided that he likes mini books and made one about a monster truck driver all by himself and even read his story out load to two adult friends of ours. 

He was a great little public speaker! 

We experimented with making bouncy balls, painted mini pumpkins, learnt of sign language.

Isaac with his scrapbook. 

Do you remember that baby we were praying for, making meals for the family, talking about him living in the hospital and not at home with his family??? 

This is that baby, Hunter. We were blessed to be able to meet him at his home last week! We spent some time with hunter which was a highlight of our week :)