Food Face Plate (comes with one plate in gift box) $9.98 from HearthSong
Indoor Intex Jump O Lene $47.99 at Toys R Us
Fisher Price Laugh & Learn Say Please Tea Set for 16.54 at Walmart (18.99 at Toys R Us)
Dress Up Clothes! (The above was found here for $57.00, but a little tote with some thrift dress up finds (hats, crowns, “poofy” dresses, necklaces, bangles, and random “dress up” clothes would work great as well!)
Play and Freeze Ice Cream Maker for $39.95
Welcome back!
Technically, we should be on week 9, but we’re not. We’ve already made it to week 20 in this book. I looked through a TON of inexpensive (and expensive) pre-k curriculum – and bought a lot too – but, this is definitely our favorite. It’s easy (for me), engaging for her, and uses things we already have (but is open-ended and easy to change/adapt). I just wish they had these handy books for EVERY grade!
Soon, we’ll be finishing up her Pre-K curriculum, so I’ve started scouting out a variety of new curriculum programs to try (and then review here!) Although I’ll be looking for Kindergarten, most of the curriculum that offers Kindergarten lessons, also offer the other grade levels – so my finds will be applicable to any of you who homeschool or choose to supplement what your child learns elsewhere.
I’ll also be making a HOMESCHOOL FREE list, so check back for that too 
NOTE FOR PR AGENTS AND MARKETING – I am now accepting homeschool curriculum, materials, and supplements. If you are interested in sending your products for a review, please email me for more information at bosssanders(at)gmail(dot)com.
From time to time, others have great stories to tell me about my girls and it just occurred to me that I should post them (with permission) so my family and I could look back and enjoy.
BACKGROUND INFO: Mimi spent a day re-outfitting my old room in her home into a bedroom for the girls – complete with a princess bed (princess bedsheets, etc).
She (Lorelei) had intentions of sleeping in her new bed/bedroom. She asked me to tuck her in and say a prayer. So I tucked her in, kissed her forehead and told her to pray. This is what she prayed, “Dear God, Protect me”. (silence) “Dear God, Keep me safe. Amen.”
I was really proud of her. She sounded so big. Then she said, “Mimi, you pray”. So I did.
Then, I turned the light down and went to my room to bed. A few minutes later she came in my room and said she had lost the glo angel (a nightlight). She did this a few times, losing something just to come to tell me. Finally, I told her to get her blanket and sleep with me. I knew that was what she wanted to do, but she never asked. Once she got in my bed, I told her it was late (12:00) and we needed to go to sleep. She said, “ok”. She shut her eyes and so did I. I would open mine a little and she would open hers and would point her finger at me and say, “Go to sleep, NOW!” We did that a couple of times and finally both of us fell asleep.
She is so funny with her facial expressions. I wonder where she gets them from?
The shrill scream ripped through my dream, slicing it in half as my eyes fought the fog of sleep, trying to pry themselves open. “Mommy!” Came a little whisper by my ear as two little hands reached up to shake me, fear in her little voice. “Mommy, there’s a man in my room!”
My breath caught in my throat as I pulled her into the imaginary protective shield of my arms. My brain began to settle back into sleep as alarming thoughts crept through…was it a real man…or just a dream…probably just a dream…..
“Mom!” She whispered urgently, shaking my shoulders and patting my face. “There’s a MAN!” “What?” I moaned. I had heard her but was looking for clarification, because I was incredibly too tired to chase dreams, and I really didn’t know if I could even run in this state of exhaustion had it been a real man. After all, had it been a real man, wouldn’t he have stopped her from running to me? Wouldn’t he be making out with the total of ten dollars he MIGHT’VE scrounged from our couch cushions (except our couch doesn’t even have cushions, out of luck there!)?
“Lorelei, baby…it was just a dream.” I said, listening carefully for the tiniest movement, hoping I could placate her as well as myself with my reasoning.
“No, mommy. He had a gun! He said he wanted to shoot me. Kill me.”
I stared at her in disbelief, trying to process it all in my still half-asleep brain. Kill her? Guns? Where in the world did that come from? She watches movies about barbie princesses and strawberry shortcake and french and abcs. Guns? We don’t even have real cable!!! A rush of thoughts flooded my brain…what IF there really was a man in her room? What if he was waiting to kill us all? CRAP! The baby!
I jumped out of bed. “Show me, Lorelei.”
“Right there. He was standing right there.” She said, pointing her finger out to show me a space in front of her bed that now stood empty. I did a quick check of all rooms, under beds, and closets and came up clean (the way I like it). No strange men with guns in the closets makes a happy me.
…..
That’s how it all began. And, after some time, we were able to coax Lorelei back into bed for the night, but from then on, she needed a nightlight. We told her Un-Lady was just a dream, not really real, but the screaming in the middle of the night kept coming and if she woke up to a dead nightlight that had run out of battery juice, there would be many many tears. Un-Lady wasn’t just a dream anymore. She said Un-Lady was a man, a mean man, and he had a gun. The story pretty much never changed, which isn’t very consistent with dreams. He didn’t chase her, there were no other dream “places”…it was just real to her. And then, the “baby” started screaming out in the middle of the night. Waking up, cowering in the corner of her crib, screaming that scream that you KNOW something is wrong. It was always the really hurt/terrified cry…the one that makes your heart stop in the middle of your chest when you hear it in the middle of the night. Sometimes, the baby would be standing in the corner of her crib, hands held tightly to the bars, as she kept anxiously looking over her shoulder, using her feet to try to fling herself out of her crib. She wasn’t hurt. She was terrified.
But it was weird. I would pick her up and she’d still be frantic. Step one step out of her room, and she was fine. Step back inside, cue screaming. Step right outside the door, and calm. At first, I figured it was a bad dream, but then it got weirder. She wasn’t wanting out of bed to play, or to simply snuggle…she’d sleep in my bed with me once she had an “episode,” but it wasn’t snuggling…she would cling to me as if she was tired someone would rip her away. She would hide her face and body in any little crook my body provided. She was exhausted, she was terrified.
A few months passed as we bought numerous nightlights to flood their room with light, erasing shadows. But, the girls would still wake up, terrified – often independently of the other (one would be asleep and wake up later with terrified screams).
And then, a friend came over… a little girl that was given a gift at birth that she neither wanted or liked. She could see things that I couldn’t see. So, I asked her to go through my house and just let me know what she found. I didn’t tell her where to look or which rooms to go through. She went through them all.
After going through the girls’ room, she came out, her face white as she gripped a nearby chair for support. “Something,” she said, pointing to their room, “has been in there.”
“Tell me more,” I said. I wanted more information but didn’t want to lead and wasn’t really sure how far her gift reached.
“It’s an older man. He’s angry. There’s a space in front of Lorelei’s bed and when I touched the crib, I thought I was going to pass out.”
“Okay,” I said, trying to string thoughts together. “Angry…as in…it wants to kill us or angry at someone else kind of angry?”
“Angry, but he doesn’t want to kill you, but he’s not necessarily pleasant to be around either. Also, he was in your room.”
“Do you SEE him? Like, now?”
“No, he’s not here. He just was here. I can’t feel him as strong in your room so it’s been a while, but in their room (she points), it’s very recent.”
“Like, how recent?”
“A couple of hours ago.”
She didn’t know that a couple of hours ago, I had sent Lorelei to take a nap and she’d jumped out of her bed moments later, unable to sleep. She didn’t know that a couple of hours ago, my three year old had screamed to nobody in particular “I SAID LEAVE. ME. ALONE!! MOMMY SAID YOU CAN’T BE HERE IF I DON’T WANT YOU!”
She didn’t know, but yet she knew.
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UPDATE: After a lot of thought and a few people not taking us and our concerns very seriously, we invited fellow God-believers over and crammed our living room full with 14 people (including children), and on our knees, we prayed and blessed our home. Even the smallest children were on their knees…and then there was Lorelei, her head bent fervently as she struggled to repeat the entire prayer (nobody else was repeating it. Just her and the leader.) It’s been 3 weeks since we’ve had any UN LADY incidents. This makes us very happy.
“You’re a genius!” — I’ve heard it more than occasionally, and really, who am I to argue? If enough people say it, it must be true, right? Sure, sure. We’re just gonna run with it.
Anyhow, do you ever get those AH-HA moments? -Not the kind where you’re about to sneeze but then end up coughing or laughing. No, I mean the AH-HA, a light bulb just went off in my head and ohmygosh it didn’t even short out!! kind of moments.
Yeh, well I don’t get those very often. Probably because I’m a genius. It’s hard being a genius, you know? Sometimes you forget you know stuff and then you remember and suddenly it’s gone again because really, your head is just not big enough to hold all of this massive knowledge. (Which might have to do with my constant headaches. Note to self: Google “genius headaches” because real geniuses don’t go to the doctor, they’re supposed to make their medicine. In their lab. In their basement. I don’t have a basement. Crap.)
Anyways, stop distracting me. I’m trying to tell you something.
Oh yes, it’s dangerous to be a genius. Everybody wants your help. And, sometimes, they just want you dead. Like, for instance, the wasps under my porch steps. I’m pretty sure they could be recruited by the military and earn some major ribbons for their ferociousness. Seriously, these are some really pissed off wasps. I bet they are part of the uncool group of wasps and probably weren’t allowed to hang out with the cool wasps, so now they hate the world. And, they decided to hang out under my porch steps to see if they could assassinate us. Because my whole family is made up of geniuses…it runs in the family or something.
Anyhow, I know all of this because Lorelei came up the steps and a huge SWARM of wasps pummeled her. I saw 4, but it was probably because I was distracted with solving algorithms in my head, so I missed seeing the rest of the swarm. I pulled her and the baby to safety but it was too late. They had gotten Lorelei. And, these things must be freaks. Freak wasps because their stingers are HUGE and left a gaping hole in her leg. That might be why they’re so mad. I’d be mad if I was a freak wasp, too.
I pulled her up onto the couch and she was all “I’m DYYYINNNGGG, they’re trying to KIIILLLL MEEEEEEE!” in her little toddler wail as she held on to her leg. I didn’t really know what to say, because she’s probably right. Not about the dying part, but it probably was an assassination attempt. I called my mom because DUDE, doesn’t everyone call their mother after someone tries to kill them and their family? I mean, I would’ve called my body guard, but nobody seems to want that job. Probably because my life is so dangerous, you know…being a GENIUS stay at home mom and all.
Mom said I should put a baking soda paste on it and I was all like “PBBTTT They’re expecting that! And…I have a black couch!!” So, I looked in my arsenal of things and brought out the activated charcoal. Everybody has activated charcoal in their medicine cabinets, right? I mean, you never know when someone might try to gas or poison you. Come on people, be smart! Gosh, there I go again, forgetting I’m a GENIUS and not everybody is as smart as me. Sorry bout that.
Then, in an effort to make Lorelei feel better, mom came over and brought an assortment of goodies. I tried convincing her that a parfait from McDonalds would make us ALL feel better, but she clearly disagreed (that, and apparently the cars in line at McD’s didn’t understand that it was an emergency, so they wouldn’t just move the heck out of the way.) At the bottom of the bag, there were 2 cans of spray. YEH! Protection! Retaliation! LET’S KILL THEM and AVENGE MY BABY’S LEG! YEAH! Wait, why does this say ant spray on it? I looked at her through squinty eyes, trying to figure out if she thought this was funny or if perhaps, she’d lost it. “All I had was ant spray and it worked for me!” She said. So, most likely, I have ant wasps…no wonder they’re ticked off.
Anyhow, I made a black charcoal paste and it took the swelling down. But it was only temporary. A day later and half her leg was swollen and icky. Tricky poison!! So, I put more paste on it and today…it looked like this:
The swelling and redness had gone down, but what’s that? TWO sting entrances? Awesome. (Poor kid.)
In other news, Aurora is cutting her two top first molars. TWO. One on each side. I was going to share a picture for her, but I really didn’t think you all would appreciate seeing the diarrhea diapers this produces.
You know you’re in trouble when your toddler runs into the bathroom while you’re trying to take a shower in peace and yells “MOMMY! Aurora is getting poop all over her blankets!!!” – and then the flashbacks of a baby smeared in poop pop through your brain.
*Sigh* Being a genius sucks. I quit.
We don’t technically EVER stop homeschooling – it’s a continual thing, all day, all year long. But, yesterday was our OFFICIAL first day (where we keep more of a schedule about it).
Here are Lorelei’s Preschool First Day Of School Pictures:
This month, here’s what we have been/are learning:
Reading
Math
Science
Social Studies and Skills
