This past week I read a post by a blogger I really like. She also has a second post, sort of a follow-up, about the same topic, which I recomend. But the one to which I've linked is the one that started me in the new mental direction I'm pursuing. Another paradigm shift to rock the end of my 2010!!! ^_^ The information containted in that post has been causing many "after shocks" in my mind and conversation since. I'm so interested in and profoundly effected by the recognition of truth and subsequent efforts to synthesize it and create some change in my mind and life resulting from the recognition, that I feel a desire and even need to share the info with those few who may read my meanderings here.
So, here I go!
Motivation is the thing that gets us going in a given direction. That's basic. Everybody knows it. Well, I would assume so anyway.
Have you considered the KIND of motivation effecting your efforts? The kind may well determine, at least in part (probably large), the outcome of your efforts to move in the direction of your choice. How? Let's look at some examples from my life.... just cause you probably know me some and may be able to identify with some of the examples or, at the very least, will surely be able to comprehend the message that pertains to you from my story. Stories are awesome that way, aren't they!?
So, let's say you know this perpetually fat girl. And, since you know me, you DO know at least one! :) Now, most people, to look at me, would not call me morbidly obese, but according to the charts I am. And, at the very least, I feel morbid about my obesity. ;) Seriously, though. I started getting fat, far as I can tell, when I was 10. Since then I've had two pretty good runs at being thinner. My thinnest each time saw me a size 10, but not able to drop the numbers on the scale below 160. Even when I was running 6 miles a day 5-6 days a week. Yes. I'm serious. So... how does this pertain to motivation? Well, what has always been the "inspiration" when motivated to lose weight? To get away from being fat, of course. Okay, so the "of course" really should not be OF COURSE, but for me it has been.
For a good part of my life (most of it!), I've been trying to move "away from" being fat. I've been motivated away from being fat. Well, the thing about "away from" motivation (and I can definitely tell you that in my life this truth is hard, cold, and basically a FACT and not just when it pertains to weight issues) is that when our psyche is far enough away from the source of it's motivation, the effort to move "away from" becomes less and less and eventually most "away from" motivated people (me, me, me!) will stop moving "away from" entirely and slowly slide back into habits that caused the problem from which the away to move "away from" motivation arose at the start of the whole process.
On the other end is our family decision to homeschool. Okay, so in the beginning it was a TORI-decision. But after Jess saw some of the fruit (Ria reading at 4 years old), he decided to embrage the hog and hop on board. ^_^ So, since then we've definitely have "towards" motivation working here in our hearts and home. And how do I know the difference? Well, when it's gotten very difficult and I've wanted to give up... we haven't. We have not stopped homeschooling even though the going has gotten VERY tough at times. We? Yes. Jess has pep-talked me back to determination to keep on keepin' on. It's definitely a team effort here in the Gollihugh home... whether he actually does any "teaching" or not... which he does do, actually quite often, I need my primary cheerleader!!!! I was and still am definitely motivated by some "away from" sort of inspiration, but the primary reason we keep going is because our Father in Heaven has communicated to us that this is the Path He would have us follow. And who would want to move "away from" Him!??!!!??
Another example of "towards" motivation for me is our birthing choices. Sure, there's the desire to move "away from" interventions and "away from" strangers in the process... but for me the first and foremost motivation has always been TOWARD the best experience for my baby, my man, and me (and now our girls, too, of course). And, of course, needing to confess Christ in ALL things, I must confess that His direction in this is THE last word.
In my own self, I have always been motivated toward the healthiest (physically, emotionally, and spiritually) way to give our babies the best very first start. I have been motivated toward doing what I know my body is capeable of doing and doing it in the best way possible, which, for us, has meant: at home, quiet, with our family, midwife, her assistant, and a close friend and/or my Mom to attend to the needs of littles. Yes, we have out young ones present to watch the birth because we desire that they should see their siblings born that they may know there are no if, ands, or buts about the new one's belonging in our family. Once again, this has definitely been a choice for which TOWARD motivation must necessarily be within Jess AND me. Last time (Tea's birth) my midwife had me so riled up and worried that I asked the Lord many times if I could please go to the hospital. He said no. I asked Jess if we could go to the hospital and HE said no. So, the two most important men in my life urged me TOWARD what I wanted most and we three pulled it off with our midwife present to pull the baby out to prevent shoulder distocia (since she was supposed to weigh upwards of 11.5 pounds according to the ultrasound. :p) Ain't God GREAT!??
Currently I am working to change my thinking in lots of ways because of the most recent pradigm shifts I've experienced, this whole motivation thing being the most recent one. One thing I'm really trying to change to TOWARD motivation is how I think about money. As a result of God's grace and provision for us, we were able to pay off our credit cards prior to becoming unemployed. Now, during this down-time (when Jess is working, but his income is NOT entirely sufficient for our needs) I'm striving to change my fiscal mind so that when the time comes and we have sufficient and some excess, we will be able to use what we have to great benefit of our family's future fiscal life.
Of course, I'm also working on TOWARD motivation regarding my body. And then maintaining the TOWARD motivation!
How about you? Can you see any goals you could apply a change of TOWARD motivation to increase the probability of long-term success? I hope you experience some mental earthquakes as a result of this info. I'm sure it'll only be the good kind... to shake your world up and enable you to make it TONS better!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Showing posts with label How To Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label How To Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons. Show all posts
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Some Kitty Loves You
My girls love to receive mail. When they learn that an envelope contains mail for them they beam ever so brightly and Ria often jumps up and down, which is followed quickly by Kat doing the same. Well, my girls received letters from Mimi a couple days ago. Ria raced through reading hers to herself, then read Kat's, then re-read her own out loud for Kat to hear. Obviously, Ria loves letters.
While perhaps not obvious in the same way, Kat loves letters, too. Please keep in mind this is a case specific story, but it is generally true for each piece of mail she receives.
Okay, so I handed Kat her letter. I asked if I could read it to her. She refused vociferously (and LOUDLY). She snatched the letter away from my waiting hands (I had assumed wrongly that she would like me to read it, of course). She proceeded to hold it to her chest many minutes. Then she looked down at it and unfolded it. She continued to look at it, once open. Ria was interested in what Mimi might say to Kat, so it was while Kat was looking at the opened letter that Ria offered to read Kat's letter out loud. I guess the time between my offer and Ria's was a sufficient length of time for Kat to admire her letter without knowing what was IN it because she happily handed it over to Ria. I'm sure it has NOTHING to do with how much Ria is just the "IT" for Kat. ;) Ria read it for Kat who promptly took it back.
Kat carried the letter around a bit. She fanned herself with it. She opened it, looked, admired, closed it. Eventually she left it on the ground in her room (having tried to take it to bed with her).
This evening she found it again. She picked it up. Over a period of about an hour she spent time writing on it, holding it, "reading" it, opening and closing it, clutching it to her chest, and eventually she spent a good deal of time holding it in bed while I cuddled with Ria. The conclusion of the time with her letter today ended with her crumpling it up and tossing it to the floor. Do not mistake this for lack of interest or devotion, this is (unfortunately) just the way Kat let's things go when she's done for the day and/or that moment in time.
I will be surprised if, at some point tomorrow, I do not see her holding, "reading", hugging, and many other loving/attentive behaviors with her letter from Mimi. This sort of loving a letter in place of her Mimi happens with each new piece of mail she receives and usually lasts between 3 and 7+ days.
Thus the title of today's post. Some Kitty loves you, Mimi! Of course, there are three other gals and a guy that love you, too. But I thought Kat's behavior deserved documentation. I hope you've enjoyed this true tale of Mimi love! ^_^
Since it's mostly about Kat...
I wanted to share some neat news and my great pleasure in my 2.5 year old middle daughter. Kat and I have been "doing school" for a few months now with a good bit of regularity. Our three classes consist of Bible Character Study (with Ria sometimes), Math, and Reading. We have (in case you're wondering) begun using How To Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. It was rough going in the beginning and lessons lasted about 5 minutes (if I was lucky!). But MAN has Kat progressed! We're about to start lesson 7 and she is recognizing/reading all the sounds introduced thus far with no mistakes the first time we run through them. She gets bored during the second time around and doesn't pay close attention, so she misses some, but self-corrects when I let her know her first answer was wrong. Additionally, she's reading two sound "words" correctly (including ME and AT). I'm just so pleased and impressed with her and wanted to share. I'm sure she'll finish within a year from now. So, I'll have a 3.5 year old reader! Isn't that awesome!? Of course, if life happens and she isn't finished by the time I have in my head, I'll still be pleased that she desires to learn how to read and makes efforts toward that ability!
While perhaps not obvious in the same way, Kat loves letters, too. Please keep in mind this is a case specific story, but it is generally true for each piece of mail she receives.
Okay, so I handed Kat her letter. I asked if I could read it to her. She refused vociferously (and LOUDLY). She snatched the letter away from my waiting hands (I had assumed wrongly that she would like me to read it, of course). She proceeded to hold it to her chest many minutes. Then she looked down at it and unfolded it. She continued to look at it, once open. Ria was interested in what Mimi might say to Kat, so it was while Kat was looking at the opened letter that Ria offered to read Kat's letter out loud. I guess the time between my offer and Ria's was a sufficient length of time for Kat to admire her letter without knowing what was IN it because she happily handed it over to Ria. I'm sure it has NOTHING to do with how much Ria is just the "IT" for Kat. ;) Ria read it for Kat who promptly took it back.
Kat carried the letter around a bit. She fanned herself with it. She opened it, looked, admired, closed it. Eventually she left it on the ground in her room (having tried to take it to bed with her).
This evening she found it again. She picked it up. Over a period of about an hour she spent time writing on it, holding it, "reading" it, opening and closing it, clutching it to her chest, and eventually she spent a good deal of time holding it in bed while I cuddled with Ria. The conclusion of the time with her letter today ended with her crumpling it up and tossing it to the floor. Do not mistake this for lack of interest or devotion, this is (unfortunately) just the way Kat let's things go when she's done for the day and/or that moment in time.
I will be surprised if, at some point tomorrow, I do not see her holding, "reading", hugging, and many other loving/attentive behaviors with her letter from Mimi. This sort of loving a letter in place of her Mimi happens with each new piece of mail she receives and usually lasts between 3 and 7+ days.
Thus the title of today's post. Some Kitty loves you, Mimi! Of course, there are three other gals and a guy that love you, too. But I thought Kat's behavior deserved documentation. I hope you've enjoyed this true tale of Mimi love! ^_^
Since it's mostly about Kat...
I wanted to share some neat news and my great pleasure in my 2.5 year old middle daughter. Kat and I have been "doing school" for a few months now with a good bit of regularity. Our three classes consist of Bible Character Study (with Ria sometimes), Math, and Reading. We have (in case you're wondering) begun using How To Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. It was rough going in the beginning and lessons lasted about 5 minutes (if I was lucky!). But MAN has Kat progressed! We're about to start lesson 7 and she is recognizing/reading all the sounds introduced thus far with no mistakes the first time we run through them. She gets bored during the second time around and doesn't pay close attention, so she misses some, but self-corrects when I let her know her first answer was wrong. Additionally, she's reading two sound "words" correctly (including ME and AT). I'm just so pleased and impressed with her and wanted to share. I'm sure she'll finish within a year from now. So, I'll have a 3.5 year old reader! Isn't that awesome!? Of course, if life happens and she isn't finished by the time I have in my head, I'll still be pleased that she desires to learn how to read and makes efforts toward that ability!
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Ria Reading
Here's hoping my first effort at a video on my blog works!
In the beginning I moved the view
of the camera around mechanically,
thus the breaks in the audio. Sorry about that.
You DO have to have your volume up pretty high.
The quality it not A+ because it's from our camera,
but it's SOMETHING!
Enjoy? I hope SO!
In the beginning I moved the view
of the camera around mechanically,
thus the breaks in the audio. Sorry about that.
You DO have to have your volume up pretty high.
The quality it not A+ because it's from our camera,
but it's SOMETHING!
Enjoy? I hope SO!
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Oh Where Oh Where Have My Pictures Gone....
I tried to add some today and it totally froze my computer... AGAIN. I'm going to try in a few minutes, but I'm getting really tired of not being able to do any work after trying to put pictures up! I may end up using my photobucket and flickr for pictures I would otherwise post here. Photobucket you have to be my friend to view because I'm going to use that for LOTS of my family pictures. My flickr account should be pretty open access. It's already got some shots from my work and other random old pictures. I'm using Torimade as my username. You could check it out already, but you won't see anything really pertinent more than you've seen here. Anyway, I'll include links at a later time, if the need arises (I guess persists is really more accurate).
The real reason I was writing again today was because I was feeling super impressed with Ria and wanted to share. I don't know if I've really shared with you how well she's reading. If I have, you'll have to forgive this pleased Mama for blabbering on about her precocious daughter.
Ok, so Ria and I worked really hard last year and a little bit early this year to finish How To Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons. THAT is an AWESOME book!!! I hightly recommend it as an AWESOME, perhaps even THE PERFECT way for a parent to begin teaching their child to read; whether you plan to homeschool or not. One note about describing letters, though: you should check your area's SOLs (Standards Of Learning), or whatever they are called where you are, to determined how they want you to refer to letters. For example, my area requires that the large ones are called Upper Case and the small ones Lower Case. When I was in school we called 'em Capital AND Upper Case, but whatever.
So, Ria and I finished the book well before her 4th birthday and she has been sky-rocketing ever since! I actually caught her on video reading to herself, but I cannot figure out how to get the video to change perspective, so I haven't tried putting it up here because you'd have to watch it with your head tilted to the side. Anyway, I haven't tested all her bechmarks (I've been doing a bit of research on teaching reading!), but I'm confident that she is solidly in the middle of expected reading ability for Kindergardeners. I would even wager that she's probably closer to a first grade reading level BECAUSE we've borrowed some reading lesson books from the library and they ARE for first grade reading level. I do have to help her with some of the more difficult words, but she astounds me with her ability to sound out some words that I think might be too hard, but give her a chance to try anyway! Her fluency (reference my research!) is not high, but she is improving daily. No, seriously... she's getting faster with words often referred to as Sight Words (many of which she has been sounding out). I'm totally okay with her Sight Words moving into that category for HER more slowly because it's strengthening her ability to decode.
Just as a sort of peak into Ria's love of reading I would like to share a regularly occuring scene AND a scene I was lucky enough to witness because the girls didn't know I was watching! :)
On a daily basis Ria picks up any number of books and sits down to read out loud to herself. She does have a few that are pretty much memorized. I think she "reads" them as sort of confidence builders. (See, she really IS smart. She finds ways to encourage her own love of reading!!) But she picks up books we haven't read together in AGES and wades through them ever-so-slowly. It's a really wonderful thing to see! I'm a VERY pleased Mama!!!
A few mornings ago I was late out of bed and the girls didn't realize I was out of my room. They were in their room and BOTH of them were on Ria's bed. Ria was sitting on the inside and Kat was lying down near the edge pulling the blanket over herself and trying to get comfy. All the while Ria was reading TO Kat! :) It was so very sweet to see!!! I was even able to snap a picture before they knew I was there AND I got a second one before Kat ran to give me hugs!!! This is a JOY for me because I love to read and feel that not only have I instilled that love in Ria, but by so doing she is helping me instill it in Kat!!!
~Switching gears and changing subjects~
I'm sure I've mentioned that I made a trade with another ETSIAN for some of her product. I made the Angel Sheltering Nursing Mother and Baby for Sher of http://savonara.etsy.com/ and she sent me three of her products that I specifically requested. I'll probably repost much of this in a later entry that will be ALL about her products, but I REALLY had to mention TONIGHT that I had my first experience with a soap I requested as part of the trade.
Ok, so this soap is GORGEOUS! I knew that because that's partially why I requested it as my part of the trade, but it's even prettier in person. (heeheehee) It's called Moonlit Snow. You really should check it out! I'd love to hear what you think about it as well as Sher's other products. Well, I wanted to take a shower the minute I got my package, but I didn't because it wouldn't fit my schedule and my girls aren't particularly good at letting me shower in the middle of the day!
Well, I finally took my shower tonight and it was blissful! I washed my hair with my coconut shampoo - just some stuff from the grocery store. But I love it because the scent it nice and sweet and sort of soothes me. I was almost worried that I wouldn't enjoy the soap as much as I hoped because I love my shampoo's smell so much. Well, that was utterly silly; I now know. Oh MY! This soap is WONDERFUL! (I'm NOT a big soap person since I learned the benefits of smelling like myself for my nurslings.) It is silky and rinses off very easily. The most amazing part is that I enjoyed the scent of my Moonlit Snow even MORE than my shampoo!!!!!!!!! Now, I'm the kind of girl who really loves sweet scents. When I was using Bath and Body Works my favorite was the Vanilla and/or Honey Almond. Savonara's Moonlit Snow totally blows them out of the water! When it was dry it didn't smell sweet in the slightest, but in the shower there's this soft almost not there sweet smell that titilated my nose. I actually used more soap than I really should have just because I wanted to smell it REALLY strongly more than just the one soap-up. I keep smelling my hands, even now, to have the scent in my nose! I LOVE IT!!!!!! I'm so excited to try my other soap AND the all-natural deodorant I requested. Updates about my experiences are sure to follow. And, if I can afford any gifts this holiday, I'm pretty sure it will be soaps by Savonara!!! ^_^ (By the way, in case you didn't already guess, I instigated/ requested the trade and Sher was sweet and consented. Luckily for me, she's very pleased with her angel, too.)
The real reason I was writing again today was because I was feeling super impressed with Ria and wanted to share. I don't know if I've really shared with you how well she's reading. If I have, you'll have to forgive this pleased Mama for blabbering on about her precocious daughter.
Ok, so Ria and I worked really hard last year and a little bit early this year to finish How To Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons. THAT is an AWESOME book!!! I hightly recommend it as an AWESOME, perhaps even THE PERFECT way for a parent to begin teaching their child to read; whether you plan to homeschool or not. One note about describing letters, though: you should check your area's SOLs (Standards Of Learning), or whatever they are called where you are, to determined how they want you to refer to letters. For example, my area requires that the large ones are called Upper Case and the small ones Lower Case. When I was in school we called 'em Capital AND Upper Case, but whatever.
So, Ria and I finished the book well before her 4th birthday and she has been sky-rocketing ever since! I actually caught her on video reading to herself, but I cannot figure out how to get the video to change perspective, so I haven't tried putting it up here because you'd have to watch it with your head tilted to the side. Anyway, I haven't tested all her bechmarks (I've been doing a bit of research on teaching reading!), but I'm confident that she is solidly in the middle of expected reading ability for Kindergardeners. I would even wager that she's probably closer to a first grade reading level BECAUSE we've borrowed some reading lesson books from the library and they ARE for first grade reading level. I do have to help her with some of the more difficult words, but she astounds me with her ability to sound out some words that I think might be too hard, but give her a chance to try anyway! Her fluency (reference my research!) is not high, but she is improving daily. No, seriously... she's getting faster with words often referred to as Sight Words (many of which she has been sounding out). I'm totally okay with her Sight Words moving into that category for HER more slowly because it's strengthening her ability to decode.
Just as a sort of peak into Ria's love of reading I would like to share a regularly occuring scene AND a scene I was lucky enough to witness because the girls didn't know I was watching! :)
On a daily basis Ria picks up any number of books and sits down to read out loud to herself. She does have a few that are pretty much memorized. I think she "reads" them as sort of confidence builders. (See, she really IS smart. She finds ways to encourage her own love of reading!!) But she picks up books we haven't read together in AGES and wades through them ever-so-slowly. It's a really wonderful thing to see! I'm a VERY pleased Mama!!!
A few mornings ago I was late out of bed and the girls didn't realize I was out of my room. They were in their room and BOTH of them were on Ria's bed. Ria was sitting on the inside and Kat was lying down near the edge pulling the blanket over herself and trying to get comfy. All the while Ria was reading TO Kat! :) It was so very sweet to see!!! I was even able to snap a picture before they knew I was there AND I got a second one before Kat ran to give me hugs!!! This is a JOY for me because I love to read and feel that not only have I instilled that love in Ria, but by so doing she is helping me instill it in Kat!!!
~Switching gears and changing subjects~
I'm sure I've mentioned that I made a trade with another ETSIAN for some of her product. I made the Angel Sheltering Nursing Mother and Baby for Sher of http://savonara.etsy.com/ and she sent me three of her products that I specifically requested. I'll probably repost much of this in a later entry that will be ALL about her products, but I REALLY had to mention TONIGHT that I had my first experience with a soap I requested as part of the trade.
Ok, so this soap is GORGEOUS! I knew that because that's partially why I requested it as my part of the trade, but it's even prettier in person. (heeheehee) It's called Moonlit Snow. You really should check it out! I'd love to hear what you think about it as well as Sher's other products. Well, I wanted to take a shower the minute I got my package, but I didn't because it wouldn't fit my schedule and my girls aren't particularly good at letting me shower in the middle of the day!
Well, I finally took my shower tonight and it was blissful! I washed my hair with my coconut shampoo - just some stuff from the grocery store. But I love it because the scent it nice and sweet and sort of soothes me. I was almost worried that I wouldn't enjoy the soap as much as I hoped because I love my shampoo's smell so much. Well, that was utterly silly; I now know. Oh MY! This soap is WONDERFUL! (I'm NOT a big soap person since I learned the benefits of smelling like myself for my nurslings.) It is silky and rinses off very easily. The most amazing part is that I enjoyed the scent of my Moonlit Snow even MORE than my shampoo!!!!!!!!! Now, I'm the kind of girl who really loves sweet scents. When I was using Bath and Body Works my favorite was the Vanilla and/or Honey Almond. Savonara's Moonlit Snow totally blows them out of the water! When it was dry it didn't smell sweet in the slightest, but in the shower there's this soft almost not there sweet smell that titilated my nose. I actually used more soap than I really should have just because I wanted to smell it REALLY strongly more than just the one soap-up. I keep smelling my hands, even now, to have the scent in my nose! I LOVE IT!!!!!! I'm so excited to try my other soap AND the all-natural deodorant I requested. Updates about my experiences are sure to follow. And, if I can afford any gifts this holiday, I'm pretty sure it will be soaps by Savonara!!! ^_^ (By the way, in case you didn't already guess, I instigated/ requested the trade and Sher was sweet and consented. Luckily for me, she's very pleased with her angel, too.)
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