Slow Down, Gym Shoe!

Sleep Out Saturday!

Some of you may know that i spent several years being homeless. So did Little Bear's dad. In fact, thats how we all became a family... Anthony and I were both eighteen years old when we met, as two homeless teenagers staying in an adult shelter. We were the youngest people in the shelter by a decade, and we stuck together like glue. We called each other brother and sister. Later that year, Anthony went to jail for supposedly helping to steal a car. (I don't really think he did it, since he never even learned how to drive well enough to get down the driveway until many years later!) While Anthony was in jail, I became friends with Diana. Anthony got out of jail, and Diana often drove me to visit him where he was staying in the city. Eventually, the two of them fell in love, got married, Anthony adopted Monkeyboy, and Little Bear was born!

Anyway, every year on the first Saturday in November, the county where I live has this event called Sleep Out Saturday, where a lot of people agree to sleep outside for one night and experience a little bit of what homeless people experience. Monkeyboy, Marcus, Sarah and I did it last year. This year Monkeyboy and Sarah didn't want to do it, and Marcus lives in the city now... but Little Bear really wanted to try it! So I brought her with me.

We do Sleep Out Saturday through a church near our house, where Little Bear and I also sometmes attend services. (I actually discovered this church through last year's Sleep Out Saturday, and once we moved to this town, we were only a few blocks from it, so I decided to start attending.) At this church, the high school youth group does Sleep Out Saturday, but they invite the entire church community to participate too. Except usually nobody ever does. So it was just the youth group, plus me and Little Bear! It was very cool though. The youth group leaders and kids made Little Bear feel very special, and it really was a great experience.

When we first got there, we had to set up our spot to sleep, out in the front yard of the church, using cardboard boxes. Here are some pictures of the dwelling we pulled together. I used three boxes to make a sort of two-room box, where Little Bear and I could lay next to each other, and see each other through a window, but have our own space. Little Bear also had a "living room", the big blue box that the high school kids had decorated.

Next we watched a movie called My Own Four Walls, which is a documentary where kids who are or have been homeless talk about their experiences. Did you know that the average age of a homeless person is nine? And in the county where I live, its eight? Most people think of homeless people as being adults, especially with addictions and mental illnesses and what-not. There are many homeless adults, including people with mental illness or addiction, but the number of homeless children greatly outweigh them.

After that, we did a project where each person got two dollars, and we had to go to the grocery store and try to buy enough food for a meal. Little Bear and I teamed up with some others in the group, pooled our money, and had a feast of PBJ sandwiches, chips, carrots, and chocolate milk. The object of that project was for the kids to realize that healthy food actually costs more than junk food. A lot of the kids wanted to get something from the dollar menu at McDonalds, but they had to realize that a person can't live for very long on the Dollar Menu alone! They also had to realize that, for a homeless person, actually having two dollars to spend on a meal might be a rare luxury!

We went to a rally where Sleep Out Saturday participants from all over the county gathered. It was pretty boring for Little Bear... a lot of listening to speakers and just walking around... but one cool thing was, they taught us how to do the dance to that Black Eyed Peas song, "I Got A Feeling." Remember how on Oprah the Black Eyed Peas played that song and everyone started dancing? That was the dance we learned! Little Bear loved that. Plus. at least she got a free T-Shirt!

When it got late at night, we made S'mores outside. Well, probably most homeless people don't make S'mores on a regular basis, but... it was fun!
 
 

Little Bear adored this one group leader, "Z" (thats her actual nickname) who spent a ton of time with us.

Little Bear stayed up pretty late!

Here she is in front of the Sleep Out Saturday sign...

--- running around the tents trying to hide from me...

---and just sitting around.

Eventually she got tired and wanted to crawl into her cardboard box. I gave her about four hundred blankets and tried to make her as snuggly as possible, and she fell asleep quickly. Here's Little Bear tucked into her box!

In the middle of the night, though, Little Bear got cold, so we went inside and slept in the sanctuary with a few other people. We slept well for the rest of the night. Here is Little Bear when we first woke up in the sanctuary! It was cool because we woke up to the sunlight streaming through the colorful stained glass windows. Little Bear said she wished there were stickers that you could put on regular windows to make them look like stained glass. Do you think that kind of thing exists?

We went downstairs and ate breakfast with everyone...

Then we did one more group activity.

The minister was there to talk to the kids, and he talked about how all of the kids in the group had a built-in safety net. He said that no matter what happened to them, they would always have an entire crew of adults they could call to ask for help... the youth group leaders, and others around the church. He promised them that, no matter what sort of dark, terrible, sludgy, gross, icky experience they were going through, there was nothing that could happen to them, or nothing they could do, that would be so terrible that the adults around the church would turn their backs on them. He gave all of the kids his personal cell phone number, and encouraged them to program his number and other adults' numbers into their own cell phones or write them down on cards to put in their backpacks, so they would always be able to call someone for help if they needed it.

Then he explained that a lot of times homelessness occurs when people do not have a safety net.

The kids got rolls of toilet paper, and on each ply they had to write the name of someone they could go to for help if they needed it. They had to try to think of lots of different people, so they would realize that if one person couldn't help, the next person on the list would, and so on.

Earlier in the week, when we were first talking about Sleep Out Saturday, Little Bear had asked lots of questions about how I had become homeless and about what happened to children if their parents couldn't take care of them. I told her that some kids went to foster homes if their parents couldn't keep them safe at home. But I told Little Bear that that would not happen to her, because she has many, many people who would quickly step up if something were to happen to Diana. I reminded her of her three grandmas and two grandpas, her multiple aunts and uncles, and family friends. I assured her that someone would always be there to care for her.

This must have sunk in for Little Bear. Because at Sleep Out Saturday, she suddenly put her arms around me and said, "You'll never be alone again, Nicki! You have so many people who love you, including me!"

Does that not make you want to cry???

Anyway. Sleep Out Saturday ended when church began. At our church the little kids go into the service with the adults for the first fifteen minutes, and then get released to their Sunday School classes. In church we sat with Z, who is now Little Bear's bestest friend on Earth. After Little Bear went off to Sunday School, I started thinking about the idea of home, and the idea of church. In the video we had watched about kids who were homeless, a lot of the kids had talked about how they loved school because it was the most secure place in their lives. And I started thinking how church could be like that too. I was so happy that we did Sleep Out Saturday because I thought it was good for Little Bear to learn about homelessness and to just have the experience. But I was also happy because, even though Little Bear and I have been attending that church on and off for a few months, actually spending nearly twenty-four hours at the church and sleeping and eating there and everything seemed to introduce Little Bear to the church itself. I feel like now there are a lot of people there who know us, and who already adore Little Bear. When Little Bear ran off to class, I was thinking how now she could walk around the church on her own with the other kids, and I could ask people, "Have you seen Little Bear?" and they would know who I was talking about and they would have seen her. 

I kept remembering how the minister had promised the youth group kids that they had that built in safety net of people they could trust. And I want that, I want that for Little Bear and Pufferfish. And myself, too, you know?

 So this is sort of a rambling post. And I don't exactly know how to end it. So I'll just end it like this... THE END!
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 

Onion (Unknown)

Why do I feel so bad today? It was a good day. But sometimes I feel like this blog and my stupid Facebook games are all that keep me from letting go and flying away like an empty balloon, disappearing into the atmosphere. I don't know who I am or what I am or where I belong. Or maybe the answer is Nobody, Nothing, Nowhere.

I've Created A Monster! (Actually, Three Monsters...)

I'm alarmed to report that Little Bear, Pufferfish, and Rafael have become addicted to the computer!

And its all my fault!

Way back when Little Bear was in preschool and kindergarten, I used to let her play on put Starfall.com  to help her learn the ABC's. I would also let Pufferfish play on Kneebouncers.com, which is a site with very simple computer games for infants and toddlers. (Yep, you read that right... infants can play on the computer!) My old computer started to get annoyingly slow, though, and the kids lost interest in trying to play with it.

Until a few weeks ago.

One day Little Bear asked me to put on Starfall.com for her. This time, she was like a wild thing when let loose on the site! Instead of needing me to stand over her, she could navigate all over the site, and this time she loved "reading" all of the stories on the site instead of just playing the games. The stories on the site allow you to read the words you know, and you can click on any word you don't know to hear it read aloud to you. This seemed to give Little Bear a burst of confidence, since she could read to her sister and to everyone else!

And of course, when Pufferfish saw Little Bear on the computer, she wanted a turn too! So I put Kneebouncers.com on for her. And this time, Pufferfish was able to go all over the site by herself as well! Back in the day, I had to put on each game for her, and sit with her while she tapped at the keyboard. But now, she can maneuver the mouse and pick her own games, switching from one game to another like a maniac!

Of course, it wasn't long before both girlondrew tired of just one website each, and wanted to play more games. They asked me to put them on NickJr.com. I was happy to oblige, but I kind of wanted them to be able to explore the Internet beyond the world of Dora The Explorer! So I did a little research.

First of all, I downloaded KidZui for them. KidZui is a free web browser just for kids. Each user gets to create his or her own avatar and have his or her own name and password. KidZui has tons of kid-friendly sites already loaded into the site... like PBS Kids, Nick Jr, and a ton of other less well known sites. It also has pages of its own special games for kids to play. You can type in Preschool and get several pages of screenshots of sites for little kids. Or type in "girls" and get tons of sites with dress up games and Barbie games and stuff. Its loaded with things for kids to do! And you can pick favorites. For Pufferfish, I just went through and "favorited" a whole ton of easy sites, so now I can just open up her "Favorites" screen and let her knock herself out! All adult sites and most "iffy" sites are blocked from KidZui, but parents do have the choice of unblocking sites. For instance, lets say a site about mariijuana is blocked, but your kid needs to do a report on mariijuana. You could use your parental controls to unblock it. And if you wanted your kid to be blocked from a site that KidZui considers kid-friendly (like, for instance, you think Caillou is so annoying and you want to deny your kids access to him) you can block that site.

I also downloaded TuxPaint, which is a freeware version of KidPix. I don't know who likes it more, me or the kids... It is very stimmy!

So now, as soon as Little Bear gets up in the morning, she's running to the computer. She gets on her games, turns down breakfast because she'd rather play the games, and won't listen to Jimmy telling her to get ready for school because... you guessed it... she's busy playing the games. Then Rafael comes over and starts asking, "When I get home from school can I be the first to play on the computer?" And they all start asking about who will go first. During the day, I have to force Pufferfish to get dressed, go out and do stuff, and play with toys and games, with me, because she wants to be on the computer. And after school, the kids right away start arguing about the computer, and then once they get their turn they can't listen to anything else anyone says! They live and breathe the computer!

I've tried to control it, at least after school, by not letting them get on the computer until four o'clock. Until then, they have to play outside or play with other toys, but no computer or TV. Then, at four, they draw straws, and take their computer turns according to who has the tallest straw. They each get fifteen or twenty minutes. I set the timer to be sure. It works pretty well! Of course, if at four o'clock, Monkeyboy or Sarah are using the computer already, my whole plan is blown.

I actually went and acquired a free laptop computer (Yep, free! But I did have to buy a wireless adapter for it) so that the adults and the kids could use the computer at the same time. (In fact, one might argue that I am addicted to the computer, myself! But it is different... I have this blog to contend with, plus I do all of my searching for activities and outings on the computer, and I also am living several very involved virtual lives on Facebook!) So now I can use the computer without any guilt. And, the kids are learning while they use the computer, right? So it could actually be considered an important part of life, right?

What do you think? Do your kids use the computer? What are your favorite sites for kids?

Flea Circus Game Review

A while back, R&R Games sent my crew a whole bunch of games to try out and review. One of them was a card game called Flea Circus! The game involves trying to collect as many audience members (little plastic dogs and cats) as possible, by putting down cards from your hand. Putting down any card allows you to take a certain number of audience members... but if you play your cards right, literally, you can actually take audience members from the other players, gaining more for yourself and causing your friends to have less!

Pufferfish was too young to play this game, but she enjoyed sitting at the table with us and playing with the little dog and cat figures. As for Rafael, Little Bear, and Sarah, it took them a little while to get the hang of the rules. They had some trouble remembering what cards did what. But once they figured it out, it was a lot of competitive fun! They enjoyed stealing audience members from one another, similar to the way kids enjoy causing each other to draw extra cards in Uno or sending each other back to Start in Sorry. The dining room was filled with the sounds of good-natured ribbing, cheering and booing!

The game also did not drag on too long... when the last of the dogs and cats have been taken, the game is over. It was short enough for Little Bear and Rafael to demand to play again two more times before their short attention spans started waning.

We played this game after school, and I've been trying to get Diana to let us incorporate it into Family Game Night, which is really Family Uno Night since Uno is the only game Diana will play! (LOL!) Its definitely a great one to pull out on rainy days or for after school fun!

THE FINAL REVIEW

Positive Aspects: It is a fun, quick card game that depends on a combination of skill and luck. The little plastic dogs and cats add a novel feeling to the game and give antsy kids something to play with while they wait for their turn! Being able to take audience members from others gives it a playfully competitive feeling and keeps everyone involved.

Negative Aspects: It took a while for us to learn which cards did what, and when. I had to keep the directions next to me as a "cheat sheet" so I could remind the kids what moves were possible.

The Kid Who Liked It The Most: Actually, both Little Bear and Rafael wanted to play this game again and again! Whoever won each previous game was the most enthusiastic about playing another round, of course!

We Rate This Game: A!!!

What Am I Up To?

I am working on a virtual holiday present for all of my bloggy friends! It may end up being totally stupid, but I think it is pretty cool... and everyone will be able to enjoy it! I started it in mid-October because I figured, if I start early, I won't have to rush, and I can add more and more to it until it is an amazing work of art!

I just had to blurt that out.

Anyway, here are some funny kid-isms for ya!

Rafael: "My dog is getting kind of fat."

Me: "No, she's not fat! She's just a little pudgey!"

Rafael: "She's not a pudgey! She's a Jack Russel Terrier!"

Me: "???"

Little Bear: (standing outside with her shoes on over bare feet) "Hmm! Either my shoes are too big, or I'm too small!"

Me: "???"

Tot School Celebrates Halloween!

I didn't have time to write a Tot School post last week, so here are two weeks of Tot School which sort of go together anyway! The first week, we learned about pumpkins. The second week, we celebrated Halloween!

We went to the pumpkin patch twice, as I wrote about in previous blog entries.

One of my proudest creations this week was this magnet game I made. I got the idea off another blog, I can't remember which. The blogger had a pumpkin cut out, and then cut-outs of different facial features, body parts, etc. You would spin a spinner to see which body part you had to put on the pumpkin.

I adapted it by using fun foam cut outs for the pumpkin and facial features, and putting magnets on the pumpkin and the face pieces. I didn't have any brad pins to make a spinner, so I made cards instead! The way we play it is, you take a card that tells you to choose eyes, ears, a nose, or a mouth for the pumpkin. If you get a nose, for example, and the pumpkin already has a nose, you can switch it's nose. The person who completes the pumpkin (for example, adds a nose when the pumpkin already has eyes, ears and a mouth) is the "winner." But its not really about winning... its more about seeing how many different funny faces you can come up with!

We also made this pumpkin bottle! What you do is take a clear bottle (this one is an empty V-8 bottle), pour some orange paint in there, put a lid on it, and let the little kid shake it and shake it and shake it to cover the inside with paint. Then all you have to do is glue on eyes, nose and a mouth!

We made pumpkin-scented playdough. Basically you just take a regular salt and flour playdough recipe, and add a container of pumpkin pie spice and some red and yellow food coloring!I don't have a picture of this because my camera was dead on that day, so its another thing you'll have to take my word on. I wanted the playdough to be bright orange, but because of all of the pumpkin pie spice, it was more like a burnt ember color. But the kids (including Little Bear and Rafael) loved it! I gave them toothpicks to play with it, and they made pies and birthday cakes with "candles." They played with it for several days in a row, as I kept it in ziplock bags for them!

We also played this game where Pufferfish tried to throw balls into a pumpkin bucket!

 We fingerpainted pumpkins on sandpaper! This is an idea I got from another Tot School blog, but I forget which one. Its a sensory-rich art project that is meant to be enjoyed by kids who have visual impairments, because they can feel the sandpaper as they paint. Little Bear didn't want to do it, but Rafael and Pufferfish enjoyed it!

Of course, we also carved pumpkins! Diana helped Pufferfish make this traditional, grinning Jack-o-lantern.

Jimmy helped Little Bear use a stencil to make this adorable cat!

I tried to use a stencil too, to carve a little girl pumpkin, per Pufferfish's request. But it didn't turn out as well...

 
 
 Our first big activity during Halloween week was to boo our neighbors. (I wrote a separate post about that here!)

Then, I made a spooky sensory box activity with black beans and a bag of Halloween spider rings, skeletons, finger puppets, bugs, etc. Pufferfish played with it for a while, but Little Bear and Rafael liked it even more!

I've been wanting to find some beads for Pufferfish to string together, but larger beads cost a lot. So I came up with the idea to make my own beads out of Fun Foam! (I told you I use that stuff for everything!) I cut out lots of shapes from orange and black Fun Foam, and then punched a hole in each one. Pufferfish strung them on yarn to make a Halloween necklace for her mama!

We went ghost bowling! I saved up my Dr. Pepper bottles (that didn't take me long) and drew ghosty faces on them. I put some craft pebbles into the bottles to give them some weight, and filled the rest of the bottles up with cotton balls to give them a white color. And guess what we used for a ball? A mini pumpkin! We played a simplified game of bowling... we didn't count strikes or spares or anything, but simply counted how many pins we knocked down for each turn. The kids loved it, and they've been pulling the bowling pins back out regularly to play again and again!

Here is a really fun afterschool snack and activity combined! At one of our outings to a pumpkin patch, I bought a couple of cobs of Indian corn. You can turn Indian corn into popcorn very easily. All you need to do is pull off the husk, put the cob into a paper bag (I splashed some water onto the outside of the bag because I was afraid it would catch on fire!), fold the top of the bag down, and microwave it for about two minutes. When you open the bag, it will be full of popcorn! (There will also be popcorn still stuck to the cob, but you should leave the cob and eat it last because it is extremely hot!) Don't forget to add butter or other seasonings!
Here is a bowl of popcorn, fresh off the kernel. You may notice that some of it is yellow and some is white. This was before we added butter! We used different colors of Indian corn. The bright yellow cob created the yellow popcorn, and it also created the most popcorn... it probably would have been enough for all three kids, all by itself! The light yellow cob and the purple cob created white popcorn, and it didn't pop as easily. Don't ask me why!

 Here are the happy popcorn munchers enjoying the freshest popcorn ever!

 
 Finally, this isn't exactly Tot School because it is about Little Bear, but look who is reading! Seemingly overnight she has learned to read surprisingly well. A week or two ago she was showing off how she could read the stories on Starfall.com. Isn't that cool? I'm so proud!

 

Anyway, I'll see you next week for some more Tot School! This coming week, we'll be learning about our five senses!

Halloween At Our House

Today has already been the strangest day! You'll never believe it!
First, Pufferfish and I woke up and looked in the mirror. This is what we saw!

It was so freaky! I grabbed Pufferfish and ran down the stairs, where we ran smack into Little Bear! She was already dressed and ready for the day. But something didn't look right!

Slowly, Pufferfish and I started backing away. But look who was behind us!

Maybe the dogs could defend us! I hurried to let them out of their cage. But when I saw them, I realized things were definitely getting a little out of control.

Maybe I should buy some more of that deworming medicine?
 
 

Just when I thought things couldn't get worse, Sarah walked into the room. She picked up Pufferfish and started eating her!

I snatched the baby out of Sarah's decaying zombie arms, and screamed for Diana and Jimmy. But I soon found out that they wouldn't be much help, either.

So I just ran out of the house, and never looked back. 

Anyone know the number of a good exorcist?

Oh well! I hope your day is going a little better than mine!

 
 
 

Halloween Dividers


Halloween Glitter Graphics


Halloween Glitter Graphics


Halloween Animations


Halloween Animations

Winner of the Plan Toys Giveaway!

Hi everyone! I extended the giveaway until yesterday, and got a few more takers. Now its past midnight on Thursday night (or Friday morning) and I just got back from an extra babysitting job. I just wanted to quickly announce our winner... Sarah L!  Congratulations, Sarah and Maddie!!

For the rest of you, I hope to get some more giveaways going when I can! Thanks for playing!

We're Off To Boooo The Neighbors!

In the neighborhood we lived in last year, I sometimes wanted to boo the neighbors. I sometimes wanted to go up to their houses, ring their bells, and yell, "Booooo! You leave your kids alone all day and they're always coming to our house asking for food! Booo!" Or, "Booooo! You smoke crack!" or "Booooo! You won't let your kid play with Little Bear because you think you're better than us! Also, you don't let your kid play with the other neighbor kids because they're not white! Booooooooo!" Or even, "Booooo! You're just sort of annoying! Boooooooo!"

But I never did it, because I didn't have the nerve.

This year I got a little nervier, and decided to Boooo our new neighbors... but in a different way!

I read about this concept online, and thought it would be fun for the kids.

First, I picked up some cheap Halloween treats (kitchen towels with monsters on them, tiny statues of cats wearing witch costumes, some candy, glittery Halloween cups, etc.)

Then, I had Pufferfish throw together some simple Halloween crafts from Fun Foam. (I use that stuff for everything!)

Next, when Little Bear and Rafael got home from school, I had them use markers and Halloween stickers to decorate some paper bags. I taped Boo Grams to the bags.

Finally, I gathered my crew together!

The kids chose two houses to Booooo. They ran up to the front door of each house, rang the door bell, set the bag on the ground, and ran away!

The idea is that the neighbors are then each supposed to Boooo two more neighbors, and so on and so on. The bags come with signs that you can hang up on your front door to show that you've already been Booooed, so you don't have to keep doing it over and over again.

I have no idea if it will catch on in our neighborhood! So far, I haven't seen any signs up on anyone's doors. But at least I'm pretty sure we put smiles on two neighbors' faces!
 
 
 

I Got Another Award! I Am So Cool!

Hi everyone! Its late and I don't have too much to say right now. Plus I have a bad stomachache because of JIMMY! LOL... just kidding,.. it is only partially his fault because he brought me a big old glass of chocolate milk, which I cannot resist, despite the fact that I am lactose intolerant! As soon as I took a sip of that stuff, I could already feel my stomachache coming on. But I went ahead and chugged it, like an idiot! Then I told Little Bear that Jimmy was trying to kill me, and Little Bear ran up the stairs shouting, "Jimmy, how could you try to kill Nicki!"

At any rate... the award I got is the Friendly Blogger Award, and it was passed along to me by Corrie from Just Because My Pickle Talks Doesn't Make Me An Idiot. Corrie is a new blogger friend of mine, who I met back in October when Tanya from Teen Autism gave me the Lemonade Award! I love getting awards! The hardest part of getting awards, though, is choosing people to pass it along to. I read a pretty small circle of blogs, so I'm pretty sure there are a handful of bloggers that I just keep foisting awards upon!

At any rate, I think I am going to give this Friendly Blogger Award to Tanya, because she is one of the most friendly bloggers I've met! She is very friendly to me... she always comments on my posts, she ordered one of my books, and she helped out my young friend Tory who was raising money for foster care. She's also friendly to the rest of the world. She often finds herself in a position where she must advocate for her son, Nigel, who has autism. But she grasps this opportunity to make the world a little more friendly, for Nigel and for others with special needs, by being friendly and explaining autism to others. So, Tanya, sorry to do this to ya, but here is the Friendly Blogger Award!

I looked up the rules to this award. It was hard to do, since apparently most bloggers no longer post the rules for this! But I thought I'd do it. Here are the rules I found:

1. Take a Photo or install one now .
2. Do not change clothes,do not trim the hair, the main image is to be captured (we want to see the real you...he..he..) .
3. Post a picture that is in edit.
4. Post these instructions (required).
5. Tag people to show appreciation to them that touch your heart because of their friendly attitude (required).

 So, here is the most recent picture of me...

That is me and Pufferfish on a flying ride at the pumpkin farm! It was taken just a few days ago! Pufferfish looks so happy, doesn't she?

OK! That is all! I will see you tomorrow!