Thats right! I finally did it. I finally created our blog. It seems to be the "cool" thing to do lately. Everyone has blogs anymore. Even my friends dog has one, so it only seemed appropriate that we did too. I mean everyone finds us intresting it seems. We are stopped constantly in stores and seem to make a general scene everywhere we go. So it should mean that people want to read our blog right? I suppose we shall see in time. But for now I guess I should prepare for our fans and introduce the family.
I will start with myself I suppose. I am Summer, and it is my job as the Stay at home parent to try and bring organization to out otherwise chaotic world. I was born in Alaska, but spent the majority of my childhood in Nevada. I now currently reside in Washington state with my family. I am your typical "soccor mom". I drive a mini van, and yes I love my "stretchy" clothes.
Next is the love of my life. Dave. We have been together for nearly 3 years. He is the most amazing man I know. He is an exceptional father, a thoughtful and kind partner. Best of all hes mine =} We are obviously what most call a "blended" family. We have his, hers and ours...and now for our children.
I am going to list our children oldest to youngest. It seems the logical way to do it.
Our oldest daughter "A" I shall call her, is an amazing young lady. "A" was diagnosed with Autism at the age of 3. I have worked and worked and worked with "A" since she was young. Its been a struggle from her diagnosis to now. But its been a path that in many ways has prepared me for my life now. "A" is now in a regular ed 5th grade class room. She has lots of "extra" help but she is doing very well. She has decided to pick up Bass this year. It should be a fun year. Combined with her Archery lessons she has opted for this fall she is doing her part to keep us on our toes. "A" is my daughter from my first marriage.
Next is "K". "K" is a first grader this year. She is one smart cookie! She is our fashion queen, who loves to dress up and has a sense of style all her own. If anyone can pull off stripes, plaids and flowers its "K". She is a bubbly young lady who loves to help people. She is our "Diva" child by far. She is our athletic child, who can go from Soccer to Gymnastics in a blink of an eye and excel at both. "K" has opted for Soccor this fall and I look forward to watching her play. "K" is full sister to "A" above.
Next is "F" my step son. Dave's son from a previous relationship. "F" is generally a quite boy with a smile that wins hearts quickly. He loves cars, and getting dirty. He is very curious child, always wanting to know how things work. "F" is in Kindergarten this year. We are super excited to see him grow and blossom this year! He is taking soccer as well and I am hoping to include boy scouts as well. "F" has been the center of a major custody battle for the last three years. Between Dave and his biological mother. I am happy to say that is now all over and behind us. "F" is now a full time member of our household.
After "F" comes "T1" and "T2". Boy/girl Fraternal twins. These are "Ours". And complete the "Aerni family of 7". Twins was a real shocker for us, having zero twins in my family, when we tried for "ours" to complete our family. Twins was the last thing on our minds. It has been an intresting time. Our lives certinaly have not been the same. The Twins are now eight months old ~ they are moving around, crawling and scooting to thier hearts content. Causing a general mess for the most part. But they are healthy, happy and that makes us happy.
So there you have it. The Aerni family. While in this blog I have refered to the children as "full siblings" and "Step son" in our house as a rule these terms do not exist. They are Dave's and I's children. They are brothers and sisters. There is zero distinction other then that. In the start of our relationship, Dave and I made it a point to not use such terms. I am not a "step mother" and he is not "step father". We are parents. We have chosen together to raise our children under one umbrella ~ the one of family. A very important point for both of us.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
How do you do it?
This one simple question is one that I hear repeated over and over. "How do you do it? How do you have enough patience to care for so many kids? I can hardly handle my own!" I hear this statement a lot. I always respond the same way. Planning and organization! I can not stress enough how much planning has saved my butt.
There are many ways that planning helps. I don't mean just for large families either. I mean for everyone. I am not one of those over crazed people who plan every minute of their child's day. My kids have schedules and routines that are not so ridged we fall apart of we don't follow them, but rather serve as a guideline for what needs to be done. The first step to making a family schedule is to set priorities. Each planned activity should have a purpose and a priority. For example, Soccer ~ yes it provides physical activity for the kids. It also serves other purposes. It works on coordination, sportsmanship, team work. Archery? Provides hand eye coordination, fine motor skill and demands attention to details.
These are extra curricular activities yes, but they serve to also improve on our children's skills in areas that they do need to work on to be well rounded. Now for us priority rank is academic, social, physical needs. A's Tutoring is more important then her Archery..If there is a conflict in schedule ~ archery goes, tutoring stays.
When dealing with multiple children, each child needs to be represented. If everything is about child #1 then child #2 will feel left out. We try and solve this issue by allowing each child to pick 1 activity per season to participate in. We give them the catalog from the local YMCA and see what they feel is fun. We let them pick ~ then discuss their pick. Yes sometimes we veto ~ but overall we let the child pick their activity and build our schedule around them. There are bound to be conflicts, and sometimes you have ask the children to pick something else. (We usually gauge how important this activity is to the individuals needs and then ask the one that fills the least amount of need to change)
The next big thing is keeping everything straight. How can you keep track of everything? Well in the "old" days day planners where a moms best friend. But now days? A smart phone is! I found a really cool app fory phone in the android market. Its called Cozi. It is a wonderful App and so far no real complaints about it. This neat little app has been a life saver. Not only does it allow me to keep track of whose where and when they should be there.(It has a neat "repeats" option so you only have to enter soccer practice on monday 1 time and the app auto adds it every monday there after!) You can program it to notify you about something. And not just you either. If say I set up a Dr. appointment for Dave, and I have no need to be there/be reminded. I can have Cozi remind just Dave of his appointment. But say its an appointment for the twins and we both need to know, I can set it up to notify both of us. Best of all Dave or I can alter the schedule to allow Dave to add things too. He never has any doubt when to make that dentist appointment because he has our schedule right in the palm of his hand. It doesn't just have a schedule either, it also includes a grocery list and journal options as well. So if Dave uses all the milk, he can add it to shopping list. And for me ~ who half the time would forget my head if it where not attached...I always have my grocery list as long as I have my phone. (Which I don't ever leave home without!)
I also have a visual calender that I keep up in the dining room for the children. This way they know which days they have soccer, which days are "free" days and helps them keep track of when there is a birthday comming up, or a extra day off school. This is an important thing for them and helps them feel like they have a say in whats going on as well. The "Mom I want to stay over at (insert friends house) on Friday night!" are much easier to handle when you can say look at the schedule what does it say? It also helps teach them time and patience. (No really, your friends party isnt till next week!) Getting a schedule started is the hardest part. The rest is just maintenance and easy to keep up changing things little by little.
There are many ways that planning helps. I don't mean just for large families either. I mean for everyone. I am not one of those over crazed people who plan every minute of their child's day. My kids have schedules and routines that are not so ridged we fall apart of we don't follow them, but rather serve as a guideline for what needs to be done. The first step to making a family schedule is to set priorities. Each planned activity should have a purpose and a priority. For example, Soccer ~ yes it provides physical activity for the kids. It also serves other purposes. It works on coordination, sportsmanship, team work. Archery? Provides hand eye coordination, fine motor skill and demands attention to details.
These are extra curricular activities yes, but they serve to also improve on our children's skills in areas that they do need to work on to be well rounded. Now for us priority rank is academic, social, physical needs. A's Tutoring is more important then her Archery..If there is a conflict in schedule ~ archery goes, tutoring stays.
When dealing with multiple children, each child needs to be represented. If everything is about child #1 then child #2 will feel left out. We try and solve this issue by allowing each child to pick 1 activity per season to participate in. We give them the catalog from the local YMCA and see what they feel is fun. We let them pick ~ then discuss their pick. Yes sometimes we veto ~ but overall we let the child pick their activity and build our schedule around them. There are bound to be conflicts, and sometimes you have ask the children to pick something else. (We usually gauge how important this activity is to the individuals needs and then ask the one that fills the least amount of need to change)
The next big thing is keeping everything straight. How can you keep track of everything? Well in the "old" days day planners where a moms best friend. But now days? A smart phone is! I found a really cool app fory phone in the android market. Its called Cozi. It is a wonderful App and so far no real complaints about it. This neat little app has been a life saver. Not only does it allow me to keep track of whose where and when they should be there.(It has a neat "repeats" option so you only have to enter soccer practice on monday 1 time and the app auto adds it every monday there after!) You can program it to notify you about something. And not just you either. If say I set up a Dr. appointment for Dave, and I have no need to be there/be reminded. I can have Cozi remind just Dave of his appointment. But say its an appointment for the twins and we both need to know, I can set it up to notify both of us. Best of all Dave or I can alter the schedule to allow Dave to add things too. He never has any doubt when to make that dentist appointment because he has our schedule right in the palm of his hand. It doesn't just have a schedule either, it also includes a grocery list and journal options as well. So if Dave uses all the milk, he can add it to shopping list. And for me ~ who half the time would forget my head if it where not attached...I always have my grocery list as long as I have my phone. (Which I don't ever leave home without!)
I also have a visual calender that I keep up in the dining room for the children. This way they know which days they have soccer, which days are "free" days and helps them keep track of when there is a birthday comming up, or a extra day off school. This is an important thing for them and helps them feel like they have a say in whats going on as well. The "Mom I want to stay over at (insert friends house) on Friday night!" are much easier to handle when you can say look at the schedule what does it say? It also helps teach them time and patience. (No really, your friends party isnt till next week!) Getting a schedule started is the hardest part. The rest is just maintenance and easy to keep up changing things little by little.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Adventures in Soccer
This week the Aerni family embarked an a memorable adventure. We started Soccer for F & K. I never knew how horribly funny it could be to watch 5&6 year olds play soccer. Now the kids play on a small team. At this age 4-5 players on a team max is typical, at least in our league. Our team consists of a wide range of kids. We have a total of 5, Three boys and 2 girls. Our team consists of a boy who we refer to as "all star" the kid has moves for being so young. I am sure however he is the youngest in his family and has probably been playing soccer with his older siblings for years now. Then we have another boy, he is still learning, but doesn't give up. Hes always right in there and you can truly see this child is giving his all. I am sure its for the approval of his parents who I will add are always cheering him from the sidelines. Then we have the other girl on the team. It is very obvious that this child has zero interest in being on the soccer field. She has a melt down nearly every time she is there. The first practice I think her parents touched the soccer ball more then she did. They are quite enthusiastic about having her play...her? Not so much. She wears pink everything ~ they even found pink shin guards ~ I am sure to try and bribe her into playing. I feel for this girl she has zero fun
Then you have our kids. K has never really played soccer before but she is picking up pretty quickly. She is VERY competitive and I am confident the biggest thrill she gets out of the entire thing is trying to "beat" the other kids. She needs to work on the whole "team" aspect of things. Once she gets the ball in a game she doesn't want to give it up to anyone! Then there is F. F isnt sure yet if he likes it or not I dont think. He really doesnt like physical activity that much ~ something that we are working hard to change.
Our game consists of Super Star gaining control of the ball, K chasing trying to get it from him, The boy who trys his hardest trailing behind, and F or the I dont want to be here girl following the other kids around...kinda..F usually tries to cover the goal and stop the ball from going in ~ not exacty the thing to do when your teams trying to score..but hey he tries! And the other girl kinda follows way behind everyone else. When there is a collision ~ usually it involves a melt down and "they did it on purpose!" Pink girl tends to cry if her pink gets dirty. Our first game I sat and spent the entire game muffling laughs ~ and cheering for every child who tried to get the ball. It was a great time had by all ~ except T1 who cried every time there was cheering. I do think that boy has his fathers sensitive ears....
Then you have our kids. K has never really played soccer before but she is picking up pretty quickly. She is VERY competitive and I am confident the biggest thrill she gets out of the entire thing is trying to "beat" the other kids. She needs to work on the whole "team" aspect of things. Once she gets the ball in a game she doesn't want to give it up to anyone! Then there is F. F isnt sure yet if he likes it or not I dont think. He really doesnt like physical activity that much ~ something that we are working hard to change.
Our game consists of Super Star gaining control of the ball, K chasing trying to get it from him, The boy who trys his hardest trailing behind, and F or the I dont want to be here girl following the other kids around...kinda..F usually tries to cover the goal and stop the ball from going in ~ not exacty the thing to do when your teams trying to score..but hey he tries! And the other girl kinda follows way behind everyone else. When there is a collision ~ usually it involves a melt down and "they did it on purpose!" Pink girl tends to cry if her pink gets dirty. Our first game I sat and spent the entire game muffling laughs ~ and cheering for every child who tried to get the ball. It was a great time had by all ~ except T1 who cried every time there was cheering. I do think that boy has his fathers sensitive ears....
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