More Textbooks

I'm going to do it. The whole premise to this House Call Daily lifestyle is that, like medical school, studying pays off. With that in mind, I must purchase the following E-Book:

Maria Killam

I've come to accept that in order to save money, I need to spend a little. In this case, it's less than $30. Let me explain.

First of all, if you're not familiar with Maria Killam, you need to get on board. She's like the professor of color. Or as the Canadian spells it, 'colour.' The woman has managed to break this subject down into simple, almost mathematical principles.

I'm hoping that by reading this book, I can make better decisions about what items I bring into my house so that I don't make expensive mistakes. Check out what's already happening and note the potential for a slippery slope (pictures pending):

• Picked out floor tiles to connect the mudroom to the kitchen. Double Triple checked them to make sure they went with the existing maple cabinets by bringing an entire drawer with me to the store.
• Received the heavy shipment at the new-to-us house.
• Held the tile up against the cabinets (they have an orange undertone), tile still looked green-gray, which is my preference.
• Laid out a pattern on the floor.
• Noticed that where the tile meets the wall, the existing color makes my tiles look PURPLE.
• Visions of an orange and purple kitchen had me squeamish.
• Realized the kitchen would have to be repainted if we're to keep these tiles.
• That's easier said than done because the kitchen is VAULTED with crown molding. Oy.
• Must pick out new paint color, and even consider a professional to apply it.
• Kitchen meets up with dining room, its walls will also need a tweak based on kitchen paint color.

See what I mean? This can get out of control very easily. Time to go back into student mode and figure this color-conundrum out. 

Teaching the Kid(s) How to Read

On my list of things to start on my maternity leave, I included the task of teaching my son, Leepo, how to read. I think we're off to a really good start, so I'll share what has worked well so far.

This is obvious, but we started with the ABCs. We sang the alphabet until it was memorized, then we went through this stack of flashcards as often as we could many months earlier. I just love the Eric Carle letters because they're so vibrant and display all different kinds of animals. I admit to using fruit snacks as an incentive, though I have mixed feelings about rewarding kids with foods (am I laying the ground work for eating disorders later on?).

Once Leepo mastered letter cognition with the accompanying sound, we moved on to this nifty paint chip idea I found, where else?, on Pinterest.

Here you see my son playing with word stems that contain a window view box (got these from Lowe's) on a color sheet that contains first letters (from Home Depot). We sound out each component first and then put them together. I think he's starting to grasp the concept now.

The only thing to warn you about is that since these are paint chips, and they're good quality paint at that, even permanent marker will smudge off. Also, be warned about unintentional curse words. The nice thing about using a fold-out book for the initial letters is that you can plan ahead and separate out Tr for truck and F for food if you know what I mean.

Some high yield word stems:

-it
-ig
-at
-oy
-ook
-oon
-ite
-ing
-ove
-ack
-ob
-eep
-ain
-est