New Blog Account

I have created a new blog account... I will no longer be up-dating posts to this account. If you still wish to follow my little family you can see us at www.watsonfamily2006.blogspot.com

PS. my new blog still has all of my old posts and will appear the exact same as this one.

Thanks!

Pictures

Pumpkin Carving

This year carving pumpkins was a lot more fun... Last year James was very nervous and cried the whole time. This year he was very onto it. He painted his pumpkin, colored on it and stabbed holes in it with a butter knife... Such a difference a year makes. Here are some pictures from this years occasion, and a video clip from last year.

Teaching James to Read

James seems to be very accelerated in the learning department. After researching a little of information online I have learned that he is most likely consider to be a gifted child. I taken a few online Q&A's as well as reading through several checklists that could help determine if he is in fact gifted. In most all areas he shows as an extremely high possibility. A pediatrician or specialist will not be able to determine if he is until he is about school age and can do the testing so until then I should be treating him as if he is. In doing so one of the biggest things that I should start working on him with is reading. I know your thinking "WHAT" he just turned two; I know I said the same thing. However I am going to attempt to teach him how to read. I wanted to share with you what is said to be the most affective way of teaching a child to read, especially at such a young age. It is called the phonics alphabet. The way this works is that you don't teach the kid what the name of letter is because the kids don't read the letters. You teach the kid the sound the letter makes. So when your kid looks at the letter "C" they don't say "SEE" they say "CUH". It's really interesting. Saying the alphabet just became a lot more challenging for me. Watch the video clip and you try to say the ABC's this way, it's quite funny!

Wish me luck as I teach James how to read.

Saving Money!

Since moving to Agoura in July our grocery budget has suffered greatly. I don't have Super Walmart close by so we are shopping at regular grocery stores. Not that you all care but we were spending approximately $600.00 a month on groceries. This includes, cleaning and house hold products, Toiletries, diapers/baby, and our food. I would like to cut my spending back to no more then $400.00 a month. I tend to by name brand everything so I know just by switching to store brand I will save quite a bit of money. The main thing I am having problems with is finding budget friendly recipes that will make enough to freeze for later or have left overs. I know that buy in bulk is more cost effective, however it costs a lot of money up front which is hard for us to spend. I need ideas for that as well.

Don't take this post in the wrong way... Ryan and I are doing just fine and can make ends meet every month with our $600.00 budget. We just want to pull a head and buy a house someday. In order to meet our buy a house goal we need to save $200.00 more per month on top of what we are already saving. If you have any tips for how to cut back, or save money at the store, or have cheap recipes it would be much appreciated. Thanks for your help!