I’m on a blog break really but there’s not long until the next start date for Jo Ebisujima’s My Organized Chaos course and I’ve been meaning to write about it for a while. I live in total mess; Chaos isn’t just a blog name it really is my life. I shared some pictures in an earlier post, which won me a place on the course last October.
I’ve not written about the course because my depression hit in somewhere in the middle (entirely unrelated!) so I didn’t complete all the assignments. But, the beauty of this course is that once you’ve signed up, you can join in every time it runs.
What does the course involve? It’s an eight week online course where you get about three ten minute presentations to watch each week, so nothing too arduous in terms of time, plus downloads to read and lots of helpful checklists and forms. The course is split into easy to manage chunks and all the information given is straightforward and sensible. The huge benefit comes with the exclusive Facebook group where you can share your progress and fellow coursemates can offer advice. For the eight weeks Jo will reply to any of your questions and concerns via the group or e-mail and her wealth of expertise is fantastic.
What the course sets out to achieve:
- have a more organized home
- have dedicated areas for your children to read, study and play
- have easier, stress free mornings and dinner times
- be able to tackle the daily struggles of parenthood
- have more independent and more helpful children
- have the quality time you dream of with your family
- have more time to do ‘the fun stuff’
- have a more stress free, easy-going lifestyle
- enjoy spending time with your children
Did I achieve all of this? Ha! Did you see the mess I started with?! Also, sadly my depression/anxiety did have an intensive period during the time of the last course (and beyond) that I think I’m through now. But lets look at each item on the list in turn.
A more organized home – Actually, yes I do. Oh, there is mess everywhere still but I started from a huge disadvantage compared to ‘the average’ household and what has changed is not only the way things are organised, but the attitude to the mess. I have kitchen cupboards with labelled food items; toys and games with homes to go to; and much less clutter due to putting so much into the recycle or charity.
Dedicated areas for your children to read, study and play – This fell apart at Christmas when we needed to find somewhere to put the tree, but instead of just stressing about mess mess mess, I’ve observed what the children use most and made these the most accessible items plus rescued the child-sized table and chairs from the outside playhouse which has been a huge hit. We have so many books it’s taking longer to sort but my Our Week in Books posts show that we can access the variety of books easily now!
Easier, stress free mornings and dinner times – Hmmm, working on this one! I didn’t really tackle this part of the course.
Able to tackle the daily struggles of parenthood – Huge improvements in this area too. The chaos/mess really made me miserable and the changes we have made together have really helped. Depression/anxiety is not something the course can fix, but it can possibly help to reduce some of the triggers if they’re mess related!
More independent and more helpful children – Helpful is a matter of opinion… 
I’ve been generally aware of Montessori principles in helping children be more independent but the course’s reminders of these have helped. If you’re not aware of Montessori, this course covers the important principles behind her teaching which are easy to implement in any household. I have reminded myself to be less helpful to my girls, so they have to do things I know they can do themselves.
The quality time you dream of with your family – As a stay-at-home mum, I’m fairly lucky in the time I get with my girls but also need to remember the time to be a grown up too. This is another area that needs work but the worksheets looking at time spent given in the course will be helpful.
More time to do ‘the fun stuff’ – This was covered in the part of the course I didn’t really complete but the ideas given have already been helpful in planning some of our chaotic days into something more worthwhile than TV watching!
A more stress free, easy-going lifestyle – I don’t think my personality will ever be stress free, but more organised certainly helps with a lot of the stresses.
Enjoy spending time with your children – Most of the time…
The next course starts on February 18th, for eight weeks, and costs $345. How much?! Bear in mind, for this you get lifelong access to the course, so that every time it’s run you can join in again. During those eight weeks you get personal input from Jo on any problems and questions you have. There is also a 21-day cooling off period so that if the course really doesn’t work for you, you can claim the fees back.
Would I be doing this course if I hadn’t won it? Honestly, no 
But that’s entirely down to current personal finances where we have absolutely no leeway in our budget. Three years ago, when we were both working? I would have asked Jo lots of questions about the course and taken a deep breath about committing, but the money back guarantee and my belief in Jo would have swung me to start, and I definitely wouldn’t have regretted it after. In a few years, when hopefully our finances will be back to normal, I’d certainly sign up for other relevant courses that Jo offers.
If you don’t want to do the e-course, there’s a home learning pack which includes all the documents included in the course, but excludes the videos and support. This is $99 which can be put towards the e-course if you choose to join that at a later date.
I have signed up to be an affiliate, which means that I will get paid if you click on an affiliate link from here and sign up. But I believe in the course so much, that you have the option to choose the affiliate links or not. The affiliate links are the badges in the sidebar to the right (possibly not viewable on a mobile device) and the badges at the bottom of this post. Any other links are not affiliate links.
Please have a look at the pictures of the mess in my house taken last September. Here are some pictures taken today:
There’s still mess, this is a lived in house, but look at all the visible carpet; see the clear surfaces; not to mention the organised interior of the cupboards that you can’t see! But it’s not just the decluttering, it’s the mental shift that’s happened to make it easier for us all, and for that I can never express enough thanks to Jo. My Organized Chaos e-course was a lifeline thrown when I was drowning; I’m no longer drowning 
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Noël is a powerful, effective and interesting speaker. Based on last night’s hour in her company I can see why she has such a good reputation. She was especially good at getting parents to think about specific examples of their troubles, and most people found that very hard – “Oh, then she gets sarcastic”; “In what way sarcastic?”; “She says she won’t eat her dinner.”; “That’s not sarcasm.” Noël also silenced two middle-aged women chatting as if they were schoolchildren, asking them to listen to her instead of moaning about their children. I enjoyed listening to her very much.
“Commit to never doing anything for your children that you know they can do themselves.”
Descriptive praise is a concept that comes across in many of the books I have(n’t) read. Again, it is used in 
Which leads nicely to Edwardo, The Horriblest Boy in the Whole Wide World by John Burningham.
First Words, Letters and Numbers
Little Tiger Press has started a new imprint this month, Little Tiger Kids. These are a series of colourful, sturdy board books with pictures of real things, big flaps, things to trace. All of which appeal to babies and toddlers. We’ve been lucky enough to be sent three to test drive. All three instantly appealed to MG and DG with the bright colours and flaps and they’ve been having fun with them. I’m going to review from a grown up educational viewpoint but in terms of child-appeal, these are winners.
There are similar books to this already available and to be fair Priddy Books have probably got the corner on this market but it would be an oversight for Little Tiger Press to have left out a book of this type in their new range, and it makes a nice addition. What Little Tiger Press have got (but I’ve not seen) is a lift-the-flap version of the 100 first words which should prove to be extremely popular. Based on the flaps in the Numbers book that we have seen, these are likely to be extremely robust and great for fine motor skills. Using real pictures is important for very young children who are learning to organise and categorise the world. Cartoon word books are lovely but a child’s absorbent mind also needs reinforcement of the real world.
This is a book with enormous child appeal. The format is perfect. Each single page focusses on one letter. The top half of the page has the letter in upper and lower case, the upper case letter is cut out for tracing. The bottom half of the page has a picture starting with that letter and is also a giant flap with another picture for the letter underneath. Each page has bright, clear colours; uncluttered, real photographs; an easy-to-read-and-write font and start and end points for how to draw the letters. It is almost perfect and the only alphabet book you need to start a child’s journey to letter recognition and learning to read. Almost. It is let down by a lack of phonetic awareness. On chatting with other interested parties (parents and educators) on Twitter about the subject of phonetic ABC books, it was pointed out that many books are printed for a worldwide market where phonetics may not be the prescribed teaching method. In the UK (well, in England at least), every child who goes to a state-run school will be taught to read using synthetic phonics.
Phonics has its detractors but as an initial method in getting children to learn to decode quickly, it is excellent. Maria Montessori used phonetics in her methods for teaching children to read. Montessori also used sandpaper letters to get the children used to the shape of letters when they still hadn’t got the fine motor skills for writing, which this book also emulates in its touchable letter tracing. It’s only the upper case letters which are traceable, which is a pity given that we use lower case letters far more frequently in reality but it’s a good start. I also like how the start and end points for letter tracing are highlighted with red and green dots in this book.
I would still recommend this as possibly the best first ABC book I’ve seen. It ‘fails’ as an introduction to the phonetic alphabet in seven of the fifty-two words it includes. These are: ice-cream, ivy, owl, shoes, unicorn, xylophone and x-ray. Admittedly ‘x’ is impossible to do phonetically if you’re only chosing initial letters as there are no words that start with the /ks/ sound. I’m also not keen on ‘jelly beans’ as it’s two words! If you’re fussy on phonics like me, why not stick photos of igloo, insect, octopus, sock, fox and box in the book! I’ve searched but umbrella does seem to be the only object starting with the short-u sound. Up and Under are probably the best options, but hard to illustrate. In summary, this is an excellent alphabet book which is exactly what it sets out to be.
Another appealing book for children, this comes with a ‘handle’ so it can be easily carried around. I really can’t stress enough how sturdy these books are. They are made from quality strong board, have pages that feel like they wipe clean easily (we haven’t needed to test this) with big, robust flaps. In first numbers, each page shows a picture of an object or objects (one cake, two kittens, three butterflies etc); the flap can then be opened to reveal simplified pictures of the outside of the flap – for example the outside picture may have things that overlap or are slightly different e.g. different kittens, but the inside picture will have the number of things clearly shown separately and be the same in one or two colours only – plus the number with start and end dots, and tracing guide. Another wonderful ‘first’ book.
All three books have enormous child appeal and would be excellent to share starting with babies who will be attracted to the bright, simple and familiar images; onto toddlers who will love the interactivity and ownership they can take for the books; onto pre-schoolers who can take pride in recognising numbers and letters… The Little Tiger Kids range are priced between £5.99 and £8.99 which is excellent value for money, especially the First ABC book above which is only £5.99. More in the series are being released in May. These include jigsaws, tabs and touchy-feely books. If these were around when my girls were younger we would have bought lots of them!
Disclaimer: We were sent a copies of My First Book of Words: 100 First Words; My First Touch and Trace: First ABC; and My First Lift and Learn: First Numbers by Little Tiger Press for review. No other financial reward was given and the opinions are my own. I was not asked to write this post.
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Posted in Detailed Picture Book Commentary, Education, Montessori, Picture Books
Tagged 100 First Words, Alphabet, Counting, Education, First ABC, First Letters, First Numbers, First Words, Little Tiger Kids, Little Tiger Press, Montessori, My First Lift and Learn, My First Touch and Trace, My First Words