3 Little Shellfish

Yes, I am still here!!

2011-07-01T08:50:00.009-05:00

Wow! Has it really been almost 4 months since I last posted an entry? Ummm, oops:) I don't blog much during the summer as we are usually crazy busy. However, I have had a special request to update from my favorite stalker, errr, faithful reader (you know who you are!). So, what have we been up to since March? Well, a lot. This may get long......

So, in April my sister in law and her husband moved from CA out here to TN. They stayed with us for a few weeks until they found a house. They have 3 children as well so we had a pretty full house for a while. It was crazy and chaotic, but fun. During that time my mom, SIL and her three kids, my other SIL and my nephew, and I took a trip to the Smokies. We stayed in a ridiculously large four level cabin with gorgeous mountain views. We stayed for 5 days and went to Dollywood, Cades Cove, the Dixie Stampede, and downtown Gatlinburg. Here's a group shot of the kids at Cades' Cove.
At this point, I gave up on school for the year. Our tutorial ended in May and we had finished our LA for the year. We continued on with math for a few weeks, but we were done by May. Therefore, we will be starting school again in August as opposed to September. I am actually really anxious about getting started. I have a ton of new curriculum just calling me name. Not to mention, I am actually organized well in advance. I opted to utilize a filing system this year. So, I spent a good week tearing apart workbooks, photocopying pages, assigning reading, and filing it all away into a weekly folder. For the ENTIRE year! I am beyond excited about this. I included everything they need for the week including craft supplies, books, extra paper, etc. Here's a visual:

So, the top picture is M (in red) and B's (in blue) work. The bottom picture is Navy Bean's crate. Hers took a little more room as preschool work consists of a lot more crafts and far fewer worksheets. Anyway, I am in love with this system and SO relieved that I have everything ready to go. No more hunting books, worksheets, supplies down at the last minute:)

Much of our summer has been spent at the gym. All three kids take gymnastics. We are there four days a week. Yes, seriously, 4 DAYS PER WEEK. It gets old, but they love it and do a great job. Here are some pics of what they have been up to in the gym this summer:

I realize there is no pics of B. He just moves to fast and every one I have is blurry:( I do have great video of him, but am not technologically savvy enough to post it here.

What else have we been up to? Well, we have been strawberry picking, blueberry picking, blackberry picking, roller skating, to Cheekwood, a few indoor play places, and have spent a lot of time swimming. July is going to be a crazy month. We have a big party planned for the fourth of July. We are having about 35 people. We have the go-kart ready to go, we rented a 16 foot waterslide, filled a pinata for the kids, tons of fireworks, and, of course, a ton of food. The following week the kids have VBS. I'm volunteering this year, so little Miss Navy Bean will get a chance to go to their pre-school program. The week after that is summer day camp for the two oldest. They went last year and are really looking forward to going back!

As for me, I have been dutifully keeping up with my 52 books in 52 weeks reading challenge. I am currently reading book 32. Well, and 33 if you can't the months I have been struggling through The Trial by Kafka. What a torturous, mind numbing book. Why do I continue to read it, you ask? Seriously, I don't know. Because it's a classic and I want to be able to say I have? Possibly. I am also convinced that there must be some redeeming quality that is brought to light at the end of the book. I am half way through, only able to read a few pages a day.

My husband and I also celebrated our ninth anniversary. DH rented ATV's for the day so we headed out sans kids to a 500 acre off road park. We thought we would be riding nice little trails through the oods. Ummm, no. They were rocky, steep, treacherous trail which almost caused both of us to roll over. It was challenging, but really fun. We had a great day!

Well, that's been our summer so far. Sorry this post is a little disjointed. I am in a hurry to get to Target:) Have to get some 4th of July shopping done! Happy 4th to everyone out there:)

Yay for beautiful weather!!!

2011-03-18T07:30:00.003-05:00

It is so nice to finally see signs of Spring! The weather has been gorgeous (mid 70's), everything is starting to bloom, and I even had to mow the lawn yesterday!!! I am not a fan of cold weather and am not a bit sad to say goodbye to dreary, cold days!

Homeschooling on such beautiful days is a challenge for both me and the kids. Who wants to be stuck in the school room when you could be enjoying the sun? But, you do what you have to do.....just a little quicker:) So, we managed to get started with our school work a bit earlier yesterday so that we would have the afternoon to play outside. We finished up by 1 and were outside by 1:30. My mom was watching my nephew so she brought him over to play for awhile. The kids next door and across the street came over to play, and then two friends of mine brought their kids over as well. There were kids everywhere.....riding bikes and scooters, climbing trees, playing Star Wars, and even catching wildlife:) The kids found a baby bunny under our picnic table. I'm sure it was scared to death with 15+ kids hovering around it, but they managed to pick it up and pet it. Of course, being paranoid, I immediately went for the hand sanitizer! But, it WAS too irresistible to not pet!
Anyway, it was a fun day for the kids and their friends and nice for me to be able to sit out on the grass in a lawn chair and catch up with my friends!

Oh yes I did......

2011-03-15T15:27:00.003-05:00

I'm not gonna lie. I got the Botox. Yup, right on my crows feet and frown line. Was it totally necessary at 33 years old? Probably not. Am I glad I did....heck yeah:) Apparently it takes two days to see the full effect, but I swear, my crows feet are almost non-existent right now. And, best of all, I can still move my face:) I take that back, best of all is that I didn't go blind! Yeah, that was my main concern after seeing it as one of the small risks....yikes! So, my forehead is a little bruised and I have a dull headache going on, but i'm really excited about it. I will tell you, though, getting the forehead done is NOT fun. You actually hear a little crunching noise when they insert the needle. Apparently this is "just your muscle"......*shudder*. It's pretty painful as well. The eyes weren't so bad. Tiny little pricks and you're all set. Would I do it again.....ummmm, yup! Not to out my mom, but she had a few procedures done herself today. She had the same Botox injections I had, but also had juviderm (sp?) around the mouth. They had to numb her for this with four shots to the gum line. See, now that would have made me cry. She agreed that the forehead was the worst. Anyway, just thought i'd share my experience. I know it sounds strange, but it was a fun mother/daughter day:)

It's a Toucan, of course!

2011-03-14T19:23:00.003-05:00

Alright, so it takes a bit of imagination to see it, but this is the Toucan mask we made for geography group today. As I mentioned in my last post, we are currently studying Belize. And what does a toucan have to do with Belize you ask? Well, the Keel Toucan is their national bird. So for group today we talked a bit about Belize....it's location, Mayan roots, landscape, and national symbols. Then we spent a good hour creating these beauties:) Overall, group went well despite the rain cutting playtime short. Over the next two weeks the kids and I will be preparing their presentations for our next meeting. B is going to make a replica of Altun Ha, the Mayan Ruins we visited, and M is going to make a house that has been affected by it's location on the water table. Pics to follow, of course:)

We are finally getting back into the swing of things. Last week was a bit of the struggle. The kids weren't too excited to be back to work after a week long cruise. By Friday, however, they seemed resigned to the fact that they had to get their work done. We were able to double up in math and language to get caught up. We are still a little behind in science though. We didn't do anything too exciting as we were really hitting the books to catch up. So, nothing really to report on there. We did get a few laughs courtesy of Navy Bean. I asked her to help me with spelling. We use Sequential Spelling and so I will read the word and then use it in a sentence as there are frequently homonyms in the same list. Navy Bean was to give a sentence after I said the word. Here's how that went:

Me: Don't
Navy Bean: I don't like to share my toys.

Me: poker
Navy Bean: I want to "poker" in the eyeball.

So long Carribean:(

2011-03-11T15:50:00.020-06:00

It's back to reality for us. We spent seven wonderful days on a cruise through the Carribean. I could write pages after page of fun moments, funny stories, and things we did and saw, however I will spare you all of that and summarize as best I can.

Day 1: Travel day. I hate travel days. I hate, hate, hate flying. To make matters worse, the bar wasn't open before our flight (too early), so I couldn't even have a beer to quell my nerves. And, yes, I would have had a beer before 7 AM if I were about to go on an airplane. Flight, transfer, and boarding were pretty uneventful.Day 2: Day at sea. Poor little B spent the first night with a high fever. I took him down to the medical center in the morning. Strep had returned, accompanied by a bad ear infection. Antibiotic prescribed....as well as an order to stay out of the sun because of the fever. Nothing like staying out of the sun on a tropical vacation:( But, he was a trooper and stayed with my parents (who spoiled him with ice cream and presents from the gift shop) while we took the girls to the pool. The water was freezing so Navy Bean spent her time in the hot tub while dh and I took turns on the waterslide with M. B was feeling better by the afternoon so we enjoyed a nice dinner.

Day 2: First stop: Grand Caymans! After a long, hot wait in the caged waiting are (for lack of a better way to describe the area they made us wait in for our tour), we took off to the Turtle Farm. We saw some seriously gigantic turtles and were even able to pick up and hold a few of the smaller guys. Then we walked over to the Dolphin Encounter. Everyone but my grandpa got in the water to play with the dolphins. We pet them, kissed them, danced with them....everything but riding them:) I enjoyed this, but it was a little stressful with little Navy Bean freaking out when she noticed there were little tropical fish swimming around in the pool. She was okay with the giant dolphin, but not the little fish...hmmmmm?!?! So, she sat on the edge for the last half. B ended up getting out as well because he was cold. I'll admit, the water WAS freezing....but, seriously, how often to you get to play in the water with a dolphin. I guess kids just don't appreciate that kind of stuff when they're 8.
Day 3: Next stop: Isla Roatan, Honduras! We spent the day at the Mahogany Bay Beach. It was absolutely gorgeous. We had two cabanas for the 8 of us, complete with bar and food service, an air conditioed hut with couches, lounge chairs, hammocks...the works. We took a chair lift to get to the beach and had an awesome view of the coastline. The kids loved spending the day playing in the water, snorkeling, and building sand castles. My favorite memory of this day was the reggae singer that approached our cabana with his microphone. I forget the first song he sang....but do remember the uncomfortable look on dh's face as the guy had his arm around him singing:) Then he asked my grandpa for a request. I forget the song my grandpa requested, but what he sung was NOT it. He kept saying "Okay mon, I got it. I got it". Then he busted out with "Like a Rhinestone Cowboy". Maybe because we said we were from Tennessee? I don't know, but it was hilarious. The look on my grandpa's face=priceless!
Day 4: Belize. No exclamation point for Belize. Yuck. We anchored at sea and had to take a long tender into port. That was probably the prettiest thing about Belize. Once we got to the dock we were told not to leave the caged area unless we had a tour. We did, but we had to leave the "safe" are to find the building as we had booked a private van to take us to Altun Ha, the Mayan Ruins. After being harrassed by some lady wanting to braid all of our hair, we found our driver and quickly hopped in. We had about a 45 minute drive out to Altun Ha. It was bad. Talk about poverty. Even the homeless in the US don't have it as bad as most of the people there. It was so bad that B asked if there was a place we could go on the internet to find a way to donate money. It was a good lesson for the kids, but very depressing. Altun Ha, however, was beautiful. Well maintained, clean, and comfortable (well, we were as comfortable as you can be when there are military men walking around the park with machine guns). The ruins were amazing. Our guide was a wealth of information. I don't think this was the kids favorite excursion, but hopefully they learned a little something. We are actually studying Belize for our geography group this month and we are planning to do our presentation on Altun Ha. Anyway, we climbed an insanely tall building with Navy Bean and B. There were no rails and the stair were very steep....almost staright up. Going up wasn't so bad. But once we started to head down, I panicked. I didn't realize just how steep it was...and we had a 3 year old with us! So, we had to go down on our bottoms. I think I would have gone down that way even if the kids hadn't been with us. Scary stuff, but gorgeous views. Back on the ship that night, we took the kids to the show "Far From Over" after dinner. It was a tribute to the 80's! Yeah, I know, how lucky can a girl get?!?! Dh wasn't as impressed and my dad wanted to know why they didn't play any good music.....

Day 5: Cozumel, Mexico!! This was a FUN day:) We rented two jeeps. Dh drove one and my dad drove the other. We followed our tour group through the streets of Cozumel....which was strikingly beautiful in contrast to Belize! Our first stop was at the "PeePee Station". Love it. There was a public restroom and a little store. The guy tried to rip me off, but that's okay...I got my bracelets in the end:) Next we headed to the beach. It was a little cloudy and windy, so we didn't do any swimming. M sat lounged on the beach and got a henna tattoo on her ankle. Navy Bean and B played in the sound, gathered shells, and splashed in the water. We stayed about an hour and a half, got back in our jeeps, and headed to another shopping area. Here we bought a fresh coconut so we could try the coconut water. Despite the fact that I HATE cocnut, the water was pretty good. M and I were the only ones that took more than one sip, but at least the kids can all say they tried it. After our tour we walked around the tourist are near the dock. The girls got their hair braided (and the lady didn't have to stalk me!), we bought a few souverniers, and had a delicious lunch at Fat Tuesdays....complete with balloon hats for everyone:)
Day 6: Last day at Sea:( This was the last day of our trip. B was crushed. He spent most of the day whining about not wanting to go home. We had planned to spend the day at the pool since B hadn't had much time in it, but the waterslide was closed due to high winds and, as I mentioned, the water was freezing. So, we ended up letting Navy Bean go to Camp Carnival for an hour (the only hour spent in there), got B a skull airbrush tattoo, took M to a Michael Jackson dance class, played around in the arcade, and took all three to a bear making workshop. That night we had a cake for B's bday, did a little dancing with the kids, and spent another hour down in the medical center. Oh yes, we did. M had gotten staph infection from a bug bite. What made it even more awesome was that by the time it was really swollen, the medical center was closed and we were fortunate enough to pay the after hours fees. So, $211 to look at her foot for one second and confirm what I already told them I thought it was. Ugh.
Anyway, we had a great time and can't wait to go on another cruise!!!!

Yeah, it's been a while

2011-02-25T07:49:00.003-06:00

We've been pretty busy around here with schooling, illness (strep and flu!), and planning for our cruise. There have been many days where things have happened and I thought "Oh, I want to blog about that!". But, then things get crazy and I don't find the time. And, of course, when I do find the time I forget what I planned to blog about in the first place. Anyone that knows me well knows that I have an extremely limited short term memory. And long term, for that matter. Anyway, I have a little extra time this morning (well, technically I should be getting ready for the school day by making photocopies, etc., but, well....ummmmmm, that doesn't sound as fun), so I decided to do an update.

So, let's see, school is going really well. We had to take about a week off early February due to illness, but we have since caught up (by doubling much of our work). So, we are right where we should be for the year. Now our social life, on the other hand, has been pathetic at best. With everyone taking turns getting sick it seems like we've been stuck in the house for months. Even when we were healthy we haven't been able to get out much due to the crazy weather we've been having. Two field trips I had planned to take the kids on were canceled due to snow. Not only have we had more snow than usual, it has just been too freakin cold to go anywhere outside. I am more anxious for Spring than usual! We've also been avoiding indoor germ infested playlands, bouncy places, etc. because it seems my kids catch something every time they leave the house this year! So weird....that's not usually an issue.

Anyway, the best homeschooling related news I have to share is that Miss M has not only learned to add efficiently, but can now do double digit addition with carrying over!!! Yes, she is 14, but with her LD's academics are a serious hardship for her. So, how did we finally master these skills? Did we find a wonderful new curriculum? NOPE. There is just not a curriculum out there that works for her. So, instead of wasting even more money to try to find that perfect fit, I have created my own methods to use with her. I have taught her the basics of TouchMath (where you put the dots on the numbers to act as a sort of manipulative). This is the way I was taught to add in school and, though I disagree with it's use in the general education population, I think it is FABULOUS for those with LD's. Now, there is an actual TouchMath curriculum you can by, but it's a few hundred dollars and, well, I already know how it works so why spend the money? Once I introduced the dot method to her she began to progress rapidly. I thought we would never get past single digit addition. Once she was able to do single digit addition relatively quickly, I introduced double digit with carrying over. Again, I didn't use a curriculum to teach this. We worked for days with the Math U See blocks. What we did was to add the numbers in the ones place, take the corresponding one blocks, line them up, and then see if our ten block would fit over the row. Obviously it did as we were practicing carrying. So, then I explained that the left over ones had to be left in that ones column, while that ten wanted to move out with his friends over in the tens column. Once she grasped this, I took away the manipulatives and we worked out dozens of problems on paper. And, guess what, she is doing it on her own now!!! I say all of this just to point out to other parents of children with LD's that there may not be that perfect curriculum out there for your kid. You may need to come up with a method on your own and then just use the Internet to print off free worksheets. I wish I had stopped searching for the perfect curriculum years ago. A lot of time and money was wasted when I could have just jumped in and tried a bunch of different methods for free. Live and learn.

Now, a little update on my 52 Books in 52 weeks challenge. I have surprisingly kept up (and then some). Here's what I have read so far this year, in no particular order (you can link to all of these books on my shelf):
1. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs--AMAZING book
2. The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold
3. Torn by Amanda Hocking
4. Switched by Amanda Hocking
5. Ascend by Amanda Hocking
6. The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford--loved it!
7. Sarah's Key by Tatiana somethingorother:)--first half great, second half sucked
8. The Book Thief --a must read, absolutely loved it! Favorite this year!
9. Without Pity by Ann Rule--just alright
10. The Lost Boy by David Pelzer
11. Jane Eyre by Bronte--great story but the girl can go on and ON....I prefer Austin
12. Escape by Carolyn Jessup--fascinating look into FLDS
13. The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan--read this aloud to the kids and we all loved it
14. Hollowland by Amanda Hocking--page turner with a bad ending
15. One Second After by William Forschten--loved it
16. The Help by Kathryn Stockett--so, so good! I miss the characters:)

So, i'm about 8 weeks into the challenge and averaging two books a week. This challenge has really reignited my passion for reading. I always considered myself a mystery lover, but I am know finding that I really enjoy historical fiction and a lot of non-fiction memoirs. This next week I plan to read the Kite Runner. It will probably take me two weeks to get through as we will be on vacation for a week.

And, that's about it for us! Here's a few funny kid quoted to make you smile:

B (7): " Did you see that sign at Ross? It said they execute people for shoplifting!"

Navy Bean (3): "I'm not little, I live in a tall world"

M (14): in a text to her Grandma "I have to watch Vampire Diaries alone. I can't stay with you. C'mon grandma, i'm no fool" (yeah, makes little sense, but that's why it's funny:)

A random thought

2011-02-09T12:25:00.003-06:00

A short while ago I started up the vacuum in the kitchen. I knew before I even started it that it's sound would be met with high pitched screams and squeals from the kids. Why is that? Why do the kids scream every time I turn it on? No, that is not a rhetorical question....I seriously have no idea why they do this. I mean, these are not toddlers we are talking about. In fact, I am pretty sure the toddler learned it from the 7 and 14 yr. old. It's not as if I have tortured them with a vacuum cleaner in the past. I really don't get it. It drives me completely insane. That's all.

Little Hands to Heaven

2011-02-01T15:13:00.002-06:00

Over the summer I purchased Little Hands to Heaven to use with Miss Navy Bean. I had read rave reviews about it and thought it sounded like a sweet and gentle introduction to the Bible, letters, numbers, etc. Apparently I am the only one that things quite a few of the activities and songs are wildly inappropriate for the intended audience of 3-5 year olds.

Let me preface my opinion by sharing a little story from my childhood with you. When I was about 7 or 8, my mom and grandma took me to see a play at a local church. I think it may have been in celebration of Easter, but I was young and can't recall for sure. What I do remember is the terrifyingly accurate depiction of the crucifixion of Christ. I can vividly recall the nailing of Christ to the cross, the blood on his hands, the blood dripping from the thorny crown, and finally, his death on the cross. I was completely traumatized. I remember wanting so badly to leave.....and never set foot in that church again. I was too young to understand why Jesus was crucified. The intended message of the play was not received by my immature, 7 year old brain. I am not sure many children that age would be able to process such a graphic account of a death as anything but the equivalent of a horror movie.

Okay, back to Little Hands to Heaven. I have questioned a few of the activities in the past. I recall one that suggested having the child punch and hit their stuffed animals and then ask them if they think this is the way God would want them to treat people. Then they were supposed to hug and kiss their animals to show how we should treat people. Ummm, okay? I decided to skip that. Why would I encourage my 3 year old to abuse her toys? 3 year olds have a very deranged sense of humor. I am quite positive that had we done this little role play, Miss Navy Bean would have thought it was far more fun to hit and throw the stuffed animals than to hug them. As she does not seem to have a tendency towards violent behavior, we skipped this. There were quite a few other activities we have stumbled across this year that made me go "hmmm....", but I just overlooked them and moved on. Until today. I just feel compelled to write something about todays proposed lesson. Okay, so, we were supposed to sing a little song to start the lesson. We get to the fourth line: "Pharaoh's sad, His son is dead"....Yaaaaaa, a little morbid for a 3 year old. Whatever happened to "Jesus Loves Me"? So, I stop singing and read over the rest of the song. The gist of it is that the Pharaoh's son and his army died because they didn't listen to God. Now, how easy this is for a small child to misinterpret! Someone didn't listen to God, so God killed them?! This would have caused me nightmares when I was little!!!

We skipped the song and moved on to the Bible Activity. Basically the child was to take a stuffed animal, lay it on the floor, kneel over it, and cry because it was dead (the child being the Pharaoh and the stuffed animal being his son). When Moses comes the child is to free his people. Basically, the Pharoah realizes that he should have listened to God and, because he didn't, his son was killed. But the best part is that you are then to ask the child if THEY listen to God's word! Maybe I was an extremely anxious child, but this would have really gotten to me! I know I would have started obsessing over whether or not I was listening to God's word well enough. And if I wasn't, would he kill my family too? This little activity would have put some serious fear into my little body. Now, maybe not all children would react this way, but I certainly would NOT want to approach a subject like this with my 3 year old! Shouldn't this be the age where they learn to love God, not fear him? Can't we save those lessons for a little later on....when they are able to comprehend them? Maybe it's just me.........

A sleepover first

2011-01-29T18:10:00.006-06:00

Well, Miss Navy Bean enjoyed her first sleepover with her cousin at our house last night. It was the first time my nephew has slept away from home, but he did great! At the kids request we put up the tent in the living room. Of course, only M and B slept in there all night. The two babies (okay, they are 3, but are still little babies to me!) slept on the couch cuddled up with me:) I finally had to move Navy Bean to the other side of the couch, but kept my nephew next to me since it was his first night away from home. Around 4:30 AM, my arms were numb, my neck was crampy, and all blankets had been stolen right from under me (or over me, I guess). So, I made my move to the smaller couch. It wasn't much better over there, but at least I did have my space:) Not as much space as my dh though....he decided to go on upstairs to the comfort of our King sized bed. He owes me. Anyway, the kids stayed up late watching movies, eating popcorn, and running around like wild banchees. It was a fun night.

As far as school goes, we had a really productive week. B finally made it back to tutorial on Tuesday, bring home with him the work from last week as well. So, we had to do some serious double time on history and science to catch up. Surprisingly, the kids didn't seem to notice the extended school days. Navy Bean seemed a lot more interested in "doing school" this week. I never force it on her as she is only three, but I do ask her daily if she would like to participate. Every day this past week she has actually initiated the conversation by asking for me to "learn" her:) I love their little language goofs. So, we managed to get through an entire weeks worth of lessons in Little Hands to Heaven in one week. Yeah, I know, that's how it's supposed to work.....it just rarely happens around here. This week we focused on the letter G. The Bible story we read was about Moses so we did a little water play as a fun activity to accompany the story. It started out great......a sink full of water and bubbles, a plastic container to serve as the basket Moses drifted down the river in, and a Strawberry Shortcake doll to play the role of Moses (she is very diverse). So here's what the project looked like when we started:

And here's a look at how it ended (after a change of clothes and the "necessary addition of food coloring):

And no, not all of the food coloring came off the counter:(

As for my weekly 52 books in 52 weeks update, I read two books this week. The first was Escape by Carolyn Jessop. It is an autobiography of her life, and then escape, from the FLDS Mormon cult. Completely fascinating look into the polygamous lifestyle, the abuse that occurs, the psychological and educational neglect, and the degradation of women in the community. Highly recommend reading it!

I also read One Second After by William Forschten. The novel, though fiction, is based on a real threat to the safety and security of our nation---an EMP (electromagnetic pulse). The book focuses on a small town in North Carolina trying to survive after an EMP cuts off all forms of communication across the nation. There is no electricity, food and water are limited, and securing ones own goods becomes paramount. It's a fascinating look at an all too possible scenario. A world where people turn on one another just to survive. It has definitely alerted me to the fact that my family is not prepared to survive a disaster even far less powerful than that of an EMP. I don't want to go overboard, but I do want to have some safeguards in place for family. Particularly given the unstable conditions of the world we live in. So, I think it's time to consider stocking up on food, security, water. Read the book and you'll see why!

For the upcoming week I have started to read Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. I'm only on chapter 3 so no opinion on it so far!

Today was a good day.....

2011-01-26T15:46:00.005-06:00

And I needed a good day. Following the Think! group incident Monday and my obligatory day of sulking about it yesterday, I was really in need of a stress free day. Thankfully today has pretty much been one of those days. We got a late start to school this morning. The kids were engrossed in some new video game, so I let them play a little longer than usual. I'll be honest, it wasn't as much for their benefit as it was mine. My parents surprised me with a Nook yesterday and this gave me a little free time to play with it. I love it! I am happy to have the Nook over the Kindle because our library has a ton of ebooks available for check out. Apparently this feature is unavailable with the Kindle because Amazon won't allow it. So, I logged on to the library website today and there are just a TON of great books available for check out. This is awesome since Barnes and Noble charges as much for an ebook as it does a paperback in many cases. Anyway, I downloaded a book and had the chance to read a few chapters. Love, love, love the Nook!!!!!

We finally got started with school around 10:30. After reading aloud two chapters from The Lightening Thief, we did a quick lesson on prepositions (wow, the list of prepositions they are expected to memorize is insanely long!) and reviewed the different types of verbs. You know what's funny, until I started teaching my own kids, I assumed a verb was simply an action word. I seriously never knew there were such things as helping verbs, linking verbs, etc. I really don't remember learning about these "other" verbs in school. Maybe we did and I just have a bad memory. They were definitely not drilled the way FLL drills them!

Next up was history. We are currently studying Ancient Rome. We did quite a bit of reading to catch up from the few days we were sick last week. B seemed really intrigued with the comparison of the Ancient Roman Republic and the modern United States government.

After history I introduced a new subject for the semester: composer studies. I had wanted to start this at the beginning of the year but, well, ......it just didn't happen. So, we started today with Bach. We read a little bio, listened to several pieces of his most famous work, and began a few notebooking pages. We will be doing one composer per week, so we should have a pretty decent "Famous Composers" notebook completed by the end of the year.

Navy Bean spent the day working on the letter F and the number 7.

We finished up the day with math and silent reading. Complaining was limited. My sanity remained intact.

And that's about it for the day. Nothing too exciting to tell.

In 52 books in 52 weeks news, I have read a total of 7 books so far this year:

1. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
2. Torn by Amanda Hocking
3. Ascend by Amanda Hocking
4. Switched by Amanda Hocking
5. Hollowland by Amanda Hocking
6. The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold
7. The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jaime Ford (loved it!)

I am currently reading One Second After by William Forschten and Escape by Carolyn Jessop (which I payed for on my Nook before realizing it is available for check out through the library...ugh!). I should finish both this week, so I remain caught up on the challenge so far:)

And it bombed....

2011-01-25T09:19:00.004-06:00

We had our first Think! group meeting yesterday. It pretty much bombed. A few of the moms had emailed me to let me know their children were sick so they wouldn't be able to make it. Completely understandable. Quite a few more moms didn't show up or let me know at all. Completely NOT understandable. I am going to guess that people that do this have never hosted a group of their own. Therefore, maybe they are just totally oblivious to the effort, time and money it takes to get something like this going. I had anticipated so many kids that I even went out and bought a new fold up table! Not to mention, spent time planning how to divide the kids up (it is all group work and I was trying to group them by age/gender because a lot of people have expressed a desire for their kids to make friends), purchasing misc. supplies for the group, spending my entire day hauling in tables and cleaning the house.....you get the point. It's work. And it's really hurtful when it is not acknowledged or appreciated. I'll just admit it. I cried. I know, kind of lame. But, I did. I think it was out of frustration and embarrassment more than anything. The activities I had planned were based on twice the amount of kids than actually showed up. So, everything took half the amount of time and we were done fairly quickly. It looked as if I were very underprepared. Ugh. I did send out an email last night kind of asking what happened. I still haven't heard back from a few people. I am going to give it another shot in two weeks and hope that it goes a little better. I apologize if this post is a jumble of emotions. Can you tell it upset me? I am, however, thankful for those that did show up and I was blessed to meet a couple new moms and their children:)

Seriously?? No, really, seriously??

2011-01-19T07:20:00.004-06:00

I can't believe it. Not even a month after the flu hit us hard, we are battling another illness. B started sniffling and coughing Monday. It has already started to spread through the family. Ava is now sniffling and coughing:( Unbelievable. I'm keeping my fingers crossed no one else gets it and that it passes a lot quicker than the flu did! Oh, and that it is the last bout of illness we suffer as we are going on a cruise next month. Wouldn't that be our luck.......ughhhhhh.

Despite an apparent decline in our immune systems, we have been keeping up with our schoolwork. Last week B learned how to borrow with subtracting. He caught on very quickly. Too quickly in fact:) It's hard for me to understand how he can "get it" from one simple explanation as math was something I always struggled with. Therefore I tend to reiterate the instructions. Over and over. And over. The poor child gets so annoyed:)

In language we have been working on prepositions. We are also continuing to work our way through Writing With Ease. So, a lot of narration, copywork, and dictation exercises.

Science and history have been pushed a bit to the back burner lately. Both are through B's tutorial. Between illness and the holiday break, he hasn't been since Christmas. However, we did start a little reading yesterday on the central nervous system. The kids also made a model of a brain out of clay.

As for life beyond homeschooling, things have been good. Busy, but good. We made a little progress on the brass beast (see pic). We still have a lot to do, but it felt good to get a start on it. I think it alread looks dramatically better:) Next up, replacing the light and faucet!
This past weekend we celebrated M's 14th birthday! Wow...I can't believe she is 14. It has gone SO fast. Happy Birthday M!!!!!

And finally, an update on the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge. I read four books last week. Granted, they were fairly easy reads. A poster on a homeschool board I frequent suggested the Trylle trilogy by Amanda Hocking. It's a fantasy book, not a genre I normally read. However, I really enjoyed it! What a fun story:) I also read Hollowland by the same author. It's a post-apocalyptic zombie story. Again, not something I would normally read. I couldn't put it down. Loved it! Until I read the end (or lack of!). I hated the end. Now, if she writed a sequel I would be very happy, but as it is now...booo on the ending:( This week I am determined to finish The Almost Moon. I am half way through but keep putting it down to read other books. I WILL finish it this week:)

There's been so much more going on this past week, but I waited too long to update. Playdates, gymnastics, geography group......suffice it to say, we've been busy:) It looks like all the madness has come to an abrupt end and we will be spending the next few days on the couch. Don't think that means they get out of school though.....mwahahaha. I will just bring school to them:)

Snow days!!!

2011-01-11T16:24:00.005-06:00

Sunday night brought 3+ inches of snow to our area! This is a lot of snow for middle TN. Because we don't get snow often, the counties are very unprepared for such events. Therefore, it ends up being a snow day for all! Well, at least for the public school kids. My poor tortured homeschooled kids were still required to get some work done....mwahaha. I did let them off easy with a short day though. Just a little reading, math, grammar, writing, and spelling. Then they were off to enjoy the snow. They built the obligatory snowman, threw some snowballs, ran around with the neighborhood kids, and even rode the go kart with DH once he was off work (he worked from home due to the condition of the roads). Navy Bean stayed out so long that she came in crying because her poor little hands were so frozen that they were burning. We didn't get much, if any, additional snow last night, but the snow we did have stuck around due to the temps. So, once again, today was a snow day. And once again I made them get their school work done before running out to play in it. None of them lasted quite as long out there today. Oh how quickly the novelty wears off:) DH had to go to work today (booooo) as the major roads were salted. Hopefully they will stay clear for tomorrow. We have a field trip planned at the Country Music Hall of Fame. Keeping my fingers crossed it won't be canceled!

Like I said, we have been continuing to move along with our schooling despite the weather. I am really pleased with our progress so far this year. Last year, around this time, we were behind schedule and had to continue further into summer than I would have liked. This year we are about a month ahead of schedule!! We have completed more read alouds than last year and have incorporated another subject (Latin). Maybe I am getting the hang of this homeschooling thing afterall:) I actually enjoy it more every year. I am so thankful my kids have the opportunities they do. We have a great tutorial, a fabulous geography group, wonderful friends, and my kids actually enjoy being with each other! I even appreciate the little things that homeschooling offers. Like doing math work while curled up next to the fire:In the next two weeks we will be adding yet another group to our homeschool. I have offered to host another group at my house every other Monday (alternating with geography group). The group is called Think! and we will be using ideas from this site: http://kidswhothink.blogspot.com to guide us as we work in groups to solve the different challenges presented each week. I had a HUGE response and limited the class to 21 participating kids. Yes, this is an insane number of kids to have in my house at one time. No, I do not have a large house. Yes, I am completely crazy:) I still have 10 families on the waiting list! I am hoping another mom will jump in and offer to host and lead an additional group. I hate for people wanting to participate to be left out! Anyway, we have our first meeting in two weeks! I am excited about getting another group together. I have made some wonderful friends through my geography group (as have my kids!) and hope for the same with this one! I know a lot of homeschooling moms are reluctant to take on any more responsibility, but I urge you to consider it if possible. Judging from the response I received there are a lot of moms and kids out there looking to meet other homeschooling families. I swear...it's really not that bad:)

Tackling the Brass Beast

2011-01-07T09:45:00.004-06:00

Our master bathroom is huge. As in the "the size of your average bedroom" huge. I'm not sure why the builders felt such a large bathroom necessary. I think it would have been a better use of space to expand our bedroom or maybe even our closet. But, here we are, with a gigantic bathroom......full of hideous brass fixtures (I apologize if you are a fan of all things brass). Everything from the light fixtures, the faucets, the shower hardware, the bath hardware, the ceiling fan, even the hinges on the cabinets......all brass. Most of it is not even shiny brass. It is a pathetic mixture of corrosion, discoloration, rust, and indestructable mildew. The shower is probably the worst. I'm fairly positive the previous owners never once cleaned the shower. Whatever it is that is crusted upon the frame refuses to succumb to any cleaners.....not even the Magic Eraser has been able to tackle this monstrosity. Equally hideous is the tile floor in said bathroom. It is your typical builder grade white marbled tile. The grout is a dingy gray. The tile itself is cracked in several areas. It's just ugly. Now, we won't be able to replace the floor anytime soon, but I do plan on getting some coordinating rugs to cover up it's nastiness. And finally, the cabinets. What to say about the cabinets. Ugly just isn't harsh enough. First of all, I am not a fan of oak. I would love to replace the cabinets all together in favor of a lovely cherry cabinet, but that's just not in the budget. So, we have decided to paint the yellow tinged, heavily lacquered cabinets a dark chocolate brown. I began the process this week by taking down the doors, cleaning the cabinets with TSP, and have almost finished the sanding. Here is a picture of the work in progress: I'll admit that the bathroom doesn't look as bad (or as big...I couldn't fit the entire room in the picture) as I have described. But believe me, this is a case of "good from far, but far from good". I'll continue to update with photos as progress is made!!

What to say?

2011-01-05T12:47:00.004-06:00

I don't really have much to say. Post-holiday life has been pretty boring around here. There was no gym for Navy bean on Monday, no tutorial for B on Tuesday, and we have nothing on the schedule for today. Blah. We have been getting our school work done fairly quickly. We're just focusing on the basics this week as we do our science, history, and latin through B's tutorial. So, we have been doing our read aloud (The Lightening Thief) over breakfast, a lesson in First Language Lesson, a lesson in Writing With Ease, math, silent reading, and spelling. We did do a little extra language work today. B did a lesson in CLE (I haven't been completely converted from CLE to FLL and WWE so I still supplement with it) and M did a few lessons in Explode The Code. Overall, a good and productive homeschool day.

My goal for next week was to spice things up around here with a few field trips. Well, like I always do, I over-committed. Looks like we will have a crazy busy week. I completely forgot about geography group on Monday when making other plans. Now I need to come up with a project for Israel. Ideas?!?!? Tuesday I am going shopping with my mom. We are taking a family cruise in February and apparently (according to my mom) need to stock pile clothes, shoes, and beachwear:) Wednesday we are heading into Nashville for a field trip to the Country Music Hall of Fame and to learn a little about the fiddle vs. the violin. Thursday we plan to meet some friends at a new play/rec center. And finally, on Friday afternoon is open gym time. Way to over commit, huh? Oh well, it will do us all some good to get out of this house!

Oh, and a little note about my book challenge.....book 1: complete:) I finished Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl last night. Amazing book. Now to finish The Almost Moon. I'm about half way through so should have two books read by the end of the week. Pretty good start!

First day back....

2011-01-03T16:21:00.007-06:00

Today was our first day back to school following the holidays. Although we started off on the wrong foot (I drug everyone out of those house early this A.M. for Ava's gym class only to discover, upon our arrival, that the gym doesn't open until tomorrow), the day went really well. I thought I would be met with much more reluctance than I was. We started off on the couch with our new read aloud, The Lightening Thief. Judging by the lack of chaos during reading time, I think they are enjoying it. We moved through Language and reading pretty quickly. While the kids read silently on the couch, Navy Bean practiced her gym skills on her mattress I brought down:) Then came math. I don't know what went wrong here. They weren't exactly being "bad", they just would NOT get their work done. We spent a good 45 minutes on math before we took a break for lunch. I told them to finish up their math while I cleaned up after lunch and, I kid you not, it took them another 25 minutes or so to get it done. Seriously?!?!? It wasn't like they had some crazy math assignment. It should have taken them all of 20-25 minutes to do. However, they just sit at their desks...... twirling pencils, kicking each other, talking about every dream they have ever had, dramatically groaning over every problem, dropping erasers,.....everything BUT their work. It's maddening. Once we were finally able to move on, we did a lesson in Sequential Spelling. Both did well, neither complained:) We finished up our day by finishing up a chapter in our Anatomy book. As much as I have enjoyed Apologia's other courses, I am just not a fan of the Anatomy. I think it is much too advanced for the early elementary aged child. Take this sentence, for example: "When the pacemaker triggers the atria to contract and complete the filling of the ventricles, the heart is in atrial systole." I know for a fact that neither of my kids had any idea what they were talking about. Unfortunately, this is the science that my sons tutorial uses so we're stuck with it. Otherwise I would have held off on it for a few years.

In other news, the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge has officially begun! I intended to start off with Cane River, but got sucked in to Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girls by Harriet Jacobs. What an unbelievable story she has to tell! I am about 3/4 of the way through. I will try to write a short review when I finish, but I suspect it will be a challenge. It's hard to find the words to describe something as atrocious as she, and other slaves, endured. I can't believe this wasn't required reading in high school. It will be here.....

These are a few of my favorite things.....

2010-12-30T07:56:00.002-06:00

As I was doing some post-Christmas cleaning yesterday, I realized there are quite a few things that just make my life as a stay at home mom so much easier. Here are some of those things:

Steam Mop: Why in the world did I wait so long to get one of these? Not only do I no longer have to use chemicals, but I don't even have to scrub anymore! That steam just gets everything right up.....and I don't even have an expensive one! Just a simple $25 steam mop. I love this thing.

Dyson: I am in love with this vacuum. Granted, things do get stuck in it, requiring you to untangle the brushes and dig things out of the hoses, but once you get that thing going it is a lifesaver! No longer do I have to go over the same area 10 and, even better, I no longer have to change the disgusting bags.

Vidalia Chop Wizard: Yup, the "As Seen On TV Thing". Anyone that knows me is aware of my love of all things "As Seen On TV". I get sucked into those infomercials and want all the cool gadgets they are hawking. This little chop device is one of my favorites. Just set the food on the grate, push down, and voila.....neatly chopped fruit, veggies...whatever. It's so much better than the hand chopper which tends to pulverize the food instead of chopping it into neat little bits.

Magic Eraser: Finally...a cleaning product that actually does what it says it will. With very little effort it wipes away the grimiest of stains.

Crockpot: I know, I already dedicated an entire post to this little gem. But, it really is awesome.

So, these are the things that top my list. If you are currently living without one of the aforementioned items, I highly suggest you run out and purchase them:)

It's been too long....

2010-12-29T09:52:00.006-06:00

The flu hit us hard the last few weeks. Very, very hard. M, Navy Bean, and I were all down for a good week or so. The girls finally seem back to their old selves. I am slowly making my way there. I feel good, just tired. In fact, I fell asleep on the couch last night around six or so. I am fortunate to have a wonderful husband that let me sleep and put the kids in bed himself! So, to update on all that has gone on in the last few weeks would likely bore you to tears. I'll stick to a quick recap:)

Christmas was great. The kids got everything they had hoped for....and more. Santa made a surprise visit to our house on Christmas Eve. He spent a half hour here talking with the kids, passing out a few gifts, and reading The Night Before Christmas. Loved it:) So, despite quite a few of us feeling less than stellar, it was a wonderful evening.

Apparently, during all of these festivities, it appears a tornado ripped through our house. Seriously, every.single.room is a disaster. I have decided to simply tackle one room at a time. It's too overwhelming to think of trying to get the entire house organized. So, even though I intended to get back to school this week, we will be trying to get this house back in order first. On the to-do list today is the entry way. Bet you didn't even know an entry way could require a days worth of cleaning. Yeah, well, it can....and it will:(

So, like I said, there is no school this week. Hopefully things will be in order and we will be ready to go next week. I did manage to make it to the library yesterday. I checked out The Lightening Thief as our new read aloud. I didn't realize it was so long. Guess I better up the amount of time we read a loud each day!

As for me, I spent most of my down time (because having the flu is just so relaxing) reading. I read 4 or 5 books last week that were on my list for next years 52 books in 52 weeks challenge. I guess I can't technically count them. So, here's what I read:

Her Last Letter: predictable quick read. Wouldn't recommend it.

Wuthering Heights: Okay, I know this is a classic that is loved by many. Well, i'm not one of the many. I found myself just reading it to get it over with. The characters were very unlikeable (read: crazy). It was okay.....I prefer Austen.

Last Light: I didn't know it at the time, but this is actually Christian fiction. I really enjoyed it. Really makes you think about "what if..". Also made me want to become a little more self-sufficient!

Lies I Told My Children: Compilation of a bunch of short stories. Pretty funny stuff:)

The Road: Okay, I only made it half way through. How did this win a Pulitzer Prize? Wow. So boring.

Deadly Sanctuary: Good, quick read. Your typical who done it. I enjoyed it and plan on reading the next in the series.

Saving Rachel: Hmmmm...very different. The first half if the book was pretty good. Fast paced, action packed, kept you wondering. Second half (from another characters perspective)...not so much. The second half read like the author just wanted to finish the book.

This week I am finishing up Bones of a Witch and plan to read The Almost Moon. Next week the reading challenge officially begins. I have chosen to read Cane River for my first book of the year. It is the story of four generations of women living as slaves in the South. Though it is a work of fiction, it is based upon the authors extensive research into her families past. I don't read much historical fiction, but this gets rave reviews.

I'll leave ya with a few pictures from Christmas. It really was a great one!

Quick review of a busy week

2010-12-19T13:24:00.010-06:00

Well, this week flew by bringing Christmas that much closer! I'm really excited about Christmas this year.....lots of surprises in store for the kids this year. I'll have to wait until after Christmas

to reveal them as B has been known to check out this blog every now and then:)

So, the week started out with two of the three kids sick:( My plan was to continue schooling up until the Wednesday before Christmas. With everyone battling an awful cold, I decided to start our break early. B did make it to his tutorial's

Christmas party on Tuesday. He has

managed to not catch whatever it is that is going around. He had a great time and even brought home a gift for dh and me. He wrapped it himself and we will just have to wait until Christmas to see what it is he made.

On Wednesday the kids and I set out to make a no-sew fleece blanket for their great-grandpa. They did it with VERY little help from me. I

will admit that this project was one that was extremely trying on my nerves. I tend to be a perfectionist and watching them measure out and draw the lines to cut nearly dr

ove me insane. Between that and trying to help a 3 year old cut through two layers of fleece, it took all my self-control not to say "Just give the scissors already!!". But, I didn't and they finished the blanket themselves. It looks great and I think their grandpa will love it!

Thursday morning was accompanied by fevers in both the girls. They had seemed to be on the road to recovery the, bam, sick again. So, we spent the entire day watching movies. First A Christmas Story, followed by Despicable Me, and then National Lampoon

's Christmas Vacation. As it turns out, Christmas Vacation has quite a few bad words that I didn't remember. Doesn't that always seem to be the case with the 80's movies we grew up watching? Not too long ago dh and I put on Goonies for the kids. Seemed like a great family-friendly choice. Wrong. Lots of bad words in that one too. I guess parents just didn't object to a handful of obscenities in a kids movie the same way they do know:) Oh well, it served as a springboard for a discussion as to why those words are bad.....

Friday was an exciting day! With the girls finally feeling better, we were able to keep our plans to go and see Garth Brooks' flood relief concert in Nashville!! We didn't take Navy Bean along. She stayed at home with my dad. We had thought about bringing her, but I just couldn't see a three year old sitting for two hours at a concert. Anyway, my mom, M, B, dh, and I headed down to Nashville around 5:30. With a sold out show for 17,000 we decided our best bet would be to park a few blocks away and hike it. So we did. And it was cold. But so, so, so worth it. The concert was amazing! I have been to a lot of concerts and not one could compare. It wasn't that the show itself was so amazing; it was just your standard lights, fog, and confetti. It was Garth himself. He just oozes enthusiasm. The crowd stood and sang along the entire show. Loved it.....really, really, loved it!

Yesterday was a lazy at home day, followed by a quick dinner and shopping trip for dh and me. The kids stayed with my parents while we finished up our Christmas shopping. We came home, got them to bed, and set off to wrap everything in our room. With the fireplace in our room making its debut performance, we managed to get everything wrapped. We are officially ready for Christmas!!! Did I mention that I just can't wait?!?!?

The pictures say it all.....

2010-12-16T15:02:00.006-06:00

Reverse Psychology

2010-12-15T12:05:00.002-06:00

Long gone are the days of nagging, pleading, and yelling at the kids to help with the cleaning. None of these tactics ever work. They typically result in frustration and tears....both from me and the kids. I have finally discovered something that works....reverse psychology. Ahhhh, yes, it's an old trick. But there is a reason the theory has persisted. It works. Even on kids. I have recently begun to employ this tactic on my kids. Instead of repeatedly asking them to help clean their messes, I simply ask just one time. My simple request is usually met by "NO's!" or "not right nows". To this, I walk away. A devious smile creeps across my face as I use my best "sad voice" to say "Okay, honey. I'll just go ahead and do it myself". My smile quickly transforms into the "saddest mom ever" look. And what happens next? I have three little children rushing to rescue me from my despair, cheerfully offering to help. Works every time. No, seriously, every single time. Mwahahaha. I can't believe it took me 13 years of parenting to figure this out. So, I thought it my duty to pass it along to other moms. Please note, you may have to add some dramatic flair if your children are not easily guilted into chores. Forcing out a fake tear could work.

Brrrr......

2010-12-14T09:11:00.010-06:00

Winter may not officially have arrived, but it definitely looks and feels like winter to me! We had our first snow of the year over the weekend. We probably had two inches max, but that's pretty decent for Middle TN! Certainly enough for the kids to run around in. The kids, minus M, played outside Saturday evening for about 20 minutes or so. With temps in the teens it is hard to stay out and enjoy the snow for much longer than that! Area schools were closed yesterday and we followed suit. Not necessarily because of the snow, but because we had geography group at 2 and I had a lot of preparatory work to do.

Geography group went really well. As I have mentioned in previous posts, we did a Christmas Around the World theme. Only four families (which still equaled 12 kids!) were able to make it which actually turned out to be a blessing as the craft was very "glue gun intensive". With only two glue guns there was a lot of "hurry and wait" for the kiddos. Anyway, we learned a little about the traditions of Norway, Holland, Germany, and Mexico. I found it fascinating to hear how Christmas is celebrated in other parts of the world. I think a more in depth study including more countries would be awesome. I may have to do that with the kids next year. The tradition I found most endearing came from Holland. Apparently, when they give a gift the write a short note or verse for and about the recipient. I love that idea. We often forget to let those close to us know just how important they are to us. This just might be something I will start with my own family.

After sharing a little about Christmas traditions, we sampled food the moms had made from the various countries. There was enchiladas and refried beans, ginger cookies, rice porridge, and a German fruit cake. Yum. Can't say the rice porridge I made from Norway was my favorite. Not bad, but not something I would make again:) We ate to the sounds of Nat King Cole's Christmas album, a glowing fire, and a gorgeous layer of snow outside. Can't do that in public school...hee, hee:)

Next up was our craft. Instead of a geography related craft, I went with just a fun Christmas craft. So, we made adorable pinecone snowmen like these: http://crafts.kaboose.com/pinecone-snowman.html As cute as they are, they ended up being a bit of a pain to make. The only thing the kids could do on their own was to paint the skiis:( Everything else required a glue gun. So, it basically ended up being a craft for us moms! Oh well. I tried. The kids seemed to enjoy themselves regardless.

I wish I had a picture of M to share, but unfortunately she is pretty sick this week. She spent the entire day in bed yesterday. She was running a low grade fever and complaining of a headache. I slept on the couch with her last night. She had a rough night. She woke up with a headache so I got her rags for her head and more medicine. She is such a sweetie and she hardly complains. All she said was "I wish this would go away". Awwww, me too honey:(

Update on my favorite people....

2010-12-10T08:16:00.010-06:00

I haven't shared an update on our schooling in a while. I'd like to share a quick update on each kiddo and what they have been up to:
M: M has come a long way in the last few years of homeschooling. When she first came home I worried that she would never have legible writing! She has made huge improvements in this area. I posted a picture of a recent spelling assignment from Sequential Spelling. Her writing is quite neat. Not to mention, she spelled most of the words correctly:) If you could have seen her spelling pages just a year ago....full of eraser marks, misspelled words, etc. She has really improved in this area. M has also come a long way in reading. Two years ago she was barely reading simple first grade readers (no chapter books). She is currently reading a Magic Treehouse book and, most importantly, comprehending it! This is huge for her:)She still struggles in math, but is now able to add and (sometimes) subtract without using manipulatives or a number line. She does, however, use a form of Touchmath. She adds dots to the numbers and counts them...so sort of a manipulative, but one that doesn't require any additional supplies. Science and History are still a bit of a struggle. She keeps up on her lessons but has an extremely difficult time retaining any information from our lessons. Outside of school, M has started gymnastics. She loves it and it has been a great confidence booster for her!
B: B is excelling in most academic areas. He grasps new concepts with ease and, though extremely stubborn, is quite easy to teach. He loves math and is over half way through his second grade curriculum. He is starting to enjoy reading which has been something he has detested for the last two years. Currently he is reading The Boxcar Children. I think he is capable of reading well above this level, but at this point I just want him to develop a love of reading. I am also really enjoying watching him develop critical thinking skills. The most recent example of this was during his history test yesterday. The question was this: Sometimes a city-state might be governed by a king and other times a _______ might seize power. The possible answers were A. tyrant B. puppet king C. enemy. So, B first chose C. enemy. However, he reread the question to double check his answer and said "Wait! It can't be enemy because it says "A" something. It can't be enemy because it would have to say "AN"." Seriously, proud, proud mommy moment. He actually used his language skills to help him figure out the answer to a history question!!! I was really impressed:) The only thing he really struggles with is handwriting. He is capable of printing neatly, but rarely takes the time to do so. When I point this out to him he has a near meltdown. He is quite the perfectionist and does NOT like to be called out on anything he struggles with. Besides school, B has taken a break from any form of "lessons". He gave up gymnastics over the summer. He attempted violin in the beginning of fall, but decided it wasn't for him. So, now he told me he just wants to make things:) He is very creative and loves crafts of all types. His most current project is a muslin doll he bought with his own money at Hobby Lobby. He plans to turn this blank canvass of a doll into a mini-Brandon. So far it only has lips, a hat, red socks, a drawn on belly button and nose, and drawn on nipples. Yeah, seriously. Apparently he is making it as accurate as possible.
Little Miss Navy Bean: Well, Navy Bean mostly spends her days be cute:) I don't force her to do school work, but will sit down and do preschool activities with her when she asks. She is only 3 afterall! When she asks do to do "school" we use Little Hands to Heaven. She adores the little songs, finger plays, and hide and seek letter worksheets (pictured). I also have the ABC Preschool curriculum which is a binder full of dry erase pages. She loves to practice tracing the letters. She frequently hangs out with us in the school room and has absorbed quite a few facts for her age. She loves to chant the list of linking verbs from First Language Lessons. She is also able to repeat several of the definitions with us. Other than that, she spends her days running in and out of the school room. Most frequently playing with her dolls, doing sequencing puzzles, painting, drawing....pretty much whatever she feels like getting into that particular day. She is also doing gymnastics and loving it. She was recently moved up to the advanced pre-rec class and is enjoying the increased difficulty.

So, that's what we've been up to this school year. I am enjoying homeschooling more than I have the previous two years. I think we finally have curriculum we all enjoy and a good rhythm to our days. I am so blessed to be able to be at home with them each day and watch them grow:)

Book a week

2010-12-08T13:27:00.006-06:00

So the homeschooling forum I frequent is having a book a week challenge for 2011. Perfect timing as I just recently posted about wanting to spend more time reading. This is quite a lofty goal with 3 kids, 2 alpacas, and homeschooling to manage. However, i'm up for trying it and plan to write a little about what i'm reading here....a way of keeping my self accountable. I've decided to get an early start on the challenge. I wonder if I can use these extra weeks as sort of a "make up" week during 2011 when I find myself surrounded by too much chaos to sit down and read? Yeah, I think that sounds fair.

Anyway, last week I read Jane Austin's Emma. I enjoyed it, but found it somewhat predictable as I recently finished Pride and Prejudice. I knew from the introduction of Knightley that he would be the one Emma would end up with. Their relationship embodied the same sort of friction of Mr. Darcy's and Elizabeth's. (Her name WAS Elizabeth, right? Geez, I just read it and my poor brain has already allowed it's contents to be filtered right on it. Getting older isn't fun.). It was still enjoyable and romantic:)

Currently I am a little over half way through Chalked Up. It is a memoir by 80's gymnast Jennifer Sey. It's an easy read and i'm enjoying it, but I can't say how much I am enjoying the negativity. Talk about critical.....of herself, her coaches, her family, classmates, her "friends". Yikes! Many of the things she experienced, if accurate, were horrendous and the people responsible deserve the criticism. However, I feel a little bad for all of her former classmates that she refers to as nerd, and other innocent bystanders of her life that are called equally unflattering names. Seems unnecessary. I'm finding it most interesting, though, to read about her feelings during particular competitions and then looking up clips from said competitions on YouTube.

Although I plan on a little commentary about each book I read, please don't hold your breathe for eloquently written book reviews. Not gonna happen:) To write well takes too much thinking. And I don't want to think when I come on here to write. I just write.

Hey Crockpot.....

2010-12-07T10:52:00.002-06:00

you, my friend, are awesome. I don't know why I have neglected you for so many years. You sat in the cabinet so full of promise. Yet I dismissed your powers. Shame on me. Well, I have finally seen the light and can now testify to your awesomeness. You bring me culinary delights such as pulled pork sandwiches, delicious soups and stews, tender chicken....mmmmmmmm. The chicken and dumplings you made last night were fabulous. Kudos. Today you are slaving away on an Italian Sausage soup. You are the only one here that does not ask for my help. You work silently all day leaving me to tend to the children and chores. You are amazing. Never again will you sit collecting dust. I promise.

And so the season of sickness begins....

2010-12-06T20:26:00.004-06:00

and poor little Navy Bean is the first victim. She started the morning with a slight cough and has ended up on the couch all day. Her Asthma is acting up, she was running a fever, and we have given her two breathing treatments as well as a steroid. I am about to go snuggle up with her on the couch and read a few books, but wanted to post a quick update.

6 days into my "do one Christmas related activity per day" idea, I have run out of ideas (and money!). We did squeeze in a chapter of A Christmas Carol amongst the chaos of caring for a sick 3 year old today, but that was it. Imagine how giddy I was upon seeing an email from Currclick offering a PDF called A Scripture Adventure!!! Basically it is full of activities and stories that explain our Christmas traditions as they relate to Jesus. One for every day until Christmas!! Yay....no more racking my creatively challenged brain to come up with fun Christmas activities! I just downloaded it and can't wait to get started on it tomorrow:)

Finally, I just wanted to share a paper B wrote tonight for his co-op class. His instructions were to write a creative story on the life of a blood cell. I think he did a great job, especially for a second grader:) I did have to remind him of a few of the proper terms and such, but here it is:

Hello my name is B dog and I am a blood cell. I was born inside a bone in this red stuff called bone marrow. Some of my friends call me a stem cell. When I grow up I can be anything I want! I want to be a white blood cell because it is like being in the Army. I get to fight infections. I live in this big giant bed called tissue. Sometimes I sneak out of bed, I go through the walls of the capillaries, and find these monster like things called infections. I am 20 now and I am fighting. Yikes! There’s another monster got to go bye!

P.S.: Remember how I said I was going to leave the fun to the professionals? Well, I take that back. Someone shared the idea of fireplace school. Ahhhh, it sounds so cozy. All of us curled up by the fire, reading and sipping hot chocolate. Well, that's how I picture it. I'm going to give it a shot and will let you know how it goes!

P.P.S: I asked B what part of speech Yikes! was and he was able to tell me it was an interjection. That made me smile.

Homeschooling fun

2010-12-04T17:06:00.004-06:00

I think many homeschooling moms face the same challenge......how to add a little more fun into the school day. I know, for me, this has been a struggle. Most days it feels like I barely make it through the basics, much less have time for the "fun" stuff. You know, the crafts, the elaborate experiments....that sort of stuff. I have tried, believe me. Unfortunately, it seems like the harder I try, the less fun we actually have. Take, for instance, the "Candy School" day of 2009. I blogged about this horrendous day in the past, but I don't think that post made the transfer from HSB over here. Suffice it to say, it was not pretty. There were tears....lots and lots of tears. Both from the kids and myself. I don't think I even want to talk about it. Then there have been my several attempts at experiments from "Science Activities in a Bag". I guess they would have been fun....had they worked. I'm not taking anything away from the authors of the book, i'm sure the experiments work just fine under competent supervision. However, my kids have only me. And apparently, I am no scientist. Among other "fun" failures have been: the addition of workboxes (the kids just saw the "fun" fillers as things that extended their school day), school at the library, school outside, "fun" field trips (I have learned from my kids that museums are NOT fun), and a slew of other not so brilliant ideas I have had. So, imagine my surprise when we did a simple "Try This" project out of our Apologia Anatomy book. I didn't even count this in the fun category as it seemed so simple (and, well, boring). We simply poured Karo syrup in a bowl (to represent plasma), added red hots (for the red blood cells), a white jelly bean (white blood cell), and some sprinkles (the platelets). That's it. And they thought this was fun. Seriously. Is it really that easy? Have I been WAY over thinking this whole "fun" thing? I think I have and I now vow to follow the guidelines of the professionals in our texts:) There is a reason they are writing curriculum full of activities for students and I am not.

It's the holiday season....

2010-12-04T15:16:00.010-06:00

....the best time of year (read that sung beautifully by yours truly!). I am really in the Christmas spirit this year. I think it's because the kiddos are getting older, their belief in Santa is waning (well, Navy Bean is only 3, but as soon as big brother knows he will be sure to spill the beans), and I know there are no more babies in our future. They are growing up so fast and I want to take advantage of this time of their life....you know, when they are yet to be embarrassed to be seen with us. SO, it has been my goal to partake in a Christmas related activity everyday since Thanksgiving, continuing through Christmas Day. Here's a wrap up of what we've done so far:
The day after Thanksgiving we went to get our tree. Usually we wait, but I wanted to enjoy it longer this year. I don't care if it's a brown, crispy little thing by Christmas. So, instead of heading up to Home Depot (or worse, Food Lion like last year!), we went to an actual tree farm. It's a local family farm (turns out they are a homeschool family.....which I guess is not so unique in these parts) with a few fun activities for the kids besides that of just picking out the "perfect tree". So, we ventured on over to their petting zoo area to say hello to the goats, chickens, bunnies, and absolutely adorable miniature ponies. I wonder if miniature ponies get along with Alpacas? Check out dh and and I posing by our future pets to reside on our future farm:)

The kids then spent some time on the tire swing. Just watching them spin made me feel sick.

Yes, M DOES have her beanie pulled halfway down her face. And, YES, she did do this on purpose......

Anyway, we headed over to the lot, picked out our tree, drank some complimentary hot chocolate, and ended our day with a hay ride around the farm.

This past week we have incorporated a little bit of Christmas spirit into our homeschool days. We have started reading A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (accompanied by homemade hot chocolate, of course!), made our countdown to Christmas chain links, and wrote a paper on our favorite thing about Christmas. We can't leave dad out on all of the fun, so we have spent quite a few evenings getting in the spirit. The night we decorated our tree, I made chocolate chip cookies with the kids while dad strung the lights. We have watched the Shrek Christmas special while snuggled on the couch. Last night dh set up our projector and we watched a cartoon version of A Christmas Carol on the wall in our bedroom. It was like being in a theater....complete with surround sound (okay, well, more like stereo speakers set around the room...but still) and popcorn.

Today we decided to take the kids ice skating. They have been once before, but dh wasn't with us. M didn't seem to like it as much as she did last year. I think she only made it around three times in the hour and a half we were there:( B loved it and, though wobbly at first, really took off and was skating pretty well! Navy Bean did a great job. She started off using the support bar they have, but ended up skating along just holding our hands. We had a lot of fun. Until the "claw game", that is. You know the game......you press the button, the claw goes down, and once in a great while it will actually pick up a toy? Yeah, well, today was the day it decided NOT to drop a toy. Both B and Navy Bean ended up in tears. M was indifferent. Stupid claw game.

The perfect homeschool day

2010-12-01T16:04:00.006-06:00

Too often I come on here to vent about homeschooling days gone awry. Today I have something new in store for you.....a glowing review of our day today! Now, let me preface this by saying that my kids did NOT start the day willingly. Complaining when I tell them it is time to get started on our school work is just a part of who they are. They HAVE to do it. Today was no different. That aside, the day went so well!
We began with writing. Today we did an exercise in Writing With Ease on narration and dictation. We read an excerpt from The Jungle Book. The kids did a great job of narrating a summary back to me. I then dictated a sentence from their own narration back to them. They were both able to write the sentence from memory. I have seen huge improvements in this are from last year. Last year they were only holding two or three words in their head before I would have to read the sentence again. B is now able to dictate two entire sentences, while M is able to do one short sentence. I love being the one to see these improvements in them. Another reason I feel so fortunate to homeschool.
Next we did a short lesson in First Language Lessons, followed by a grammar "game". Well, it's not so much a game as it is flashcards. But the kids are oblivious to this because of the monetary reward they receive upon answering correctly:) So, the "game" today went like this: I held up a flashcard with a word and they had to tell me if it were a conjunction, linking verb, pronoun, adjective, etc. You get the point. For every correct answer, they earned a coin. For the more difficult ones (conjunctions, linking verbs) they earned a quarter and for the easier cards (proper and common nouns, verbs, etc) they earned a nickle or dime. They LOVE this game. B rarely misses one. M has a little harder time of it. I try to give her the easier ones so she doesn't get discouraged. After the game, I was in a grammary (yeah, I made that up) sort of mood. So, we watched a little Schoolhouse Rock....conjunction junction what's your function.....love it:)
Once I realized we had spent two hours on language, I decided to move on to history. Today we discussed Assyria's take over of the nation of Israel. After our reading the kids did a coloring page while I fixed lunch. We finished up our reading of Frindle over lunch and I gave the kids a little break. When I let them know it was time to finish up, get this, they did not even argue with me! I know, who are these children???? We grabbed our science book, read about our circulatory system, and then checked out our arterioles, venules, and capillaries under our tongue in the mirror. Then it was on to math (where M aced a quiz on fractions!) and, finally, the long awaited craft of the day. The kids have been wanting to make a paper chain to count off the days until Christmas. While they were taping their rings away, I read A Christmas Story by Charles Dickens. Everyone but Miss Navy Bean seemed engrossed in the story. Little Miss Navy Bean thought it much more amusing to stick a battery in every orifice of her body:
Yeah, she thought she was pretty hysterical. Anyway, it was a great day! I wanted to write every detail of it to look back on....you know, on those days where you just wonder why the heck you are doing this?!?!?:)

Random lessons learned on Turkey Day

2010-11-26T15:07:00.007-06:00

I will spare you every detail of our Thanksgiving festivities, but I did want to share a few random things I learned over the course of the day:

1. The Thanksgiving Day parade sucks. There is just no nice way to say that. Every year I envision the family snuggled on the couch to watch the parades and bands, and every year the hosts take up 90% of the screen time.

2. Green bean casserole should be made with canned green beans. Last year I tried fresh, this year I used frozen. I should never have messed with a good thing.

3. It IS possible to burn a sweet potato.

4. Semi-sweet baking squares should not be used in an attempt to make homemade hot chocolate. (Notice the graininess on the marshmallows. Yum)
5. The game Headbanz should not be played when two 3 year olds are in the room. They will tell you what you are. Every time.

6. The JFK assassination is the fastest thing to ever occur. Faster than charging rhinos. Faster than motorcycles.

7. The game Apples to Apples will reveal the inaccurate perceptions your father holds (see above).

8. Do not leave pumpkin bread unattended near children.

9. Do not continue to eat until you are in pain.

10. Never take close up pictures of your face once you are over 30. Just don't. Trust me.

Here are a few more pics of the day:

We love books!!!

2010-11-23T09:54:00.002-06:00

Well, that is a bit of an exaggeration. I guess it would be more appropriate to say "I love books!!". My kids, on the other hand, tolerate them. They enjoy our read alouds much more than anything they have to read on their own. I like to think it's because I am such an engaging reader, though it is more likely they are just happy that all they have to do is sit there. This year I have been trying to be diligent with our read alouds. We read quite a few books out loud last year, but not as many as I would have liked. This year we are off to a much better start. So far we have read The Great Turkey Walk, most of The Bronze Bow, and are about half way through Frindle. I just added a Shelfari widget to track the books we read this year. I am also going to add the books I read. I love to read, but never seem to have enough time to get to it. This year I plan to bump it up on my priority list. Instead of frantically throwing in another load of laundry during the kids silent reading time, I am going to make an effort to curl up on the couch with them to read. I am hoping this will set a good example for them. I want them to see reading as something enjoyable, something worth making time, something of VALUE. Right now I fear they think it is some sick form of torture I invented. Truthfully, the same could be said for school in general. Some days I really think they are under the impression that I invented school just to be mean; that it is all one big scheme I hatched up in an attempt to make their life as miserable as possible. They just don't give me enough credit. Do they really think that inundating them with facts and information is the best form of torture I could come up with?!?!:) Mhuahahaha........
Well, it is 10 Am. Time for the torture to commence. Language Arts....here we come.

SO. TIRED.

2010-11-19T09:26:00.007-06:00

As this blog title so vaguely suggests, I have been so tired the last few days. Not really sleepy tired, more physically tired. Like an "I want to lay on the couch all day and watch movies all day" type of tired. In fact, I missed out on what sounded like a very fun MNO last night because of this:( I don't feel like I am getting sick, I think it's more a result of a lot of things going on in the family. Not bad things, just things that require way too much thinking...haha! So, instead of living it up last night, I spent the afternoon grocery shopping (the one thing I absolutely HATE!) and the evening making "fundue" with Navy Bean and B (M was over at grandma's for her weekly "Vampire Diaries" viewing). The "fundue" was delicious (thank you Rachel Ray!). B probably ate half a basket of strawberries dipped in chocolate:Navy Bean opted to eat hers with a spoon....a giant spoon:
DH actually drank his. Nope, I don't have a picture of that:( <------Hmmmmm....why is this blue? And why is it underlined? Ugh.....and why can't I fix it? See, this is the type of stuff making me tired!!!! Guess this is the time to sign off. Blue, underlined type....ridiculous.

Edited to add: So, when I preview the post it is yellow. And not underlined....grrrrrrrrr. And this "edited" section is normal. Why blogger....whyyyyyy??????

Oooops....sorry bud!!!!

2010-11-18T07:12:00.004-06:00

I started the week off as a homeschooling mommy failure:( On Sunday I received an email from B's Latin teacher at his tutorial reminding us about the test on Tuesday. She let us know that it would be an easy test so long as the kids had kept up on their studying. Oh, ummmmmmm......what about those that didn't? What about those with bad mommy teacher that completely forgot about the test and, apparently, Latin as a subject? Will it still be an easy test? Please? Well, completely unprepared is where we found ourselves on Sunday night. I figured I would just have to drill B on Monday and hope some of it stuck.......oh yeah, teaching good study skills from an early age:( So, Monday rolls around and I find we are completely overwhelmed with preparation for Geography group. We had to finish B's presentation, prepare our Korean dish, and attempt to make the house presentable. Once again Latin was neglected. Finally, around 6 P.M. the night before his test, I remember that we still need to study. I have him grab his Latin notebook and I begin to go over the flashcards with him. Now, on the first go-round he only knew MAYBE 5 of the 30 or so definitions. He seemed to catch on quickly and I felt fairly confident he wouldn't COMPLETELY bomb the test. We did a little more review Tuesday morning and I sent my poor unprepared little guy off to tutorial. I felt so bad, knowing that if he didn't do well it was realistically my fault, not his. He is only 7 and still requires help to prepare for tests. When I picked him up at 2:15, he proudly handed me this: He got 100%!!!!!:) He is a good little "crammer" apparently:) Even so, we are going to start diligently studying our Latin flasch cards daily. I don't know how it got so far away from us (okay, me) last week.

Geography Group

2010-11-16T10:31:00.003-06:00

Every other Monday I host a geography group at our home. This is probably one of my favorite homeschooling activities. It incorporates so many valuable skills for the kids. The first Monday we discuss the country for that particular month. We do a craft related to the country. In the past we have done salt dough maps, made gondolas, painted chopsticks, created mini-lapbooks, etc. Art....check. The next meeting we all bring a dish to share from the country we are studying. Home ec......check. The kids also do a presentation on the country we are studying. Public speaking and geography....check and check! After our meeting the kids stay and play for an hour or so. Socialization...check:) This group has been great for so many reasons but, most of all, it is the wonderful families that participate. This is our second year and seem to be going strong. Yesterday was our meeting to bring a dish and do presentations. Normally we all study the same country. This time was a little different as we all did a different country from Southeast Asia. We had done China the month before and didn't want to "leave" Asia yet. Can I just say that the food was amazing!!! We had a noodle dish from the Phillipines (made by the Phillipino neighbor of one of our families), a chicken and vegetable dish from Thailand (must remember to get the recipe!), rice balls from Japan (with a little cooked salmon inside...yum!), and I made Bulgogi, a South Korean recipe). Following a delicious lunch, we listened to the kids presentations. They all did a fabulous job. I am so impressed with how much their public speaking skills have improved since last year. B did his report on South Korea.

He did a great job despite having difficulty pronouncing the names of South Korean leaders and geographical features. Sadly, I was of no help in that department. Anyway, it was a successful meeting and I am already looking forward to next month. We are planning on a Chirstmas around the world theme. We will likely only meet once since December is a crazy month, but we are planning on having everyone bring a traditional Christmas dish from the country of their choice, tell us a little about the countries traditions, as well as doing a Christmas themed craft. Any craft suggestions? Ugh...that is the only downfall of hosting the group. I am responsible for coming up with craft ideas and I have not one crafty bone in my body:( Off to google.......

Crazy Alpacas.....

2010-11-16T10:02:00.008-06:00

Our alpacas arrived on Friday. It was quite an event. The farm we bought them from offered to deliver them to us. We don't have a trailer to transport them, so this worked out well. The kids spent most of Friday morning asking me "How much longer?". They also kept occupied by making "Welcome" signs:

"Welcome Winston and Dom!"

My dh came home early from work......he wasn't about to miss their homecoming after spending every weekend for the last moth working on their fence! So, we all anxiously awaited their arrival. A few minutes after 1:00 we saw the truck an

d trailer pull in. Okay, the kids saw it pull in as their little faces had been glued to the window half the day! The kids bolted outside to greet the newest members of our family. This is what they saw:

Yup, two bloody alpacas. They were a mess....especially Dom (pictured). Apparently they freaked out on the way over. We are pretty sure it was Dom that caused the chaos. He has never been transported before. We don't know exactly what happened, but we all have our theories. DH is convinced that Dom refused to sit down and freaked out when they started moving. Winston, who has been transported several times (as he has frequented the fair with his previous owner), likely was irritated at the manic alpaca he was forced to ride with, got up, and gave him a swift kick to the face. I think they both freaked out being in such tight quarters and were fighting with each other. Whatever the case, the result was an alpaca bloodbath. They were not the adorable, fluffy alpacas we have visited at the farm. They were bloody, nappy, and freaked out:( Not a good start. We (well, the previous owners) tended to their wounds. It looked as though Dom was the only one to have any injury. Nothing major, just a small cut to his gums that seemed to bleed profusely. Winston was bloody, but I think it was Dom's blood, not his. Once we got the bleeding to stop and cleaned them up a little, we lead them down to the "pasture". They started to graze and seemed to settle in just fine. We have spent quite a bit of time with them since they have arrived. Just seeing them brings a smile to my face. We haven't tried putting them on a halter yet. We want them to be comfortable here first. We all adore them and are so happy we made the decision to add them to our family:)

Math woes....yes, again

2010-11-10T13:10:00.003-06:00

Just thinking about working with M on math makes my head spin. When I pulled her out of PS three years ago, I was determined to start her math education over. She was using a calculator at school (yes, in a third grade special education classroom) to perform basic addition problems. My plan was to just start over. So, we went with a very basic first grade math curriculum (AOP Lifepacs). This completely bombed. I realized she didn't have any clue what adding actually "meant". So, we went back even further....to counting, sequencing, greater than less than. Basic, basic, basic stuff. Fast forward three years. We have been through numerous curriculum including Math U See, Developmental Math, CLE, and Spectrum workbooks. Not one has clicked. We are STILL working on basic addition and subtraction. Now, this is not to say I have not seen improvements. When you are in the middle of the day to day drudgery it is hard to see all you have accomplished, but looking back I see that she has a better understanding of when to use operations, is able to count up and backwards, and is able to use manipulatives to correctly add and subtract a group of numbers. I guess I just thought we'd be a little farther along in the process. Just today I asked her 0 + 0 and she truly had no idea. Just a blank stare. Moments like this make me want to cry. So, where do we go from here? No, seriously, where in the heck do I go from here?!?!? I've had a few suggestions from a message board to give Right Start a try. I will look into that. I am just afraid to spend more money on a curriculum. Is it possible she just won't ever get it? I'm not about to give up, but could certainly use a good cry.

On a lighter note, we had a pretty productive day of school today. M was more than willing to get started as she knew she was going to Target with my mom after school. B followed suit because he didn't want M to get ahead of him. God forbid anyone beat him at something. So, despite B's meltdown about having to address his thank you note to his Papa in a formal matter (it was an assignment from FLL that required a formal greeting), the day went well. We played a few rounds of words Bingo and even little Navy Bean got in on the action... Pay no mind to the marshmallows she was eating at 9 AM. Ummmm....they were organic?

The "mysterious" mound builders

2010-11-09T16:24:00.010-06:00

Last week I signed the girls and me up for a field trip to a local plantation. They were going to be uncovering the mystery of the mound builders....or so they said. Apparently the mound builders were a Native American group of people that built villages through the Mississppi/TN/ and Ohio valleys. They were not a nomadic group, so their villages remain where they were left hundreds of years ago. Well, the mounds (from what I got out of our lesson today, the mound was where the chief lived....I didn't see one) and the cemeteries remain. The plantation we went to today was one of their many burial sites. Archeaologists began discovering the remains of the mound builders at this particular location in 1799. Over the years they have discovered skeletons, coffins, and cultural artifacts of the mound builders. This was all quite interesting, but I still don't see where the mystery lies. Prior to our visit, I did a brief google search just to see what we were going to learn about. The only hint of a mystery I uncovered was that no one is quite sure what happened to the mound builders. Is that the mystery? If so, why was there not even a mention of this as the field trip was titled "The Mystery of the Mound Builders"? I think I need to do a little research. Despite the lack of mystery , we had a good time. Here are the girls waiting for our tour to get started. This home was built in 1799 and is the oldest home in Nashville open to the public.
Waiting for the slideshow to begin! They passed around a few artifacts for the kids to look at.
Making a gorget
Getting ready to do a corn dance. M was out of there as soon as the music started:)
Just a tree. I like this tree. I wish I had a tree like this.

Country Livin'

2010-11-09T09:27:00.003-06:00

Okay, here's reason #412 I love living in a small town somewhere in TN:

Random, roaming wildlife:) I took this picture this morning on the way home from dropping B off at his tutorial. This is right outside of our subdivision. Not sure how these little guys got out, but they were having a great time strolling the streets of our little town:) I grew up in CA so this is amusing to me. Cows hanging out in someones front yard...hee hee. I love it.

It's almost ALPACA time!

2010-11-08T09:42:00.012-06:00

One more week. That's it. Just one short week and we will officially be the owners of two adorable alpaca's, Winston and Dom! My husband, dad, and grandpa spent the weekend building the "barn". It just needs a few finishing touches before it is ready to go. The fence is nearly complete as well. My dad came over today to get a little work done while dh was at work. The kids had already completed their math, language, and reading for the day so we went outside to see what we could do to help. It was a gorgeous day today. I went from wearing my warm winter coat yesterday, to wearing my tank top to work out in the yard today. Anyway, there wasn't much we could do to help. We did move a few piles of wood. ....I have a feeling it was just busy work. You know, to make us feel good about helping:) Here are a few pics of the kids hauling wood.....

I'm pretty sure our impact on my dads workload was minuscule, but the kids were happy to help. Well, I should clarify...they were happy to help HIM. Of course, when I asked them to come and help me paint a few fence boards they disappeared after 10 minutes or so. Here's a look at how that went:

They said they would be back. They never returned. Regardless, I got about half of the front boards done. Hopefully I will get to the rest at some point this week.

Back to the reason for all this handiwork madness: Winston and Dom! As I said, they will be coming to our "farm " this weekend. I say "farm", because that is what the wonderful lady selling them to us called our backyard. She has never seen it and I really hope she isn't shocked this weekend:) Dh said he is going to cry and call her back to say "You're going to be so mad at us":) Hahaha....it's SO NOT a farm!!! Maybe we should make some sort of "farm" sign to put in our front yard....to look official, you know?!?!:) Farm or not, I think we have a great set up here for them.....plenty of pasture (formerly known as our backyard grass), an area safe from predators and inclement weather, and a crazy family that happens to be very excited about having them! Seriously though, I think a lot of people probably think we ARE crazy. Rarely do I hear remarks like "That's awesome!" when I tell people about our alpaca adventure. It's usually more of a "Why?" or "What are you going to do with them?". To the former question I ask, what in the hell do you do with your dog? Well, that's what we plan on doing with our alpacas. Minus the cuddling on the couch and stuff like that....although you never know (dh and I really would love a few pics of our alpacas hanging out with us in the house). Seriously though, I don't understand why people have a hard time understanding what we will "do" with them. Don't most people have pets to simply enjoy them, play with them, love them? Well, that's what we plan to do. The only difference is that our alpaca is a much more awesome pet than your dog....ahahaha:) I kid. Kinda.

Jump time!!!!

2010-11-04T17:57:00.007-05:00

I woke up this morning with NO desire to get any schoolwork done. So, I asked the kids if they would like to spend the morning doing something fun and get our schoolwork done in the afternoon. No surprise when they jumped all over that opportunity!! We decided to head over to Jump Zone for open bounce time. My sister in law and adorable nephew met us there. The kids jumped, ran, crawled, tumbled, and slid for two hours straight. We came home for a quick lunch and got to work. Of course, they were SO willing this morning to do their work in the afternoon, but when the time came there were many dramatic grumbles. Those first few minutes aside, the school day went well. B aced his math test....96%! While I went over his test with him, M worked with Navy Bean on a labeling game....

We finished up the basics....copywork, spelling, language, reading, and then moved along to continue our study of the respiratory system. Today we talked about breathing through our nose, how air is filtered, etc. I don't know how much they retained as they were too busy laughing about nose hairs......

Our week so far

2010-11-03T13:42:00.005-05:00

Seems we have had a pretty productive week....and it's only Wednesday!! On Monday I hosted our geography group. For the first time I was able to get school work done with the kids before the the group came over!! Usually I spend the majority of the day cleaning and organizing. Fortunately I had cleaned for Halloween the day before and had actually planned ahead of time what I was going to talk about! Knowing how much easier it is to plan ahead of time, you would think I would do it more often:)

Anyway, geography group went really well this week. We are currently focusing on East Asia. Each family has chosen a country from the area to study and do a presentation on at our next meeting. At this meeting, however, we tried to talk a little about East Asia as a whole. So, we talked about the countries commonly referred to as "East Asia", a little geography of the area, and then did our craft.....chopsticks!! The kids painted their chopsticks, glued on some ribbon, added a dragon pendant, and then learned how to use them. It was fun to watch them all try to eat their fruit salad while following proper "chopstick etiquette". So, now we will spend the next two weeks working on our presentation. Our family is studying South Korea. We have read a little about Korean food, culture, and education. Tomorrow we will study the geography of South Korea. By Friday we should have plans for our presentation ready to go. B usually wants to do something creative. For example, we studied China last month and he made a model of a Chinese farmhouse (pictured). He did such a great job of detailing the interior of the house! He also created a model of a hillside with tiered farmland. I imagine he will want to do something just as creative with Korea. M REALLY dislikes the presentation aspect, so I will try to do something simple. Maybe a poster board or map....something she can just read to the group (if I can pry her from her room).

Tuesday was co-op day, followed by a fun park day. Today we managed to get quite a bit done in just over 3 hours. As I mentioned, we read a little on Korea. We also read a chapter in our read aloud, began reading and discussing the respiratory system for Science, started our study of the Roman Empire by reading from The Usborne Roman World, a quick lesson on interjections, math, spelling, copywork, and a dictation exercise rounded off our school day:)

Toy Story 3 and a late lunch is now being enjoyed by all. Tonight little Navy Bean has gym. As I have told everyone I know (proud much?), she has been moved up to the advanced pre-rec class.....after only being enrolled for just a few months:) So, tonight is her first class. I am just happy she enjoys it so much. It is so much fun to watch her!!!

That about wraps up our week so far! Now if I could only transfer some pictures from my phone to the computer, I would be happy. I don't enjoy reading blogs without pictures, yet that is what mine has become. Boo-hoo:(

Tantrums....

2010-10-28T14:31:00.006-05:00

Now I know why kids throw tantrums. The results are nothing short of amazing! After my melt down/tantrum yesterday, school went fabulous today:) In fact, the kids did such a great job today that we finished everything in 3 hours! This includes Science (finally finished that trouble making food pyramid), History, LA, Math, read two chapters in our read aloud, and silent reading. Best of all, we were done by noon. Hopefully the kids realize how much better our day goes when they are cooperative!

Since I actually had the time and energy to do something after school, we headed up to the library. Last year it seems we were there every week or so. I think this is the first time we have been this school year....bad homeschooling mommy, I know. Anyway, B picked up a book on Yorkies. He has big plans to get a dog when he moves out. Little Navy Bean picked out a few books of her own, and I grabbed a few on Korea for our geography group. Then we ran over to Target to get some stuff to make cookies. Scared Shrekless is on tonight so we are going to make some cookies this afternoon to have with it while we watch. The plan was to make chocolate chip (which we still are...my dh would cry otherwise), but the kids wanted to also make sugar cookies so we could decorate them--Shrek-style. So, B wanted green sprinkles. I talked Navy Bean into red. Thinking ahead...now I have green and red sprinkles all ready to go come Christmas baking:)

Guess I should get to baking...and making dinner. That extra energy I mentioned is waning.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

2010-10-27T15:07:00.002-05:00

Let's start with the good. I was able to take a short nap while Navy Bean played with her cousin at Grandma's house. That's it. That is all the good that took place today.

The BAD....where do I even begin? Let me preface this by saying that none of my kids are the type to run joyfully to the school room when I let them know it's time to start. Every single day is the same. The whining, the crying, the protesting, the excuses.......they never fail to rear their ugly heads in the morning. I have learned to cope with this. Today was different. Oh yes, they did not disappoint when I called their names. But, they settled in quickly enough. We started with a lesson out of First Language Lessons. All I asked was to repeat the definition of the adjective with me. That's it. Well, why in the world would they just do it without complaining? M blatantly told me no. My blood pressure was starting to rise, but we kept on. We managed to get through a chapter of the Great Turkey Walk while they colored. My blood pressure started to come down. And then it happened. The FOOD PYRAMID. The food pyramid, you ask? What's so hard about drawing the food pyramid? Exactly. The whole thing is like a crazy blur to me. One minute I think things are picking up, and then next...BAM. Full on tantrums. Apparently drawing bread is extremely difficult. Okay, so I tell them I will try to find a good picture of the food pyramid to print out so they can copy the drawings. Oh no. That is not good enough. While Googling away, I am bombarded with "I can't do it", "I hate this", "This is stupid", I don't want to draw pasta too!". It was then that I lost it. Just totally lost it and walked out of the room, letting them know on the way out that they were grounded for the day and would be making up todays school work on Saturday. I just couldn't deal with it. Which leads us to the ugly.....

I started to cry. Not just any cry, but the ugly cry. I got in the bath and continued to ugly cry for a good 20 minutes. I got out of the bath and did it a little more. Then, like a kid after a tantrum, I fell asleep on the couch. Thankfully Navy Bean wasn't here.....no napping when there's a 3 year old in the house!

So, there you have it. Our terrible, awful, no good homeschool day. We will not be on the cover of the Sonlight catalog anytime soon. On a positive note, tomorrow can only be better.

The Boring....errr...Bronze Bow

2010-10-26T18:04:00.004-05:00

Strawberry Girl was our first read aloud for the year. The kids it. I loved faking a country accent for a few weeks. Once we finished it, I decided to move on to something more "educational". Something that would tie into our studies of Ancient Greece. Something like....The Bronze Bow! I was so excited to get started with this. In fact, I was so confident in my choice that I even bought the book instead of just checking it out at the library. So, we started it. Alright, off to a slow start...but it got good reviews so it's bound to pick up, right? Ummmm...no. With the exception of a few brief battle scenes, we were all bored to tears. The kids were writhing around on the floor like I was torturing them. My eyes were glazing over. We all started to dread read aloud time. So, why not just stop reading it you ask? Seriously...I have no idea why, but the thought of just putting it down and giving up half way through just made me feel so guilty! Ridiculous....yes, I know. So, we suffered together for a few more days. Finally, two days ago, I gave up. I quit a book. I still feel guilty. I really wanted to get through a "quality" read aloud with the kids. But seriously....I couldn't take it. The story just drags on and on. The conflict is obvious, but the climax? Where, oh where, is the climax? Okay, so we didn't finish it and maybe we just didn't get to the climax yet. But, we made it through 143 pages and didn't seem to reach it yet. That just doesn't seem right for childrens literature....a Newberry Medal winner at that. Anyway, a lot of people apparently love the book. Just not us. We moved on to something more our style...The Great Turkey Walk. I have resurrected my country accent and read aloud time is enjoyable once again. Now I just have to get rid of The Bronze Bow so that the bookmark poking out halfway through the book stops tormenting me.

Funnies

2010-10-23T13:30:00.003-05:00

A few funnies from my kids that I want to write down before I forget!!

To preface this one, there is someone running for office in our area named Sheila Butt. My son feels bad that this is her last name and says he would change it. So, today he was looking at her campaign flyer and here's how the conversation went:

B: I know what Obama's first name is.
Me: You do?
B: Yeah, it's Barack.
Me: Yup.
B: Why do they call him by his last name then?
Me: I don't know, they always call politicians by their last name.
B: So, are they just going to call Sheila "Butt"? Maybe they will let her choose what she wants to be called....

Okay, here's the other one I wanted to share. This was an email exchange between me and my daughter (13...she has Autism so random quotes from her a frequent event!):

M: I am going to spend the night at grandma's on Thursday so we can watch Vampire Diaries.
Me: Sounds like fun!
M: Did you write this on your iphone?
Me: Yup
M: I knew it.

Seems normal enough, right. So then this email comes through:
M: I think my underwear is on upside down.
Me: good to know

Funny thing is, I asked her later if she fixed her underwear problem and she just hollers "yeah". As if that is just a normal problem to have!!!

Fall Break? Don't tell the kids!

2010-10-05T16:33:00.002-05:00

It's fall break around here for our neighborhood public schools. B's tutorial and our co-op decided to join in the fun as well. But don't tell my kids. We've been doing school all week. We are actually accomplishing even more than normal since we aren't running off to co-op! Here's what we're working on this week:

B (7) is continuing to work through CLE math 2. Today he took the test for the second light unit and got 100%! I could probably skip a few lu's with him, but I am afraid we might skip over something important. At this point, however, he has yet to have difficulty understanding what to do.

M (13) is still struggling to grasp basic addition and subtraction. For those unaware, M has Autism. This year I have implemented a basic touch math program for her. This seems to be helping. I have been able to replace the use of manipulatives with "dots" on the numbers. I have also started working extensively with her on word problems. For this we use a calculator. My goal with these activities is, not so much practicing adding and subtracting, but learning WHEN to use each function. So, I give her the calculator and let her just focus on which application to use. She has done surprisingly well with this!

For Language we are using First Language Lessons 2 and Writing With Ease. This has been successful with both B and M. Neither one of them are too fond of the dictation exercises:) I also supplement B with a little CLE LA and M with Explode the Code and Visualizing and Verbalizing. Sounds like a lot of language, but it really takes very little time and has been extremely effective!

In History this year we are studying Ancient Greece. Currently we are reading The Bronze Bow as our read a loud. It ties in quite nicely. M would tell you otherwise, i'm sure. Her ability to completely tune me out when we read is astounding:(

And finally, science. This year we are using Apologia Anatomy. I don't think any of us are enjoying it as much as we did Astronomy. Trying to remember the names of the bones in the body, the muscles, the parts of a cell, etc. can be overwhelming even for me!! However, we have done a few cool projects. We created a clay cell complete with the Golgi bodies, ribosomes, cell membrane, and...uhhhh...you know, all those other cell parts;)

Of course, we cover other subjects as well....these are just our cores. We are also learning latin, spelling, geography, reading, art, music, PE.....an on and on. This school year is off to a great start. I am excited to have my blog back up and running so I can share all of the exciting things we plan to do this school year!

An Alpaca Adventure

2010-10-05T15:31:00.008-05:00

I'm feeling a little better today. My head is a little less foggy so I though i'd take the opportunity to talk a little about our Alpaca adventure:) So, here's the story...

DH and I have always joked about having Alpaca's since seeing the "I Love Alpacas" commercial about 6 years ago. You know....the one with the little girl playing with her Alpaca out in the yard. We thought it would be so funny if we had a pet Alpaca out in the backyard with our kids. We went so far as to buy an "I Love Alpacas" sticker for our sons Step 2 car/stroller type thing when he was about a year old. And that is about as far as things went.

Fast forward 5 years. We moved to TN and became LAND owners. Okay, so it's only an acre and a half, but compared to our lot in CA we felt we were big time land owners...haha! Every now and then we would mention how much we would still love an Alpaca. Two weeks ago we went on an impromptu "field trip" out to a local Alpaca farm in honor of National Alpaca Day. We had no idea that within a few weeks we would be official Alpaca owners:)

Everything changed when we met Winston:) Cutest. Alpaca. Ever. We spent a great deal of time at the Alpaca farm chatting with owner. The more we learned, the more we became convinced that Alpacas were the perfect pet for us! A week later we had paid for Winston, put a hold on his buddy Dom, mapped out the area we plan to fence, and purchased most of the lumber to build said fence. It all happened very fast! We are VERY excited to get the preparations done so we can bring our little guys home. I plan on updating every step of the way. This should be an interesting process as we have never built anything so complex (yes, a fence is complex to us....that should say it all). We have so much to learn.....

Bed school

2010-10-04T09:20:00.003-05:00

It has been a crazy week. We have had family in town from CA and are trying to spend as much time with them as possible. I have also been fighting off some sort of tummy bug. To top it off, we have decided to buy a few Alpacas and are in the process of building a fence and shelter for them. There is much more to that story and I plan on going into more detail about our Alpaca adventure in a future post. For now, just a quick update. It has been quite a while since I have posted. I have really struggled trying to figure out how to put together a new blog. Having started school last month, I have been far to busy to bother with perfecting this site. So, it is what it is. Not pretty, but functional:)

Anyway, as I said, we have been back at school for over a month now. I promised myself last year that I would not over-commit this year. Well, I did. The burnout is already catching up with me. This year the two girls are in gymnastics, B has a tutorial on Tuesdays, we have a co-op on Thursdays, I host a geography group twice a month at my house, and we go to homeschool PE on Fridays. Not to mention playdates, schoolwork, etc. It's been a tough schedule to keep up with. Hence, bed school. That is what is on the agenda today. I am so exhausted that I don't even want to work in our classroom. So, my plan for the day is to curl up on my bed with the kids and do school work there. Hopefully I will stay awake:)

Thinking about moving...

2010-01-26T19:24:00.000-06:00

Well, I may be ready to jump ship from HSB. I am not too computer savvy and the inability to play around with my template over there is driving me crazy. I did figure out how to add a few cute widgets, pictures, and other basic stuff. However, this was after scouring the help boards and/or hours of googling:( Anyway, I have heard this is a little more user friendly. Plus, my followers are limited (well, non-existent) so I guess it won't affect the masses should I decide to move:) Another reason for a potential move is that HSB seems to have been inundated with teenage bloggers. Which, of course, its perfectly fine...except that it's not really what I want to read. It seems most of the good homeschool blogs I come across (those written by other moms) are already over here. So.....baaaaa. Here I am following the masses;)