We did not do a free Friday field trip today as it started thundering and big time lightning just before we were leaving to go on an outdoor activity. But instead of a snow day... we got to have a "lightning day" as the kids do their work on laptops that I decided to turn off with all of the static electricity that was going on. We practiced multiplication with flash cards and timed test. Jackson also took 3 unit test.
Have a great weekend.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Free Toys Tuesday
I meant to write this 2 days ago, but got busy. We were cleaning our food cabinet and found that I had lots of bags of dried beans. Lots! I am not skilled enough to cook them and will have my mom cook a batch for me from time to time. I decided to make some bean bags to surprise the kids so I used an old pair of tights, got a big box and cut some holes in it, wrote point values by the holes and set it up in the dining room. The next morning they got up and started a rousing game of bean bag toss, keeping score and taking turns. I never said a word and they just played together for almost an hour. Good math, good fun.....Free!
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Too Long of a Title
I was thinking of titling this: "Inspections, Work Day, Teacher/Parent Conferences and the Messed-up Schedule", but with a title like that...who needs the post. LOL!
We had our licensing/homestudy inspection and I did not like the person who came out to do it. She was an intern who was very interested in putting her training to work and carried herself about the house in a authoritative way. She tested all of the smoke detectors and tested the hot water temperature which she made me turn down. It was 145 degrees and needed to be below 125 degrees. I really like my hot water ~Smile~ She interviewed the children individually (with me in the room). It was interesting because she used words and language that a few of the kids did not understand and thus gave answers that made her look quizzically at them. Example: she asked Jeanna what school she went to in which Jeanna answered, "homeschool". Not true, but I realized that Jeanna was answering what she wanted and not what was asked which led to the following questions to be not answered truthfully because Jeanna was still on the track of what she was answering. See, Jeanna hates going to public school and when my kids are talking about school, she often talks as if she is experiencing what they are so if they are talking about something we did during the day, she will say she did too, even tho' she was at school and was not with us. One reason she does not like school is because she says that the kids, "hit me" and are "mean to me" So the next question from the intern:
Intern: "Do you like having lots of siblings?"
Jeanna: "No."
Intern: "Why not?"
Jeanna: "Because they hurt and kick me!"
Intern writes this down.
Me: "Jeanna, what's a sibling?"
Jeanna: "I dunno."
Intern: " A sibling is a brother or sister. Do you like having all of these brothers and sisters?
Jeanna: "Oh yes!" eyes twinkling, face smiling.
I think Jeanna was thinking that siblings are the kids at school.
My fear is that had that question been asked alone in a room there would have been more inquiry into how the siblings were hurting her and much information would have been gathered.
Another example that upset Jordan: The intern was interviewing James. She asked him, "Do you feed your dog?" He said flatly, "No" She moved on to ask other questions without following up on that so Jordan was worried that she would think that we don't take care of our dog. James would not have thought to say, "I don't feed the dog because that is Jackson's job."
Finally, she asked Jordan if Jordan ever goes out of the house to meet new friends ('cause you know us homeschoolers never leave our house!) and Jordan said, "No." Jordan later said she had mis-understood the questions because we don't go out for the purpose of meeting new friends...we meet new friends sometimes while we are out. All in all we determined that everyone was nervous and the interview was not fun.
About a month ago I scheduled a teacher/parent conference with Jeanna's teacher for today. Today, Jordan got called into work and gets off during the scheduled conference. I guess she will have to stay at work about 1/2 hour longer.
I need a new free Friday field trip idea.
We had our licensing/homestudy inspection and I did not like the person who came out to do it. She was an intern who was very interested in putting her training to work and carried herself about the house in a authoritative way. She tested all of the smoke detectors and tested the hot water temperature which she made me turn down. It was 145 degrees and needed to be below 125 degrees. I really like my hot water ~Smile~ She interviewed the children individually (with me in the room). It was interesting because she used words and language that a few of the kids did not understand and thus gave answers that made her look quizzically at them. Example: she asked Jeanna what school she went to in which Jeanna answered, "homeschool". Not true, but I realized that Jeanna was answering what she wanted and not what was asked which led to the following questions to be not answered truthfully because Jeanna was still on the track of what she was answering. See, Jeanna hates going to public school and when my kids are talking about school, she often talks as if she is experiencing what they are so if they are talking about something we did during the day, she will say she did too, even tho' she was at school and was not with us. One reason she does not like school is because she says that the kids, "hit me" and are "mean to me" So the next question from the intern:
Intern: "Do you like having lots of siblings?"
Jeanna: "No."
Intern: "Why not?"
Jeanna: "Because they hurt and kick me!"
Intern writes this down.
Me: "Jeanna, what's a sibling?"
Jeanna: "I dunno."
Intern: " A sibling is a brother or sister. Do you like having all of these brothers and sisters?
Jeanna: "Oh yes!" eyes twinkling, face smiling.
I think Jeanna was thinking that siblings are the kids at school.
My fear is that had that question been asked alone in a room there would have been more inquiry into how the siblings were hurting her and much information would have been gathered.
Another example that upset Jordan: The intern was interviewing James. She asked him, "Do you feed your dog?" He said flatly, "No" She moved on to ask other questions without following up on that so Jordan was worried that she would think that we don't take care of our dog. James would not have thought to say, "I don't feed the dog because that is Jackson's job."
Finally, she asked Jordan if Jordan ever goes out of the house to meet new friends ('cause you know us homeschoolers never leave our house!) and Jordan said, "No." Jordan later said she had mis-understood the questions because we don't go out for the purpose of meeting new friends...we meet new friends sometimes while we are out. All in all we determined that everyone was nervous and the interview was not fun.
About a month ago I scheduled a teacher/parent conference with Jeanna's teacher for today. Today, Jordan got called into work and gets off during the scheduled conference. I guess she will have to stay at work about 1/2 hour longer.
I need a new free Friday field trip idea.
Friday, March 23, 2012
NOT!!! Free Friday Field Trip
We did not do a free field trip this week, but joined our Home school Group for bowling. There was very large crowd today. I think the heavy rain brought people for an indoor activity. We had fun. The scores were:
Jordan - 187
James - 202
Jackson - 161
Jeanna - 81
Relaxing the rest of the day and hoping to work more on the new school room this weekend.
Have a nice weekend.
Peace!
Jordan - 187
James - 202
Jackson - 161
Jeanna - 81
Relaxing the rest of the day and hoping to work more on the new school room this weekend.
Have a nice weekend.
Peace!
Monday, March 19, 2012
Surprises!
I enjoy giving surprises. Of course it's hard to receive them, but I really enjoy giving them. So... surprises on the way ~Smile~
Friday, March 16, 2012
Free Friday Field Trip
There is a junk car shoppe that has just opened in town and I think they advertise that they will take anything in for trade. This guy is sitting outside of their shop. We drove by last week and the boys went crazy so today's free field trip was chance to walk around it and have pictures taken with "him".
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Conversations With a Childless Uncle
This may have only been funny to me as I am fascinated at how fascinated my brother is about life in the house with my kids. My brother is unmarried and has no children. He used to travel home about twice a month and then would see us for 4 weeks on family vacation. He often says being an uncle is like being in the Reserves: 2 weekends a month and 4 weeks a year. Today is my "little" brother's birthday and I let Jordan call him this morning at about 6:50 to wish him a "Happy Birthday". When she was done she passed the phone to Jackson who talks very softly on the phone, so before he could pass it on to the other 3 kids who also are still learning to talk clearly on the phone, I just had them do a collective, "Happy birthday, Uncle!" Later I e-mailed him and this was the conversation:
Subject: Happy Birthday
My gift to you this morning was to not let the kids pass the phone one by one to each other to mumble conversations to you! Ha! Also...did you get my message about dad's gift to you?
LOL thanks for only letting 2 kids on the phone. No I didn’t get your message about dad.
Dad sent a b-day gift to your house to be delivered by noon today. I was like, "um, Dad...he will be at work" and he was like, "oh?!??"
Oh yeah I got that message. Yeah I guess you guys will never understand that some of us work. It’s not easy being green!
Oh I get it. I choose not to live that lifestyle. LOL LOL! But to each his own. ~Smile~
I was surprised that your kids were up so early. I always see them on sleep in til 9 am days.
The 1st school bell rings at 8:15 and the tardy bell at 8:20 so they get up between 6:30 and 6:45 a.m.
5 kids, 1 bathroom, 1 crazy dog begging for food and water, 1 kid who wet and or pooped her bed, 2 boys helping with changing bed, running bath water, getting pee pee stuff to the washer, 1 toddler begging for juice, 'sear-di-o's" and milk. Dog barking to go out....dog barking to come in...Lather, rinse, repeat. 1 teen laying on the floor complaining about having to get up, complaining about having to wait in line for bathroom, us not having the right kind of cereal, and somebody looking at her. Breakfast. Some of the dishes get put in the dishwasher, but heaven forbid they all make it in there...that would just be too right. Mom fusses. 5 kids brushing teeth, somebody spits on somebody else "accidentally" pretty much every day. 5 people washing face. 1 kid who had a bath, washed face and still managed to have last night’s dinner and today’s toothpaste still on her face gets help from a boy to wash her face...said boy does not wring out wash cloth all of the way and drips water down her clothes...she needs a new shirt. 4 kids gets dressed, 1 toddler walks around naked cause he refuses to put his underwear on by himself. 1 girl gets hair done, 1 teenager stands in the mirror for 40 minutes adjusting hair and make-up which mommy then makes her wash off. 2 boys set up school. School bell rings. It really goes quite fast.
So it’s pretty quiet around there in the morning?
ROFL!! Yes...silent like a museum. LOL
You forgot
Toddler saying over and over and over and over
“Pay da dotor boyz!”
Yep...that's why he's single. ~Smile~
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Free Friday Field Trip Part II
We had a 2nd free field trip yesterday that was free in theory, but did have a small cost so it was an "Almost Free Field Trip". We received 6 free tickets to a local NBA game at a sports arena that is about 1 1/2 hours away from our home.
I had such a fun time going through local thrift stores to find jerseys and T-shirts with the team logo on them so the kids could support the local team. The whole time they had no clue they were going to be going to a game. When I told them of their surprise, they were mildly enthused as they could not even fathom what it meant to be going to a live basketball game. Afterward, they were all pumped up, talking non-stop about the game, the other fans and the half-time show.
OH Boy!!!
Having only seen games on television, they had no concept of the fact that a stage had to be set up and what a light show in a darkened arena would be like. They also had their very first stadium hot-dog. Jackpot!!!
I was very tired driving home after the game, but their fast-talking excitement brought us on in nicely. We did not get home until about 12:30 a.m. and I did not have to tell them twice to get to bed.
I had such a fun time going through local thrift stores to find jerseys and T-shirts with the team logo on them so the kids could support the local team. The whole time they had no clue they were going to be going to a game. When I told them of their surprise, they were mildly enthused as they could not even fathom what it meant to be going to a live basketball game. Afterward, they were all pumped up, talking non-stop about the game, the other fans and the half-time show.
OH Boy!!!
Having only seen games on television, they had no concept of the fact that a stage had to be set up and what a light show in a darkened arena would be like. They also had their very first stadium hot-dog. Jackpot!!!
I was very tired driving home after the game, but their fast-talking excitement brought us on in nicely. We did not get home until about 12:30 a.m. and I did not have to tell them twice to get to bed.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Free Friday Field Trip
Today's free field trip was to a local dam on one of the big rivers near our home. It is on the other end, I guess connected to a river that we fish from in the summer. Today1 gate was open and the water was rushing through it like crazy. there was 1 person attempting to fish today, but I don't know how successful he would be with how fast the water was moving today.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
A First In Her Mind
Today we went to the Mall. I know that does not seem noteworthy, but for Jordan, it was monumental. She felt like she was missing out on an important part of life by not engaging in mall shopping. In fact, she thought that she had never been to a mall before and since she was 3 yrs old the last time she went... I guess that is like never to an almost 14 yr. old.
I am not a mall shopper. Really, I am not a brick and mortar kinda shopper at all. I am an on-line shopping kinda person, but I used to be a major department store customer. It was very calm at the mall and I very much enjoyed people watching while she looked at and touched everything within her reach and declared all things as, "Oh, this is soooooo cute!!!"
This was a strict recon mission and no money was spent in the mall experience. LOL! I like free field trips, but this one may be difficult to repeat in the free mode. Her eyes were spinning and glistening ~Smile~
I am not a mall shopper. Really, I am not a brick and mortar kinda shopper at all. I am an on-line shopping kinda person, but I used to be a major department store customer. It was very calm at the mall and I very much enjoyed people watching while she looked at and touched everything within her reach and declared all things as, "Oh, this is soooooo cute!!!"
This was a strict recon mission and no money was spent in the mall experience. LOL! I like free field trips, but this one may be difficult to repeat in the free mode. Her eyes were spinning and glistening ~Smile~
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Friday, March 2, 2012
Progress, Pies and Reborns
Progress reports:
Jordan loves to bake. This week she made a graham cracker crust pudding pie with a cherry fruit topping. Very yummy.
As an early birthday present, Jordan received a reborn doll. He is a Michelle Fagen Sculpt by the artist, Cindy Sales from the Bountiful Babies Nursery. She loves him so much. She dresses, grooms and changes him several times per day. He goes almost everywhere with us. Last night he had his first photo shoot. She took no less than 70 pictures of him. LOL! Here is 1 of my favorites. The picture with the 3 babies shows my 2 reborns with hers. I have 2 Berenguar Reborns whose artist I cannot remember. They have crazy, wild hair as I did not prepare them for pictures. :)
That is what we are doing around here. I am hoping to work on our use-to-be-playroom-that-turned-into-a-storage-room-because-we-had-too-many-toys-room as we are hoping to change it to a schoolroom.
Have a Great weekend!
Peace!
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