Fractions and Woodshop

My fourth grader is really understanding fractions. While making lunch today, she was using terms like "halves, quaters" and even decided that she was going to eat "1 and 3/4 of a sandwich." All of this was unprovoked conversation while spreading mustard and laying down bologna. I was beaming...what a nice show of progress.


One of the memes that I read asked where people homeschooled. After seeing all of the many pictures, I decided to add another bookshelf to our "schoolroom". Our books are stacking up pretty high and we are gaining more and more books weekly. My first grader (whom we will homeschool as soon as the adoption is final) is reading more everyday, bringing in more books. He will also need a locker soon. So...off to Kmart, Walmart and Target we went to shop for shelves.


We found a great deal and even received a break on a better shelf for the advertised sale price because the sales assistance did not feel like going to the back of the store to get the one we came in for...giving us a nice cherry wood one for the same price... WooHoo! My 9th grader is really looking forward to putting it together, calling it "Shop Class".



:)De

An Admitted Copycat...

I love reading the blogs of others. As mentioned before, I have learned lots of great info. I have seen great post and decided to copy one of them. On a post called 50 Toes, there was a picture that inspired me to pull out our piggies. So here is our rainbow; or "toebow" as we are calling it.

And because we are the Rotties, she could not be left out...

And finally....

The Handbow!

We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties....

My 4th grader's laptop has been dead for over a week now. The keyboard just stopped working. Oh well, Ebay to the rescue. While she has enjoyed her relaxed mornings (doing lapbooks, practicing cursive, etc...) I am pleased to have found a replacement laptop.

Why I Home School...

It started with my son... a child who was the epitamy of "square peg trying to fit into a round hole." He did not behave in school. He would not stay in his seat, ran, skipped and slid around the classroom. He made noises and there was even one report from a teacher that he colored with a red crayon when asked to color with a blue crayon. Teachers found it easier to remove him from the classroom when his behavior was disruptive. School secretaries and School Leaders became tired of his trips to the hall and office and called me from work to come and get him. At first monthly, then weekly. We had meetings, divised plans, changed schools...promises were made to provide services to meet his emotional needs... but these promises could not be kept. During the 2nd half of 6th grade... the camel fell! My son had been through 5 schools in 6 years. His reading and comprehension levels were getting lower and lower every year. I realized that the only school that he could not get suspended from was mine...MHS. I must say... I do not know why we had to go through the route that we did to get to this place... but I know that this is the right chioce for us and we have been so very blessed to be able to homeschool. After 2 years of homeschooling my son, I brought my daughter (she was in 3rd grade) home to join our "student body". (LOL!) I love the way my children learn and I really enjoy modifying informaiton to meet their individual learning styles. My style is pretty structured right now, but I feel that changing a bit after joining the world of blogging. Anyway...I don't have many readers, but thought I would put my story on here just because.

:)De

The School of Blogging...

I am new to the world of blogging and must say that there is so much more to it than I could have imagined. I have read so so so many blogs and have learned so many things...some of them even good! LOL So many of you that home school have given info on great Internet resources. I am so excited to learn about other printables. The children however are not so happy. Ha Ha! I started this in order to allow the children to get more feedback on their writing (this year we are focusing on sentence structure and other writing skills). While we are not getting as much feedback as I had hoped for them, I have enjoyed "getting to know" some of the other blogging families. To those of you who have visited (all 10 of ya' and you know who you are) thanks for helping me to see that my free counter is working!

:)De

"Big Toys" by Jeffrey

On Thursday January 17, 2008 I went to the R.V. show at the Pavilion (of 1 of the Big Ten Colleges). We were early for the show, so we waited in an area where some of the agriculture classes were. I saw steers while I was there. There was a class there who was learning how to mark and rate the cows. At first they looked like cows, but the professor was there with a class and I found out they were steers. It smelled very awful in the arena.

Once the show opened, I saw many R.V.’s. My favorite one was the Georgetown. It was a coach bus and it was a 2007. It was really spacious and roomy and it slept nine. The other one I fell in love with was the MXT By k-z. I liked it because it had a garage in it so I can store my bikes and quads in it. It sleeps four and is really nice inside… A “must see”. That was all I did and it was really fun.

Short Story Summary by Jordan Rose

I read a short story from the Pockets Magazine. The title of the short story is Nothing Special. The name of the author is Diana R. Jenkins. The name of the main characters are Lena, Amber, and Beth. Lena is a girl and she is mad all the time because she thinks her life is boring. Beth is a girl and she is Lena’s friend. Beth is happy because she thinks her life is not boring. Amber is Lena’s friend and she tries to help Lena think of good things.

In this story, Lena is a little girl that is very sad. When she would talk to her friends, if they did not agree with her, she got upset. Her friends didn’t want to make her feel bad so they left her alone. One day her friends asked if she wanted to go to a birthday sleep over. She said “Yes.” She was happy until she got to the house. Lena expected to play games at the sleep over. She was very sad because they didn’t play games. Since she was grouchy about the games, they were grouchy and didn’t want to talk to her.

I learned that you should not be sad all the time because that might ruin stuff. Lena should stop being sad because it is making her friends not want to talk to her. I hope she learns to be happy. I hope her friends help her to stop being grouchy.