We Made It!!

We are in beautiful Nassau and it was quite a nice experience traveling with 4 children. They were very cooperative and excited. We were so tired as we drove 5 hours to my brother's house near the Kentucky/Covington Airport as it is cheaper to fly from a bigger city than our own and there is usually a straight flight to Nassau from Covington. Our flight left at 6:30 am and we arrived 11:57am. The children always wear their swimsuits under their clothes so as soon as we get out of the taxi, say our "Howdy's", they are in the pool or in the ocean.

Pics tomorrow... Must sleep!

Winding Down to Gear Up

When my children were in traditional schools, I would need to make request for the school work that would be missed during family vacations. Initially, this was not problem, but every year it seemed to get more difficult to get teachers to willingly provide the school work that would be missed. I don't miss having to do that.

We usually take our regular schoolwork with us during our 2-3 week vacation and have shortened school hours. (Side story: we use the S O S computer program for school and both children have laptops. I am an admitted web-head and so is my mother who travels with us. Imaging how *fun* it is to travel with 4 laptops as carry-ons! Having to pull them all out, while taking off your shoes and all of the other security measures!)

This year I have decided to try something different with note booking, nature journals and math. We also have a family tradition where we take several copies of a book that the whole family reads and discusses together... And we are an opinionated bunch! LOL! I believe that the kiddos will really enjoy doing nature journals as there are so many geckos, crabs and starfish that are caught daily, and our backpacks will be much lighter for traveling. A notebook, a pack of colored pencils and 1 novel. Aahhhh

3 days!

My Very Big Baby Boy...

My baby turned 16 years old today. He is so tall and his voice is so deep and he has come such a very long way from the day I brought him home. He can be very sweet and is an extremely hard worker around the house. He enjoys (still) legos, cars and all thing related to the armed forces. He wants to enlist as soon as possible and is aiming toward being a part of the secret service or an FBI agent. He is funny too! Very funny at times and sometimes...down .right.silly!

Happy Birthday, Kid!

Mom

The Homework Debate....I Mean Conversation.

It's not really a debate....just something we talk about on occasion. I do give homework. Mostly to encourage independent study, but also to teach the habit of management skills that will be needed when they attend college.

10th grade's thoughts on homework... so expressive. Ha Ha Ha. and the Unexpected gift.

Yippee!!!

My laptop is back and I did not lose any data!!!

10 days until Nassau!

Peace,
:)De

She's Gonna Live

My PC became very ill with a case of fragosus of ferreus coegi, which is Latin for "crash of the hard drive." Luckily, a transplant was found and a full recovery is expected. So tomorrow I will be more than a few dollars poorer, but my baby will be back.

AAHHHHH!

The Age of Music

My first grader came to us with very minimal preschool skills at the age of 5. He did not know his alphabet, how to count at all and no colors. We have worked hard with him over the past year to give him those basics.

When doing his schedule for first grade, I included a music class. I was so surprised to realize that this child did not know 1 preschool song... songs that we all sing to our babies. We started with Twinkle, Twinkle, I'm a Little Teapot, Jesus Loves Me and other just basic songs. He is so proud now to be able to sing songs to himself and for family members.

Here's how I show my age and make my kids tilt their heads with a "huh?" I was teaching 1st grade "5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" and when it got to the part when "mama called the doctor" I made the motion of dialing a rotary phone on my hand. The olders asked what I was doing with my hand and I responded, "Dialing the phone." They said, "Wouldn't it be like this..." and proceeded to punch numbers on their hands.

I then had to explain rotary phones.....