We are leaving in the morning for a long weekend vacation. So excited as my 6 year old foster daughter was not able to go on our last family vacation and I had promised that she would be going on our next one. She is happy as she has watched me pack suitcases with her clothes in the same suitcase with ours (When she went to respite last time her things were packed in a separate suitcase.) This home sleeps 16 people and has 4 bathrooms!!! Ya'll hear that!!! 4 BATHROOMS!!! I may never leave a bathroom. (here at home it's me, 5 kids and 1 bathroom)
I have a scavenger hunt planned and a craft. I also have plans to make a pinata if there is not already a sugar overload (Nana?!?!) There may also be some sledding if the temp gets above at least 20 degrees, but that is not looking promising.
Fun, fun!
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
Purpose and An Award
I started this blog 3 years ago to replace our monthly newsletter that we use to produce. It was quite the production with articles and events. The computer program we used would not communicate with my printer so I would have to convert it and email it and then open it with another program and then print it. It was a lot of work. I learned about personal blogs and decided to use blogging as a way to share information with our 12 followers. They did not make the switch with us... they wanted the hard copy newsletter. Blogging became so much easier than the newsletter and consumed way less time. I then changed my goal of sharing information to one of documenting our homeschooling experience.
We were sad to lose the 12 or so followers, but what I found in the world of blogging could only be described as truly amazing! Other mammas and families that shared many of our beliefs, experiences, tragedies and triumphs. I have "met" some of the most inspirational women in the world, from all over the world. Women I would never have met in my walk of life, may never meet in real life ... but women that have made a difference in this mammas' life that words cannot express.
Tonight I received the "Stylish Blogger" award from Christie over at Our Family Blog. She is the mother of 7, 3 of which are her beautiful daughters that are funny, witty and smart. Thank you Christie! You inspire and encouraged me daily to be a better mamma and a more Christ-like daughter of The King.
Upon receiving this award, I am supposed to:
1) Thank, and link back to the person who awarded it.
2) Share 7 things about myself.
3) Award 10 great bloggers.
4) Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award.
7 things about me:
one ~ I love listening to music... all kinds!
two ~ I currently have 2 foster children in the home which puts me at 5 kids in the home
three ~ I like the taste of sharp cheddar cheese with carrots.
four ~ I am a homebody and with the exception of vacations, could stay at home for weeks at a time if allowed.
five ~ I started my undergrad degree thinking that I wanted to be a teacher, but after doing a stint of student teaching decided that before teaching the children, I wanted to reach families.
six ~ I worked for15 years in crises intervention and family therapy services before coming home to be of service to my own family.
seven ~ I started homeschooling out of necessity, but now I know that it is all I ever wanted to do...teach children.
Now...10 7 bloggers that I would like to pass this on to:
Kysha
P
Mom #1
Lisa
Annie (although I see that she already received this award)
LA
Diana
We were sad to lose the 12 or so followers, but what I found in the world of blogging could only be described as truly amazing! Other mammas and families that shared many of our beliefs, experiences, tragedies and triumphs. I have "met" some of the most inspirational women in the world, from all over the world. Women I would never have met in my walk of life, may never meet in real life ... but women that have made a difference in this mammas' life that words cannot express.
Tonight I received the "Stylish Blogger" award from Christie over at Our Family Blog. She is the mother of 7, 3 of which are her beautiful daughters that are funny, witty and smart. Thank you Christie! You inspire and encouraged me daily to be a better mamma and a more Christ-like daughter of The King.
Upon receiving this award, I am supposed to:
1) Thank, and link back to the person who awarded it.
2) Share 7 things about myself.
3) Award 10 great bloggers.
4) Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award.
7 things about me:
one ~ I love listening to music... all kinds!
two ~ I currently have 2 foster children in the home which puts me at 5 kids in the home
three ~ I like the taste of sharp cheddar cheese with carrots.
four ~ I am a homebody and with the exception of vacations, could stay at home for weeks at a time if allowed.
five ~ I started my undergrad degree thinking that I wanted to be a teacher, but after doing a stint of student teaching decided that before teaching the children, I wanted to reach families.
six ~ I worked for15 years in crises intervention and family therapy services before coming home to be of service to my own family.
seven ~ I started homeschooling out of necessity, but now I know that it is all I ever wanted to do...teach children.
Now...
Kysha
P
Mom #1
Lisa
Annie (although I see that she already received this award)
LA
Diana
Thursday, February 3, 2011
It's Groundhog Day!... Again
I love that movie!
Yesterday was a fun day. We did not have a snow day like the rest of the world, but we kept it kinda light and had some fun. I rented a huge house for next week and we are planning a vacation with family friends, so we will have a break then.
We talked about Punxsutawney Phil and counted how many more weeks until spring. When 7th grade realized that spring is 6 weeks away regardless of Phil, she was like, "Awwww, I liked that story and you ruined it!" I apologized for killing the groundhog and the Easter bunny too. LOL! She laughed!
We did this activity together which I got from Enchanted Learning.
Yesterday was a fun day. We did not have a snow day like the rest of the world, but we kept it kinda light and had some fun. I rented a huge house for next week and we are planning a vacation with family friends, so we will have a break then.
We talked about Punxsutawney Phil and counted how many more weeks until spring. When 7th grade realized that spring is 6 weeks away regardless of Phil, she was like, "Awwww, I liked that story and you ruined it!" I apologized for killing the groundhog and the Easter bunny too. LOL! She laughed!
We did this activity together which I got from Enchanted Learning.
Last summer we were gifted this:
I have to say, it reminded me of my childhood and everyone liked it much better than microwaved popcorn.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Kindergarten Writing and Full February
Kindergarten is writing stories now in Language Arts.
"play" LOL!
He is reading well and seems to be strong in math. He still cannot get the concept of how days and weeks repeat and so we have our every Monday morning "I can't figure out what day it is" conversation. He can count ordinal numbers pretty consistantly with difficulty transitioning from 20th, 30th, etc... saying "Twenty-oneth, Thirty-oneth..." instead of "first." It's kinda funny to me.
7th grade has completed almost all of her units and now has to go back and do corrections and complete some of the essays. She strongly dislikes them and I have allowed her to save them. She is currently reading "The Hiding Place" and seems to really like the story, except the sadness of it being a true story. She is enthralled with Corrie Ten Boom.
3rd grade has started multiplication and he "gets" math in such a weird way it is hard for me to help him sometimes. He works hard in school most of the time and had perfect attendance in January!
We are going to hit the ground running starting tomorrow with Early-On appointments for our 2 year old. I asked for a PT consult as his gait, he is 29 months old, still seems pretty unstable. Just checking to be sure. We also have recert. for WIC. Jordan has her girls group thing every other Monday. Our homeschool group is having the bowling Valentine party again this year. I think we are making our cards unless "The Nana" buys boxed cards. (You know you can't help yourself!) We have food bank and personal needs closet and well child doctor appointments. We are also going to sneek a 4 day weekend get-away in there with a quickie vacation with family friends.
Peace
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Free Stuff
I enjoy free stuff. Especially if it has to do with benefiting my kiddos. When I first started homeschooling in 2004 it was the middle of the school year and I was searching the Internet for anything I could get to start up our new shall I say adventure. I found so many things. As I was going through my folder today I found a resource that I had used a great deal of time before I started using a computer based curriculum. Easy Test Maker (ETM) was one of my favorite tools. It has changed and improved a great deal over the years too. It is free, it saves your test online for you and the options for types of questions meets many kinds of needs. My little people are memorizing Psalm 23 this week for their Children of Light class and i was able to paste the passage into ETM, put brackets around the words for the word box and print them off.
Some other oldies but goodies I have used:
http://www.sfreading.com/resources/ghb.html ( love these grammer worksheets)
http://www.learningpage.com/ (nice collection of printable books)
http://www.dltk-kids.com/ (great source of crafts for any season)
http://donnayoung.org/index.htm (One of my fav-wits!)
Some other oldies but goodies I have used:
http://www.sfreading.com/resources/ghb.html ( love these grammer worksheets)
http://www.learningpage.com/ (nice collection of printable books)
http://www.dltk-kids.com/ (great source of crafts for any season)
http://donnayoung.org/index.htm (One of my fav-wits!)
Monday, January 24, 2011
Teaching Cursive
I heard on the news last week that many schools will no longer be teaching cursive handwriting and will replace it with typing/computer skills. We have always tried to incorporate cursive handwriting skills, but I have to admit when time becomes crunched, it is usually the first thing to get chopped from the schedule. It has become even harder to stay on it as 3rd and 7th grade both use Sw*tched On Sch**lhouse, a computer based curriculum. How did/do you work it in? I can't even remember... what grade do they teach it in public schools?
Thursday, January 20, 2011
A Good Kind Of Tired
We had a busy day. We did get to sleep in this morning which was a nice treat. Then we worked the food bank. It was pretty quiet when we got there with no orders. One of the coordinators went to check the fax machine which is how we receive our orders and found it to have a paper jam. Once the jam was fixed, 17 orders rolled off of it all at once and it got crazy. People were coming in 3 and 4 at a time. The stocked shelves were bare and as fast as the boys were stocking them and at one point one of the workers said we had run out of boxes. Kindergarten got a chance to do 2 new jobs that he had never done before; Salt the walkway and parking lot and then help customers take their food to their cars. He was ginning so hard, everyone made comments. The kids filled and packed orders for 2 1/2 hours straight! We broke for lunch later than usual and they were so tired they kinda sat at the table and stared into space as they ate.
Later we went to the RV show and then to observe a class on horse and livestock judging. There were about 6 little cattle that were in the arena. At the end of the class when the guys went to load them into the trailer, the 4 oldest jumped right in. There was a really young calf that decided that he was not getting into that truck and gave the staff quite a run. Of course while they were trying to encourage him to get in the truck, 2 other curious ones came out and then the last one decided not to be the only one on the trailer and came out to. It was quite entertaining and a crowd started to gather. When all the cattle were finally loaded into the trailer, the crowd erupted in applause.
We came home and fixed a fancy dinner of rib roast, rice and salad and by 6:30pm, one of the kids was trying to get ready for bed. They are playing Candy Land peacefully right now. We are tired, but it is a good kind of tired.
Later we went to the RV show and then to observe a class on horse and livestock judging. There were about 6 little cattle that were in the arena. At the end of the class when the guys went to load them into the trailer, the 4 oldest jumped right in. There was a really young calf that decided that he was not getting into that truck and gave the staff quite a run. Of course while they were trying to encourage him to get in the truck, 2 other curious ones came out and then the last one decided not to be the only one on the trailer and came out to. It was quite entertaining and a crowd started to gather. When all the cattle were finally loaded into the trailer, the crowd erupted in applause.
We came home and fixed a fancy dinner of rib roast, rice and salad and by 6:30pm, one of the kids was trying to get ready for bed. They are playing Candy Land peacefully right now. We are tired, but it is a good kind of tired.
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