Tuesday, October 26, 2010

I'm me

I'm a wife.
I'm a mom.
I'm a student.
I'm a child of God.
I'm a sister.
I'm a daughter.
I'm a librarian.
I'm a writer.
I'm a weaver.
I'm a taxi driver.
I'm an entertainment coordinator.
I'm a cook.
I'm a banker.
I'm a maid.
I'm a launderette.
I'm a reader.
I'm a dishwasher.
I'm a music lover.
I'm a teacher.
I'm a nurse.
I'm a family historian.
I'm kid rivalry mediator.
I'm an interior decorator.
I'm a repainman of minor repairs.
I'm an odor destroyer.
I'm a neighbor.
I'm a walking partner.
I'm a voting citizen.
I'm a nature admirer.
I'm a gardener.
I'm me.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Crazy conversations

So, the conversation with my 10 year old son went something like this:

Son: Who's your son?
Me: You are.
Son: What's you are?
Me: You are.
Son: What's you are?
Me: The initials of that dude over there.
Son: What's a dude?
Me: You are.
Son: What's you are?
Me: Two letters in the alphabet.
Son: What's letters?
Me: It's mail.
Son: What's mail?
Me: A man.
Son:  What's a man?
Me: You are!

You follow?

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

The great escape

We had been out for a little while, gotten home, unloaded our stuff and I was hearing the call of nature.  I took two steps in the direction of the restroom and my daughter stopped me.
"Mom, would you zip my dress?"  She turns around and I zip her up.  Before I can move, my son is holding out his Halloween costume.
"Mom, open this for me!"  Peanut gets in between him and I and starts to fuss because she wants to see the picture of the costume on the front of the package.  I take the package from him and open it.  Peanut cries because she wants to hold it.  My son is asking for me to help him take off his shirt so he can put on his costume.  My oldest daughter is trying to talk to me, Peanut is crying and my son is trying his best to pull of his shirt. 
Meanwhile, I'm getting desperate.  "Please, let me go to the bathroom, I promise I'll be right back to help you."
I run down the hall, Peanut follows and is still crying.  I make it to the bathroom, shut the door and lock it.  Peanut is standing outside the door screaming.  I've got a book in the bathroom.  Maybe I won't come out after all.

(You know what's really funny?  To hear a two year old crying at you, "I'm done crying!" Obviously, they're not.)

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

In the name of education!

In the last week:

We spent an hour tearing newspapers into strips, and gluing them onto balloons and a cup.  Hopefully when they dry we will have 2 papier mache pumpkins and one Liberty Bell.  It's all for education!

Yesterday we spent several hours watching YouTube videos on the color wheel, making our own color wheel and going through our clothes to see how the color wheel was used in the design of our favorite t-shirts.  It's all for education!

As soon as I can find some good clay or Play-Doh, we will be making little clay figures to represent Lewis and Clark and Sacajawea for a shoe-box diorama.  It's all for education!

We spend some time putting together a 100 piece puzzle, realized two pieces were missing and discussed how to figure out how many pieces we did have.  It's all for education!

We blind folded each other and fed each other foods to test 2 of our 5 senses.  It's all for education!

We dipped some candles (badly), but had a lot of fun.  It's all for education!

We went to the grocery store and talked about what we needed to cook foods that were good for us.  It's all for education!

We went to the library and picked out several Magic School Bus videos and enjoyed vegging on the couch while we learned about sound waves and meteors.  It's all for education!

I love our way of learning.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Homeschool Review Weeks 3 & 4

Week 3 was quite short - 2 days.  On Wednesday of that week, Hubby took the three older kids to California with him.  They went to Sea World and the beach.  My daughter learned a lot about oceans and ocean animals.  I think it was a wonderful experience for her.  She loved collecting shells and her favorite thing to see at Sea World were the Sting Rays.  They were in a shallow pool and could be touched.  She said they were soft and nice.  Before her trip, we did the normal school day stuff.  Math sheets.  She is having trouble with the basic addition up to 20, so pretty much for math, even this last week and this coming week, that's what we are doing.  She has read three Magic Tree House books now and has started her fourth.  I'm so happy she is enjoying them.

Last week (Week 4) was a lot of fun.  It was hard to get back to the ole routine on Monday after such a holiday, but we did and the week went well.

Grammar and phonics are still going along.  We're skipping some of the basic phonics in her book because she knows it and we are getting into the blend words.

In science we did matter.  We had various experiments we performed with gasses and liquids.  I wish I could remember, but I'm drawing a complete blank right now, but we had 5 different experiments.

We're doing a little American History now.  We read a book about Sacajewea and have books on George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, the Liberty Bell and the Mayflower to read about.  Those might seem like random bits of history, but they have a purpose.  We are working on some badges for her American Heritage Girls (AHG).  One of them is American History and they want the girls to learn about those people, events and symbols. 

We had a scrapbooking day.  It was also for her AHG.  We are taking pictures of the things she is doing and keeping an AHG scrapbook.  It was a lot of fun and quite the mess.

We did some other art and poetry, as well as other various odd activities, too. 

It was a busy week.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

The pot of water

A pot of water sits on my stove from early October to late December.

I just turn on the stove, let the flames heat up the water, take my favorite mug and fill it with hot water and chocolate powder and voila!  Hot chocolate! 

Usually we heat up the pot of water in the morning for a cup of cocoa before school.  However, I like to heat up the water at night, after everyone has gone to bed.  I sit at the computer, listen to my school's lectures, and sip hot cocoa.  It's the only way to do class work.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Check out my weaving blog!!

I updated my weaving blog with my latest project.  I'm very pleased with it.

Inkle and Weave

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

It's either messy or messy

Some days are very good and I get a ton of stuff done.  Other days are the ones where very little gets done. My days bounce back and forth between the two.  The funny thing is, on the days I do a bunch of stuff, including cleaning the house, the house is messy by the time hubby gets home from work.  On the days I don't do much, the house is still messy by the time the hubby gets home. 

I don't get it.

Oh wait...

kids are in the house....

Sunday, October 03, 2010

Homeschool review - Week 2

This week went by quickly It was a  four day week.  We continued working on grammar, and phonics.  They are fine and I think the basics are good to review, but the book we are using is so easy.  It practically gives away every answer.  My daughter even realized this and commented on it.  I'm going to have to come up with something more challenging.

Math is moving along.  I've taught her the quick adding tricks and have showed her how to do double digit adding, but she isn't doing what I've showed her.  Instead of using the tricks, she insists on singing her way through her counting.  So, if the problem is 12 + 10, she sings her way up to twelve and then continues singing until she reaches her answer.  So, each question takes a very long time as she sings and it isn't the most accurate way to add.  I'm going to have to start timing her I guess.

In cursive writing, she is doing amazingly well.  She really loves to write and see the fancy letters.  Last week she learned the letter 'a', but they need some work.

In science we talked about classification and matter.  She enjoyed our object lessons.  Especially when we made the goop from cornstarch and water.

On Tuesday, she discovered The Magic Tree House books.  She started reading one, on her own, on Tuesday evening.  By Wednesday afternoon, she had finished it.  I think I read two pages to her in the middle of the story.  The rest was all her.  Thursday she started another Magic Tree HouseH book.  She finished it today.  My older boys loved those books, so we have about 5 or 6 of them.  She's set for a little while on reading.  It's wonderful because she had not wanted to read at all before and now she loves her Jack and Annie books.

Friday, we went to the state fair.  It was fun and the kids LOVED being there.  They didn't want to come home.  We saw lots of animals and Daughter became friends with a couple of sheep.  My 4 year old son like the hogs and the pigs.

Now, what to do this coming week.....