Chord of Three Strands

HOWDY! Hawaii pics!!!!

2005-09-08T11:52:00.000-07:00

here are a few pictures from Maui. I guess this is so NOT homeschooling topic. I'll just call it a teachers retreat......

So without further ado.... some photos to brighten your day. I'll have a link at the bottom for morepictures. (pics of me too, LOL)

from the resort:

some scenery:

SEE THE GECKO?????

for MORE pictures go HERE http://hawaiikim.shutterfly.com/action/

moving

2005-08-20T08:23:00.000-07:00

As you may know,we nolongerhave the internet at our house. So I getonline about twice a week for a limited amount of time. I don't have the time for mulitple lists or blogs. So I will, finally, transfer all homeschool blog stuff to:

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/3FoldChord/

It is a homeschool blog site. I like my friends here, but the HSB site is easier to post at and right now I need TIME EFFICIENT placesonline.So I won'tbe posting much here, I guess. At least not charts, it's too time consuming.

Chart #1

2005-08-20T08:08:00.000-07:00

MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY
*D	A	I	L	Y*
Bible Story	Bible Story	Bible Story	Bible Story	Bible Story
SOTW	SOTW	SOTW	SOTW	Geo/History/comp
CopyWork	CopyWork	CopyWork	CopyWork	Typing
Spelling	Spelling	Spelling	Spelling	Spelling/comp
Math	Math	Math	Math	Math/comp
Music	Music	Music	Music	Music


*E	X	T	R	A*
Latin Roots	Latin Roots	Thinking Skills	Thinking Skills	Latin Roots
Science	Thinking Skills	Science	Science	Connor-G.Goo
Ki- Game Goo	Ki-Earobics	Ki-Earobics	Ki-Earobics	Ki- Game Goo
Gavin-Earobics	Gavin-Earobics	Gavin-Earobics	Connor-Erobics	Gavin-Game Goo
C-Leap Pad	C-Leap Pad	C-Leap Pad	G-Leap Pad

One bad cat

2005-08-11T12:54:00.000-07:00

One bad cat

Bad as in… ‘The terror of the neighborhood’, ‘no one messes with me’, ‘I can take you ALL on’ type of cat. I always knew Soksey was going to be trouble from the time he bit holes in my credit card and would attack on command. He often finds a way to sneak out at night and will come home with a little scratch here or there and we’ll see the cat across the street and he is in worse shape.

Yesterday I rescued the gerbil 3 times. Connor rescued the gerbil once. Onetime the gerbil was dangling between Soksey’s teeth as he high-tailed it out the room. We had to duct tape the lid all around.

This morning Soksey comes in and he has blood in his claws and blood drops on his front paws. Connor found a patch of fur in his claws. Soksey has no scratches on him though.

Yesterday I also chased the iguana down the block. Hubby left him out again and he got away. 3 gerbil saves, fixed the gerbil lid 3 times, gave the cat a flea bath, chased the iguana home, took kids to gymnastics (worked out myself while there- I seriously hope those gym room scales are WAY off), did a big grocery trip and took the boys on a field trip to the fire station (where they got to shoot the fire hose! It was COOL). See, this is why I never can keep up with the house work. And I did get a couple loads of laundry done and went through 3-4 boxes of school stuff.

Wow, I don’t think I’ve been online for awhile. Aside from the 15 minutes I was online Wednesday to do Ebay Email, it’s been about A WEEK. I really don’t miss it much. It’s amazing how spoiled we get. So now I can’t just look up anything I want to, the minute I want to look it up. So now instead of leaving the laundry in the middle of folding a load to look up gerbil care (because it just came to me as I was folding the sheets) I just tusk it away I n my memory to look up later on when I get a change to get online.

Ki just came in with the new package of mini-sub buns for me to read to make sure he could have them. It’s a kind we haven’t gotten before and he didn’t recognize them, so he wanted to check with me. So I read the ingredients (like I did at the store before I bought them, LOL, but Brian doesn’t check before he buys things and Ki knows to always ask me if he’s not sure)

new laptop

2005-08-06T09:51:00.000-07:00

This is so cool. Last night I was online at Barnes and Nobles on my NEW laptop! Then I sat out in the parking lot a little bit longer after the place closed. It turns out B&N doesn’t have free wireless connections. I paid for 2 hours and the store closed halfway through, so I figured it was OK to sit in the parking lot using their wireless. Panera supposedly has free wireless, I’ll have to check them out.

Right now, I am sitting in the kitchen typing this up. On my new laptop. I don’t need a $3,000 necklace. A $700 laptop is just fine with me! Actually I would have been fine with the $400 laptop, but Brian wanted to get me the better one with upgrades.

It is a rainy Saturday. That means it has been dark out since I woke up. My melatonin is very controlling and powerful. As long as it is dark I SLEEP. If I have to wake up and it is dark, I am SO tired and just can’t wake up! So I will be sleepy all day long and feel like I am walking in a dream.

I keep hitting the cap-lock key on the laptop. Other than that it’d not hard at all to get used to typing on. Brian keeps saying he wants to get me a mouse for my laptop. I kind of like it like it is. I don’t want a finger pad mouse on my regular computer, but it seems right for the laptop.

I want to walk the fen tomorrow, if it’s stopped raining. The last few times we’ve been there it has been so dry. It’ll be nice to actually have water under the boardwalk.

Now I am sitting in my car typing. Isn’t this just the coolest!? I just got back from shopping. Well, I guess I’m not back yet, huh? I bought summer clothes for next year. I spent $54 after taxes. My total savings???? $161 How’s that? Food by bleed us dry, but I can save in other places. I love shopping the end of the season clearance racks. I can get brand new stuff for Thrift store used clothes prices!

O.K. I am in Paneranow. FREE wireless, no hidden strings. I could just sit in the parking lot if I wanted too, but that doesn’t seem fair. I am having a bagel and a chai latte.

AND am online TWO days in ROW!!!

construction site survey pics

2005-08-05T20:54:00.000-07:00

(update entry before this one)

They are building a huge outdoor mall close to us. I decided to try to take pictures 1-2 times a week. We went Monday and took some pictures. We went Today as well. I think it will be neat to go through and see how it all changes over time. The guy driving the belly scraper honked at the boys and waved each time he passed. Today it was drizzling and there was no work being done.Here are the pictures from Monday.

Here are today's picures. See that hill being plowed down......... It is TOTALLY gone today!!

here is where the hill WAS

Wednesday's update

2005-08-05T20:53:00.000-07:00

Today, we got a package from our friend Down Under! A COOOL book called Who Did That. It shows pictures of different footprints ns poop dropping and the next page it tells about the animal the left them. All Australian animals, too. Very cool!~ And she send a package of gummy candies. NOT just ANY gummy candies either! These were NO articial colours or flavours!!!! She knows Ki gets hives from that stuff. Ki was so happy to get candies that HE can have!

THANKS JO!

We had our homeschool assessment/portfolio. The lady who does ours is a homeschooler, but also teaches in the public school and tutors. She knows what kids of areas the kids should know and also knows which ‘grade level areas’ aren’t really that important. And what areas to work on and HOW. It’s always nice to hear that Ki is smart, LOL. I sometimes wonder about him. Being that she in ‘that teaching business’ she can see what Ki does and says and plays and tell my why that means he really is smart, LOL. Because he can’t spell well or write well so it’s hard for me to see sometimes. (when we had him tested it showed he was really smart- but I still have trouble seeing it). And I like how she asks about the other stuff. Their personality, they caring for others, their love for God.

Yesterday we went to the lake. It was fine. I was very antisocial, but am fine with it. I wasn’t mean or anything and I did talk to people. I just kept to myself and read (listening to my CD with earphone plugs). Brian took me on a wave rider ride. We went around the big lake, under a bridge, down a little river, through overhanging braches, through a sandbar… that clogged the motor and we were stranded. It was 90+ degrees. Brian was in the water for at least 45 minutes trying to check the motor and stuff. I got HOT I am guessing at least 95. Took my top off (we were totaaly isolated down a secluded river 'back alley'), which fell in the water. So I am topless and all these damselflies keep landing on me. I think they were copulating. But the top damselfly puts his tail behind the head of the bottom damsel fly, like in her ‘neck’…. We finally saw some people fishing (good thing the life vest is a full coverage one, LOL). The pull us to the coastguard marina area. We call and Brian’s dad comes and gets us. Brian mom was all worried (of course). She had them calling the hospital and driving all over looking for us. She said we were gone 3 hours, but I think it was 2 and ½.

Today Brian’s friends from Florida are up. I am getting ready to go meet them (with the boys) at the Air Force Museum.

SATURDAY July 30

2005-08-05T20:52:00.000-07:00

This morning I read through a circular for a local Christian bookstore .I want to get some books about missionaries on the reading level of about 5th-8th grade. The circular had some coupons. As I was planning my day mentally Brian came in and said he was taking off to Meijers for a new toaster oven, but no specific time. He then went to organize and count little metal figures.

Connor was the first child up, like always. I had him strip his sheets and scrub his hands. Then he decided to count all of dad’s melee figures. He was counting up how many in each group. (how many orcs, how many hobbits, how many humans archers, how many ladies….) Next he’ll add up the groups.

Brian took Ki to get doughnuts. I folded sheets and started the dishwasher. After breakfast I tried to organize a house cleaning. I tried to organize a family housecleaning time late night, but Brian had them watch TV instead. I got all 3 to do a 27 Fling Boogie this morning, but as soon as that was done, Brian sent Gavin out to mow the lawn while Connor, Ki and I cleaned in the house. Gavin gets fun job while the others get stuck cleaning the house. I feel like my efforts to be a housewife and homeschool teacher are constantly sabotaged.

We saw three snakes in the cage this morning and thought we had found the missing snake. I hadn’t realized my dad had brought over a FOURTH snake!

We went to a BBQ for the older boys’ Bible Class to discuss the new curriculum. They had water balloons and a trampoline. Gavin was bringing a water balloon into the trampoline (has that mesh around it) and Brian told him not to. Gavin’s reply is something like: “Oh, water is good for trampolines. Have you ever had a trampoline? Water makes them bounce better.” The boys talk like this all the time with Brian. I don’t allow it with me. It is rude, it is talking like they know more (there are Bible verses that speak directly to this) , it’s disrespectful. See, Brian allows the boys tot talk that way to him, they thin it’s fine, they talk that way to Sunday School teachers and Gymnastic teachers, who then come to me and talk about how they have problems with my kids being disrespectful and not following directions. It really upsets me.

Gavin has been talking lots about spiritual matters and I was asking him if he wanted me to get a Bible Study for kids his age or a devotional book. He could help me pick it out. He said he’d rather I choose verses for him to read and what to do, because I know him better than any devotional book, so I can choose verses that would apply to him. I guess I can’t argue with that to much I guess.

Connor got in trouble for throwing water balloons at Ki’s back. He hit me in the back earlier and in the back hurts. I told him not to throw at people’s backs (or heads). He didn’t think it was fair to get in trouble because he ‘forgot’. Well, forgetting isn’t a good excuse. I feel like the only one who bothers trying to teach the kids to obey and be respectful.

chocolate cookies!

· 1.25 cups room temp butter (2.5 sticks)
· 2 cups sugar
· 2 eggs
· 2 teaspoons vanilla
· 2 cups flour
· .75 cup unsweetened cocoa
· 1 teaspoon baking soda
· .5 teaspoon salt
· 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)
· sugar for the top

DIRECTIONS: (preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl. Mix well.
2. In a separate bowl, mix flour cocoa, baking soda and salt.
3. Gradually add the dry mixture to the wet mixture.
4. Stir in chips.
5. Drop rounded scoops of dough onto a cookie sheet. Use a flat bottom glad dipped in the sugar to flatten the drops of dough. Cook for about 8-10 minutes.

My Survey thingy.

2005-07-28T15:45:00.000-07:00

10 years ago: I had a 5 month old boy (Connor) and Gavin was about to turn 2. I was changing diapers and ding laundry and trying to stay a little sane.

5 years ago: Connor wasgetting ready to enter Kindergarten- this would be his ONLY year at public school. Gavin was getting ready to entrt 1st grade. Ki's asthma was pretty bad and he often couldn't even walk to the end of the driveway without collapsing on the ground- out of breath and fatigued.

Yesterday: It rained, but was cooler. In the morning we had Y classes- Gymnastics, swimming and I spent 20 minutes on the elliptical machine.The boys had Royal Rangers class in the evening and Brian and I went the Y to work out.

Today: I cleaned cat puke. We went to the library. The Connor when to the dr to get a prescription for pinworms. Then a fast lunch. Aftr that we went to the investors to talk about college savings/investments for the boys. The talked me into going to Subway afterwards. We got home, I did some laundry, then took Connor to Violin class. Ki and I went shopping. Gavin stayed home. Brian is working late and Gavin is reading a book to his brothers.

Tomorrow: A 9:30 work out at the Y. And a picnic tomorrow for Brian's work place. Connor was supposed to interview my dad, maybe he can in the evening.

5 snacks I enjoy: Twizzlers, Chai Latte, Apples, Twixt bars, Those fruit chew candies like "orange slices"

5 bands I know most of the lyrics of their songs: Sting, Sting, Steve Taylor, Newsboys, Sting

Things I would Do with 100 million dollars: a gift to our church maybe yo help wit their mission trips. Buy a house on 10 acres. Use the rest for kids' savings, our savings and to buy some things for the new house.

5 bad habits I have: Not eating breakfast (or a good one), not drinking enough water, Not having my devotional time with God, being overly task-oriented,stubborn

5 locations I would run away to: my house- minus kids and hubby, A desserted island, Austraila, a cabin in the mountains, Barnes and Nobles

5 things I would never wear: Orthopedic shoes, jockcup (like guys wear in sports), a bathing cap with big flowers on it, Pantyhose, socks. 5 things I like doing: sleeping, hiking, doing fun things with my kids, scrapbooking, writing lessonplans

5 biggest joys of the moment: not having to make a big dinner, listening to Gavin read to his brothers, my hubby is getting things worked out for us to go to Hawaii, having an almost clean kitchen, and planning for lessons for next month

5 famous people I would like to meet: Sting, Steve Taylor, that'd be aboutit.I'm not much on famous people..... Einstein would be neat, but I don't know if deadpeople count...

5 movies I like: Silence of the Lambs, Memento, Star Gate, Conspiracy Theory, How the Grinch Stole Christmas

5 TV Shows I like: CSI, CSI:Miami, CSI:NYC, Quincy (haven't seen that one or awhile), Star Trek.

5 favorite toys: my new scrapbook stuff, My iTunes-Media window, Microsft Excel (yes for some of us it is a fun toy!),My digital camera,not sure what else.

NO MORE NET

2005-07-26T18:47:00.000-07:00

We are having our internet disconnected Saturday. No More Blogging here! Well, I'll check in from time to time.

Take care everyone! See Ya round!

ASL?

2005-07-24T11:14:00.000-07:00

Today’s American Sign Language Look Ups:

I had to look up a few words I either didn’t know or had forgotten. Here they are:

CURSE

The Y handshape strikes outward off the forefinger of the other hand

The DOMINANT hand makes the Y, it is palm down (think of flying an airplane).The non Dominant hand points out the forefinger, palm down, again. The Y strikes the forefinger as it glides down the forefinger and almost looks like it’s taking off (again-think airplane-no thumb)

SHAME

The hand brushes up the cheek to show the blood rising in the cheeks of a person who is feeling ashamed.

The hand is fingers together, then slightly bent. ONE time is ‘shame” but with a slight tilt of the head and a little smaller movement and done TWICE it is ‘Shy”

BECAREFULL! if you don’t tilt you head slightly and give it that ‘cute, shy’ look (a little smaller, too)to the sign—just done twice means “prostitute’, though I am sure context will let people know which you meant. ( I hope,LOL). This is why I had to look it up.I didn’t want to be “Trading in my Prostitution Ways”… I was “Trading in My sorrows”, so I double checked my sign..LOL

And I am using the sign for “Beautiful” when the word in the song is “Splendor”…. I think it should work.

and for ‘essence’… I am using ‘spirit’. I wish I had a better sign for that though.

The ONLINE ASL BROWSER I use (when I cant find it in my books or just becauseit’s easier) is AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE BROWSER

HAWAII and PICTURES

2005-07-23T05:21:00.000-07:00

Hubby received confirmation today that the funds for his TDY were granted. He is booking his hotel to Hawaii. And then he will book a pplane ticket for me! This is one conference I don't think I'll mind being 'stuck by myself with nothing to do' while he is meetings! His parents have already agreed to watch the boys. Ineed to star working on my beach-ready body...and aybe lay out some before soI'm not Pale TigerLily Lady when I arrive. OOOH...maybe I'll be REALLY DARING and get a two piece swimsuit.....mayb not....

Here are some pictures fromour July 4th weekend at The Lake (In Laws own a cottage here)

GAVIN--(Ki in back)---Me---MIL--FIL driving

My Cute Hubby

Me and My Ki

Pappry (Brian's dad) and Connor. They look alike, but Connor has my coloring (see above picture).

Gavin after playing in the mud.

Back to beach pictures. Ki's froggy all safe on the boat

You drive your boat and park outside the doughnut shop! See Froggy in his life jacket with Ki?

Me--Ki--Connor--Gavin--Brian

I love this. I love taking a flying flag picture when we go up there.... It's just so neat.

Connor after dunking his head in the lake while hanging his head over...

A-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h.......

Frick and Frack enjoying dinner on the balcony

G hanging over to catch a wave.... or just get wet.

Ki and I surfing (it's hard to balance while the boat is going fast.)

Me and the flag

long day

2005-07-22T16:20:00.000-07:00

Arg.... kids! They ate a bowl of cereal then went outside to ride bikes.I called them back in to put away the cereal and their bowls. Connor just did the cereal and left his bowl out. So I call him back in from riding his bike AGAIN and it's basically like this::::

me-"Connor. Put away your cereal bowl. I already asked you to and shouldn't have to be asking you again."

Connor-"I just heard you say cereal BOX, not bowl."

me-"It doesn't matter. You are to put away your cereal bowl and box as soon as you are done. I shouldnot have to even remin
dg you ONE time."

Connor puts away his bowl. I say to him. "Take off your helmet and put away. You aren't allowed to go back outbecuase you didn't do what you were supposed to."

So he goes off to put his helmet away. He is in the garage forever..... next thing I know he is riding his SCOOTER . Becuase he 'thought I ment he couldn't ride his bike."

this is my life.... daily....

I went to the store. bought food, bought cat food, bought 10 cent spiral notebooks and 8 cent pocket folders with center prongs. I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR!!! I bought 2 clearance beach towels ($3.90) and 3 stacks of those bargain washcloth packs and 1 pack of those bargain dishtowel packs. I also got a new light weight fleece blanket for the boys, their comforters are too hot this time of year, but from time to time they get chilly at night. They have 1 light weight blanket, but there are 3 boys.....

We have over 6,700 minutes on our cells phones!!! Gotta love Rollover minutes! So I feel good having a nice cushion for our first couple months on JUST cell phones!

I just had my Bible 'engraved' with my name. I don't think it's really true engraving.... but anyway.... And I got a Bible Carrier cover thingy... I have been wanting one, but I have a BIG bible. I found one and it's everything I wanted! I wantedone that could carry a notebook, pens,highlighters, and a few essentials from my purse (like somemoney and drivers lisence) so all I have to carry to church is ONE thing!~ Not a purse AND notebbok AND Bible AND the church bulitens tucked nto the Bible to fall out as I walk....

free printable calendars

2005-07-21T16:40:00.000-07:00

I decided I needed a year on one page calendar for planning. I need 2005 and 2006 of course. I printed 2005 from my Yahoo Calendar, but didn't like the big YAHOO stuff accross the top. So I went HERE:http://www.printfree.com/CalendarsPrintableYearly.htm

and printed my 2006. It does have the URL address on the very bottom, but that's it I'll go put them into sleeve protectors into my Journal and take it with me to the park with the boys soI can work on it while they play with their friends.

Oh, you can probably right click the yearly calendar and do a 'save Picture As" and they print it from your photo file and it will totally fill the page, no URL on the bottom, I do that sometimes, but not today.

sometimes you canright click and just print the picture like that, too. I forgot that or Iwould have doneit. Maybe I'll go ahead and print 2007 like that and see if it works...

HERE is a printable calendar that you choose the picture, like cats, or Thomas the Tank engine, etc... (in Many different languages, too)

OOOH here is a school year calendar! July 2005- Sept 2006!!! http://www.printfree.com/Calendar_files/Yearly/EduLarge/2005thru2006Large.htm

I found a site that has MANY calendars. The site is: Cultural Calendar . It has all different kinds of calendser, like Chinese calendrs, Aztec Calendars, Weather calendars, etc..... it might be neat to do this with my boys. We could do history, geography, science, social studies.....

MORE MORE MORE!!

2005-07-21T06:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I wrote out a schedule so that Gavin can do his science all on his own. I have a textbook, notebook and test packets for Abeka 6th grade science. I have assigned when each chapter is due. He is to do 1 experiment for the class (that would be me and his brothers, maybe his dad, too) each chapter- but can do more if he wants (and can fit them in). So he'll not only be doing science, but he will also be working on time budgeting and planning skills. He will be doing the same for math. He has always done math pretty muchon his own, but I have a schedule for the whole year this time. Here are the charts I made for him::::(They will go in sleeve protecters in his 3 ring binder than holds other assignments)

SCIENCE

CHAPTER		DUE DATE
Earthquakes		9-Oct
Volcanoes		30-Oct
Stars		18-Nov
Space Exploration		13-Jan
Respiratory System		29-Jan
Circulation		17-Feb
Laws of Motion		5-Mar
Nuclear Energy		19-Mar
Chemistry		5-Apr
Animal Behavior		8-May
The Biosphere		25-May
Balance of Nature		15-Jun

MATH:

Lesson Numbers	Due Date
#s 30-37	31-Oct
examples, practice
problem set odd #
#s 38-45	5-Dec
examples, practice
problem set odd #
#s 46-53	30-Jan
examples, practice
problem set odd #
#s 54-61	27-Feb
examples, practice
problem set odd #
#s 62-69	31-Mar
examples, practice
problem set odd #
#s 70-77	15-May
examples, practice
problem set odd #
#s 78-85	16-Jun
examples, practice
problem set odd #

Now, I don't normally "DO GRADES"... But Gavin is always asking what percentage he did or got or what not. He's one of those math kids that is always talking percentages and fractions and stuff like that. wow... I'm getting closer and closer to be all ready!

Have I ever mentioned how much I *LOVE* Microsoft Excel????

Dick and Jane

2005-07-20T13:27:00.000-07:00

Gavin (almost 12) practiced his piano today. He still claps for himself after each scale or song,LOL. Ki and Connor are playing Go Fish with their music flash cards. There are 2 of each note. And they have to call High or Low.... Hi E is the top space, LOW E is the bottom line. Ki seems to be getting better at recognizing his notes!....... Ki also read to me, He read his "Dick and Jane" style story about aliens. Now he's drawing pictures to go wwith what we read. We actually read together. Sometime he just likes to sit back and listen to me and make up little 'side stories'.

.....I called and cancelled the internet and the phone line..... We just have cell phone nows. Well, it won't be in affect until the last of the month.I think the 30th......

....I wonder what God has next for us.....

... And I really don't know is submissive is the right term. There wasn't a choice and I know my husband, he often wavers in decisions and there was a chance he could have changed his mind. I called first thing this morning. Hopefully he won't change his mind, or he'll have to deal with the rehook up fees. But hee did say he wanted this. To get rid of the internet and phones....

Gavin is playing Civilization and Connor is reading a Fudge book. And the entry before this one has schedules and lists for school, if you missed out on all my brain storming!

more and more schedules and lists

2005-07-20T09:54:00.000-07:00

The monthly Schedule! and the daily is done ... so only a couple more schedules to work on! And yes, it is 1AM. Dh seems to be ignoring me and I decided to plan. It always makes me feel better.

August:

Egypt Unit and Birthday Unit

not a 'break month' but a light

summer schooling month.

September:

Ki’s Birthday Unit

Read Together

an extrememly light month. The 1st two

weeks we won't even be home with

camping and stuff, then Ki's birhtday,

then I'll justread to the boys until we

start up in October

October:

The Hobbit Literary Unit

*Start scheduled school work*

November:

A Single Shard Literary Unit

December:

Christmas Unit Study

My Birthday Unit

*only reading/ copy work

a very light month-basically a break

month.the last two weeks will be total

vacation. Reading always required.

I am trying to decide is copy work

should be a daily requirement even on

vacations, like reading is....

January

Ocean Unit Study

Connor’s Birthday Unit

*Start Scheduled classes back*

February

1 Corinthians 13 Unit Study

one of the only totally written by me units for this year!

shcoking!

catch up month

a little lighter than the big unit study/

structred months,

bot not a total 'break month'

March

North America Unit Study

Brian’s Birthday Unit

April

1^st 3 week- school break

(reading/copy work only)

last week- Antarctica Unit Study

another 3 week break here.

May

Start Up Scheduled work

Finish Antarctica Unit

June

Native Americans Unit

continue scheduled work for about

3 weeks probably a total break the last week

July-

field trips

reading/copy work

basically a 'break month'

Well, I have the list of work each boy will be/canbe doing independantly and the cards we will use. The Science Card will be for Just Gavin. I am thinking of having him read and do the 6th Grade Science all on his own. I'll have a combined activity for Connor and Ki at this time. Probably doing the 5th Grade Science book with them together. The art/craft freetime will prbably not be daily art/craft. I usuallt have the art center set up 2-3 times a week with supplies and stuff out and who ever has that card just goes and does whateve they want in that area. I'll probably do it 2 times a week with the other 3 days being a choise of reading or school computer games. 9AM and my second entry! I better go reboot laundry andmake sure the kids are on track.

GAVIN
math
reading
piano
computer
copywork-writing
Critical Thinking skills
Science
Leap Pad

CONNOR
math
reading- some days
piano
computer
copywork-writing
Critical Thinking skills
Leap Pad

KI DAVID
Copy work-writing
Computer
some math
Leap Pad

CARD A:
20/20 music/Leap Pad

CARD B:
40 minutes Math

CARD C:
40 minutes with mom

CARD D:
20/20 Critical Thinking/
Royal Rangers

CARD E:
40 minutes Science

CARD F:
40 Mins. Arts/Craft Free Time

no house

2005-07-19T22:14:00.000-07:00

hubby just informed me we probably won't be getting the house we put a bid on. And also that we will probably getting rid of our internet and out phone line. (And just using cell phones). No internet...... well, I was fine with that when were going to move out on the acreage, so I guess I'm fine with it here, too. I'll still be able to get online a couple times a week. I'll probably get a laptop and can go to the bookstore, they have that internet connection. And the library is 2 minutes away and has internet..... not sure why he's decided this, oh, well. So. I'll still be here, just not as annoyingly frequent. Which is probably for the better anyway, maybe.... maybe the house will stay cleaner

I've got it!

2005-07-19T06:33:00.000-07:00

I was going through boxes last night. I have my school stuff packed in boxes, but I wanted them more organized. And I wanted to see what all I have for the new year. Here is a list:

Saxon 76- we had this last year and maybe the yr before,LOL. Gavin has ben working out of it for over a year, but we neverhave sat down and just gone throughit. It was just a suppliment for when I needed a week of seat work. This year, Gavin will finish it and I'll have Connor start in it. They will be 6th(G) and 5th(C) grades.
Math-U-See Delta. This is planned to be a supplimental for Ki (3rd grade-ish)
Miquon-I think I have the whole series, Ki is in the second book. This will be another supplimental. I think I will do them like two weeks of one, then a break with hands on fun, then 2 weeks of the other....I don't know yet.
Hands on Begining Algebra-This is a Ki level book.
Hands on Math 4th grade-This will be with Ki and the others, but for Ki's learning and just a fun review for the others.
Abeka Science 6th grade- I have the notebook and tests for this, but probably won't use them.
Heath Science 5th grade text book.
Matter & Motion in God's World (A Beka). 8th grade Science. A paperback text book. I don't know what I'll do with these science books. the 5th and 8th grade ones I fund at a thrift store for 50 cents each. The Abeka 6th set I bought at Veggiesourse for $15.
A 3rd grade health book.
A couple dozen science experiment books which will probably be just as educational as the texts. We'll probably allternate. A month of one a month of another......
Egypt Unit Study - Level-challenging, which looks like Jr High. I think I'll go through and make it work for all three boys. It'll take up 3 weeks and we can do a week of fun/review at the end maybe. I have an Ancient Egypt Project Book, too.
Antartica Unit Study- Grades 3-6+. normally 12.95, on sale for $4 with a nice pull out map.
North America Unit Study- Grades 3-6+. normally 12.95, on sale for $4 with a nice pull out map.
Oceans Unit Study- Both are imtermediate, which is one step lower than challenging... maybe 4-6th grade? One is a 'thematic unit' and one is a 'hands on science study'. The plan is to combine them for a detailed ocean unit. We have an Ocean Card game, ocean life books, and I have been making up a board game for oceans, too. Complete with poster-board ocean map, multi[le question cards, game pieces.....
Literary Unit- A Single Shard
Literary Unit- The Hobbit
Birthday Unit Studies
Christmas Unit Studies
Enough Explode the Code to get Ki through 5th or 6th grade
and MORE science experiment books....
Key To Measurements- 3 books on English Units- we have never used themand I was going through them and the boys already know a good portion of the books.....
assorted Educational Software (Reader Rabbit, Clue Finders, Carmen Sandiego, Tycoon Games, Typing, etc)
Computer Science book and a Computer Programming book
MindStorm Legos Robotic Kit with a couple extention kits
A couple different "Learn the States" fun game workbooks- I think I'll give ne to Gavin to do on his own and one to Connor to do on his own.
Native American Indian Games and crafts - to be used with the North America Unit Sstudy, maybe
Native Americans Atlas- to be used with the North America Unit Sstudy, maybe
Native American Unit Study- to be used with the North America Unit Sstudy, maybe. it looks like we could spend a couple months on thie Native/North America thing....
A couple different art books for learning to draw and sketch. One is How Great Thou ART Lesson and Sketch book, and another one that is similar and a ton of learn to draw books.
A few different books on Ancient Times, Ancient civilizations, an Ancient Time Line Book
Enough Mad Libs to do one page a day and last a whole school year, I bet!
Story of the World
The Bible Story (Set of 10 Bible Story books, Ki loves them)
Enough books and information to do a compplete unit study on Pond/WetlandsLIfe
Mind Benders and Critical Thinking Skills work books.
Organizational Thinking- 2 books.. THICK books!
Latin Roots Cd Rom (should last 3-4 yrs)
Spelling Program designed for kids with Dyslexia
and the zallion other things like maps, compass, science kits, electronic parts, wood working stuff, sewing supplies, library cards, cookbooks, reading books, tile letters, board games, dice, index cards......

This year I plan on implementing CopyWork daily and a few other things. I also want to have Gavin and Connor do as much independant as they can so I can spend more one on one time with Ki

I think I have enough stuff to NOT BUY ANYTHING for a couple years! (like that will ever happen!)

try it

2005-07-17T17:39:00.000-07:00

they can't fool me. I know it's a trick some how. Some weird computer program or somthing....

The square with the A on it is supposed to be the same color/shade as the square with the B on on it...

another update

2005-07-17T08:06:00.000-07:00

Brian went into work this morning (Saturday). it is endless there where he works. They give him job after job and project after project. As soon as he gets 15% done with the first project there are 2 more projects for him on his desk…… (this info will come into play later)We heard back from our realtor. Our bid was approved by the seller’s bank (this is a situation of the seller missing payments so we need to be within 88% of the house value, etc). That’s the good news…. The bad news is that his bank wants us to pay some realtor fees and taxes that would add 10,000$ to the price! We have been praying for God’s leading and seeking His will and trusting that He will guide us. We’ve esp been praying that if this isn’t His will he will show us with a BIG NO! There have been lots of little obstacles along the way, but nothing that sounds like know. All of the little obstacles have always been still doable and usually very close to being within our means. The more I pray the more I keep hearing …. “I will provide, wait and trust Me.” And I hear in my heart also that He is saying He will provide THIS place. This is where my faith comes in… trusting that I am hearing God and not just my own desires.

Having Faith that God IS direction my paths because I do seek His will.

Brian says he has found out that he is up for promotion and he thinks he’ll hear for sure this upcoming week. (God’s provision so we can obtain this property?? I think maybe so)Brian and I have been talking about moving the boys money into some sort of investment, like a mutual fund, so they will be earning more interest for college. Brian wants to research this and find the best option and take this project on his shoulders alone. Yet another project. He has enough projects and priorities right now. I know he’d do an excellent, thorough job at this, but I really want him to delegate this responsibility to me. He just doesn’t have the time right now and doesn’t need the stress.

This is something else I have been praying about. I have had dreams. I always have dreams when I am praying about a decision. They are comforting dreams that reveal things. I have come to realize to trust these dreams as God’s way of talking to me and confirming me and guiding e. In my dream his parents told me they felt it would be a good idea for Brian to delegate this responsibility to me. I had a good long talk with God this morning . (He has been putting a song of praise and love in my heart and head every waking morning. ) I will be having a talk with Brian today. Hopefully. I will tell him I have some things I want to talk to him about and will send the boys out, probably with a timer.

*******************************************************************************

Brian had an unplanned outing as soon as he got home. (We took the boys to a free Mardi Gras Party), then we hadat Night Church (we are trying to figure out what services to go to and are wanting to boys to beinthe adult service from time to time now that they are getting older). So we had our talk after the boys went to bed. Brian quikly agreed to let me take over the Murual Fund stuff and gave me his input on ideas. So that went well.

Does anyone read me? I'm Back

2005-07-14T17:39:00.000-07:00

Actually, that probably has a different meaning to the gist of my post..... but it sounded good.... the day withthe kids and their behavior started bad...got better.... then did a complete 180 turn into the depths of horridness!!! I am in the process of packing them in a box and finding shipping rates to Madagascar..... JUST KIDDING!!!I will be making a detailed time slotted list for tomorrow!!!!....Piano.... Gavin had good notes inhisnotebook for how his lesson went. The techer wants to up his time to one hour for a month (he does 30 minute lessons right now). He said Gavinis on theverge of really taking off and he wants tohave an hour to spend with him, and he thinks gavin will be doing so well that in a month he'll be able to do the hours material in 30 minutes and go back to 30 minutes. Iin Connor and Ki's notebook all they got was... NON COMPLIANT!.... I told him that has been my entire day today. And infact the whole week had been slowly headed in theat direction. (Gavin and Ki got in big trouble after piano class, too...I am about to give up) He was glad to know it wasn't just him....LOL. He does so good with my boys. they are so stubborn and set in their ways and are easily frustrated... and he says he was jusy like that as kid and so he's fine with them and can usually get them back on track. (not today though..LOL). Oh, and he wants Gavin to come on Tuedays and "Frick and Frack" to come a different time. He said Gavin needs to be there alone without disctractionand he thinks it'll be easier on Ki and Connor to have their own day. So my schedule for the week...for a while.. will be:

Monday:

11:00 Gavin/Connor- Gymnastics

11:10 Ki- Swimming

home by 12:30, then lunch.

Tuesday:

4:00-5 Gavin has piano... what to do for an hour with the other two???????

Wed

11:00 Gavin/Connor- Gymnastics

11:10 Ki- Swimming

lunch....housework.....dinner.....church

Thursday:

4-4:30 Piano for Frick and Frack

Not too too bad, not a LOT all day long... but a lot of days involved....

NEW STUFF

2005-07-11T06:20:00.000-07:00

MY CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS ORDER ALREADY CAME! I AM HYPED! I love getting new school stuff.... whether it is paper and tape or art supplies or kits or books........

HAVE YOU GOTTEN ANY NEW STUFF FOR SCHOOL YET? When do you start your 'next year'. We are doing 'unschooling stuff' now, but our 'official start of the new school year' is in October I think. WHAT DO YOU DO TO GET READY FOR THE NEW YEAR? I plan basics for the year, then do detailed plans weekly.

I sit here waiting for an E*BOOK to print out.I am printing out 3-4 copies for my classroom. It was free with my Critical Thinking Skills Purchase. It was a fun purchase. Put not clearance rack stuff. After Shipping, I spent $206.??. What did I get for my Two Hundred Six Dolars and some odd cents amount? I'm not sure if it's a lot or not.. But I know we had talked about spening $100 or so each child for a pacakaged curriculum and turns out I didn'tneed anything this year, so Idecied to use that planned money on some 'fun' school stuff that is simple for me to do : : : : : :

2 Mind Bender workbooks (for Kiel).
2 large Orginizatinal Thinking workbook/lesson planners. There were $35 each and big and have lots of good stuff
2 CD ROMS for Latin Roots. These will probably last 3 yrs schooling or more. They are both 4th-12th grade
3 CD ROMS of a game called Math Detective. I think these are like 2-4th grade, 5-6th grade and 7-12th grade (the last was free)- so this, also will be for all 3 boys and will last a good 3-4 yrs or more.
a Free E*Book. A Puzzler Book. Looks fun.

Gavin had his piano recital testerday. I bought new shoes for him. He only had worn out sandals and worn out sneakers.

I went to Staples Yesterday to print copies of the master grids and student handout sheets from the Organized Thinking book. I just got halfway through the 1st one and felt I was there printing long enough. I will go back later. I also bought some 3 ring binders for the Ebooks and Print offs.One for each child. Imade a divder for each to seperate the Puzzler E Book from the organized thinking book. I found out not only do I get 10% back on purchases for having a teachers reward card, I also get 20% back on copy/printing orders AND I get FREE SHIPPING online for ANYTHING! I could get a new computer desk and computer for our classroom online and have it delivered to my door FREE of shipping costs!

marshmallows

2005-07-07T10:32:00.000-07:00

yes, more thoughts by me....

I have done marquees here before, but I can't get it to work today. So you just get a 'drop shadow'.

I woke at 6:58 today. No, not 7AM. I guess my brain wasn't set properly before bed. I made a chai latte and took my Bible out back to read on the patio. I haven't done that before. It was nice to breath the fresh air and hear all the birds. I used to have the boys pray in the morning, but the older two are reading well enough to be reading the Bible in the morning, too. So I have them doing that. I should have started that last year. Oh, well. They hear the word and see it lived out, so it's not a real big loss to not have started them reading on their own last year.

I read Psalms 19 today and now I have plans for a 3 partlesson with the kids, LOL. I guess you know you're a homeschoolerwhen you come away from morning devotions with a 3 part lesson for your kids, huh?

I made teethbrushing chats and I have filled in the computer time chart for today. Ki doesn't get his morning computer time or his afternoon (both morning and afternoon computer times are freebies in the summer). Connor didn't gethis morning time, but still gets his afternoon. Gavin lost 5 minutes from his afternoon time for not putting away his toothbrush. (we had taks last night about toothbrush time and putting everything away).

I will be making marshmallows today.

I need to call the pastor to arrange a meeting with him and my (almost)9 yr old. It's a requirement for his Church History Badge.

See the cute tiger I made? You can click to play with him....

::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Now for my Marshmallow pictures. They sure made a mess. I still have to vacuum and mop... which I had to do before, it's just worse now. The recipe said it'd fill one 9X9 pan.

The mixture kept growing......and growing.......and

GROWING

EEEEEWWWWW.........

EEEEEEEEWWWWWWW.... look at all the dirty dishes!!!

icky-sticky!

Looks like I amost tripled their expected outcome, seeing how much was left

on the counter and there is a 9X9 and a 9X13!

All cleaned up! (still have a nasty floor and nasty feet bottoms)

NOW TO WAIT to taste them!!!!

Planning and Evals

2005-07-06T06:21:00.000-07:00

Do you recall that Yellow book I was looking for to go through the evaluation checklist with my boys? Well, it's blue. I have had it for 4 yrs and always think it's yellow. And I did most of the evals. just reding through the lists on my own, checking off what I know they can do and circling things I am not sure and things I know we didn't even talk about I left totally blank. Do I want my boys to be on grade level and to be learning what all the other 4th graders know in History? No. So, why am I doing this? Well, a couple reasons. I really do like and need some accountability. Going through the check list shows me what they have been learning (with detailed, techinical terms that I don't know half the time and have to look up- which I love looking things up) and it lets me see what items I don't think are all that important and it also reminds me on things I do want to teach them that I have missed.

I made a list of things I want to do with the boys/have them do Daily/ 3Days a Week/1-2 Days a week. I am not done. And after I finish the list I will go through and make all the pieces fit into a schedule. And some things I may move around to a different category, I guess.

DAILY:
Piano/Music Practice
Reading (both me to them and them doing their own)
Copywork- A new thing I have added
Math
Devotion
Earobics-Kiel

3 Days a Week:
Story of the World
Science
Earobics-Gavin

1-2 Days per Week:
Typing Practice
Organizational Skills-Connor and Gavin
Latin Roots (though done with educational software/etc 1-2 days a week, i'm sure it'll be discussed through out the week)
Math Detective

The last 3 there are from the Brightminds Critical Thinking Company.

SEPTEMBER:
We have Homeschool camp from Aug27-September 3rd

Then I will go to Hawaii with my hubby for a week (probably, not set yet)

The rest of Septemeber will be spent with Bible Story Reading, Copy work, Music Practice and me reading to the boys. The rest of the stuff will start up in October.

We have put a bid on a house, that has been accepted, we are waiting to hearback from appraisal and inspection. We hope to have signed the papers by the 1st week in August. It'll take 2-3 weeks to have the new place ready to move in. We will redo all the floors and repaint the walls and stuff. So September will also be spent getting the new house all ready. I have already told myself that we might not start right away in October, things may come up.

I plan on 1 week doing a Unit Study out of the Bible with 5 weeks using the scheduled work listed above.(then Thanksgiving Break). Then a Unit Study type thing from The Biblical Story of Cristmas (about 2 weeks). Then Christmas Break (about 2 weeks). Then start up another 6 weeks with the first week being a Biblical Unit Study. A week or two off, then about 2 weeks on a Bblical Unit Study on Easter...... not sure from there. I'll get that part plannedout later.

Making Dessert

2005-07-05T06:18:00.000-07:00

As the boys were sitting down enjoying a scrumptious dinner, I was in the kitchen making their dessert. They don’t normally get desert, but I made an exception today. First I filled a bowl with those ‘short cut carrots’ and placed it in the fridge to stay cold while I prepared the rest of dessert. Carrots make a crunchy dessert that is full of color and vitamin A, or one of those vitamins. Then I got out some shredded mozzarella cheese. Ki just loves mozzarella cheese! Along with the carrots and cheese, I put out some bread and ham along with some cashews. That seemed to be enough to make a good dessert. After all, dinner was doughnuts. Connor loved this. He was so giddy with excitement as he told Ki how he and mom (that’s me) fooled dad into letting them have their doughnuts before their dinner by saying the doughnuts were dinner and dessert would be healthy. So Connor and Gavin had their sugary, no-nutrition dinner. Not Ki. Not my “Do everything by the book no matter what” kid. He said he wasn’t having his doughnut for dinner, that’d not make a good dinner. He fixed a plate of cheese, carrots, cashews and toast for dinner. After dinner he got his doughnut for dessert. I hope that means I don’t have to worry much about him giving into peer pressure.

2AM

2005-07-01T23:14:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am blaming it ALL on Kris! It is 2AM and I am up. I hauled out our boxed up books and school texts. Part of my brain needed to gather items for our Portfolio (which I am feeling VERY unprepared for--note to self- organize portfolio box to maintain through out the year). The main part of my brain needed to PLAN! Kris was killing with all her lesson plans! She just wouln't stop posting schedules and plans and lists! I love lesson planning, but was packed up (to move). I just couldn't stand it any more. So after 2 too many coffees at Bible Study and thinking about next year and portfolios...well, I just couldn't get to sleep. So I got my robe and slippers and found an empty box. I then got the packed boxes out of the garage and went through the. looking for things to throw in the empty box. Things to use for our portfolio. I am seriously lacking in work I can show. AND I forgot to DATE most things I DO have!

Going through the boxes I realized I have enough Unit Studies and workbooks and old texts that I found on clearance, that I can through together school stuff for this upcoming year. I was wanting an easier year for myself this year.Normally I write a lot of individual lesson plans for my 3 boys, but I needed a break from that.

1st order of business...plan things for this summer to be done before school starts.

2nd.....go through that portfolio box and organize things

3rd....write out a calendar of schooling for 05-06.

4th.... make out lesson plans using all this stuff I have lying around.

Thanks, Kris, for keeping me up so late!

GAMES

2005-07-01T07:36:00.000-07:00

Today I host a GAME CHAT! Now, this is a chat that does not have a special guest speaker. So far, thhose chats have a very low turn out. Like 0 people. or 1. But Today is GAME DAY! And I have PRIZES! one year free subsciptions to a homeschool magazine! I am enjoying this Homeschool Community Blog. And I enjoy scheduling chats, too!

??UnSchool??

2005-06-29T07:33:00.000-07:00

I don't totally understand unschooling. I keep getting images of unschooling being the parent does nothing and the kids only do 'school' if they decide to pick up a book and do it. In our 'summer months', we do a lot of what I reffer to as "Gently Guided Unschooling" I plant ideas in their heads that I'm fairly sure they'll want to expound upon. I gently start the ball rolling . Here is something thathappened last night. Which was a bit unplanned. Ki (8) asked where his Word Cards wwere. He loves his Word Cards ( post about his word cards here ). I told him they were packed up, because I packed up a lot of stuff so we canmove. He said he missed his word cards. This was after we did some Music Note Flash cards yesterday (and I was reminded how painful it is for him to remember the letters in order). I did have some letter tiles still out andI wanted to make sure he did know the sounds of the letters. So I got the letter tiles out- just the consonants. It's a big bag of tiles. They are nice. They are from Primary Concepts. So, I lay out a big handful and he flips them overandlines them up. I point to leters and he makes the sounds. Then I make the sounds and he finds the letter. He only had trouble with 'y' and 'q'. After that I was done. But he decided he wanted to play a game. He dumped ALL the tiles out and flipped them upside down. He counted out 10 and told me to count out 10. Then he started to count out another 10 and informed me that we each get 30, but only 10 at a time. After we ech had our 3 groups of 10 he sets the rest aside and says we can use them to trade in if we want to. Then he says. "Hey, there are 68 tiles." (there were 8 left in the pile). He doesn't often come up with totals like that without some outloud counting. Then we played our game. Which was - we took turns forming words with our tiles. He actually read most of the words I made. I had to help him a little making words. After each word was made, whomever made the word had to say a sentence with their word and the other words. After a while it took a few sentences to get all the words used. So, I guess that's kind of like unschooling....

Here is a picture of Kiel (8) with his word cards:

Times Zones and Entrepenuers

2005-06-28T08:43:00.000-07:00

I think I spelled Entrepeneurs wrong. Where's my dictionary when I need it!...wait... How DOES one look up a word if we CAN'T spell it???!!!! Did your mom ever tell you "Look it up!" when you asked how to spell something? Mine did. I remember thinking "Ummm, if I KNEW how to spell it I COULD look it up!" But I did look it up a few times, It just took a while of skimming pages I thought were close tot he spelling.

And why was I talking about Entr..p..nr...? Becuase I was on the phone with Rhea (pronounced rae) Perry last night. A well know (so they tell me,LOL) Speaker/Author on "Training your Teens to be Entrepenuers". She does conferences and has a website. Her 14 yr old is a Webmaster or something like that,LOL. Her oldest was making BIG BUCKS as a real estate investor at 18! And, no, money isn't everything and sometiimes too much money can lead to wanting more. BUT, I like the idea of self business and finacial security. It is still important that my boys will be ablle to provide for their family and it'd be nice if they had the resources to help others. AND.... how about a NICE retirement home for me later down the road.......

Oh, where was I... Talking to Rhea. The HeadFolks at the TOSMagazine asked me to schedule an interview with Rhea. So I emailed her, she called me, we chatted and I have an interview set up with her! This Chatroom Organizer gig is getting fun!

Today's scheduled chat isn't an interview, just a themed-open chat. It's on "Homeschooling Kids with LDs, Autism Spectrum, ADHD/ADD". Nothing super structured.

Wednesdays Chat is a workshop with a woman who has great organizational talents and she'll be sharing with us.

I have a bunch more all planned out. I even have a Chat Calendar! But it doesn't do time zones. So I have to say WHAT time zone I am talking about when I say the chat is at 2PM. Then I try to figure out a couple other time zones to help others out who aren't in my time zone. But then we get to folks in Ireland and stuff and that's totally different. I do know the time zone I am in is GMT-5, so I post that. Hopefully it helps.

2005-06-26T18:13:00.000-07:00

I have a volunteer job. I am helping the New Homeschool Blogger site set up a calendar and chatroom. The Homeschoolbloggersite is affiliated with The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Magazine.

Anyway, I wanted to see if anyone here wanted to join the blogger site, it's a whole homeschool commuity and becuase of that,it's a safe place for kids to have online journals. If your interested, just follow this link and check it out... http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/portal.php

We even have some 'known homeschool authors' there too, like Amanda Bennet and a few others (who I don't know, but others seem to know,LOL). And Spunky is there, too! Let me know if you make a blog there and I'll come visit and show you around!

Bible Curriculum

2005-06-24T06:25:00.000-07:00

I have decided to use God’s word as our ‘curriculum’. We will be studying Cause & Effect today. It is something they have already discovered on their own, of course. And we have talked about it before. But with an Aspie, these things are good to review. Also, they have never had a ‘formal lesson’. I’ll feel good about a ‘formal lesson’. Maybe reviewing these cause and effect scenarios and having him decipher the two aspects will help with his comprehension. These are some definitions I found on the web.

A cause is something that makes

something else happen. Out of two

events, it is the event that happens first.

An effect is what happens because

of the cause. Of two related events,

it’s the one that happens

second or last.

The 1^st one has too many ‘somethings’ for me. And though the cause happens first, often it can be worded LAST (with the effect given first). I aim to avoid any and all confusion.

The 2^nd uses the word ‘cause’ (because) to describe effect. I can foresee that as confusing to my literal Aspie boys. I will give the example first.

my example-Psalms 119:¹¹ "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you."

The Cause is the action that produces (or causes) something to happen:

When we hide God’s word in our heart, it causes us to be less likely to sin against God.

The effect is what happens as a result of the ‘cause’:

We are less likely to sin against god as a result of hiding his word in our hearts.

I will have to make sure they know that ‘hiding His word in our hearts’ is memorizing and reading the Bible.

Some more C&E examples from Scripture. I will read to them and ask them to Identify Cause and Effect.

1. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you Ex 20:12

2. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5–6).

3. Matt 7:24-27- the wise and foolish builders. 2 different effects (house remains, house falls). What is the cause of both of those effects?

4. Matt 6:14-15 ¹⁴For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Assignments:

Gavin read Proverbs 19:23, Prov 16:18, Matt 18:23-35 and finds/explains some Cause and effect relationships

Connor- read: Matthew 5:3-12. explain some cause & effects

Ki- draw pictures of the C& E from the 4 examples I gave.

3 things

2005-06-23T10:54:00.000-07:00

I am doing laundry today. Lots of laundry. I finally have a good little system. I don't have a laundry room. The laundry room is a closet, just big enough to hold the 2 machines that clean for me and the suplies needed to keep them rumming and cleaning and drying. Oh, and there is a small hanging rod and I have a basket for dirty laundry in front of the washing machine. This leaves barely enough floor space for me to stand.
::
The folding has to be done elsewhere. I have a basket system. Here are the baskets:
#1- Kiel
#2-Connor
#3-Gavin
#4-Linens (sheets and table cloth stuff)
#5-towels
#6-socks
#7-Brian

Mine just get put away after I fold everything else.. If the laundry room is clean (and doesn't have more than 2 loads of laundry to be done- more than two wont fit in the basket and spills onto the floor and I have NO standing room.) If it is clean and I am caught up,I line the baskets up in the hallway and sort as I pull things out of the dryer and can hang a few things that need to be hung. The boys take care of their emptying their own basket and are in charge of one other basket. So it may be:
Gavin-socks
Connor-towels
Ki-linens

This just leaves Brian's basket. Which he rarely empties. He tosses the basket into the floor of his closet, on top of an already moutning pile of clothes. I then just throw things into his closet as I sort. I do not empy baskets or bring them back. thatis the job of the person in charge of that basket. the boys all return their baskets.

I was sent a link to a poll. "Where do you Homeschool?"

http://www.homeschooling.about.com/library/blwherehspoll.htm

It's actually 5 different polls. I guess they could only get 10 states per poll. So Texas is at 35% with 50 votes, and Florida has 50 votes and is at 29% becuase it's in a different poll. Oh, there are polls for other places around the world if you scroll down

Connor-10.5 with Asperger's Syndrome- has NO comprehension. Not just reading, but when watching movies. It's almost funny,well,not really, but it kinda is... the 3 boys (8, 10, 11) will watch a show or listen to a story and Connor has a totally diiferent experience than his brothers. It's like they hear 2 different stories. I guess I should work on that more with him. Sometimes I'll read to just him and he will ask so many questions about what just happened a or if I ask him what happened, he doesn't know-or has a totally different version. When I read to JUST him I will often stop every other sentence to explain it.

more to the day

2005-06-22T17:38:00.000-07:00

Jub Jub finally decided to make his decent from his perch 25ft in the air. The neighbor was kind hearted enough to ring my doorbell to inform me Jub-Jub was escaping. I ran, barefoot, down the sidewalk. The Iguana had taken up a guard position next to the neighbors Lily of the Valley plants. Outdoor life has been good for him. His color is bright and he is shedding well.

I tried to gather him into my loving arms. He flared his dewlap and tried to rear up. He then snapped at me. My arms wouldn't love being bit, so I got a towel. He saw the towel and took off at top speeds. You may think a 4.5 foot iguana is slow, but they can run very fast when they set their mind to it. But he looked funny. He raises his body high off the ground. His legs and body are stiff and his belly is slightly puffed and he is running like a blind a crab.

I get him cornered in the net door neighbors driveway (on the other side of the house, he ran 1 house too far). He then decided to relieve himself off all the yummy plant remains his digestive system no longer needed. He must have been eating VERY WELL in that pine tree.

He was still being rude and puffy, so I called my husband. He came and we chased the nasty little creature through a few more yards. Brian finally caught him and brought him home. He is SO TIRED. The iguana, that is. Too tired to fight anymore.

Lets hope he remains home for a while.

Gavin choose a new badge to work on. He decided to work onhis Darts Badge.I had him do one ting off the list today. He also is writing in hie Game Story (a role playing game, like Melee) book. He designed a game and is writing some sample scenarios for playing. Very intricate work. I'm impressed with it,anyway.

Connor finished his pet care journal, researched about different species of cats and drew a few. He wrote his essay and read a website on cats. He made sure he had all the other requirments met and punched holes in all the pages and put them in a report cover.

Ki has his passage memorized and I read some scripture to him for his badge. He drew a couple pictures of a trip we took for abadge and he is working on labeling a collection from a hike.

Me. I have poison ivy and have been washing sheets. I itch.

I have decided that working on Royal Rangers counts for school.

CONNOR'S Report:

I like cats a lot. Cats are very cute and they are playful. It is fun to watch cats chase and paunce. I like it when my cat purrs. That is why I choose cats.

Cats live around the world. Cats are common in the USA. We own 2 cats in our house. Cats are not native to Australia. My mom’s friend has 2 cats in Australia.

Cats have only been pets for 5,000 years. The first domesticated cat was from Africa. Egyptians were the first to use cats as guards. Cats were good at their job. Cats came to America in 1749.

There are lots of cats in the wild. North America has bobcats, lynx and cougars. Africa has cute wildcats, like the sand cat. The Kodkod lives in South America and Asia has at least 17 different species of cats.

You are not allowed to import wild cats in to America. You are allowed to have cats with out regulations.

Writing and Taking classes

2005-06-22T09:55:00.000-07:00

Connor (10.5) is writing a repost for Royal Rangers. It is about cats. Connor always writes every sentence the same.

"I like cats. I like them because they are cute. I like cats because they pur. I like cats because they pounce"

Sometimes I'll have him choose 5 spelling words and write a sentence about each. the sentences are exactly the same expect for the one spelling word that is changed(well almost). He had to write 5 sentences about why he chose cats (to do a report on). He got his paper out and wrote down the side

I like

And he was going down, filling in the blanks......LOL... too funny. So we sat and worked on a different way to say those things. He did pretty good. He had to write an essay with 5 different parts. So we have an index card for each topic and then each of those caards gets 5 cards. One for each idea.

Card #1: Why I choose Cats.

sub-cards: a- I like them b-Pur c-watch them d-cute e-playful.

We combined d&e and added a concluding sentence. Here is what he ended up with (with some suggestions and questioning from me)

I like cats a lot.

Cats are very cute anb they are playful.

It is fun to watch cats chas and powns.

I like it wen my cat purs.

That is why I cows (choose) cats.

His essay needs to be 150 words and he will have 6 paragraphs. So I helped him figure out an average for sentences. 5 words per sentence (on average) and 5 sentences per paragraph. And now he wants all senteces exactly 5 words and that has become a real sticking point for him. Helping him understand the numbers are just a guide to get close to and not exactly how many words each sentence needs to be. (that Asperger's Syndrome thing kicking in)

Speaking of Asperger's. I have found teacher type people don't like him. Sunday School teachers do, but other teachers (public school, gymnastics, etc) don't seem to like im. They expect him to act like a normal boy (of his age) and when he acts like a 7 yr old instead of a 10 yr old, they treat him like he does it on purpose. One things that is hard for Asperger Kids is often how close they stand to othrs. They just can't judge that personal space. He will stand too close- not on purpose-but standing to close will lead to accidently bumping-when he loses his balance. He also starts to soon.. like when he takes turns.He has a lot of trouble standing back a bit until his turn and also waitng until the other person is COMPELTELY done before he starts. Then he gets in trouble for causing problems. Asperger kids often have trouble understanding the concept of time, the passage of time. Sometimes things we did in the morning he'll insist we did DAYS AGO or things we did a few dyaays ago he'll insists we did TODAY. It's a hard concept. I think that is part of why they never know when to srat, how long to wait.

NOT your BORING H.S. Convention!

2005-06-16T09:07:00.000-07:00

I need to get a hold of the campground and reserve our spot for the BIG HOOMESCHOOL CAMP WEEK! I love it! We went last year. It's MY KIND of homeschool convention. No boring lectures or publishers pushing their curriculum. It's a lot of fun. Swimming, boating, archery, hands on science classes, art classes, week long projects, Native American Indian Classes, High Rope Challenge climbing! This year the theme is Knights, Chivalry, & Catapults! We will be building catapults! there will be a real knight there and jpousting. And a medieval feast the last evening. (and they do have classes and workshops for homeschooling parents, too- but I don't like that stuff, but maybe I will try out one....) HERE is the LINK to F.I.R.E homeschool camp convention

Last year we all built boats! It was GREAT. It is such an awesome way to kick off the homeschooling year!

So, I neeed to get my campsite reserved (called and left a messsage, though).

I called the dr to get my son's allrgy meds refiiled PROPERLY! they gave me a script for HALF the amount last time and he's beenout for a couple days. Which means asthma coughs, sniffing, miserable 'brain fog', car sickness increased,congestion, headaches and enuresis.

Some pictures from Last years camp:

This is one of the boats the campers made:

Unit Study Day 2

2005-06-15T12:56:00.000-07:00

Today’s school- Reading some more from our book: George vs George. We did a few new terms and matched up the word to the definition strip. Today we started a list of important people. The boys made a line on the poster board and wrote “Americans” on 1 side and “British” on the other side. We played a coin counting game. I put a bunch of coins in a paper bag. I choose only those quarters that were state quarters from the states that used to be the 13 colonies. After the boys counted their money, they flipped their quarters and found the state/colony on their map and marked it. I printed out a black and white map of the colonies.

http://www.law.indiana.edu/outreach/oll/13coloniesbw.gif click

I had Gavin make a graph of his coins. I didn’t given him any instructions I just told him to make a graph of his quarters. He made a picture graph. (the coin activity fed Connor's obsession)

Then Break Time

Then outside with sidewalk chalk. I drew 4 Measures on the ground with treble Clefs. We al hopped out the notes the song they are working on in piano class. Then to work on note memory I had them all start on B and gave them directions (like move UP 2 notes, move back 3 notes, etc) and call out what they were on. Then they took turns hopping out their song by themselves and calling out the notes.

Reading Time:

Ki read another story to me. He is going through his book a second time, so he read to me story #2 (a link to the story I wrote).

Connor read His Cat book.

Gavin read a book on Weapons of War from the revolutionary war. (This feeds into Gavin's hunger for technical facts)

Gavin and Connor had gymnastics. Ki and I went into the Family Gym room. It’s just a bunch of those foam shapes to climb on and over. We made an obstacle course. There’s a huge ‘doughnut’. The was stood up on end to be crawled through. Then he had 3 bumps to ‘bunny hop’ over. then he had an incline. He did “Pizza Slices” on that- a backwards summersault that you land on your feet standing.-. Then a tunnel to crawl through. After that was a little mountain shape to climb. Then there was a HUGE cylinder. He had to roll……… touch a box and push himself back. Then he had something he did a ‘leapfrog jump’ over and then back to the beginning. He loved it and can’t wait till next time! Not only is it fun and just plain ol exersize, but these activities are great for his dyspraxia and Sensory Issues

AND I got to chek of my list... so EVERYONE had something today that fed their needs!

I need a nap.

Dyslexia

2005-06-15T07:11:00.000-07:00

I'm writing a posts about ways I teach my boys to help them with their dyslexia.

2 of my boys have dyslexia (the third has hyperlexia and dysgraphia). I started writing for them when the oldest was in second grade- his 1st hmeschool year.
:
I saw that part of the reason he had trouble reading was the letters too close, words too close, lines too close- so I spaced everything out. triple spaced words, double spaced sentences.
:
I also noticed that he was bored with those 'baby' story lines in the grade level he was reading (Kindergarten). So I wrote stories with words he culd read and some of his favorite words (like robot and spaceship). Kids actually can learn long words easier (when just a couple that THEY like) becuase words like cat/rat/bat/sat or hug/bug/rug/dug all look so similar and sound so similar. there's no mistaking "Iguana" or "archer". Also, having stories about their toys, friends, pets, interest, family hold their atention.
:
Some other things I use/d are plastic letters with bumps on them. I start with having them hold 1 at a time, feeling. hen they have to be able to ID each letter when placed in their hand and their eyes closed. At first I place it properly, they ID it, they I have them fell it, flip it ober, turn it upside down. Then we move to me placing the letters in ther hand upside down or backwards or crooked and theyhave ti ID it (eyes closed). Since dyslexics often never see the same leter twice I wanted them to be able to know a letter from all angles. Then we move on to using those plastic letters for small words. We may have the word 'rain and add the 't' to make train, then say 'which sound is different in the woord 'trail'. hopelfully the point to ending sound. We play games like that, Identifying beginining and middle and end sounds, which change when the word is changed.
:
Another game is giving them all letters (in a small 3-4 letter word) in their hand with their eyes closed, they feel the letters and have to figure out the word with their yes closed. Againm being able to recognize a word from 'all angles'

Ki loves his word cards. They are index cards with words from the Dolch List and some words from his Dick and Jane books and his own words he has chosen to learn. Each word is written on 2 cards- one in AL CAPS and 1 in all lower case. My kids with dyslexia had a hard time recognizing the loeer case and the capital of the the letter as being the one same letter, so this method helped. For Gavin I had to write in both those round straigt print and the 'newspaper looking' pring and script print. He got confused in school becuase hey TAUGHT kids to write D'nealian, but all the reading material was in either that block letter print with round 'a's or it was in a newspaper print with hooks on the a's and g's. I remember him almost in tears because the 'k' in the book didn't look like the almost cursive 'k' he was taught and refusing to belive it WAS a 'k', becuase "My teacher says a "k" looks like like this________ draws a loopy 'k'.."

Back to Ki. He just needed help with matching CAPITALS to lowecase, so he just got 2 sets of cards. I try to weed out old cards that he knows well, but it's hard. He hates parting with them. So I have to doit in secret a couple words at a time. (This is also the kid who cries when he outgrows his undewear and needs to replace them). Ki gets to choose 2 games and I get to choose 2 games to play with the word cards when we have word card day.

How the Word of the Week works:

Ki chooses a special word to learn on Monday. Like "archer". A word he likes that is an area of interest to him. Here is a sample of what we might do:

Day 1: draw a picture to go with the word, use clay 'worms' to make the word. make new word cards and play word card games.

Day 2: Use toes/fingers/nose to fingerpaint the word and draw a picture. Copy the word a couple times on the White board.

Day 3: Play Hopscotch with the word. (Draw a hopscotch board on the sidewalk/driveway. Use the letters of the word instead of numbers. Have the child call out the letters as they hop). I read the story I wrote w/ thenew word.

Day 4. Ki reds the story and illustrates it. Writes the new word in a salt tray.

Day 5. Play toe-touch (post its with individual letters scatteres on the wal, he crab walks to the wall and uses his toe to spell the word. Both frontwards and backwards) Reads his story to daddy and shares his picture.

Today’s Unit Study Lessons:

2005-06-14T15:11:00.000-07:00

We are doing a 2 week study on The Revolutionary war. The Unit Study book had a George Washington, but it seemed a bit too….Hmm. easy?….. not enough ‘meat’ to hold their interest?…. So, once again I can’t just to a nice simple easy unit study. I have to add 50% of my own flair, LOL. At least I didn’t insist on writing a unit study from scratch this time, like I often do.

We are reading a book called George vs George. It contrasts G. Washington with King G III. It compares/contrasts the countries, cultures, government and goes into the different areas of conflict.

Today we read pages 1-15. We made a list of 8 terms.
colony
inhabitant
agriculture
fashion
patriot
culture
civilized
Seven Years War

I wrote them on Pocket Chart word strips and wrote simple definitions out on sentence strips. During our reading we did some math.

” If 60% of the colonists had British ancestry and there were 250 colonists, how many would that be?”
Things like that. Ki found out the difference between King Georges # of children and G.W.s. The difference is 13, which just happened to be how many colonies.

Then we located the different major ports of The Colonies on the map. And located England, France and Germany. (Germany is where the Queen was from).

We read our Hornbooks that we made yesterday.

What's in YOUR school?

2005-06-14T07:20:00.000-07:00

Some people can fly by the seat of their pants and use whatever they have handy and not have to sort and file and store. And I'm amazed and impressed with people like that. Me. I need alist.I need everyhint sorted and detailed and filed........

I have a shelf with little plastic drawers I purchased. I use these to organize scissors, tape, pencils/pens, glue, etc.

I have a larger plastic drawer unit I use for larger craft itens like Tempra paints, tubs of modelling clay, etc.

In the kitchen is the school table that is used more for snacks and breakfast it seems. There is a nice white board and I have some memory verses hanging up.

I have maps and timelines on the wall and a pocket chart. It's two actually, one on each side.

I have a handy little file folder system.

Things don't quite work together and and are spread throughout the house.

Here are some things I'd like to add:

An expandable file folder thingy with compartments. So I can have daily papers I need and have a place for each child papers done that week, maybe. Maybe put current unit study pplans into. All in ONE contained area.

I'd also like a holder. Actually 3 . for my Pocket Chart strips. Well, maybe 2? One for long strips, one for sort strips andone for my wipe-off strips. Oh, and a holder for our calender stips.

Also I need a schedule for upkeep. I want to take 2 days a month to get away (my Barnes and Nobles trips) to plan. I also need to go through the next's day agenda the night before to make sure I have everything laid out. And I need to revamp my files. Right now we are starting a 3 week unit. Then I'll take 2 weeks off and then do another 3 week unit I think.

What would you like to add to your schooling supplies or organizational tools?

6 Sick Bricks Tick

2005-06-13T11:48:00.000-07:00

Ki sure is 'ticcing' a lot. Or is it ticking? I never can remember. It started when he took Occuaptional Therapy, and though he's quite the OT, his ticcing is more and more.

A lot of the time his tic seems to have to do with 'crossing midline' (something he's not comfortable with) He often has to reach one hand over and touch hiw other hand on the other side of his body. Or another 'favorite' is using his bent elbows. He'll reach his right (or left) elbow across his body and tap whats on the other side of him. He also touches his earlobes and sides of his nose a lot (this is always done with both hands). And he is ALWAYS gently touching everything with one finger. Like "before I get up from the table,I have to just gently tap this book with my forefinger". Like today he was sitting on the bleachers and I was the row up, he got up but then reached and did that tic-tap to my shoe. He does it in a way that looks like a tic as opposed to do just for fun. He does it in a OCD manner.

He's also gotten even more posseive (?) with his clothes- He's always had a hard time getting rid of cothes or outgrowing things,( he thinks he needs to keep them forever). Now he gets upset if I try to take of a string that is loose and I have to take the tags and stickers of before I give him the clothes, if he sees the tags and stickers on he insts they stay! (then the tags give him all kinds of problem touching him,LOL)

I hope he get past this little intensity phase soon.

(Ki is 8.75 yr old with Sensory Integration Disorder, mild Dyspraxia and possble Asperger's Syndrome. I think he has had vocal tics before, too, but they come and go and don't really bother anything-except they annoy mom sometimes,LOL)

part of my reason for this blog is to give me a place to 'vent' in the area of my kids' autism spectrum issues. there is no one here I can talk to about them and my husband doesn't want to hear anything that might remotely be connected to anything is not 'normal' He pretends there is NO autism Spectrum issues at all with any of us. And sometimes I just need to get some things out. I have tried some autism boards, or dyslexia boardsor SID boards, but they all just sem to talk abouthow they want their child fixed and not much about helping their child thrive how they were made. Sometimes I just need to talk about what's going on without someone trying to fix him or without someome telling me 'there's nothing wrong, he's a normal kid'

MORE CRAZY COMMENTS (part 2)

2005-06-12T06:59:00.000-07:00

The Dumbest Thing YOU Ever Heard, Part 2

>From Michelle :A woman asked a home school friend of mine, "If you don't send your children to school, who is going to teach them their morals?"

>From Char:A mother from my daughter's former public school class said, "If you were more involved
in your child's education, then you wouldn't have to homeschool."

>From Susan :"Won't they miss out on learning a lot of important stuff? I mean, how will they ever learn to stand in line?"

>From Tracy:An acquaintance said, "Every kid has to get beat up a few times in public school or they won't be able to cope in the real world."

>From Clarence and Barbara :A home school family in our town took their school days off in the middle of the week to match the father's job schedule. Some nosey neighbors had the family investigated for home schooling on Saturday!Mike: Reminds me of the social services case I had in Alabama where amother was hotlined for allowing her children to read books in theback of the van while she drove around town.

>From MDT:A friend said, "MY child is being a light in a dark place, but I guess SOME children are not able to do that."Mike: With that much condescension that lady probably fogs up her ownglasses.

>From Barb Palmer:Our girls' friends from the neighborhood ask, "If you are home schooled, who teaches you?"

>From the Austin family:A friend said, "Won't your children miss the experience of the goods and bads of dating people from other cultural and religious backgrounds?"

>From MDT:An acquaintance asked, "How can you possibly give them enough one-on-one time?"Mike (stolen from MDT): I guess the kids would get more one-on-onetime in a classroom of 30.

>From "Ozchick":A friend asked me what we were going to do during a public school snowday. I replied that we were going ahead with school. The friendreplied, That's silly. Why make your kids work since no one will be around tograde their papers?"Not to be outdone, that same friend heard me describe how I wasteaching my children baking from the Colonial period. A recent project wasmaking a cake from scratch. She replied, "Where can I buy a box of scratch,I've never heard of it?"

>From Nancy Persaud>From a 5th grade geography textbook,"Maps are smaller than the areas they represent."

>From Dana Estes:A friend said, "I could NEVER home school my children. I can't imaginespending that much time with them." She is a public school teacher.

AND THIS WEEK'S WINNER:

>From Cherie Oliver:My daughter was born three months early and had severe brain damage.We were told to put her in a home and forget about her. At the age ofthree the state said that "special" children needed to be sent to the publicschool system so that they could get the classes they needed. When Itold them I was going to home school my daughter, the school worker cameunglued. She said, "But the state can make her into a better, moredependent entity." My daughter is now a first grader who reads, writes, and does all theother first grader things. She is the most independent six year-old I know.

Crazy Comments

2005-06-11T20:08:00.000-07:00

The ~~Dumbest~~ Thing YOU Ever Heard, Part 1 By Mike Farris

My recent column requesting "dumb statements" people had made regardinghome schooling yielded a bumper crop of laughs.

>From Kara ::Our realtor learned we were home schooling. She commented about thelack of social development that would result, but tried to still be positiveby adding, "Even though they couldn't be realtors, thank goodness thatthere are lot of jobs out there which don't require people skills." Mike: Thank you, Dale Carnegie (author of "How to Win Friends andInfluence People").

>From the Austin family::A stranger said, "Don't you think your children are being deprived ofthe thrill of buying school supplies at Wal-Mart when everyone else does?"

>From Angela Blackman:A friend who is a paralegal at a very busy law firm said, "How can youever think you can keep up with having four kids at home? Don't theyjust run you off your feet? I'd be exhausted by the end of the day." Mike: It is a proven fact that assisting two lawyers is the equivalentof having six kids or else tending a dozen snakes -- depending on the ageof the lawyer.

>From Pamela Minerd:My father asked, "Will I have to bail you out of jail for this?"

>From MDT:My neighbor was picking my brain about getting the public school tochallenge her first grader. She was concerned because my first graderwas already reading while her son of the same age was just learning thesounds of letters. Nonetheless she challenged my homeschooling saying my son would still miss out. "It's important for him socially too. He needs to be offered drugs so he can turn them down."

>From Marci Zinn:A family member said, "You are just doing this for yourself so youwon't have to buy the kids any school clothes." Mike: Working 8+ hours a day for 12+ years just smacks of selfishnessif you ask me.

>From MDT:A friend asked, "Do you use books?"

>From Rose Mary Coffey:When my husband told his mother that we were going to home school, shereplied, "What makes Rose Mary think she has the right to teach my grandchildren?" Mike: It's in the same clause of the Constitution which gives grandmasthe right to feed cookies and candy to the grandkids an hour before beingsent home for dinner.

>From the Karoutsos Family:My six year old son was very fidgety in the dentist's chair.Afterwards the dentist spoke to me and told me of his fidgetiness and said, "Yourson did not sit still. It is possibly due to the fact that you home school him." Mike: I guess he thought that dentistry was so boring he would branchout into child psychology.

>From Pam Hynes:I told an old friend from high school how my son was able to progressin each subject at his own rate. She earnestly replied, "What if helearns it all before he finishes high school?"

>From the Austin family:A female public school teacher said, "Your son will turn out to bemuch too feminine or gay because you home school him. Being with hismother so much is not good for boys." Mike: I guess that spending ages 5 through 12 with female publicschool teachers would be better.

>From Laurie Winkelmann:I took my daughter to a podiatrist who specialized in treating plantarwarts. I asked how children contracted these warts. He told me thatthey often come from locker rooms or swimming pools. When I told him thatsince we home school it wouldn't be a locker room, but we do take a swimmingclass, he replied, "Yup, home schooling, that certainly explains it." Mike: Sounds like someone needs to breath a little fresh air betweenfoot examinations.

THIS WEEK'S WINNER

>From Dawn Howey:A Christian friend, "God didn't homeschool Jesus, He sent Him away toschool."Mike: I think the friend needs to be sent away to Sunday School.

Boaz's Ruth

2005-06-10T15:57:00.000-07:00

Keeps asking me qustions with NO blog for me to answer at..LOL

Anyway- in reply- you should see all three, they are like triplets!only a few inches apart. They all look like their daddy (no blaming the milkmanhere!)

and thank you. My mom taught me to sew a skirt- which I HATED being forced to learn to sew, but when I got preg, there was NO WAY I was paying those prices for maternity stuff and made some cute things and realized sewing wasn't as bad as I thought....

to those who haven't seem Ki's striped outfit, read the previous entry

ALL DONE SEWING for now

2005-06-10T15:52:00.000-07:00

I finally finished Ki's little outfit. Here are pictures:::::

Of course, you can't see the nice flat fell seams and nice little double elastic waistband easily. And it took forever to get those little arm holes hemmed properly and flat (almost flat). Tank tops are MUCH easier in something S T R E T C H Y as opposed to cotton. And the fabric is very thin and lightweight,it looks kind of thick in the pictures.

Oh, wait, here, you can see the waistband and pockets- that almost justifies the TWO days it took me to sew it....oops- I missed a couple loose strings...

(don't be fooled,Ki's outfit is VERY metalic-sparkly and shiny! and Connor's is MUCH more shiny and sparkly than it appers)

I sewed Connor's outfit in a couple hours (with taking breaks). His was easy.

Because of Ki's Sensory Integration Disorder he refuses to wear shorts or short sleeve shirts. He only wears long pants and long sleeves OR sleeveless shirts. I don't like short sleeves either, they bugme. I have mostly sleeveles or long sleeves. And Ki is ultra sensitive to seams, esp when home-sewn. SO, I do Flat Seams. I think they are called Flat-Felt seams or French seams, something like that. If you look at the seams on a man's nice dress shirt, you'll see the folded the seam over and sewed it flat, that's what I do toKi's seams. It's easy on long straight seams- though triples or quadruples sewing time. But it is hard on innerleg seams and I can't do it all in crotch seams.

Enough rambling. Time to sew the vintage little girl sundress.

2005-06-10T07:02:00.000-07:00

Here is the boys' bedtime routine- it's more of a 'school days' routine::

8:30- SNACK & MEDICINE

8:50-Clean up and Floss/Brush Teeth-use the timer. KI-Have grown up brush your teeth.

~Change into Pajamas/potty break

~Put away clothes

“Tidy 10”

9:15- Story and Prayer Time *If all work is done.

9:45- Lights Out

10:00-getting out of bed= lose computer time
Be rowdy or noisy= wake up time 15 minutes sooner

BUT, alas..... my husband is in charge of the boys bedtime and doesn't much of this or deal out consequences for getting out of bed multiple times/past 11:30PM. And he is in charge and the head of the house, so there isn't much I can do, I guess. But it is a nice looking list. (and I am very thankful Brian is so good with our boys and spends time with them)

Being sumer and the nights stay light longer, I don't mind them staying up later, but I think 11:30 is a bit too much.

Bedtime Routine

2005-06-10T06:56:00.000-07:00

MINE: this is more of a school time schedule, therefore #6 is not always needed. and #11 isn't always needed. I will stike through the items that actually got done last night........

Before Bed Routine

:::KITCHEN:::
~~Straighten School Table~~
~~Reboot Laundry~~
~~Clean Counter Top~~/vacuum kitchen
~~Shine Sink~~
Set Table for Breakfast/vacuum -- breakfast was at the school table, which was cleared
Prepare School Materials

:::LIVING ROOM:::
~~Write in Journal~~
YOGA/Exercise
~~15 minute Living Room Rescue~~ actually it was 5 minutes I think
Make PODA for tomorrow
Gather needed items for tomorrow, place in the Entry
:::BEDROOM:::
12.Lay Out Clothes for Tomorrow
13.Cuddle Time-read book, play card game, etc...

Last night at 11 I had done some sewing and watched a CSI rerun. Then walked through the kitchen. it looked like an EXPLOSION! My husband always says he'll clean up after dinner (he and the boys) since I make the meals and all. Anyway, he didn't, he read to the boys though, so I guess it's OK. I'm always saying I want to clean the house without interuption while he wisks the boys off. So I cleared the diswasher, cleaned up from making pizza,, put the left over pizza away, loaded the dishwasher and hand washed dome large items... along withthe crossed off items. I remember not wanint to. I had already done this big kitchen clean that day and was thinking 'I don't want to!'. But I did and it only took about 15 minutes, honestly.

But I have a nice list, my day would go so much smoother if I did EVERYTHING on it.

You're PUNNY!

2005-06-09T11:53:00.000-07:00

We were eating dinner last night. From the grill.

Chicken, corn, potatoes, carrot and apple slices. Wouldhavemade corn bread but we were out of oil.

Anyway, I ate a few bites of chicken to which Connor (10 yrs old, Asperger's Syndrome) says:

"Mom. why did you eat that? I thought you were a vegitarian."

see, I am a partial vegitarian. I am a vegitarian 80% of the time, but I refuse to let a label control me, so I eat meat when I want to (it just isn't often).

Imentioned that I eat meat sometimes, I just don't like it often.

He takes a bite of his chicken and sasy:

"I'm a vegitarian, see I eat chicken."

whatever. Connor likes to be odd and to not make sense.

I mention something about if the chicen pnly eats grain and corn and you eat the chicken where does that fit inthe whole vegitarian scheme, because you are eating something thatis the product of soley grains/veggies.....)

Connor mentions something about "Is that all chickens eat?"

I say "sometimes they eat insects but some just eat grains."

Connor says: :" Chickens are picky."

I respond with:
"No, chickens are pecky."

Connor about dies laughing and says to me:

"You made a punny."

Which has ME about dying in laughter becuase I know he meant I made a pun, but he's so used hearing someone say : "That's punny!" at a pun, he thinks they are called punny and not pun. (Yes, it is I who says "That's punny")

So Gavin breaks intothe conversation at this point (He has to think he is the smarted and most witty and just has to do something whenit looks like someone else may have done something witty...... and Gavin (11.5 and my Absented minded little professor) says:

"And she made money with her punny" (Ok. Gavin's never been good with the funny puns or knock knock jokes,LOL)

Then Connor (remember, Asperger's, everything is a fact, usually) says in the most seriously confused tone:

" Mom didn't make anymoney with her joke."

I'm about to die inside from my hidden laughter. Connor was dead serious and so confused as to why Gavin thinks I made money with my joke. Puns are the only jokes Connor gets, they feed into his hyperlexia. most other jokes are lost on him, esp gags. Gags are 'mean' and 'unfair' in his eyes (mine too actually)

O.K. I thought it was funny anyway...

Sew Sew Sew your Boat

2005-06-08T12:34:00.000-07:00

I am 'sew' tired!

After I sewed 2 tops, pants, arm bands and kitty suit yesterday I started on Ki's outfit today. I measrued him, cut the fabric (after ironing all the pieces and the fabric), and started on his pants. HIs pants are muchmore time consuming. Connor's were leggins- staright seam up abd down, whip around the waist, insert elastic......

Ki's mants are cotton- not strecthy. And are light weight. He is very sensitive to tags and bumpy things, so I did 'French Seams'/ Not sure if hat is exactly the term for what I do. I open the seam allowance flat (like a butterfly), then fold under the seam alloweance on each side (like a hem) and sew the hemmed seam allowance on each side. (looks kind of like the side of your jeans or a dress shirt for men). On the outer leg seam it is easy- time consuming, but easy. On the inner leg seam, it is difficult, tedious and time consuming.

Then I did the crotch seam. Then I redid the entire crotch seam. Then I did a tight zig-zag in the cruve for even more reinforcement. I trimmed the seam allowance and finished the edges with a tight zig-zag.

I need to make the wasitband- which will be elastic, but is a seperate peice. And then the cuffs. He wants elastic cuff, too.

Then onto the shirt. Not sure how a tank top from cotton (instead of stretchy knit stuff) will turn out, but he asked for that and I told him I'd try.

This is sewing week here I guess. I decided I will sew all week, the boys can get their own lunch and I'll be ready for our little lessons next week.

My list:

Finish Ki's pants
Sew Ki's shirt
sew 2 pairs of shorts I have cut out of left over scraps
Sew the pink sundress for Isabelle
Sew something from the leftovers from Ki's outfit.

I think that will last me till Saturday.

Connor was a hit at Gymnastic today with his sparkly, shiny blue outfit! I don't know how that kid can look so clumby and like such a flailing wild man and still be not half bad at what they do. He's better than the other beginner kids that take their time and concentrate.

Finished

2005-06-07T13:39:00.000-07:00

Here is the outfit Connor asked me to make for him. He added arm bands and a mask and an outfit for his kitty.

The original pattern was for a tank top, but he wanted that 'muscle top' look.

done

2005-06-07T10:44:00.000-07:00

They are done. Connor is now the VERY proud owner of sparkly cobalt blue leggins. Just what all 10 yr old boys wish they had.....

now onto the shirt.....

Who sew crow's clothes?

2005-06-07T07:45:00.000-07:00

Sue sews crow's clothes.

Slow Joe Crow sew whose clothes? Sue's clothes.

This game doesn't make my tongue lame, sir.

So, I am not done with Belle's dress, but Frick and Frack asked me to sew someting for them, so I took them to the fabric store. Connor (I think he is Frick) chose this sparkly blue swimsuit fabric. He wants leggings and a muscle shirt. What a manly sight that will be.

Ki (That'd make him, Frack) chose this red/white/blue stripe fabric that seems to have some metalic. nylom thread (makes it shiney). And he wants both a top and pants. He refuses shorts.

I had enough blue swimsuit material left over to make atank top for Ki. (Maybe I should have made myself a bikini..LOL..NOT!)

"I can't blab such blibber blubber.
My tongue isn't made of rubber"

you can call me "Ol' Rubber Tongue" then. I love Fox in Sox, sir!

IS your poodle eating noodles?

I haven't cut Ki's outfit yet. I want to sew Connor's today, so he can have it for gymnastics tomorrow.

I saw this at JoAnn's. At the store it is shown as a storage for sewing, here it is shown as a scraping storage. I want it for sewing.

Normally, I do the majority of the house, the kids do their little chores and then play. I want to play and have them do the housework today.

Pages:

2005-06-06T13:51:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the scrapbook pages I did. Well, atually all of them. It looked like lots at the time, but it doesn't look like lots now.My friend is a Creative Memories Consultant, when we scrap together Ihave fun making CM looking pages. On my own I usually just throw stuff together. I haven't donemy journalling yet, I'll do it this week I guess. (pictures from the Cottage below this post:)

Layout #1 (2 page layout) a CM looking layout. The pumpkin is a journal box.

close ups of Layout #1:

Cut the price sign out of a scrap picture and mounted on vellum.

I got this idea from a Summer Party layout sample. Well, it was kinda like this.

Layout #2: a 1 page layout for gavin's book. Not a CM inspired page.

The picture lifts to reveal a journalling box:

Layout #3: 2 oage layout. a bit CM.

This corner thingy was inspired from CM:

Layout #4 ( a 4 page layout): The 1st 2 oages are CM inspired:

close up:

3rd page: Used CM cutters, but not a CM inspired layout.

4th page: This will actually be the opening page in a Panaromic page. It will have journallingbeneath this title bar:

Layout #5. A CM inspired. Very Much so.

Last Layout- 2 page layout. CM stickers and cutters, not CM paper.

Cottage

2005-06-06T10:38:00.000-07:00

I forgot the picture of the actual cottage:

Crop Weekend:

2005-06-06T07:51:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from my weekend at the cabin. I went scrapbooking with my best friend.

Here we are onthe wave rider. I am in front.

Me in orange, Lisa in floral:

The morning View from the upstairs bedroom:

Lisa in black, Me in Yellow:

Making Lunch: Fruit Sald and Veggie Salad with turkey.

Lisa:

Me all wet:

WHAT WAS THAT NOISE???

A baby bird in the fireplace:

The Thank You card we made for the use of the cottage:

Back half of the cottage. This was an AFTER shot. I think we cleaned up rather well.

Updates from the Chord

2005-06-03T16:14:00.000-07:00

A brief explanantion of tracking pulmnary functions. We use a Peak Flow Meter. It's a device you blow into and it records your peak luncg capaciy of air flow. There are 3 different areas for pulimnary functions to be in. If Ki is blowing in the Green Zone he is fine (continue as normal). If he blows in the Yellow Zone it means he needs a rescue inhaler or an albuterol neb treatment. Neb treatments are most efficient, but not very portable, so he gets the inhaler when we are out. If he blows in the Red Zone it means do an Albuterol Neb and if there is no inpovement go straight to the ER. (see the above picture. See the red indicator0 the better your air flow the higher up the indicator registers. See the markers in the side that indicate the red/yellow/green zones. These change as the child grows and his lung mature)

I think he was in the Red Last night, but he was never able to stop coughing long enough to blow into the peak flow. He was mid Yellow when we got hom. And has been high Yellow today.

High Yellow is good, but not great. He still tires easily. He will remain on nebs every 4 hours 2 days. If he is not in the green after 2 days I will take him to the doctor. I am sure he will be though. After the every 4 hours for 2 days, I will drop him to every 6 hours for 2 days then just in the morning for a couple days.

This is a nebulizer:

Ki uses a mask like this for his Pulmicort (his daily steroids):

And a mask like this for the Albuterol:

And he still does his Zyrtec, Rhinocort and Pulmicort while on the Albuterol.

2005-06-03T06:36:00.000-07:00

I got in at 4AM. Ki and I were in the ER last night, or maybe I should say EARLY this morning. He had a 9:45 breathing treatment, then by 11:15PM he was coughing that bad asthma cough, horrible lung spasms to where he couldn't even stop to get a breath and he couldn't hardly talk0 he'd move his lips but there was barely any air to make noise, I gavehim a second Albuterol treatment. He was still just as bad, so we headed to the ER. (those are the rules- if not better after 2nd back-to-back treatment he needs to go straight to the ER). Well, the albuterol finally started to kick in about 30 minutes later. He was was doing almost fine by the time the dr got there-4 hours later. She suggest he go on Albuterol every 4 hours for a couple days and gave me a script for oral steroids to use if he's notbetter doing the every 4 hours. I am tired. He's having his 1st treatment 30 minutes late, I overslept this morning.

He asked for waffles for breakfast- I figure the ER kid can choose breakfast.....

The 1st thing he did after he was done with his morning treatment (and still coughing) was to find the 3 left over packs of saltines from the ER- she had brought vanilla wafers and fake Sprite at 1st and She had to get him sonthing else (he gets hives and breathing problems from artifical colors and flavors and increased breathing problems when your having an asthma attakc isn't good.

I had cocoa and the vanilla wafers..

Oh, yes , where was i... The 1st thing he did when done with the morning treatment was gethis 3 leftover saltine packs and handed themout to his brothers, then went back to laying down on the couch.

Asthma

2005-06-02T08:01:00.000-07:00

Ki has been having soma asthma problems the past couple days. It's partly my fault. He has been on Asthma meds for 7 yrs (since he was 18 months old) and has been on Pumicort for 3 yrs. He has been doing GREAT- you'd never know he has asthma most days (he does get out of breath a little easier than most kids, but that's about it). I have been wondering if he still needs his meds- I don't want tobe giving him steroids (even if just inhaled) forever if he doesn't need them, yet if he on them how do I know if he needs them or is just better? He lost all his masks for his nebulizer and I decided to give it a couple days before getting new masks. After the 1st night w/o Pulmicort he seemed fine. After night #2 of no Pulmicort he starts in with the coughing and the extreme fatigue followed by deep,dark circles under his eyes (blood vessel constriction in the nasal cavity), by evening he has the really tight voice-like when you squeeze the neck of a baloon while the air is coming out. So, I give him Albuterol-twice- it helped enough for him to be able to sleep. I dug through the house and found an OLD mask and cup (not really designed for Pulmicort- but it will work) and used that for his Pulmicort and will be picking up his needed masks today. I feel bad, but he's not doing miserable, just doing bad. Anyway- now I know he does still need the meds.

If you're curious: Ki takes Pulmicort, Rhinocort (nasal steroid spray) and Zyrtec. I am not sure I am happy withthe zyrtec though.

I went to Click and ordered pictures to the tune of about $22.50. That's about 78 pictures. I have a whole slew of pictures Ineed to scrapbook. I will be gone this weekend. Scrapbooking in complete solitude. Well, almost complete. It will be just me and a friend at my InLaws cabin they have on the lake up North.

I measured my friend's daughter for a dress I am making. It is from a viintage dress pattern. about 1958. Adorable. She loves vinage-y looking things. Then I measured my self for bra size,LOL. My friend is a call center worker for Victoria's Secret. She informed me they don't even have bras in my size,LOL. How sad is that? I usually can't find them inmy measurement size anywat (30AA) and for some reason bra makers think if you wear a 30AA you must be 13 and have the proportions of a 13 yr old. 30AA always fit weird. I just get 32AA. I am sure that is way more info than you wanted. I am tired.

I did some cleaning at my friend's house, too. It is always so much easier to clean someone else's messy house. It's a different mess than what I see everyday and I can clean and leave and not see it for 2 weeks and pretend it is clean that whole time. Not like here. I clean and in 2 days it's a mess again.

I called and left another message on my brother's cell phone. He isn't returning my calls. I need to pick up a birthday present for him. Not sure what to get him.

Hubby is working late. Not a big deal. It's kind of nice not to have to make dinner,LOL.

Give me a "C"! Give me an "O"!

2005-06-01T13:24:00.000-07:00

No, Not "c-o-n-n-o-r"........

We have a cocoon! Not a chrysalis, but a cocoon. Therefore we will end up with a moth, not a caterpillar!

All of our caterpillars, save this cocoon, have died or escaped. And we have an addtional caterpillar that was found today. This cocoon strengthens my resolve to complete the project. See, I had not done the lid. Bad me. It was the math portion of the project, too, I must get around to it, I guess.......

MATH- yes, always math. Today's math- measuring the aquarium for a lid- this also involved logic. They had to figure out WHERE to measure and the best way to get that measurement. Connor and Ki had some problems reding the yard stick. Connor just needed a quick reminder. Ki needed the 8ths and 4ths explained again. (he needs LOTS ot reiinforcement lessons).

The boys climbed the apple tree in search of more caterpillars (science and gym class?), then they made Apple Launchers out of sticks (Physics Class, I'm sure). Gavin and Connor had a match. Connor's apple went 125 steps. Gavin's apple went 123 steps. Connor was so sure he was the winner! Then I explained their feet were diffrent sizes. Inside, after Gavin measured for the lid, I had him measure his shoe so he can calculate how many inches. It was easy. 10 times 123 He was there an awful long time. Appernetly he wanted to know how many feet, so he dividied his total inches by 12. Then he decided to add two feet cince he left half an inch between most steps. He had 104 1/2'. I had Connor measure his foot (9 inches) and he asked me to do his math for him. I did, but he had to stand there and walk me through it. We added 2 feet to his two as he wasn't a perfect heel-to-toe and he ended up at 104' even. Not super exact or anything, but still math building.

**************INSERT COMMENT BY AUTHOR************

Here is a close up picture of me. That is Ki in front of me on the log flume.

My husband likes taking these unflattering pictures. There was a LOT of them.

I'll leave you with a bit nicer of a picture:

Where We Were.....

2005-06-01T12:46:00.000-07:00

I am sure you were all so worried about us, what with no post yesterday. Rest at ease. We were fine. We took the kids to Kings Island (big amusement park). If you recall, the boys had decided if the tiny carnival in the corner of the store parking lot was $10 for all the rides you want from 7-10/11PM , then $35 for all the rides you want ALL DAY LONG at a MUCH bigger amusement park was a good deal. So after they told their logic to their dad he agreed to take us all. Here are some pictures. First will be a couple group shots, then a park overview series:

Gavin (11.5), Ki (8.5), Connor (10) = total weight according to the Guess Your Weight is 185#. This will be a COOL Scrapbook picture!

Ki David

Frick and Frack had to run the Water Pipe maze-- 5 times.

Behind Ki, Connor and Gavin is the Eiffel Tower- what King's Island is known for. It is 314 feet high. They square thing is the observation deck (about 250 feet up)

Pictures from the observation deck:

That tall tower is "Drop Zone", 315 feet high and they take a load up seated in rollercoaster seats around a circle, and DROP them! There are grown men who are afraid of this one! And my 10 yr old rode it. He also rode The Beast (the BIG wooden rollercoaster- another namesake of the park.) And a bunch of other's he loved them!

Gavin on The Vortex- I wish I wasn't sick from all the other rides, I usually like this one. Corkscrews and loops gallore!

And the concluding shot:

2005-05-30T18:25:00.000-07:00

The suits of armor the boys made from my cardboard tube rollercoaster parts:

Ki cried after this picture. I rolled his pants up so I could see his shin armor. He hates shorts and rolled up pants.

Connor’s skin is the color of papertowel tubes.

The Job

2005-05-30T18:05:00.000-07:00

The apron I made for my friend’s daughter. It’s a bit big.

Just a basic white eyelet apron. Trying out my mom’s sewing machine and making sure I still know how to do gathers and hems and seams…..:

And a matching apron for her dolly:

I LOVe to design and sew things, but it has been probably 4 yrs. I finally got my machine out- but it was missing apiece, so I had to borrow my mom's. WOW. it felt great! And I love not using a pattern- just winging it. (too bad I can't do that for school as well).

Now that I have the apron done I am ready to take onlatger projects.

A Gerbil?

2005-05-30T12:38:00.000-07:00

The boys' kitty caught a gerbil outside We thought it was the neighbor's. They had lost a gerbil a few months ago. But they are denying this gerbil is theirs. I am sure you can imagine what position that leaves me in.

"Mom, can we keep the gerbil? and get a gerbil cage and a gerbil wheel?"

I told them they'd probably have to gather together thier own funds and dad would have to give them permission. I just can't see this going all too well.We have 2 cats, 3 snakes, an iguana and 3 fish already.

I have been collecting papertowel tubes. I had planned on sending the boys outside with papertowel tubes and tape and a few other things and telling them to build a rollercoaster. We'd talk about angles and cintrifucal force and inertia and kinesthic energy, etc. They could use small bouncy balls in their roller coaster. Sounds good, huh?

I was in the garage today and Ki comes into the garage to show off his armor. He had cut the papertowel tubes to make a suit of armor. Connor quickly goes off to make his own suit of armor.

So much for making roller coasters! I guess I need to start saving papertowel tubes again. I'll call my mom and ask her to save them, too.

I am making an apron today for my friend's little girl. She is getting some material for me to make a cute apron and I wanted to make up a sample, like a trial run. I just don't have her daughter's waist measuement.

I am very much on sensory overload today. And I don't have time for a nap. Everyone better stay out of my way and out of the house.

Apron done. This carpet is driving me bonkers today. We will be having all wood floors (or even tile or kitchen linoleum wil be FINE with me) in the new place

Day in Pictures

2005-05-29T17:24:00.000-07:00

My bestest friend asked me to take some pictures of her driving her van past a sign. Well, what are best friends for…….? So, I hopped in my car and follow her to the sign. I am wearing a skirt and a sports bra. (not the bra-looking kind, but the kind ladies wear jogging) It was hot outside today-and someone turned the heater on in the house. ) I figure snapping a few pictures on corner is no big deal, no need to wear real clothes that actually GO TOGETHER! Sports bras go with biker shorts. a blouse goes with a skirt. Here are some pictures:

This one I stood on the corner. Nothing special. It was all good.

For this one I actually stood off the tip off the cement island between the lanes. I was there a few minutes waiting for her to turn around Yes, in the actual street. Yes I was wearing just a white sports bra and skirt. Yes I had people yelling ‘smart remarks’ at me as they drove by. Lisa said she was laughing so hard she almost wrecked.

Yes, I crossed back in front of some of the stopped cars that were making the remarks to get this shot.

Yes. I stepped out in the street. I was blocking a car from turning.

This is what Lisa bought me for risking my life to get her pictures.

Here is the lightsaber fight that occurred in my front yard today.

there was a causality.

Connor was hanging his tongue out, it was so funny.

Butterflies (todays long)

2005-05-27T12:09:00.000-07:00

As I was in the shower, Connor sticks his head in the bathroom door (the door to bathroom, not the shower curtain) and asked if he could go to www.butterflies.com. (which I did check and it is OK) Whenever he wants to look up something, he wants to go to www.what-he-wants-to-lookup.com So, everytime I have to explain to him we do NOT go www.whatever.com, we don't go to random websites. I told him he could do a google search WITH a parent present. He says OK and leaves. Later this morning they all 3 come into the computer room and have lots of butterfly cards in their hands. They are these really cool zoo cards we had when I was little. Apperntly they were going through them and wanted to look them up. They had all their favorites and were tellingme how big they get and what countries they are from. Gavin did a google search. (Connor still telling him to go to 'www.the butterfly's name.....'). We found a really nice site Kidexplorers-rainforest butterflies. It's a Biblical based information site for kids about butterflies and has games and links to other information. So we read a few facts about butterflies and moths, looked up a few countires of some of their favorites and they played some games. I showed them the classification on the backs of the cardsPhylum, class, order, family, genus/species. abd we talked abut that some. Then we sat down with l the butterfly/moth cards and our large world map. We picked different cards, took turns readng off information. Oh, and when talking about classification I asked Connor to tell where we live using the classification. The largest group down to the most specific. He said "MilkyWay-Solar System-terrestial planets-earth-northern hemisphere-north america- united stated-ohio-our city-our street-our house number". Then Ki wiped his chocolate covered hands on his jeans and I had him get up to wash. This is where I have the most probelms. Not being prepared for studies. Sitting down wt the instant the moment hits and studying the crads and the map- not taking into account Ki is still eating his breakfast bar and has sticky gooey hands or that the others haven't even eaten breakfast. So we took a breakfast break. As we are getting food together, Connor brings me 2 cards and is excited. "Look, noth of these have the SAME FAMLIY!" so we read the names of the butterflies. The Drk Blue Morpho and the Morpho. Gavin said he had 2 cards witht he same family, but you couldn't tell they had the same family by their names (like with the morpho butterflies). Then Gavin breaks into song :"We are family. My brothers and my sisters and me..." Breakfast for Connor takes a long time as he is engrossed in reading the backs of cards. Gavin ate quickly to get back to the online games at the kidexplorer site. After breakfast we went back to all 4 picking cards and going around the circle reading inforamtion and finding their location on the map.

Now Gavin and Connor are playing chess on the computer.

Then we went outside to shovel gravel. It's PE Class. Shovelling gravel into the wheelbarrow nd taking it around back.

We'll be taking Soksey to the vet at 2. And Brian might take the boys swimming tonight. I am ready to be done with this entry.

Have a great day everyone!

today's short: May 27

2005-05-27T10:28:00.000-07:00

My Lunch today-

Apple Bean salad-

diced granny smith apple
can of black beans
can of red beans
can of garbanzo beand
some diced red onion

Baked Tortilla chips-
spritz tortilla with water.
sprinkle with salt- I used sea salt ground from the salt mill thingy
Cut flour tortilla round into 6-8 triangles
bake -I did about 350* and checked them at 10 minutes then every 5. I think it took 20 minutes .

Use the bean salad as a 'salsa dip'

Looooong May 26th

2005-05-26T18:22:00.000-07:00

You wanna know something funny? I wrote my short entry this morning. At the time I published it, I had 2 comments on yesterday's looooong. By 3:30 today I had ZERO comments on todays short, but went up to 5 on yesterday's long...LOL.

Maybe my long litany of our rambling day isn't as boring as I thought.

Brian came home from work early to work in the back yard. He's moving gravel. The boys are helping. The work is good for them. Brian doesn't realize how good though. The priocepter sensory input is so great for their autism spectrum stuff.

We are reading The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. I need to find Devil on Deck and read from it today, too. And I haven't done our Story of the World for a few days, but that's OK. Both of our other books teach history.

Ki has lots of memory work for Royal Rangers. I am putting his Bible Verses into song. We are using Mary Had a Little Lamb for Matt 7:13,14. He asked about using other songs. We tried a few, but they just didn't work. Then he complained that he WAS going to use Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I told him that we tried it and the words just weren't fitting and so the song wouldn't work for helping him memorize. I told him that he needs to learn to follw instructions better and just use Mary Had a Little Lamb, like what I was teaching him. I am all for kids choosing directions in eduation and learning on their own, but there also comes apoint where parents need to step in because sometimes the kids aren't choosing a good direction and sometimes parents just know best. Kids need to learn to follow instructions and obey authority ans well as learn hoe to teach themselve and make their own choices.

Do any of you know the song "Fill Up My Cup" ? it's a 2-part song.

Boys sing in a DEEP LOW voice "Fill up my cup" and the girls sing "Fill up my cup and let it over flow...."

then oys sing in a DEEP LOW voice "Fill up my cup" and the girls sing "Fill up my cup andlet it over flow...."

Then they sing together "Fill up my cup and let it overflow. Let it over flow with love"

Then you sing all the verses of Amazing Grace that way.
We are using that song for Acts 1:8.

It's fun so far. Till we go past Ki's 10 minute duration mark and he has a meltdown and acts all icky and defiant and snotty, then goes and takes a nap. (the mood swing that comes with Sensory Integrations Disorder and AHDH and Aspergers type things and he has all 3).

I have always enjoyed singing the Bible. I like :

"The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.

chorus- More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. "
and "Lord you are more precious than silver
Lord you are more costly than gold.
Lord you are more beautiful than Diamonds, and nothing I desire sompares to You"

Oh, I love the round-Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord......."

One of my fav 'spirtual songs' as kid (and still is)

"King of Kings and Lord of Lords.. glory. Alleluia." Like a Jewish dancing song.

What are some of your favorite songs that put scripture to music? Gavin has been singing parts of our newly made up songs. It's neat.

Next week I want to start using our schedule. Our summer schedule is very easy, but I really think it would benefit everyone if we had some accountaibilty to some daily scturcture and routine. click HERE to see our summer schedule.You'll notice 3 things on math for 'other days'. It is not ALL 3 each day, but one of them is to be done. As much as I like the laid back ease of this 'almost unschooling' my kids have learning disabilities that requires me to make sure they are getting review daily or the regress in their scholastic skills. I wouldn't be doing my job as a godly parent if I were putting them at a disatvantage like that. And I need to take the Chinese off Gavin's now that his class is over.

2005-05-26T07:55:00.000-07:00

Today's SHORT- Don't forget to read the long one writen around midnight last night!

Gavin (11) was writing a happy birthday card to Pappy. I wrote "Happy Birthday Pappy" on the board for him to see for refference, but mostly it was for the younger ones/ Gavin asks "Is it b-a-t-h?" And I know he meant "Is BIRTHDAY spelled with a b'a't'h?" , but he never says what he is talking about- just talks about it anf assumes I'll know,LOL. Anyway, it was RIGHT there on the board and he reads on 5th gradelevel- I get frustrated- I mean a kid who can read 5thgrade and comprehend higher can't realize that BIRTH doesn't have the /a/ sound and there is an /r/ sound.... So I tell him it's right there on the board in front of him... He says ok. looks at the board and writes. "Happy (backwards p's) Barthday Pappy, love Gavit." He didn't even spell his own name correctly! I should really calm down about this stuff.

See, Gavin doesn't HEAR vowels and letter blends (like the rth or str is bad, too) so he can't SPELL them. But he can read them.

The card was great- he drew lots of tools and wrote something like "Have a toolriffic day" and the front of the card looks like the door to Pappy's shed. See- focus on his talents not his 'disabilities...."

paying fines....a loooooooong one......

2005-05-25T20:25:00.000-07:00

(written ~~Thursday~~ Wednesday evening. if you make it through the whole thing, leave me a note)

OOOH! GIFs work here! That is a start. I usually do homeschool journalling here and not much else. I do have a private online journal I use for my boring day-to-day thoughts and ramblings. Yes, I know, I could just write in a book with a pen or even just open a WORD document. On the journal site I can use lots of differnt HTML features. I have enjoyed learning HTML and I enjoy the creative outlet of designing different HTML layouts, even if it is private. To make a long story short, my private online journal is down today. That means YOU are chosen and privleged to be bored with my normal day to day ramblings about nothing.

Everyone in family has a library card. Everyone that is, except my husband. He just uses my card. I have 2. One is my normal card and the other is my teacher card. With my teacher card I can books for 6 weeks at a time. The librarian and my friends all tell me I can just use my teacher card for whatever books I want to checkout, but I would feel illegal and deceptive if I were to borrow 'non-school-selective books'. The same happens at Staples, I sort my items into school and non-school to use my card there. They keep telling me it's OK to get the $2 folder (for my husband) on my teacher card. I just can't use my teacher card for both.

back to the library cards. So, we have this new system inplace that seems to be working. I had gone down to just using my teacher card and Gavin's card as I was afraid of the fines that might be on the others and I knew these two cards were 'clean'. And we have kept them 'clean' recently. So I decided to reinstall all the boys using their own cards. Oh, I lost my teacher's card, too. I lose things often. I am trying to get better. The more I try to organize the more busy I get woith lists and schedules and the more behind I get. I go to the library and have the librarian scan all the cards. I have all the keychain cards for our library cards. So, she scans each, tells me which card belongs to whom and how much is owed. Hmmmm. Now the truth can be told. Or the rest of the truth. Another part of the reason I only have been using Gavin's card and mine is because those are the only cards that are marked....... I have an 80/20 problem. I get great, creative ideas and go all out to accomplish them or make them. I uualy have 50-70% of what is needed, thenI go to the store and buy a few things, but just never get to buying EVERYTHING needed to fully and efficiently complete my tasks and schedules. So, I didn't mark all the cards, but the librarian told who owned each card,I got my Sharpie out and marked all my cards@! AND I renewed my lost Techer card (and marked it) AND I paid off all the fines! They weren't bad at all. a 50cent, 17cent, 50 cent and $1.20. So we all have fesh clean slates. The 17 cents wason Gavin's but my fault, I had gotten Connor's books out on Gavin's card and then forgot to mark the calendar, not that marking the calendar always helps. I also have a bit of a problem with days, times, numbers.... I get them all mixed up. I am often showing up at the wrong time/day for appointments. And even when I do have the right day and time I am always nervaous I have it wrong untilI get there and we are called in (or whatever). Infact, last week I all the sudden freaked out because I had missed Connor's eye appintment. It just hit me. It was 2ish and it just hit me.."OH NO! I missed Connor's eye appointment this morning!" I was SO UPSET! and embarrased and frustrated that I am always getting days and times confused. Then I realize that Connor is in the other room....wearing his new glasses that he got the week before after going to the eye appointment..... No, I didn't forget his appointment, we had already been two weeks previous!and why did I only think I missed Connor's? Ki had an eye appointment that same day....

oh, the moral of my story--- see, I knew the books were due the 24th. But I thought today was the 24th. I also thought today was Thursday. Now this is totally illogical, because Thursday is the 26th!

I actually have more exciting stories from today, but this is getting rather long already. I dropped the boys of at Royal Rangers. Ki is so excited about getting badges! Then I went to Trader Joes and got some snacks. Fruit Leathers (all natural fruit Roll-Ups*) Trader Joes makes a grany smith apple. It is the ONLY fruit leather Ki can have. He can only have golden delicous and Granny Smith apples, so he can't have apple juice or apple leathers unless they say "Granny Smith" or "Golden Delicious". I got my Chai Latte and some Balance Bars. Ki can have Triple Chocolate Balancebars and the chocolate Prima Bars- that's it and it is nice to be able to boost his nutrtion. My shortened grocery story. Oh, I bought Parmesan 'goldfish' crackers for Ki. He can have those too, but not the cheddar ones or pizza. They will be his church snack.

Next story from today. Are you still with me? Do I still have an audience. Are you still awake?So- The boys have been saving their money for this carnival. a handfull of carnival rides set up in the strip mall parking lot, some carnival games and food. They also have been asking about King's Island (big amusement park like Six Flags). They asked how big it was and if we can go sometime. I told them we have talked about it, but it's expensive for a family of 5, but we will go sometime. They asked how much and I told then I think $35 a person (times 5........YIKES!). Gavin asked if you still had to pay for eachride when you got in. No. You pay the $35 and you ride almost anything (somehtings they are too short for). Then on the way home from church they say that the carnival was a $10 entrance fee and for $10 you can ride all the rides you want! all 5-6 of them..... for a few hours as it doesn't open till around 7:30...... They decided that if the carnival was $10 for a few rides for a few hours, that King's Island was a good deal at $35 for dozens and dozens of rides ALL DAY! They talked to their dad and explained this to him and asked if we could all go to King's Island. I love when they find the logic and present a good argument on their own. So they will be spending their hard earned money at King's Island instead of the carnival.

Am I short

2005-05-25T15:37:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd try out some HTML tricks here. I can't make a marquee here. I like maquees. The HTML is very ~~limited~~ restricted. There maybe a way to do more. I have seen blogs with more HTML.

I am at a fork in my blogging road. I see that most people enjoy reading short entries. I like reading short entries, too. I like reading long entries. I like people reading my entries. (and leaving notes, of course) But I think most people enjoy shorter entries. I write long entries. I cam't give a good account of what we do in our schooling in a brief entry.

I could do brief entries inbetween the long detailed ones.

there. The End. Was that a short enough entry?

Gonna be a long day.....

2005-05-25T06:30:00.000-07:00

I had 5 notes last post!!!! ~~does this blog accept annonymous notes? When you leave anote, is there an option for an unsigned, non-blogger note?~~ ~~it doesn't. Never mind.~~ It does now!

I have a new monitor! YEAH! Well, it is an old used one, but the one I had was YELLOW! It was like there was a dark yellow film over the screen. I could hit it over and over and sometimes it'd pop back to ~~yellow~~, but would still be dark. This one is smaller and the words are a bit fuzzy, but It's SO nice not to have a dark yellow film over everything. I can see people's pictures now! I can change my font color and not have it be a suprise when I see it on a different computer.

We were supposed to go to the Fen to walk around, but Connor woke up late (very rare) and is coughing and all sniffy and congested. His eyes are bloodshot and his forehead feels warm. We may walk to the park though.

I had a dreamlast night. It was actually oneof those early morning dreams when you are trying really hard to make yourself wake up and you keep dreaming you woke up..... Anyway, there was this nasty looking bad guy trying to get into out window. He was wearing brown leather cloak and hat. The leather almost had a reptilian texture. He reminded me of Freddy Krugger in my dream. Not that I know if I would recognize him in real life as I never saw those movies,LOL. dreams are like that.

Breakfast- Pancakes. Connor complaned on and on about them and then gobbled up a couple. He also complained about them while he was gobbling them up. He complained about not having the exact same amoung of drink as his brother this morning, too. He complains a lot. He enjoys it. I think it's a hobby. It's part of the Asperger's Syndrome. Complaining about everything, even if you like it. Complaining just for the sheer joy of complaining! My Aspie dad is the same. My friend's Aspie is the same, too. They just love to complain. And when Connor doesn't feel well, it heightens his Asperger's Syndrome. He probably won't let me touch him today either.

Ki has some memory work for Royal Rangers. He had me print out the verses on cards and today he is drawing pictures on the back of the cards, so he can 'read the pictures' to help him remember the verses.

today

2005-05-24T08:04:00.000-07:00

**To Read the answers to my Interview Questions, go to previous entry**

today---Dh and I met MIL at Panera. She had the boys there. FIL was there, too. We ate. DH drove to work. FIL left for work. MIL took boys and I to her place, packed the boys stuff into my car (which was left there) and boys and I came home. We stopped at the pharmacy anf picked up 2 perscriptions for allergy meds. At home, the boys had reading time while I read emails. Then Connor and Ki (10&8) cleared the DW. Gavin is playing. SMT (Satelite Model Tech Kit) It's a computer graphic program. CAD. (Computer Animated Design?). I would have to say it'svery educational. Lots of math.

Gavin (11-dyslexa/auditory processing disorder) always says: "Screem" instead of 'screen'. I asked him to spell it for me. thinking if he spells it enough or sees it spelled enough he'll realixe it is a :N: not an :M:. I asked him to spell 'screen'. He says "sneech".. I bet if I asked him to write it, he'd get it much closer.

Ki is vacuuming and Mopping the kitchen floor for $3. Alo moving and putting things away in there. He asked how much he'd get for a REALLY SUPER good job and howmuch he'd get for a 'medium regular job'? I told him if he did a good job he'd get $3, if he didn't do a good job he'd not get anything.

There is ging to be a carnival up the street (well, up and across the intersection) in a parking lot. I told them if they wanted to go and have money to spend, I'd give them extra jobs to earn money. Yes, vacuuming is a normal job, but mopping isn't. So to move boxes (since we are packing) and rearrange and vacuum and mop is a paying job. I have made a list of jobs and written them up on the dry erase board for boys to claim.

Gavin is now teaching Connor how to use the CAD modelling program. Educational for both of them and a brotherly bonding event.

I printed out Ki's memory work to get his badge. We'll really work hard on that today and tomorrow.

Jobs I posted:

_K_ vacuum/mop kitchen (put things away, move them, etc)....$3 (countertop/sink. mmicrowave + $1)

_C_ Remove/gsther sticks from the yard........$4 (sounds simple, but we have some HUGE branches (over 10 foot, as thich as my thigh with many branches andlimbs. he will have to cut off all the limbs and saw the branch into 2 foot segments and stack them all up)

_K_ clean/vacuum/mop my bathroom $3 (a very thorough job)

_C_ clean, organize, vacuum, mop entry ... $3(lots to pick up and put away and in dire deed of a deep cleaning)

_G_ Clean, pack, decutter, vacuum hobby room ... $4 (another HUGE task. Will take hours I bet,LOL.)

_G_ clean out fridge and freeze/outside, too...$3

Hubby and I have a date tonight. An Ebay date! He has a bunch of Star Wars things to sell andI have dome CreativeMemories things and some books.

The boys are talking a bit about their new rooms. The entire upstairs will be theres. It is 2 large rooms *about 12x12 and 12x15 is my guess*. They all want a Jungle theme in their rooms. so I think the whole ipstairs will be a big jungle. The hall, the bathroom. Gavin wants a laundry shoot and wants to have it be a lion head and they open the mouth and drop their laundry down. I so hope we get this place/ The boys will have fun planning and decorating their room. I can think of lots of educational things for it. (measuring, drawing graphs, researching, designing, etc....)

APPLE MATH

The boys asked for apples today. Gavin(11) asked to share my apple with me.They are HUGE Braeburn apples and we usually share them. I cut my apple in half. I said to Gavin- " I cut my apple in half to give you a piece. Then I cut your piece in half anf then cut each of the halves in thirds. How many pieces do you have? How many pieces would there be if I cut the whole apple that way.

Connor's (10)apple (a bit more complex as my mental juices get flowing). I say (after I cut his):
"I cut your apple in half. I cut each of those in half. (how any pieces so far, Connor? 4) I cut half of those into 3rds and the other half I cut in half. How many pieces all together?" I had to walk him through part of it in the beginning, but he got the answer very quickly.

Ki(8) I walked through each step:
me:"Ki I cut your appl in quarters- how many pieces?"
Ki:4
Me:"Now, I cut eah of those pieces into quarters. How many pieces did I cut each of the 4 into?"
Ki: 4 pieces each.
Me:"Ki how many pices all together? How many groups of 4 do you have?"
Ki:4 groups of four. PLus the 4 pieces, so 8 groups of 4"

Kinda confusing for an 8 yr old, so I used my finger to show the first and second cut then asked him after the I cut each piece into quarters how many pieces does each finger have? How many groups of 4? Then I had him gruop the four groups of 4 into 2 groups. he figured each group and 16 all together.

Then I asked Gavin what if I cut all of those in half?

32

Connor, what if I cut all of those in half?

64.

Gavin says"And if you cut those inhalf it's 128 and if you cut THOSE in half......."

Gavin and Connor went onwith that till they got in the thousands.

How close to Unschooling is that?

Survey Says.......

2005-05-23T20:36:00.000-07:00

ANSWERS TO THE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS YOU ASKED:

mamabear said...
1. where do you live?
Dayton Ohio

2. where were you born? Dayton Ohio (but I did live inVirginia for a year and am in a different suburb than I grew up)

3. where would be your dream vacation? Scotland or Egypt or Australia

4. what is your favorite dinner menu your grandma used to make? I don't recall my grandmothers making much. I loved hen my mom made stuffed green peppers, though.

5. what is your favorite hobby you like to do when your children and hubby give you a little bit of free time? Scrapbooking or sewing

RANDI said...
1. Do you plan your homeschool days or do you make it up as you go? A little of both. In the fall and winter I do a lot of planning. That's out 'textbook/structured' school time, then we get more andmore relaxed until about the mid-end may we are pretty much unschooling (with a few small nudges from mom)

2. What is your favorite book? Dune and Green Eggs & Ham

3. How did you and your hubby meet? I was 18, 1st yr in college and found a Bibe group. Brian was 26 and had graduated, but was there helping the Bible group get started. I had not met him yet, but was invited on a 'group date' and kinda set up with him. (Oct 90)Of the 5 'couples' (maybe it was 4) we were the only that 'worked'. We kind of did some 'getting to know you' dates for a few months (I still went with someothr guy inter3est, and he still went out a couple times to). We decided to date Steady 1st of the year(Jan 91) and were engaged July 2nd and larried September 14, 91.

4. If you had 2 extra hours in everyday to do whatever you wanted-how would you spend it? probably sleep. Sad, huh? That'd be every other day. The other 2 hour slots would be hobby stuff or going to Barnes and Nobles or working out at the Y.

5. If you could go to college (again?), what sort of degree would you like to earn? I am working off and on right now to get my degree to be a medical interpreter for the Deaf. Though, before I got married I wanted to work with high level infectious diseases or work in forensics. Hubby says he doesn't really want me doing that and bringing nasty deadly germs back home.

Margueritte Louise asks:
1.What kind of music do you prefer? I like Praise and Adoration and I like anything by Sting. I also enjoy those 'nature sound' CDs and ethnic music (almost anythng from Irish to Aborigine to native Hawaiian.....) and jazz.........

2.What is your favorite color to wear? deep blues and purples, I guess. and line green. or red. or black. Just not orange or yellow or brown.

3.Where would you like to go on vacation? Egypt or to a little rented cotage with a hot tub.

4.In a fine restaurant, what would you order that you would never cook for yourself? Creme Brule. I don't go to many fine restaurants

5.Have you ever met a famous person, and if so, who was it? I don't think so.I doubt I'd remember if I did.

The Highlander asks:
1-what do you see your boys doing when they grow up? They claim they will have thier own company designing robots and building them. If that doesn't happen I can see Gavin going to China to be a teacher. Connor- he also wants to havehis own junk yard and car towing company. I seriously can see it happening. Ki- I'm not sure. He's very social and wants the make sure all is fair and just in the world and everyone follows rules. So, I guess not a politician. He has said he wants to be a pastor. I can see him maybe being a Social Services worker. But, all-in-all, I see the boys as being best friends and being there for each other and having close relationships with their family.

-what changes do you forsee in the world in the next 50 years?
ooooh. Is this a political question? I don't do well with those. Or is it a fortune teling question? Hmmm. 50 years. I'll be 83. I'll proably be a widow. Brian would be 91. I guess he might live that long. The world though.....Changes. humanoid robot companions (like a robot maid)will be more common. There will be a common currency, like the Euro that we will be using here in Amercia, too.

3-do you ever wish you had done something different with your life? no.

4-if you could have dinner with anyone in the world, who would you pick.
Alive- Sting. Dead-(do I get to have a dead person reincarnated and have dinner with them?)-Albert Einstein's mom. Or Thomas Edison's mom.

5-Do you believe President Bush's world policies are correct?
.Another politicaly questionI don't know. But he is the president of our country and I'll just have to trust in God's providence in our country's government.

Laney said...
1. What is the craziest thing you have ever done?
wow, there have been so many. #1-Going on a honeymoon to Europe without any hotel reservations or trains booked. That was fun. a 1 week tour of 5 countries.
#2- Going to countryside China (China's version of hillbilly livin')
#3- sticking a pen in my husband car lighter to see what happened- blew 2 fuses,LOL. That was fun!
#4- climbing down the side of a cliff life mountain, in clumbsy sandals with a straight drop off. It was fun, too.
#5- started a food fight in bed with hubby once. Smeared cream cheese all ove his face (So much for a romantic breakfast in bed). He chased me through the house and slipped and slammed into open door
---- I could go on and on.

2. What was the last movie you belly laughed at? I don't belly laugh. I sometimes chuckle. I don't cry at movies either. Well, I did crt at Star Wars Episode 1.

3. What was the last book that made you cry? The only book that has ever made me cry (and still does) is "The Velveteen Rabbit".

4. Have you ever been in a car accident? YES. Hit by a car-crushed leg bone, compound fratcute in the other leg one (Tibia and fibula), semicomatose and 10 sticthes in the head. Then was in a van that flipped. Concussion, stiches in the chin and broken hip. I wa in a hopspital out of state. We were on a mission trip- the rest of the group went on without me. Then in a smaller accident where I had a torn esophagus from the seatbelt. And 2 accidents that were little bumps- no one hurt. I have a phobia of driving.

5. What is your favorite junk food? Twizzlers and Chai Lattes.

gina said...
1.What is your biggest regret? Don't have much, I guess theonly one I can think of that I really wanted 5 kids and Brian got a vasectomy and I sometimes I wish I would have fought a bit harder, but then again- I wouldn't want to have more kids anyway if he didn't. So, I guess no regrets.

2.If your life had a "theme song", what would it be? The Lollipop Tree? Just becasue I like it. I can't think o f a song that 'represents my life'.

3.Do you plan on having more children? See question #1. He have discussed fostering or adopting some time downthe road, though. Not sure.

4.What are your top 3 fears? Spiders. Scorpions. Swarms of attack killer bees.

5.What is your all time favorite movie and why. I Like Labrynth and Dune. I like Sci-Fi movies. I like Memento, too. And I like skinny blondes... :::giggles:::

ESCAPED!

2005-05-22T11:56:00.000-07:00

Hmmmm. cleaning out the caterpillar cage today.We had 9. There are only 5 inthere right now. And the inch worm is also missing.The boys found one in the their bedroom the other day.I guess we need a better lid.

If you have sumbitted your interview questions for me, go to the interview post and ask away!

I'll post the answers tomorrow.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

2005-05-21T11:04:00.000-07:00

today we signed the final contract on the property. a house on 5.3 acres. So, now we wait for inspection/appraisal. If those pass the house is OURS!

Don't forget to interview me!~ follow the link and ask me 5 questions.

Iguana Dung

2005-05-20T13:20:00.000-07:00

Our iguana is pretty smart. He will climb out of his cage in search of food or to use the restroom. That is if his cage isleft unlatched. My husband often leaves the cage left unlathced. So today I find JubJub in the boys room. I know he is fed and that only leaves one other option. I don't need iguana dung in the boys' room, so I scoop him up and take him to our bathroom. He is a 4.5 foot iguana with wicked claws ans a strong tail. Scooping up isn't quit e the correct word. I have more slashes on my wrist and forearm to add to my collection. Lovely.

I check in on the iguana not long ago. I didn't see him in the bathrooom; not even behind the toilet. I pulled back the shower curtain. There was Jub Jub. He had crawled into the bathtub to releave himself. He is such a good iguana. If he is out of his cage he will go to our bathroom and climb into our bathtub after he does his business. This time he went IN the bathtub. Talk about wast clean up!

It was a bad school day. Well, not actual. Just unorganized. But that's OK. I remember when my kids were in public school. Their bad homeschool days are still better than their good public school days.

Today we read more from the book "Devil on the Deck" They all enjoy it. Gavin the most. He didn't want me to stop reading. We are also learning about sea life. New terms. Like rigging, vittle, grog, and terms for ship anantomy. Also reading about history- the wars and sea battles of the time and the common practice of boarding schools and schoolmasters, the discipline in the schools back then. And we are working on memorizing the song "Amazing Grace".

Then we read from our "Story of the World". We read about Egypt's Middle Kingdon and the types of weapons they had and some geography of surrounding counties. Then they drew their pictures for the time line.

We played S'math. It's Scrabble with math equations.Ki keeps score. he doesn't like too many board games,or even card games. He has trouble with midline and playing board games is a lot of midline crossing. Most are too stressfull for him. He is getting better though. Speaking of which, he has developed a little tic. He crosses onehand over and touches his other hand. Like if he's playing on the computer, every 10 seconds or so he'll take his left hand, cross over in front of himself and touch his right hand on the mouse. He does this with his elbow all the time too. Bends his arm (so he can point with his elbow) and reaches his elbo over and touches whatever is on the other side on him. It looks so funny. He doesn't seem to even realize he does it. But he is getting better with crossing midline now. That was way off topic.

Ki played some spelling games while his brothers did research work on the book of Deuteronomy.

Don't forget to interview me. (below)

Spread the News!

2005-05-20T10:52:00.000-07:00

Interview me.
ASK me 5 questions.

Map of Everything

2005-05-18T18:17:00.000-07:00

My husband has a MAP OF EVERYTHING! He is explaining it to boys. Check out the link. Then read about our long day.

May 18, 2005-

2005-05-18T09:04:00.000-07:00

Another Looooooong post about some of the things we did today. If we did workbooks it'd be a short post.

I could say "Gavin did 2 pages in math, 1 page in history, 3 pages in science and read a book about a racoon." So much for a simple life....

I am staying up WAY TOO LATE this week. I NEED to correct that.

I was up andout of the shower by 10:26AM.

The boys ate breakfast. They said they did their morning routine. I'm goiing with the honor system on this one.

The colored and drew and told storied. They cleared the dishwaher.

Then we got ready to mail some things at the post office. We had weighed them at the Automated Machine, but it was broke and not printing postage. It did tell us how much it cost to sen them. So, Connor asked if we could just use a bunch of stamps instead of going back tot he post office. This will work. They did get their little Post Office Lesson and now they get math, too! Ki figured out 2 stamos were needed for the 60 cent envelope and that it'd be a little over. Good Boy. Gavin did long division to dtermine how many times 37 goes into 4.50 and places 13 stamps on the box. Someof the stamps ended up going under the return address. Then we walked to the corner mailbox to mail the envelope.

went to the thrift s tore. Talked about the names of the street and which directions we took. Hopefully they will have a much better internal map than their mom and beable to figure out how to get places better,LOL. We found some new denim overalls for Ki. HIs pair right now is a size 5. He is 8.5 yrs old and they are getting too small (he refuses to believe that, though.) and they are very stained now. I told him he can't wear them to church anymore. Which works much better than saying they are too small and dirty and he n eeds new ones. So, we found some nice OshKosh overalls for 1.99$ that he can wear to church. He won't wear shorts and is picky about what touches his waist. TOur total was $2.14. I asked how much tax was. What percent. Gavin automatically said 7%. Then on the way out he said. "But mom, it wasn't REALLY $2. It was $1.99. So it's not really 7%. It's closer to 7.5%." He thinks too much. I told him that going from $1.99 to $2 would give a small part of a cent when figuring tax that they have to round it.

Then to the post office to mail the box that was too big for the corner mailbox. The automated postal macine was unoccupied, so I had Conor wiegh our box to make sure we had the corrrect amount of stamps. He had to read, follow directions, type in information. Ya- it was educational. Then I had Gavin buy 2 boks of stamps using the automated machine. He was able to figure it all out. it such a long process just to get stamps,LOL. Then we talked abut how many stamps per book (18). How many all to getther?(36) How much each stamp? (37) How much for 10 stamps? How much for our 36 stamps? etc.

Then home. Then Lunch. Talking about the nutrients we need and what we need to eat to make sure we get our need nutrition, etc.

**Flies are laying eggs on the dead chipmunk. Should I make thisinto a lesson and study some entemology?** Connor was rescuing his dead chipmuck from the shame of maggot eggs, but I told him to leave them. This is how nature works. And said "imagine if all the animals that ever died were still all laying on the ground? This is how God cleans up. Your chipmunck has died, but he is now helping outher animlas and plant, because the nutrients in his body will go into the dirt and make the soil better for growing."

This morning, when we were stamping the packages....... They box and envelope were in the car. I asked Gavin to get them. I said something like: "Gavin can you get the box from the back seat and the envelope from the front?"

Gavin- "O.K." walks out the door. walks a round rhe car. Stairs up at sky. Walke to other side of car. Looks at the toy in his hands. Stands there.

Me- open front door and call out: "Gavin? Are you coming?"

Gavin:" what did you ask me to do out here?"

Me: "get the pakages from the car."

Gavin: "Oh yah, I forgot."

This is what you get when you have really smart kids. They lose that common sense gene. Gavin is my "Absent Minded Proffessor"

2:00- finish school- Story of the World. We left China and went BACK to Africa. Which w=is where we astrted. We got out the map and traced our journey. We started in the Fertile Cresent (Egypt and Mesopotamina area) and then went EAST to China, now we are WEST of the fertile cresent in the heart of Africa. We were visiting the Sahara Dessert and talking about the people having to move south when the Sahara dried up. The book had some Folk Tales about Anansi the Spider. I founf that link on the web. I'm sure the boys will enjoy it.

We decided (I decided) to go to the library to get some books with Anansi Stories. I did the searchon the computer and wrot own the call numbers and stuff. I could call my library and ask them to gather it all for me, but where would the funin that be? Ill let the boys look up the books by their numbers when we get there.

Domino Math- Our dominoes go up to 12x12 dots. I put some into a paper bag (not using any blanks or dominoes that have 1 or 2 dots). The boys took turn drawing a domino from the bg. Ki had to ad his dots, gavin and Connor mupliply their dots.

Gavin reviewed his SignLannguage so he could get his badge. Ki made a family Tree for HIs Family Badge in Royal Rangers. Connor did his kitty care and wrote in his Pet Care Journal.

If you actually read it all, leave me a note.

Is it OK?

2005-05-17T15:58:00.000-07:00

please, tell me this is a good thing. I really am not good at being comfortable with all this 'fun. easy school'. But we did a good amount of scheduled type school this school year..... si I guess I can survive.

And another headache this morning. Time to start taking my migraine meds again.

The boys did their reading time while I packed things for our trip. Our trip to the
Beavercreek Wetlands" or maybe it's called "Beavercreek Wildlife Area"?. Basically it is a fen with boardwalk. We did lots of observing. Sometimes we'd sit and use our senses. What do we see, hear, smell, feel (no tasting- well just the fruit leathers we brought). We observed cattails and got down and put our hands in the water and watched bubbles come up from the mud. Gavin waited patiently for it to run out air,LOL.It was a snail in a shell. We touched some shelf fungus on trees. We listened to water gurling and birds singing. We saw tutles and frogs. We looked through wilflife ID books and named a few plants. Gavin tried to catch a b ulfrog and scared a snake, which scared the frog. And we walked a lot. I just let the boys explore and run. I had them sit still and listen from time to time too. Listen to nature and once or twice, listen to me.

Then we drove to Grammy's house. She lives so close the the fen. We ate lunch inher back yard (she has almost 3 acres and it is BEAUTIFUL! wooded with paths ans gorgeous flowers. And then after lunch I had them draw a picture from our time in the fen. Ki drew a mess in the river with a few trash bottles. We saw a section like this at the fen. Ki made a game out ot. "Find the 11 hidden bottles". Conor drew a bullfrog by a big green plant. It was eating a green beetle. The beetle had a word balloon. "AHHHHHHHH!" Gavin drew the frog, snake and turtle from his little frog catcing incident. He included a dragonfly. We did see a damselfly on our walk. We will go again in a couple times and they will have to draw a map of the boardwalk.

After they drew pictures, they helped Grammy plant some things and she showed them some plants that were growing in the 'woods' along the path. They helped her pull some weeds. They ran and climbed.

At home the played outside a bit. Then we made our plants for out caterpliiar habitat. We soaked that green "oasis" plant foam in water after they cut it to size for their containers. We used cheap storebrand Gladwear containers and punched holes in the lids. Then they gathered tree cutting with lots of leaves and inserted into their containers. We have a big glass aquairium my dad left here from his snake we were watching, but he sold. It's about 3.5foot long, 2foot high and 1.5 foot deep. the plants and caterpillars are in that now.

Connor cought the chipmuck, which is sick and almost dead.

That's about it today.

I hope my kids are learing and making the very most of the intelectual gifts God gave them.

this is my 3rd entry today. How do I do 3 on a busy day? I must be insane. Antyway, don't miss an of the three EXCITING entries today! one is my iggie's pictures!

WHY?

2005-05-17T13:26:00.000-07:00

Why do I have a little chipmunk in my living room in a cage with a towel over it?why?why did they use my food storage container to catch it and now I'll have to sterilize it?Why me?Why does my 11 yr old want a mathmatical formula for calculating how quickly the stick will catch on fire from the magnifying glass? (what is with those weird math people anyway?)

JUB JUB

2005-05-17T06:29:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of my iguana. He is about 5 yrs old and about 4 1/2 feet long. He should get to a good 6 foot in length. A Blogging friend suggested the name Jub Jub. I mentioned it to my kids and they LOVED the name. I had another Iguauna named Methuselah, but we sold him. (pics taken in April)

The boys' kitty. Soksey. They earned money and bought their kitty from a pet adoption center.

That's my tortoise shell cat on the bottom of the picture.

What a long day

2005-05-16T17:18:00.000-07:00

Another day that was FULL FULL FULL, yet I still feel like nothing was done, esp around thehouse. And I am too tired to do anything around the house and feel guity for doing NOTHING, but I am so tired I must have done something.

*Sunday we went to World A'Fair. Got to 'travel all over the world" and sample foods, watches dances, try games, read maps, see cratfs........

*Sunday night- The boys found an ARMY (literaly a KAZILLION) caterpillars climbing up a maple tree out back. They put some in a jat with fresh leaves.

Monday (that's today. folks)- Got up at 8, the boys made their own breakfast,I did some laundry and made some worksheets for the boys to practice he names of notes before they had Piano practice. Then we went for a walk and looked for our missing iguana (sniff:::sniff:::sniff:::). We walked to the Kettering rec Center with has a big American flag out front and we said out Pledge of Allegiance (we have been walking there on our walks and saying our pledges, it's nice). There were some fire trucks there and we did a walk around and talked about their diffrences and made observations as to they equiptment and such. Then We went home. The boys did their reading time. Brian was home today, so he went to listen to Ki a bit, then Ki decided to finish his reading time by reading to Brian while he was working inthe garage. Ki reads Dick and Jane.

Then Off to Piano. I got a haircut while he boys were there. Just snipped the split ends off. Why do so many people call them 'dead ends'? Isn't my entire length of hair DEAD? Ah- well.Picked up the boys and went to Burger King. Brian had given us $10 on our way out and told me to take the boys out to lunch. I used some of my own money too. I gave Gavin a $5, and Connor got $4 and Ki got $3. (I know about how much they usualy get,LOL) and sent them to order their food and pay for it on their own. They love that. They had changed their chicken nuggets.Ki almost cried. He refused to eat them the last time they changed (made them shapes) until they finally went back to the original again. I told to do me a favor and just take a little taste, that his taste buds may have changed by now and they will taste OK. He ate 3 out of 5! That's almost more than what he normally eats!

When we got home Connor had a little headache and so did Gavin (my boys often get headaches from riding in the car-esp Gavin). So he laid down and rested 10 minutes. Then they took turns playing School House Rock on the computer while I made some homemade Sugar Scrubs (SCRUMPTIOUS for the skin!). Connor asked to make a batch, too. Gavin and I were looking through books (looking for the butterfly book) and found his book on card games & tricks and I suggested he get out the cards and learn a few new games and teach them to me. Which he did and thoroughly enjoyed.

Today I had them each draw their caterpillar on an index card (G drew an inchworm that was inthe jar, C&K drew the caterpillars), check their Butterfly book and clean out the caterpillar jar. The caterpillar wasn't in their book, so we went to Library (they brought their cards). I taught Gavin how to use the Dewy Decimal System to find out where specific classifications (types?) of books are. He found "sciences" was inthe 500s and the chart had it broken down to 'animals' being 590-599. I sent him to go look for books on caterpillars that way, while Ki and Connor did a card catelog search, figured out which books were available in our branch, wrote down the call numbers and looked up their book. I sent Connor off on his own to findhis, while I helped Ki figure out how to scan the numbers on the bindings until he was in the general area, then to mathc up the # on the book with the numberhe wrote down. He found his book. He was so excited! Connor didn't find his book, it wasn't on the shelf. He talked to a librarian. Apparently, a lot of schools are doing caterpillars rightnow, too. I had to help Gavin a little, but he found 'insects' and found some caterpillar books. None of the books had our caterpillar, so I had them do a Google search. (explaining to them how to look things up and where to click next as they went along). We didn't find caterpillar pics that matched ours, still. Then I had Gavin do an 'inchworm search' all on his own, while I got Connor interested in some books and reading to his brother. (I had him write down someinchwork facts on the back of his drawing)Then we researhced (online at library- our phones were down for a bit today) about how to raise caterpillars. Oh, back up a bit. A little boy (about 4) had fun listening to Connor read books and interacting with C&K and came over to watch us research online and asking questions and sharinghis knowledge on caterpillars with us. It was fun. He dad came by as we were finsihing and the boys told his dad he wanted to raise caterpillars too like my boys, so I helped him find the website we used and he was reading to his boy about it as we left. It gave me a good feeling)... O.K. back to our story- after we researchedabout that, Gavin wanted to look for a book to read. (can't say no to that can I?). He wanted to find a book his dad described that he read when he wasGavin's age. I told him the children's librairian would love to try to help Gavin find a book that was similar to the one he and his dad had talked about and would be able to suggest other books he may like to try. So he talked to the librarian about reading Bambi and the book his daddy read, that's like bambi but about a squirrel. She couldn't hink of it, but suggest a book called "Rascal" and helped him find it. She said she liked it, it's a biography about a boy who had a pet racoon. (I did a little review with boys about what a biography is). Then we went to the post office and I taught the boys how to use the automated Postal Machine, Connor cried because I let Gavin push more buttons than he did. oh geesh. Then off to the grocery to buy our items we needed for our caterpillar habitat.(and cheese and a hamhock for soup). Then home.......finally. where I made bean soup and got ou bread and lunch meat and sandwich fixens.

Here is the website we are using to raise our caterpillars :Raising caterpillars in the classroom.

Brian spent some time with the boy. He got out a KNOT book and differnet lengths of thick chord and sat and taught them all some basic facts about ropes and knots and taught them to tie a couple different knots.

:note to self- have them teach me how to tie their knots tomorrow:

OH YES_! other things we did today: addressed out thank you notes to the meteorologist who have us he tour and talked about proper ways yo addres things, return address, what "c/o" means, etc... then they all guessed how much it would cost to weigh- ( Ki brought our guesses to the post office to compare- I was closest).

When we left the house on our erands, we did out 'neighborhood study' we often do. Discuss all the street names we take and which direction we turn. Pointing out buildings along the way, etc.

MATH- we counted some school buses. There were 20. each had 6 wheels, I had them figure out total wheels (126). We talked about passengers. If each bus had 15 kid, (300) if 2 kids got off each bus (240), etc.... and I guess the weighing packages at the post office was math, too.

general houework and stuff.

Oh, this caterpillar thing is usually about as close as I get to unschooling. I let the the boys explore and make discoveries that interest them (the caterpillar find and saying the want to raise them), then I design lessons around their interests (learning the library layout, researching caterpillars, making a habitiat, drawing specimen pictures, etc......)

PS- Hubby found the Iguana! our 4.5 foot reptile has been rescued from being 30 some feet up in a tree.... YEAH!!!!! but Jub Jub fell the last 20 feet and seems a bit sore.

Visit Places

2005-05-15T11:13:00.000-07:00

SOME PLACES YOU MAY WANT TO VISIT!

A ZOO OF BOYS- she has an entry about free educational places online.Connor (10) liked the Modern Art interactive website.

I found this website yesterday and I really enjoyed it, you may, too. Odyssuese on the Move.
Written by a former teacher of Humanities with thought provoking entries. Anyone remeber The Relaxed Homeschooler's entry about Bloggin' Ettiquitte? The writer (marguerite) at Odyssuese answer comments in her diary. So look back at your comments and her reply will be on her comment page.

Another place online we like is USMINT.KIDS.GOV. A fun interactive site about US Currency (coins esp),it also has the history of money in other places around the world. It's require FLASH and has lots of cool movies and neat games, too.

ROUTINES

2005-05-14T07:27:00.000-07:00

I have let my routines slips. Which is bad. I get depressed and things stop flowing like they should. So, time to get the routines and schedules back in motion.
MY QUESTION TO YOU: What kind of routines/schedule do you have? Is there any thing that you need to do to help your days run smoother? (mine is cleaning the kitchen before bed)

BOYS MORNING ROUTINE

1. Wash Hands/Brush Teeth

2. Get Dressed

3. Put away jammies

4. Make Bed

5. Put away 5 things

6. Talk to God

7. Eat Breakfast/Medicine/Vitamins.

8. Check Job Cards

9. Hug Mom

BOYS EVENING ROUTINE

7:15 Last fluids for Gavin

Boys spend 15 minutes cleaning

8:00 Ki takes Melatonin, Zyrtec, Nose Spray

Kids have snack has snack & gets Jammies on

8:45 Ki does Breathing Treatment & brushes teeth

G&C brush teeth during Breath-Breath

9:00 Ki goes to bed. If he is NOT in bed he loses
another 15 minutes next night

9:20 Connor & Gavin go to bed

10:00 NO MORE TALKING -

*1st offense loss of computer time

*2nd offense 30 minutes extra cleaning

Ki's in trouble. He has trouble with impulse control and getting paranoid and anxious. I need to do better with his occupational therapy. The last time he was seen my a child psych (which was only because insurance required it before he could have occupational therepy for the Sensory Integration- I guess they can't take my word for it that he has it,LOL), the dr said he was a bit concerned about anxiety disorder and depression. I blew it off, Imean, come on... how depressed can an 8 yr old be? He has a great life..... but lately I've been thinking maybe it might need to be loooked into if we can't get things to change. At this rate I'll have a manic depressed 11 yr old in 3 yrs. I think maybe today's problem stemmed froom him going out and having a doughnut with Grammy. We thought the the cake doughnut with just sugar sprinkled would be fine. but maybe they use artifical flavor in their plain cake doughnuts. Ki has more problems with impulse control and anger (and other ADHD/behaviorl stuff) when he eats foods he shouldn't have (artifical flavors&colors and foods with Salicylics). No, that is NO excuse for his behavior, but as aparent I need to make sure I take things into account and be responsible to check out things. Like checking for their doughnut recipe before he has them again. I don't like the ADHD label (which is why I never got the FULL testing with Label), but at the same time Ki does have difficult areas and he needs to be dealt with a little differently, etc. (they all do, I mean all kids have something a little different that needs to be dealt with not with the normal cookiecutter style)

we dropped the boys off at church at 1:30. they are having an X-Box game day (all games are approved by the class leaders-whatever that means). They will be there till 7;30 or 8, maybe! I sent some treats and a drink for Ki. I'm excited for them. They don't get a day of all kids and no parents very often. and LOTS of video games... I'm sure they are having a blast!

Hubby and I hit the grocery store at the tune of over $160. ouch. I still need 3 things from Trader Joes. We are going out to dinner. Actually I kinda gettired of going out to dinner and think it's a waste of money, but my husband enjoys it and we don't do it all that super often and we are small eaters and bring home a meal. I guess if I look at it as 'money spent on time alone/together to benefit our relationship' it's not as bad.

Reading

2005-05-13T21:35:00.000-07:00

I was supposed to meet my best friend tonight. She was supposed to call me on her 6:15 break to tell me what time she had her 30 minute break. She never called. She had told me she would take her break prbably be around 8:30-9ish. So I grabbed a book. Got to the parking lot where she worked around 8:15 and stayed till 9:45. I left her anote on her car.

It wasn't a total waste of time. I read a homeschool book in solitude and had hot cocoa. The Swiss Miss kind.I used my milk quota on Chai Latte this morning.

"Homeschooling on a Shoestring"

Not bad. Some stuff wasn't my bag of tea.some of the 'organizational ideas' actually seemed like even more clutter and eye-sore. More than anything it just got me thinking. Thinking I need to do some planning. And get our chore housework schedule (link) back on track. And I need to plan out next weeks school and get back to our school schedule (link).

My laundry is going well. I finally bought that last basket I need to make it run smoothly. I have a basket for each boy, one for Brian, one for linens (sheets/table linens) , one for sock and one for towels. My stuff is supposed to go straight to where it belongs. So, each boy takes care of his own basket and brings it back empty and places it back into it's spot. So, now that that's all settled, I think I need new job cards. One for 'towels', 'linens' and 'socks' and that is the basket they take care of that month. We do our job rotations monthly now that they are a bit older. Laundry- 3 loads a day. No more-No Less. Any less and I fall behind, anymore and things don't get put away.

time to go do 20 in the kitchen before bed. (which I am late on)

yada-yada-yada

2005-05-13T11:21:00.000-07:00

maybe I write entries that are too long? This is #2 today- so dont forget to look at the pictures of Connor's hospital feild trip below:

it's 2:20. We finaly did some school...... I had Ki do 2 pages in his 2nd grade Scholar workbook. Ki is one of those kids that LOVES workbooks. Which I did, too, but my other boys hate them.

Gavin finally woke up from his nap. I read some Story of the World. Connor and Ki are today's artists. Ki spoke up first and got to draw about the silk worms. Connor wanted the worms and was very upset.

Connor had 2 pages, actually 1 1/2, in a math workbook. He wined and grumbled and complained. I don't ask them to do workbooks all that often. And yes, I could just let them do whatever they want for school everyday, I guess. But when they are adults in the real world they will need to know how to take directions and follow them and do the project exactly the way the boss says regardless of how they want to do it- so they can start to get used to it now!

Gavin is just to sick to do anything.

Oh, Connor made Jello jigglers. he had to 1/4 th recipe. Yes, it's math... but figuring out how much water is needed from 2 1/2 when you use 1/4 th amount of Jello just doesn't cut it for math for the day for a bright 10 yr old.

Ki went ahead and did some math from his workbook too. we need a great week next week.

Sick Days

2005-05-13T06:48:00.000-07:00

(a recipe post is under this one)
it is 11. I woke at 7, then laid back with hubby. Then I got up at 8. we've cleared the DW and reloaded it, I vacuumed and mopped the kitchen. I've done a couple loads of laundry and had the boys put their stuff away. I downloaded & uploaded pictures (below) and wrapped Aspens present and fixed up a card for him (store bought with stickers added) and we all sugned it. DH will sign it tonight, then we'll go over. I'll let you know if we get to see him, or evenmy brother

it's noon now. Still no school has gotten done. Gavin is sick now. Oh yeah. I think I'll find a work book for the well kids to do,since we won't be ging out today or anything. I need to get a sick day plan. Since I teach to all 3boys the same stuff, often. When one is sick there's no sense giving the lesson to the well kids if the sick ones not going to be involved, but at the same time I hate not gettiong much school done for any of them. Maybe I'll reada bunch to everyone today

PICTURES from Connor's myringotomy with a tube.

Conor wore all 3 seatbelts- to be extra safe on the way to the hospital.

since they were only doing the left ear, the nurse signed it (to make sure the dr didnt do the wrong ear)

she had trouble keeping him still for this. the kid is NEVER still. And he asked to have the tube put in with just painkillers, not being put to sleep. Ya right. He wiggles so much he end up being scalped!

playing Go Fish with his new cards (he looks like he was still, but he really wasn't. He was inbtween wiggles,LOL)

Motrin and Vallium

loopy AND tired (even when he's dead tired he was all over the place flipping and wriggling,LOL). See his hand curled up? He does that all the time, pulls his arms in tight and curls up his hands (think::::like if you were pretending to be a bunny rabbit).

post surgery- He actually laid still for 5 minutes I think!

He was pretty sick to his tummy

right before he puked

Connor insisted on going to Waffle House even though his tummy hurt (I think he thought he was just hungry). But spent the whole time curled up on the bench.

Some Recipes

2005-05-12T18:43:00.000-07:00

FIRST- my Chocoldate Chip Cookie recipe. The orignal calls for white sugar and brown sugar. Ki is allergic to brown sugar, so we use maple syrup/white sugar.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES- chewy, gooey, rich. Just like a yummy gourmet cookie from a mall kiosk. (NOT diet cookies!)

INGREDIENTS

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
2 cup white sugar
1 cup maple syrup
1 ½ tablespoon alcohol-free vanilla, it’s the best
2 egg
2 egg yolk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips I use 1 cup.

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, maple syrup and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
4. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

AMISH SUGAR CAKES- one our favorite sugar cookie recipe-

1 cup butter flavored shortening
2 cups white sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 pinch salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup white sugar

DIRECTIONS-
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and 2 cups sugar until smooth. Stir in the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt; stir into the creamed mixture alternately with the buttermilk until well blended. Place big heaping tablespoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheets about 3 inches apart. Sprinkle each cookie with some of the remaining sugar.
3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until edges begin to turn golden. Remove from baking sheets to cool on wire racks. When cool, store in an airtight

Lime Slice Cookies
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
Grated rind of 1 lime
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Sugar for sprinkling on cookies

Beat together butter, granulated sugar, and 2 tablespoons lime sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, lime juice and grated rind.

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together then add to egg mixture.

Form dough into a 10-inch log and wrap in wax paper. Chill dough until firm, at least 4 hours.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Foil- or parchment-line cookie sheets.

Remove wax paper and cut log into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Place cookies on prepare cookie sheets. Sprinkle tops with sugar and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until pale golden. Remove to wire rack to cool.

VANILLA ICE~CREAM (again, Ki's allergies cause need for homemade ice cream, but it's yummier anyway)

2 cups milk (1 cup)
1 3/4 cups sugar (1 cup)
1/2 t. salt (dash)
2 cups half & half (1 cup)
1 T. vanilla extract (1 1/2 t.)
4 cups whipping cream (2 cups)

Scald milk until bubbles form around edge. Remove from heat. Add sugar and salt. Stir until dissolved. Stir in half & half, vanilla & whipping cream. Cover & refrigerate 30 minutes. Freeze as directed.

Now for my Hot Cocoa Mix-
1 part cocoa powder
1 part powdered sugar
1 part cane sugar.
(blend very very well)

add hot milk

add real, vanilla to your cocoa

What do YOU think?

2005-05-11T17:27:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of famous people who were homeschooled. It brings up a few questions. Why are som many famour homeschooled people from so long ago? Why are there not may from the 20th century? Can it count as homeschool if they were tutored at home? Maybe there'd be more famour people from the 20th century if homeschooling was more popular and the 'accepted norm'? Maybe part of the reason is the age of kids in school. "way back then" it was common for kids to not really be 'schooled' til they were 9 or 12. Maybe there aren't as many big, great minds because there's not as much to learn. I mean we went from 'dark to light' with all those great inventions, now we can only go from light to brighter. It's not as obvious a contrast. (If that makes any sense). Anyway- I leave you with this list. Let me know your answers to my questions.

this list was found at:
FAMOUS HOMESCHOOLERS

Constitutional Convention Delegates :
Richard Basseti - Governor of Delaware
William Blount - U.S. Senator
George Clymer - U.S. Representative
William Few - U.S. Senator
Benjamin Franklin - Inventor and Statesman
William Houston - Lawyer
William S. Johnson - President of Columbia College
William Livingston - Governor of New Jersey
James Madison - 4th President of the U.S.
George Mason - Justice of Virginia County Court
John Francis Mercer - U.S. Representative
Charles Pickney III - Governor of S. Carolina
John Rutledge - Chief Justice U.S. Supreme Court
Richard D. Spaight - Governor of North Carolina
George Washington - 1st President of the U.S.
John Witherspoon - President of Princeton University
George Wythe - Justice of Virginia High Court

Presidents
John Adams
John Quincy Adams
Grover Cleveland
James Garfield
William Henry Harrison
Andrew Jackson
Thomas Jefferson
Abraham Lincoln
James Madison
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
John Tyler
George Washington
Woodrow Wilson

Statesmen :
Konrad Adenauer
Henry Fountain Ashurst
William Jennings Bryan
Winston Churchill
Henry Clay
Pierre du Pont
Benjamin Franklin
Alexander Hamilton
Patrick Henry
William Penn
Daniel Webster

Military Leaders
John Barry - Senior Navy Officer
Stonewall Jackson - Civil War General
John Paul Jones - Father of the American Navy
Robert E. Lee - Civil War General
Douglas MacArthur - U.S. General
George Patton - U.S. General
Matthew Perry - naval officer who opened up trade with Japan
John Pershing - U.S. General
David Dixon Porter - Civil War Admiral

U.S. Supreme Court Judges
John Jay
John Marshall
John Rutledge
Sandra Day O'Connor

Scientists :
George Washington Carver
Pierre Curie
Albert Einstein
Michael Faraday - electrochemist
Oliver Heaviside - physicist and electromagnetism researcher
T.H. Huxley
Blaise Pascal
Booker T. Washington

Artists :
William Blake
John Singleton Copley
Claude Monet
Grandma Moses
Charles Peale
Leonardo da Vinci
Andrew Wyeth
Jamie Wyeth

Religious Leaders :
Joan of Arc
William Carey
Jonathan Edwards
Philipp Melancthon
Dwight L. Moody
John Newton
John Owen
Hudson Taylor
John & Charles Wesley
Brigham Young

Inventors :
Alexander Graham Bell - invented the telephone
John Moses Browning - firearms inventor and designer
Peter Cooper - invented skyscraper, built first U.S. commercial locomotive
Thomas Edison - invented the stock ticker, mimeograph, phonograph, and perfected the electric light bulb
Benjamin Franklin - invented the lightning rod
Elias Howe - invented sewing machine
William Lear - airplane creator
Cyrus McCormick - invented grain reaper
Guglielmo Marconi - developed radio
Eli Whitney - invented the cotton gin
Sir Frank Whittle - invented turbo jet engine
Orville and Wilbur Wright - built the first successful airplane

Composers:
Irving Berlin
Anton Bruckner
Noel Coward
Felix Mendelssohn
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Francis Poulenc
John Philip Sousa

Authors :
Hans Christian Anderson
Margaret Atwood
Pearl S. Buck
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Willa Cather
Agatha Christie
Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
Charles Dickens
Robert Frost - Pulitzer Prize-winning poet
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Alex Haley
Brett Harte
L. Ron Hubbard
C.S. Lewis
Amy Lowell
Gabriela Mistral
Sean O'Casey
Christopher Paolini - author of #1 NY Times bestseller, Eragon
Isabel Paterson
Beatrix Potter - author of the beloved Peter Rabbit Tales
Carl Sandburg
George Bernard Shaw
Mattie J. T. Stepanek - 11-year-old author of Heartsongs
Mercy Warren
Phillis Wheatley
Walt Whitman
Laura Ingalls Wilder

Educators :
Amos Bronson Alcott - innovative teacher, father of Louisa May Alcott
Catharine Beecher - co-founder of the Hartford Female Seminary
Jill Ker Conway - first woman president of Smith College
Timothy Dwight - President of Yale University
William Samuel Johnson - President of Columbia College
Horace Mann - "Father of the American Common School"
Charlotte Mason - Founder of Charlotte Mason College of Education
Fred Terman - President of Stanford University
Frank Vandiver - President of Texas A&M University
Booker T. Washington - Founder of Tuskegee Institute
John Witherspoon - President of Princeton University

Performing Artists :
Louis Armstrong - king of jazz
Charlie Chaplin - actor
Whoopi Goldberg - actress
Hanson - sibling singing group
Jennifer Love Hewitt - actress
Yehudi Menuhin - child prodigy violinist
Moffatts - Canadian version of Hanson
Frankie Muniz - child actor
LeAnne Rimes - teen-prodigy country music singer

Business Entrepreneurs :
Andrew Carnegie - wealthy steel industrialist
Amadeo Giannini - Bank of America’s founder
Horace Greeley - New York Tribune founder
Soichiro Honda - creator of the Honda automobile company
Peter Kindersley - book illustrator and publisher
Ray Kroc - founder of McDonald's fast food restaurant chain
Jimmy Lai - newspaper publisher; founder of Giordano International
Dr. Orison Swett Marden - founder, Success magazine
Adolph Ochs - New York Times founder
Joseph Pulitzer - newspaper publisher; established Pulitzer Prize
Colonel Harland Sanders - started Kentucky Fried Chicken
Dave Thomas - founder of the Wendy’s restaurant chain

Others :
Abigail Adams - Wife of John Adams; mother of John Quincy Adams
Ansel Adams - Photographer
Susan B. Anthony - reformer and women’s rights leader
John James Audubon - ornithologist and artist
Clara Barton - Started the Red Cross
Elizabeth Blackwell - first woman in the U.S. to receive a medical degree
John Burroughs - Naturalist
George Rogers Clark - Explorer
Davy Crockett - frontiersman
Eric Hoffer - social philosopher
Sam Houston - lawyer; first president of the Republic of Texas
Charles Evans Hughes - jurist; Chief Justice
Mary D. Leakey - fossil hunter; wife of Richard Leakey
Tamara McKinney - World Cup Skier
Harriet Martineau - first woman sociologist
Margaret Mead - cultural anthropologist
John Stuart Mill - Free-market Economist
Charles Louis Montesquieu - Philosopher
John Muir - naturalist
Florence Nightingale - Nurse
Thomas Paine - political writer during the American Revolution
Bill Ridell - Newspaperman
Will Rogers - Humorist
Bertrand Russell - Logician
Jim Ryan - World Runner
Albert Schweitzer - Physician
Sir Ernest Shackleton - Explorer
Herbert Spencer - philosopher, sociologist
Gloria Steinem - founder and long-time editor of Ms. magazine
Jason Taylor - plays in the National Football League
Mary Walker - Civil War physician; recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor
Lester Frank Ward - "Father of American Sociology"
Martha Washington - wife of George Washington
Frances E. C. Willard - educator, temperance leader, and suffragist
Frank Lloyd Wright - Architect
Elijah ben Solomon Zalman - Jewish scholar

some other sites with lists and links to biographies ofother famous people who were homeschooled:
Famous Homeschoolers
Famous Homeschoolers list 2
List 3- info included

An article of quotes by Nobel Prize winners (about how school is bad for kids)

Sensory Integration Disorder

2005-05-11T10:00:00.000-07:00

Aw, no one leaves me notes anymore.... poor me. Well, not as many people leave me notes,I should say.

I thought I'd tell you a little about myself and my kids. Let's start with SID. My kids and I have Sensory Integration Disorder. Actually Ki and I are the main ones. Gavin and Connor just have a touch of it. It can be a nasty thing. Normal everyday sounds and textures and smells ...... can be really bad. Although Ki isn't extreme, he is still worse than I was at his age. He was in therapy for awhile, now we do occupational therapy at home. Ki also has some mild dyspraxia. (he is such a clutz, I feel sorry for him) Here is a link "DSI"
and another site on DYSPRAXIA

I was researching Albert Einstein today. Did you know he didn't learn mathmatics until he was 12? There was a lot he didn't learn till a little later inlife. I have always felt kids will do better to learn later inlife. When they have a few more yrs of life and maturity under their belts.

Today wasn't much of a school day. We babysat a 2&4 yr old. The boys and I all played with the children. We climbed trees, blew bubbles, The boys showed them inch worms and dug in the dirt. I made an obstacle course for them. Isabelle(2) wasn't interested. Ki (8) had a sensory meltdown. I wasn't thinking and forgot that he doesn't do well with trampolines (balance problems from the dyspraxia)or crawling in the grass(this would be the Sensory Integration Problems). He was pretty miserable on on edge for a few hours. He gets very frustrated and panicky. He had his arms inside his shirt and was crying while curled up on the ground.

Gavin (11) and Connor(10) did some skip counting on the trampoline. They boys helped me make laundry soap. And we cleaned.

Oh, Connor and Gavin both read books outloud to my friend's kids.

Connor has his tube put inhis ear tomorrow. only clear liquids after 1:30AM (let's hope he's asleep by 11PM), from 1:30-6:50AM only clear liquids, then NOTHING at all in his mouth (not even gum) until ater the surgery. He wants me to wake him at 6:15 ish to eat some jello,LOL.

Arrive at the hospital ay 9:20, surgery at 10:50. It shouldbe over at 11. Then an hour in the recovery room, then anhour with us (not sure what they meant by that), then he can go home. So--- we'l be there from 9:20 until 1PM all for a 10 minute procedure!

They decided PIZZA tonight! LOTS OF IT! and no Royal Rangers. Something aboutneeding the night off since Connor has surgery tomorrow.......

ACK! I lost the iguana! He escaped out the window! I better go look for him! OH NO!!!!!!