Monday, December 1, 2014
The Nativity
This and That and Catching Up
My last post was about my Grandpa unexpectedly passing away. I've tried to blog since, but I've deleted everything. There are so many mixed up feelings about the issues my parents have had to deal with regarding the "step" family. After two very stressful weeks in Pensacola for the funeral and aftermath, my parents followed us back to Virginia. They had planned to come for Thanksgiving anyway. We stayed a little longer in Pensacola and they came a few days earlier. It worked out really well. Since we've been here, we've tried hard to get back into the swing of things with school and things like cooking. There's nothing like stress to make you wish you only had to deal with feeding your kids once a day :). I've have been working non-stop on a tshirt quilt for a client and my mom has been working madly on a present for Allie. I can't wait to share pictures. We also finished my nativity. It'll get its own post and managed to decorate for Christmas.
Sent from my iPhone
Sent from my iPhone
Double Gotcha Day
Jaelyn has been working hard at controlling herself in the last year. She's been researching gerbils and saving her money. Today, she earned the right to make her dream come true. I let her buy two Chinese dwarf hamsters. The one in her hand is Catnip and the one on the wheel meeting Zac is Basil.
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
A New Angel in Heaven
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
He's Growing
Caden finally had his new patient appt with our new doctor today. My little guy who has always been in the 5th percentile for height and weight is now is the 15th percentile and the 49th percentile for height!!! He's growing.
Allie is pushing the 70th percentile for height and weight.
And then there's Jaelyn still squarely on her 5th percentile growth curve.
Sent from my iPhone
Allie is pushing the 70th percentile for height and weight.
And then there's Jaelyn still squarely on her 5th percentile growth curve.
Sent from my iPhone
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Narratives
We are starting a narrative series in our writing book. Today's assignment was fun. We had to make a list of 4 unrelated things and had 10 minutes to write a story that connected them. I wrote with the kids. I've learned they are more motivated when I "school" along.
Our 4 things were
Here's my story.
It's a beautiful day to sit and draw the scene in front of me with my blue crayon. I gaze out my window at the gentle waves on the lake. I wish I could sit here forever, but I must get up and fix my crazy kids their lunch. As I'm grabbing a jar of pickles out of the fridge, I am startled by a loud wack. I drop the jar when I jump, covering the floor with pickles and glass. The smell of dill quickly fills my house. When I look out, I see a little brown bird laying next to a dead butterfly. The bird shakes his head and flies away, but I'm sad because the butterfly never will.
Here's Caden's. I might need to take his crayons away.
Woosh! I threw my blue crayon at the little brown bird which landed in my jar of pickles. It was attracted by my dead butterfly on the ground by my jar of pickles. I picked up the crayon and poked the bird making sure it was dead. It was. The bird was twitching and there was a blue mark from were I hit it. There was a blue mark on the butterfly too. (at this point in his reading, he gives me a sly grin.)
Jaelyn's is along those same lines. What am I doing wrong???
One day when I lived in the forest, I found a blue crayon. I went home and got paper so I could draw something with it. I drew a beautiful blue butterfly. Then it was bedtime so I went to bed. In the middle of the night, I heard some ruckus and decided to go check it out. I saw my paper and it was plain white. Then I went outside and my blue butterfly was flying. I quickly dashed inside to get a jar. It was filled with pickles I dumped them out and left. Once I caught the butterfly I went back to sleep. The next morning I woke up I grabbed my butterfly and went down stairs to where I dropped my pickles. I murdered the butterfly and put it in a glass show box. I went outside and saw a little brown bird. I went to the garage and grabbed a butterfly net. I caught the little brown bird and murdered it with my last pickle. Than I put it in a little glass box. I decided to become a person who collects things with wings and put them in glass cases.
Allie didn't put the full 10 minutes into hers and it shows..
The little brown bird brought me a dead butterfly. It dropped it in a jar of pickled for some odd reason. But then I got a piece of paper and a blue crayon to draw a picture of the sunset that day.
Our 4 things were
- a blue crayon
- a dead butterfly
- a jar of pickles
- a brown bird
Here's my story.
It's a beautiful day to sit and draw the scene in front of me with my blue crayon. I gaze out my window at the gentle waves on the lake. I wish I could sit here forever, but I must get up and fix my crazy kids their lunch. As I'm grabbing a jar of pickles out of the fridge, I am startled by a loud wack. I drop the jar when I jump, covering the floor with pickles and glass. The smell of dill quickly fills my house. When I look out, I see a little brown bird laying next to a dead butterfly. The bird shakes his head and flies away, but I'm sad because the butterfly never will.
Here's Caden's. I might need to take his crayons away.
Woosh! I threw my blue crayon at the little brown bird which landed in my jar of pickles. It was attracted by my dead butterfly on the ground by my jar of pickles. I picked up the crayon and poked the bird making sure it was dead. It was. The bird was twitching and there was a blue mark from were I hit it. There was a blue mark on the butterfly too. (at this point in his reading, he gives me a sly grin.)
Jaelyn's is along those same lines. What am I doing wrong???
One day when I lived in the forest, I found a blue crayon. I went home and got paper so I could draw something with it. I drew a beautiful blue butterfly. Then it was bedtime so I went to bed. In the middle of the night, I heard some ruckus and decided to go check it out. I saw my paper and it was plain white. Then I went outside and my blue butterfly was flying. I quickly dashed inside to get a jar. It was filled with pickles I dumped them out and left. Once I caught the butterfly I went back to sleep. The next morning I woke up I grabbed my butterfly and went down stairs to where I dropped my pickles. I murdered the butterfly and put it in a glass show box. I went outside and saw a little brown bird. I went to the garage and grabbed a butterfly net. I caught the little brown bird and murdered it with my last pickle. Than I put it in a little glass box. I decided to become a person who collects things with wings and put them in glass cases.
Allie didn't put the full 10 minutes into hers and it shows..
The little brown bird brought me a dead butterfly. It dropped it in a jar of pickled for some odd reason. But then I got a piece of paper and a blue crayon to draw a picture of the sunset that day.
The Craziness that is our Life
So we got back from our first Florida trip mid-September. It took us a week or so, but I finally felt like we were getting back into our routine. The kids started our co-op and really enjoyed it. I'd filled the fridge up with food and unpacked our suitcases. Then, I decided to turn around and head back to Florida for a week and a half with the kids. Craziness, I tell you.
My Grandpa and his wife, Doris, moved into assisted living while we were at Disney. There house is reverse mortgaged and they had 60 days to turn the house back over. I knew the house was packed, but I had no idea how packed it was. There was a lot of stress on my parents in the first few weeks after the move. They were over-whelmed by the situation and my dad's blood pressure was up. I'm so thankful for homeschooling, because for once, I was able to say I'm coming and stay as long as I was needed. My mother in law agreed to keep the kids and try to school them (poor Joanie...she had no clue what she was agreeing too :p). We drove back down on the 28th, stopping over in Atlanta with Uncle Cliffy Wiffy :).
I was in no way prepared for the work that was ahead of us and I won't air my grandpa's dirty laundry. Let's just say, they hadn't thrown anything away in 30 years. Actually, I found junk mail from Doris' first husband from the 1960's. That's 50 years. It took 5 days of 3 of us working and a 6th day with us plus my brother and nephew, but we cleared the trash, sorted, and prepared for the estate people to come in for a sale.
We've been home a week now and I feel like we are finally getting back into the swing of things with school. In addition to that, I've had a couple of projects and some cleaning out of my own to do. I brought back an old dingy dresser that was buried in my Grandpa's garage. I cleaned it up, sanded it down, and repainted it a pretty tuscan red (thank you mom). It's so pretty. I also ripped the pad on my ironing board one night and then ripped the whole pad off in frustration. I ended up buying plywood to attach to the top and covered it with batting and material. I love my new huge ironing surface. Our couch cushions collapsed years ago during a move. I finally found a place here that sells foam big enough; so in addition to all of that, I also redid our couch cushion. They are so much nicer. I highly recommend it. I spent $200 and I'm happy with my couch again rather than $2000 on new living room furniture.
The biggest thing I have in common with my Grandpa is his love of pictures, but what I realized as we dug through his box is most of the pictures didn't matter. So many of his pictures were from his travels with his civic organizations. I was shocked at the pile of those compared to family. It's a lesson in what's important. They also had cards...cards anyone had ever given them that unfortunately went straight in the trash. I came home and pulled out my 5 under the bed boxes and 3 shoe boxes of pictures, cards, and keepsakes. I still have some organizing to do, but if I couldn't tell you who was in the picture, it went in the trash. If there were a lot of landscapes of one place, I kept one and threw the rest away. I couldn't believe the doubles I had. I filled 3 trash bags with stuff, and have my boxes down to 3 under the bed boxes and 1 shoebox.
Jaelyn helped me in our storage closet today. I don't have piles and piles of stuff, but the anti-hoarder in me wants to keep cleaning out after experiencing their house. Thankfully, I'm busy with school and projects for Christmas. Hopefully the itch to clean will go away soon :).
My Grandpa and his wife, Doris, moved into assisted living while we were at Disney. There house is reverse mortgaged and they had 60 days to turn the house back over. I knew the house was packed, but I had no idea how packed it was. There was a lot of stress on my parents in the first few weeks after the move. They were over-whelmed by the situation and my dad's blood pressure was up. I'm so thankful for homeschooling, because for once, I was able to say I'm coming and stay as long as I was needed. My mother in law agreed to keep the kids and try to school them (poor Joanie...she had no clue what she was agreeing too :p). We drove back down on the 28th, stopping over in Atlanta with Uncle Cliffy Wiffy :).
I was in no way prepared for the work that was ahead of us and I won't air my grandpa's dirty laundry. Let's just say, they hadn't thrown anything away in 30 years. Actually, I found junk mail from Doris' first husband from the 1960's. That's 50 years. It took 5 days of 3 of us working and a 6th day with us plus my brother and nephew, but we cleared the trash, sorted, and prepared for the estate people to come in for a sale.
We've been home a week now and I feel like we are finally getting back into the swing of things with school. In addition to that, I've had a couple of projects and some cleaning out of my own to do. I brought back an old dingy dresser that was buried in my Grandpa's garage. I cleaned it up, sanded it down, and repainted it a pretty tuscan red (thank you mom). It's so pretty. I also ripped the pad on my ironing board one night and then ripped the whole pad off in frustration. I ended up buying plywood to attach to the top and covered it with batting and material. I love my new huge ironing surface. Our couch cushions collapsed years ago during a move. I finally found a place here that sells foam big enough; so in addition to all of that, I also redid our couch cushion. They are so much nicer. I highly recommend it. I spent $200 and I'm happy with my couch again rather than $2000 on new living room furniture.
The biggest thing I have in common with my Grandpa is his love of pictures, but what I realized as we dug through his box is most of the pictures didn't matter. So many of his pictures were from his travels with his civic organizations. I was shocked at the pile of those compared to family. It's a lesson in what's important. They also had cards...cards anyone had ever given them that unfortunately went straight in the trash. I came home and pulled out my 5 under the bed boxes and 3 shoe boxes of pictures, cards, and keepsakes. I still have some organizing to do, but if I couldn't tell you who was in the picture, it went in the trash. If there were a lot of landscapes of one place, I kept one and threw the rest away. I couldn't believe the doubles I had. I filled 3 trash bags with stuff, and have my boxes down to 3 under the bed boxes and 1 shoebox.
Jaelyn helped me in our storage closet today. I don't have piles and piles of stuff, but the anti-hoarder in me wants to keep cleaning out after experiencing their house. Thankfully, I'm busy with school and projects for Christmas. Hopefully the itch to clean will go away soon :).
Sunday, September 21, 2014
The Rock N' Roller Coaster by Caden
If you like fast, noisy, roller coasters full of twists and turns then the Rock N' Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios is for you! When I got there, there was almost no line. I got into the "limo," then I yanked my hard leather safety harness down. Rock and roll music started blaring in my ears as it started to count down, 5....4....3....2....1....goooooo! It shot me off like a bullet. I felt the pressure of the wind. And with a flash we were on the highway exploding passed neon signs. I heard people screaming with joy, and I saw people waving theirs arms on the scary loops, turns, and stomach dropping corkscrews. I was screaming so much the air was drying out my mouth. The "limo" jostled me around so much I could not feel my brain. Then the limo came to an abrupt stop. I raced through the mob of people to see my funny face. "hey, it's right there." This is my favorite ride and it will be yours too.
This and That
Last week was truly insane. I wasn't sure which way was up most days. Jaelyn, Allie and I had new patient doctor's appointments. Meeting a new nurse practitioner made me miss our Missouri NP who was so wonderful. I think this will be good too, a vast improvement over our Woodbridge Doc. I'm thrilled to say Allie has her ADHD medicine again (did I already blog about this? I'm too lazy to go and look).
Anyway, the kids all had orthodontist appointments on Wednesday. Jaelyn is ready for Phase II. The ortho wants to study Jaelyn's models before she gives us her plans, but she'll probably have to have something called tension springs to help make room for her canines that are high and out. We've known Allie had a narrow arch, but no one has suggested seeing an orthodontist before now. Dr. B wants to try to expand Allie's palette. That growth plate closes at puberty. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we are still within the window for an expander to work. Caden has two molars that aren't touching in the back. His issue is a wait and see. Apparently, when a top tooth doesn't have anything to hit on the bottom, it can come down. If that starts to happen, he might need a retainer to help it stay in place until he's ready for real braces.
We started our sports and science co-op on Thursday. Jaelyn was really shy, but the other two jumped right in and made friends. Another mom told me she introduced Jae to another girl in her group who is shy as well. They seemed to hit it off. I think I'm really going to enjoy those 4 hours of me time. I found a quilt shop, a book store and a Ben and Jerry's ;). Next week, I'm going to hike the Monticello trail.
In addition to all of that was school, laundry, grocery shopping...we took a break on Friday morning to ride our bikes to the tennis courts and hit balls around for an hour. I'm still feeling it. I need to get moving again.
I'm working on downloading pictures from my cameras (shake your head, roll your eyes). On our trip, I took my big nikon for Pensacola, my small nikon for disney, and I bought an underwater camera for Discovery cove. In addition to those, we bought the disney photo pass, I have a thumb drive with our family photos from my friend, and Dan took photos with his phone. I probably have about 2000 "good" pictures from our 16 day vacation. LOL. I'll weed those down and make a slide show since I know you all love other people's vacation slide shows :).
Anyway, the kids all had orthodontist appointments on Wednesday. Jaelyn is ready for Phase II. The ortho wants to study Jaelyn's models before she gives us her plans, but she'll probably have to have something called tension springs to help make room for her canines that are high and out. We've known Allie had a narrow arch, but no one has suggested seeing an orthodontist before now. Dr. B wants to try to expand Allie's palette. That growth plate closes at puberty. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we are still within the window for an expander to work. Caden has two molars that aren't touching in the back. His issue is a wait and see. Apparently, when a top tooth doesn't have anything to hit on the bottom, it can come down. If that starts to happen, he might need a retainer to help it stay in place until he's ready for real braces.
We started our sports and science co-op on Thursday. Jaelyn was really shy, but the other two jumped right in and made friends. Another mom told me she introduced Jae to another girl in her group who is shy as well. They seemed to hit it off. I think I'm really going to enjoy those 4 hours of me time. I found a quilt shop, a book store and a Ben and Jerry's ;). Next week, I'm going to hike the Monticello trail.
In addition to all of that was school, laundry, grocery shopping...we took a break on Friday morning to ride our bikes to the tennis courts and hit balls around for an hour. I'm still feeling it. I need to get moving again.
I'm working on downloading pictures from my cameras (shake your head, roll your eyes). On our trip, I took my big nikon for Pensacola, my small nikon for disney, and I bought an underwater camera for Discovery cove. In addition to those, we bought the disney photo pass, I have a thumb drive with our family photos from my friend, and Dan took photos with his phone. I probably have about 2000 "good" pictures from our 16 day vacation. LOL. I'll weed those down and make a slide show since I know you all love other people's vacation slide shows :).
Swimming with the Rays
I continue to be impressed with the kids' descriptive stories. When I push them hard, they are capable of amazing work. Here's Jaelyn's:
Today was eight hours in paradise. I spent it up close with the amazing stingrays and smelly fish at Discovery Cove. The rippling water froze my toes down to the bone as I stepped in. When I dove in, the shock took my breath away. The surprise of my first stingray made me breathe in the nasty, salt water through my snorkel. The shark fins scared me until I realized that the fins were just stingray wings coming up so they could turn corners to fly away from the kids swimming after them. When I chased after the rays to touch them, I realized that they felt like wet sponges with pricks on them. I noticed that they have their own special markings just like people do. When I saw their different markings, I was amazing because of how unique each stingray was. I talked to a guide who was feeding the stingrays, and got to feed seven of them. They made little buzzing sounds with their mouths because they were happy. She talked to me about their names and answered about fifty of my questions for me. Later it rained, and half the people at Discovery Cove left. After that, we had the stingrays to ourselves. There was a wonderful peaceful silence as I stalked the stingrays on the reef. When I grow up, I hope I can do it again. I think that you should stop by Discovery Cove and experience what I just experienced.
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Expedition Everest
Getting back in the swing of things is harder than I thought. I also booked way too much stuff. There are 3 doctor's appointment, 3 orthodontist appointments, new dance class, church youth group, our first week to co-op, Caden's baseball practice. And let's not forgot grocery shopping, laundry and just general unpacking and household stuff. Let's just say I can't wait for Saturday to get here.
Anyway, I assigned the kids a descriptive writing assignment based on one thing they did on our vacation. Praise the Lord, Allie is back on her ADHD medicine even if I had to pay way too much for it yesterday (Tricare and I are going to have issues). While Jaelyn and Caden have only completed their brainstorming, she's done her brainstorming, rough draft and published paper. Honestly, I love the way she writes. Did you know excitement had a smell? This is all her. I corrected two spelling mistakes and added 3 commas.
"Let our expedition to Mt. Everest begin!," I said running to get in line for the roller coaster, Expedition Everest. We walked through this amazing, out of this world passage of sightings of the Yeti! When we got on the ride, we put our things in the bag, pulled down on the bars, and headed off on our expedition ride. We went zooming backwards in the pitch black darkness at the speed of lightening. Then we went forwards with the wind rushing past my face with my hands up screaming in joy. There was a rush of excitement in the air which smelled like the aromas of Asia. Then the ride halted to a stop and slowly, as in turtle running speed, went to the drop off stop. After we bounced off the expedition, we went on it again. It was so amazing. I can't wait to go again when I am older.
Anyway, I assigned the kids a descriptive writing assignment based on one thing they did on our vacation. Praise the Lord, Allie is back on her ADHD medicine even if I had to pay way too much for it yesterday (Tricare and I are going to have issues). While Jaelyn and Caden have only completed their brainstorming, she's done her brainstorming, rough draft and published paper. Honestly, I love the way she writes. Did you know excitement had a smell? This is all her. I corrected two spelling mistakes and added 3 commas.
Expedition Everest by Allie
"Let our expedition to Mt. Everest begin!," I said running to get in line for the roller coaster, Expedition Everest. We walked through this amazing, out of this world passage of sightings of the Yeti! When we got on the ride, we put our things in the bag, pulled down on the bars, and headed off on our expedition ride. We went zooming backwards in the pitch black darkness at the speed of lightening. Then we went forwards with the wind rushing past my face with my hands up screaming in joy. There was a rush of excitement in the air which smelled like the aromas of Asia. Then the ride halted to a stop and slowly, as in turtle running speed, went to the drop off stop. After we bounced off the expedition, we went on it again. It was so amazing. I can't wait to go again when I am older.
Saturday, September 13, 2014
On the Road Again
What a whirlwind the last two weeks have been. After our great week in Pensacola, we packed the kids in the van and took them to Orlando!!!
Our first stop was Discovery Cove where we got to swim with Dexter and Roxie...two bottle noses dolphins! It was an up close and personal, once in a lifetime experience. As neat as those 30 minutes were, they were only 30 minutes. We spent the rest of the day snorkeling on the "reef" that was home to hundreds of tropical fish and 44 sting rays. Amazing doesn't begin to describe the feeling of swimming along side a ray wider than I am tall. It rained mid afternoon sending lots of people home. We persevered and got to spend the last hour of the day practically by ourselves. I was especially impressed with the amount of time Jaelyn spent with one of the guides asking question and learning all sort of facts about sting rays.
Next, we checked into the Port Orleans Hotel and headed to the happiest place on Earth...Walt Disney World. We spent four fun-filled, crazy hot days riding every ride we could find at Magic Kingdom, Animal kingdom, And Hollywood Studios.
We've had a lot of fun, but after two weeks, it's definitely time to head home and get back into our routine of school, work, co-ops, baseball, and dance...not to mention sleeping in my own bed.
We'll spend the nigh tonight with my Uncle Clifford in Atlanta and be home late tomorrow night.
Be prepared for a major photo dump some time next week after grocery shopping, doctor's appointments (finally), orthodontist consults, and of course, school.
Our first stop was Discovery Cove where we got to swim with Dexter and Roxie...two bottle noses dolphins! It was an up close and personal, once in a lifetime experience. As neat as those 30 minutes were, they were only 30 minutes. We spent the rest of the day snorkeling on the "reef" that was home to hundreds of tropical fish and 44 sting rays. Amazing doesn't begin to describe the feeling of swimming along side a ray wider than I am tall. It rained mid afternoon sending lots of people home. We persevered and got to spend the last hour of the day practically by ourselves. I was especially impressed with the amount of time Jaelyn spent with one of the guides asking question and learning all sort of facts about sting rays.
Next, we checked into the Port Orleans Hotel and headed to the happiest place on Earth...Walt Disney World. We spent four fun-filled, crazy hot days riding every ride we could find at Magic Kingdom, Animal kingdom, And Hollywood Studios.
We've had a lot of fun, but after two weeks, it's definitely time to head home and get back into our routine of school, work, co-ops, baseball, and dance...not to mention sleeping in my own bed.
We'll spend the nigh tonight with my Uncle Clifford in Atlanta and be home late tomorrow night.
Be prepared for a major photo dump some time next week after grocery shopping, doctor's appointments (finally), orthodontist consults, and of course, school.
Friday, September 5, 2014
Family Photos
My friend is improving her photography skills and offered to take pictures for us. My mom and I spent a mad hour running around Kohls trying to find coordinating clothes because all we have are vacation shorts. I think we did pretty good. Jen's parents let us use their farm as the background. I absolutely love all of the pictures I've seen so far, but these are my favorites. Excuse the black lines and arrows. They are screen shots from Facebook. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Jen! You are amazing and I'm so blessed to call you a friend!
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Did I mention our Vacation?
After a LONG day driving to Pensacola last week, we have had an absolutely amazing time visiting with family and friends. The week has gone too quickly. I'm going to let the pictures speak a thousand words.
Dinner out with our friends is not complete without hunting some geocaches and krispy kreme donuts!
We finally got to see Dan's parent's new house. They have a pool table the kids loved. We didn't know Dan's dad had been a pool shark back in his day.
Grandmother enjoyed showing us her new dock.
In order to add a little "school" to our vacation, we visited the museum at Ft. Pickens before we hit the beach.
Dinner out with my parents and grandparents at our favorite place that we have missed since moving.
We had so much fun playing at the beach two different days. The water was rough. I had to really pay attention to the kids, but it was worth it for the bigger waves and awesome boogie boarding.
I bought a waterproof digital camera. I loved being out in the water with the kids to capture precious memories.
Dan enjoyed hanging out under his umbrella.
There are more pictures to come as we have more adventures. Stay tuned!
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Words to Live By
Each new quilt is my favorite and this is no exception. I think I like this one especially because, there was no pattern or plan when I started. I had about 15 orphan blocks (blocks left over from another project) and tubs of scraps.
I like to make words so I made "Love" the same size as the other squares and it grew from there with friends pitching in to give me word ideas. I've always made rectangular quilts, but this one said it wanted to be square. It's 58x58 finished. I pulled all my coordinating scraps to make the piano key border which really made it come alive. There are little pieces of every quilt I've made in this quilt. That makes it really special to me, getting to revisit all of those projects and the people that I love that they were made for.
This quilt also really spoke to me for the quilting. I did my up and down wavy "finger" stitch on the outside border. The inside border had a diamond pattern so I followed it with wavy lines. For the inside, I did a fun curly loopy stitch.
This quilt is going to a charity auction for The Smallest Gifts which supports families through the grief of losing a baby.
And now I'm on to my next two quilts: a paper pieced string quilt for a special someone and a 1st year baby clothes quilt for a sweet friend. After that, I have a Tshirt quilt to make for a friend's son's Christmas present and a Yoda quilt to make for the Cade-man. And then...maybe I'll start on the quilt I have planned for my bed! It's going to be a busy fall y'all!
Saturday, August 23, 2014
Disney Bound
Friday, August 22, 2014
Family Canidae - Read All about It
Thursday, August 21, 2014
Caden's Diorama Presentation
I read the first two books in the Half Upon a Time series to the kids over the summer. They are so much fun. We read the third together as our first chapter book. This was a fun little project this week to wrap it up.
Saturday, August 16, 2014
My Latest Project
Week Two Down
Wow, homeschooling 3 takes a lot more time than 1. I am going to have to be on my toes to stay ahead in my planning and preparation. I'm also learning my time after school is very limited for the things I want to do. I've been working on a sewing project in the afternoons for two weeks now and I'm not that close to being done. I need 8 hours in a row :). And that's with Dan home helping out with meals and grocery runs. He starts back to work on the 25th.
All of that said, I think we are already into a good rhythm with our schedule. I'm adding the last subject next week, but already I can see us moving faster through the subjects. I am going to have to make an adjustment to spelling for Caden. Jaelyn thrived under Spelling Power last year, but it's very frustrating to him. You call out words for 5 minutes each morning. The kids only study the ones they miss and they are added to the list for the next day. Caden must have more of my perfectionism than we thought. It's sooo upsetting to him to miss them. He needs a list on Monday to study and then test on Friday just like a traditional school. Homeschooling is great because I can accommodate what he needs; while also giving Jaelyn and Allie a system that is working great for them.
I do find myself worrying that they aren't going to learn what they need compared to a structured school, but when I logically think about, they are probably getting more. They are getting individualized teaching. We are studying things they want to study, reading books they want to read. Last year, I loved that Jaelyn took ownership of her learning. I would like to add in an art period one day a week...maybe just using art books from the library and recreating a famous piece of art, and I also need to figure out music. Music is not my thing. Allie and Caden want to take guitar lessons. I also haven't found active activities yet. Well, we signed Caden up for his first year of baseball, but I haven't signed the girls up for anything. Jaelyn doesn't care about continuing gymnastics. Allie says she'll take dance when I ask, but she doesn't seem too excited about it. Once our co-op starts, they'll have 2 hours a week of sports through it. I also need to get more active. We should throw in a PE period a few times a week and get out and move!
I worry what will happen as the kids hit high school. It's only two years away, and we'll be here in the same county one not so great high school. Will we keep homeschooling and do the tougher subjects online? Will they go to public high school? Will they go to private school? That's borrowing worry from tomorrow, but my brain just can't stop :).
In other news, our vacation planning is coming right along. I can't wait to visit home (it's been 21 months for Dan and 15 for me and the kids). My parents visited us twice in Woodbridge, but we haven't seen anyone else. Then, we'll continue on to Disney. The last time we went Caden was 3 and cried if we even mentioned taking him on anything. Dan or I took turns sitting outside the rides with him. This time will be totally different. Jaelyn and I have been busy making shirts on her new machine...
All of that said, I think we are already into a good rhythm with our schedule. I'm adding the last subject next week, but already I can see us moving faster through the subjects. I am going to have to make an adjustment to spelling for Caden. Jaelyn thrived under Spelling Power last year, but it's very frustrating to him. You call out words for 5 minutes each morning. The kids only study the ones they miss and they are added to the list for the next day. Caden must have more of my perfectionism than we thought. It's sooo upsetting to him to miss them. He needs a list on Monday to study and then test on Friday just like a traditional school. Homeschooling is great because I can accommodate what he needs; while also giving Jaelyn and Allie a system that is working great for them.
I do find myself worrying that they aren't going to learn what they need compared to a structured school, but when I logically think about, they are probably getting more. They are getting individualized teaching. We are studying things they want to study, reading books they want to read. Last year, I loved that Jaelyn took ownership of her learning. I would like to add in an art period one day a week...maybe just using art books from the library and recreating a famous piece of art, and I also need to figure out music. Music is not my thing. Allie and Caden want to take guitar lessons. I also haven't found active activities yet. Well, we signed Caden up for his first year of baseball, but I haven't signed the girls up for anything. Jaelyn doesn't care about continuing gymnastics. Allie says she'll take dance when I ask, but she doesn't seem too excited about it. Once our co-op starts, they'll have 2 hours a week of sports through it. I also need to get more active. We should throw in a PE period a few times a week and get out and move!
I worry what will happen as the kids hit high school. It's only two years away, and we'll be here in the same county one not so great high school. Will we keep homeschooling and do the tougher subjects online? Will they go to public high school? Will they go to private school? That's borrowing worry from tomorrow, but my brain just can't stop :).
In other news, our vacation planning is coming right along. I can't wait to visit home (it's been 21 months for Dan and 15 for me and the kids). My parents visited us twice in Woodbridge, but we haven't seen anyone else. Then, we'll continue on to Disney. The last time we went Caden was 3 and cried if we even mentioned taking him on anything. Dan or I took turns sitting outside the rides with him. This time will be totally different. Jaelyn and I have been busy making shirts on her new machine...
Friday, August 8, 2014
First Week of School
We started school officially on Monday. We did reading last week and I did some placement testing, but it wasn't really school. I wasn't sure what to expect with three personalities and three ability levels on Monday, but the week actually went really well. Don't get me wrong, Jaelyn was a snoot about reading, Caden cried over writing, and Allie did a whole lot of bouncing (did I mentioned their old doctor messed up her ADHD prescription? We are short a month and can't get into our new doctor until the end of September), but it sort of worked. We all read together first thing. We are reading the last book in the Half Upon a Time series (so much fun if you haven't read it). Then the kids did math, spelling, and journal writing pretty independently (love math lessons on the computer. After lunch, we did science and history. We are studying zoology for science. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. Right now, we are watching an American Revolution cartoon series called Liberty Kids. When we are done with it, we are going to do World Geography. Last year, I could wing it if I had to with Jaelyn, but with 3, I'm going to have to be much more organized. I'm predicting a great school year!
Today's "try this" in science was about camouflage and natural selection. It didn't quite work like the book said, but it was still fun and the M&Ms in our habitat are now extinct.
Thursday, July 31, 2014
In Search of Water
For the first time since the kids were old enough to swim without swim diapers, we have no pool access. I've heard about two swimming pools, but there's a hefty fee to join that I'm not willing to pay for a month. Since we can't do that, we've been in search of other places to get wet. This weekend, we drove through the Shenandoah National Forest to get the Shenandoah River State Park. It was a long windy drive, but it was pretty. The campground are really nice and the kids had a ball for the 30 minutes we let them float in river. There were tons of people tubing and kayaking.
Another day, we investigated a lake about 15 minutes from our house. It advertises a "beach," but you have to use that term loosely. Their beach was dirt, but I guess it's better than nothing. The kids still had fun. I think this was their first experience swimming in a lake.
I've trained them well. These pictures were all them yelling at me to take their pictures. They counted down and jumped for me.
I love this one!
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