This was taken around 3 in the afternoon. It is already starting to get dark. Temps are staying consistently below zero. We hit 20 below yesterday.
And it is absolutely beautiful.
What’s it like where you are????
Original post by lapazfarm
You Are Boggle
You are an incredibly creative and resourceful person.
You’re able to dig deep and think outside the box to get things done.
You are a non linear thinker. You don’t like following directions
You draw your inspiration from the strangest places sometimes. You’re constantly inspired.
What Board Game Are You?
ht: Donna
Original post by lapazfarm
Here are a few scenes from election night, LaPaz style!
Decoration making:
cookie cutting…
(while JBug listens to “I’m gonna take your vote to college”…)
lovin’ from the oven:
sprinkling and frosting:
some friends came to join in the fun:
Listening for the results and coloring the maps, one state at a time…
and rejoicing in the news…
A great night. A historic night. And one I hope my children will always remember.
Original post by lapazfarm
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Original post by lapazfarm
So… I am looking for ideas.
What are you all doing to celebrate/drown your sorrows on election night?
Here’s what I’ve got…
I’ve got a roast to simmer in the crock pot while we all get out and vote…
I’ve got cookies to decorate with white frosting and red and blue sprinkles…
I’ve got my cupcake toppers…
I’ve got the map to color and a stash of blue and red crayons…
I’ve got my presidential (and VP) candidate finger puppets…
I’ve got my pop-up Whitehouse with 2 new tenants itching to move in…
AND…
I’ve got a link to my election night news team…
What have YOU got????
Original post by lapazfarm
In keeping with Superboy’s recent Poe theme, I whipped up this Halloween trick-or-treat bag for him today:
It was quick and easy with a pre-made JoAnns (or Michaels?) tote bag, that fusible stick-on stuff, and some fabric scraps I had on hand.
What took me the longest time was figuring out what exactly to put on Superboy’s bag. I had done a scrappy owl for JBug and liked that it wasn’t so garishly Halloween-ish that it could also do double duty as a library bag all year long.
But it was just too girly for Superboy. I needed something that would be at once spooky and boyish and literary (so as to be appropriate for the library). So, when the raven idea hit me, I knew I had found just the thing.
Trick-or treat!
Now, to get those costumes together!
Original post by lapazfarm
Thought I’d share with you all the poem that I have tacked up on the wall in front of my desk. It is one that I have loved for a long time and find myself returning to whenever I have doubts about what I am doing. I think it expresses fairly well my ideals about educating children.
For a Child
by Fannie Stearns Davis
Your friends shall be the Tall Wind,
The River and the Tree;
The Sun that laughs and marches,
The Swallows and the Sea.
Your prayers shall be the murmur
Of grasses in the rain;
The song of wildwood thrushes
That makes God glad again.
And you shall run and wander,
And you shall dream and sing
Of brave things and bright things
Beyond the swallow’s wings.
And you shall envy no man,
Nor hurt your heart with sighs,
For I will keep you simple
That God may make you wise.
It’s those last two lines that make me really think.What does it mean to […]
Original post by lapazfarm
Seriously, you guys are the best. You’ve made me feel better. Not that I was feeling too bad, but I do feel better now. I’m not sure what the problem was. Maybe something about waking up to 8 degrees outside and it’s only mid-October just threw me into a funk. I think I just needed to get out of the house for awhile. So I took a walk over to my new friends house and bugged her all afternoon while the kids played and she made me some cranberry tea and I feel much better.
And your comments helped, too. I was reading them and really taking them to heart. Amy made an excellent point about the fact that my two little grandsons being gone makes my days seem very tame in comparison to the life I led just a few short months ago. I’ve been thinking about them a lot […]
Original post by lapazfarm
Seriously, you guys are the best. You’ve made me feel better. Not that I was feeling too bad, but I do feel better now. I’m not sure what the problem was. Maybe something about waking up to 8 degrees outside and it’s only mid-October just threw me into a funk. I think I just needed to get out of the house for awhile. So I took a walk over to my new friends house and bugged her all afternoon while the kids played and she made me some cranberry tea and I feel much better.
And your comments helped, too. I was reading them and really taking them to heart. Amy made an excellent point about the fact that my two little grandsons being gone makes my days seem very tame in comparison to the life I led just a few short months ago. I’ve been thinking about them a lot […]
Original post by lapazfarm
Honestly.
What do you do when you feel like you should be doing more, but lack the motivation?
Original post by lapazfarm
After a long creativity dry-spell, I am finally getting back into doing some crafts because I am suddenly inspired by this:Great 2-5 yr old gift.
To turn these:
Into these bean bags!
What fun! And by using pre-cut, color-coordinated “charm squares” it was easy enough even for the craft-challenged like me! LOL! The two matching fat quarters are to make drawstring bags to put them (or other gifts) in.
I know two little boys who are going to love tossing these colorful beanbags around! (But they are just going to have to wait until Christmas! Haha!)
Original post by lapazfarm
Yesterday we lost a dear friend, our beloved pet Buddy.
We are not sure what happened–we think perhaps he was poisoned somehow. All we know is one day he was fine and the next he was not.
Buddy was a good dog, gentle and patient and sweet in a way that only a golden retriever can be. And our hearts are broken.
Original post by lapazfarm
Yesterday we lost a dear friend, our beloved pet Buddy.
We are not sure what happened–we think perhaps he was poisoned somehow. All we know is one day he was fine and the next he was not.
Buddy was a good dog, gentle and patient and sweet in a way that only a golden retriever can be. And our hearts are broken.
Original post by lapazfarm
Thanks to my friend Kim at Starry Sky Ranch for pointing out these two excellent Newsweek articles about educating boys:
Struggling School-age Boys
The Trouble with Boys
Very interesting, and completely in sync with my observations as a former classroom teacher, a mother and grandmother of boys, and a homeschooling teacher of one Superboy.
And really, should we find it surprising that boys and girls learn differently– think differently? After all, we ARE different, aren’t we? I mean, I realize that not all boys are the same, nor are all girls the same, but to deny the fact that there are significant differences between the male and female of our species is to deny our very biology, our evolutionary history, and the plan of our Maker who had good reason (we must assume) to create us the way He did.
And does it surprise us that an educational system that prizes “sit still, be […]
Original post by lapazfarm
Happy anniversary!
So many years since that happy day long ago. So many happy years to come.
It feels more like heaven every day…
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Original post by lapazfarm
Today we had a wonderful day at Chena lake and although I had not planned it, I decided these pictures would make nice not-back-to-school portraits. They may not be professional quality, but at least the backgrounds are real, unlike those cheesy photo-backdrops they use in typical school portraits. Oh, and the kids are real, too.
Superboy, Fall 2008.
JBug, Fall 2008.
Class photo. Taken in our school room.
Ok, so those were obviously posed, as in “Hey, turn around and smile for me, ok???” Nice, but not much personality there. So here are a couple that I think really capture more of my kids’ real personalities:
JBug, Fall 2008.
Superboy, Fall 2008.
Yeah. That’s more like it. I’ll take some 8X10’s and a dozen wallets, please.
Original post by lapazfarm
I don’t think so.
JBug handed me this picture she drew a while ago and it made me smile.
Me: Who is this?
JBug: Me and my brother.
I don’t think I have to worry about her self-image. Or her opinion of her big brother.
Original post by lapazfarm
We got our new planners in the mail today! Perfect timing as we begin school in earnest on Monday. True, we’ve been doing school for a little over a week now, but we’ve just been getting our feet wet as we try out new things a little at a time. Next week we dive in deeply and are going to try to be productive in some manner all day long!
Here are the planners I got. (go ahead and check them out–you might like ‘em)
I got one for Superboy and one for JBug. What I like about these planners is that rather than using them in the typical plan-ahead fashion, they seem ideal for after-the-fact record-keeping for unschoolers. Plus, the way they are divided into general categories, rather than time slots, will be a great visual way for us to see how Superboy’s many “projects” fit into various subject areas, and […]
Original post by lapazfarm
everyone’s doing it!
Except me, of course.
Since we are moseying along in our us-schooling kind of way I have been feeling kind of out-of-the loop in homeschooling circles lately as nearly everyone’s thoughts turn to planning, curricula, schedules and such. That shouldn’t come as such a surprise to me as I find myself the odd one out more often than not.
But sometimes, of course, the doubt creeps in. I am only human, after all. Sometimes I wonder if I am doing the right thing by my kiddos by taking a more relaxed, life-learning approach to their education.
Shouldn’t I be poring over the homeschooling catalogs, making spreadsheets, weighing the pros and cons of each and every piece of educational material that I present to my children in hopes of finding that perfect fit? That magic bullet? That one piece of perfectly planned and printed nirvana that will work it’s magical wonders […]
Original post by lapazfarm
Wow! Did you guys see the article about us in the Washington Times? I have to say I was stunned when the link to the article showed up here on my dashboard. I had no idea! Little ol’ LaPaz blog makes the big-time. Who would have thought?
But it sure put a smile on my face today!
Original post by lapazfarm
Or…What do we do when we are bored around here?
If Superboy is bored, he goes outside (despite the weather) and finds some berries, and then comes in to identify them to see if they are edible (sharpening his survival skills, you know).
This is Dwarf Cornel or bunchberries. They look like (and actually ARE) tiny little dogwoods. They are apparently NOT edible. But the Gooseberries he found were.
He also picked up this book at a used book store and is busy looking for clues and solving a mystery.
(ps:Don’t tell him if you’ve read it and know the answer. It’ll spoil the thrill of the chase!)
What does JBug do? Why color beautiful pictures, of course!
I call it “Landscape in Hot Pink.”
What do I do when I’m bored?
Try a new recipe, of course (in this case it’s strawberry rhubarb pie). I will leave it to you to interpret what I mean by “try.”
Original post by lapazfarm
For example, I am inordinately happy to have found this gem at a yard sale…
Internet-linked Children’s World Cookbook
… for only a quarter!!! Woo-hoo! I can see us cooking up a feast from different country each week here at Lapaz!
I also found a LeapFrog Explorer Smart Globe for a dollar, a large butcher block cutting board for 2 bucks, a pair of camo pants for Superboy and whole bag-full of clothes for JBug for 50 cents, a game of Operation for a dollar, a nice Backgammon set for 2 bucks, and a coffee table for 10 bucks!
See what I mean? Easy to please!
Fairbanks has turned out to be a great place for yard sales!
What are your favorite yard sale/thrift store finds of late???
Original post by lapazfarm
Literally!
Now, don’t get me wrong. The 15 minutes or so of the movie I was able to watch were really good! I WANTED to watch the rest! But this just happened to be one of those movies that, for whatever reason, makes me literally sick to my stomach if I watch it. Something about the way certain movies are filmed do this to me. It’s motion sickness or something akin to it, but whatever it is, it is powerful stuff, causing me to be unable to look at the screen, needing to leave the theatre, and leaving me queasy for hours afterward. Not wanting to spoil the movie for my husband, I tried to stick it out this time by just sitting in the theater with my eyes closed, but after a while Ed started feeling it, too! We ended up leaving, sad that we missed a great flick, but […]
Original post by lapazfarm