Monday we played all morning outside. We came in about 30 minutes before lunch and made 2 Christmas ornaments and then he played while I fixed lunch.
Tuesday we made a hand print Christmas tree which we are using for the family tree this year instead of hanging the macrame tree. After we hung the tree we got a phone call from Jessica, my sister, saying she didn’t need me to watch her kids the following Tuesday which would allow us to go to FL with my parents. It was 3pm and my parents were leaving at 7pm, so we threw clothes in a suitcase, grabbed some food for the road and were off to FL for a week.
We spent the next week on and off the road traveling and at my aunts and grandparents house. On the road I took advantage of the different color cars and trucks and pointed […]
Original post by jenna
I am thankful for:
Our health, right now everyone is healthy and we haven’t had an ER trip in awhile (I know I’m jinxing myself with that statement.)
Our families, though far away are still a part of our lives thanks to the awesome power of the internet, snail mail, and the incredible digital phone.
Our home school group. Many have looked far and wide to find a group like mine. We are eclectic, inclusive and quirky. We have the best people in our group because we realize that everyone brings something to the table (even if its sushi, because someone likes sushi.)
I am thankful for the fact that I live in a very nice homeschool state where we have every advantage to school our kids the way we think they need to be schooled.
I am thankful for my husband who works 2, no wait 3, no…sometimes 4 jobs (yes, even jobs that […]
Original post by liese4
Thanksgiving has always been a sticking point for me in this area. We stopped going to NY years ago - the drive is just too much - both ways - for this holiday. Some years we had my sister, Lauren, here. One year we got together with friends.
Around here, if you don’t have family, you are out on your own. Me? If I had family but I knew my own friends had no one to gather with, I’d invite them. One year, a family we knew had just had their second baby and their home was not finished for them to move back into. Guess what? We had them over for Easter dinner. Because, to me, that is the human thing to do.
Just solidifies why we are moving out of NoVA. Can’t be soon enough.
Original post by braegan
…aka Tucker and Blaze.
I’m curious….
Do you suppose Tucker ever wonders if standing by Blaze makes him look short and round?
Original post by woodstone
Today was a light day of school — getting ready for the holidays!
Latin-we finished up the exercises and the girls took a quiz.
Math- Kitty did 2 lessons /Maggie did one lesson
We finished rewrites yesterday for Classical Writing so we took today off.
We worked on our memory verse and did the comprehension questions in the CSII workbook.
Princess Pea and I worked through a lesson in 100EZ Lessons.
We started at 10am and were finished by 12:30.
Original post by jmj403
Evrey one should know the classic code 1=a 2=b! soo for 2 days i will write like that OK? good! well
2255!
~~~10 5 19 19 9 5~~~~
Original post by w4r5
If you have kids that love trivia learning, hop on over to Sporcle. It’s pretty neat (and amazing how much history I don’t know.) Try filling in the Gettysburg address or coming up with all the names of the Civil war battles! I haven’t even begun to find everything on the site, trivia games for language, history, science, etc. Have fun!
Original post by liese4
I have been homeschooling for over 11 years now and frankly I was getting a bad case of homeschooling burnout. Not from the fact that my children are at home with me - they are my greatest joy! I guess I was just tired of going through all of the STUFF. Is it really necessary to do 6, 7 or 8 subjects A DAY with EACH CHILD??? That’s 18 to 24 subjects per day for Mom! YIKES!
For the past 3 weeks, we have been working through three main subjects a day: Latin, Arithmetic and Composition. For my 5 year old it’s Phonics, Arithmetic and Copywork. After lunch, we have reading time in the family room. I set the timer for 30 minutes and we all read. Sometimes I read aloud to everyone but most of the time we all are doing our own thing. Then we work on one subject a day - history, science, literature, geography or religion. We notebook, do […]
Original post by jmj403
Tigger (who is now calling herself Dreamer, but I’m trying not to confuse my peeps) has nominated me for an award.
I know others have also put me on their lists for this kind of thing, too. I am honoured that so many people (not just my kid) enjoy what I write here. The biggest problem with this whole blogging thing is that I end up with more friends who live far away and that I don’t get to see in person often enough (or at all).
I tend not to play the meme game (and many of you have noticed the button in the sidebar and not tagged me). But I love that you come by. I am grateful that I am on your list.
In my blogroll there are a couple of links that take you to fuller lists of the blogs I read. I’m not sure they are completely up […]
Original post by jove
Thanks Katie!
I nominate Emma, and Dreamer
Original post by learningon
Drat it snowed I cant believe it.
It would have been perfect if it wasn’t for thoes *arn leaves.
Infact it’s snowing right as I speak, the fact is that the leaves soke up so much heat from the sun that when the snow hits it it ameaditly melts.
Original post by ponylover
I like animals, for instance, I once, about a week ago, caught a squirrel in a shed that’s in my back yard. I was walking in my back yard when I saw a squirrel playing in the shed. I’ll name the squirrel Jack so that I can stop saying “the squirrel”. I started to stalk Jack by slowly creeping up to the shed entrance; there was no door. He kept going about his business until I got too close then he stiffened up and looked me straight in the eye. I stopped dead in my tracks, hoping that he wouldn’t scamper away and make my hopes of catching him vain. After what seemed like hours, he decided to ignore me and went freely about his business and let me creep up until I had gotten less than a meter from the entrance. But as I crept, he hopped away from […]
Original post by jason
My bother brother, Bryan, loves legos©, and likes to build things that were never, and probably will never, be invented. He’s 15 years old, so it’s rather strange for him to be a lego© fan, but that’s how it is.
We build some weird things with legos© that are questionable in possibility, such as this. This object doesn’t necessarily look from this world, does it? As you can guess, it is made by Bryan.
This is something that I made. It’s an Interesting something, because it looks like something that could actually be created by human kind, but still hanging on the edge of impossibility.
This is a picture of something else that Bryan made.
It’s obvious that he has more imagination than I do; either that or I like to build things that, if I get rich enough, I can build in real life and make […]
Original post by jason
Yes I know I abandoned my blog I pretty much forgot about it.
Well the cow is probably not going to work right now. It’s not being able to not buy the cow, believe it or not it’s not being able to afford the fencing.
Well hopefully I’ll be able to write tomorrow.
Original post by ponylover
So… how could I not post after getting such a nice comment from Lynn.
I guess I’ll have to think of something to write about…
Things are “kind of” ok here… and kind of not.
M’s had a difficult couple of months, I’ve had to slowly increase the haldol again… trying to get him back to a place of stability. Each time I increase it he stabilizes a bit more, but I feel worse… because I know the TD is going to get worse. The latest increase was just a few days ago, and it might be the one that really gets him to the point of being able to function without disconnecting as frequently as he has been doing. It’s been almost a week since the last “disconnect” so I’m cautiously optimistic. My goal is to have him as stable as possible by Thanksgiving…
The pdoc’s been rattling my chain again. After pretty much […]
Original post by woodstone
My middle ds Louie has always suffered from what we call ‘Huckleberry Finn Syndrome’ - he is generally to be found barefoot, caked with mud, hanging upside down from a tree branch. He will invariably also have some creature about his person - a frog, a snail, a centipede… And his pockets will be filled with fossils, shells, string, broken pottery sherds, skeletal remains, dried mud pies…. and of course scattered amongst those more natural items the obligatory handful of Lego bricks unlike the original Huckleberry. As I was sitting here at the laptop checking my emails and watching my youngest ds 4 I realised that Erik is fast following in his brother’s footsteps. His once-white Winnie the Pooh T-shirt is covered with chocolate milk and mud and some purple sticky unidentifiable substance; his face is covered with chocolate milk; his hands are muddy; his hair looks like a bird’s nest. […]
Original post by melissaclarel
A couple of weeks ago, when Jordan decided it was time for her to make some money, I politely shut her down on her request to google “How a girl can make money.” Just didn’t think that was a wise approach. We did get on the library website and search for some books. We ended up with a stack of them. So far the favorite has been the American Girl series “Smart Girls Guide to Money: How to Make It, Save It and Spend It“
Last weekend she made dog biscuits completely on her own (well, except for the cleanup), made price tags and bagged them in decorative bags that she purchased—this included lessons in marketing, profit vs. expenses and potential customers. With some prodding, she decided to give some of her proceeds to the shelter we foster for–and she decided on a 1/3 of the cost. She calculated […]
Original post by laraszoo
Original post by melissaclarel
I was searching through the themes looking for one for my brand new blog. I was considering flowers, hearts, chic chintzy delicate pretty stuff that I thought was ‘me’. So how did I end up with Lego???? Because just as I was sitting here with my laptop my youngest ds 4 walked into the livingroom and tipped out a tub of 1000 Lego bricks all over the floor. Then my eldest ds 14 comes into the room to show me the huge fancy articulated Star Wars style space station thingy he has spent about three hours building with Lego bricks; he then proceeds to ask if using the Lego designer programme on the PC counts as computer art on his lesson log. Then middle ds 12 comes to show me the Harry Potter lego game he’s been playing. As I sit here with my cup of tea typing away I realise that my entire […]
Original post by melissaclarel
Last week we decided to skip school and just play and lounge around the house. Jackson accidentally was given some Teddy Grahams Sunday afternoon at church and it made him constipated and irritable for the rest of the week. Not wanting to push him I just let him lay around and rest.
This week was all about cookies!
Monday we started off the day by making a batch of gluten free peanut butter cookies. I found a simple recipe at Gluten-free Girl and decided to give a try. They turned out to be wonderful and delicious!!
We made a small plate to share with Daddy when he got home.
After we made cookies we got dressed for the day. I have started to let Jackson pick out his clothes and also start to try and dress himself. Over the week he got very good at putting a shirt on, still with a little help, […]
Original post by jenna
We had so much fun with Stanley! But, alas, it was time for him to visit another family!
So the kids did puzzles with him one last time before we got him ready to go:
Mario and I made him a rain hat and an umbrella for his travels since the weather has turned a bit murky out where we are:
We also made him a travel book so everyone can add things in as they have more adventures with Stanley:
And we made him a suitcase to travel in as well:
The shapes on the front are for adding travel “stickers” to his suitcase- stickers of the town he visits, the places he goes or whatever you like!
Here, Mario is playing with him one last time:
Alright, time to say Goodbye Stanley!
And here is his package, all nice and snug!
We can’t wait to hear about all the fun things he’s able to do over at […]
Original post by retrocutie
It’s snowy and dreary here this morning. I desperately need to find the cleaning fairy and chain her to my kitchen, but I also have 4 mostly-darling children in dire need of some plain old fun.
Here’s 10 things that are on our list of possibles today.
1. Play hide the phone. This is one of my favorite games to play with toddlers and the big kids love doing it with Alex. Hide the phone, press the page button and watch the little guy happily tear through the house looking for it. (Can also be played with ticking timers.)
2. Make miniscule art. Hand out index cards or other small pieces of paper and trace a circle in the middle. Have the kids use magnifying glasses, microscopes or just look very closely at whatever object they like (each in a different room). […]
Original post by Alicia
We’ve had a busy week so far this week, but nothing too out of the ordinary. Here’s a few bits and pieces…
Yesterday we had our learning time in the morning. Ben did his work independently while the girls and I did their stuff together. We’re having a language arts block this week. I’m centering it on the parts of speech which seems strange, but I wanted a review for Madeline, an introduction for Ellie, and I wanted to use it as a means to get to some writing. I checked out a bunch of books from the library on various parts of speech including the Ruth Heller books and the Brian Cleary Words Are Categorical series. Yesterday we read the noun and verb ones, brainstormed our own nouns and verbs, and then wrote noun poems and verb poems (they needed to write on a topic using only nouns and verbs). […]
Original post by Christine
Life has been stressful lately. Rebecca and I took an impromptu break and haven’t “done school” in over a week. We’ll get back to a routine, probably starting tomorrow as today we’re watching a friend’s kids. It’s been gratifying to me to see learning still happening, and the product of her learning in action, though. Not like I thought she wouldn’t learn if we didn’t do book work, or that I thought our book learning was going in one ear and out the other. But in a time when I’m feeling unsure of so many things, it is good to have assurances that things are okay. I haven’t “wrecked” her by trying to teach her in ways that weren’t best for her, I haven’t squashed my seven year-old’s desire for knowledge. We’re okay. She’s okay, she’s great.
I surprise myself sometimes. I thought I was open-minded. I thought I had discarded […]
Original post by hippycrite
No, I’m not talking about advanced mathematics. I am talking about the inverse relationship between the size of the messes my family makes to the amount of time I’ve just spent cleaning.
On Friday and Saturday I decided the house was beyond what I considered acceptable and I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. The kitchen was spotless when I was finished, everything was tidy and you could walk through rooms without tripping over things. Maybe it is the empty space that is so inspiring. Maybe they are just out to drive me insane.
This is today.
I’ve been asking for almost four years for dear hubby to take down the ugly paneling in the living room and replace it with regular sheetrock. Yup, today he decided to move all the furniture out and start the demolition.
Jordan has been reading on ways for kids to make money and she decided today […]
Original post by laraszoo
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