Your Kids are Normal {and Mine Are Too}

Just to keep it a little ‘light’ around here and so you all don’t think that our days all fly by in perfect order with all the correct answers and such, I grabbed a quick video clip of Kaleb in ‘whiney’ mode. The day before this he went flying through all of his workboxes and finished his work in 20 minutes.

This day…not so much.

Not because he couldn’t do it, but because he got in a funk. He saw a workbook on the shelf that he wanted to do, but one that generates MAJOR whining on his part, so it’s a ‘no go’ {says Mommy}. Sometimes I try to get him to move onto a different box or do something else {something FUN}, but he is a boy of ORDER and gets stuck, stuck, stuck.

Email subscribers click here to watch the video clip.

But, I post this to let you know that life isn’t all happiness and sunshine…we are actually rather normal. Sometimes over-achievers in the normal department {grins}. Do you hear another sibling even chiming in with the whining at the end?

 

Visit these great companies!

• Red Wagon Tutorials….Science classes for junior and senior high
• All About Learning Press ~ Spelling & reading programs that are easy to teach and easy to learn.

 

Our Girls are Laying!!

Just before we left for vacation, a few of our ‘girls’ started laying their first eggs.

We also added a few new friends to our flock too {which were not very well received, ahem}. Once they settle in a bit more, I’ll have to share our completed coop and pictures.

Why Spelling is Important

I know this is just a silly post, but had to share this fun picture from our vacation. This sign was sitting on a table at a coffee shop that we stopped at in hopes of getting internet service.

Amazing how misplacing a few vowels can make all the difference in the world, isn’t it?

Top Ten Posts of 2010

For fun, I went into my Google Analytics for the past year to see the posts that were most visited during the 2010 year. I think it’s so interesting to see what other people are interested in ~ sometimes it’s what I expected, and other times not at all.

Curious to see the top ten visited posts? Some of them were related so they are grouped together, but here is the overall list:

10. Preschool Playdough Mats

9.  What’s in My Homeschool Binder

8.  Chore System and Chore Chart Printables {along with Preschool Chore Charts}

7.  Printable Number Matching Cards

6.  Handwriting Without Tears Worksheets

5.  Preschool Alphabet Worksheets

4.  Weekly Homeschool Planner

3.  Preschool Three Letter Word Cards

2.  Homeschool Calendar Morning Board

1.  How We’re Using Workboxes {along with Our New Workbox System, Updated Workbox Activity Tags, and Workbox Tags & Cards}

Just thought it was fun to look back at the past year!

The 14 Days of Homeschool

Thought you all might get a good laugh out of this. :)

 

Learning About the Ins and Outs of Government

Laurianna handed us a sheet of paper last night titled “My Declaration of Independence.” Can you tell we’ve been talking about government lately?

On the bright side, she’s obviously listening and picking up on the ins and outs of government. On the down side {for her}, she’ll be learning more today about the difference between a democracy and a dictatorship…or monarchy…whatever the case may be.

Seasonal Tic Tac Toe Board

Kaleb still hasn’t grasped the game of tic tac toe, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t enjoy trying to play it. Rather than using paper to play games, I put together a Tic Tac Toe board using something super simple: hot glue and 4 popsicle sticks.

Right now we’re using acorns as our playing pieces and we can change out the pieces as the seasons change.

Just wanted to share something quick and easy with you!! Quick…assuming it doesn’t take you 10 minutes to find your hot glue gun {like it did me}.

Time to Study the Planets…{#homeschoolfail}

The other night we were out late with the kids watching some fireworks and my brother, who has a super-cool iphone app to look at the stars and planets, was letting the kids use his phone. They held it up and found Venus and Mars and some different stars.

We were looking at the planets again and McKenna got all excited that we could see some of the planets:

“That’s so cool! I can see Venus!! Where’s Earth?”

My brother looked at her and tried hard not to laugh and just patted the ground right next to him.

{sigh}

 

Real Quick…

I haven’t dropped off the planet…but am still basking in the glorious homeschool convention ‘glow’. {grins}

Can you believe I had my camera on my all weekend and forgot to take ONE SINGLE PICTURE??

I met Dari, one of the ladies who wrote Galloping the Globe…had much fun with Roy & Richelle from VA Soaps & Scents {making my hubby carry off a huge stash of their Lemon Verbena soap and lotion}…found some wonderful new stuff to use this upcoming year…and am feeling much refreshed.

I’ll be sharing some of my ‘finds’ with you all soon…both from curriculum and some of the workshops I did get to attend. Stay tuned!

Homeschool Village ~ Refreshment

This week for the Homeschool Village Blog Hop the question is…

What do you - homeschool mom - do to get refreshed for the next school year?

When this post goes up, I will be doing one of my favorite things to renew and refocus ~ homeschool convention! Aimlessly wandering vendor halls…browsing used curriculum…catching up with friends…and getting excited about the upcoming school year and the curriculum that we’re using. That is truly one of my FAVORITE things to do. This year my hubby is heading along for the ride ~ I don’t really think he understands my frame of mind and focus when I am there…but he’s about to find out! :)

Last year I also took a two-day trip with some friends {technically we called it a ‘planning weekend’}…and while there was planning involved, there was also a lot of laughter and fun too ~ something that every mommy needs more than once in awhile! One of my friends moved away this year, but I’m hoping that somehow, some way I’ll be able to get away for a few days again just to get a ton of our year’s planning out of the way so that I can take a deep breath and relax.

Not that I overplan or anything….

Don’t forget to visit Stef at Layton Family Joy and visit some of the other ladies that are sharing their ‘refreshment’ ideas. The post will be going up on Thursday…so technically this week I’m a little early!

Daydreaming of Wide Open Spaces

I literally laughed out loud at a comment I received from one of you all recently.

“I thought of you this weekend as I drove through your next of the woods! I couldn't help but to day dream of you and your beautiful family playing on one of the wonderful farms (of course you probably don't live on a farm...it was just part of the romantic day dream)…”

Sadly, we’re not on a  farm ~ probably much to many of my neighbors dismay. I’m sure that THEY would appreciate our family having lots of wide open space to run amuck.

If you were driving past my house, you would more than likely find me doing one of the following in our back yard:

• telling my son to get down off the roof of the van {again}
• yelling for my son to get off of the roof of the shed
• yelling at my daughter to get off the roof of the shed
• wishing my children would just climb the tree instead of every other possible fixture in our backyard
• hiding the little play lawnmower from my children so that the incessant fighting will end peace and harmony will abound

Not that I yell at my children {ahem}.

Day dreaming about a little farm is sounding rather lovely right now…

Oh, the Irony…

There are quite a few days when we are doing actual ‘school’ where we have much complaining, sighs, and groans from the kids.

Are we DONE yet? Do we HAVE to have school today? Etc….etc….

We’re on a much needed break and just relaxing as a family, but do you know what the kids are doing most of the time?

Playing school.

Go figure.

For Real ~ Really!!

Years ago, when people first began ‘meeting’ over the internet, I was a tad bit cynical about the relationships that developed. Ok ~ maybe more then a tad. Last year I met Mary from Not Before 7, and last week I was BLESSED beyond measure to meet two more wonderful ladies IN REAL LIFE!!

{you can insert some squeals of excitement here}

Carisa from 1+1+1=1 and Totally Tots I had far too much fun {and got together more than one day}. We hung out at her house, spent some time working on behind the scenes things for the Totally Tots site, wandered the aisles of several fun stores ~ but just enjoyed the time we had together and getting to know each other on a different level. I even got to play along with Krash for some Tot School fun, cuddle with the cute Lil’ Ladybug and have PacMan show me a thing or too on some itouch games. And seriously? I think her husband, Frank, was more than a little relieved to see that I'm a real, living person ~ and normal...well, mostly. :)

Wednesday we traveled to meet up with Jill from Forever n Ever n Always and spent most of the day with her and 8 of her kiddos! It was gorgeous day, so we were able to spend some time outside and just play together. And all those kids? These are all unedited pics ~ they are all THAT stinkin’ cute! And sweet. And amazingly wonderful!

These two ladies have challenged me on so many different levels over the last few months and God has blessed me exceedingly, abundantly ~ more than I ever imagined with their friendships! TRULY! I am honored to call them friends ~ and know that we’ve just scratched the surface of our friendship.

If you want to see some more pictures, you can also visit these posts:

• Carisa ~ It’s All Worth It
• Carisa ~ Tot School with Krash!
  
• Jill ~ Sweet Boys

Ch-ch-ch-Changes....

In the next few days, you might notice things changing around a little bit here.

Hopefully not disappearing as I heed my own advice and BACKUP my template before doing anything {ahem} blog-threatening.

Just know that you are still in the same place. Same blog.

You're just hanging out with someone who apparently has nothing better to do with her free time than fiddle with html and hope for the best.

Hang in there!

The Swallowtail Dilemma

This isn't anything earth shattering, but I'm having a bit of a dumb dilemma. We found a caterpillar on Labor Day {swallowtail} and brought it home to watch something different after all of the Monarch hatchings we'd had.

He ate. He grew. He made his cozy home. He hasn't come out yet.

Much of the research I did pointed to him emerging between 2 and 3 weeks later, and we are well passed that time frame. Of course, the research ALSO says they can stay in their cozy home all winter long.

Which means I have a bug container sitting out on my counter - ALL WINTER LONG.

I'm tempted to stick him up high, but then what if I forget about him, he emerges and then dies because I didn't notice?

Or worse, what happens if he emerges in the middle of the winter and I have no way of keeping him alive because I can't release him outside?

Or what if it's a dud?

What, oh what, is a mom to do? Would you keep it? Be a brute and 'dispose' of it outside?

Help a mom out and give me some ideas!!! What would you do?

A Few Recent Posts

Some of you might know that I have another blog where I share more about our family and my thoughts in general.

Or make fun of myself.

Just wanted to share a few recent posts with you all to show that I'm not always focused on homeschooling and I'm not always the most patient with my kids:

Captain of the Obvious ~ because sometimes I get so focused on things I need someone to point out the obvious

Used Toy Sale Soon ~ the costly result of an overactive 4 year old

We Do Use Soap ~ truly we do. Even if Zachary isn't familiar with it.

Those Pesky Phonics ~ The joys of spelling

Delighting in Our Blessings ~ There's always something to be thankful for.

If A Girl Buys a Laminator...

If a girl buys a laminator, chances are she'll feel the need to also buy a pack of 50 laminating pouches to go along with it.

And if she buys 50 pouches, chances are she'll feel the need to print off everything possible in order to fill those pouches.

And if she prints off everything possible, chances are that her printer will begin to despise her and decide that it's time to run out of ink.

And if she runs out of ink, chances are that she'll head over to Amazon and start looking around for the refill cartridges for her printer.

And if she gets on Amazon and starts searching, chances are that she'll end up with way more in her cart than she planned for {all for the sake of free shipping} including an additional set of laminating pouches.

And if she has additional laminating pouches to fill....