I Have No Clever Title to Put Here!

I've been SO bad about updating this blog! I guess it's because we've been in a weird mode of school lately. We're still doing enough sit-down work that I feel like Reilly and Declan are being educated, but it's been a whole lot more unschooling-type lessons lately.



For example, last Monday I found out my dad was in the hospital with pneumonia and, through a series of events in his life, he had nobody to be up there with him. So I packed up The Kids, some crayons and paper, some movies and my laptop, and we went up there to be with him. I figured that the lesson that they were learning is how to serve and minister to people, even when it's not "convenient" or "fun". (By the way, I could not have been more proud of how well they acted while we were there!) A week before that, we had to take Holly to the vet in the morning, so I packed up some worksheets for Reilly to do while we were waiting.



Yesterday, I decided to take The Kids to the Veterans Day Parade here in town. I'm so glad that we went! (I realized that I really love parades.) Plus, it was so emotional for me to see all these older gentlemen and ladies in their uniforms or their VFW hats going by. It really got me to thinking about my grandfather, who served in WW2 and being thankful for all the men and women who choose to join the military. The Kids really loved seeing all the bands and the old cars, waving their flags and cheering. It was a great way to spend the morning!



Today was just a typical day, really. Since we're so close to Thanksgiving, I'v been reading a book called Eating the Plates: A Guide to Pilgrim Manners and Food which is a really fun book. They also made a Thankful Turkey which I took pictures of but I can't find the cord to get the pics on the computer right now, so I'll post them later. We pulled out the "Feed the Pilgrim & Indian" game today and used it to review addition facts (Reilly) and practice letter recognition (Deco). Who would have thought when I made that game two years ago that it would still bring The Kids so much pleasure? Amazing! I think it's the best idea I've had yet for school!



My job is going really well. I love the company I'm working for and the people I work with are really fun. God is really blessing us in that it's not been a hard transition so far! Since I don't go in until 5:00, I still have all day with The Kids and, thus far, haven't had any trouble getting things done around here. The only down side is that, as an employee, I can have free coffee from the deli if I bring in my own cup (or pay 25 cents for an employee cup!) and it's really good coffee!! So I drink at least one cup per shift, sometimes two, which means I don't really feel like going to bed when I get home at 10:30...which explains why I'm up writing a post right now...and bouncing off the walls!



OK, goodnight! I'll try and post those pictures tomorrow because they're really cute!

Unschooling at it's Best! And on a Saturday, too!

Last Saturday, my mom took us to the Fire Chief's Barbecue, which was held at the fireman's training ground. Unfortunately, my camera battery pooped out on me, so I only got a few pictures of us having dinner. But we got to see lots of things that would have made for GREAT pictures.

We watched several teams rappell down the side of a building and see a guy "rescued" from a window. We watched the fireman team dismantle two cars with the Jaws of Life. (That was impressive, lemme tell you!) We also got to go up in the cherry picker basket on the ladder truck, as well as look at all the different types of firetrucks and talk to the firemen. Oh, and eat really, really great barbecued beef ribs! It was so much fun!

A Look Back...

Monday was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day with lots and lots of fighting and crying and tantrums...not all of which were done by The Kids. Sometimes I amaze/terrify myself with my ability to act like a two year old. It's not a pretty sight. And it hurts so badly when I realize that I've been the exact opposite of a Christ-like example for them.

We got throught it, though, and did a lot of praying with each other. I think that sometimes the "enemy" sees school as a great place to launch spiritual attacks, especially since I've been really wanting school to go smoothly because of my new job. (Click the link to read aaaallll about it!) I don't want to fight with The Kids all morning, then go to work from 5-10! I told Reilly that she can stop me anytime if she's feeling frustrated and we'll pray together. It's made a big difference so far, as she's asked at least once a day during school since Monday. More than anything scholastic that she learns, I want her to learn that God is our strength and our rock that can be leaned on at all times.

Pictures, Just Like I Said I'd Post!!

HI! I promised that I'd post pictures of our adventures on Troy's vacation....and I'm always one to keep my word to my, oh, 2.5 readers! (I'm a lonely blogger...I would love some comments...otherwise, I begin to feel like I'm talking to myself. Oh, HI Shery! She always leaves comments. Hint hint to everyone else...)

Anyway, the pics below are as follows:

Troy, peeking through the Indian's arm, trying to see what the Indian is looking like. (We have a tradition of taking pictures of Troy with each and every cigar store Indian that we come across.) Then, there's Reilly, holding the limp magic wand as a helper in the magic show at Silver Dollar City. We've seen the show about eight times, but The Kids always want to sit and watch again! Then we have Reilly and Declan with their new horns followed by The Family in the tippy room in Grandfather's Mansion at SDC.

We took a trip to a nature center and walked around and spotted deer tracks and things like that. You can see Troy showing Reilly how a real Indian would track and shoot a deer. (I love pictures of him like that! He's so rarely silly for the world to see! Although, there's probably a reason for that...)

We liked this arch type thing that was made by the trees...not sure if it really comes across in the picture...but we decided that it was the bridge (arch?) into Terabithia. Then there's Deco, the lone explorer!

Here are The Kids, riding their buckin' broncos at the Cowboy Heritage Museum.

They could have spent HOURS around the cowboy campfire and chuckwagon!

There was a little "town" set up that you could walk through. Or to put yourself in jail. Your choice. We chose both walking AND jail.

But only after I bellied up to the bar. I can't believe I willingly let someone take a picture of my backside! EEEEEK!

We completed our vacation with a trip to the Incredible Pizza Company. Reilly and Declan worked together to get tickets on the "Smack the Gator" game. Then we donned some lovely shoes to ride the go karts, since we all had sandles on...which meant that none of us were wearing socks. I try not to think about all the other people who had had their feet in where my bare feet were. *shudder*

And, what trip to a fast paced, frantic, loud game-themed restaurant would be complete without cashing in those hard earned game coupons on some crap...oops, I mean prizes? Vampire teeth and whoopee cusions, that's what my kiddos chose!

What a great vacation! It was hard to see Troy go back to work on Monday!

I'm sorry, I'm sorry...

I know, it's been for-EV-er since I've updated this thing, and I've got some pictures and video to share from some things that we did last week. I've been struggling with headaches for the last couple of weeks and so when time comes where I can have a few minutes to update, I'm usually wanting to take a nap instead.

Or do laundry.
Not that I want to do laundry, don't get me wrong. It's just an ever present THING hanging over my head. But not as badly as it used to hang over my head, since we have a full sized washer and dryer now. Whoo-EE, that does make a difference!

But I digress! We HAVE been having school, every day, just like we should. I think another thing that keeps me from posting is the lack of exiting things that we do. I mean, how boring would this blog be if it was just, "We did LLATL Lesson 5, Day 5 and learned about adjectives. Then we did math facts on the board."? You'd all fall asleep in your chairs and probably slide to the floor and bump your heads on your computer desks and I just couldn't handle that guilt!

But last week, on Wednesday, we went to the "__________'s Largest Classroom" at the fair, which was a huge amount of fun. (Note the blank I left in place of the name of the state, just in case one of you three people who read this blog is a maniacal stalker and is wanting to pinpoint my location!) This "Largest Classroom" thing is intended as a field trip for schools, but we were able to sign up as homeschoolers and get the full benefits. We didn't have to pay an entrance to the fair, plus we got to take our lunch in with us so we didn't have to pay for fair food. It's the first time I've ever been to the fair that I didn't spend a single dime!! (No rides, we're going to Silver Dollar City next weekend!) The coordinator sent a packet with all the educational things to do and see while at the fair, so we did lots and lots of that. It was great and I'm sure we'll do it again next year. I'll get the pics on my computer and post them for y'all to see.

But for now, I'm going to go and edit. That's the other thing that I do that keeps me from blogging!

OH, P.S. - I just found a fantastic blog to read! It's called Confessions of a Pioneer Woman and it'll make you want to go out and get some boots and horses...even if, like me, you have no experience with those things WHATSOEVER!

Zoo Trip!!

On our "official" last day of school we went to the zoo with the RFHG. We got to see the elephant show in the new elephant exibition yard, which was a real treat. Then we ate lunch and played on the playground...something which always cracks me up because they always seem to think the Zoo playground is cooler than the regular playground! We also got to see the new baby chimp - so cute!

What a great way to celebrate the end of school and the start of summer vacation!!

I'm not sure how much I'll be writing here over the summer, since this is a homeschooling blog and we're out of school. But, you can visit me over at my personal blog Confessions of a Karate Mom! Not that I have much to say, but if I do, I say it there!

Didja Think I Had Disappeared

No, I haven't!

This past week has been kind of a crazy whirlwind because my brother was in town to visit from St. Louis. He wanted to come and see the family during his birthday week (he's 34 now!) because he hasn't been in town on his birthday since he moved out of state, which was a year after he graduated from high school. We had such a good time, as always! One day we took a "field trip" to Bartlesville to tour the Price Tower, which is one of two sky scrapers designed and

built by Frank Lloyd Wright. I was pleasantly surprised by the tour because it was very interesting! The funny thing is that, while the building is unique, it really is NOT my "style" at all because it is very small and cramped inside. There are so many angles and points that it leaves very little open space. Also, the building gets smaller at the top, so the only thing on the very top floor was Mr. Price's office and his secretary's office. The funniest trivia tidbit is that Mr. Price wanted a big globe in his office and Mr. Lloyd Wright had a problem with that because a globe is round and pretty much nothing else in the building is! (He designed all the furniture as well!) Neat tour!

We went to Osaka for dinner to celebrate Erin's birthday, which he hasn't done since his 13th birthday. (I go there every year on my birthday...I like how they cook at your table!) Mmm, mmm, mmm, was the food GOOD! I thought I was going to POP!

We kept trying to go to Philbrook so that Erin could get some pictures of the gardens in bloom, but it rained so much you'd have thought we were in Seattle! On Friday, when it FINALLY wasn't raining, Uncle E, The Kids and I headed over there...only to find that it was closed for a special event! SO we headed to Woodward Park and the Linnaeus Teaching Garden for some exploring...and swinging.

What a fun time!

New Ideas

I love it when I come up with new ways to

present or review "old" ideas in school!

We're reaching the end of the addition facts and I've been looking for ways to review them with Reilly, making sure that she really does have them down before we move on. We've played lots of "math hangman" on the whiteboard and done lots of worksheets, but we were both getting a little bit tired of those methods. So, on Friday, I got out two big bowls and put a set of blocks (2-9) in each of them. Reilly had to close her eyes, reach one hand into each bowl, and pull out a block with each hand. Then she set them on the table and wrote out the "problem" that she had pulled out and answered it. It's funny to me how changing something this simple can make the exercise seem so much more fun, because she really had a good time practicing this way!

Declan was sick Wednesday and Thursday of last week which made school seem a little frazzled. He was throwing up on Wednesday and had diarrhea on Thursday, so he spent most of those two days on the sofa watching movies. It was funny, on Thursday afternoon he said that he was actually kind of bored with watching movies. (I know, imagine that!) But then, later on that night, he told Troy that he didn't want to get better because he liked getting to watch T.V. all day long! Luckily nobody else caught the bug!

This week is SUPER EXCITING because my brother, the famous Uncle E, is coming to visit from St. Louis!!! Yippeeee! I know that we're going to go to Philbrook on one day and on another, we're driving to Bartlesville to see the Price Tower which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. He'll actually get to be here on his birthday, which hasn't happened in years, so we're going to go out to eat at Osaka, which is one of those places where they cook at your table. Anyway, it's going to be a FUN week!! Yay!

Ummmm Yeah Hi

Oops. I've not been blogging. Sorry.
I HAVE been schooling, lest you think that I'm letting every aspect of our life slip down the tubes. There may be a layer of dust 3 inches thick on every flat surface in the house and the laundry may be piled up so high that it's becoming a fire hazard, but school is getting done.

OK, well, for the MOST part school is getting done.

I promise that when Reilly is in middle school I won't let her watch "The Magic Schoolbus" and read out loud to me and then "call it school". I promise.

But this week my aunt and my cousin were in town just for two days and it's been sooooo long since they've been here that we had to go shopping with them. We're all trying to find things to wear to The Wedding of the Century in Houston (read: my cousin Preston's wedding) in a few weeks and I just couldn't pass up having 3 women to shop with and give fashion advice! I mean, Lesley is studying fasion at Kent State...who could pass up going shopping with someone who is in the know when it comes to fashion? Of course, she's 21 years old, so we have slightly different tastes when it comes to what is "cute", but I think that just comes with the territory of me Getting Older. *sigh* But I'll save that rant for a post at my other blog, since this is supposed to be my homeschooling blog!

But we're back on track for school, really. Today we're going to a sheep farm with our co-op...the second field trip we've ever taken with them, so it should be interesting. The zoo was a little hectic, but I think that's because it wasn't really "planned". We just met there and then wandered in a big group. This is actually a tour of the farm, led by the people who run the farm, so I think it'll be more organized. We're going to leave this co-op next year anyway and join another one that I'm SUPER excited about...but I'll write about that co-op later. Right now The Kids are clamoring for breakfast! (What's with this needing to eat all the time? Sheesh!)

Slooooowy Returning to Normal

Poor Reilly! She's still not feeling herself. I thought that we were all better on Wednesday and we had a "normal" day and everything. Then, yesterday, after we got home from Bible study, she started running a fever again! (Sorry to all the other Bible study moms that had their kids in childcare with her! I've been praying that she didn't spread The Plague!) So I broke down and took her to the doctor last night and he did a strep test, but it came back negative, so it's just a really bad cold. She's just so pitiful because she doesn't have much of a voice at all, so she kind of squeaks when she talks, and she's kind of tired and puny acting. It's just such a change from her usual bouncy, energetic self.

But, better this week than next because TROY IS ON VACATION next week and we're going to Silver Dollar City! WHOOPEE! He's out there right now, putting the new luggage rack on top of The Pepper.

WHAT?!?

I didn't tell you about The Pepper?!?

*gasp*

The Pepper is a 2006 Saturn Vue and, I tell 'ya, if it was possible to be in love with a car, then I'm smitten! We're going to get a personalized tag that says somthing like "PEPPR" or "PEPRZ" or "PEPRS" (We can only have 5 letters, so we have to work with that restriction!)

Well, on to school stuff. Reilly has been such a trooper, even though she's not been up to par. We've moved from +9's to the next lesson, which is +8's and she's getting those really quickly. The best thing is that she really enjoys doing the lessons and last Saturday even pulled Troy into the schoolroom to show him how she does her math. It's fun to watch her grin when she gets an answer right!

Well, The Family is all outside, so I'm going to go and catch a quick nap. (Ha! You thought I was going to go out there with them, didn't you?)

Mad Libs & Dr. Visits!

I've decided that the most sure-fire way to cure my kids of any ailment is to make an appointment for them at the doctor. Having been raised by a nurse, I am of the ilk that believe that visits to the doctor are to be reserved for those times when you are bleeding out of your ears or your arm is crooked and your bones are sticking out through your skin. Or, in our case, if you have green goop collecting in the corners of your eyes every 10 minutes, requiring attention with a warm washcloth. That was happening to Declan yesterday when I decided to make an appointment for him for today to make sure that he didn't have pinkeye. Today, of course, he was much better, and I think it was simply due to the fact that we actually went to the doctor and paid the money! Oh well, thank God for health care reimbursement accounts! The doc did say that he thought Deco had a bacterial thing going on in his eye and gave us a script for some eyedrops which I will go and pick up tomorrow, seeing as how I forgot to go back and pick them up today...darn it, there goes my Mother of the Year award! Hopefully his eye won't fall out overnight or be overtaken with "cwumbs", which is what he kept saying that he had - "Mama, I picked out all de cwumbs!" (I just love the way he talks!)

But, even though we had to take a trip to the doctors office, we still fit in school, for which I was glad. We did math before we left, and then did a couple of Mad Libs while we were waiting in the exam room. Mad Libs are a great way to work on the difference between the parts of speech, and Reilly really loves the silliness of the stories. When we got home she did a page from the Cut & Paste Language Arts book that I got a couple of weeks ago. She was cutting out the adjectives and putting them into the sentences to complete the story. She had asked me if she could just put whichever ones she wanted in, or if they had to be in a particular place, and I told her that they had a particular place to go because it led into our next exercise in how sentences have to make sense.

We finished up by her reading another chapter in Nate the Great and the Big Sniff which is a book that we've been reading over the last week or so. It's a cute book and the first "chapter book" that she's read out loud. I use the term "chapter book" loosely because there are only 7 of them and some of them are only 3 pages long, but oh well! The only thing I don't like about the book is that is uses lots of short sentences that kind of throw Reilly off. For example, one part said, "Claude spends much of his time in the lost and found. The lost part." So they're trying to make it funny, but it just confuses her. She's enjoying it, I think.

It was a pretty good day!

We Gave Up On Mary Poppins

Well, I've been reading Mary Poppins to The Kids at lunch lately, but we decided to give it up. Mary Poppins in the book was nowhere near as pleasant as Mary Poppins in the movie! She was quite conceited and rude and short with the children in the book, not to mention the fact that the book was quite wordy and a little boring. Makes me wonder how they came up with the screenplay for the movie, which is one of our new favorites since The Kids got it for Christmas.

We kind of petered out with school at the end of last week. Women's Bible study started on Thursday and while I had every good intention of having school when we got home, we ended up going out and having lunch with Troy after we got done. Reilly and Declan were SO excited to get to have lunch with their Papa! Then on Friday morning, I woke up with a hankerin' for some Krispy Kreme donuts, which was only magnified by the "Buy a Dozen, get a Dozen Glazed Free" coupon that was burning a hole in my wallet, so we got dressed and headed for Krispy Kreme. I swear, I used to think "Good grief, a donut's a donut!" and then I had a fresh, hot KK donut and was immediately converted to the ranks of People Who Wax Poetic About Krispy Kreme Donuts! Mmmmm, makes my mouth water just thinking about it! So we went to the donut store, then to Mardel where I got three new schoolbooks - a map activities book (map reading and using a map), a "word families" workbook, and a language arts book with cut and paste activities in it like, "Cut out the nouns and glue them in the person, place, or thing columns". Reilly loves that sort of thing!
But on Friday we didn't do ANY of the new activities because we decided that Troy needed a donut since he didn't get to go to KK with us. So we drove out to the area of his route with the idea that we would surprise him at one of his stops. I ended up having to call him and find out where he was because we drove around for about half an hour, looking for him. Four square miles didn't seem quite so big when I hatched the plan!
Today we did our second set of lessons in Math U See which is our new math curriculum. Reilly seems to really be picking it up fast and enjoying the lessons. It's got so much use of manipulatives that it doesn't surprise me a bit that she likes doing it. My only problem is getting her to stop playing with the blocks!

I Want a Nap

Last night, Bear hollered and woke me up, which usually isn't a big deal, exept this time it was to tell me that Supey was on her table, trying to get into her fish tank, and would I please take him out and click the door shut behind me? I had a little talk with her this morning about NOT waking me up to do things like that for her because it took me about an hour and a half to go back to sleep! Which means that I came out into the livingroom, surfed the web, went back to bed at 5:00, slapped my alarm at 6:50 when it went off, and snuggled back down under my down-filled comforter, dozing off just in time to hear Bear say, "Moooom? Can we get up now?" *sigh* \

The unfortunate thing that I realize when I get up at the same time as The Kids is that I really need about an hour to fully wake up and feel human! Usually I'm up at least that long before they are, so I've got time to drink my coffee and come to life. I tried really hard not to snap at The Kids too much because I didn't want to take my sleepiness out on them...although I did point out to them that there are people aaalllll over the world who sleep past 7:00! I'm not sure they got the hint, though.

So, since we're expecting 8 inches of snow to fall on Saturday, which might severly limit leaving the house anytime soon after, I decided to make a run to Target (aka My Favorite Store Despite the Fact That They Don't Let Bell Ringers Stand in Front at Christmas). Deco is in desperate need of new jeans, so I picked up some of those for him, as well as a couple of other things, one of which is a game called "Imaginiff" which looked really neat as I read the box but looks quite complicated once I opened the box and fully read the directions. Hmmmm, I wonder if I can take it back?

Oh, yeah. School. This is a homeschooling blog, after all, isn't it? Well, when we got home, Bear did a crossword puzzle of her spelling words, an addition sheet where one of the addends was missing and she had to figure out what the number was, and then we talked about the concept of alphabetical order. I had a worksheet that I'd printed online that had her putting set of 3 letters in ABC order, and then I got out a set of sight word cards and showed her how the concept applies to whole words. I'm going to have her read....something, I don't know what....here before we have Rest Time (aka Mom Needs a Nap After Her Midnight Awakening), and we'll call it good. It's just so HARD to have school when I know that allllll the other teachers in town are off! It's no fair!

I titled this picture "Will The Real Animal Please Step Forward?"

An "Unschooling" Kind of day

This morning, I decided to start school with a craft project. It's been too long since we did something fun like that, and Bear loves to make things. She and Deco both got suncatcher making kits for Christmas and I thought today would be the perfect day. She was SO excited! Deco's so funny, though. We got about 8 minutes into the process of putting the miniscule little beads into the little wire frame and I realize that I'm the one sitting at the kitchen table, doing all the work, and he's back in the schoolroom, playing with his pirate ship.

I said, "Deco, do you want to come and do this or should I put it away until you're interested in it?"

He said, "Oh, just put it away until I'm intwested, Mom." (He says his "r's" like Elmer Fudd!)

"Do you just want me to finish it?" I asked.

"Yeah!" he replys.

I guess he's just not the crafter that his sister is! But, hey, I enjoyed it!

The whole process took a lot longer than I thought it would, so it was 11:00 before we got done. Then I got a call from the optrician's office at the mall saying that the contacts that I had ordered were in, so I decided that we needed to get out of the house. A little lunch at Chick-Fil-A, a little playtime on the indoor playground, and then back home. Bear read a book to us and I decided that we'd call it a day. I think that after dinner, she and I might make some chocolate chip cookies...or maybe we'll do that tomorrow. Today was a good day, though!!

Ice School!

Well, we retained our power, which is a good thing considering how many people in our area did not. I think that my biggest fear about losing power was not having heat, so I had gone out on Friday to Academy and bought an indoor-safe propane heater. I think that this purchase was what guaranteed that our power would remain on because it seems that when you prepare for the worst, the worst passes you by. So I think that I deserve an award or something for single-handedly preventing the worst of the storm from reaching our city!

Yesterday, Bear was complaining that her stomach was bothering her, so she spent most of the morning lying on her bed, listening to "Ramona Quimby, Age 8" on the tape player. Sometimes I have my doubts when she begins to complain of illness, but I hate to assume that she's faking it only to find out that she's really sick. That's one of the benefits of homeschooling, I guess! I don't have to worry about keeping her home from school because she's "sick", only to find out she is fine and I don't have to worry about sending her to school thinking she's faking, only to have her puke on the teacher or something. We just started school at about 10:30 and finished up after lunch!

* On a side note, I don't really think she was faking. Usually when she's faking, she gives it up in about 15 minutes and is up and running around. Yesterday morning, she was quiet in her room for about 2 hours!! *

I'm starting to get a wee bit stir crazy. I like not having anywhere to go, but at the same time, seeing as I've not left the house in 48 hours now, I'm feeling the need to go somewhere. Anywhere. I don't care where. Target*, the grocery store, the library, the gas station...makes no difference to me, I just need to see something other than these walls. I guess I might change my mind though, once I feel the bitter, eye-numbing cold outside. It's easy to want to go somewhere when you're sitting, snuggled warm in your bed with your laptop, listening to The Kids playing PBSkids.com and singing "Hevenu Shalom Elequem"! (Forgive the horrible spelling, I'm not actually Jewish so I don't really know how to spell Jewish words!)

*I'll make practically any excuse to go to Target!

WHOOOPEEEEE!!!

IT'S CHRISTMAS BREAK!!! *does happy dance*

Yup, you heard it! We're officially on Christmas break and I'm so excited that I can hardly stand it. I'm just ready to have a break and I've been so excited for Christmas that it has made it hard for me to concentrate anyway. We're going to our homeschooling Christmas party tomorrow, so that will be fun. I've gotten some cookies to decorate and one of the other Mom's got a craft to do. There are going to be 14 kids there! Everyone is going to bring their lunch and all of the kids will play and the Mom's will socialize and pick each other's brains for good ideas. I'm excited! I'm going to use the next week to wrap presents and do the Official Christmas Baking (I've got thumbprint cookies and fudge left to make, and also some more Chex mix, I think...I love Chex mix and there can never be enough!) I've gotten some crafts for The Kids to do when they get bored. Or when they get too close to killing each other, whichever comes first!

Return to Normal

(OK, well, as normal as I usually am!)

My headache was finally gone this morning, so we returned to our regular routine. I'm having a hard time concentrating on school as Christmas break gets closer and closer...I swear, time has sloooooowed to a craaawwwwlllll! But we did a "reading packet" this morning (from Scholastic Phonics) and then some math facts flash cards. I also read another chapter in a book that we're reading called "A Frontier Christmas", so hopefully we'll have another page to add to the book that we're making.

I had Bear write a "paper" on "What I Like About Winter". She wrote, "I like giving gifts on Christmas. I like having snowball fights." Unfortunately, I can't find the actual paper that she wrote it on! One thing I love about doing writing assignments like that is the mini-lessons that it leads to - like how you drop the "e" at the end of "give" and "have" when you add -ing! This isn't something that I would have thought to just teach her outright, but I know that it will stick in there and resurface when it needs to. We also made some Christmas decorations to take up to our friend Myra who will be in the hospital on Christmas. We made some hanging Christmas trees and a looooong paper chain, and the The Kids decorated a couple of bookmarks for her. We took the decorations up after lunch and spent a little time there, talking to her.

I'm not really sure how much school will get done tomorrow. We are having a Homeschooling Christmas Party on Friday with three other families who homeschool, and I've got some things I need to pick up for that. We're going to decorate sugar cookies, so I've got to get cookies, icing, and sprinkles, and all of the kids are doing a "gift exchange" so we need to go to the dollar store and pick up two gifts. I'm planning on doing at least another reading packet and finishing the Christmas book. After that, who knows?

Argh, a Sick Day!

We actually had a "sick day" this morning - not because The Kids were sick but because I woke up with a MONSTER migraine and then my medication to get rid of the migraine knocked me on my hiney! I'd promised Deco that I'd make pancakes this morning, so I did that, then told The Kids that they could watch movies. I put in "A Christmas Story" and laid down on the sofa and drifted in and out while they watched. When it was over, I put in the Jim Carrey "Grinch" and drifted while they watched that. Bear was so sweet! She brought a cold cloth and put it on my forehead and a cup of water...and the cat, because everyone knows that cats cure migraines!!

I'm feeling a lot better now, although my headache isn't completely gone. Right now they're eating and watching "Reading Rainbow". I told Bear that after lunch we'd go and get stamps and then come home and have "Math Day"...meaning, we'll learn fractions by doing some baking! Needless to say, she's pretty excited about that!

Am I Becoming an Unschooler?

No, just kidding, I don't think I am...overalll...becoming an "unschooler". But it sure felt like it today! My best friend was bringing her son over for me to babysit while she and her husband took their daughter to the doctor. So Bear and I finished most of her reading packet from yesterday, and then, later on, we played "Auntie Pasta's Fraction Game" and a reading game that came with Scholastic Workbook 7. (She didn't finish her reading packet yesterday because it became a reaaalllllyyyy tough day and so I said we'd finish it today.) And then, tomorrow, I'm watching my neighbors children while they go to a funeral. That's not until 10:30, though, so we should have plenty of time to get school most of the way finished before they get here. I just don't like it when we have too many days off kilter with school because I begin to feel very out of control.
On a "Life" note, we got our Christmas decorations up this weekend. Well, The Kids and I finished putting the tree up yesterday. We actually bought it on Saturday but we couldn't bring it inside because it had huge chunks of snow on the branches and we had to wait for it to thaw! It's a beautiful tree! This was the first year that Deco really got into the decorating, so we had a lot of fun.
OH, and I went to Target today and got Bear the Easy-Bake Oven - WOOHOO! I had a rain check from an after-Thanksgiving sale, so I was able to get it for $13. The great thing is that when I was putting her to bed, she said "One thing I really really REALLY want is one of those oven things!" YAY! Oh, I can't wait to see her open it! And I'm also excited because Deco is really enjoying playing with the Playmobil nativity set that we have out, so this looks REALLY good toward him liking the Playmobil pirate sets that he's getting for Christmas!
I love, love, love the Christmas season! Everything about it!

I'm not a bad Real Mom...

...but I am a bad Pet Mom!!

Our cat Supey's bowl is on the school room table* because if we leave it on the floor, some small, furry dog who will remain nameless *cough*JOJO*cough* will eat his food. I noticed, while we were doing school, that Supey was nosing all around his bowl, picking up random, leftover bits of food because his bowl was empty. So I filled it.
Just now, I'm sitting here, reading some of my favorite blogs, and I notice Holly, our Big Dog, nosing around the bucket where we keep HER food, picking up random, spilled bits of food because HER bowl was empty. I swear, if there was an Animal DHS, they'd probably be knocking at my door, checking up on the eating habits of our pets! (Note to self: if you notice The Kids nosing around the fridge for random, leftover bits of food, break out the CheezIts!)

*Editor's Note: Lest you are worried to come to my house and eat dinner, fearing that Supey walks all over our kitchen table as well, let it be known that he only gets on the table in the school room. Scout's honor!

Today we decided to run errands this morning because we have a big winter storm moving in and I didn't want to get out in it. (And when I say "we decided", you know I really mean I decided!)
We went to Hobby Lobby and got a whole bunch of things for Christmas crafts - pipe cleaners *, Christmas-colored pom poms, things like that - and to Mardel for school room decorations. It's time for fall things to come down and winter things to go up!! At Mardel, I got this great game called "Auntie Pasta's Fraction game" for us to use in school. On the gameboard, each player has four pizzas divided up in different ways - a whole, one divided in half, on einto thirds and one into fourths, and the object is to get all the pieces to complete all four of your pizzas. We came home and played it (twice, if you count the first time where I didn't read all the directions and we played it wrong!) and had a really good time. Then, Bear and I did her Reading Packet for today. The Kids painted pictures this morning while I was getting ready...so we pretty much had Un-School today!

*Editor's Note: Why in the world do we have to call these things "chenille stems" now? That's silly!

So, now the storm has moved in and it's VERY cold and rainy. We're supposed to get some snow tomorrow, which Bear is SUPER excited about! OH, and I got our Christmas cards in the mail today. This is the first year that we've done photo cards, and I just love the way they turned out!!! I can't wait to send them!