Jan. 25, 2008
Back again....
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Here I am, again. It's been frustrating these past 2 years with such low energy! But finally, I found out it wasn't low iron like I suspected, but extremely low B12. Not good. But now I'm taking mega doses twice a week and am feeling much more myself again. I am not a couch potato, really! I multi-task constantly. I fall over if I'm only doing one thing at a time. So, here I am again. My 6 year old is in first grade, my 4 year old is in preschool. Both are very bright and I've been rethinking how I want to spend our very limited time with them afterschool. I was recently reading some blogs over at twtm and one thoughtful blogger posted a response on how one should proceed with a bright 4 year old. She said if she's bright she'll always be ahead in academics, but now is the time to explore, play and if she was inclined to, have her learn an instrument or language. I don't think she meant to scrap any learning, there's so many opportunities to learn through creative play that I felt like her comment really helped me narrow down what I'd like to focus on. I am a "do everything" type of person. Unfortunately, this trait has been a problem since I've gotten married and had children. It is very hard for me not to want to pile on a lot and this is the year I know I need to slow down and focus on what's important. So what's important? For me: Bible study, my health (no more tea and cookies at night!), family photo album, clean out garage (we can use space this in the winter as a playground!) For Boo (6): Bible study, piano and/or martial art, learn Spanish For Moo (4): Bible study, learn Spanish, arts and crafts For us all: One day trip a month (museum, park, play, hike) For my dh: Dinner out once a month (easy enough but we just don't do it!) So, there you have it. Oh, and thank you so much for your comments!! I know I'm a bit of an odd one out here but I am pro-HS & pro-AS, I do feel at home here. |
Apr. 25, 2007
Play Hide and Seek
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I asked Moo a bunch of questions about herself this morning and she answered "play hide and seek" to half. We're not moving along as planned. We got hit with warm, summery weather, after such a long winter/spring we were pretty happy to be outside. We did have a little picnic lunch (I miss those!), planted broccoli in the garden, transplanted day-lillies that my sister grew tired of seeing in her garden (these plants are hardy! they shot up an inch within a few hours after planting), rode bikes, bbq'ed, played hide and seek (of course), enjoyed seeing our neighbors & kids and busted out all our summer clothes. Boo had her second piano lesson and loves it. It's especially nice to have a little gourmet shop next door with an ever-so tasty bakery. When I watch her practice, I can see that she really gets it. I just need to keep her focused. The piano book I started her on "John Thompsons's Easiest Piano Course, Part One" is good but I can see why the teacher selected "John W. Schaum Piano Course, Pre A - The Green Book". It has more repitition without boring. And it has some cute illustrations to keep it fun. It was interesting to see Moo drawing on a grease-board yesterday. She drew a round face with eyes, eyelashes, ears, nose, smile and lots of hair. I wish I took a picture of it, she's a natural. Is it me or do they just florish in environments that allow them to do as they please? I did a lot of drawing lessons with Boo when she was 3 and she did great, but now she's almost 6 and back to stick figures. Meanwhile, Moo (almost 4) seems to have a great deal of control and a good eye for placement. I picked up a "Draw Write Now" (farm) book for Boo and she rolled her eyes at me. I miss those days when she was excited to burn through every workbook I had lying around. She loved to copy my drawings and then we'd switch pictures and watercolor each other's in. We did manage to get down to our library. I love books. Everytime I'm at the library I recall how I used to long to sit and read when I was younger. But I was typically with friends and they were always on the move. I used to imagine all the books, and think of all their wonderful stories of distant people and places. It seemed to exciting to me. I still feel that way :) The book of James has been on my mind a lot lately: My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. (James 19 & 20) |
Apr. 13, 2007
Who needs ankle weights?
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We're doing fairly well so far: morning prayers - check bible stories - check memory verse - check Today Moo and I went out to practice bike riding, we didn't do much of this last summer. We also went for a walk around the block (1/2 mile), and half of the way I carried her on my back. Nice workout for me :) Right now we're playing the memory game and Moo has taken over the shuffling and laying out of cards. She really enjoys finding pairs, and has started flipping my choices back over. We read some books. One was the spring section of the Berenstain Bear's Science and Nature Super Treasury (she could relate to biking, birds singing, kit flying, plants coming up, wind, rain) and the other one she did well with is Hello Kitty Hello Numbers! Moo can easily count up to 16, she gets to 20 with help. She helped me with landry before we headed out to pickup Boo. Moo is very scared of noises. Things make her jump and wide-eyed, she tends to run for mom with different sounds (helicopters, garbage trucks, house creeks). She hates the vacuum cleaner! |
Apr. 8, 2007
Oh were oh were is my routine??
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I hate to think about all the time we have lost this past year with homeschooling. Not that we didn't learn but boy is there a huge difference when we follow some sort of routine. This week I plan to start adding back one or two things at a time. In the past, bible stories during breakfast worked well. So I'll pick up that as well as memorizing one line of scripture every week. For memorization, I found something free on-line for kids that listed scripture from A to Z. Here's the first one: A - For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23 KJV) I am happy to say that we've been pretty good with morning prayers. |
Apr. 7, 2007
I think I'm back.
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I can't pickup where I left off so here goes nuthin'. This question comes from Friday Freewrite, A Brave Writer's Life in Brief which catches my eye from time to time. Check it out when you have a moment, I found the link off TWTM's website. What things do you think are beautiful? It was quite easy to type out a long list of things that I think are beautiful. But it's late right now, and the order was chaotic so one might wonder why I put certain things first, or in the middle or last. I certainly wondered. So I rearranged them. But that didn't seem right. So I pulled out the one thing that I think is most beautiful :) Taking my time. All my senses take in the beauty all around me if only I take my time and stop rushing about. Happy Easter! May you be blessed with love. |
Nov. 2, 2006
I just want to say...
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To all those bandwagoners who make negative public comments about Steve Irwin and his family for their own benefit, well, you're all just a sad example of what greed can do to a person. Bad mouthing the Irwin's for increased press, votes, money, viewers, whatever it may be, it's all just sad and very transparent. One day I hope the world learns to use these situations as a way to weed out the bad people out of positions better served by those with more heart. Crocs rule! |
Sep. 2, 2006
Welcome back to me.
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My 5 year old dd is next to me now, watching a few books on DVD (Chrysanthemum and More Kevin Henkes Stories) and she's telling me that "I feel bad for them and it makes me want to cry". I'm going to try and start a Saturday night family movie night. Our past summer was a bit crazy, I don't feel like we had a very good family routine. So, we moved, and are mostly settling in, we are trying to finish our basement before it gets cold. I'm ready for our first fall and holiday season back east. I'm an afterschooling mom. My dd starts morning K next week. I'm feeling a bit anxious about it but she greatly enjoyed her trial K day (last spring) and trial bus run this week. We moved into an excellent school system and I'm hard pressed to find faults with this elementary school. I will continue to teach her, afterschool. For now, it is the right decision for our family. Now that I'm back here, I'm also very interested in joining a local (to homeschoolblogger.com) book club that I stumbled across. We'll see if I can catch up to their current read. I've just started Daughter of Fortune by Isabelle Allende, which is calling my name right now (my quiet time in bed). I'll be back. |
Jun. 19, 2006
Our New Home!
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It's been over 6 months since we moved from CA to NY and I'm finally going to post some pictures of our new home. Enjoy, let us know what you think, and please email, call or send pictures too and add us to your yearly holiday card list :) We truly miss our friends out west and think of everyone often. ----------------------------- Working on pictures for now. I'll email everyone when it's done. |
Mar. 16, 2006
Random Activities
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This week we've been pretty light with homeschooling. I had Boo do a little ETC yesterday. We did a few other random activities such as puzzles, RushHour, Zoombinis, dancing, drawing ocean creatures, storytime and craft at our local library, playtime, read from her "Ready for Reading" book set (it's similar to Bob Books). Today we started First Language Lessons, which looks great. I need to spend a little time skimming through it but I'm happy with this purchase. The first lesson explains a noun (think of SchoolHouse Rock :), the second lesson is to memorize a short poem. Both are fairly easy and portable! I folded paper into a card and Boo drew a butterfly on the cover, I wrote the poem inside, we'll take this out with us today. We'll listen to the audio tape later in the car, for some reason my boombox isn't able to read it. Earlier we started our bible reading with The Bible For Children and a little prayer, this really needs to be part of our morning routine. Before my Boo heads off for school this fall, I'd like to get her into the practice or habit of praying throughout the day. I know once she starts school she will learn from those around her but, if I can help it, I'd like her to teach others a few things. At the very least, find those she's most comfortable with based on what she knows at home. Last night we had my parents, grandmother, sister and her family over for dinner. It was great, I just love being back home around my family. The girls really enjoyed having their cousins (all around the same age) over to eat. Grandma, who is re-living her childhood, gathered them all around for an after dinner tea party with donuts. The kids all loved it and didn't budge until she was done. As for me, I managed to work out last night after everyone left. I can skip two days but no more, at this point. Today I'd like to get my taxes ready to FedEx out to our accountant back in CA. |
Mar. 13, 2006
Geoboards
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Well, the geoboards worked, but I think my dd's thought it was going to be much more fun. So, the lesson in RS ended up being long and boring yesterday. Today, I let them play. They ran around outside with baby blankets wrapped around their shoulders. They ran barefoot on the wet ground and loved it. I gave them cookies and water on the front steps and they were so happy. I skipped doing school today. My girls are only 4.5 and 2 years old, I am feeling pretty good about what we've done and where we're going. The ps system here is excellent (jeesh, with such outrageous school taxes I'd expect nothing less!!) and I will plug along "afterschooling" them unless something happens where I find myself hs'ing full time :) Somehow, I convinced myself I needed to order First Language Lessons for TWTM along with audio CD. It should be arriving within a week or so :-) My workout routine is taking off nicely. I worked out Saturday and Sunday, but tonight I took a break. I try to start at 8pm while my dear-sweet husband reads stories to the girls. I could probably workout anytime now since both daughters will stand nearby and copy me the entire time, it's just easier without them until I'm set in a routine.
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