Aug. 29, 2006
Things are moving along well!
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Well we started school quite a bit earlier
than most. we started towards the first of july to the middle of
july but we've had quite a few breaks. We are really into school full
force now and Jules is REALLY beginning to enjoy it. We are
almost done of her alphabet book, as well as her pre-k math book.
After those are done, we will move on to the phonics program and the
singapore math workbooks/ mathusee program. I have seen a LOT of
progression on Julianna's part. She was really having a hard time
counting. It frustrated me and her alot. We finally got her
to be able to count to 5 without making any mistakes and she is able to
recognize 1-5 as well. Now we are working on counting to 10 as
she always gets stumped at 6. (she usually says 8) But today I
saw her progress again and we were counting fast as we could and she
automatically went straight to 6 after five instead of her usual eight
so I KNOW something is sticking in that cute little head of hers.
It's nice to know that no matter how frustrated we can get, if we keep
patiently working at it, we can get it right eventually. That's
very encouraging. Well, what else is new... we thought we may have had a chicken pox break out at our house but so far, Toby only has a couple of dots so I'm thinking it's probably not the chicken pox. We've had quite a few bumps and bruises over the last couple weeks, Last week Toby had his face all scratched up and bruised. this week it's Jules, she cut and scraped her lip on sunday and then today her baby brother smacked her right across the bridge of her nose with a toy car and cut it. She looks quite beat up but what can ya do.... Toby is quite the little monster lately but he is also starting to talk a LOT more which is great! So my assignment for him is to learn new words and he does well with that every day! LOL He's a very silly little boy and i"m so enjoying him! Oh, I have decided to stop babysitting the little girl I look after... I feel that my kids weren't getting the attention they needed and I think if I'm going to succeed in being able to homeschool my kids, then I need to be able to focus on that. I wasn't able to do that with her around. She was too close in age with Toby (7 months older) and they got into trouble together sooo much.. actually they don't really get along that great so they are constantly fighting. Soooo.. I have her all this week and a couple days next week and then I'm done. and I'm ready! Ready to have the freedom to do whatever I want to do! can't wait!! I hated trying to juggle doctor's appointments and shopping days around her schedule. anyway... i best start cleaning.. i think Jeff is coming home for the supper hour early.. I want to make some supper for him. |
Aug. 20, 2006
Brotherly love
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Well I've been meaning to make an entry for
days now but haven't gotten a chance to. Anyway, here I am on a
quiet sunday afternoon. I just wanted to talk about Toby and how
much he adores his sister. If you have ever been around a16.5
month old you would know that at that age everything is all ME ME
ME. Not my little buddy, surprisingly he thinks of his sister
first. This morning I was getting my breakfast and the kids (who
had already eaten) were at my feet wanting MY breakfast so I gave them
a piece of cheese. I gave a piece to Toby first since he is
usually the more demanding one and he looks at it, turns to Julianna
and says "There you go" and actually HANDS over the cheese to
her!!! Then he turns around and starts doing his 'gimmie" grab
with his hands for his piece. LOL What a brother!!!
It seriously almost made me cry! It tells me two things really,
that he really does adore his big sister and that he trusts me enough
to know that I will give him another piece for him. I'm sooo in
love with my kids! So on to school stuff. We had made a deal with Julianna that if she got halfway through her LA book (which coincides with the letter Z) that she could have the bella ballerina barr and mat that she wanted. Anyway, on friday she was on x and each letter has about 4-5 pages of activity. Well she got through X and Y and got to Z and was on the first page of Z when she kept saying Oh i'm sooo tired. And I said that's alright honey you can do some more tomorrow if you want. she said NOOOOO i have to do it all now... then proceeded to complain about how tired she was... I kept telling her she could stop if she wanted but she wanted to keep going. She traced about 6-7 Z's and finally said Okay mom, i'm gonna go outside and play, don't close my books cuz I'm gonna come back and finish later. LOL that book has been sitting open ever since. LOL Since it was the weekend I haven't asked her to finish it. She is sooo determined but she really needs to know what her limits are. LOL |
Aug. 4, 2006
Clever girl
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well I have just got to say.. we are about
3 weeks into officially homeschooling and I LOVE it! I love how
delighted Jules is that she actually knows things and how she drinks
information in. It's so amazing. I'm coming to realize that
I have such a clever little girl. As we were doing school today
(the letter O) Jules was being very clever. She accidentally
dropped her crayon and she said with a big emphasis "OOOOOOO" and
pointed to the o's she was copying on her sheet! Then when she
got finished tracing the O's there are pictures that start with the
letter o that she's supposed to color and she said "mommy you don't
need to tell me, these pictures all start with the letter O"
lol Yes she is a little smarty pants but i"m soo loving it.
We spent almost 2 hours on school today just because she couldn't get
enough. We did all the subjects I have for her.. math workbook,
alphabet workbook, another "same & different" workbook (from
walmart) her handwriting without tears lesson and read some bible
stories. I had a talk with one of my good friends today and we were talking about when her kids get old enough to homeschool, how great it will be and how we can start doing group things together with some other families that we know. That will be so fun because for right now there isn't a huge homeschooling community in the town I live that I know of. One of my friends is homeschooling her almost 6 year old (and two others who are too young yet) and we have some other friends who are pregnant and considering homeschooling so we should have a nice group eventually. These kids just have to grow up a bit! LOL (her daughter is not even 2 yet and she is pregnant with her second) I'm very excited to be homeschooling now. I'm so glad that I had decided to do this.. I was really going back and forth on it when Jules was younger but now I think I have figured out that this is what i'm SUPPOSED to be doing with my life. I love it sooo much! Added bonus is that I don't have to send my kids away for 7 hours a day for someone else to raise! |
Aug. 3, 2006
how we are doing....
it's been a bit of a while since I
updated. Jules is still plugging along in her work books although
sometimes I wonder why I bother. I was printing her sheets out
yesterday for her to do and as they are coming out of the printer she
yells out Yay we are doing the letter M today!! 
Oh well we will plug through it and she will really know her
letters. She even wanted to make some M's on her own
yesterday. We are slowly working on the hwt curriculum. I
think I may have to do it 2 times a week instead of 3 times a week
until september and then start it full time. We are having a few discipline problems with Jules as well. She has become very disobedient lately and I just don't know what to do. Last night she ran away from me when i asked her to come inside for bedtime. She ran right into the front yard and scared me half to death thinking she was gonna run into the street. ugh. so we started talking toys away. She'll get them back when she starts to respond to us better. Last night because of a meltdown and a million "no's" screamed at us she lost probably about 5-6 toys. She was NOT happy. I just don't know what to do with that girl! I'm hoping she sleeps in a lot this morning so she's rested up to clean the playroom. I told her last thursday that she would not be watching any tv until the playroom got cleaned.... she hasn't watched tv since. She cleaned it a bit on sunday because we had friends coming but now it's a disaster again so we are going to do it together this morning after breakfast. In other news.. Toby is still the little stinker that he is.. He is currently standing on a chair pressing buttons on the microwave... he's quite cranky and needy today.. not sure why.. probably cuz he can't walk into the playroom and play since it is such a mess. Poor guy. Oh and I weighed myself today and take a look at my ticker.. I"m hoping for another 13 pounds lost by the end of the month.. Well, I better go make my breakfast.. it's a good one today.. and I get to have my first slice of whole wheat bread in 3 weeks! YAY! |
Jul. 22, 2006
Time Out Toby!
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Well, Yesterday Jeff came home for
lunch and I was lying on the couch completely depressed and not feeling
very good physically. I had spent the entire morning chasing Toby
away from the water cooler (he knows how to turn the water on and
spills it all over the floor) or chasing him off of various tables
(kitchen table, coffee table, Julianna's picnic table she uses for
school) Or chasing him away from the gate (he opens it up and when he
sees me coming he RUNS for the stairs or the bathroom) I was
completely frustrated so Jeff suggested we start using time out.
So that evening when he opened the gate, Jeff gave him a warning (hehe
lot a good that did when he didn't know what time out is but still..)
and then the second time he did it, Jeff put him on time out. MAN
he did NOT like that. One minute seemed like an eternity to him
I'm sure. But the next time he went for the gate, I said, "you
open that and you will go on time out" he whined and shook his
head no and walked away! What a smart boy! So i'm hoping
that time outs work for him because i"m getting exhausted chasing him
out of trouble! Weighed myself today so I thought I would update my ticker! |
Jul. 22, 2006
A new look!
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I redid my blog look... what do you
all think of it??? I'm going through a pink and brown phase right now
so I thought it would be perfect for my blog! Can't stop to chat
though.. it's lunch time and Toby is climbing up on the computer desk
wanting me. |
Jul. 20, 2006
vacation and starting up
Well, I've been missing from here cuz I
spent a week at the cottage last week and it's taken me a while to get
caught up on everything once I got back. We all had a blast at
the cottage. My mom came home from Manitoba for a week and stayed
there too. My brother, his wife and kids stayed too! The kids loved
being at the beach. Jules always wanted to go into the "deep
water" she even convinced some aunts and uncles and grown up cousins to
go with her. No one could resist those sad little plea's of "but
who will go swimming with me?" 
She's definitely a water baby. Once I took her out and I didn't
want to go any further cuz I really don't like the crab grass around my
feet (I didn't tell her that though lol) The water was just at her bum
and she said "well mommy, we can't stop yet, the water
doesn't fit me yet" meaning, she wanted to be up to her waist in
water. hehe. Toby had a blast too.. My brother had set up a little sand pit and playhouse so that we wouldn't have to always be down on the beach with the kids so Toby played there most of the time. He got really dirty all the time and it was fun. He actually got used to my brothers dog too (he has a small beagle) It was funny, he would stick his face right into the dogs face and just squeal at him. Poor dog got to the point that when he saw Toby coming, he would move to a different spot! Speaking of dogs, our cottage has a bunch of cottages around it owned by various aunts and uncles so there were lots of cousins milling around and such One of my cousins has a golden lab about a year old (lex) and he liked to play with my brother's dog (porthos). Lex was twice the size of Porthos but Porthos would stand his own and bite right back. At one point, porthos hid under the deck to get away and Lex couldn't fit under there so he grabbed porthos chain and pulled him back out! it was really amazing! Dogs can be smart if they want to be! 
Another funny thing, Toby didn't really like all the other dogs that
came around and he would get really startled every time a dog came
around him. It was really funny and I wished i could get it on
camera.. it was like he jumped like 2 steps back each time.I also blew my diet last week and ate out a LOT! One night we went to this place called Fisherman's Wharf. Stinking expensive but sooo yummy. My mom was nice enough to pay for my meal. I had a lobster and there was a 60 foot salad bar that was just delicious! I had a ton of mussels and other yummy foods! Anyway.. that was our week last week.. This week well the second half of the week it's back to the grind with school. I imputed everything i wanted to do this week into the homeschool tracker and I have decided that after lunch when the babies go to bed (I'm still babysitting a little 22 month old) will be when we do school, since that's the hottest part of the day. Yesterday we did it on our swing outside. Next week we will start with the handwriting without tears. I need a bit of time to familarize myself with it and figure how i'm gonna do stuff. I'm also back on my diet this week. I'm following the curves diet as I want to be in shape for my sister's wedding in february. I had started it two weeks ago but went off it for the week.. i had lost 6 pounds the first week but then gained back two and now i've lost those 2 again so I've lost 6 pounds total. I am really hoping that this works out for me.. i have about 95 lbs to lose before I could get to an ideal weight so it will be a long haul for me. I decided to start a ticker and each time I update my blog i will update the ticker. anyway, that was the update from me. thanks for reading! |
Jul. 4, 2006
demolision!
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Today the kids got to see a house get
demolished! Right from their play room window! The house
across the street caught on fire sometime in feb or march and they are
just now getting around to doing something with it. A big back
hoe came and knocked it down! It was really neat to see something
like that so up close. Jules remembers the fire so we talked
about that and why they had to tear the house down. Ameila for
some reason kept saying "no stop doing that!" and when the other kids
asked her what was wrong she said she wanted them to stop knocking down
"her" house! LOL Anyways.. I just thought i'd share that...
|
Jul. 4, 2006
homeschooling 3 today
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well, i just got a taste of what it would
be like to school 3 kids. I am babysitting today and it started
to rain so I got the kids to come in side and instead of either
watching tv or making a huge mess in the play room, i printed off the
letter D double sided worksheets and set them to work. Ameila (a
month older than Jules) needed a LOT of help, Jules is used to doing
them so even though "D" was a new letter for her, she caught on
quickly. Both girls are finishing off the two sides now, I
promised i would print off princess pictures when they are done.
Alex the 5 year old has already been through a year in kindergarten so
he didn't need any help at all.. actually it was a bit young for him
but he didn't seem to mind.. he's doing it slow and steady though and
is still on his first side coloring the pictures... I'm sure he
will do fine on the other side. It was kind of fun doing it with
all three of them at different levels of learning..
|
Jun. 27, 2006
A lesson from a 3 year old
Well, The kid's Uncle Chad got them a
sesame street two seater swing... Kind of like this but sesame street
and it actually has two seats with a cup holder between them.
Anyway, we were outside putting it together and I had to go into the
house for a minute. When we came back, there was a bee buzzing
around so we sat on the step to wait for the bee to go away. Sooo
I took the opportunity and told her that bees loook for flowers so they
can get pollen and then go back to thier hives and make honey.
Then Jules says "Oh you know what bears do?" I said what.
And she said "they go and get the honey, and then they take it home and
put it on a piece of bread and eat it!" hmmm think she's been
reading too many berenstain bears books??
|
Jun. 27, 2006
Looking for a french program!
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I need help!!! Has anyone used a
french curriculum for their young children??? Has anyone used
Power Glide program? I need opinions!!
|
Jun. 27, 2006
fun new stuff
So, i've aquired quite a bit of new
homeschool stuff! On saturday my sister and I and the kids went
to charlottetown to try on bridesmaid dresses (my sister is getting
married in february) and we also went to a big book store and I got
this!  I'll be doing that for the summer along with a math work book.. then yesterday Jeff came home with two packages for me! One was the math u see primer stuff. Which was great to see! I'll have to look through it more to figure out if it will be appropriate for the fall or not. Then the other package had the get ready, get set, go for the code books from the explode the code series! Very exciting and those look fairly easy so we will be starting those in the fall too. Jules did her first few pages in the complete book of the alphabet book and she didn't mind doing them at all... I hope this summer will be productive for us... |
Jun. 19, 2006
My dad is awesome!!
My dad is the greatest!! I had one of
those yellow wave slides and my dad said he would build a swingset with
it. Well he had it half finished but he thought it was too tall
(it was like almost six feet tall with a playhouse on the top) so I
went to look at it and i didn't think it was too bad but then my
brother said it would be great out at our family cottage for the kids
to play with. Anyway.. my dad shows up today with one of these on
the back of his truck. He said one of his friends had one he was trying to get rid of cuz the slide was bend in half.. My dad took it, put some 2x4's into the slide so it would stay straight and gave it to us! Took a bit to put it together but Jules is in LOVE!! All she really needed was a slide anyway! Dad said he was still going to build the swingset and we could put it at the cottage if we wanted. That would be great too so Jules would have something to do out there when I can't watch her on the beach. |
Jun. 16, 2006
update!
Just in case anyone was DYING to
know. I found those keys along with Julianna's princess little
people. They were both in between the two sections of the
sectional couch. Jules was soo happy to see her little princess
people as she hasn't seen that in weeks (yes I don't clean in there
often  )
She kept saying, why was my princess hiding with daddy's
keys? LOL anyway, it's way too hot to make any supper so
potato salad and bbq steak it's gotta be!
|
Jun. 16, 2006
Where are those keys???
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So on sunday we get home from church and
Toby had fallen asleep in the car so I decided to stay in the car and
read while he slept instead of waking him up. So when he wakes
up, I go into the house and realize Jeff had left his keys in the door,
so I took them out and placed them on the steps where he puts things he
needs to take with him. Thinking he would find them. He
didn't and now they have disappeared! ACK! His set has the
only mail box key on it so we can't get our mail until he either finds
the key or pays for a replacement one. On top of that, he had the
only manufacturer key for our van WHICH we are trading in for a newer
one TODAY! Ugh. Soooo Jules and I are going to go on
a cleaning spree in a moment and see if we can't find those keys! Our homeschool thought for the day.... Last night we were reading "five minute devotions for kids" and it was the section about gecko's and how they lose their tails when they get caught by them. Anyway, there was a question about running away to someone safe when we were scared and so I asked her who she could run to when she was scared (I was thinking she would say me or daddy) she yells out "I know GOD! We can run to God!" YES i'm actually teaching my child something!!! lol. Another cute thing... she asked what Geckos eat and I told her I didn't know.. so she said "I think you could probably find out if you looked on the puter!" in such a matter of fact voice! Sooo we did and found out that geckos eat moths, spiders, and other insects. I said that's pretty yuck huh and she no only two are yucky.. just two spiders are yucky to eat! LOL |
Jun. 15, 2006
Two posts in one day! wow
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I just had to come back and tell a Julianna
story. Tonight as we were rocking in the chair before bed we had
this conversation. Jules: Mommy, what's gramma's real name? Me: Her name is Lorraine. Jules: And lots of people call her araine? Me: Yep Jules: but really she is gramma Me: yeah she's your gramma Jules: Yeah but all the people can't say gramma all the time Me: why not? Jules: cuz she can't be everyone's gramma! Silly Mommy! LOL We had a similar conversation a couple days ago about my MIL. In the car she said to us. "Everyone calls Nanny, Theresa all the time. Why do they do that?" We told her it was because that was her name. And then she said, "no she can't be Theresa because she's nanny!" hehe |
Jun. 15, 2006
Hey Big spender!
Well I did it.. I actually spent
big money on homeschool stuff for Julianna! I ordered the primer
math u see stuff for her yesterday. Not sure if I will use it in
the fall but I wanted to get it to see what it's like. I also
went to our local homeschool supplier's website and saw this book -  And I thought, gee that book looks familar! So I went to my homeschool supplies and realized I had that book! We had bought it at a flea market in japan for 150 yen! (1.50 or so) Sooo I'm gonna just use that book and I ordered explode the code A, B, and C to go along with it! Also got a book for Jules out of the discount bin called "A friend for fraidy cat" It was only 2 dollars! hehe Anyway.. here's a little run down on what we hopefully will be doing in the fall. I have some singapore math workbooks and I also have some singapore english books which I don't think they make anymore. I will be using the phonics book that I have along with the explode the code books. IF Jules wants to do the math u see stuff, then we will do some of that with her. For bible I have "leading little ones to God" to do. hmm what else... I also have a couple of walmart workbooks to do as well. OH and I have the handwriting without tears get set for school program as well! Anyway, I was going to write more but time has gotten away from me and It's time to get the kids to clean up and get ready for bed... it's been a long day today as Jeff had to work a 12 hour day today so i'll be glad to get them in bed and relax a bit! |
Jun. 13, 2006
My Goal
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Hello again.. As the summer is approaching
I'm finding it harder and harder to get on here and update. hmmm
what will we be doing for the summer.. it's hard to say really. I
do have a plan to have her learn all her letter sounds by the end of
the summer so that we can go right into some preschool and kindergarten
stuff. But it will be really laid back. I"m thinking I
will introduce a new letter every 2nd-3rd day and just talk about that
letter through out the next couple of days and try and find things that
start with that letter. Other than that, I'm looking forward to
spending time at the beach this summer and having a relaxing
summer. I am thinking i'll be done babysitting two of my kids at
the end of this month or early july and I'm totally ready for that. I'm
burning out I think. anyway... Jules has come to me needing
things so I'll have to write again later.
|
May. 31, 2006
gearing up for summer
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not much formal schooling is going on
here.. Doesn't really matter though since she's only 3 and she is
learning by everything we do. She is spending ALOT of time
outside and since I'm planting a garden this year, she is helping out a
lot with that. I have a wicked cold that has knocked me on my butt this week. I feel like I'm coughing up a lung. Toby of course had the cold first but he has gotten over the worse of it thank you God. Now i'm just praying I can keep him healthy for the summer or at least for longer than 2 weeks. Anyway, I don't have much to say right now... just wanted to update a bit.. Got a bunch of weddings coming up and I'm actually taking the pictures for one of them which i'm a bit nervous about. should be fun though. anyway.. toby's gotten a hold of something he shouldn't have so i'm gonna jet! |
May. 17, 2006
yikes i'm slacking
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Hi all... I've been slacking off on the writing of this blog... it isn't because we haven't been doing any learning.. quite the opposite.. although we haven't done much formal learning Julianna seems to absorb things and I think she is well on her way to start forming words. Her big accomplishment last week was she wrote her name and nanny's name on her mothers day card all by herself with only me writing it on another paper first. My mother in law was quite impressed with that. Also she is starting to figure out what letter words start with by figuring out the sounds.. Like a few minutes ago she asked me what letter bubble started with so I told her to think about what sound it started with and she said "buh buh buh B! Bubble starts with B!" she was quite excited to have figured it out all on her own. While writing that paragraph, I was interupted by Jules asking me to help her find manitoba on the globe. LOL that's where my mother and stepfather live. As for the rest of the family. Toby is 13.5 months old now. Has learned to say Mama finally and he says there alot. He has developed a love of babydolls and that worries Jeff just slightly but I figure playing with dolls will just teach him to be a great dad later in life. Jeff is doing great at his new job and i'm very proud of him. He is such a great guy and a wonderful husband and father. He just got a package from his friend in japan. His friend sent him about 6-7 packages of a white stew mix that we loved while living in japan. It was really nice of him. As for me... I finally found out what was wrong with my knees.. I have tendonitis in both knees. I'm on pain killers and have to go to physio therapy now. But i'm happy to say the pain killers are working and I'm feeling almost back to normal now. well, i would write more but Toby just came up to me and i'm smelling a foul smell so I best go deal with that.. Plus I really want to bless my husband today and have the whole house cleaned and make him his white stew so i'm off for the day... |