Dec. 20, 2009 - Another Budding Photographer
The guilty party: My three years old.
The Crime: She had gotten into her big sisters purse, took out her camera and then proceeded to take over one hundred pictures.
The proof was on the camera. Guilty!
Big sisters purse
Camera case
Her feet. Did I mention that she turned three in August of '09?
Her horse
Another horse
The punishment: I blog about it so in years to come I can show her future husband. Bwa ha ha ha ha!
Oh, and she did take pictures of her own hand, but it was too blurry to share.
Dec. 1, 2009 - Fossil Grab Bags
Back in September I went to the Denver Gem and Mineral Show. The focus this year was fossils. I was in fossil, gem and rock heaven. The competition display cases showed beautiful pieces of ancient life - ammonites, dinosaur eggs, corals, leaves, petrified woods, clams. Each piece told a story.
One of the vendors was selling Fossil Grab Bags. Who can resist a grab bag? I couldn't. I bought some for my kids so they could take them home to see what they have and then try to identify them. Between you and me, I wanted the grab bags for me, but I was a good mother/homeschooler and let my kids play with them first.
The kids opened their bags, and grabbed my fossil books and went to work. I was pretty impressed as to what the bags held. In them were some bones, shark teeth, petrified wood, rodent teeth, ammonites, clams, shells, gastropods and other goodies.
Nov. 20, 2009 - Mandatory Family Craft Time
I'm usually excited about Thanksgiving each year. Family, friends, fun and fabulous food is something to look forward to. This year it's not the same. It may be because I haven't focused on the what to do's and what to makes. The only thing we've done around here is started Thanksgiving journals. Maybe over the weekend I'll get more excited about the whole thing. I could make some pumpkin bars and some eggnog bread.. that might help my mood.
I think we'll do a family craft together. We've done one when my eldest two where younger. Now that I have five children it will be more fun.
We'll make a Thanksgiving tree.
I'll cut out a tree base out of construction paper and then all my children, my hubbs and I can cut out a bunch of our traced hands in fall colors, and then glue them to the tree.
I think it'll look real neat this year with all the different sized hands.
What about you? Do you do any family crafts together?
Nov. 19, 2009 - Really! I'm back! For Sure!
I have had this blog since June of 2005, way back when homeschoolblogger was in beta. I was invited by two dear friends, ByHisGraceInColorado and HomegrownHearts and became hooked. For three years I blogged almost daily or at least three to four days a week. I had many readers and I met a lot of neat like-minded folks. This year was different. I didn't have the energy. I spent my days drained and even though I had creative learning ideas to share I would sit here and stare at my computer. The words just could not flow out the way they used to.
That is changed! I am back. I have my energy back and I feel great!
I haven't thought much about Thanksgiving this year. We will be going over to my grandmothers home. I'm supposed to make mashed potatoes and eggnog bread.
Kids learning: I started my two eldest on Time4Learning. I figure it will give them something different to do plus it will give me a bit more time to focus on my little ones. I have two more that are learning to read.
I'll let you know what my kids think of time4learning in a few weeks when they've been doing it for a while. The nice thing about it is there are no contracts and we can go month to month.
Nov. 4, 2009 - Thanksgiving Journal Continued
Here are a few of the Thanksgiving journal prompts I have come up with for my children. I will continue to add to these throughout this month. Enjoy.
What is the definition of Thanksgiving? Write it in your journal along with what it means to you?
Today I am Thankful for...
Look up Psalm 69:30 and write it in your journal. What do you think it means to "magnify Him with thanksgiving?"
Describe your favorite Thanksgiving meal?
Plan a menu for Thanksgiving day. Include recipes. If you can't find a recipe, ask me (mom) to help you find it.
Write about your favorite Thanksgiving memory?
What is something you don't like and why? Should you still be thankful for it?
Nov. 2, 2009 - Oooh! A New Journal Idea!
Thanksgiving is quickly approaching. Today I'm thinking (or attempting to) of things that I can teach my kids that aren't the same-o, same-o. You know, the same stuff we do every year during this time.
Last year the kids made "pilgrim hats". (I'll have to find the post to it. They came out cute!)
I think this year we'll make these turkeys. Aren't they cute?
Maybe, starting today we'll do a being thankful for.. journal entries. I like that idea actually. See what I do when I'm in the zone? Now to name it so that I can get my kids excited about it. Hey, I think I'll even get them their own special journals for this. The easy part is that my kids actually like to journal. This should go over well.
Okay, so each day my kids (myself included and heck, if I can get my hubbs in on this, too) well start off with, "I am thankful for..." or "Gratefulness is..."
If I come up with more Thanksgiving promts I'll post it here, folks. (Which I'm sure I will.
Now that I just had an idea burp, now to think about other things we can do for Thanksgiving.
Please share your ideas with me. I love to hear them!
Oct. 28, 2009 - Changes
Since my husband started his job three years ago we have struggled off and on with routines. He works mostly out of our home, but he is often out in the field working. My hubbs was on a "staycation" for about three weeks. During that time him and I have been able to really talk about how to make our home run more smooth.
First thing we did was go out and got new bedroom furniture and a new mattress. We've been married almost 17 years and never had bedroom furniture. We'll be painting our room her soon, too. We figure that we'll sleep better on a better mattress and if our room is more of a sanctuary we'll want to go to bed earlier and spend more time in there. I tell ya, after getting our new stuff yesterday I was anxious for bedtime. Our old bed left me sore and in pain every morning. My couch was more comfy than it was.
I didn't have any pain last night nor did I wake up with any from sleeping on the new one. Praise the Lord!
Next, in hopes that we get better sleep and we go to bed at a decent hour we'll have more time in the mornings to spend together as a family for breakfast. We used to all the time and we really miss it. It's amazing how your day can go when you start it with a good family breakfast.
We also want to start exercising together. I usually exercise after he's at work and the kids are getting started on "seat work."
Those are at least a start to a few changes around here. I'm excited about it and I pray that getting us, my hubbs and I on a good routine that our home will start to run smooth again.
What about you? What helps your home run well?
Oct. 8, 2009 - One of These Days...
One of these days we'll get into a routine again. Well, either that or our routine is trying to get into routine. Seriously, it seems like every time the kids and I get into a learning routine that it gets blown out of the water somehow. Summer and fall was busy with camping, field trips, my hubbs away for work across the ocean and broken bones. Maybe I'll just give up trying to get into a routine... nice thinking, but... no. I have a few children who learn and thrive better when they have a routine. I am very routine driven also. I get stressed when my routine is messed up.
Thankfully through the craziness of our non-routines, the kids still learn. I think that has to be one of my favorite perks to homeschooling. Learning happens whether it is directed or not. Our recent adventure took us away from learning about explorers (which I was going to blog about, but didn't get time) and learned about Japan while my husband was there for two months. We also traveled around Colorado with my mom for a week seeing and learning about various places.
The week after my husband got home from Japan we didn't do any "formal" learning so that we could enjoy having him back. The second week we didn't get to formal learning due to doctors appointments - one which was a fractured elbow. Here we are at week three and still no routine. My husband had surgery and so I've been distracted with helping him while keeping our home running. Its been interesting.
I'm planning on using this weekend to plan and prepare for next week and get our learning (formal) back on track. Our "school year" starts late October so at least we are still on track.
Oct. 5, 2009 - *Blink* What happened to September?
Hello Friends! I have missed you! So much has happened this last month and I thought I'd like to get my blogging buddies caught up, if they were so inclined to care. :) (Of course you do!)
Pretty much every year the Balloon Classic can be viewed right from my front yard! It is so neat to see the balloons go over the house.
My ash trees are starting to turn---well, a little more than starting! I love this color!
For a great bunch of ideas on Fall Leaf activities and such, go check out Teri's site.
At the beginning of September, we headed out to the Lone Star state to see my Father-in-law. He was having some health issues and we knew we needed to get back there and visit him. It was a wonderful time! We saw many of my husband's family and extended family and I even met some I didn't know. What a blessing! The trip is always a hard one; too many miles to drive, but the hospitality was wonderful and the food was as good as always. Speaking of the Lone Star state, I've never seen anyplace so proud of their flag and their state emblem! There are "Lone Stars" on purdy much ever'thang and you can even get Texas shaped waffles at the hotel breakfast bar! (Wouldn't Colorado shaped waffles be a bit boring? Oh, ha! I guess we already have Colorado shaped waffles! :)
Heading south--Spanish Peaks with new snow on them!
We got home nearly unscathed, a little bit of coughing and such but the rainy weather was nice and we managed to stay relatively cool for the most part. After 10 days at home however, we had to turn around and head back--"Papa" passed on to his heavenly home. We drove back for the service and this time saw the rest of the family and had a bittersweet reunion.
Aren't these cool? Brush stroke clouds. This was on our way to Daingerfield, TX.
Now we are back home again and realize that we were gone almost as much as we were home last month. Two of us had birthdays while on the trips. One of us is another year closer to "50" and I have a 13 year old. We literally have hit the ground running, and are still trying to get everyone well. The flu or whatever we have keeps bouncing back and forth. Other than that, it is SO good to be home!!
Now, if we can just shake these Texas accents we'll be all the way back to normal, y'all!
Nancy
P.S., Teri over at Knowledge House posted a really nice review of Haircuts For Little Men. Teri has some awesome resources, a super newsletter and be sure to check out ALL her websites! Homeschool Patriot is great!
You can read it right here. And, Friendship Alley has a great review with photos! The author won a copy of my ebook and posted her before and after pics. I'm impressed! She did a great job, didn't she?
Aug. 21, 2009 - Halt!
Summer is slowing down a bit. Our activities kind of came to a halt when my six year old fractured the top of his foot last week. Poor guy is in a cast for a total of three weeks and is supposed to keep off of it as much as possible. Uh, yeah... not easy!
So, since we are home bound for a few weeks we decided to dive into our learning and get things going again. We are a family that loves adventure so we are learning about explorers. Next week as we get into our studies more I'll share what we learn and do.
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