|
Haven't been able to post recent school pics, but thought I'd take a second and post this tidbit.... Here is the conversation that just took place behind my back but overheard: Noah: "Did Jesus die on the Cross?"
Loralai: "Mmm-hmm...."
Noah: "And he's in our hearts now?"
Loralai: "Mmm-hmm."
Noah: "Is he right here? (pointing to his heart)"
Loralai: "Yep."
Noah: "So if we squish him (pushing on his heart) will he get hurt?"
Loralai:
 The things that cross Noah's mind, I tell you... lol |
|
I really enjoy those sites like Enchanted Learning, EdHelper, etc where you can get printables. Scholastic now has printables, and for only $8.99/month, you can have full access to them! I really like them because they are arranged according to grade level, then subject level, then "interest area" (for example, you can do 2nd grade, reading, reading comprehension.) They also have lesson plans, and other things besides printables, included in that monthly price. Check it out at http://printables.scholastic.com/printables/home/?ib=PRT/ib/Date/eng/Home_Button///Nav/txtl/// Enjoy! We sure are! :) *PS* I also love the online "extension" stuff at the Mailbox magazine website. I haven't yet paid for a subscription (wanted to see just how much I actually used the magazine) but with a subscription, which is $25/yr. (or with your free trial mag) you get access to their printables as well, which we use a LOT. Hope those help as well! |
|
.....our school! I decided that since we were back into the swing of things, I'd take some pictures (since everyone else seems to have a 'day in the life' set of pics lol). First, I'll share our schedule, since this seems to be what is working for us: breakfast at 8:15, start school at 8:30: 8:30-8:45, 'opening time'. This is a time when we add the date to the calendar, change the day of the week, sing songs about the day of the week, season, morning, etc (you'll see in the pic below this neat book my sister in law gave me years ago that we still use). We also say the pledge, and work on one patriotic song a month-this month is "My Country Tis of Thee". 8:45-9:45, Language Arts. We only use Abeka curriculum, and we are following it pretty closely. Since I have 3 'grade levels', 2nd grade does their writing journals and four-square writing assignment. Preschool and Kindergarten recite the alphabet (mostly for Preschool's benefit... but Kind enjoys it also), then Kind. gets her writing sheets from Abeka for that day's lesson and works on those. Preschool then gets direct teaching. Once he is settled into his assignment, 2nd grade gets direct teaching (Kind is usually still working on her handwriting assingment and journal) After this, Kindergarten gets her direct teaching. If anyone finishes before we are ready to move on, they may do table activities (for the Preschooler this means fidgeting with pipe cleaners, playing with magnetic letters, cutting and pasting, etc--something to keep him occupied and under supervision). 9:45-10:15, Bible. This is generally working on AWANA stuff, reading a Proverb a day to the children, and using our Bible Stories to Color & Tell book (a great book that has me reading a section of the Bible, and the children get an activity or coloring sheet -depending on the day- to accompany the story.) 10:15-10:35, Recess and snack if anyone is hungry 10:35-11:30, Centers (see the "Centers Chart" below, but also some pics from children in centers. 11:30-12:15, Specials (Monday-Library, Tues-Music, Wed-Computers, Thurs-PE, Friday-Art) 12:15-12:35, Lunch 12:35-12:45, Buddy reading (each of the two older girls has a younger "buddy" throughout life, not just school, and at this time they are to sit down w/their buddy and read for a few mins while I clean up from lunch. 12:45-12:55, Storytime (this is a time when I read a story or two to the children, while their lunch settles 1:00-2:00 Arithmetic. Arithmetic functions much the same way as Language Arts, so I won't type it all out..but it's pretty much the same idea-everyone is working on the same subject together, each getting direct teaching at different times. *****1:30, when Noah finishes his Arithmetic he goes down for his nap*** 2:00-2:30, Science, History, or Health (We are currently working on Science) Our "life" schedule includes the school day, and on Wednesday mornings I throw in the laundry, so by Centers (normally a moderately quiet break time for me, since each child is in a center) I can fold the laundry, and in the late afternoon it gets put away. Fridays late afternoons we all go grocery shopping. Saturdays we spend the day deep cleaning (cleaning out micro, fridge, toilets-stuff we don't clean daily when we clean through the day), laundry again, and getting ready for Sunday, whatever that may entail. Sundays are church and AWANA, and M-F is school! Usually one of these days Jeffery has off from work, so we will make a trip -or two LOL- to Disney. So, there's our life!! So there ya have it-our schedule, and below to follow are some pics! OK finally got photobucket to work, so here are pics! First, my planner,since that's what really starts our week out! (this is 1 week's schedule.... the planner opens up to a two-page layout, and I LOVE this planner)
Then, this is what we start our day doing (we get dressed when we are ready to leave for a Special.)
Oh, before I forget-- here are a couple pics of my pocket chart finally with something in it (I have been dying to use it LOL) and the Centers chart;
So, after we sing songs, we move to Language Arts: Loralai and Noah doing "Skills Development" (part of Abeka's K5 curr.) while Abby and Lexi are doing journals and Four-Square Writing in the background:
another one....
Then Loralai works on her Handwriting while I work with Noah on his Preschool book (he also uses Abeka's Nursery 3s)...
When he is finished, he turns his paper in in my "turn-in" basket (I check the papers later long after school, and the "paper passer" hands them out the next morning)
Next Abby and Lexi work on their Language Arts with me, Loralai is still working on her writing in the background and Noah is working on his "Apple" book (something he's creating, from sheets from the MailBox)
After that, we had Bible...... no pics taken, though I can take some pics of some of their activities later. Then we move onto recess, followed by Centers and Specials. However, on Wednesdays we combine Specials and Centers, since the Special for Wednesday is Computers, and we only have one comp. This way each child gets 25 mins on the comp, and they each simply get longer Centers. Lexi in her Special:
Loralai in her Special (don't think she knew I took this pic LOL):
Abby and Noah at the Art Center:
Lexi and Loralai in the Art Center:
And here are the masterpieces hanging, once they'd dried!
Noah was rotated to the Blocks Center:
and later, he and Lexi were moved to the Math Games Center, while Abby was in Stamping:
After all of this, we have lunch. Don't think you need pictures of that After lunch and Storytime, we move to Arithmetic. Here are Abby and Lexi going over ordinal numbers (mots of the manipulatives you see in these pics are from Abeka, btw) (and I don't know what's going on with the picture quality in these next couple...)
Here they are doing a clock exercise:
By this time, Noah has gone down for nap, Loralai has finished her Arithmetic pages, and here she is doing Phonics Review, with an Abeka game (this is called for at the end of the day with K5) She got all the bones!!:
Finally, we finish the day with Science. Abby and Lexi were reading silently on this day, since there was no activity involved, and we discussed the material afterwards. I find that it works best to have them do their readers and we all (all of the girls and I ) talk about it, and sometimes I have a corresponding activity besides what's in the textbook. Loralai pays attention and learns quite a bit this way too.
At this point, it's 2:30, and our school day is over. We head upstairs for a quick nap for me (I work from home most late nights) and a rest time for the girls. Hope you enjoyed! Stop by any time! (soon will have up some pics of our PE this week--we intended on going to the Sprinkler park, but it was closed when we got there so we ended up just hanging out at the huge park next to it until we needed to leave for the rest of our lessons.) |
)
|
Here's a physics lesson from last year LOL The lesson? What goes up must come down----again and again and again! Oh, and because she'll kill me if I don't mention it: My mom has lost a lot of weight since this picture!!  |
(we'll get one from 2008, with Noah in it another time) |
Well, today will be just another Saturday around here, it looks like! I got up this morning, and, after putting my coffee on to start I've also folded a load of laundry, and the children put it away. Then we sat down and relaxed to watch another Duggar episode (and they were going to Disney!!) Now, I decided to sit down and check emails, blog a little bit, and check a couple message boards while the bread finishes. Then we will finish the classroom, and tidy up the living room and dining room. By then, it should be time for lunch and a nap, which will be Mommy's "down time". Later, I will make tonights supper (something quick and easy and that needs to cook for a few hours) as well as tomorrow's supper. We are going to church in the morning, and after church are going to a friend's home for lunch...so we probably won't be home until supper time. It will be much better to have supper already made and just needing to be heated up and dished up, than to frantically be trying to figure out what to make that late. Alright, better run! Have a blessed weekend!!!! |
|
Nothing 'exciting' going on here in the past couple of days. Well, I take that back--I finally started officially working for the company I am working for, called West Corporation. This is something I do from home, by the way, and on my own scheduled time (whatever I choose to schedule myself for, within the time constraints of the company that I am trained for [you can be trained for more than one company] ). I applied with this company back in February, and finally heard back from them in July. That seems to be typical, from what I have heard from others who work for this company. Once you hear back from them, you have a few days to accept the offer, and fill out about an hour's worth of paperwork (background check consent, W-4, blah blah blah.....) and some info needs to be printed up and notarized. Once you have that turned in (w/in 3 days), you will hear back that they have all the required paperwork and are processing it. Then in about a day or so you will receive an official 'welcome' letter, welcoming you to the company, and requiring that you respond soon to begin downloading the required software, filling out MORE forms (for how you want to be paid, ie direct deposit, pay card, etc), they run a system check on your computer (this was the ONLY upfront cost I had to pay, by the way--adding more memory to my computer. The min. requirement was 256MB RAM; can you believe my comp didn't even have that?! So, yeah, I had to buy another memory stick. But I am sure 98% of people probably already have enough RAM on their comp, just not me LOL. Oh, and by choice, a hands-free headset to attach to my phone, because I don't want to have a kink in my neck.) After that, you are FINALLY ready to begin training! PAID training at least, but hours upon hours of training. Everyone must do Basic Certification, and from there, it depends on the 'line' you are taking calls for, but for mine, there are an additional 12 modules/tests to complete. Last night, I spent a little over 2 hours going through B/C (and taking notes) and completed about HALF of B/C. I have 30 hours (and 20 days) total to complete the training. And THEN.....drumroll.....lol..... I will finally be ready to schedule myself for working hours. Whew! So, this is definitely a legitimate at-home working opportunity (I have known about this company for awhile), BUT it's also not something you can apply for today and start working with tomorrow (and "make $5,000 this week!!" ). It just doesn't work like that. But I guess such is the case with any real company anyway. Patience is a virtue, afterall. If after reading this, you are interested, the link to begin applying (and they don't hire in all 50 states, btw) is www.westathome.com. |
|
Well, Baking Day was a success. "Many hands make light work!!" That's something my children hear me saying often. And for good reason. (Oh--and I skipped the bread machine, as you will see in pics below!! LOL) The only down fall was that we didn't get started until noon (I would have preferred to start around 8 or 9am) which means the last thing--cinnamon rolls--are just finishing up in the oven. No big deal......except in about 20 minutes I need to start supper for tonight!!! Going easy: meatloaf, smashed potatoes (if I feel up to it I will peel them, otherwise, smashed it is!), and some frozen veggies. I can't believe it's time to start supper already!! Well, we started out with the bread/rolls preparation (the recipe I use can make 3 medium sized loafs plus 24 dinner rolls, which is what we did today, but would be better suited, IMO, to make *either* 4 loaves, *or* several dozen dinner rolls). Here we began. Who needs a $400 Kitchen-Aid when you've got 4 children who can "constantly stir"? I think their value just went up by about $400 ****and forgive the fact that my children are 'bumming it' in pj's and stuff....yeah, you can't see it, but so was I LOL****
Adding more ingredients:
Even the 3 y/o enjoys adding!!
The final blob.........:
........which turns into this: (That's 3 medium sized loafs, and 2 dozen rolls) Now it was time to start the cinnamon rolls. Lexi stirs butter and milk:
Now everyone else helps by adding the remaining ingredients:
Now the fun part--they get to use one of their painting rollers (from the Art center we have) to spread the butter. (no this roller has never seen paint!) I'm thinking of keeping this as my 'roller' for baking, though, since we have 12 rollers of various prints! And what would cinnamon rolls be without........cinnamon!! (and brown sugar) The bread was done (and the rolls went in) .....while the cinnamon rolls patiently waited their turn in the oven... Well, that was enough baking for today! I rested for about 20 minutes, and then started on supper. Sorry, don't have any pics of that; I was trying to hurry up and get it in the oven and get things ready, so it'd be done before hubby got home. Meanwhile, after resting for about 20 minutes, I folded two more loads of laundry, then the children put it away. The oven just beeped--better go take my meatloaf out and mash the potatoes--hubby should be walking in any minute!! |
|
Wanted to mention, because I'm just dorky enough to actually enjoy this type of thing, thought I would share. I'm going to have a blast with this! http://apps.collegeboard.com/qotd/question.do Enjoy!! Let me know how you're doing! :) |
|
Well, yesterday I finally managed to get back into the swing of things a bit. It was the first day I was able to NOT take any pain medication, so I think I'm finally on the mend! To celebrate, I went grocery shopping. Yay. Over 2 hours the children and I spent shopping (this after I spent about 45 minutes -which was way more than I would have liked- browsing some online coupon sites my friend Jenni sent me. Mostly, www.moneysavingmom.com). A quick word on this: I never have time to clip coupons, but if it just means going to a website, clicking on the ones I want, and hitting "print", I think I can handle that sometimes. I won't spend hours and hours browsing for deals - afterall, that needs to be taken into consideration. Time is valuable, too, and if I'm spending literally HOURS looking for these deals, printing off coupons (don't forget that takes ink, which is $$) and lots of time and GAS ($$$) hopping from store to store, well, I must admit I'd rather pass on the deal. Unless it's something I can get at a store I was going to *anyway*, or have time to stop at on a trip I am making *anyway*, then I don't get too caught up in the coupon/rebate frenzie. Sorry, I just don't. BTDT years ago, and found that I was spending so much time looking for all these "deals", that my husband asked "If you are spending so much time looking for ways to essentially spend money, albeit a smaller amount than you would spend "next week" on the same items, couldn't you make something yourself without spending the money, OR the time away from home?" He did have a point. (Thus began my "food preparation" and 'planning ahead' regimen!) Again, time is valuable, and so is gas. I know it is easy to get caught up in the 'frugal frenzy', but if it's taking away a lot of time, or sending me on trips I otherwise wouldn't be making, I'm not sure it's as frugal as it seems...The way I see it, if I am spending so much time running from store to store to buy pre-made, processed foods, then why can't I be at home making something equally tasty from scratch, with my children, and save the gas money, plus the money I would spend on said pre-made/processed foods? Also, my husband really does not like when I am away from home while he is home so this is why we do everything during the day! He doesn't mind if I am away for some 'rejuvenating time to myself', which is generally a few hours a week spent upstairs reading (or at the library if I am out of books, or possibly the fabric store), maybe soaking in a hot bath, drinking coffee, and w/o interruptions from children! Back to my trip: I spent about $140 in that shopping trip, including a few non-food items. Keep in mind it's been at least three weeks since we've had a 'proper' grocery shopping trip, though. But, I came home and sat down with my receipt book/journal for meal planning, and marked off everything on my receipt that I DON'T buy every week (such as bread flour, self rising flour, yeast, the large jar of peanut butter, the 12 pack of toilet paper, etc). In the end, I was around $65. I was able to come up with at LEAST 7 breakfasts, lunches, suppers, and snacks/desserts from this (sometimes more than 7, and I'm certain if I sat at it for more than 10 minutes, I could think of even more yet). So I would say about $65 is a good estimate of what I spend (I've been tracking receipts for awhile) on groceries each week, to feed our family of 6 breakfast, lunch, supper, snacks, and some desserts. Mind you, I do the majority of our cooking from scratch. Very, very rarely do I buy prepared/processed foods. Homemade is much TASTIER, you get more for your money (and can even do bulk cooking and freeze/preserve the rest for another time), and is cheaper to boot. All of these are the main reasons why I prefer to cook from scratch.The exceptions would be, I keep store-bought bread on hand in the freezer, in case we run out and I haven't planned enough to have another several loaves baked. Or, potato chips, because we like them with sandwiches. Or the occassional "fruit chews" snacks. Oh, and I still buy store-bought granola, and will continue to do so until I can manage to get it down-pat to my liking. Of course, if something is FREE with one of my coupons, then I would likely get it! OK- I think I *am* frugal at heart. But I think it's frugality that frees up money to do other things, wouldn't you say? I mean, I don't know about you, but I don't have the money to do EVERYTHING at full price, all the time, and paying extra. So by being frugal -which sometimes means *gasp* waiting, and not getting something instantly- and budgeting for the things we want, we CAN have the money for the things we want (which of course takes a back seat to the things we NEED). Something to think about, I 'spose. For some reason, I don't like spending a lot of money on food, though. LOL I would rather spend "play money" (not to be confused with 'savings money') for the week at Disney, Target, or on more homeschooling stuff or fun stuff to do. Years ago, when we didn't have much money (we lived on student loans and assistance, in addition to dh's not one, but TWO jobs--that's the only way we got by), I learned to grocery shop on $50-60/wk. (not that we are just over-flowing with cash now, but we are BLESSED to be at least comfortable enough to pay bills, insurance, etc and have children in extra-curriculars, and long-ago stopped qualifying for any sort of assistance, even with a family of 6) Thus, it is now "just the way I cook". Again, it is much tastier and cheaper anyway. However, I also *enjoy* cooking from scratch. Wierd? I don't know.. but it gives myself and my children great pleasure in making everything ourselves. In fact, last night we made strawberry jam and apple (cider) jelly. Yummmm! The children are old enough to do the tedious parts of strawberry jam now! For years, I did everything, but no more! ha-ha! They are now old enough to cut, dice, and mash the strawberries (the time consuming part), leaving me to only cook the pectin (takes 5 minutes) and stir it into the sugar/fruit mixture! What could be more simple? Here are the jams/jellies we made last night. They are still "settling" before freezing and refrigeration:
Today I also plan to do a bit of baking. I think I will just do a quick loaf of bread in the bread machine (cheating, I know ~get bread going, and maybe a little other baking ~declutter ~organize the classroom This could very well roll over into tomorrow, so I won't overwhelm myself with a list that's too long, and throw myself into the hospital for a *third* time. But, I WILL take pictures later Better run, huh?! |
), because it will free me up to work on cleaning, and organizing our classroom. I promise to have pictures of our classroom up when I get it all organized and arranged. But now that I am able to be up and around (surgery 2 weeks ago), it is time to get things back in order. My husband did a wonderful job of keeping up the laundry, house, children, etc, but no one can do the classroom except myself, and school-related clutter has accumulated in corners as well. No one knew where to put it, but it didn't matter much while I was healing. Now that I am "better", I need to get on it, don't I? So on today's agenda: