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I really think this takes the cake for me! Both of my kids are very creative and don't really need anything to keep themselves amused. This is an example of that creativity in action: They have just finished breakfast. My older daughter had a banana. She and her sister separated the banana peel into 3 parts. One part is "being" the mother, one is "being" the father, and one is "being" the dog. I can't quite hear all of the interactions, but I can hear the little one occaisonally shouting, "teenager time for supper." The other is say, "no, the dog is still asleep, it is time for breakfast." Apparantly, now the dog needs a blanket and the mother banana peel is getting the puppy banana peel a blanket. I'm betting they can keep this up for at least 20 minutes. They have now added songs about waking up. I love my kids! |
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I have a neighbor whose daughter is rude and bossy. Her mom doesn't see it and is consistently amazed that the other kids don't want to play with her daughter. Some of the neighbors have told me that the mom asks them why their kids don't want to play with her daughter. I know the mom doesn't like me, she actually doesn't appear to like anybody who doesn't agree with her, and I'm pretty opinionated. So today, the kids are playing outside when the mom and daughter drive by. My daughter, who is likely to love everybody, yells to the girl, "why don't you come and play with us?" So the mom kind of looks at us and lets the daughter out and tells the girl to be home in 15 minutes and then drives off. The daughter, by the way, is 6. Is that normal? To just let your kid out and drive off. The mom didn't even come to meet the girl to take her home. Just expected her to walk home on her own. It's very scary to me. I try to stay back and let my kids play without me interferring, but I certainly don't just leave without making sure that they are well cared for, especially with people that I'm not comfortable around. Is it weird or just me? |
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McKenzie today asked me if I could take her to The Maytag Store after Kylie fell asleep. I was thinking she meant if Kylie took a nap, and, so, I told her that somebody has to stay with Kylie she's still too little to stay by herself. At this point, McKenzie became impatient with me. "No Mommy. Not now. Tonight, after Kylie goes to sleep. Daddy will stay with her." Hmmm. Some thought has gone into this. "Honey, do you know what is at The Maytag Store?" "Sure Mom. They have dishwashers, refrigerators and stoves. I saw what part of the store looked like on the commercial. So can we go?" "Maybe over the weekend, honey. You mostly fall asleep before Kylie does. For to go at night, you'd have to stay up later than Kylie." "Hmmm. I guess you're right mom. I'm just so tired at night." So what are you doing this weekend? |
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My oldest daughter is completely and totally in love with the Geography Songs that came with our Sonlight package. If I put the CD on, she will stop whatever she is doing and come racing over. She will sing with the CD for HOURS AND HOURS! About 2 weeks ago our neighbor friend stopped by Saturday morning to ask if my daughter could play. I said of course but she had to tidy up her room first. The friend ran off and then came back a moment later saying that her mom said it was o.k., if it was o.k. with us, for her to come in and help so that both girls could get playing quickly (pretty cool kid!). While they were cleaning up, my daughter was very happily singing the songs about the United States (I think it was the states that were in the middle), her little friend stops cleaning, looks at her, and asks, "Did you have school today?" That's what I love about homeschooling! Anyday can be school day and school days are such fun that you want all days to be school days! |
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My youngest one who is turning 4 in July has been working very hard on staying in her own bed the whole night. I don't really think she gets out of bed to be naughty. She falls out. I have pictures of her scooting to the end of the bed. But I can't really figure out how to post the pictures. I'm just SOOO not technical and I'm feeling rather old and archaic. But back to the little one. She falls out of bed. Sometimes she goes up over the top. She done this since she was an infant. She is just a wiggly sleeper. So my husband challenged her to not come in our room at all. And she did it! My mom took her for an afternoon of adventure. My daughter very happily, while they were out, told my mother how she had stayed in bed all night. And she told of how her mom, dad, and sister were so proud that they "cheered for joy" for her. Love it. I guess we really did "cheer for joy" for her. My husband and I were just so thrilled to have an uninterrupted night that we were indeed very joyful.
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So what is wrong with me? I just don't get all these parents that are so eager to justify sending their kids off to school. I know several moms that are SO grateful to send their kids off to school. "How do you spend so much time with your kids?" I get asked all the time by my neighbors. "My kids drive me nuts and I'm so glad that I can send them to school. If I spent all day with them, I would be insane." I swear that was what one mom said to me! Why'd you have kids if you DON'T WANT TO SPEND TIME WITH THEM???? I know my first daughter was a surprise - not planned for, but, I think, divine intervention. Once I had her, I could no longer understand the DESIRE to spend time AWAY from my own child. Suddenly, nothing was more important to me then the role of raising this little person. I only have my children in my house and with me on a daily basis for a very short time. Soon, if I have done my job correctly, they will be able to go off on their own to be productive people that contribute to our society. So every moment that I have with them is a blessing! I can never recapture these days. I am so grateful that I can homeschool! |
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Today was one of those days. The kind where you just sit back and think, "what was I thinking?" Fussy kids. Disaster called House. Sick Dog. Just a horrible day. So Darling Daughter 1 decides that she doesn't want to do ANY school ANY more EVER. She just wants to play and have me take care of her for the rest of her life. Her school work is too hard (her readers are 3 levels below her ability). She decides she can't read her book because it is too hard. So she sets it down and goes to the book shelf and picks out . . . Illustrated Classics of . . . FRANKENSTEIN. She can't read The Long Way Westward, but she can read Frankenstein. So what I am I missing???? Well, tomorrow is another day. May be we'll try some new stuff. |
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Here on the outskirts of Phoenix, AZ, spring is a fleeting moment. And I mean that literally. We may, if we are lucky, have about 3 weeks of the "mild" weather before we hit triple digits. This week it has been over 95 for the last several days. Welcome to Pool Time! So while we are starting to think about swimming suits, sunscreen and balancing studying with heat relief, we are inundated with spring and Easter supplies. By Easter, we are usually in the upper 90's to low 100's (and if anybody tells you differently, they are NOT telling the truth). Cute little bunnies. Fluffy yellow baby chicks. Lambs. And all sorts of delightful spring-type of, well, stuff assail you whenever you are out shopping regardless of for what you are shopping. Even Best Buy was decked out for Spring -- not really for Easter, but definitely for Spring. My oldest daughter went for a sleepover this evening. So my husband and I took the Little One out to dinner as a special treat. She has been deemed Too Young to go for a sleepover. Dinner was rather uneventful although full off the usual quips she imparts on us during such occaisons. After dinner, we had to run over to Hobby Lobby across the parking lot from the restaurant. I was (and turns out, still am) in dire need of more (many, many more) squares of Velcro. While we are in Hobby Lobby, my Little One is her usual spirited self. Have you ever tried to walk a cat on a leash while simultaneously flicking cat toys randomly in front of the cat? Well, that is sort of what it is like to shop with my daughter. She runs forward until something catches her eye and then she darts in that direction. There is No Thought. And I mean No Thought. Just like a magpie spotting something shiny, she is off and onto it immediately. Well, after a while, and several near misses with some of the breakable items in the store, we have "The Talk" with her reminding her of what is and what is not acceptable behavior. So she concedes to follow the acceptable behavior. Including asking for permission before touching Anything! Well, we make it around the store without much event, until we get to the front of the store on our way to check out. As we pass by the aisles and aisles of Spring and Easter stuff, she asks, "Can I touch this?" and "Can I touch that?" Finally, she comes upon a lamb in aisle. She asks first if she can touch it. Then she asks if she can pet it. After petting it for a while, she asks in a very solemn manner if she can pick up the lamb. We assure her that it is o.k. to pick up the lamb. She beams at us, and, at the top of her little lungs, proclaims, "Well then, it's a good thing it isn't real!" |
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Sean made bread today. Not much unusual about that. It's become standard for Sean to whip up a few loaves of bread over the weekend. Ever since we got a bread maker from my mom, Sean's thing has been making bread: sandwich bread, whole wheat bread, rye bread, cinnamon raisin bread. And these have all been beautiful and delicious. The fresh bread just melts on your tongue. Phenomenal!
But today, today Sean decided to try to make Sheepherder's bread. Seriously. Right there is the clue how this will go. Sheepherder's bread. He's not a sheephearder. I don't think anybody his family is a sheepherder. We don't know any sheepherders.
As the bread has been rising, my fear has been keeping pace. The loaf is, and I swear to you, about the size of a Thanksgiving Turkey. I'll post pictures. The instructions said to cook it in a 5 quart dutch oven (which we don't have). So to improvise, Sean is using our 5 quart STOCK POT! Yes, that is correct, a stock pot. Not only is it in the stock pot, but it has grown to twice the size of the stock pot.
With only a few minutes to go, Sean summoned me over the assist him with the removal of the loaf from the oven. Once the loaf was out of the oven, we just stared at it for a minute. It's a really large loaf. And then we had the extraction of the loaf from the stock pot.
So now the house smells fantastic. Fresh bread! Yum!
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So. This is blogging. Hmmm. I've never done this before, and really like I'm at a loss. So I guess I'll just start with a little background. I'm a 38 year old stay at home mom. I'm homeschooling my two daughters: McKenzie who will be six in May 2007 and Kylie who will be four in July 2007. Not much exceptional there. Right now my husband, Sean, (of 15 McKenzie is supposed to be hanging up her clothes (we don't put their clothes in drawers - and now I can't remember why). Instead she is sitting on the couch reading Man O' War for about the 100th time this week. The book is one of those "I can Read It!" books. There way below her reading level, but, hey, she's reading!!! In two weeks, we are going to start our next phase of homeschooling: a real curriculum! We are going to be doing Sonlight's Level 1+2 World History. Since McKenzie is reading and comprehending at a 3rd grade level and we've already done a lot of ancient history, I thought it would be a good place to start. Next year we are planning on Level 3. We will finish up Saxon 1 and begin Saxon 2. We are using Rod & Staff for grammar, manners & health, and music. Consider God's Creation is what we will be using for science. Oh! I almost forgot, I frequently call the girls "monkeys" because of the antics they pull, which is why I selected the MonkeyMom moniker.
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