This is my first time doing Friday Show and Tell and I am excited about joining in. I am going to show how I control the toys in our home. This new system is only a month old in my home and it is working great. We don't have a play room or family room so toys were stored wherever I could find a spot. We used to keep toys all over the place. You had to walk all over to put things away. It really wasn't working. So I started exploring how others did it and discovered some people use a toy closet. We have a strange little area in our kitchen that really isn't big enough for a table and always seemed like wasted space. I decided to turn it into our toy "closet".
The new toy "closet". We used our old computer cabinet and old tubs from the basement.
The inside of the old computer cabinet. I managed to squeeze in all the toy tools, legos, play food, technics, brio track and trains, marbles and tubes, doll house furniture, playmobile, army men, puppets, and bey blades (spinning tops game). I still need to finish labeling everything.
Along the floor is tubs of blocks, Lincoln Logs, musical instruments, figurines and the kids matchbox car mountain. When they want something, they get the tub out and then bring it all back in the same tub when they are done. So far they are doing a great job returning everything.
This is our table time cabinet (old china cabinet). The kids can get anything our of here and play with it at the dining room table. This part of the system has been around for a long time. In here we have; Mr. Potato head, light bright, playdough, money play, puzzles, coloring books and sticker books, crayons, markers, pencils, and lots of small games or games one can play by oneself. There are still some toys in the kids rooms. However, those toys are supposed to stay in their rooms. In their rooms are dolls, our rather large Fisher Price village, dress up and the My Little Pony collection. We also have alot of games, family puzzles, and art supplies in two closets that the kids can not get into by themselves. I am so pleased with how this new system is working. It is about time my home does not look like a toy store all the time. To see more show and tell Friday entries, go to Canadagirl . Blessings, Dawn | ||
Posted in RAD FASD and Goldilocks Journey
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No more we suspect.... or there is a history of... or most likely she has.... Yesterday, the Geneticist diagnosised my 7 year old daughter with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) and depending on a few measurements that need to be confirmed from her birth records she may be upgraded to Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). There really is very little difference between the two, the latter has more facial anomalies. We always had heard the stories that her birth mother was "fall down drunk" as we moved through different departments of the government such as WIC and DSS, but it seemed strange to us and the doctors that Goldilock's younger brother (Tom Sawyer) showed no affects of Alcohol and just the opposite, he is very very bright and growing like a weed. Because of her brothers success the doctors in the past felt that although she may be labeled with FASD someday it was probably that her environment had been so poor/abusive in infancy and that once she was healed from RAD~Reactive attachment disorder, her development, academics and behavior would catch up. She is considered to be mostly healed from RAD but her behavior is still very upredictable, processing is very slow, academics are coming out very poor on tests (as if I didn't already know that), she came out again with an IQ in the high 70's and now her growth has slowed down a great deal. She hasn't changed shoe sizes or clothing sizes in 2 years, but has grown taller, a bit. So back we went to the doctors for another evaluation. In some ways I feel relieved and in other ways devasted. My little girl really is bonded to us and knows and wants us as her parents. I figure it took her 5 years and many many hours of therapy to get her here. This is great news. However, FASD is permanent brain damage and there is no recovering from or healing from it. There is only learning how to live with it and helping her meet her full potential with in it. I knew in my heart that this was coming for a long time but it is still hard to digest. This new diagnosis means that she will most likely qualify for CAP, a program that provides a one on one to help her with school, behavior managment, and so on. This is great since her mental health support is drying up rapidly. It also means more books to read and a new support group to join which may afford me more trick of the trade. I am not at all new to raising complicated children and searching out and finding the gifts God as bestowed upon my little ones. I have been raising complicated children for 18 years now. My big teen is meeting his God given potential and turning into a wonderful young man (who will always need support) despite dier predictions that he would only be able to function in a group home/institution. So we embark on this new path with our Goldilocks. Please pray that we will find the right support and answers to help our little girl. That she will meet her fullest possible potential. That we will continue to see her grow and develop. That we will find her true gifts and figure out how to help her bring them to life. A side note~The doctor begged me to never put her in to public school
Blessings, Dawn |
! She said that public school would destroy her fragile self worth that we have worked so hard to achieve. She said Goldilocks was so blessed to be homeschooled and that I should never give up and think that the school system could do better.
No worries there...
Posted in Homeschooling
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Wow! It still amazes me that we have been on this homeschool journey for 10 years now and love it more all the time! How cool is that!! Well, the littles and I are using Story of the World (SOTW) this year and may I say we love love love it. So far it is just what I wanted with very few of my own additions. In fact looking over the first few months there is very little I would add. I actually own alot of their extra reading suggestions too. We kicked off the new year with an archaeological dig in the sandbox. I buried about 40 things and the kids all had their own section. After they dug up the household items they told me what they were used for and what it said about our family. They loved this activity.
We then moved on to making handprints out of plaster of paris to remind ourselves what our hands looked like in 2008. Another great way to understand history in a hands on way. LOL!
The kids also loved doing cave painting. They really worked at it until they were pleased with the outcome.
The top one is done by my Tom Sawyer (6). The kids enjoy coloring the coloring pages that come with the SOTW workbook while I read to them and are also having fun with the mapwork. We are starting a time line so they can watch history go by. (more on that in another post). Reading and math are getting off the ground too and I hope to have circle time going by next week. The big teen is off to a good start with his studies. However, the nature center that he interns at has asked him back for an additional week as a camp counselor so I guess we will have to school light for another week. BLessings, Dawn |
Posted in meme
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I was tagged by proverbsmomof3 for this fun tag. So here we go. Two names I go by 1. Dawn 2. Mom Two things I am wearing right now 1. My yellow Ronald McDonald House shirt 2. My tan capris Two of my favorite things today: 1.That my house is much more "put together" than usual. 2.Waking up next to my dh and my sneaky dd who crawled in bed with us sometime during the night. Two things I want at this moment: 1. That we will have a peaceful last school day to the week. 2. That we will get our families exercise program underway. Two favorite pets I have had 1. Britches~A wonderful Golden Retriever who passed away a few years ago. 2. Lady~ our current dog who is a beagle/lab mix and always up for fun. Two people I hope fill this out 1. anyone 2. anyone let me know if you did it. Two things I did last night 1. Read Christy by Catherine Marshal out loud to my teenager. We are enjoying trying to use southern mountain voices with this story that took place only 150 miles or so from our home. 2. Talked to my teenager about his career goals. Two things I ate last night 1. a chicken noodle dish 2. Salad Two people I talked last 1. My son Tom Sawyer 2. My dd Goldilocks Two things I am doing tomorrow 1. Weeding the garden 2. Taking a long family walk Two farthest trips I have taken in the last 5 years 1. Montegomery, AL 2. Washington D.C. Two favorite holidays 1. Christmas 2. Easter Two favorite beverages 1. homemade Lemonade 2. water with lots of ice cubes Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in Homeschooling
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IF you want to read plans for my big teen scroll down to the post below. THis post is the plans for my 3 little ones. We start school officially on Monday! Double aack!! My baby is a kindergartener this year! So according to the government my littles are in 2nd, 1st, and K this year. However, as all of us who homeschool know that doesn't mean that the grade level is the same as the kids level. In our case the 2nd grader is on PreK/K level depending on the topic, the brand new 1st grader is a very solid middle to late year 1st grader and the Kindergartener is a Kindergartener. I will be teaching them seperately in the 3 R's and keeping them together for history, literature, Spanish, art, circle time and FIAR activities. I really wanted to use Winter Promise this year but decided that it was cost prohibitive. I already had alot of great stuff and just needed to add a history program. We decided to go with THe Story of the World starting with Vol. I. I am so excited about this program. THe activity book that you can buy with the book is just great. I look forward to making the history very hands on for my kiddos.
For the 3 R's I will be using Teach your child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons for the kindergartener, Museum Phonics for the 1st grader, and many many games, explode the code, etc for the 2nd grader with "100 easy lessons" being the backbone. With her brain damage issues she needs heavy repition but in a very novel way. Everything must be kept fresh, new and exciting. For math we will continue with Miquon math which they are all enjoying. I hope to add im more living math books this year as well.
For Literature we will continue with FIAR. I have about 12 books lined up already. They are all organized in there large zip lock bags complete with lapbooking material, instructions, shopping lists, worksheets and anything else that relates to the book. I plan on taking a break from our History program every few weeks and doing some FIAR books. In this way we can go back and forth and not overwhelm mommy!
(This is what my FIAR packs look like) I also bought some big workbooks for those days that are just to crazy for anything else. We do indeed have those days with our many, many doctor/therapy appointments. My kids enjoy workbooks alot as long as they are not an everyday thing. I find workbooks good for review and renforcement.
I plan on breaking up the day with morning circle time and the 3 R's. After lunch will be fun school~ special activity, FIAR, Story of the World or other events. The big teen will work near/with me in the morning after the kids are done with the 3 R's and late afternoon/evenings. Later next week I will post a part III which will be about our outside activities, special plans, and special things that help my special kids cope better. Blessings, Dawn |
We will be covering Spanish (word of the day), Calendar skills, Character training, sensory activity and family prayer in circle time each morning. Art/music/Science will be covered when they come up in the Story of the World and FIAR books. Also, those of you who follow this blog know that my Tom Sawyer won't let a day go by without art or science happening! Posted in Homeschooling
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I know it is only July but we have plans to take most of October off for several special events, so it is time for us to buckle back down to the books. We will officially start school on Monday! This entry will be about my big teens coursework and part II will be about the little ones education. Aack!! My big teen is entering his Senior year~12th grade could it really be?!?!? This year he will be doing coursework in~ U.S. Government, World Literature, World Religions, Algebra I, Career Prep (work skills), Community Service, and Chemistry/Physics (survey course one semester each). Yes, my head is spinning about helping him get through all of this material but I have faith that I have picked good books and that will make all the difference. For Algebra we will be using teaching textbooks. I have heard so many great things about these textbooks, I hope they will not disapoint.
For U.S. Government we are using Exploring Government by Notgrass. I love the layout of this book and my big teen has already been reading this text. He He He!!!
For Chemisty and Physics I will be using Real science 4 kids. Now this is an elementary text but my son's learning differences are so severe that this will be appropriate for him. I will be teaching this course heavy in lab experiements many from additional books. He will also be reading some famous scientest biographies and watching some dvd's. I still have to make a big order from a science catalog, so we will not get around to this course for a few weeks.
For Career Prep he will be counting his internship at the Nature Center and several dvd's on interviewing skills, work ethics, etc. He will also be working on his resume. (many hours are already logged in this course). For Community service many hours are already logged. He does alot of community service with our church, extra service with the nature center, family activities and work with the food bank. He will do about 100 hours per course. Blessings, Dawn |
World Literature will be covered by reading a variety of stories, poetry and essays from two 
World Religions will be covered in part by me and in part by the retired college professor who taught his homeschool world history class last year. I plan on having him listen to the Bible on CD once more, reading Quiet Rebels (a story of Quakerism in America which is our family heritage and how I was raised), and a large selection of dvd's from Blockbusters online that explore several faiths that I really don't know much about. He also would like to visit a few different faiths to see them in action on Sundays. His teacher will be giving a historical explanation of how all of the world religions formed and explore why they are so often at war. We feel that it is important that our son understand different faiths so he can stand on solid ground in defense of his own. We also feel that understanding those that are different then you helps break down walls of fear and create tolerance.
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This weeks assingment at unplug your kids is SKY. We have been enjoying our new book Little Cloud By Eric Carle, so I built my theme around that. I also found some Klutz Eric Carle collage paper while organizing my homeschooling materials. I decided to have the children explore collage while doing a sky theme. First we read our book and discussed all the things that clouds can look like. Then we talked about all the things you can see in the sky during the day and night. I then pulled out our collage materials and let the creative bug take over.
Most of the kids and I really enjoyed this project. They made rain clouds over flowers, a sunrise, a firworks display and a bunny hiding from the sun.
Blessings, Dawn |
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We have been home for about two weeks and I am just now getting around to posting about our trip to Northern V.A. and D.C. The point of this trip was to see my dad and stepmother and get some sight seeing in. My dh was not able to make this trip but blessedly my mother was able to come. Having her along made the trip much easier. We were also blessed that my dad paid for the gas and my parents next door neighbor moved out of her house and into my dad's house so that we could have her home for our stay. How very kind that was and made our trip much easier. It takes alot of planning to travel with 4 kids, especially when 3 have special needs. Even with all the planning the travel part of the trip was pretty rough this time. Day 1~The first day of our stay we went to the Natural History Museum. I grew up in the area and new all about the museum so I had gotten the kids excited about seeing certain exhibits. Unfortunately, the giant whale was in storage so my dd who loves anything ocean missed out on that. Anyhoo, Day one at the Natural Hustory musuem was the hardest day by far. I forgot how overwhelming that museum is (loud and crowded) and the kids were very overwhelmed. They are used to small hands on musuems and with their special issues just could not get alot out of it. I am surprised how much they have mentioned about it after the fact. I think the first picture says it all.
The day was saved by eating popsicles from an ice cream truck and sitting at the statue garden fountain for a nice cool off.
Day 2~ We went back downtown to my parents work. They work at the National Gallery of Art. This day was special for my boys who both really like art. My stepmother took us behind the scenes and we were able to see a Leonardo Da Vinci up close and personal. We also got to see my dad's Photography lab and how the Matting machine Roberta works. "She" messed up some of the mats for the day and they were given to Tom Sawyer so he could do art with them. They look flawless to us... I grew up in that museum and it brought back pleasant memories as always. We also had lunch at the gallery, shopped in the gallery kid's gift shop (the kids playing ring around the rosey in front of a wall fountain.)
Day3~ Found us at a VA water park. Oh Boy was this fun!! There was a lazy river, lots of slides for all ages, obstacle courses and lots of shallow water to play in. The kids had a blast and the adults could have stayed on the lazy river forever. Day 4~ MY 36th BIRTHDAY! We were able to see lots of extended family on this day. It was nice to catch up and for the kids to play with their cousins. The day was finished off with a Baskin Robin's ice cream cake and driveway fireworks! We all fell into bed very late! Day 5 Time to head home. I just had to take a few pics of my parent's neighborhood before heading out. You know how they say, "You can't go home".... Wow! Everytime we go up there it is different. In recent years folks have been buying up the older homes in my parent's neighborhood and building "McMansions". They just look absolutely ridiculous next to the modest homes!!! They tend to have ok front yards but the houses have 15 feet wide side yards and 15 feet backyards. Here is a glance at what they are doing.
Many of these homes are now forclosures and are vacant monstrosities (sp?). In Northern VA people aren't just keeping up with the Joness' they are trying to out do them all the time and it doesn't often pay off. Everytime my dh and I go up there we are so relieved we picked a slower paced life that concentrates on our children instead of our belongings. Blessings, Dawn |
As you can see, I am like "take the picture !", Goldilocks has her tongue out of her mouth and her shirt is wet from her chewing on it (common for FAS/PDD kids), Little Red Ridinghood is making a break for it and the boys had already escaped.
and saw a few great exhibits.
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Well, we have lots of mulch now! My dh wanted to mulch the playground, swing set and front gardens properly for once so he did the math and ordered a truckful. Oh my! My dh's math is not so good. He claims that he only has a public school education but I think he was sleeping through class. I did go to college with him after all.
He only needs about a 1/4 of what we have left for the playground and then we are going to be inviting the neighbors over. In the meantime my children have transformed it into a hill to storm, a fort, and the latest entertainment~ the dare devil jumping pile.
Here is the picture you all have been waiting for. Yes, I got permission from my dh before posting this~
Blessings, Dawn |
This is what is left....
My dh just had to jump too!|
This weeks project with unplug your kids is gardening. I thought we would skip this one because my garden is very filled with weeds.
My best picker~The big teen! This is about half of what came off our one tree!!!
Since not all of the peaches were ripe enough for freezing I put the girls to work bagging them to speed the process along.
Then we all sat down to a fresh 100% organic peach crisp!
I hope to start freezing the ones that are ready today... It feels so good to be able to put up some peaches for winter. Blessings, Dawn |
Then my ds pointed out how perfect the peaches looked on our peach tree and wanted to try one. They were not completely done but very good. I looked at the calendar and realized that they would be perfect on the tree right about the time I would be in the mist of a new round of tomatis for my Sensory Integration disorder children (This is a daily activity that requires travel and takes about 4 hours daily for 10 days). In other words, I would have no time to deal with a million peaches. They were ready according to picking instructions for peaches that are being shipped so I set the kids to picking.
Posted in Homeschooling
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What a fun little unit we are up too! We bought the picture book Flat Stanley and have been enjoying learning about his adventures. We look forward to buying some of the chapter books about Flat Stanley as well! THis little fellow wakes up one morning crushed flat under a bulletion board. From that day forward he is flat which affords him many adventures including catching bad guys while hiding in a painting and being mailed all over the world. We decided to make our own Flat Stanley and send him to Italy with my parents!!!! They will be posing him in famous places along the way and taking his photo to send back to us. Talk about a cool way to learn geography! I offered to go along with Flat Stanley as his nanny but I don't fit in a suitcase... We plan on doing Italy for our homeschool support group International night next fall. It will be extra special with the loot that the grandparents bring back and all of the fun pictures of Flat Stanley. My kids are extra excited becuase my parents get to spend a day in Venice. Venice is the location of one of the kids favorite books Papa Piccolo. I also found a Kids Discover magazine on Venice just waiting for this unit in my magazine drawer! So cool... Also, Tom Sawyer (6) and Goldilocks (7) are of Northern Italy decent according to their Foster/adoption paperwork so it is nice to be studying Italy. Here is the picture of our Flat Stanley~He is dressed as a Gondalier...
Blessings, Dawn |
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The project for today at unplugyourkids is plastic. I must say, I really did have some trouble thinking up what to do this week. Early on I thought the kids could weave a rug out of plastic bags but the project seemed a bit daunting as the week went on. THen all of a sudden my ds started complaining that we had no rope. He had no rope to jump with, play tug of war with or tie his older brother up! Well, we couldn't have that!
mybrainding buddy was trying to take a nap on the job.
The finished product
Let the play begin! I had to come back on and post two more plastic activities. A few weeks ago we made these.
They are simply glitter,beads, colored water and oil. They make fun shakers or just watching the oil floating around in the water. We also just had to try the shrinky dinks. I never did this as a child and happened to have a few number 6 plastic containers to cut up. How much fun!!! I can't wait to try that again.
BLessings, Dawn |
Posted in Homeschooling
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This week I wanted to work on writing and I thought a good way to do that would be to have the kids do a penpal program. We decided to do makingfriends.com because it is a one time deal (meaning you only exchange letters once) and it involved creating your own paper dolls. The kids had lots of fun making the dolls and just as I thought were already a bit rusty in writing. Goldilocks had forgotten about spacing and Little Red Ridinghood had some letter reversals going on. I will have to find some more ways to keep them writing during our summer break. Anyway, they will be getting mail back in a few weeks so that should be fun. I have decided for the littles that I am going to keep summer break going until mid July instead of starting July 1st. I will still be starting the big teen at the begining of July with half time school work. He didn't get creative writing and Art II done last year so we will be trying to finish those courses up and then moving on with 12th grade. We are 4 weeks into his break and he is starting to get restless anyway. I caught him reading some of his government textbook for next year the other day.
Ready to mail out their letters. Blessings, Dawn |
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The theme of unplug your kids this week is Sticky! My kids are very good at sticky so I thought we would join in this week. To see more sticky activities go to the blog above. They got very sticky while helping me bake bread.
When we were done with the bread we made granola with lots of honey! Yummy and sticky.
We then moved on to a sticky building material (laundry detergent, food coloring, and water). This was 4 parts laundry detergent and 1 part water. The kids had lots of fun playing with this new medium.
When they were done, my youngest decided to wash herself off in the soap suds. Her dress was so soapy I didn't even have to put any laundry detergent in the whole load. LOL!
This was fun and I look forward to doing another unplugged kids theme someday soon. Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in Family Funnies and happenings
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Well, we all survived my little girl's first dance recital. She was very nervous and I had to become a stage mom to make her comfortable enough to go on and perform. However, she did perform and did a great job and stage moms do have the best seats in the wings. They perfomed from the book of The Acts in the Bible.
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Luckily, we had girls and only three boys in the recital. I still maintain that boys are easier to raise but girls are quieter!!!! I also learned that I will never volunteer for the dressing room~what a mad house. Bless those dear mothers~they did a great job. Thanks to my dear mom for wrangling my ornary son during the rehearsal and recital. Anyhoo, it was all worth it because she had fun. Well, enough rambling~on with the pictures...Posted in Homeschooling
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So this week we studied the book the Hungry Planet. The book basically goes to many different countries and picks a family and shows how they eat, where their food comes from and how they make the food. The kids favorite picture is the one where the whole family stands with their food for the week. The little ones had a great time trying to figure out which country looked most like our week of food. We took a picture of our weeks worth of food and then had the kids study it compared to the book. The kids could not agree on which was closest to our diet. Tom Sawyer thought we looked most like Italy which was close but I think he was just in love with the pasta. He loves pasta... Little Red Ridinghood and Goldilocks went back and forth between Poland (problem~lots of candy bars) and Bosina (problem~too many potatoes and not as much fresh fruit). They finally decided on Poland because of the concentration of yogurt and lots of carrots with very little meat. The big teen leaned towards the healthy eating family in Australia. They all agreed that we didn't eat like any of the American families in the book. They also thought trying the weeks worth of food from Mexico looked yummy (heavy on coke and chips) and were completely grossed out by Mali and Chad's diet (they are used to meat in a package not freshly slautered). LOL! Here is our weeks worth of food~ This is our weeks worth of food. The contents are as follows; Yeast, 2 lbs peanuts, popcorn, two cans tomato sauce, 1 lb hamburger, two packages lunch meat, 1 lb. bacon, 1 package hot dogs, 14 apples, 20 eggs, two frozen pie crusts, ketchup, 3 lbs. of cheese, two packs of cresents, 1 lb noodles, 1 lb of spagetti, 3 cups sugar, 12 tea bags, about 5 cups of conola oil, 1 gallon milk, 15 cups of oatmeal, two cans of chili beans, 3 cans tuna, honey, peanut butter, 64 oz. organic yogurt, 5 lbs of flour, 2 lb of spagetti sauce, 1/2 gallon of cookies and cream organic ice cream, 3 lbs of vegetable meledy, a large bag of salad, two large containers of strawberries, blueberries, 4 cups of raisins, two 96 oz containers of apple juice, 32 oz of salsa, bag of corn chips, two sticks of butter, and 18 bananas. (Mayo and ranch dressing not shown) I don't think we have cheated from this list of food yet accept chocolate ice cream with sprinkles for my dd tooth falling out. We will probably not use the fixings for chili and do something else since it is already in the high 80's here. As you can see there is a lack of any bread. I made my own bread, rolls, cup cakes and muffins this week. We also do not like oatmeal until it is turned into granola, so we made that as well. My kids would eat fruit all day if I let them so I spend a good portion of our grocery money on that. We are also trying to only eat organic free range meat so we only have meat a few times a week and in small portions (1 lb of meat for all 6 of us). Meat is used more like a flavor here. Also the bag of peanuts were donated by a friend and we ended up making peanut butter out of them which got mixed reviews. This turned out to be a really fun study and I think the kids did digest some of the goals I had wanted them too. For one, they got to see how little food some people get to eat and how lucky they are to have so much food to eat. Remember when you were a kid sitting over that dish crying about not wanting to eat it and your mom said, "somewhere in Africa some child would love to eat that?" Well, I have the book to prove it and I hope my kiddos remember that for awhile. They also got to see lots of different cultures which is always a good thing. Next week~ pen pals! Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in Family Funnies and happenings
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We finished off our week on manners with an end of the year tea party. Little Red Ridinghood (4) invited her friends from Ballet class and about half of them showed up. The girls had a great time. The boys went off with Daddy to play miniature gulf and go-karts instead of hanging out and being proper little gentlemen. After tea, we made beaded bracelets with beads and pipe cleaners. That was a great easy activity. The girls also made bath salts complete with rose petals to take home. Yeah! My first all girl party went very nice! I was really nervous since I am not used to doing the girly thing. All of our past parties were unisex~ heavy on the boy themes.
Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in Family Funnies and happenings
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We did find some time for fun while we were at Duke Univeristy Hospital. We had to wait an extra day to wait for the big teens pacemaker Houlter monitor to be done. So we took the time to visit two museums and the Homeschool store in Raleigh. We went to the Life and Science museum and had a blast in their renovated outdoor area. The kids really enjoyed the Butterfly house. The big teen found an injured one and let all the kids hold him.
The kids also loved the new water area. They had a play water table for little ones to build boats and then sail them. For the bigger kids they had remote control sail boats to sail around. They could have spent hours in this section alone.
Tom Sawyer building with Grandma Sue who came along to help at the appointments. My favorite part of the week was the Homeschool Gathering Place. This is a used and new bookstore that has lots of supplies. I was able to get our Government program (big teen), Teaching textbooks Algebra I (big teen), and THe story of the word (the little ones world history) book I and workbook I. Yeah! I have everything for next year except chemistry supplies for the big teen. Blessings, Dawn |
We also went to the 
Posted in Family Funnies and happenings
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As you can tell from the title, this will be a bit of a ramble. We are back from Duke University Hospital. It sure is nice to be home even though the house is a bit of a wreck now. The big teens cardiac appointment did not go as well as usual. We knew going in that something was not quite right. The big teen has been having the feeling that his pacemaker was shocking him and strange feelings in his chest for a few months. The doctor did several tests via the phone with a pacemaker transmission machine and sent us to the local cardiologist (who is not all that awesome) but could see nothing dangerous or obviously wrong. Well at the appointment he saw a variety of things that are not quite right. Blessedly, he was able to fix the majority of the shocking feeling since that was a glitch in the pacemaker lead so the big teen will be more comfortable now. However, he saw a few other things that worried him and it is going to take some time to figure out what it is. Worst case scenario he did not explain to us because he thinks that is very unlikely. The other possible issues should show themselves now that the pacemaker has been adjusted. Hopefully we will have some answers in the coming weeks. There is no doubt that he will have to return to Duke in 6 months if not sooner. Even though things are unsure right now I really do feel at peace. The journey that we have been on for 18 years with my son has been filled with alarming obstacles and each time God has moved them out of the way. I feel secure that no matter what Timothy will get the best care and all shall be well. My son has been living on borrowed time since he was a newborn and we are so blessed for each precious day with him. On a brighter topic~ I wanted to sing the praises for Ronald McDonald house (RMH) again. What a wonderful place this is for families far from their home trying to take care of their sick children. If you have never been to RMH it is basically a house with many family bedrooms. There is a central kitchen, living room, playroom, dining room, and teen room for everyone to share. Most people have to share bathrooms but those who are there for long stays (months) often get a room with a bathroom. The staff are always so kind and helpful. They are all about the families and the childrens' comfort. They provide dinner each night and the cost is only $10 a night. This price has not changed in the ten years we have stayed there. Our children were given two handmade quilts that are just adorable on this particular visit. I believe this was our 15th or 16th stay at RMH and as always it was a wonderful experience. Here are a few pics from RMH DURHAM.
The big teen playing video games in the teen room.
Little Red Ridinghood had a blast in the playroom.
Me playing guard outside our bedroom door. Once the beds were all folded out there was no room for me to sit inside the room until everyone was asleep. LOL! Ok! If you hung in this long and are the 1000th comment then you are the lucky winner of a "Friends of the RMH" bracelet! I will contact you so I can get your address and send it to you. Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in Homeschooling
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I had a talk with the kids about what they wanted to do on their "school break", and after we weeded out the "not going to happen list" we have come up with some good ideas. I have the next three weeks mostly figured out and thought I would share what is bouncing around in my head with you. This coming week is "child led" or mommy is not going to help you become a rocket scientist or any other such thing. I am going to clean the house and put away the books we are done with for now for the first half of the week. The second half of the week we are off to Duke for the big teens annual pacemaker check up. Hopefully, all will go well and we will be back next weekend. We hope to have time to go to a museum or two and the big used homeschool store in Raliegh while we are there. The kids are totally excited about staying at Ronald McDonald House again. Week 2~ We will be studying manners. I have to finish gathering the stuff I already have and printing games off of the internet. At the end of the week we will be having a formal tea party complete with real (mismatched) china. Little Red Ridinghood will be inviting all of her friends from ballet to the party to celebrate the end of the ballet year. I have no idea how she is going to survive the summer with out weekly ballet classes. Week 3~ I am really excited about this week. We will be studying the Hungry Planet book. It looks great and talks about what kind of food/how much food people eat around the world. After we have looked over the book, the kids are going to try and figure out which countries' picture looks most like our diet. Hint~in my opinion it is not America. THen we are going to buy all the food we eat in a week and take a photo of it to compare to the book. I wonder who will guess the closest? I am also considering an international night meal with some "out there" dishes but we will have to see. THe point of this break is keeping me sane by not overloading myself. LOL! Week 4~ We will be trying out the making friends program. A friend of mine told me about this and it looks like a neat way to get mail and find out about other kids in America. She says it is more of a one time penpal situation which I think is easier for little ones. I had a penpal for years and it is hard to keep up with the letters sometimes. Week 5~ We will read Flat Stanley and prepare our own Flat Stanley doll to travel to Italy with the kids grandparents. I also want to look into the Flat Stanley club on the internet and the geocache boxes that trade Flat Stanley's. I am hoping that this will prove to be very fun and exciting way to explore geography for the littles and we can continue it through out the coming school year. I am not sure what we will do for week 6 yet. I also plan on signing up Tom Sawyer for the library and Barnes and Noble reading program to earn books. You can do the program for kids who can't read, but my opinion is that kids will be more motivated to learn how to read if you aren't just handing them books for listening to you. Having your parents read to you is award enough. As I stated before, I am also hoping to get more children swimming. Only the big teen can swim currently. Well, I am glad I got my thoughts to paper urr internet. Blessings, Dawn |
