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The room is done! There is even some furniture moved in already. It came out great, a little bit smaller than we had hoped for, but GREAT none the less... The whole experience was great! The contractor was super GREAT! The workers were great! The project came in $600 under the proposal so we had some additional work done. Our contractor went out of his way to get us deals. He went two counties away to get us bamboo floors that were sitting in a barn~the leftovers of a business that had gone under. We got them for $1 a linear foot... They retailed for over $5 a linear foot. They are perfect!! He also looked our house over and found a few things that were in desperate need of repair and fixed them for almost no cost. Lets put it this way. Part of our home had to be jacked up because of a failing support beam. He did the job for $76~the cost of the beam and a little extra to pay for his helper. The mess was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be... So, you all want me to stop carrying on about how great it was and let you see the results for yourselves!?!?
Yeah! Well, this is all you are getting right now. The big reveal will be just after Christmas. This year we are giving no toys (except stocking stuffers) so that we can decorate the childrens bedrooms. I show you all the rooms once we have curtains and such.
In the meantime we will be painting the rest of this room. We decided to paint the floor insted of refinishing the wood becuase it is so costly if you have a professional do it. My dh has refinished two floors in our home, but it was a really grueling project and they have not held up as well as we would have expected. So for now we will paint this floor instead. We will need to do all of the trim work and no furniture can go on it for a week. That is all for now! Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in RAD FASD and Goldilocks Journey
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What an amazing day we had today! Goldilocks has been struggling to learn to read for 2 years now. Most of the time, it seemed like we were spinning our wheels and making no progress. We have switched reading programs five times and tried all kinds of different games with very little improvement. Then today happened ... Goldilocks sat down for her lesson as usual and said she wanted her reading party today. I said that she had to finish the entire Storybook Treasury of Dick and Jane (1st grade) to have her reading party. She said she was going to finish that book today and have her party. Mind you, she had only previously read the first page of the 193 page book when she sat down with me this morning!!! Over the next 2 1/2 hours she read the entire book!!!! All 193 pages!!! I would have never believed it was possible!!! This is the child who can take 40 minutes to write 3 sentences in her copywork book and has spent the better part of the year screaming, hiding and crying about reading 3 pages in a Bob Book. I switched her to Dick and Jane about a week ago. She seemed to like it more than other programs. Then I decided to start giving her hard boiled eggs and Kiwi each day (brain food) which is supposed to help with ADHD symptoms and improve a person's IQ. I can't say what happened differently today but AMEN!
This picture was taken when Goldilocks was on the last few pages. Kids were piled up everywhere to see her make it to being a READER!
Reading the last page!
Goldilocks with her book and certificate ....
Goldilocks had a confetti cake with strawberry frosting and a black sugar bunny in the corner! Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in Reflections and Blessings
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When I sit down and think in the quiet hours of the evening about what I want for my children, one of the things that always comes up is charity. I want my children to have charitable hearts for those less fortunate. I want them to be an active force in their communities when they are grown and to think of others and what they can do to serve them. The best way to train our children in this is to have them serve in their community now and see us serve in our community as well. Our children are so blessed. They have so much while others go without. In light of our children all getting separate rooms in a few weeks, it weighs on my mind all the more how important it is that they know how privileged they are and learn early to care for others. So, I want to reaffirm how we teach our children to be charitable. In the past, we have done charity here and there and then heavily at Christmas time. There seems to be so many opportunities at Christmas time that it is very easy. However, how are we as parents showing our children that charity is one of our core values, if it is not at the forefront of our teachings? To me, when I turn them out into the world in just a few short years, my children's character is more important than their academic abilities. So we are going to put charity at the forefront of our teachings in the next year. Whether it be at home (with sibs) or out and about, it will be one of our driving themes. To get this new idea started, we are going to pick a charity to focus on each month. For the month of November, we will be raising money for polar bears. This was easy to decide upon because we are studying the Arctic this month. The kids are very interested in polar bears and were sad to see how hard their lives have become due to the change in climate. (We watched the Disney movie, Earth, for our Sunday night movie night yesterday.) I was able to find a charity where we could make a tiny impact for $25. To make this come to life for the kids (instead of Mom writing a check), we are going to earn the money by cutting back in different ways at home.
Well, that will be a good start. The kids are excited (except Tom Sawyer about eating only rice for dinner -- ne never forgets to thank God for food during his evening prayers LOL). If you all have any great ideas of charities, leave them for me in comments. Just as we did last year, we will be doing a charity each week from Thanksgiving through the New year. I still am plotting those charities out. Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in Homeschooling
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Wow! This week has flown by. With all of the distractions the house is presenting right now, plus a flood in the basement and dear Goldilocks having a major meltdown and needing to leave home for a two day respite with her one-on-one therapeutic worker, the week had its downs. Still, we got loads of living and learning done. So, here is some glimpses of our week, in no particular order.
Apple pie making and tasting...
A dreamed for and saved for first violin. Little Red Ridinghood saved up her allowance and bought it herself. This is the Strike a Chord violin, and it is much nicer than I expected. It plays 18 classical songs that the child can listen to and then play by rubbing the bow across the violin. It plays the song at the speed of the childs bowing. It also can be turned off for the child to just play the scales. Very cool! (Notice the paint in little ones hair)...
Writing on the wall, literally. This counts for handwriting and spelling, right?
A nature walk to see the latest flood. This park is less than a mile from our home. Our city is in the process of doing a wonderful job of turning much of the flood zone into wetland parks. There is a little bit of everything for everybody ~ playgrounds, picnic areas, hockey and volleyball courts, walking trails, dog park, nature trails, decks over the river to fish from and much more in the works. When the river leaves her banks, the park fills with water and there is minimal loss and damages.
Goldilocks returned home much happier and calmer ~ ready to be a family member once again.
Lunch out and play date with some friends ... and tea time, painting walls, chores, reading lessons, painting walls, furniture moving, movie watching and painting walls. Just a few more hours of painting and I should be in the clear. At least with painting the walls that is ~ lots of furniture to still refinish and paint for Little Red Ridinghood's Christmas gift . Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in FIAR
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Our Five in a Row group studied Madeline this month. To go along with our study, I decided to coordinate a field trip to our local kids' science museum. They have an exhibit right now called Grossology~The Impolite Science of the Human Body. I wasn't sure what to expect. It was a little boy's dream come true and my girls loved it, too.
Did you ever want to know the science behind a sneeze? Well, this exhibit not only explained the process but then the giant nose you stand inside of sneezes on you!!!
This lovely fellow explained all about allergies, sniffles, colds and anything else that can cause you to have a runny nose. Yes, his nose ran frequently! See what I mean about a little boy's dream....
The kids spent lots of time at the life-size Operation game. Remember that game? What a concrete way to learn where all the body parts go. It didn't hurt their eye-hand coordination either.
The girls could have stayed in the digestive system playground all day. Yes, they crawled through the whole digestive system. The joke of where they came out of the digestive tract was not lost on them either. Yucky!!
The skin climbing wall was loads of fun too. While they climbed along, they were supposed to guess if they were climbing over a pimple or mole or hair follicle. I did not take pictures of all the things to smell. Really gross things to smell. Aren't you glad this is not a scratch and sniff blog? LOL! Somehow I missed pictures of the statue that you crank up and make burp or the tooting machine. We will have to go back when it is less crowded. The exhibit just overwhelmed us and lots of the school groups were there, so we finally had to leave. All in all, it was a really cool and gross exhibit. Hey, IT"S GROSSOLOGY! Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in Homeschooling
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We are at the point in construction where it is time for us to start contributing to the process (more than just financially) to keep costs down. I have three rooms to paint, numerous doors to paint, furniture to move, 5 or so pieces of furniture to refinish, shades/curtains to buy and hang, closets to build, oh and so much more! Then there is Thanksgivng and, dare I say, CHRISTMAS on the horizon! This is my favorite season, and I want to savor it somehow in the mist of all of this change. I want my children to remember Christmas season 2009 as a great year, not the year mom went crazy. LOL! So to create balance, this is officially our last day of highly structured and planned school for this season in our lives. We will still school, but in a lighter, less structured way. The plan is to do reading, math, and tea time each day and have two goals for the week. Notice ~ I can't help but have to have a plan. I really lack the unschooling bone, even though I wish I had it .... The rest of the time, the kids will be learning skills in painting, weeding out toys, cleaning, playing peacefully and independently (still a challenge around here for some), and continuing to practice flexibility. On top of the basics mentioned earlier, the two goals for next week are to make an Arctic mural and do another outdoor challenge. We will be studying the arctic and arctic life for the month of November.
I leave you with this picture of the kiddos! Our outdoor challenge last week was to find squirrels and study them. We could not find a single squirrel, but we did have fun climbing trees. Blessings, Dawn |
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We keep moving on in construction. Since I last posted pictures, insulation and drywall have gone up. Also, the siding men have started putting new siding around the upper part of the house. We decided to do the whole upper part ot the house since the old aluminum siding was really, really old and had become a yucky faded color. I think it was called by one of the men, yellow-limey algae slime. LOL!!
The really big news is that Tom Sawyer gets the new room!!! He is so excited. Timothy was given first choice because he is the oldest, but decided it felt too small to him. It is probably the smallest room (or at least feels like it with the attic like design). Because we live in a Dutch Colonial and this room is on the second floor, the Dutch Colonial roof was extended and thus the garrett walls. Tim will move to what is currently our room, and we will move back to the master (which has been Tom Sawyer's and Little Red Ridinghood's). Little Red Ridinghood will move to Timothy's current room and Goldilocks will stay put in her current room. Are you confused yet?!?! BOY, do we have a lot of painting to do in the next few weeks.
The sanding part of the drywall starts sometime this week. Everyone says this is the really bad part of construction because of the dust. We will have to be very careful with our asthmatic children.
The new color of our siding is called bananas (kinda like us, ya know). The contractor was a little concerned that it might be too yellow. We love it, though. With our 1931 home, we wanted the historic yellow that you find on homes in our area and this one matches up great. I will have to try to get a picture of it in the sun. In other news....We are trying to make this rotation of 4 bedrooms less insane by doing a little bit each week. We are getting far enough along to start moving things around. Since we (the parents) are going back to the master, we decided to start working on the walk-in closet. When we started this weekend, it was a clean slate with only a two wooden shelves up high. The teddy bear border around the ceiling was from when the closet was Little Red Ridinghood's nursery. (I've kept the border for sentimental reasons.) It was really important to us to redo this closet for less than $100 but have it look nice and be functional.
Along the far wall we put in a pressure pole that was laying around in someone's closet not being used. The pole will hold clothes that the children have grown out of and are waiting to go to consignment sales. It also holds long-term storage clothes (like my wedding dress), which is tucked back in the corner out of sight. The top self holds photo albums and the kids' baby boxes and books. You can also see that we have loads of winter coats and snow pants. Yes, I know we live in North Carolina. But, my Northern roots get in the way sometimes, and I am just sure it could snow for real anytime now.
Underneath the consignment pole is all of the kids clothes that do not fit them yet and unmarked boxes holding future gifts.
Towards the front of the closet are our clothes and shoes. Also, we have a box of Christmas books and wrapping paper. Total cost for the closet redo ~ $6 for the shoe rack with coupon $40 for the storage boxes $12 for the rack and hardware Total~$58 Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in Friday show and tell
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Welcome to another Show and Tell with Mary. Timothy is really enjoying his continuing education classes at our local community college. This session he took "woodworking" and "knowing your digital camera". In his woodworking class, he made a wooden shoe all with hand tools.
This is the front view. I love all the detail he put into it. The little lines used as trim were burned into the wood.
Here is the side view. I love the detail of the tongue in the shoe. Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in Outdoor Challenge
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We are having lots of fun with Barb's Outdoor Challenge. We have enjoyed several nature walks around the neighborhood collecting leaves and observing the change in season. We found an Oak tree as our tree to follow for a year and watch all the changes it goes through. ![]() While taking our nature walks, we found this book to be particularly good for early readers. It is very hands on and easy to use to identify common trees. ![]() Here are some interesting shots that our children took of the neighborhood foliage. ![]() The kids thought this bark looked like a face! ![]() Tom Sawyer misplaced the adult tree identification book, so we cannot identify these strange pods. Hopefully, we will identify them soon. In the meantime, anybody out there know what this is ? ![]() Tom Sawyer insisted on stopping every few feet and drawing anything that was NOT a tree. Here he is drawing a picture of a stick. He is our budding artist, after all. The kids have been complaining that we have not decorated for fall. So, we took the leaves back to our house and did crafts with them. We did the traditional crayon rubbings and pressing leaves between wax paper. ![]() While we were at it, we made a table centerpiece with fabric leaves, pumpkins, and apples. ![]() And decorated our own home grown pumpkin that weighed in at 68 pounds !! ![]() Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in Friday show and tell
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It is time for another Show and Tell with Canadagirl. It is almost time for the Operation Christmas Child shoebox program... My kids love this every year and look forward to it. This is a really fun hands-on charity for kids. We start collecting things in the middle of the summer. This year we made our boxes early, because I knew we had several hospital trips and doctor appointments in the next few weeks that could cause illness in our family. We wanted to make sure that the boxes were ready in case we are faced with the flu or something else. This year is really neat because Operation Christmas Child has some new features. They have fun "about me" sheets that you can fill out and put in your box. The kids really hope that they will get a letter back this year from someone. Also, if you pay online for the shipping of your box with EZ Pay, then you will get a tracking number and see where in the world your box ends up. Very cool! As always, you can still watch the boxes being delivered (but not your particular box). We plan on doing this via the Internet on Christmas Day with the kids. It is good for them to see first hand how VERY, VERY blessed they are as children here in America.![]() They made five boxes this year, and we look forward to November 16-23 for mailing them. Another blog I really enjoy about a homeschool family of 14 who are missionaries in Mexico is doing a shoe box mission of their own this year. If we have time, we may join in their box project as well. Go visit the Lockwood's if you want to see more boxes. For those of you who know that we are at Ronald McDonald House right now, Timothy is doing well and we will be going home tomorrow. They figured out the problem that we have been worrying about with his heart and it has now been resolved. His pacemaker is still working well, too. Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in Field Trips
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Bbullard, you guessed right! We did indeed go to Myrtle Beach! We were rained out most of the days, but had a very nice time anyway. My father-in-law gave us a wonderful gift of a condo for the week. We so appreciate that gift. We were also blessed that my mother could join us. We were blessed with one complete day in the sun and a few stolen hours on the other days.
Tom Sawyer using the sea scope to look for little critters.
Dh and I enjoying a walk on the beach.
Lots of love notes in the sand.
A rascal who was told NOT to get wet being called out!
The girls spent most of their beach time digging moats and castles. On the days that there was too much rain to play in the sand, we enjoyed the game room and indoor pools at the resort. Daddy taught everyone how to play pool, and the kids loved playing Wii mini golf.
We also enjoyed going to two movies in the movie theater (a rare event for us!). We saw "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" and "Where the Wild Things Are". We also took a day trip to Wilmington, NC.
![]() Everyone's favorite event was the Ripley's Aquarium. If you have never been there before, I highly recommend it. They also give a GREAT homeschool discount. ![]() The three little ones looking at a coral reef with lots of fish! ![]() One of the most awesome things about this aquarium was a tunnel underneath the huge tank! You are surrounded on all sides by fish, sharks, and sting rays. This sawfish was laying on the roof of the tunnel right above our heads! They even have an area where you can pet stingrays, and horseshoe crabs. Some of us were brave enough for that. All in all, this was a great trip! Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in Friday show and tell
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It is time for another Show and Tell with Mary! We are just wrapping up our vacation and packing up to head home. I wonder how many of you can guess where we have been? I bet most of you can figure out what type of place we are in, but can you figure out the state or actual location? Here are my hints~ There are loads of these in the area. My dh and I can write each other love notes on public property,t and we are not breaking the law. We spent lots of time in the indoor pool, even though one would usually spend all of their time outside. The weather did not cooperate. These little critters are nearby but out of sight! Yikes...So where are we?...for a few more hours at least.... Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in Little Red Ridinghood
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Little Red Ridinghood is 6 years old! We scheduled a camping birthday party and then had to cancel it, because all of her little friends had the H1N1 flu. So we had a small family camping party on Friday. We set up the tent and played with glow in the dark sticks. The kids loved story time in the tent. We even had a teddybear cake which Little Red Ridinghood decorated herself. In keeping with our tradition~I will list 6 words for 6 years to describe my little sidekick.
![]() ![]() Blessings,Dawn |
Posted in Friday show and tell
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It is time for another Show and Tell with Mary! We are in week two of construction and so far, so good. The framing is almost done, and we should be "dried in" within the next few days. Our contractor tells us that this is the fast part when the weather is nice, and it will get slower down the road. We are hoping to be done by the first week of December. It is starting to get really noisy around here. There is loads going on inside and out. More of the house is being affected than I expected, but it still is not nearly as bad as people told me it would be. Yes, there is more dust, but the guys clean up after themselves really well. There is always the backyard to escape to when things get really loud inside.
The roof going on! Inside the house, there are pressure beams and bracing going on in Goldilock's room to give added support to the new room above.
Also her radiator is out and being replaced with a smaller radiator so that she will have more wall space. Her radiator was so large that it never could warm all the way across. We are very blessed that the radiator man is trading our huge radiator for two small radiators. The only cost to us is the labor. What a blessing that is.
One of our new to us radiators!
Yikes, somebody get me some paint! The beams will be covered back up once the inspector has looked everything over at this stage. As for the new room ~
It is coming along and we are starting to get a better vision of what it will look like. Several of you asked, "Who gets the new room?" That is a really good question. I don't know for sure. Timothy has first choice because he is the oldest. However, he is thinking that the room looks a bit claustrophobic with the attic like walls. More likely than not, the new room will go to Tom Sawyer (7) who is chomping at the bit to have it. Next week our electricity is being brought up to meet fire and city codes, and our circuit breaker is being upgraded so that we have enough electricity for the new room as well as the rest of the house. We've been tripping the circuit breaker for years. Have a blessed weekend! Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in Outdoor Challenge
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We are doing the outdoor challenges with Barb. We finally found some cattails. They are in our local bird sanctuary, so it will be easy to follow them for a year now that we've found them. The kids really wanted to touch them but they were too far away for us to reach as well as on protected ground . I will have to keep my eye out for some they can feel.
Here is a picture of my sweet boy trying to climb a tree to reach the cattails.
Here are the children and my drawings of cattails. Going clockwise~ Tom Sawyer (7), Me, Little Red Ridinghood (5), and Goldilocks (8). Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in FIAR
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I chose Owl Moon as our theme book for this month's FIAR activity group to read. We went to the WNC Nature Center with our Five In A Row special needs group to learn about owls. We had a wonderful class hosted by Timothy's boss, Keith. He did a great job of including all of the children regardless of their special needs. He even communicated with one child in sign language. I was very impressed.
We learned all about raptor birds. The kids were really engaged in the learning process and asked lots of great questions. There were lots of hands-on things to touch, including eggs, feathers and nests. The highlight was getting to meet a real live owl.
The kids learned all the body parts of owls, their habits, how they fly and how they hunt. Then they played a game based off of "rock, paper, scissors" to learn about the owl's food chain. We all started out as an acorn and went around saying, "I'm a nut" until we met another nut.
After our class, we had a picnic lunch and toured the rest of the nature center. I did not get many photos, since I was talking to other mothers. However, the otter was very entertaining and I did get a picture of her.
I am glad that our special needs group is starting to take off. It is wonderful to have a "safe" place filled with understanding within the homeschool world for our special needs kids. Even in the homeschool world, it has often been a challenge to "fit in" with the normal homeschool groups because of academic requirements or behavior requirements. This group is working out well and hopefully will provide a well-needed service in our area. Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in Friday show and tell
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After much thought and prayer over the last year, we have decided that our current home is the "forever" home. We like our low mortgage, land, location, and living in a vintage home. There was only one major problem ~ we needed one more bedroom. We have a unique situation where each of the children needs their own room. Becuase of Goldilock's issues, it is not safe for her to share a room with Little Red Ridinghood. Her behaviors are just too unpredictable, and we want both of our dd's to find their bedrooms to be a peaceful, safe place. Goldilocks also sleeps behind an alarmed door for everyone's safety. Furthermore, our disabled 19 year old son will continue to live with us for many years to come. It is important to us that, while he needs much support and care, that he also have some independence and a space of his own. So it would not work for him to share a room with his 7 year old brother. That has left our youngest son and daughter sharing a room for a few years. All that said, we decided we had to add a room to our home. So....the adventure begins. The first indication that something was really going to happen was this showing up in our driveway.
I bet this had any neighbors that we don't know talking up a storm. (We know the neighbors well on either side of us, but can not seem to get past the waving stage with the folks across the street ~ they keep to themselves but watch us a lot.) Then changes started inside the house. Bye-bye bedroom window! This will all be drywalled over after the inspector comes out.
It will be a small railroad room (meaning you have to walk through one room to get to the other), but we are so happy the project is underway. We are also very happy with our contractor so far. I interviewed a lot of men, but one just stuck out as being really honest, caring, and willing to really look at ways to save us money and build a little bit green. He is really proving to be all that and more. He is really good about safety issues and giving the kids a safe space to watch and learn. He grew up in a family with 13 kids, so it must come naturally to him to think what the kids need! Also the men he has hired are very respectful, and I have heard no bad language out of them at all. Week one down! I can't wait to see what next week brings. Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in Homeschooling
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We are working on learning to tell time this week. We are lucky to have a large clock floor game, and the kids are having so much fun learning with it. This game can be played in several ways. One way is to throw the big dice and then move the hands to the correct positions.
Here is my 5 year old learning with the game. She was very pleased with herself. I never imagined teaching kids to tell time would be so easy and fun. Another way this game can be played is using the kids as the hands of the clock.
This is such a great way for my hands-on and very physical child to learn. She had down the concept in less than 4 turns. It will be interesting to see if it sticks in her mind. We will be exploring lots of ways to learn time this week including good old worksheets. It sure is nice having this game to get them off on and learning with a light and fun attitude. It is called Time Mat by Learning Resources. Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in special needs diet
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Well, I did the last of my shopping for this month's challenge. This has been a hard week. We have had doctor and therapy appointments every day. We have eaten out fast food twice with coupons. Anyhoo, I still count this a huge sucess. This weeks shopping ~ Sam's ~
Total~ 52.12 Ingles ~
Total 28.24 Grand total for this week $80.36 Grand total for the month~ $322.92 Reflections ~ I am very low on food and ideas. Right now I feel like getting through the next 6 days is going to be really hard. Hopefully, I will get some inspiration soon to make the next few days easy going. My savings really came from making my own cleaning supplies and laundry detergent. Also, the kids did not miss juice at all. I was surprised about that. Amazing Savings (dent and scratch store) is very helpful to me savings-wise, while the local Ingles is not. My "emergency" trip to Ingles produced very little food for almost $30. I will continue shopping this way. I will increase the amount to $100 a week so I can take advantage of sales and stock up a bit. Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in Homeschooling
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We are doing Outdoor Nature Studies with Barb-Harmony Mom this year. This week we were supposed to go looking for cattails. We did not find any cattails because it has been raining here for a week and the river is flowing over its banks. For this reason, our nature study turned into learning about the flow of rivers and what it means when a river crests over its banks. We live very close to the river district and went to a park in it near our home. The park is separated by a road. One side was already closed, and the other side will probably be closed in a few hours, especially if it starts to rain again. The predictions are for 4 more days of rain and about 3 to 4 more inches of rain.
All of the area around this path is usually low lands that are sometimes muddy but not under water.
The spot with the bench is one of my kids favorite places to hang out at this park. As you can see the river has left the banks and is running through here. You can kind of see the speed of the water from the picture under the bridge. It is moving at a very good clip. Luckily, there is very little debris so far.
This bench which water is almost touching is usually about 10 feet from the river.
After checking out the flooding, the kids sat down to journal about their findings. Happy outdoor adventuring! Blessings, Dawn |























The kids are working on creating an arctic book, using their Draw Write Now book #4.


























This year is really neat because Operation Christmas Child has some new features. They have fun "about me" sheets that you can fill out and put in your box. The kids really hope that they will get a letter back this year from someone. Also, if you pay online for the shipping of your box with EZ Pay, then you will get a tracking number and see where in the world your box ends up. Very cool! As always, you can still watch the boxes being delivered (but not your particular box). We plan on doing this via the Internet on Christmas Day with the kids. It is good for them to see first hand how VERY, VERY blessed they are as children here in America.










There are loads of these in the area.
We spent lots of time in the indoor pool, even though one would usually spend all of their time outside. The weather did not cooperate.
These little critters are nearby but out of sight! Yikes...

Blessings,















Then this morning the crane came! It was really cold and foggy outside, so the kids only stood outside for a few minutes. I kept telling them how exciting this was and they kept shivering.







Yeah!
After very, very strict guidelines were given out about staying near mommy, we got out of the car and walked around a bit.



