Welcome to our blog! I'm Kristen, stay-at-home mom to Teddy (7) and Maddy (almost 4). We're having a blast using Five in a Row (FIAR), with Explode the Code phonics, Horizons math, A Reason for Handwriting, and Noeo Science this year. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KristenS/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:12:00 -0600 Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:12:00 -0600 We're not quite done with the week, but since I'm on a roll getting caught up...  Monday we had a field trip to a chocolate goods store. (Is that even a term?) Anyway, they sell all sorts of chocolate candies, and yummies dipped in chocolate. It’s one of the best field trips we ever went on. There were so many of us interested that they had us come in shifts, and we were with the last group. The coordinator tried to sort us roughly by ages, so most of the kids in our group were Maddy’s age. The lady doing the tour gave a very brief history of chocolate, showed them a nice color picture of cacao pods and had them practice saying cacao, and she had them taste unsweetened chocolate. (She also had a trash can handy!) Then she let the kids sample white chocolate, and flavored white chocolates, and then gave a spiel about testing products before selling them, offering the kids several mystery items dipped in chocolate, which ranged from grapes to cherry tomatoes to carrot sticks. The kids had a blast guessing. Then the kids got to tour behind the counter and see the big vats of dipping chocolate. (Wisely, they had all long-haired folks tuck their hair down their jackets, and all the kids had to keep their hands in their pockets.) After that, there was a station set up where the kids could dip marshmallows in either milk or white chocolate, and then roll it in either cookie crumbs or sprinkles. They even gave out goodie bags! And the whole thing was thirty minutes. It was the perfect blend of information and hands-on, with attention spans taken into account. You can bet we had fun shopping afterwards, too! Monday evening was Cub Scouts, and we took the craft activities. We worked on two electives, the picture frame one and the decorations one (we made paper snowflakes while the glue on the frames set a bit). The boys had fun with it, though perhaps it helped that there were only three and it made it very easy to share materials. Tuesday was the final storytime of the season. She read several Santa stories. One was very cute, a rendition of “Twas the Night Before Christmas” called “One Was Stirring.” Apparently we’re not the only family attending that has tried to focus a little less on Santa and a little more on the original Saint Nicholas (not that Maddy believes me at all … Santa is real!). As soon as Miss Amy said ‘Saint Nicholas’, another little girl piped up, “He’s dead.” Of course her mother was going “Shh!” and I was trying not to laugh. Miss Amy wisely ignored the interruption and went on with her story. Maddy’s not buying the whole “Santa is a fun pretend game” thing. She’s sure that, even if he’s not real today, he’ll be real on Christmas for sure. It’s kind of hard to convince a not-yet-four-year-old of anything she doesn’t want to agree with. Ted enjoyed the picture frame craft so much, he spent today making several more. Maddy got in on the act too. And I used the colorful popsicle sticks (courtesy of the dollar store) to make a craft I’d been trying to figure out … a magnetic Advent wreath set. I used three purple sticks, one red one (it was nearly pink), and two green across the bottom to look like a wreath. I glued a magnet strip on the back, and used some yellow foam stickies colored with orange marker to make separate flames. Now we can add one flame each Sunday. I need to paint a jumbo stick white for the Christmas Candle … not sure how to work that one in, though. Anyway, the set came out pretty well … much better than most crafts I attempt. We’ve also been working with a Dover set of Christmas stickers and cards, Victorian scrapbook style. The kids had fun designing them and deciding who would be the recipient of each. Ted is handwriting all his labels, so it’s taking a while to finish, but I am proud of his effort. As for stories this week … we’re using random fun ones out of our Christmas assortment. So far we’ve enjoyed Merry Christmas, Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola and The Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett. Ted’s been asking what I call Big Questions lately … hard ones. Like, what happens when we die, and things like that. The latest was “When was the world made?” I wasn’t really prepared for that one … of course he’s familiar with the Creation story in the Bible, but now he wants to know exactly when it happened. And I’ve realized, it’s really hard to find young-earth perspective materials that aren’t written as a debate to evolution. We tried to watch an AiG video I had on hand, but I decided to stop it shortly after starting … it is refuting evolution, and Ted has never even heard of the concept. We simply hadn’t addressed timeline concerns yet. (Our wall timeline only goes back to 4,000 BC.) I want to teach him that different folks believe different things (even Mommy and Daddy), but I don’t want to do it in the context of an argument. So far we’ve talked about it in the perspective of working from what he knows … obviously the world is older than he is, and older than Mommy, and older than Grandma, and so on. I explained that if you add up the events in the Bible, it goes back roughly six thousand years, so it has to be at least that old. And then I did explain that some people thought things looked a bit older than that, and decided that the world was probably millions of years old, but that’s not what Mommy thought. In other words, I was trying to keep it simple: folks have reasons for believing what they believe. But still teaching a Creation perspective. But my search for materials has been eye-opening. I’ve gotten some great referrals from the FIAR ladies which I will have to look into, but so far the ones I’ve found on my own are debate materials, even the kid ones. I guess they’re aimed more at older kids, or perhaps just PS kids who need to hear another view. I just want something like all the fossil books on the shelves, the ones that make reference to millions of years and don’t feel a real need to justify what they say; they let their science stand for itself. I’d like something like that from a young earth point of view. In kid-friendly terms (for me as well as Ted!). I guess this means I’m going to work on compiling resources, and once I’ve got a good list, I will share it. So far there are some CDs that look promising, and Ruth Beechick’s books might help, though they are for older kids and adults. We had a storm last night, and Maddy was so cute. She is afraid of storms. At one point it quieted down, and Lysle went in to check on her and turn off her flashlight for lights out. She commented on the quiet, and said that "the storm must have moved away to go scare other little people." Later the storm got noisy again, and she crept out of her room to join us watching TV ... using the storm as an excuse, but she likes to try that anyway. We cuddled her for a while and then sent her back to bed much happier. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KristenS/630724/ Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:12:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KristenS/630724/  Daniel’s Duck was an excellent FIAR book to follow up with the model work the boys did for the Rain Gutter Regatta. For once we actually read the book most days of the week, showing how much the kids really enjoyed it. We tied it in to the week we got to start reading about Audubon in our science lessons. Scouts: All they did was review Bobcat Badge material. It was kind of frustrating to Ted, and dull for the boys, but they need to get it finished. The refresher was probably good for Ted, anyway. We’ve got a bouncy set of boys, for sure. Storytime: we got to hear stories about hibernation, including Bear Snores On and one about groundhog waking up, whose title I always forget. The kids made bear puppets to take home, the lunch bag variety. Friday we went to a Christmas party with our playgroup. The usual format is that everyone brings a snack and an activity. This year most of the moms brought crafts, since the room we were using didn’t have enough space for most games. So the kids ended up making a big variety of goodies to take home, including felt mice with candy cane tales, candle drawing (using wax candles to draw and then washing it over with watercolors, making the wax stand out), cards with ‘coupons’ in them for gifts, and all sorts of other things. The kids had a blast. And so did I, though I didn’t get to do a whole lot of chatting because I had to keep going back and forth between the kids. Ted was a little shy of going off on his own, even though we were in the same big room. But at the snowflake cutting table, a teen boy helped him design a snowflake and Ted got absorbed in it, letting me go help Maddy paint her pine cone with glitter. Saturday was a rehearsal for the Christmas play. Sunday they had one final rehearsal and then their performance, “The First Leon.” (find link?) Ted was initially one of the villagers, meaning he was in the chorus and got to dress up in the final scene … he was set to be a shepherd. But at the last minute, they realized they were short a few wise men, so he got a promotion to a much cooler looking costume. The kids did a pretty good job with the show (much better than I had expected from the rehearsal!) and Ted had a lot of fun with it. Grandma and Grandpa Glenn got to come, and we all enjoyed the reception afterward. Maddy sat on Daddy’s lap the whole time, very well-behaved and attentive. It was hard for her to see, since we were sitting so far in the back, but she was great about it. Ted’s second tooth fell out Sunday, too … another exciting surprise. He was munching on an apple and spit out what he thought was a seed. We’d just about forgotten that tooth was loose, it had taken so long. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KristenS/630720/ Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:10:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KristenS/630720/  The week is off to a crazy start already. Maddy has still been a bit sick, so we kept the kids home from Sunday School. Ted had a rehearsal all afternoon for the Christmas program, though. He is in the chorus, along with all the other younger children (all the older ones have speaking parts), so mostly they got to play while the big kids practiced. And they had a pizza party. It sounds like he had a really good time. They’ll be taking off this coming weekend because of the holiday, and then the next weekend is show time! We also took off from Scouts, since they had just done the Regatta and it’s a hectic week. I was glad; the break was nice. We’ve jumbled up our school work a bit, to try to get a good week’s work in without being overloaded. Science is easy to double up on, since it’s mostly reading right now. We’re taking the week off of handwriting. Math and phonics still proceed at a page a day. We’re reading a whole bunch of good Thanksgiving books this week. Goody O’Grumpity by Carol Ryrie Brink is our main story. We had a lot of fun just looking at the pictures and finding all the things that were different in their daily lives, as compared to now. (For those who like to cook, this one comes with a spice cake recipe that sounds yummy!) We’ve also read The Magic School Bus at the First Thanksgiving, which is one of their leveled readers. We also got to watch the video made of Jean Fritz’s book Who’s That Stepping on Plymouth Rock? which I found more interesting than the kids did, but it’s very good. Now I need to get the book. I had no idea they had dropped and broken the rock during the moving process not once, but twice! All of her historical stories are interesting, and worth purchasing. Storytime was a no-go for us this week; I didn’t want to expose all the other kids to sniffly, snuffly Maddy right now. She’s doing better, but just in case there are germs… better safe than sorry  The holiday will be a bit simpler this year, as we’re just having Grandma and Grandpa over for dinner, no big extended family or trying to squeeze two meals into one day. I’m kind of looking forward to it, though it’s nice to see everyone too. This is, of course, assuming everyone is well by then … Lysle has been sick, too, and working overtime, so it’s been pretty rough. If I should actually get this posted on time for once, everyone be sure to check out the Black Friday sales by TOS. They’re supposed to be marking down a year’s subscription, which will make an awesome gift for friends. (Note: I am not posting this on time, but they’ve had other nice deals this December.) And this is the countdown to finishing up writing, for National Novel Writing Month. A shout-out of congratulations to DeniseR from the FIAR forums, who has already crossed the finish line! Watching her has kept me motivated to keep trying (though I really should have quit this year; it’s been pretty awful going!). That winner icon looks really cool … I must get one! LOL. We still need to let Ted finish his story, too. He crossed the halfway mark early in the month, on his goal of two thousand words, and we never got back to it. It’s been so busy! Madeline is already looking forward to her birthday; she can’t quite grasp that it’s a month away. Pink will be the order of the day, and I’ve already stocked up on streamers and balloons. I’ve even (shh! don’t tell!) gotten a shiny birthday crown for our little princess to wear. I’m trying to decide which of her princess-themed gifts should be for her birthday, and which for Christmas. One she’s getting is the God’s Little Princess Devotional Bible… she’s been borrowing (and ruffling the pages of) Ted’s big boy Bible (from church) and she won’t have anything to do with our toddler-friendly Bibles like The Beginner’s Bible anymore. So I ordered this one from CBD, and I must say, it looks great. I like the story format and the little introductions and fun ideas that accompany each one. I think it will be fun to read to her, and that we might enjoy it together. We shall see. Thanksgiving: All our food was a hit! Mom and I both took this opportunity to try out new recipes. Mom tried a stuffed chicken breast, and a spinach mashed o which even the kids liked. I tried a Buckeye Bars recipe from, I think, the Kraft magazine. They did not come out exactly like the picture (they show chocolate much darker than is the actual result) but it was very yummy. The kids watched the Macy’s parade while playing all morning, and enjoyed it. First year they could both really sit through it. They loved seeing the balloons of their favorite characters, and of course, Santa at the end. Maddy got tired and laid down on the sofa at one point during the meal, and fell asleep … it was very cute. She woke up (well, I made her wake up) when it was time for Mom and Glenn to leave. She played with me and Ted and nibbled at her dessert before bedtime (and then didn’t want to go to sleep, as is usual these days when she naps, especially such a late nap). Ted’s activity today (besides watching the parade, which he loved) was making what he calls ‘room’ boxes and what I think of as Christmas boxes, since that is always the season we seem to do them. He got Daddy to trim the flaps off of all the small (book shipping size) boxes that we had handy, and also to cut doors and windows into them (which is more than Mommy ever does). We also got out lots of catalogs (hence the Christmas box designation, since this is when we get the most and best catalogs for cutting up) and we cut out paper dolls and pictures. He gave Maddy the tiniest box, but she and I had fun decorating it with a Ruthie cut out from the American Girl magazine, and decorations from AG and Current, and miscellaneous other bits. Ted was cutting out all things red from the Rainbow Resource catalog, but hasn’t pasted anything down. I spotted a cutout of cutlery and other things in his pile, and I found a red wreath in the Current catalog for him to use. So now we have a pile of boxes and catalogs on the floor of the family room, while we work on this project. It’s a fun activity and simple enough. When I first started doing them with Kelley’s kids, as a babysitting activity when Elisha was about Ted’s age or even younger, it was all paper dolls from the AG catalog, and any Christmas goodies we could find in the others. Ted uses the rooms for his Webkinz dolls, which is fun too. We also like to cut out treats from the sweets catalogs like Aplets and Cotlets, and Swiss Colony. On Sunday we got out our tree and decorations, since it was the First Sunday of Advent. It went pretty fast, actually … many hands make quick work, if not necessarily light. And speaking of lights, the kids talked Lysle into adding a string of colored lights on top of the prewired white ones our tree came with. It sort of works … not the look I was going for, but the kids love it, so who am I to fuss? http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KristenS/630718/ Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:08:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KristenS/630718/  This was combined with a pack meeting, where the boys were awarded any other patches and badges and loops they had earned. Ted received his popcorn sales patch, the regatta patch, and a water gun prize for selling popcorn. They also practiced the actual flag ceremony, which I hope means they get to count that as one of their achievements toward the Tiger badge. One little boy, who has been the lone Bear while the others were involved in soccer, earned his Bear badge … he was quite proud! Then we had snacks, mostly popcorn (our contribution) and cookies, though one mom had made stuffed potato halves with sails stuck in them … very cute potato boats! It was fun to see the variety in the boats the children put together. Some were simple painted affairs, like Madeline’s, and one was a three-masted boat with all sorts of figurines on it. Ted’s fell somewhere in the middle as far as detail … it wasn’t a fancy shape or anything, but he and Daddy did a thorough sanding and painting and assembly job, and they did some basic decorations too (some painted and some decal). It was one of the few that didn’t topple over on its first journey down the gutter track. (After some minor adjustments with glue, most of the others managed not to topple over either.) The boys had fun practicing blowing their boats down the track, using straws, but by the time they were ready for the ‘real’ race, most of them had wandered off to the playground. They had had enough fun already. So the official race was just cancelled … it was only for the boys anyway, and not to advance further in some competition. Back home again, Ted and Daddy are playing World of Goo on the computer – a truly odd game by the guy who wrote Crayon Physics. Aunt Tammy and family came by to bring a belated birthday gift for Ted: a set of simple wooden model kits to put together, and a Card Works building kit, which is really cool. (I can't find a good link but you can search it on Amazon.) We ended up ordering pizza for dinner because everyone is feeling more or less sick, and neither one of us felt like cooking or even facing leftovers. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KristenS/630717/ Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:05:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KristenS/630717/  This is another Before FIAR title, chosen in honor of Ted’s birthday being this week. Red happens to be his favorite color, and rolling out the red carpet is a great idea for birthdays! (Alas, we forgot to do that actual part, but we had a blast anyway.) We turned in our shoeboxes at church, and Ted has continued on with choir practice. Monday we did our lessons and then Ted did another Cub Scout elective activity by selecting and preparing the snack for the evening’s den meeting (it was our turn to bring snack). Unfortunately the meeting plans changed … instead of six Tigers and their moms, it ended up being the whole pack plus siblings and parents … but Lysle said it stretched. (I asked him to take over, once I found out they planned to work on those crazy boats during the meeting.) They had a good time anyway, though Ted would have preferred more free time to play with all his friends. Tuesday we did manage to go to storytime, which was all about baths. The pirate bathtime story was very cute. Afterwards Karen and her kids came over to eat lunch and visit, and though I think we ended up visiting longer than was good for their busy schedule, we had a really good time, and it was very refreshing. Wednesday Maddy and I began to bake Ted’s birthday cake… I had thought he would want to help, but he insisted on being surprised … though he ordered a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and red lettering. And a number 7 candle. We had the cake mix and canned frosting, but not enough for red. That turned out to be a problem, as we were out of both shortening and powdered sugar… Thursday we took the day off of lessons to celebrate. The kids decorated with red balloons and streamers, and Grandma (bless her heart!) rescued us with lunch. I say rescue because Maddy turned out to be sick, thus nixing all our possible plans for the day. She had been up ALL NIGHT the night before, crying and sniffling and watching movies. Lysle took most of that duty. Anyway, Grandma and Grandpa Glenn came bearing Captain D’s and gifts, and were much welcomed.  Their gifts to Ted were a nifty solar system walk-on mat from Learning Resources, and a globe lamp that plugs in and lights up. Ted loves both. Grandma also brought a Play-Doh party kit, which we saved for the next day (a good choice). For dinner, Daddy took the night off of overtime, and we had Ted’s chosen dinner of hot dogs and fries, eaten camp-style in the Cranium fort tents he’d built. (Maddy was napping at that point.) Then we gave him his big gift, a V. Smile Cyber Pocket. He had been wanting a handheld game system (he really wanted a Nintendo DS but we weren’t quite ready for such a big purchase for a 7 year old, though the FIAR mamas gave good advice about them). And we have a V. Smile system already, so have lots of cartridges. I wasn’t initially impressed with the handheld, but Ted loved it and it worked a lot better than it did when I tested it out. So it’s a hit! Yay! Friday, since Maddy was still sick, we cancelled our Jennifer visit (she was sick last week so we missed that one too) and after lessons we did the Play-Doh kit. It turned out to be a lot of fun, and there are a lot of goodies left to share when we try it again with friends. A very cute concept. Tomorrow is our big Rain Gutter Regatta … they worked hard tonight to finish up the boats, the final touches like decals. We shall see how it goes! Also the popcorn orders are supposed to be ready, so we will hope we did everything correctly… http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KristenS/630714/ Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:04:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KristenS/630714/  This book tied in very well with our science readings (which is why we scheduled it for this time). We also filled our shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child, as the due date is fast approaching for our church’s collection. The kids had a grand time picking through our stash of goodies and supplies, and seeing which they thought ‘their’ child would like. (We do two boxes, one for a girl and one for a boy.) Then Ted asked where the boxes would be going. I was not able to find that online, but I did find some very cute coloring pages with questions and answers that you could fill out and include in your box. So we did those too. (insert link) Unfortunately, our storybook about the shoeboxes is filed away with the Christmas books … next year I will make sure we have it handy. Tuesday was Veteran’s Day, which I had not intended to take as a holiday (and we did still squeeze in some work), but our plans had to change when the Cub Scouts decided to take advantage of their day off and schedule our TV station field trip for noon that day. The field trip was actually a hit with the boys, particularly the chance to be in front of the green screen and act like weathermen. Maddy loved it too. They even got to flip switches in the control room, and the only accident was when the tour guide spilled his soda all over something that looked very important … he spent the rest of the time cleaning up, and another fellow took over the tour. The other impressive part was being taken outside to see the satellite dish and see the view … it’s very high up the mountain and quite breathtaking. Tuesday is also our anniversary (the 8th one), and we had a nice steak dinner to celebrate. We had agreed not to do gifts this year, but Lysle couldn’t resist, and put together a sweet slide show starting with photos from our wedding and going all the way through, picking the highlights. The kids enjoyed it as much as I did, seeing themselves as tiny babies especially. Due to a badly timed appointment, Daddy came home and got to do some lessons with Ted on Wednesday while I went out. They did well. That afternoon we started on the model boats for the Rain Gutter Regatta (and promptly stopped when I realized it was way over my head, though Ted did get a good start on sanding), and we played with Webkinz World’s new story maker (not very good), and studied primary and secondary colors by mixing play dough blobs. We even tried melting our leaf collection into waxed paper, but that didn’t work very well. Possibly I didn’t use high enough heat on the iron, but another mom online mentioned that they don’t make waxed paper the way they used to, so it wouldn’t melt in the microwave. I prefer that explanation, as it makes me feel much better. J The kids put on puppet shows Thursday afternoon, once Daddy got home from work (he’s been doing much overtime lately). Saturday we did more on the boats, and the kids spent the afternoon and evening at Grandma’s, so Lysle and I could go out and celebrate our anniversary. We took the opportunity to stop at the mall and walk around. Getting Ted a new winter coat was a priority, and we were lucky to find a sale. The saleslady was quick to point out all the coat’s merits, one being its brand name. Personally, I’d have preferred it not be a brand name, but it was all they had in red, Ted’s favorite color. And though I didn’t mind her chatter (she was both friendly and helpful), I thought it was sad that she thought the brand worth mentioning, and insisted that such things mattered to seven year olds. I truly hope not. Is public school really that obsessed with fashion even in the primary grades? We ended up getting the wrong size and Lysle had to exchange it later, but it’s still a nice coat. And then we browsed some more, picking out some stocking stuffers in Hallmark (thanks to coupons) and then picking up a dinner at Subway (and being surprised by a grand opening sale which saved us even more money… we really do have luck with shopping on our anniversaries!). We came home to quiet and got to eat and watch some Dr. Who episodes he really wanted me to see. The kids were returned to us at bedtime, and went down with minimal fuss, leaving us with more peaceful time afterwards. It was VERY nice to have this time together in the midst of his overtime chaos. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KristenS/630711/ Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:59:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KristenS/630711/  This being Election Week, we again deviated from the FIAR booklist and used a HomeschoolShare unit, The Ballot Box Battle. Our go-alongs included Duck for President by Cronin and We the Kids by Catrow. We marked our map and timeline with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and of course the kids went with me to vote. (We were more careful marking our ballot this time!) Our chosen candidates ended up not winning, but it was still good to be a part of the process. In Scouts, the boys made pine cone bird feeders. That involves smearing a mix of peanut butter and shortening all over the pine cones (with a string already tied to them) and then rolling the whole thing in a bag of birdseed. Then you can hang this from a tree and let the birds go to town … unless, of course, it happens to rain before they find it. Oh well. It was still fun. (I do suggest, if you do this other than at home, that you take a bag or bowl to transport the feeders home in, as they leak birdseed like mad.) Wednesday was a special treat for Ted. He’d earned his October BookIt! certificate, so Daddy took him out to lunch to claim his pizza prize. We collected leaves outside and did more leaf rubbings, for part of science as we’re now reading about forests. We also started letting Teddy dictate his Nano … he’s already halfway to his goal of 2,000 words. Jennifer came on Friday, and Saturday was a Lowe’s day, building trucks. Daddy took the kids. Several other Cub Scouts came too, that day. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KristenS/630710/ Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:58:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KristenS/630710/ We did random fun seasonal books this week, including an old favorite, Popcorn by Frank Asch, and a new favorite, Leaves! Leaves! Leaves! by Wallace. By the end of the week Ted was reading Popcorn all by himself.   We also worked on planning Ted’s novel for NaNoWriMo’s Young Writer Program. He (and Maddy, she wouldn’t be left out!) made lists of their favorite things to include in stories.   For Cub Scouts, the pack had a Halloween party, and the kids got to wear their costumes again. Ted’s spider costume was made of a black sweatshirt and black sweatpants, with extra spider arms made of black knee high stockings stuffed with cotton. One end of each pair of legs was pinned to each side of his shirt. The other ends were joined with string which looped around Ted’s wrist, so that when he moved his arms, the extra legs followed his motions. He also wore some  spiderweb decorated mittens we found in Wal-Mart, and a headband with glittery pipe cleaner antennae attached. Maddy’s angel costume consisted of self-decorated pink fairy wings (courtesy of a kit from Grandma), a frilly white costume skirt with lights, from Wal-Mart, and a white turtleneck and pink pants. Plus a wand, and a halo of the same glittery pipe cleaners. She loved it. The pack started with an awards ceremony. Ted was the first of the Tigers to earn his Bobcat badge, and they all earned lots of patches and beltloops from other things. Then they had snacks and a silly game involving lots of toilet paper and teams wrapping a mummy person.   I forgot to note what they read at storytime, but that evening the kids planned out their pumpkin and Daddy carved it at their direction.   Friday was Halloween, and Daddy took them for a really long walk, as the houses close to us mostly don’t invite trick-or-treaters. For once we had a lot of kids come to our house, though. I guess we stood out, being the only ones participating on our block.   Saturday was the first day of NaNoWriMo. Due to panic attacks, I’d been trying to convince myself not to participate this year, but I wrote a few words anyway. Our math, science, and phonics are going really well this year. And we're still loving FIAR units! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KristenS/630708/ Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:55:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KristenS/630708/  We took another diversion from FIAR to be cowboys for a week reading Billy and Blaze. It wasn’t actually as much of a cowboy story as I’d thought (I had previously seen some of the later books in the series, which I think were more cowboy-ish.). I think we would enjoy getting more titles in this series. At scouts the boys did leaf rubbings, which was fun but quick. It was neat to show the kids how to do gentle strokes with the crayons held sideways, and watch the leaf veins and stem show up. Storytime was all about teeth. It’s been fun to go because there are several older homeschooled children. Ted’s still the oldest, but it’s fun that it’s not just the preschoolers (though that’s who it is geared toward). Friday evening was our church’s Fall Festival event. The kids and I went, and it was a lot busier than we expected! We went on the moon bounce first thing of all, and it’s just as well we did, because the line was super long for the rest of the night. Ted tried out his spider costume for the first time, and Maddy tried out her angel fairy princess outfit. We had fun playing the simple games (ring toss, ball toss, fishing, and so on) and collecting prizes. We put in a few bids (losing, as it turns out) on the silent auction items, and had a dinner of hot dogs. All in all, the kids had a great evening. Saturday was a Lowe’s event, making pumpkin faces which are very cute and work like a Mr. Potato Head toy. Due to schedule issues, I got to take them instead of Daddy, and we ended up just working on one of the crafts, saving the other to bring home. It was very crowded and noisy. By the time we were done, we decided it would be a good day to go pick out a pumpkin for carving, so we went to the Farmer’s Market. It turned out they were also doing a Fall Festival event, so the kids got to play more fun carnival type games. It was much less crowded than our church event. The kids played, and then we picked out our pumpkin to take home. Very fun! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KristenS/630707/ Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:52:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KristenS/630707/  The Little Rabbit is a Before FIAR title. We did this one for Maddy, though she didn’t end up loving it as much as Ted used to. We enjoyed the go-along Rabbits and Raindrops by Jim Arnosky. Sunday was another Cub Scout event, earning their Geology Belt Loop at the Gem Show. This one was pretty interesting, actually, though the activities didn’t work quite as well as they should have. The kids had a hard time labeling the black and white chart of the volcano (it would have helped for the kids to have a color chart to reference). Still, this field trip was free of charge for the boys, and they did love it. They did a play dough activity about the layers of the earth and how plates shift and move the layers, and an erosion activity involving sucking on a piece of candy. They also got a brief tour of some of the more fascinating exhibits, like rocks that look like food and some that glowed in the dark (radioactive). Monday was the Tigers’ visit to the fire station. Daddy took Ted to this one. It was the same station we’d visited earlier this year, which was kind of neat.  We did not have storytime this week, and we did have a doctors’ appointment, more a checkup to see how the kids were doing since it had been so long, and I had some questions too. We did all three of us at once, but for once there wasn’t a long wait, and it actually went well. I was pleased, because I like our family doctor, just not the waits.   Another tooth of Ted’s began to be loose, and Ted read to us all by himself, Arthur’s Tooth, which is one of his new favorites.  We added a little cactus to our plant table in the front window, to go with our science reading of One Small Square: Cactus Desert. And Maddy enjoyed a video we found secondhand, “Backstage at the Ballet.” Saturday, due to some random web game searching, Lysle stumbled across a little gem called Crayon Physics (http://www.crayonphysics.com/ is the new website with a for-sale version, and http://www.kloonigames.com/blog/ is the blog Lysle found it and other games on). The kids were fascinated, and now it’s one of Ted’s favorites. Also this week was a local science fiction and gaming convention. Lysle and his buddies declined to attend this year, due to high prices and not enough fun gaming. However, for once they were hosting an author whose works I actually like, so I decided to go, and meet some of my friends there. It was a disappointing experience. The author and her husband were both outgoing personalities, with a lot of humorous anecdotes to share, but many of the anecdotes were disdainful ones about annoying fans they’d had … which led to comments about fans and amateur writers in general, which was, when you think about it, pretty insulting to the assembled audience, most of whom were both fans and amateur writers. It made me think rather less of this particular author. However, having a weekend to do something totally frivolous just for me was rather fun. In spite of everything. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KristenS/630705/ Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:47:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KristenS/630705/