Welcome to our blog! I'm a homeschool mom to the fab 4 - our two bio sons and two China girls. Our days get pretty crazy with one senior, one freshman, and two special needs children in K. Our one daughter is deaf with a cochlear implant. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/crazyhomeschooldays/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:02:00 -0500 Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:02:00 -0500 We offically started school today! It went very well - everyone was ready and came when I called them to the classroom (Leah was actually peeking around the door like it was Christmas morning!). The first week back is usually a light schedule, then we do a full schedule starting week 2. The morning schedule looked like this: Woke the kids up at 8:00 (except for Alanna who was already up, had breakfast, and on her 20th question!) Started school at 9:00 (except for David who started college today. His first class was at 11:00) Alanna & Leah: Read Genesis 1 and discussed Creation. Did the first two lessons in the Old Testament Survery (Grapevine Studies) Alanna: Grammer - nouns (First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind) Math - fractions (Shiller Math) Following Directions excercise - which she needed to correct since she didn't follow the directions :o Read quietly while I worked with Leah (which is very hard for Alanna since quiet is not in her vocabulary!) Leah: Leah is delayed so her schedule and school work is a little different. We are working on learning one word at a time - this week is "cat". She did a coloring page of a cat and wrote cat several times. Math - shapes and colors (Shiller) We also did nursery rhymes for her therapy (She has bilateral cochlear implants and is learning to hear. I sing the nursery rhyme and she needs to figure out what I am singing) Michael: Geometry (TT) Bible & History (MOH 2) Literature (CLP) Foreign Language (Russian) We were able to complete everything before lunch! I'm just wondering how long the good days will last! :~) After nine years of homeschool, by week 2, things start to change :o http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/crazyhomeschooldays/720279/ Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:02:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/crazyhomeschooldays/720279/ How cool is this?!?! Rosetta Stone is the fastest way to learn a language and has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while — and you can WIN the *all new* version 3 Rosetta Stone Homeschool LATIN program… FOR FREE! This is the first year you can get Latin in the brand new Version III update. This is a $259 program (and believe me it’s worth every penny!) This is a computer based curriculum and Rosetta Stone will also include a headset with microphone, and a supplementary “Audio Companion” CD so you can practice lessons in the car, on the go, or where-ever! Students participate in life-like conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone incorporates listening, reading, grammar, vocabulary and writing along with speaking and pronunciation lessons. For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program to allow parents to easily enroll up to ten students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, grade completed work (the program grades the work automatically as the students progress- I love that!), and you can view and print reports for transcripts. Homeschooling a lot of kids at your house? This program is designed to enroll and track up to ten students (five users on two computers) and will work for nearly all ages — from beginning readers up to college students. To win this most excellent Latin program copy these paragraphs and post them in (or as) your next blog post, and/OR link to the contest from your facebook page and/OR email the information to your homeschool support group – Then go to the original page http://Jeneralities.com and leave a comment saying that you’ve posted about, or have linked to, the contest. Please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post. And good luck! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/crazyhomeschooldays/689076/ Thu, 14 May 2009 18:16:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/crazyhomeschooldays/689076/ I finally got around to taking pictures of the Christmas Lapbbooks A & L did. Better late than never The lapbooks were created using the majority of HOAC's Christmas Cheer. We had to improvise on some activities (like Snow Hopscotch!) since we live in FL! Overall, they had a great time doing the projects. For the cover, we made a wreath from Abeka Art Projects.  The top page inside is a painting made with reindeer antlers (really a twig but they had fun). On the two flaps are: snow picture (drawing then paint over it with epsom salt), snowman puppets, Christmas Tree book ( we decorated with foam decorations), and the Colors of Christmas game cards. The middle page has our reindeer puppet, the Gingerbread family, How Many Reindeer booklet, T is for.... fold, and our booklist (The Gingerbread Boy, Hansel & Gretel, Bright Christmas: An Angel Remembers, Holly Reindeer and Colored Lights, and If You Take a Mouse to the Movies).                                   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/crazyhomeschooldays/645872/ Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:14:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/crazyhomeschooldays/645872/ December is a month of birthday celebrations for our family. A turned 6 on 12\8 and L turned 8 on 12\15. My grandfather's birthday is also 12\15 and he turned 92. We took the girls camping at Ft. Wilderness (Disney World) for a few days. We didn't go to any  of the theme parks, but did surprise them with dinner with Cinderella . We spent one day walking around Downtown Disney (can you say Ghiradelli ) and rented little "speed" boats on another day. Princess A and Princess L with Prince Charming We came home on Wednesday morning, then the girls and I headed to my mom & dad's on Friday morning. We celebrated birthdays again with Ninny & PopPops (my mom & dad) and Grandma & Grandpa. Three birthday cakes in 7 days didn't help my diet any A & L with Great Grandpa & Great Grandma Now we are preparing for Our Savior's birthday. As A would say, we have 3 more sleeps than it's Jesus' birthday. We have finished our Christmas lapbook - just need to assemble it.  I will try to post pictures when we're done http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/crazyhomeschooldays/635536/ Mon, 22 Dec 2008 15:30:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/crazyhomeschooldays/635536/ WOOHOO!! The girls (and I ) completed their first two lapbooks!! They had a great time working on the projects. The more they have to cut and paste, the more fun they have. That is until they have to pick up 100 little scraps of paper off of the floor. The Pumpkin Lapbook was made while they stayed with Ninny & Pop Pops (my mom & dad) while hubby and I went on an anniversary vacation. Then they worked on their Thanksgiving Lapbooks Cover We did: Thanksgiving How Many book, Thank you Lord for...., T for turkey cut out, leaf rubbing, turkey made with real feathers, and our book\video list Lift up the turkey and we have: Pilgrim's Thank you God book, turkey matching, The First Thanksgiving question worksheet (read the book then they wrote their answers to the questions I typed up), and Psalms 100:4 Now that Thanksgiving is over, we'll start on our Christmas lapbook I'm excited to say, that as of today, I'M FINISHED CHRISTMAS SHOPPING!!!! A's birthday is 12\8 and L's is 12\15. If I wait to shop,I'm running around at the last minute buying what is left on the shelves (learned that the hard way!).   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/crazyhomeschooldays/625820/ Sat, 29 Nov 2008 14:32:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/crazyhomeschooldays/625820/ In my previous post, I mentioned that we'd be starting school early since there wasn't anything happening and I was getting bored. Well......I learned a vaulable lesson - be careful what you post! Shortly after writing that, hubby asked me to start praying about moving to another house. He's mentioned that before....pretty much every time gas goes up in price   We lived 10 miles from the nearest "anything" and hubby was 50 miles round trip from his office. Did you catch that?? Lived! So we started to pray for God to open & close doors if it was His Will for us to move. God sure likes to remind us that HE is in control  The house we really wanted - He slammed that door shut real fast. House #2 on our list - the door opened enough for us to have a peek.  We figured the house would work for us, a floorplan very similar to what we had,a neighborhood we were familiar with, etc. After playing the offer game for 10 days and agreeing on terms, the house didn't appraise for what we needed  We came to the conclusion that we might as well stay where we are and make less trips into town.  God had other plans! I found a house that was a short sale so hubby went and took a tour. He called me after and said the house would never work for us - 2 story with all bedrooms up except one small one (we said we'd never have an upstairs master again!), needed quite a bit of TLC, gas community (I've never cooked with gas before) and with it being a short sale it usually takes 2-3 months to get the offer approved. I wanted to be moved by Labor Day so we could start school (this was the beginning of August). We made a ridiculous offer on Friday (8\7) and were told the bank would give us an answer in 5 business days (yea, right!). On Monday (8\10), the bank called and accepted our offer . So, in a matter of 3 weeks, we: made an offer, had it accepted, remodeled a 5 bedroom house, and moved a homeschool family of 6! Prior to that, I didn't have a single thing packed. I was able to be pretty well settled AND started school by Labor Day Moral of the story - don't write a blog entry on not having anything to do! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/crazyhomeschooldays/622363/ Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:26:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/crazyhomeschooldays/622363/ Not that I don't have anything else to do today , but I wanted to take the time and post our Year in Review.   Math - difference between big & little How mommy animals take care of their young Participated in a group choir We did a Yoga class for beginners D & M developed an interest on photography Played soccer for PE Studied proper nutrition in Health And learned about our sense of touch in science "um....is it a ........" We have taken a few weeks off, but since we didn't have any plans for the summer, I decided to start school early. Here is M's reaction to that news: I hope you enjoyed our Year in Review   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/crazyhomeschooldays/563034/ Sat, 19 Jul 2008 10:31:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/crazyhomeschooldays/563034/ Wow! I can't believe June is here already! Here's what has been happening around here: L received her second implant in Feb. with activation on March 10. You can watch a part of her activation here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=MJtTR_2Zp3g  She turned right to me when I said her name.  With her first implant, we didn't think she even heard for the first couple of months. School is still a struggle with her. She can now count to 5 by herself ( 7 with some help), and her fine motor skills are greatly improved. We worked a lot on same & different - she can get which one is the same but hasn't caught on to which one is different. Her hearing is WONDERFUL . We put her in the sound booth last week and she was hearing at 15 dbl - normal is between 10-20 dbl . The understanding of speech has come along nicely. Like most kids her age, she has selective hearing (and understanding!) A graduated from Pre-K! She's can't understand that school is over and she won't be going back tomorrow. She had a fit when I cleaned out her cubby. Every day, she'll ask if she's going to school today. We will keep her home next year and homeschool her. I think it will be great for L to have A home and learning along with her. I plan on doing lapbook projects with them - I can make A's a little more challenging than L's to keep her on her toes. D is a senior  I can't believe that I will have one graduate from high school and one graduate from K at the same time! What was God thinking?!?! He's still working at the Christian book store and will be interning with the Youth Pastor once a week. M will be a freshman this year. I'll probably have my hands full keeping him challenged! If he's bored with something, he just doesn't do it  He's having that growth spurt that boys go thru between their 8th & 9th grade years. The dr. said he'll probably be over 6 ft  For science, M wanted to do Marine Biology from Apologia so....... shark dissection day should be interesting with A & L watching! As for me..... I'm doing better with my resolutions  We're eating a lot healthier (steamed veggies, grilled|broiled\baked chicken & fish, fresh fruits, salads, etc... Plus, we've been walking 4-5 days a week. We started out with one mile, now we're at two. Next week we should be at 2 1\2 miles. I've lost a total of 20 lbs since China (9\06) - 9 since April 1st  Hubby has lost 20+ lbs!  I've been wearing shorts and pants that I haven't worn in a while! My next goal is to keep this blog more updated http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/crazyhomeschooldays/541917/ Mon, 2 Jun 2008 16:19:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/crazyhomeschooldays/541917/ How does one get Cabin Fever in sunny Florida?? L had her second cochlear implant  on Friday 2\1. To try and keep her healthy prior to the big day, I kept her home for a week. Then we stayed home this week except for her therapy session. I was counting the hours until I could actually go somewhere, when....... cough, cough "Mommy, I don't feel good!" What?? No, one of my precious children can't possibly be ill!!! Poor little A was running a 101 degree temp last night and 100 degree temp this morning. Not only does she have a bad cold, but she also has an abscessed tooth  A spent the morning on the couch, while I spent the morning trying to corral L into the classroom. To make life a little easier, I gave in and we had a short school day! Thankfully, we had a refill left on an antibiotic prescription from the previous abscess. I have to share a great story - we have been working hard with L on the concept of 1 & 2. While playing Candyland last week, I would say whatever card was drawn..... 1 green, 2 yellow, etc. It was L's turn and when she drew her card, she looked at it and said (YES!!!!! SHE SAID!!!) "who re" as she held up 2 fingers  She had a card with 2 red squares!! I about fell off of the chair! I gave her a high five and she gave me a big hug. The miracle of communication I, like the majority of the population, made some New Year's Resolutions. Don't ask me why because I never keep them    Lose weight - well, haven't lost BUT haven't gained either! Spend less time on the computer - that depends on what day of the week it is Don't yell at the kids - hey, I do great on this when I'm home alone Spend less money - this one I've kept so far. I'm not a coupon clipper, but have started and it is paying off. I started saving $15-$20 a week at the grocery store!! This past week, I set a record!! Drumroll please..........$41!!!!! Hubby was really excited about THAT shopping trip!   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/crazyhomeschooldays/476583/ Thu, 7 Feb 2008 15:37:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/crazyhomeschooldays/476583/ Ah! Christmas memories! Where do I start? What was the best present? Let's see..... I remember peeking around my bedroom door as a little girl, anxiously waiting for my Mom to call me out to see what Santa left; our first Christmas as a husband and wife; our first Christmas as a Mom & Dad. They are all such great memories The greatest gift though, came from a complete stranger. A family that we have never met and  probably will never get to meet. A gift that they gave on this day four years ago -  December 24, 2003. Below is a post from last Christmas Eve: On this date in 2003, a family took their 3 y\o little girl for a ride. She must have thought they were going on a trip since they ended up at the long distance train station. How excited she must have been! But, wait.....where are the suitcases? Did they tell their daughter to wait on the bench while they bought the tickets? Did they tell her they would be right back that they were going to the bathroom? Being the obedient little girl she was, she sat there and waited.....and waited.....and waited. Finally, the local police were called to help find her family. The excitement of the "trip" turned into fear as she could not hear what everyone was saying around her. Her trip ended at the local orphanage, never to see her family again. But.......we serve an awesome God! He watched over this little girl, keeping her wrapped securely in His loving arms - protecting her. It is now Dec. 24th, 2006....... the little obedient girl is sitting quietly like she was told to. This time, however, she is sitting with her forever family as they sing praises to our Heavenly Father. Thank you to the birth family for loving your daughter so much that you wanted her to have a chance at life, to have the opportunity to hear again, to have medical care and an education. Thank you to God, for protecting her and guiding her forever family to their new daughter. Thank you for the privilege to be that forever family! Even though we didn't "receive" this gift until September 11, 2006, it was left for us on Christmas Eve. What an awesom present! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/crazyhomeschooldays/449795/ Mon, 24 Dec 2007 09:15:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/crazyhomeschooldays/449795/