Welcome to our world! I'm the homeschooling mommy of three beautiful, noisy, messy, homeschooled-from-the-start little boys. My mom and I also run a home daycare with a daily preschool program. This blog is a photographic chronicle of the highlights and joys, trials and troubles of our journey through life with our "dirt magnets". http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dirtmagnets/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Fri, 2 Oct 2009 20:24:00 -0500 Fri, 2 Oct 2009 20:24:00 -0500 We're working on the letter C with the preschool bunch, so we took a trip to the library to visit their new reading readiness playroom, which is currently filled with activities based on The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  The kids made fruit salad for the caterpillar, read the story, re-enacted it with magnet backed pictures from the book, made coffee filter butterflies, did bug, butterfly, and food puzzles, and turned it into a fantastic puppet show.  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dirtmagnets/749674/ Fri, 2 Oct 2009 20:24:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dirtmagnets/749674/ Tyler competed close to home today!  He ended up 2nd in the ten and under group and 6th in the twelve and under group.  His clubmates did well, too, taking 1st and 5th in Y10, 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 8th in Y12, and 5th, 6th, 9th, 12th, 13th, 15th, and 19th in the 13 and over group.  Warming up (Tyler's all the way to the left) - Waiting to fence - Hooking up - En garde - Talking strategy with a clubmate - Checking and signing the DE score strip.  He won this bout!  Y10 awards - All my boys get a little silly! Where he wants to be... Waiting for Y12 to start - Y12 awards - A handful of FACKC Y12 fencers  - And of course, the silly medal stand pictures are always fun! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dirtmagnets/749673/ Sun, 4 Oct 2009 21:13:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dirtmagnets/749673/ Our home-preschool group met today and had lots of fun talking about FALL!  We matched leaves, made cool leaf hangings for our doors, painted with apples, read stories, sang songs, made scarecrow and squirrel finger puppets, dressed up in costumes, and put on an impromptu puppet show. After playgroup, we grabbed a tasty lunch and headed home to get some schoolwork done.  Tyler's at his enrichment program on Tuesdays, so Ryan, James, and I have lots of time to ourselves.  This afternoon, Ryan worked with his pattern blocks and the geoboard, learned about the letter k, and made himself a coat of many colors after we read about Joseph, his coat, and his brothers. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dirtmagnets/749670/ Tue, 6 Oct 2009 17:37:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dirtmagnets/749670/ We took the whole Quack Pack group (the daycare group) out to the Louisburg Cider Mill today for pumpkins, cider, and best of all, cider donuts.  James was excited to see pumpkins! Ryan and James enjoyed watching the press squeeze the apples. Everyone got their appetites revved up when we watched the donut making! The pumpkin patch has a fun play area - We checked out lots of pumpkins.  The kids were especially excited to look at rotting pumpkins to try to find bugs.  Who loves a hayride?  Tyler, Ryan, James, and cousin Joshua all do! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dirtmagnets/749668/ Wed, 7 Oct 2009 23:30:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dirtmagnets/749668/ My moms' group has a yearly Halloween party and it's always a blast.  This year was no exception!  James, all ready to go - Ryan spent most of his time motoring around. James sampled all of the toys, which included dozens of ride-on toys, lots of balls, climbers, and an inflatable bouncer, but he had the best time grazing off of the tables of snacks!  His second favorite activity was convincing his brothers and friends to give him rides in the wagon. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dirtmagnets/749667/ Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:24:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dirtmagnets/749667/ This weekend brought us to Des Moines for another fencing tournament.  Tyler did well, taking second place in the ten and under age group and twelfth in the twelve and under group.  He was particularly happy because the first and second place finishers for each event received trophies instead of medals.  And here are the rest of my boys, acting a little silly while we waited for the tournament to start. Tyler's clubmates also fenced fantastically, taking 3rd and 5th in the Y10 event, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 10th, and 13th in the Y12, and 1st, 2nd, 5th, 9th, 11th, and 13th in the Y14.  Way to go FACKC kids! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dirtmagnets/749665/ Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:03:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dirtmagnets/749665/ The boys couldn't wait for Halloween this year.  They've been counting down the days for several weeks.  We couldn't decide if Tyler was just being lazy or if he's just so obsessed with fencing that he couldn't think of anything else, but he opted to wear his fencing gear as his costume.  The little boys were cats.  Not just any cats, and not our cats, but only our neighbor's cats would do.  Ryan went as Oreo, but got a little creative with his costume and chose to be blue, black, white, and orange.  James was Maxine (NOT Max!  as I was told many times), but opted to be black and white instead of orange like the real Maxine.  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dirtmagnets/749662/ Sat, 31 Oct 2009 22:41:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dirtmagnets/749662/ After Tyler's fencing tournament, we all headed over to the City Museum for some family fun.  It's a favorite of ours, but we haven't been since Ryan was about a year old, but the littles are finally big enough to climb and enjoy most of it.   The outdoor climbing area is Tyler's favorite part, and Ryan loves it, too.  James, however, was a little nervous about the height, so he spent most of his time dancing and running around on the ground level. Ryan found his way to the fire truck in the sky! There were marshmallows for roasting... and big slides for sliding! Back inside, Ryan and Tyler climbed the giant slinkies and enjoyed the 4 story slide while James danced on the fin of a whale and on a wave. When the big boys were worn out and ready for a break from climbing, we grabbed a quick lunch and visited the museum's aquarium, where we enjoyed lots of touch tanks and, Tyler's favorite, saw several two-headed turtles and a two-headed snake. At the ray touch tank: James loves animals! Ryan enjoyed checking out the turtles before he was eaten by a giant fish. The tunnel through the shark tank is always the best part of the aquarium! There's even places to climb inside the aquarium! Once we had had enough of the aquarium, we ventured over to the building and art rooms to satisfy our little artist. We ended our visit in the skateless skate park, where all of the boys ran and climbed until they were exhausted. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dirtmagnets/749576/ Sat, 28 Nov 2009 22:12:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dirtmagnets/749576/ Tyler fenced in a little tournament in St. Louis this weekend and came home with a gold medal!  Granted, there was only one other kid entered in his event, but Ty had fun and fenced quite well, winning the pool bout five to zero and the direct elimination bout ten to one.  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dirtmagnets/749575/ Sat, 28 Nov 2009 20:00:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dirtmagnets/749575/ Tyler and Jason went off to Hutchinson, Kansas for the day with Tyler's Webelos den to explore at the Cosmosphere and at the Underground Salt Museum.  They came back exhausted, but seem to have had a good time.  No captions for the pictures, as I wasn't there, so I don't know any more than you do about what's happening in them! (He does love being photographed, doesn't he?) (Again with that brilliant smile!  What?!?  You don't see it?  It must be such a blindingly big smile that it's even blinded you, my dear viewer.  ) http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dirtmagnets/747292/ Sat, 14 Nov 2009 23:59:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dirtmagnets/747292/