Everything's Coming Up Roses - Homeschool Blogger

online Christmas Party

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 09:11:00 -0600

Hey everyone! I am part of this cool online Christmas Party! You should join us for lots of free ideas and fun prizes. Here's the link: online Christmas party Check it out!

Here's my contribution:
I saw this idea in a mag once and decided to try it this year.
The 25 Stocking of Christmas. We hung a clothesline of sorts in our kitchen. On each clothespin (25 of them) we hung a stocking. Each stocking has a special treat in it--candy, fun activity, no school, wear PJ's all day, etc. Many of them are free or extremely low cost. Today's stocking was a treasure hunt. I hid clues all over the house for the kids to find. I had pre-arranged with my mom who lives across town to hide certain clues at her house. At the end of the hunt (which ended at her house) was a gift for each child. She had purchased them and wanted to give them early to the kids. We had lots of fun with it and the kids each got really fun Klutz books. The body crayon one was the absolute favorite and it wasn't messy--I recommend it highly for anyone of any age! Here's some pics of our fun:

This is our 25 stockings of Christmas. Each day we open a new stocking.

This is the first clue. The rest were hidden around the house and included such things as:
Get dressed and mom will give you the next clue.
Bundle up and get in the van.
Drive to Nana's house.
At Nana's house, she had clues hidden which led to their present!

Here we are opening our gifts from Nana. What fun!

Caden got a Pooh Bear sticker shape book.

Alivia got a Klutz Spiral Drawing book. Alexis got the Body Crayon book by Klutz...I highly recommend this one! We had so much fun with it!
Mackenzie got a Klutz Stencil book--really fun!

Bad Day

Tue, 6 Mar 2007 19:37:00 -0600

UGH! What a morning! I got called to substitue at the career center for high school students today. It was an electrical class. To start things off the room was freezing! I was wearing my coat and literally was still freezing. We couldn't figure out how to turn up the heat. Then the students (15 boys and 1 girl) were totally rude and disrespectful! I have subbed in bad and rude classes before and have handled it--but today was the last straw. They outright refused to do anything I told them to do. They were blatantly cheeting on the test the teacher left for them to take. Many of them just left the room at will--without even asking. At one point I sent one boy to the office to ask for assistance from the principal or vice-principal. He returned stating that they were busy and would come later. I now know that he never went to the office. the class insisted that they were allowed to behave this way, but I knew otherwise. I went to the office and got assistance from the principal and from the security team. They took over the class for the rest of the 2.5 hour period. I hate to admit that I couldn't handle it, but I couldn't--I don't know how these student's parents even handle them! Many of them were so incredibly rude--and they kept on bragging about how they had been arrested and were on probation. Days like these are when I am so glad that God has called me to HS my DC!

Our homeschool journey...

Mon, 5 Mar 2007 13:01:00 -0600

I was just thinking about this the other day. I am a teacher, so when we decided to HS our DC I thought not prob, Bob! Piece of cake, I mean I can handle a classroom of 20-30 kids what will be so challenging about my own DC? Boy was I in for a surprise!!! I must admit that at first my idea of HS was "school at home" then as I read, studied, and researched my viewpoints slowly changed--it was really hard to get rid of that "teacher" mentality that was seemingly ingrained into my brain.

As I look back over last year and then into this year I have done a complete 180! I was all work and no play last year--workbook and schoolish oriented. Now we are doing so much of the CM method that narry a workbook can be found in my house (except for the ones that I gave to DC to "play" school with.

After trying 4 math programs--we have settled on one that I feel is the best--and I actually have peace with the decision and am no longer searching--Right Start math. Boy do I wish all DC had the opportunity to learn math that way!

SL LA has taken some getting used to, but we are in such a groove and my 7yo DD knows the exact same amount, if not more, than her public school counter parts. We love it--the natural method is so much more easy-going than any textbook curriculum!

My DC love their Bible, science, and history and geography lessons. Notebooking and narration is such a fun way for them to show others what they are learning, and it is a keepsake they will treasure on down the road.

And of course who could complain about all those wonderful books in our house now! Who wouldn't love this education? The icing on the cake was the other day when DD 7yo said to me (with a catch in her voice), "Mom I hope you don't ever send me to real school!" Of course now I am getting all teary eyed, but I am truly thankful for this journey that God has led us on and for His guidance and wisdom in choosing curriculum and in teaching my DC.

So this is how our curriculum situation looks for the rest of this school year and into next year:

SL core K for history (also mixing in a little bit of Galloping the Globe)

SL Bible K for Bible and also Truth Trackers (our Wed. night youth program) for Bible memory

SL language arts level 2 regular readers for 7yo dd and level K for 5yo dd

Apologia Exploring Creation through Astronomy for science

We will be taking homeschool PE classes at the local YMCA

Music will be violin lessons and practices

Art will be studying various artists and doing art projects as time permits

We will be doing pre-k type activities with the younger ones--also a bit of SL Pre-K curriculum

Notebooking will be added in and as time permits

Nature walks and nature study

Of course this list is not a complete list of all that we will be doing. I like to follow the children's interests and allow them time to explore and learn on their own.

Life is busy!

Sat, 1 Jul 2006 19:00:00 -0500

Well, we have been extremely busy for the past 2 weeks. Day camp at Minnetrista Cultural Center--I taught 3 classes there, while the girls attended the classes which I taught. Last week was vacation Bible School at our church. It was really busy and crazy! We would rush home from Camp Minnetrista then eat a fast dinner and leave for VBS which started at 6 PM. Each night hundreds of kids came from all over the city to take part in our jungle themed activities. The kids earned tickets for coming to VBS, saying Bible verses, bringing friends, and various other activities. They could spend their tickets to play carnival type games and bounce on the giant blow up things during fun-time. Fun was had by all.

Until Friday that is--Mackenzie was going through the caterpillar (a giant blow up obstacle course). When she came out of the obstacle she said she fell and got hurt. I didn't think anything of it, as she quickly quit crying and we came home. Come to find out Mackenzie had really been hurt during her fall. When she went to the bathroom before bed, she was crying and freaking out because it hurt to go pee. She was also bleeding pretty badly, so we went to the local walk-in clinic.

The Dr. on duty was our regular pediatric Dr. (praise the Lord)! She was so wonderful and treated Mackenzie with utmost care and concern! That in and of itself was a blessing from God that she was on duty as she knows our family. We did not have to be continuously drilled questions about abuse and such--that was not even a concern as the kids are always with mom or dad. She had the on-call OBGYN Dr. come in to check on the cut area.

To make a long story short, he sent us home for the night and scheduled us to go to the hospital in the morning. She was then put under anesthetic and stitched up. Thank goodness this was only a minor injury! I have a new appreciation for mothers who have to see their children suffer in countless ways as they struggle with much more serious or even life-threatening illnesses or injuries.

This incident alone has rattled my nerves and I don't think I could handle anything more serious than this. God was very comforting to us--as Mackenzie and I sat in the pediatric room waiting for nurses, doctors, anesthesia, etc. we prayed together to calm her nerves several times. We talked and I tried to take her mind off of what was happening to her. She was very confused and didn't want to have the Dr. touch her or look at her bottom area as she has been taught that it is private and no one is allowed to touch her there. We had to discuss how it is OK if you are hurt badly as she was and that mommy and the lady Dr. and the OBGYN were all in the room together and mommy said it was OK. Very confusing (and embarrassing) to have to go through this. She is recovering well and on the road to healing.

I thank God that he has given me a wonderful family in which I can rely on. This was also the weekend of the rummage sale which we have looked forward to having for quite some time. My mom came over and took the 2 younger kids, my father in law took Alexis, and my sister helped my step-daughter and husband run the rummage. It was a great success by the way!

Sat, 24 Jun 2006 21:01:00 -0500

WOW! It really has been a long time since I have written anything in here! Sometimes I am so jealous of the HS moms who actually get to write something in their blog every week--I am lucky to write once per month! I really wish that I could write more, but it seems that every time I think of a clever topic to write on, that I am nowhere near a computer!

Let's see what we have been up to lately:

We took a really cool mini-family vacation. We went to Traverse City, MI and stayed a night at the Great Wolf Lodge. This was totally awesome! The kids had a blast and it was totally designed with kids in mind! There were gobs of lifeguards which made me feel very comfortable to let the 6yo wander through the indoor waterpark. It was literally a huge water park inside! There were 2 giant whirlpools, 2 water slides in which you sit with your legs crossed to go down, then there were 3 giant enclosed tube slides which extended out of the building then back into the building inot a large and very relaxing lazy river. There was a pool just for water basketball, a pool with lillypads which you could hop around on, and yes a kiddie pool with 3 small water slides and dump buckets and all. It was a very shallow pool ranging from 1 inch to 18 inches--the little ones absolutely adored it! The biggest hit by far was the Fort Mackenzie--a giant treehouse type fort with all kinds of ropes to pull and dump water on others. Every 5 minutes a bell would ring and all the kids would run to the front of the fort to have a 1,000 gallon bucket of water dumped on you! Talk about awesome! We got 2 full days in the water park, plus a night's lodging in a very luxurious and BIG hotel room--all for a reasonable price (much cheaper than a theme park vacation that's for sure!) Not to mention all the FREE activities for kids to participate in--storytime before bed, crafts, scavenger hunts, etc. Oh and the food was excellent! We had no reason to leave the hotel for any reason. Definitely and all inclusive vacation! (I guess I should get paid for the free advertisement, huh?)

Mackenzie is coming right along in her reading skills. I am truly impressed with her! She received a copy of the Young Reader's Bible and has been voraciously reading it. Then tonight she brough me her Bible and we looked up a few well known verses so she could read them to me. There is nothing more precious than seeing your own child hunger and thirst to read the Bible. If only more Christians had this desire! It has truly been a rebuke to me, to be more committed to my personal devotion time with the Lord.

Alexis is beginning to read easy 3 letter short vowel words. We have been using 100 EZ lessons, but have taken a break from it for the time being. She is asking questions and trying to understand salvation for herself.

Alivia and Caden are both growing--and getting into trouble. I think she is teaching him a thing or two! Much prayer is needed for my sanity as well as for their own safety and health. Today I caught Alivia playing in the toilet--she said that she was cleaning it for me--soap bubbles were everywhere!

The oldest 2 girls have been participating in a local daycamp. Of course I am the teacher of each class that they get to take, so this week and next have been and will be very busy for us! We also start Vacation Bible School in the evenings. The kids always enjoy this time of the summer, but it is exhausting on the adults (and kids too though they won't admit it).

Birthday Celebrations

Fri, 12 May 2006 11:11:00 -0500

This week we celebrated a birthday. Not anyone's birthday in our immediate family, but Uncle Mikey turned 28 on May 10. He lives in Noth Carolina and since we are in Indiana, we celebrated without him. It was really fun! When we got up in the morning, we baked a giant sugar cookie. After it cooled we smothered it with icing and sprinkles. Then we called Uncle Mikey and sang "Happy Birthday" to him--Mackenzie even learned how to play the song on her violin during her lessons. But the party didn't stop there--after we decorated the giant cookie, we dug in--yes, that was our lunch for the day! When we were stuffed with cookie, we went shopping at Toys R Us--each child got to choose a toy as a present for Uncle Mikey. The twist was that they got to keep the toy themselves! It really was so much fun and the kids enjoyed celebrating his birthday without him. Of course, what kid do you know who can resist a chance to celebrate? We also did the same thing for Aunt Nikki's birthday back in November--she lives in China so we did a long distance birthday party.

Curriculum discussions

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 20:45:00 -0500

Have you ever had a hard time deciding on HS curriculum? You think you like something then when you try it you totally don't love it? There is SO MUCH information and so many curriculms out there that it can be SO overwhelming! I have recently had this situation happen to me. I thought that Saxon math 1 would be SO perfect for 6yoDD--but once we got started doing it, I was like this is WAY too easy, maybe I should have gotten the second grade version! My only hope is that this first part is just review, but then if I recall correctly from when I taught Saxon 1, it is all pretty easy--maybe even more like a kindergarten program. Maybe I should save it for 4yo DD to do in the fall as a K math. But then again, I spent all that money on it! I can't really justify buying something else only to find that I don't like that either! (I really can't afford it either!)

So what to do? I think I will scan through the program and see if I could possible skip ahead. I did find a math program I think will suit us--it is Rod and Staff math. Has anyone out there tried this? It is not a colorful or visual program, but it might just work. 6yoDD would probably like visual better, but R&S is fairly inexpensive, so maybe I could just get it to try. Has anyone else ever used this? Do I really need the manual? Don't you think I could just use the student edition and teach her the concepts she doesn't already know? I guess I am just wondering how valuable and helpful the manual really would be. When we used the Horizons K math program I didn't even use the manual at all! I just didn't like to do all of the suggested activities. I guess that is why Saxon appealed to me so much--it offered hands-on activities and included all of the manipulatives which the kids absolutely LOVE to play with.

I think we will give Saxon a shot for a few more weeks--if 6yoDD is getting totally bored and burned out then we will seriously consider something else. I don't require her to do all of the written work on the worksheets, only about half. So that should help with the monotonous factor. I did get a math book from a used curriculum book sale last weekend--it was on the free table and was one of those sample copies that PS get when they are looking into adopting new textbooks. Maybe we will just use that--it is a complete first grade edition and it is totally visual which she will LOVE. I also bought Singapore 1B and 2A for $2 each--they were written in, but I just wanted to preview them and see if we could use them. I wasn't overly impressed, but they will work if we need to try something a little more advanced. What do you think?

Long time, no write

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 20:29:00 -0500

It seems like it has been a long time since I have written anything--well, maybe that is because it has been a long time! So much has happened in our busy lives. I think of about a hundred things a day that I want to add to my weblog, but when it comes time to actually write them that is another story. Here is an overview of the past few weeks:

1. 2yo DD had minor outpatient surgery 2 weeks ago. She had her adenoids removed and a second set of tubes placed in her ears. It is amazing how much she has already shown improvement! She no longer YELLS when she is talking to you, and for the most part she is fairly quiet all the rest of the time. She used to scream and yell and cry TONS! It really is amazing how much better she behaves. And to think all of those times she was misbehaving was because she couldn't hear and she didn't feel well--that isn't to say that she is an angel now, but she is pretty close!

2. Our church had revival services last week with evangelistic team Steve Petit. The services were great! Great music and clear Gospel presentations plus a very exciting and dynamic kids program--the kids really enjoyed it. They were encouraged in their Christian lives and so was I. Unfortunately we only were able to attend 3 out of the 6 services due to sickness.

3. Our WHOLE family was sick with the flu last week! It was absolutely awful! It was like a chain reaction. Tuesday 1Yo DS was sick, the next day 6yoDD, 4yoDD, and 2yoDD all were sick with the same symptoms as DS. The very next morning I woke up sick and then DH came home from work early with the same thing. Then 2 days later 11yoDSD was sick with our germs too! It was really amazing that we were all sick at the same time. Ususally we are all sick but it takes a month or so for it to hit all of us. The funniest thing was that anyone who came into contact with us got sick within 24 hours of being with us! How awful!

4. We have begun homeschooling with our curriculum that we were going to start in the fall. I guess that is the downfall to getting your curriculum so early! We were so excited we just couldn't wait! Now 6yoDD is happily doing her first grade work and 4yoDD is doing her kindergarten work. That is the beauty of HS you can work with your kids directly on the skill areas where they are currently at. I think that if they were in school they would be totally bored! You know how most curriculums review basic concepts before starting new ones? Well, it will be nice to get the review part out of the way--I am tempted to skip it all together! At any rate the kids are learning and loving it! Here is a recap of we are currently doing:

~Sonlight Pre-K for everyone to listen to (also a bunch of other read alouds!)

~6yoDD: Saxon math 1, Sonlight language arts 1, Bob Jones press science 1 and social studies 1

~4yoDD: 100EZ lessons, Developing Early Learner series, Rod and Staff Pre-k, Singapore math 1A and 1B

~2yoDD: Lots of coloring and creative play (we will do the pre-k for 3Yo program from Rod and staff in the fall)

~1yoDS: Eating all of the good books and playing with his cars and trucks!

Field Trip Day

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 13:32:00 -0600

Today we went to kidart--it is always such an enjoyable time. The kids really love their classes plus we get to go TOGETHER which allows for special time with just MOM. Nana went with us today and we always have a great time with her too.

After Kidart, we went to the fairgrounds for the local farm festival. This was a very exciting and educational homeschool fieldtrip. We saw lots of animals and got to touch every one that we saw including: sheep, pigs, goats, cows. The local zoo even brought a few animals--alligator baby, snake, and Macaw. We saw how wool is spun into yarn. We saw some men carving wood sculptures. We learned about water polution and poison safety. The county sheriff AND state police were there handing out badges, stickers, safety coloring books, and of course temporary tattoos. The kids were in heaven. We saw what soybeans, wheat, oats, and corn looks like after it is grown and then as seeds. We saw several beekeepers with honey samples. We even got to choose a plant seed and plant it in a little paper cup--of course all the kids chose pumpkin seeds. The man who helped us plant them said to keep them in the cup until the first week of May or so and then plant them outside--I think we will have them grow up our fence. We will see what happens. I just love it when there is something going on that is really worthwhile and educational at the same time as the kids are having a BLAST! The best part of the whole experience--it was FREE!!!!

I have been looking at the Titus2 website and I think I am getting interested in their products. They offer all kinds of organizational ideas and tips. Their newest book called Keepers of Their Chores shows you how to organize kids' chores and get them to actually do them. Their other book Managers of the Home shows you how to organize and plan a family schedule, which sounds good to me, but I'm not sure if I really want a schedule or not and whether or not the kids will even respond to one. I would appreciate any advice anyone could give me on this subject.

On the other hand, I need ideas for my DS first b-day party. I don't generally do a huge party for them when they turn 1, but we have so many family members who live close by esp. on hubby's side who want a party, so I need some original ideas. I don't want to overwhelm the little tyke and would like to have a quiet, home party--so any quiet, easy, inexpensive ideas would be welcome.

I think that's all for today--have a good one!

Weekend

Mon, 13 Mar 2006 11:32:00 -0600

This weekend was quite enjoyable. The weather was actually warm and other than the rain we had, we got to be outside quite a bit. In the afternoon we (the kids and I) took a walk up to the shops a few blocks from our house. They really like it when we do this because there is a dollar store and they usually get to pick something to bring home. However, we have been really working on obedience and behaving while in public. My children are not unruly children just typical children but I still expect to behave and if we are in a situation where we must wait in line then I want them to do that quietly. I do not want them climbing on store displays or touching items at the counter. We have discussed that even if 1 sibbling is not doing the right thing, the others are not to follow. They are to ignore the wrong behavior and that child will be disciplined at home. Needless to say, we were at Staples waiting for a gal to weigh our item for shipping via UPS and 2YO started climbing on the display--the other 2 joined in. Unfortunately we did not get to visit the dollar store.

On Friday evening we went to have pictures taken at JC Penney. They really do a great job. The kids were very cooperative and we had some ADORABLE pics I tell you! The photographer just kept snapping and the kids kept on posing--it was like they were little models! And the pictures were just darling! Of course I can't even begin to tell you how cute they were--and of course I couldn't afford to buy every single shot, so I just had to choose the cutest ones that would fit in my budget. That is always so disappointing to me--but there will be other photo shoots. I wish they would sell you a CD with all the pics on it--that way I could post them for all to see or even put them as a screen saver on my computer. Oh well, I got the cutest ones to update our walls a bit.

It is naptime for the baby--so off I go!