The Routine Life - Homeschool Blogger

150 Things-Have you done them?

Fri, 8 Dec 2006 20:53:00 -0600

Copy and paste onto your blog. Bold items you have done

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink

02. Swam with wild dolphins

03. Climbed a mountain

04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive

05. Been inside the Great Pyramid

06. Held a tarantula

07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone

08. Said �I love you� and meant it

09. Hugged a tree

10. Bungee jumped

11. Visited Paris

12. Watched a lightning storm at sea

13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise

14. Seen the Northern Lights

15. Gone to a huge sports game

16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa

17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables

18. Touched an iceberg

19. Slept under the stars

20. Changed a baby�s diaper

21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon

22. Watched a meteor shower

23. Gotten drunk on champagne

24. Given more than you can afford to charity

25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope

26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment

27. Had a food fight

28. Bet on a winning horse

29. Asked out a stranger

30. Had a snowball fight

31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can

32. Held a lamb

33. Seen a total eclipse

34. Ridden a roller coaster

35. Hit a home run

36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking

37. Adopted an accent for an entire day

38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment

39. Had two hard drives for your computer

40. Visited all 50 states

41. Taken care of someone who was drunk

42. Had amazing friends ~ still do

43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country

44. Watched whales

45. Stolen a sign

46. Backpacked in Europe

47. Taken a road-trip

48. Gone rock climbing

49. Midnight walk on the beach

50. Gone sky diving

51. Visited Ireland

52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love

53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger�s table and had a meal with them

54. Visited Japan

55. Milked a cow

56. Alphabetized your CDs

57. Pretended to be a superhero

58. Sung karaoke

59. Lounged around in bed all day

60. Played touch football

61. Gone scuba diving

62. Kissed in the rain

63. Played in the mud

64. Played in the rain

65. Gone to a drive-in theater

66. Visited the Great Wall of China

67. Started a business

68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken

69. Toured ancient sites

70. Taken a martial arts class

71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight

72. Gotten married

73. Been in a movie

74. Crashed a party

75. Gotten divorced

76. Gone without food for 5 days

77. Made cookies from scratch

78. Won first prize in a costume contest

79. Ridden a gondola in Venice

80. Gotten a tattoo

81. Rafted the Snake River

82. Been on television news programs as an �expert�

83. Gotten flowers for no reason

84. Performed on stage

85. Been to Las Vegas

86. Recorded music

87. Eaten shark

88. Kissed on the first date

89. Gone to Thailand

90. Bought a house

91. Been in a combat zone

92. Buried one/both of your parents

93. Been on a cruise ship

94. Spoken more than one language fluently

95. Performed in Rocky Horror

96. Raised children

97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour

98. Passed out cold

99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country

100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over

101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge

102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn�t stop when you knew someone was looking

103. Had plastic surgery ~

104. Survived an accident that you shouldn�t have survived

105. Wrote articles for a large publication

106. Lost over 100 pounds

107. Held someone while they were having a flashback

108. Piloted an airplane

109. Touched a stingray

110. Broken someone�s heart

111. Helped an animal give birth

112. Won money on a T.V. game show

113. Broken a bone

114. Gone on an African photo safari

115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears

116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol

117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild

118. Ridden a horse

119. Had major surgery

120. Had a snake as a pet

121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon

122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours

123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states

124. Visited all 7 continents

125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days

126. Eaten kangaroo meat

127. Eaten sushi

128. Had your picture in the newspaper

129. Changed someone�s mind about something you care deeply about

130. Gone back to school

131. Parasailed

132. Touched a cockroach

133. Eaten fried green tomatoes

134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey

135. Selected one �important� author who you missed in school, and read

136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

137. Skipped all your school reunions

138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language

139. Been elected to public office

140. Written your own computer language

141. Thought to yourself that you�re living your dream

142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care

143. Built your own PC from parts

144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn�t know you

145. Had a booth at a street fair

146. Dyed your hair

147. Been a DJ

148. Shaved your head

149. Caused a car accident

150. Saved someone�s life

Lego Christmas Tree

Thu, 7 Dec 2006 12:07:00 -0600

During one of our recent chats on the Symbols of Christmas we talked about having the kids make Lego Trees, below is the finished project by Bryce

A New Haircut for Farrah :-)

Thu, 7 Dec 2006 11:59:00 -0600

Farrah is a spunky trendy little girl and she wanted a haircut that goes with that.

Bryce's Pilgrim Lapbook

Thu, 30 Nov 2006 10:07:00 -0600

Finally getting around to posting our Pilgrim Lapbook that we did together with the online co-op (which was fabulous by the way!!)

Enjoy!! Bryce is very proud of this and showed everyone at Thanksgiving!!

Putting the final product together, which Daddy helped with this time (okay so Daddy watched LOL)

Bryce with is final product!

WHAT did I get myself into???????????

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 23:17:00 -0600

Okay as I said in my "Don't Quit" post I had group tonight. My girlfriend was in awe of all the quotes and poems we brought her. She even cried. But after that we had a wonderful HUGE dinner.....well one of the gals has done 2 triathlons and has been slowly talking everyone into it......I've been talked into doing one leg of it. WHAT have I gotten myself into????????

Blog Challenges

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 21:48:00 -0600

On one of the lapbooking lists we were talking about our favorite HOAC units so I challenged everyone who uses our product to complete a "Top 10 List" It's going to be SOO fun to see what units everyone chooses.

My Top Ten:

5 Speckled Frogs
Bats
Symbols of Christmas
All About Ping
Animal Classification
Charlotte and Wilbur
Rainforest Frogs
Five Little Pumpkins
Beginning Reading
Polar Habitats

Mag's Top Ten

Heather's Top Ten

Liz's Top Ten:

It was very difficult to pick just 10, each one that I finally
picked had something very different to offer .
BUTTERFLIES This was the first HOAC unit that we completed. It
opened up the world of lapbooking to us. It gave my dd the success she
was desperately seeking after such a terrible struggle at ps.
PLANTS This unit gave dd opportunities to plant her own garden,
do experiments and enjoy nature.
THE FIVE SENSES Dd really enjoyed (for the first time) the
creative process of the unit. She liked the different folds,coloring
and putting the units together.This unit has many added little books
in it. She also liked the experiments.
VOLCANOES We have relatives who live near mt St helen and dd
really wanted to study volcanoes. She loves to tell everyone about the
ring of fire,magma and the location of volcanoes around the world.
HEALTHY EATING My little expert tell everyone what they should
be eating. Sometimes her efforts are not appreciated lol
ANIMAL CLASSIFICATION Dd is an animal lover . She truly loved
the graphics in this unit and I wanted her to complete this unit as a
basis to do more in depth animal studies.
ALL ABOUT PING An absolutely wonderful unit. There was so much
to learn,ducks, rivers, lifestyle in a different country etc.
NARNIA This unit is visually wonderful and teaches some
beautiful Christian lessons.We all enjoyed this one.Dd loves to show
this one at Church.
The RED CLOGS. This great study took us to Japan . We learned
some Japanese words,customs and saw life from the perspective of a
little girl. Perfect for my little girl.
CHARLOTTE AND WILBUR Last but not least,this super story of
friendship and loyalty . It leads to other studies, spiders pigs etc.

I could have easily added others but for now these are our favorites..

Tabbi's Top Ten

Niki, Okay here are my family's top ten and why:

1. Gods and Heroes of Ancient Sumer
DD, Age 8: "Because the names are so neat and it is fun to draw what I think they might have looked like!" Personally, I think she just likes saying "Ziggurat"

2. Horses
DD, Age 6: "Horses are my most favorite and I get to look through books to do research and see what all these horses look like in real life."

3. All About Ping
We are almost done with this as we are reviewing it and I think it is fun to read the story with my daughter again and again and then be able to put what she has read into a great keepsake!

4. Ancient Mesopotamia
My DD 8 has really enjoyed learning about what came 'before the Pyramids', she has gone to the library and checked out more books about the subject! "Zigguarats are really neat"

5. Penguins (just purchased)
Of course because we just went to see 'Happy Feet' and this has started the penguin craze!

6. Narnia (just purchased)
As my girls say 'The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe' is just the best book and we read it out loud as a family at bedtime over and over and they peruse it on their own constantly!

7. Owls (just purchased)
My daughter's good friend's mom is a raptor rehabilitator and she loves just watching the owls that are used for education that live at her home permenantly. Plus Owls are one of the symbol of our family's goddess from Greece, Athena, yes supposedly we can trace our family name back that far even to the original site of the Olympics!

8. Curious George (just purchased)
Who doesn't love this monkey? Both my girls love him down to their George undies, lol! This was so cool...they want to expand it for some of their other fav George stories!

9. Living Organisms
My oldest daughter's fascination with cells has been transformed into her own book that is appropriate for her age (8) because she made it herself!

10. Animal Classification
My little daughter really wanted to know about mammals and reptiles and kept frustrating herself when she could not remember which is which because of course she should know everything that her older sister knows right? Well this makes it down to her level and her big sister was able to make one just for her level...I am sure we will be doing this one again as the little one gets older!

Honestly though 10 is really hard to pick because they are all so great. We have made huge strides just adding this to our home school, it puts the power of the kids' school in their hands, it gives them the information and allows them to absorb and write about what they know or are interested in at their own pace and level. I just can not tell enough people what a huge help this has been! Thanks and keep them coming!

PS I knew this was a good thing when my husband saw the first book the girls were working on and sat down to listen snuggled on the couch as they droned on and on in excitable voices about what they were doing...NOT mom telling him 'what we did today'!

Connie's Top Ten:

10. Turkey Time- My 4 year old loved doing this while his older 2
sibblings did the Pilgrim unit!!

9. Pilgrims- not only did my kids learn some great info on the
Pilgrims, so did I!!! Stuff I NEVER learned in public school. My
MIL even said she didn't learn half the stuff my kids learned. ;)
(that is always a plus when the MIL comments on the school work.)

8. Life in the Great Ice Age- We have had this book for a LONG time,
and I was soooo thrilled to find this in lap book form. A great
alternative perspective to the "Ice Age" when everything was supposed
to be frozen and dead. LOL

7. Titanic- My daughter is dying to dive into this one. She has had
a facination with the Titanic lately and she is ready to get into
this. :)

6. Christian Missinaries- Missions is very dear to my heart, so when
I saw this lapbook on the site I had to grab it. This is such a well
done book. We have not completed it yet, but all the activities look
wonderful!

5. Christmas Cheer- I know my Nathan will LOVE this one as much as
Turkey Time. This will help keep him busy while we are working on
Symbols of Christmas.

4. Multiplication Party- Haven't gotten this one yet, but it's next
on my list because I know this is going to help my DD learn her times
tables. (in a FUN way.)

3. Egyptian Mummies- We love stuff on Ancient Egypt!! THis is such a
cool lapbook!

2. Ancient Egypt- Again we love anything to do with Ancient Egypt.
Need I say more??

1. Who is Jesus?- I had to put this top on my list because it is all
about my Lord and Saviour. I think this would be a must for
Christian kids. ;)

This list is by no means complete because I love ALL the HOAC
lapbooks! My kids are gaining so much knowledge from them and yet
they are havign fun while learning!!! WONDERFUL!!

Product Reviews

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 20:42:00 -0600

Many of you have seen reviews of our products on other people's blogs, we are working on getting each and everyone of our units reviewed. We have a few left, if you are interested in reviewing one email me at niki@handsofachild.com

Don't Quit

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 20:22:00 -0600

For the last year or so there have been 7 girls and I from church meeting together on Tuesday nights for what started out as Bible Study, while we've done many studies there have been many times where we are just there to support each other because something major has happened in one of our lives and we need to be there for each other. It has been a very rewarding set of friendships for me and important for me to get out of the house once a week to focus on me or in many cases focus me on someone else. Well tomorrow night is Tuesday again....and one of the girls is having a really hard time so we're all going to bring something inspirational for her. Here is the poem I found that I plan on bringing tomorrow. (it has no authors name with it so I'm not sure who to give credit for it)

Don't Quit

When things go wrong as they sometimes will;
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill;
When the funds are low, and the debts are high;
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh;
When care is pressing you down a bit
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Success is failure turned inside out;
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt;
And you can never tell how close you are;
It may be near when it seems afar.
So, stick to the fight when you're hardest hit -
It's when things go wrong that you mustn't quit.

Thanksgiving

Sat, 25 Nov 2006 22:04:00 -0600

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and weekend!!

We had a great Holiday dinner and have been working ever since LOL As you all know Hands of a Child had a massive Black Friday sale and the turnout was amazing but that means we've been working and packing orders ever since. Poor mail lady carried away 30 boxes of orders this morning LOL and there are double that left that need to go out monday, but I'll be sure to take breaks and check around here often as I wouldn't want to get trapped by those boxes LOL

The 80s are making a come back!!!

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 12:22:00 -0600

With the help of my Farrah Rose LMHO Just had to share these hilarious pictures from yesterday