A Morning at the Park

Last night was a bit rough.  Twinkle woke up, and while I was only up with her for about 20 minutes, it took me a while to fall asleep again.  Then Sweetheart Girl woke up because she was cold and couldn't get back into her sleeping bag (she was on the older boys' floor), and after that it took me forever to get back to sleep!  Needless to say, I was not ready to get up this morning...thankfully, my wonderful husband let me stay in bed.  Not only did he get the kids breakfast, he even got them going on all their morning chores!  What a man!

Of course, he had to leave eventually, and I was up, but hardly awake.  Since most of the kids were already dressed, I decided we needed a break.  We went to the playground.  We'll call it P.E.  We had a good time, but even though we were there by 8:00 and left at about 9:00, we were all a mess of red faces, sweaty hair, and tired little bodies!  Here are some pictures:

Then the older kids decided that Twinkle needed to have some fun, too!    

Notice that while she started with a smile (with Hero), by the time Sweetheart Girl got to her, she was a little unsure of this whole slide thing…

Then they went to play Air Baseball with some new friends.

  Look!  We do have grass in Tucson!!  (pay no attention to the brown spot right next to Sweetheart Girl)

Here’s some family trivia.  So far, all of my children have been afraid of grass when they reached the toddler age…

Ready to go home!

Saturday Sillies- Homeschool Edition

I saw a funny video on youtube this week with this title:

You might be a homeschooler if...

Since I didn't like the music to which the video was set, I just copied the funnies.  I laughed on just about all of them whether they were true or not!  Since I'm not sure exactly how to correctly give credit here, I'll just say the video was posted by liveoutloud247.  Ready?

You might be homeschooler if...

You come to school in your pajamas

Your biology lab consists of assisting in your sibling’s birth

Your stack of books to check out at the library are taller than the librarian

Your PE comes from chasing little toddlers around

Your school bus is a 12 passenger van

You consider schoolwork after lunch to be cruel and unusual punishment

Your father has ever told the cashier at Wal-mart, “We’re on a field trip”

Your social life is viewed by some to be one rung lower than that of a Benedictine monk

Your teacher has ever written your report card on a napkin

You have to move dirty laundry off your desk before you can start school

The signatures on your diploma all have the same last name

Everybody else in the world is referred to as “non-homies”

Your first real date is on your honeymoon

The word “homework” sounds like a foreign language

Your yearbook is also your baby book

A snow day means you shovel the driveway after you finish your schoolwork

You enjoy the pastime of watching the public school kids walk home from the bus stop

You have to look at the clock to see if you can call your public school friends yet

Health class consists of eating breakfast

You have to decide what year you want to graduate

Your teacher can kiss your principal and no one thinks it’s unusual

You get to school and your teacher asks if you finished your chores

Your dress code is “No nudity allowed”

You don’t own a TV

You are firmly convinced that high school causes brain damage

You sleep until 9:30 on weekdays, but wake up at 6:30 on Sundays

You have more siblings than you do sweaters

Your favorite author is Jane Austen, G.K. Chesterson, or P.G. Wodehouse

You have ever suffered through Saxon Math

You taunt high-schooled friends during finals week

You spend more than 2 hours a day reading and writing…voluntarily

You regularly utilize words like: malingering, tedious, and indubitably

Shop class includes watching your older brother fix his car

You don’t know what cafeteria food tastes like

Your parents spend more money on schoolbooks than school clothes

You’ve never forgotten the combination to your locker

Your teacher frequently takes a nap during class

Heeheeheehee

First Week of School

Well, our first week is over!  I’m more tired than I thought I would be, and we couldn’t even do all of our subjects this week!  I guess it will take some time to adjust to the ‘new normal.’

I feel like I have so much to say, but then again my brain can’t even put it all together!  Hero is really enjoying his classes that are on the computer, and in his eagerness, he’s already 2 weeks ahead!  Granted, most of it is all review, so it’s not very challenging yet.

McAwesome can’t start his Language Arts until next week, so we just focused on Math.  Again, it’s all review, so we did 10 lessons without a problem.  We could have done more, but…I decided to take it easy on him!

The boys loved their first Astronomy class with Daddy-man!  It’s fun to see what they each pick up on from the lessons, and I’m looking forward to going over their notebooks as they complete them over the year.  They even already had a chance for their first (failed) field trip!  The Perseid Meteor Shower took place last night (or was it this morning?- don’t ask me, I was asleep!).  Daddy-man woke up a little after midnight to check it out, but there wasn’t much to see so he didn’t wake the boys up for it.  They were disappointed, and I read this morning that the best of it happened just before dawn.  Oh, well…

Here are some pictures from the week:

Hero hard at work!

Sweetheart Girl had to have things to do, too!

Minion 1 playing with some magnets during blanket time

Minion 2 trying to be as close to off the blanket as he could! I’m on to you, Kid!

I guess I didn’t get any pics of McAwesome- Oops!  Classic second-born child syndrome!

Wordless Wednesday- Can You Put Words to This Hair?

2010-2011 Curriculum

Here's the rundown of our school year and the materials we will be using:

 

1st Grade- Awesome McAwesome

Language Arts- A Beka (Video Streaming, includes Reading,

     Writing, Phonics, Spelling, Poetry, etc.)

Arithmetic- A Beka "Arithmetic 1" (Parent-taught)

History- A Beka "My America and My World" (Parent-taught)

 

3rd Grade- Hero

Language Arts- Switched on Schoolhouse 300

Mathematics- Switched on Schoolhouse 300

History & Geography- Switched on Schoolhouse 300

Reading List (so far)-

    * The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
    * The Mouse and the Motorcycle  

    * Encyclopedia Brown

    * Little House on the Prairie Series (the first three)
    * Charlotte's Web

    * Sarah, Plain and Tall

    * At least 3 missionary biographies (I don't have any yet)

    * We'll see what else!  I take suggestions!

 

Joint Classes- Hero and McAwesome

Science- Apologia "Exploring Creation With Astronomy"

Character Training- Pearables "Lessons in Responsibility for

     Boys"

Art- Various Crafts from "The Fantastic Rainy Day Book,"

     any Usborne books I can get from the library, and fun

     ideas I find online.  I have no formal curriculum but want

     to study at least two famous artists and their works. 

Sweetheart Girl, and sometimes the Minions, will be  included!

Bible- McAwesome’s Video Streaming Classes include Bible, so between that, family devotions, and individual devotions,

     we won't have a more formal Bible class this year.  We

     will work on Sunday School and Children's Church

     memory verses throughout the week and other passages

     as well, utilizing THIS memorization system at

     Raising Olives.  (LOVE that site!)

 

K4- Sweetheart Girl

Workbooks from Walmart!

Letter of the Week Activities from Confessions of a Homeschooler

 

Tot School- The Minions

I'm collecting various manipulatives, but more on Tot School later!

 

I'm trying to remain flexible since this is our first year schooling with all of these kiddos!  We start in 6 days!

Color My World?

I consider myself a fairly frugal person. I enjoy the dollar store, Goodwill, and my personal favorite, Savers. I'd like to think that over the years, I've learned how to shop wisely at the 'cheap stores,' and when to 'splurge' for the sake of quality. I pray that I don't waste the money for which my husband works so hard and the Lord so graciously supplies, and I'm always looking for tips and tricks to stretch a dollar.

I'm sure you've seen the emails that go around and the 'fluff' news reports claiming to have discovered new ways to survive the recession! I've seen them too, and to tell you the truth, I don't get anything from them anymore. Some tips are actually very wise and do make a difference, and we've been doing those for years. Only wash full loads of laundry on cold water, run the thermostat 2 degrees higher or lower (ours is at 79-80 in the summer and 67-68 in the winter), don't use other banks' ATMs, etc. Been there, done that. Other tips don't even apply! Give up one Starbucks (or _________) a week, negotiate a lower credit card payment, and on and on... Ummm...can't do those ones...

All in all, I think we do pretty well, although I'm sure there's always room for improvement. But I have a confession to make...I am wasteful in one area (Okay there are more, but it's my blog, and I don't have to expose all my faults!)...are you ready, people?...*deep breath*...

I love to throw away old crayons.

There I said it. I hate old crayons! You know, when they lose their pointy tip, and you have to start peeling the paper back, and the paper itself is all dirty and gross-looking, and heaven forbid a crayon breaks! Ugh! Just toss the broken ones, no big deal!

No, I don't have OCD, but I realize this doesn't help my case :)

Yes, I know they make crayon sharpeners. I even have one and use it rarely occasionally.

No, I don't tell the kids to throw away their crayons if they start to look dirty.

Yes, I do tell them to throw away broken ones if they're annoyed by them (when they're tiny, they're hard to use!).

Yes, I know you could do a cool craft and melt down the wax to make new 'multi-colored' crayons, but....no. Someday, maybe, but not today.

I justify it this way: I haven't bought a box of crayons in several years, and yet I'm still able to toss out old ones, so obviously, I'm not really wasting money (mine, anyway!). Between birthdays, Back-to-School Sunday, and random, couldn't tell you how it happens, events, we always have a steady supply of those wonderful, colorful, coloring instruments. I even have a box that I keep in my closet, just for me to use...shhhh.

So there it is...one of my little quirks put right out there for the world to see. I'm hoping that there is at least one person that shares my love for pristine crayons, but if not...well...I guess I can only say this:

My name is Heather, and I'm a new crayonaholic.