The girls have been sick. My middle has had a fever since Wednesday! Seriously, 5 days so far. She's still feverish, but the two days in the middle (Thurs and Fri) she was HOT HOT HOT. Today it's pretty mild. Friday the oldest got the fever as well. Yesterday was her HOT HOT HOT day, today is better. We went to the ped on Wed morning because I was afraid it was strep (again), and it wasn't strep or the flu (the other thing I was concerned about). So, it's just a really nasty cold. Hopefully, the rest of the house will be spared.

Having them lay around on the couch for hours and hours staring at various screens that required no mental or physical effort on their part did allow for me to clean the house up some....it needed it. Have you ever noticed that once it gets a teensy weensy bit out of hand, it's a fast, out of control, down hill spiral? Or is that just the vortex that is my house? Hmm. Either way, we had a stomach bug (I mentioned that) on Valentines Day (fortuneatly, only affecting the three oldest members of our house). And, I swear, it's been 3 weeks and my house STILL hasn't recovered from the 3 days I didn't clean. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE? Currently, the kitchen looks really great, as does the living room. The babe's room is also fantastic (He recently got some new storage solutions in there), and our bedroom isn't the pit it was a month ago, so I'll take it.

Another day of laying around will give me time to plan out a bit further ahead in our curriculum as well. So, we'll be having another 'sick' day tomorrow. Hopefully, that will be the last of it though as running a fever for this long simply can't be good.

It's Girl Scout cookie time, that'll throw a kink in your plans to lose 20 lbs by May! LOL Especially, when you have 2 scouts IN your house. It's ok though, the weather is starting to warm and I'll be able to run again soon. Afterall, I have to train for that 5k in June! Yikes. What have I gotten myself in to?

Recently, I've been thinking about priorities. I wish this blog was higher on my list. I do wish I documented more of what we do on here, for the world to see. I enjoy our homeschooling so much, and I spend so much time reading more and learning more and growing more, I wish I made it more of a priority to share with the homeschooling (and non homeschoolers who may find their way here somehow) community. I'll try. That's the best I can do.

Currently, I am reading Essential Montessori, and Montessori in the Home: The School Years. I'm working on making the materials. Recently I completed the grammar symbols. I've fallen behind on my flags of the US though, as a result of working on other projects (including preschool/toddler things). I also made a big batch of colored pasta for sorting, patterning, counting, etc. The girls helped with that, and thought it was fun. I'm attempting to make a moveable alphabet this week....I already attempted it once but made my letters too thick and when I baked them to harden them, they plumped WAY up. I could just let them harden on the counter I suppose, I'm just in a rush to get them done (for no particular reason except that I think the kids will have a great time playing with them). I'd also like to make a set of sandpaper letters. That may be the next project, oh and finishing my flags!

I recently ordered Miquon math. My oldest really struggles with math, and after many approaches, and knowing that she is a visual learner, I hope Miquon will be a good fit and will help it "click". It's the only area she's 'behind' in. We'll start with it this week, provided she recovers soon. I really like how visual and hands on it is. I'd also like to create some of the Montessori bead material for her to use.

I also recently ordered some Weekly Reader books on the election process. They wont' be here until August, but I'm already excited. I have one book on the process of elections and voting called Woodrow for President (also from Weekly Reader) that the kids liked and learned quite a bit from. With it being EVERYWHERE these days, it's such a great chance to really show the kids the democratic process in action, and share with them the things I'd like to see changed!

My kids are in bed (well 2/3 of them are...the bigger two even!), my wee one is playing outside with my husband--man do I love him....that could fill another whole blog, how much I love the man I get to share my life with. And, now, I am off to read, plan, and make materials.

Much love, and happy homeschooling to you all!

New blog: Preschool

I started a second blog, specifically for preschool and toddler activities.


Waterfront Preschool

I'm still going to blog here about the older kids, and their many activities, and our family life in general, but the second blog allows me to keep track of all my preschool lesson plans (something I was unable to do the last time through) so that I can use them in the future, and also might give some others ideas.

We had a nasty stomach bug last week, right after I had spent a week getting my house in SUCH good shape it was amazing. Of course, it all fell apart when we were throwing up! LOL

I agreed to teach my neighbor preschool stuff, and I was feeling overwhelmed! LOL I guess I'm over that notion now. It must have been a bad week.

We exchanged flat travelers with our friend Heather's family, and my daughter loved seeing the pictures on their blog! We just got our traveler, and we're very excited to start taking him to do fun things.

School is going fine, after we recovered anyway.

More later!

Ramblings

So I must confess, I'm feeling really overwhelmed lately.

And yet, I keep thinking about getting pregnant again in the summer. How does this make sense? I'm overwhelmed, so add more!

It's my strange sense of logic.

I guess mostly I feel over-extended. Which also doesn't make sense considering that we don't do NEARLY as much now, as we once did. There was a time when we were out of the house, at different events, 4 times a week. And that actually didn't include sports! So now that ALL we do is sports and Girl Scouts, and an occasional playdate, how can I feel like it's TOO much! It's not to much for the children, in fact, I think my oldest would be happy if we went back to 4 days a week of outings, in fact I know she'd like that and not only because she's a complete extrovert, but also because she'd think that would take the pressure off actually getting her work done (more on that later). I've made the decision that I need to step out of my Girl Scout responsibilities next year, and just be involved as a mom, not a leader. This was a hard decision for me, as I truly do love "my girls", they are so much fun, but I don't feel it's fair to not feel like I'm giving them 100%. This year hasn't been nearly as successful in my personal review of my progress. I think the girls are still having a good time, and learning new things, I just feel like it could be so much better. In fact, I know it can be, because it was! It's very frustrating for me. I need to get it together.

And, third and fourth grade is time consuming! LOL Who knew! My younger dd is doing mostly 3rd grade work, with the exceptions of reading and writing, which have been slower to develop. My older is doing 4th grade with the exception of math-oh and the exception that she has made the decision to fail 4th grade. I've made the decision to let her. I decided I'm no longer in the reminder business. I spend ample time planning, and they are old enough to work independently a lot. So, I give them their assignment sheets each day. Things they need help with need to be completed by dinner, but they are free to work on things they can do unassissted until bedtime. Things that aren't completed by bedtime get zero's. My 8 yr old has yet to get a zero, in fact she's well on her way to straight A's! However, her sister...not so much. She had 20 zero's the first week we went to this system (we're about to enter week 3). I'm pretty sure she's going to have to fail before she learns this lesson. She needs to gain personal responsibility for her education, I don't think it's to early or that it will do her any great service to allow this lesson to wait. If she fails (which seriously, I think she will), she will be able to catch up...on her own desire to do so. If she is willing to work extra hard to get back "on grade level", then I will help her with that. If she isn't, then I will accept that decision as well. I'm hoping *crossing fingers EXTRA TIGHT* she will find her own inner motivation. She's not the most responsible being, and sadly I've realized I created this irresponsible, immature being before me! I robbed her of many opportunities to experience the natural consequence of her irresponsibility by constantly being that little voice in her head that said "did you get that done?" "what needs to be done now?" "do you have things you need to finish before class?" By being that voice, I've caused her true voice to grow silent. I'm hoping it will return.

I have a lot of planning to do. I have tons of stuff I want to share, but I haven't made blogging a priority yet. I'd really truly like to. I enjoy it immensely. I need to carve out a time once a week at least to get this done! It's not that I don't have the time...especially with the new laptop, it's that it hasn't been high on my priority list. Which would be fine, if I were spending that available computer time doing something important or worthwhile...but it's nothing that noble.

I want to share one quick thing about our school work, then I'm going to go and get on that planning, and cleaning my home, and going to ULTRA FUN things with my kids this weekend (We're seeing High School Musical 2-stage tour this afternoon, and the Hannah Montana 3-d digital movie tomorrow!!!). I will really try to blog more next week!

We did our first "research project" this month. We completed it with oral presentations this Wed. And, while it became apparent to me that I need to teach my kids how to take notes....after years of saying "complete sentences" they don't get it! It did go very well. They researched Coretta Scott King, and Harriet Tubman. They did internet research, and book research at the library. They collected the info then presented it orally (which wasn't the original plan...but was what our assignment morphed into). They both did a VERY good job, and I was very proud of them!

Now, I'm out.

Baby's First Birthday

Here are some pictures of the little one, enjoying his cake, and his present at his birthday party!

Ahhh, sweet routine returns.

So, my 'theory' that I'd have more time to blog while we were "tracked out" was so far off base, I definitely need to rethink that hypothesis. Also, our track out was supposed to last 3 weeks, and instead lasted 6. Ooops. Life happened.

We were planning on starting back on the 2nd of January, that didn't happen, but I can't remember why. So, I thought "Ok, we'll start back on the 7th." Then, my sister was scheduled to be induced on the 7th with her fourth baby. Ok, maybe we could fit something in on the 8th? Well, her labor lasted an entire 30 hours (poor poor girl)...and Tristen Cole wasn't born until late the afternoon of the 8th. So scratch the 8th too. My MIL was coming in early on the 9th-to be here for the baby's birthday, and well it's just about impossible to get school done with grandma Betty here, because we only see her once (twice if we're really LUCKY) a year, and the girls are just over the moon to see her! And, she really likes to shop so we were out almost every day she was here. She left on the 15th, and well, I really still needed to plan, so I decided we'd start back today.

I don't know when I've been so relieved (maybe right after Tristen came into the world?, no that was when my SISTER was relieved)! I'm so ready to get back into the 'normal' routine of things in our house again. Since Wednesday I've been SUPER busy because being the insane woman that I am I decided to WRITE A CURRICULUM. I found a book at the library called "How to Write a Low Cost/No Cost Curriculum for your home school child" by Borg Hendrickson. And, since I had already been thinking I needed to make sure I was checking off my p's and q's (this is more important the older my kids get) and checking what I thought we should learn against the NC Standard Course of Study I figured...well, I sort of write my own curriculum already. I have a collection of books we use, and I make up our lesson plans as I go along, so really this is just a formal extension of what we were already doing. It will be good to have in the future, I suppose. I'm not all the way done, I need to add activities that go along with the objectives, but I have all the Goals and Objectives for the rest of the year in place (thanks largely to the NC Standard Course of Study website). Now I just need to add in some things that are running around in my head as ways to meet those goals.

Now, also during our track out time we discovered that my sweet baby boy has food allergies. Tree nuts and peanuts. Ugh. We already knew he had an allergy to strawberries and banana's, but those are much easier to avoid than tree nuts and peanuts! You wouldn't believe-once you start checking labels-how many things are processed in facilities where nuts are also present. It's a new challenge to have to find things for him to eat that aren't made with any products that have been processed in those places. UGH. Also, as an added bonus, I'm pretty sure he is either lactose intolerant, or has a dairy sensitivity. More fun! The introduction to whole milk has not gone well, and he has some other symptoms when he eats yogurt (which he LOVES...going to try some soy yogurt this week).

We have lots of extra-curricular this week too! Bowling league, a nature class, dance class, basketball game and practice, girl scouts, and hopefully we'll be exchanging a "Flat Traveler" with Heather's family. We'll also find some time to do this weeks Unplug Your Kids project.

Our school lessons will include units on Dr. Martin Luther King, and other civil rights leaders. I can't wait to share this project with you all, when they've finished it. Here is the project we'll be doing. They Had a Dream Too. We'll be using both the Internet and the library to collect our information, and then build our projects. We're also going to be talking about Water Conservation for our science unit, and learning about water density and buoyancy in our experiment. This is a fitting unit as we really need to conserve as much water as we possibly can, considering we are in the worst drought in recorded history.

I think that's all for now. I hope I'll share more later this week!

My Baby is ONE!

Baby B was born on January 11th, 2007 at 1:34 am. He weighed 9 lbs and 1 oz, and was 20 1/2 inches long. Now, at one he weighs almost 25 lbs, and is 28 inches. He also has 14 teeth (misery I tell you, misery!)

Watch him grow...a year in pictures.

Only a few hours old:








1 month:

2 months:

3 months:

4 months:

5 months:



6 months:




7 months:






8 months:








9 months:





10 months:









11 months:










And, a current one (right after his first haircut!):





Party pics coming this weekend!!

What a wonderful year it has been, I look forward to watching you continue to grow and learn, my sweet baby boy! Happy Birthday to you!

My big girls banged up face

Here she is....the pictures really don't do any justice to how bad she looked!



She scratched her face from hairline to mouth, busted her lip wide enough that it really should have had a stitch in it, and chipped both of her front permanent teeth. It looks a lot better today, and she doesn't seem to be in any pain-which is fantastic.