Mom of 3 crazy boys

New Year New School Plans

2012-01-03T18:24:00.000-07:00

After an extremely trying 4 months of school with the boys I revamp the way we are doing things for school. I know it's only been one day but it's the first day ever this school year that I didn't scream and holler at the kids or have a child refuse to continue doing school work. Obviously my decision to switch things up worked and oh my heck they actually remembered enough of what we learned to tell their grandfather tonight when he showed up at our place. So over the next few weeks I'll highlight some of the changes we have made and try to be better at keeping this blog up to date. I've become lazy at this as I've really struggled with the kids. And to be honest they almost were sent to public school at the beginning of December. Hopefully things continue to go well otherwise this journey in homeschooling may be ending.

Turkey Day 1k

2011-11-27T20:27:00.000-07:00

Well I did it and even though my training went to pot I did it. I even finished it. I'd like to hope I would have done it faster without a crying kid I was dragging along but who knows. All I know is I tied my best training record and that's good enough for me. Now to train better and do a Valentine's Day run. My picture stinks. I hate the way I look in pictures but it's proof I did the 1k.

Moving On

2011-11-12T20:55:00.001-07:00

Way back when I first got pregnant with Nathan I found a wonderful support group online. After a while some of us made a move to a private board and became really good friends. We even got together a few times and they were of great support. About a year and a half after the twins were born I came to discover that one member of that board didn't really like me and had secretly started a collection of all my posts, mainly bad ones or where I complained about how sickly the kids were. Yes for a while my kids were sick it seemed every other day. Well one day when I complained about how a neighbor called the police on us for letting a child cry it out I was told by this person she wasn't surprised as she felt I was a horrible parent. She then proceeded to post every single post I had ever made along with pictures I posted that illustrated what happened. Basically I was called an unfit mother and made to feel like I was a piece of crap. What bothered me most was supposedly this person was of the same faith as me yet I can tell you she did not act like any member of my church I had ever known. I left the group as I was ticked off that my trust with people on the board was broken. Sadly I allowed someone else who had also been treated unfairly by those on our private group to convince me I should share my story on the main group. A few details were changed and yes I allowed my anger to let everyone there know exactly how those on our private group felt about them. Unlike B I didn't think ahead of time to document every thing as I actually was friends with the people I chatted with daily. Well word got back to them and I was completely blacklisted and nobody from the group would talk with me again.
Now it's been almost 5 years and I've been trying to apologize, mainly because I know I did wrong, but I can't get anyone to even acknowledge I have sent messages to. They won't even respond with a you an ass and I don't ever want to talk to you again. The funny thing is two people from the group are members of my faith and I guess really don't believe in the lessons we learn from our prophet and his counselors. Years ago two of them suggested I listen to the this speech during general conference because I still held bitter feelings to our old ward. I find it odd that I was suppose to forgive yet they can choose not to. Granted I haven't done all I could do (meaning I don't have physical addresses to mail or visit these ladies anymore and that I have contacted them via their blogs, facebook, and email) but I find now that I just really don't care if I get their forgiveness cause I've finally forgiven them for what they did to me. I really only wanted to be friends with one lady again although reconnecting on a limited basis with the others would have been nice as we shared so much. One I was going to ask to take my kids if something ever happened to me and my husband as that's how close I thought we were. Yesterday I left a comment on a blog run by one of these women. She took the time to respond to each and every other commenter but my comment. A few hours later she removed my comment.
So today I say goodbye to my feelings of hatred, resentment, and hateful thoughts of these people. I have moved on. As James Faust said in the above speech:
"If we can find forgiveness in our hearts for those who have caused us hurt and injury, we will rise to a higher level of self-esteem and well-being."
I only hope one day at least one of them can also learn the healing power of forgiveness.

Testing the Mac

2011-09-23T19:30:00.000-06:00

Just testing to see if I can load pictures from the mac onto blogger.

What a wild two week!

2011-09-18T22:26:00.000-06:00

Since starting school about one month ago we've had a wild ride. Stomach flu that took almost 2 weeks to recover from as everyone didn't get it at the same time and it was spread out over a two week period. And then the worst thing to happen if you home educate (someone told me this should be the new term for homeschooling) losing the pricey and most important curriculum you own. Yes not only did one computer bite the dust but the second back up computer. My life was shattered. I can not believe how much computers play a role in my life. We took them to the computer repair store hoping and praying that they could be fixed while also contacting a few curriculum sites asking if they could replace or deeply discount a replacement for me. Lucky for me they all came through but even more lucky, while the computers were dead, the repair store was able to get all the pictures (which of course I hadn't backed up) and files. I ended up buying a used and repaired computer from the repair shop. Great deal from them and I was happy. However as my husband pointed out going back to only two computers (guess Noah's random bid on a laptop last spring helped us somewhat) was hard. So off we went looking for a brand new computer. I had my mind set on a certain computer at the Bx on base that was about $300. But I guess it wasn't meant to be as that is not what we bought. After being convinced by several costumers and sales clerks we walked out of the BX with a brand new Mac. I have to say I'm in love with this machine. So so easy compared to the pc. And once I figure out all the ins and outs I'll probably be even more in love. Now I all I need to do is get caught up on my food blog and this blog.

First Week of School

2011-08-25T22:01:00.000-06:00

We had a rough first day, a pretty decent second day, a really rough third day, and then today which turned out pretty good. I'm realizing I have scheduled far too heavily in some subjects and way too little in other subjects. I think in the next week or two we will get the hang of things. Since so many of my homeschooling friends are posting schedules this week I thought I'd post a little of what we do.

School starts at 9:15. We start with a review of the day of the week, the month and the date. Then we recite the Pledge. Next everyone works on math, followed by spelling, handwriting, grammar, and writing. Then we usually take a 10-20 minute break.
Next we work on reading skills, learning to read (twins), and a few other reading related items. By this time it is usually 12-12:30 and we break for about 45 minutes for lunch.
After lunch we work on history (everyday), science (right now 2 times a week may be moving this to three), music (two times a week one being learning instruments and the other day singing), art (two times a week, once being a crafty or seasonal thing and the other day being an instruction in some fundamental of art), health (twice a week), and geography (daily).School is usually over by 3 pm although some days much earlier and some days much later.

1st Grade Plans

2011-07-26T16:01:00.000-06:00

I'm taking the easy path with the twins this year. They did not learn to read as easily and quickly as Nathan did and Explode the Code just wasn't working for them. So in an effort to save time and money I put them into k12's language arts/phonics program. Anyway here is the rest of their plans for the year:

Grammar/Writing/Language Arts/Phonics
k12 language arts/phonics for k and 1st grade

Math
Math Mammoth 1B and 2A

Spelling/Vocabulary/Logic
Wordly Wise 1st grade
Zaner Bloser spelling
Lollipop Logic

History
See Nathan's 3rd grade plans

Science
Undecided at this time

health/music/art/typng
See Nathan's 3rd grade plans

Our 3rd grade plans for this year

2011-07-25T15:34:00.000-06:00

Looks like it's that time of year when everyone is talking about their plans. I tried to talk the kids into public school this year, lol, mainly because I get tired of arguing with everyone over our schooling decisions. Funny how I never talk bad about other's choices but my choice is fair game to argue with or fight with me about. Anyhow at least for now we will be homeschooling this upcoming year. So here are our plans:

Grammar /Writing
Growing with Grammar Level 3
Writing Tales Level 1
Sentences to Paragraphs Book 1
Exercises in English 3
Grammar Tales

Language Arts
Handwriting without tears cursive
Zaner Bloser printing
Poetry for young people
Read and understand poetry
books I'll be reading out loud
books Nathan will be reading

Math
Math Mammoth 2B and 3A

Geography
Geography from A to Z
National Geographic Kids World Atlas
Down to Earth Geography
Map Skills for Today
Evan Moor 7 continents
10 Days in Games
Geopuzzles

Spelling/Vocabulary/Logic
a spelling book from ebay that is used in public school
Spectrum vocabulary 3
Analogies for beginners
Listen Hear!

History
Elemental History
SOTW medieval times
Cantering the Country

Science
UNDECIDED AT THIS TIME

Health/Music/Art?Typing
a health book from PS found on ebay
Story of the Orchestra starting with instruments then heading into composers
Evan Moor How to Teach Art to Children
Evan Moor Art for all Seasons
Monthly arts and crafts
Typing

Garden Pictures 2011

2011-07-22T11:20:00.000-06:00

We expanded the garden this year. We now have 12 squares within which we grow food. We do grow this stuff organically and this year after a really rough start our garden looks to be the best it ever had been.
What we planted this year, everything including fruit trees and fruit bushes is grown organically:
expanded our strawberry and herb patch
apples of some sort
our grape vines are producing high amounts for the first time, we have concord and himrod
23 tomato plants
6 tomatillo plants
12 sweet pepper plants
4 hot pepper plants
rainer cherry tree (planted this year)
raspberry bushes, fall gold and a red one that I don't remember right off hand
6 cucumber plants
one peanut plant
2 pumpkin plants
4 watermelon plants
2 cantaloupe plants
3 dozen sweet onions
white corn
Chinese red beans

Already harvested and gone:
snow peas
kale
swiss chard
brussel sprouts
rutabaga's
kolhrabi __________________

Language Arts Find #1

2011-07-16T16:24:00.000-06:00

We love this book at our house. Again no need to homeschool to enjoy and broaden your child's education with this book. It's full of old American rhymes and jingles. Fun to use for memorization or even copy work. Some of the rhymes and jingles included are:
The Bear Went Over the Mountain
Lazy Mary
Yankee Doodle

The book is titled The Rooster Crows A Book of American Rhymes and Jingles by Maud and Miska Petersham

Logic Find #3

2011-07-15T10:26:00.000-06:00

I'm one of those people who can not figure out those little logic puzzles and I hate that fact. So I have been making sure my kids get to practice this skill all the time. I stumbled across this little gem at the local DI store for $1. Inside the book (as you can see from the pictures) are all kids of puzzles. The book starts off with Hide and Seek which has mazes, picture puzzles, and eye foolers. Followed by all the following types:
Riddles- Riddles from long ago, riddles from other lands, and joke riddles of today (today being 1982).
Brain Teasers- Puzzles in which the answers are "right under your nose."
Mystery!- A mystery story about a stolen vase, for you to solve.
Shufflers- Puzzles in which you can move toothpicks, coins, and buttons to make shapes and designs.
Ponderers- Puzzles that take lots of thought.
Brain Twisters- Puzzles in which you have to sort out may clues.
Look and Think- Puzzles in which you have to see in your mind what you can't see on paper.
Wordles- Hidden words, scrambled words, and secret codes.
Arthmeticks- Number puzzles, some of which are jokes and tricks.
Brain Busters- The hardest and trickiest puzzles of all.

Never fear if your like me and can not figure them out. The answers are in the book, usually with the description of how to solve the puzzle. You don't even have to homeschool to get use out of this find. It would be fun for anyone. The name of the book is The Puzzle Book. It's put out by Childcraft and this book is part of the 1982 Childcraft Annual series.

History Find #1

2011-07-09T15:25:00.000-06:00

This find is not something you do at home but it would make a really fun field trip during the summer. I say during the summer because that's when the summer adventure program is run at the American West Heritage Center in Wellsville Utah. Honestly this place was way more fun then I expected when we first set out. My kids LOVED the place and have asked daily since we left if we could go back.
Mountain Men- There is tent set up where you enter and chat with a Mountain Man. He taught us all about the different furs they caught and what they traded them for. They had some of the actual furs there in the tent so you could see what real furs looked like. They also had historic items that were used in trading. Like real 1800's playing cards, canteens, guns, and so forth. At the conclusion of the the info he shared we learned how to toss tomahawks, just like the Mountain Men did at their rendezvous
Indians- Next up was the Indian village where we entered a tepee. Inside was an "Indian" who taught us a little about the Northern Shoshone and their traditions. Along with teaching us the Indian signs for various items and animals. Fun but not as interesting to the kids as it was for adults.
Pioneer Living- This was set up just as life was during pioneer times. They had a dugout and a little log cabin. My boys helped weave a rug, attempted to crochet, helped make butter, helped make cookies, made popcorn, fetched water, gathered wood and helped with the fire, washed dishes, and so many other little things the pioneers did back then. After about 45 minutes of hard labor they got to tour the dugout and learn how they caught mice and was shown how snakes sometimes shared the dugout with pioneers. Then a short tour of the one room log cabin followed by some pioneer games including tug of war.
Next up we hit the pony rides and the train ride. Both were huge hits with the kids. We stopped at the wood working place and they kids played around with kid toys and the adults got to help cut two dove tails for a chest they were making. I kicked Don's butt at this.
The final destination was the 1917 farm. The tour of the farmhouse was boring for the kids, until they saw the upstairs, but I loved it. The hit here was the outside area. My kids did several loads of laundry in the old fashion way, tubs of water with a washboard and ringer then hanging up on the clothesline to dry. They spent a very long time with doing the laundry. They fed chickens and helped look for eggs. They fed the hogs and toured the outhouse. Then we stopped by and learned how to make a horseshoe and then back for more laundry.

I had hoped this would keep us entertained for a hour or two but when all was said and done we spent almost 5 1/2 hours there. A perfect day and so much fun with learning tossed in.

Nature Study Find #1

2011-06-29T10:47:00.000-06:00

This find doesn't require a purchase. It's a link to a fantastic blog about nature study. Yes the blogger has all kinds of nifty things you can purchased to use in your nature studies but you can do almost everything without needing all her nifty downloads and stuff. Sign up for her newsletters cause they offer more things to do. The blog is titled Handbook of Nature Study. She has nature study activities all year round. Yes including that season of winter where I'd prefer to stay inside where it is warm. Seriously this is one of the best done programs for nature study. You will not be disappointed.
When we first started this program I wasn't sure how we'd be at doing it so we just made little books from construction paper to record our studies on. However we are expanding to a nature log that we are buying from Rainbow Resources. This way we can have a nicer book that will last longer than our little cheap books we made lasted.
Here is a link to the June Newsletter.

Vocabulary Find #2

2011-06-27T11:06:00.000-06:00

This vocabulary find focuses on those crazy idioms that are so confusing to kids. This stand up flip over book has 200 idioms to learn and understand. You know what idioms are, right? Well I didn't know these little sayings were called idioms until I discovered this little gem. Again no need to homeschool to make this work in your house. We learn a new one everyday. It's simple to use this little book. We stand it up on the computer desk and flip daily to learn a new idiom. Each each has the idiom at the top. Then it has a sentence using the idiom and a picture. Finally at the bottom it contains the What does it really mean which explains what the idiom really means. I've enjoyed watching the lightbulbs go off in the heads of my kids as they finally figure out what some of the phrases they have heard from adults make sense. And it's really fun to watch them use those idioms themselves correctly when talking to other adults. This sells for about $10 on Amazon.

Vocabulary Find #1, Phonics Find #1

2011-06-26T11:16:00.000-06:00

Again a great find for those who homeschool or even want to reinforce what their kids are learning in school. This one is called Vocabulary Power reading Grade K. It also comes in grades 1, 2, and 3. My examples are from grade k. There are 150 sight words in this collection. It stands up so we left it on our school table during the day and reviewed throughout the day. The way we used it was to review one word a day. On the top is the word, which in the first picture is am. Next they use the word in a sentence and show a picture that relates to the word. Then at the bottom they have two additional words that are usually from the same word family and they use them in a sentence. Just a simple and slightly fun way to increase your child's sight word readings. Amazon carries these for $10 and some qualify in the book 4 books get one free promotion they run.

Logic Find #2

2011-06-24T12:01:00.001-06:00

*****Well as someone pointed out I totally spaced placing the name of this game. It's Think Fun Hoppers. Guess one shouldn't post on her blog when she is suffering from food poisoning.

This turned into a fun way to test your brains thinking abilities. An added bonus is the back has the solution just in case you can't figure it out. They start out easy and work their way to really hard puzzles. All the pieces store inside the game board so it's really easy to clean up.
The goal of the game is to move all the frogs off the board except for the red one. You jump over frogs to remove them. You use between 4-12 frogs with each card. The front of the card has the placement for the frogs and then you start moving them. My 6 year old's have made it to level 20 without any help from me.

Math Find #2

2011-06-23T15:54:00.000-06:00

So you have a child who loves playing with things while learning? Well here is a perfect fit for that child. The book is called Math Gears. As you can tell from the pictures each page has a dial that you move around to get a new addition/subtraction/multiplication/division problem then you lift the tab to check your answer. Facts start at 1 and go to 12. Great way to help little minds learn their facts. The cost is about $8 on amazon and worth the money if you ask me.

Geography Find #2, Math Find #1 and Logic Find #1

2011-06-20T09:19:00.000-06:00

It's a game titled Ticket to Ride and again it's not just something for homeschoolers. The recommended ages are 8 to adult BUT my 8 and 6 year old's love the game. We just change the rules a bit for the younger ones but even they are starting to play like the adults. The one we have has a map of the USA and Canada with major cities randomly selected. Geography ties in because you have to find your cities and then you learn the names of the cities in between. Logic ties in because you have to think and plot your moves. Math ties in because you have to count many times in the game. Read this review on the game and you'll see just how much fun it can add to a school day or family game night.

Geography Find #1

2011-06-18T11:04:00.000-06:00

Geopuzzles! You don't even need to homeschool to enjoy these. It's a fun way to learn all the countries in the world and their location. I own all of the puzzles except for the full world one. The Africa one is missing from the photo collection above because I can't remember where I placed it after cleaning up the last time. Anyway the kids love helping to put the puzzles together and they love timing themselves to see if they can beat their previous time. Also they are getting really good at knowing the general location of where each country goes. It's a simple yet fun way to learn about the world and where places are located.

The puzzle tried to shape each country as it is in real life. Sometimes the bigger countries get put together in several pieces and sometimes smaller countries are put together so the pieces are super tiny. As a warning the pieces do not fit like traditional puzzles and if having an exact fit puzzle you will be disappointed. One thing we do is read the names of all the countries and then I have the kids leave the room. I then remove a few countries and see if the kids can remember the names of the missing ones. My kids are 8 and 6 and while they don't get them all correct they do better than the neighbors 12 year old who learned world history last year in school.

I think these would be the perfect supplement and possibly a full on curriculum for learning world countries and geography. The price on these puzzles run from $7-15 on amazon, not a bad price for hours of fun and learning.

What's coming up on the blog!

2011-06-15T21:31:00.000-06:00

I plan on giving some reviews on products we used throughout the year for our schooling. So stay tuned for that all my homeschooling friends. I do have a few really fun things that we have loved. Curriculum, puzzles, games, and books. I'll cover it all while getting ready for a new year of homeschooling in the fall.

6/12/2011

2011-06-12T12:39:00.000-06:00

Book Review for Memorial Day

2011-05-19T18:16:00.000-06:00

I found a really neat book about Arlington National Cemetery for reading around Memorial Day. The story talks about George Washington Parke Custis and continues his family story through Robert E. Lee. There is some talk about the Civil War and how that was the beginning of the National Cemetery. There is mention of the memorial to the U.S.S. Maine and how it came to be. Then the story continues with WW 1 and the beginnings of the Tomb of the Unknowns. Also included is the story behind the guarding of the Tomb of the Unknowns. Traditions that are carried on in Arlington are given in easy to understand descriptions. They talk about caparison horses and the most famous caparison horse. They also talk about the Challenger Monument and the one for the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon. I loved the mention of the work that goes into getting the cemetery ready for Memorial Day. And the book finishes off with the traditions used in changing of the Guard and burials that take place in Arlington. There are no actual pictures instead the book is full of drawings.
I thought it was a perfect book for my boys ages 8 and 6. Enough information to learn but not too much that it went all over their heads. The book is Arlington The Story of Our Nation's Cemetery.

Computer Desk Project

2011-04-15T21:31:00.000-06:00

We had been using one 6 foot table and one 4 foot table as our computer desk. It sat in a "L" shape in our dining room and had no storage and was always cluttered with everything. I noticed a desk/table that was built in one of the magazines I've been drooling over for months now and thought I could build that easily. I made a few changes as I wanted a flat surface for the whole top and I wanted more storage than the one in the magazine had. I bought three in stock cabinets from Lowe's. The 18 inch four drawer base and 2 12 inch drawer/cupboard bases. I stained them with a red mahogany stain. The one in the magazine called for one base cabinet and four legs. For the top the magazine used an old door for the top but I bought two pine panels and just glazed them for contrast. Overall we love the desk. We did have to go buy bar stools because of the regular chairs we have were too low.

Project #1 almost complete

2011-04-04T09:44:00.000-06:00

Other than either stenciling or using some vinyl on the top of the top door and the bottom of the bottom door I've completed this project. Walls are painted in both the dining room and hallway. We are putting in the flooring this week.
Before picture of the closet in the hallway:

After pictures:

Homeschool Review Math Mammoth

2011-01-29T12:22:00.001-07:00

I can't tell you how much we love this program. First it's a program you can buy a download to so you can print the pages as many times as you need. This is perfect for us since I can have Nathan work the pages and then the twins can follow him when they are ready all for one low cost. We've been using the program for just over 9 months now and I'm amazed at how easy it is to teach. I've never been a math person and most math concepts go right over my head. However since starting this program with the kids I've picked up on several concepts. This program is very very similar to Singapore Math.
There is loads of practice built into the lesson. Great for kids who struggle and it's easy to skip problems if it's a concept your child picks up on quickly. We do about 1-3 pages a day depending on how well each child picks up on the concept.
This is not a self teaching program. But the teachers notes are right on the paper so it's very easy to just go down the worksheet and do the teaching and problems.
We also love all the links to websites that offer games to practice the concepts your learning. My kids think they are playing on websites and yet they are getting even more practice done in math.
Another great feature of this program is you could even use this with your kids in public school. They offer workbooks for extra practice which you could use to help enforce what your child is learning in school.
Link to math mammoth.
Samples of the first grade program.
Check out the website for more information.

Twins 6th Birthday Cakes

2011-01-22T20:35:00.000-07:00

These are a little late but I do want to share them. My wonderful sister came up to help me make these cakes. Noah insisted on a Lego Indiana Jones themed cake and Zach's was suppose to be a Lego Star Wars but Lego took way longer than expected to ship out our set so he settled for a Minion cake.

Declutter and Organization 2011 Challenge Week 2

2011-01-09T16:10:00.001-07:00

This week's challenge is the kids toys boxes. I have four upstairs in our main room. My goal is to get these cleaned up, decluttered (much to the kids dismay), and organized. Hopefully we can get some clever ideas from each other on this one.

Thought on Week One of the Declutter and Organization 2011 Challenge

2011-01-08T13:44:00.001-07:00

One of the worst shelves in my kitchen. Things were just getting shoved in there as needed.

After getting rid of items that were expired or just past their prime. I also got rid of several containers that I was saving for who only knows what. It's not perfect yet but at least I can find items on this shelf.

A shelf on a book case in the living room. This was a scary shelf. Things go on this shelf to disappear and never to be seen again. I did find some missing items we had been looking for over the past year. It now only hold books like it is suppose to.

Not only can you see the books but you can find what your looking for.

This was one scary drawer in the bathroom. Sadly I found a missing pair of my contacts that expired 4 years ago. I'm thinking newborn twins isn't an excuse for that drawer anymore. I threw away bottles of expired medicine and bandaid wrappers.

I bought some little baskets at Target for $1.49 each. I thought my drawer was smaller than it is cause I only bought two. I should have bought three and a couple of the smaller ones.

I only got to four places this week. One place I haven't got pictures of yet. I'll get them as soon as I can. Stay tune for week two's challenge which I'll be posting in a few hours. Add a link to your accomplishments for the week so we can cheer you on.

Declutter and Organization 2011 Challenge Week 1

2011-01-01T10:17:00.004-07:00

This week pick five shelves or drawers in your house and empty them. Get rid of items you haven't used, will ever use, or have expired. Clean the shelf/drawer and reorganize the shelf/drawer so that it's possible to find what your looking for. My plans are to do one shelf/drawer a day but you can do them all in one day if you desire. Feel free to take before and after pictures and leaving a link to your blog to show your work.

We are starting with a few small projects just to get us in the groove. Stick around and hopefully we'll get the whole house done before 2012.

I'm also starting a healthy living challenge on my healthy eating blog. If your interested let me know and I'll post a link to that blog for you. Click here for the healthy eating blog.

Declutter and Organize Challenge

2010-12-30T17:48:00.002-07:00

So amongst my many things I am to improve over the next twelve months is decluttering and organizing the house. As such I've decided that every week of the year 2011 I will focus on something and work my way through the house. Anyone daring enough to accompany me on my journey? Every Saturday in 2011 I will post a challenge to work on throughout the week and I'll be showing my before and after pictures. Feel free to join in on the fun. Hopefully we will learn from each other and along the way. I'm hoping this will turn into a fun challenge that I can get several people on board with me on. Stay tune for Saturday 1/01/2011 for the first challenge.

Christmas 2010

2010-12-28T12:49:00.006-07:00

Another Christmas has come and gone. The days are going by so fast. My boys are growing so quickly. Lucky for me this was the year they really "got" Christmas in many ways. They loved learning about Jesus and loved learning Christmas traditions around the world and of course Santa. One of the favorite things at Christmas this year was the letter Santa left thanking them for the milk and cookies. Here are a few pictures from Christmas morning. Excuse the blurry pictures at times as they were moving fast that morning and the messy house. The rest of the house was pretty darn clean but the front room just didn't seem to get done.

Thanksgiving Day 1k Run for Kids

2010-12-15T13:20:00.007-07:00

We've been doing this now for 3 or 4 years, sorry Mary I can't remember. The first year I thought this is kinda dumb but my kids LOVE this. And to be honest I do too. What a great way to exercise right before a calorie laden meal! Around August my kids started "training" cause they wanted to do better than they ever have. And poor little Zach really wanted to come in first in our family. This poor kid is the slowest mover around so I didn't hold out much hope for him. Imagine my surprise when he not only was the first one of the boys to come around the building but the first in his age bracket. He did so good and was so very proud of himself. Sadly I only have pictures of Zachary and Nathan cause my batteries died in my camera right as Noah came around. If you haven't given this race a try you really should. The South Davis Recreation Center does a wonderful job of putting this event on. Btw it was barely above zero at the time of this race. I can't help but think they reason for the fast finishes by all three boys was because it was so darn cold outside.

Zoo Field Trip

2010-10-28T09:10:00.006-06:00

The twins have been learning about the animal world so before the weather got bad we took them to the zoo. I gave each child a list of animals they had to search for and then we took pictures as we found them. It was a nice break of the regular school work and it turned into a very nice time. I'm posting a few of the pictures the kids took at the zoo.

Halloween Fun

2010-10-26T21:34:00.002-06:00

I always hear of all the fun traditions people have leading up to a holiday yet I never seem to get motivate to start many of those fun traditions in my house. This year is different. We made a big deal out of pumpkin selection, sorry no pictures though, and we made a few decorations for the yard. However one that I've always wanted to do but have never done is the Boo Poem. So I debated for several hours today over homemade goodies or store bought and then decided to go with store bought. We bought two bags of Three Musketeers bags and printed off the cute Boo Poem from here. We waited until dark, which given the ages of my kids was hard cause they caught the excitement, and carefully plotted out which neighbors we could Boo. My criteria was easy place to hide and someone we knew. I know it would have been more fun if we had hit someone we didn't know but for some reason I really wanted to people we knew. I figure the odds are we will be Boo'd ourselves so then we could do a family we don't know. Well it was really cold and rainy when we headed out and I was sure the noise my boys would make would get us caught. The good news is we weren't caught and the boys had a blast. Noah is already watching the door for someone to boo us. I hope we are selected to be Boo'd cause it will break his heart if we aren't. They are already plotting ways to do this for other holidays too. I think we may have found a tradition that works for our family.

Native American Study

2010-10-07T15:35:00.002-06:00

So as we finished our study on Native Americans I thought I'd share what we did and what resources we used.
Books we read:
A Picture Book of Sacagawea (note: found at Davis County Library)
The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush (Davis County Library)
Grandma Maxine Remembers (Davis County Library)
Seasons of the Circle (Davis County Library)
Native Americans: A Portrait : The Art and Travels of Charles Bird King, George Catlin, and Karl Bodmer (Davis County Library)
Spirit of the Harvest: North American Indian Cooking (Davis County Library)
More Than Moccasins (Davis County Library)
A Kids Guide to Native American History (Davis County Library)
Between Earth and Sky (Davis County Library)
Tools of Native Americans (I bought this book for myself as the library did not have it)
If You Lived with the Indians of the Northwest Coast (Davis County Library)
If You Lived with the Iroquois (I bought this one myself as the library did not have it)

I also used this blog for books and ideas.

We made longhouses, wigwams, Pueblo village, and tepees. We also made a vest, war bonnet, and a few other clothing pieces that are mentioned in the More than Moccasins book. We also painted a few pictures from the art book mentioned above. Also after reading The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush we painted a picture from that book. Nathan also made a diorama of an Iroquois Indian village. We also made several meals from the cookbook.

Overall the unit was fun and even I learned things I did not know. Sorry I don't have pictures as one of the kids deleted most of the pictures on the memory card.

Weekly Report 9/13-9/17

2010-09-17T16:03:00.009-06:00

We took Thursday off and went to Gateway Mall. We rode the Frontrunner down and the boys loved riding the "train" and the light rail. Spent time at the planetarium looking at the exhibits and then let the boys run around in the water fountain. As usual I forgot a change of clothing so we had to run into Old Navy for some dry clothes.

Otherwise this is what we learned this week:
Math Mammoth (all three kids)
the twins learned addition facts 5 and 6
Nathan worked on tens and one, greater than and less than, he also worked in the Kumon word problem book and the counting book on his way to 1000.

Phonics:
Nathan worked on ETC book 3 (review for him) and reading easy readers plus worked on a reading comprehension book and the book 100 words you need to know in 2nd grade
the twins did explore the code book b and a few lessons from Ordinary Parents Guide to reading

Language Arts
The twins worked in WW3000 k on week 5. Plus worked on their handwriting.
Nathan finished learning about sentences in VIE, started a journal, learn his short I spelling words and worked on his handwriting in HWT.

Science
Nathan finished week 2 of ES. We learned about solar eclipse's and more about the Earth. We finished the week by painting our dough map of the earth. Plus we worked on tracking the temperatures and clouds for our weather forecasting unit.
The twins finished up week 2 in ES by learning about the earth biomes. We also started week 3 and learned about mammals and lions. We also did week 3 in the intro to science unit of ES and learned about dilution.

History
Nathan continued learning about the Iroquois. We had an Iroquois dinner of maple molasses beans and a corn cake. He also made a wampum and we painted pottery.
The twins learned about Japan. We read loads of fun Japanese books and ate at a Japanese restaurant. We also made our own hanging fish and origami frogs.

I may have missed a thing or two. This week has been a struggle for us. If your interested in the actual books we used on anything let me know and I'll list them for you.

Why Public Schooling is Better than Homeschooling.....

2010-09-11T22:10:00.002-06:00

I noticed this on a blog while I was blog surfing. I find it funny. I'm not knocking public schools here I'm just laughing at how what some people see as a reason not to homeschool may be a reason that homeschoolers choose as to why they do. I hope that made sense. I found this on this blog.

Most parents were educated in the under funded public school system, and so are not smart enough to homeschool their own children.

Children who receive one-on-one homeschooling will learn more than others, giving them an unfair advantage in the marketplace. This is undemocratic.

How can children learn to defend themselves unless they have to fight off bullies on a daily basis?

Ridicule from other children is important to the socialization process.

Children in public schools can get more practice "Just Saying No" to drugs, cigarettes and alcohol.

Fluorescent lighting may have significant health benefits.

Publicly asking permission to go to the bathroom teaches young people their place in society.

The fashion industry depends upon the peer pressure that only public schools can generate.

Public schools foster cultural literacy, passing on important traditions like the singing of "Jingle Bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg..."

Homeschooled children may not learn important office career skills, like how to sit still for six hours straight.

Week In Review 9/06-9/11

2010-09-10T16:56:00.004-06:00

Nathan
Work on 8 pages of Math Mammoth
started the American Story 100 true stories
second week of spelling short e words (Zaner Bloser Spelling Connections 2nd grade)
worked on sentences, telling, commanding and asking (Voyages in English Grade 2)
Handwriting without tears Printing Power Grade 2, worked on perfecting his letters
worked through about 15 pages of Explode the Code 3
read several easy readers
two chapters from Charlotte's Web
finish week one Elemental Earth Science by making a clay flat map of the world
started his book on weather forecasting, we are tracking the clouds and temperature everyday
started week two of Elemental Earth Science, we did a Wobbler experiment
started learning about the Native Americans, we made a longhouse and petroglyph and pictograph

Noah and Zachary
worked on about 8 pages of Math Mammoth
did week 4 of Wordly Wise 3000 K
Explore the Code book B started with the letter p
read The Popcorn Book (P sound)
kumon lowercase letters book
used the ordinary parents guide to teaching reading lessons 27-29
finished South Korea and ate Korean BBQ beef for dinner one night
started learning about Japan
did week one in Elemental Science and made blocks of crayons
started week two in Elemental Science Biology and learned about habitats. Started working on a habitat poster.
finished Blueberries for Sal and made puppets and acted out the story with the puppets

Not a bad week considering we had the stomach bug for two of the days.

Week in Review 8/23-8/27

2010-08-27T19:22:00.003-06:00

Well all my planning and getting things ready didn't help this week go smoothly. First the twins are revolting at having to actually spend more than 10-30 minutes doing school work. Nathan who said he didn't want school to start and was arguing the whole week before actually dug right in and started work without complaining. Second one whole day was basically lost due to my father who is recovering from surgery having spent time at the house and us having to transport him to another town. Third one child broke his arm, which as luck would have it is the hand he writes with. Fourth being by late Thursday I just wanted to send them to school.

However looking back at what we did do, when you factor in all of the problems, is actually a lot I do feel like this wasn't a bad first week. Here's a run down on what the kids did:
Nathan
Charlotte's Web
readers on his reading level
explode the code 3
Math Mammoth grade 2 review
Kumon Word Problems grade 1 (finishing this off from last year)
counting book
The fall of Rome
working on types of sentences
handwriting without tears grade 2 print
Wordly Wise 3000 grade 2 (we may be dropping this very soon)
spelling words with the short a sound
a toy story comprehension workbook for phonics and language art (since he LOVES Toy Story)
learned about our planet, did an experiment showing how the atmosphere keeps the earth warm, and learned about what's in space

Noah and Zach
started to learn about South Korea
started the week working on earlybird singapore math but we've now moved them on to math mammoth grade one
kumon lowercase letters
explore the code book a
Make way for ducklings
wordly wise kindergarten
learned about animals habitat, migration, defense, camouflage and food. we made a food chain showing how animals eat other animals in order to get food.

The pictures at the top show the owl food chain (the owl is brown, the mouse is black, and the grain is yellow) that the twins did. Also the barbarian was from Nathan's history. The other picture is of a duck craft we did to celebrate the book Make way for Duckling.

School Starts Monday

2010-08-19T20:51:00.002-06:00

And I think I am finally ready. A few last minute changes to the choices we made but I think we are set to go. I'm happy with our choices and can't wait to get started. Even the boys can't wait to start.
Here's a rundown, sorry not providing links this time but if you want a link comment and I'll you to it.

Noah and Zachary
Earlybird Singapore math
Math Mammoth 1
Galloping the Globe
Wordly Wise 3000 k
Handwriting without tears k
Kumon lowercase letters
Explore the code and explode the code
Elemental Science biology
Elemental Science intro to science
k12 science

Nathan
Math Mammoth 2
Kumon Word Problems 1 and 2
Story of the World 2
Rand McNalley Maps
Cantering the Country
Voyages in English
Zaner Blosser Spelling 2
Wordly Wise 2
Explode the code
Song School Latin
K12 science
Elemental Science earth science
Weather forecasting program

All three kids
learning instruments in music
Evan Moor how to teach art k-6

Killer Deal on Books

2010-08-17T20:33:00.003-06:00

I discovered last year that Scholastic would allow homeschool families to register as a school and to buy books from them. Well it's the first of the year and they were offering all kinds of discounts for your first order. One discount being buy $20 worth of books get $10 to spend on any books. Second being spend $20 on books and get 10 books of their choice free. Third being double the reward points which means in the future free books or free supplies. I have three catalogs come to the house so I got the bonus things on all three catalogs. I spent $64 and received 75 books plus enough bonus points to get about $25 more in free books. I paid 85 cents each for the books. Almost as cheap as the thrift store or yard sales.

Thursday's are Fun Days

2010-08-04T21:10:00.002-06:00

So this summer we've been having a Fun Day on Thursday's. We give the kids a choice of a few activities and we go and spend the day having fun. No getting mad at something or someone. Just pure fun. It's been a blast and we've really had fun. Some things we have done:
Splash Pad, lunch, and snocones.
Movie, Hungry Bear Pizza (arcade included), and ice cream.
Boondocks with dinner out.
Hogle Zoo with lunch.
Antelope Island with lunch at Panda Express.
Swimming at South Davis Recreation Center, ice skating at the same place, and dinner.
Movie, lunch, and park.
Bowling, food at the alley, and ice cream.

I was hoping to go to Lagoon but its more money then I want to spend. But tomorrow we are going to Cherry Hills with lunch out. Probably dinner too if its late and we are tired.

Anyway its been a great bonding experience for us. I highly recommend doing a fun day for your family.

Updates

2010-07-19T18:33:00.003-06:00

Gosh I haven't posted in awhile. Let's see if I can remember what we've been doing.

Saw Toy Story 3 in 3D the day it was released. I wasn't going to take the boys on opening day but they really really wanted to so we did. The boys had a blast and still talk about it over a month later.

I've made Thursdays fun day. Basically I give the boys three choices of something fun to do and they pick and we do it. We've been bowling, the South Davis Recreation Pool, ice skating, Boondocks, and a $1 movie. Hopefully we can find a way to give Lagoon a try but if not I have some other ideas of places to go.

We are set for school to begin August 24th. Noah and Zach can not wait to start doing school like Nathan. I think we have everything we need as far as curriculum but still need a few supplies. Noah and Zachary are working on the Iowa Tests right now so I have a base line as to where they need to be focused on and Nathan starts the Iowa Tests later this week. It's not an official test as we are using the practice tests for testing but hopefully it will show how well they have been learning.

We had a lost dog wonder into our yard and it appears we are keeping him. No one has claimed him and the kids love him. Don't tell anyone! Sadly we lost one of our cats. She was a cat we rescued from an abusive situation about 6 years ago. She had been losing weight and we took her to the vet and it turned out she had several teeth infected. We had surgery done to remove them and she seemed to be doing well yet three days later she died. She was a beautiful cat although very distrusting of anyone but Don. She is greatly missed in our house.

We also went to the totally lame Clearfield City parade again. I have pictures but since it was all advertising and almost nothing else I won't bore you with the pictures. I think it has to be one of the least patriotic parades in the USA.

In the World the Founding Fathers Knew.......

2010-06-29T11:26:00.002-06:00

I received a really neat book for Christmas two years ago and I really like reading it in small dosages whenever the urge hits me. The book is titled House of the Founding Fathers. It's really an interesting book full of great pictures of old historic homes and the history behind them. I highly recommend reading this book. Anyway on to the facts:

The average child had a roughly 50% chance of surviving to adulthood.

Slavery was legal in all thirteen states.

All the cooking was done in or around the fireplace.

Men and women were not created equal. Women could not vote or hold public office. And unless widowed could not own property in most colonies.

Travel was slow and uncertain. By water ships relied upon the wind for locomotion. By land a rider might hope to cover thirty miles in a day, the passenger in a coach just twenty miles.

Aside from sunlight the sole source of heat was fire, usually in an open fireplace. After sunset, illumination was either by moonlight or candlelight.

There was no indoor plumbing. The flush toilet, the bathroom, and the kitchen faucet would be nineteenth century innovations meaning chamber pots, outhouses, and buckets were a way of life.

Privacy was a rare privilege for most: people, including children at home and strangers at inns routinely shared beds.

Aside from a minority of city dwellers everybody was a farmer.

There was no anesthesia for surgery or childbirth.

Every household produced some, and in many cases all, of the candles, soap, foodstuffs, and clothing it required.

The medieval notion of the four humors still dominated medical theory, so bloodletting and purging were employed to restore the balance of black and yellow bile, blood and phlegm, and thus, presumably, good health.

Life, in short, was hard in the time of the Founding Fathers.

Kindergarten Plans

2010-06-21T20:30:00.002-06:00

Math: Early Bird Singapore
Miquon Math
And possibly Math Mammoth 1

Science: k12
And science kits I find along the way.

Vocabulary: Wordly Wise 3000 K

Phonics: Bob Books
Explore the Code
And maybe some other program

History: Galloping the Globe (countries and continents)
Story of the World Middle Ages
And probably a few other things.

Handwriting: Handwriting without Tears K

Literature: Hans Christian Anderson stories, Brothers Grimm stories, Legends and Fairy Tales from other countries, Winnie the Pooh, Velveteen Rabbit, American Tall Tales and other stories we think we may want to read.

I think there are a few other things I planned on doing and I'll update as I remember.

2nd Grade Plans

2010-06-20T17:07:00.002-06:00

History: Story of the World II Middle Ages
Cantering the Country (learning about states)
Also adding a few more things but I don't have it finalized at this point.

Math: Math Mammoth
Miquon Math

Science: K12
Some odds and ends that I might stumble across.

Grammar: Voyages in English 2

Handwriting: Handwriting Without Tears Grade 2

Literature: A mixture of all types of books. Charlotte's Web, Cricket in Times Square, 39 Clues series, The Great Brain series, The Wheel on the School, The Borrowers, Peppermints in the Parlor, The Family Under the Bridge, The Boxcar Children, plus many more.

Phonics: Finish Explode the Code
Read more Nate the Great Books and others we find and like.

Latin: Song School Latin

Still deciding on other areas but these are ones I am 100% sure we are doing. I'll add the others as we figure it out. Stay tune for the twins Kindergarten plans.

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?

2010-06-19T08:42:00.003-06:00

We took the kids to the Riverdale RC Willey store to meet Spongebob. They also met Dora which wasn't nearly as exciting as Spongebob. Personally I think the whole thing was a joke but the kids loved it. We got there 20 minutes before it was suppose to start and were probably number 20 in line but it appears that everyone in front of us was holding a spot in line for an additional 50 people. As you can tell the kids were getting bored. They were letting you take your own pictures and they also had people taking pictures. Me being the considerate one and probably the only one there who was it appears had all my kids in one picture. Everyone in front of us had each of their dozen or so kids and themselves get their pictures done individually. Seriously they could have had more people go through if they had insisted on group pictures. After you moved on from pictures they gave you either a candy or a spongebob coloring book. My kids picked candy. Anyways they tell us there was free cookies and drinks on the other side of the store so while waiting for our free pictures we take the kids for the cookies and drinks. Let me tell you all those people in front of us treated this as a free for all. I think they loaded up their bags with 4-5 bottled waters on top of the ones they took to drink while eating the dozens of cookies they ate. No lie I heard one mom say to her kids fill up here for lunch kids. The way the whole thing was run was ridiculous. Oh well it was free so why should I complain!

We lost Nathan in the store. Course according to him it was my fault cause I didn't stay in the spot he had left me.

Freezer Burn

2010-05-31T12:29:00.002-06:00

I've noticed something about the twins head. When they get their hair cut really short they have two tiny bald spots. So joking I said to my husband that they must have freezer burn. However he did not find that funny. For those who know us the twins are the result of a frozen embryo transfer hence the reason I joked about them having freezer burn.

Wrapping Up the School Year

2010-05-24T21:35:00.002-06:00

I can't believe its been 23 days since I last posted. I've been so busy. I haven't even kept up on my food blog and then I started another blog that I've just been slacking in posting on. Oh well at least life's been interesting.

We've been working on finishing up all the rest of the workbooks we have. We finished all the k12 courses and will only be doing their science program on our own. I feel confident in my ability these days and I don't feel the need to have someone direct me. I do have the option of rejoining k12 in all courses if we feel we need to.

I've been slowly adding the items we will need for next year. The kids are getting excited at all the goodies that have been arriving. I'll post more details on exactly what are plans are when it all arrives and I start getting things organized. We are adding a Latin program next year which from the looks of it will be loads of fun for us. Nathan will continue doing math and reading throughout the summer. The twins will continue with Rusty and Rosie until July 1st, math, and reading. I'll probably have the twins work on handwriting too.

Nathan is looking forward to the Toy Story 3 movie next month. He is counting down the days till the movie opens. I don't think I've seen a bigger fan of Toy Story. If you have any questions on any Toy Story movie Nathan is your man to answer.

Noah is looking forward to camping, the aquarium, and Lagoon. Guess I'll have to splurge and buy a ticket for Lagoon once this year.

Zachary is just Zach. Not sure which brother he wants to follow or if he just wants to do his own thing. Still waiting for him to tell me what he wants to do this summer.

Freaky Night Thursday Night

2010-05-01T09:34:00.003-06:00

What a night Thursday night! I was on the bed watching television when I noticed two eyes staring at me from inside the drawer of the dresser. The television sits on top of the said dresser so at first I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me and it was from the television. So I turned the television off. I could still see the eyes. Again I assumed I just needed a few minutes to adjust. I waited about five minutes and the eyes were still there.

So I guess I should let you know I have a very intense fear of rodents, especially mice. I also have a cat who loves bringing in his live captures and letting them lose in the house sometimes. So of course the first thought is this is a mouse in the drawer. Running through my head are thoughts of what to do. Shut the drawer and pray the mouse doesn't escape before morning. Scream at the top of my lungs until Don hears me, he's downstairs trying to get the kids use to their new room, or just ignore it and hope it goes away. Well I chose the last option. Less scary it seemed at the time.

About thirty minutes later I become aware that it is now moving in the drawer and it's much bigger than I thought. New thoughts, it's either an escaped rat that is super sized or a raccoon that somehow got lost in our city and made his way into our house. That's when I noticed it was moving towards the front of the drawer. Now it's eyes are focused right on me and our basset hound realizes there is something in the drawer. He's showing signs of being scared. This scares me even more if he's nervous. All of a sudden the creature in the drawer leaps out at my face and the dog.

I'm screaming and the dog just gets up and heads outside. He leaves me to deal with the creature that is now attacking me. It's also at this point that I realize it's our cat and not some super sized rat or raccoon. Why do I always forget he loves sleeping in obscure places where he won't be disturbed?

Weekly Report for the week ending April 23

2010-04-23T10:18:00.002-06:00

Finished k12's 1st grade math. Nathan has hated this program over the course of the last few months and it's been a big struggle to get him to do math. I hear they are rolling out a new program and I asked if he wanted to give it a try but he was quite vocal about not doing math from k12 again. So I ordered Singapore Math for him. I was so confused about where he'd be in the program so I decided to order 1b and then we can move quickly through it if it proves to be to easy. I was tempted to start him on 2a. After finishing the k12 math we worked longer on the numerous math workbooks I bought to help him review his facts since k12 didn't seem to review at times.

We also finished k12's science this week. We learned about the human body as the final group of lessons. I have to say out of all the science lessons we've done this year the human body has been a hit with all three kids. We made an outline of the human body and added the organs and systems as we learned about them. We also had a quick lesson on germs and Elizabeth Blackwell. The kids loved doing the cornstarch as a germ and seeing where they could leave germs. Noah has now been washing his hands at a more frequent interval than every 30-60 minutes after the lesson. Right now the plan is to stick with k12 science since it works well for us.

We are using Voyages in English for grammar and writing. We just finished with adjectives and pronouns. Fun lessons and I found some great books to supplement, which I have posted reviews to a few so far. I've decided we will continue with VIE next year.

Spelling is continuing to be a pain. I bought the game What's Gnu? and we've dumped the Spelling Workout and are just practicing spelling words with the tiles from the game. Seriously I need a not expensive spelling program that actually teaches spelling.

We are almost done with k12 history. We finished ancient India and started on ancient China. Again this is another program we aren't doing again next year. Once he finished ancient China he is done with k12. I'll be piecing together a unit on ancient Rome since we plan on using Story of the World 2 in the fall and it starts with the fall of Rome.

I also have a bunch of random workbooks that Nathan loves working in. Some are for reading comprehension, phonics, handwriting, and just random other things. It works for him and he likes them so I let him do it.

Mr. Popper's Penguins has been a huge hit for the kids. They have enjoyed reading the book and look forward to our reading every day because of it. Hopefully we can find another book they love just as much. Nathan has also been enjoying the Nate the Great book.

All three kids have been learning about lines in art. I've been using the Evan Moor book How to Teach Art and it's worked well so far.

Nathan also has been learning about Delaware. I've been using the book Cantering the Globe. Love the ideas in the book however for Delaware the lessons were dry. Maybe because our library didn't have many of the books suggested.

The twins started Galloping the Globe and have enjoyed it so far. We are just learning about the basics of the Earth right now. We made paper mache globes and that was a huge hit for them. I blogged about that yesterday if you want to see what we did.

The twins also use Rusty and Rosie, a free program through our state. There are days the love it and days they hate it.

I also started the twins on Wordly Wise 3000 for K. So far they have really enjoyed the program but whoa nelly it wasn't a cheap program. Unless life changes things we will also use the program for 1st grade.

Sometime in the next few days I plan on posting what I think we will be using for Nathan's 2nd grade year and the twins Kindergarten year.

Paper Mache Globes

2010-04-22T21:43:00.003-06:00

Three days to complete but the globes are done. Nope the land isn't exactly right but the kids had fun making them. I wanted to have green and brown tempera paint for them but somehow I guess we used all of those colors and I never replaced them. We ended up using green finger paint which wasn't a really bright idea but one that worked. Overall they were a hit with my five year olds. I think Nathan was jealous he didn't get to make one. Maybe I'll let him make one really soon.

What was I thinking?

2010-04-20T13:48:00.003-06:00

Today for a geography lesson I thought it would be fun to have the twins make paper mache globes. Well it was a great idea but it became obvious quickly that I didn't think the project through very well. The boys love making messes so sticky glue mixed with two boys who love messes wasn't a good match. Having a dad who hates messes like that didn't help in the project. In the end Noah decided he didn't like the glue and refused to touch it so I made his globe. Zachary was having a fun time but didn't quite get the whole balloon covered nor was all of his paper strips wet. Hopefully I was able to repair it enough that it will work out. Now to let them dry and I hope they dry quickly as I promised the boys they could paint it to look like a globe. Pictures to come as we finish the project.

Grammar Tales

2010-04-13T15:28:00.003-06:00

These are some cute books to help your child learn the parts of grammar. Even my five year old twins loved reading these two books. They aren't very expensive, less than $4 a book, or I found some on paperbackswap.
The Planet without Pronouns was a story. On several pages there were little questions or tips about the pronoun. At the very end of the book there is a review with a few questions to ask and review what you learned.
The Bug Book wasn't a story but more of a read the caption under the picture book. It still had tips and questions and a review at the end.
For the price they are a great tool in helping your child learn grammar in a fun way. I notice there is even a book for using all the little books together as a grammar program.
We've only tried the two books pictured above but I do plan on adding the others to our home school as I have the extra money to do so.

Here are a few other books they have:
Grammar Tales: The No-Good, Rotten, Run-on Sentence
Grammar Tales: When Comma Came to Town
Chicken In The City (nouns) (Grammar Tales)
Grammar Tales: Francine Fribble, Proofreading Policewoman
Verb For Herb (Grammar Tales)

There are loads of others but any of these should get you to where you can see all they have to offer.

March in Review

2010-04-05T18:42:00.003-06:00

In case you didn't notice but I didn't post at all last month. Why you may ask? Because we were sick for the whole entire month. The month started out with me having a kidney infection which was pretty painful and about 6 days later I developed a cold that turned into strep and bronchitis. Then the kids followed me into the evil sickness. And just when I thought we'd be entering April nice and healthy Zach gets hit with the stomach flu and I followed 36 hours later. I'm hoping no one ends up sick but who knows.

Pizza Hut Book It for Homeschoolers

2010-03-01T17:04:00.002-07:00

Now is the chance to sign up. Click here to join.

Weekly Report for 2/22-2/26

2010-02-26T10:11:00.002-07:00

The weekly report for Nathan (1st grade, age 7).

Math: K12 regroup subtraction, problem solving, estimate and measure, Rod and staff, Kumon counting money, kumon word problems, and daily math review

Science: K12
super strong stems, flowers and fruit

History: K12 Trojan War

Handwriting: Handwriting without tears 1st grade book

Grammar: Voyages in English 1 we are learning verbs. We also read If You Were a Verb and To Root To Toot To Parachute, daily language review

Phonics: This workbook and we've been reading Dr. Seuss books.

Literature: Almost done with Farmer Boy.

Geography: learned about grids and how to determine distances on a map using Rand McNally.

Bible: LifePac Bible 1

Logic: Lollipop Logic

Weekly Reader: Finished the Olympic reader and started the Science Spin issue

Health: Learned about being unique and alike and different. Using Horizons K.

Art: Using What's the Big Idea? and we learned about abstract faces and above are pictures of our attempt at abstract pictures. Nathans is the yellow one and his brothers did the other two. Also using enchanted learning for St. Patrick's day projects.

Weekly Report for 2/15-2/19

2010-02-21T10:31:00.002-07:00

Again these are just for Nathan (1st grade, age 7).

Grammar- Finished with writing a formal letter and mailed it to Grandma. We also started a unit on verbs. We are using Voyages in English and it's still a good fit for us. Nathan loves the assignments and all the writing provides him with some much needed practice in handwriting. Also we do a daily language review which happens to be one of Nathans favorite things to do.

Literature- Still working our way through Farmer Boy. I think maybe it was a little much for Nathan as he's not wanting to do anything else besides listening to the reading. Hopefully we can get this done this week or next and move on to Mr. Poppers Penguins which I think he'll really like.

Phonics- Working through a workbook that I picked up at Barnes and Noble since every where (okay at least the places I have tried) is out of stock on the Explode the Code Book 3. And now I see a few places that have it in stock again.

Math- Working on adding two digit problems, subtracting two digit problems and regrouping to add and subtract two digit numbers. Still using the K12 program but adding in other practice books. We are using Rod and Staff Math 1 Workbook #2 for review of the basics. We are also using Kumon Counting Coins and Kumon Word Problems 1 for practice and review. We do one page daily and rotate the books. Also we are using the daily math review which again Nathan really loves.

Science- Working on the section on plants from K12. Honestly the science has been so dry its hard to do the work. Hopefully I can find a much more interesting program next year for science.

History. We've started Ancient Greece and have been learning about the Gods and Goddesses. We are using K12 but next year I think we will move on to another history program. Again we just feel like its not very interesting.

Weekly Readers- We worked on the President's day and finished the Olympic one.

Art- Learning about abstract art. Trying to find an art program that we like.

Finally we did a field trip this week. We went to Clark Planetarium. The boys enjoyed walking through the planetarium and doing all the fun activities. We also watched the movie Secrets of the Cardboard Rocket on the dome. It was so much fun. The kids are still quoting facts about space they learned in the movie. Overall it was a tiring day but we really had a blast. We rode frontrunner down (commuter train) and caught trax over to the planetarium. Again the train ride was as much fun for the kids as the planetarium.

Weekly Report for the past two weeks

2010-02-15T15:22:00.002-07:00

I've fallen behind on updating the weekly reports so I'm going to do the past two weeks quickly and call it good.

Math- adding and subtracting two columns. This has been a challenge but I "think" we've finally got it down. We've also been working on supplementing k12 math with the rod and staff 1st grade math, and two kumon books. One book is counting money and the other is story problems. Also we are doing daily math review through the Evan Moor program. Also playing the game Sum Swamp for even more math practice.

History- Ancient Greece. We learned about the daily life in ancient Greece and the Greek Gods and Goddesses. This week we will be watching a Jim Hanson Muppet movie about the Greek Gods and Goddesses.

Science- Started learning about plants. We have some baggies filled with seeds in various spots around the house to find out what type of conditions are best for growing plants.

Geography- Working our way through the RandMcNally geography book.

Voyages in English for grammar. We just finished the section on nouns and are learning to write a proper letter. Grandma look for a letter in the mail later this week.

Still working our way through Farmer Boy.

Nathan started reading several Dr. Seuss books and is loving them.

Weekly Reader- We learned about the Olympics and President's day.

I'm sure I'm missing things but there you go what we've been working on for the past two weeks.

Toy Story Mania

2010-02-09T10:21:00.002-07:00

Nathan had his birthday over the weekend. All he wanted was Toy Story items and somehow he talked my sister into making an awesome birthday cake for him. He was/is thrilled with the cake and is still talking about it.

Weekly Report for 1/25-1/29

2010-01-28T20:59:00.005-07:00

Nathan only. Okay I don't know why it didn't highlight all my links but if your interested in looking at the books we are using click on the name to see it.

We finished Stanley and the Magic Lamp. We started Farmer Boy. We are going to put together (hopefully) a little book about our readings with Farmer Boy.

Nathan wrote a personal narrative for English. He worked out ideas, then drew pictures of what he was going to write about and made sure he had a beginning, middle, and end. Then he edited and made a final copy. His personal narrative is the picture at the top of this post.

He has been learning about nouns. We learned about proper nouns and are now working on common nouns. We are using Voyages in English 1st Grade for our grammar and writing program. So far we both are liking the program. It does have loads of writing but he really needs practice with writing.

In math, we are still using k12 and supplementing with R&S Grade 1 book 2, he has been learning how to add and subtract two digit numbers. It's been a long math session each day but I think he is finally getting it. The R&S book is just for practice and its just been doing subtractions with one digit numbers.

He still is working in the Spelling Workbook A. He really likes the program and is progressing quite nicely with his spelling. It's a really simple workbook for him and I probably should have gone a level up but it's really improved his spelling.

I'm looking for a phonics program for him but he's been doing starfall and word girl for phonics this week. Plus he's been reading books from the library.

Science, again it's k12, we've learned about light. He learned opaque, transparent, and translucent and what they mean. We also learned about making shadows.

History, k12 still, he learned about the hanging gardens in Babylon and Ishtar and Tammuz.

We've been doing daily practice from Evan Moor in Language arts and math. This has been a huge hit for us. Nathan really loves doing these.

In music we found a book at the library and we are singing the songs. It's a Peter Yarrow Favorite Folk Songs book and its been a hit with all three kids. Here is a link to the book.

He did memorize some rhymes from an old rhyme book from the library.
I also started him with geography lessons. I found a fun little book and he's really enjoying this workbook.

Finally, and I think this is the last thing, we are working our way through the first grade Handwriting without tears. I have to say I think he is finally getting handwriting. His handwriting has improved so much, even from the beginning of the year. Maybe its all the writing practice he gets in Voyages in English.

Weekly Report for 1/18-1/22

2010-01-22T19:18:00.003-07:00

The Well Trained Mind forum, where I am learning loads of info, does a weekly report each week. I've been reading for weeks now and I finally feel ready to share what we do during our week.

Nathan (age 6, 1st grader)
Stanley and the Magic Lamp for reading time
His practice reading he read Fly High Fly Guy and Daniel's Pet.
Finished Explode the Code Level 2. He also worked on Starfall since I'm not sure what we are going to do for phonics.
Handwriting practice he continued working in Handwriting without tears Printing Book.
Spelling: Spelling Workout A, which I shared pictures of above. So far I am liking this program and Nathan loves it. We did lesson 6-10 this week.
Voyages in English 1: We worked on sentences. He's been learning about telling sentences, commanding sentences, questions, and exclaiming sentences. He's at the end of the chapter for sentences and we are working on a writing assignment about personal narratives.
We are finishing up our K12 stuff and then we will be moving on. I feel we just don't click with the k12 program anymore. Math he is learning about probability and chance. History he learned about King Solomon. Science is light.

The twins (5, starting kindergarten work)
30 minutes daily of Rusty and Rosie. This is a free state program that focuses on reading skills with some math and science thrown in.
Horizon Math K
Horizon Phonics K
Handwriting without tears preschool book
Zane Bloser Spelling Connections for kindergarteners
Zach has been listening to books on tapes.
Noah and I read Magic Treehouse book #2 The Knight at Dawn
We started a space themed science study since Noah wants to learn science.

Politics

2010-01-20T16:08:00.002-07:00

I can't believe I am going to do this on my blog but the way everyone talks about the horrors of the political scene these days I have a small desire to talk about this. Hopefully I won't get too many hate comments or lose any friends. So here goes:

1. Love the fact that the democrats are no longer in control of all branches. I, personally, feel the country runs better with a democrat president and republican control of the senate and democrat control of the house. To me this is a perfect balance of powers. Some don't agree and that's fine.

2. No I don't think Obama is doing a great job. Am I disappointed I voted for him? No I am not. I loved McCain and McCain had my vote up until two things happened. One he completely changed his views and two he picked Palin as a running mate. I honestly think he could have overcome the first thing if he had picked someone else.

3. Jason Chaffetz of Utah. I like him sometimes and other times I find him just as bad as other politicians. I find his stance against the airport scanners sort of funny. This was put in place by a fellow republican, that Chaffetz's followers seem to have loved, to make the USA more secure yet he is against it. I see no better way to prevent terrorists from causing more problems than making it near impossible to smuggle anything on an airplane. Sorry Jason.

4. I am hoping Jon Huntsman Jr tests the water as a republican candidate for the presidency. I'd much prefer him over the media darling of Utah Romney. I do not and never have like Romeny. I just hope he wouldn't blow it with a crazy pick from vice-president like McCain did.

5. Health Care Reform. Well I'm not liking what the democrats have on the table right now but let's be honest something isn't right with health care in the USA as it stands. Sadly the republicans and democrats are both to blame for the problems we have now. They have allowed the insurance companies to have free rein and the ability to corner the market in all ways that we are in big trouble. It's sad when an insurance company is allowed to dictate the low ball amount they will pay a doctor and be allowed to tell that doctor that cash paying (non insured people) can not have a bigger discount than 15%.

That's it for today.

Changing Gears Yet Again

2010-01-09T13:32:00.005-07:00

Well after the Christmas break I discovered that things aren't working the way I want them to be working so I'm reworking school plans again. The twins have decided they are old enough to do school work too so I'm working in lessons for them.

Noah has been asking to learn about the bible. The cute little girl up the street gave him a child's bible and he is just soaking in the stories and loves it. So I am adding bible study to our school. He also loves science and science projects so I am going to attempt to do a project a day with him.

I really need to find an art program and music program we can really get into. So far nothing has really peaked our interest for long.

Nathan found a child's dictionary at the library Thursday and can't get enough of the really cool book. I'm going to work on teaching him what a dictionary is and how to use it.

Changes to our program:

Noah and Zachary
Handwriting without tears preschool
Horizons Phonics workbooks
Horizon's Math
Horizon's Bible study
Horizon's Health
Rusty and Rosy computer program
Let's Read and Find Out Science books
Mudpies to Magnets
Enchanted Learning
Magic Treehouse Books
Weekly Reader Kindergarten
Science Spin Kindergarten
Zane-Bloser Spelling

Nathan
K12 math (though I am moving to another program as soon as he finishes this subject)
K12 history
k12 science
Finishing the explode the code phonics book and then moving him to Horizon's phonics program
Level one readers
Flat Stanley
Adventures of Huck Finn
Spelling Workout
Voyages in English
Mad Libs
Daily practice (5 minutes for each) Math, Reading, Language Arts, Science
Horizon's Bible study
Horizon's Health
Enchanted Learning
Weekly Reader 1st Grade
Science Spin 1st Grade

Birthday Party Pictures

2009-12-20T21:42:00.002-07:00

Please be kind this was my very first attempt at making a decorated cake for the kids. They wanted a Lego Gotham city cake like in this video. Overall the twins were happy with it so I must have done a good enough job for them.

Pictures from the kids

2009-12-12T15:32:00.004-07:00

The kids took the camera into the wild bird store and took pictures in the store. Billy, the man with no head, is a favorite of the boys. They love talking to him and telling others all about him.

New Visitor

2009-12-08T14:24:00.002-07:00

We have a falcon in the yard. We think its a Merlin Falcon but are not 100% sure. This is truly an amazing bird. Sadly though he has chased some of our backyard birds out of our yard and has eaten a few birds.

Hand Poinsettia's

2009-12-02T08:31:00.003-07:00

This was a cute idea and one the kids enjoyed doing. We cut the kids handprints out of green and red paper. Then we glued them to a paper plate with greens on the outside and reds on the insides. In the middle of the reds we placed a yellow circle. After we were done the kids asked to add glitter to the poinsettia's so I let them add a few touches to the flowers. The flowers are now hanging up in the front window for all to enjoy. The idea came from enchantedlearning.com.

Thanksgiving Day 1k for Kids

2009-11-30T15:40:00.003-07:00

My sister works at the SDRC and they have this fun race on Thanksgiving Day. There is a 5k and 10 k run for adults and this little 1k run for the kids. My kids love doing this. They talked about going running for Aunt Mary this year and did some practice runs. Last year the twins, age 3, were the last kids across the finish line but this year they all did really good. Noah was the first to cross the finish line out of my kids, followed by Nathan and then Zachary. Zachary was worried he came in last of everyone again but there were still a kids behind him. Overall it was a fun experience for the kids.

Japan's Labor Thanksgiving Day

2009-11-22T13:32:00.002-07:00

Tomorrow is Japan's national holiday called Labor Thanksgiving Day. I had the kids make a Japanese Garden, thanks to enchantedlearning for the idea. This was a little more complicated then I thought it would be but it was fun. Instead of using real rocks like the craft suggested we just cut out paper ones.

Thanksgiving Scarecrows

2009-11-21T14:19:00.003-07:00

Yet another fun art project. I let the kids pick out the colors they wanted for their scarecrows so some are a little weird. I just let them the freedom to do whatever they wanted and I think they all did a great job. Bet you can't figure out who did which scarecrow.

Pilgrim Art

2009-11-17T09:18:00.003-07:00

Another fun art project we did with two of the boys. Noah did not want to join in the fun so he does not have a Pilgrim. Again we used Enchanted learning for the idea and templates. Overall this type of art seems to be more like art in a regular school and loads more fun than the art we were doing. Art is actually looked forward to these days instead of being among the last thing picked to do that day.

McGuffey Reader and Speller

2009-11-13T16:55:00.003-07:00

My McGuffey readers finally came! I'm am so excited to get started with this new program. The workbooks tie in the reader and the spelling book. We started the primer today and Nathan did well reading the book and was excited to read it. He thinks its a big person book.

We are reading a Flat Stanley book for literature. After finishing the Flat Stanley book I may try having Nathan mail a picture of himself and see what letters he may get from friends. If your interested in helping us out let me know. I'll send you my email address so I can get your address.

Thanksgiving Art

2009-11-12T12:55:00.003-07:00

I found some really cute Thanksgiving crafts for art projects on the enchantedlearning website. Today we did hand and foot turkeys. All three boys had fun doing the turkeys. Each had their own personal style for their turkeys. After they dry today I'll hang them up in the window.

Art for Veterans Day

2009-11-11T21:33:00.003-07:00

This is what I call art. Having fun creating fun things. Yesterday we made patriotic wreaths for Veteran's Day. All three boys enjoyed creating the wreaths and we hung them up in the window. Today we did a Veteran's Day coloring book and fact book we printed off of the enchantedlearning.com website.

Changes in Schooling

2009-11-06T20:42:00.002-07:00

We have left the UTVA, Utah Virtual Academy. No we did not enroll Nathan in public school but we are changing course with his schooling. We signed up with Washington Online, which uses the same program as UTVA but you get to choose which subjects you follow. As such here are the changes we are making to our schooling:

Still using k12 for:
Math
Science
History

We dropped the language arts, phonics, art, and music.

Instead we will be using the following:

Phonics
Bob readers
Explode the Code
Mc Guffey's primer (yes this is the book they used in the 19th century)

Language arts
Mc Guffey's primer
Mc Guffey's Speller
Grammar program by the Well Trained mind

Art
we will find some fun basic art things from books at the library

Music
dropping the study of composers right now and instead will be learning about instruments

School Work for the week of Nov. 1 to Nov. 6

2009-11-02T18:37:00.002-07:00

Math
Count on by pennies
quarters
count on by nickels
counting mixed coins
trading

Language arts
junior great books
poetry
Streets, roads, cities and states
nouns in sentences
Winnie the Pooh

Phonics
new constant blends
spelling
sight words
handwriting

Art
ancient art Mesopotamia
ancient art Ancient Egypt part one

Music
Mozart

Science
the water cycle
the drifting snowflake

History
Pyramids and Zigguarts
Sargon conquers Mesopotamia
Abraham goes to Caanan

Corn Maze Pictures

2009-10-31T15:09:00.004-06:00

Pictures from the annual trip to the Black Island Farms corn maze. For the first time in our times of going to this maze the weather was neither stormy nor was the ground a muddy mess. The day was not really cold but cold enough you wanted to keep moving.

School Work Oct 26-30

2009-10-25T17:57:00.003-06:00

Math
Nickles and dimes
counting on with pennies
quarters
counting on with nickles
count mixed coins

Phonics
spelling
sight words
handwriting
consonant blends

Language Arts
poems
Winnie the Pooh
names of holidays
titles of books
junior great books

Art
read about art and artists van Gogh, Rousseau, Glackens
cave paintings

Music
Hadyn
Mozart

Science
water in the air
cotton ball clouds

History
King Tut
Egyptian Cinderella
Pyramids and Ziggurats

School Work week of Oct. 19-23

2009-10-18T14:41:00.002-06:00

Math
Separating
Guess and Test
Logical reasoning
review and assessment
semester test
nickels and dimes

Language Arts
names of months
writing days and months
Winnie the Pooh
public speaking
poetry

Phonics
spelling
handwriting
new sounds

Art
primary and secondary colors
Wassily Kandisky

Science
the rain catcher
water in the air

Music
Bach

History
King Tut
the Egyptian Cinderella

Ogden Dinosaur Park Halloween Activities

2009-10-12T17:27:00.003-06:00

Fun activity to do with the kids. It's not a scary Halloween activity although I heard the last two days of this month it will be scary and only for older kids. There were stations to trick or treat at and receive some fun treats. We got free Applebee's kid meals, $10 gift cards to Sparetime, free bowling at Sparetime, and discount tickets to the Ogden Nature Center. Plus it was fun seeing the park at night and decked out. Now I'm anxious to see if they decorate for the Christmas holidays.

School Work Oct. 12-16

2009-10-10T20:39:00.002-06:00

Math
equal groups
sharing
separating
problem solving
logical reasoning

Phonics. spelling, handwriting
new consonant blends
sight words
practicing handwriting

Language arts
punctuation review
days of the week
Rumpelstiltskin
writing an invitation
analogies
poetry
asking/telling sentences review
names of months
writing months and dates

Art
how artists use symmetry
drawing with symmetry
the color wheel

Science
seasons
wind direction and wind speed

Music
Bach

History
mummies
the great pyramids

School Work Oct. 5-10

2009-10-04T14:42:00.002-06:00

Math
counting to 100
count by 5's
equal groups

Phonics
learning new consonant blends
sight words
phonics readers

Language arts
proper nouns
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle
composition
shared reading
analogies
poetry
titles
junior great books

Art
shapes into pictures
how to use symmetry

Science
What's the Solution?
the weather forecast

Music
Vivaldi
Bach

History
Hieroglyphs
More early writing

History Projects

2009-10-04T09:51:00.002-06:00

The top two pictures of our Nile River replica. We made the Nile river and then flooded the Nile river to see how the silt gets left after a flood.

The bottom picture is a cave painting picture. Nathan thought making a cave painting was fun. We used black construction paper and chalk.

We also made mud bricks and built a house from them. I did not get pictures of the mud brick project. To make mud bricks you mix 2 cups dirt with 1/2 cup flour and add water until its the right consistency to make bricks. I'd say we added maybe 1/4 cup water. Shape the mixture into bricks using your hands. Cover a baking sheet with foil and place formed bricks on the sheet. Bake at 200 degrees for 2 hours or until hard.

Piet Mondrian

2009-10-02T19:19:00.001-06:00

Nathan made a copy of Piet Mondrian's Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow this week in art. I think it turned out pretty good.

School Work Sept 28-30

2009-09-27T11:00:00.002-06:00

Only three days of school work this week.

Math
Numbers through 99

Language Arts
Poem
Junior Great Books
analogies
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle
nouns

Art
Piet Mondrian
shapes into pictures

Science
Molecules on the move

Music
Vivaldi

History
Egypt becomes one country
cave painting
mud bricks
model of an ancient village
model of the nile river

Halloween Costumes for Sale

2009-09-23T15:30:00.003-06:00

These are the cutest little bumblebee costumes! They are from Babystyle's website. Both are in great condition, I am in the process of washing them right now as it appears they are a little dusty. Both are size 18-24 months. I'm asking $7 a piece or both costumes for $10.

Organic Apples for sale

2009-09-21T16:31:00.001-06:00

I'm not sure what type of apples they are as we did not plant the tree however they are sweet enough to eat or I made applesauce and apple butter with them last year. This year we have a ton of these, more than I can preserve with my hurt ankle. I'm asking $3 for about a 5 pound bag of apples. Leave me a comment if your interested or email me at n_baron@msn.com.

School Work for 9/21-9/25

2009-09-21T09:54:00.002-06:00

Math
Numbers through 59

Phonics
new blends

Language Arts
shared reading
poems
junior great books
nouns

Art
how artists use shapes
artists Brueghel, Inness, and Bierstadt

Science
gases matter
solids melt, liquids freeze
from liquid to gas and back again

Music
Beethoven

History
the first villages
Egyptians lived on the Nile
Gods of Ancient Egypt

School Work Week of Sept. 14-18

2009-09-13T19:16:00.002-06:00

Math
Fact families
problem solving
review numbers 10-19

Phonics
still reviewing sounds
spelling
handwriting

Language Arts
sequence sentences
poetry
shared reading
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle
sentences

Art
Jacob Lawerence
printed lines

Science
Zookeeper
states of matter
gases matter

History
Nomads wandering families
Nomads settle fertile crescent
the first villages

Music
Beethoveen

We are still one lesson behind in both science and history. Working on catching up this week.

Archaelogical dig and Homemade Swimming Pool

2009-09-10T14:43:00.003-06:00

Above our pictures of the twins and their homemade swimming pool with jumping platform. They can find endless ways to entertain themselves especially if allowed to play with the garden hose. No kidding this pool kept them entertained for well over 2 hours the other day.

The bottom picture is of the history project Nathan did for school. We were learning about archaeology and we decided to do our own dig. We filled a box with dirt than hid some little treasures for Nathan to find. After he found items he used index cards to label his findings, draw a picture of his findings, and to describe what he thought his items were used for. Overall it was really fun and the twins ended up wanting to join in the fun. We spent almost 3 hours doing digs yesterday.

School Work for the Week of Sept. 7th

2009-09-07T12:33:00.002-06:00

Taking Monday off.

Math
Subtracting up to 12 unit test
Working on more Subtraction facts

Phonics
still reviewing sounds we learned last year
sight words
spelling
handwriting review

Language Arts
poetry
junior great book
grammar- exclamations, writing commands, and sequence

Science
learn to read a thermometer
thinking like a scientist
Zookeeper

History
what is history?
what is archaeology?
Nomads, wandering families

Art
Imaginary Lines

Music
fun beat games
Beethoven

We got a little behind last week with my injury so we have science and history to catch up on. Hence the reason we have three lessons for both subjects.

8/29/09

2009-08-29T14:41:00.002-06:00

It's been awhile since I updated but life has been really crazy.

After a few tumbles with Don it looks like things are starting to improve. Can't say I trust him too much yet but I don't feel like I have to watch every little thing that he does. I'll update more about us later.

Nathan started 1st grade. Yes we are doing the UTVA again this year but I am seriously beginning to think I should try building my own curriculum next year if we decide to homeschool again. Next year he'd be subjected to ALL the testing of the state and it means that schooling will start to cater to those tests instead of actual learning. But for now we are happy. I HATE the music program and have decided to replace that with a music curriculm that is geared more towards our style of learning. We are having fun and he is learning.

Noah and Zachary are still doing the Waterford preschool program at home. They are learning so much through this program and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a simple homeschool preschool program.

Our garden is going nuts and its been hard to keep up with all the produce. Add in the factors of me being really sick with a summer cold and now possibily dislocating or spraining my ankle I worry about what will happen to all our produce. The boys are going to be selling pumpkins this year so when it comes time to get your Halloween pumpkins remember us!

Davis County Fair 2009

2009-08-17T09:18:00.004-06:00

Different post than what I have been posting but we had so much fun at this years county fair I just had to post about it. We saved money all month long to let the kids do everything they wanted at this years fair and boy did they do everything they wanted to.

Zachary riding the bull. Surprisingly he stayed on for the entire ride.

Noah riding the bull. He was scared to start and ended before his time was up.

Nathan riding the bull. He rode for about a 1/4 of the ride and then wanted off.

This swing ride was very popular with the boys. I believe the twins rode this about 5 times. The ride that Nathan really liked I did not get a picture of. I was very surprised that Nathan would ride it though.

Zachary riding the pony. This has been a favorite thing to do two years in a row now.

Nathan on the pony ride.

Noah had the biggest pony and he was sure proud of the fact!

1st place on my cookie entry. Funny because I had not planned on doing cookies and at the last minute I decided to make them. Recipe will be up on my food blog later today.

Second place on my rustic dinner rolls. Recipe is up on my food blog already.

8/13/09

2009-08-13T11:13:00.002-06:00

Things are going better. Don seems to be really trying to make things work between and us and I no longer feel like my world is falling apart. Don realizes I no trust him and I do spend way too much time tracking everything he does but you know its just going to be that way for awhile. To be honest though, this may have been just the thing for us to get back to working on our marriage. I can honestly say neither of us had worked on the marriage much in the past six months. Life got crazy and the first thing that went was our marriage.

Don lost his job the last day of last year. It took him almost 6 months to find another job. This has been noted as a major issue in some marriages. We have a set of twins which again has been proven to cause martial stress. Neither of us were really investing too much energy into the emotional aspect of marriage. And to be honest he found the emotional support he wanted with his "online" friend. Granted I am not to blame and I will not take the blame for what happened but if I had noticed his emotionally tuning out of our marriage before his trip what happened may not have happened.

Right now we are working on rebuilding trust and working on fulfilling each others emotional needs. So far I feel we both are giving 100% towards this goal. From what I have read and from others I have talked to it may take years to rebuild trust and I really believe this. The other day he was late coming home from work and the first thing that went through my head was he was somewhere talking to her on the phone. Well I headed out to try to find him and it turned out he had to stay late at work.

8/09/09

2009-08-09T17:23:00.002-06:00

Just a vent for today. Why do his friends think it is perfectly alright what they did? Why is it that it's okay that they went behind a spouses back to plot an affair and now they should not be made to feel bad, according to their friends? What really makes me sick is that not one of the friends the two of them hung out with during that week said one thing to them about carrying on with each other when one was married? I just have this feeling that the friends are laughing behind my back about how they pulled the wool over my eyes. Who knows how long I have been laughed at but its becoming obvious that others knew what was going on weeks before the actual time it happened. Not one of them felt I should be told of what they were suspecting? Again its truly disgusting that people my husband considers friends did not try to stop what was going on. Oh yes I've heard all the details lately, not from him but from some anonymous chicken who keeps emailing me, about the way they acted from the beginning in NY and how they it was pretty obvious to anyone near them what was going on. And yet not one of these "friends" had the guts, nerves, or even common decency to remind them that one of them was married. Nope I do not think I could ever talk to any of his friends from his hometown without feeling hatred towards them. I am also having trouble thinking his facebook "friends" are even worth trying to be nice to cause again I really have a hard time believing not one of them ever suspected something.

I realize some of his friends read this blog and I hope they realize how disgusted I am with some of them. There is no way I can consider someone a friend when they helped two people covered up something that everyone involved knew was not the right thing to be doing.

8/07/09

2009-08-07T09:10:00.003-06:00

I am not to blame. I am not to blame. I need to keep telling myself this everyday until I can really make myself believe it. I am not the one who plotted behind my spouses back. I am not the one who kissed my spouse goodbye at the airport on the way to my fling. I am not the one who flat out lied to my spouse about what my intentions were on my trip. I am not to blame. As most in my situation I admit my mind kept going over our marriage and finding places where I could assign myself the blame for what happened but I have learned in the past few days that I did nothing wrong. Again I am not the one to take the blame, not even a little blame, no I am fully innocent in what took place.

So who is to blame? Well as much as my husband thinks he holds all the blame that is not true. Both of them are to blame. Both could have stopped before anything happened yet neither did. She knew he was married yet she went right ahead with the affair. So I hold both equally to blame for what happened. It really bothers me that my husband will not admit that both are to blame. Whatever his reasons for taking the full blame I do not agree. Both were adults and both knew going into the affair that one was married. This is the reason both are equally to blame. I've discovered that it is really hurting my feelings that my husband will not admit that she is equally to blame. I get he wants to be noble and all but I don't care about her feelings at this point. My feelings are more important right now than hers. I feel horrible that she feels like her friends are judging her and such but that is not my problem. I am still the innocent party and I should not be made to feel second class to someone feelings. Again both of them knew what was going on and if they really were concerned about how others might see them then they should have waited until my marriage was over to carry on. I mean, honestly, my husband broke one of the most important marriage vows.

There are two reasons I am posting this. One being someone contacted me last night about wanting help for someone else who just discovered someone they love being in the same situation. The difference is right now she is taking the blame for the affair. Please if you are reading this please repeat after me "I AM NOT TO BLAME!" Say it over and over again until you start believing it. Because in all honesty you are not to blame. My second reason is because I need to remember the same words I just gave to someone else. And if I have to say it over and over again until I truly believe it then I will.

I am not to blame.

Step One to Recovery

2009-08-06T07:48:00.002-06:00

Right now we are working on putting walls around the other woman and opening the windows back up to our marriage. We both admit there were several things that have happened in our marriage that allowed both of us to feel we were not getting the emotional things needed from each other. I called the base and received a number to call and talk to a therapist who suggested that we read the book Not "Just Friends" Rebuilding Trust and Recovering Your Sanity after Infidelity. Turns out most of what we have read so far is things that we had already agreed upon since the discovery of the affair.

Don has agreed to the first step in the recovery process which is to stop all contact with the said person. If he feels he must contact her, and according to the book sometimes it must be done, I am to be allowed full access to everything written or said. Basically meaning he must show me all forms of written contact or he must be on speaker phone if he chooses to call her. Do I fully trust him at this point? No but he realizes I do not and he has been making strides to work on it.

I am using my blog right now as a way to express my feelings without needing to actually talk to someone. I can not deal with yet another phone call to see if I am okay. I get myself feeling better, the crying stops and I start functioning again, only to get another phone call asking me if I am okay. While I appreciate the concern and I have loved talking to people I have not talked to in ages, I need time to work this through on my own. Give me a week and then please if you feel like calling give me a call.

The Day My Life Was Shattered

2009-08-05T06:39:00.003-06:00

My husband had an affair. Not just any affair one he plotted right under my nose with someone I trusted. Course he claims he had not planned on doing it but I am sure every man claims the same thing when caught. I am told I should not blame her but how can I not. She knew he was married yet she went ahead and carried on like it was not going to hurt anyone. Did they both think I would not get hurt?

I will admit I am a fool. I did not question his reasons for going back to his childhood home. I did not question him when he said he was staying with a friend so he would not need a hotel room. Course I did not find out until the morning he was leaving that he was staying with a female friend and not the male friend that I had assumed he would be staying with. I let him leave with no doubt in my mind that all would be well. Well the first phone call home I knew something was wrong. Then when I get the word that I should only call for emergencies another sense of something being wrong entered my mind. What really ticks me off is this female knowing she was having sex with my husband talked to me and my kids like she was nothing but someone who wanted to be friends with me and the kids. I'm sick knowing all that time I thought she was being nice to me she was having sex with my husband. Boy did she play me for the biggest fool.

The moment we saw him in the airport something was not right. Again I just figured he was having a little trouble coming back to reality after having no real worries during his 8 day vacation. However it was becoming quite clear within two days of his being back that something was seriously wrong. I love how he said he was confused by feelings that he was having. I thought maybe he wanted to move back home. Well I was right but silly me for thinking he wanted me and the boys to go with him. Sunday he finally admitted to being in love with this other woman but he did not want to hurt me and the boys. Umm hello that statement alone hurt all of us. I seriously can not believe he thought that I and the boys would be perfectly okay with him just up and leaving us for another woman. I can not believe he thought for even the slightest moment that his life would become the perfect life it was while on vacation when he left me for a woman he had not spoke to in over 40 years until he hooked up with her on facebook in the past 4-6 months. I am still angry that he was willing to trade in ten years of marriage for a one week affair.

It took until Monday to finally get him to admit that he had an affair. Course by then I knew, between emails and other communication with certain "friends" of theirs I knew something was up. And yes I did read several email exchanges between my husband and this female. Enough that I knew everything long before he admitted it. He admitted he was ready to leave but did not want to leave me with nothing. He wanted to be sure I was taken care of. And I was told I should not blame myself nor should I blame the other woman. I should only blame him. Well that's crap cause she is every much to blame for this as he is. She allowed herself to become involved knowing full well that he was married and yet it seems her only thought was for herself and not for me or the three little boys. Don claimed he did not want to distrup his kids life. LOL what a joke that comment was. Did he think that going from seeing their father every day to only seeing at most a few weeks in the summer and one or two holidays during the year was not going to affect them? Did he not think that losing a full time mom was not going to hurt the kids? Because there is no way I would be able to stay home with them the way I do now.

Monday night he states that he wants to work things out. Well I am fine with that I say but I tell him we need to be completely honest. I ask that he gives it at least 6 months of really trying to work things out before he decides he is ready to throw his family away. I also ask that he stop all contact with his "friend." He tells me he does not want to hurt her and he needs to tell her. Geez what about not hurting your wife you jerk. I guess my feelings really did not matter and I was really beginning to doubt his sincrity in trying to work things out. I finally allow him to send her an email but that I would have to read it before he could send it. I also stated I wanted full access to all of his accounts so I could see if he was talking to her. I went to bed feeling quite confident about trying to work things out. Then morning came along and I discover he had reopened another email account and sent a message to his lady friend that way. Again he claims he does not want to hurt her feelings. This ticks me off cause I am reading this as her feelings are more important than yours. Needless to say I was exteremly hurt again.

Honestly I do not know what to think at this point. I do think after another arugement yesterday morning we are both working on fixing our marriage but I feel this hurt that what if he is only toying with me. That he has no plans of sticking it out with me but is just doing this right now to make me feel better. I told him last night I want him tested for STD's. I don't care that I am confident she does not have any I just want him to realize what could have happened. I mean honestly she was willing to have an affair with a married man who is to say she would not have an affair with just anyone.

Sister in the paper

2009-07-30T21:17:00.003-06:00

Read this really nice article about my sister:
Shooting from the Hip: Good Job, Crystal Gadd

I am proud of you!