A New Attempt at Chores

I am notorious for good ideas that I don't follow through on. Its a bit of a personality flaw I have. Even with my projects..I often get just done enough to enjoy the immediate results and then I have trouble finishing the project once I have that initial satisfaction. So I have tried the chore thing with the kids and it stopped because I didn't follow through.

Well I am trying again. I don't want lazy kids and see some bad habits developing already.

We are going on our family vacation to Disney in October. We are beyond excited. I know everyone looks forward to a vacation; a break from the normal routine. But somehow I think for a homeschooling mom and kids that anticipation is magnifide. We are home ALOT. I work really hard with school and get very little time to myself and Papa works very hard at his job and church activities and we don't spend as much time with him as we want to. So with the week to Disney coming up I developed a chore chart and the reward for a day's chores done, DISNEY DOLLARS. I made up pretend ones and the kids can earn one a day if they complete all their chores for the day. List of daily chores are as follows; make bed, get dressed, brush teeth, pick up downstairs toys that have lingered and have room clean before nightime room check. The kids are really doing well and I'm sure the incentive is part of that. Hopefully some habits will be developed in this process. The kids can also earn dollars for extra chores like helping me on bathroom cleaning day, dusting for me, or if I catch them doing something really good for no other reason than doing the right thing. The Disney dollars they earn will be what they use for buying fun things at Dinsey like a Micky doll or light up sword. Here's hoping for some better habits this fall and maybe to knock some of that laziness out of them.

Thanks for stopping by.

A Picture of Me if the kids get their chores done!

A Picture of me if they don't....ha ha ha.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Here is my Wordless Wednesday Post: This is a tower that was outside our window in Belgium. I loved how it looked different throughout the day.

New House Projects

Little Girl's Garden/Woodland Fairy Theme

Our new home is so nice. I don't have walls that need to be painted or cabinets that I must refinish. Really its so nice. However I am a project girl...it does something good for my spirit to create something. So I have decided to give my little girl an amazing room. I didn't even get to decorate her nursery due to seminary housing rules. She has chosen a woodland fairy theme. I wish I was an artist because my initial plans involved a wall size mural of a tree..but talent and money are lacking and so I must get creative. I will post updates of my new project. Today I got fabric swatches, a bird house that will become a fairy house and a pale yellow cover for her bed. I am waiting on some Fairy Wallies to come in the mail and then I will pick up a paintbrush and hope for the best. I also have some window treatments to make and a bistro set to redo for a garden tea party table. My husband is going to build her a window seat that will have two "window seats" one on each side and a desktop in the middle. Any ideas out there for a woodland/flower fairy theme just bring them on.







Here are the fabric swatches and what will become the fairy house.

Here is a picture of the window I must make curtains for. The window seat/desk area will go into this nook under the window. I will use one of the fabrics to cover the window seat cushions.

This is a canopy that will hang above her bed. I bought it very cheap at IKEA(it was made to go over a crib) and I am embellishing it with flowers to fit into the theme.

Some Curriculum Changes

As always there comes a time for some curriculum tweaks or changes. We are into week 4 of the new school year and most everything is going great however I am going to make some changes.

Triple H has retained more of us letter recognition and sounds than I anticipated. We are going to continue with the three books from the Get Ready for the Code series from Explode the Code. I have taken out the SSRW handwriting pages because he is getting enough handwriting in the previously mentioned book. I have ordered the second workbook from the Kindergarten level of Sing Spell Read and Write. He is starting to roughly blend three letter words. So I anticipate adding this into our week sometime mid-year and going as slowly as necessary. He will have another whole year of PreK after this year so I don't feel a need to rush him but I feel he might get bored with the other curriculum sometime this year.

As for Princess Poodle's curriculum most everything is going well. Writing with Ease seems to be a good fit for her. She enjoys the narration days the most. Perhaps I should have started her in workbook 2 but I wanted to start at the foundation and build up. We are working on doing narrations in three to four sentences. Most days this comes easily to her, other days we work together to combine two sentences if necessary etc. Once we get to the part of the workbook where she copies down the narration I will only have her do "one thing you remember from the story" for awhile. She loves the picture study and story writing that I have pulled from Language Lessons for the Very Young. I do not do the copywork from that book however. I am also having her independently finish Spelling Workout A which we started last year. I don't know where spelling will go from there. I may buy a few of the Explode the Code books that I feel might solidify her phonics and have her work in those and perhaps readdress spelling in second grade. Poetry memorization is going well. So far she has three, The Swing, The Caterpillar, and Spring Magic. She likes this part of our day.

Saxon is going well except for the timed math facts. She does excellent with the flashcards but when she is timed she basically falls to pieces. There are two options here; one take away the timed factor or two ;keep it. Right now I am voting to keep it because I feel it is a skill which she must learn (meaning being timed) and learn how to manage the stress factor involved. Once in third grade she will take basic skills tests which will be somewhat timed and in life in general sometimes a timeframe is given. So I am increasing her drill practice, have lessened the number of problems I want her to complete and hopefully this will lead to success. I want her to know that she can do this.

History: a self put together curriculum for American History is going well. I feel a need for more hands on projects and know that will come with colonial days etc. Princess Poodle is loving the lapbook concept so I need to educate myself on this so we can make "cooler" ones.

Oh, I am finding that DVR on satelite is a tremendous help with school. I tape all the Magic School Bus cartoons, Animal Atlas and Liberty Kids. We are already using those that tie into our studies and I don't even have to go to the library to check them out. This is nice. Also having purchased more of our history/science living books this year is keeping our library trips down to once a week or every other week and this is wonderful because it is 20 minutes or more away and gas is crazy high!

I have rambled. Soon I will post pictures of some schoolwork the kids have been doing.

Thanks for stopping by.
Sheryl

Two HUGE pieces of my heart!

Those eyes, that contented grin, that innocence. She may be my daughter but in ways we are kindred spirits. Is that possible to maintain?
My little man is all boy and oh how he loves his Mommy. I get the most kisses from him..everyday.

Wordless Wednesday

From my last trip to the North GA. mountains, this is the view from my Daddy's front yard. I'm a little jealous.

School Update

I tried really hard last year to do a weekly report of our schooling. Sometimes I found time other times I didn't. So I thought I'd try to do School Updates whenever I can. They might cover a week or maybe two or three. I'll post pics when I can and try to get in some of the kids.



Today has been a wonderful homeschool day. YOu know the the ones. Kids are up early and bright eyed and ready to school. We finished so much work this morning and all by 10 am. Princess Poodle is a schooling machine. She really stays focused for quite a long time for her age. Sometimes I feel that we are not schooling enough yet we seem to be getting so much done. Today is Monday and one of our lighter days meaning no history, science, or art scheduled in. Here is a breakdown of our morning.



School starts 8:30 after breakfast and kids are dressed.

Morning Meeting: we practice pledge, counting, money, math facts, theology questions, etc.

Math: We completed two Saxon lessons that really went together and we are still in the review lessons. Lessons were on patterns and creating some, some more stories, and some, some went away stories. For fun we used princess figurines and a tupperware bowl filled with water to be a swimming pool. All of our math stories were about swimming princesses. It was really fun and water makes anything more fun! Princess Poodle completed her fact sheet and daily worksheet with no problem while I helped Triple H on his Letter M pages from Get Ready for the Code. After he was done I let him play Nick Jr. on computer and went on to Language studies with PP. We completed two oral lessons from First Language Lessons, copywork from Writing with Ease, and she read the first chapter of A Lion To Guard Us out loud to me. This chapter book correlates with our history studies on Jamestown. So a great morning and done by 10 AM. We then went on to playdough via Triple H's request and then got some exercise skipping and singing to the Zip a dee doo da song on our disney cd. To top off the morning we headed to McDonalds (nasty I know) to get happy meals because they are Star Wars and even though the kids don't know Star Wars I had R2D2 underoos and love all the Star Wars movies. After lunch we read three stories from Old Mother West Wind which is a HUGE hit with both kids. And now they are tucked safely in their beds for an hour of rest time and I get to get on the computer. After rest its time to make homemade cookies together and take some to a friend to commend her first day of second grade.



We are in week three of our first quarter and it is going quite well. Princess Poodle loves history like last year. We are learning about explorers of North and South America and she is making her first lap book. I 'll post pics of it soon. She has learned her new poem The Caterpillar and recites it with quite the dramatic flair. Of course she does everything with a dramatic flair. You should have heard and seen her practicing softball last night. Can a softball player move like a ballerina and create stories while playing? Hmmm we'll have to see about that one.



In Science we are learning about mammals and incorporating this into our nature studies. We learned about squirrels and then went on a nature exploration in Gramma and Grandaddy's backyard in search of squirrels. She got to see how they use their front paws like hands, how they jump and leap when the move, how they circle up a tree instead of straight up, and how they can balance on a thin fence. Below is a pic of one of the squirrels we "caught".



Awana starts this Wednesday, softball very soon, Brownies (all homeschooling troup), and Co-op in September; she is going to be a very busy girl. I'm just so thankful that she is home with me and not away all day. I am thankful for the cuddling during our stories today. I am thankful for seeing her skip around the house in her undies(they get dressed I swear but it never seems to last) to the tune of Zip a dee doo da. I am thankful for Triple H saying out of the blue "You are the bestest Mommy in the whole world" I'm not but its nice to hear anyway. I am thankful ...why can't I show this more ..to my sweet hardworking husband, to my God.. both of which make this possible. I want to be thankful more and complain less. I want to be content and joyful more times than not. One day at a time...
Here he is. I think Grandaddy said his name was Henry. I had to snap the pic fast...they don't stay in one place for long.


THanks for stopping by

Sheryl

For Art Lovers

The one and only Mona Lisa. Interestingly she didn't become really famous until about 100 years ago. The story is fascinating and involves an artist known for not finishing his works, a commom lady, a "love affair" with Napolean and a theft from the Lourve which really brought this painting into the paparazzi's spotlight.
I really wanted to see a Degas. Princess Poodle loves his work of the ballet dancers but the only one we found was of a nude woman. I still showed it to her and she can't believe we saw an orginal Degas.
Now I loved this one. I had seen alot of Monets in art books but this winter scene I love more than his water lillies. Its very moody in person.
This is the ceiling of one corridor in the Louvre. Unbelievable in person. Inside this corridor sit two coronation crowns of Louis the something. Jewels are so big they look fake. I think I could make a pretty good replica by going to Claire's and getting a hot glue gun.

Here is the Wedding Feast at Cana. The size of this painting is in itself amazing. Many of the paintings are wall size and you wonder how they got them here.

To enter the musuem you go through the famous glass pyramid. I get it..something old recreated to look modern. You have to pass through this blend of the old and new to enter the museum. The musuem itself is huge. We spent 3 1/2 hours in there and didn't see everything. It wasn't crowded that day. The tour de France was ending in Paris that day and many people had flocked to that event. I was surprised by how close we were able to get to these famous paintings. Security must be all behind the scenes because it wasn't really present in the musuem except for a few people here and there keeping a close eye on kids. I really enjoyed the section of the musuem dedicated to ancient aritifacts. Eygyptian statues, Athenian pottery, Hammarabi's Code, real hieroglyphics...wow. And I found it interesting that paintings that moved me most or caught my attention were pieces of obscurity that I had never heard of before. Steven and I are not very artistic people and yet we both enjoyed our time there except for the thousands of stairs you take which took a toll on my legs and his knees!!

Soon to come: Notre Dame, The Church of our Lady, some comments on Bruge, Greek Alley, and more.

A New School Year and a New Learning Room

We got the table and chairs from IKEA awhile back and they work great! The school room gets alot of natural light in the morning which is nice for school time. Red folder organizer hanging in the back holds daily work folders which the kids can pull down for school time. I fill these over the weekend for the next week. I borrowed this idea from Jessica at Trivium Academy. Thanks!
This is our wall of maps and the kids artwork. The art lessons are coming from Artistic Pursuits. The kids love the program and I'm just happy to have them getting messy and learning a little in the process. I don't feel I have really had a good day unless at the end of it I know they learned something, had some fun, and got a little messy. These days don't happen everyday but I love it when they do.
So far this wall has our skip counting strips and a word wall which I will use to put hard to spell words etc. I have a morning meeting in the corner on the left. Here we cover math concepts like money practice, counting, the kids practice their theology questions (Westmin. Cat. for kids) and we say the pledge, say our morning prayer, and will practice poetry memorization or songs etc. The kids have loved having this morning meeting together. It takes the place of the math meeting used in the Saxon curriculum.
This is our "butlers pantry" or at least thats what they told me it was called. I use the top (not seen) to hold plates and nice glasses. The bottom is used for homeschool storage and our daily binders/teacher manuals etc. Our kitchen came with two pantries. I was shocked. I use one for food and the other is all homeschool organization. Both the above shelves and the pantry are placed leading into the school room (dining room) and that makes their location very handy. I will one day have to add some bookshelves but for now we are set for storage.

I still feel the room needs some color but I don't want to add a rug because of the above mentioned messy projects. This is technically the dining room and seen when you enter the front door so I won't paint the walls some crazy color. Some plants or a fish tank or something might help it seem more alive in there. So there it is....our new school room. Its so nice having a room just for school and I find that the kids gravitate to them room even in non-school time to color or create a project. Hopefully we can fill the room with a wondeful school year. Here we go!!!

Parade of Pictures Part I

Uhaul ready to be loaded and taken to new house.
Picture of new house. Its a craftsman style and needs some flowers for color!
View outside our hotel room in Belgium. I took this at sunset one night.
Pic of me and the eiffel tower behind me.

Me and my world traveling man in front of the Seine river and Notre Dame (spelling is wrong I am sure but I'm too busy to go look it up.

Notre Dame and me admist a sea of people.
High Speed train from Belgium to Paris. It was amazing. The glass pyramid at the Louvre.

More to pics to come another day and hopefully some time to put all this into words that do it some justice.

I'm Back in the Cyber World

Today we finally got internet! Took long enough didn't it. I will make many posts later. Today I need to clean and then its off to the movies with three old and dear friends for a girls day out.
We are in our new home. It is beautiful and more home than this simple GA girl really knows what to do with but I am thankful. I have a school room which has been so wonderful. Steven and I will appreciate it and care for it but will continue to remind ourselves that it is just a house and something we need to be able to let go of when God's time is right.
Steven and I got to go to Belgium and France. Paris was truly amazing and Bruge was so lovely and quaint. I have spent hours touring the Lourve, eaten a hotdog (or what they call a hotdog) under the Eiffel Tower with my sweetheart, taken a boatride down the Seine and toured the Venice of the North by a boat in the canals. And I have had my share of plane rides!!!

School has started and so my mind races with American History and Mammals at the moment. I am still adjusting to a new home even though it is still in the same town. I guess it was a final goodbye to what I knew and loved for three years..living next door to two wonderful friends and being connected with our neighbors.

Our adoption situation looks bleak. Our agency is struggling. Steven and I are unsure what to do and at the rate China is moving with the adoption we will be having Princess Poodles' highschool graduation. Lord what do we do? We need him to show us what to do.

Anyways, I will post with pics later. Lots to show and share.

To all my friends living far away...I miss you like crazy and am glad to be back in touch. To anyone who reads this crazy blog out in cyberspace..I promise to get back in the swing of posting about our school.

Thanks for stopping by
Sheryl