Jingle Bells...Jingle Bells

Am I the only one out there that has Autumn fever and has started singing Christmas carols in the shower? They just come out of nowhere, I promise. One minute I'm shampooing my hair and the next I'm belting out "oH the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful..". I think I must be crazy. It has got to be this GA humidity. Seriously, there have been days when I thought I was melting, just like the witch in The Wizard of Oz. I am known for being a holiday nut in my family. I love it all but the Autumn/Winter holidays which include for me, Halloween, my birthday, and Christmas, are the very best of the year. My Christmas "itch" usually starts in late August, and yet it has come sooner this year. I don't know why I rush things like this. This autumn my Princess Poodle turns eight, I am horrified and still not over my baby boy turning five on me. But the carols and visions of colored lights are flooding my mind and today as I watched 10 pine trees being cut down and chopped into mulch, the smell nearly sent me into fits of joy inside! We have much school to accomplish. My big goals for the kids this year. ..For PP I hope to see her math facts solidified and her writing progress. For Triple H, I want to see him come to love reading and move beyond, Al has a fast cat. I would also like to see some improvement in their chores around the house and in my own as well. (gotta be honest) Mostly I want to see us find a rhythm to our schooling and our days. I hear others talk of such a rhythm but we have yet to find it and I feel that is my own fault. As for school, we are studying Great Britian and next week I introduce Princess Poodle to Shakespeare for the first time. We will be reading childrens versions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet. Triple H is loving memorizing poetry which suprises me a bit. Princess Poodle is working on The Violet. Math is new to us and so we are working on a level that is a bit easy in order to transisition into the new program. WWE level 2 has introduced dictation. This is somewhat new, especially in the length of the passage dictated. For spelling I think I am going to go for a combined approach of a workbook and real life application. PPoodle writes all the time. She is working on an infomational "book" about space. I think we will work through Spelling workout and also add words to our list that I find her misspelling in her fun writing. I won't make her correct her fun writing, I'll just put these words down in some type of list/folder/etc. Triple H is working in the Kinder part of SIng spell read and write. I would love to finish the Kinder portion this year but I will move at his pace. He won't officially be a Kinder until the 2010/2011 school year. We will do some ETC pages along with this. He also enjoys much of our math and sits in on our countries and cultures lessons most of the time.

I'm off to check on dinner and maybe sing a little Silent Night as I finish it up.

Christmas Morning 2007 Kids still love the boxes more than anything!

First Week of School, Spelling Impaired, and a painted Friend.

We finished our first week of school here at Hazelnut Academy. I now have a second grader (oh I see a rabbit in our yard!) and a K-5 boy! Hard to believe. For the most part school went well. We started our geography unit which is the kids favorite part of school. They are making paper mache globes which are an experiment to be honest. We studied maps and they each made a map of a local nursery/art studio including a map key. Tomorrow we head off to Europe with our first stop being England. I really need to update my curriculum link with the full story of what we are doing but time hasn't permitted it yet. I have noticed that I have let Spelling slide and Princess poodle, being an avid writer and wanna be journalist, really needs me to kick this subject into high gear. I guess I was just hoping that it would come naturally. Hopefully a better weekly update with pictures will come soon. I'm still here but swamped from trying to get into the routine of things. As usual the house and meals suffer when school is in session. Why can't I have enough money for a maid and a cook? ha ha Also I have discovered a new passion, or hobby, or maybe just a release. I'm not sure what to call it but I am enjoying playing with paints. I am not an artist. My sister is the artist in the family. But at the age of 33 I have picked up a paintbrush and I like the way it feels. Here's a picture of a recent, really my first real, painting. Its very simple really but I enjoyed painting her and now she is somehow my friend. Thanks for stopping by.

A new Hair Style and New way of thinking

I am undergoing quite a change in my life. It has been coming on for some time now. Part of this change has been learning to relax and take life a little more as it comes. To savor all that is sweet and beautiful and smells good. I am no longer blowdrying my hair. Perhaps I never will again. I am wearing it in its naturally wavy state which is a bit messy but that is ok. So here's to tossing the blowdryer and flatiron and embracing my true self or at least my true hair. What are you embracing these days? What are you tossing?

Sinapore Math is shipping!

I just received an email that my backordered sinapore math is shipping. Yeah! I am excited and a bit nervous about the change. School for us starts in a few days and I can't believe that I am about to have a K5 and a Second Grader. I am very blessed for these two kids to be in my life. Their spirits are unique and quirky and sweet and just what I need. Triple H is standing in the bathroom talking to me. He is wearing his vote for pawpaw t-shirt that was mine when I was a little girl, an old cowboy hat, a robe he is holding over his left shoulder and is tapping dancing in his new flipflops (his very first pair). He just said" Momma thank you for my flipflops, I love them"). Princess Poodle is still fast asleep but will soon be up and will have The Silver Chair in her hand the moment she awakes. She is now in my lap giving me special hugs and holding her lovey that she has had since she was 6 months old. How the time goes by? Why so fast? And I try not to drown in the sadness of them growing up. Their spirits are eternal and they are growing up at just the speed God wants them too. I however would do things a bit differently.

This post is quite random but that seems to be my life these days. I do have good news. We made it into a co-op which is a miracle because the waiting list was 70 families long. It is called Explorers and we will meet one day a week for six weeks. There will be three six week sessions. each six weeks we will cover a new topic, a unit study type of thing. I think the kids will eventually love it but it will be hard on all three of us at first. We are all a bit shy in new places and around new faces. But this is ,I am sure a blessing and a challenge from God. A way to stretch our characters. I know He will have somthing there for each of us to learn.

Here are a couple of pictures from a recent fieldtrip to Spruells Bluff. We are still enjoying our summering and hope all who read this crazy blog are having a magical summer as well.