Dear Santa,

Last week I suggested that all the kids write a letter to Santa, and I just had to save them here before I send them off to the big guy in the red suit!






Here is Madison's:
There are no real surprises here, she has been asking for a pogo stick for a while now. I don't have any real objection to her having one, I just don't think she will love it as much as she seems to think she will. We had one at our grandma's house when I was little, and really, using it once or twice a year was plenty - it got old fast. Other than that, she wants Webkinz, Webkinz, and clothes for the Webkinz! Whatever, I guess it's pretty affordable, anyway.

Hunter wants a sno-cone machine. I don't know if we'll be able to find one this time of year, but we'll try. He also wants candy and money - again, no surprises here.

So I asked Kaden what he would like Santa to bring him for Christmas, and this is what he told me....

If you're having trouble reading that, he wants an underwear machine.

According to him, you put it on the table, pull the thing, and it makes underwear.

If I thought that meant he would actually wear the underwear, and not pee in them, I would find some way for there to be an underwear machine under the tree Christmas morning!! He is actually making progress on the potty training thing, but still has accidents often. We're not leaving the house without a diaper on at this point.

letting go

This year I have decided to let go of the need to try to make everything perfect...

Okay, well not everything, just the Christmas tree.

Every year I get the Christmas tree out of it's box and get it all set up and put the lights on it, usually on the Sunday night after Thanksgiving. Then on Monday night I get out all the ornaments and let the kids decorate the tree. They love this, but the results are less than perfect. So, after they go to bed I take everything off the tree and redecorate it, spreading all the ornaments out evenly so it is nicely balanced.

This year I tried something different. I directed them a little, and helped to get some ornaments on the higher branches, but let them do it mostly by themselves.

Guess what ~ I think it looks perfect!

December?

How is November over already???

I guess we've been busy!

*sigh*

I'm sooo tempted to change every day of the week to Friday.

During the week, we try to do our normal school work, but Fridays are set apart to be a little different. In the past our homeschooling playgroup has always met at a park on Friday mornings to let the kids get together and play, and to let the moms get together to chat and hang out. We usually spend a few hours there, so by the time we get home and have some lunch everyone is too worn out to even attempt any additional school work. I had things on our schedule for Friday (math games, journal writing, cooking projects) but we rarely got around to doing them. :(

Recently we decided to move our weekly park day to Thursday afternoons... so yesterday after schoolwork was finished and lunch was eaten, we took off and spent a few hours at the park. That meant that we had all day today to stay home and enjoy our homeschooling Friday!

I slept in a little this morning, and the kids got up and made their own breakfast - what a wonderful way to start the day, huh?

After I cleaned that up, we started the day by playing some games. First we played multiplication war, then we got out Parcheesi. It was a little cold, so I started a fire in the fireplace and made everyone some hot chocolate while we played that.

After the games, it was time for a cooking project. The kids love Chocolate Malted Crunch ice cream from Rite Aid, so we had to try this recipe. It turned out great (but not quite as "malty" as I had expected). While the cookies were baking we did a couple read-alouds.

Next I had the kids write in their journals... with Thanksgiving coming up I suggested that they write something they are thankful for. Here is what they wrote:

Madison:

Hunter:
Kaden:Then we had some lunch and the kids played outside for a while.

When they came in I worked on Latin with Madison. We are really enjoying this, when we get around to doing it. Today's lesson was on the phrase "Cogito ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am). We talked some about Descartes, and the meaning of the phrase. I was searching for more information, and came across this article. While it may not be exactly what Descartes intended with the original phrase, I thought it was an interesting idea. I read the whole thing with Madison and we talked how our attitudes and thoughts can affect our reality.

I read to them all some more, and that was it! I kind of wish every day was so relaxed and pleasant.... but I don't think we would do a good enough job of covering the basics if that was all we did every day.

I guess I'll settle for fun Fridays, and keep cracking down on them with "real" school work the rest of the week.

got pumpkins?

Here is a list of 100 things to do with pumpkins~
Have fun!

pumpkin patch

preserving marriage

Elder Ballard announced a new church website at the special broadcast tonight. He and Elder Cook specifically invited those with blogs and other internet groups to "go viral" with the videos and information on the website. :o)

http://www.preservingmarriage.org/

two field trips

In the past two months our homeschool group has had two fun field trips~

In August, we visited J&K Farley Farms to pick grapes. The kids love picking their own grapes, and the prices are awesome! Each of the kids was able to fill a cardboard box for just $2.

They also have a small petting zoo there, with the normal farm animals ~ cow, donkey, goats, pig...

...oh, yeah, and an emu!! The kids were frightened of it at first, but gradually got closer and closer until they were actually petting it... I mantained a respectful distance, myself.

Then, last month, we went on a field trip to the zoo. Our group decided to do the guided tour, and I was a little worried that my kids would be bored by it. Luckily, I was totally wrong about that, and they had a great time.

I was able to relax while she led the kids around the zoo and pointed out interesting things to them. They were able to get up close to this owl, and also chatted for quite a while with zoo employee at the reptile house who showed them a snake and answered all their questions.Later this month, we will be visiting the pumpkin patch. I always make my kids take lots of pictures there, so I'm sure I'll post about that when it happens!

Homeschooling: part 2

Math:
For math this year Hunter is continuing to use the workbook provided by the charter school we were using last year - Progress in Mathematics by Sadlier-Oxford. He enjoys math and is good at it. His mind is always thinking in numbers - he is constantly counting or adding things. He is almost halfway done with the first grade workbook, and I am still deciding what we will do when he finishes it.

Madison is using the MCP workbook, 4th grade level. She placed advanced on her STAR tests last year in everything except multiplication so we really need to work on memorizing those this year. She is pretty good at math most of the time, but is easily frustrated when something is hard for her.

Kaden is learning to count. He knows up to 5 pretty well. Usually while the other two are working on their math he will sit at the table and color in a coloring book or a blank notebook. While in Target the other day we found some cute little monster stamps and he has really liked playing with those. We will count how many of each one he stamps and we also make patterns with them. Besides actually learning the numbers, he is working on fine motor control and just getting in the habit of doing "work."

In the past I have struggled to keep the kids attention on their work - a simple math worksheet that should really only take a few minutes would take an hour or more, due to doodling, dawdling, and distractions. About a year ago, I started bribing them giving them an incentive. Now, each child gets a small amount of candy (like 5 M&M's) in a paper cup. We go over any new material in the lesson and what I expect them to accomplish, then I set the kitchen timer for 10 or 15 minutes. If I notice them being distracted from their work, I take one of the candies from their cup. When the timer beeps, they can eat their candy. At that time, sometimes they want to keep working, but I don't require it. If they haven't finished they just continue the next day. Hunter can usually finish two or more worksheets during this time, and Madison usually gets one done - her problems are more difficult, though.

Friday is a fun day here, so we play games instead of doing workbooks. I like Math Card War and Chess, but I also allow games that are more fun, and less "math-y." We also try to do a cooking project on Fridays - which incorporates some math as well. Last Friday Madison and Hunter made blueberry muffins from scratch, with very little help from me.

our fun morning

So Kaden had a dentist appointment at 8:00 this morning to have a crown put on one of his back molars. They sedated him, which I am glad of, but we have been home for about an hour and a half, and I have just now gotten him calmed down.

First he wanted to watch Little Einsteins. Not just any Little Einsteins, "the flower one"! I have no idea which one is the flower one, but apparently it is not any one of the 14 I have saved on the DVR. So after we went through all of them at least twice, he decided he was hungry.

I would think so, since he hadn't eaten since dinner last night. I was supposed to start him on clear liquids so I offered him some juice. He wanted juice in one cup and milk in another cup. But not either of the two bottles of juice that were in the fridge - a new bottle of juice (same juice, new bottle). I thought, whatever, it will get used up sooner or later....

So I put the juice in the green cup and the milk in the yellow cup, just like he asked. Then he wanted some cereal. We managed to get some cereal (two different kinds, in just the right proportion) into a bowl without too much drama. Then after he sat at the table, he wanted me to move the table. I moved the table. That wasn't good enough, he wanted to move to a different seat. I moved his bowl and two cups to the spot where he wanted to sit, which was obviously a horrible thing for me to do, because it caused a full meltdown. I put everything back where he wanted it. Then he wanted Madison, not me, to help him move to the other chair. I guess she did something wrong, because that chair was no good either. He picked a third spot.

Okay, so we're all set, right? Juice in the green cup, milk in the yellow cup, cereal in the bowl (again, after being dumped out sometime during meltdown), chair and table positioned perfectly.... but no. Now he wanted the milk in the green cup, and the juice in the yellow cup! So I poured out the juice. Which caused a full screaming total fit.

Several minutes later, after he calmed down somewhat, I finally figured out what I had done wrong - he wanted me to wait until he sat back in his chair to pour out the juice. So I got the milk in the green cup. Now he wanted the juice in the yellow cup. So I waited until he sat in his chair like a good mommy, and poured out the milk in the yellow cup. But now he wanted "new" juice, again. Well, the bottle of juice I just opened for him was the last bottle of new juice I had.... so I took the bottle of juice out of the fridge and used it to fill up the other bottle of juice - "tada! - new juice." That was acceptable - so I poured the new juice into the yellow cup.

Finally satisfied, he ate a few pieces of the cereal, and had a sip of the milk, and then decided to go outside and play with the other kids.

Keep in mind that throughout this entire process he is on the verge of total meltdown (and frequently going over the edge)... normally I would not be nearly so accommodating to the whims of my three year old, but he was still coming out of the anesthesia, tired and groggy and grumpy. I know that nothing I could have done would have made him happy, but I sure tried.

Homeschooling: part 1

Ah, my poor neglected blog!

It's been so long since I added anything here...
We have been pretty busy lately, I guess!

Much of what I have been busy with is planning our homeschooling year, so I thought I would share some of that. I'm going to do this in a few parts, or else I could be here all day!

We have been homeschooling for four years already, but all of that was with a charter school. They provided all the lesson plans, books, and materials. Around the end of the last school year I started feeling dissatisfied with our experience with them for a few different reasons and wanted to have more freedom than they provided so I started looking for other options. I didn't want to build a curriculum from scratch, but wanted the freedom to combine Madison and Hunter when appropriate, and to add and take away from a program to make it suit our family. So I searched and I searched, and discovered the Charlotte Mason philosophy. That seemed like a good fit to me.

For example, Charlotte’s students used living books rather than dry textbooks. Living books are usually written in story form by one author who has a passion for the subject. A living book makes the subject “come alive.” - from simplycharlottemason.com

After some more searching, I discovered the Ambleside Online curriculum. It is designed to be as close as possible to what was taught by Charlotte Mason. While this was very close to what I wanted, there were a few things I wasn't entirely happy with. So I kept looking. And then I discovered Milestones Academy. Here I found a wonderful curriculum following the Charlotte Mason principles that I love, using many of the same wonderful books as Ambleside Online, but adding in an LDS perspective. I finally found something that was a (nearly - I will be doing a little tweaking) perfect fit!

In the next few posts, I will share our curriculum choices, scheduling, and whatever else I can think of!

Birthday Boy

We had a quiet family party at home for Kaden's third birthday ~ we had cake and ice cream and lots of presents. His favorite was a Rocket (from Little Einsteins) bath toy. Madison and Hunter used their own money to buy presents (matchbox cars) for him.
Let's hope he's going to grow out of the terrible two's and into a terrific three!

Butterflies!

A few weeks ago Madison found this critter devouring the leaves on the orange tree in our yard:

Of course, he had to be brought inside and put in a jar to be studied thoroughly... we gave him some of the orange leaves that he loved so much and the kids had to check his progress often. I guess he was a little shy, though, because he waited until we left the house the next day to change into his chrysalis. Everyone was disappointed to have missed the event, so we looked it up on YouTube! You can see what he did, here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=U4V_locq3yY

All the information I could find about butterflies said that he should stay that way for about two weeks, but just one week later we woke up and found this in the jar:

It is a Tiger Swallowtail butterfly ~ Madison's favorite. We were disappointed to have missed the transformation once again, but YouTube came to the rescue again (http://youtube.com/watch?v=vjvR_Mt4z8Q&feature=related). He did oblige us by sitting very still for quite a while on the branch of one of our trees after we let him out of the jar. We were able to examine him very closely while he warmed up and got ready to fly away.

Last week Madison found a giant Tomato Hornworm on the tomatoes (where else would it be?) and insisted on bringing it in for observation as well (ewww!). After a day or so it stopped eating and seemed to be looking for something - I did a quick search and discovered that they form their chrysalis underground. We took everything out of his jar and put in a few inches of dirt for him and put him back in. Within a few hours he had dug himself a hole and settled in for his nap. Apparently they turn into a big moth....

A Confession

I've been stalking Jessica Sprague.

I've been reading her blog for months now and she doesn't even know I exist...
but now she has this little contest, so - hi Jessica! I really love your blog, and all the great photoshop tips you so generously share!

She calls this one Photo ShaZAM, and I love what it does to my pictures. I will definitely be using it often!

Here is my picture of Kaden before I shaZAMed it:

It was a pretty good picture to begin with, but just look at it after:

Now, go visit Jessica's blog to see how to do it yourself!

Prison Art

First, a little history:

Last night, after the kids were in bed, we were watching Lockup: San Quentin Extended Stay. It is a documentary about the lives of prisoners who are serving long sentences in San Quentin. The prisoners necessarily have to be very creative in finding ways to spend their time, and some create amazing works of art using the meager supplies available to them. Some of them make amazing sculptures using only toilet paper and water.

Now, today is an average day for this time of year - 93 degrees - and the kids wanted to play with the hose to cool down. I went out to check on them after a little while, and this is what I found:

Here they are soaking magazine pages in water on the sidewalk and then scrunching them up into little balls. Then they laid them out in the sun to dry:
At least we know that they will not die of boredom should they ever end up in prison....

Pismo~

"Best Vacation... EVER!!" -Madison

Song: Island in the Sun by Weezer

2yo + scissors = :-(

We don't have pets - we have Webkinz. These stuffed animals and their virtual world take the place of real pets in our home. I like that I don't have to feed them or clean up after them. We also have one very mischeivious two year old:I do have to feed and clean up after him. I don't know if he goes looking for trouble, or if trouble just finds him - but whichever it is, he and trouble are never far apart!

The other day, somehow some scissors were left were he could find them, and this happened to Madison's beloved pet, Goldenrod:After a few quick stitches I managed to get him fixed up...
...but the poor puppy will always have a little scar on his nose now, thanks to Kaden.

Leaves and Ladybugs

Outdoor Challenge #17

For this weeks challenge we were to gather leaves, so we went for a walk through the empty field near our house. We gathered leaves from all the trees we saw ~ here Madison and Hunter are collecting leaves from a giant old oak tree:We also saw some ladybugs on some weeds out in the field - we talked about why they might be attracted to those plants and discovered some fuzzy little bugs also on the weeds. When we got home we looked them up and it turns out they are wooly aphids.

On the way back, Hunter climbed down into the irrigation canal and discovered some tadpoles. He reported that they are just heads and tails at this time - no legs yet. Back at home we made some rubbings of the leafs we had collected and labeled the pictures:

Kaden says...

"When I grow up I will be red juice, and I will go in the fridge, and you will drink me!"

Sewing Project~

In the latest issue of Living Crafts magazine were the instructions to make this nifty little backpack: I let the kids pick out their own fabric, and Hunter and Madison each took turns sewing (and I did some, too!):And here are the finished products!
I don't sew a lot - all I ever really do is an occasional hemming... so I was pretty proud of myself. The kids love their little bags ~ they are just the right size for carrying a few special things wherever they go.

Glumps

While we were reading Don't Bump the Glump and Other Fantasies yesterday, Madison was inspired to copy Shel Silverstein's illustration style...

So, here we have -

the Wachamay: the Flatchafay:
the Flamsake:

and the Dodo:

Outdoor Hour Challenge #16

Okay, so we are kind of jumping into this in the middle, but since I finally started a blog, I couldn't wait to get started.

The Outdoor Hour Challenges are weekly assignments to go with the Handbook of Nature Study, and this week's assignment was to plant sunflowers. Since we just received our sunflower seeds from Cornell University's Celebrate Urban Birds project, the timing couldn't be better.

So here is Madison, planting sunflower seeds:

Here is Kaden watering them, after they were all planted:And where is Hunter? Well, he has been sent inside, since the question of who would get to water first started a mini war between the boys. I decided that Kaden would get to water first, since he didn't get to do as much planting, being two and all.... Hunter was not happy with that decision and started to throw a fit, so I sent him in to calm down.

However, Madison did find this adorable little millipede: He fell off her hand right after posing for this picture, and she spent the rest of the time searching for more.

Hopefully in a few weeks we will have some little sunflower sprouts.... we'll see if we can remember to water them!