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Monday, August 30, 2010

Monday Mingle - Blogging



This week’s questions (submitted by Robyn from Robyn’s Online World) :
1. What does your extended family think of your blog?
2. Has anyone in your family ever asked you not to include them on your blog?
3. How supportive is your immediate household about your blogging?

Not sure what is up with putting my vids on YouTube.  It is fine on my computer but slightly off sync.  Vimeo makes me wait awhile before they convert and I don't like waiting..

Time for school!

It's official!  School started today.  I am not ready but hey..we did it anyways.  Not too bad so far.  My main problem right now is mostly evenings.  Hubby likes to spend time either playing Perfect World (hey, if you can't beat em, join em. right?) together or watch a movie, or show.  Last night that meant I went to bed at midnight.  I was able to get up at 5:30am like planned but that will be hard to continue at this rate.  I really need to be firm about this I guess.  If Anna is in bed by 9 - 9:30.. that gives us plenty of time.  I would like to be in bed by at least 11. 

Last week we were told our water was going to turn brown.  So we prepared ourselves by filling everything we possibly could with water.  Turned out we only had brown water the first day.  They had predicted the work to last 4 days. However, today they are pulling apart our cul-de-sac.  Apparently we have a broken pipe somewhere.. So not thinking.. I put laundry in washer, pour on detergent and then discover we have no water.. sigh.  Very thankful we still have all the jugs for drinking and washing up. 

This evening we are all heading out to see Meadow.  I should be back with lots of pictures.  :-) 

Monday, August 23, 2010

Monday Mingle - Grandparents



 
THIS WEEK’S QUESTIONS (submitted by Teresa at NanaHood):
1.  If you could switch places for one day with anyone in the world who would it be and why?
2.  What do your children like best about visiting their grandparents?
3. What kind of grandmother do you think you will be (many years from now of course) and are you looking forward to it?

You will have to excuse me in this video.. Mom used to tell me as a child I would talk so fast my brain couldn't keep up.. I guess this is an example of that.  I make no sense.  Also, the video is out of sync.  YouTube doesn't like me today :(

***Warning!  Excessive Gum Chewing Going On***



Managed to download vid to Vimeo.. no sync issues..


Monday Mingle - Grandparents from Linda Ramos on Vimeo.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Our Day at the Library..

We decided we needed to spend some time just relaxing at the library.  There is a nice park nearby and we could also spend some time there.  What was interesting to me was the girls went through, picked some movies to check out and then they were ready to go.

Imagine their surprise when I told them we were staying.  It was as if I just told them we were spending the day locked up in a room with nothing in it.

This really saddened me.  I loved the library growing up.  It has so much more to offer than movies and a few books.  I was determined to show them.  We headed off to the kids section and I browsed thru some books.  I grabbed a book on horses, cats, optical illusions, and some hidden pictures.. We sat and just browsed thru the pictures .. checking to see if we could see whatever wash hidden in them.  Anna loves animal so she was checking out that book.. She is also really good with the 3D optical illusions. Kate finally showed some interest in some of the books as well as some coloring pics that were set up on the table. 

I left them for a bit to check something out in the adult section.  When I came back Anna was having a Librarian help her search for more books on optical illusions.  They also had a board game area for the kids to play.  We didn’t get to go there though.. Not if they still wanted to go the the park.  I actually  had to tell them it was time to go.  They were finally having a good time. 

Here is a video of them at the park.

A few (ok..more than a few) pics..

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The girls got hungry so we walked over to the local market and grabbed a few fruits to snack on while waiting for hubby. 

He decided we should go out for chinese..

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We ended the evening with Ice cream from Dairy Queen..

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I think Kate is getting tired of me taking pictures.. LOL

Homeschooling Goals

This is what I have come up with so far..am I missing anything?  

Subject Goals

Bible
Bible Verse
Study on a Bible Character

Math
Math-U-See - Gamma
Daily Math Drills (Multiplication tables) 5-10 min
Mon - DVD, Page 1
Tues - Thurs - 2 Pages a day
Friday - Test

Language Arts
Prairie Primer - Little House on the Prairie
Read 4 chapters a week

Spelling / Vocab
Choose 2- 3 words from chapter
Look up definition, Prep flash cards
Friday Review all spelling words
Daily Flash Card games

Handwriting
Sentences for spelling words
write out Bible verses

English
Daily Grams - 1 page a day
extra pages if needed for help
Activities in “The Mailbox Language Arts Independent Practice” as time allows

Journal Writing
15 min Daily
Journal prompts when needed

History
Our Nation Under God (Christian Liberty Press)
1 Chapter a month (use like a unit study)
Prairie Primer History as needed
Learn about Connecticut

Geography
States and Capitals drill (5 min)
Track the travels of Laura Ingalls

Science
730 Easy Science Experiments
2-3 experiments a week

Art
Cartooning Book

Music
Keyboard Lessons

PE
Ballet, Tap, Jazz, and choreography (3 days a week)

Life Skills
Daily Chores
Cooking
Health - Growing up

Extras
What your 4th Grader Should Know
Read 1 section a day

Library Day
(maybe 2x a month)
Pick out an Animal (or bug or anything of interest) and Research using Library instead of Internet
Work on a report and / or maybe a creative story

So Far Behind....

I can't seem to catch up.  I am so incredibly behind.  Kate spent 3 weeks here.  It was great.  However, now I must get back to work.  I have so many pics and videos I want to share.. but I can't seem to organize time well.  I don't know how others do it.  So far I have planned a whole month of dinners.. Not really planned what days but just wrote down everything we can make this month with the food we have stock now.  We should only have to get some produce and dairy between now and the middle of next month.  Right now I am going to pull out every single school thing I need to work on.  Going to just dig in and start planning. 

Where did the summer go??

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Grossed out dinner..…

Last Thursday was a typical day around the house.  As usual, the girls slept in late.  They were able to spend about an hour in the pool.  Our goal was to have shepherd’s pie for dinner.  After dinner the girls wanted to go to the local pet store.  Kate wanted to see a chinchilla and a flying squirrel.. our pet store has both. 

The dinner got ruined.. thanks to a fly that decided it would be a good idea to land in a pan of ground beef as it was browning.  The fly was not discovered til after I started to transfer it to the baking dish.  That was the end of that idea for us.  We packed up and headed out to get pizza instead. 

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After the pizza we went over to the pet store to find that they close at 7.  :(  Sad girls they were.  So we headed over to PetSmart.  However, there are not many to look at there. 

After that we heading to Walmart for essentials..   David had asked if we could pick him up around 9 - 9:30.. but he wasn't answering his text..  His boss makes them silence the phones.. So we sat outside the military gates (subase) til 10pm waiting.  Turns out he had promised to help someone move and was hoping we would wait for his call before we headed out to get him.  Sometimes the cleaning up takes longer then expected.  I have to say.. sitting out there waiting.. I was getting nervous.  He wasn't answering and the worse things were going through my head.  I had no clue if he was in there.. or if he had started walking .. maybe his phone died and he couldn't call us.. ugh.. just bad thoughts.  I was grateful he was fine.  He must have gotten a ride home because I checked his room Sat morning and was in there sleeping.  It is extremely rare for him to make it home. 

After we got home.. we watched Percy and the Lightning Thief.  It was a good 1am before the girls got into bed.  Kate decided she will stay for a 3rd week but that she has to go home after that.  LOL. 

Lots of Goo and pool time..

Last Wednesday the girls wanted to make goo.  Goobleck is another name for it.  Have you every heard of it.  It is fun.. yet very very messy! 

After we were done with the goo.. we had to get rinsed off.  The kids heard the ice cream truck so the girls went running to the corner, hoping he would come by..

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Kate was such a sweetie!  She got 4.00 from David and decided to buy Anna and Ethan a treat.  She made sure Ethan could get the Spiderman pop.

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Then it was finally time to go swimming.  We found the little frog below hiding on the inside flap of the top of the pool. 

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Ethan wanted to show me how he could go under the water..

While Anna continued to enjoy playing with the frog. 

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Monday, August 2, 2010

Mining for Gems

We decided to spend the last day of vacation, mining for gems.  The girls really enjoyed it.  They were directed to a cave where they had 10 minutes to dig in the sand looking for any gems they could find. 

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After they were done digging, they were sent to identify the gems.  This part was tricky! 

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After the gems they went and checked the sand art bottles.. 

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We also enjoyed looking around in the shop.  They have alot of neat things here.. Kate picked out a shark’s tooth and Anna chose a worry stone.  

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We ended the day with some roasted marshmellows and glo sticks. 

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