I'm still here....

were you wondering?? Did you think I go lost? Well, no, we just had a nice long weekend with DH. We were very lazy and will pay for it now but sometimes you need to be lazy.

Thursday, the kids and I went to see "The Red Badge of Courage" at the Roxy Theater. It was really good. DD was a little bored at first but she got into it eventually. I knew it would be a push for her but DS wanted to go and what was I going to do with her??? It was nice.

Friday- Monday was our long weekend with DH. He ended up feeling sickly but before that we went out to Chuck E. Cheese for some fun and pizza. We did that on Friday morning. Then we kind of went downhill from there.

Anyway, that was our weekend. Now it's Tuesday and we are back at school. We were up early eating breakfast and then they got busy on their work while I visited with DH after PT. When DH left for work we went for a nice walk. It is so nice outside. It's cloudy and we are expecting rain but the temperature is in the 50's!! SPRING FEVER!!

I think the kids are tiring of the Pioneers. I was taking it slow for them because they weren't retaining any of it but now, I'm slightly regretting that. I may just cut it a little short and we will go over it again in a year or two and cover the rushed part more in depth and what we studied in depth this time a little less. We'll see.

We all have spring fever. I want to plant a garden this year. We never have before and I definitely DO NOT have a green thumb but I think it would be fun and the kids would learn a lot. We have a couple of dilemmas.

1. We don't have a lot of extra money to spend on it.
2. Our yard is not fenced and we get a lot of deer and rabbits who could and probably would eat our veggies!
3. We want to grow everything!!

So, if anyone has any suggestions please give them!!! I think this is where will be heading on our unit studies. It seems like a natural flow from the pioneers.

A Valentine....

This morning I got up and made a special breakfast of pull apart bread or monkey bread depending what you call it. It was wonderful. We all had a nice breakfast together.

As I was finishing putting it all on the table, we passed out our homemade valentine's. It was so fun! The kids enjoyed it much more this way and what they enjoyed most was the giving part!! They were so excited to see each of us open the card the had made. DH said, "Wow, wasn't this SO MUCH better than spending a ton of money on junk?" Everyone said, "YES!"

For school today the kids did their math and now they are doing some copy work of Love scripture. Then we will talk about Valentine's Day and bake some cookies. We will probably have some read a loud time too. DD has some more valentine's to work on I have a few other things up my sleeve as well.


So....

Happy Valentine's Day, dear cyber friends.

Hope your day is filled with lots of love.

Homeschool...

Fun! That's what it is! The kids got right on their work this morning and they did all the work that they do on their own and then we went on to do some of our together work. When all our work was done for the day, I let DD turn on movie she had checked out of the library that she had been wanting me to watch with her. It was called "Rigoletto" and it was a very good family movie with a wonderful story and lesson.

I have several quilts that need mending so I pulled one out to work on as we watched the movie. DD asked for a needle and I gave her one as I kept on working. After a while I looked over and she was sewing little "boas" for her Barbies! How cute is that! She took some scrap fabric and some old lace I had and voila! She was very proud of her little creations. Me too!!

She is a cutie patootie.

Friday...

Well, it was definitely a Friday here. A slow one at that.

We were up and busy at work by 8:30! DH had somewhere he had to be this morning so he was out early. They got busy with their math and language arts right off. Then they moved on to making some pages for their notebooking. We watched a science video yesterday and so they made their pages for that. They did great! The are really getting into it.

We are going to see "The Red Badge of Courage" at our local theater next week so we read the book a few days ago and today we watched the movie while we ate lunch. They really enjoyed it. We watched the one with Audie Murphy. They are very excited about seeing it on stage.

After that I let them go outside for a bit but it was really too cold. DD came in and worked some more on her Valentine's.

Most everything they did today was stuff they could do on their own so i was able to straighten up the house a little and do a little laundry. I even got to spend some writing!

I feel like we need to have days here and there to take more slowly. You know to relax. Most of the time we are rushing in this book or that and well, it can be too much so, today, slow is good.

Lately...

Well, we have been busy. We are going to start "really" notebooking. We've been doing it a little with our unit studies but I think I've been kind of controlling it too much and it hasn't been much fun for them.

I've been reading a little about it and listening to an audio by Cindy Rushton about it and I've been inspired. I've told the kids to just kind of go at it. To make it fun. They do have to write but they can draw, make collages, use photos from the Internet or make copies of pics from books. Anything goes and they have fallen in love.

Yesterday, we bought some cheap notebooks and some page protectors. Science is a subject we really neglect. I don't like it and DS doesn't either. DD does but she forgets it too. So, I told them that there is Science everywhere and that when they see it, either in nature or on TV, or in the kitchen wherever, they should do a page (however they want) and put it in a notebook. I told them it could be fun!

Well, yesterday they both did a couple of pages and then DD said she wanted to do Science first today. We did a little experiment and now they are both over working hard on their pages. DS is drawing (he loves to draw, or excuse me "sketch") and DD is painting. I just hope they learned something from it.

Last year, DS and I bought a book on doing Science through literature and so we are kind of using it to get ideas. Yesterday we read the book "Sarah Plain and Tall" and we have talked about farms and maps and now today we are doing weather. We made a cloud in glass. They got so excited to see it. It was fun. I hope we can keep it up.

We are still doing our Pioneer unit. We are enjoying it. They are retaining so much more information now that we are going so slow. It's supposed to be done in a month but we are going much slower. We are doing a lot of reading together. We've read "My Side of the Mountain", "On to Oregon", "Sarah Plain and Tall", DD and I read "Little House in the Big Woods", they read books on different Pioneers on their own and write about it in their Pioneer journals. We are going to read "Sign of the Beaver", and "Jimmy Spoon and the Pony Express" as well. They love read alouds.

We are going to be able to mix in science with our Pioneer unit now that I'm trying harder to do so. We can do weather and terrain.

Their math is going well. I bought them both a couple of workbooks to do a little review and move on. I'm waiting until the fall to get new books. They are doing well in both. They do a lot of writing that count as language arts and they get vocabulary in the unit too. They have some quotes with the unit for their copy work and they both have workbooks to do some fill in as well.

We are going strong! We are having to slow down a little our extra stuff because we just don't have time to get everything in but they are doing well and we are having fun.

Today...

Today, we went grocery shopping and looked for the best deals. They were both very helpful and we had a good time. The first of the month grocery shopping is always so much because you have those items you only buy once a month or so. I always cringe at the check out counter and wonder how we will ever make it to the end of the month.

Then we spent the afternoon making homemade Valentine's. They had fun and were quite creative. DD even made little gifts. She even opened a necklace of her's to get beads off for a gift. How sweet is that!!!

I need to work on DS a little and make him do a little more but his cards are precious. He quickly ran off with them to hide them until the 14th.

DD isn't feeling all that well. Her ear is bothering her and her head hurts off and on. Poor baby. She's been taking it really slow but she has been getting a lot done.

DS has finally finished his Math book and now we will be testing to see what book he needs next.

That's about it here for now. Love to hear from anyone!!