Origami.

My 7-year-old came up to me yesterday and said 'What if someone was so good at origami that they could make a origami gun and it would shoot out little paper bullets.' He's such a boy.

Happy Birthday!

Today is my brother's birthday. I think I might give him the gift of forgetting exactly how old he is on the condition that he give me the same gift when April gets here. How does that sound? Hmm?

Happy Birthday!

The Fall.

Yesterday morning, I went out to walk the new dog, stepped in a hole and fell, slamming my head into a piece of plywood that is eventually supposed to be part of the kids clubhouse. Yesterday, I felt a little sore; I had a bruised knee and my arm hurt a little, but today I am sore all over and stiff with a greenish circle on my forehead. Not fun.

Cold here.

Last night the temperature dropped into the 30s. We were out visiting my parents and on the way back in the van, my daughter asked me to turn on the heat because "My teeth are chattering like crazy maniacs, I mean teethiacs." We constantly make up new words here!

This is the big map we used at the co-op about the great lakes states. The kids at the co-op filled it in and they did a great job, but then we played geography twister on it and blurred it. My DH did a good job of enlarging the map onto this wood. 

Here's the big map my kids made a while back. My daughter pretty much drew it freehand. There are a few mistakes, but overall, I think she did a great job.  

Beautiful Lucy. 

Max 

Focus.

It is very hard for me to focus. I have so much going on in my life. I am trying to focus on work this week but I have so much on my mind. I have about 10 things I need to get done for the kids, including halloween costumes and homeschooling assignments. I have about 10 things I need to do for my mom and dad. I have a job and have already missed a day of work this week I need to make up and, oh yes, we also have a new family member. No, we haven't adopted a baby, but a dog. His name is Max and he's 4 years old. Yes, we are insane, thanks for asking. I can't help it, I have a hard time resisting a dog or kitten or child who needs a home.

What was I talking about? Oh yes, focus. It is difficult for me to focus on my work today. Wonder why?

Back to Reality.

Our little mini-vacation is over. Oh it was so fun! Now we have to get back to reality. I'm not sure how much work I'm going to make the kids do today, but I have to get back to my job after an unprecedented 2 days off. I also need to catch up on the laundry after a couple of days of just playing. It was interesting playing the tourist in our own hometown, while showing our friends around. I learned a lot about this area that I didn't know before. I usually just pass through there on the way to somewhere else. :-p

Educational Field Trips.

My friend from Pennsylvania, who is also a homeschooler is here in Kentucky, visiting us this week. We are having a great time. We did an educational field trip to the Frasier Historical Arms Museum in Louisville yesterday. Today we are going to see some local sights. The kids are getting to have some quality time with some homeschooling kids and we are getting to have some quality time with some homeschooling parents. We are also eating junk food and pretending that we are on vacation too, so it is all good.

The nerve!

Yesterday my husband was walking through the living room. He noticed that one of the pictures on the wall was hanging a little bit crooked and straightened it up. My 7-year-old looked at me and said "Daddy straightened that picture up for no apparent reason" I guess he liked it crooked?

I found my camera!

My digital camera has been lost for 2 months but finally, it has been found. It was in a plastic bag of wrapping paper left over from my daughter's birthday party. I am so happy and so I've shared pictures of my kittens, Linc and Xena and our backyard, which is very pretty this time of year.

Xena 

Linc 

I love fall. This is what our backyard looks like right now. 

Cheetos.

My two youngest kids, age 9 and 7, were having a discussion about the 2 varieties of Cheetos. My daughter likes the crunchier, harder ones and my son likes the puffier ones. They discussed the various virtues of both kinds with my daughter being very descriptive in her statements about the ones she didn't like. The conversation ended with my 7-year-old whining loudly "But the disgusting, nasty, puffy ones are the ones I like."

It's me again, Hank the Cowdog.

My daughter is in the room that I'm in, listening to Hank the Cowdog on tape and enjoying it very much. Every now and then she laughs then repeats words to herself very quietly. I have heard her say "once, twice, thrice, dice!" and laugh. Then another time she said "Onamatopetunia" and laughed out loud. We love old Hank.

Note to self: Pay careful attention to what the spellcheck is doing. I let this be on here for a couple of hours saying "Hank the Codes." LoL.

The Radio.

My dear husband likes classic rock music and he has a local radio station that he listens to a lot. The kids listen to it with him and listen to a variety of things when they are with me, depending on my mood. The other day, he drove my van to work and the next time the kids and I got in it, it was tuned to his radio station. The song that was on finished and the announcer said "This is not your father's radio station" in that dramatic voice announcers use and my daughter said "Um, yeah, it is." in that smarty-pants voice 9 year old girls sometimes use. ;-)

Hiding.

My youngest son came into our bedroom (where my computer is) and brought every blanket he could find in the house and piled them on the bed. Then he got underneath all of them and whispered "I'm hiding." I said "Who are you hiding from and why?" He said, out loud, "I have no idea."

Thank You.

As I've mentioned before, I do medical transcription in my spare time. (spare time, LoL, yeah, right). I telecommute from Kentucky to California. Isn't technology wonderful? Of all the doctors I type for, there is one who always remembers to say at the end of the dictation "Thank you for typing." Even though this is a specialist with a difficult accent, I never dread typing his dictation. I try just a little bit harder to fill in blanks for him so that his reports look better. He remembers that there is a person on the other end of that phone, typing the report for him. I appreciate that he remembers that. I think even little gestures of gratitude go a long way.

Kind of hot-doggy.

A quote from my youngest son again ;-) Today he said he wanted something for breakfast, but didn't know what. I suggested cereal. He said "No, I want something kind of hot-doggy ... like um, chicken."

Usborne Book of Science Experiments

Flexibility

We are going to be a little bit more flexible with school this week. Last week we took one week of fall break and it wouldn't hurt, really, to take another because we started early this year and thus, have a lot of days already done. I've got quite a bit going on myself with a co-op that I have to teach on Friday. I've very nervous about it and so, probably, overcompensating by preparing too much. I'm also covering for someone at the kid's club on Wednesday and trying to do my fall cleaning. So, I'm going to let the kids be on their own a bit more this week. In order to get free shipping on another item, I bought a book called The Usborne Book of Science Experiments that actually comes with a kit with science experiments that they can do. I may let them do some of those this week and we are supposed to be doing a unit on the Civil War, so I picked up some Civil War books and videos at the library and I'll let them watch/read those. When my friends from out of town get here next week, we'll be going to the local Civil War museum so that will be a good field trip for this study. The kids also will be doing more than usual cleaning this week, which is home ec, right?

Conversations with my 7-year-old.

The other day, my youngest son and I were walking in the woods to the clubhouse they are building. We have been discussing the theories of evolution and intelligent design in our house lately and he's been thinking about it. He said "If the theory of evolution is true, then Daddy still has some evolution to do." I suppressed my laughter and asked what he meant. He said "His arms are really long." Rest assured, my husband's knuckles do not rub the ground when he walks. ;-)

Tonight we watched "Three Wishes" on NBC for the first time. I thought it was very good and now I want to be on it. My son watched it for a while with me and then said "When are they going to be done with all the mushy stuff?!"

End of the Week.

We took a break from school this week to do the fall cleaning. We have done, so far, absolutely nothing related to fall cleaning. Nothing. I haven't felt well this week. We may have to take some more time off from school. We have some wonderful friends from out of town coming to visit and I would like to be able to entertain them in my house, not to mention that it just needs to be done. Sigh. I really don't like to clean. :-p

Christmas List

Last night my youngest son's thoughts turned to Christmas and his Christmas list. I told him that Christmas was now only a couple of months away and maybe he'd better start on that Christmas list. I was assuming he'd write it (He hates to write!) but he said "I'll tell you what I want and you type it on Microsoft Word."

A little learning going on.

We're on fall break this week, officially. However, there has been a little bit of learning going on this week. The kids have been working on building a clubhouse in the woods which is very similar to one of the lessons in the KONOS book about cooperation. They're cooperating while doing it.

Yesterday, my oldest two kids got interested in the timeline and studied the presidents on it for a little while, noticing how long each man served as president.

They all sat down together and my oldest read Runny Babbit by Shel Silverstein to them all. They really had a good time with this one.

We also played a couple of games of "Guess Where?" which is similar to "Guess Who" which is just good brain exercise and fun.

So this is how we're spending our fall break. I really like homeschooling, did I mention that?

Really fun book.

This book is very hard to read, but very funny.

A little break.

We decided to take this week off from school, a little break for everyone. We just finished the states and regions study and before we start the next one, we're taking some time off. It feels good. My father was admitted to the hospital last night and I was up there until very late, (He's okay now), so probably there would have been no school today anyway, but I'm kind of glad we have planned to take the whole week off.

Now I need to decide what we are going to study next.

Fall.

I love fall. I love the way it looks with the beautiful leaves changing colors and I love the cooler weather and wearing sweaters. We're going to take a 1 week fall break from school and do a bit of fall cleaning. I can't say that I love that, but it needs to be done. The weather should be great for it, anyway.

I'm glad that we homeschool because it definitely allows for flexibility in things like that. It also helps with my and my husband's work schedule because he has an odd shift and wouldn't get to see the kids during the week at all and I can pick up more work on the weekends when the work is more plentiful and the pay is a bit higher. I actually think it is easier to homeschool than to do public school. I've done both. With public school, the day starts really early, there's a lot of stress about getting to school on time. When they come home, there's a lot of homework, bath and bed with very little spare time to play outside. Since we're homeschooling, we've started sleeping in later, going to bed later, getting in a lot more time playing and generally feeling more relaxed and happy.

One last thought from my youngest son. A few minutes ago he said to me "If you hold a bobble-head by the head, then it becomes a bobble-body." I can tell he's been thinking today. ;-)

A Little Redecorating.

I changed the colors on my blog and at the same time corrected the problem that I've been having with the sidebar. I'm so excited! Doesn't it look good? I wish redecorating the house would be so easy and inexpensive!

Good Link for Free Unit Studies.

TeacherLink I found a lot of information here about George Washington Carver for our study of the South.

The New Threat.

I've noticed lately that when we go someplace, I've had a hard time gathering the kids up to get in the car to go home. They've been taking advantage of the fact that it is usually just mom and them. I'm outnumbered 3 to 1. They've been taking longer and longer and longer to get in the car. The other night, this long term slight disobedience culminated in 2 of the children running off into the darkness of the back yard at a friend's house and not coming back for 15-20 minutes despite my yelling at them to come back. Oh, I was angry. So angry, that I decided not to decide on a punishment for this crime until the following day, lest it be way, way too severe. The next day I had a flash of inspiration, an old fashioned idea -- I would make them write lines. My daughter does not like to practice her cursive writing so she had to write 100 times, in cursive, "I will listen to and obey my mother and father." (Yes, this was mom's punishment but I threw Dad's name in there for extra letters!) and my younger son had to write the same thing, only 10 times in print. This is a kid I'm lucky to get 1 written word out of most days, so believe me, this was a punishment for him. For the last 3 days, anytime they start to misbehave, I just say "Do you want to write lines?" and they immediately straighten up. I wonder how long it will last?

Still on the States.

We've been studying the states of the United States for quite some time. Personally, I'm getting a little tired of it and ready for something else. I think we'll do a quick wrap-up this week, take a short break and then begin something else. The only region we have left to do is the south and then we are supposed to start a unit on the civil war.

Yesterday, we had a little mini-strike amongst the students. None of them wanted to do the things I had planned for them to do and they all wanted to write their own schedule. I allowed it and they did a fine job of doing their own planning. We'll see how it goes today.

Fall Break.

This week is fall break for the kids in public school in our area. Yesterday, we were out somewhere and someone asked the kids if they were enjoying their break from school. Oh the looks they gave me as they answered her, "we're not on break this week." We did take a little mini-break yesterday afternoon and spend some time with some public school friends/cousins who are on fall break. It was fun. I'm not sure how school work is going to go today, now that they know ;-0 but I'd rather work on the days we can and then feel more easygoing about all the days we have to take off just because life gets in the way.

The Shadow Getter Awayer.

One of our dogs is named Shadow. He's almost a year old, half cocker spaniel and about the size of a cocker spaniel. He's black and hard to see in the dark and that's how he got his name. He is a little hyper dog who loves to jump especially on my youngest son and any kids who come to visit who are about that size. So, my youngest son has a stick that he pushes Shadow away with (no hitting, just pushing) that he calls a Shadow getter awayer.

I was talking about this with my best friend the other day and she said that she had a Shadow getter awayer at her house because her niece had brought one there after visiting us. She said that her cats like to chew on it and keep pulling it out in the middle of the kitchen floor.

This led to a funny discussion by us about how she might trip and fall on it and how in the emergency room, if she mentioned that she fell on a Shadow getter awayer that they might admit her to the psychiatric ward and ask her questions like "does your shadow bother you?" "are you afraid of your shadow?"

Just feeling silly.

The curriculum we use.

We use KONOS. There are some samples of the lessons on the internet. Here is a sample from one of the KONOS in a box plans. Sample 1. and here is one from one of the books. Sample 2. . We love the KONOS method so far. We've been using it for a couple of months.

My Other Blog

My other blog, Homeschool Stuff, is coming along. I've been adding some links for homeschoolers. I'm not done yet, of course, but there are some good links there. Take a look. Homeschool Stuff

Crackers.

I got some white cheddar 'Cheese Bits' crackers the other day while at the grocery. I love them. My daughter was eating some of them last night. I said "you're not eating all of my crackers are you?" She said "I'm just checking to make sure they're not stale." Then she ate one. "This one's okay." Then another. "This one's okay." ;-)