End of a

Sunday evening, we're vegging and watching "Bugs Bunny" streamed through Netflix's. Made the decision to row "Owl Moon" one more day and wrap things up tomorrow. This weekend got away from us and who really wants to do homework on a Sunday anyway (or chores, but some had to get done, hence the need for vegging). We'll wrap things up tomorrow, I'll take some photo's for the blog, and get back on track for lesson planning. Now to get back to my family.

Happy Sunday everyone!!

Is it the end

or is it the beginning? Of the week that is!!

Just realized I hadn't posted much about school this week. Well, practically nothing other than my intro to "Owl Moon" last Sunday and our mad lib this past Monday.

Hope to wrap up a couple fun things today for "Owl Moon", dissecting owl pellets and making owls, and then lesson plan for next week. It's been a crazy week with extra activities, kicking the kids outside to play as we had a day in the 60's, followed by late nights, all day activities being canceled by snow half way through, and trying to catch up on sleep.

This coming week maybe a bit more calm!

Mad Lib Monday

SUPERSTITIONS
(our words have been bolded)

When I was a kid, 100 years ago, we used to believe in superstitions, like it’s bad luck to open a Toys R Us in the house; if your eyeball itches, it means target is coming to visit; and you’ll have fun luck if you find a four-leafed Thing One. And we believed that if you spilled yogurt on the table, you had to throw some over your left Thing Two; if your happy toe hurt, it meant rain; and if you broke a mom, you would have seven years of bad dads.

Today, kids have different superstitions, such as it’s bad luck to jump on the railroad tracks just before a cat pulls in and don’t throw frogs at policemen. But, actually, there’s only one superstition I believe in. Whenever I comment on my health, I always remember to knock on a piece of fish.

P.S. Maybe next week I'll get the mad lib typed into blogger before we do it so I can post a bit quicker.

Beginning of the week

It's a rainy Monday morning as I type out the first blog of the school week. Coffee is ready, boys are still sleeping (although Thing One may be up before I am finished), chores are started (Kevin started the dishwasher ~ Thank You!!!!), and I'm just getting to introducing our school week. Madlib Monday will still be here, just later today.

We are reading and rowing "Owl Moon" by Jane Yolen, illustrated John Schoenherr this week. It's another winter favorite of ours. To begin our study of owls, we went to a local county park Friday night for an "Owl Pondering". We got a quick introduction to Owls, dissected an Owl pellet (good starter for me as we have two for each boy here), went on a hike "to see" nocternal animals. Unsuccessfully I might add.

At Hidden Pond Nature Center, there is a barn and garage for office space and garage type stuff. There, an Owl usually likes to hang out. The staff a few live mice, that they would throw onto the garage roof, so the owl would come and get it. Very cool to see it swoop in and hear the talons scrap the roof. The birds are very quiet. Neat opportunity for the boys.

Well, we've had a number of rainy, above freezing days lately. It got me thinking that prior to when we left, that boots would definitely be in order for the hike. My thought proved wise. The boys and my boots after hiking:

There is a lot more fun stuff to come, this go around of Owl Moon. I'm not sure who will enjoy the book more, the boys or me. Guess we'll find out on Friday!!


P.S. Our oldest is still asleep, at 7 AM, as I get ready to post.

Short day for . . . .

end of the week. For the book we rowed this week, "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening", we covered so much during the beginning of the week there wasn't much to do today. Mystery of History is just a few days a week as well. That just left math today. That was fine with the boys! It's been a gray, raining, sometimes hail day, not fun to have to focus at all. Just another page to print out and we'll put our lap books together either tomorrow or Sunday.

Have a great weekend readers!

Someone has had . . . . .

a great day! Thing Two turned 7 today. Personally, don't remember much about being 7, but it's off to a great start for him. One of his first statements today was something along the lines of "that's a huge present!!" Think he liked his balloon as well, but it was a day where he woke up before me, so I am hearing the comments second hand.

Heres a few photos of the day:

This present is huge!! Can I put it down now?

Cool! It's what I wanted ~ Imaginex Batman Cave!!

A plain cake made in a heart shaped bundt pan,
at Thing Two's request.

Topped with chocolate frosting
and sprinkles. You could hear him
through out the house, as he left the kitchen,
exclaiming "WOO HOO!!! SPRINKLES!!"

Happy Birthday, son!! We love you.

Mad Lib Monday

Another Mad Lib Monday at our house. The boys are loving this and I'm starting to expand on what else we do with it to help them focus on grammar rules. It's been fun.

THE SECRET AGENT
(the words in bold were filled in)

James Bond, Secret Agent Double-0 Gazillion, was in a tight spot. He was trapped in the one jungle of Mt. Rushmore and the tall persons were closing in. He glanced at his companion, Mom. The expression on her face was full of eyeball. He remembered all of their three times together. He was about to run from the Thing One when he felt a cold printer in the small of his Thing Two.

“Put up your printers!” his companion said. “I too am a spy. My real name is Olga Babushka.”

“Shazaam!” exclaimed Bond. “This will cost me my Christmas Bonus.”

Upcoming school week

Another school week is coming up (all to quickly after a very busy weekend I might add)! It's Sunday night, the boys are just getting ready for bed and I'm pulling school together; fortunately all of the lessons for the whole week, let alone all of Monday, don't need to be completed tonight. Ideally, I would have had the week finished by now, but like I've mentioned a busy weekend.

We'll be continuing our snow themed books by reading "Stopping By The Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost. It's a wonderful poem and the illustrations in the book are great as well. Here's the poem:

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

We Survived!!!!

Survived a birthday party for our 10 year old and almost 7 year old. We had 13 kids, including Thing One and Thing Two, here for a few hours. Dinner, cake, ice cream, Wii, balls, what more could there be to try the patience of a Mom and Dad?

It actually wasn't that bad! There were a few times loud moments, a couple times when kids got their feelings hurt, but all in all, it seems like the boys had fun. Will have to see what kind of pictures we have and post later!!

Wrap-up from school!

We finished up "Snowflake Bentley" today with some science. Thought it would be fun for the boys to make snowflakes and not from coffee filters for a change. Directions to these were easily found on the internet. You need three pipe cleaners twisted together to form the snowflake and trim them so that they fit a small, wide mouth mason jar - about a pint size. In the jar mix 1 cup boiling water and three tablespoons of borax (20 team mule). It's okay if it doesn't all dissolve. I tied white thread on one branch of the snowflake and hung it on a dowl. Put the snowflake into the warm water borax mixture and leave it alone for awhile. Some directions said to leave it overnight, but we found it interesting to look at every 15 minutes or so. I pulled ours out after about 3 hours and they had great crystal formations on them. If we'd had blue food coloring, I might have added a couple drops to the water mixture. Oh well, maybe next time.

10 years in the making

Today, our oldest son turns 10 years old (@ 2:33 PM to be exact). It sure has been an amazing time having him around. He asks millions of questions, loves to help out, wants to serve others, enjoys music, loves his Legos, loves his family, and loves God. What more can you ask for in a son?

THEN

NOW

Happy 10th birthday sweetheart.

Woodcut Art

In art today, we took a look at the pictures in "Snowflake Bentley". Mary Azarian used woodcut printing to make the pictures in the book. We thought we'd try our hand at it today. Here's what we needed:

• sharpened pencil
• green styro foam floral block ~ we used 4" x 4"
• sheet of paper
• 8 1/2" x 11" card stock
• paint

1. cut card stock into four squares
   
2. the floral block was traced onto the sheet of paper
3. kids sketched their idea within the outline
4. with a sharp pencil they drew design onto block
5. then carefully scrap out styro foam from within the lines or areas you don't want covered with paint
6. paint the remaining flat surface of block
7. press the painted surface onto a piece of cardstock

Remembering 2000

Getting a bit sentimental today. This time, 10 years ago, I was still pregnant with our oldest son, Thing One. It doesn't seem possible that it's been 10 years already. Now if you ask any of my siblings, 10 really isn't all that much. My nieces and nephews, that are older than Thing One, range from almost 15 years old to 25 years old. Still going to take some time cherish the memories.

Will have to take some time to scan in some photos from 1/13/2000!

Here's an older photo of Thing One, with his Nonnie and my Nonnie:

Mad Lib Monday

It's turning into Mad Lib Monday's around here and the boys are loving it. Here is today's edition:

DESCRIPTION OF
A HORROR TV SHOW
(words in bold were filled in)

Last week, I saw a television show that really gave me zebra pimples! It starred Ian as a mad teacher who discovers a way to make bedbugs fourteen feet high! The scientist has a goofy assistant, played by Simon, who gets mad because the scientist keeps hitting him on the head with a t.v. So he lets the bedbugs loose. Right away they start to eat up Florida. The army tries to stop them by spraying them with blood, but that doesn’t bother those one bedbugs. They go right on and eat up Chicago. Then the army drops an atom Simon on them and this kills all of them except one super bedbug who grabs the tall scientist and jumps into a volcano. And then the goofy assistant takes off his disguise and says, “I was only Ahsoka for the F.B.I.,” and he marries the scientist’s beautiful Dad, who is played by Mom, and they live quickly ever after.

Again with the snow????

It snowed again over night! Guess I am just not a total snow person. A good snow storm is enjoyable, however do we really need more than one covering (okay not a total covering today, but most of the ground is covered!)?

Snow does make for some cool photographs though! Below are shots from our front window and kitchen window.

Neat how the sun looks so orange and on fire.
Yes, it is on fire, but on earth we don't generally see
the flames shooting out of it.

Loved how the orange seems to be shooting form
the sun here. Very cool!

The above and below pictures are taken from our
kitchen window. Nothing particularly impressive about them
other than snow covered trees. We just enjoy living
in the woods.

On a H.E.A.V.

e-mail I received today, the following cartoon was attached. Thought it was kind of cute, so I'm posting it here as well.


Hope you enjoy it too!

First day back . . .

and it was a fun day for the boys. We spent the morning reading "Snowflake Bentley" (actually viewing the video cassette) and then talked about a home education. The boys liked learning that Thomas Edison, Beatrix Potter, and George Washington Carver were schooled at home as well. It wasn't hard to get them back into math this morning as well.

We got to grammar this afternoon. Late morning got side tracked a bit, then lunch, an errand, pine wood derby cars, and finally back to school. Prior to Christmas break, the boys hadn't been to thrilled with the grammar books we have, so we're setting them aside for now and trying a different approach. Today was focused on Mad Lib's. We prepped by reviewing the parts of speech and coming up with examples.


We then moved onto filling in the blanks of the mad lib. Here's the story, as it read:

Page From An
Analyst's Notebook
(words in bold are the ones boys filled in)

This is the case history of Mom, who is suffering from a cap complex. She also has abnormal fears of boys and six schizophrenia. As a child, she had a blue mother who never let her run outside and paid no attention to her rugs. Also, the father refused to let her play Little League boy. When she she was 166 years old, the pet frog ran away on a rainy night, which is why she was walking at the moon during thunderstorms. It's no wonder that today she never leaves the girl and spends all day watching baseball on TV while eating boxes of donkey biscuits. My professional recommendation: Commit mom to a spa for a week's worth of dad baths, facial doctors, and shiatsu teachers with a big, burly family.

Fun day and more to come!

Happy schooling!

Happy New Years

A New Year
A New Beginning

A time to start over
A time for a clean slate

Will you try something new?
Will you learn a new skill?

How will this year be better than last?
How have you learned from your past?

I am looking forward to '10! I am looking forward to getting back into crafts that I enjoying doing. I am looking forward to doing more with our boys. I am looking forward to having more fun family fun times.

What are you looking forward to?