week in review : kids home, earthday, homeschool

The older kids are home! After a crazy 12 hour plane delay in TX due to two days of bad weather in he area. Poor kids! They made it home though. They had fun in Mexico and they came home with tans, stories, and a boat load of dirty clothes.

Earth day was yesterday. We spent it with good friends at the annual Earth Day celebration we go to in Rolla. The kids made pine cone bird feeders, and such. It wasn't as entertaining as last year (every year the booths dwindle to less & less), but it was good to see our friends and watch the kids play.

We found yet another early reader website! I swear I try them all. It's http://www.sightwordswithsamson.com/ I like it because it's focus is on sight words and not phonics. We found another site I'm thinking about buying the software of at http://www.readinghorizons.com/ . It teaches real reading rules in easy to understand format (and has games). One of their free movies is about why/when do words start with K/C; like why isn't Kitten spelled with a C? It's very interesting and I think it will help even older readers. I'm having fun learning too.

This week we tried a new homeschool "format" in the mornings after breakfast I have the little girls (age 2&4) do two letter of the day worksheets. The older three kids (age 9,9 & 12) do worksheets together. Monday they did a series of geography, latitude & longitude, map skills worksheets. On Tuesday they did a packet of about 6 worksheets on pollination (earth day related). The sheets were educational and also had mazes, word searches, Etc.

So now what to do today...

The dormant strawberry plants/roots we planted while the kids were gone are doing FANTASTIC! They have tripled in size! I hope I muster up the energy to garden today. I need to get a bunch of household stuff done first. I need to accomplish several things today since we'll be gone all day tomorrow again. I need to drop off the older kids to sleepover birthday parties back in Rolla again. So there goes our Friday. (Charlotte and the boys each have different parties to go to).

And people wonder how homeschoolers socialize. They should be wondering when homeschoolers have time for school work.

100 strawberry plants are a lot

Well I miss the older 3 kiddos. But not as much as I thought I would. I think they are finally getting old enough that I don't obsessively worry about them. Oh I worry...Just not as obsessively. Plus I know they are having so much fun. Away they come home tomorrow. Then it's back to homeschooling, a schedule, Etc.
I'm going to joke with them and say I missed them because I had to do the dishes while they were gone :D

I'm disappointed that we didn't end up taking the little girls somewhere really fun. We got really caught up in buying fruit trees, gardening, mowing, Etc. They had loads of fun in the dirt, on their playground, at the farmers market, digging up worms and having worm races. But still I feel bad. We were suppose to do something special with them. Maybe we'll come up with something.

I'm discovering that gardening is exercise. I'm exhausted. My leg muscles are sore. And planting 100 strawberries does not sound like or look like as much work as it is. Yesterday we also bought more fruit trees than we have room for. I think we have a plan though.

Spring has sprung

Ahh. That was a nice long weekend. My parents came to town to help put together the playground they got the kids for Christmas last year. Other family came over to help as well. 4 main adults helped with the assembly of the playground while the kids helped with some sorting of hardware (good to see them involved), and us other adults fetched food, drinks, beer, coffee Etc. for the "workers." The playground took 13 hours to assemble. (the instructions said it would take 2 workers 20-24 hours to complete) My grandma, aunt and I cleaned up the sun room and the yard. We also planted rhubarb and blueberries. Digging around in my yard this weekend revealed tons of juicy fat earthworms (some as thick as a little snake!)and thick black soil throughout. I've NEVER lived anywhere with optimal planting conditions and I'm thrilled! Heck I've never lived anywhere where I could even dig.

The older kids left for a Mexican cruise this morning with some of my most trusted and loved family members. Charlotte cried because she was going to miss me. I'm going to miss them all too.

The younger kids and I are going to go to the magic house and maybe the zoo this week. Ricky took Thursday and Friday off this week. I hope the weather gets nice this weekend because we have a lot of gardening/yard work to get done. I should receive 100 strawberry plants in the mail tomorrow.

Easter was nice. We went to a divine brunch at this little french bakery place in St L. We gorged on homemade french treats and had a brunch fit for royalty. Very yummy.

The pictures are all here http://picasaweb.google.com/shaunashaunabobonna/PlaygroundEaster?feat=email

APRIL FOOLS!

Two months ago Ricky randomly had the B52's song Rock Lobster stuck in his head for two weeks. He said it was horrible and all day at work he was thinking, "Rock Lobstarrr!" LOL! So last night the kids and I downloaded a rock lobster ring tone to his phone and this morning while he was in the shower I hid it under his car seat. As soon as he left this morning I started calling his phone. He called me back eventually (after he pulled over to find the phone) cracking up. He said he totally couldn't figure it out what it was at first.

Last night I froze bowls half way full of water to serve the kids cereal in today. So when they stuck their spoon to the bottom it was rock hard. lol. That one was Sage's idea, actually. It was great.

Charlotte taped a piece of paper over my computer mouse sensor so when I went to use my computer it wouldn't work. When I flipped the mouse over to take a look a little paper read April Fools Day.

When the kids came down for breakfast this morning Charlotte had Ethan's pajamas on and Ethan had hers on. I did a double take. They are SO hilarious!

Happy April Fools Day