Thursday, June 25, 2009

Our first outdoor oven




Yesterday Charlotte and I built our first outdoor "oven" to bake potatoes in. We wanted salad and baked potatoes for dinner but didn't want to heat up the kitchen. So we built this lil' oven outside. They cooked faster than in the indoor oven. It's great that every little and big project is 'homeschooling'. Of the cinder blocks we used only one square has an air hole. The other three holes are packed with dried mud or concrete. This kept the heat from escaping

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Lately...


My Family from WiddlyTinks.com



GREAT news! The public school down the road finally got with me on enrolling my kids in classes. I can enroll them without problems in things like music, P.E., art, Etc.
The principle was extremely friendly and nice to me. He is checking into how he can get Sage into some reading classes for extra help. So I am very happy about this. This fall/winter will be a busy one for us! The school is only a mile away though so it will not be too bad. I looked into homeschool sports programs like we had before, it was double the price. That was disappointing. So while we won't be connecting with as many homeschoolers as I'd like at least I can get them in free P.E. for the time being. This is especially good timing since Sebastian is so little and it's hard to travel much further than our own backyard.

The Chester Comix came!! 8 pounds of history lesson comic books in a box on my porch when I got home yesterday! They look great! With thicker harder type covers than I had imagined. They will hold up through many kids this way. We haven't gotten too into them yet, but the teacher manuals/printables are GREAT too! I'm really glad they look so cool. We will start on the first one today.

Sebastian walks and claps now. Not all at once though. He is SO cute I can hardly stand it. What a happy baby.

Layla is writing letters and enjoys practicing that lately. Penelope following her lead asks to write letters to, or more often asks me to write letters for her.

I recently unpacked the computer educational games. Ethan finished a CD about fractions, time, and money. The time and money was review. But the fraction section served as a intro for him as we have not done fractions yet. We are starting them now. Sage started the CD the other day too.

Charlotte has a new workbook she started on. Sage is still doing studydog right now for reading.

We have been spending most evening exploring the cemetery across the street and catching glow-bugs. We have a lot of fun.

Gardening is slow going right now. I have over 40 tomato plants planted, lots of peppers, and a few other things like cucumbers, cantaloupe and watermelon planted. But I haven't done any of my fall crops yet. I'm probably still ok, but how much longer can I push it!? I just don't have the time.

A tiller would sure help speed things up. Next year I have to get one. I WILL get one. Not because I can't do the physical work (I want to for exercise) but I have to have it for the speed. A tiller could do in one day what it takes me 3 weeks to do (maybe 6 weeks!). And when I have mouths to feed, baby to nurse, laundry to do, homeschooling, mowing....well it just is not working out.

Time to go I have a baby to change and waffles to get ready.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Summer is in full swing...go go go go

Yard work, Six flags, back to back birthday parties, sleepovers, Renaissance faire, a second move (we never moved the contents of our basement), library programs, laundry, dishes, kids, school work...what's school work?

We do manage to get reading/journaling/spelling in somehow. Oh and basic math about 3x a week (we need more progress here!). Just today I ordered these history comic books ! I'm really excited (Join the homeschool buyers co op for free online for 65% off the set)!! Our plan is to cover one comic book a week together with the kids. I also just saved a zillion instant viewing educational movies on netflix to keep the kids busy for quite a long while. I'm going to compile a list and post it someday.

GOALS FOR SUMMER:
Math with dad on weekends! Must do this!
Comic Book history every week w/corresponding movie/lesson
Netflix educational movie 2-3 x week (at least 1-2 as a family movie)
WRITE EVERYTHING down (log better than ever)

IN OTHER NEWS:
-The public school down the road is ignoring my phone calls (I'm requesting supplemental classes (art, music, P.E. for all, and reading for Sage)
-Layla will go to half day pre-k this fall (only 0.4 miles away from our house!)
-I finally signed up to be a HSLDA member
-Kids are signed up for drama camp!

Mother’s Day 2020

Ricky took the younger kids to pick out some Mother’s day presents for me on Saturday. I knew what they were up to but before leaving Madel...