July wrapping up (and unwrapping birthday's for everyone!)

We have had a busy last several weeks. The kids had a lot of fun at drama camp despite that I had to make some complaints about inappropriate content in some songs little kids were being taught to sing and dance to. (totally teenage themed for the WRONG 6-11 age group) It was resolved graciously by the theatre however and there was no lasting damage done :)
At the end of the drama program the kids put on a performance which was just great. They worked so hard. I was just ecstatic to see them all on stage. I love theatre and always wanted to make it part of my children's lives, as it had been a important apart of mine long ago ...before babies, birth, and natural family living became my passion. The kids were supposed to go to the June camp but we waited for July because then our friends could do it with them. Next year I am strongly considering letting the kids do both camps! They had that much fun.





Penelope below is helping me make pizza dough. She's such a mess in the kitchen. She wants to constantly help to the point where I now sneak around to cook!


My parents came to town for a special event: A birthday party held for ALL of us. This was the first year of a tradition they would like to start where each summer they visit and throw our family one big birthday party. Gifts, cake, decorations, the whole thing. This way they don't have to mail packages out 8 times a year and they get to see all of us open the gifts. So without the kids knowing they decorated our home, brought in cake, and wrapped gifts and had a surprise party. We knew, kids didn't though! It was a blast!

Above is the tropical themed party with my parents and all of us.
Below is the cake, which had a "93" candle the total combined age of 7 of our birthday's, also read: 'Happy Birthday Ricky, Shauna, Sage, Ethan, Layla, Penelope.'
The unborn baby got gifts too, but "he" doesn't have a "birthday" yet :)



August should slow down a little bit. July was all about sleepovers, library events, drama camp, cousin Echo being in town, growing caterpillars and releasing them as butterflies, Etc.. Layla's birthday is coming up (party on July 31, actual birthday on Aug 1) In August we have a couple busy weekends, some playgroups, and then a new baby being born. I suspect we'll be home most of August and September. Oh I have 2 kids that need to go the dentist for small fillings in Aug, and Charlotte will be getting braces. Yikes I better get those appointments scheduled (I want those done before baby comes)!!

The excitement and anticipation of a newborn is really building around here.

Homeschool: What we do when we aren't doing anything elseWe have a new program we are trying for Sage at http://www.readingupgrade.com/ And he finally likes a reading program. (FINALLY)

And http://www.spellingtime.com/ had some great sign up package deals I'm not sure I wrote about. Charlotte is signed up now for 1 year at the rate of $59.99 She can do spelling, states, vocab and math. They are broken up into quick daily lessons and it's good quality. We are loving it. I'm thinking about getting Ethan signed up as he needs to hit the spelling lessons.

The spelling and states is great. Charlotte really likes the vocab too. The spelling is so cool because they give the kids the words, they get activities, practice, quizzes, then at the end of the week a test. The results are emailed to the parents. So it's super easy to keep up with how the child is doing with minimal effort!

My favorite Layla Question this week:
"Where do the movies go when you turn off the TV?"

April into May...

We have been busy and right now I'm trying to figure out exactly why we have been so busy...


HAVE WE BEEN HAVING FUN?
I'm not sure what fun stuff we've been doing. We haven't gone anywhere interesting in quite a while. I am trying to plan a trip to the zoo though. The kids have been drawing a lot. They also are so into video games right now. I'm biting my tongue and acting like a good "unschooler" mom --let them have fun and play if they want (within reason). They are getting along so well, problem solving, talking, interacting, telling me how much fun they are having, and reading some new words (they ask me or Charlotte what it says sometimes). I also bought them Zoo Tycoon (they love Roller Coaster Tycoon) and they have a lot of fun creating with that. So I guess they are having a lot of fun, but since I don't "get" video games I think we have been boring around here lately. We have been waiting for the dang rain to stop so we can plant and clean up the yard.

Ricky finished up another mini semester of graduate school over a week ago. He got all A's and one B+ YAY! :) He has started his last mini semester! YAY! Since his finals are over (and he has less work load for now) we have all got some extra time with him which has been great.

I bought the kids a BIG dry erase bored which they are having a blast with. (And we can use as a group for school type things). I also heavily rearranged some of our school things, got more organized, and I'm getting rid of a box of books we don't need.

VOCAB
We started a vocab log and have a vocab word of the day. Our first two days worth I remember was 'resident' and 'morose'. I wrote "learning new words is fun!" on Charlotte's vocab log book and she laughed at me in that 'you're a dork mom' laugh. :)

GRAMMAR
I'm been debating about grammar with myself lately. More importantly sentence structure grammar. Not punctuation/spelling/writing skills type stuff but the uninteresting specifics of the English language. Charlotte and I are both bored to death with her fifth grade workbook grammar lessons (linking verbs, subject, predicate, Etc.). We only do a couple pages a week but still, it sucks! (LOL). I think it's a sign we should wait until she needs it more, or is interested in it. She would much be better off focusing the time and energy on writing in general (creative writing. journaling, the writing process, quotations, commas Etc.). Charlotte also needs more time with spelling. Oh I forgot, she does get some grammar lessons from a middle school computer program we have, and it's great (and fun) so I think we will just stick with that and not get so formal with the workbooks for now.

ORTHODONTIST/DENTIST
I took Charlotte to the orthodontist and she will get braces this summer. Boy are kids expensive. Babies are so cheap. :) Everyone should stop buying fancy cribs, crib bedding, expensive baby furniture, and accessories and just save for kids. Babies need next to nothing. Kids need everything. :)

I took the older four kids to the dentist in St Louis. We have a pediatric dentist who I just adore. We drive an hour and a half to see her. She is the nicest dentist I've ever met. The kids' teeth look great! We do have two cavities in the house (Charlotte and Sage) to take care of. BUT, she said she really noticed how great the kids are doing brushing and that my consistent flossing of their teeth really shows! I am so happy! Even Sage, who she says has just a lot of bacteria and acidity in his mouth which is causing his problems, is doing such a great job that it IS making a difference. This makes me really proud of them, but also of myself. I'm really proud that I've done such a good job keeping up on their flossing, brushing, and also sending then back to the bathroom to brush for longer! (This means they have been listening to me too!) On the way home Sage said, "Mom they are so nice there." And I replied with, "That's why I drive that far and pay their fees to take you guys there." It's so worth it to me.

OTHER
There are lots of little things I'm missing here that I'd like to write down for future memories. Like when the boys asked if Africa is in the United States (seriously we look at maps on our walls all the time how could they ask this?? (Brain fart I'm hoping!?) or like when Ethan told me Napoleon was a French emperor. Charlotte informed us all that according to her book full of "wacky, gross and weird things" apparently paintings of him show his hand inside his shirt because he was itchy. No way to know if that's a true fact or not, but I did find it cited (along with other theories) in many places online. I like what they tell me (and teach me). I like having homescoolers! :)