Weekly Wrap up – Week 5

Let me start this weekly wrap-up by saying this was a tough week. I can’t pinpoint any one reason, I think we are all just itching for our upcoming end-of-term break! It didn’t help that I got sick Friday (stomach bug) and haven’t quite gotten back to normal yet…

This week did, however, have some fun highlights that I am happy to share:

Being that both of the boys are studying plants right now, they were able to collaborate on a science lab this week.

Our lab involved germinating bean sprouts and planting them. The above photos were taken after the beans had been wrapped in wet paper towels and stored in a baggie for 24 hours. It’s hard to see, but on some of them, there was evidence of the shells breaking open in order to let the growing sprouts out.

These photos were taken yesterday before we planted our sprouts in dirt and labeled them to observe over the next week or so. You can see that each bean has a fully formed sprout growing out of it. We did a lima bean, a lentil, and a great northern so we could compare the differences. Now they are in their clear containers. We set them out in front of the patio door for a few hours each day so that they can get the sunlight they need to make food and grow!

Right now, Drew is doing Science the Well-Trained Mind way, utilizing a book called “How Nature Works” and our Usborne Internet-linked Science Encyclopedia. I will be getting a few Apologia books this coming week to try out, and one of them is the Elementary Botany book. So we are excited to try it out! Isaiah is using the “Great Science Adventures” books to do Biology this year. I had never heard of these, but they were recommended via TWTM, and once I saw that they incorporated Dinah Zike’s foldables, I was sold! This past week was his first week, and he really seems to be enjoying it so far. Next week I will show you some pictures of the minibooks he has been working on.

Jazz had a bit of a slow paced week, as I had found some things that she needed some extra help with as I was grading her work last weekend. So we took some time to do some extra practice with divisibility in Math and did some extra sentence diagramming worksheets. I tried to find some fun, different ways to review these things, but sometimes you just need to practice, practice, practice!

Joey has been really good this past week and I think he is starting to adjust better to entertaining himself while we are getting schoolwork done. Daddy was home on Wednesday and Thursday, as usual, and brought some laughter to our evenings…

Friday, we didn’t do school because I was miserably sick. I am still fighting off a mean stomach bug and I’m hoping by tomorrow I will be back to normal. Luckily, no one else has shown any signs of getting sick, so here’s hoping!

See you next week!

Not Me Monday 7.5.2010

I am not allowing my children to stay up past their bedtime, for the second night in a row, do they could go outside with Daddy and set off bottle rockets. Nope, they are all tucked in their beds with visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads.

I did not skip schooling today because I neglected to prepare the boys’ assignment sheets last night. Nope, I am always prepared and ready for the day and we always get our schoolwork done on time.

I also, most definitely, did not spend our usual school hours redesigning my blog and repeatedly telling my children to stop talking to me right now because I am trying to concentrate and cannot hear myself think. Nope, I always listen attentively to everything my children have to say. I would never dream of telling them to stop conversing with me.

Nope, not me!

Not Me Monday – February 8th, 2010

Ah Yes!! It’s that time again, time for me to air my shortcomings to the world without really admitting anything! What did I do this week?

I did NOT spend the whole weekend planning and prepping for school. That would just be overkill!

I did NOT power clean my kitchen and living room in 45 minutes Sunday evening before bed because I neglected to get anything but planning done for two days.

I did NOT vacuum at 11:45 pm after all my kids went to bed because I am a bit obsessive about crumbs and paper scraps all over my carpet, and I just couldn’t rest knowing it was in need of a good sweeping.

I did NOT feed my husband and kids Pasta Roni for dinner Sunday because I neglected to plan ahead for dinner. Nope, not me, I made a 5 course meal containing all 5 food groups!

I did NOT forget to replace the trash bag in the kitchen garbage can and repeatedly throw garbage in it anyway. And I did NOT have to dig it all out and place said trash in a bag by hand (ewww).

So what didn’t you do this weekend?

Blessings,

: ) Cassie

Funny Video – 10 Reasons to Homeschool

A fellow blogger posted this on her blog and I enjoyed it so much I wanted to share it!

 

Blessings,

: ) Cassie

Not ME Monday – Feb. 1, 2010

Wondering what went on here over the weekend? Well I can tell you what didn’t happen…

I did not feed our dog an entire dish of leftover spaghetti because I forgot to buy him dog food.

I did not ground my boys from their DS because they repeatedly leave them laying around (instead of putting them away in their game cases).

I did not give my toddler a handful of M&M’s an hour before bedtime just because he kept dragging me in the kitchen to ask for them.

I did not wash, dry, and fold 20 loads of laundry in 3 days, because everyone knows homeschool moms are always on top of everything.

I do not still have at least 10 more loads to wash before I can declare it caught up.

I did not enlist the help of friends to help switch the children’s rooms Saturday because I am SuperMom and I can handle it by myself.

I did not eat the last 2 fruit roll-ups last night before bed.

What didn’t you do last weekend?

Blessings,

: ) Cassie

Friday Fill-ins #159

Yay! I love Friday Fill-ins!! I haven’t done one of these in a long time, enjoy!

1. The lesson I learned yesterday was that I’m a better momma when I take a few minutes to calm down when I get frustrated.
2. Children’s birthday parties, where friends and family meet.
3. All these years are adding up.
4. The party was already over when I arrived.
5. The truth is I avoid watching the news.
6. Hearing him cry for the first time is what I remember most from that day.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to going to bed, tomorrow my plans include school and Sunday, I want to get caught up on laundry!

I know, pretty boring huh? Sorry, maybe I’ll do better next week.

Blessings,

: ) Cassie

Not Me Monday – January 11, 2010

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Without further ado…

It was not me who forgot to put the leftovers from last nights dinner in the fridge and therefore had to give it to the dog this morning.

It was not me that heard from her two older boys that they both do indeed, want mullets?! Apparently, they think it’s a happening hairstyle for young men? I will have to try and talk them out of that one.

It was not me that fed my youngest 3 helpings of steamed, seasoned green beans because I was so excited that he was eating a vegetable that wasn’t from the “french fry” group.

I did not get impatient with my 8yo son today because he moved very slowly through schoolwork. I did not tell him repeatedly to focus, stop dawdling, and just get it done!

I did not let my 20mo toddler run around shirtless for a couple of hours just because I like his chubby belly and mini-love handles.

It is not me that chases my toddler down and restrains him daily to pick his nose because I can’t stand seeing boogies clogging his nostrils.

I am not the one who lays my little one down for naps and bedtime watching a dvd of Yo Gabba Gabba or Blue’s Clues. I am furthermore not the momma who keeps the TV tuned into Nick Jr. all morning and afternoon because it might allow me to get school, laundry, vacuuming done for a few minutes here and there.

It’s not me that still hasn’t taken my toddlers pacifier away, even though he is steadily approaching his 2nd birthday.

I am not a cloth diaper flunkie.

I did not have to scrub dry erase marker off of my living room walls because my toddler got a little color happy.

I think that’s enough airing of my dirty laundry for this week. See you next Monday!

Blessings,

: ) Cassie

Small Talk Six

Today’s topic is “6 of your most vivid childhood memories.” You can answer this with a list of 6 words, 6 phrases, 6 sentences, 6 paragraphs, 6 photos, 6 videos, etc . . .

 

1. I vividly remember going to spend time at my grandfather’s cottage on Lake Huron quite often. There were so many fun things to do! We went tubing, rode jet-ski’s, swam, drove around the golf cart, and sat around the fire pit at night. He no longer has the cottage, but while he did, we had a lot of fun there.
2. I remember riding all over town on my bike as a kid. It’s what we did every day when we had warm weather. It was a different time back then, and I also lived in a little bitty po-dunk town. It makes me sad to think my own children will never be able to experience the kind of childhood I did. It’s such a scary world out there nowadays.
3. I also recall what it was like being a big sister. I was 8 when my younger sister was born and I thought I was little momma. I wanted to help with/do everything! As she got older, we often played school (I played the mean teacher) and store. I also spent a lot of time teaching her how to count and ABC’s.
4. I remember trying to tag along with my older brother EVERYWHERE he went. When he actually allowed me to play with him, we mostly played army. We would run around the backyard and throw “grenades” at one another (made out of whatever we could get our hands on at the time) and  argue over who killed who first.
5. I remember going swimming at Lakeview “beach” all the time in the summer. It was a campground and they had a very small beach you could swim at. They had a great concession stand full of cheap candy and snacks. The best part of it was there were fish in the lake (they had part of the lake sectioned off for fishing) that would nibble you if you were sitting still.
6. I remember bike wrecks (lots of them always involving my best friend, Joanie), Pogo Balls, Gotchya guns, and Easy Bake ovens. Man, they sure had some great toys when I was a kid!

Blessings,

: ) Cassie

My Babies Have Rhythm!!

Check out this great video of Joey (and Isaiah for a moment) dancing to MC Hammer’s “You Can’t Touch This”… There *might* be a short scene of me doing the “Hammer Dance” but please close your eyes on that part, LOL!

Joey dancing to MC Hammer @ Yahoo! Video

Blessings,

: )  Cassie

Funnies From Bloggyland…

I was perusing through my many followed blogs today, and came across a link to this hilariously true post: Lessons Learned from Toddlerhood Check it out for a good laugh!

Blessings,

: ) Cassie

Not Me Monday

One of my goals for 2010 is to write more. In search of new inspiration I came across another new meme that I have decided to participate in. I have enjoyed reading other participant’s posts for some time now and thought it would be fun!

You can learn more about this meme by clicking on the logo above.

I did NOT skip lessons today because I spent hours trying to figure out what to do about my blog issues. (I DID however, decide to stay here on blogger with a fresh start and keep all of my older posts on a different site which is linked to on the “Old Blog” button in my header.)

I did NOT allow my 20mo son to eat 6 packages of fruit snacks today.

I did NOT allow my children to play video games (Wii) before their standard 8pm scheduled time.

I did NOT allow my 20mo “growing way too fast” baby boy to take a nap at 7pm this evening just because he fell asleep on my lap (and it’s been a LONG time since he has done that).

I did NOT hit my elbow so hard about 30 minutes ago that it made me sick to my stomach. And yes, it still hurts! :(

I did NOT fold all my laundry but leave it in piles in the living room.

I did NOT have to discipline my oldest son this afternoon for telling his brother, “I hate you” and calling him a butthead because he got mad over a video game (see above).

Yep. I think that’s enough for today. Don’t you just LOVE Mondays? Sigh.

Blessings,

: ) Cassie

OK, so I'm a little OCD...

because all these stacked boxes and chaos in the house are driving me up the wall! I am soooo glad I only have to live among this mess a few more days. I am very thankful that I have had the past week to get ready for the move but I am completely over it. Everywhere I turn there is a disorganized mess of things I can't do much about. I have tried really hard to keep things somewhat in order, but it has really been a challenge. The closer it gets to moving day the worse it gets!
Tuesday we pick up our u-haul and then we will gladly be loading all of these boxes into it and getting them out of the way. Unfortunately, it will be short lived, as once they are moved into the new place, it will be a whole other state of disorganization and chaos. But at least I will be moving towards my goal of getting settled in and finding a proper place for all of our belongings, and that is definitely something to look forward to!
It just so happened that we got to see inside our apartment last night. We are completely relieved, it is a very nice apartment (compared to our current abode) and for the most part, we really like the layout. Our dining/living room area is a bit smaller than I expected from looking at the floor plan, but we will make it work for us as we always do. This may mean relocating some of our lesser used school things into another area, but we can live with that.
All of our utilities are set-up to switch over into our name, we put an order in to get cable and internet installed on Thursday (yeah!), we have purchased our renter's insurance, reserved our u-haul, and all that's left to do is pay our deposit/rent and sign on the dotted line. Oh, and move in of course!
Oh, also yesterday a part on my laptop broke (sniffle). It is the casing that holds the screen. It is still working perfectly fine, but will not close. I will be shipping it off to HP sometime next week to get it fixed. I will leave a note here on the blog to let you know when I do as I will not be able to blog while it is away (sniffle) getting repaired. Hopefully the process will be quick and they will return my electronic baby back to me like new!

Blessings,

:) Cassie

Looks like as fun place to work...

A fellow blogger had this video posted on her site and I just couldn't resist sharing it with you! I'm not a big fan of the backstreet boys, but thought this was fun to watch anyway!

Blessings,

:) Cassie

Why is laundry such a pain?

I am not sure why, but I can never seem to get my laundry hung or folded and put away until it has sat in a towering pile in the middle of a high traffic area for several days, been rummaged through at least 10 times to find a specific item, and been drug about the house by the dog and the toddler.

This is a major area of weakness for me. I am praying about it. Maybe the Lord will give one of my children a sudden urge to fold clothes?

Yeah, you're probably right. I should just force myself to do it.

Blessings,

:) Cassie

Who says kids can't enjoy Mozart?

Because I definitely have proof to the contrary! We read about Mozart today in Drew's reading, so we decided to listen to a few selections while he completed a worksheet. This is what happened next...

Blessings!

:) Cassie

Wedding Fun!

Man have we been busy! My sister's wedding was this past Saturday and Joey was her ring-bearer. I had tons of family come in to be there that I had not seen in years! It was a beautiful ceremony and we all had a ball at the reception. I hope to get some pictures posted soon of the actual wedding, but for now, here is a video of my little man gettin down on the dance floor! Enjoy!

Blessings!

Cassie :)

Interview With a 9 year old Boy…

I saw that a friend had done this the other day on facebook with his little girl and thought it was a really cute idea.  So tonight I did it with Drew, I will ask Isaiah his answers tomorrow. Enjoy!
1. What is something mom always says to you?
Not right now.
2. What makes mom happy?
Baby bottoms (especially Joey’s)
3. What makes mom sad?
That I’m growing up too fast.


4. How does your mom make you laugh?
By tickling me.


5. What was your mom like as a child?
Happy.
6. How old is your mom?
28..29

7. How tall is your mom?
100 ft and 2 in
8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Love on Joey.
9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
Be on the computer.


10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
That she’s a good cook.


11. What is your mom really good at?
Taking care of Joey


12. What is your mom not very good at?
Video games.
13. What does your mom do for a job?
Homeschool


14.What is your mom's favorite food?
Mac n cheese
15. What makes you proud of your mom?
That she doesn’t play video games so much

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
That’s a hard one. Olive from Popeye

17. What do you and your mom do together?
School.

18. How are you and your mom the same?
We have the same nose. (We do?) Our eye color. That’s all 

19. How are you and your mom different?
I’m a boy and she’s a girl. One of us plays video games and one of us don’t.
20. How do you know your mom loves you?
She just does.

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
She’s his wife.
22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Wal-mart or Sam’s Club

Homeschool Memoirs #22 – ABC’s Describing Me

THEME

This week use the ABC’s to describe your character, your life, your homeschool, and your family. Next to each letter of the alphabet put a word that describes you or has something to do with you. It was very amusing and a bit tricky. Once you actually get to a letter your mind goes blank!

OK, this sounds like a fun challenge…here we go!

A – Attentiveness – This is something I am trying to teach my kids daily.
B – Bible – The Bible is the center of our school.
C – Cooperation – We are learning to work together to reach our goals as a family.
D – Delegation – Something I am finally learning to use in order to manage our home.
E – Efficiency – It’s all about getting the best results we can in the time we have to do something.
F – Family First – What more is there to say?
G – Games – We try to use games to reinforce what we learn often.
H – Humility – Another quality I am trying to instill in my children.
I – Intelligent Design – Our belief in the origins of the earth and life.
J – Jokes – Our day is filled with laughter!
K – Kindness – Yet another trait we encourage daily.
L – Laughter – We are a family that loves to laugh.
M – Messes – I am constantly picking up messes, but what mom isn’t.
N – Nerds – We love Star Wars and Lord of the Rings and we are not ashamed to admit it.
O – Organization – This is something I constantly struggle with.
P – Personal – We love being able to personalize the way we teach each individual child.
Q – Quiet – Something we are NOT!
R – Responsibility – We encourage our children to take responsibility for their own actions.
S – Schedule – This is something we are slowly moving towards.
T – Truth – We are teaching our children that the Bible is the highest Truth.
U – Unique – We encourage our children to be individuals and accept them for who they are.
V – Values – We are instilling Biblical values.
W – Will – We want to follow God’s will for our family.
X – X – Drew will be learning times tables soon.
Y – Yes! – What I thought today when we actually completed all of our lessons today.
Z – Zany – A word that describes all of my children, the are always making me laugh.

Blessings,

Cassie

Only boys....

There are many instances throughout my day where I have to chuckle and think to myself, "Only boys (my boys to be exact) would do or say that!"  Want an example?

Today Drew and Isaiah were having PB&J sandwiches with Cheetos for lunch.  I was in and out taking care of Joey and reheating some leftovers for myself.  As I left the kitchen for the last time to sit down and eat, I hear the boys pretending as they usually do with their GI Joes and Star Wars figures.  I turn around to go back in the dining room to remind them that they are not to have toys at the table while they eat and stop in the doorway to observe them...

Isaiah's cheeto says to Drew's cheeto, "Do you have any toys to sell?"
Drew's cheeto answers his, "Yes but you don't have enough cheese money to buy them.  You will have to borrow the cheese money from your mom."

Sigh.  Only boys!

Blessings,
Cassie

Another Funny Homeschool Video from YouTube

I will be back later tonight to do some memes and catch up but mean while...

I found this video while reading another HSer's blog and just had to share.... so funny! All about us "weirdo" homeschoolers....



Blessings,
Cassie