schooling

Unfortunately today was not much better. I threatened to put the game cube in time out for a week if they didn't get their homework done. It came VERY close! I am so sick of their attitudes about doing school! Does anyone have any advise on how to encourage them to have better attitudes? They don't have to like it, but this screaming is ridiculous!

Anyway- yesterday we were learning about how the Sumerians in approximately 3300BC invented a type of writing. They drew picture signs to represent different words. So I had the kids write their own picture stories.

Mason drew fish, a cross and a tree. He didn't really have a message to his.

Aussie drew playing with littlest pet shop animals.

And Ashley got the idea of what I was trying to have them do. She drew a picture with a message for me. Here it is: Can you guess what it is saying?

I thought it was pretty clever. She was saying that she wanted me to buy her a stuffed animal. LOL!!! See that is me holding the stuffed animal and her with a big smile and that on the right is money. Ha ha ha!

I can't think of anything else to report. I hope all of you are doing well!

Today Stuff

We finally got with it and sold our old van today. We listed it yesterday afternoon and LOTS of people replied within the first 1/2 hour. So 2 people came to see it last night and one said he would come by in the morning with the $$$$.

What a blessing to have it out of our driveway.

But Ashley cried and cried. She said she didn't want to sell our old van and she was going to miss it. It was real tears coming! So very strange! She does not handle change well at all!

I got so frustrated with her today. I don't understand why she can't tell me which number is greater or which number is the smallest. Ex. 45 58 85 She would have no clue. UGH! I finally figured out to get out the manipulative blocks. We counted out 45 blocks, etc. That way she could "see" what was the biggest. That seemed to work and after me showing her several times she started doing it by herself. But I tell you what- it hurt my chest I was getting so frustrated.

Mason gave me attitude about doing homework. I almost sent him to his room but he straightened up.

Aussie always gives me trouble, but it was a little better today. He got done by 2:00. :)

It's good that they don't mind the time when I read to them. But they HATE the paperwork, which is important too.

I meant to scan something in that they did today. But I am way too tired. I'll try to do it tomorrow night.

I'm going to be hurting tomorrow afternoon not being able to get onto the computer. Greg is working from home so that means no computer for me!

Later!

Dana's Baby

He is here! My sweet friend Dana had her baby early early early this morning. She went into labor Sept. 11 around 4:00 AM and that baby did not come out until 3:43AM this morning.

8 pounds 13 ounces

Yesterday, I watched her twins all day and they even spent the night. It went really well. They did get into everything and I mean everything! (paint, glue, tape, puzzles, trains, homeschooling books, etc.) But there was hardly any fighting. Even though they all got along pretty well it was tiring though. By the end of the day I started getting grouchy at my kids who kept talking and talking and keeping everyone up. Dana's boys woke up around 4:30 upset because they missed their Mom and Dad. We called around 5:00 and got the news. And their Dad came and picked them up around 6:30. I was wide awake, but I thought hmmmm... I don't have to be up until 8:00 so I went back to bed. Bad mistake!! I could barely get out of bed! I finally got out of bed at 8:30, left the house at 8:50 with kids dressed and made it to Co-op just a few minutes late.

I got to stop by and see him. He is so beautiful. We were trying everything to get him to yawn, but my camera is not very quick.

Check out these sweet baby feet!

Oh I could just kiss those toes.

ding ding ding!

Ding ding ding! It's 12:26 time to make some lunch. If you don't know what this is all about read yesterday's post.

By the way- They did not go hungry they did have popcorn around lunch time.

You know...

You know you've had a bad day when...

1. You started school at 9AM ish and finished at 8:30PM.

2. At 7:30 PM you finally get dinner on the table

3. At 7:30 PM your son says, "we didn't even have lunch yet" And you think really hard and realize you forgot to fix lunch today!

What if?

While we were out today I saw a young girl wearing a shirt and I was wondering outloud what it said. Greg looked over and told me it said, will trade brother for a pony.

So I asked Ashley if she would trade her brothers for a pony. She got this crazed look and grinned from ear to ear saying, "Ponies" She nodded yes.

So I look down on the table and saw these "What if?" questions and I decided to ask the kids. Mason was in his own little world so here are Aussie and Ashley's answers.

What if you could have a wild animal for a pet; what would you choose.

Aussie: A lion

Ashley: Pony pronounced poh neeeeeeeee

What if you had a million dollars; how would you spend it?

Aussie: I would buy my own house and then I would use a little bit of the money to buy 1000 cats.

Ashley: I would buy a Poh---neeeeeeeeee.

What if you were President of the U.S.A for one day; what would you do?

Aussie: I would make it so the kids were the bosses instead of the grown-ups

Me: And that is why you would be president for only one day!

Ashley: I would make a lot of money and buy a poh-----neeeeeee.

What if you had a genie that granted one wish per day: how would you use them?

Aussie: I would ask the genie to grant me wishes anytime I wanted them.

Ashley: I would ask for a poh----neeeeee.

What if you could travel back in time; when and where would you go?

Aussie: I would go back and try to find the planet Daddy made up when he was a kid.

Ashley: I would go where there is lots of ponies.

What if you were stranded on an island with one possession; what would it be?

Aussie: What is a possession?

Me: It's a thing that you have (well or don't have) that you can take with you.

Aussie: I'd say an army

Me: yah I know I know a p...

Ashley: a horse

So anyway.... here is a layout I completed today:

Have a great day!

Being helpful!

Well I'm "trying" to be helpful! I was just trying to show Dana's baby the way out. Come on sweet boy- it's time to come out and see Miss Chelle.

Dana got to come over for a couple of hours today and we got to scrapbook. I made this layout. I always struggle with titles- so Greg came up with this one.

My little book

I finished this little book and I love it. I wasn't so sure how it was going to turn out, since the teacher's style is quite different than mine. But I like it- even the different size pages- which I thought for sure would bug me. So here it is:

This is the cover. I printed this picture on a transfer sheet and ironed it on to fabric.

page 1. This ended up setting up the whole theme of my book. This is a stamped image in which I embroidered parts of it. The saying says: Of all the many mothers (He's created quite a few) God found His perfect mold when He made a mom like you.

page 2. This is a picture of my Grandma and my Mom.

page 3. This is a picture of my Mom.

Page 4. This is a picture of my Mom and Me. I printed this on a handkerchief.

Page 5. This is a picture of me.

Page 6. This is a picture of me and Ashley- I printed this on cloth.

Page 7. This is Ashley. I actually used one of my Mom's layouts. I printed it out and then embellished it more.

Page 8.
This is the journaling it reads:

We started out as little girls. We played with dolls and cared for animals practicing for the day we would become Moms ourselves. We were cared for; our Moms were our best friends, and we were told we were special.

We were loved!

Ashley-

You are special and you are loved! And I know someday you'll make a great Mom too! ~Mommy

Oh me oh my!

I'm tired!

I'm working on a little craft project that I hope to have done this weekend. It's a little hodge podge scrapbook.

I'm taking an online class. Even though her style is not really my style, I love the tips and techniques she has been giving. Anyway, I hope to show it to you soon.

On my way out today, I opened the garage door and it looked like it was pouring outside. I noticed there was a big puddle of water in the garage. Then I noticed it was not raining outside. So I looked around and saw that our water heater had exploded. So I called Greg and he told me how to turn off the gas and I did that. Then he wanted me to turn off the water. I saw the handle but I wasn't able to turn it. So I went across the street to see if Mr. Neighbor was there. He was not but his wife said this happened to her and she knew where it was. So she came over and she couldn't move it- but she had the right tool. So she brought it over and I was able to turn off the water. We are so lucky I found it when I did or our garage would be flooded and anything on the floor would have been ruined. Anyway, there was a hole in it so it was still leaking from the bottom. Greg was able to take the water out of the tank when he got home.

SO I guess we have to get a new water heater! UGH!

Anyway- while Mrs. Neighbor was over she also told us that our tree is dying. One of the boys brought this cocoon type thing into us and she was able to identify it and said it was a worm that eats trees and that we really need to get rid of them before it kills the tree. The tree is producing a lot of pine cone looking seeds and it has never done this before. She said, it might be like a pine tree. When a pine tree is about to die it produces lots of seeds to takes its place. I thought that was interesting and it's probably true. So I guess we have a dying tree in our front yard! At least the kids had fun on it!

And here is a little layout I did last week. It is hard to take a picture of it because the transparancy picks up reflections.

This is my Mom and Dad.

Maggie's Party

Saturday we went to a little birthday party for a girl name Maggie. Maggie's Dad played the major role in the play Wes and Greg put on. So they had a cast party at his house and that is where my kids met their kids. They are also homeschoolers.

So Maggie's party was set up like a little carnival. The kids got to throw a soft squishy ball at the teenager, and if they hit him he would fall back into the water. They had a big jumpy moon walk, which the kids always love.

It was a HOT day!

The kids really liked going around to each game. Ashley played each game LOTS and LOTS of times. And while Ashley played---Daddy got to hold Hello Kitty.

Ashley and Aussie got their face painted. Mason never has liked getting his face painted. Ashley got a butterfly on her face.

And Aussie was a green cat. And he was very insistent that he was a BOY. Matter of fact at all the games he only picked up green colored prizes.

Here is Ashley playing the dolphin game. It was actually pretty hard b/c the dolphin kept falling over.

But Aussie thought it was the EASIEST game. "All you have to do is put the rings on his nose?"

At each game they had prizes. Some of them were really cool- that I had to get one. At this one you could win a mini mini flashlight keyring.

And here is Mason throwing the bananas into the monkeys mouths.

They were each given bags to put their goodies in. Ashley like I said earlier played and played and played the games and filled up her bag. (which was fine- they had lots of prizes and they would rather have someone take them, than to be stuck with them.)

So near the end of the party Ashley asked me to go around with her and play the games. So I said OK. And I would play and at each game I said, "Well I would really like to have this prize." And she said, "Oh DON'T worry MOM- I'll tell you later." or "You don't need to get that Mom- I think you know why- but I'll tell you later." So when we were in the car on the way home. Ashley announced that she won prizes for all of us and she handed them out. It was really cute.

I did feel bad though. We got her a littlest pet toy and a Hello Kitty stuffed toy and I feel like all the prizes we brought home probably cost more than the present we bought her. (maybe not but it felt like it.)

_____________

Yesterday- Greg told the kids that today was a holiday. Aussie got the BIGGEST grin on his face and said, "That means no school?" I said, "Well I was going to try to get away with it but I guess I can't now." And he said, "It's a holiday-and everyone is supposed to enjoy a holiday- so we shouldn't have school." Well who could argue with that? So we didn't have school today. And all they did was play and play and play.

Where's Egypt?

Friday- the kids made bean bags in co-op to go along with the letter B.

Today I made a tic-tac-toe game on the floor and we played with the bean bags. We didn't have quite enough so we had to use some stuffed animals.

I made them stand behind a line and try to throw it to the right box, just to make it more challenging.

The other day I started to read a story to the kids and I said, "This story takes place in Egypt. Let me show you where Egypt is on the globe."

Austin said, "Let me show you where it is, Let me show you." I said OK well because 1. I didn't really know where it was and I would have to find it myself and 2. because it's good to get the kids involved. So Aussie whipped that globe around in no time and said, "It's right here next to Libya."

Well OK then... How many of you knew that Egypt was next to Libya? (I sure didn't) Also- How many of you knew that Egypt was in Africa? I didn't know that either.

This is definitely Aussie's thing. He doesn't like any other school, but he sure likes Geography. I really don't know how he knew where Egypt or Libya was, but I do know that he looks at globes and maps and flags quite a bit.

I on the otherhand learn something new everyday. :) That's the good thing about being a homeschooling Mom!

------------------------------------

Oh I bet I have some layouts I haven't shown you.

This was for a challenge of how to alter your photos in 3 different ways. It's not really my style but it was fun and I like how it turned out.

This was a color combo challenge:

This was a challenge to use negative space:

This started out to be a challenge and I ended up using too much stuff so it wouldn't qualify for that certain game.

And this one was the color combos and a shopping challenge. The way the shopping challenge works is there is a list of 10 things and you can "so call" purchase 3 items and use them. So I picked ribbon, a dictionary page and stickles. I didn't have a small dictionary, so I just used the internet to print off the definition of zip.

It's funny how things come and go in scrapbooking. It's just like clothing. This layout reminds of what I did when I was first starting to scrapbook oh so many years ago.

Tutorial vs. Co-op

My Mom asked what is a tutorial. I know there are probably others out there wondering too. So-

A Co-op or cooperation is a bunch of parents who get together who teach their children whatever subjects they decide on. Every parent has a part in teaching or helping in some way.

A Tutorial is where the parent is not involved in helping or teaching. They pay for teachers to teach certain subjects.

We are involved in both a co-op and a tutorial this year. This year the tutorial is teaching Science, PE and has a book club. I really wanted the kids in some type of PE class. Also, this gives me 3 hours to do my grocery shopping each week. The co-op I am very involved in. I help teach the first semester. I was also the substitute teacher for last week 2nd and 3rd grade science.

1st day of Tutorial

Ahhh...my babies! I never thought I would tear up dropping off my children at school. Tuesday was their first day at tutorial.

As I watched my babies cross the street to go to P.E. that's when it happened. Just a little tear came to my eyes. I watched how the teacher stopped trafic and then proceeded to have the little ducklings cross. It went well. But I was scared! All I could do was pray and pray that they would be safe.

Ashley did NOT want me to leave. The boys were fine and met friends right away.

I'll give you one guess who didn't like school today.

The big mouth announced that it was boring and then the other two joined in.

I'm guessing that it was just a first day thing and they will get into more fun things next week. And I am guessing that one will probably still have his attitude. I don't know what to do with him.

After school we went to get lunch at McDonald's.

We actually stayed there quite a long time and did homework there.

Mason is still holding his pencil the wrong way. We are working on that. He is very frustrated trying to hold it the right way.

Today was a very weird day! I didn't sleep well the night before, so I was pretty tired most of the day.

But it started out this morning when a bug flew up my nose! That is the creepiest feeling!!! Anyway you would not believe how many times I had to blow my nose to get it out! I was kind of freaking out because I had just read about someone's Mom swallowing a bug and it layed eggs in the back of her throat. YUCK!!! Anyway- I got it out! I know for sure! It came out in one piece!

Because I was tired we did school on and off today. We got a lot completed but not as much as I had planned.

When Greg came home I was able to nap- and yep now I'm not tired at bedtime!

Tomorrow will be a better day!