Frog Frenzy

Matthew found a frog in Grandma's pool. He fearlessy scooped up the frog, named it Bouncy, and pronounced them best friends. I'm pretty sure Bouncy was not in agreement but he didn't really get much say in the matter.

Limericks

It's limerick writing day. The poor cat has been the muse for a couple insulting poems while the dog hogs all the glory. Being a cat person, I just don't see why they like the smelly, barking creature better.

There once was a furry old cat
Who was incredibly fat
He went upstairs
To cut his hair
And he wasn’t fat after that

There once was an amazing dog
Who was stuck in a very thick fog
He found his way out
By using his snout
And then he fell over a log

There once was a woman named Mary
Who had something heavy to carry
When she finally got there
She saw it was a bear
And it was very scary

Matthew is a very cute boy
Who wouldn’t share his toy
While on a big bus
He made a big fuss
All the riders, he did annoy

There once was a cat named Jack
Who could eat a Big Mac
Once he finished that
He became very fat
And then he fell on his back

Once there was a big cat
He was lazy and fat
He fell one day
And rolled far away
He was never seen after that

Makin' Money

The boys are crushing cans to take to the recycling center.... not exactly the way I would do it, but that's okay. I just need to keep myself from looking out the window. *I* can do this!

Months of saving cans, 30 minutes to crush them all, a drive downtown to the recycling center (we'll already be down there so it's not that big of a drive), and who knows how long we'll have to be there... yet I predict less than a $10 profit on this venture. We shall see.

Pumpkin Festival

This one of the brief times when the big boys deigned to be seen with me. Most of the day, they were relishing their independence by running around the fairgrounds with their friends. You can see Matthew with his spoils of the day, a cardboard engineer hat, a balloon from our church's booth, and licking the cotton candy from his fingers. Evan lost his balloon shortly after refusing to let me tie it to his wrist.This pumpkin weighs over 300 pounds! The biggest one there was over 11oo pounds! Matthew preferred this one though b/c he was tall enough to reach the top for drumming!Although you see a pumpkin in Ryan's arms, I guarantee he and his friend were discussing football. In fact, amongst all the booths of pumpkin bread, pumpkin dip, pumpkin fudge, pumpkin butter, and salsa (not made of pumpkin but there's was lots of salsa for sale), they managed to find the booth selling football cards. Ryan even asked if we could back today so he could buy the Carson Palmer card he didn't buy yesterday.

Evan and Matthew both painted their pumpkins for the contest. Evan was making a cardinal and Matthew was making a black bear, both to fit the Wild, Wonderful West Virginia theme.

Why We're Skipping School

One of the benefits I envisioned when we started homeschooling was a close relationship between all the boys. Over the years, I've seen glimpses of this mythical homeschool benefit but it seems more often than not, I'm refereeing, punishing, and begging them to be nice to each other. Or, they're not being mean or nice to each other because they're not even in the same room. They're off doing their own things, in their own space, with their own stuff.

That's why we're behind on our schoolwork this week. When I saw this happening, I couldn't bear to interupt. It's been going on for two days and I don't even mind stepping over roads and cars to get from the computer to the tv. Teachers don't mind a day off either!

The littles are playing without whining. The bigs are playing without bossing. No one is arguing over who has the best car or which way the road should go. Listening to my kid play makes me realize what a blessing they are to me and to each other. It's one of the many benefits of homeschooling!

Weekly Wrap-Up

I would definitely call this a successful week of homeschooling. We had three days at home to do all our bookwork and two days out in the world.

I finally found Evan's motivation, which is both good and bad. He just picked out a Nintendo DS Star Wars game as his birthday present. Since he's not allowed to play video games until after his schoolwork is finished and he really wanted to play his new game, he was highly motivated to finish the boring bookwork this week. He took the initiative to start on his own each day and even rushed me along when he was ready to do the subjects that require some mommy help. What's so bad about that you may ask. And that's a good question to which I have a good answer. Why is it that it took much longer and much more whining and complaining to get schoolwork finished pre-Star Wars game??? Okay, that looks more like a question than an answer but the point is still valid. The kid was capable (which I already knew), just lazy... or I guess I could say unmotivated, but I won't.

Tuesday found us at our homeschool co-op. The co-op has almost doubled in size this year. We're having a few issues with space and class sizes but it's great to see so many families with similar values and goals for their kids. The older boys are taking a new class based on The Dangerous Book for Boys. It's so much fun for them, though it hasn't yet eclipsed gym as their favorite class. They also have a cooking class that's lots of fun and very useful. I wonder how long it will be before I can turn them loose in the kitchen to fix dinner.

Thursday we had our first field trip of the school year. We drove about an hour up the Ohio River to visit Pt. Pleasant, WV. It was a fun and educational trip. Details and pictures are here. The problem I had was trying to get my kids to realize they were still supposed to be learning! There was so much historical information and it was presented in new and interesting ways and all they wanted to do was talk to their friends about FOOTBALL, my nemesis, football.

Speaking of football, I guess I should mention that I only have two kids involved in fall sports! So, we only have practice and/or games on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Adam is playing competitive soccer with the YMCA Middle School League. This is the league set up for middle schoolers b/c the public schools don't sponsor soccer. I guess the $9,677 that our state spends on EACH student only stretches so far. But it works out for us b/c Adam gets to play and he loves it. Ryan is playing flag football through Upward. It's so much easier (on my schedule) than the Little League tackle football he's played the past two years. And he loves it too.

I've probably written way too much already so I'll close with a Happy Birthday to my honey. He loves DQ ice cream cakes but this year I decided to try making my own ice cream cake. It was so easy and yummy, definitely one of those dishes where the end result is much greater than the sum of it's parts!

• Layer unwrapped ice cream sandwiches in the bottom of a casserole dish


• Spread with a layer of whipped topping


• Sprinkle crumbled Oreos across the whipped topping


• Add additional layers of ice cream sandwiches, whipped topping, and cookie crumbs


• Cover and freeze for 1-2 hours


• When ready to serve, top each piece with hot fudge (this step wasn't in the original recipe and I didn't do it, but I'm definitely doing it next time!)

For more Weekly Wrap-Up, visit Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Point Pleasant

Today we visited Pt. Pleasant, WV, one of the oldest cities on the Ohio River. It was named by George Washington and he even owned land in the area.

We started our day at The River Musuem. We learned about life on the river and life in the river. The museum focuses on commercial enterprise along the river and also has a new 2400 gallon aquarium featuring fish from the Ohio River. The kids got to drive a tugboat simulator and see many different artifacts.

After the museum, we crossed the street to Tu-Endie-Wei State Park, at the confluence of the Kanawha and Ohio rivers. We had lovely weather for our picnic lunch followed by a tour of the mansion house and a tour, given by a park ranger, of the monuments in the park. The Battle Monument commemorates the Battle of Point Pleasant where Lord Dunmore led the colonials against Chief Cornstalk of the Shawnee Indians. Chief Cornstalk and the united Indian nations were defeated and Chief Cornstalk later became a friend to the soldiers. His remains are interred at the park.

When we finished at the park, we walked along the city's flood wall to see the history of the area depicted through giant murals. The murals are a work in progress and the detail and talent displayed is amazing. I plan to return when the murals are finished. They present a history lesson no book can match!

See more pictures at accheonline and Adventures in the 100 Acre Wood.

Self-Esteem

Matthew was singing his own song today. It goes like this, "I'm the smartest boy. Yes, I'm the smartest boy."

Then he asked me, "Mommy, I'm the smartest boy, aren't I."

To which I replied, "Yes, but who told you that?"

And he said, "Nobody! I just knowed it."

.

School at Home... or Not

We followed last week's post about getting back to the books by spending a week doing everything BUT book work. We had a Labor Day picnic, a fantasy football draft, camping, and three different activities with three different homeschool groups on three different days. Add soccer and football practice to all that and we were barely home!

This week our calendar is blessedly empty during the day. My plan is to make a dent in our textbooks so we won't have to feel guilty when the field trips start. After this week, there is at least one homeschool activity every week for the next five weeks. And we're not even going to every planned event! Whoever said homeschoolers were unsocialized hadn't seen this homeschooler's calendar!

Back To The Books

It's been a busy summer. We've been swimming and hiking and boating and playing and eating lots and lots of popsicles. We've been to the lake, to the zoo, to the amusement park and to (almost) every pool within driving distance. But now the craziness of summer is giving way to the craziness of fall. it's time for co-op and field trips and soccer and football... and schoolwork.

I just ordered the last of the books we need for 3rd, 6th, and 8th grades. We started a few subjects in August. The boys are still excited with the novelty of book work after a summer of no pencils and books. Well, they're mostly still excited. Evan is rebelling at the feel of a pencil in his little 3rd grade fingers. It's amazing that he will take a 25 word spelling test with no complaint but whine and cry for an hour (not exaggerating) about writing a five word sentence.

We were happy with last year's curriculum and have just continued on to the next grade level in all subjects. I've updated the side bar with our current curriculum if anyone is interested.

A Conversation

HIM: What's that beeping?

HER(with amazement): It's the dryer. The clothes are dry.

HIM: Hmmm, I guess it starts folding now.

HER: Yes. Then you'd better stay out of the way as the clothes float their way into our drawers.

Meet Jack

Jack

Jack Jack

Jack Cat

Jackson A. Cat

Jumpin' Jack Cat

He doesn't answer to any of them.

Chaser of String

Chewer of Toes

Climber of Legs

Loved by All... except maybe the dog, but he's coming around

I Know Japan

Go ahead. Ask me anything.

Take It Like A Man

I love it when the boys take up for each other, except when taking up for one brother means punching another one in the groin. It's pretty ironic though that the punchee is the hardest laugher of all groin kicks, hits, or falls when we're watching America's Funniest Home Videos. It's only funny when your own groin is not involved, I guess.

Popcorn on the Cob

March Madness

March Madness has passed. We did our brackets again this year. Adam and Jeff both pick North Carolina as the champion. But Adam had more points, so he was the official winner and he's ready to go shopping. His prize is a $20 Wal-Mart gift card and the child can not hold onto money (or gift cards) for any length of time. He wants to buy a basketball game for the Playstation, despite the fact that we already own multiple basketball games.

But Adam wasn't the only winner. Evan, whiner-extraordinaire, has been writing. He refused to fill out the brackets because it involved picking up a pencil and making marks on paper. Pencil and paper are his enemies. And then one day, I saw it. He was making his own brackets with his own made-up teams! I grabbed my camera because I knew no one would believe me. He was writing without being forced and without whining. I guess basketball is good for something.

Magic or Science?

First take a tissue, or in our case, a few squares of toilet paper and push it into the bottom of a small plastic cup. Make sure it gets wedged in there so it doesn't fall out when you turn the cup upside down. Fill a deep container with water, but leave room at the top for water displacement.

Now invert the cup and push it down into the water. Make sure to keep it level so you don't get bubbles. BUBBLES ARE YOUR ENEMY! Push it all the way under the water. It's so easy that even a three-year-old can do it.While you hold the cup submerged under water, talk about what is probably happening to the tissue. My kids were convinced the tissue was getting wet. And why wouldn't it? It's totally under water!

But when you pull the cup up (again, no bubbles!), you'll find a dry tissue! I promise ours was dry. I just didn't take a picture for some reason. Now it's time to figure out why and how you have a dry tissue!

Here's a hint: It's not magic! It's 2nd grade science so you should be able to figure it out. :)

Where I've Been

In the land of giants, where my 5'6" twelve-year-old is the shortest player on his team.

Yes, they play a lot of defense.

We've Got Grackles

Our bird feeder hung outside most of the winter with no hits. But since it started getting warmer, we've had some regular cardinal visitors, a few robins and tiny little titmouse or two. Until one day we saw a black bird, shaped almost like a crow but smaller and with an iridescent blue head.


Then there were two crow-shaped black birds with iridescent blue heads... then three. They chased off the other birds until we were only feeding crow-shaped black birds with iridescent blue heads and raspy annoying caws, no melodious songs from these little bullies.



I spent some time on-line and found out that our bird feeder was hosting grackles, and lots of them. A few days after we noticed the first one, we've got a whole flock in the yard... and no other birds dare enter. I'm kind of afraid to send the little guy out to play. Those grackles are MEAN.

Worse Than Wallpaper

We've spent the past two days trying to take the linoleum flooring out of the hall bathroom. We pulled up the top layer, and the layer underneath, and now we're down to the back breaking labor of scraping off the paper backing and the massive amounts of adhesive that are stuck to the floor. This picture is about halfway done and it took hours to get to this point.

I will never ever ever do this again. I don't care how badly the floor may be curling at the edges or how much pee is leaking under the floor around the toilet. If they can't hit a target that big, they deserve to brush their teeth in a room that smells like a parking garage stairwell!

But we're going to get it done! Sharing my bathroom with all these boys is a great motivator!