After all that fuss on Tuesday, Evan ASKED to do school on Wednesday. I guess all the strife wasn't in vain. He didn't want to repeat it!! LOL So he did the six and seven addition families for math and read two pages in his reading book.

Adam, Ryan, and I worked on limericks for Language. We even wrote a few:

There once was a boy named Ryan

Who was very scared of flyin'

But he strapped on some wings

To see marvelous things

And spent the whole time cryin'

There once was a boy named Adam

The cats wouldn't let him pat 'em

He grabbed their long tails

They let out great wails

But it was too late. He had 'em

Evan is a smart little boy

And he always shared his toy

But one day it got broke

When it fell from an Oak

And he was very annoyed

Ryan showed quite a talent for it. He and I wrote another one about a video game at the skating rink today.

There once was a game where you race

You got a free race for first place

I tried really hard

I made it a yard

And then I fell flat on my face

You may have noticed how complimentary Evan's limerick is. I'm really having a time with the older boys picking on him lately. Sometimes they're truly being mean but mostly, they're just teasing. Still... too much derogatory teasing isn't good for a little boy who already thinks life is very unfair. He has a classic case of middle child syndrome! So when we started on Evan's limerick, the older two were saying mean things. :( I did a lot of directing on that one and made it something that would make Evan feel good.

I'm not a morning person

Today started early... too early. Matthew woke up at 7:30 and Jeff dutifully dumped him in the bed with me before he (Jeff, not Matthew) went to work. But he (Matthew, not Jeff) didn't want to nurse. He wanted to get down and go get some real food. I managed to convince him that nursing was his only option b/c this mommy was not getting out of bed before 8:00!! He usually falls back to sleep when he nurses and we sleep another hour or two. But this morning, he was all eyes, wide awake eyes. I was feeling convicted by Kris' last post so I got up. It was a little after 8:00AM, at least an hour or two before we usually get up. I was excited at the thought of all the things we would accomplish today.

The three big boys were still in bed. I fed Matthew and myself and threw in a load of laundry (the headline on Adam's newspaper yesterday screamed, "The landry is high!"). Then I sat down at the computer to pay bills. But the direct deposit is still pending so I checked my email, surfed some message boards and blogs, and generally didn't do anything productive.

Evan wandered in at some point. AHA! I'll get him started and then won't have to worry about squeezing him in later. He used to love doing schoolwork. He'd beg me every day. Lately, he hasn't asked and he's been a whiner when I suggest it. For the last couple months, we've done very little on his bookwork. I want to get into a regular routine this year so I don't feel like I'm neglecting him. He was not interested. In fact, he refused. He didn't want to do it and he wasn't going to do it. He acted like he had no idea how to read words that should have been easy for him. So, unless the salt from the Atlantic corroded his brain while we were in Florida, he was just being a stubborn BRAT. Imagine that! You can tell this isn't going to end well, right? I was tired from getting up early and getting annoyed with his stalling. I snapped at him several times to just read it so we could go on with life. What a way to instill a love of learning, huh? Matthew came over with his diaper bag begging for crackers (he thinks the diaper bag endlessly spurts crackers). I snapped at Matthew too! Matthew started crying and I gave up. I sent Evan to his room and I went to mine. I crawled under the covers to hide and pray. Matthew came in to join me and we both fell asleep until noon.

How's that for a productive day??? I'm sleeping late tomorrow!

Holiday!!

With Jeff's new job come lots of benefits including all federal holidays. :) So he was home today. I had big plans of spending some time on schoolwork but that didn't go over well with the boys! I wasn't planning a full day but wanted to squeeze in a few subjects.


First, we overslept. We didn't get up until after 10am! After throwing in a load of laundry, loading the dishwasher, and eating breakfast, I sat the boys down for a Bible lesson and reading. We finished our Bible lesson but were only halfway through our chapter of Moccasin Trail when Jeff started griping. That's right.. I said Jeff. He wanted us to hurry up and get ready b/c we had plans for today.


We started with a trip to Wal-Mart and then took the boys up to Grandma's house. They stayed there and ate pizza while Jeff and I went to see We Are Marshall. Jeff and I are both Marshall University graduates. This movie is the true story of a plane crash that devastated the university and entire town in 1970. Actually, the movie isn't really about the plane crash. It's about the aftermath of the crash and how this town, and this university, rose from the ashes when the Marshall football team, coaches, and several prominent townspeople died in the crash. It's very true to life and very well done. You will cry... but you'll laugh too. If you haven't seen it, you should. Jeff and I are in that crowd shot of the stadium at the end of the movie.


After the movie, we went shopping. I picked out some birthday gifts for my twin sister. We're going to Dayton next weekend to celebrate at her house. We'll be 36. Here we are on our last birthday... I like to think my face isn't quite as fat as it was back then. LOL I'm the one on the left side of the screen, in the red shirt.


When we finished shopping, we went to eat at my favorite place, Super China Buffet. Of course, I ate like a pig at the trough and my stomach is still uncomfortably full. Why do I do that to myself?? I really need to get serious about eating better. Well, "better" might not be the right word. It was really go-o-o-od, don't see how the food could have been any "better." LOL But I definitely need to eat LESS and also eat more healthy.


We picked up the boys and didn't get home until 10pm! Needless to say, we didn't get anymore school done today! But that's okay. My niece told me yesterday that she's not going to school all week. School is closed Monday for a holiday, Friday for an inservice day, she's skipping Tuesday and doesn't have to go Wednesday and Thursday b/c she doesn't have to take final exams. If you miss three days or less, you're excused from finals. Well, that certainly makes me feel better about all the school days we skip!! LOL

This and That

After all that griping and setting up a new blog, I haven't even bothered to post anything. Bad Blogger!!

The last couple days have been pretty ho hum. I'll give you the highlights....

We played a new game for Language. It's called There, Their, and They're... or was that They're, Their, and There? ;) Adam and Ryan each had three cards. Guess what the cards said.... That's right!!! There, Their, and They're (one on each card). I'd say a sentence with the word "there" or "their" or "they're" and they'd show the appropriate card. They got a point if they got it right. Adam didn't miss any. Ryan missed only a couple "they're"s. The last sentence was, "They're going to put their presents over there." They got a kick out of that one! Actually, they enjoyed the whole game. They enjoy any Language assignment that doesn't involve writing! LOL Maybe we'll play Two, To, and Too next week. ;)

We visited Highlands Museum and Discovery Center in Ashland, KY on Thursday. It was a field trip with our co-op friends. This is a very cool place. The kids all had a blast. I found it amusing that all the homeschooled children spent time dressing up in period garb and playing school in the one room school house. Adam was the teacher and Ryan was the disobedient student. LOL Evan was only interested in the squeaky hot dog from one of the lunch pails. I really don't think the early pioneers ate many hot dogs!! I'll try to post some pictures if I ever get them downloaded from the camera.

We're reading Moccasin Trail for History/Reading and I love it. The boys love it too... now. They're always slow to warm up to new books so it's a fight to get them started. But this one is full of action.. perfect for boys. Ryan listens to books like he watches movies... lots of questions!!! Usually asked just before the movie/book answers the question! It's hard to get through a chapter with his constant questions but at least he's interested enough to ask! And some of them are really soul searching questions. He's having trouble grasping the concept that whites and Indians didn't always get along with each other. I like this book b/c it presents both points of view.

We must have really needed that break b/c school has been going so smoothly since we resumed. We went through the normal subjects today... Bible, History/Reading, Science, Math, Spelling, and Language.
Ryan did a few select problems from three review pages in his book. I do NOT know why they put THREE review pages in a row. But I just circled some problems from each section so he could review all the concepts and we'll go ahead with a test tomorrow. I was checking his pages and noticed this problem: 24 gallons = ____ quarts. He'd just filled 96 in the blank but there was no work in the space they give to work out the problem. I had to write out the multiplication problem to see if he got the right answer (he did!). So I asked him how he did it. He said he just multiplied in his head. He multiplied 24x4 in his head!!! I was pretty impressed and he was giggling at the thought of being smarter than Mommy. LOL I'm sure that's one lesson he'll be sharing with Daddy tonight.
We read more about protozoa in our Science book and I had them draw a picture of their favorite protozoan. They both chose flagellates (sp?) b/c they have tails. Then, for Language, I had them write a paragraph about the protozoan they chose. We brainstormed together but the paragraphs were totally independent. Tomorrow we're going to revise and rewrite.
History helped reinforce my decision to homeschool (not that I really need reinforcement). I was trying to cut expenses when I ordered Sonlight so I didn't order the books that are available at our library. I'm finding that some of the books in the library catalog aren't for interlibrary loan and the one main book for History is not the complete book... it's just the second half! So I needed a spine for History. I've been using Houghten Mifflin Build Our Nation b/c someone gave it to me. It's one that was "loaned" through the public school. I'm not sure if it's the book the schools are currently using or an old one. We've been using it for a couple chapters just to supplement the real books (non textbooks) we've been reading for History. Anyway, to finally get to the point, the stupid book is so-o-o liberal as to insult Andrew Jackson! We're reading the chapter on Jackson's presidency and westward expansion. They had pages and pages about how horrible the poor Indians, er, excuse me... Native Americans were treated when white settlers moved west. There was no mention of anything good about the white settlers or westward expansion and no mention of anything bad about the Indians. They did take a few scalps, ya know!! Needless to say, I skipped more than I read and I'm so glad I didn't assign the chapter as independent reading. I am going to go over that information as some people's point of view but not until I find some information from other points of view to balance it!

Tuesday

We must have really needed that break b/c school has been going so smoothly since we resumed. We went through the normal subjects today... Bible, History/Reading, Science, Math, Spelling, and Language.

Ryan did a few select problems from three review pages in his book. I do NOT know why they put THREE review pages in a row. But I just circled some problems from each section so he could review all the concepts and we'll go ahead with a test tomorrow. I was checking his pages and noticed this problem: 24 gallons = ____ quarts. He'd just filled 96 in the blank but there was no work in the space they give to work out the problem. I had to write out the multiplication problem to see if he got the right answer (he did!). So I asked him how he did it. He said he just multiplied in his head. He multiplied 24x4 in his head!!! I was pretty impressed and he was giggling at the thought of being smarter than Mommy. LOL I'm sure that's one lesson he'll be sharing with Daddy tonight.

We read more about protozoa in our Science book and I had them draw a picture of their favorite protozoan. They both chose flagellates (sp?) b/c they have tails. Then, for Language, I had them write a paragraph about the protozoan they chose. We brainstormed together but the paragraphs were totally independent. Tomorrow we're going to revise and rewrite.
History helped reinforce my decision to homeschool (not that I really need reinforcement). I was trying to cut expenses when I ordered Sonlight so I didn't order the books that are available at our library. I'm finding that some of the books in the library catalog aren't for interlibrary loan and the one main book for History is not the complete book... it's just the second half! So I needed a spine for History. I've been using Houghten Mifflin Build Our Nation b/c someone gave it to me. It's one that was "loaned" through the public school. I'm not sure if it's the book the schools are currently using or an old one. We've been using it for a couple chapters just to supplement the real books (non textbooks) we've been reading for History. Anyway, to finally get to the point, the stupid book is so-o-o liberal as to insult Andrew Jackson! We're reading the chapter on Jackson's presidency and westward expansion. They had pages and pages about how horrible the poor Indians, er, excuse me... Native Americans were treated when white settlers moved west. There was no mention of anything good about the white settlers or westward expansion and no mention of anything bad about the Indians. They did take a few scalps, ya know!! Needless to say, I skipped more than I read and I'm so glad I didn't assign the chapter as independent reading. I am going to go over that information as some people's point of view but not until I find some information from other points of view to balance it!

Since my sisters and parents are spread across four states, my family alternates houses for Christmas. This year was my oldest sister's turn to host and she lives in Jacksonville, Florida. But as our Christmas gift, my parents got us all condos at Daytona Beach. So we've been sunning it up for the past week... temperatures in the seventies most days so we got to swim and golf and ride go-carts... all those vacationy things.
School started back today with hardly a bump. We started with Bible (still reading 1st Samuel), Science (protozoans), and read aloud (Moccasin Trail). Then the boys took a long break before Math (decimals for Adam, Roman numerals for Rye). Another break until Matthew took his nap and then we finished up with tablework. We're on Lesson 65 in Sequential Spelling and we wrote a paragraph about Andrew Jackson. It was a team effort and then the boys copied it into their Language notebooks. I was thinking of doing a lapbook on The War of 1812 but we need to get going on westward expansion so I think I'll save the lapbook for another topic.