Cousins and Parties

I’m thankful to God for providing me with a sister.  It is fun living nearby and having cousins for the kids to play with. 

We had a 40th birthday party for my sister and a 50th birthday party for her husband all on the same day.  They were so kind to have birthdays so close together for easy planning!

“I Have One Too Mom?”

The kids have to practice at least 5 times per week on the piano or they have to pay for their lesson.  I placed a sticker chart on the piano for a nice visual reminder.  CP saw Ramona putting a sticker on and asked if he could have one too.  I told him that they were for practicing the piano and he said, “I practice pano, I have one too Mom?”  How could I refuse??? I said of course.  He got up on the piano bench, turned a few pages and “practiced” the piano for about 5 minutes.  He got down and asked me for his sticker.  It was sooo cute.  He wanted it on his hand. 

It just cracks me up that he is big now and wants to do the same things the bigger kids are doing.  He doesn’t miss a beat!  The big kids got workboxes, he wanted a workbox.  The kids got a chore chart, he wanted a chore chart.  The big kids got a piano practicting chart with stickers, he wanted stickers.  Why haven’t I gotten it into my brain to just include him up front. 

He is just the sweetest thing around!!!!

God is wonderous to have brought me one big smile bundled up in a darling 3 1/2 year old.

The Library has Wii Games

Ramona was sooo excited to discover that the library carries Wii games.  She checked out four.  She even go an easy one for CP.  I cringe at the thought of a 3 1/2 year old playing the Wii, but it is hard to keep it from him since his older siblings play it. 

So, if you’re looking for free fun, check out a Wii game at your local library.  It beats wasting  your money on purchasing or renting them!!!

Busy Day

How many things can you pack into one day? 

I took Ramona to VBS at 9.  Came back home picked up the boys and drove them to handbell practice.  Went back to VBS to pay for carnival food tickets for tonight because I forgot my checkbook this morning.  Then I drove CP home and made a few phone calls.  Drove back to hand bell practice and picked up the boys for a performance at a local retirement home.  My sister picked up Ramona with her kids at the VBS and brought her to me at the retirement home and then stayed to watch.  I then drove my kids out to my mom’s house so she could watch them while I went to work at my church.  I drove my mom’s car to work and met her after work at our house at 5:15 so we could go to the carnival together as a family.  Daddy’O was waiting for us when we got home.  We then went to the fabulously fun carnival at the church that had the VBS and then we took Daddy’O home so he could go to bed and then drove out to my mom’s house for some freshly baked cherry pie.  While the kids were there they had picked cherries from her trees and she made a sweet and tangy cherry pie.  It wasn’t cool enough to eat before they left to meet me, so we went there after all the fun.  It was a bit too tart for two of my kiddos, so not only did I eat my piece, I had to finish their pie as well LOL!  MmmmMmmmm good! 

Phew! What a day.  It actually went off without a hitch too.  Praise the Lord for flexible people and transportation that works!  And for a city that can contain all of that fun within a few miles from each other.  There would have been no way I could have been able to get to all of the places if they were not relatively close to each other.  I am thankful to live in a location that is close to most everything I need.  Saves gas too.

Summertime

I have a little rose garden out front with a water feature I put in years ago.  I don’t run it all the time, but started it up again for the summer.  CP heard the water running and started playing in it immediately.  I sat on the swing enjoying the innocence of pudgy little three year old fingers dumping and filling the bucket.  It looks like he is hiding in a secret garden.  The vine growing on the trellis is Jasmine.  Smells so wonderful in the spring.  It actually blooms twice a year.

The bunnies are Getting Cuter by the Day

Chore Chart

I made a chore chart a few years back and haven’t used it since.  I pulled it out and altered it a bit and this is what it looks like.  I’m really trying to gear up for the fall by having things organized and easy for the kids to follow. 

Don’t laugh cause I am not an artist, but you get the idea.  The kids have liked it so far.  No arguments since I put it up. I just say that they need to finish their chores before… and they go to the wall and see what hasn’t been done and do it.  I told them that in the fall they will need to pick three chores and have them done before they will get breakfast.  I also added that the kitchen will close at 8:45.  The time may change, but we’ll see. 

To make it I went to the local hardware store and bought a piece of pressed wood with a nice coating on it.  I drew the lines with a sharpie marker and then under the word done, I screwed two cup hooks so the kids could hang each chore when it is done.  Each chore is written on a sample of formica.  You have probably seen where these are kept near the kitchen remodeling section.  They are the perfect size and already have a hole in them.  And YES, I did ask if I could take them.  I just said I had an art project I was doing. 

I was thinking that I could also use them on the kids’ workboxes for one of their 12 daily items if I have something extra that needs done, or I don’t have enough to fill all 12 for a particular day.  They all have velcro on the back, so they are interchangeable. 

I have a 3 ring binder to store all of the workbox tags and the chore chart tags.  That way, I just have to pull it out and they are all stuck right there for me to grab.  Nice and handy.

Of course when CP saw it he asked, “where mine?”  I haven’t remedied that one yet, but I will definitely add his name somehow!

 

 

 

 

Workboxes

Workboxes are the new fad of organizing schoolwork for homeschoolers and I am soooo excited that I came accross it.  This fantastic idea is a new way of organizing school work and school day.  It is the brainchild of Sue Patrick.  She has a book available that explains the entire system and why it works, but of course I’m too cheap for that and just used the WWW to glean off of everyone else.  I’ll have to include some links at the end to other blogs with different versions of this system. 

Basically the system uses 12 boxes to, in a sense, divy up your child’s daily work.  By using this system people have said they are able to accomplish a ton more work than they were able to without it.  Some said that they had time for more of the fun extra stuff because they were able to fill up the twelve boxes with the “meat” of their day and the fun stuff too. 

I searched high and low for different ideas because I knew that the “box” system would not work for our family because of space issues and for the fact that I already have a system of organizing our work that follows ideas from Susan Wise Bauer in the “Well Trained Mind.”  We organize by using binders.  I also have two shelves for each child to keep their books on.  We use magazine holders to store the books in and place them on the shelf  backwards so it has a nice visual appeal. 

I didn’t want to change what we were doing completely, but I did see imense value in altering Sue Patrick’s origional idea to fit our needs.  Any idea that helps organize a homeschooling family is worth it’s value in gold, as far as I’m concerned. 

I’ll tell you that my most favorite way to organize the workboxes is using the trofast system from Ikea.  We don’t have the space or the money at this time to use that system, but if I could I would have gone right out and bought it.  It looks like a fantasticly clean and neat way to keep the system working smoothly. 

Although I liked the “box” way of using the system, I continued to search the posts from different groups that I am on in hopes of finding a system that would work for us.  I came accross one Ruby slippers homeschool (link below) that used plastic file containers with hanging file folders to store the child’s work.  I looked at it and read some posts on a board and discovered where to go to buy what I needed.  So, I went right out to Walmart and bought three of them.  I bought velcro dots, hanging files, expandable hanging files ( on clearance), laminate,  and a few other items that I needed to make them look fun and enticing for the kids.

Here is what I came up with.  Not the best picture for an idea, but I’ll try to get a close up of them later.

I had made three boxes for my school aged children and then CP saw them and asked, “where my box?”  So, I went to work and made him one too.  He’ll just have some fun manipulatives and letter recognition activities in his box.  Maybe some shaving cream and play-dough too.  Lots of fun preschool activities to do.  Not sure how I will use it with him yet, but he was excited about carrying it around the house for a few days.  LOL

I made the numbers on each of the kids’ boxes different.  I asked them what they wanted and came up with themes that expressed what they liked.  I really enjoyed making them.  I used lots of laminating pages.  As I said already, I really enjoyed putting them together. 

All the kids were excited to see how they were going to use these for school.  I had given the kids two weeks off and they were ready to get back into the swing of things when they saw how much fun I was having making them.  They had three weeks off and then we did “school” for three days during the fourth week and will hit and miss throughout our summer so their heads don’t completely forget all they learned last year.

I only put five items in each of their boxes and they loved it.  Even my eleven year old son said, “this is cool mom.”  They liked the visual of the system.  Each child had a notebook/portfolio with their schedule typed up so when they completed a subject they stamped it.  This worked well for awhile, but I think the box system will be better because I can fill them with 12 things and not feel bad because some will be work and some will be fun.  Then each child will know that when the 12 numbers are placed on the front of their box they are done for the day. What a nice feeling I think they will be left with.  A sense of accomplishment and a better charge over their day.  The whole idea is to get them motivated and excited about getting their work done.  There is a lot they can manage themselves and I think this system will help each child claim more responsibility over their daily work. 

I did see some of this when I gave them just the three days of work.  Mostly a worksheet in four  pockets or a math manipulative I put a card with practice music too.  Nothing too taxing.  I put Sudoku books in one of each of the boys’ pockets.  I didn’t even have to nag.  They knew that the fun afternoon of free time would not start until all cards were on the front of their box and their chores were completed.  What a nice thing for me too.  I just have to look from a distance and can tell how much they have each accomplished.

One bug that I will have to work out in the fall when we start science and a few other subjects that more than one child works on together is how to time it so we can do the subject together. 

Other Blogs with workbox pictures:

Our Busy Homeschool

A Mothers Journal

Ruby Slippers School

Hilltop Homeschool

 

There is also a yahoo group called workboxes  go to www.yahoogroups.comand search for the group titled workboxes.  I think there is another one that just started too. 

I would love to hear how you are using this system and new ideas that could help me with mine.  Thanks!!!

The Death House

We lost all of our banty hens.  Chicken died during the winter months.  Not sure why.  Then Charcoal was being attacked by the other chickens, so we had her separated for awhile.  We kept her in a box and either kept her in the house or on the back patio at night.  Otherwise, she was out gallivanting around the yard happy as a lark all day.  One night after dark Ramona realized that Charcoal hadn’t been put away, so she said she would go and put her in her box.  I said to leave her because she likes to bed down in the shed.  Now mind you we live in the city and not in the country, so I was sure that the little henny would be fine.  But to my shock when Ramona went out to check on the chickies in the morning she couldn’t locate Charcoal.  I sent her back out to look again and she came in with this report, “CP found her and there is a wing and some meat.”  I told her to get dad.  Out of shear guilt, I couldn’t even go look at her.  At least Ramona described her as “meat” and not as a pet.  I know it is terrible, but at least she has the right perspective on these animals. 

I needed to close up a hole that was in the side of the coop.  I wasn’t able to get any chicken wire at the time, so I placed some heavy items in front of the hole in hopes that whatever ate Charcoal would find it too hard for a repeat offense.  No such luck.  A week later Snowy was dead.  The animal  went in the coop, but couldn’t get her back out.  He didn’t eat her, just killed her.  From the look of the ground (red feathers all over) and the big featherless hole on Butterscotch (3D’s full size chicken,) she came to Snowy’s defense and probably came close to saving her life. 

The next week we had some company over and Ramona began to tell the mom the complete saga of all of our dying animals.  She began by saying, “this is the death house….”

Garden Chaos

We planted a beautiful garden this year.  We were determined to get a delicious smorgasbord of vegies for us to eat, but to my dismay and to the fabulously super helpful chickens, my three year old, and the uncomposted compost of my delightfully diligent neighbor, I have a big mish mash of items growing.

No pictures to show yet, but I assure you it is a mess.  I keep pulling out cucumbers, or squash, or are they pumpkins.  Hmmmm, your guess is as good as mine. 

We do, however, have a nice showing of strawberries this year, but for some reason they just aren’t as sweet as I would like.  Our raspberries are growing like gangbusters and I planted corn, potatoes, tomatoes, garlic and a variety of other things.  Not really sure what will come up.  Haven’t seen any carrots yet and the peppers may or may not be coming up due to the fact that I don’t know what pepper leaves look like. 

To add insult to injury, I was out front putting some garbage in the can and saw my neighbor “weeding.”  She didn’t realize that the “weeds” she was pulling I had just planted a week or so back.   Gotta love her.  Just laugh it off and all is well.