A Day Of Art

When all else fails in the land of homeschooling, just do ART!!

The weather was rainy, cruddy, and dark, so we took the opportunity to do some long awaited art projects.

We made apple prints after reading several books on Johnny Appleseed and apple picking.

We made a leaf collage and leaf rubbings from the various fall leaves we gathered. As you can see, most of the leaves are of the same type. The maples that we found kept crushing they were so dried out.

And we just did some painting. This is Nick's 2nd masterpiece.

And the best part for both kids, was rubbing their little hands all in the paint to make handprints at the end. I plan to let them each write next to their handprint, and save them for their scrapbooks. This way I get a handprint with a handwriting sample, or in Nicholas' case, a scribble sample.

Good sight word site

For any of you mommy teachers out there, I found this the other day for getting a list of the Dolch sight words by level as well as the ability to print them as ready-made flashcards.

Relatively Cheap Doll Clothes

For anyone who has a doll loving girl, read on.
My american girl wants an American Girl for her birthday. She has picked out the one she wants and the clothing she wants for her already. She dearly loves her Bitty Baby and one other doll she has, changing their clothing throughout the day. Last year, instead of buying American Girl branded doll clothes for Bitty, I decided to shop the ebay way. I found this lovely little store on ebay called Doll Clothes by Peg, and got Katie several doll outfits for Christmas presents. I was astonished at how well made they were and the intricate detail. I plan to shop once more for this Christmas for a new outfit for when she has her American Girl.

She Can Read

What can be better than seeing your child page through a book and start reading?

I gave Katie her first Sing, Spell, Read, and Write phonetic storybook last night, and she popped it open to page 42 and read the following:

Pam has Sam.

Pam has a fat sad cat.

A fat sad cat can nap.

Glad Sam!

She is thrilled at her new found ability and so are her proud parents.

Nicholas Birthday, Part 2

Eating cake.




Playing with friends

New toys.

All add up for a great 2nd birthday.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Nicholas!

Nicholas' racetrack cake.

While not exactly a work of art (after a day at the zoo and putting 2 kiddos to bed, the last thing I wanted was a challenge) it did taste awfully good.

I must confess canned white frosting did most of the job, but I did make my own for the grass and it was yummy!

Black sugar asphalt for the track, rainbow sprinkles for the people in the grandstands my husband soooo wanted, and little diecast NASCAR racecars were the finishing touches.

Don't forget the banner saying Happy Birthday Nicholas held up by two lollipop sticks.

My little guy thought it looked good enough to eat, and he did. Tasting gently before the candles were even lit. Smiling proudly while he was sung too. And then diving right in without hesitation after the candles were out. He really enjoyed this part of his special day.

That's My Boy??

You can't do much but laugh when your almost 2 year old's favorite toy is his sister's stroller.

But when he decks himself out in his sister's old sunhat, and uses the stroller to ram every thing and person in sight, well, it just goes to show even opposite gender toys can still be used in a very manly way!! A pink hat and all!!

Apple Picking

Apple picking!! YUMMY! It has been a life long dream of Katie's to go fruit picking of some sort. Life long being almost 5 years. She has often pretended to go berry picking, so when I asked her this past weekend if she would like to go apple picking, I was met with an enthusiastic YES! The weather was gorgeous, and the apples were plentiful.

Katie enjoyed picking the low ones under the tree, but also got to help us out by getting the ones too high for mommy or daddy to reach. Nick on the other hand did most of the eating.

We came back home with 2 bags of apples, and after counting them, found we had 101 (just like the dalmatians). After giving away a few bags to the neighbors, making an apple crisp, and snacking on a few apples, I have stored some in the basement and some in the refrigerator for now. Plans are to make some apple bread, and a few apple pies in the next couple days. Mike and I have joked about apple salad, apple juice, applesauce, apple bread, apple pie, and apple muffins for a whole days worth of apple eating. Anybody up for some apples?

And a rare picture of me. I think my children will look back someday and think that mommy didn't exist, since a photo of me and them is very rare.

Hard At Work

While it definitely has been a challenge so far, trying to homeschool Katie and keep Nick occupied, we are muddling our way through. As you can see, Katie has a definate look of concentration while working, and Nick too is finding his tasks to be fun. I have found several activities for him to do while we work for a while. For those of you with young ones, puzzles that have been hidden for a while, peg boards, magnets and magnet boards, felt books are all good sit at the table activities for the little guys.

Fall Is Here

Signs that fall is here:

Winter jammies

A good book

Hot cocoa at night

AAHHHH!

Scary Bugs

A new sight to behold in Ohio. Apparently praying mantises and extra large grasshoppers are very common in this area of the country. Not only was this guy? hanging out on my kitchen screen, but so was a grasshopper that was actually bigger than him and fairly disgusting for those of us not so friendly with bugs. The grasshopper picture was too blurry though. After reading Danielle Bean's blog about her daughter's fascination with the praying mantis, I am even more frightened by these creatures who have come into my life.

Sibling Love

When they aren't busy hitting each other, taking toys from one another, and yelling at each other, they can actually be quite charming.

Bathtime Bubbles

Bubble beards and bubble hair are just way too much fun!!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Daddy's birthday has come and gone. I don't know who had more fun though, Daddy or Katie?? It is definately a new thing to experience a birthday with young children. Katie and I went out the day before to go get a present I had in mind for Mike. On the way to the store, Katie asked me if we could go to the bookstore. Boy does she know her Dad. She came up with a list of about 5 presents that she was going to get for him. So after I picked up the present I had in mind, we went to the bookstore. I have never seen her so intent on finding her very own present for Daddy. She wanted to get him a book about planets, so after I led her to the right section, she proceeded to browse through the books. First she picked out a nice big hardback, to which I promptly replied, "Let's look a little more." (An $80 pricetag was just a little too steep for me.) Then she picked out her perfect presents, and we left the store with one very satisfied customer. She even helped wrap the presents and got to hide them all in her closet. The rest of the day was filled with "Can I give Daddy his present now?"

When the morning finally arrived, she once more got stuck waiting since her baby brother decided to pick that particular morning to sleep in. But finally both Daddy and Nicholas woke up and she delighted in giving her specially picked out card and gifts. It was wonderful just watching her excitement over giving a present rather than getting one, and how important it was to her for Daddy to be happy with his gifts.

The boys got in a little baseball before a quick lunch at the Cheesecake Factory.
And later that night, Katie baked a special birthday cake and sang Happy Birthday.

Best Friends

The all too often heard words these days: Mom, when is my best friend going to come out and play? Katie now has 2 best friends. First and foremost is her best friend Audrey, who she calls her Texas best friend. But now she has a new "girlfriend" for Ohio.

Car Conversation

Katie took it upon herself to "teach" her little brother how to say some letters.

Katie: P
Nick: P
Katie: E
Nick: E
Katie: S
Nick: et
Katie: NO, S
Nick: (That's what I said) et
Katie: (moving on to numbers) 2
Nick: 1, blast off!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is the kid smart or what??

Triumph and Tragedy

Today was a day of success!!!

Not only did we successfully complete our lessons early this morning with minimal Nicholas distraction, but Katie also mastered her first real reading words. We began our first alphaphonics lesson this morning and while I didn't think she was totally getting it, I was once again proved wrong this evening. We have been reading quite a lot of books at night lately, and while reading one of the newer half-price selections, Katie began finding "her" words: am, an, as, and at. Ax thankfully was not in this particular book. She was overjoyed that she was reading and happily trotted downstairs to display her new talent to Daddy! Her excitement was so great that she was literally bouncing all over the bed instead of going to sleep tonight.

Of course the tragedy occurred mid-day.

After finishing lessons, I figured we would go out shoe shopping for some fall shoes for Katie. I ran upstairs to get socks for Nicholas and soon heard the usual screaming that is far too common these days from Katie. I came downstairs to her sobbing and saying Nicholas hurt her foot in the door. Thinking it was a usual unseeable injury, I went over only to discover that her big toe was bleeding and the nail had been bent in half. OUCH!! As she continued to cry, I checked out the injury, prayed it wasn't bad enough to cause the nail to fall off, and went about calming her down and treating the injury with the perfect cure-all - THE BARBIE BANDAID!!

A happy smile and a dose of Tylenol later, we decided to head to the shoe store anyway and at least try shoes on the left foot. We got a pair of cute magenta fall dress shoes as well as a pair of Princess slippers that are fuzzy on the outside and soft on the inside - a rarity in children's slippers.

The biggest triumph was for mommy though. I managed to make it through the shoe store, through Carter's next door, back home for lunch, and got both kids down for a nap in their own beds by 1:00. (Nicholas has had 15 minute car naps the past 2 days and been a general grouch and Katie has had no naps and been an even bigger grouch)

HOORAY FOR SLEEP!!

Homeschool Curriculum

We have completed our first week of kindergarten and Katie has shown much more enthusiasm and excitement than I could ever have imagined. As I started to prepare our lessons for the day and get organized yesterday, she got a big smile on her face and said "Is it time to do my work?"

Nothing could make me happier.

Since I have been so interested in seeing what other use to school their children, I am including a list of what we are using, and hope to update with things that I found particularly fun for us. I hope others will also include ideas on their BLOGS. (HINT HINT)

For our religious education, I am using the Kindergarten Who Am I? in the Image of God Series. We have previously used the preschool A book as well, and it worked for me. I also am sticking with Every Day Bible Stories. The simplicity of the stories is what makes it so great for us right now. Nick can happily sit on my lap, and the story is easily under a minute each time. Katie still learns something new each time, and we never did all the stories last time.

For Math we have begun the Horizons Kindergarten by Alpha Omega. While so far the material is too easy, we have improvised some things, so that instead of recognizing colors by flashcard, we are working to match color words to the proper colored crayon. How you ask? Simply by matching the letter sounds as she says the word to the printed letter on a color word flashcard. With only a simple introduction of red, blue, yellow, and green, Katie was getting them on her own after the first 2 colors.

For Language Arts we are using many varied programs. First, I chose Modern Curriculum Press' Phonics Level 1. We completed the Kindergarten level last year, and Katie and I both enjoyed it. We are also starting Alpha-phonics after many good recommendations. I like the simplicity and think now that her letter/ sound concepts are fully established that she will flourish. I have chosen many good books to read aloud to her from my own knowledge of good literature and from the Sonlight Grade K Read-Aloud list. Eventually, as she learns to read we have the I Can Read! books by Sonlight, and the simple books from Sing, Spell, Read, and Write. I also have a bunch of Dr. Seuss, P.D. Eastman, and other easy readers.

We are using the D'Nealian method for handwriting by Scott Foresman. I used it when I was teaching, and found it to be simple, and a great transition for cursive.

Social Studies is a little trickier. I have to cover the Ohio requirements, so I have chosen to use Gallopade International's Ohio Experience Kindergarten Student Workbook as well as their The Out-of-This-World Ohio Coloring Book.
We will also cover holidays, important people, the flag, etc. through art projects and good books from the library.

Science is mostly unit studies. I am following a basic outline by Sonlight and a 1st grade Science textbook that I bought at Half-Price books for $2. Gotta love Half-Price!! I then go pick up good non-fiction books at the library on that topic. So far we have done weather. This week will be the solar system and a little bit on seasons. In October we will do fall, pumpkins, harvest, etc. I also use several teaching resources I have to find projects for us to create. The Complete Resource Book for Preschoolers is a great source for ideas that can be expanded. Usborne and DK also have great books on different subjects for reading and finding ideas.

Hope everyone else is having a great start to their school years. I know we are!

Dog Food

There are probably millions of reasons why a 1 year old should not eat dog food.

The biggest one on my little one's mind tonight is most likely that it doesn't taste as good coming up as it did going down!

A Lesson in Baseball

This weekend we had the first glimpse of sun in quite a few days, as well as our first taste of fall-like weather. Temperatures have only been in the 60's during the day, and get quite cool at night. While I was busy inside baking an apple pie and some chocolate chip cookies for a night out at our neighbor's home, the boys were busy with the first of many lessons on baseball.
Anyone who knows my husband well, knows that a passion of his is the good old American sport of baseball. So after noticing that our dear son was not only holding a bat by the wrong end, but using it as a fairly accurate golf club, some batting practice was in order.

I must say the boy, at 22 months, is a natural, even with a backwards bat. And hitting off his sister's tee makes a great outlet for all that natural boy aggression. Who knew little boys were so rough and tumble?

First Day of School

Today was Katie's first day of kindergarten. While the day was not momentous in any way, shape, or form, it was a start. We had talked several times about mommy and daddy teaching her kindergarten at home, and she liked the idea very much. She surprisingly has not been to keen on the idea of going to a real school. So this year she is being homeschooled in a kindergarten curriculum that I will provide in a future blog. I liked seeing what a good friend was using to school her son this year, and hope the rest of you homeschoolers will think of blogging your curriculum ideas as well.

So today's lesson included making a Trinity mobile as part of our religion lesson.

She also made this gorgeous rainbow mosaic as part of our science lesson on weather. This was a really easy project and took very little prep work, but came out beautiful. Even Nick was highly interested in both of the finished products. The mobile is especially entertaining for him, since we hung it over our kitchen table.

For Grandma

Here you go Grandma!! Although the picture isn't all that inspiring, it is all I have for now.

The house is coming along slowly. I actually have a kitchen island again!

The kids are sick with runny noses, and Nicholas has decided to give his sister her lumps literally. She has a nice goose egg on the back of her head from a missile thrown by her dear loving brother.

More pictures coming soon, I promise.

A MEME tag from Celeste

I guess I shall answer the game of tag, but don't know who to pass it on to. Thanks Cel!

3 Things that scare me

Power going out during storms

Birds of all sizes

The state of the world

3 People that make me laugh

My husband

My children

Helen Hunt and Paul Reiser in Mad About You

3 Things I love

Being creative, whether painting, quilting, or scrapbooking

Reading

Holding a sleeping child in my arms

3 Things I hate

Bugs of all shapes and sizes

Sticky floors

Ohio has no Blue Bell

3 Things I don't understand

When my husband talks to me about work

Why the tree in my backyard is looking deathly ill

Why after unpacking numerous boxes, it seems that they are growing in number

3 Things on my floor
(HA! Have you read my previous blogs. I'd be better off answering 3 things NOT on my floor)

Anyway, our dog

boxes

the tv

3 Things I'm doing right now

Typing

Thinking of all the things I have to do

Wondering what color the walls in here should be painted

3 Things I want to do someday

Travel to Austria

Visit each of the 50 states

Invent something

3 Things I Can Do

Sew reasonably

Research almost anything

Speak in sign language, somewhat

3 Ways to Describe My Personality

Quiet

Introverted

Generally happy

3 Things I Cannot Do

Whistle using my fingers (always thought that was cool)

Drive stick shift

Change altitude in car or plane without severe ear pain

3 Things I Think You Should Listen To

Your friends

Your parents

Your kids

3 Things I Think You Should Never Listen To

The TV news

Junk radio

Sales pitches over the phone

3 Absolute Favorite Foods

Cotton candy

Fajitas

Cheesecake Factory chicken salad sandwiches

3 Things I'd Like to Learn More About

Autism

How to speak Spanish, Russian and French

Our country's history

3 Beverages I Drink Regularly

Lately,

Diet Snapple Raspberry Iced Tea

Diet Pepsi (plain or vanilla)

Water

3 Show I Watch

Mad About You on DVD

Friends on DVD

Dancing with the Stars when on

I am new to blogger land and don't have anyone to tag, so I guess I stay it until someone I know decided to join me in this fun adventure

Family Love

The title says it all!!!

Summer Dancing

Katie's last dance class for the summer was on Thursday, and parents were invited to come in and watch. She still loves and excels at both ballet and tap, and has recently become very good at cartwheels too.

All the practice in the living room must be the ticket.

The First Supper

Our very first meal at the new house, sitting at an actual kitchen table, not on the floor. While the meal was nothing special, we did enjoy some Messina Hof port from our crystal glasses, and Katie got the extra special treat of drinking milk out of one of our Messina Hof tasting glasses from the winery tour. Texas is never far away.

Can you believe that this bottle of wine made it intact all the way from Texas, and after being stored for 2 months in a wooden storage crate somewhere?

Playtime

Katie was asked tonight, which house she liked better, the new one or the one in Texas. The answer was the new one. And this is the reason why.... a swingset can make any child happy! It is the highlight for both of them.

And while the kids got a swing set with the new house, Daddy's new toy arrived on Tuesday. More than double the lawn done in half the time is the conclusion we came to.

No More Apartment!!

Today was the last day of the apartment lease and we happily said goodbye and good riddance. Not only did we arrive yesterday to move out the rest of our stuff and find a good assortment of crickets and other little creatures, we also found the ceiling above the toilet had developed the same old water leak and fallen onto the floor. Yes, bits of ceiling and whatever else is up there, plus a good amount of water was all over. Needless to say, I told our apartment people that I happily cleaned the rest of the apartment but that bathroom is their job. It was a mess!!!

So now with just a house on our plate. Yes, just ONE house. We are very busy with our 8 thousand projects: Finishing Katie's room, Finishing our room, Painting the living room, organizing til kingdom come, etc.

For those of you wishing to see a bit of the house, here you go. It ain't pretty folks, but I'll explain why further on.

For whatever reason, we have had a multitude of things go wrong since beginning to move in to this house. From a small condensation issue in the basement to a very large electrical issue that took out power to half the house. Next came the cable people who when installing our basement cable said that the previous owners had done it themselves; therefore, it needed to be redone by them (at a small cost of course). Then the cable went out for 3 days and it took talking to 4 different customer service reps before a WOMAN, yes, I said WOMAN, answered the problem and fixed it over the phone in about 5 minutes. Of course, we also had the short lived attack of the Ohio flu, that struck with a vengeance on Monday night and Tuesday, wiping out Katie and Mike within 7 hours of each other. So all our little projects and unpacking have been overtaken by other projects and things aren't getting done as fast as one would hope.


Then today it was this little fiasco.
We finally had finished replacing the closet shelving after painting the closet, and this morning it landed in a heap at the back of the closet. From downstairs I heard," I didn't do it." Katie apparently got to witness the event or at least see the aftermath, and wanted all to be sure that she was innocent.

What next you may ask. That is a very good question, and one that we are pondering even now. The electrician comes on Tuesday to fix our meter and wiring, maybe he'll manage to break a water main or something to give us some more joy. It is becoming more and more comical as the days go by though. Some things are just not worth the frustration, but are definately worth a good laugh.

Changing Address and E-mail

We have finally moved almost everything into our new home. We will not have internet access or e-mail access from there until Thursday of next week. We will also be getting a new e-mail address I expect. Pictures from the new place will be coming via BLOG as well as updated address, phone numbers, etc. will be coming via snail mail very soon. Just be patient, we are temporarily under construction!!

Can We Be Cloned?

Continuing on from the previous entry.

It is now 2 hours later. Both children have napped, which has done truly AMAZING things to their dispositions! While they napped, I:

*Talked to another chimney company about doing the work.
*Talked to our realtor in Houston twice about missing invoices from air-conditioning company and what to do about chimney
*Found out the buyers of our Houston home are closing today between 2 and 3 and we should have paperwork to close by this evening.
*Talked to realtor in Cincinnati to find out how to go about closing here on Houston house, and getting possible power of attorney so that I can still be at the house when the movers come.
*Talked to title agency about paperwork being notarized and possible power of attorney.

Somehow, 1 Mike needs to be at work tomorrow and at the closing, and 1 Kris needs to be at the house for the movers and at the closing. Excuse me, but I didn't realize that there were 2 of each of us.

Long Hiatus

Yes, it has been a long time since posting anything new here, but believe me, we have been quite busy around here.

To give you a vague idea of what I have been doing the past 24 hours, here is a condensed list.

*Lay comatose in bed while Nick decides it is a good idea to wake up and crawl all over my body at 5 A.M.
*Finally get up around 6:30 with Nick and turn on Chicka Chicka Boom Boom for him to watch on DVD while I lay comatose on couch.
*Get kids fed, dressed, and out the door to ballet class for Katie.
*Get to ballet class (of course 30 minutes away) and realize that Katie has forgotten her ballet bag with tap and ballet shoes.
* Hop back in car and call Daddy for lunch since we are already out and about, forget ballet.
*Take kids home for nap and call Houston friends for information about chimney workers.
* Call approximately 6 chimney places trying to get an estimate on caulking and sealing a chimney. No one willing to give information without seeing property and charging fee.
*Call realtor in Houston back to discuss closing on house.
*Call air conditioning company to report not receiving receipt for work done that is needed for closing.
*Call realtor office to get fax number and tell them they should receive fax of work done soon.
*Call air conditioning company back to give fax number for realtor.
*Call trash service to verify that they have us in their system (after I called a week ago) since they were kind enough to leave us a paper telling us to call to set up new service. Find out paper was left by mistake, but call worthwhile since they messed up the recycling service information.
*Talk to GE serviceman who is delivering new refrigerator tomorrow between 1 and 5.
*Go to new house to drop off a few things and clean up from painting so that movers will be able to maneuver around the house tomorrow.

It is now going on 2:00 P.M. here and I still have to call more chimney people, call the movers to make sure they are coming tomorrow morning, go back to the house to finish getting a few things done, call U-Haul to rent a truck, and change our address at a zillion companies one more time, all while listening to beloved daughter scream off and on because there is a fly in the apartment. (Sigh)....

Pictures by Katie

Kind of interesting to see inside the mind of a 4 year old. Here are a few of the pictures Katie took recently. I found 5 pictures of this object when I downloaded her camera today. Any guesses on what it may be?? In case you can't tell, it is the air conditioning vent that is above her carseat in the van. I have no idea why that was such an intriguing shot.

Next is this lovely picture of the McDonald's sign outside the car window. Now you can all figure out why she took that one.

While she actually took over 100 pictures, this is truly one of the best. Daddy giving Nick upside-down kisses. What could be sweeter?