Boys' school

The boys are on the mend. They're feeling a little better and that means no more Motrin!(yeah!). I got to sleep through the night last night! (yeah!) and those rowdy boys can't play nice. They're feeling better, but not all better so they keep crying at everything the other one is doing. They didn't want to sit and do papers (understandably), but were completely antagonizing each other.

So, we had to do boys' school. This idea can be done with a bucket or a box or a piece of carpet. It can be done with any flash cards (math, latin, phonics) and is even better with something heavier like montessori-type letter tiles.

I put down a box and a stack of phonics cards. They can't step past the stack of cards. They pick up a card and try to read it (OO - has the sound of 'book' or 'moon'). If they get it right, they get a chance to toss the card in the box (notice the little toes in the background). If they get it wrong, they pass it to their brother. If he gets it wrong, Mama gets a chance to toss it in. We didn't keep score because it would've ended up in tears on a day like today (almost better, but not quite). They came in shouting WE WON!! WE WON!! at the end of the "game."

Kids' Chores

Even when they're sick, my kids have chores to do. This is Ds#3 doing the trash, yesterday. We call him "Trash-boy". He likes the name. I think because he knows this was Daddy's job before Ds#3 grew into it. He is such a wonderful helper and it is a source of pride for both he and all of us. We yell "Oh, Trash-boy..." as we're making a game of how fast he can go. After he gathered all the trash & took it to the garage, he put on his boots and coat & took it to the edge of the driveway through the 3" of snow with a whistle and a smile. His work ethic is so much like his dad's. What a blessing!

Kitchen Desk er Craft Center

I figured it out!
A TURN-ABOUT!! That's what I need for my new craft center! I think there are 15 divisions.

• Grown-up sissors




• Kid sissors




• Paint brushes (I can never keep track of those)




• Pens (places for red, blue & black)




• Pencils




• Erasers




• Glue Sticks
  
  Woo-hoo!! This is EXCITING! Boy, am I glad I have a PAMPERED CHEF party coming up!!

Craft Center - the saga continues
I'm sure you're getting tired of reading about my craft center. So, don't bother reading this if you are. I've got one of these with all the kids' misc. crafts in them. What if I clear out the top cabinets of my craft center and put batteries, candles, extension cords, etc in my storage unit, which I will put under the desk. Then I can move the boxes under the desk to the top shelves and put the kids' craft stuff in clear shoe boxes on the shelves. I think they'll use them more if they're in the house instead of in the garage and if they're more organized.

This is what I've done so far...

Isn't this a cute ducky that Ds#3 made for me at the craft room on Vacation??

Quiet winter days

The kids are sick - all of them. When they're flying high on Motrin, they're playing with the dog & yelling at each other. When we're on the down-side of Motrin, they're on the couch, covered in blankets, waiting for a story. I've tried but am getting little to no school done, today -- although we've read a few nice stories.

Right now, I hear classical music drifting into the office as Dd#2 immerses herself in her passion of choice - piano. I don't know how sick she would have to be to not play for a day. She says a day without piano is like dying (she's a little melodramatic - Dave says she gets it from me).

Dd#1 was doing her passion, reading, until her eyes hurt so much she had to stop. Then she wanted to practice piano and instead of hearing classical music, it's Matchmaker music from Fiddler on the Roof.

The boys were feeling better and chasing each other with the dog's bone so that she was chasing both of them and didn't know which boy to get.
Then....the kids each started saying..."I don't feel very good." One by one they migrated to the couch and grabbed a blanket.

E-bay junkie

Umnnn...Dave? I hope you won't read this anytime soon, but I wanted er-needed to tell you I spent some money on e-bay. It isn't a terrible amount, but as I was searching for books and they had what I was looking for...it sort of got away from me. I'll leave e-bay alone for a few months -er- days -er- hours. (But I got some GREAT books!!)

Vacation vs. Home

Vacation was fun. Up to the Potawatomi Inn, again. Craft room, swimming, picnics in the suite room, sledding off Lake James, scrabble, TV, foosball / airhockey / pingpong, walks around the Inn, reading aloud, and chatting with friends filled our days. I'm exhausted and sooo happy to be home. Our dog, Maggie, is happy we're home too. I think we lost a newt and one fish. The state-run inns have the b1g1 free in Dec - Feb, so the kids were sooooo proud of themselves that they paid for vacation!

I'm still doing laundry and have to write lesson plans for Monday. I do them a month at a time, so then I'll be done until March comes around. (not with laundry, though). I also need to start planning a 30-day cooking session. We have NO FOOD in the freezer (except the 1/2 gallon of milk that I froze to use as ice for the cooler until it melted enough that we could drink it -- I forgot it in the freezer when I was packing the cooler for vacation.)

Off to change the laundry -- it's good to be home!

P.S. Dave bought me a digital camera from e-bay on Tuesday!!!! It should come any day!!! THANK YOU, SWEETHEART!

Garage Play

This play is on the little side. Just 3 of my kids are in it. Dd#2 wrote it. It was her assignment of choice from her religion book. We usually fall back on Faith and Life Series. However, I got a copy of Our Holy Faith from e-bay cheap last year when she was looking for more reading material. She REALLY likes it, so it's what she's using this semester. She had to "write a play about loving your neighbor." She had a delimma because she just went to Escape School where she wasn't supposed to talk to strangers. So, she made all the characters kids so there wouldn't be as much risk (this was a topic of discussion among my children this morning as she was assigning roles).

IT WAS SOOOO CUTE!! (if only I had a digital camera, I could show you!) I taped it with the camcorder. She staged Ds#4 walking down the "sidewalk" (those foam floor alphabet puzzles in a loooong rectangle across the garage) calling for his lost dog. Ds#3 rides by on his scooter with a hosiery bag tied with elastic over his shoulder and rolls of paper closed with rubberbands that he tosses around the garage on his "paper route". Ds#3 helps Ds#4 and Dd#2 walks in with our dog, Maggie, who they renamed Christine so she could be in the play, too. SOOO CUTE!! I love homeschooling.