Costumes!
This year the kids took pity on Mom and all went with store bought costumes! Hopefully next year I won’t be so overwhelmed with life and I can make their costumes. Store bought or Mom-made dressing up is FUN!!!!!
It just steals my heart when I see my 3 year old looking up to his big brother like this!
Arghhh!!!
See how he is doing the Spiderman hand? His big brother taught him that!
I was born and raised in Kansas and I have never seen a better looking Dorothy!
There is nothing more fun than becoming someone else for a short amount of time!
Thanks Steve!
A couple of weeks ago I posted about my 3 year old calling a chocolate M&M Chocol-8 like Steve Demme calls the brown 8 bar in Math-U-See. After I posted about it on my blog I decided I really should send the great folks over at Math-U-See an email and thank them for how they have positively impacted our family. So I headed over to the MUS blog and told them about my 3 year old and how much we LOVE MUS. The next day I got an email back from STEVE DEMME!!! That was enough to make my day, but not only did he write to tell me how much it means to him to here from families who use MUS, he wanted our address to send us something!
We had seen these t-shirts awhile back on the MUS blog and the kids were bummed when I told them they were not for sale. It said on the blog they use them for prizes. My kids were SO HAPPY when these shirts arrived! I also got a cool bracelet! It is one of those rubber bracelets. It is brown and says "I Love Chocol-8" (Homeschool Mom bling! LOL)
I call it success when your kids are thrilled to wear t-shirts with things they have learned from their Math Curriculum written on them!
Thanks you Steve!!!!
WOW, I just clicked over to get the MUS blog address to link to this post and there are pictures of my kids on the MUS blog! You can see them HERE!
Last 2 Days to SAVE!!!
I case anyone missed this on my side bar….
Through the month of October
Trigger Memory Systems
will be giving away a copy of the
NEW E-Book 20
Homemade Learning Games
to everyone who orders a
Zone or Bedroom Cleaning Flipchart!
Click the star above for more info!
Hair Bows
Last night was Crazy Hair Night at Awana! A few weeks ago a online friend of mine posted her school picture from when she was about the same age as my daughter. She had done her own hair and placed a BIG gift bow on top of her head! My daughter heard me laughing and came over to see what was so funny. She LOVED it! LOL So last night when we got ready to make her hair "crazy" she said "I need bows like your friend Mom!"
So Ann…These are for you!!!!
I think she is pretty cute even with crazy hair! LOL This was fun because she rarely lets me touch her hair! Grandma and Daddy can comb it and mess with it all day….But I look at her and she screams "Your pulling my hair Mom!" Sigh…. She is really missing out. I mean you can all see what a gifted hairdresser I am!
Headaches & Homeschooling
One thing that happens in traditional school that doesn’t happen in homeschool is vision tests. I remember when I was in 4th grade it was the school nurse coming to my classroom that let my parents know I needed to get to the Eye Doctor….With homeschooling we don’t have kids sitting in the back of the room complaining they can’t see the chalkboard. (Or whiteboard which I guess is what they use nowadays.) Homeschool kids don’t come home and tell us they can’t read the lunch menu up on the wall in the cafeteria. We have to figure it out for ourselves! LOL
Well, that is just what happened at our house this week. My 13 year old has been having A LOT of headaches the last few months. He had not complained that he could not see, but his eyes would often be blood shot by the end of the day. Soooooooo, off we went to the Eye Doctor! And here is the result…
My baby got glasses!!!!!
I think he picked out great frames. He looks so handsome and so mature in them. We also spent the extra money and got him the transition lenses to they magically turn into sunglasses when he goes outside. I figure we have a better chance of him not losing them if he is not switching back and forth between 2 pairs of glasses.
Just another reminder that my baby is growing up! (It sure is nice that he isn’t having headaches anymore!)
We also made this part of school for my 6 year old. She has been studying vision. (We are working on a vision lapbook, but life seems to keep delaying us from finishing it!) Anyway, she went along and was fascinated with all the equipment and tests they ran. She wants to make a booklet now about what goes on at an Eye Doctor appointment. Living and learning together, that’s what homeschooling is all about!
Mental Breakdown Day
My 13 year old is one of those kids that needs to know in advance what is happening on any given day. He has been this way all his life. Sunday night on the way home from Awana he asked me "What’s in the schedule this week Mom?" I replied "Well, Monday we have Art/Sign Language/Bible Study, Tuesday you all are signed up for a pottery class, Wednesday we are getting school pictures taken in the morning and then in the evening the littles have Bible Study, Thursday I am having a mental breakdown. On Friday we have to get the house cleaned and get ready for a busy weekend." I wasn’t too sure he had caught my plans for Thursday until we were at Lenscrafters on Tuesday. I told him I had set up an appointment to get his eyes checked on Thursday. He said "Well Mom, I am not sure Thursady will be a good day to come back. I mean that is the day your having a mental breakdown!" We all laughed and I forgot all about it. (I did rescheduled the appointment for Friday!)
So this yesterday I get up, come downstairs and start breakfast. A few minutes later my 13 year old bounces into the room with a little more joy in his step than I usually see in him before lunch! LOL He hands me a card he made and said "Here Mom, this is for you!"
ROFL!!! He is soooo funny! I love my kid!
BTW, I had just read the other day over on Sprittibee’s blog that she was having a "Teacher Out Of Service Day." I am going to have to schedule a few of those in too!
Natural Consequences
I had a conversation with my 13 year old this week that I think fits into natural consequences. He is not cheating on an exam, but cheating himself because he is lazy with his school work and just wants to do whatever the minimum amount he can do to get by. I am so overwhelmed right now that he is basically doing school on his own. He is perfectly capable of doing this! He is 13 and has been homeschooled since birth, he knows the drill. But he tend to be lazy and likes drama. So he comes to me and tries to tell me he’s too tired, has a headache, can’t focus, hungry, distracted by his siblings, distracted by the dog, blah, blah, blah! I finally lost it with him a couple days ago! I sat him down and told him this. "You are 13 years old and you are old enough to start making some decisions on what kind of future you will have. Dad and I have offered you the free gift of an excellent education. We have given you the best curriculum, instruction, attention, etc. It is kind of like the gift of Salvation. You now have to decide it you are going to accept the gift. I cannot make you value your education. I know that when you are grown we will have no regrets over the education we offered you. Now you have to decide if you want to accept this gift, get a great education and have a very promising future."
It seems to have reached him. He is doing much better!
See life is not always perfect here! I am just really good talking about the roses and not the thorns!
New Glasses
I GOT NEW GLASSES!!! HOORAY!!!!
So I have a new look. The kids say I look weird. I keep telling them I just look smart and they are not use to me looking smart! It is great not having my glasses fall off my face every time I look down!
It was interesting though. I took the kids with me to pick out the glasses. The lady who waited on us just could not get over how much fun we were all having together picking out the glasses. She told me "All we ever see in here are bad parents and bratty kids!" She couldn’t believe I had made a sacrifice like wearing glasses with duct tape on the for 6 months! She kept telling me "You are so amazing….You get along so well with your kids. You don’t mind making sacrifices for them. I never met a Mom like you!" When I told her we homeschool I thought she was going to cry! I think she was more excited for me to get new glasses that I was. She was telling the other ladies in the store when I came back an hour later to pick them up. "This is a really big treat for this lady because she puts her kids first! She really deserves these nice glasses! They were all fussing over me like I had hung the moon!" It was really a blessing to get to share a little with her on my parenting philosophy and my beliefs that my kids are a gift from God. Who knows what seeds were planted…
I don’t think I have ever looked better!
One Sided Relationships
I love blogging, but there is one thing that bugs me about it. Blogging is a very one sided relationship! LOL I frequently find when I am having a conversation with someone I know they will stop me and say "Oh yeah, I read that on your blog!" It isn’t even as much fun to talk to my own Mother now that most of what I say to her is a re-run! LOL (Just kidding Mom!)
This has gotten me thinking about a couple of things….
I wonder how many people who read my blog may think they know me, yet I know there are MANY things about my life I don’t share here. 30 years ago when I accepted Christ as my Saviour I thought I knew who God was. I now know that no many how many times I read His Word He still has new things in there to teach me! (The Bible is an amazing book!) So even though I have been studying God’s Word for years it does not mean I know all about Him. It means I still have SO MUCH MORE TO LEARN! I have found people will have a better idea of who I am if they read my blog and talk to me. I have also learned that the longer I read what He is saying & talk to Him in prayer the more pieces I put together. This gives me a much better picture I have of who God really is. (Not to mention what it is He wants for my life…)
The second point I was thinking about the one sided nature of blogging and I started wondering if God might sometimes feel this way too. Does He ever feel that He and I have a one sided relationship? How many times does He start teaching me something and I respond "Hey God, I have been reading Your book for 30 years and I know all about You. Sorry gotta go!" I mean He is always there. He is always wanting to talk and interact with me, yet how many times do I shut Him down? How many times does He have a whole new lesson for me to learn yet I am quick to tell Him that I’m busy and I already know what He was going to say anyway? Maybe He is trying to tell me to listen even when I think I know what He’s going to say???
Blogging teaches me SO much!
BTW, I LOVE comments and I LOVE emails from people who read my blog! It was actually a conversation with a 2 readers/friends today that got me thinking about all this.
Just Call Me Jamin 