Monday, February 28, 2011

Read Across America Week

We are having Dr. Seuss week this week.  This is what we done today.

I surprised them with a special breakfast.

Cat and the hat Pancakes...It also expanded on our Eating the Alphabet book because we had Bing cherries with them and that's how we got the "red" color was pure cherry juice.


We watched the "Cat in the Hat" cartoon.


We had LEGO club today, but when we came home while watching the cartoon, the boys were to create a hat out of LEGOs.  These are their creations.

Joey
 Brayden
We have fun activities planned all week.  I'll try to keep them posted.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Lazy Friday night.

We are working on living skills.  So I talked the kids through making pizzas.  It was just premade crust, sauce and cheese.  But hey....I didn't have to "cook" tonight.  Of course they did not use the oven.






We watched Toy Story....again.  Yeah I have all three memorized this week.  I am really starting to dislike the movies.  But they all can agree on this set right now, so I didn't argue.  Pizza, movie and then they started falling asleep.  I looked over on the couch and saw Joey like this:)


Brayden didn't like that I have to leave a lamp on in the living room because of Joey's Prehistoric Monster tank that we put together today.  So he left the room when he rolled over and realized he fell asleep in the living room floor.  I found him wrapped up in his sleeping bag on their couch.


I really don't miss any wild nights going out.  This was a nice evening with the kids!!!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Muffin Meals.

We had our first muffin tin meals.  The kids thought it was very cool.

First I made breakfast for them.

Gluten free pancakes that are cut and they can eat with a heart toothpick.  There was also strawberry yogurt.

These were the boys plates.  I found individual heart cupcake holders for the boys.  I am still on the lookout since the boys really liked these.

Our letter A lunch.  We had asparagus, avocado and artichoke hearts with hot chicken.

Trying to kill time...

So we are on break this week. I have been listening to the Heart of the Matter teleconference daily til after lunch. Then I have been working on spring cleaning the school room and writing up lesson plans through the summer.  I may even clean out some kitchen cabinets this week even...who knows.

But in the meantime, I have bored children....so this week we have made cars out of boxes and building blocks out of different size boxes.


Decorating our cars



The pile of boxes for our box city.  So far they haven't built a city, but they love stacking them and knocking them over.



This morning though they decided to put on a concert singing a princess song they made.  Lydia is on the drum and Caty got out the Barbie guitar.

Caty had some moves, but I didn't have the camera that records live video.

The stuffies on the table are their audience.

We also made candy necklaces.


One more teleconference for me at 9 tonight.  It's supposed to teach me how to not raise my voice to the kids.  I may yelling until 9 tonight:)!!  Another day of conferences tomorrow, and we are watching a little friend also tomorrow.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Do I really want to get up today?

There are morning people and there are night people.  I don't really know where I fit into that anymore.  When I was younger and single (I'm trying to make myself sound wise with those words:)...), I slept in until I had to leave for work and hopped in my truck headed down to my store and worked all day, sometimes all 13 hours.  Then I would head out with my friends, sometimes to a club or just hang out and watch movies.  I remember several times never going to sleep.  I wasn't a party child, but I definitely functioned better at night.  I still may have a little bit of that in me since I can sometimes stay up most of the night to complete tasks and then get up around 7 to start the next day. 

But now that we have 4 kids, we have unique challenges that face us each morning.  There's fighting and hair to brush.  Sometimes we start school and I realize I haven't even used the brush on my hair yet and I'm usually still in my PJs.  So once I get them going, I head to a quick 10 minute freshen up.  We have a very unique challenge with Joey.  His OCDs swing wide open in the morning and impulse control is non-existent.  We are working on basic self-help morning skills, like making an easy breakfast, getting dressed and hygiene.  But even that is hard for him to handle because his brain is like a bullet train without brakes.  So each day I cringe at the thought of getting up and experiencing those two hours of non-stop bouncing (and I mean bouncing), inability to control the volume in his voice, excessive laughing at absolutely nothing, and non-stop talking.  You can tell around 9:30 that the morning meds have kicked in.  But until then, it is a daily manic episode.  Somedays I can handle it better than others.  But wow somedays I feel like he does in a shopping mall, completely overwhelmed!

Right now Brayden is experiencing something he cannot control.  He is feeling like he is living in his video game.  He cannot seem to control the line between fantasy and real-life at times.  This is one of those mornings.  I keep going in and reminding him to lower his voice and the battle needs to stay at a lower level and in his room.  I'm sure his battle companions will have to visit us and eat lunch with us today.  That seems to be the direction we are pointing in right now.  Especially since he just yelled at his "battle partner" (who only he can see) that he cheated.

I dont' want to sound like I am complaining.  I love my children.  I wouldn't change our decision to homeschool and have them home with us.  But today is one of those reminders that we do not have a typical family.  I cannot wake up and walk out to a Leave It To Beaver kitchen or house.  Most days I walk out and feel like the Munsters exploded all over our house!  And that is our daily life.  At least this morning the breakfast situation was under control and no one tried to create anything....that's always extra messy.  And sometimes very scary looking. 

So in answer to my Post Title...No, I didn't want to get up today.  I was up until 3 am and woke up at 5 by Caty.  Then fell back asleep and woke up again by the phone at 7.  But a mom's job is 24-7...no breaks.  We'll play games later and I'll forget temporarily about all the battles this morning.

Everyone have a great Week.  I am listening to the Homeschool Conference this week.  SOOOO looking forward to this!

Friday, February 18, 2011

Police station visit videos. They are playing with the car microphone....

Couple videos from Tuesdays visit......



Weekly Wrap-up....February 13-19, 2011

I learned alot about the MRSA virus this week.  I also learned new things about when and how people can exhibit allergic reactions.  One more thing I learned this week....Fibromyalgia really sucks!!!  I have been having one long pain attack that has affected my entire body all week.  I really am trying to just push through each day the way all the websites and doctors tell us to do, but WOW that is getting so hard!!!!  It's even harder when you homeschool, since you are the "it" person.  There is no one else to pawn anything on.  You are the principal, teacher, nurse, secretary, lunch lady, etc.  No calling in sick!!  Sorry...had to get that out...been frustrated all week with myself for not feeling well.

Now onto what the kids have been up too.  We finished up Great Britain, Math reviews, but behind in Science this week.  We will have to catch up next weekend maybe. 

This week:

Lydia finished her first set of skating lessons.  She'll be starting her next session on March 7th.

 We learned about healthy eating and started eating our way through the alphabet.  This week we did A & B.  We enjoyed Avocados, artichokes, asparagus, apples, bananas, blueberries, brussel sprouts, and green bean.  The only thing that wasn't a hit was the artichoke hearts.  But they were plain, I didn't dress them up any.  I will attempt those again.  The boys wouldn't eat much of any of it!  That wasn't a surprise, but we at least are giving this a chance!

Our healthy eating mobiles.

 

We played alot of visual activities such as this shadow matching game.

Continued our study of Daniel.  We will be finishing him this week.

 We went on a field trip to a Police Station.  Look at all that stuff on her belt to keep us safe!!




A holding cell.


The boys did not have basketball, but we did have Agility Therapy.


 Lydia was excited to get to pet Ice this week.  She gets so antsy waiting to pet the dogs until each session is over!
Lydia spent a little more time in France this week for her World Thinking Day project.  We looked at the Mona Lisa and the Louve and made roasted Brussel Sprouts with a French recipe.  I forgot a lot of stuff that day (even the iron laying on a patch).  They tops got a little brown, but that layer came off and they were very tasty.

 Supposedly gluing alphabits to their letter matches.  She ate more than she glued!

I was in field trip/office day mode here.  I was ironing on patches and planning field trips.  Oh and going through some workboxes.

Making our healthy eating magnets.

 Lydia's finished healthy eating magnet.

Playing a healthy eating game.

 We also had zoo class this week.  This month's topic is Rainforest Mammals. 

In Lydia's class they made sloths.  Isn't this cute!!

 And the boys measured their feet with other "monkies".  They also learned how important tails were to the animals.  Both classes also got to see a kinkajou up close.  They weren't allowed to touch it though.