Today is the first day of Brett's new job.
Today is our first day "back to school".
Today is Gavin's first day of "doing real school".
Today is our first day without digital cable (or cable of any sort).
Today is the first day in a long time that I arose at 6:15am.
Seeing as it's 7:30, the kids are dressed and fed and anxious to do school, we're off to a pretty good start.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Friday, July 28, 2006
Dinnertime Dramatics
Eli is now 18mos old, and he acts mroe and more like a 2 year old these days. We were sitting at dinner last night, and he was eating his food until he saw his big brother eating a Rice Krispy Treat. He threw a fit pointing at the treat and screaming towards towards Gavin. Brett told him "No, you have to eat your food" and then the waterworks came. He stuck out his bottomw lip and began to sob. He threw his hand up on his forehead. Then he froze like that not crying anymore with his eyes closed. We all just burst out laughing. He kept peering out of his eyes to see if we were watching him. Then, Gavin being the way-too-sweet big brother that he is, walked over and gave him the rest of his treat. Brett said, "Gavin, don't you like it?" Gavin replied, "Yes, I love it, but I want Eli to have the rest of mine." The second Eli put it in his mouth, his tears disappeared and he smiled huge :)
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
~It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year~
It's the last week of July!!!!!
For me I've double-whammied myself into a lovely predicament. The Jedi Training Academy will be opening for its 5th official year of school next Monday. WOW!!!! That's hard to believe that we've done four full years of homeschooling. Time really flies by. Traditionally, the last week of July is always something special around here because its VBS. 400 kids come to our church every year for three hours in the morning to learn about Jesus, sing, play games, make crafts, and drive me crazy :)
So what does this lovely equation of school starting + VBS = ? Complete exhaustion and mental chaos. We've had to be out of the house earlier than I was waking up last week. Then I spend three hours hoarding kids around from area to area. We get home in time for lunch and then I collapse....... into lesson planning. I've been preparing lesson plans all week (almost done). I am trying to be much better prepared this year. I already know of some major detours during our schooling (trip to Disney, relative's wedding, and oh yeah- a 5th child), so I'm trying to factor all of this in. I've been typing so much (yet here I am blogging) that I think I'm developing carpal Tunnel.
The fun part of trying to prepare your children's education on such little stamina and brain power is the little mistakes you make. Luckily I've caught some before printing anything out, but I'm sure around October I'll be finding typo I didn't catch this week.
Typo #1- Typing up the word worksheet as worksh*t quite a few times on Alyssa's Grammar Lesson Plan.
Typo #2- Typing "Learn Proper Use of Communism" as a lesson title for Lauri's "Use Proper Use of Commas" Grammar lesson plan.
Spoken Mistake- Of course, when I told Brett last night that I thought I was developing corpral Tunnel.
How long till the weekend??????????
For me I've double-whammied myself into a lovely predicament. The Jedi Training Academy will be opening for its 5th official year of school next Monday. WOW!!!! That's hard to believe that we've done four full years of homeschooling. Time really flies by. Traditionally, the last week of July is always something special around here because its VBS. 400 kids come to our church every year for three hours in the morning to learn about Jesus, sing, play games, make crafts, and drive me crazy :)
So what does this lovely equation of school starting + VBS = ? Complete exhaustion and mental chaos. We've had to be out of the house earlier than I was waking up last week. Then I spend three hours hoarding kids around from area to area. We get home in time for lunch and then I collapse....... into lesson planning. I've been preparing lesson plans all week (almost done). I am trying to be much better prepared this year. I already know of some major detours during our schooling (trip to Disney, relative's wedding, and oh yeah- a 5th child), so I'm trying to factor all of this in. I've been typing so much (yet here I am blogging) that I think I'm developing carpal Tunnel.
The fun part of trying to prepare your children's education on such little stamina and brain power is the little mistakes you make. Luckily I've caught some before printing anything out, but I'm sure around October I'll be finding typo I didn't catch this week.
Typo #1- Typing up the word worksheet as worksh*t quite a few times on Alyssa's Grammar Lesson Plan.
Typo #2- Typing "Learn Proper Use of Communism" as a lesson title for Lauri's "Use Proper Use of Commas" Grammar lesson plan.
Spoken Mistake- Of course, when I told Brett last night that I thought I was developing corpral Tunnel.
How long till the weekend??????????
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Almost
All week I've been looking forward to coming here to post, "THE SCHOOL ROOM IS CLEANED UP AND CLEANED OUT!!!!" Well, the best I can do is say, "The school room is at an acceptable level of disarray."
We've been working all week on packing up old workbooks, throwing out ones we don't need anymore and getting rid of all those broken crayons, dried out markers, etc. My book cabinet (where the kids keep their stuff) now has a feeling of order . Sure, the Little People are still strewn about the floor right next to some Backyardigans books (courtesy of Eli of course), but the little counting/color bears that I've been stepping on all week have finally found a home.
I've actually started scheduling and have picked a first day of school. It is a lot earlier than last year, but I seem to be hearing "I'm bored" and "I have nothing to do a lot more", so I decided an early start is a good idea. Plus, I'm sure once Thanksgiving hits our school year will be a wash until after New Years. Well, depending on when Baby #5 shows up, it could be Valentine's Day.
We've been working all week on packing up old workbooks, throwing out ones we don't need anymore and getting rid of all those broken crayons, dried out markers, etc. My book cabinet (where the kids keep their stuff) now has a feeling of order . Sure, the Little People are still strewn about the floor right next to some Backyardigans books (courtesy of Eli of course), but the little counting/color bears that I've been stepping on all week have finally found a home.
I've actually started scheduling and have picked a first day of school. It is a lot earlier than last year, but I seem to be hearing "I'm bored" and "I have nothing to do a lot more", so I decided an early start is a good idea. Plus, I'm sure once Thanksgiving hits our school year will be a wash until after New Years. Well, depending on when Baby #5 shows up, it could be Valentine's Day.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Saying Goodbye
We came home from our lovely 4th of July vacation to a sad discovery- our hamster of almost 11 months had died. We had given him plenty of water and food (we'd left him this long before), so we're not really sure what happened. This hamster was a gift to Gavin for his birthday last August. Nobody asked for him, we weren't ready to care for a pet, but we did anyway. Gavin was less than thrilled with him at first, bu he grew on all of us. Lauri and Eli really loved him the most. Eli would just sit and watch him run around his cage shouting, "PeeWee! PeeWee!"
We weren't quite sure how the kids would take it, but we didn't want to postpone telling them. We told Gavin first. He burst into tears. He is our extreme emotional child. When we bought hermit crabs that bored the kids and only lived a month, he bawled for days. Everytime he'd pass the empty case int the garage, he'd start crying again. We told the girls and they took a little logner to come to tears, but soon we were all crying (save Eli and Brett).
We managed to cheer the kids up with ice cream.
They are now asking for new pets, but Brett and I have put a hold on any pet shopping until the end of the summer. Whatever we do get, IF we get something, will once again live in a cage/tank of some sort and not require too much effort. After the bawling fest on the couch that night, I have no desire to have another pet ever, but I'm sure I'll lose out in the end.
We weren't quite sure how the kids would take it, but we didn't want to postpone telling them. We told Gavin first. He burst into tears. He is our extreme emotional child. When we bought hermit crabs that bored the kids and only lived a month, he bawled for days. Everytime he'd pass the empty case int the garage, he'd start crying again. We told the girls and they took a little logner to come to tears, but soon we were all crying (save Eli and Brett).
We managed to cheer the kids up with ice cream.
They are now asking for new pets, but Brett and I have put a hold on any pet shopping until the end of the summer. Whatever we do get, IF we get something, will once again live in a cage/tank of some sort and not require too much effort. After the bawling fest on the couch that night, I have no desire to have another pet ever, but I'm sure I'll lose out in the end.
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