Catching Up

Okay, so I know I was supposed to be better about posting, but I guess...I lied. Sorry. Anyway, things are going well. The baby is doing fine, I am sore. I swear, I feel like if I bend over...well, you get the idea. The doctor says the baby has dropped lower but still has room to flip around. He also said I do not have to come back for 2 weeks. I have also made the decision that the girls will be at the hospital for the delivery (in the waiting room) and get to see the baby right after he is born, but they will then come home to stay with my mom. I had no idea how much this "problem" was bothering me until I solved it. Alyssa was insisting that everyone stay at the hospital for the entire duration and for some reason it did not occur to me to tell her no. She stayed with us when Gwen was born and she did very well. But Gwen has a different personality and I think Gwen will do much better at home. Having their own beds to sleep in and some sort of a normal schedule should help with any potential freak outs. Although Alyssa is not so happy with the staying at home part, she is very excited about staying with my mother. The kids have never spent the night away from me. Yes, Alyssa is six, NO she has NEVER spent the night away from me. She has tried to spend the night at her Granny and Poppa's (next door) and was home by 9pm. Although some people see this as unusual, I am very comfortable with having kids who can't sleep without me in the same house. I'm not sure how I would feel sleeping without them. This birth will be a new adventure for all of us!!

My aunts threw me a baby shower last weekend and it was very nice. I got so much stuff and we had a great time. The girls at work gave me a shower too and I got more stuff. All the new things helped me to get motivated to clean out the baby's room and it looks almost like a baby room now. There are still some piles of donation and "where does this go?" stuff, but the changing table is out, the bed is made and you can see the dresser. Technically, if I had the baby tomorrow (if only), he would have somewhere to sleep and get a diaper change...and he would have clean clothes!! I'm not sure he would ask for more!

The girls have been somewhat trapped in the house because of rain, but we needed it so badly it was worth it. Gwen has discovered computer games and she is addicted. She loves her Jumpstart Toddler and we just bought her a Dora the Explorer game. Alyssa was already a game nut so any excuse to play more and she is down with it. The other day I bought her The Learning Company's Arthur's First Grade Learning System and she loves it! I am actually impressed with how well she has done. I thought it might offer some difficult math or phonics that she would get frustrated with, but she is blazing through with flying colors. We have been reading her Magic Tree House selections from the library and she is loving those, of course. I really can't say enough about the benefits of reading aloud to kids. I have seen her comprehension level improve and her vocabulary. She could listen to me read aloud all day and Gwen will listen to a story anytime you offer. Gwen enjoys read aloud time also.

We still have Black, the puppy. He has not proved to be the "chewer" Casey was, but he does chew. A couple weeks ago we noticed he was not anywhere on the property so we thought he must have wandered down the road. We started looking and we ended up pretty far from the house in a small neighborhood down the road. He was running with a pack of loose dogs and was fully aware that he was lost. He whined the whole run to me and then sat very still in Gwen's lap on the way home. He has not left the property again. I think he was thoroughly freaked out when we found him. I think he will become a good dog. Max has become less hostile towards him and I am hoping that means he will "mentor" him. Max is a fabulous guard dog and a great dog, in general.

Well, I guess that concludes my update. I'm sure there are many other things I can't think of right now, but I think we are lucky I got this done! Everyone have a great weekend~

Light at the end of the tunnel...

Ahhh...yesterday was the last day of gymnastics for 3 weeks! We have been way overscheduled the past few weeks and it was killing me. This week has been very crazy with 2 days of gymnastics, doctor's appointment and co-op. I can not wait until Gwen can take a gymnastics class that is at the same time as Alyssa's class! But...that means 3 years old AND potty trained...HA, Gwen is making it very clear that she does not have time to stop and GO to the potty, when she can just GO potty!! Anyway, we have co-op today and tomorrow is unscheduled (shhh...don't say it too loud!).

We went to the library yesterday and Alyssa found the Magic Tree House book section. Ultimately, we checked out 4 of them and she is thrilled to report that there are A LOT more!! She loves this series of books and I have decided to put off Treasure Island, our next read aloud, to allow her some Magic Tree House time. We have decided to keep watching birds as an ongoing Science project because we find it so interesting. I am considering keeping a type of chart on what types of birds we are seeing as the seasons change. I am trying to work out a chart that would remain fun and not become a "task", if at any time Alyssa sees something as a task, you can mark it off your list of things she would want to do! I think she could be the poster child for schooling at home. Gwen, on the other hand, notices EVERY school we pass and begs to go there. Alyssa keeps trying to convince her that she does not want to go there but the big slides and lots of kids keep Gwen from even hearing Alyssa's voice.

The doctor's appointment went well and the baby and I are doing fine. I go back on the 21st and then the appointments are weekly. It is hard for me to believe that it is almost time, don't get me wrong, I am ready for delivery, but my house is not so ready. The baby's room is still quite the storage closet and everytime I think I am going to GET IT DONE, I don't. No real excuse, just not motivated. Surely, I will become that way...soon. Lucky for me the baby won't care if his room is a bit cluttered with other people's extras!

Monday begins the Spring Break period for public schools here so there will be no co-op...the ENTIRE week is unplanned!!! No appointments, no classes, NOTHING! We probably won't even know how to get back into the daily school schedule. The next week is when weekly doctor's appointments begin and co-op resumes. I am looking forward to being home more, maybe that will motivate me to get things ready, and STAY on a school schedule.

Everyone have a great day!

It snowed!! It snowed!!

Was that a vacation?

Okay, so I am back to post after a break from too much internet. I had to limit my internet surfing so that I could get some things done! I decided that I HAD to do some DEEP cleaning before the baby got here. I have cleaned the laundry room out, the sunroom, decluttered the kitchen (mostly), cleaned out my closet (the biggest job~I can walk INTO my walk-in closet!), and vacuumed all the corners and along the walls. Oh yeah, I cleaned out under my bed ~ do NOT ask what I found!! Of course the baby's room is now stacked with stuff that needs to be donated, stored and sold. *Sigh* I will be dedicating a day to that room so that I will be done.

I bought a new couch and that has made me feel so much better. My old couch was a hand-me-down that had been handed down WAY too many times and I found, in my current state, I could NOT get off of it once I sat down. Most people had a hard time getting up, except the kids, who loved to climb on it. Alyssa had just begun to do some pretty fancy flips onto it and for that I am glad that it was replaced. The new couch is not so "flip friendly" and that is good for mom, disappointing for her!

Doctor's appointments are getting into high gear now, at every 2 weeks. I am not looking forward to weekly trips to Tulsa, but, that just assures me that soon I will be able to turn over in my bed at night without causing a ruckus. Everything is great with me and the baby and the girls are getting pretty excited. We are trying to decide how we are all going to fit into the hospital room, since NO ONE is willing to stay anywhere else. It's going to be quite a sight!!

School has been moving slowly, but Alyssa is reading her BOB books quite fluently and reading sentences that I am writing for her on the board. Her phonics skills have improved so much this year and I am relieved. You can see that it is taking less and less effort for her to read words and sentences now. Our current read aloud is Poppy and we should be done with it this weekend. She has enjoyed the book and frankly, so have I. Each chapter we read, we want to move on to see what happens next. We participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count and it was really interesting. We have continued our birdwatching and have had a great time looking up the different birds that visit us. As a complete bird moron, I have to admit that looking at a bird in the yard and then trying to identify it in a book was extremely difficult! Once we got the hang of what types of birds were visiting and what characteristics to look for, it got easier. Honestly, a cardinal was the only thing I could readily identify in the beginning. Alyssa spent quite some time this evening looking through the bird books to identify one that she saw at the feeder today. I was happy to see that she was genuinely interested in identifying what kind of bird she saw.

Brian brought home a new puppy today and the girls were very excited. Alyssa was having a difficult time getting over Casey. I thought she was doing OK, but everytime Gwen mentioned Casey, Alyssa would get upset. And Gwen had to mention Casey everytime we left the house, everytime we drove past the spot in the Wal-mart parking lot where we got her, and any other time she just thought about mentioning what she looked like dead. It was torture to Alyssa. This puppy is an all black lab-hound mix. He is very cute! I am hoping that we can keep him from chewing everything in site, and ultimately killing himself on something in the yard/trash/field...well, you get the idea. Alyssa has appropriately named him "Black" which her father and I thought was a little weird, but when you tell a 6 year old to name her new puppy, you get what you pay for!! She insists that we NOT call it "Blackie" but simply "Black." I am hoping that before we imprint this name on the puppy she will change it to something that sounds more like a name. She does love to change her mind!

I will try and do a better job at keeping up in the coming weeks so that no one thinks I have fallen off the face of the earth, or more likely, exploded from the pressure being applied to my navel. I will also post a picture of the girls enjoying the small amount of snow we got last week. You would have thought it was a blizzard!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

My birthday was Thursday and it was fun. That afternoon we went to the Valentine's Party for Alyssa's homeschool co-op. Alyssa was chosen to be the Valentine Queen for the day! She looked very cute in her heart cape and crown. Later that night we ate birthday cake, which Alyssa made (with the help of Granny) and it was yummy. She did a beautiful job! She had been planning that cake for a month and it took them 2 days to actually get it all done. It was 3 layers, chocolate with white icing and pink "roses" with candy letters that said "Happy Birthday Mama" and the number "35" on top. Due to the burn ban there were only 10 candles! :)

We are about done with our Ramona book and Alyssa liked The Emperor's New Clothes. We will be starting Poppy by Avi after we are done with Ramona. I am not sure what we will do after that but I think I might bring out some of the shorter classics and some mysteries. Gwen has enjoyed listening to our stories also, I find her reapeating the last word I said many times which tells me that she is listening. I have been so tired lately that reading aloud has been a good time for me to rest and still do school! Once the baby arrives there will be lots of reading aloud. ;) I am considering leaving the girls in gymnastics because I hate for them to be out for 9 weeks. The baby is due right in the middle of the session, but I think if I can get someone else to take Alyssa to class she will only miss a week or two. Gwen, on the other hand, her class is "Mommy and Me" so I'm not sure how that will work out. I'm not sure Brian would be up to the task. Although Alyssa would love to take my place, I'm not sure Gwen would listen to her. Let me point out that this class is made up of a couple one year olds, Gwen (2) and a 3 year old who is the instructor's son. This is basically controlled chaos with a little deliberate tumbling involved, but Gwen loves it and I feel like keeping her out for 9 weeks would interrupt her flow...she really is making progress in listening and actually "doing" what her teacher wants her to do! We'll see what happens!!

A similar thing will happen with Alyssa's homeschool co-op. It ends April 16 (I am due the 20th) and there will be the graduation/year-end party sometime soon after, so we might miss the last day, which should be the Medieval Feast (bummer!) and I may or may not be able to attend the year-end party. I am pretty freaky about taking the baby out before 6 weeks (or longer if I can get away with it!) so I try to stay home and get baby and mom situated. In the past Alyssa has not been too thrilled with others taking her somewhere, but with age, she has lightened up and hopefully she will attend some of these events without me. However, leaving the baby behind might cause her some stress, she is totally a "little mama." I guess if these are the only things I have to worry about, I am lucky!!

Have a great day!!

Update

Well, we are going to participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count! It sounds fun. It's from Feb 17-20. I have requested some bird watching books from the library and going to purchase bird seed. http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/ Our Science unit for the next 2 weeks will be Birds so we can get familiar with bird watching and the types of birds in our area.

We finished Mr. Popper's Penguins and Alyssa enjoyed it. We have started Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary and it has L-O-N-G chapters! We just started and got through chapter 1 (41 pages!) so far. I remember reading the Ramona books when I was a child and liked them very much. Alyssa likes this one so far, she is not concerned about the long chapters because she could listen all day! I just purchased Favorite Poems: Old and New and The Random House Book of Fairy Tales which we will be starting this week. One of my old faves is The Emperor's New Clothes and Alyssa is excited to hear it.

Co-op will be starting for us this week. We did not participate in Co-op last semester and I think Alyssa is ready to go back. However, during this Co-op I will be delivering the baby so it should be interesting! This semester's theme is Kings, Queens and Knights which I think will be fun. This theme is more in tune with Alyssa's interests. She can't wait to dress up as a princess at the Medieval Faire!

I think that is our latest, we are still doing gymnstics and both girls look forward to going each week. I'll try and keep up this week!

TGIF!

This week has been pretty busy for us and I am so glad it's Friday! Tuesday was my doctor's appointment so we drove to the "big city" and spent the day. Doctor says everything is fine and I only gained 1 pound last month. That makes 7 pounds~TOTAL! In the beginning the doctor told me to gain no more than 16 pounds, at which point I asked him if HE had ever BEEN pregnant! But, with 4 months of feeling VERY ill and not wanting to eat much of anything, I have been really lucky. Of course the last 3 months I have not had ANY problem eating! My main craving is sour cream mexican anything! Any good recipes? :)

We finished James and the Giant Peach and Chocolate Fever and have moved on to Mr. Popper's Penguins. I am really amazed at how much Alyssa loves our read aloud time. She looks forward to it everyday and on days when we don't do it during the day, she wants her bedtime story to be her chapter book. I am looking forward to reading some of my childhood faves to her and I can't wait to break out the classics! We have tons of books, many of which I began buying before we had kids. I ordered more books from the Scholastic book fliers than any of my students when I was teaching. When I ran the daycare we had a Scholastic Book Fair and I probably spent a month's salary on books! Brian and I both grew up loving books and reading A LOT! As only children, I guess we had lots of quiet time to read. :) When we were first married, we spent hours in used book stores just browsing and finding great books. As a child I remember my mother always had a book or a magazine to read. Doing dictionary work the other day (using my childhood children's dictionary), I was telling Alyssa how I liked to read the dictionary when I was a child. As I was explaining it to her I wondered how many other people read the dictionary as children, I know Brian did, but he's weird like that! :) Anyway, she started looking through it and asking questions about the pictures and different words and I felt so nostalgic thinking about reading THAT dictionary and knowing that she would probably be doing the same thing soon! I love those moments when you feel good about what you are doing for your children and see them responding to it.

A "Typical" Day

Well, I thought I might describe a "typical" day for us. This is an odd concept for us because it seems like every day is different. I guess if I were sending the kids to school we would get up, have breakfast, get ready and leave on some type of a schedule. However, since that is not the case, I think we just go with the flow of the day. Anyway, Gwen usually gets up between 7 and 7:30, however, today she got up at 9:00!! So there goes my typical day! If I had been sleeping, Gwen would have gotten up at her usual 7:00, but I was up and "waiting" so she slept until 9:00! Alyssa would sleep until noon if you let her so I made sure she got up also. First, we just sit around talking and waking up for a little while and then someone (usually Gwen) gets to pick a video. Alyssa has been very good about going "second" since Gwen has learned about turns!! I will make something to eat (today, muffins) and the kids will watch a video (today, Wiggles) while I get computer time, start laundry, etc. I know, I know, TV should not be the first thing they do in the morning! For us, I find that it makes the day smoother, the kids get to pick one video a day and this way it is over with and we can move on without distraction. It seems like in the morning the kids are more likely to be active while watching TV, if we wait until the afternoon they tend to become zombies in front of the TV. I am pretty strict about no TV in the evenings because I think it makes for bad nighttime rest. So, that being said, I will move on. :) After the video, they move on to picking an activity. With this being Alyssa's Kindergarten year, I would call it "center time." They can play with toys or do arts/crafts. This time is rarely "planned" by me. After their free time to play, we clean up a bit, have some lunch and Gwen goes down for a nap. This is when school happens for Alyssa. Alyssa is very receptive after a morning of her own creative exploits. When Gwen does not nap we go ahead and school and Gwen participates by coloring or playing close by. She is getting used to "school time" and is very interested in participating so I make sure there are two of all coloring sheets, activities, etc. so she can feel involved. "Sit down" school might last up to an hour, depending on what is being done and then we do our read aloud. During read aloud time, the girls play quietly or sometimes, just sit. By now it is time to get ready for dinner and daddy to get home! On Mondays, Alyssa has gymnastics so we have a snack and leave about 5:30. On Wednesday mornings Gwen has gymnastics and that makes the whole day a lot different! AND on days when I have to go to the doctor (like tomorrow) there is NOTHING resembling what I just typed happening!! So, this is a typical day for a day when there is no morning gymnastics, no doctor's appointments, no daddy home, no co-op, no field trip, no one is sick and when no other life event has hindered our "typical day"!! God, I LOVE homeschooling!!!

Ahhh...

I feel much better now! My mexican casserole was yummy and only made me feel queezy for a short while! This morning I got up and decided to make brownies and do laundry...I AM feeling better! :) Today is going to be the day that I try and get the baby's room in some sort of order. It's been a catch all room for a couple months plus I need to de-girly it for him! At this point the poor boy has very little chance for being manly...at least I took the pink curtains down. We purchased a border for his room that is made up of classic marvel comic book covers (Brian's idea) and it is really cool. I am hoping we will motivate to get that up BEFORE he is born. Well, here's to cleaning and organizing!

I.Hate.Being.Sick

Okay, because I promised no more bodily function stories, I will save you from this. Let's just say that I am not at all happy about how I feel! It started yesterday and actually I feel better today. I WANT some type of mexican casserole for dinner (a CONSTANT craving) and I think I'm going to make one, in between sitting down from being dizzy! Well, school hit the skids about 1/2 way through yesterday because of my illness, but we did finish James and the Giant Peach. Alyssa liked it and is looking forward to our next selection, Chocolate Fever. It's a short chapter book and should only take us 1-2 days, depending on how I feel. Next week will be Mr. Popper's Penguins to go with our Science theme of penguins. I think we will try and watch March of the Penguins too. Monday we will be going to the library to pick up the books I have reserved for our penguin unit (I LOVE the online reserve feature!!) and Tuesday is my doctor's appointment. We are going to have to play catch up with history next week so it's going to be busy. I hope noone else gets sick! Knock on wood!

Sad Day

Well, we were leaving for Gwen's gymnastics class this morning and realized that the puppy had not made herself known (extremely rare!) and decided to look around for her. I found her, dead. I felt so bad for Alyssa, this was her first puppy. We've had her about 5 months and although the girls loved her very much, I was still indifferent due to the chewing nature of a puppy. We believe that she ate something either foreign or poisonous to cause her to die. She chewed and ate EVERTHING! Alyssa is doing OK now and is actually thinking of a new puppy. I, on the other hand, am looking forward to having a clean yard!

Upcoming Projects

Because November and December seem to fill up with other things I used those months for phonics instruction, writing/penmanship and cooking/crafting and waited to start our History OdysseyLesson Plans until this month. I am finding that our year may end up with "summer" being the months of November and December! Anyway, I have had the lesson plans for months now and have slowly ordered all of the necessary items for instruction. The Ancient China Treasure Chest was one of the recommended items. Once we saw how great it was I started looking at all the Running Press Treasure Chests and went wild!! I purchased the Hieroglyphics TC, the Ancient China TC, the Ancient Greece TC (for only $8.00!!) , the Lift the Lid on Mummies and the Lift the Lid on Gladiators(for only $6.00) sets!! I am sure that I will be ordering as many as I can get my hands on because they look like a LOT of fun! Alyssa is really excited about all of them and we can't wait to get started.

Not Again?!?!

As I put everyone to bed, confident that we are over the brief illness that kept me up last night, I breathed a sigh and (eventually) went to bed. About 12:30 I heard it, the sound, the gag, I jump up and run (not easy in my condition) and grab Gwen and run towards the bathroom...we make it to the hallway. She had not been sick for HOURS and had eaten enough blan food to make her comfortable, went to bed fine (I assumed) and then lost it. Anyway, after cleaning the floor, the toilet (I did try!) and then us, we laid down. No more incidents, Yea! She seems fine this morning. Another day of watery juice and boring food! Although this has given her something to talk about! She has told anyone who would listen about her "throw up" adventures. She has kept track of all the places she "missed" and will point them out proudly! Anyway, I am hopefully done with stories that include any type of bodily function...well, until potty training starts!!

Alyssa had a great time at gymnastics(as usual) and her Granny and Poppa came to enjoy the show. She is getting pretty good at her bridge kick overs, a less dangerous intro to a back handspring, which I personally have mixed feelings about seeing her accomplish! She just learned, last week, to do a flip on the trampoline...dang unseasonable weather!! Gwen, of course, is doing her version...YIKES! I fear it's not long before they are both flipping (probably at the same time!) and who knows what. We'll have a circus act in the front yard!

Everyone have a great day!

6 Hours and Counting!

Well, Gwen has not thrown up since this morning. She has had bread with peanut butter, watery juice, crackers and 5 sliced black olives (everyone else had pizza!). She is napping now and seems to be fine, just puny. Alyssa has gymnastics tonight and thank goodness Brian is home to keep Gwen! Gwen has gymnastics on Wednesday and I hope she is better by then...she LIVES for gymnastics. Her class is a "mommy and me" class and I am basically there to make sure she doesn't kill herself (or twist herself into a knot). Both of which are possibilities with Gwen! We did manage to tackle school today with Gwen sick AND dad home, I'm amazed! Dad seems to distract us and we get very little done on days that he is home. I do intend on listing some of our upcoming projects because we are really excited about them. I'll get back tonight or tomorrow, now it is time to get ready for gymnastics.

UGH!

Okay, the only thing I hate more than being sick, is when my kids are sick. Luckily for us neither one of those things happens that often. Gwen, my 2 year old, woke up about 1:30am throwing up. So from 1:30 to about 5:30 we were on grab and run duty! I find it weird that all she was throwing up was mucus but she was not congested. It was very strange and something that Alyssa, my 6 year old, never has done...knock on wood! I'm back...as I was typing that last sentence, Gwen threw up again! So now I am off to clean the chair, the bathroom, the carpet on the way to the bathroom and do some laundry! Bye!

Read Alouds

Chapter books we have read:
Charlotte's Web
Stuart Little(3 times!)
The Mouse and the Motorcycle
Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Dinosaur Bones (everyday for 2 weeks!)
Magic Treehouse Series (several of these)

Currently we are reading James and the Giant Peach and we have Chocolate Fever checked out from the library to read next.

I get lots of my read aloud ideas from Jim Trelease's book The Read Aloud Handbook. I LOVE this book and keep it handy all the time. It's got markings and notes all through it!

Some of our read alouds will come from our history curriculum and others will come from the Tanglewood website.

What we're doing

Okay, here are some of the things we are doing right now. Currently our read aloud is James and the Giant Peach, and we love it so far. My daughter has really enjoyed read aloud time. I just started using History Odyssey Lesson Plans: Ancients (level 1) and I love them!! My daughter is very interested in history and I think these plans are going to work well for us. For science I use the Living Learning Books Curriculum and my daughter has had a good time with these also. I like them because they use lots of books and the lesson plans are flexible. For math, we use Singapore math and an Usborne Sticker Math book that my daugher LOVES! I also have the Rod and Staff "math" workbook that we use also, it is good for practicing writing numerals and quick lessons. Last year reading instruction proved to be too frustrating for my daughter, so this year we are taking phonics slowly. She is doing very well with beginning phonics now and we are just doing simple sight words and BOB books. I love to see her face light up when she reads something! We have daily activities that reinforce numeral and letter recognition, penmanship, etc. The lesson plans for history and science have things like arts and crafts and cooking built in and I like that very much. However, my kids do some sort of art/craft everyday on their own. We have TUBS of art stuff and they are free to paint, glue, cut, etc until they can't do it anymore!! My oldest has never been a fan of coloring books, she likes paper and pencil/pen/marker/crayon/paint. We have tons of her creations all around! She is a big fan of string...sometimes the house looks like it's filled with spider webs because she has tied EVERYTHING in sight together! Of course my 2 year old has to do everything her sister does, so...well, enough said!

Introduction

Well, I have been looking at blogs for a few days now and I love them! I truly feel as though I have nothing to add and don't really know anyone who would read this, but what the heck!! I have 2 girls, ages 6 and 2 and I am currently pregnant. We live in a rural community and we homeschool. My husband and I have never really considered sending the kids to public (or private) school. I started Kindergarten with my 6 year old in the fall and we have been truly eclectic from the beginning. Although unschooling is not a term I use lightly, I find myself more of an unschooler than anything else. One of the blogs I have been checking out (a really good one!) uses the "classical unschooler" term and that pretty much describes us! I do feel as though it is important to note that "unschooling" is not "non-teaching" for us, although many people think of it that way. I use lesson plans, we DO work but we also LIVE and learn. Because we live "in the country" I find Charlotte Mason interesting and utilize some of her methods. Again, we are eclectic, so we pick and choose what works for us! I am just getting the hang of "blog" life and hope to learn how to post all the links I like and use. So, here's to learning!!