Scattered Update ...

We are in the middle of a very busy two weeks!  My Goldilocks (6) has started an intensive therapy called Tomatis for auditory processing, sensory integration and occupational and physical therapy.  She has to go every day for 15 days in a row except Sundays.  Then she will be going every other month for 8 days for a few months.  The boys started this process a few months ago, so now we practically live at this office.  I told the office staff the other day that I really need my own room and parking space.  LOL!  Anyway, the improvements in the boys are really dramatic, so I hope we will see the same in Goldilocks.  Unfortunately, her brain is damaged in a different way than my boys' brains, so it is hard to know how much improvement we will see.  Unfortunately, her behavior is nosediving because of all of the one on one attention from the therapists.  They are giving her too many choices, too much praise, and letting her get away with too much.  The therapists really want to do their best by her and have done an awesome job with my boys, but it is totally different dealing with a RAD child.  It's a learning curve, of course, for everyone.  Hopefully, they will tighten up so she will not be spinning out so much. 


Tom Sawyer (5) is really enjoying the piano more, since I started putting a spoon handle under his palm to provide support.  The spoon helps his hand curve more naturally and allows his fingers to play separately.  The hardest thing for him is remembering to lift one finger before pressing the next one down. 





Tom Sawyer is also doing awesome in reading.  I am so pleased with his progress in 100 Easy Lessons.  He is zipping through it and has started using phonics to sound out words he wants to spell.


Little Red Ridinghood (4) is really loving her ballet, and I can't believe her first recital is just a few weeks away!  She has so many little dance moves.  Also, Goldilocks is doing well in Homeschool Choir and holding her own.  I wasn't sure she would be able to deal with the memorization of songs (since she can't read) but is starting to learn them.  Her first concert is right around the corner, too.


The boys ended up doing the same art lesson on Toulouse-Lautrec the other day.  I am amazed at how well Tom Sawyer stuck with it. This is what they were copying.





Here are their renderings:


The big teen's





Tom Sawyer's





Lastly, the big teen starts rehearsals for our church Christmas play on top of his Internship at the Nature Center, so we are about to become even busier.  In fact, I have to leave the house for 59 appointments/co-op/classes this month!  YIKES!  Talk about crazy busy.


Blessings,
Dawn

The Big Teen's Geography ...

So I am adding this completed course to my big teen's online transcript.  If you want to see all the courses I have posted so far, click on high school transcripts.  The big teen will have completed 28 different courses by the time he graduates, so this list will grow longer.  For today ~ GEOGRAPHY.

In Geography, the big teen took a 16 week class with other homeschoolers, attended a Geography Club once a month for 1 year and attended a homeschool International Night once a year for three years.  Each weekly class, monthly club, and homeschool International Night presentation required an in-depth oral/written report.  (I have all the written reports in his records.)  Also, the yearly event usually takes him about 15 hours of prep work and a large display/exhibit, and he dresses in the appropriate country's costume.

Countries studied in depth ~

• Chile
• Russia
• Ireland
• Italy  
• Kenya
• Haiti
• Paraguay
• Norway
• Egypt
• England
• Easter Island
• Mongolia
• Antarctica (not really a country)
• Australia
• Japan
• Colombia

He also studied North Carolina and Alaska in depth.  He did 11 written reports and oral reports on almost all the countries, as well.  He played games, such as Borderline Middle East and USA and online geography terms games.  He also studied the Middle East in an attempt to understand what is going on in that part of the world.  He received an A for this course.

Blessings,
Dawn

Operation Christmas Child ...

It's that time of year again.  If you are looking for a fun hands-on charity for your little ones to get into, I highly recommend this one.  My kids have enjoyed making shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child for several years now.  They each decorate a shoebox with wrapping paper (with help from Mom), pick an age/boy/girl and then we go shopping for lots of fun goodies for their "child".  I try really hard to think about what it is like to live in an impoverished Third World country and avoid anything that needs batteries or is trendy.  We try to stick to the fun basics, such as art supplies, balls, dolls, stickers, puzzles, as well as soap and toothpaste.  It's been a great experience for my kids for several reasons.  I take this opportunity to talk with them about how many, many children live without the basics and how we as Americans (generally speaking) are way too wrapped up in our stuff.  We have the Material World book and go through it and look at the poorer countries.  We don't do Santa Claus and we discuss again that he is not a real person, but he symbolizes doing good to others.  Then my kids get to "play" Santa Claus and give these shoeboxes to a child in need. This year went peacefully, but in years past it has been hard for my little ones to part with the treasure boxes.  They had to dig down into themselves and show a little sacrifice.  Anyway, if you are interested in knowing more, Operation Christmas Child is the week of November 12 this year and you can find out more HERE.


writing their letters to their "child"





Choosing for their "child" from the loot





Finishing up their boxes





Little Red Ridinghood wanted to do a baby girl so we made her box for a 2-4 year old.  The doll took up a lot of space in the box, but it will probably be well loved.  I was pleased that Little Red Ridinghood gave up the pretty new doll without trying to claim it for her own.





Goldilocks squeezed everything in for her 5 to 8 year old girl.  (The camera is a toy not real, as the child would have no way to get film or processing.)  I had to laugh because she liked how the box came out so much that she said, "I wish I had nothing so someone would give me a shoebox like this."  LOL!


Blessings,
Dawn

Our dirty laundry!

My kids love to do SOME of their chores.  Moving the laundry from the upstairs bathroom to the laundry room is their favorite chore.  Of course, it gets a little crazy when they are moving it. 

Step 1 ~ Dump the laundry out in the bathroom!

I love dd's face! She's thinking, "Is there nothing my Mom won't blog?!"

Step 2 ~ Throw it down the stairs and slide down the stairs on it.







Sometimes the laundry wins for a moment or two!



Step 3 ~ Get it to the laundry room any way you can!







Mommy's waiting ~ Where is that laundry?



This was not staged! This really is the way my kiddos do the laundry.  If you thought that was scary, you should see the way they mop floors.  LOL!

Blessings,
Dawn

Art I for the Big Teen ...

This entry is mostly for myself, but I thought it might interest those of you who have a teen or will soon.  I was thinking that having everything the big teen has done just in a lesson plan book that could be lost was not enough.  My son is not college bound at this time, so I am very concerned that his high school transcripts be complete.  For that reason, I will be posting what he has studied and the results of his classes here, just in case we ever lose any of the lesson plan books.  Of course, the books are more complete, but at least these will be a record of sorts.  It will probably take me a few weeks, but they will all be under the "high school transcript" category, if you are interested.



The big teen took Art I in the 10th grade.  He used the Meet the Masters program and several videos.  He went to our local art museum five times and had the opportunity to take a few photography classes.  He also did several crafts, including making jewelry out of forks, making paper, making soap and making gift cards.



He studied:

• Winslow Homer
• Leonardo da Vinci
• Goya
• Mondrian ~ did art project
• Mary Cassatt
• Georgia O'Keeffe ~ did art project
• Norman Rockwell
• Remington ~ did art project
• Edgar Degas ~ did art project
• Henri Matisse ~ did art project
• Frida Kahlo ~ did art project
• Andrew Wyeth ~ did art project
• Claude Monet
• Jackson Pollock ~ did art project
• Vincent van Gogh
• Rembrandt ~ did art project
• Toulouse-Lautrec ~ did art project

He received an A for this course, because he put his best effort into it and learned a great deal.  He completed all the course work and was able to answer all questions about the artists and compare and contrast them.

How to make an Apple Pie and see the world AND eat the earth!

We had a super time doing our FIAR book this week.  It was ~


What a fun book this was!  The little ones had a blast making the ingredients to go along with this book. First we made butter.





This proved to be a long undertaking.  First you shake the cream, then roll the the cream container across the room, then shake, then roll, shake, roll, shake, roll!  Okay, after about 45 minutes of this, we had something that looked like whip cream.  But no sign of whey and butter.  Because the kids and their Mom were impatient, we cheated and used the mixer, which made the cream separate quickly into whey and butter.  Then we washed the whey off the butter under very cold water.  The kids thought that was so much fun.





The butter was so good on homemade biscuits with homemade apple butter.


Next we made cinnamon.  We ground cinnamon sticks down.  The girls thought this was great and much easier than making butter.





We also attempted to evaporate salt water into salt, but we are still waiting to see some salt two days later.  I guess this should be done in sunny weather.


Of course, this book would not be complete without APPLE PIE!!! YUM. 





As if we did not have enough sweets with the pie, the big teen made a four layer edible Earth.  It consisted of an inner core made of gray ice cream with M&Ms, an outer core of caramel sauce, mantle made of rocky road ice cream and crust comprised of crushed cookies and green ice cream. 





Well, now that you all gained 5 pounds just reading this entry, feel free to go search your kitchens for something tasty to eat.


Blessings,
Dawn

Do you think we needed a new roof?!?

A few weeks ago, we had a leak in the roof.  We had the insurance man come out and check the roof to see if it had been caused by the windstorm a few weeks previously.  While he was checking the roof, his foot fell through.  YIKES!!  Unfortunately, he said the roof was just old so they weren't going to cover it.  SO now we had a hole in our roof and it wasn't covered.  DOUBLE YIIKES!   This past week we had a new roof put on and it looks great.  It is so nice to know we are safe under our sound, new roof.





This is not the job for me.  The kids couldn't get enough of watching the guys walking back and forth across the roof.  We were blessed that our elderly neighbor had used these roofers for several properties over the last 25 years and pointed us in their direction.  They were very prompt, kept a clean work site and all had very good manners.  This is them finishing off the top part. You can just barely see the blue tarp where the hole was.





See the size of that hole.  This is not what you want to see on your roof!  The hole was right over my laundry room. The crew put in new rafters.





This is not the best pic but the roof is all done and a lovely forest green.  Oh, and amazingly enough, they charged us exactly what the estimate was.  YAY!


Blessings,
Dawn