That's a Big Negative on the Dog Issue

Ella has been crying on and off all morning long. Want to see why?

Meet Rosey. The friendly neighborhood pest. She and her friends have wreaked havoc on my beautiful African Daisies.

Ella and her cousin Gabby adopted Rosey as a pet along with four other armyworms. They were named Pearl, Whurl, Curl and Swirl. This morning Ella found Whurl in a catatonic state and buried him whilst crying over the death of her precious pesty pet.I read up on armyworms and believe that he was about to pupate and be come a moth. Shhh, don't tell Ella she just killed her worm...caterpillar.

Anyway, I have broken the news to her that armyworms are pests and I will not allow them to kill my beautiful and very expensive garden that Mom and I worked so hard to put in. They must be exterminated. She is crying again and making headstones and writing letters to her caterpillar pests pets.

Yeah, I don't think I could handle a dog. She cried less when the fish died.

In Which I Do Something Pointless

I've seen this name game everywhere on Facebook and blogs. It looks fun, and I'm home with a fussy, fevery baby and a free hand, so here goes. I saw it most recently on Jenni's blog, by the way. Go check hers out - it's pretty funny.

• Rock Star Name: (1st Pet’s name & current car) ~ Peaches Odyssey
• Fly Guy/Girl Name: (1st initial + first 3 letters of your last name) ~ J-Tha (okay, that makes no sense at all!)
• Detective Name: (Fave color & fave animal) ~ Red Giraffe
• Soap Opera Name: (Middle name & city/town born in) ~ Marie Woodstock
• Star Wars Name: (First 3 letters of last name + first 2 of first name) ~ Thajo
• Superhero: (”The” & second fave color & fave drink) ~ The Blue Water
• Nascar Name: (1st names of grandfathers’) ~ Ralph Tully (that's a doozie!)
• Stripper Name: (Fave scent/perfume/cologne & fave candy) ~ True Love Chocolate
• Witness Protection Name: (Mom & Dad’s middle name) ~ Marie Stephen
• Weather Anchor Name: (5th grade teacher’s last name & a city which starts with the same letter) ~ Dagley Dallas
• Spy/Bond Name: (fave season/holiday & fave flower) ~ Spring Daisy
• Cartoon Name: (fave fruit & article of present clothing + “ie” or “y”) ~ Nectarine Shirty
• Hippy Name: (What you ate for breakfast & fave tree) ~ Strawberry Pine
  

I think I'll just stick with the name my parent's gave me. I think it's pretty great!

Roundabout

Aaron has started something new. Instead of saying something outright, he says it in a roundabout way that shows his logic and proves why what he has to say is important. For example, the other day in the car, he asked Jerry,

"Dad, are you going to drive carefully?"

Jerry responded, "Yes, I am going to drive carefully."

"Good," Aaron said, "because Grandma doesn't have her seatbelt on."

Now why didn't he just say, "Grandma doesn't have her seatbelt on!"?

Then yesterday he aske me,

"Mom, when you have a baby, do you forget things?"

"Well, yeah, you do get more forgetful when you have a baby." I
answered.

He responded, "Well, did you know you forgot...."

I'd finish the sentence, but I forget what it was that he told me I forgot!

Fambly

Gabby liked playing in the sprinklers
Rachel just can't take a bad photo

Gabriel hasn't changed much

I had to be sneaky to get Aiden's photo

Lily liked sharing her cookies with GG

Ella looks so funny reading the funnies

An Interesting Phenomenon

Gabriel is coming to stay at my house this weekend. As you may or may not know, my brother and I are not the best of friends. We're more like acquaintances. I think you could possibly say that I very well may know some bloggers - that I've never met before - as well as I know my brother. Sure, I know his history...I even share some of his history, but I don't know him. Which is a sad state of affairs if you ask me.

You know I get sweaty palms and all nervous whenever my parents hand me the phone to talk to him. I think it has to do with the fact that I disapprove of what he is doing in his life yet seriously abhor, like have a phobia of confrontation. I don't want to get into a fight, so I just don't talk to him at all. Which is another sad state of affairs.

Especially considering that at one point in our lives, Gabriel was my advocate, he took many a name calling (or worse) on my behalf. I can't figure out what happened (actually it's very complex), but he feels I became the good girl, the "favored" child and we've not gotten along ever since.

I can't help it if I learned from his mistakes. Sigh.

Anyway, he's coming to visit this weekend. I didn't really think all that much about it until today. My brother is coming over to MY HOUSE. He's never, ever done that before. True, this is the first official house we've ever had but he's never been to any of our previous apartments. We've always met up at his house (once) or my parents house (twice? I don't see him very often).

I got all paranoid. I made a HUGE list, two pages long, of things I want to clean, organize, straighten or otherwise make presentable.


How weird is that?

My brother with my niece, Gabby in September of 2006. This is the most recent photo I have of him although I did see him for Christmas in 2007. I can't find those pictures though.

How I Am Planning My School

The first year I was forced to make school plans I was terrified and I put it off and put it off until the very last second. I got it done just days before Lily was born. Okay, my mom got it done with me kicking and screaming, being dragged along behind just days before Lily was born. I was very intimidated.

Last year was better.

This year I’m downright excited. I’m not even done with school this year and I’m planning next year already. I’m excited about the curriculum we’re using. I am excited to learn Latin with Ella, I’m excited to learn piano with Ella, I’m excited to watch Rachel learn to read, and I’m excited to introduce Sarah to more complex math. Everything is exciting.

My advice to new homeschoolers: get curriculum you’re excited about. You’re enthusiasm will be contagious.

Okay, I’ll stop acting like I know everything (because I don’t) and move on to the facts. It seems like I’ve got a heavy schedule for Ella, but it’s not really that bad. The only things she will be doing daily are reading, grammar, math and Latin. The rest of the subjects will be just one or two times a week. I’ve found with history that I can accomplish it all in one day and then the rest of the week I can formulate a plan for a project that goes along with the history lesson. I’d like to try to get everything done in just four days so that Friday we can do “field trips.” This might be pushing it but I’m going to at least try.

My initial plans look like this. VERY subject to major tweaking.

Monday – spelling, reading, penmanship, grammar, Latin, math, writing, music
Tuesday - spelling, reading, grammar, Latin, math, science, history
Wednesday - spelling, reading, penmanship, grammar, Latin, math, writing, art
Thursday - reading, grammar, Latin, math, science, history
Friday – field trip or make up work

Spelling workout – 15 minutes, daily
Reading/making notebook page – 30 minutes, daily
Grammar – 20 to 30 minutes, daily
Writing – 20 to 30 minutes, 2x weekly (Ella only)
Math – 40 to 60 minutes, daily
History – 3 hours a week
Science – 60 to 90 minutes, 2x weekly
Latin – memorize vocab, study language daily (Ella only unless Sarah/Rachel want to)
Art – 1 hour, weekly
Music – 1 hour, weekly
Penmanship – 10 minutes, 2x weekly

I like the spelling book because I can easily divide it into three days. Each lesson has four pages. The first page is just reading a little blurb about something informative (frogs or kites for instance) and they highlight words that contain the spelling rule for the week. The back side of that page introduces the spelling words, rules and has an exercise in sorting the words according to the spelling rule/s in the lesson. I have them do that the first day. The next two pages are just more exercises in understanding the rule. I have them do one on each of the next two days. The last page also includes editing marks like the capitalization mark, etc., and a short essay for them to write using the spelling words.

Next year Ella will begin doing things more independently. Like history. So far I’ve been reading the history lesson to her and then asking her the questions orally. Next year she is going to read the history lesson herself and I will mix oral with written questions. They will do history at the same time only I’ll be reading the history orally to Sarah. I hope that this will cut down on the chaos. Sometimes this year it’s been nuts in the school room because I’ll be reading history or trying to do math with Ella while my mom is doing OPG with Sarah or her very own, innovative Kindergarten Potpourri. The curricula were so very different that we were very often competing for the kids’ attention. Since they will be doing history, art, music, grammar, science, math, penmanship and spelling at the same time I am hoping that there won’t be as much competition for air space, if you know what I mean. Hopefully all the training that’s gone into Ella will pay off next year in an independent learner.

I also plan to institute “quiet time.” For one hour starting this summer I am going to put all the kids down in a bed and they can either sleep or read. For Ella and Sarah this will be the “reading” portion of school. When they are done reading a book they will be drawing a picture and giving a synopsis of the book.

My school ROCKS y’all.

We’ll see how this turns out. The best laid school plans are often crushed by laziness and TOO MUCH BLOG READING.

Already Planning Next Year's School

Homeschool plans.

Ella – 3rd grade

Ella will be studying:
History – Story of the World, Part III (received)
Grammar – First Language Lessons, Part 3 (received)
Writing - Writing With Ease (shipped)
Spelling – Spelling Workout “D” (check)
Art – Drawing With Children by Mona Brookes and we will continue with the art appreciation lessons from ...what's their faces. I'll find 'em. Hold a sec. (ordered)
Bible – may do family bible study with the catechism
Piano – piano lessons, music appreciation in the form of Great Composers coloring book. We'll do one a week and listen to that particular composer via Pandora radio. (shipped)
Latin – Latina Christiana (shipped)
Cursive – Handwriting Without Tears (shipped)
Science – Using a text as a guide and looking for a creation science curriculum (suggestions?), also Adventures With Atoms and Molecules by Robert Mebane (shipped)
Math – Right Start Mathematics, level D (shipped)

Sarah – 1st grade

Sarah will be studying:
History – Story of the World, Part I (check)
Reading – Finish OPG if she’s not done this summer (check)
Grammar – First Language Lessons, Part 1 (check)
Spelling – Spelling Workout “A” (ordered)
Art – Drawing With Children by Mona Brookes (she'll do music appreciation with Ella)
Bible – may do family bible study with the catechism
Handwriting – Handwriting Without Tears (shipped)
Science – A Beka science and health (check)
Math – Right Start Mathematics, level B (check)

Rachel – Pre-K

I don’t really like to do all that much until they’re in kindergarten but Rachel will be doing:

Reading – Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading, as much as she is able or wants to. (check)
Handwriting – Handwriting Without Tears (shipped)
Art – whatever we feel like doing

Rachel really likes being involved in school. I didn’t do but 27 lessons of OPG with Sarah when she was 4 because that’s all she wanted to do. I have a feeling Rachel may want to do more as she loves being in the school with us and getting that attention. I only ordered the handwriting book for her because it’ll give her something that is “real school” to do during school. She really likes that stuff.

Total cost = $383.15

It sort of seems like a lot, but this is a complete curriculum for three grades and the vast majority of it I will use for four more kids.