Confessions

1. Soccer is sucking the life out of me. Don't get me wrong - I love watching my kids do just about anything. But 2 practices a week and 3-4 games on the weekend? Give me a break! Have mercy! I have 900 loads of laundry waiting for me at home.

2. I'm exhausted. I can't seem to make it to bed before midnight - until last night, that is. I crashed around 9 and slept til 8 this morning. Hallelujah, I'm a new woman!

3. School is going well. It's been a bit of a bumpy start and it's easy to let things jolt us off course sometimes. But for the most part, we're accomplishing a lot every day in the classroom. I guess that makes up for those days we've missed entirely?

4. I have so many projects going, I don't know what to do. A quilt, some crochet work, ideas for crafty Christmas gifts swimming around in my cranium. I can't seem to grab hold of any one thing and nail it down long enough to make real progress.

5. I cannot, cannot, cannot survive without coffee.

6. I do realize this blog is me-centric and most of you really just want to see pictures of my children. I'm sorry for that. I'll do better next time - maybe.

7. I have things that await my attention, not the least of which is the laundry I mentioned before. I better get off this thing before life passes me by.

Kid Quips

This morning, during school.

Me: So Kole, can you answer a few questions for me?

Kole: Sure, Mom.

Me: Does the place where Daddy works provide goods or services?

Kole: Services.

Me: What about the grocery store?

Kole: Goods.

Me: What about the chiropractor?

Kole: Services. He does bone-popping.

Me: Very good. What about Dr. Hisel's office?

Kole: Goods AND services. You get a lollipop after a shot.

I love the 7 year old male brain.

For the Undecided Voter

“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.”

Hello? **tap tap** Is this thing on?

Seriously... Is this U.S., as in "Us", or what?

This fabulous quote came from Townhall.com, in an article entitled "For the Undecided Voter." It's a treasure trove of information. And, decidedly conservative. But also - makes ya think. That's a good thing, last time I checked.

Go check it out. Like, uh, now.

Just In Case...

...I've fooled you into thinking that every day as a homeschooling parent is filled with idyllic settings and perfect behavior, let me tell you right now that it's definitely NOT. It's definitely real, it's definitely hard, and it's definitely just like the rest of life. Bumps, trials, tribulations, and challenges abound - in many more forms than before.

Along with the challenges and trying times, come the days where we accomplish sweet victory over some daunting bit of academia. A perfect example was Wednesday of this week. Oddly enough, though they are in 2nd and 4th grade, Kole and Riley both were studying fractions in mathematics. We had worked on several cooking projects before with lengthy discussions about fractions, but I don't think it really clicked with Kole until Wednesday.

He was having difficulty understanding what the problems were even asking him to do, so we pulled out our brand new set of Expo markers and set our sights on conquering the fractious little boogers in his math book. Heavily armed with lots of determination, we attacked viciously. And after just a few rounds of drawing shapes, dividing them into the appropriate number of sections, shading this part or that and determining what the respective values of the shaded versus the unshaded parts were, he got it! He really got it!

It was one of those things that happens unexpectedly and makes me realize that what I'm doing really is worth it. I'm putting this on digital "paper" so to speak, to remind myself that we have had some positive things happen this week. Yesterday was one of those days that made me forget. Now I remember, so thanks for listening. You're such a good friend!

A Review

Category: Books
Genre: Childrens Books
Author: Mead Writing Fundamentals
My sweet friend, Jenny, a fellow SAHM and homeschooler as well, recently introduced me to Mead's Writing Fundamentals Series. The products are top-notch in both presentation and content, in my humble opinion.

The first book we started with this week is called "Snip It!". It's chock full of snipping and cutting activities intended to develop preschoolers' fine motor skills by training them in scissor skills, eye-hand coordination, introducing pre-writing shapes, adherence to visual boundaries, construction skills for pre-writing, and paper stabilization.

The parent note on the inside cover states: "Writing Fundamentals by MEAD make it easy for you to provide your children with engaging fine motor activities to develop the skills necessary to become successful writers."

That's all well and good and sounds profoundly professional, but the bottom line for me is this: until now, my 4 year old hated trying to use the scissors at all. Now, he enthusiastically approaches his work and is so proud of his accomplishments that my little Mommy heart fairly bursts with excitement over this little book.

The second book we've worked with is called Shape Builders. Also intended for fine motor development, Shape Builders Stencil Kit "is a fun and rewarding way to introduce the essential skills of forming pre-writing shapes while developing pencil control, sequencing, paper stabilization and the construction skills needed for letter formation."

What it boils down to is a nice, sturdy stencil with several basic shapes that allow the child to find the shapes needed to build the picture, and construct a picture based on the easy visual instructions provided. Nathan loves this one too and is definitely increasing in confidence with each exercise. He really feels proud of himself when he sees what he's made. This product is SO completely complete - excuse my redundancy - that the stencil even has little rubber gripper Helping Hands to show the child where to hold the stencil to stabilize it. Love it, love it, Looooooove it!!

Long Awaited Visitors

This week has been SO great !!! We have been waiting since before school even started for this week to arrive. Our dear friends from out of state that are homeschooling for the first time this year just like us came to Texas for a week long visit. And we have had so much fun - plus done a little learning too

We have had something exciting to do each day this week, and it culminated yesterday afternoon in little Nate being completely tuckered out. More to come on our adventures from the week.....

For now, I'm going to try to get him to shut his little eyelids like he did yesterday on the way home from the park. Happy Thursday