Sleepover's and Geography

October 30, 2015

I am totally loving listening to my 7 year old teach his cousin who is also 7 all about US geography while they do a puzzle during a sleep over. From telling Iowa and Ohio apart to figuring out where Virginia is because we have family there or the exact spot of the 4 corners. I am so humbled by how much he has absorbed just by the family discussions we have had.

We absolutely love this puzzle.  It has been the best way to teach my kids their US states and capitals.  Even Jeremiah likes to try and help put it together and I can just predict that Kyrilene will too in a few years.

School Break and Now They Play School

October 30, 2015

I tell the kids we are taking a school break starting today until after we move and what do I find them doing this afternoon? Playing School of course. Maybe I should give them a break everyday. We might get more done. LOL!

My Daughter Has Bangs

October 23, 2015

After working at home with my ten year old daughter for the last two months of school this spring and starting homeschool again in August after summer break I realized something I found super interesting.  My sweet girl has bangs again.  Just a few weeks after withdrawing her from public school and beginning our journey learning together in April I noticed that she had super short spikes of hair all over the top of her head and especially right along the front where bangs would normally be.  Since she doesn’t like bangs and didn’t have any before I asked if she had cut her hair on her own.

Mortified she insisted that she had definitely not cut her hair and so we tried to figure out what was going on.  Eventually after quite a conversation we discovered this.  She had been so stressed out and frustrated at school that she had started pulling her own hair out one hair at time whenever she felt over-whelmed and stressed out.  This feeling had apparently been just about all the time from the damage I could see growing back.

Now after six and a half months doing school at home I can finally see that we have succeeded with this issue at least.  She is no longer stressed out and pulling her hair.  It’s growing back.  The top is long enough it blends in with the rest and you can’t tell it was ever super short and spikey.  And her bangs while they still annoy her, they also no longer embarrass her whenever we go anywhere because they are proper bang length.

This is just one more thing that confirms to me that we really were guided to this homeschool path in order to figure out what is best for my kids.  Because as much as I might have days where I am stressed and could say, you guys make me want to pull my hair out sometimes;  A child, especially a ten year old child should never have to be that stressed out.  Hopefully now she will learn better ways to handle stress than this and we can move forward from here.

Botanical Gardens and Butterflies

October 2015

Our field trip this month was to our local botanical gardens. It was a lovely day that was not too hot which is a blessing in the desert. 

They had an amazing nature Lego exhibit going on with giant Lego sculptures of birds, butterflies and other wildlife. Unfortunately for my children their mother was in charge of taking the photos and the Lego's were not what I took pictures of.

I took pictures of nature. My favorite part of the entire trip were the butterflies. They have a special section at the garden which is a tropical butterfly habitat. In one portion you get the chance to see different butterflies emerge from their chrysalis and in an portion you can walk through and admire the lovely tropical plants and actually see the butterflies they have up close. We spent quite a bit of time in this portion of the garden and poor Jeremiah freaked out when he even thought a butterfly might be getting remotely close to him. However, the one that landed on his brother was just fine to laugh about and look at.

The rest of our walking through the gardens was at least as eventful, because of the girls decided that one of the small cactus looked soft and fuzzy so she was going to pet it. I bet that you can guess how well that went. Her father and I spent at least 15 minutes if not longer careful picking out all the teeny tiny stickers. It was at that moment I decided that every mom needs to carry a roll of packing tape or duct tape in her purse at all times, because if I had had a roll we could have taped her hand and pulled out all the offending spines quite easily. Trust as a someone who grew up in the desert, this works on tiny cactus stickers, I know from personal experience.

The kids also got a kick out of the chickens we found in a pen in the back corner of the garden. Apparently they are kept to help keep mosquito's down and to help fertilize all the plants.

We ended the day with some very tired kids and a botched family photo. Poor Clarissa wanted nothing whatsoever to do with smiling for the camera. The expression on her face shows sheer torture and you would think we had been punishing her greatly by asking her to sit for five minutes and smile for the camera. Oh well I am sure that at some future time we will all get a kick out of the fact that she refused to smile right?

Our final stop was the gift shop where we bought each of the kids a t-shirt to remember to day. My personal favorite when it comes to things to buy because: hey it's clothes, they will wear them out, the shirt won't break in two seconds, and the designs are usually unique. We also bought a wooden art project for them. Each of the older three kids got a 3D wooden puzzle butterfly for paint or color and put together for art the next day and they didn't cost me any more then if I ordered them from Amazon so I was very pleased.

Over all a lovely trip and some beautiful pictures. I think I might just have to start a nature book of some kind to keep a record of all the fun animals and plants I find on our field trips.

A Spooky Cooking Club Delight

October 8, 2015

Well, we made it through the girl's first cooking club project. Even got both the girls treats done on time. The kitchen was a disaster and we were all covered in frosting and cheese but we made it. HAHA! Thought I would share the results. Green-eyed monster cupcakes and a Cheesenstein Cheese Ball.

The recipes came from a Taste of Home Holiday Magazine and the girls had a blast making them.  I admit it was a bit more stressful then fun for me.  But we divided and conquered.  While I helped Seriah with her cupcakes, her father helped Clarissa with her cheeseball.


And it was after this that I swore decorative holiday themed food belonged only in a test kitchen.  Baking like this is definitely not one of my talents.