After christmas clean up

House is actually pretty clean despite 3 christmas times this weekend. Kids are playing with new toys and watching videos today and I am trying to teach myself how to make bread without a bread machine( I really miss mine very much!!!!!) I am trying a no-knead recipe. Since the one Tippy-toe and I made the other way turned out like rocks LOL. Today is a vacation day from homeschooling. Little man has a bad cold and runny nose just like me. Dad is gone fishing.The kids new fish say its a good day to fish( up to the top of their tanks). Pityy-pat and tippy-toe got pet Beta fish for christmas. We hope to teach them responsibility and biology with the fish. Dad just likes the fishing barometer in the living room LOL.

Picture Day

Today we are taking school pictures. The kids have been making paper ornaments. We got a nice shepherd ornament from http://www.daniellesplace.com/images/shepherdboypat.gif

CHRISTmas program

Tonight was Cams christmas program it was wonderful! Both pittypat and tippytoe sat through the whole thing without incident. (just a little whining.) What a huge improvement!!! I am so lucky to have Aaron he took the littleman out when he couldn't sit still anymore and both bottles had run out. he's such a wonderful Daddy!

busy week

Aaron has been working with tippy-toe on his letters and he can now write 4 letters himself when asked. It's been busy here but I see such an improvement in both their behavior the skills, to sit and do school work will soon follow. Pitty-pat and big sis moved into to a bedroom suite downstairs putting beds in one rooom and making a playroom out of the other. It seems to be working out good. I just need to get the rest of Aimers things out of the playroom and clean up the mess she left down there. I am so lucky to have Aaron home with the kids.

Balancing Work and Homeschool

Yesterday I had to work and pull a night of call for work. I purchased some file folders and Disney Princess stickers and hope to get pitty-pat interested in a Act Like a True Princess LapBook using a Disney Princess theme. Last week we rented a non-animated version of snow white from the library. The girls are moving in together into their new big girl bedrooms. It is so nice to see them getting along and cooperating toward a common goal. It takes time to blend a family. It's good for pitty-pat and tippy-toe to be seperated too. The time has finaly come for that to happen. After all they were each others only constant for so long. For those of you who don't know I adopted two of my little cousins at ages 4 and 5 years old, then a year later I also adopted their one month old baby brother(hence the blended family).

Christmas is Here

Today we cleaned the living room to set up the Christmas tree. Worked in our Unit Study "The Mitten" by Jan Brett and Snow Unit Study with "Stopping by the Woods" by Robert Frost. We are moving toward a workbox system. Today the kids kept asking to do school work. They really like the cutting out activities for they're Lapbooks.It's the same work but the box system seems to make it more interesting right now. I tried to make student I.D. cards and Aaron installed a program on the computer to help me (but I need to learn how to use it). Right now Cam is working on homemade paper ornaments with Pitty-pat and Tippy-toe. Of course the lights didn't work when Cam tried them (before putting them on the tree), so Aaron and Tay went to buy a couple strands.
Aim moved out tonight. She's eightteen it's a hard lesson she has to learn and I am afraid she's not prepared for the consequences of her actions. She's been looking for a reason to get mad and leave. Today she was asked to pick up her stuff from the living room (she's been asked for over a week)and it was her day of the week to do dishes. (I guess she doesn't realize, when you live on your own it's dish day every day!) The irony goes on forever with that one. At least she finished one semester of college. She has the skills she needs to get a good education. I love her and I hate to see her get hurt. Well this isn't really a homeschool entry so I will end it here.

Winter Wonderland

It was a bad storm last night and today. I stayed home from work. No school for the oldest kids. We all got up and cleaned the house for three hours. The kids got out to play in the snow and make a snowman. Aaron and I made a run to Dollar Daze, a store and found a lot of neat things to fill a couple of workboxes. Wipe off addition books, wipe off subtraction book, phonics workbooks, princess +/- flash cards, and colored dice for addition games. All for just $1.00 each. Hooray. Indoors today they have both played Leapster Kindergarten (don't tell them it's a learning tool). Jon had destroyed his power cord over six months ago and they were without the Leapster till just last Friday. Mostly they are fighting at the table instead of working on their lapbooks. Tonight Aaron bought ornaments to decorate with stickers and everyone is going to make one--EVERYONE even the surly teenagers! Taylor made one and headed to the basement but everyone else really enjoyed the activity. Now to put up the tree.

Snow Flakes

Reading "Stopping By the Woods On A Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost Illustrated by Susan Jeffers It's December in the great North and I am sitting here still waiting for snow outdoors to go with my unit study LOL!We are using the lap book ideas from Homeschoolshare.com I am new to Lapbooking and this website has alot of neat ideas.
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening


Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village, though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.



My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.



He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound’s the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.



The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.
I had always heard the last two lines of the poem and never knew they were from Robert Frost. My favorite poem is The Road Not Taken.

winter wonderland

Big snow is coming tommorro. Set up a snow unit study for little ones.

Girls Home From Craft Store

Aaron and the two youngest girls are home from the craft store. A Great field trip to get homeschool supplies. They are all three Cam, Liz, and Jon busy coloring the posters they bought. Aaron picked up some stickers and foamies for some ideas I wanted to do. Baked spagetti is done. The bread Jon and I made earlier is on its last rising before baking so it should all time out.

Baking Bread with JonBoy

Today Jon and I are baking bread. He was so amazed with the yeast when it bubbled over the measureing cup. Let's forget when I let the milk on to scald and it went over the pan while I was giving little man a cracker. Jon likes it when I let him help me in the kitchen. He is doing a kindergarden program on his leapster. The time for the bread to rise is flying by for him since he has been without a powercord for his leapster for about eight months now. This is only my third or fourth time trying to make bread without a breadmachine. I hope it turns out for him. I read an article this morning while looking for homeschool ideas and thought since the girls are gone with Aaron I would try the recipe with Jon. Little Man has fallen asleep in his giant play yard and our cat tiger is curled up with him. I will try to post some photos. I plan to use this blog to record our home school activities for our first year. I am not using a planner but have some unit studies I have put together into lapbooks. We use workbooks we have found and printouts for our math concepts. We are checking out most of our books we don't already own from the local library. this week we read The Mitten a folk tale illustrated by Jan Brett. We used the lapbook ideas from homeschool share and jan bretts web page to make our lap books. We are also reading M is for Mitten by Annie Appleford since we do live in the mitten state...Michigan.

New To blogging

We are planning to use this blog to record what we actually do for our home school with the little kids day to day. I am not much for record books and papers will fill waste baskets fast around here. So this will be a more accurate lasting record.