The End of Week 1

I am happy to report that our week ended a lot better than it began. We actually only do "school" 4 days a week, leaving Friday to run errands and play at the park with some friends. I already posted our Monday morning project and our PE activities for this week. For Bible we are reading through the new testament and read about the births of John and Jesus. we didn't have a memory verse for this week. Instead we went over some of the verses we memorized last year to see how many we remembered. For History Chelsea is reading about creation and the beginning of the world. Music time was spent practicing her Clarinet and she picked up in her Math book where she left off in June and we did not have to do any review. Her science this week was on planet Earth and she made an illustration for her notebook about Earth and an advertisement trying to "sell" someone to want to live here. For our Read Aloud we are reading The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien (just a chapter a day those chapters are pretty long.)

Nick's Five in a Row book for this week was the Glorious flight Across the Channel with Louis Bleriot by Alice and Martin Provensen. For Geography we talked about he locations of France and England and the English Channel and made a flag of France. For Language arts we talked about onomatopoeia (the kids love that word.) We had to take off a day due to a very upset stomach (you don't want the details.) We learned about he process of inventing and flying for Science and got to try our hands at both designing and flying paper airplanes. Nick picked up where we left off in his Handwriting Without Tears Book and his Math. Alex practiced his letters and played his "learning game" on the computer for his schoolwork this week. All in all it was a very productive week.

They'll Do It When They're Ready

When I first became a mom I was very worried about the milestones in my children's life and if they were doing them at the appropriate time. Everything from crawling, walking, talking, potty training, reading ect... could be compared to what a book said was appropriate or what a playmate was already doing. Luckily the more children we have had the more relaxed I have become, and have realized most of the time when a child is ready to do something they do it. From time to time you still wonder....Shouldn't he be doing that by now?

Nick got a Spider man bike with training wheels for his third birthday. That bike has sat for three and a half years. He was afraid to ride it and was much more comfortable on his Big Wheel. Yesterday he asked me if I could adjust the seat on his bike for him. I have to admit I am not very handy with tools and told Nick to ask daddy when he got home from work. I was out of he house last night for an Usborne Book Party, and when I got home I heard all about how Nick and Alex had not only been riding the bike, they were riding without the training wheels. What a big day! Today they were out there practicing again and even though they are a little wobbly they are doing great. I guess Nick decided he was finally ready to ride his bike. Now we are going to have to get one for Alex too so they can ride them together.

First Day of School!

This morning I thought when I wrote this blog it was going to be about how wonderful our first day back to school was. this was not to be. Our day was full of bickering, whining, and back talk. I am hoping that in a few days we will be back in the swing of things and life will get back to normal. I know that every day is not going to be wonderful when you are raising and homeschooling five children. I do have to admit today was a bit discouraging, but tomorrow will definitely be better.

The pictures were of some of our better moments.

Our Monday morning project was painting. Nick grabbed the Usborne Big Book of things to Make and Do and chose a scarecrow painting. All of the children had a great time painting (even Christian who grabbed a paint brush and started painting like he knew just what he was doing.) I love to see how each child puts him or herself into their art work to make each one unique.

For PE today we were working on Soccer skills. Nick, Alex, and Chelsea are playing soccer this year and getting very excited so we played a little bit of soccer today. Alex and Anthony also went to work on their batting skills.

A Child's Imagination

Often in today's society, people believe that children have to have a lot of "stuff" in order to keep busy. There are toys of every shape, size, and color. There all kinds of hand-held electronic devices and televisions for the car. Every moment of children's days are scheduled to ensure they have something to do all of the time. I am not just saying other people, we are guilty of some of these things too. I was very happy to see that Alex after being inspired by some friends at the park on Friday, spent his Saturday afternoon building this "fort " out of sticks in the backyard. (Daddy did help him carry the big sticks over.) Upon completion of the "fort" the boys spent all afternoon playing in it. They were explorers, fisherman, campers, and superheroes all in one day. What a great way to use their imagination and have a wonderful afternoon of fun.

Our Curriculum

Since Anthony seems to be on the mend, (he is doing fairly well during the day but still having a hard time at night) I have decided we are going to start our school work back up on Monday morning. The last couple of days have been rainy and the children have been very bored, but between the sleep deprivation and having to take care of Anthony I just could not get anything together for them this week. This is what we are starting out the school year with:

Alex (pre-k) Ergermeier's Story Book Bible, Five in a Row (what he wants to do) and Letter Writing Practice. If he shows an interest later in the year I will start him on Math-U-See Primer.

Nick (1st grade)- Ergermeirer's Story Book Bible, Handwriting Without Tears, Five in a Row, and Math-U-See Alpha.

Chelsea (6th grade)- Elsie's Life Lessons Walking in the Fruit of the Spirit (Bible Study based on the Elsie Dinsmore series of books), All Through the Ages, (History- we are starting with Creation) Apologia Science Exploring Creation Through Astronomy, Math-U-See Epsilon, Creative Writing (I am not using a curriculum for this.)

All of the children will be doing Art and Music together.

The County Fair

The County Fair was last week. It usually isn't until the first week of September, but apparently the carnival rides were not available that week so it had to be scheduled earlier. There was a lot of concern about the weather (who is going to want to go to the fair when it is 102 degrees outside) but we had some rain that cooled it off enough to make it bearable. We took the children's stuff up there on Monday, went back to check on the chickens Tuesday and Wednesday, and Thursday mom and dad took Chelsea, Nick, Alex, and Christian to ride the rides while we were at the hospital. Saturday night Art got to go at 9:00 pm and clean up after the chickens and bring them home. Nick won a blue ribbon for his chickens and a red ribbon for his butterfly magnet. Chelsea won a red ribbon for her chickens and a red ribbon for her apron. Alex won a red ribbon for his butterfly magnet (you have to be 5 to enter chickens.) The children were very excited about their ribbons and have already started thinking about what they are going to make to put in the fair next year.

Anthony

I am so glad this day is over because it has been a very hard day. Anthony did very well during and after his surgery. A lot of times when children with OSA have their tonsils and adenoids removed they develop breathing problems and have to be put on oxygen, but luckily Anthony did not have any breathing problems. He slept after his surgery until 6:00 Friday night. Then he ate 3 Popsicles, had some juice, and watched a movie. By 9:00 he was back asleep and had a great night although we did wake him during the night when it was time for his medicine. He did great Friday morning and really wanted his IV out (he tried several times to take it out) and when I told him if he finished his juice he could have it out, he drank it right down. The nurse said she wished all of her patients were that easy. They discharged him and he did great on Friday taking his medicine and taking in fluids. He even ate a little. Then today began. I woke him during the night for medicine so he wouldn't be in too much pain when he go up this morning. At 5:30 am he woke and it was time for medicine again. Unfortunately he didn't cooperate very well and I had to hold him down to get him to take it. Then he was refusing to drink anything. The hospital told me he had to take in at least 6 oz of fluids every 4 hours to prevent dehydration and he had 2 oz in 7 hours and all he wanted to do was sleep. Again we had to hold him down in order to take his medicine and I ended up wearing most of it anyway. My mom (who is an RN) suggested we switch him to regular Tylenol instead of the Tylenol with Codeine that the doctor prescribed. She said sometimes it can give you an upset stomach and maybe that is why he wouldn't drink anything. Two hours after we did that he was much better. He drank his juice and had a little bit of Jell-O. Then he had some ice-cream this evening and took the Tylenol with no problem (thank you God, I was starting to feel like the worst mother in the world) and he even felt well enough to play with his puzzles. I have heard that day 3 after surgery is the hardest so I am hoping and praying that tomorrow will be a better day for my little Sweet Pea.

Anthony's Surgery

Anthony's surgery is scheduled for 9:30 am tomorrow. We have to have him there by 7:30, so we get to leave by 5:30. He has to stay in the hospital for 24 hours under observation, and then if he is doing well we can bring him home. Please pray for him and a speedy recovery. Thanks!

Just a Reminder

If you Homeschool in the state of Arkansas, your Notice of Intent and Homeschool Waiver must be received by your local Superintendent by Friday August 15th. You can go by the School Board office and pick one up, or go to www.arkansashomeschool.org to print a copy. I just mailed mine in yesterday, and several ladies from our homeschool group had not done theirs yet either (that made me feel a little better about procrastinating.)

Hard at Work

Chelsea's 4-H Club decided they were going to make aprons to enter in this year's County Fair. The club worked on them during their July meeting, but Chelsea was out of town and missed it. So yesterday she spent about an hour and a half cutting and sewing her apron. We had to have it turned in by today so it can be judged tomorrow. Our chickens also have to be at the Fair by 7:30 tonight. It is pouring down rain and I am sure we are going to have a great time catching wet chickens. That is going to be some hard work.

Fun at Chuck E Cheese

The day before we lest my parents house, (Thursday) it was raining. Not just a little rain, but buckets and buckets of rain. We decided to load the children into the truck and head to Chuck E Cheese. They had a great time of course. Anthony and Christian loved the play area and the stage show. They also liked the ride on toys, but they just wanted to sit on them and not actually make them move. This worked out really well for Nick, Chelsea, and Alex because they got to have more tokens to play with. It didn't take very long for the three of them to go through 100 tokens and everyone was worn out by the time we got back to the house.

Shopping

We spent yesterday afternoon shopping. First, we went to Kohl's. I LOVE Kohl's! I go at least a couple of times a year at the end of summer and around Christmas to stock up on their clearance items. Right now they have their summer clothes 50-80% off. Yesterday the also had an extra 15% off for senior citizens (which my dad is and happened to take us shopping.) We got some great deals: $2 outfits for Christian, $3 T-shirts for the boys, and Chelsea got a beautiful summer dress originally $50 and we paid $10. It was a very productive shopping trip. Next we went to Hobby Lobby to buy Watercolor Paints. With our 40 % Internet coupons they were only $1.63 each. Then we headed next door to Office Depot to pick up some .05 crayons, .01 rulers, .25 pens, and .01 pencil sharpeners, but they were out of everything I was looking for. Oh well, we had a good shopping day anyway and the children were very well behaved.

Tasty Tuesday:Hearty Chicken and Noodle Casserole

My dad made this for dinner last night and it was wonderful.

1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 C milk
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 cup frozen mixed vegetables
2 cups cubed cooked chicken
2 cups egg noodles cooked and drained
1/2 cup shredded cheese

Stir milk, soup, pepper, Parmesan cheese, vegetables, chicken and noodles in 1 1/2 quart dish. bake at 400 for 25 minutes or until hot. Stir. Top with cheddar cheese.

Serves 4.

Noah The Musical

We are spending the week with my parents, and Saturday we had the opportunity to head up to the Sights and Sounds Theatre in Branson MO to see Noah the Musical. The Sight and Sound Theatre is the nation's largest Christian theatrical company. The first theatre was in Strasburg Pennsylvania and now they have expanded to Branson, MO. The theatre was absolutely beautiful with seating for about 2000 people and it was a wonderful show that the whole family enjoyed (ages 1 to 63.) It was a 2 hour long show with a short intermission ( Well it was supposed to be. We sat through a 50 minute power outage 30 minutes of it in the pitch black dark. It was a great time for Anthony and Christian to have a nap and made the show that much more memorable.) You felt just like you are sitting right inside the 40 foot high Ark and are surrounded by 300 live and animatronic animals. The musical tells the story of Noah and his family enduring persecution and ridicule to obey the call of God. A bit of artistic license was taken to tell the story, there are things that could have happened but are not in the Bible and they do announce that at the beginning of the show. For more information on the Sight and Sound theatre go to www.sight-sound.com