My Week-end Project

I have wonderful friends who, as their children out their clothing pass them on to us (especially boys clothing.) Me, not being the most organized person in the world, when the clothes are out of season or not the right size to fit one of the boys, put them in the closet. The boys, have also been taking clothes they are out growing and throwing them in the closet until the pile of clothes in there were out of control. Since it was raining and cold on Saturday, I decided it was a good time to clean out the closet. I went to Dollar General and bought 3 large totes (I had one) and 10 packs of hangers. I went right to work as soon as I got home sorting clothing. Anything too small for Christian got put in a bag to give away, and anything that was stained and torn got put in a bag for Art to use in the shop. Then I split everything up by size to put in the totes, saving the hangers for nice shirts and jackets. Needless to say it took longer than a week-end to complete the job. I did finally finish it up today and must say that it is much better. I am one step closer to being a little more organized.

It's Not Bribery....Positive Reinforcement

Friday is our errand day. Most Fridays we get to break it up with some playtime at the park with friends. Today was not the case. We didn't have many errands, but we did have to spend quite some time in the van, and the weather was not great so we could not go to the park. Our errands went great but we still had Walmart to tackle and the little ones were getting tired. I told the children if they could make it through Walmart without fighting, touching anything, or asking for anything, they would get a chocolate bar after we got back to the van. I also told them they wouldn't want to be the only one who did not get to have one. All went well and everyone earned a chocolate bar (even me.)

Our Homeschool Schedule

I am a pretty flexible person, but we do try to stay in a routine. We do "school" 4 days a week Mon-Thurs and take Fridays off for errands and playtime at the park. If we have something important to do during a "school " day we may take either the morning or afternoon off to take care of it and try to fit in our work when we can. If we have a fieldtrip or co-op planned we take the whole day off of school.
Our schedule is something like this:
7:00-8:00 breakfast
8:00-9:30 clean-up, morning chores, dressed and ready for the day
9:30-11:00 Bible, Art (for everyone) Science, History, and Chapter Book read-aloud with Nick, Chelsea works independently
11-11:30 Lunch
11:30-12:30 recess, constructive free time
12:30-2:00 Naptime for little ones. I work with Alex on phonics/reading, Math, Science . Nick works independently on Math, Spelling Language Arts, Reading, and Handwriting. Chelsea completes her individual work and I read aloud to her and go over anything she has questions on.
2:00-3:30 TV/video game time if work is complete (30 minutes per person)
3:30-5:00 outside time (hopefully or playroom if weather is bad)
5:00-8:00 supper, evening chores, baths, bedtime stories, bed for all children but Chelsea who reads quietly in her room until 9:3o

Review: Little House on the Prairie the Musical

We loved this show! It was the first time we had ever been to the Walton Arts Center. The theatre was very nice and ever seat had an excellent view of the stage. Chelsea was very surprised and excited when she found out what we were seeing. The show was very well done. i believe Laura Ingalls Wilder herself would be impressed at the new way her story continues to live on. The music was great and the characters were portrayed very well. Melissa Gilbert did an excellent job as Ma Ingalls and the actors playing Laura, Almanzo, and Nellie were wonderful also.It was a little long. Including a 20 minute intermission we were there about 3 hours. I would definitely recommend it and would love to see it again.

Little House on the Prairie the Musical

Why did I decide to travel during the week of the coldest temperatures I can ever remember since I left NY? Some of you may remember how much Chelsea loves Little House on the Prairie. I really enjoyed the books as a child and then spent a whole year with Chelsea studying Laura Ingalls Wilder's books, reading her biographies, and even taking a field trip to her home and museum in Mansfield MO. Then, a few months ago I heard that they had made a musical and it was starring Melissa Gilbert (who played Laura on the TV series) as Ma Ingalls. The closest show to us would have been Little Rock, but it only ran for 2 days on a week night for a 7pm show. With a 2 hour drive each way I knew it would be next to impossible to make it. The ticket prices really finalized the decision for me. The cheapest seats available were $118 a piece. So then I checked to see where else it was playing in Arkansas and found out it would be in Fayetteville the first week of January, there was a 2 o clock Saturday show, and the good seats were only $58 dollars a piece. I called my mom to see if she would be interested in going and we decided to make it a girl's day out. My dad volunteered to babysit the boys. Chelsea doesn't know about it yet. I think she will be very surprised.

It's Freezing!

The children and I headed to Springdale yesterday to spend a few days with my parents and the grils will be attending a musical on Saturday (more on that later.) I cannot believe how cold it is! We are supposed to get down to -2 tonight and there is snow on the ground. As long as I have lived in Arkansas we have never been this cold. It is going to be very challenging to keep the children busy when we can't spend much time outside. I'm already breaking out the board games and it is only 8:20 am.

I'm Back!

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I have been unable to blog for quite some time due to computer/internet problems, but now have a new laptop and an internet connection. I have missed blogging and am hoping to get back to it and blog at least three days a week. The end of 2009 was quite busy and I am sure that 2010 will be filled with lots of excitement (how could life with six kids be any different?) I thought I would post a recent picture of us picking out our Christmas Tree this year so you can see how much the children have grown in the last few months and then I will plan on starting off the first week of the new year blogging again.