As anybody can clearly see, Brandi and I haven't made much  headway in keeping this blog updated. We have many good reasons and time consuming activities that have wholly consumed all available time between the two of us.Last time we posted (aside from Christmas wishes) was May of 2012. A full year later, and some things have changed, and some have stayed the same. We are both finished with another year of schooling, and Brandi has been inducted into an honor society as well.

"Almost, Maine" set

Promotional poster

Princesses, a tiger, & Zombies!

"If I only had a brain..."

I have helped build the sets for "Dirty, Rotten Scoundrels," "Almost, Maine," and "Women of Lockerbie," all presented by Clark State Community College in Springfield, OH. I have had two good semesters, grade-wise, including a 4.0 this Spring. Brandi has just finished running a gauntlet of 20 credit hours of classes in one semester, and so far has another very respectable GPA. As we sit here resting before the next sprint, we are trying to evaluate our effectiveness as parents, homeschoolers, students, homeowners, etc. etc. As wild as this is right now, it will eventually be worth it. As for right now, our schooling has presented us with some unique opportunities for homeschooling. These included getting to see theatrical light shows and being human canvases for a makeup class. The girls loved getting dolled up, and the other students enjoyed working with them. The boys, however, made the best of the opportunity by asking to be turned into "zombies." I've learned a great deal more about theatre than I ever thought possible in such a short time including both on and offstage aspects as well as history and future. We are quite excited about our future with these degrees which we should finish in Spring of 2014.

Um . . . Spring Break?

I'm halfway through my first semester back at college.  I am now officially on spring break.  Sort of.  I have so much to catch up around the house and so much schoolwork to do over break that it won't seem like much of a break.

 In fact, I also plan to get some jammed packed days of homeschooling done with the kids.  I did that last fall in anticipation of going back to school and it worked out well.  We're still on target for finishing our required amount of school time! 

So, now I go to jump neck deep into writing outlines, writing papers, and lesson planning.  Oh, yeah.  I need to clean too!  I'll write more, if I get a chance to come up for air.

Have a great day!

Almost Done?

Jon, the boys, and I have been fighting off some type of cold or flu the last few days. The girls have been a little testy, but they haven't acquired the fever. I wasn't as bad off as Jon, so I've been the one to run the errands and get the girls to where they need to go. Hopefully, we are on the mend and no one else gets sick.

I was concerned that we might be getting behind on school days, since we took off a few unexpected sick days. So, today I checked our day counts and found that we had done enough extra days this year to make up for the missed days/hours. I can rest easy!

Mondays

Well, I was going to illustrate this post with a bunch of pictures. Apparently, I won't be doing that, because my pictures won't load to the blog. Anyway . . .

Jon has Mondays off work, so for now, Mondays are our field trip and special classes days. This past Monday, we packed our lunches and walked downtown. We ate at a picnic table in the shade of the Town Hall building. After lunch, we had the kids spread out over the courtyard to draw/sketch. The directions I gave the kids were:

1. You can go anywhere in the courtyard.
2. You can lay on your belly, lay on your back, sit, stand, or whatever you want to do.
3. Choose something you like and draw it.

Some chose to draw a fountain or fountains, one included a sibling in her drawing, some chose to draw plants, one drew a horse she saw in the clouds, and one drew three pictures. Most sat up to draw, but one drew while laying on her back. They were all intense. We are getting ready to start an art class together. Our plans are to return to the same place in the Spring and see how much their drawing improves.

We stopped by the library on our way home and checked out and reserved some books we needed for school.

Next Monday we will head to my sister's home for her annual Labor Day cookout.

I Have a Busy Day Tomorrow

I already had tomorrow roughly planned out, then something came up. I changed my plans around only to realize that the event that will take us out of the house will not just change how we do school. I had plans of making bread tomorrow. We're out. My lunch plans were dependent on me being home to mess with the bread. We can't eat out. Jon also will need a work lunch. I've got eight pounds of burger in my fridge that I need to do something with. I was going to make meatloaf for tomorrow and brown some. Hmm...pardon me while I think on here. A list, I need a list!

To do before 10:00am

1. Devotions (These will be a must!)
2. Start the bread. Hmm...maybe I'll start this tonight!
   
3. Get ready for the day.
4. Check the dough. Punch it down. Shape it and get it into pans.
   
5. Make sure the children are up and getting ready and feed the pets.
   
6. Fix and eat breakfast (oatmeal and yogurt?).
7. Bake the bread.
8. Make meatloaf with potatoes and carrots around it.
9. Get the bread out. Make sure to put it in the cabinet after it cools a little, so the pets don't help themselves to a treat.
10. Put the meatloaf in the oven at a cooler temperature than normal (300 d. ?).
11. Get together the children's assignments.
12. Clean the kitchen.
    

10:00 am - ?

1. Head out with the children and some of their assignments.
2. Reach our destination and start the children on their school work.
3. Do what it is that I need to do (the something that came up).
4. Call Jon to have him check the meat loaf? I don't want to wake him too early.
5. Come home.
6. Finish fixing lunch and Jon's work lunch.
   
7. Eat lunch by 2:00 pm.

2:30 - ?

1. Jon goes to work. The rest of us take a rest time?
2. Chores
3. Finish school.
4. I guess we'll have to eat supper sometime. Which means I'll have to fix it. Pizza might be quick and easy.
5. Brown the ground beef while supper is baking/cooking.
   

I really hope I have a couple of good helpers ready early! I'm going to need all the help I can get in the morning!

I'd better get started on that list since it's after 12 am already. I'll have to get some sleep sometime soon.

Thanks for putting up with my ramblings.

Please pray for me if you feel so led. My attitude about tomorrow is not what it should be. Thank you!

School Isn't Starting Until Wednesday

I had every intention of starting school tomorrow. Then, I went to my sleep consultation appointment. I had to wait a month and a half to get in for the consultation. So, I expected that I would still have quite a bit of waiting in my future. The doctor set up a sleep study and nap study for tomorrow and Tuesday! I go in tomorrow night at eight and don't get done until Tuesday afternoon at four. So, school isn't starting until Wednesday. I guess we'll be doing Saturday school to stay on schedule.

Crunch Time

August is always a busy month for us, but this August seems even more busy than usual.

Next month, we are hosting our Life Group (small group from church) and we still haven't finished our living room. So, along with everything else, we still have to finish the living room. The living room furniture is in the boys' room and our dining room, so really we have at least three rooms to finish.

We just got accustomed to our new, later schedule. Then on Saturday morning Jon called work to see if he could start early to make it easier to do traffic duty at church the next day. Instead of having him start early, they had him switch to third shift for the week. For the week! There went our schedule! However, God always provides. Mr. M. went home that afternoon. Jon is on third this week which makes him available for the visitation and funeral. There is also a rumor at Jon's workplace that they will have a new schedule bid soon. I have no idea what our regular schedule will be now.

So here's a glimpse of today and the next thirteen days:

Aug. 11 - We have to get the younger two girls home from my sister's (South of here) and the boys from my parents' (North of here). Jon has a Stage Right (drama ministry) meeting. Jon works.

Aug. 12 - Mr. M.'s visitation is from 2-4 and 6-8. We figured we would go during the earlier time, since we can. However, Puppy Dog has a dentist appointment at 2:30 in Urbana. Jon's mom also has surgery on this day. Jon works.

Aug. 13 - Mr. M.'s funeral at 10:30 AM, my grandmother's birthday, our fifteenth anniversary, and Kitty Kat's thirteenth birthday Jon's mom has a Dr. appt. and may need a ride?

Aug. 14 - Jon has a chiropractor appointment.

Aug. 15 - Jon goes back on second shift. Jon works.

Aug. 16 - We will probably have to go to all three services at church, if Jon is in a skit. Jon works.

Aug. 17 - Jon works.

Aug. 18 - I have a sleep study consultation at 8:45 AM. Jon works.

Aug. 19 - Jon has a dentist appointment at 4(?) We have a combined birthday party with our Life Group for the whole family at Young's Jersey Dairy. Jon's niece's birthday (15).

Aug. 20 - Jon's younger brother's anniversary (10th).

Aug. 21 - party for the above anniv. ? It may be moved to the 22nd.

Aug. 22 - Puppy Dog's seventh birthday. Jon works (?).

Aug. 23 - Birdie's eleventh birthday, church, and I think this is my week for nursery duty (if so, we attend all three services). Jon works (?). **I have a Sonflower Scouts leaders' meeting at 3PM.

Aug. 24 - first day of school, Jon's niece's birthday (3?)

Those are just the events we have written down on our calendar. I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

I'd better get to work!


**edited after receiving an e-mail.

A New Schedule

Our "normal" schedule just wasn't working very well. It didn't work well during the school year. It hasn't really worked for us this Summer. So, after finding out that Jon wouldn't be going back on first shift, I decided to try a new schedule. First shift people will probably think we're insane. We might just be.

So here's the tentative schedule:

9:00 AM Mom up, devos., shower, and get ready (7:00 on Sun. and Thurs.)

10:00 Kids up, devos., shower, get ready; Breakfast (8:00 on Sun. and Thurs.), Dad up?

11:00 Chores, Dad up?

12:00 PM School

1:00 Clean up and fix lunch.

1:30 Lunch

2:30 Dad goes to work, School

4:30 Snack

7:30 Finish school and eat supper

8:30 Free time, homework, evening chores, and family time

11:00 Kids to bed (10:00 on Sat. and Wed.), Mom prepare for tomorrow

2:00 AM Mom to bed (1:00 AM on Sat. and Wed.)

3:00 Dad home and to bed (?)



We plan on getting/making some thick curtains for the kids' rooms to block out the early morning light.

Today was our first day trying this schedule. I just came up with it last night. It didn't go too bad, but the boys did get up too early. Hopefully, with time we'll all adjust.

So, what does your schedule look like?

Creative Writing

Yesterday, I had the children do some creative writing. I won't grade their creative writing. Later, I will start having them circle the words they think may be misspelled. As they learn about different things in their other classes, I will start having them edit and rewrite their entries. For now, creative writing is just a time for them to have fun writing and drawing. Obviously, they all have areas they need to work on. I am pleased though. They all put forth more effort than they had at the end of last year.



Birdie, Puppy Dog, and Baby Bear were to draw a picture of a newborn baby:

Birdie says hers "looks like a baby in the manger with grass".


Puppy Dog's:

Baby Bear's is one of two things. Yesterday, he said it was baby Jesus's blanket. Today, he says it is baby Jesus's bed.

Monkey was to pretend she was a newborn baby and write about a day in her life:

"Waaaa! Waaaaaa!

I wos cold.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

waaa! ssssssssssssss.

SSssszssssss.

I was sleqing Then I waokuq.

I was waringy A rose pink Dres!

Froggie and Kitty Kat were to suppose they were able to visit the time and place of Jesus's birthday and write a letter to their parents describing the events:

Froggie first wrote from a calf's perspective and then from Mary's perspective:

Imoo

I am a cafe

who is happy

That I am

olade

That I can

see the newbo Baby

goodbye


I will love to be happy to be marry

I will be expeting NewBorne
Baby And he will bwe Name

a Baby god's son And she will call him
Boy
Jesus When Jesus Was 30
year's old He cam to the that

god hade made then

When he was kind and then

he went Away Far away From

his diciples houses

and then Santan is so mean
that he wed didnotnouticthat

termping him

and then he died on the crose


I think Kitty Kat was trying to write a book:

11/10/08

Dear Mom and Dad,

my work is going very well. Yesterday something happened. I was sweeping in the inn, like I always do at high noon. The inn was as full as a basket filled to the very top. I was sweeping the dust out into the street, when I saw two peaple and a donkey coming down the road. They stopped in front of the inn, and a man helped a woman of the donkey. They went inside the inn, and I followed them in. As I was putting the broom away, I heard the inn keeper tell them, "Sorry, We do not have a room you can use, but you can use the cave we use as a stable, but you will have to sleep with the animals." Then the innkeeper called me and said, "Take this couple's donkey and lead them to the stable, but let the woman ride the donkey, she is pregnant." Then we went outside, and the man lifted his wife onto the donkey, and we headed for the stable. Once we got there, the man helped his wife inside, and I followed, still leading the donkey. When the donkey was in a stall, and had water and food, I said, "I will be out here later today to take care of the animals. I will also bring some food and water with me for your dinner. But, do you need some right now?" I asked. The man said, "Yes, we would like some food, as soon as you can, please." I went back to the inn. When I found the innkeeper, I said, "Master, the couple asked me for some food and water. I sit all right if I get food and water and take it to them?" The innkeeper said, "Yes, but run back as soon as youcan. You need to finish your chores befor you have to go feed the animals." I said, "When I go to feed the animals, I need to take the couple some dinner. Is that all right?" He said, "Yes." So I got the food and water, took it to the couple, and then I ran back so that I could finish my chores. When I got done, the innkeeper gave me my dinner, and while I was eating, he said, "Take an extra lamp with you tonight, so that the couple does not have to sit in the dark, and take the lamp as soon as you are done eating. If they need anything, get it for them befor you come back to get the feed from the storage room. And don't forget their dinner." As soon as I got done, I grabed the food, the lamps, and a bucket to carry the things to the stable. When I got there, I got the unlit lamp, lit it with the other lamp, and set it on a shelf, then I gave the couple the food and then I walked to the spring, filled the bucket with water, went back to the stable, and gave them two cups so that they could get their own water. Then I ran back to the inn, grabed the feed and another bucket, and went back to the stable to feed the animals. I fed the animals, then I went to the stream. On the way, I figuered out how many trips it would take me to do it with one bucket. When I came back with my tenth bucket, I heard cries of pain coming from the stable. Then I heard silence. Suddenly, I a new born baby's cries. I walked as fast as I could back to the stable. When I got there, in the manger was a baby boy. I very, very slowly walked closer. When I got a cubit away from the happy couple, I said, "What is the baby's name?" They looked at me, and the woman said, "His name is Jesus, Son of the living God." Right as she said this, the inn keeper walked in. When he saw me standing by the happy couple, looking with love at the manger, he looked at the manger to. When he saw the baby, the woman said again, "His name is Jesus." Then the Inn keeper and I went back to the inn.

With Love,

Your Datter

A Little of This And a Bit of That

First, Lucille at Who's Going to Tell You? wants to know if she should keep blogging. She says she will continue if she gets fifty comments. She did not specify that the comments had to be from fifty different people, but wouldn't it be neat if she did get comments from fifty different people? I've started her off with ten comments. I'm just ornery that way. LOL So, everyone head on over to Lucille's place. I'll wait. I need to change around the loads of laundry anyway.



Second, I don't think I mentioned before that Jon, Kitty Kat, and Monkey are in a Christmas play the Stage Right drama group at our church is putting on. The play is (if I have it right) "Scrooge Revisited". Jon got the lead part of Scrooge. The girls are extras in a scene or two and are the great-great- great...granddaughters of Scrooge in a modern day scene. The girls had their lines memorized for their audition. Jon, on the other hand, has a total of ninety-nine lines to have memorized. He is finding that it is a lot harder to memorize lines now than it was when he had less responsibilities.



Third, things have been crazy around here.

The two aforementioned girls had to be at church every day but Friday a couple weeks ago. Sunday: we had morning and evening services and activities. Monday: the girls and I had Sunflower Scouts. Tuesday: Jon, Kitty Kat, and Monkey had play practice. Wednesday: Baby Bear had his Wed. night class; Puppy Dog, Monkey, and Birdie had children's choir; Kitty Kat and Froggie had small group; Jon had Men's Fraternity; and I had Teacher Training. Thursday: we had homeschool P.E. Saturday: our church had their Fall Festival and Trunk and Treat.


This past week was all mixed up.

A week ago Saturday, Birdie was playing ghost in a sleeping bag after I warned the kids to put the bags away before someone got hurt. Birdie tripped and chipped four of her teeth.

A week ago Monday, I dropped the other kids off at Mom's and took Kaycie to the dentist. Jon met us at Mom and Dad's and we ate supper with them before the girls and I had to run off to Sunflower Scouts.


Last Tuesday was election day so we tried to focus on the elections. The kids and I went over to Jon's Mom's place and picked up her pop cans (to recycle) and ran her vacuum. We took all our cans to the recycle center and then picked up lunch. We ate lunch at Jon's workplace. It was a nice day so the kids and I played games (i.e. Mommy Says instead of Simon Says) on the lawn while we waited for Jon to get off work. When Jon got off work, we went together in the van to go vote. The kids did great! They only got riled up when one of the poll workers started encouraging them. The workers were bored and enjoyed the lively chatter of the children. After we voted, we went shopping and then picked up Jon's car. The evening was spent watching the voting results, watching an online video about how the voting process works, etc.


Wednesday Birdie had an appointment at the E.N.T. doctor. Monkey, Kitty Kat, and Froggie stayed in the reception area and read. The boys went back to the examination room with Birdie and me. They all behaved well at the doctor's office.


Thursday the kids had their homeschool P.E. class and I got a chance to talk with some of the other homeschool moms from our church. We also had to run some errands.


Friday the kids and I (my mom came too) went to watch Jon at a forklift rodeo. As the day's events ended, Jon was in first place in the masters division. Jon's supervisor invited the children and I to go eat with them afterwards at Lone Star.


Saturday was the final day of the rodeo. We went again hoping that Jon would stay in the top six. During the final half hour, he was knocked down to seventh (I think) place. Needless to say, he was very disappointed. Jon stayed for the catered award ceremony while my mom, dad, the children, and I went to Frisch's. We then went back to our MESSY :. ( house for pumpkin pie that my mom had brought.

We also were getting back into our early rising routine this past week and dealing with the time change. Our pets are still messed up over the time change.

The children were really trying my patience this last week or so. They have been fighting and arguing, talking back, grumbling, complaining, deliberately disobeying, and making messes without cleaning them up. Between our busy week and trying to fit in school we didn't have much time to keep up the house. When we were working on the house, it was like we would take one or two steps forward and at least five steps back. I'm still trying to find the optimistic side of things.

This morning before he left for work, Jon told me I really needed to enforce a mandatory nap time "right now". He gave them all a talking to as well. The kids were already at each others throats before 6:30 am this morning! The kids have been watching preschool programs this morning ever since breakfast was over. They're not allowed to mess around or the T.V goes off. The girls won't take a nap anymore, so this down time is about as close as we'll get to naps. I was hoping the boys would fall asleep, but they're not. They are close though. We might just have to start our school day with story time. We've really got to get the kids back into a better routine.

This post is getting pretty long, so I'll end it here. I'll have another post up soon with yesterday's creative writing assignments.

Another Celery Experiment

August 18, 2008: I prepared celery for the joint birthday party. I cut the whole root end off the celery to save time instead of separating the ribs before cutting off the ends. Previously, I had seen an activity for cutting the topmost part of old celery off and putting the root end in water to watch the young shoots grow. I figured it wouldn't hurt to see if it would work with just the root end.

I didn't get any pictures before today. When I cut off the end, I cut straight through. The growth that you can see above the level of the rest of the cut line took place after it was cut. This is what our celery looks like now:


There are even little roots growing now. Can you see them?


The kids have enjoyed watching the progress. Kitty Kat has even taken it upon herself to make sure it stays watered. I moved the celery to our dining room table to take these pictures. Baby Bear walked right past the table, saw the pictures on our computer, and ran to the kitchen to check out the celery. He started getting stressed out because he couldn't find it in its usual spot. "Hey, where'd our celery go!" I showed him where it was and everything was right in his little world again.

Our Schedule: General and In Detail

The best schedule we have found since Jon has been on first shift is one in which we get up early and go to bed early.

5:00 AM - Jon and I get up and ready for the day.

5:30 AM - Jon wakes the kids while I fix breakfast and pack Jon's lunch.

5:30 - 6:30 We eat breakfast and have family devotions.

6:30AM - Jon leaves for work. The kids get ready for school. I help the kids as
needed, check e-mails, check for blog updates, review my lesson plans for
the day, and gather the materials I need for teaching. The kids and I do our
morning chores.

8:00AM - 3:00 PM School

3:00 - 3:30PM Clean-up from school

3:45 - 4:00PM Jon comes home from work. The kids finish any schoolwork that wasn't finished during school time.

5:00Pm Supper

6:00 - 8:00PM clean-up, chores, family time, and bedtime routine (kids in bed at 8:00PM)

9:00 PM Jon and I go to bed.

======================================================

Before we started back to school, I wrote out a very detailed school schedule:

8:00AM Prayer, Pledges, Praise, and Bible

8:30 Social Studies/Science

9:00 Language Arts/Health and Safety/Art

9:25 Break/Snack

9:35 Spelling/Vocabulary

9:45 Penmanship to Praise

9:55 Creative Writing

10:00 Wisdom Words

10:30 Math

11:30 Reading

12:00PM Lunch

12:30 Read Aloud then Boys' naps

1:00 Spanish (1st Semester)/French (2nd Semester)

1:30 Learning to Love Literature (Froggie and Kitty Kat)

2:00 Mon. - Music, Tues. - Etiquette, Wed. - Homework, Thurs. - Sewing, and Fri. - Home Economics

2:30 High Way to English Grammar (Froggie and Kitty Kat)

3:00 Break/Snack

3:10 Afternoon chore time

4:00 Physical Education

5:00 Supper

======================================================

While the kids and I thrive on a schedule, the above schedule is a bit too strict. The set times for starting and finishing subjects doesn't allow for finishing early or continuing with something that needs more time. Here is the general schedule we follow for school. (If we are starting late, like today, we adjust our times accordingly.)

8:00AM - Noon The Weaver Curriculum, Vol. V subjects, Math, and Reading

Noon Lunch

12:30PM Read Aloud then boys' nap

1:00 For the first couple weeks: finish Math and Reading.
In the following weeks: add in the rest of the subjects listed in the afternoon in the above schedule.

3:00 Finish school except for P.E., "homework", and music/instrumental music, if music didn't get done earlier (Jon is teaching Froggie and Kitty Kat to play the saxophone. I'm teaching Monkey to play the flute. The others aren't quite ready for doing anything but playing around with their toy instruments.)

======================================================

Over the summer, our church took a break from the regular Sunday evening and Wednesday evening programs. Those will start back at the beginning of next month. When that happens, we will be getting to bed later on Sunday and Wednesday nights. Any school day after a late night, we will either adjust the start time for school or add in more rest time during the day.

Actually, our whole schedule may be changing soon. Jon's work place is supposed to be doing a rebid for positions. He will have to go with second shift this time, because we can't afford for him to stay on first shift. First shift is great for family life, but terrible on the finances. When Jon is on second shift, I usually stay up until he gets home and winds down. When his shift changes, we will adjust our schedule accordingly.

It's been a busy week.

We started our 2008-2009 school year this past week. Jon and I have been getting up around 5am and he gets the kids up at 5:30am. Jon and I get ready for the day and then we all eat breakfast together and have devotions before Jon leaves for work. We set our start time for school at 8am and the kids are usually chomping at the bit to get started. We've been really productive. The kids and I rest or nap in the afternoon. The evening is then spent together as a family.

======================================================

Alright, it's time to award the frog! Drum roll please! And the Super Commenter Award goes to
My Kids Mom !

I am assuming there are no "tag-backs". Otherwise, I would also award this to Damama T. :)

This award was given to me by Damama T at Damama's at it again! . This award was created by Mamarazzi at Dandelion Wishes .

There was a crash, ...

but no one got hurt.

Our computer rebelled yesterday afternoon. We finally got the restore program to run, but we lost everything that we had ever changed/added since 2005. Fortunately, Jon made a set of backup disks a few months ago. Unfortunately, the backup disks didn't restore everything. We lost all our documents, pictures, music and games that were uploaded/downloaded . . .

We even lost Kitty Kat's math up to this point. Yep, she is using SOS (Alpha Omega Publications Switched On Schoolhouse) Math this year and I had to re-install the program and reassign the units she hadn't finished. Her math records for this year are nonexistent. It's a good thing she tests well. We had already purchased AOP Lifepacs for Kitty Kat for next year and I'm glad we did. She likes the SOS, but it was difficult havng her tied down to our only computer for math.

I kept telling myself that I needed to back up everything. I had good intentions of burning disks with my school files and resources organised on them. I was also going to burn some picture album disks. Hmm . . . I guess there's a little more motivation to follow through with that as I rebuild my files. Yikes, that's a daunting task!

Speaking of rebuilding, I lost all my bookmarks to the sites and blogs I visit. Please leave me a comment so I can find you again. I have located a few of you, but it would make my life a lot easier, if you would just drop me a line. I'll put moderation back on so you can send me the information without worrying about others seeing it. If you don't want your comment published just make a note of that in the comment.

TMBMT, I need your blog info. please. I couldn't get there through past comments.

Update: We also lost everything from our address book.

Our Little Celery Experiment

We are working on a biology unit. Our current topic is plants and on Monday, April 28th (the day we studied stems) we started an experiment with celery and colored water. We put one stalk in red water, one in blue water, and we split one and put a part in each color. When asked what they thought would happen, the kids said, "The celery in the red water will turn red, the celery in the blue water will turn blue, and the celery in both will turn purple." I bit my tongue and let them wait to see what would happen for themselves.



This is what the celery looked like on Wednesday, April 30th. The split celery had one side with red coloring, the other side had blue coloring, and the stalk was bent. The stalk in the red water did have red coloring, but it didn't look very healthy. The stalk in the blue water had blue coloring and actually looked better than it did starting out.

It didn't take long (probably within an hour or two of starting the experiment) for the kids to realize that the split celery would not turn purple. They had several good ideas of how we could get purple celery though. Some wanted to switch the stalks to the opposite cups, some wanted to mix the blue and red water and start over with a new stalk, and some wanted to make new colored water with red and blue food coloring and use a new stalk.

I Love You Too, Birdie!

I found this at my place at the table today. I sat down and called Birdie to come do her reading lesson. Birdie wrote this note to me today, while everyone else was busy doing their schoolwork. If you know Birdie, you know that she has some learning disabilities. This was a MAJOR accomplishment for her. For those of you who can't figure it out, she wrote, "I (heart) U !".

Tomorrow Marks a New Unit!

We're starting a new unit in school tomorrow. We finally got through the last seemingly never ending unit today. This next unit is timely (plants and animals) and should be a lot of fun. I anticipate a lot of outdoor projects.

The kids have been fighting all day today, so I'm going to cut this short and get them ready for bed.

Have a great night/day everyone!

NORTH BEATS SOUTH ONCE AGAIN

Yesterday (Saturday, March 8, 2008) the North once again prevailed over the South. The South was totally dominated by the power and resources of their northern opponents.

It was a girls verses boys plus a volunteer. The boys chose the northern location for their fort and Officer Jon proceeded to use the recycle bin to build their fort (instead of the allotted bucket). Kitty Kat offered to join the boys, and Officer Brandi, against her better judgment, allowed her most promising soldier to defect. The girls built their fort using the allocated bucket. Fort Leaf in the North was fortified with a supply of wetter snow for better ammunition; thicker, higher walls; and a stronger officer. Fort Bush in the South had a nice supply of lower quality snow, thinner weaker walls, confused soldiers, and a commanding officer whose back went out while building the fort.

Both sides put forth a valiant effort. The Fort Bush soldiers had a hard time packing their snowballs. Officer Brandi had some pre-made ammunition, but her soldiers have not yet acquired the dexterity and strength needed for making snowballs. The Fort Leaf soldiers did not make ammunition ahead of time but Officer Jon and his soldiers were able to make their ammunition quickly during the battle.

During the battle, Private Bear came out into the open in enemy territory. He was met with an onslaught of snowballs from Officer Brandi. Officer Jon put himself in dangers way to rescue his brave, wayward soldier.

The battle ended when Officer Brandi received a cannon ball sized snowball to the chest at the hands of officer Jon. The blow was enough to "knock" her over. She went down and stayed down. Officer Jon then stormed Fort Bush and declared, "We are victorious over Fort Mush!" Officer Jon then proceeded to help Officer Brandi to her feet to receive medical attention (read kisses and hugs ; ).

This is on the north side of Fort Leaf.

This is behind Fort Bush looking toward Fort Leaf.


Do you see why the girls were at a disadvantage?



The girls didn't have a chance, but they get Fort Leaf next time!
(That is if Officer Brandi's back recovers.)

"Animal School"

I've read the poem of this before. Today, someone in one of the groups I am in sent the link to this video: Animal School .
Every parent who has or comes in contact with a special child (that's all of us isn't it?) should see this.

Addition Bear, Part II

There is a pocket on the back of the book. I plan on making little cards with activities to use with the book. This is where we'll keep them.
I don't know if you can see it or not, but each bear has all the sum of "n" problems on it corresponding to the number (n) of the bear. Therefore, bear 10 has "0+10= " on one ear; "1+9=" on the other ear; "2+8=, 3+7=, 4+6=, and 5+5=" on one arm; and "6+4=, 7+3=, 8+2=, 9+1=, and 10+0=" on one leg. Lift each flap and the answer "10" is underneath.