On the 2nd Day of Christmas I blog over to you...

This fun day!!

Yesterday, Elizabeth was able to meet her K12 teacher in person at the winter social 2012.  In our area the children met up at the bowling alley.  They had a coloring poster for each of them to color on and then had a drawing for 10 of the K12 string backpacks.  Elizabeth was a lucky winner for the backpack.!!

Jacob didn't want to come with us...must be a 13 thing not to go bowling with your mom and siblings. Idk!  But we did have fun!  This bowling alley has the BEST fried mushrooms around and when I told Emily we were going she was so giddy about getting the mushrooms.  I was smart this time and bought our drinks as a pitcher of soda otherwise I would have been paying more for refills.  So we downed a pitcher of soda, two orders of fried mushrooms and a large pizza!

I bought the kids 3 games each because I figured the time will go by quickly and this would keep them busy.  But it was hard to keep Elizabeth at our lane and she was fluttering around talking to other kids (which is fine!) and trying to keep the attention of her teacher.  "Watch me", "Did you see that?" and "Can I go home with you"...which I feel makes a parent feel about an inch tall thinking we aren't doing something right that Elizabeth thinks her teacher can do better.  While I am sure that is not the case but that's what it feels like anyhow.  

About 10 minutes into the bowling session the lights turned off and cosmic bowling was ON like donkey kong! I know cheesy...but it sounded pretty good in my head to say that on here.  Emily wore the perfect shirt for this occasion.  Didn't plan for it to work out as good as it did...but it was awesome!

The other three have taken their holiday break a bit early.  So much has been going on to get ready for Christmas.  Some nice weather we have had with a few days of rain.  We are still recovering from the Christmas play days where the kids took part as banner carrier, offering bearer and in the homeschool handbell choir.  These days were proud mama, daddy, grandaddy and aunt days!  We even had a friend of ours come with us on 2 nights of the performance.  Everyone that took part in the play did a superb job!

If you would like to keep up with my cross stitching and learn about giveaways and how you can win for yourself or somebody else (great stocking stufferes right now!) Come check it out at:  http://yougotmeinstitches.blogspot.com/  I am posting a new giveaway tonight, become a follower and you are in!  No other strings attached...I promise!

And it wouldn't be a complete blog post if I didn't plug in Pampered Chef as well!  
This month I will be organizing a Pampered Chef Order of the Month Club.  Looking for groups of 12 who will commit to buying $20 in products + applicable taxes & shipping.  Each month a new hostess of the group will have the honor of earning the free products and hostess gifts!  Easy, right?  If you are interested in this leave a comment and let me know.
Yesterday was a long day with appointments and shopping.  But I came home to daddy and Jacob making potato chips in the deep fryer!  He used the Simple Slicer from Pampered Chef and raved over how easy it was to do!  "simple" would have been my word and the obvious word to use but I will take his "easy" anyhow!  The Simple Slicer is only $30 in the catalog and it adjusts to 3 different thickness selections.  See our potatoes??  Come visit me at pamperedchef.biz/rcj176

2012 Summer Olympics...Homeschool style!

I have been looking for some ideas to implement the exciting Olympics into our curriculum!  HomeSchoolShare has made it possible for us to make lapbooks while we enjoy watching!  This will be for the younger two kids.  And a great way for others to start their school year if they are just getting started!
Here is the website's library list:

Eric Liddell: Something Greater than Gold – Janet Benge

Eric Liddell: Olympian and Missionary – Ellen W. Caughey

The Flying Scotsman – Sally Magnusson

Hour of the Olympics – Mary Pope Osbourne

Ancient Greece and the Olympics – Mary Pope Osbourne

Olympics – Chris Oxlade

Olympics! – B.G HennesseySwifter, Higher, Stronger: A Photographic History of the Summer Olympics by Sue Macy

Underwater Sight Seeing

Glancing through my twitter feed I found a cool link from Craig Froman about an underwater museum.
Only visible by snorkeling, scuba diving or through a glass bottom boat.  It is located in Cancun.

Kind of reminded me of a trip Judge and I took many years ago to Sweetwater, TN.  We were passing through the area and saw a sign for The Lost Sea.

Television and kids....

Have you ever sat in a different room and listened to a Nickelodeon or Disney show (not the preschool ones).  I know that some are filmed in front of live audiences but you can tell which ones aren't because the laughing is controlled and everyone stops at the same time in order to keep the script moving slowly.  So as I am listening to this show that Jesse is watching I can hear the dialogue of people cutting each other down or saying something really stupid and then they cue the button for laughter.  So are the makers of these shows creating what your child should think is funny but morally isn't funny at all?  I suppose this is my AHA! moment while I sit quietly and just listen to Elizabeth playing with Thomas trains, Emily picking up her room and the clanging of silverware as Jacob empties the dishwasher.  What do you think?

This week we are in session

We took last week off from school...but no worries, we have a lot of days already built up since we started in the summer.  While everyone else was sweating we were in air conditioning or cooling off at the outdoor pool.  Yep, that's what our summer consisted of.  That and me trying to figure out what curriculum would be best for each of the children.  It was a time of really looking at the big picture.  We are well into the swing of things with a plan too.  I just wish that I was a week ahead in my planning.  But I guess we are just week to week these days.


Elizabeth is working on skip counting of 5s so I can start her in learning how to tell time.  I figured she would have already learned this by now but she hasn't.  So this week we are concentrating on this.  Map skills are fun but unscrambling word sentences are not so fun...her words, not mine.  She is also working on her prayer sticks as are the other kids.


The three older kids are still continuing their math drills with lattice multiplications and Jacob will be doing his pre-algebra.  Here are the Lattice Worksheets we are using for the drills.  http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/lattice.htmlThey will also be working hard at studying and memorizing the first 10 books of the Bible.  I feel that it is important for them to know where scripture is while listening at church.  This will be an on going project this year.


Jesse and Elizabeth are using  http://www.scholastic.com/dodea/index2.htm  a lot of language supplements from this website.  It came at a time that we needed it.  I didn't have a full A Beka curriculum for either of them in language.  So we have made our binders and are keeping it well rounded with reading.  Jesse is reading through the Magic TreeHouse books and picked Mummies in the Morning.  And we are using this website to guide through this book: http://www.mce.k12tn.net/reading5/mummies.htm  I only put a Questions packet together for him.

Prayer Pail Project

 The kids are working hard at creating our family and prayer prayer pails.  See, pinterest has its quality moments that are useful besides just sitting and pinnning stuff.  We are putting it to good use.  The purpose for me to have them do this is to get them excited to pray for people and to learn to pray too.  So far they have been adding tons of people to the popsicle sticks.  I fully intend to let that person know on facebook (if they are on there) that they are being prayed for today.

Let's talk about Pinning...

It seems that if you are pinning and repinning you have joined the new hype on Pinterest.  I explain pinterest to people as being the facebook of this time.  It is nice  b/c it doesn't invade your privacy that I have been able to tell.  Its pictures for pete's sake!!  But not just pictures...its ideas at their bests.  Ideas that have been passed along to share in other people's households.  I thought I would share a few that I have pinned too.

Source: notmartha.org via Regge on Pinterest

And who doesn't like bacon and cheese?  I am sure this uses the inside of the muffin tin to mold..I even found something to make with the opposite side of the muffin tin.  There you have it for today...things you can make with a few things and a muffin tin!!