September 2015 – Abby's Conundrum

Autumn and Dinosaurs

Is it Fall already? *sigh* Although I am glad to be done with the super hot weather, I can’t pretend that the darkness and cold don’t depress me a little. Thank goodness it is still fairly sunny these days so that the kids can still get a good amount of time outside. I may not post this today, but it’s Monday in all of it’s ugly “monday-ness”, it’s been a frustrating day. Yet again this morning I was internally reminded why it is a good idea that I do not carry a weapon on my person- the front desk attendant at the local pool would be singing a different tune if I did >:(

Ah, well.

We recently covered “Dinosaurs” and “Fall” with our homeschooling. It was very fun. I’ve been having a hard time documenting these things since the WordPress app has been acting up fro the past few months. I have to transfer all my phone pictures to the computer to blog which adds a significant amount of time to the blogging process, so the posts are fewer and far between these days- ANNOYING. I’ve been in contact with the WordPress people, of course they keep promising to fix the problem, but to no avail. I guess I’ll just keep angry tweeting them till they do. That may not fix the problem, but it will sure make me feel better! 🙂

Week long experiment watching these "lizards" grow — Week long experiment watching these “lizards” grow

Getting ready to "hatch" a baking soda "dinosaur egg" with vinegar. I made five of these one for each day of the week and it was a huge hit! — Getting ready to “hatch” a baking soda “dinosaur egg” with vinegar. I made five of these one for each day of the week and it was a huge hit!

hatching another egg with Zelie's help. — hatching another egg with Zelie’s help.

After a long and exciting dinosaur week we sprung to take the kids to the Pacific Science Center. This was Caidoc's face when he saw the dinosaurs- Let me tell you, that look was so incredibly worth the admission money. — After a long and exciting dinosaur week we sprung to take the kids to the Pacific Science Center. This was Caidoc’s face when he saw the dinosaurs- Let me tell you, that look was so incredibly worth the admission money.

Number matching fall leaf craft for school

In addition to schooling I’ve been jamming a LOT. It has been very fun. We were recently in Ellensburg for my sister’s swearing in to the Air Force and I was able to pick up a bunch of local organic apples. I made apple butter and apple sauce and apple chips. Yum. I’ve been trying to better our family eating on all fronts inspired by a book called 100 Days of Real Food. I highly recommend it particularly if you want a condensed, easily digestible (get it?!) read with very clear instructions and meal plans laid out. Her methods focus on cutting out anything highly processed and not “whole”, meaning, anything with extra ingredients that just aren’t needed particularly added sugar. I always thought we ate very little sugar over all, but after adding up Caidoc’s and Zelie’s sugar intake over the course of a day I was horrified! I included natural sugar in my calculations because, well, it still IS sugar. I’ve cut down their sugar consumption (along with with mine and Chris’s) but I’d still like to be better. We eat mostly really good things, the sugar was sneaking in in unexpected places like peanut butter. I’m currently on a war path to eliminate all additives from our diet which means making a lot of stuff myself, this is much yummier, but also more time consuming and takes a good amount of planning to get into a rhythm- I’m still working on it.

I’ve also recently read “The Danish Way of Parenting” , another excellent read I’d highly recommend. I dream of living in Denmark- did you know it’s been proven to be the happiest place in the world for the past 40 years? Um, yeah, sign me up! This parenting book really focuses on treating children like actual people- their thoughts, feelings, and opinions have value. This is something Chris and I have always believed in, and gotten QUITE a bit of flack for, most frequently being called “push overs” and “hover parents” . I don’t know why it seems to acceptable to still be bigoted against such a prominent group- children. They are not little beasts for taming (as much as it seems like it sometimes) but they are people who deserve to be heard and treated with respect. Don’t misunderstand that to mean these little people call the shots, definitely not. The author simply demonstrates ways to help your children become happy functioning adults, something the Danish have excelled at for the past 40 years. Much of this theory focuses on bettering yourself first, since children follow their parents behavior, I love this idea! So much of American parenting is “do as I say, not as I do!” and it isn’t very effective, not to mention, totally illogical. Children are mirrors and actions will teach them far more than words. This is probably the first parenting book that I’ve whole heartedly agreed with and am excited to continue to use as a resource- I need all the help I can get!

post nap pop corn (I'm lucky they love it plain!) — post nap pop corn (I’m lucky they love it plain!)

Wow, this post is getting long! So far, I’ve had to stop to change a massive poop-plosion, read 10 books aloud, stopped to make lunch smoothies and instruct proper kale picking from the garden for said smoothies, and rotated two loads of laundry. I must make a note to get re useable cups with lids and straws :-/

I think that might be it for today, hopefully, by some sheer luck, I will be able to get this post up today!

Cheers!

Family Pictures 2015

We do not intend on doing a Christmas card this year, so I am sharing all our family pictures from our shoot here. We are so blessed with a happy healthy family. As you can tell, Caidoc has a practiced “photo taking” face. Zelie seems to be quite bemused by the whole process in general, haha! I swear, Chris just gets better looking with age *swoon*. Would you believe I fretted over our color scheme for a week? (Okay, maybe more.) My goal was to NOT go out and buy all new outfits just to make the coordinating easier- success! I particularly like Azelie’s feminine print and Caidoc’s masculine one, all while coordinating…coordinating colors, let alone prints is not my strong suit. I tend to go all solids, which is safe, but boring 🙂

Enjoy!

Photo credit: Anne Black (thanks Anne! Even when our kids won’t cooperate you still get great pictures 🙂

Rainforest Recap and Sneak Peek into Zoo Week

It’s Zoo week in our homeschooling curriculum this week (Er, last week now. I’m just now getting around to posting this!). I’ve been excited for this week since I was able to come up with lots of fun material.

Last week was Rainforest week, which led into Zoo week really well for obvious reasons. I toyed with combining them but I’m glad I didn’t since there is such a wide array of materials and opportunities of learning though those two themes.

Pinterest, as always is my go-to site for crafts, songs, book references, and suggestions on ways to incorporate our daily activities into our theme (there is so much material available!). With the Rainforest and Zoo theme, it’s really easy. For example, for Rainforest week, our letter focus was R and for Zoo it’s, yep, Z. Sometimes you can’t always find a good theme for your letter for vice versa. These past two weeks have been wonderful for letter and math games through the theme lens. I’m so grateful for Pinterest. I don’t know how people homeschooled before it!

I’ll show you pictures of what we’ve been doing in addition to our regular flash cards, memory work, workbook, math games, and writing and reading. Caidoc has been having a blast. I’ve been able to get Zelie in on some of it too, although I’m still trying to find that sweet spot of being able to juggle them both at once during our morning routine.

I’ve been excited for these two weeks of school too because it means our field trip will be to the zoo, and who doesn’t love the zoo?! This trip will be extra special because it’s Azelie’s first time going 🙂 there will be pictures aplenty I’m sure!

I get most of my supplies at the dollar store or I print them at the library. This globe was a dollar store find and it has been really useful. Caidoc is holding his “dart frog” ( aka poison dart frog) paper plate craft here.

This is set up on the floor with different movements and noises to make featuring animals that you would find in the Rainforest or Zoo. This activity encourages gross motor skills , listening, and balance, while learning about animals. I like to do this between different sitting activities. Zelie in particular LOVES it and is pretty good at doing each animal noise!

Here is the frog! This was Caidoc's very favorite animal to study this week. He was obsessed with "the dart frog! " Aka, the poison dart frog and even mentioned that being his favorite thing to see at the zoo. — Here is the frog! This was Caidoc’s very favorite animal to study this week. He was obsessed with “the dart frog! ” Aka, the poison dart frog and even mentioned that being his favorite thing to see at the zoo.

Z is for Zebra!

These are still one of my favorite homeschooling resources I’ve found. WE’ve worked through almost the while alphabet with these dot paint worksheets. They are so simple and effective. Sometimes I have Caidoc glue pom pons instead of paint. His choice each day 🙂 It really empowers them to make their own choices, so whenever I can let him make one I do, he enjoy school much more that way.

My hilarious little lion with his shape turtle. He LOVED the masks this week and this turtle in particular. I think it's because he enjoyed yelling out the different types of shapes while he glued them on. — My hilarious little lion with his shape turtle. He LOVED the masks this week and this turtle in particular. I think it’s because he enjoyed yelling out the different types of shapes while he glued them on.

More lions! Caidoc would NOT stop making this weird face for a picture :( which is why I rarely take pictures of our school sessions. — More lions! Caidoc would NOT stop making this weird face for a picture 🙁 which is why I rarely take pictures of our school sessions.

This was a really interesting experiment. I gave caidoc these birds, turtles, pipe cleaner and paper. After showing him the different type of pictures of a rainforest I asked him to make his own. This is what he came up with all on his own! I was really proud. Goes to how I need to let him do more on his own. Sometimes I just get so into what we are doing ;) — This was a really interesting experiment. I gave caidoc these birds, turtles, pipe cleaner and paper. After showing him the different type of pictures of a rainforest I asked him to make his own. This is what he came up with all on his own! I was really proud. Goes to how I need to let him do more on his own. Sometimes I just get so into what we are doing 😉

Well, I did not take as many pictures of our zoo visit as I thought I would. I was really trying to unplug. But, with the zoo and rainforest crafts and activities on top of our regular schooling, made for the perfect set up for our trip and Caidoc was really engaged in reading about animals and watching them. His binoculars are broken which I was really bummed about as was he, but he and Z got really close to some animals. C even pet a lizard! I was feeling guilty about taking the kids during the expensive visiting season ( I thought I had planned my curriculum around that but was off by two weeks *dang it!* ), but I decided to go anways since all the info was fresh in Caidoc’s and Zelies little minds. As we were standing in the ticket line a woman came up and gave us extra tickets she had. I was so surprised and thankful! As I like to say, it was totally a sign!

just too cool for school ;) — just too cool for school 😉

A smiley Zelie -although she didn't last in the stroller long, she's pretty sure she can do anything Caidoc can, surprise, surprise! — A smiley Zelie -although she didn’t last in the stroller long, she’s pretty sure she can do anything Caidoc can, surprise, surprise!

The past two weeks were so fun! My curriculum is almost all done for the alphabet, only a couple more week! This week is going to be a blast- we are learning about DINOSAURS! So fun! I can’t wait to blog about it. Once this preschool curriculum is finished I’m going to slowly start some methods for teaching Caidoc to read. He’s so ready and already read his first word all by himself!

Hope you enjoyed this little peep into our homeschooling! Cheers!