Field Trip

Our first field trip of the year and we spent most of it in the car. Generally I'm not too bad with directions but this time I really messed up with the road construction detour. Thankfully the kids were all well amused or sleeping and one might wonder if I actually planned such a long drive just because I'd have time to talk with my friend (Agent E's mom). I'm beginning to feel like I don't go or do anything without her because she's always helping me with my young brood of kiddos. Thank you!

Once we arrived at the best apple orchard ever (last year's trip) we had about 45 minutes to pet farm critters, roll in huge bins filled with dried corn, pose by some pumpkins, and pick a few apples.

Gross motor skills

My curriculum by Heart of Dakota is great! But I have to say I'm not a big fan of the Rhyme Time activities. It's usually a rhyme that I say/sing along with hand/body actions. I just have a hard time learning a new one each week and the boys aren't that cooperative. I do plan to do some of them but I'd like an alternative. Does anyone know of a CD or DVD that I could use instead? I'm looking for something that gives instructions to do different body motions (jump forwards, backwards, side to side, etc.) to fun music. Thanks!

Activity Bins

So those bins that I posted about . . . I love them! I read about them in a magazine and latched onto the idea. The idea is that you let your preschooler pick out a bin and that they play with it for 10-15 minutes, then you let them clean it up and pick out another one to play with. Hopefully this buys you time to work on schoolwork with your older child/children. I keep the bins exclusively for school time so that they hold some extra appeal.

Here is a list of what currently fills my bins. I think I'll probably switch things up in another month or two to try and keep things interesting.





- A wooden connect four game that was in the dollar section at Target
- Black beans and my Discovery Toys Measure Up Cups
- Mini books
- A chain of carabeiners to link and unlink together
- Colored paper strips for cutting
- Ink pad, stamps and paper
- Lauri lacing shapes
- Lauri Locktagons
- Lauri Fit-A-Space
- Foam alphabet puzzle, again from the dollar section at Target
- and of course Legos!

I had a bin filled with Papo plastic animals and a wooden collapsable fence (made by my Grandpa T) but it was in such demand for playing zoo that we had to leave it out for regular use!

If anyone has ideas about what to fill these bins with in the future, I'd love your ideas! I'm thinking stickers, more games by Lauri and . . . .?

Up North

Once upon a time this summer we went on a vacation. . . I'm finally getting around to journaling it. It's over here if you'd like to hear about it.

Our harvest

Our small garden produced a very small harvest. We feasted on lettuce and rhubarb and that's about it. The one tomato that grew spoiled, the corn was consumed and chewed down by squirrels?. The pepper plant didn't produce and our watermelons never pinkified on the inside (okay ripened).

We were however pleasantly surprised by some unexpected bounty. Wild strawberries and wild black raspberries



One thing our yard was pretty good at supporting was ants. Last year I noticed a large ant colony establishing itself under one of our oaks, right under my clothesline. There were huge areas where the dirt had been pushed up by the ants. This year they were back and had spread to more areas. I asked my girlfriend who knows ALL when it comes to treating anything naturally. Boiling water was her solution. I dumped tea pot after tea pot of boiling water and it worked! Okay so our grass was a bit charred for a few weeks but it greened up again and the ants didn't come back.

School with Papa

School any time, any place. Sounds like a motto for a homeschooler.

One evening last week EH took over class and instructed the boys on the science of weights - in the bathroom of course. He fashioned a boat out of tin foil and then he and the boys went up to the bath tub to see how much weight it would take to sink. I think they managed to sink it without getting too wet - a major accomplishment in itself! But as you can see, we were prepared with minimal clothing.

Look Ma!

Look Ma . . . no training wheels! Yes indeed he's kicked the side wheels. I think he could have done it months ago but we just didn't get our act together to do it. When I considered working with him I felt like I had no idea where to start. So, JK to the rescue. Agent E and his mom were over for a visit and she let me shang-high her into teaching Agent H. I figured she had already trained four kids so she's got to be an expert. I was right! She had a great way of organizing the process for him into steps and instructing him. Thank you JK and way to go Agent H!

Starting K

Photos of our first day of Kindergarten (and tot school).

Agent H took a few shots of the lovely PJ wearing teacher. She had better get her act together - jesh!












We started with the pledge of allegence and the Christian pledge. After two days of trying to keep both boys pointed in the direction of the flag, with hands over hearts, repeating the unfamiliar words I decided saying the pledges on just Mondays would be a good enough for now.

Here's a little surprise I gave the boys, I think there's a little fur showing in the picture. Every kindergarten needs a classroom puppet right? I know this is so very original but we named our rabbit puppet Peter in honor of the Beatrix Potter books we're reading as a part of our curriculum.



Both boys working in their workbooks. Ebug (formerly known as Little E) loves his 3-ring binder filled with left over worksheets, a tip I picked up from a lecture at MACHE a year ago.











I love these bins! (Top shelf) I actually assembled them for Ebug but they are helpful in more ways than I had anticipated. As I read our first history lesson Agent H figited the entire time and summed up the lesson with "history is boring!". So the next day we did our lesson at the table and each boy got to pick a bin to play with. With their hands busy, they listened quietly. I almost skipped the questions at the end of the chapter thinking it would be a waste but then I changed my mind and asked anyways. Agent H happily knew the answer to every one of them. I'm thinking kinestetic learner . . . ?

By far I think our favorite part of school is story time. We're reading Reddy Fox by Thornton W. Burgess. After reading one day we wrote a letter to Reddy warning him about being so boastful. Agent H dictated the letter to me and then we planted it in Reddy's mailbox outside and played hide 'n seek.

We've had such a fun time together! I'm still trying to figure out how to manage the house along with school. For now, I've given up bread baking.

Bloggy Loot

I actually did win some loot from the last bloggy giveaway I'm just super late in posting about it. Then again I guess we've had a few things going on. :)

From Heart of the Matter I won a great book named Let's Get Ready For First Grade and then she threw in another book that was like-new just for Kindergarteners. I thought they looked like fun stuff to go over with Agent H but then when I received them I really really liked them! They are wipe clean books that cover so much information to review with your kids:




- skipping numbers and counting
- left/right hand
- phone number practice
- calendar/time

These would be great books to go through at home or when we're stuck waiting someplace!

How great that I also won a gift certificate to an Etsy shop called PB&J Celebrations . I got to pick out one of her photo card options, send her LE's picture, and she sent us back a PDF to get printed wherever we like (she will also print and mail them to you). She was very fast and easy to work with! So as soon as we get around to ordering the pictures . . . . we'll be sending out LE's beautiful birth announcement. Just lovely!

Thanks ladies!

Water into milk

In anticipation of a date with my husband and to have a back up emergency stash I've been pumping some extra milk. Agent H and Ebug are fascinated with the whole process. The other day as I was just about done pumping Agent H quickly volunteered "MOM! I'll go get you some more water quick!" As if I could magically turn the water into milk. Silly guy!

I should subscribe

LE and I are sitting here hanging out and I'm looking up some info online. Honestly I sat down to go to our church's website to look up what time I need to be at church tonight and I got sucked into the vortex of the Intenet - it just happened. I came across a blog with some great ideas and links and thought to myself "I should really subscribe to this blog!" Ah, then I remembered that I already had and that's why I was reading it in the first place. Actually I have so many I've subscribed to that had to categorize my blog rolls to gain some semblance of order. I have a sewing bloglist, a homeschool bloglist, a "green living" bloglist, friends &family bloglist, and finally a misc. one. So what blog was I reading . . . Kiddo. Okay now I'm off to go find out what time to be at church.

Yep - 2 weeks down

We started homeschool two weeks ago. It has been wonderful! There's so much to share and pictures to post but all my pictures are on EH's computer so I haven't been inspired to post - plus I'm just plain tired . . . still. Sorry that's so not interesting and I'm sure you all are tired too. Dear little LE did sleep 7.5 hours Friday night though - what a gift to mama on the day marking his 6th week with us. Hopefully more to come later today.

Super duper

Words spoken by Agent H: "My stomach hurts super duper, duper, duper, duper much mom."
Me: Okay, you go ahead and take this nice relaxing bath and then maybe we we'll tuck you into bed so you can rest."
Agent H after a slight pause: "Maybe just one duper . . . "

I've been tagged

Thanks Thrillride for the tag. Now you get to hear about my . . . um stuff I guess, but what's new?! :) I'll answer these as best as I can over my bowl of hearty organic raisin bran.

TEN YEARS AGO

Ten years ago finds me back in NWC's Registrar's Office at the start of a new academic year. I don't actually recall the position I worked in the office at that time but it probably had something to do with adding and dropping classes for confused freshman and 6th year seniors. I think EH might have just been starting with the company he's currently working for . . . working on Macs of course. At that point I was still just dreaming of being a mom . . . only five more years of waiting. :)

MY TO-DO LIST TODAY (Sunday)

1. change a diaper, or 15
2. nurse, nurse, nurse, nurse a babe
3. review curriculum for the week
4. enjoy the dreamy smile on LE's face
5. ponder how to do a historical timeline for the classroom
6. take a nap
7. schedule a picture date with Jessie
8. Dink around the "school room" organizing

SNACK THAT I ENJOY

1. hot tea with raw honey served with rice crackers smeared in almond butter - my mom serves this best!

THINGS I WOULD DO IF I WERE A MILLIONAIRE

In no particular order . . .

1. give to our church
2. invest so EH could retire and do what he pleases
3. move - later alligator to a particular six-pack guzzling, belching neighbor
4. go back to school . . . maybe
5. pay off the house
6. buy land and build a camp for Higher Destiny
7. have more babies; hire help
8. open an organic eatery/play place/shop for mommies and their kids to hang out at
9. stop a home or two from being foreclosed

PLACES I'VE LIVED (in order)

Brigadoon (someplace in MN)
East Bethel, MN
Roseville, MN
Coon Rapids, MN
here now

TAG, YOU'RE IT!

Jennifer

Colleen

Caroline

LE @ 1 month

Happy 1 month birthday sweet little LE!

Your cheeks are full and rosy, your eyes glisten grey and the sweetness about you is undeniable.