A 3 year old being honest

Agent H: "Ebug, if I give you one of my Skittles will you give me one of your Mike 'n Ikes?"

Ebug: "Let's find out."

Letter blends for K/1st grade

I'm pretty sure Agent H is going to break out in hives if he sees his letter blend flash cards in his workbox again. Agent Mama steps in with a stealthy move from Currclick (I could break out in hives of joy over this place). I took a look at some recent games I had downloaded from them and found the perfect letter blending activity for the boy who is trying to convince me that I should go to space with him someday. The game is called Blends Blast Off and it is moving your game piece along the game board to the bear in the rocket at the end. As you go you are matching a picture to the letter blend that is starts with. Will I be "busted" trying to sneak this past Agent H? Monday will tell.

UPDATE: After two days of the game, Agent H loves it, loves it, loves it!

Fresh cough cherries

I have found myself in posession of a jar of freshly made choke cherry sauce. I think a thick stack of pancakes should be served pronto. Much love and thanks to my mom and dad.

A couple of my boys got to go along for the picking of the berries. As the hunt was retold at dinner, Ebug told me they found lots of "cough cherries". It took Agent H interpreting for me to understand he meant choke cherries. So sweet!

LE Babe's 1st Birthday Party

There were cupcakes

Presents and family (of which I have no photos :( ).

That Quiz

I just found a nifty website that has quick online quizes (they seem to be mostly mathematical) for your children to see how well they grasp a subject. I tried out the telling time and shapes one. Quick, easy and you get your results right away. I can see this being an activity on the schedule strip. Here it is: That Quiz.

I . . .

LOVE HOMESCHOOLING MY BOYS! (I'm on a first week "high")

Day 1 Workboxes, how it really went

So my official 1st day of school post is done. Now I can post the "behind the scenes" details. :)

Agent H:
It took FOREVER to get Agent H in the groove of his first workbox. He was distracted by what I was doing with Ebug (we were deep in discussion about cows since they are our weekly theme), restless in his chair, and had 50 questions.

However, once he saw that Ebug was flying through his workboxes and had already reached the "snack" spot on his schedule strip he was motivated.

That said, once we finished the first workbox (which were coloring pages "All About Me" to be made into a book) and he put it in the "done" pile, I think the light bulb went off and he realized how this system works. He raced through his next workboxes.

It was lots of fun for me to hand him the timer and say "go ride your bike out front for 10 minutes". This is a fairly new priviledge for him to go out front by himself so he loved this! When he came in, he went directly to his desk and picked out the next bin without even being told. He says that this was his favorite thing on his schedule strip.

Ebug:

He and I started our school day. We went to his little table and talked, read, colored, and pretended to be cows. Then I had three bins set up for him which he proceeded to finish in about 30 seconds. I think I had to refill his bins twice. I'll be picking him up some more bins to fill. Ebug's favorite part of the day? Working on cows with me. Sigh, music to my heart.

A huge help was that my mother's helper (a very nice girl from our homeschool co-op who comes to help out once a week) came today and was able to help me balance the workload between the boys. Thankfully, LE Babe slept through it all.

The words of Ebug

Take a moment to listen to Ebug and he has fasinating things to share:

He said this when he was sad "That makes me cheer down."

"Do birds have blood cells?"

"It's Tooty Toot's turn!" As in R2-D2's turn in our Lego Star Wars game.

"Momma, you're MY best mom ever!"

First day of school '09-'10

We've started our new school year! This week is a review week for Agent H and the beginning of Ebug's preschool program. I decided we'd use Sue Patrick's Workbox system for our schooling method. There have been some great reviews on what it is so I'll just direct you to them for more information. Click these titles to view their posts: 1+1+1=1, Joyful Mother of Six Children.

In the morning the boys complete their chore charts then I hand them their ID cards so they can go "clock-in" to school and grab their schedule strips.














Agent H's (1st grade, age 6) Curriculum: HOD's Beyond Little Hands for his Glory, Hooked on Phonics, Handwriting Without Tears, and Singapore Math.

This is Ebug's work area. With him (Preschool, age 3) we are using Letter of the Week and Totally Tot's ABC lessons based on Chicka Chicka Boom.

I did some rearranging and made this reading/audio story listening area.

I love that this system inspires the kids to be in charge of completing their schedule. They see what "good stuff" is coming up so they are inspired to move through work they may not enjoy as much. I also like that I am able to do extra activities that I normally wouldn't have planned or thought we had time to do (cool educational games, magic science, file folder games, etc). Time will tell how this system works for us but there appear to be hords of homeschooling families out there in the blog-o-sphere loving it.

Summer's work

This year was a fresh new start to gardening. I moved our garden from the back of the house (just not enough sun) to the front yard where I can eek out about 7 hours of sun in one little 6x6 spot. Some cement blocks donated from my parents, landscape material, and about a 'zillion pounds of peat moss and manure and we had our first raised garden. I purchased my seedlings from a friend who is starting a planting, etc business. She uses heirloom/organic seeds and cares for them the way I would (that is if I didn't have a wanna-be green thumb that's mostly black)

The yield was tremendous! I dehydrated tomatoes off and on for weeks and the rest my mom canned for me.

I guess this was a pretty common picture for the summer. I have been working to beautify the entrance to our driveway for a few years. It's taken many years but I think I'm finally starting to like it. My dear secret sister from co-op gifted me transplants from her garden for my birthday. I'm looking forward to seeing them fill in over the next few years. What an amazing gift!

Norwex

Hey I'm actually following up on a post I said I'd write about later!

The cleaning products I used for spring cleaning are Norwex products. After a few months with them I still think they are awesome. Essentially they are microfiber cloths that you get wet with water and they will disinfect whatever you wipe with them. These are not the same ones that you find at Menards or Walmart. These have silver imbedded in them (not just coated, if that) and the silver is the key element that disinfects from all the yuckies!

Some of my favorites from their product line have got to be:

Spirinetts - One of the cheapest things in their catalog but they do an amazing job on soap scum in my bathtub and on burnt on rice in my pots (opps, ah opps, and oops again. I think I should look into getting a rice cooker)!

Kitchen cloth - I don't use these on my dishes but to disinfect my counters and the high chair tray. Think wiping up a raw egg spill or that left over "gooo" where the baby ate.

The microfiber cloth itself - wet with water and wipe down the doornobs and light switches, all the common touch spots when there are cold germs lurking. (I clean the bathroom with this too!)

The mop - hands down the best dry/wet mop ever. It sweeps up my crumbs, then I switch to the wet mop pad (I just run it under water) and wash the floors.

No buckets, no squeegies, no chemicals. Easy and fast! So many more products I like but I won't go into them now. I hosted a party and was amazed how much of their products I got for free. I didn't spend a dime other than on some treats to share and I received so much! After seeing the product at my party a friend of mine signed up to demonstrate it. If you're looking for more info I'd be happy to get you in contact with her. Here is her blog Green Choice Cleaning.

Neighborhood Night Out

Thank you to our neighbor who hosted and even arranged for the fire department to show up!

We have a walker

We can officially say LE Babe is a walker now. He will walk forward, then stop walking, change directions and continue walking. He's starting to get fast too. He buckles his arms and little fists down at his sides but a little behind him as he walks as though they are jet engines ready for blast off.

Happy 1st sweet LE

LE Babe, I want to brush your smooth skin with my lips, feel your soft curls on my cheek, and hold you close you forever. Having you grow up is so hard on my heart but I will remind myself that you are God's and that you are designed . . . destined to be a man of God.