What I am Thankful for...

Today I am home with some sick kids so there will be no family gatherings for us this year. This is of course NOT what I am thankful for. I am thankful though for the homeschooling freedoms I have in the Great Lakes State of Michigan. I know many are having to move away from this great state, that jobs are almost nonexistent, but I am rooting for Michigan! I am holding out hope that we will come back...I am hopeful that my husband will still have a job in 2009. For today though I am very thankful for my right to home school our children in anyway that I can to meet their individual needs. I am thankful that testing isn't mandated or turning in my curriculum or assignments. Not that I am opposed to doing these things, not that I don't do these things or do the things that will meet these requirements. I am just glad that today, in Michigan, I have many homeschooling freedoms. I am also thankful that the homeschooling voices that are heard on our state Capitol's door steps are one of the loudest and strongest in Michigan. Thank you God for these freedoms. I don't want to take for granted what they mean to me, my family and our children.
Happy Thanksgiving!

New File Folder Games Website!

Here is a great website for free File Folder Fun and Games! They are also having give-aways too! So click on over and find out more about them!

I've been trying to add their link and can't get it to work! So just click on their webaddress below. I'll keep trying to add the link.
www.folderfun.ning.com

Halloween Story Starters

I found great story starters for Halloween and thought I'd share a few. I did not do any with my oldest as he is deer hunting with Grandpa but I did with my neice who spent the last few nights here and my oldest daughter. They seemed to have fun and I would ask a question to get them thinking about their next sentence. I don't have them ready to share but here are some of the story starters....
*It was a dark and stormy night when...
*My friends and I were trick-or-treating and knocked on the door...
*Meow! The black cat was scared...
*The silliest Halloween ever started when...
*A yellow glow was coming from the jack-o-lantern, only...
*I was counting all my candy when all of a sudden...
*You won't believe this story, but it is true...
*The whirling winds of that October evening sent chills down my spine...

a bit of the mind of a four year old

My youngest son just turned 4 at the end of September. A few mornings ago he came downstairs...


Mom: "Gee Boo, you look all dressed and ready to go for the day!"


Boo: "Yea, I guess that is why I turned four."

The Homeschooling Song

You've got to see this homeschooling video song...it's great!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCu5ojNlpi0

Another Flood?

Yesterday our four children put on their bathing suits and went out to experience all this rain and the puddles it was leaving in it's wake. They had a blast and came in really wet and really cold. It was a nite for those warm jammies! Hours later my four year old son came down the hall and stated with excitement and volume, "GOD IS GOING TO FLOOD THE EARTH AGAIN!!!"

How cute it that? I did remind him of God's promise and the rainbow!

P'jammy Time!

I know P'jammy Time seems like an odd title for this post but look at my kids in all of these pictures! In almost every picture they are doing school in their pajamas!! It just isn't that important to me to have them dressed when they come down stairs I guess. The truth is this. Right now my littlest Boo, my sweet red-head still sleeps in his toddler bed in our room. When I get up, the dog Finnegan gets up and shakes his head, which rattles his dog tags and ALWAYS wakes up Boo. Boo now is awake and isn't able to go back to sleep. So he and I get up. We sneak downstairs around 7:30 so as not to wake the other sleeping beau and beauties. Now my oldest daughter and son sleep in the same bed. My sweet daughter can't seem to sleep in her OWN bed...so when one gets up they sneak downstairs to not wake up the other. That leaves my Major Cutie...who sleeps the latest and then she comes downstairs. By this time I am ready to serve breakfast and get school started. If I sent them back upstairs to get dressed I'd never get them back. Hence the reason we do school in our pj's...I bought my youngest two their own school boxes the other day at Walmart. We have a least a half dozen of these but I wrote their names on them and gave one to Boo and one to Major Cutie. Well Boo hasn't put his down! He loves it. This box played out in the garage yesterday, ate dinner on the deck last nite and played legos with Boo this morning! The .98 cent box was a hit! And it only has one glue stix and a pair of scissors in it so far!This year we are covering more of early American history. My son seems to really like this time period...well it is the only one we've covered so far but that is besides the point...so we are reading about Sacagawea and that inspired my son to draw her picture. It turned out really good...I'll have to find where he put his finished drawing and show it to you all!Big sister loves to read and play school with her siblings! I like how she had them cuddle up with blankets while she reads! The youngest had fun covering the letter C with glue and corn meal!

We started Rosette Stone Spanish with our oldest son this year. He really, really likes it and seems to do well. We have the home school version and you can keep track of their progress and redo lessons if needed. We aim for the 90% and up. Overall he is earning a 95% right now!
We use Handwriting Without Tears and Mrs. V is finishing up last year's book. We use this book twice a week.
I read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom to my preschoolers and played with a paper coconut tree and letter magnets on the fridge. This was a big hit!
The school year is underway! I am not sure I'm quite ready but here goes anyway! To tell you the truth I am living in a state of almost constant ciaos. I'm not saying that this is a bad place to be. It's just a place that I have to learn to manage, or live within. A place where I have to watch that I don't become short with the kiddos, or beat myself up on where I "think" I am falling short. It's a time to live in a sort of calm ciaos if that makes any sense. Well, for me it is perfect nonsense!