My 2009 resolutions

Well, it seems that as a child I was never able to keep them, but I hope that now that i am 28 that will change. so... here it goes!

1. Loose weight! Of course that is probably everyones goal. My doctors are concerned that my liver enzymes are high. This all started a little over a year ago with an elevation of 55. The doctors said oh, it is nothing we will check again in a year. Well, with new doctors I never really thought about it, but while my gynocologist was running other test she came across the elevation again, but this time it was 65. It was decided that maybe they should have a look at my liver. It showed that I just had a fatty liver and needed to loose weight, but would check again in 2 months. This time it was well over 100. They tested me for other things, but thank goodness it still all points to just a fatty liver. So loosing weight is at the top of my list! I have lost 18 lbs in 3 months and now i hope i can lose another 18 lbs in 3 months.

2. Get into my Bible more

3. Start and Finish the Love Dare with my husband, Josh

4. Be more patient with my kids and husband

5. Be succesful at homeschooling

6. Pray on a daily basis and not just by myself, but outloud with my family

7. Spend more quality time with my family

8. workout every day

I can't believe it is.... almost 2009

SO, I have been planning the kids lessons for January. I was going to be using the Prarie Primer, but I got taken and it never arrived. So... I am planning it myself. We are going to be learning about snakes and habitates and even talking about.... "ALL about me" It is going to be so exciting. I happen to LOVE the Family Fun magaize and in the December/January issue it told of a place about 3 hrs from here that has some of the rarest snakes in the world. Neleh absolutly LOVES snakes so we decided it would be fun to learn about all these and then take them down there for a trip some time before summer. All about me I figured would help them learn just who they are and what they like. We will be talking about our bodies, our families (including our family tree), our interests (we will be trying different activities (gymnastics, art, dance, martial arts ect)

In math we will be continuing on math mamouth. Alyssa has already finished chapter one and gone on to chapter 2. Neleh is still working on chapter one but i am so proud of how well she is doing. She is just like me though. She gets upset and impatient so some times it takes her a few days to finish a paper. We are just taking it at her pace.

As for Handwriting we will be writing our penpals. Alyssa and Neleh's cousins Gryphen and Phoenix will be corresponding and learning all about each other. The girls will also be writing a little girl name Lisbeth in Peru. Our family decided to sponser her and we will be learning all about her and her customs, community and country.

We are all so excited to be starting homeschool in January and hope to have a blast learning

The Nutcracker

Alyssa was taking Dance as her art elective when she was at First Christian Academy. After we pulled her out we really didn't want all that work she did to be put to waste. She had worked for three months on the CHristmas program and thought she deserved to finish it. After lots of beging and pleading the principle finally agreed. So this week is her recital so she is been at the school 3 hrs today and tomorrow the same thing so school is a little slow. We did manage to do a handwriting sheet and math worksheets. We also made a nativity since we are talking about the nativity.

It has been a wierd day, but the kids feel they have accomplished something.

Neleh has been strugling with the more than less than signs, but I am confident she will get it later.

Alyssa came home from dance class today. It was exciting. One of the books was the Handwriting book I was going to buy. It is exciting to have it to suppliment with the starwright when i want to. Most of the other stuff wasnt worth much, but i will either sell it or pick through it and find something.

Lowes Hardware!

We started off our day by learning about Holly and Poinsettas. The kids were amazed that the Holly leaves represented the crown of thorns and the berries the blood Jesus shed on the cross. They instantly wanted to know what they looked like. With nothing more important to do (what would be more important? LOL!), we jumped in the van and headed to Lowes Hardware. The kids were super excited when we arrived.


I am still learning this blog thing so my pics are not in order

This one Neleh found and was fascinated with its teeth. In case you can not tell, it is a venus fly trap. We talked about how this plant eats insects. That is how it gets its nutrients instead of from the soil like other plants. She has decided she wants one for her birthday. LOL!!!



This is the holly and berries the kids wanted to see. We were not sure we were going to find it. We had to search the whole store and then finally asked someone before we found it. When we began to look at the different ones Alyssa made an observation that holly with pointy leaves have berries, but ones without pointy leaves did not have berries. She has decided she wants to research that.

This is a Christmas Cactus. Not a plant we have been studying, but the kids liked it.

Here is the poinsetta. We found many different ones of these. This was our favorite. We also found lighter red, yellow and painted ones in blue, gold and purple.

Here is a wreath. We talked about these last week when we were learning about the advent.

This is one type of Garland we saw. It was the kids favorite, but Alyssa went around and read us all the different kinds.

Last but not least is the little tree. We found all sizes. We liked this one because it was able to be planted in our yard.

After we looked at all the amazing Christmas plants we headed to Taco Bell. I gave each of the girls $3 and they had to determine what they could get with that. They could not go over. They both did very well.

Healthier Ever After!

Well today was field trip day! We originally were going to a old moravian settlement to look at Christmas symbols and traditions. The Lord decided we needed to do something else...He sent rain!

The kids were kinda hesitent to go out in the rain. There were already tons of puddles in our drivway and yard. Yet, they quickly put on their coats and we ran out the door. They had no idea where they were going, but were glad to be getting out of our normal routine.

When we got to the Children's Musuem they were so full of energy we were glad to not be spending the day locked up in our house. Since Josh and I were educaters we recieved more than half off the admission price. Since we were going to be studying the food pyramid and healthier living we went to the Healthier Ever After exhibit.
http://www.childrensmuseumofws.org/

It was alot of fun and the kids enjoyed learning all about the food groups. They especially liked the climbing wall with the slide. It showed how we can do exercise, but still have fun.

After they had their hands on lesson they went to the other exhibits: krispy kreme donut factory, food lion grocery store, fantasy land, and the build it station. We also stoped in and took a angel bear yoga class.
http://www.angelbearyoga.com/

the kids are excited about our next trip. Real Life Candyland!!

A day in the life of...

Well, Today was quit an interesting day. I had so much to do today. The day started with the kids learning some life skills. They helped me clear the table and load the dishwasher before going to get ready for school.

We decided that since we needed to go to the library and grocery store that we would kinda have a light school day. The girls started off by looking up some Christmas vocabulary words as Garrett and I worked on the Christmas alphabet book. He is really trying to learn his his sounds. We are so proud that he has learned what they all are. We went to The Dollar Tree on Saturday night and picked up some alphabet window clings he is going to put up in our classroom.

From there Garrett wanted to watch the Leap Frog Letter factory so... that is what he did. The girls and I started reading about the start of Christmas cards and presents. Alyssa was fascinated with John Horsley (who was the first person to make a Christmas card). She loved that he had the word Horse in his name. I don't think she will ever forget what he did.

The kids decided that they wanted to make gifts since they had now learned about why we had Christmas gift. So I guess we have our own three wise men in our house. LOL!!! We went to this website and the kids designed their own coupon books.
http://www.dltk-cards.com/coupon/

They were getting really antsie with school so we went outside and played for a little bit. We played some hiding go seek. Just some plain old fun!!

Then we headed in to do some handwriting sheets. I wasn't sure where Neleh needed the work so I just printed up some sentences to practice. Alyssa had her first day of Cursive. We started with the letter A and she came into me and asked if she could write her whole name in cursive. I told her sure and she did FANTASTIC!! Garrett is still working on his name, but I see so much improvment every day.

Then the last thing we did before heading out was a math sheet. Both of the girls are doing Mammoth Math 1a. It is a review for Alyssa and she did great!!! This is new for Neleh. I was so proud of her. She had completed half the workshet in the same amount it took Alyssa to do the whole thing. We are so proud!!!!

Erupting Snow

So, Today we learned about weather in Science. They made a weather observation chart and the made some snow.

We started off by all three of them working together. (Which in itself was an expirement) It took them some time to work together. In the end though they did well. My wonderful sister sent us a link with an observation sheet wich garrett glued to our posterboard. Alyssa made a pocket to stick our weather clipings in and neleh cut them out. We also added some information about the months of the year to it. In the end they learned to work together a little.

Afterwards we read two books about snow. The kids really liked to just lay down and listen to the stories. Alyssa thought it was nice to not have to read it herself for once.

The kids were all so excited about hearing about snow, but were bursting with excitment when they heard we were going to make some snow. At the kids old school they had a book fair and i bought a test tube kit which included insta snow so we got to use it today.

We made four badges. The first was a regular batch. The second one after it was made they added salt to it. They found this caused their snow to get slushy. The third batch we stuck in the freezer. (we are still waiting on this one. The last one we disected one of Lorelai's diaper and removed some of the chemicals from inside. We then added water to this. It also made a snow like substance.

The kids had a blast learning today!

Finally Chosen

After many long weeks of struggling with my kids school we made the decision that they would be coming home. The kids have been really excited and energetic this week as we have become adjusted to not leaving the house at 7:30 every morning. They love that they can get up and work in their pjs., take a break when THEY feel they need it, and lunch is when their belly's grumble and not when the school has assigned them. Also what is better than having mommy as a teacher, hot lunches, and a classroom as big as your backyard?!

It took us awhile to figure out what we would call our school. We had suggestions from all three kids: FCA (which was the name of the school they were attending), Dowdy Academy, God's School and Learning in our Backyard Academy. We decided to go with the last one.

Now for what we have decided to use:

For Alyssa, who is 7 we will be using the prairie primer http://www.cadroncreek.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=CCCC&Product_Code=Pioneer_001

and for math we are using mamoth math for money and alpha omega math chef


and for handwriting we are using a reason for handwriting T



For Neleh, who is 6 we will be using the My Little Primer

and for math, the play and find out about math book
http://www.amazon.com/Janice-VanCleaves-Play-Find-about/dp/0471129380/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227500653&sr=8-1
, mamoth math for money and clock

for handwriting we will be using A Reason for Handwriting A

100 Easy Lessons for Reading


As for Garrett...we are using several different things as we begin to tackle our ABC's and 123's.
~ Hooked on Phonics for PreK, Kumron, Flash Cards and the ABC Game


As for my little Lorelai, we will be working on coloring skills using Crayola Beginnings. Also she will learn to have table time using blocks, board books, puzzles, stacking toys and a few other undetermined items. Along with learning some things with her sisters and brother