Comings and goings
Lots of comings and goings around these parts late last week. I like it. I don’t like it.
I know! I can’t figure myself out either.
Two invitations to two separate Usborne book parties on the same day. One during the day, many kids converging in my friend’s backyard. Much conversation for me with the other moms. At the last minute, I went to the other party at night. Kids stayed home with hubs.
Yup. I am an Usborne book groupie.
Homeschooler’s support group meeting (doesn’t that sound like a recovery group?)
And our typical Wednesday craziness. I see the end coming – later May – and I’m holding on best I can. CBS. Boy’s “engineering class” (which turned out to be not the winner I thought it would be due to the homework assignments), girl’s cooking with friends. I’m leaning toward not signing up for CBS in the fall. The topic is the book of Genesis, and we all feel tired of those well-known Bible stories. Or if we do CBS again, I won’t make the mistake of signing up for activities that same day.
Decisions, decisions.
Anyway. I’m down one kiddo today. Yesterday was the landmark Year Five for my youngest, so in celebration we shipped her off to my mother and dad. An overnight with a trip to the toy store and fast food dinner. Ask me how excited she was this morning? I miss her already. I don’t miss her at all. She’s having fun.
I know. I can figure myself out either.
April 19, 2010
Tags: birthday, books Posted in: A Mom's Journal 
2 Comments
Just so you know (No. 3)
I love maps.
Remind me later to write a post as to WHY.
April 15, 2010
Tags: maps Posted in: Educating at home 2 Comments
The girl creative
Do you have one of these girls?
Dance, paint, draw, cook, sing. Her days dedicated to creating, many moments committed to expression. The other day, a roll of masking tape became a way to decorate walls, mirror, desk and door. A read-aloud book is acted out, a Bible story re-told in detail. My girl loves to create.
I try to give her lots of opportunity when she asks to do something like painting. Having an assortment of colors, lots of paper, markers, glitter, maybe how-to books to inspire – it’s important to have those items at home when you have creative children. Most of all, I let her do without telling her how. And I follow behind, ready to peel the tape off the wall.
She’ll be five on Sunday. I pray she never loses her love, or confidence, in what she creates.
What’s your girl’s favorite way to express her creativity?
April 13, 2010
Tags: art, creativity, girls Posted in: Girls Empowered One Comment
Product review: an e-zine to help you save
Molly’s Money Saving Digest: Evaluate, Prioritize, Organize (January 2010)
What I liked:
1. The pie making tutorial. I say tutorial, because this is more than a recipe, it’s a step-by-step teaching with lots of text, pictures, tips and quips; excellent for us kitchen dunderheads (er. . . like me) who need extra help. Molly calls it a “mentor lesson,” I agree.
2. The menu planning section with dinner suggestions for a week. (The list of all the ingredigints you need to cook all the meals is a bonus. Great idea.)
3. The Kid’s Corner craft. How to make a piggy bank. My kids will love this craft.
4. The explanation on how to open a checking account. Basic, good to teach a young person.
And because I always give an honest review:
What I didn’t like:
1. The HUGE paragraphs. Oh, Molly! Your content is wonderful, but it’s difficult to read when you let your paragraphs get the size of Texas. Just sayin’.
2. Nine pages of blank lists (clothing inventory, to-do list, calendar, etc.) Is this really necessary in an e-zine? Molly, rescue this space to use for your awesome cooking tutorial or for more craft ideas.
3. A tiny quibble: I’d like to be able to jump from the Table of Contents to the article that interests me with only one click of the mouse. Maybe I’m lazy, but the scrolling gets tiresome.
Molly’s Money Saving Digest is an e-zine packed full of info to help you cook, craft, with encouragement on ways to save money in your homemaking.
And now for the legal disclaimer: The author (blogger) of this post received a free copy of the above e-zine from the publisher in exchange of a written review. The review is the honest opinion of the blogger. The blogger received no monetary compensation for this review.
April 11, 2010
Tags: e-zine, money, product review Posted in: Uncategorized No Comments
It’s Canada Goose, not Canadian. Even mom learned something new.
Once a month we meet up with a group of fellow homeschoolers for what I call Park Class. Basically, we have a county park Naturalist come out to share his or her wisdom. Good stuff for those of us who dislike the traditional pencil and paper approach to home educating.
Saturday we had Laura at Hoffman Park. She came packing too: binoculars for birding. Yay.
I love birds. I always have. One of my favorite memories – in fact, my only memory of learning anything at all in 3rd grade – has to do with bird watching.
As I sat in my desk, with the teacher prattling on in the front of the classroom, I looked out the window (I suspect I did a LOT of looking out the window in the third grade.) There on a tree branch:Â a bird. Black with a hard-to-miss patch of red on the wing. I’d never seen one. You would’ve thought I would’ve raised my hand to ask teacher to name this mystery bird, and maybe I did, can’t remember now. I bet I didn’t because I certainly remember my mom and I looking the bird up in our bird book when I was home. Mom was always talking about birds to us.
The Red-winged Blackbird and I have been friends ever since.
We didn’t see any Red-winged Blackbirds yesterday, but we saw plenty of Turkey Vultures, Canada Geese, Blue Jays, a Cormorant feeding in the pond (my favorite) and several others.
Here we are spying on the vultures:
And one of my eldest boy. May I brag on my boy for a moment? This boy knows his birds, probably because he’s one of those kids who likes being outdoors, combined with having an unquenchable curiosity.
Squint hard, maybe turn your binoculars to the screen, and you can see the Cormorant sunning itself.
April 10, 2010
Tags: birding, outdoors Posted in: Educating at home 2 Comments
