Mysterious Ways

So we still haven't moved yet.  We had a couple things go horribly wrong with the closing, and it went insane.
Last week, we ended up going and looking at different houses.  We found one that has ended up being the same price, but a little smaller.

HOWEVER, it doesn't require any work to make it presentable.  It has all new carpets and all of the walls are teh same color (the other house you could tell someone had TRIED to paint, but done a REALLY bad job, and in a few places didn't even go all the way up the wall... so the stairwell had three different shades of off white).  There is also a fireplace in this one, and a couple of rather large mirrors in the largest room downstairs.  The yard is a lot smaller, but the back yard is already fenced in, so that is less work for us as well.  This place went on the market literally right as the other one was falling through.  So some mysterious ways have been worked, and even our realtor feels like this was meant to be.

We are supposed to close later this week (in 2 days to be exact) and then will start the whirlwind of activity to get everything moved and get this apartment cleaned before the 10th of April.


In other news, Link and I celebrated our second anniversary yesterday!  We didn't do much, instead choosing to relax.

(And Thing 1 has just informed me he wants a baby chicken...)

Wow!

create your own personalized map of the USA
 or check out ourCalifornia travel guide

I have seen this type of map around a lot lately, and finally got around to making one of my own.  These are all states that I have personally set foot in, although most of them were while in the process of moves growing up.  I Was born in Virginia, but have lived in both Carolinas, California, Arizona and Maine.  All but Maine were before graduating high school and were more like VA, SC, NC, CA, SC, CA, VA, AZ.... then back to VA, to ME and now VA again.

I have family and friends scattered all over though.  It's just amazing at how many states I have set foot in while on those moves... (54%!)

Tick Tock

Time is moving right along while we get ready for this move.  And with this move comes settling in in a new place and then starting to more diligently do SCHOOL!

I've started creating a basic plan on what we'll do when, especially since I am slowly adding more subjects as we go along.  By the winter "term" we should be done adding things finally.

So for Thing 1's kindergarten prep and year I have chosen the following:
~Math-U-See, Primer and Alpha
~Lesson Pathways lessons plans for Science introduction and Social Studies introduction
~Astronomy study later on, this is what he WANTS to study, so we'll do a LARGE unit on it
~US Geography/states study
~Edcon Literature worktexts level 1
~Wordly Wise 3000 Second Edition, Level K
~Hooked on French (this is on the computer, and looks like lots of fun for a basic intro to foreign languages)
~Sign Language cards for learning a few signs (probably just once a week to begin with this year)
~Many many types of manipulatives, including pentominos, tangrams, pattern blocks, linking cubes, cuisineaire rods, opaque counters, colored wooden cubes, a geoboard
~Free-reading
~Handwriting practice, using the ream of handwriting paper I got, not workbooks
~Writing letters and such to family
~Drawing both on paper and on the computer
~Introductory typing (he uses the computer, and I want to try and steer him away from bad habits as much as possible)
~Playing with his brother and the dog and me and Link and a group of local homeschool kids


If at any point he seems overwhelmed (keep in mind that many of these are only once a week!) I can always back off some on most of this.  The joy of being able to work at HIS pace, not someone else's.

Box Day #2!

I got (most of) the rest of my stuff I ordered today!  This was the box from Rainbow Resource.  I am missing the student book for the Wordly Wise, but I just got the tracking number for it in my email.  Woohoo!

Can you tell I have a love of manipulatives?

Box Day #1!!

Our Math-U-See stuff has arrived.  I already switched the blocks from their cardboard box to another box (which I think originally had makeup in it)

We have Primer, Alpha, the starter set of blocks (you can't see all of them in the picture, but they're there) and the skip counting CD.

In a couple days my order from Rainbow Resource should be here, and then I'll have everything from this round of ordering :)  (I forgot to order something, so have to convince Link to let me order it)  (Don't mind the other stuff in the box, that's the stuff I bought at Borders a couple weeks ago)

Totally Non-Observant!

I just realized a little bit ago (before the realization about the lapbook, honestly) that one of the ladies from the There's No Place Like Home forum that I have been frequenting most recently has commented on a number of my blog posts from BEFORE I knew ther ewas a comment issue.  I had no idea anyone had gone BACK and commented on the older posts.  Thanks Jenn~!
And thanks to anyone who comments (like Heather whose comment about the GM lapbook reminded me I hadn't posted it)

Apparently the comments hold me more accountable than I hold myself.  OOOPS!

Hey look, baby picture!  And Impa-Puppy and my foot apparently.  This was just taken a couple days ago ♥  (And I really wish Blogger would quit being weird and let me put text AFTER my pictures!)

How did I forget?!

I apparently at some poitn along the way forgot that I hadn't posted Thing 1's Goodnight Moon lapbook pictures.

I am horrible with the slacking thing!  Back, inside and then the underneath of the flappy part on the right inner section.  Because that TOTALLY made sense as a description.  The things in this one are a lot more spaced out because there were a lot of bigger things, and I have only ever been involved in the making of one other lapbook, y'know?  He seems to REALLY enjoy making these at least :)

Busy Busy Busy!

I'm still alive!  All of us are, in fact.


We're just REALLY busy right now.  And probably will be for about a month or so if everything goes well.

Why?

We're working on buying a house.  If we succeed (which it is looking extremely likely since all that is left is to actually secure the loan and the closing), then we will be working on moving and going through things and figuring out what in the WORLD to do with all of the space we'll have.  (Currently in a small two bedroom apartment, looking at moving into a 4 bedroom, two story townhouse)

Since I have a camera now, and have figured out many of its workings (although not all, of course) I have no excuse to not have pictures when I return for a more regular basis.  Which will happen!  I am expecting in the next week ro so to recieve all of our curriculum stuff (box days!  yay!) and so when we get settled we will be able to more seriously get into our schooling.

Here is a recent Thing 1 and 2 (and Impa-Puppy) picture though that just melts my heart:

New Toys!

Link and I decided with our tax return this year, besides putting money toward a down payment for a house (yay?) we would treat ourselves to new computers.  They are QUITE nice, and definitely a LOT faster than the old ones (although my husband refuses to use any computer straight out of a box, and so has already modified his)

Another thing I got is a camera!  I now no longer have to wait until Link is home to take pictures :)  I am still working on figuring this thing out, but here are a couple pictures I just took a few minutes ago to see the difference with and without flash on the Auto setting.

 

This is WITH Flash, and yes, Thing 2 IS sleeping like that...

 This is WITHOUT Flash, and I think looks a little better in this case.

Much playing to be done with the camera!  And with the new computer playing with the pictures from the new camera.

Oh yes, this will be lots of fun, indeed.

Why Yes, I AM Still Alive

I am in desperate need of a proper camera.  Using Link's phone is really hard to do when he's not always home.  (Job kinda keeps him away 40+ hours a week... BAH!)  I have found one I like though.  Now it's just a matter of getting the tax return and buying it.  Along with a new computer, Thing 1's curriculum for this year or so, and more diapers (with my sewing machine being difficult I can't MAKE them since Thing 2 is already outgrowing the current ones).


And hopefully another wrap if I love Mojito as much as I think I will.  Because I can never have too many wraps (and I don't always wear green, so having a color besides green might be a good idea)


New hobby lately?  Crochet.  And not just blankets.  In fact, I have yet to make a single blanket.  I make HATS.  So far I have made 8 hats.  Three belong to Thing 2, 2 have other homes, and 3 are being set aside for collecting as stock so I can hopefully open my own store at some point.  No two hats are alike, because I keep finding more patterns that I like to try and use.  One hat was originally going to be one of those baby sleep-sack things and I got bored at about hat length and decided to make it a hat instead.  I can whip out most of them in less than two hours, although the one I am currently working on is kicking my behind.  I keep stopping every other row because the next little section sucks to do and I dread it during the two rows.  But it is going well!  So once I finish using all of the yarn I currently have (which is a lot, Michael's had a sale on a lot of their yarn, so I bought a lot of yarn) I should have at LEAST like 12 more hats.  Which will probably all be with different patterns.  I will have to post pictures once I get the collection built up a bit more.  (I even bought pink yarn so I would quit trying to claim hats for Thing 2 lol)


We had snow today!  Which Link and Thing 1 enjoyed playing in.  As well as the puppy, although she is a chicken and at times would go sit in the overhang area and just shiver because she is not well equipped for dealing with the cold.  Thing 2 and I made a couple appearances outside, but mostly just hung out inside.  I made beef, potato and corn stew for dinner.  Well, more like soup.  Whatever.  It was good.

Thing 1 completed another lapbook, this time on Goodnight Moon.  I have not taken any pictures of it yet, although I definitely NEED to.  I have, however, taken to putting the month and year on the front of the lapbooks.  That way I can see the progression in things like his handwriting.

All in all, it's been busy busy busy around here :)

Weird...

So after some issues being brought to my attention regarding the inability to leave comments on my blog posts, I changed my blog's update thing to the new one.

It looks just the same as the old, only a couple little buttons are different.  If that is seriously what was causing the problem, that's just dumb.

Just saying...

First Lapbook :)

Thing 1 did a Humpty Dumpty lapbook today. And I took a number of pictures, but here are a few (back, front, and inside)

Busy Busy!

I apologize for not posting more. It WAS Thing 1's first week of "school" work, and he also spent all weekend asking if he could do school stuff as well.

This week we'll be doing a lapbook on Humpty Dumpty, and if that goes well, we'll do one on one of the books he has from the library.

♥

Thing 2 is babbling up a storm, and quite LOUDLY, so given the late hour it is, I need to go entertain him QUIETLY :)

Assessments

Today I decided it was time to go ahead and get a baseline assessment of sorts done with Thing 1. Afterall, if I'm going to build a curriculum around what he knows already and where I want him to go, I need to know where to begin.

I used the K12 language arts placement tests which put him at just about a second grade reading level. I was floored, and am SO proud of my little boy. He only really started reading back in August, and now in January he has quite a grasp on the concepts. He started getting distracted partway through the last assessment I did today, so I am thinking of redoing that one and seeing how he does with a fresh start. If he does a lot better, then I guess it'll be time to move on to the next level :)

This of course means that I am NOT going to be focusing on phonics for him. It would be way too boring for him since he stomped those assessments into teh ground. The only thing from there that he needs work on is capitalization in the proper places in sentences. He likes to use capitals Ds and Bs and Ps so he doesn't get them backwards.

Go baby go!

Day 1 = Success!

Yesterday was awesome as far as getting things going. The day was a bit messed up because Link was home sick, and had an appt elsewhere so I drove him to that, and then I made a trip out to JoAnn's later on to pick up a couple things (which will eventually get their own post, I PROMISE!).

We completed EVERYTHING, and he didn't even want to stop to eat lunch (because of the adjustments made to our day, lunch was early in the lineup). He wanted to keep going instead of eat!

Today we didn't do anything, although I had loaded the boxes because I was waaaay under the weather at the start of the day. And Link was home again, in hopes that the day would be his last one and he's finally warded off whatever it is that has been bugging him the last week or so (we're thinking bronchitis or a bad chest cold or something)


Happy happy happy!