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!

Day 1!!!

Soooo today is day one of our homeschooling. Once Thing 1 wakes up, that is. I am not 100% done with the setup and such, but I still have time to get there.

The picture is of our workboxes (for now... I want better ones later on). In them are just various things.
1: Calendar folder
2: Handwriting dry erase thing
3: Cutting practice (I just realized the scissors aren't in there...)
4: A book to read
5: A small game I put together last night
6: Lunch
7: Sight Word flash cards
8: a card telling him to play with his clay :)
9: Books to choose from to read
10: I have forgotten what is in this one...
11: Discussing what we did today
12: draw on MSPaint for 10 minutes

Just a lot of stuff in hopes that he gets used to doing this and then once I order our curriculum stuff he'll already be used to THIS part when that stuff gets added in.

Added: Ok, just went and put scissors in. 10 is a puzzle. (can we tell I did this last night?)


♥ Hopefully I'll remember to take pictures as we get this stuff done so I can report back on how it's gone :)

Resolutions

I have now made it to January 5th and still haven't gotten my resolutions down where they are more than just in my head.

~Lose weight. Ideal weight 140, goal weight right now 160.

~Get organized. I got a lot done today, but I don't always keep up the momentum.

~Eat better. While this COULD go under lose weight, I want not only myself, but everyone ELSE in my household to eat better.

~Blog more. :)

Woooooo!

I have been working the last couple of days on getting things set up for our workboxes. We are going to be using a big wooden shelving unit sort of deal instead of the shoebox totes and the wire rack. We found the shelving thing, which is for storing shoes as well, at Big Lots, and just couldn't pass it up.

I have been designing the cards to go INTO Thing 1's workboxes. I printed them on index cards, which he thinks is a riot. I also printed the numbers to go on them for now, which will be half an index card each. After he's been at it for a while, we'll see about putting characters or something on them. I need to find the library card holder things for a few ideas I have, plus the "clock in, clock out" slots.

I also got a poster board and hooks so that I can make a sort of "calendar station" for him.

I'm all sorts of excited, can't you tell?

I'm Back!

After spending a lovely two weeks in Maine with my family, including Christmas and participating in my sister's wedding, I am now back. During our trip up there we encountered the big blizzard on the east coast, and ended up having to stay the night partway up. Then we had to cut it a day short so that we would miss the storm hitting the New England area TODAY. BAH!

Thing 1's kilt came out AWESOME and he behaved wonderfully throughout the ceremony and afterwards. He remained sitting until I told him it was ok to get up and play with the other kids, a couple of whom were a bit more rambunctious than they probably should have been (pushing, screaming, yelling, running...).

There is my handsome little 5 year old!

Once Link gets his tush out of bed, we have to go get some groceries, and will also likely be picking up the rest of what I need to get Thing 1's workboxes set up. Exciting!

Also while we were in Maine, we purchased a Wii and the Wii Fit Plus set. I love it. It may not be super intense workouts, but since I am breastfeeding, I can't really overdo it anyway. Plus it's fun.

Ever want to see a puggle run fast and scale furniture better than a cat? Release a 40+ pound basset puppy behind them. Impa-puppy spent most of the trip staying on the back of the couch and chair.

Now back to trying to get Link to wake up...