Not Related Really

Josh and his Girlfriend at Prom. He isn't homeschooled anymore, heck he isn't even at home anymore, but we are probably closer now than ever. We think Brittany is fab and are glad that they seem to get along so well.

What Is It? - 4 My Girls

Doggy Treats

Brenda asked me to take this picture today. After my workout we went over to Whole Foods to stock up on some healthy veganesque foods to eat. We found these adorable doggy cupcakes at the bakery area. All of their deserts look like they were made by an artist, Brenda thinks.

Purple Green and Yellow

Marley put the Trouble pieces on her fingers to look like Brigid from Robert Munsch's book Purple, Green and Yellow. Yes... we are all learning. I remember when I was little doing the exact same thing. Well not to coorespond with an actual book. I guess that is how she has improved on me.

What happens after the party...

Brenda and Bret earned enough arcade tickets after skating yesterday to get a couple yoyos. They have been yoyoing for the last day! Bret told them he would buy them a better one to learn some tricks. Brenda went on youtube and checked out a bunch of yoyo maniacs and all their tricks. Learning? Yup I think so.

While we were waiting for Brenda's dance class yesterday, there were some girls there playing with Bret. I guess they asked Bret if she went to the local grade school. She told them she was homeschooled. This one girl (merely curious) started asking Bret questions. What do you do? Do you do homework? "No pretty much I play and watch tv". Do you have to take tests? "No. I just play." Little Bret and I talked later about how she DOES do work, she just doesn't feel like it is work, because there is no pressure on her to do it. She DOES do worksheets, but they are a novelty in our house because they are not required. We made rock candy to learn about crystals this week. She recently learnred to read. We watched Stand By Me then downloaded a bunch of Buddy Holly music to dance to. After that I thought to borrow the Buddy Holly movie or LaBamba from the library to go with their history/music lesson. This is just an example of one of the directions we are heading in this week. She is learning. They are all. How can they not? Everything is a lesson.

Funny.

Upside Down

The girl wanted a picture of her hand stand that she does with her dad. So here it is. She is wearing my pajama top btw. Every night she asks for my pajama top to keep her warm because it is the most warmy thing in the house. Then she brings me my robe and tells me I can wear that instead. She plans ahead, it is good to hone in on that skill early.

Our first homeschool activity in quite a while

Between dance, swim team, open swim, Girl Scouts, and Leaves of Learning, we haven't done much in the way of actual Homeschool activities. Yesterday I remembered that skating was today at a local rink. I didn't tell the girls. Instead I waited to see if I would even feel up to going. In the end I gave them one hour notice and away we went to skate our tails off... so to speak. Anyway we were glad to go out and have a good time.

New Meaningless Schoolboard Quote...

This is the latest quote on the board outside the local school diagnal from my house...

At the end of a spring day you should smell like dirt!!!

At first this just seems like an odd thing to put on a school board as a quote. But then you see the three exclamation marks (which are red on the school board) and you realize that if you use the appropriate emphasis on the sentence to fit the exclamation marks it just sounds kinda manic. I am changing mine now so do look at my new Meaningless Schoolboard Quote on the top of my blog... Just for fun of course.

What is Easter to You?

Before I met my husband I was a single mom. Every year for Easter I would buy a basket and fill it with candy for Gaige and set it on the table for him to wake up and find.

Before Bret and I got married, he was a single dad. He has his Easter basket from when he was a child. He and Josh would put their basket out (the same basket that they keep year to year) and the Easter bunny would fill it with candy and toys and hide it. They would wake up and hunt down their baskets.

So when we got married and started having kids that is what we did. Everyone got their own basket and every year we put it out for the bunny to fill it and hide it.

That's all. No fancy dinner with family, although we did invite the inlaws out to Easter brunch at the Golden Corral once. The neighborhood puts on an Easter egg hunt for the community, which my kids insist on going to year after year, even though they usually don't get more than one egg, and Brenda got 0 eggs two years in a row.

When we were at the mall last week, Brenda couldn't resist pointing out that the Easter bunny was there taking pictures. So we DID get a $16.99 5x7 of Brenda and Marley with the Easter Bunny this year. Do you note my sarcasm with this one? Do you, really?

We did go to church this year for Easter. We haven't ever done that, or so I can remember. There were so many Easter formalities that I think they forgot to be properly inspiring. And since the big church fiasco where I picked the church I wanted to attend even though Bret didn't feel like it was a real church that followed HIS beliefs (and he doesn't go to church mind you), I really go to be inspired instead of going to instill beliefs in my kids. On a side note, this seems to work. The girls enjoy going. I don't know how much they really get out of it, but they enjoy going to church, and that is all that is important to me. Gaige the atheist chooses to stay home.

Brenda and Bret got a late invitation from a friend to hang out at her house where her mom put on an Easter Egg hunt. That was fun for them I am sure.

Gaige woke up at 2ish found his basket and hid back in his room with his friend for the rest of the day.

Then I texted Josh, who has recently moved out, to tell him I wasn't going to eat my Chocolate Easter Bunny and he could come over and claim it. I would hold it for him. He liked the idea.

This month's green

A few pics from National Geographic for our green month. FYI ahead, next month I am thinking about orange. The frog is on my background right now. But I switch off from week to week.

Isn't this amazing?

I think here is where all the souls sit and wait in their time off. This is where I might be after all.

From a hs group

"Song for a Fifth Child."

Mother, oh Mother,
come shake out your cloth,
empty the dustpan,
poison the moth,
hang out the washing
and butter the bread,
sew on a button and make up a bed.

Where is the mother whose house
is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery,
blissfully rocking.
Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little
Boy Blue (lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).

The shopping's not done
and there's nothing for stew
and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
but I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing
will wait till tomorrow,
for children grow up,
as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs.
Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep'

~Ruth Hulburt Hamilton~

A Warm Windy Day

We bought kites from the dollar store the other day when the weather was good for it. We went to the park and flew kites. The girls had been bugging me for a few days about flying kites. I am glad we finally got a chance to do it. Maybe we will do it again soon when the weather is right. Today it rains.

The Other Museum

We were off yesterday to meet up with some unschoolers at a museum other than our typical one. My kids demand a good amount of attention from me, so I didn't get to socialize much. But we had a great time anyway. This museum always has this section that has traveling museum exhibits going on for free. That is my favorite part of the museum. I always like to check out what new learning stuff they have going on there. I wonder why our own museum doesn't offer something like this.

OK I got it.

Here it is. Totally this month is Green.
Green
Green is the color of nature. It symbolizes growth, harmony, freshness, and fertility. Green has strong emotional correspondence with safety. Dark green is also commonly associated with money.
Green has great healing power. It is the most restful color for the human eye; it can improve vision. Green suggests stability and endurance. Sometimes green denotes lack of experience; for example, a 'greenhorn' is a novice. In heraldry, green indicates growth and hope. Green, as opposed to red, means safety; it is the color of free passage in road traffic.
Use green to indicate safety when advertising drugs and medical products. Green is directly related to nature, so you can use it to promote 'green' products. Dull, darker green is commonly associated with money, the financial world, banking, and Wall Street.
Dark green is associated with ambition, greed, and jealousy.
Yellow-green can indicate sickness, cowardice, discord, and jealousy.
Aqua is associated with emotional healing and protection.
Olive green is the traditional color of peace.
http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html

Green is the color of the Irish, it is the color that represents environmental awareness, it is often associated with sex and sexuality. If you can't bring yourself to change your computer background today, get a plant and bring it to your desk, water it and love it. Buy a green scented candle and light it while you work. Make a change and make it a green one somehow and see if that change makes a difference.

We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.
Mother Teresa

Background Color of the month is...

I am not sure. Give me a second to think about it and I will be right back to you on that on...

I will check out what National Geographic has going on this month.

Balloon Mania

I got this website from a homeschool group that I am on. Thought I would pass it along to anyone who (or whose kids) love balloon animals and different twisted balloon sculptures of sorts. Here is the website that these balloon pics came from.

http://phototab.blogspot.com/2008/02/look-at-how-far-twisting-balloons-has.html

Totally check it out.