Living With a Two Year Old

I just had to post a second time today. I will preface this story with saying... I have a temper. I get it from my mom who gets it from her dad who I assume gets it from his mom. Needless to say, I come from a long line of temper tantrum oriented people. This curse does not stop with me. My oldest has a temper. My 2 year old has a temper. Oh I know about 2 year old tempers; I have seen them. But Bubba takes the cake. He will bang his beautiful, porcelain forehead on hard concrete to make his point (and cry all the harder because he hurt himself). He will take a bull run at the sliding glass door if he isn't getting let in. Nothing deters this child when he is at his finest.

Well today, I guess, was his finest. Pappa wasn't letting him in. Mamma was no where to be found. And his cries for help were going unnoticed by the world. So he took a handful of rocks and launched them at the door. What happens when you normally launch rocks at a door. Well I would think just a scratched up door. But Oh no, Bubba must have weakened the glass from his previous bull runs that he does this to the door:

Now Bubba didn't create the hole. The glass started bowing out, so Techie Guy started to clean it up before I could get pictures. Like this one:


Yeah you did that Bubba. Nice Work!

How do you clean up bulging shards of glass.... SHOP VAC.... Gotta love the Shop Vac:

After the steam stopped rolling out of my ears, and my eyeballs returned to their proper place, I realized this was a perfect opportunity to practice my Macro shots. Might as well make that glass of lemonade half full right? So here they are:



and this one:



and this one (I love the glow of the sun on this one... Look at how thick the glass is.. that was one doosie of a rock!) :



Cool eh? Well I thought so. Unfortunately I could not capture the sound of constant cracking, or the picture of all those tiny lines being created. May you never have to hear the music of a broken. double-pane, sliding, glass door. (By the way only one of the panes broke.)

So remember, when your children decide to take on such projects like impaling your door with rocks, dunking their head in the toilet, smearing unmentionables all over their crib, or drawing picture on your doors with permanent markers (not that we have experience with those here). Take a deep breath and grab your camera. As you are shooting remember the future and all the times you can use those wonderful pictures as blackmail. Yeah punishment ain't enough here baby... I've got a camera!


Goodnight All!

Organizing - Year at a Glance

Well I have seen many Homeschool moms use a Year at a Glance tool, and at first I thought it wasn't something I needed to do. However, I have determined that it would be a very useful tool for me to keep track of what we are doing each month. Here are the links to two of the ladies I have seen use it.

1. Jessica at Trivium Academy

2. Jennefer at Smooth Stones Academy

I am sure there are others, but these are the two ladies who have inspired me to do my own Year at a Glance. Hats off to them as they have created an amazing tool. As I have come up with mine, I can see how it helps put the year into perspective. It helps me see what we are going to study so I can keep a weather eye out for any supplemental material. I like being able to see what we have done and I will have the ability to keep track if we get behind in a subject. I still use Homeschool Tracker, but I like this high level view. So without further ado... here is mine (please forgive the quality as I don't really know how to get documents on the blog except converting them piece by piece to an image.)



It is actually 40 weeks because our current studies will go into next year... Except Biology. I thought we would be going to NOEO Chemistry after the first of the year, but I don't want to split Science between this school year and next. Why... I really don't know... it just doesn't feel right. So now I am looking into doing a short study on the Solar System. Nothing fancy or overly involved. Since NOEO doesn't have an Astronomy study, I think this is a good time to do one. So I will go off hunting on that one and report to ya' what I find.

As for the holidays, well we are planning a trip in December, and with Thanksgiving and Christmas... well that puts a welcomed crimp in our school schedule. Since we are ending Sonlight Core 1 with the Birth and Resurrection of Jesus, I thought it would be great to do a lenghtened study on our Savior at this time. I am including Mystery of History's study on the the first churches, and Paul's journey. For our homeschool group we are making ornaments for an Jesse Tree Ornament trade (ours is the Sheep and the staff). So we will be adding the Jesse Tree study in for our Bible Time. I also LOVE the book Jesse Tree by Geraldine McCaughrean



It is a story centered around a rather grouchy gentleman telling a young boy the story of the Jesse Tree. There is a transformation of the characters in the end. I will be looking to purchase it this year as I want to get it from the library every year and keep it all holiday season.

Well that is my plan and the things rolling around in my head for right now. Now to go get some laundry done. Have a Blessed Day!!!

Fall Brings Cool Weather, Open Windows, and the State Fair

Well Fall has finally arrived here in the desert. Every year about this time high winds surprise us and we stand out at Homeschool park day commenting on the chill in the air and the wind that is bending and breaking some of our trees. It was just a couple of weeks ago we were still in the triple digits. Now we can open our windows, and freeze in the morning.

Friday we went to the State Fair. We had a great time. It was nice because it was "Education Day" and we got in 3 hours before the official opening so that we could go through the exhibits. There were of course cows, and pigs, chickens, and goats, and lots of roaming 4-H'rs. I remember days of county fairs where my sisiter would show her horse in 4-H. I have contemplated involving our kids in 4-H but I don't think our neighbors would appreciate live stock in the back yard. I didn't realize, till going through these exhibits, the diversity of 4-H. Crafts, sewing, photography. Gives a girl a lot to think about.

We did end up adopting a HUGE Dalmation

Because every little girl wants her daddy to win her a huge dog at the fair. This one took Techie Guy 2 games. The kids were so excited.

One thing I love about the fair is the colors. It gives the begining photographer a chance to take an insane amount of pictures of some pretty colorful things. Like this Merry Go Round. I just love Merry Go Rounds.. can't ride them so I take pictures of them.


Well for all the fun we had... we sure had a weekend of recovering. Especially from the food. Turkey legs, funnel cakes, cotton candy... my arteries were just trembling, but the fair comes only once a year and gives us a reason to take off school for the day and have a family day out. Nothing beats the amazement of kids at the fair.

Ancient Civilization History Pockets and Sonlight

I have created a spreadsheet that combines Sonlight Core 1 studies with the Ancient Civilization History Pockets. If you want to see this book in person you can take a peak here: Where you can click and see every page in the book. You'll also want to take a journey around the site as Evan-Moor has a plethora of materials to enhance the homeschool journey. Now back to the schedule as I could easily get sidetracked on the other resources we are and/or want to use. I created this document while going through lesson by lesson and seeing what was assigned each day. It seems to be pretty popular on the Sonlight Forums so I am happy that it could bless other homeschool households.

 

I am still new in blogger land so bare with me... You should be able to click on the image to see the file in full.

Have fun travelling back into Ancient Times. Bring your sunscreen because the sun gets mighty hot in Egypt!

New Curriculum is in

The smell of fresh ink, paper, and binding glue is in the air. Don't you just love that smell? That coupled with the smell of a pumpkin candle and cool mornings... ahhh makes my heart go pitter pat. I breath it in one more time and feel I just have to take a picture of it all. Well really just the cause of new book smell.  Can't you just smell the ink? Ok maybe I am overdramatizing it a bit, but any curriculum junkie can tell you that after you spend an insane amount of money to bring education to your home, nothing is better than seeing it roll in box by box, sitting there on your front stoop waiting to be opened like a Christmas package. Then you lay it all out admiring your new purchases forgoing the thoughts of the work that lay ahead of you.

The bulk that lay before me comes from Sonlight Core 2 accompanied by 3-5 grade readers. Just looking at the titles makes me want to be 8 again, however I do get to pretend as I intend on reading all the readers before we get started. I was quite pleased to see so many books that go with the time period we were studying so I had to take a picture of that too.
 

I am thinking it is going to be an exciting year as we step back in time to the middle ages. Castles, knights in shining armor, vikings... oh the projects will be a blast. In the middle of it all I will try to schedule Mystery of History II so that we can intermingle church history with our studies.

Next is Math... may I just say BLECH...I am so very blessed that I have a math wizard as a husband and the daunting task of teaching mathematics lies on him. Oh he thinks it is great joy which completely baffles me. Of course he doesn't understand my excitement in history so I guess we are even. We ordered Right Start Level C and even though I am not a Math Wizard... I think it will be great for dd who is already picking up multiplication. Oh to be young and to actually have paid attention in Math Class.

In the back of the first picture is Bible Study Guide for All Ages. I am impressed with what I see. It looks pretty simple to implement and I can send dd on her own after we all gather and read through the scriptures. Then Little Dora and I can sit down and play Bible Games that I had long forgotten about. Someday I might get organized so that I gems like these don't get forgotten. But that will have to be put off another day. Now I must go finish Ancient studies so that we can move onto the Middle Ages.