Please Excuse My Absence

It has been almost 2 weeks since my last post. Can you say "home buyer's stress"? We are in the process of buying a home and it has had its easy, walk in the park days. Those are over. We are now in the home stretch. You know the one, the stress-filled days of last minute glitches and a seemingly impossible deadline over our heads. The days where you are half-packed but still not sure that you will actually be moving. Ugh! Brighter days will be ahead...right? Please?

At least G is learning the real life lessons that go along with buying a home: the roller coaster ride that it is, the real, and raw stress that goes with it. I can't help feeling bad, though, that he has to go through it right along with us. Stress is not easy to hide.

Long story short: I should be back up and blogging by mid February for sure.

A New Twist on Phonics

I really like the Explode the Code Online program we've been using for phonics. G, on the other hand, isn't so impressed. So, I've decided to mix it up a bit. We'll still do ETC Online 3 days a week, but the other two days we'll get more creative. A few days ago I made up some sight word flash cards and each time G read the word correctly, he got to jump from one stool to another (it doesn't sound that exciting, but G LOVED it!). When he got through the whole set of flash cards without any problems, his reward was a picnic lunch on the living room floor, something he also LOVES. Worked like a charm!

Today, I took those same flash cards and had G write his sight words on the patio with chalk. His idea, and again, he loved it.

All Tied Up!

G learned to tie his shoes today!!! High-fives all around! It's crazy how excited I am about this. :-)

Bedtime Drawings

He was supposed to be going to sleep, but couldn't resist the urge to draw. Looking around his room, he spotted his Mickey Mouse ears and he had his subject.

Dumbing Down Our Kids

I thought I'd mention the book Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can't Read, Write, or Add by Charles J. Sykes. It was definitely an eye opener for me, and discussed many thought-provoking issues regarding our public school system. I definitely recommend getting your hands on a copy of this book!

Daniel in the Lion's Den

Here's G's Lincoln log version of Daniel in the lion's den, starring Gonzo as Daniel. :-)

Owl Moon

This week we are reading Owl Moon by Jane Yolen. Our go-along activity for yesterday was to make a food chain. After reading more about owls, I had G tell me what owls eat (and surprisingly, yes, some do eat rabbits!), then what rabbits eat, and we made our own mini food chain.

Afterward, G wanted to draw a picture of an owl:

Spelling

I found this site that has 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade spelling words and activities to go along with them. It looks like the site is in the process of expanding and will also include 4th, 5th and 6th grade spelling words soon. Just something I wanted to share and make note of for later.

Dancing Popcorn

I found this science project the other day and thought it would be fun to try:

Fill a small glass jar 3/4 full of water. Mix in 2 tablespoons of baking soda and mix well. Add a drop or two of food coloring and 10 to 15 popcorn kernels. Then add a few drops of vinegar. The kernels will start to move in one or two minutes.

When the vinegar is added to the baking soda solution, carbon dioxide bubbles are produced and they carry the popcorn seeds up to the top.

Scheduling

I'm trying to be more creative and flexible with our activities. Running just exactly by the schedule seems to strip some of the fun and spontaneity out of our day. A loose schedule is good and helps us to stay on track, but if that schedule gets too strict, I believe we miss out on great spontaneous learning and the fun that comes with the variety of it.

Today, as a new activity, I took down our December calendar (it's our first day back to school today) and had G put up the January one. It is a pocket calendar so he had to find each number and put it in order on the calendar. I think this will be a great once-a-month activity for him. It seems so simple. Why did I not think of this before? I was probably too worried about staying on schedule. Silly, silly me.

Exercise

I've decided to get back on the exercise train after the Dr recommended against it. It has been about a month and I'm SO tired of not exercising. I'll take it low-impact, but I'm doing it. How can a body be healthy without exercise? Anyway, we've been playing a lot of instant movies on www.netflix.com and last night, out of curiosity, I did a search to see if they had any exercise videos on instant play...and they DO!!! They have TONS of them! I'm so excited to have so many options! And no waiting for them to come in the mail. I can do a different workout every day. You have no idea how excited I am about this. :-)