The Homeschooling Blog is hosting a giveaway of The Schoolhouse Planner, a new planner for homeschooling families. Apparently the planner can be printed and put in a binder, or filled in on your computer. That's pretty cool. I'm hoping I win and can give it a try! Head on over and enter the contest yourself.
Becca at Mission of Motherhood hosts this weekly exercise challenge to help keep us accountable for our fitness goals. I have not been able to exercise much the past two weeks...ds4 has been ill, and anyone with a 3yo knows just how demanding they are when they are well, let alone when they are not. Add to that the fact that he willingly shared said illness with me, and you see why it has truly been an "exercise challenge" for me. We are both on the mend, however, and I was able to fit in 3 days of workouts.
I earned an amazon gift certificate for a survey I completed or something, and I spent it on new exercise videos/dvds. I am excited that I was finally able to try them lol.
I really liked this Leslie Sansone dvd, Walk Strong. It alternates walking with weight lifting. It was very challenging and after taking two weeks off, my muscles definitely noticed lol! The only things I had concerns with, were that there was an emphasis on lower body and less on upper body, and that she didn't cover all of the lower body. She worked the thighs plenty, but not the hamstrings or glutes, and worked the inner but not the outer thighs. I compensated by doing some on my own.
This video is older but actually quite challenging and fun. It's a three mile walk, set in Leslie's living room. Leslie leads mile one with her typical marching, kicks, knee lifts and side steps. But for mile two, another instructor takes over and really livens things up! She adds more moves and ups the pace and really keeps things interesting. I wasn't even going to do all three miles, but it went by pretty quick. The third mile Leslie is back in charge, and the group dons this belt and works upper body some, but you can certainly do the workout without the belt thing. Whew, it was a challenge!
I have also started exercising in the evenings as opposed to first thing in the morning. I am able to do the longer workouts since my dh is home with the kids (although they all constantly interrupt me lol!) I think I'll keep this up at least until we start school again. Hope everyone had a fit week!
Part of The Outdoor Hour nature study, hosted by Barb, was to pick a tree to begin a four season study with. That was back in the spring, for challenge #11. Which we are just now getting to lol. Better late than never! So instead of updating our study here in lesson #20, we are just beginning it.
We picked a tree in our own backyard for the study, a crepe myrtle. It is kinda special to us, as it was one of the few trees to survive hurricane Ivan in 2004. It was actually uprooted, but still rather young, so dh and my father worked hard to upright and replant it. Only last year did it start to show signs of life again, sprouting new leaves and blooming a little. This year it is even more improved. Here is a pic of ds in front of it.
Pretty pink blossoms and healthy foliage. We are pleased. All the stuff growing beneath it? We have two bird feeders nearby and those are sprouts from what the birds drop on the ground lol.
Ds making his bark rubbing.
So, we read up a little on crepe myrtles and made a note of looking out for them on our drives around town to see the different types. We also filled out our Seasonal Tree Study form and filed it in our nature journal to compare with the one we will do in the fall.
On the left is ds2's drawing of the tree, and on the right is ds3's rubbing.
Ds thought the part about smelling the tree was quite funny and didn't think I was serious when I read it lol. Spiders and birds do love the tree, but we rarely get squirrels anymore (I guess they figure our little lonely crepe myrtle is not worth the effort of coming into our yard lol. Or it could be our 4 cats :0)
I will have to say, the update to this study is probably the only thing that the kiddos are anxious for fall to come around for lol. They are looking forward to noting how the tree will change.
We are trying to keep up with the Outdoor Hour challenges, hosted by Barb, over the summer. It's hard lol, as the kiddos have been involved in swimming lessons, trips to the beach and general summer fun. Anything even remotely related to "school" and they balk ;) But I did manage to get them interested in this assignment, as it involved garden tools and digging. We picked a spot near the treehouse for shade and I let the boys go at it.
Here is ds2 and his helper ds4, marking out the one foot square plot.
Let the digging begin! And some "heated discussions" as I only had two trowels and 3 helpers.
The results? Nothing. Nada. I kid you not, they saw a couple of ants, picked out a few little rocks, and that was that. They insisted on digging deeper and deeper, but still nothing. We discussed how the soil changes and such so it wasn't a complete loss. And boys consider it a good day if they get dirt under their nails, so there 'ya go.
Every other Friday, Jennifer at Snapshot hosts this opportunity to share our experiences with all things Disney! This week's topic is, appropriately, fireworks shows. I wish I had some pics to share, but I couldn't find any. I think we are all just so taken with watching the shows we never have taken photographic evidence lol.
I am a member of the Little Laplinks group hosted by Valerie at Lapbook Lessons. Every month we pick a theme for a lapbook with our little ones. The theme for June is bugs...and ds and I actually completed it in June! Yea! We had a lot of fun with this one, our third lapbook so far. We, btw, is my ds4 (3yo) and me. We would have days where we did nothing, and then days where we spent most of the day together working on the lapbook (and revisiting the two others we have made.) Now that school is out I can really focus on ds4, since most of the stuff we do is really hands-on and meant to be done with lots of parental help. I'm glad we had the lapbook to work on together and that we got to spend so much time just the two of us.
Here is the cover. We had so many little books and things we made a "double folder" (sorry, I don't know all the "technical" names for things yet, basically it's two file folders glued together.) I got the big ladybug from TeacherView.com and the little pics from a pre-made bug theme at Kinderplans.com.
The first section. On the left is a little booklet that compares bugs and a pocket holding some cards depicting the life cycle of a ladybug which ds can put into order. In the middle is a little book made up of fact cards with a pic of the insect and info on it. Below that is a little book that details the various ways bugs move. On the right is a worksheet ds completed, coloring the specified number of bugs.
Here we see the fact book opened up to the dragonfly card.
The second section. On the left, a cute little rhyme I got from Carissa that my ds just loves to sing and act out. In the middle is a butterfly shapebook that tells the story of how butterflies grow, and a another booklet that tells how bugs are similar. On the right is a color matching game.
The color matching game opened up.
The last page of the bugs booklet, where ds drew a pic of his favorite bug. How cute!
On the back of the lapbook is another matching game that I got out of an older issue of The Mailbox Magazine.
Well, there we go! Lots of fun and learning as well. We even did a craft, a caterpillar made out of an egg carton.
I don't know who's more precious, the kiddo or the one-eyed caterpillar lol!
Here is ds playing one of the matching games. Pardon the casual attire, it is summer after all lol.
Besides the ideas from the wonderful ladies at Little Laplinks, I used purchased templates from Kinderplans.com and the Flowers and Insects book from Hands of a Child.
Tiany at Less of Me More of Him has announced a new resource for homeschoolers, The Homeschool Toolbar. Here is the info from her site.Okay, so I admit, I am a one-tool-bar kinda gal lol. I hate when programs you download hijack your toolbar and add their own (i.e. google, etc.) I have Yahoo as my homepage (easy to get to my email, news updates, and a great search engine) and on my toolbar. So I was doubtful about this new toolbar, but decided to download and try it just to be fair. I have been using it all week and have to say I am pretty happy with it. It's attractive and informative and kinda fun. The part I like the best is the email option...a place where you can add all your email accounts and check them from the drop down. This has been great for me, as I have my main email account (for family) and a Yahoo account for signing up for things. Now I can see them both at the same time. I also like the little radio feature, which you can easily customize and turn on and off (I'm not that person who can do things with a t.v. or radio going in the background lol. I like my quiet. Well, as quiet as a house with 6 people can get.) There are features where you can get your weather (82 degrees and partly cloudy right now for us) and links to various blogs, message boards, and rss feeds for homeschooling sites. I wish those were a little more "customizable" however (unless I just haven't figured that part out yet.) I would like the links and feeds to be to just the blogs and sites I like.
Anyway, the point of all this? I like the toolbar, have found it to be quite helpful and fun, and am not only going to keep it, but recommend it to homeschooling families out there (you know, there, where you are.) And the icing on the cake, Tiany is having a giveaway for linking to her announcement of The Homeschool Toolbar and leaving a comment. So here I link. And hope I win (or at least someone out there wins lol.)
Actually, it was just another day at a local park on one of the many bays in our area. My parents used to bring my brothers and I here when we were young. It got hit hard by Hurricane Ivan, but the community rebuilt it even better than before! Above you see ds4 enjoying lunch in the gazebo.
I can honestly say I've never seen ducks here before lol. These were part of a group that hung out with us all day! They even followed us into the water (at a distance of course.)
This park offers something for everyone...here is ds1 fishing off the end of the rebuilt pier. He caught a few fish and a nasty sunburn.
Not to be outdone, ds2 found an old hook with a bit of line still attached on the end of the pier. He tied it to a stick...and yup, caught a fish!
Here are ds3 and ds4 frolicking in the water. One of the reasons we prefer to swim in the bays (we've always called these waters the "sound") is that the kiddos can run in and out and not worry about the waves of the Gulf.
Of course, you can't have a day at the beach without catching a sea creature or two lol. It was a wonderful family fun day. Hopefully we will be able to hit the "real beach" on the Gulf soon. Now go out and have your own "fun in the sun!"
The last thing there is his "fish artwork." We cut out a little fish shape from a sponge and he used it to paint on some fish. When he was done he sprinkled it with glitter. He says the larger fish are ones that he fed too much, like Otto in the book lol. I think it's adorable.
Definitely check out this book and companion lapbook for a cute and easy (and educational) way to pass the summer days with your little ones.
Well, time to officially say goodbye to spring, and post a final report on my Spring Reading Thing Challenge. Katrina at Callapidder Days hosted the challenge and I'd like to say thanks very much to her for doing so! I had great fun participating and loved having a good excuse to read lol. Here are some questions suggested by Katrina:
Angela at Homeschooling and Loving It hosts Tuesday Review, where we can post reviews of books, products, just about anything that has worked for us. This week I'm sharing my impressions of The Mom Agenda planner.
I got my agenda from Trish at 24/7 Moms in a giveaway-in-exchange-for-a-review deal. It couldn't have come at a better time! I made this post about how my current planner was no longer meeting my needs and that I was shopping for a new planner (not too much fun, btw.) The Mom Agenda is great. First off, it's quite stylish with a supple faux leather cover in several pretty colors (I chose Fuchsia...in a houseful of boys, I take it where I can get it lol.) I love the size. Big enough to have plenty of room for writing and reading comfortably, but small enough to be portable.
This is a (very poor) pic of my Mom Agenda and the Mom Essentials booklet that comes attached to the back of the agenda. The Mom Essentials is a place for addresses, phone numbers, medical info, and birthday and anniversary lists. The great part about the Mom Essentials is that you only have to fill it out once...you can remove it from your old agenda and put it in any new versions you buy! I will admit, that is one thing I have always dreaded about buying fresh planners for new years...having to re-write my whole address book and etc. So the Mom Essentials is a great idea!
Sorry that one's sideways...this is from a character breakfast at the Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom with all the characters from Pooh. Notice my youngest looking up at Tigger.
This is from the MGM Studios (now called Disney Studios) with monsters inc...notice my little one shying away.
This is from our latest trip last Februrary. It's special to me because it's my oldest, just days shy of his 18th bday, still willing to pose with his mom with Pluto and Goofy. Top it off with we were both soaking wet, right off the Kali River Rapids Ride lol! Oh, this is at Animal Kingdom.
