Filling Big Shoes...

or should I say glasses?

I went in my bedroom, and look who I found at dh's desk?  On dh's computer?  Wearing dh's glasses?  Too cute!

Am I In Oz? Or Maybe Colorado?

Okay, who broke the thermometer?!?  Oh, it's working.  Okay, then who moved Florida while I was asleep?  People, it's 36 degrees right now!  At 9 in the morning.  And last night it was even colder!  We live on the coast so our temps were even warmer than our inland neighbors...they had freeze warnings!  What is going on?  It's still October isn't it?  Dh knew this was coming so I made a mad dash at hunting down all the boxes of winter clothes and the kiddos performed the yearly "does this still fit" fashion show yesterday afternoon.  Poor ds2 has outgrown it all, and ds4 needs pants, but ds3, the middle child, made out with ds2's older clothes now fitting him. :)

This is big shopping day, which means there is no food in the house lol.  No cereal, eggs, bacon, not even any pancake makings.  So I scrounged the fridge and found a package of crescent rolls.  I scanned the Pillsbury website (very handy indeed) and found a recipe for mini cinnamon rolls using the crescents.  Can I just say yummy!!  I made up some gingerbread spice tea and served the kiddos on the "good" (read real, not paper) plates and they thought it was a real treat. :)

  This is Katy, my beautiful black cat.  She is relaxing on dh's pillow.  It's like a little game she plays...dh doesn't really like cats and she seems to know this and chooses his pillow out of the 5 beds in this house lol.  Isn't she just beautiful, though?  We are running a little late this morning, but the breakfast seems to be waking and warming the kiddos up enough to start filling their brains.  Off to learn! :)

What's On Your Nightstand: October

It's Tuesday, time for another meme from 5 Minutes for Books.  This week we share what is on our nightstand.

Okay, we have on the bottom a book I ordered from Amazon called Family Math.  Ds3 is still having problems with math...not so much understanding or learning it, but it being too repetitive and boring for him.  So I'm hoping this book, which is supposed to be full of fun math learning games will help.  Next is Multiple Blessings by Kate Gosselin, the mom to the sextuplets from the Jon & Kate plus 8 show.  I'm already about 1/2 through the book and am enjoying it.  I thought there would be more of the "nitty gritty" of their experience, but it's more about their faith helping them get through.  There are a few funny and informative parts (like when Kate came home from the hospital after giving birth and still had a foley bag.  She had been cooped up so long she wanted to shop, and wound up forgetting about the bag until it was full...they had to stop and empty it by the side of the road. :P

I'm still plodding through To Love Honor and Vacuum, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (for the 5MFB bookclub) and have started re-reading the Harry Potter series.  I am actually awaiting another book I ordered from Amazon to join the stack on the nightstand...Princess Diaries IX, Princess Mia.  That one is part of my Fall Into Reading and 50 Books challenges.  That's about it...I'd say that's about enough as well lol.  Look forward to seeing what everyone else is reading this month. :)

Homeschool Preschool theme: Apples

This week the theme for ds4's preschool was apples.  I am always amazed at how much not only my kiddos learn, but I learn from our homeschooling studies.  I wish I had used these monthly/weekly "themes" with my older boys when they were younger...they are fun for all. :)

Here are the books we used for this week.

I had several resources sitting in my homeschool closet, including a Mailbox Magazine with an apple theme, (aug/sept 08) and a Centered On Learning (Fall edition) with apple ideas galore.  I also picked up several wonderful little booklets from the Apple Pie Tree unit at Homeschoolshare.com.

First we made up a shape book from Enchanted Learning.

In it are pages with apple facts, info about Johnny Appleseed, and the name for apple in several languages.

We went to the store and bought several different varieties of apples for a taste testing session.

Someone should warn us about how messy learning can be. ;)  Along with the taste testing we learned about how many seeds are in various sizes of apples.  And then of course...

We planted some.  I don't know if anything will come of this, but if we can grow stuff from socks, we should be able to grow an apple tree. :P

This is probably the apple project that the gang had the most fun with...bubble prints with apples.

Can you see the bubble coming out of the apple?  How cool is that?  You basically mix equal parts distilled water, dawn dishwashing soap (about 5 tbs each) and a few drops of food coloring in a shallow pan (I used old pie dishes.)  Core an apple, dip the bottom in the solution, and blow through the top hole.

Oooh, that's a good one.  When the bubble pops on the paper you get a masterpiece similar to this...

I only made up two batches of bubble solution (green and yellow) so our masterpieces weren't the best they could have been. :)

Ds2, my 13yo, saw an educational program the other day about bubbles and did some experiments of his own. 

Blow a super big bubble...

and insert your hand inside!  It will only work if your hand is wet.

Ds made a little booklet with a worm bookmark from the Mailbox Magazine.  Too cute.

Hard at work, cutting out the pages.

Our game this week used the same tree "playing board" as last week's leaves theme, but this time we cut out apples and I wrote the numbers 1-9 along with their names on them.

Turn the apples over.  Take turns picking an apple, naming the number, and clapping that number of times.  We also varied it with doing that number of jumping jacks, patting our heads, etc.  Fun! :)  I had ds draw a picture of himself, number 10 small apples we had cut out of construction paper, and we glued the ten apples on top of his drawn head.  Very cute connection to the Ten Apples Up On Top book.  We also made a minibook showing how to "grow" an apple pie with pics from seed, seedling, tree, blossoms, apples and pie in order.  All in all another fun theme for our preschool this week. :)

Destination Disney: Magic Kingdom

Ahh, time again for another Destination Disney, hosted by Heidi.  This week's theme is the Magic Kingdom.  I love the MK!  It is by far my family's favorite park.  Every trip to Disney we take, the first day (or afternoon as the case may be) is spent at MK park.  Always.  It just isn't a Disney trip for us without it! :)

I mentioned in the previous DD post about someday getting my photos organized and able to share more easily.  Well, folks, the painful (not kidding here) process has begun.  So I am able to share a few scanned older photos I have come across in my endeavors.

Did you know, late in 1996, to celebrate the park's bday, they redecorated the castle as a bday cake?

Oh yes they did!

This is dh, ds1 and ds2.  I'm going to say it's around 1998.  Yep, kicking myself here for not labeling them properly from the start. :P

One year, I'm thinking '96 again, we went to MK at Christmas time.  The tree at the front of the park had ornaments bigger than my kids. :P

Okay, going pretty far back here, probably '93 maybe '94.  This is the submarine you rode for the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride.  While MK is probably a favorite for people because it has very classic rides, rides that have been around a while and that many generations have enjoyed, it does change and mix things up to attract newer audiences.  For instance, I miss the Lion King show at MK, but LOVE the 3D movie, Mickey's Philharmagic, that took it's place.  And there was an uproar over removing Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, but who doesn't love the Winnie the Pooh ride that took it's place?

Here is a spot that has stood the test of time...Tom Sawyer's Island.  Here is my ds1 when he was about 6yo (1996.)

Here are dh and ds2 about a year ago.

Ds1 and ds2 on Dumbo last year. 

Dh and ds1 in 1996.  OMgoodness, that was 12 years ago!  Ack I'm old.  I mean Dumbo is old.  But he has stood the test of time. :)

Okay, I'm about to cry here, so I'll wrap it up.  MK is the best of the 4 parks, imo, because it started it all, was Walt's "baby", and has something for everyone in your family.  Go there.  Now.  And label your pictures when you get home.

Homeschool Memoirs: Ten Timely Facts

 

The time will be changing again. I think on Sunday but not sure. Anyhow this is our 10th Homeschool Memoirs so this week it’s going to be about 10 timely facts about you! Write 10 interesting, crazy, weird, fun facts about you! Include facts about you as a woman, a wife, a mommy, a homeschooler, a homekeeper, a taxi-driver, a cook, etc . I only put 10 facts because I didn’t want to overwhelm you, but you’re welcome to do more!

1.  I have 4 older brothers and 4 sons.
2.  We live near the beach, but I have a fear of water.
3.  I never wear shoes in the house.
4.  I don't like soda...sweet tea is my favorite drink (other than water.)
5.  My first son was born overseas and has duel citizenship.
6.  I talk to my cats.
7.  I cannot leave the house without a cup of water and my sunglasses.
8.  I've lived through 5 big hurricanes in my life...Frederick (when I was young), Erin and Opal, both in 1995, Ivan in 2004 and Dennis in 2005.
9.  I have a brother named Dennis. :)
10.  I was pregnant with ds4 during hurricane Ivan.  No, his name is not Ivan. :)

That was fun, but a little hard.  I think it's too early in the morning for me to be called upon to be creative.  I look forward to getting to know the other HM participants better through this assignment.  :)

 

Outdoor Hour Challenge #31: Trees Introduction

We took a week off this month so our nature studies have been pretty casual.  To do this challenge I simply handed ds2 the camera and all of us went on a walk around the neighborhood (including the girl across the street from us.  She actually asks every day, "Are ya'll going on a nature walk today?")  Here are the trees he spotted.

An oak of some sort.  (Pardon my technical jargon here. :P)

Some palms.  You know, in our area of Florida palms don't actually do that well...we do get years with freezing and below temps.  One year the hospital shipped in a bunch of palms and planted them, only to have them die that winter.  What a shame.

A magnolia.  This is the time of year they are dropping their "cones" with the little red seed in them.

Later we went to a local park where we could get a little more "up close and personal" with the trees.  Here ds3 and ds4 are checking out the bark of an oak.

The magnolia feels much smoother. :)

Thanks to hurricane Ivan, we got to see this tree's root system up close!

On the drive home, ds captured some more trees.  Here is one that actually has leaves that change color...another rarity in our "neck of the woods."

So that's our "introduction" to trees.  And yes, I know, I used way too many quotation marks in this post.  Forgive me.  I think it's low blood sugar or something.  Anyway, stay tuned for more "in-depth" looks into specific trees in future challenges. :)  Or just join in!  Or both!

Outdoor Hour Challenge #30: Weeds and Seeds *UPDATE*

Well, we had one successful outcome from our "sock seed" experiment.  To recap, the boys put old socks over their shoes and walked around our yard, attempting to collect seeds.  We put the socks in shoe boxes, covered them with soil and watered them.  One box actually grew something!

You can see the little seedling there in the corner.

Hard to see here, but there are a few along the back edge.

We did not get to see what these babies would turn out to be, as we left the boxes outside and experienced a nasty band of showers the next few days.  The boxes were flooded.  Still,  it's a neat project and actually works. :)

View From A 4yo World

Here is what happens when the 4yo gets ahold of the camera.  Life from his perspective.

One of the big brothers.

Cute feet!  Jumping on the bed. :(

Terrified cat.

Pretty tall ceiling!

Always chasing after a cat.

A self portrait. :)

Homeschool Preschool Theme: Fall

This month ds4, my 4yo, is learning about all things Fall for his preschool.  We took one week off this month, so I made plans for 3 weeks worth of lessons, focusing on fall in general/leaves, apples, and Halloween.  We have both been having a lot of fun with this one! :)

For the first week we learned about fall and how leaves change.  First I made up a word wall with sentence strips about fall.

I got the pics and sentence ideas from Kinderplans.com.

Then we made a collage about the signs of fall.

Ds then ripped strips from construction paper to use as leaves for a tree.

We had a collection of leaves going from our Outdoor Hour challenges and used some to make splatter paintings.  Just dilute some paint in a spray bottle and "spray paint" some leaves on white paper.  Not only do you get pretty painted leaves, but a neat design left on the paper.

I printed up two outlines of a tree with limbs and ds finger painted green leaves on one and fall colored leaves on the other.  He cut them out and glued them together so we have "summer tree" on one side and "fall tree" on the other. :)

This is probably ds's favorite part of this week yet.  It's simply a counting game with fall leaves.  I drew a crude tree on a paper and we placed several cutouts of fall leaves on it.  Then we took turns rolling dice and counting off the number of leaves for the number we rolled on the dice.  Game is over when all the leaves are gone.  We played this simple game all morning!  So much so that he is beginning to recognize the numbers on the dice without having to count them out!  Fun, fun, fun. :)

Finally I found this book at the library, Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert.  We read the book and made our own version of a leaf man.  (Ideas from Kinderplans.)

First we added food coloring to water and used eyedroppers to make some pretty fall looking "paper" for our leaf man out of paper towels. 

I know by now you are all thinking that this boy owns no clothes. :P

Aren't they pretty?  I hung them up in my laundry room to dry.

Then he drew his version of leaf man on the paper towel art and cut it out and glued it on some construction paper.  Cute!  And see, he does have clothes. And a rockin' cute new haircut. :)

That wraps up the fall/leaves portion of our October theme unit for preschool.  This week...apples!