June 30, 2010

VAN UPDATE: WE DIDN'T GET THE VAN.

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What a beautiful day today! It is sunny, with a cool breeze, and low humidity. We're going to go for a bike ride this morning and power wash the porches.

We are having a picnic on th 4th for Ed's birthday...he's going to be the big 5..................................o......................................!!!!! He doesn't want to hear it. He didn't even want a party but I had to. ~smile~ Acutally, it is just family and a few friends, nothing major. I do have to have balloons, the girls will insist.

There is a surprise for him Saturday night but I can't post it. He sometimes reads my blog ("Hi Ed") so I'll have to tell you about it after the fact. I can't wait, either can the kids. It's going to be great!! Well, we think it's great. ("Ed, I will not tell you, so don't bother bugging me. My mouth is sealed".)

I'm bidding on a van this morning. Well, we already started bidding and at the moment, it is in our favor. It is a Dodge Caravan. It is not the extended van but a nice one that has 7 seats and very low mileage. I hope this is for us. I really need to be going places. It's hard waiting to for someone to take you shopping, etc. The bidding ends at 11 a.m.

Enjoy your day.
Margarete

JUNE 26, 2010...MORE

While we were riding to the farmer's market, I stopped by a yard sale and got the book 'George Washington's Socks' for 50 cents. ~smile~
Sadness. I am putting all my 'Story of the World' books downstairs. Katie is just not into it and Ana is too young. Maybe in a few years. :(

June 26, 2010

Today I'm going to bike, with Katie, to a farmer's market. I thought that would be fun to do with her. She can pick out her vegetables that she likes to eat. They are having a dessert contest but unfortunately katie can't have any of it. That's ok. She doesn't seem to mind. As long as she gets fruit she's content.

I'm going to try and post Tom's list of history books later today. I'm not to thrill with some of them but right now they will have to do. These are all from my own "library". I need to find a few more about The War of 1812 aand the Civil War.

I also have to finish Tom's room. I never got around to cleaning it yesterday. He's going to be home today so I have to get moving.

Time for breakfast. Have a wonderful day.
Margarete

June 25, 2010

Today I will be finished putting my books away. I'm tired of looking at them. I have so many it makes my head spin. I was thinking, (hmmm...that could be a good or bad thing), it's ashame that alot of you WTM'ers aren't near us. If you were, I would let you borrow all my books. It would help alot of people to save a little bit of money. ~smile~

Tom has been away from us for almost a week. Did I mention on any other post that he went to the shore with his cousins? Well, I tore apart his room. You can't walk in there. Every toy, video, etc. is all over the place. I have to get it cleaned up today or the poor child will not have any place to sleep.

Ed brought home a small pool for the girls. These two girls can make your head spin, so I am going to use this pool as a reward every day. It sounds mean but something has to be done so that they will listen. I try everything. Yesterday I wanted Katie to write a few words on something and she absolutely was miserable, to say the least. So, when Dad came home and she saw the pool, guess what? She wrote every word in about 1 minute and they were neatly done.

Becca is doing very well with her EMT classes. She really likes to go on the runs with the ambulance. She did promise one lady that she would visit her in the hospital and she did. The lady was very happy and I believe Becca may go back. They got along very well. The lady thinks she knows Becca but we have no idea from where.

Ed might be looking at a van tonight. We need to get one. He can't be going around doing everything. He is getting exhausted. Working, taking the kids where they need to go, taking me shopping, etc. is wearing him out. We were trying to wait to get more money but we just need to find one. Some one from the WTM had offered theirs but we decided it was to big. Thank you very much Patty!!!

Well, time to get myself moving. The girls are too quiet. Actually, I don't hear them at all...this is dangerous. LOL!!

Have a good day.
Margarete

American History

First I want to say, "HAPPY 19TH BIRTHDAY", BEN!! WE LOVE YOU!

I have been copying american history crafts for Katie and Ana. I'm also going to cut everything out for them. It would take up too much time. Ana won't be able to cut much and I believe it would be to demanding of Katie. She needs to get right into her work or she will get side-tracked and that would finish the day.

Most of these books were found at the thrift store. ~smile~

Tom is doing American History also. But he will be doing mostly notebooking. I will copy alot of stuff for him in smaller scale. You know, alot of these books say 3rd thru 6th grade, but they really can be used for any age. They can be scaled up or down depending on the child and age. It would be a waste not to use these for 7th grade. We jut have to be more creative for his age. ~smile~

I had found alot of things online for making colonial clothing and crafts. I believe we will be using these also.

http://www.1771.org/

Click the education box and then click "Colonial Day" Resources

Additional Pics and Posts for today (overloaded the last post)

BOOKS, BOOKS EVERYWHERE!!

Continued from the post below.

I couldn't forget Ana.

I must have overloaded the last post. ~smile~

Ana will be getting some schoolwork this year. I am making up a binder, but will probably end up with at least 2 or 3 with her "classes".

It is so hot here today. It wasn't bad this morning but now it is steaming. It's the kind of day that you feel like you can't breath. That's what air conditioning is for. Ahhh..... Could really use a pool, though. ~smile~

Ana just came running up to me. "Mommy what video is this?" "Beauty and the Beast", I say. "YES!, (with lots of squealing) I loooovvvveeee this movie, I have to go tell Katie"! She ran outside with it and I bet Katie could care a less.

Alot of Things Going On

Becca is now officially in 11th grade.

Tom is officially a 7th grader. He has been down the shore since this weekend. Lucky kid!

I may have mentioned that I got a bike. Ed found it at a yard sale for $8.00! WooHoo!!
Since the van was totaled, (not by me), I have started to ride to the library and around town. Usually I have Katie with me but not today. I got to the libary and back in record time carrying about 15 lbs. of books on my back. ~smile~
This is really helping with the "weight". Already, I have noticed a big difference in the way my clothes have been fitting. Excellent!!

I've been working on Katie's science for this next school year. We will be using the "free" classic life science (elementary) from www.eequalsmcq.com/ClassicScienceLife.htm . (also books from the library). I've been making notebooking pages, getting lapbook templates from http://www.homeschoolshare.com/ and also using http://www.enchantedlearning.com/ . For the Reptiles section I will use some lapbooking templates from HSS and the book 'The Wonders of God's World Dinosaur Activity Book' by Earl & Bonita Snellenberger (I received permission to copy this). I really have been wanting to do dinosaurs so I will slip this in. This is going to be a very nice science year. I can't wait. I believe it will hold her attention. She seems to like to write in a notebook and thoroughly enjoys lapbooking.

It's probably going to take us 2 years to get through all this science with the way I'm adding things. That's ok. She's only going to be 7. She has many years to go. ~smile~

About 2 weeks ago, Ed had to put in a garden. I say "had to" because he didn't want to but our dear friend, Jimmy, brought us tomato, egglant, and pepper plants. Tom and Katie planted them. They did a good job. We already have a tomato growing!

I'm thoroughly enjoying taking pictures with my Samsung SL30 camera. The more I work with it, the more I see what I can do. I didn't realize I could change the picture lightness/darkness. etc. It's not an expensive camera but it really has a lot of stuff on it.

Ben graduated highschool! This last year he was homeschooled. He will be attending college in the fall but still living here.

Becca had to dissect for Apologia Marine Biology. Here is the dogfish shark. It smelled bad. :(

Hi Again, Bangi and Pop Pop!

Hi Bangi and Pop, Love Katie

Flower...3 different crops

No School!

We have officially stopped school for awhile. I think we were getting burnout. Yesterday the girls and I walked to the park twice. Today a friend drove us to the indoor play area that the kids love to go to. After we got home from there, we went to a park...when we got there the kids had to go to the bathroom so back home we went. Now we are going to go to another park.

We're just taking our time and enjoying the beautiful days.