What else is new?

.....actually there are lots of new things going on for us right now- the fact that I am woefully behind on blog posts not being one of them. So here is a little catching up!

School:  Bella and I wrapped up our first semester of Kindergarten this past Saturday.  Can I get
 a Hallelujah?  And I have to admit that even though it went well (at least in my opinion!) we were both ready for We are still about 19 or 20 days ahead as far as our curriculum goes, which leaves
us plenty of wiggle room for the spring.  Bella is doing well in all her subjects.  She has memorized several Bible verses and is familiar with most the major characters in the Bible.  She has learned her math addition facts up to a 6, can tell time to the hour, count by 5s and 10s, and we are working on differentiating between those pesky dimes and nickels!  She is reading well, we are up to two-vowel words and working on some special sounds.  She can name all the continents on the map and we are working on the oceans and some of the Seas.

In our deficit column would have to be arts / crafts...sometimes I am really well prepared for this, some days we just paint!

For our last day of school this fall we had "Disney Review Day"....Beauty and the Beast Phonics worksheets, 101 Dalmations math worksheets, and orienteering on our map of Disney using a compass rose.  It was fun!  We followed up with a field trip...not to Disney though!  I took Bella, Abby, and my niece to Candlelight Christmas at Rocky Mount.  They got to learn about how Christmas was celebrated in 1791, and they even tasted ginger bread! (Not the cookie, the bread!)

Out of the Old, into the New
As many of you know we have had our home on the market for quite some time.  I am very, very happy to report that after two broken contracts, the third time was the charm and on Dec 17 we closed!  We are thrilled to be officially homeless! My parents graciously took the four of us in, rearranged their belongings and their privacy, and so we have a place to stay rent free!

I have honestly been surprised at how little any of us miss the old house...My husband was a bit nostalgic about it being "where we brought them home from the hospital"....call me cold but that hasn't bothered me!  I miss them being babies, not so much where they were babies!  And the girls haven't asked to go home at all....which is really a no brainer considering they loooove being with Nana and Pappaw.  Our old home was very nice, and I was so thankful for it, but I was so ready to move for so long, I can honestly say I do not miss it.

Now, on to the new!  We were prepared to stay here and wait out the perfect home -knowing that this time of year there isn't a lot on the market.  But, through a friend of a friend of my dads, we may have already found our next new home!  I don't want to jinx it, so no more on that now.  I will try to update when I know more or if things become official

School on Vacation? Oh, yes we did!

 I have to admit, one of the things I looked forward to the most about vacation was a break from homeschooling!  Even though I love doing it, it takes a lot of time and discipline (and this is just Kindergarten, for crying out loud!).  So I was so happy to spend my evenings reading (for fun!), doing crochet, or just hanging out with my family- no organizing flash cards, cutting out game pieces, getting worksheets in order, rounding up math manipulates...

But then, at the same time, I had this nagging feeling in my head...we were missing so many school days!  I know, its a sickness...but I got to searching online and found a way we could kill two birds - or rather butterflies- with one stone!

Field Trip!

On Wednesday we visited the Coastal Discovery Museum for a Butterfly Discovery Walk.  I had called ahead and made reservations, so our group consisted of me, the hubby, Bella, Abby, Rachel (my sister!), Ashlyn (my niece), and my Mom. 

Our tour guide, Larry, started out the Walk by talking - in simplified terms- about the anatomy of the butterfly, and some of the differances between butterflies and moths ( for insance, a moth builds a cocoon ; a butterfly builds a chrysalis) , and the process of metamorphosis.

Larry demostrates how a butterfly's eyes allow it to see in all directions at once!

Then we all got to go inside the butterfly enclosure.  There were four species of butterflies at this time, including the Monarch and the Frittalary.  Our guide pointed out the caterpillar eggs- tiny white specks that are about 1-2 millimeters in size! Once we had walked through the enclosure, we got to look a the different caterpillars themselves.

Bella gets up close and personal with a caterpillar!

Hmmm...is this the "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"?

Next, we got to see some chrysalis's . Some had already hatched, others weren't quite ready. It was amazing to look through the paper-thin chrysalis and the see the color of a Monarch butterfly's wing folded within.

 

 

Some of the carnivorous plants, including the Venus Flytrap, planted outside
the butterfly enclosure.

The girls really enjoyed the afternoon, especially getting to be around so many butterflies! And I really enjoyed knowing we were having fun- and learning, too!

Oh, if we could only stay at the beach...

 

Yesterday we returned from our annual fall trip to Hilton Head Island, SC.  We spent seven nights and eight days relaxing, unwinding, eating seafood, playing the in ocean, riding bikes, and spending time with loved ones! 

 

Bella plays in the waves!
 

 

Abby runs everywhere she goes!

Bella and Kenneth playing miniature golf.

Me, Kenneth, Bella, Abby, and my niece Ashlyn on the beach. 

Me and "Big Pappaw"- the name our girls gave my mom's father.
We celebrated his 82nd birthday while we were at the beach.

On the top of the Harbour Town Lightouse- a tradition!

And apparently I spoke too soon....

This is a post I would really, really rather not write, because just thinking about it makes my stomach unhappy.  But as blogs can't be entirely happy news, here goes:

I posted earlier this month that we had a contract on our house. (again!). On the 6th of this month we had our home inspection.  The inspector was very very thorough,  spending about three hours going over our house, appliances, water heater, roof, attic, basement, etc...It made me a little nervous!  Thankfully, he only found a few minor issues, for instance one loose shingle. 

The next day, Kenneth was literally on his way to our realtors office with a signed, accepted offer on a house we liked in Erwin.  It was an older home and needed some updates, but had a huge fenced yard, great location, and -better yet- a great mortgage!

Before Kenneth could even get to the realtors office, she called him to let us know that (once again!!!) our buyer was backing out.  Yes, for the second time, a buyer backed out on us.  We were dumbfounded.  The buyer's realtor said the decision had nothing to do with the home inspection (duh!) but that the buyer was "financially unable to purchase".  Which doesnt make a lot of sense since she had a preapproval letter from her bank...

So, once again, I was devastated.  It didn't help that our realtor told us she'd never had this happen to anyone twice.  Great.  Aren't we the lucky ones.  And I was really angry at the buyer, because she had listed several things she wanted done to the home before closing, such as the porch painted, the t.v. wall mount taken down (and holes filled and painted!), front porch stained, etc.  So my husband has been coming home fron 12 hour shifts and working really hard to get all this done. 

This is one of those things I do not understand, a seemingly answered prayer that is suddenly taken away. And while I am still very frustrated and disappointed, I am trying to remember that all things work together for good for those that love the Lord and are called according to his purpose.  So somewhere, someday, I believe I will understand why this happened!

So, the house is still on the market.  I am trying to look at the bright side:  the porch is freshly stained and painted, the deck is freshly stained, the home is obviously sound as it as been inspected (twice!) in the last six months.

But it does tick me off every time I walk by the flat screen tv sitting on my sofa table, where I usually sit my fall decorations.

A good start

I'm happy to report that Bella's Kindergarten year is off to a good start!  We began school on Aug 3, and completed 21 school days for the month.  She is doing excellent with all her subjects thus far...my biggest difficulty has been getting her to make her bed without grumbling and complaining!

Since pretty much all of the material we've covered so far has been a review, she is zipping through her curriculum.  I've been doing 2 lessons a day in math and phonics on most days. Which gives us some wiggle room if we need to slow down once we get into harder material.  We are already about 14 days ahead, and when you take into account that our curriculum has only 170 days in it, while the state requires 180....well we've got lots of time for field trips and supplemental activities!

Our kindergarten year has definately been more of an adjustment for me than for Bella... The workbooks and materials we used last year required virtually no preparation.  This year I spend part of almost every day pulling the appropriate flashcards, gathering worksheets, cutting out game pieces, getting out art supplies, preparing the dry erase board, etc.  It takes a lot of time....but I really enjoy it!

Here are some pictures from our first month of Kindergarten!

The dry erase board, ready for the next mornings' phonics / handwriting
lessons!

Abby participates in art time, making egg carton caterpillars!

Sand art!

The girls inspect our "Closer Look" board, an idea I got from pinterest:
Petri dishes attached to a wooden board- fill with small objects
and give the kids magnifiying glasses!

My sweet Kindergartener!

Making Butt Caterpillars during art time!

SOLD!

After many, many months of being on the market, we finally got a contract on our house this past week! We are thrilled, but I have to admit it hasn't fully sunk in yet, and I don't think it will until I actually begin packing...which will need to be soon, as the movers will be here in approximately 19 days.
   I am tired just thinking about it.  But it will be a great opportunity to get rid of lots of things we don't need / use.  And Lord knows I won't miss the short-notice home showings so often bestowed upon us by the realtors- the last one was exactly 53 minutes. And yes, my husband and I can have our house swept, mopped, swiffered, vacuumed, dusted, de-cluttered, and Cloroxed from one end to the other in that time frame!  We are professionals at this point.
  Our closing is on the 28th of this month, so now we have to get through appraisals, inspections, etc. Then, Lord willing, we will  be homeless -temporarily- and on the lookout for our next home!

Beginnings!

This morning I was awakened at 7:20 a.m. by an excited whisper.  "Mama! Get up!  I already made my bed!  I'm ready for my first day of kindergarten!" Thats right, today is D-Day, the day we

launch our attack on education.  And while I appreciated Bella's enthusiasm, I have to admit I cajoled her into climbing into bed with me for 20 more minutes of sleep!

So we finally got up at 7:40, at breakfast, brushed teeth, got dressed, and took this picture of my

very excited kindergartener:

Then we got down to business!  It really wasn't too foreign, as we did our "practice year" last year,
so she already got the concept of sitting down for lessons.  We did add a few things this year, though, and will continue to do so throughout the year.

We began our morning with prayer.  Bella prayed for her Nana, Abby mentioned a few names, and I asked God to help us be good teachers and learners! Then we said the Pledge of Allegiance.  I don't even know if they still do that every day in public schools, especially since it contains -gasp- the "G" word. (God!) But I want Bella to learn it. 

Then we sat down for Phonics.  Most of which was (and for a while will continue to be) a review.  We went over the letter "I" (and i!) and did a couple of workbook pages.  We reviewed all her letters with flashcards, etc.

Next was an art activity that came with her curriculum, then Math.  We actually did two math lessons today as they were only a review of colors and numbers 1-10.  As with Phonics, math will be a review for a while.  But I did not feel comfortable trying to skip her to 1st grade so we will just cruise for a while and enjoy it!

We ended our day with Bible. We did a song, then started our first memory verse, Genesis 1:1~ Which, in a fabulous coincidence, begins with "I"!  We talked about creation- beginnings!- and named several things God created, etc.  We ended by praying and thanking God for his creation.

Since we finished all this in much less time than I anticipiated, I let the girls gather up a big pile of books, we got cozy on the couch, and read aloud for half an hour!

Mostly, our first day was a resounding success! I already see some improvements that need to be made, firstly in my organization, as I was not as prepared and I thought I was last night!  And secondly in keeping Abbigail happily occupied!   I got her a new toy to play with during lessons and it did keep her occupied for a while.  But once she got tired of it she tended to be distracting.  And while I do not expect her to sit quietly at the table the entire time, I do expect her to play or color without being a disruption.  We are most definately a work in progress! But I feel very blessed and thankful to have the means, opportunity, and desire to homeschool.

Mission: Kindergarten!

Several weeks ago I asked my husbad (casually!) "Do you have any plans for July 20th?...Cause if you don't...."  He knew where this was going and there were several seconds of frantic mind-racking on his part....surely someone had asked him to to something on that day.... Okay, just kidding.  I am doing my husband a huge disservice.  He is actually great about watching our girls for a whole afternoon, which is exactly what I asked him to do this past Friday.

Because Friday, Mommy (thats me!) had to make....drumroll please...."THE PLAN!"

Otherwise know as my "First Annual Homeschool Planning Day!" 

So after breakfast, Hubby loaded up the subjects of our experiment in parenting and took them to Hands On Museum for the morning.

As soon as the garage door closed, I started cleaning out the two large closet shelves I have allotted for craft things and school books.  We had accumulated quite a lot of junk...dried up acrylic paints, markers with no lids, lids with no markers, and crayons crayons crayons crayons.... 

Let me dwell on the Crayola phenomenon for a moment!  What happened to the 8 basic colors?  Or even the jumbo box (remember, it used to have a sharpener in the back?!) Now they make Glitter crayons. Neon crayons. Skin Tone crayons and no I am not joking.

Anyway, I cleaned out the junk, segragated dry erase markers, regular markers, colored pencils, and crayons into separate (but equal!) pencil boxes.  I culled through the coloring books and pitched the ones in which someone had scribbled on every page.  I separated the coloring books from the preschool workbooks that Abby can use later....I put things in stacks and baskets and piles...you get the picture.  It was extremely cathartic.

Then I moved on to the homeschool cart (pictured below!) and went through the same process.  Flash cards went back into envelopes, math manipulatives put back into baskets, old phonics workbooks thrown out, etc.  I love this cart because I can fit a lot into it, and since it has wheels I just roll the whole thing into the kitchen when its time for lessons!

So once all that was done, I could get down to planning the plan.  I spread Bella's curriculum out all around me on the floor and stared at it for a long time, resisting the urge to frantically call the registrars office at ETSU and beg them to enroll me in some primary education classes. Then I rolled up my sleeves, poured more coffee, and dug in. 

As I've stated in previous posts, I have chosen A Beka for Bella's curriculum this year.  Her Kindergarten kiy provides Math and Phonics (which also encompasses handwriting).  I have started familiarizing myself with the layout of the teachers manuals.  They looked a bit daunting at first glance, but I think by paring down what I really want with a highlighter they will work really well, especially as I get more familiar with them.  I also purchased A Beka's Art Projects book, although we will supplement this a LOT with our own crafts.  Hey, its Kindergarten!

For our Bible lessons, I purchased the Kindergarten curriculum from Positive Action Bible Curriculum.  I really like this! It is set up to be used 3, 4, or 5 days a week as you choose.  There are songs and memory verses that correspond to the lossons, and the child's workbook has coloring, drawing, matching activites with each lesson to keep them engaged.

As far as things like Science and History, for now we will cover these things sporadically or as we are interested in them by checking out books at the library.  One of my big goals for kindergarten is read, read read! 

After looking through curriculum for a while, I set out for the really fun part of the day: shopping! I purchased several craft supplies at Michaels, then got 2 large dry erase boards- one for here and one to keep at my moms for the days she does lessons with Bella.  I also picked up some pretty sparkly pencils to give Bella on her first day of school

After Planning Day was completed, I can say with confidence that I fell almost, barely, hopefully ready to begin teaching Bella kindergarten!

Hallelujah Shoes

This post was inspired by my friend, Julie, and her post about grocery shoppping with four young children, and how the Lord provided help from an unlikely source just when she needed it.  It brought to mind an incident that happened to me a few years ago, and I wanted to share it.



                                                  These are my Hallelujah Shoes.

Okay, I know you are thinking, "There's absolutely nothing special about these shoes!"  Thats right.  The shoes themselves aren't anything to write home about.  But the purchase, well, it was special to me.
So here's the story of the Hallelujah Shoes.

A few years back, my husband and I were having a child-free day in Pigeon Forge.  (We only had Bella at the time) We were browsing the outlet stores and I decided to go into one of the shoe stores.  I had a pair of brown clogs (exactly identical to the ones pictured above) that I really liked.  I had worn them for two winters, and they were coming apart.  Literally.  The insole was coming out, the stitching was coming loose, the soles were worn away.  They were shot.  But I liked them so much I wanted to find another pair just like them.

The problem was, I didn't want to pay a lot for them.  I'm pretty thrifty when it comes to buying clothes and shoes for myself.  I admit I don't shop at Goodwill or the thrift stores ~ even though I have absolutely nothing against wearing used clothes, I just usually dont have the time or patience to go hunt for what I need.  But I very rarely buy clothes or shoes for me or my girls that isn't on sale, and I never shop at the more expensive stores.  I don't buy things for myself until it becomes a need. 

Anyway, I went into the shoe store, which of course was having their monthly "Huge Clearance!" and "Lowest Prices of the Season!" sale. I asked God, "Please let my shoes be on sale!..I walked around until, sure enough, I found THE shoes. I tried on the new pair and boy, did they look and feel. good.  And surprise! they were on sale!  I picked up the box and headed to the cash register.

In the fifteen seconds it took me to walk to the line at the front of the store, I was already trying to talk myself out of those shoes.  Yes, they were on sale, but it was still a little more than I wanted to spend...I could use that money for other things....did I really need them?  Wouldn't my old shoes last one more winter?

As I stood in line, argueing with myself, clutching that shoebox to my chest, an amazing thing happened.  I remembered thinking one  simple thought," Lord, please let them ring up even cheaper!"

One heartbeat later, the woman in front of me, a stranger, suddenly turned to me.

"I have this coupon for an extra %15 off that I can't use...would you like it?"

Would I?! Yes, ma'am!

So I bought the shoes, and I have always called them my Hallelujah shoes, 'cause that's what I felt like hollering when I left that shoe store.  They always remind me that God hears and considers our smallest request.

You can read my friend Julie's blog posts at www.cherokeechix.com .

How does your garden grow?

As many of you know, we have decided to homeschool Bella, and later, Abby.  I used this past school year as a "practice year" for kindergarten, as homeschooling is a completely new journey both for me as a teacher and for Bella as a student.  She has done extremely well.  She is now a beginning reader, and just as importantly, she loves to be read to.  She frequently asks me to read to her while she is eating lunch and I am happy to oblige!  We finished a kindergarten math book (Saxon Math K) and she really enjoyed it, especially the manipulatives.  We have also almost completed Book 1 of Explode the Code.

I decided that a unit study would be a good, fun way to end our year.  Since planting season is upon us, I picked a Garden unit study.  I purchased and downloaded a unit study by Amanda Bennett to use as a guide, and off we went!

We have had such a good time with this! I have been able to incorporate reading, writing, art, science, and Bible all into this unit.  We learned about Claude Monet and looked at several examples of his artwork.  In the picture below, we are attempting to paint like Monet...we had fun, but I'm not sure it turned out quite as good as the original!

 We also learned some new vocabulary words, such as: row, dig, stem, etc.  I had Bella copy these into her Garden Journal, then I wrote the definition she gave me for each one!  We also made a garden collage out of magazine clippings, talked about the differences between fruit and vegetables, and made a flower out of pattern blocks.  For a Bible lesson, we read the parable about "A sower went forth to sow" out of the book of Matthew, and we talked about having "good ground" for the seed of God to grow!

                And of course, at the end of all this, we planted some seeds!  Bella chose tomoatoes, squash, broccoli, beans , and carrots.

                                     Abby helped plant the seeds!

 
                              Just a few short days later, we were excited to see our seeds sprout!

                             My sweet Daddy plowed us a real garden!

                   But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who has ears to hear, let him hear."  Matthew 13:8-9

Yeah, but its a dry heat....

After returning from the Disney trip, I have to admit I was ready to stay home for the rest of the year.  Which, if you know my husband, was a total pipe dream!  He loves to be on the go, especially with "the girls".   Because of horrible flight delays on our Disney trip we had a voucher with the airline, and we also had a "buddy pass" ticket through our AmEx credit card.  Between that and knowing how upset I was about losing my camera with all our Disney pictures on it, he decided we should go back. To Disney. This year. 

And while I greatly appreciated his effort to replace our pictures, the thought of going back to Disney so soon did not sit well with me.  We were at a standoff!  He was determined not to waste free airline tickets, I was very determined not to go back to Disney so soon!  So one day as we were discussing the issue again, I said (quite exasperatedly!), "If you want to fly somewhere, why don't we go to Arizona and visit Stephen and Jamie!"

He took the idea and ran with it, and we discovered that in order to not conflict with his work schedule, our fall beach trip, and the hot summer weather in AZ, we were going to have to go in just a few short weeks, at the end of March.  We booked our airline tickets, and before we knew it were were Arizona bound!

The girls did wonderful on the flights, which were - Thank you Lord!- all on time.  We arrived in Arizona late on a Saturday night, and by the time we got a rental car and got to our hotel, it was 1:30 a.m...4:30 a.m. Tennessee time!  I'd like to report that we slept very late the next morning, but my girls get up early regardless.  A few short hours later we were up and on our way to Stephen and Jamie's house, and what a reunion we had!  Here are a few pictures from our trip:

Kenneth, me, and the girls at the Grand Canyon.  It was so beautiful!  

 Me and Abby with my awesome sis-in-law, Jamie.  Despite the

distance that separates us, she is one of my dearest friends!

Sweet cousins!  Lexi, Bella, Lucas, and Abby.  These kids played from

sun up till sun down!

One of my very favorite pictures from our trip.  My brother-in-law

and Lucas on the flight line at Luke AFB.  We are so proud of

Stephen's service to our country, and the sacrifices that he and his

family make.  As he showed us around the base, his pride in

his job was evident.

We spent several days in Arizona, and Stephen and Jamie graciously welcomed us into their home.  I admit, I was leery of staying in their house.  After all, the saying "you don't know someone till you live with them" applies to extended family!  At the conclusion of the trip, I told Jamie if they ever move to TN we need to build a duplex with a communal kitchen!  The kids had a blast playing and we felt so welcome. 

Besides the excursion to the Grand Canyon, and our trip to the AFB, we also spent a morning at a Wildlife Zoo, which the kids really enjoyed.  And we got to spend a lot of time just hanging out together, talking and cooking and boy did we eat good! Stephen can make some mean smoked barbeque, and oh, those tacos!

It ended up being one of my favorite vacations ever. 

Wooly Day!

On April 14, a local historic site called Rocky Mount hosted their annual

"Wooly Day".  I saw an article in the paper about it and thought it might

look like something my girls would enjoy.  (And count as a good "field trip"!)

I called their Nana, who is usually game for these adventures, and we headed out. 

It turned out to be a very enjoyable day for all involved...except maybe the sheep.



Wooly Day gets its name from the fact that this is the day when the sheep are sheared.

They do not seem to particularly enjoy this, especially since it means being separated from

their new lambs for a while.  The girls loved petting the baby lambs, and Abbigail was brave

enough to pet one of the adults- with Nana close by!



 The sheep leave an oily residue on your hands if you pet them, because their skin secretes lanolin.  The wool must be washed several times to remove this.

One of the exhibits showed the making of lye soap.  Bella and Abby try it out!

One of the most popular exhibits was candle making!  For $2 the kids could make their own
candle...but there ended up being a lot of adults in line, because it takes many dips into the wax
to make even a small candle, and little ones lose patience so quickly!  Nana finished the girls' candles
while they had a snack in the shade!

We also saw demonstrations on spinning, weaving, archery, and fireplace cooking.  It was a great way to spend the afternoon.  I decided that the good Lord sure put me in the right time in history, because I'm afraid I would have made a very poor pioneer....you would have found me in the springhouse, the only cool spot on the farm!

Disney World Part II....The White Flag of Surrender

I just reread my first "Disney" post....wow. It was pretty negative. But accurate, since that's pretty much how I felt during the first few days of our trip! Now I want to focus more on the positives! They were:

1. Seeing my kids' faces! Oh, how those little eyes lit up when we saw Tinkerbell fly over the palace before the fireworks! And Abby, who watched Snow White like a hawk until she came over to meet us at dinner. Bella squealing with delight on the Kali River Rapids as we all got drenched!

2. Family! My husbands parents and his brother from Erwin (and wife Joy!) went with us. But a special treat was being able to see my brother in law who lives in Az and his family! We only see them a few times a year. It was so special getting to love on my niece and nephew, they are precious kiddos. Also, I got to spend some time with their mom, Jamie, who I dearly love... in spite of her tattoos ;-).

3. The rides! Like my husband (but to a lesser degree!) I have never outgrown my love of rides! My favorite was probably the Rockin' Rollercoaster, although Test Track and the Tower of Terror were also very fun.

So, after five days of Disney parks, we had to get up at 2:30 (A.M.!!!) to catch the Misery- um, Magic Express back to the airport for a 6:30 a.m. flight that was mercifully on time. We were in our house by 11:30 and we ALL went to bed.

And now for the very very worst part...When I went to unpack later that day, I discovered that my camera, which I had last used to take a picture of the girls on the airplane, was nowhere to be found. Thats right, folks. I lost my camera. And subsequently spent the rest of the weekend crying over my lost pictures. I adore my pictures of my baby girls, and oh, how it hurt to lose them!

We emailed the airline and called the airport to no avail. Most importantly, we prayed about it! And no, I haven't gotten my camera back. (yet.)

Disney Part 1, or "Why is there conjunctivitis in the Happiest Place on Earth?"

Many months ago, my father-in-law generously offered to take his three sons and their families on a vacation. Someone- I strongly expect my beloved husband- suggested Disney and there was no turning back. So after months of planning, reservations, airline tickets, and excitement, it was time to fly out on March 3!
Before I get into this, let me add a disclaimer: I do not dislike Disney, even though it may sound like it at some points in my story...my opinion was colored by circumstances, and everything gone smoothly I'm sure I would be as infatuated with WDW as my two year old currently is!
So anyway. To start the trip off on the wrong foot, our first flight was delayed. Very delayed. By the time they decided to tell us they were putting us on a different flight, we had of course missed our connection in ATL. And by the time we got to WDW that night - several hours late- we had missed the Cinderella dinner we had schedule. Luckily the kids took it in stride and onward we went.
Day two began with a bang, or should I say a cough. Abbigail woke up terrible congested and her cough continued to worsen through the day and the night. Day two was also miserably (for Fl!) cold and windy. We shivered our way through the Magic Kingdom. I was not feeling the magic at this point!
Day three, Bella woke up with pink eye. That's right, full blown conjunctivitis in her right eye. We had just finished several days of drops just before coming to WDW, and by some miraculous foresight that is totally uncharacteristic of me, I had packed the drops. Having them was one thing, getting her to let me put them in her eye was another. Granted, she was tired from travel and excitement, and she was tired of having drops put into her eyes. Nonetheless, several meltdowns of epic proportions ensued, until I had my own meltdown and ended up sobbing on a bench outside "Finding Nemo", with my mom on the cell phone and a wet wipe for my snotty nose.
*Note: a meltdown is only a true meltdown if you do it publicly. Hiding in the stalls of the ladies room to cry is just being girly.
After some encouragement from my mom, and giving "Eye drop duty" to Kenneth, things looked up. He came up with a way to get the eye drops in, meanwhile I took a $30 taxi trip across Orlando to a Walgreens and came back armed with a humidifier, Vaposteam, and cough syrup for Abby's bad cough.
Okay, I realize I haven't put in any of the good stuff. The kids were loving getting to meet princesses, seeing fireworks, and oh, boy, the rides! They loved the Snow White ride, Peter Pan, Pirates, Winnie the Pooh...my husband even decided that heck, if the four year old is tall enough for the Tower of Terror then by golly she should ride it. And ride it she did. She actually did awesome, although when we got off she said, "Do I have to ride that again?"
By the day we went to the Animal Kingdom the weather was much warmer, and we were mastering the art of traveling with 3 strollers, 4 kids, and 8 adults. We all loved the Safari ride, and my niece Lexi rode the Everest Expedition, her very first roller coaster!
Part Two of our trip coming soon...

ihomeschool

Recently, my husband and I were eligible to renew our cell phone contract, which of course means a phone upgrade. I had been steadfastly against getting a smart phone. "I don't need to check my email from the mall," I said. "I don't want to pay for a data plan," I said. "I just need to be able to talk and text," I said.

My husband had already decided to take the plunge and get a Droid 4, so we waited a few days until they came on the market to go renew our plan. And in those fateful few days, something very important happened...

My friend Kim got an iphone.

She came over for dinner one night and let me fiddle around with it, and I admit it grew on me pretty quickly. So I announce to my husband that, "I want an iphone!" Being the wonderful man he is, he took my complete opinion reversal in stride, and off we went to Verizon. And quickly we were in possession of phones that (I'm convinced!) are smarter than we are...

I have to admit, after the first few days of not knowing how to do anything, and wondering why in the world I really needed a phone with a flashlight app...I had some buyers remorse. But the more I learned about the phone, the more I liked it.

I have my Bible on my phone.
I can listen to Christian music on Pandora.
Bella loooooves playing Angry Birds.

But this morning was the clencher. During homeschool, our Bible lesson was on "David and Goliath". We read about David wearing Kind Saul's heavy armor, and her activity was to put "armor" stickers on a picture of David. While she was doing this, I used my phone to look up Ephesians 6:14-17 and read it, as it pertained to the lesson: " Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of rightousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith..." And when she asked why he had armor on his legs, I explained what greaves were, then looked it right up on wikipedia to show her a real pair....

I'm sold. I may create an entire K-12 homeschool curriculum that can be done using a pencil ,a notebook, a and an iphone....

See Me Read!

I am very proud to announce that we have a beginning reader in our home! In my last post I detailed how we had to discontinue our Explode the Code workbook, as it was frustrating both of us! I purchased the "Teach your Child to Read" book by S. Engelmann and we started again... and again (at first) I was disappointed, and Bella was frustrated. I ended up breaking one lesson into two days, and that seemed to work better. Doing very short lessons -about 5 minutes- was about all she could focus on. In the meantime, we read lots of books! That's one thing I try to always, always have time for. I try to stop whatever I am doing and read. Many times we have plopped right down in the kitchen floor to read while something bubbles away on the stove!

Then, several days ago, something just clicked, and Bella "got it"! I had purchased the "Bob Books" readers, and also had a few scholastic readers my cousin Michelle (a fellow homeschooler!) had mailed me. One day after reading another book aloud to her, I casually handed her one of Michelle's readers and held my breath as she opened it and began to sound out the words! I was thrilled! She read two pages with very little assistance.

We are continuing our "Teach Your Child to Read" lessons...which leads me to my next quandry. (...because isn't there always another quandry?!) I've (almost) decided to use the Abeka curriculum for Bella's kindergarten. Although using a "box " curriculum - a complete grade level from one publisher- is exactly what I intended not do to, the reason being a more eclectic approach is likely more customizable to your child's interests / abililty. So why did I change my mind (for now!) ? One reason is that I really like Abeka publishing. It is academically advanced and faith based. And as I work three days a week, Bella's education is going to be a group effort! My husband and I will be her primary teachers, with my mother also helping. So having everything layed out for me will be a big help, as I won't have as much time as a stay at home mom would have to use a more customized curriculum. And I still intend to use supplemental materials as much as possible.

Bella's learning to read has been a big confidence booster for both of us. She is so proud of herself, and I am so relieved that we are over that first-of-many hurdles!

I am also very excited that my mother and I will be attending the Great Homeschool Convention in Greeneville, SC next month! There will be 200+ vendors of homeschool curriculum and materials, as well as many workshops to attend. I hope to make a final decision about kindergarted curriculum while we are there and I can physically look over different systems... and who knows, if I make my mind of fast enough, we may squeeze in a trip to the mall!