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!

The fat cat sat on the mat....well, it tried to.

Bella and I have officially hit our first wall...figuratively speaking. Thus far our homeschooling journey has gone swimmingly, as far as academics are concerned. Then, came Book 1 of Phonics! ( Cue the music from "The Wizard of Oz" that plays whenever the wicked witch is near...)

We began our Explode the Code primers in August, and Bella loved them. We flew through books A and B, and finished up book C in November. We were doing at least four, and up to 10 pages per school day because she really enjoyed doing them. These books taught consonant sounds, reinforced writing the letter, matching to objects that began with that letter, etc.

So once we finished book C, I proudly produced Book 1 for her learning pleasure. Except it was not pleasurable for either of us! Book one jumps into three letter words without preamble. Hat, sat, cat, mat...you get the idea. Not particularly hard. But she is not getting it and she does not enjoy her workbooks anymore. We are pulling our hair out to complete one page. And I like my hair. I want to keep it. I do not want to be a bald homeschooling mother.

Anyway, I gave it one last try today with no better results so we are moving to plan B. I really have no plan B, but it sure sounds good to say it. No, since the material is not engaging her and is frustrating us both, I decided to just lay it aside for a while. One reason I chose ETC -besides the glowing reviews- was the economical price. I'm not out a lot of money and if we never touch it again I can sleep at night.

Today I ordered a copy of "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons", a book many moms in our homeschool co-op have used. Until it arrives, I'm just going to play some games and let her do some different activities.

I know she is only four, and we have plenty of time to learn reading. But I have to admit I'm so afraid I won't be able to teach her! I know in my rational mind that I can teach her this. I remember having this same fear about potty training, to be honest...and that turned out fine. Part of the problem is that reading came very, very naturally to me. My mom read a lot to us and to be homest I don't remember learning to read. Don't get me wrong, I'm quite aware that I didn't exit the womb with a copy Tolstoy. But it just....happened. I was the kid in first grade who the teacher had to keep saying, "slow down!" to when I read aloud. After my mom read "The Diary of Anne Frank" to my sister and I in middle school, I checked out every book on the holocaust from our local library. I'm pretty confident in saying I'm probably the only member of my graduating high school class who had read "Mein Kampf" -in English, of course. I read while I eat, I read in the car...I love to read.

So you can see why I'm a little anal about this. I really want Bella to love reading as much as I do. So I am going to relax a little bit about it, we are going to read aloud as much as possible, and we are going to formulate- and try- plan B.

Suggestions, comments, and constructive criticism always welcome!

Teachers Pet

One of the things I love the most about homeschooling is the one-on-one time I get with Bella. Granted, most days Abby is at the table with us or playing nearby, but it still provides a great opportunity for praise (and correction!) as we work together. The downside of this is that sometimes transitioning from "Mom" to "Teacher" is hard for both of us. I sometimes wonder if a "real" teacher (one at a public /private school who is paid to teach!) would get the same attitude I occasionally encounter....like today, for instance. Today was not the best homeschooling day we've ever had!

But it's for that very reason that I am immortalizing this day, that you will see pictured below. This day, she was happy to learn. This day, we laughed. This day, I had it all together. I was almost *gasp* an Alpha mom!


Here Bella is making "Pattern Trains" with linking cubes
for her Saxon Math K lesson. We had a lot of fun with this,
because after she "built" the trains she had to determine
which ones had an "ABAB" pattern. So I made an "ABAB"
tunnel out of a folder, used my arm as the crossing guard,
and we only let the "ABAB" trains go through....she loved it,
and wanted to play with her trains after the lesson was finished.

Here Bella is using her pattern blocks to cover an
animal shape.
She really enjoyed this math supplement.
Many thanks to my homeschooling friend and mentor,
Susan, for the idea!



Working on her Explode the Code phonics workbooks.
As of today is nearing the end of Book C, the last primer,
and I have ordered Book 1! She enjoys these workbooks.



I decided to do some Thanksgiving project during
November. I got a really good (and really cheap)
book about the first Thanksgiving at Mr Ks bookstore.
We have been reading it, and I found the idea for this
art project on Pinterest (Thanks again, Susan!)
Bella had a lot of fun turning her handprint into a
Mayflower!



And here's the finished product! Boy, is she proud!

Cake Pops? Count me in!

So, I have heard a lot of good things about cake pops, but had never tasted or made one. So when I saw a simple recipe in a magazine, I decided we would give it a try! It was messy, and fun, and -most importantly- delicious!

Bella and Ashlyn help me crumble up a cake!
Abby crumbles with panache!

Rachel and the girls give our cake pops an orange coat!

The finished product! The pumpkin stems are green tic-tacs!

Which Craft?

Ever since Abbigail was born, my big sis and I have enjoyed getting together with our girls for crafty, cooking, sewing days! For October, I found some fun (and delicious!) activities. Here are some pics of the girls making Jack-o-lanterns. This is a craft I found in a Woman's Day magazine, and it turned out really well. All you need are glass jars, (I bought the globe ones with the scalloped glass at the top, but you can recycle an old salsa jar!), orange tissue paper (which is NOT easy to find in October!), black construction paper, and decoupage glue. I used ModPodge glue.

You cut the tissue paper into one inch wide strips. Coat a section of the glass with modpodge glue, using a foam brush, then apply the strips, letting them slightly overlap.

Then cut out a face and put it on, and apply another layer of glue.

Let dry, light, and enjoy! (From left to right: Bella, Abby, and Ashlyn!)

The girls had a lot of fun with this! I happened to have a cheap plastic tablecloth in the cabinet, so once we were done I just threw it -glue drips and all!- in the trash. Happy Halloween!