It's a 4 Ring Circus!

summer book love

One of the book recommendations I had for this summer was Fablehaven by Brandon Mull.  I handed the first book to Josh and he expressed his great displeasure at the assignment.  (He HATES reading fiction, esp long-looking fiction!)  However, a day or two into the book, he couldn't put it down, and has now flown through the four available books in the series (the final book has not been released yet) and is badgering me to hurry up and finish, too (I'm about to finish the 2nd book myself)!  So, I just have to add my two cents that this series is fun and great for even reluctant readers.  Just be prepared to buy your own -- the library copies are always gone!

Josh just walked by and I asked him to add a quick review:
"I love this series.  It was really nicely written, sometimes you forget that it is just a story!"

summer reading

I love to get a package in the mail, but I think the best ones contain new books.

a welcome sight

It makes a momma's heart pitter patter to see her son choose to take a good book outside to read for awhile.

reading with Sadie

This morning was the usual, taking Ryan back to the airport and then coming home and getting things in order around the house, and getting kids on task for their school assignments.  (and maybe a little Facebook to start the day . . . )  It will be nice when someday my husband works in the same city that we live.  Or really, even the same state would be good.  But I will be glad that he at least does in fact have a JOB, so I'll shut up now.

Today is Ryan's birthday, and he is officially an old man -- 35.  We're going to celebrate this weekend when he's back home, but today his present is a video of Sadie reading for him, since she didn't get to show off for him this last weekend (yes, we were really THAT busy).

more braggin'

I am excited and thrilled to announce that Sadie starting reading yesterday!

We had been working together on some basic phonics skills for awhile, with mediocre success (tried both 100 EZ Lessons and Phonics Pathways), when suddenly it occurred to me that the reason she was having some difficulty is because she kept trying to make these non-word practice exercises into words.  So, I moved her way ahead to reading three- and four-letter words, and WAH-LAH, she was suddenly doing much better!  Then I dug out the Sonlight readers and she was flying through them and wanting to do more.

It was really wonderful getting to share such a proud moment with her.  Luckily Ryan was in town an extra day this week, and she had just finished the readers when he came driving up, so she got to run out to tell him all about it!

Keepin it real: homeschooling this morning

It has come to my attention that people may read this blog and think that everything is a well-oiled machine over here.  Not so, no no, not so.  Especially over the last month, 85% of my time is spent checking fevers, administering medication, going to doctor appointments, etc.  And I haven't been getting the recommended amount of sleep each night either.  So, ya wanna know what that added up to this morning?

Well, first let me back up by saying that I like to read a few blogs first thing in the morning with my breakfast -- it is my "morning paper" substitute.  Well, Amy was talking about a book this morning, which reminded me that we haven't looked at the Dangerous Book for Boys lately.  (Yes, I will definitely be picking up the girls' version when it comes out!)  I flipped through until I came to an entry about making secret messages with ink.

So, here I am, on my back porch, in my jammies (which are really Ryan's jammies, since I am behind on the laundry), at about 9:30 am, trying to light some dried milk on a piece of paper to reveal a hidden message.

Here are the supplies: 

Can you see that part of my message showed up?  "hello!"  The page above that was a little too milk-soaked to do us much good.  Messages must be written with a light hand.

And then we come to the part where it's a good idea to try this outside.  (I'm smart like that.)  I was trying to light up another message I wrote, when between the windy morning and my lack of skill, I managed to light the whole corner of the paper on fire.  Fire on copy paper spreads pretty quickly.  I got to say a lot of "oooo, oooo, oooo" before dropping the paper into a handy pile of dirt and sand by the back door.

Josh thought it was pretty cool.

(Hmmm, I bet this lesson won't show up on a TAKS test, eh?!?)

Anyway, after that I threw on some clothes so that we could pile in the car to hit the Wal*Mart pharmacy drive-thru for Sadie's myriad prescriptions.  Josh brought our next read-aloud book (every day we spend some time reading a book out loud, with all of the kids) and read it to the girls while I drove.  Can you believe that one of the prescriptions had a $100 CO-PAY??  How do people with no insurance survive??

We came home, had some lunch, and the kids were off to "quiet time," where Josh and Delaney were given some more schoolwork to do on their own, that we'll go over together later in the day.

In conclusion, we usually get the job done.  It's not always picture perfect.  But we do try to make the best, even with sick kids and other things going on.

Reading a book is fun to do, fun to do, ...

Another nice day

Look at this big girl on the trampoline -- her hair is getting so long!
(she is only 19 months old)

And her silly big sister:

A new project we have started:

We are following the suggestion in One Small Square:  Backyard (a wonderful series, by the way) and setting up a little observation area to see what plants or animals live in this section.  All of the girls were digging, including Lucy, and a few earthworms were found.  :-)

Two finds

Did a little more tweaking of the blog design -- I think it's a bit easier to read now.

I found two good things in the last day or so.  First, I went to a new grocery store in the area.  It totally rocked, by the way, and I'm very excited because we're supposed to be getting one just like it in our little podunk town that currently has no grocery store of its own.  Unless you count the dollar store or the gas station, which I don't.  So as I was walking into this new store, they had books right there and I saw this little treasure -- The Raggedy Andy Stories.  I am really getting into the old-timey kids' books, and this one looks great.  If you check out my Amazon wish list (on the sidebar to your left somewhere), you'll see some more good ones.  I just got a Flicka, Ricka, and Dicka book for the kids a little while ago, along with a few other "vintage" childrens books.  But who am I kidding, they're really for ME!  The kids do like them, too, so that's my excuse!

Also found a website for LDS Charlotte Mason moms that outlines a yearly course of study for *moms* following CM philosophies.  I am excited to start in on that, because I had been wanting to do some reading on my own anyway (meaning something for MY benefit instead of for my kids') but this is already set up for me and has things I'm excited to read.  I'm jumping in right as they're about to start Thoreau's Walden, a book that I have been wanting to read forever but just have never made the time for before.  So, watch out, I'm about to get all smart on ya!