The Disney Postcard Arrived!!

Do you remember a few post back about sending a letter to a Disney character? If not, check the post out here: Write to a Disney Character The postcard arrived this week. My daughter was excited to add it to her postcard collection. She is going to write to a different character next week. This is a great way to sneak in handwriting practice. Here is a front and back view of the postcard. I cropped off the part that showed our address.

More School Area Photos

Here are some more photos of our school area. The first set of photos of other parts of our school area are posted here, School Room & Garden Update.

 My son's desk

 My daughter's desk

 Shelves between the desks. Top shelf holds our flashcard box. 

The next shelf is our outgoing box; like box tops, papers to be scanned, mail, items that needed returned, etc..

Each child has a yellow bucket with their daily needed items;  rulers, glue, crayons, etc.

The red and yellow pails hold pencils.

The last two shelves hold the printer/scanner and teacher guides.

 The white rolling table is used by a child when I need to use their computer to enter a lesson. I use it a lot when they need me close.

 My son's desk again. You can see their weekly goal dry board hanging on the side of the shelf unit.

I put how many lessons in each subject they need to complete by the end of the week. It helps us a lot!!

The side of my desk. The corkboard now holds our days of the week signs. 

The small shelf unit is for their daily work. Each shelf has one lesson. The kids start at the top and work their way down. It helps them focus, know how much they need to complete, and stops them from looking for assignments. We also use a binder system.

This is the only time you will see my desk look this clean. The top of it has shelves for my crafts, school books, sewing pile, and a everything else that doesn't seem to have a place in the house.

#FMSphotoaday craze

I decided to join the #FMSphotoaday craze because everyone seems to be having a lot of fun with it. You can read about the photo challenge and about the mum who started it all at Fat Mum Slim. Basically she posts a monthly list on her blog with a daily photo topic on the last Monday of the month. People share photos on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and their personal blogs while using the #FMSphotoaday to connect. Fat Mum Slim aka Chantelle picks photos for the Fab Four daily. She actually picks 8 photos, 4 each from Facebook and Twitter. You just have to use the # to enter. You will be able to find all my photos for the challenge on my Facebook Page, Instagram, and Twitter. Click the word to find & follow.

Here is October's Photo A Day Challenge.

Here is my first #FMSphotoaday.

10.6.13 ~ 8 o'clock

Waking up to peaceful rainy day.

Demolition

We have watched a house down the street go through different stages of preparation for demolition. We saw them gut part of it, firefighters set it on fire & rip the roof apart for practice, different rescue dogs practice their craft, and even a company set up a decontamination unit around the house to run different scenarios . It was interesting to watch everyone practice their valuable skills. I loved that they used the house for something good before tearing it down. Everyone is thankful the city fought to remove this unpleasant and unusable house from our neighborhood. The site is now green area.

I took the kids down to watch the city tear it down. We sat across the street and an official asked us if we planned on getting closer because it wouldn't be a good idea. REALLY? We were about 6 plus ft behind the yellow rope. No sir, I am going to let the kids crawl under the rope to investigate the process closer. That answer stayed inside my head but not my daughter's. She said," No sir. Why would we plan on disobeying the police officer (he told all the onlookers to move back about 3ft from the rope) to get closer to the dangerous conditions and possible endanger ourselves or the workers?"  He just looked at her and said, "Oh, good point." and drove off. I was embarrassed that she spoke rudely to the official. That is not like her. Her reason was she didn't like to be spoken down to like she was an idiot. I was talking to my daughter, oh heck I should just call it what it was, I was lecturing (evil parenting nowadays) her about treating others how we would like to be treated when a construction worker came over to high five her for finally getting rid of the official. Apparently he was trying to tell them how to do their jobs. They think he just picked us as an easy target to boss around. I later told my kids that is still not a reason to be rude and he probably was just trying to make sure we were safe but didn't know how to say it.

I had an 12 yr old boy, 8 yr old girl, an almost 4 yr old boy, and a 1 year old girl with me. Who do you think enjoyed it the most? Yup, the 1 year old girl. She cheered each time something big came down. The other kids found it insteading but nothing like she did. They all thought it was neat that the crew was spraying water on the wood while the equipment tore down the wall. They jumped with fear when a guy almost lost his head when a huge side wall flip towards him instead of the way it was suppose to fall. We even walked down the next day to watch the removal of all the remains. I asked the kids to share what their favorite part of the house removal week with each other. Here is what they said. They liked watching big equipment destroy everything, watching the firefighters hack the roof with axes, and the guy almost losing his head. Nice kids.

 Down the street, about 3 houses away when we took this photo.

 On the corner, about 2 houses away.

Across the street, in the lawn of a neighbor's house.

Write to a Disney Character

Did you know that you could write to your favorite Disney Character and they will reply back?!?!?! This was exciting news in my home. My daughter decided right away that she need to draw a picture for Rapunzel. I think she created a cute drawing. There are two address, one for FL and on for CA. We are going to mail one for both but my daughter needs to decide which character needs a letter from her first. ;-) Here is the first one. I will let you know what she receives when it comes.

Yummy Gluten Free Pizza

We decided to give the new take and bake certified gluten free pizza from Donatos a try. They will deliver it or you can pick it up in their stores. Donatos also offers a lot different gluten free items in their stores. The two pizza smelled so yummy while they was baking in the oven that my two kids and the two kids I was babysitting kept asking if it was ready. :-) It tasted as good as it smelled. The kids asked for seconds and thirds. My kids love Donatos! This is the first gluten pizza we have ever had so we have nothing to compare it with but it was delicious. It tasted better than any frozen pizza from the supermarket. Here are some photos of the packaging. 

Smores & Meteor Showers

We decided to stay up all night to watch for meteors. The kidlets lasted until about 1am. We started off with a bonfire and smores. I will use ANY reason to have smores. Meteor Shower = smores, right? We saw a few of them but nothing like we thought we would see. The night wasn't a total loss because of the ghost stories the kids made up and because of the SMORES (I really like them)!!

 My son

  My daughter

Someone fell sleep.

A few weeks ago we watched the space station float by. That was totally awesome! It looked a like a huge star. It only lasted for 9 minutes but was worth it. My husband didn't agree that we needed to use the firepit for it. I know he knew I was using the whole watching the station as an excuse for smores. Darn man knows me too well! :-)

Check out this fun and educational game!!! I picked it up at a yard sale for a buck with hopes that it would help my younger child with spelling. Both my kids play it during lesson breaks without losing focus that it is still school time.  DICEcapades Word Pirates  is an easy game for kids to understand and follow the rules without an adult around. The kids spell words with letter dice while trying to block the other players. The pirate must walk on the words to the treasure for a win. It is that easy. There are a few of these for sale on Amazon. 

Front Door Sign

We have been schooling at home for over seven years. Family and friends still think we are available anytime of the day. They knock on our door and become upset when we do not answer. I am not going to stop a lesson to answer the door for an unexpected visitor during our school day. You can not randomly visit a child during a school day whether they school at home or at a brick and mortar school. My kids will lose focus when people interrupts our day. Focusing is a huge issue for my kids, which is one of the many reasons we school at home. I decide to post a sign on our door because NO ONE was listening when we asked them not to stop by during school time. Neighbors couldn't understand why we sometimes school during the late afternoons after taking a field trip during the name. One neighborhood girl would knock every 10 mins to play with my daughter. I tried a few different signs but people still knocked on the door, then the window, and finally would yell, "It's ME!" even when the knock asked people not to knock. :-) Here is a photo of last year's sign and this year's sign. Only one person from the power company knocked today to tell me that she saw our sign but want to knew if there was a better time to come back because she is selling a new service.  Silly lady, never knock on a door that you can hear kids and dogs behind and think the frazzled mum is going to be happy that you saw the sign but knocked anyway. She will probably never come back to this house or down our street again. Homeschool/Eschool families: I slide the sign into a clear pocket holder. The holder is taped on the door. It is easier to slide it in and out of holder than type the sign up everyday.

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Whiteboard

This school year I have decide write a daily motivational, inspirational, or funny quote/saying on the school room whiteboard. I picked up a few different paper borders for each month. Please share your favorite saying. Here are the first two days.

 

Simple DIY

We use our small dry erase boards daily for math and spelling lessons. The kids were always looking for the big erasers for the boards. For some reason the erasers are the one school item my kids fail to put away. I have found them under the couches, desks, and microwave stand while vacuuming. I tried taping a sandwich bag to the back of the boards to store the erasers. One of my kids couldn't stand the feel of the bag when he used the board on his lap. The other child thought the bag make the board unbalanced when she used it on the floor or the desk. I told my kids to figure out some else to use to clear the boards that wasn't a paper towel the last time all the erasers escaped the school room. They looked in the school supplies and picked out big pom poms that were left over from a craft project. LIGHT BULB!! I hot glued the medium size pom poms on the end of the markers. Problem solved! No more eraser hunts!! Here is a photo of the ones we are currently using. I thought it was an awesome idea that needed to be shared with others on Pinterest only to find out that teachers have been doing this for a while. Oh well, I felt like a super mum for a minute at least!

School Room & Garden Update

This is just a photo update on the garden and one side of the school area.

 Two of our cork boards. We hang flashcards in bags so we can grab them when leaving the house.

The artwork above the right corkboard is by a friend of mine, Melody. Here is her site: http://www.shwagart.com/ & FB page:  Karm Lotus Photography My kids like to look at nature photos during the winter months when everything is gloomy outside. Her photo is a refocusing tool for us.

 Our central file cabinet. We hang out daily chore schedules, family calendar,

family daily schedule, and a few other important papers on the front of the cabinet with magnets. All papers are in a clear pocket protector. 

 Top Drawer: Extra Supplies 

Third Drawer: School Supplies from the School.

 Mainly Math, Science, and Music.

 Fourth Drawer: I placed two milk crates in the drawer to divide the books and binders by child.

I hole punch all workbook pages and place them in binders. I will show you why in a post about how we organize our school day.

 

 Pledge of Allegiance sign that we made about 7 years ago. :-)

 The Planets fit nicely over the door way.

 Pumpkin!!

 The kids are VERY excited that our corn is growing. There are four starts on them!

Another Pumpkin!

Peppers are starting to grow!

I forgot to take photos of our radishes, cucumbers, and carrots.

The next group of photos are just of the garden as it grows.

Summer Fun Day 15

I saw this neat idea on the show called, The Chew. Here is a video clip of the hosts completing the project. The Video Clip You will need to prep for this project over night by filling a tin can with water & freezing it. DO NOT fill the tin can all the way to the top. You will need to hammer the bottom of the can straight again because it will bulge out a little. Next you put dots in a pattern on the can with a permanent marker. Take a hammer and a nail to poke out the holes. You do need to do this sort of quickly because once the ice starts to melt you will have a hard time poking the holes without denting the can. Put a small candle in the can once all the holes have been completed and the ice removed. Pretty simple and simply pretty.

Summer Fun Day 15: Poking Holes

 The Bulge

 Hammering

It is getting there!!

The 'E'

 The 'E' with a candle.