2010

One of my goals for 2010 (that I am willing to share) is to blog! I hope to take a picture a day, so even if all I do is post a picture and talk about that a bit, I hope that will keep me motivated to blog. There are so many things that happen daily, that I wish I was remembering to write down somewhere (usually funny things the kids said) that I hope if I write once a day, I can get some of that stuff in.

Flying by..

I’m feeling like this summer has been flying by!  Already it is the beginning of August….and has it really felt like summer at all yet?  The weather has been so unpredictable;  that has been part of the problem, I think.

So, here I am, needing to really get down to the nitty-gritty of planning our learning year.  Registration and educational plan are due to the school district by the 15th (though I think there is a bit of flex room there ).  So….what are we planning for next year???

Wesley really did well with Math-U-See, so we will continue on with that, as well as adding Ethan into it too.  Wesley is still on an intense ocean animal phase, so our science will definitely include that to start with.  I need to find some good resources for that, still.   Reading, reading, and more reading is of course on the agenda, and I’ll go through some Five in a Row material with Ethan, as I think that will be a good pace for him.   We didn’t do any art curriculum last year, but as interested in drawing as Wesley always is, (and as poor of an artist that I am) I think I’ll get something a bit more structured for him to work through for that.  We always love to create things around here, but I want to give him some beginners guidelines for *real* drawing (perspective, shading, distances, etc).  Let’s see…history.   We attempted some Story of the World last year…..and while I think it looks good, it is a bit too hard for us right now.  So I’m really looking for some suggestions there.  Perhaps with the FIAR would be a place to start…but I don’t feel like FIAR is a long term plan for history.   We have also told both boys that they will be allowed to try karate this year too….I think that will be a good physical outlet for them.  They seem excited about it!  I hope it is a good fit for our family.

Well, just off the top of my head, that is some of the stuff we have planned for this coming year.  But, I also want to enjoy the rest of the summer too.  The boys still have a session of swimming lessons in two week’s time.  Ethan is enthusiastic about it….Wesley not so much.  And I’m not sure why.  I still need to get to the bottom of that. 

Next time…..I have some thoughts tumbling around my head about the whole *don’t fuss* phrase that we as parents tell our kiddos.

fabric boxes

So, I always stumble upon things that I think are cute, and I would love to do some day.  Perhaps this can be a record of all the things I mean to get around to eventually! 

Aren’t these little fabric boxes cute?  I could think of a hundred different places to use them in my house!

How to make them is found here:

http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2008/09/storage-cubes.html

Whale bird feeder

Wesley is still in his “all about ocean animals” phase, AND his bird phase, so it was no surprise when he declared the other morning that he wanted to make a whale bird feeder. At first my thoughts were a bit confused. “A really big bird feeder????” But, no, he wanted to make a whale-shaped bird feeder. Of course! Who wouldn’t?

He got busy drawing up a design (and oh, how I wished I had saved that! Mental note to self to do that next time). Paul looked it over with him, suggested a few things that would make it possible to actually build, and they got on their way.

Of course we always have woods scraps lying around, so they got busy making the pattern, tracing, cutting, nailing, etc. I was NOT allowed to see things in progress. Wesley wanted to show off his finished project. It actually took two days to finish (because, you know, there are other things that have to be done sometimes, other than building bird houses) and on the second day he painted it all by himself.

And here is the finished product!

First post

Doesn’t everyone have to have an obligatory first post?    I promise, I’ll get the kinks worked out, and then this will get more interesting.