I'm Back

We're still here...still alive...still homeschooling, although we are on our Christmas break.  We will be resuming our homeschooling journey on January 2nd.  Hopefully this will give me a little bit of time to prepare and to start back with a BANG!  We will be tackling reading and really buckling down in our letter sounds when school starts back.  I do have to say...learning to read is very tough and I will definitely be starting the preschool hooked on phonics with Lauren.  I am going to need all the help I can get with her.  Learning is not something she looks forward to.  I put a couple dvd's on hold at the library to help with letter sounds.  I downloaded some games on the ipad for them to play that specifically teaches letter sounds.  I make Kristen play it at least once a day.  It's not her favorite, but that's the only way she will learn.

Other than learning not much has been going on here.  The kids did make their ornaments for Christmas presents.  That was an exhausting all day event.  It did not go as I planned and they did not turn out as I had planned.  Actually, the girls did, but Dallas' didn't.  I am not sure who was more traumatized...me or Dallas.  He did NOT like making them at all.  At one point he was laying the floor crying and I felt like crying as I frantically tried to get everything ready for us to start over for the eighteenth time. I worked on those ornaments up until dinner time. I was covered with flour and glitter, had burns from the hot glue gun and my back and head were hurting. Needless to say, I was so happy for bedtime that night and a long hot shower.  I will post picture of the ornaments after Christmas, but overall they turned out pretty good considering Dallas' wasn't at all what I had planned.

Kristen and Lauren were in  a play at church and both of them did so well.  I didn't explain to Kristen what exactly she was going to be doing.  Back in November the children sang in church and I made sure I practiced the hand motions and song with them. She kept saying she didn't want to go in front of people, but I thought once she saw everyone else going up she would do the same.  Well, she didn't and since she didn't Lauren in turn didn't either.  So, I decided we would just show up to play practice and learn the song.  She never asked why we were doing it and I never explained.  Ignorance is bliss!  The Sunday before the play the kids got their costumes and Kristen was an angel.  She loved her costume, wings and halo and I knew once she put on that costume we wouldn't have any issues.  Lauren did not want to be an angel so she was a cow, but still walked in with all of the angels.  I knew Lauren would just follow whatever Kristen did and she didn't disappoint.  They both learned their song and did great both nights of the play.  This was the first play either of them have been in and I was one proud Momma!

 

Weekly Wrap Up

I'm not sure why I have skipped a couple weeks of our weekly wrap up, but I am back now.  This week we learned all about plants.  It is amazing how God designed everything including the bees that He specifically made to help the flowers.  I have been reiterating to the girls that EVERYTHING God made was part of his perfect plan.  He didn't just make the bees and the flowers and they just happened to need each other.  No, when He made the bees He knew they would need the flowers and vice versa.  I have been amazed when studying the creation of His beautiful world. 

I wanted the girls to be able to identify the parts of a plant (flower, stem, leaves and roots). Kristen pretty much had this down. They also drew pictures of what plants need to grow. (Which I can assure you is not always just water, sunlight and soil. I have attempted to get a flower to grow with just sunlight, soil and water and it hasn't yet worked for me). We planted a garden, but not a real one because I was not blessed with a green thumb. If you give me a plant that is living it will not be living by the end of the week. I figured I wouldn't waste my money on seeds. We also learned the difference between fruits and vegetables and played a couple games to go along with this lesson.

 

We have been reviewing memory verses this week.  The girls are doing VERY good with their memory verses.  The letter of the week was C.  We are learning the letters, upper and lower and their sound.  Kristen already knew some, but I can't start her hooked on phonics until she gets all of the letters down and most of the sounds.  I am going to order Lauren the preschool version to start this summer so she will be on target to start the kindergarten in the fall.  Lauren is working on memorizing her numbers and Kristen has been working on adding the last few weeks.  She asked the other night if she could start having homework.  We'll see how long this lasts.

 



Halloween

I just love holidays!  I love making it an all day celebration for my kids and seeing their excitement.  This year we were in our new house and I was really excited to decorate.  I decided that we would take a day off from school and have a little Halloween party. I stayed up late cutting out ghosts, pumpkins and bats (with Paul's help) to hang from the ceiling.  I was really impressed with my bats because they actually looked like they were flying. 

I also made some Halloween cupcakes the night before.  (By the way, Kristen informed me that she no longer likes cupcakes.  Really?  I can see not liking carrots or broccoli, but cupcakes).

So, we started the morning off with Halloween shaped pancakes. 

We had a Halloween party where we played monster memory, did a Halloween dot-to-dot, played peek-a-boo tic tack toe, did a graveyard look and find, played find the black cats, played creature mix match, did a fill in the tale worksheet and carved pumpkins. 

My thought was to have the girls paint faces on their pumpkin this year because they usually don't participate at all with the carving.  When I brought the pumpkins in to paint Kristen said, "We have to carve pumpkins because that's what you do on halloween." So they picked out faces they wanted carved in the pumpkins and Paul ended up doing pretty much all of the work.  I tried to pretend I was helping for a little bit, but then I bailed on him too.  I hate carving pumpkins!  They turned out good even though we didn't have a carving kit.  It is hard to make heart eyes with a regular sharp kitchen knife.  Now I know why our pumpkins growing up always had triangle eyes and nose.  Next year I will purchase a kit if I can't talk them into painting them. Here are the three pictures I snapped during the 3 seconds they were interested in trying to carve and clean out their pumpkin.

We also had mummies in a blanket for lunch and for an afternoon snack I cut out Halloween shapes in crescent rolls, put cinnamon and sugar on them and baked them.  I then made a spiced apple dip to eat with them.  My kids love spiced apples.  It was a big hit! 

We ended the night having pizza and cupcakes (since I made 24 and no one wanted to eat them) at my sisters and going trick or treating.  It was a great Halloween for the Harris'.  I can't believe it's already November 1st!

 

Fall Festival

So, we weren't able to go camping with the Girl Scouts this weekend due to hurricane Sandy.  Kristen was very disappointed and I was very happy.  I know...that's bad.  I have never been camping and really have no desire to go, especially if a hurricane is coming or if it is raining.  I am very happy and content sleeping at home in my bed.  I can enjoy God's creation from my front porch, look at the stars, roast marshmallows and hot dogs in my backyard and then go inside and sleep in my nice comfortable bed.  Why do you need to go camping?

Anyways, since we didn't go camping we went to my sister's church.  They had a fall festival of sorts complete with a chili cook off, face painting, a bouncy castle, playground, cotton candy, corn hole and trunk-or-treating.  We all had a great time and I think it made up for us not getting to go camping.  We ended the night watching Kristen's favorite movie Matilda.

Here are some pictures.

Kristen's butterfly she had painted on her face

 

 

Lauren's cotton candy mouth

 

 Dallas enjoying being pushed in the stroller

Kristen making her trunk-or-treat bag

 

Lauren making her trunk-or-treat bag

 

Trunk-or-treating

 

Dallas enjoying a dum dum

 

Dallas and Aunt Kelly



Weekly Wrap Up

This will be a short post because this week I have nothing to report because we took the week off.  I didn't plan it that way, it just happened.  We have enjoyed the week and Kristen's Hooked on Phonics came in.  We will be starting it next week and she is so very excited. 

I was able to catch up on my cleaning and laundry, so I am a very happy woman.  I am not sure why it bothers me when things don't get done or why I feel the need to set so many expectations for myself, but I do and I am happier when everything is checked off of my to do list at the end of the day.  Last week I failed to make my to do lists and I felt like I accomplished nothing.  So to do lists for me from now on!  I think it makes for a happier family too.  We don't wandering around the house wondering what in the world we should be doing.

The last thing to report in my super short post is that Dallas got some new wheels.  We bought it used and saved the difference! 

 

Really Not Diggin' It

 

Last week I introduced Dallas to the world of Gerber Puffs!

 

 



I might like them....

 

 

Actually...no I don't....

 

 

 Really...they're not so bad...

 

 

Oh, yes they are!

 

 

 And the final gag...

Weekly Wrap Up

So, I started this blog post on Friday and I am determined to finish it today.

 

Curriculum!  Ugh!!  That's what's been on my mind all week.  It really isn't unusual to switch curriculum every year.  Sometimes even mid-year, depending on how your child is learning (or not).  The Weaver curriculum, which is what we are using now, has it's positives but also has it's negatives (which all curriculum has).  It is a really good program for preschool and Lauren is benefiting, but Kristen is bored so we are going to switch it up.  I have been looking at the different curriculum's online, reading reviews and going on websites to see what other homeschooling parents recommend for certain grades/subjects.  Now that I have sat down with both girls I know how they learn best, so looking at curriculum this time isn't as overwhelming.  I know what I am looking for in certain subjects, it's just finding that curriculum that has been time consuming.  But I think I have come to a decision on what we will be using for the rest of the year and what we will be doing next year.  There is one thing that is for sure...curriculum isn't cheap!  I will be making copies of every workbook so I can recycle it all the way down to Dallas. 

 

I ended up ordering Hooked on Phonics for Kristen for reading and hopefully it will be here by the end of next week.  After the New Year I am going to order her Horizon's Math to finish up the rest of the year.  We will still be doing everything in the Weaver book, but just adding reading and math to it for Kristen.  With Lauren I am just going to continue with just the preschool material in the Weaver book.  I will definitely do the Weaver preschool lessons with Dallas when he gets older.  Next year Kristen will continue with the 1st grade curriculum of Hooked on Phonics and Horizon's Math (assuming I will like them).  We will be adding in Horizon's penmanship and spelling/vocabulary. We will also add in R.E.A.L Science Odyssey and The Mystery of History as electives, but will not do these everyday.  Next year I plan on solely focusing on reading and math with Lauren.  We will do Hooked on Phonics and Horizon's and I will let her participate in the History and Science lessons as she feels led because they will mostly be for Kristen's age and probably a little over her head.  I think once we devote our time to math and reading we will have probably reached her learning time frame for the day.  She is a reluctant learner, quite like myself.

 

 

So this week I have felt a little un-motivated (that is why our bulletin board is so bare, my house isn't clean, my laundry is piled up and why I started this post three days ago and it's just now getting published). 

 

Our verse this week was:

 

"And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good."        -Genesis 1:10

 

They haven't learned it yet, but are on the road to learning it.  We talked about how God made dirt and rocks.  We looked at maps and talked about the different oceans on the world.  They got to color a picture of the earth, worked on their creation books and made crowns.

 

 I was very impressed with Kristen's creativity when coloring her world.  She even made the atmosphere and stars!

 

 Kristen working on her creation book

 

 Lauren working on her creation book

 

 (This was Lauren's general mood on Monday, which I can't really blame her because I was feeling the same way.) 

 

 

 

This week Kristen worked on her numbers, mostly just recognizing them and being able to write them down from memory and she is doing really good. 

 

Lauren mostly worked on staying in the lines while coloring.  As you can see from the above picture (the one on the right) she really needs to practice this.  She also practiced her circles, tracing them and doing them on her own.  We did a review of shapes and colors and she is doing great on her shapes.  She knows them all.  We are currently working on getting her to know brown, orange and yellow.  Hopefully by the end of this week!


Oh, and here is a picture of Dallas with a crown on.  It is fitting because he is the King of this house.  When her cries we all come running.





 





 

 



My Little Princess

Written and Illustrated by: Kristen Elaine Harris

 My Little Princess

 

 One day my little princess was picking flowers for her mom for her birthday. The bad witch took her to the tallest castle.

 

 The princess was getting bored and bored and bored.  "I don't like that witch. I can defeat her." (The princess said)

 

 She's been waiting and waiting for her first prince to come and save her.  "She can't fight me. I'm the bravest princess in the world." (The princess said)

 

 The witch came back to the castle to make sure the princess was still there and the door was and she was gone!  The prince is still surfing but he goes on dry land to catch the princess.

 

 He sees the princess falling and he catches her.  Then he puts down his surf board and caught the princess finally.

 

 They went to the wedding set, but the witch saw them.  The witch wanted to destroy the wedding that way they won't get married. The prince said, "Would you like to marry me?" The princess said, "Yes!"

 

 "You can't stop me prince I am powerful and evil." (The witch said)

"You can't stop me witch!" (The prince said)

The End