True Love

Oh how I do so love this little boy.




{And oh how he loves to stick out that funny, little tongue of his!}

Changing Education Paradigms

I saw this over at My Ordinary, Every Day, Happily Ever After. This was absolutely fascinating to watch and I completely agree with everything presented here. Our education system needs reform.

Homeschool Week in Review | November 8 - 12

Okay, clearly I'm not very good at keeping up this weekly homeschool review thing. But I really want to do it and keep it current, so I'm going to just rededicate myself whenever I fall off the wagon (which will probably be fairly frequently . . . I'm just saying).

This week has been a great one. We've been finding more hands-on math activities. My visiting teacher brought me an old math facts cassette tape of songs that her mother gave to her. We listened to it for a bit, but the songs sort of drove me crazy. I liked the wipe-off practice book that it came with, though! We've also been playing card games that work on addition for Buddha and greater than/less than for Bugga. I'm a huge fan of the card games for math.



The Chief and I set a goal for Buddha to read all of the Magic Tree House books in order to earn a new bike, so he got right to it with the library editions we had lying about the house and has been reading out loud to me, following me around as I move from a load of laundry to a pile of dishes to a dirty diaper change. Whenever he comes across a word he doesn't know, he spells it out for me and I tell him what it is, how to pronounce it, and what it means. We're all about expanding vocabulary! On the 11th, he got his own Magic Tree House books (1-8) for his birthday. He was especially excited about owning Mummies in the Morning, Dinosaurs Before Dark, and Afternoon on the Amazon.


Our Astronomy this week was a trip to the Fleet Science Center to see the Hubble IMAX film for Buddha's birthday. It was a fun trip and a FABULOUS movie; absolutely fantastic. The boys loved it and I (of course) cried as I contemplated the vastness of the heavens that God so magnificently created! I felt so completely tiny as the narrator spoke in terms of light years and trillions of miles. My problems are so minute and inconsequential when considering the enormity of space, and yet I am more important to my Heavenly Father than a red giant or black hole that is 300 times the size of our entire galaxy and billions of light years away (or whatever), because I am His daughter. Oh it's so inspiring and daunting and motivating and overwhelming all at the same time! Space is just fascinating! Why wasn't I this fascinated when I learned about space in school?!!!



For U.S. History, we talked about Veteran's Day and remembered those who died, who have fought, and who do fight for the wonderful freedoms we retain today. We are truly blessed to live in the United States. We also watched our new William Bradford Hero Classic from Living Scriptures in preparation for the Thanksgiving holiday. I also finally figured out our public library's hold system and we took back our Halloween books, then simply marched in to the "holds" shelving area, picked up our 25 books about Thanksgiving, checked out and went on our merry way. This is such a HUGE relief for me to have figured this out! I have been absolutely loathing our local library because of a few very bad, bad experiences there. I was this close to just giving up on the library altogether, but now I can browse books online, put them on hold, and go pick them up quickly and easily without having to take on any of the crabby, unfriendly, kid-hating librarians at our library. YAY!

To work on writing this week, Buddha and I have been collaborating on a story. I write a few lines or a paragraph, then leave off in the middle of a sentence and he picks up where I left off, taking the story in an all new direction. It's a fun way to get Buddha excited about practicing his handwriting and I'm also able to get little grammar and punctuation lessons in the mix, like when I had to explain the difference between there, their, and they're so that he could pick the correct one for his sentence he was writing. Buddha loves any opportunity to flex his imagination and my contribution seems to serve as a springboard for him. We're going to keep up with this for a while, always working on the same story, then he has requested that we type it all up (I'll make my parts green and his orange so that he can know which parts he wrote) and have it bound. I love this idea! My six year old and I are writing a book together! COOL!



We also put up our Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations and our Christmas tree on Monday while listening to Christmas music on Pandora. Don't judge me. This particular sickness seems to be hereditary, passed on to me from my father's line. And really, you just can't argue with more Christmas spirit!

Homeschool Week in Review | November 1 - 5

I'm getting behind on keeping up!! :D
I honestly can't remember what we did this week. But I'm sure we had a good time doing it!

So in a post that is supposed to include review, instead I'll ask, How do you keep up with husband, kids, homeschool, house, AND blog? When do you get to put in your blogging time? Morning? Night? Nap time? I'd really LOVE to know as I can't seem to be able to get on to the computer to blog about all the fun things we're doing as a family and as a "school."

Buddha Turns Six!

{Buddha's own Lego creation in honor of his birthday.}

Today was Buddha's sixth birthday and boy did we celebrate! And The Chief got to stay home and celebrate with us! Which was Mommy's favorite gift of the day. But back to Buddha . . . . :D First, he picked crepes for breakfast, then he went with his dad and brother to get a haircut, then we headed over to the Fleet Science Center as a family to watch the Hubble Imax movie (which was PHENOMENAL - if there is one playing near you, GO SEE IT!) and ended up walking out with memberships to the Fleet. I can't tell you how excited I am about that! Afterward, we again let Buddha pick what he wanted to eat for dinner and he chose IHOP. So, it was breakfast for breakfast and breakfast for dinner. Absolutely my kind of day! When we got home, our wonderful neighbors came over to sing, eat cake, and watch Buddha open presents. Our neighbor, Debbie, is so awesome! She made cakes for both of the boys last year and is doing it again this year! Since Buddha is on this crazy (and commendable) healthy eating kick, she made him a delicious carrot cake. She and her husband, Glen, also gave him $10 and a Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows poster. He was THRILLED! The rest of his gifts included a remote control walking dinosaur and dinosaur t-shirt from Grandma and Grandpa Bagel, a remote control monster truck, art and craft supplies, Magic Tree House books 1-8, and clothes.









What a fun birthday our Buddha had today. We are so proud of him. He is helpful and caring, smart and funny, disciplined and creative. He wants so much to be the boy his Heavenly Father wants him to be and we love him for that righteous desire and for many, many countless other reasons. This child that is ours is meant to be ours and we are so grateful to our Heavenly Father for sending him to us; we love him dearly.

My two favorite memories from today include The Chief's impromptu lecture on automobile engines and how they start, and a sweet moment at IHOP. First, let's talk shop. The Chief drew a picture for us (obliging my exclusively visual learning capacity) as he explained the process of combustion. He got through with his awesome lesson and decided to test Buddha, asking him which three elements were necessary for combustion to occur and the car to start. Buddha didn't even hesitate. He held up his fingers and said, "Okay! You need a spark, gas, and oxygen!" Oh how this boy NEVER ceases to amaze us with his ability to not only retain information, but actually comprehend it prior to retention! He is so fabulous.

And here now was the heart-melting moment of the day for me. At IHOP, the kids were given kids' menus from which to choose their dinner. On one side, they had all the meal options, on the other were games and activities for the kids to do with their crayons. One such activity was a paragraph with a bunch of blank lines for the child to fill in with whatever appropriate answer corresponded with the directions contained in the parentheses below the lines. Kind of like so (I can't get the parentheses to line up directly under the line, so just work with me here):

"Blah blah blah blah blah __________(your name) blah blah blah blah blah ___________(friend's name) blah blah blahddy blah . . . and so on . . . ."

Well, the second blank line asked Buddha for a friend's name and I glanced over to see that he was writing his little brother's name there. Stupid post-pregnancy hormones made it impossible for me not to tear up! I was definitely a goner with that. They fight so often, as little boys do, and every now and then I have to remind Buddha that his little brother will be his best friend all his life. This was that validation every mother needs to see once in a while; validation that their kids are on the right track. It was just SO CUTE!

Happy Birthday to our Buddha Boy and Happy Veteran's Day, too!

A Bagel Halloween

I kid you not, at pretty much every Halloween since we began having children, they are sick. So here is the ONE Halloween picture that I got. They did go to a trunk or treat a week before Halloween, but the Pipster was only able to wear his cute little duck costume (thanks Todd and Erin!) for this picture and that was it.

Halloween this year was sort of a bust for us. But at least I got this cute picture, right?

Homeschool Week in Review | October 25 - 29

Homeschool last week . . . . Yeeeeaaahhh . . . . Uhhhhh . . . . We did it. Yeah. We did it. Is that enough of a review? No? Darn. Okay then, Buddha continues working his way through his Singapore 1st grade math workbook. I think it was too easy for him up until last week. Now that he's being challenged, I'm not feeling so conflicted about the math curriculum I selected for him. However, I am determined to find more interactive games that can teach math facts and concepts in a fun way. We're getting too bogged down in workbooks.

Bugga is learning the sounds of the letters of the alphabet. And we maxed out our 40-book limit at the library with a collection of Halloween-related books that we are still thoroughly enjoying. We also took a field trip to the zoo to search for orange and black and creepy, crawly, slithering animals. The boys made a point of wearing orange shirts in honor of the pagan holiday. :D









Also, I thought I'd put in a little plug for these Kumon write-on cards we've got. We love them. The boys both practiced handwriting, letters and numbers, on these cards last week. They are great. (Sheesh! Someone should pay me for these free reviews! :D)