Speaking of my baby....

Here is an example of how I know the new healthier food diet that we're eating is working. The before (Gray shirt with Santa) is just from mid December of 2008. The other is from the end of Jan 2009. He really looks like he's slimming down a lot. I think it's both the food and the wii fit that we're doing for school. Yay! :D

My Baby is sick....

It's funny that no matter how old they get, you always call them your baby. I still refer to my son as my baby. But now, he is sick. Its so sad.

He woke up Wed. night a few times complaining of his jaw hurting.
Yesterday he didn't mention the pain much so I made a dentist appt.
just to get it checked out (although it wont be until around the 20th
of March).

We had a lot of moving errands to run yesterday but when we got home,
I noticed his jaw was swelling rather quickly. In the time I noticed
and the time I couldn't get a hold of his dentist, it was golf ball
sized. We took him to the er and they said it was an abscess. (We
didn't even know of any bad teeth on that side, they all look fine).

Well, with antibiotics and pain meds we went home but he's been up
every few hours (even with the pain meds) and it's now the size of a
baseball. Please keep him in your prayers that it will heal and not
get any worse and that his pain will subside.

I'm worried to death. You know something is wrong when it swells up like that. (I'm a mom/ he's my baby even now at 7, you know how that is) but I know God will take care of him. So please pray for him.

He's getting some rest with Daddy right now, so I hope his body is fighting that infection. I'll keep you posted.

FIAR- The Story About Ping...

Oh, I am loving Five in a Row curriculum. I was able to do it this week in the midst of packing/unpacking, moving, etc. The kids seem to like it too and they were showing off China and the Yangtze River to Papaw just now.
I was not able to do Friday because of more packing stuff, so I am trying to decide if I'll try to continue it on Monday and do the Science, and I still have the Recipe day as well as the Bible Character one. So I don't know if I'll continue for another day or two or just move on to the second book already.

We employed our Encyclopedia set for the first real time since I got them. We looked up China and browsed through the pictures. We colored a Chinese flag and answered questions on the Yangtze River. I had intended to use them in a lapbook about the book with some duck facts but didn't get to that either.

I guess if I had a perfect week I may do like I did this week but Thursday we would do the Recipe and maybe the Bible study then. Or we may row for 1 1/2 weeks instead and have the 6th day for the remainder of the science lessons (I would like to cover them all, they look interesting) and day 7 for Character lesson (or vise versa). I will give both a try and see how it goes.

I do think I want to definitely add the spelling and grammar to it though. If I was daring, I would search through the book and select the words to learn to spell from it. But I think I'll play it safe with the books that I already have for now.

I am just really excited with the Five in a Row curriculum so far. :)

Moving....finally!...YAY!

We just now got internet back after a week! You know I was having withdrawal symptoms. :) We moved on the 13th and I am so excited. We've been wanting to move for a year now. It just never came together of a place that was big enough and in our price range and took our dog. But it has finally come...and I have a homeschool room! It's part of the large open kitchen, dining room section and it is definitely large enough for everything!
I'll post pics as soon as I upload them. I'm still really busy running back and forth packing and sorting through the final things from our previous home.
The kids are just loving this place and think it's the coolest place ever.
We've even started school already here. It worked out perfectly because we got our Five in a Row and started it this week here. It was almost like an entirely new routine. I liked it. It only took us 2 1/2 hours for school today BUT that is going really easy. We've not done our regular math (which will add 1 hour) but only worksheets for practice facts. So that's 2 1/2 hours for FIAR and math worksheets and writing our new addy/phone number. And reading out loud. I would probably add spelling to it also which is around 5-10 minutes and grammar (15 minutes). So with everything...it might take us 4 hours now? Is that right...did I really just save 2 hours? We'll have to see....I can't wait until all of this moving is behind us and I can get us settled into a routine. :)

My 2 cents...Octuplets mom...

Okay, I know no one asked...but here it is anyway.
I just do not agree with the Octuplets mom choosing to have so many babies. It was just dangerous and uncalled for. Now, some people might think I'm just against someone having that many children. Let me set the record straight....I love the Duggars (parents of 18 children). What is the difference?
I think that if you can afford that many children on your own and if God provides that many naturally then that is fine. I do not see anything wrong with the Duggars having that many children naturally. I also see nothing wrong with a couple having multiple births with fertility treatment (although I do think that they try to implant only 3 babies so that multiples will not happen as much.
Now, having said all of that why would I be so opposed to this woman having 8 children? She's single living with her mom (what?) AND (the biggest point here) she already had 6 other children! I just do not think that it was a good decision. I just hope that God helps her to raise them and that she'll be able to provide all of them the love that they all need (as all kids do).

Interesting Music (off topic)

I wanted to post this for a couple of reasons. One, obviously is just to share and two, so that I could remember the names for future use. :)
I caught the very end of the Grammy's this year and decided to search through some pics to see what I might have missed. I discovered three women that I had never heard of before and so off I headed to youtube. I love these three women's styles. They are each unique and different. The first is Adele, I kind of like how she sounds like Bjiorke (Know I didn't spell that right) mixed with Fiona Apple. It's interesting.
The second was a woman named Chrisette Michele. She reminds me of an old cafe singer or something from the Harlem Renaissance. I love the style there. And finally is Duffy. Now, of the three I would rank her third. She looks and sounds like a singer from the 50's (which is my favorite decade). She seems to be a cleaned up and blonde version of Amy Winehouse (who I do not like).
I know this is totally off the topic of homeschooling but I love finding new music and I like this shift that popular music seems to be taking towards these modest/ stylized singers.
I probably have the oddest taste in music, especially considering that I love everything. I can go from this music to pop to rock to rap. It's definitely interesting I'm sure. :)
Also, Go plus sized ladies! It's always nice to see plus sized ladies becoming more popular. We're making a come back, slowly but surely.

I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR!

Okay, I am sick as a dog, but I have to say that this is one of my favorite times of year! Why? Because I buy next years school now. I just purchased for the upcoming year and I'm so excited. We are sticking with Saxon math. I really like it. I had purchased next years spelling before so we were already set with that.

I found a place that sells cheap textbooks and I LOVE TEXTBOOKS so I purchased an art and music one (yes, I know, I don't need a text for these but hey, they were $7 and $10, so I couldn't pass it up). I got an English textbook also. I don't know exactly how Five in a Row (FIAR) is going to go for us, (probably really well) but I think I'd supplement with an english text anyway in addition to math.

I also bought a science text that is pretty much the following grade to this one. And the place I buy from had a 3-5th grade VA History text! Could NOT pass on that one! Even if we don't use it this year coming up, we'll need it soon.

I don't know if I'm going to buy the next year of Story of the World. I'm still undecided on that one. I'm going to finish out the rest of this year and see. I love the chronological approach. FIAR also covers history so I might just go with that. I'll have to see.

But I LOVE BUYING CURRICULUM! I have to admit that I'm very quick to buy something new...then find something else to catch my eye and buy it, etc etc. I need to stop that! But I am sticking with some that are working really well.

Funny Discovery...

I am in a bad winter rut right now. We had some personal things come up which we had to take a few days. Things finally start getting settled down a little and then we get sick. But thankfully the public schools are having snow days (which I typically use as 'make up' days for what we've missed before) but we're taking them off. I just hope everything settles down soon or we'll be schooling through summer! haha!

Anyway, in the midst of this rut I have been re-evaluating our curriculum. I'm trying to find a quicker way to do everything. I'm trying to see what we can get rid of, what we can do differently, etc. I even ordered new curriculum. I'll have to see how Five in a Row works for us (although I am so anxiously awaiting it's arrival!). I even ordered 2nd grade workbooks for Sis, she's now going to be on the same math as her brother. It will save a lot of time. I think it'll work for us because from teaching both each day I've noticed that they are both so durn similar. The work from grade 1 to grade 2 isn't that much more. I think she'll be able to pick it up fairly easy.

Well, onto my funny discovery....

I was looking through websites of 2nd and 3rd grade classroom schedules and just taking a look at how/when they handle all of the subject, what type of subjects they do, etc.

I came across a few different forums of teachers saying that they were still trying to fit this in or can't find time for this....It was so cool. It reminded me of all of my previous schedule posts. It was just a weight off my shoulders to hear teachers saying the same thing. :) So even though I feel awful and want to stay in bed all day (thank goodness for laptops on the couch, lol), I feel somewhat happier.