Quotables

Sport loves to read all of my old Peanuts books. The other day he was telling me about a particular comic strip in which Charlie Brown and Lucy discussed the philosophy of life. Charlie Brown stated, "Life is like an ice cream cone. You just have to lick it." Sport, a deep thinker in his own right, told me he'd come up with his own philosophy: Life is like a thermometer. It has its ups and downs.

Later that day after getting some disappointing news, he applied this philospophy to his own situation, saying, " Life is like a thermometer. It has its ups and downs and right now we're at about minus a hundred."

Helping Kids Clean

I'm beginning to think this blog exists only for the purpose of linking up with WFMW. I'll try to post something riveting before next Wednesday!

Wouldn't it be great if you could tell your kids to go clean their rooms and they would actually do it? It took me a while to figure it out, but a kid's idea of clean is very different from a parent's idea. Sport will wade through Legos to get to his bed that's buried under a library shelf full of books and still insist that his room is clean. For awhile I would sit in his room and direct him step by step on what to pick up next. Let's just say this was not fun (especially when you consider half the reason I send him to his room to clean up is in the hopes he will actually decide to play with some of his toys while he's up there and give me a few minutes of solitude.

Enter the cleaning chart from MeckMom.com. When I first came across this post it gave me just the excuse I needed to go by the laminator I had always dreamed of. I made charts the next day for Sport and Spice. Since pictures are used, the charts work really well for kids who can't read yet. Spice still uses her chart, but Sport and I have gotten a bit lazy - mostly because it's hard to find all of the pictures when they're buried under books and Legos. Now I just make a list for him on his dry erase board. Here's a look at today's list:

1) Make bed.
2) Put away clothes.
3) All shoes in closet.
4) Clean up books.
5) Legos
6) Legos
7) Legos...

Twenty minutes later his room was much more in line with what I call clean! This idea works for me. To read more cleaning tips, head over to We Are That Family for the WFMW cleaning edition.

Patch Blanket

Sport joined Cub Scouts last year and I was disappointed to learn they no longer use the sash to show off all of their hard earned patches. The sash has been replaced by a big red brag vest. I quickly realized two things about the brag vest:

1) The boys hardly ever wear them.
2) At some point they will become too small and a loving mom will have to spend a lot of time removing patches from one vest and sewing them back on another, larger, one. I knew that wasn't going to happen here so Sport and I decided to go a different route.

We picked up a navy blue fleece blanket from Anna's Linens for a mere $3. I had hoped to get a red, but they were out of stock and Sport went for blue. Then I picked up a package of Steam-A-Seam2 from Hobby Lobby.

 

I traced around each patch on one side of the Steam-A-Seam paper, cut them out and laid them out on the blanket. Once I found a layout I liked, I removed the backing from each side of the Steam-A-Seam and ironed the patches onto the blanket. I placed a towel on top of the patches before ironing so as not to damage the blanket.

Here's the "finished" product...

 

Adding on new patches will be a cinch. This patch blanket works for me because Sport will easily be able to show off all of his hard-earned patches and I don't have to worry about him outgrowing his blanket anytime soon. To find out what works for others, head over to We Are That Family's Works For Me Wednesday.

Quiz Bowling

One of the great things about homeschooling is kids don't always have to put pencil to paper when test time comes around. I typically make up an "official" science test for Sport at the end of each unit, but with other subjects, I tend to be a little more relaxed.

It probably goes without saying that Sport likes sports! Last year, early on in our homeschooling career he came up with a bowling game that allowed me to quiz him on pretty much any topic. We actually ended up using this as a form of assessment quite often. Here's how it goes:

I would take about 10 index cards and write questions on each one (math problems, social studies questions related to the continent we were studying, spelling words...). Then I would lay them out face down like bowling pins (1 on the first row, 2 on the second row, 3 cards on the third row, and 4 on the final row). He would stand about 5 feet away and roll a tennis ball toward the cards. We had a mat designed to go under a sleeping bag on camping trips that we would use for our ally, but it's not necessary. If the tennis ball rolled over any cards I would pick those up and call out the questions. If he answered correctly, the card was set aside. If incorrect, the card went back into the line-up for a second chance. I found this game was not only fun, but it gave me a great opportunity to find out how much he really knew. He was much more forthcoming with information when he could talk about it rather than being forced to write it down. It was also easy to dig a little deeper by keeping the conversation going and turning the question from one card into two or three.

Today we're going to break out the tennis ball and bowling alley mat again for the first time this year. I know he and Spice will be thrilled. We're wrapping up a short science unit on sound and musical instruments so I felt it would be easier to do a bowling quiz rather than make up a written exam. Spice hates to be left out of the fun so I always make her a hodge podge of questions.

Here's a look at their tests for today...

Sport (3rd grade):
-How does the shape of our ears help us hear?
-Why does a guitar have a hollow body?
-Give an example of a percussion instrument and a wind instrument.
-How does sound travel?
-What word tells the measurement of the number of waves that go by each second?
-What is pitch?
-How does the length of a wind instrument affect its pitch?
-What is a vibration?
-How does an echo work?
-Why is it louder when you clap your palms together rather than the backs of your hands?

Spice (age 4):
-What month is it?
-What is another word for autumn?
-What is 9-1?
-Spell the word how.
-What saint is known as the "Little Flower"?
-What is 5-2?
-Who were the first man and woman?
-Who is George Washington?
-Read this word...they.
-Would you like to have lived in colonial times? Why?

Hairbows and Legos

This week's Works For Me Wednesday theme is about organization. Two things that were beginning to take over our house were Spice's hairbows and Sport's Legos. So here's how we got them under control.

For the hairbows (and other hair accessories), I found this idea on MeckMom.com.

 

MeckMom has lots of great tips. She originally called for using a shoe organizer for this purpose, but I found this all-purpose organizer at Dollar Tree and used it instead 'cuz I'm cheap. It's a little smaller than a shoe organizer would be, but it works for us. I added ribbons at the top to make it hang lower on the door so Spice would be able to reach almost everything, then we sorted all of the accessories by color. This is much easier than scrounging through a drawer stuffed full of bows, and Spice likes being able to find the right color pocket and reach right in and grab what she wants. Can't get much better organizing help than this for a buck.

Unfortunately, the Lego problem could not be solved for a buck, but after searching stores and the web for ideas for quite awhile, we found something that Sport and I are both happy with. This tool box came from Lowe's and was about $20. It's made by Stanley and has about 50 storage compartments intended for sorting nails, screws.... We spent hours, no DAYS, sorting Legos by type. Before this, we had all of the bricks sorted by color in cigar boxes we found at the local recycling center. This worked well for awhile, but the amount of Legos eventually outgrew the boxes. I found several "Lego Masters" online who store their pieces by type rather than color. The theory is it's much easier to find a red 1x1 brick in a pile of multicolored 1x1 bricks than it is in a pile of red bricks of all different sizes. Anyway, this box is cool because it can be completely unfolded giving easy access to every storage compartment at once and, it can be folded up when not in use (not like that ever happens around here) or to move from room to room. Sport and I like to call it his "briefcase" since he would love to one day head off to work at the Lego factory.

 
 

To find out what works for others, head over to We Are That Family for Works For Me Wednesday.

Make Life Easier

When we moved from our one level ranch house to our current home, the downfalls of living in a two story house with kids quickly became apparent. Can't tell you how many times we were on our way out the door only to realize the kids didn't have shoes on, hadn't brushed their teeth, hadn't done a thing to their hair or even worse, all of the above. Sending them back upstairs to take care of one or all of these issues was a huge time waster. Couple that with the fact that my kids refuse to go upstairs alone because aliens or some other strange creatures might be waiting for them, and we were doomed to be late for everything. It was obvious we needed help. First up, I placed extra toothbrushes for Sport and Spice in our downstairs half-bath, along with toothpaste, a cup for rinsing, and a comb for last minute dos. This saved a lot of time. We still had the shoe problem. This one was solved inadvertently after I got tired of finding shoes in every room of the house. I bought a basket to corral all the wayward shoes and placed it near the garage door. Shoes found downstairs get tossed in the basket. It didn't take long to realize this solved the problem of always having to run upstairs for shoes. Now the kids just grab a pair out of the basket and we can be on our way.

Shopping At Sears Works For Me

While I buy most of Sport's and Spice's clothes at the annual consignment sales that are big business in the Atlanta area, there are a few times when I go all out and buy brand spanking new stuff from Sears. It is a closely guarded secret, but Sears has a KidVantage Club that lets you return kid's clothing that has either worn out or not stood up to the rigors of childhood and exchange them for the exact same item. For instance, Sport can wear a hole in a pair of jeans quicker than they've had a chance to fade. I now purchase all of his jeans from Sears then take them back once the first hole appears, usually about two weeks later, and swap them out for a new pair. I try to buy them a bit bigger since you have to trade in for the same size.
There are no fees to join the KidVantage Club and no cards to carry around. Just tell the cashier you want to sign up, give them some basic info and you're all set. After the initial sign-up, all you have to do is tell the cashier you're a member and give them your phone number to make sure future purchases get credited to your account. Returning an item for a replacement is easy too and you only need to keep the receipt for certain items, like Levi's brand jeans. Once you've spent $100 you will receive a coupon for 15 percent off a future purchase. The best part is anything can count towards the $100, not just kid's items so anytime you make a purchase at Sears, make sure to tell them you're in the club.
If you have multiple children of the same gender, joining KidVantage can be a real bonanza. You can purchase a pair of pants for your oldest, let him wear them out then swap them out for a new pair to be passed down to a younger sibling. Even though I only have one boy, I still swap out Sport's stuff then pass it down to someone else or donate it to charity.

The KidVantage Club makes shopping at Sears work for me. To find out what works for others, head over to We Are That Family for Works For Me Wednesday.

Why Moms Can't Exercise

So I dug out my pilates mat the other day for the first time in a very long time. After two straight days of exercise, I come down on the third day and find this...



My exercise mat has become just another Lego build center. As if the huge tablecloth in the background that's been there since Sport's birthday party in April wasn't big enough.

Did I Mention We Like To Read?

Overheard

A conversation that just took place between Sport and Spice. Sport put something on his head pretending it was a hat.

Spice: You look like somebody from the Civil War.

Sport: How do you know about the Civil War?

Spice: Uhhh...wasn't Dad in it or something?

Sport (laughing): The Civil War was like a hundred years ago!

Spice: Oh, must've been PaPa then.

Summer Reading

We love to read! Now that 180 days of homeschool are officially behind us, we plan on spending a good chunk of our lazy days of summer reading and taking part in a couple of summer reading programs. As part of The Old Schoolhouse magazine's Summer Reading Splash, here's a look at some of the books we hope to get our hands on:

Sport, age 8, reader extraordinaire:
Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss
Ramona the Pest and other Beverly Cleary books
Boxcar Children books by Gertrude Chandler Warner
Great Inventions: Computers by Brian Williams
Frindle by Andrew Clements
Secrets, Lies, Gizmos, and Spies by Janet Coleman and other spy books
Books about cars

Spice, age 4, learning to read & lovin' it:
My Pal Al by Marcia Leonard
I Do Not Want To by Kathy Schulz
Frontline Phonics books
A Beka beginner phonics readers
Clifford phonics readers

GroovieMom, head of family reading:
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White (family read-aloud)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave - been working on this one for awhile, just need to finish it
100 Top Picks For Homeschool Curriculum by Cathy Duffy
Realityland: True-Life Adventures at Walt Disney World by David Koenig
Big Russ and Me by Tim Russert
Sue Patrick's Workbox System
You Being Beautiful by Dr. Oz - Don't know if I'll make it through all of this one. It gets pretty scientific...much more than I need to know.

If your kids plan on doing some summer reading, head on over to the Barnes and Noble website. If they read 8 books, they can earn a free one. We love books - especially when they're free!

The Olden Days

The other day I broke out a plastic horseshoes game I purchased several years ago from the Target $1 bin and set it up for Sport and Spice. They had a great time trying to get a ringer. After a couple of tries Sport ran over and said, "Mom this game's a lot of fun! It reminds me of something people would play in that Homer Price book you gave me. Cause you know that was from a long time ago, like, 1986 I think."
For those of you who aren't literary geniuses like my dear son, Homer Price is the title character in a classic children's chapter book written by Robert McCloskey in 1943. So Sport was off by about 40 years. What's a few decades to an 8-year-old?

A day or two later we were listening to the radio and for some reason Sport didn't think the sound quality on a certain song was quite up to modern standards so he remarked, "It sounds like something from a long time ago. You know like in the 80s when all they had were those black and white TVs."

Where I Explain My Extended Absence

I didn't mean to stay away so long and I have no real excuse to explain why I haven't posted in nearly a month other than the fact that with no Not Me Mondays to look forward to, I seem to have lost my will to blog. : ( Anyway, to steal a post from Mama Said...here's a rundown of what I've been up to during my extended hiatus:


Eating waaaayyyyyy too many of these during an unplanned, last minute trip home to Louisiana. I love me some boiled crawfish!



Goin' fishin'... also during our trip home. My grandmother has a pond overflowing with fish. It's one of Sport and Spice's favorite things to do when we go to LA.



Living the life of a fighter pilot at the Coca Cola Space Science Center in Columbus, GA. Safe to say the Air Force won't be knocking on my door anytime soon.


Throwing an impromptu 8th(!!!) birthday "party" for Sport after our impromptu trip to LA. His planned party had to be rescheduled so we could make the trip. We returned home on his birthday so Spice and I threw together a quick celebration with presents courtesy of the grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles..., cupcake bites from the freezer leftover from a girl's night tea party Spice and I had a few weeks ago, and a balloon courtesy of Taco Bell. We stopped there on our way home earlier in the day.




Throwing a REAL birthday party for Sport last night. Obviously the theme was LEGO and everyone had a blast. I have to say it was a relatively calm party for a crowd of 6-9 year old boys and I think we even managed to create a few new Lego fans. (I wonder if the Lego people will give us a cut of any new sales resulting from the party???) By the way, I'll give you three guesses as to what's in most of those packages in the previous birthday picture...Legos, Legos, and more Legos.



Getting a lesssson in snakes! One of the mom's in our homeschool group was brave enough to have a snake expert come to her house (with LIVE SNAKES in tow) and do a presentation for the kids. I thought it was really cool and I don't even like snakes. I find it really strange that I've seen more snakes IN MY OWN BACKYARD since moving to Georgia than I ever saw in my entire life in Louisiana. Just doesn't seem possible. We're talking real snakes too, not little garden snakes (although I don't particularly care for those either).



Painting the laundry room. Believe it or not, this is not a picture of work in progress. This is what it actually looked like when we moved in. The other walls were still white. I finally decided I couldn't take the two tone design anymore and hauled up a gallon of paint I had bought for the dining room then changed my mind on. Maybe one day I'll be brave enough to show an "after" picture. Unfortunately, painting did not take away the mounds of laundry or ugly recycle bin.



And finally...I've been planting onions and watching them grow. OK so that didn't take much time, but I thought this was really cool. After we received our copy of Onions In My Boots in the mail the other day, I was inspired to chop off the roots of my store bought onions like the book says and plant them. Within days we had new onions growing. I'm so excited! Every time I buy green onions I stick them in the veggie drawer and forget about them until they turn to slime. Now I can turn my own onions to slime and don't have to feel guilty about wasting money! While I was planting the onions I finally found the time to put the blueberry bush and strawberry plant that I bought last year in actual pots. What an accomplishment!

Dave Ramsey Would Be So Proud

If we're in the car between 3 and 7 the kids know we will be listening to financial guru Dave Ramsey on the radio. They used to complain and ask for one of their CDs, but they've finally got it in their heads that they can listen to whatever they want the rest of the day, but 3-7 is Mom's time. They actually enjoy listening to Dave now and Sport asks lots of questions about debt, how credit cards work, and all sorts of things financial. They especially like it on Fridays when listeners call in, report how much debt they've paid off, then scream into the phone at the top of their lungs, "I'M DEBT FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!" If the callers have their kids on the line, all the better.

I didn't realize just how much Sport had gotten into the show until the other day. We were struggling through a couple of pages in his math workbook. He understood how to do them, but they were just "soooo borrring!" and it was "sooo unfairrrr" that he had to do all that "stupid stuff". He finally got down to the last few problems and announced, "When I'm done with this math page, I'm gonna throw down my pencil and yell I'M MATH FREEEEEEEEEE!"

And he did.

When Boys Do Dishes

One of Sport's chores is to unload the dishwasher (and it has nothing to do with the fact that this seems to be the household job I despise the most). He unloads and dries then I come back and put everything away. This way I can actually find pots, pans, bowls, measuring cups...when I need them. The other day I left the room while he busily unloaded everything. I came back in and saw this magnificent creation...

 

Sport was trying to balance a dinner plate on top when I came in and let out a small scream. He stood by proudly while I envisioned everything crashing to the ground. He wanted to keep building to see if he could make it all the way to the ceiling, then leave it to be admired by all who enter our home, but I felt it would be better to take a (very quick) photo then carefully disassemble. He agreed when I promised to post it for the whole world to see.

This Is How We Roll

As I mentioned in my About Me section, we are homeschoolers. One of the first questions people always ask when they find out we homeschool is how we do it. Let me start by saying this is our first year. We are still finding our way and doing a lot of experimenting.

I decided early on with this being our first year that I wanted to purchase a pre-packaged curriculum. We used this curriculum for about two weeks before striking out on our own. We had fun working on our own, but it led to a lot of late nights for me, searching the Internet for projects and ideas. Since Christmas we have settled into a bit of a routine. Here's what we're using right now and what's working for us. Sport is in 2nd grade.

Science - Noeo Physics - This is a wonderful science curriculum, particularly if you want a literature based program. We just started using this after Christmas. I wanted to purchase it at the beginning of our school year, but cheaped out and stuck with what came in the packaged curriculum which turned out to be too easy and slow moving for us. My son loves science. Noeo is a complete package. Experiments and everything else is included. When we struck out on our own this was the subject that was causing me the most grief and keeping me up late. Now I truly can just open up the book in the morning and go.

Social Studies - We have mainly stuck with our original curriculum here, spending time studying each of the 7 continents.

Math - We use Modern Curriculum Press. It's very basic and a bit boring. We'll switch to something else next year to spice things up a bit. (Any input?)

Language Arts - We use a Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling so we do a lot of reading. We just make this up as we go along...library books based on the continent we are focusing on at the moment, weekly spelling tests using words I think Sport needs to work on, copywork usually based on our social studies or science topics.

Sport also has a homeschool Spanish class on Tuesdays, a religion class at church on Monday nights, plays basketball, and is a Cub Scout. We also use the I Can Do All Things art book. We need help with music. We started out strong here with the recorder, but haven't touched it since before Christmas. Sport got a guitar for Christmas and we inherited a keyboard so we need to get something going in this area again. As far as music appreciation, we are using the Opal Wheeler books by Zeezok to study famous composers. These are wonderful books that come with study guides and companion CDs.

Quotables

Snippets from two of our conversations today...

In the car, Spice takes her shoes off and comments "Whew these are stinky socks!"

Groovie Mom: Why are your socks stinky?

Spice: Actually I think it's the feet that's under them.


Later in the evening, stepping out of church after a late night Cub Scout meeting...

Spice: Hey it's dark out here. Who turned off all the lights?

Sport: GOD!