Monday’s List

1 – Math went awesome today!!!  We are now dividing since finishing up multiplying last week.  Today there was dividing 2 & 3 digit numbers by a 1 digit number, then add remainders, then add zeros in the quotient.  He got them all correct.  I’m so proud.

2 – He’s still reading lots, which is good.  He’s also getting more done since I banned reading while eating his snacks.

3 – I rearranged the kitchen some yesterday.  One of our lazy susan corner cabinets isn’t working at it’s best so I moved things around so now it is filled with our water bottles & other plastic containers.  I’m hoping that by having almost no weight on it, I can get it to last longer.  I also put all the baking/fudge making supplies on a shelf that is at Tyler level so that he can reach everything without much trouble.

4 – We finally got a new vacuum cleaner.  Our hadn’t really been picking up dirt anymore, but then it stopped picking up pet fur, of which we have a lot.  So we splurged and got a Dyson ball one that is specially designed for houses with animals.  Tyler vacuumed most of the house and Trent did the rest, so I haven’t even used it yet.  Not that I’m complaining.

5 – We also got new shoes yesterday.  Trent & I needed ones to last through the Half Marathon and Tyler just needed new shoes.  I’ve told him to quit growing but he isn’t listening yet.

6 – I’m working on getting things more organized in our house.  I still have lots of boxes of stuff from my parents from when I was growing up, then I got dishes given to me last week (good dishes for serving guests, which almost never happens in my house), and then I have all these boxes of stuff for Tyler (including everything for school.)  Since we’ve had water in the basement a few times over the last wet, rainy weeks, I really need to get these things taken care of.

7 – I’m seriously considering deleting my Twitter account.  I’ve just gotten busy and am not keeping up with conversations like I used to.  I’m just not thinking there is room in my life for it.

8 – I’m starting with the kindergarten box of school stuff and I can’t believe how far we’ve come in Tyler’s schooling.  Now I have to decide what to keep and what not to keep, make sure that the transcripts that I started are complete, and add anything interesting to his list of accomplishments (like art shows, sports, volunteering, etc).

9 – I need to get back into that project of scanning in my grandma’s photos so that they can be shared with the rest of the family.  I’m still working on the first box.

10 – This weather has been weird all summer.  This morning it was 43 when we went for our walk.  Can you say cold?!?  It’s still August.  I’m missing the mid 70s.

Trying to catch up on my blog reading

Google Reader is overflowing with unread blogs I’m trying to get to.  So while I trying to fit in that reading with everything else I’ve got going on, take a little trip over to Meg’s blog, Get In, Hang On, and give her some love.  She posted these amazing t-shirts the other day that had me laughing like crazy.  Check them out here: http://getinhangon.homeschooljournal.net/2009/08/24/but-i-dont-want-just-one/ I know not everyone appreciated them (Meg did a wonderful job of responding to complaints here: http://getinhangon.homeschooljournal.net/2009/08/26/in-the-mailbag/)  & probably everyone won’t appreciate my linking to them, but if you know me, then you know that these are right up my alley.

Wednesday

1 – Thank you to my friend, Kristi, for showing me that using lists in blogs is a great idea.  Maybe it will inspire me to post more often.

2 – Tyler picked up Harry Potter #5 (whatever the name of the book is) from the library yesterday.  He’s already about half way through it.  Love that he’s such a great reader.  He also got 2 other books, “Space Station Rat” and “King of the Wind”.  ”King of the Wind” is off his actual reading list for school.  And we got a notice today that the 3rd book in the Charlie Bone series is waiting for us to pick it up.

3 – Tyler got his board breaking stripe at TKD last night.  I was super proud of him.  Last belt the board break was where he had issues.  This time we’ve been working on it more at home & he’s doing great!

4 – Tyler still loves Pet Refuge or at least all the cats at Pet Refuge.  It is so wonderful to see him in this situation.  There were cats that got adopted since last week & he was so excited for them.  He makes sure that he pays attention to every cat in the room.  And he doesn’t mind cleaning up after them.

5 – Our schedule still seems to working when it comes to actual school stuff, but on other things he’s needing to be reminded because he just loves to read.  It’s hard for me to tell him to stop reading so that he can practice TKD or to work on his 4-H projects, but it has to be done or he would read all day.

6 – I saw this wonderful idea at FIMBY for a Learning Portfolio.  I’ve been wondering what to do since we are getting more and more relaxed in our homeschooling.  You can check it out here: http://fimby.tougas.net/homeschool-portfolio-review

7 – I like this cooler weather, but I was really hoping to kayak this weekend.  We’ve been trying to go for awhile now, but it seems like every time we plan to go it rains.  Of course, that means they are now predicting rain for this weekend.  Could they possibly be wrong so that we can really go?

8 – I made a wonderful crab salad sandwich last night.  Got the recipe from a Weight Watcher’s cookbook.  Not that we are following that diet, but I’m always up for new recipes that are quick, easy to make and taste wonderful.

9 – I’m still getting in better shape.  Today, my wrist hurt too much to lift so instead I went 2.5 miles at mostly my target of 15 min miles.  As for my wrist, it just acts up sometimes.  I’m sure it’s something like carpal tunnel, but I’m not going to a doctor to get it checked out.  I just rest it for a few days and then it feels better.  As for my running, I haven’t run for more than a mile before today, so I’m excited about that.  Long way to go to hit 13.1 miles, but I have till April to get there.

10 – I’ve still been cleaning up a bunch of my online life and getting things back into a perspective that fits with my priorities.  If you have a problem with that, then too bad.  Anyways, today an old friend reconnected with me on FaceBook.  Made me realize that FB is still a wonderful tool for bringing people together.

Monday List

1 – School is still going wonderful.  Tyler wrapped up Unit 2 in Math today.  He’s been working on multiplying numbers in the thousands & millions by numbers in the hundreds.  He’s doing great.

2 – For Reading he’s using Book Adventure after he is finished reading a book to check his comprehension.  He hasn’t missed very many questions so far and he’s reading up a storm by finishing 400+ page books in a day or so.  Right now he’s rereading the Harry Potter series and he has started the Charlie Bone series.

3 – Science has brought some fun experiments from the Science Fair Project book that I got him.  He’s learned about eclipses and gravity, to name a few.

4 – Blackie, Tyler’s rabbit, is doing great.  She’s out of her cage a few times a day for exercise and handling.  We also got her an exercise pen so she can go outside to run around some.  She loves eating the grass.

5 – He’s now made 3 different fudges to practice for 4-H.  I’m enjoying the taste testing.  So far I like the 2nd one best.  It was peanut butter with chocolate frosting on top.  This last one is a freezer fudge and basically is chocolate frosting with more powdered sugar mixed in.  It can get a little overwhelming in the sugar department.

6 – He’s still working on his latch hook & rocket.  Both seem to be going well.  I know there was gluing & filling on the rocket this past weekend.

7 – We played mini golf yesterday.  It was fun, though it would have been nice to miss the church youth group that was there, too.  The kids were wild & kept blocking things with rocks that then we had to move so we could play.  I won the 1st game and Trent won the 2nd game.  You would have thought that my getting 3 holes-in-one in the 2nd game would have won it for me, but I had 1 hole with a 7 so I lost to Trent by 2 strokes.  Tyler played the course 2 more times without us and had lots of fun.

8 – My calendar is filling up with some new opportunities this fall.  I’m going to be teaching some outdoor education classes and I’m actually going to get paid to do it.  I’ve been giving away that Naturalist knowledge for years now so I’m excited about this opportunity.  Not to mention that volunteering at Loveway is going to be starting up soon.

9 – Tyler still loves Pet Refuge and can’t wait to go there this week.  He did really well without too much reminding by me of what he was supposed to be doing.  And I made sure that we stuck around for about an hour after we were done with the cleaning so that he got plenty of time to play with the cats.

10 – I’m still working on getting in shape for the 1/2 Marathon.  The pace that Trent wants to go means that I’m going to have to at least jog to keep up with him.  Not that I mind, but I better get in shape to do that.  So more lifting & strength training for me.  I’ve also started working on intervals so that I can work my way up to the faster pace.  I’m also really trying to strengthen my core so that there will be less chance of injuries.  Hope that theory works out for me.

Black Pine Animal Park & the rest of the weekend

Saturday we headed out to Black Pine Animal Park.  http://www.blackpineanimalpark.com/ It was AWESOME!!  We loved watching the animals.  They each have their own unique personality.  The stories of these animals lives are sad, so we are glad that they have found a wonderful home at Black Pine.  We were excited to be invited into the cat barn.  Being so close to the animals is amazing.  It is fun to watch the tigers or lions or leopards doing things and to recognize the behavior as something our cats at home also do.  On the way back to the pavilion to get ready for the feeding tour, Tyler said that if we lived closer that he would be there every day.  I don’t doubt it.  And I’m sure he would become fast friends with all the animals since that’s just the way he is.  I can just picture him sitting outside the cages talking to the animals all day.  And he definitely has a special affinity for cats.  The feeding tour was great!  We got to learn lots more about individual animals and how they came to Black Pine, we got to see them eat some treats, and we got to learn lots more about Black Pine itself.  It is an amazing facility and I’m glad that it is so close to us.  Here is a small sample of some of the over 200 pics I took:

08-15 Black Pine Animal Park

Then on Sunday, Trent & I worked most of the day replacing the trim around the garage door on the shed.  We got it done.  Now there is just the sanding, priming, painting, hanging of the rest of the RainHandlers & power washing to be done and we will be done with our shed project.

Tyler made a new batch of fudge.  It is a peanut butter fudge with chocolate icing as the topping.  He did a great job & I’m enjoying the taste testing.  I think this fudge is a much better batch, but then you all know I didn’t like the first batch very well.

We also celebrated my nephew’s birthday in the evening.  Can’t believe that he’s going to be 13 in a few days.  I still remember buying baby things for him.

We getting lots of rain this morning!!  Love it!!  But I probably won’t love it if it is still raining this much this afternoon during Science Sleuths since I’m helping Krista out by leading the hike since she is injured & on crutches.

TKD & this past week

I can’t believe that I didn’t post the TKD stuff out here already, but it was last Friday & I guess I forgot over the weekend.  Anyways, he had testing last Friday evening and he passed.  He did great, even if he did scare his mom a little on the board break.  Took him 3 tries & I told him he’s not allowed to scare his mom like that anymore.  He is now a brown belt recommended.  Here are the pics:

08-07 Tyler TKD testing for brown belt

The weekend was crazy busy with mostly normal stuff.  I signed up for the Country Music Half Marathon.  So I have till April to get ready.  We got fudge making supplies & Tyler made some fudge.  He’s practicing for his 4-H project.  This recipe uses a pound of powdered sugar.  I’m not a big fan.  I like my fudge creamy, not sugary.  They also decided to use dark chocolate cocoa powder instead of regular.  Not a big fan of dark chocolate.  We did manage to eat it all over the course of the week & I found some other recipes for him to try, so I’m hoping for something different in the next batch.  We managed to get in a bike ride early on Sun morning before it heated up too much.  Not liking this hot weather.  I want the cool weather back!

Monday we tried a new restaurant because they have 1/2 price sushi on Monday evenings.  We’ve been wanting to go, but Tyler’s had TKD so we haven’t been able to go.  It was good.  Not the best we’ve had or our favorite, but good enough to go back sometime.  We got 4 rolls and shared around, so we did get some variety.  The best roll was the one with unagi.  In car news, Trent filled up my tank for the 1st time and we got 35 MPG on that first tank of gas.  WooHoo!!!  So happy with my new car!

Tuesday brought Tyler beating me at the geography game.  We did Africa and I’m really sure that African country names are like dinosaur names – lots of changes since I learned them in school.  I was good in the fact that I was generally in the neighborhood when guessing which country was which, but it was also unfair because Tyler got easy ones like South Africa and Madagascar.  Tyler missed his first TKD class at his new belt level because he had a 4-H Fishing Club meeting.  They had to take their posters and tell everyone at the meeting about their posters.  I didn’t attend because I figure now that I have to sit at TKD twice a week for 2 hours, Trent could handle the Fishing Club meeting.  But I did hear all about it.  Trent says that Tyler was one of a few kids that knew all about his poster, could talk loud enough & clear enough for people to understand, and didn’t need the leader prompting him about what he was supposed to be talking about.  I’m so glad, that means I don’t have to worry too much about public speaking.  Tyler says that most kids didn’t know what they were supposed to be doing when they gave their talk and the leader had to help them lots.  He told me the 2 other kids who didn’t need any help were in high school.  They also learned about tying knots.

Wednesday was the day that Tyler has been waiting for.  We had our orientation & training at Pet Refuge.  We went a little early & made sure that we got his paperwork filled out.  We must have impressed rather quickly because she was already verifying that we were able to come on Wednesday mornings within 10 minutes of us meeting her.  We got the tour, had things explained & then finished helping clean the main cat room, which is where we are going to be.  They have roughly 75 cats in that room with about 44 litter boxes.  They do have a smaller room & an infirmary with more cats, they have cats at places like PetsMart & Pet Supplies Plus for adoption, and they have cats in foster homes.  We found out that they have over 450 cats right now and a long waiting list of cats waiting to come in because their current families want to get rid of them.  All the cats we saw were so loving and wanted attention.  Wish I could bring them all home, but I can’t so we’ll just help out the best we can.  By the end of our time there, the volunteer coordinator was very impressed with Tyler.  She says she’s never seen a kid that knows not to run, to use slow and steady movements (not jerky ones), and that has such a calm demeanor around the animals without being reminded.  Yep, I’m mighty proud of him, too, but I can’t really take too much credit for it, he just knows how to be around animals instinctively.

Then we had lunch out with our friends that volunteer there, too.  And then we headed to Ideal Beach to have some fun with some other friends.  Tyler had a great time and didn’t want to leave, but the end must come at some time.  I was surprised that he did so well with all the noise & people around.  He didn’t get too upset by the splashing.  And, you’re not going to believe this, but he also didn’t mind sand being on him.  Usually sand is the death of the fun time at the beach, but he didn’t complain about it at all.  We also got Blackie an exercise cage so she can have some outside time.  She is loving it!!  She hops all around it, eats grass & messes with the dog.  Seriously, I do think she messes with the dog.  She’ll be on one side & they smell noses, then she intentionally hops to the complete opposite side so the dog has to run around.  She didn’t mind the barking by other dogs in the neighborhood (our dog wasn’t barking), nor does she care that our dog runs circles around her pen, nor does she mind when he play lunges at her (she just turns around and faces away from him.)

Yesterday we spent at home.  School is going well with the new block schedule.  4-H projects are going well.  Tyler now has the glue he needs for the next step on his rocket.  He’s got over 10 rows done on his latch hook .  And he practiced his tree drawing again yesterday with much better prospective.  TKD is going well.  Since he missed Tues, he was a little behind, but caught up during class so he’s back on schedule.  I think 2 hours will take a little for him to get used to, but I think it will be good for him.

Today we are going to finish up school this morning & then head to Kohl’s to get Tyler some long pants while they’re on sale.  He hates clothes shopping as much as I do, so I hope it goes smoothly.  Then tomorrow we are going to head to Black Pine Animal Park http://www.blackpineanimalpark.com/ I found out about it from a mom I met on Wed at the beach (so thankful for that!)  I’m so excited to find something like this so close to home.  Trent says we should check it out so then I could volunteer there because he knows that’s what I really want to do.  Hope it is a cool place & maybe I will sign up for some volunteering there.

4-H projects for next year & other stuff

Because I’ve gotten a lot of questions on what exactly Tyler is doing for his 4-H projects next year & because people want to see them, I took some pics this morning.

First up is Fine Arts.  Tyler has decided that he wants to draw a tree.  Not sure why, but that’s what he wants.  So he did a practice drawing and I thought his proportions were a little off.  I suggested that he take the camera outside to take some pics of the tree he wants to draw so that he can see what it looks like while he’s drawing inside.  I was very surprised when he agreed to my suggestion.  Here is the pic that he took of the tree he wants to draw:

From 08-06 4-H projects

Next is Rockets.  He decided to assemble a small rocket this time.  He has completed the first few steps – marking where the fins go on the body of the rocket, tracing & the cutting out the fins from balsa wood.  His next step is to fill in the fins so that they fly nicely and look great painted.  This requires some nasty smelling bonding stuff that I refuse to allow in the house and I refuse to be around, so he’s going to have to wait for Daddy to oversee that step.  But this is what the package of the rocket looks like (Tyler’s probably won’t look exactly like that because I doubt he’d go with that color scheme):

From 08-06 4-H projects

Then there is the Latch Hook.  He originally wasn’t going to do this project until we went to the store and he saw what they were, then he wanted to do one.  Yesterday, he started on this project.  He did all the set-up work, like sorting the yarn, matching the colors with the color code, etc.  I helped by showing him how to tape the edges & how to do the first few since it’s his first time.  Then he was on his own.  He’s doing a great job & loves it.  He told us last night that he wants to do this every year of 4-H and then he wants to do really big ones when he’s done with 4-H to hang on the walls.  Here’s what this project looks like:

From 08-06 4-H projects

From 08-06 4-H projects

We also got the Needlecraft (a counted cross stitch) and his Model (a tiger.)  Neither of those projects have been started yet, but you can see what the packages look like:

From 08-06 4-H projects

From 08-06 4-H projects

And the other project that he’s started is Rabbits.  Here’s just a quick pic of him playing with Blackie.  You can see we put Blackie’s cage on the floor & she’s loving it.  They love to play tug of war with a toilet paper roll.  When Blackie gets it away from him, she tosses it to the other side of the cage.  It’s so cute!

From 08-06 4-H projects

In non-4-H news, Tyler got his final stripe last night, so he’s testing tomorrow evening for his brown belt.  If he passes, which I really hope he does and to help I’m making sure he practices everything today, then his class times will move to Tues & Thurs evenings after Leadership Class.

In my news, I’m in the process of scaling back my online life.  Not that I didn’t enjoy it, but it was taking up too much time.  I’ll still try to post here often and I’m still on FB & Twitter but I’m just not on there as often or posting as much as I used to.

We’ve recovered, Blackie & 4-H projects

We took off of school last week to recover from the fair.  Not in the original plan, but that’s part of why we homeschool – flexibility.  Of course, when it comes to school, we were in the process of trying to make some decisions.  Tyler was lobbying for less school work and more 4-H projects to count as school.  I was considering it and discussing it with Trent.  It turned out that last week was semi-busy.  We had projects to pick up from the fairgrounds, 2 programs at 2 different libraries (one was our last program with our favorite librarian because she is moving – we’ll miss her lots!!), TKD, Tyler got a rabbit and I got a new car (I’m now driving a Yaris – love it!)  In between all of that, Tyler did absolutely no learning and no reading.  He spent all of his time watching tv, playing on his DS, watching videos on his computer or playing games on his computer.  Every time I turned around he was on one of these and I would have to tell him to turn it off or put it away.  It got really annoying.  Especially since I truly believe that his whine factor and his talking back factor increase in direct proportion to his partaking of these activities, hence why he is usually limited to 1 hour a day.  By the end of the week, I was tired of dealing with him.  So he lost the privilege of these activities for at least a week.  We also made the decision about school.  We are now working from a block schedule system that allows ample time for school and time for working on his 4-H projects.  Seems to be working so far, but it’s only day 2 so I can’t say for sure yet.

Blackie is doing well.  She is settling is great.  We generally have her out of her cage for her to run around in the morning while Tyler is cleaning out her cage, feeding her, etc and then in the evening for more fun time.  She loves running around and she’s super curious.  She also loves to run over to us, nudge us and then run away.  I think it’s a game with her.  Tyler is working on handling her.  At first I was having to get her out of her cage because he can’t reach all the way into the cage, but now she is coming to the front of the cage when it is time for her to come out and play.  The cats have smelled her cage and don’t seem interested in her at all.  The dog is really interested in her and she is interested in him.  They always touch noses through the cage when Hershey comes to visit her.  Overall, she’s a great addition to our family.

Tyler has decided what 4-H projects he’s doing for next year’s fair.  So here is his list: Fine Arts (right now he says he is going to be drawing a tree but we’re not sure what medium is going to be used for the final one), Latch Hook (we got him one today of a tiger cub), Needlecraft (this is a counted cross stitch & he’s doing one of a frog – we got it today), Misc Craft (he says he wants to paint a rock, not sure of what yet), Geology (I think this is going to be a rock collection since he already has one started), Microwave cooking (this is fudge and I’m looking forward to taste testing), Mission to Mars (he wants to build a model of a shuttle that can carry his stuff to Mars, but we have to wait until we have the manual to get final details), Model (we got him a wooden one this year and it is a tiger), Recycling (will have to wait until we get the manual on this one), Rockets (got one for him today, it is a small one), Soil & Water Conservation (either water erosion or splash erosion), and Wildlife (wants to do bird observation.)  OK so that is 12 projects.  Then he is going to be in Fishing Club (his project will is going to be called Hook, Line & Sinker) and in Rabbit Club (hence why we have Blackie).  So that is 2 more projects for a total of 14.  Then we’re still discussing Llama Club.  That one will depend on when the meetings are, but if he does join then it would be a total of 15 projects.  It’s a good thing he started working on them now so he can get them all done by next year.