Archive for the ‘Fun’ Category

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Goodbye Summer


2014
09.03

Posted in Fiddling, Fun, Home, Homeschooling, special needs, Thoughts | No Comments »

I’d like to reflect on this summer as it comes to a close. We had a very nice summer. We started out with a fairly structured school schedule that just lasted a few weeks then changed gears. We read “Harry Potter 2”, “The Magic Thief: Found”, “The Sassafras Science Adventures: Zoology” and finished “Story of the World 3”. Big Brother enjoyed the Sassafras Twins so much we decided to discontinue “Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding” as our home science spine in favor of “The Sassafras Science Adventures: Anatomy” with the Activity Guide and SCIDAT Logbook.

Highlights included ending the spring/starting summer by meeting up with Grandpa in Tennessee, a visit from Abuelita (my mom) and camping with friends twice at a lake in West Virginia. Big Brother attempted a sleepover with a couple friends that just turned into a dinner and playdate in the treehouse but they had lots of fun. We enjoyed a couple evenings with old friends. Mommy pumped milk for a friends newborn adopted son (I was so happy to give this gift). I was excited to have two work weeks at home and got the school stuff, the kitchen and the studio organized but still have more to do. I enjoyed tending our new large veggie garden with Cisco at my side most of the time eating much and clover. The boys also kept busy with therapies. Big Brother did speech therapy to end with a perfect ‘r’ and improved ‘th’ but we are now taking a break because the spacer in his mouth is interfering with his ‘s’ and ‘z’ so we have to wait until it is removed to continue. Cisco worked on speech and occupational therapy and made great strides with each. His communication continues to improve and he loves brush therapy. As the summer was coming to a close, we finally had made it to the waterpark with friends (we tried all summer and there were very few dry hot days to go then the two times we had tried Cisco got sick to the stomach).

We ended this Labor Day weekend smoking meat, getting a new to us Weber grill , pulling weeds, swimming in our 8′ pool one last time, watching movies and just enjoying family time before our hectic “school” schedule starts up.

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DrawBot


2013
10.20

Posted in Fun, Homeschooling | No Comments »


Click Here to view DrawBot video

We’ve been having a good time with school this fall. Among the successes is Big Brothers Future Fab Jr. class, a Compass Homeschool Enrichment Class. One of his favorite projects has been making the DrawBot. Click on the link bobe to see it in action.

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Physical Fitness


2013
09.10

Posted in Fun, Homeschooling, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Tae kwon do was a hit this year.  We started it in the fall as Mom and son in an attempt to find the elusive sport that is his sport.  We found it for him but not for Mom.  It was too tough on Cisco to be without me during the evenings when he was generally grumpy anyway and the structure was a bit for me.  I have never done well with pushy coaches and giving 110% (what the heck does that mean?). I’ve also never done very well with authority so felt silly calling all the TKD coaches sir especially since they were all younger then me.  That said, dad ended up wanted to start up again.  They allowed him to start Back with the belt he ended as when he stopped at 12 years old.  The two of them have happily been going strong for almost a year now. 

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Early Morning


2013
06.27

Posted in Baby, Fun, special needs | No Comments »

So occasionally, Cisco decides to wake up early.  This morning he woke up about 6 a.m.  I could feel him get wiggly and tried to ignore it then my eyes opened and there he was on his belly with his head up looking at me(this is big for him as he just finally started moving around and rolling a little in bed).  At that point he insisted we get up.  He played with me for awhile then played on the floor.  Big Brother finally woke up and started chatting with Mommy.  Cisco was complaining a little but not too much so Mommy continued to chat with big brother.  Then, mommy looked over, and this is what she found.  A tired little boy passed out on the floor…

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“Mom, what’s this?”


2013
05.30

Posted in Fun, Homeschooling, Thoughts | No Comments »

My kids and I were going through old pictures.  Cisco worked on eating all the old greeting cards and Big Brother had a great time looking at our old pictures from before he was born.  Then, as we were looking through separate boxes, Big Brother says, “What is this?” and holds up an old negative.  It is interesting to live in a world where my child thinks it is perfectly normal for your pictures to be digitally stored on cameras and computers and perplexed by the need and use of negatives to create photos.  

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Baby’s 1st Birthday


2013
02.18

Posted in Baby, Fun | 1 Comment »

We had a great day celebrating my baby, DS2’s, 1st Birthday.  Mom made buckwheat pancakes for breakfast.  Dad made tamales for lunch and dinner (with help from Mom, a friend and big brother, DS1).  Mom made cake and ice cream for dessert.  He got to taste a little of everything.  All firsts and loved them all.  Hope it agrees with his digestion.  We had some of our friends over we don’t get to see too often.  It was nice visiting but the little guy got a bit overwhelmed at times with all the visitors including loud big kids.  He stuck close to mom but seemed to enjoy the attention.

Today also had me thinking about the last year. An intense but oh so worth it home birth. The vision issues. The discovery that our wonderful little man has what is probably a genetic neurological condition. An older son making leaps in his development and maturity. Even with the ups and downs, I feel so blessed. My children are happy. I have a great husband and my choldren have a great father. I’m feeling confident that while things may take our little guy a little longer then “average,” he’ll be just fine and I’ll love him no matter what, just as I do his big brother. I look forward to enjoying the next year and years with my little family.

I have a goal to enjoy each day with my boys, not getting caught up in the less important things in life because childhood is so fleeting.

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Making a Doll


2013
01.12

Posted in Baby, Fun, Homeschooling | No Comments »

As a Christmas gift, ds1 wanted to make a doll for his brother.  We puchased a 12″ Bright Eyes Doll Kit by Joy’s Waldorf Dolls (Waldorf Dolls at Child’s Dream Come True) and I helped him make it by hand.  We’re pretty happy with the results and hope to make another one in the future.

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Letter from the White House


2012
12.22

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This afternoon, after a busy day of baking sun bread and working on Holiday gifts, DS1 was pleasantly surprised to get a big envelope from The White House.  He had sent the President a congratulatory note on winning the re-election about a month ago and this was his reply.  What a great Winter Solstice gift from the President.

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Our “School Week”


2012
05.26

Posted in Fun, Homeschooling | No Comments »

Here is how our week went:

Sunday
– Had a dinner discussion on this weeks Buddhist lesson, vegetarianism.  This included a discussion on why we aren’t vegetarian and a blessing thanking the chicken we were eating for his life.

Monday:
– For math we did Rays Arithmetic (got free thru google books.  Seeing if we like it to replace Singapore.  More concise and in word problem format.  We are enjoying it so far.  This our second week using it). We read a “Million Dots.”
– For science we read some books on volcanos.
– For writing DS1 copied a sentence from the board and we drew an illustration to match.
– DS1 read me a Dick & Jane story
– DS1 practiced violin
– DS1  had archery class

Tuesday
– For math we read a chapter from “Life of Fred:  Apples” and “Subtraction Action”
– For science we read another volcano book
– DS1 read me a “Now I Can Read” level 3 book
– DS1 practiced violin.
– We went to the homeschool park day.

Wednesday
– For math we read “The Action of Subtraction”
– DS1 read me a Piggie and Elephant book
– DS1 practiced violin
– We went to history group to play a Roman game and make some barbarian cuffs from foil.

Thursday
– For math DS1 played the “Hungry Fish” app
– We started “The Plant Hunters”
– violin practice
– We had lunch at Whole foods and bought some tomato plants
– Mommy had a meeting at Starbucks while DS1 looked at his Lego catalog and did his math game and DS2 just looked around and nursed.

Friday
– For math DS1 did a “Mindware Subtraction Secrets” page
– DS1 worked with his snap circuit rover
– violin practice
– We went to the library
– We weeded and planted tomato plants in the garden.

Saturday
– We baked a cake
– Violin practice
– Visited the new farmers market
– We had a neighborhood BBQ.

All week for our bedtime story we’ve continued our reading of “Little House in the Big Woods.”

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Farm Skills Class


2011
05.18

Posted in Fun, Homeschooling | No Comments »

Last week we attended a farm skills class at Claude Moore Farm with some other homeschoolers designed for elementary students. We had a great time. We pounded our own corn, made our own candle, carted our own wool and then spun our wool with a drop spindle. We all got to play colonial style games with our friends and watch a colonial housewife work in the fields we passed. A great opportunity to get an idea of some of the things kids did in colonial times.

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