Eat at Taco Bell

Yesterday we went through Taco Bell’s drive through.  I normal don’t get the kid’s meals, but Isabel wasn’t ordering anything and Luke wanted a meal so I said sure.  The toy is a computer disc called Neptune Quest.  It’s a “create your own comics!”  It’s pretty cool.  You can pick out what layout you want, what background or setting, the characters including what size and where they are placed, speech bubbles and you type in what you want them to say.  Luke spent this morning “creating” and then printing his own comic.

Postcards and Word Problems

Yesterday the kids wrote postcards to their great-grandmother. They didn’t even know what a postcard was, is that sad? Also after dinner, Joey had us listen to a How to Speak Mandarin Chinese podcast. Sylvia is the best at the pronunciation.

This morning we went swimming with some friends. We then spent the afternoon at Darby Gwin’s house. She is a woman in our church that had an anurism (sound it out) and needs someone there at all times to help her if she needs to get up for anything, bathroom, etc. We brought along math, worksheets and reading and then the rest of the time the kids played and watched a cartoon upstairs.

Luke is great at math but it is difficult for him to stay focused. I am sure (hope) this is a problem for a lot of parents with their children. He complains that it takes too long but spends time drawing hair or faces on his numbers and staring at the wall. While holding his hand (figuratively) through math today I realized that he is much better at word problems than he is at just the written down number problems. Very curious.

Super Luke and a New Helmet for Safety Nerd

Yesterday they worked a lot in their workbooks. One of the workbooks I bought for Isabel is a cursive workbook which is nice because I don’t think I remember cursive enough for me to be able to teach her. Luke finally finished his Dinosaur bones. It was this great kit that my brother’s fiance gave to Luke where he had to mix the cement in water then pour it into molds of dinosaur bones. Once they were dry he popped them out, painted them and glued them onto posterboard.

This morning Isabel was riding her bike outside. I can tell that Isabel is on cloud nine whenever she accomplishes or learns something that makes her more independent. We can’t get her to stop riding her bike now, whereas Luke hasn’t ridden since he learned how. I am not disappointed or worried about him not being interested in riding his bike, I mean, there are activities that Luke loves to do that Isabel isn’t into. I guess I just want him to ride his bike more because I am sure that if he gets comfortable with it, then he will love it, but what do I know? We did buy them new helmets which I thought might be an incentive for Safety Nerd, but he wears it when he rides his scooter (or when he isn’t riding anything.)

Also today, Sylvia was playing with Playdough, and Luke and I made a Super Luke tab on the blog! Super Luke Stories are from his comics that he writes and draws in paper books that I staple together for him. We’ve only got one story typed in so far (Attack of the Robo-Chicken (one)) but don’t you worry, Luke has a whole stack for me to type in. We tried to type it in as more of a play format, but it may be difficult to know what is going on in these stories without seeing the pictures (although sometimes the pictures don’t help very much either.) hahaha.

Sick Day (sort of)

I have a cold so we didn’t do much of anything.  Although at Costco yesterday I found great workbooks that they enjoyed working in for a while today.  Actually, I’ve barely even looked at them so I don’t really know how great they are, just that my kids think that it is fun to do worksheets (like real school.)  On days where they have nothing to do, I notice that they are a lot more whiny.  I remember being a bored kid and asking my parents “what is there to do?”  As a mom now, I can’t stand it when they ask me that, so, sorry mom and dad.  I always suggest to my kids that they can go clean something.

Tonight Isabel learned how to ride her bike.  She probably would have learned sooner, but Joey vowed Safety Nerd was going to ride his bike before Joey started teaching Isabel.

After each of my useless pee in a cup appointments, my doctor always ends with saying, “Make sure you watch your weight there.”  AND today Luke said to me, “I know how you can lose weight after the baby is born!  You can eat less calories and exercise.”  Luke then suggested that I could exercise now, while I am pregnant.  Have you ever heard of such a crazy ridiculous notion in your life?  Can people just leave me and my fat butt alone!?

Neon Ocean

Isabel has been enjoying learning to write in cursive. I am impressed with how well she is doing. Luke isn’t very excited about it which is fine with me if he never learns. I would like to get a good “learn how to type” program for kids that has games etc. while teaching typing. I think he would like that. So let me know if you know of any. Today he scanned his Neon Ocean (sea chart) and marked yellow where there are monsters.

Nesting

As Joey would say, I was “nesting” today. With every pregnancy I am convinced that after the baby comes I will never be able to organize again. I started organizing my closet, then decided to make room in the closet downstairs for a few things I didn’t want to be in my closet and then somehow that got me organizing the school bookshelf. Luckily everything got organized and cleaned up except for my closet which was what I started working on in the first place. As you can tell I am not very organized about organizing.

During all of this I was able to throw a few things at the kids for them to do. They created a large Don’t Eat Pete game on poster board creating their own drawings in each square. Isabel watched a show about and practiced cursive. Luke worked on a new Xtreme Boy book and finished a couple of Math worksheets. They then played Go Fish together.

It was a productive day although I ruined it by yelling at them for not helping me out after I asked them to take their things upstairs. In my defense, I already feel so huge and by the end of the day the last thing I want to do is to go up those stairs one more time.

This weekend poor Joey is roped into helping me work on my nesting (I mean organizing) list that I’ve made. He will soon regret his new, only forty hours a week, job and beg to go back to working overtime instead of at home with me.

Star Fight 2

Today Luke and Isabel were very self motivated.  I didn’t ever have to suggest things for them to do.  They both asked me if they could do their math first thing, which was strange.  Although they are both great at math, it isn’t their favorite.  Maybe they just wanted to get their math out of the way which is fine with me.

Luke worked on painting his dinosaur bones that he casted with cement the other day, he made up some hieroglyphics, added some islands to his island map and worked on his new board game “Star Fight 2.”  So I am a little overwhelmed at the idea of playing Star Fight 2 with him since Star Fight 1 was such a….a….(let’s just say fabulous) game.  I really am so impressed with his creativity and inventiveness, but in my opinion, there was more of him explaining and talking about the game than there was of actually playing the game.  Star Fight 1 involves a lot of transforming, traveling through pipes, shooting, picking cards, and I can’t remember what all else.

Isabel and Sylvia painted some watercolor pictures.  Isabel had me teach her how to write her name in cursive (or cursef as she pronounces it.)  She played Webkinz, drew a lot and had her ukulele lesson.

Booger Cookies

I try to write mostly about home schooling, but I can’t help but put personal family things on here every now and then (okay, more than every now and then.) We had a fun vacation in California. Here are a few pictures.

On the drive to California we listened to a great book, Diary of a Fairy Godmother by Esme Raji Codell read by Rachael Lillis. It is a self discovery book about a young witch (only 100 years old) who finds out that she is best suited to be an “FG” (Fairy Godmother.) At the end of the book there is a recipe for Booger Cookies.

Hunky Dory’s Booger Cookies
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp almond extract
small package instant pistachio pudding
1 egg
2 cups flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips

filling
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-3 tbsp milk
3-5 drops green food dye

witches hats
bag of Hershey’s Chocolate Kisses

Preheat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cream 1/3 powdered sugar, butter, 1 tsp vanilla, almond extract, pudding mix and egg into bowl. Stir in flour and 1/2 cup chocolate chips. shape into 1 inch balls and place 2 inches apart on lightly greased cookies sheet. Make imprint with your thumb in the center of each cookie. Bake 10-14 minutes.

Combine all filling ingredients until smooth and drip into center of each cookie. Top with a witches hat.

Number Four

That’s right.  November 6th and it’s another girl.  Yikes.