Co-op Classes

So I guess everyone is just going to have to accept the fact that I will have a new post about every two weeks. LOL I know I was supposed to post after our first co-op class but now two have passed and I am just getting around to writing.
The classes so far have gone pretty well. We have such a wonderful group of kids and they are all so pleasent to be around and so easy to teach. As I said before, we have been learning about weather in the Kinder-1st class. The past two weeks have been about the water cycle and they have really seemed to enjoy it. I only have two more weeks of playing teacher until it is my turn to help the mom who is helping me right now. I think I am finished with the water cycle so I will have to come up with something new. Brenna mentioned learning about rainbows and I actually came across a cool science experiment involving milk, oil and food coloring. I'll have to try that one out and see what else I can come up with too.
The Mom's Chat that we have been doing at co-op has been nice. As I mentioned before, all the moms take turns and only teach for one hour out of the two. The hour that you are not teaching is spent sitting and talking about various topics with some of the other moms. As I said, it's nice BUT I think it is waaayyy too structured. There is a moderator who kinda keeps things going by following a detailed agenda typed up on a piece of paper. So that might be okay for a bunch of people sitting around who had absolutely nothing to talk about but that is definitely not a problem with our group. In fact, before we 'officially' start with the chat we are all sitting around having a great conversation that is suddenly haulted when our moderator shows up. Our last chat was about our kids and what kind of responsibilities they have around the house. The only thing we had time for (the hour goes by pretty fast) was going around the table and listening to each person say what their kid(s) does around the house. I really don't think anyone got anything useful out of the whole thing. Maybe next week I'll volunteer to be the moderator, stand up, rip up the agenda and say "Ok ladies, let's just TALK!" LOL!! Yeah right.

Anyway, we have been busy painting the outside of our house, FINALLY! When we bought our house almost four years ago the paint was pretty shabby and has done nothing but get worse. We had someone come and replace some boards, which is what was holding us up. So after that got finished I became a painting fool. We have the front pretty much finished except for a few small details. It looks soooo much better and we are very happy with it. This weekend we were supposed to start on the sides but I seriously need a break. I didn't realize how much work it is to paint a house! It's not just the painting though - it's the pressure washing, sanding and caulking that takes up so much time. I seriously went through four tubes of caulking just in the front! So next weekend we will pick up our brushes again and get to work. I will have to post some before and after pictures on here soon.

So Brenna has been doing great with her homeschooling. I have been really concentrating on her reading comprehension lately. Since she is getting so good at reading I kinda wanted to see if she was just 'going through the motions' or if she was really comprehending what she was reading. After she reads a book now I have been asking her questions about the story. Come to find out she really does pay attention to what she is reading and does a fantastic job answering my questions. I also have this booklet with short stories that have little quizzes and she does great with those as well. We've also been doing some math here and there - addition, subtraction and even touching on a little bit of multiplication. My next project I want to do is get a big map of the world and start studying where all of our food that we eat comes from. I want her to realize that food does not just come from the grocery store and that most of it comes from very far away. I thought it would be interesting to hang up the map somewhere and start labeling it with pictures and/or words of the foods we buy.

Ok, well I am off to clean my house. It's gotten pretty bad this week since I used every second of my free time to paint. I am going to send Brenna and Brendon off to play golf while I crank up my music and get my house in order again!
Hope everyone has a great week! :)

(Note - Please forgive any misspellings. For some reason the Spell Checker on here is not working)

Ramblings...

With Brenna in bed, my house all clean and Brendon at work for a bit I thought this would be a good time to post. Seems like I don't have all that much time to myself these days. Between keeping up with Brenna (questions, projects, playing games, ect...), going to my Grandparents everyday and all the other tedious little tasks I am responsible for I sometimes feel like I can't even breathe without penciling it in to my schedule. But that's okay - I like to keep busy. It IS nice though having some peace and quiet every now and then. And I absolutely treasure those days when I have nothing at all to do! No Girl Scouts, karate, grocery shopping, homeschool stuff, ect. Usually that happens on a weekend. That's when I go out in my yard for hours and mow, water, pull weeds and trim. That is my therapy. My yard work replenishes my soul. Sounds silly to most but that is what I love to do. I can not wait until Spring when I can mow my grass more than once a month and start having things to do on a weekly basis again. Brenna likes to help me with yard work. Her favorite thing is pulling weeds OF COURSE! What 5 year old doesn't like to get dirty? :)
Anyway, we had our Homeschool Group Report Day this past Wednesday. Brenna didn't do a report this time. Most of the kids do not do one every time. I am sure she will during the next one though. She wants to do it on butterflies so we'll have to start on that soon.
Next week our Co-op starts again. I am not prepared for that AT ALL. I will have the Kinder-1st for the first hour and I think I already mentioned that we are doing weather related stuff. So I am sure this weekend I will be surfing the Net and going to the library to get all the stuff I need. I do this a lot - put stuff off till the last minute. I think I work better like that sometimes, I don't know. It drives me crazy though. LOL

So our Valentines's Day was very nice. Last night (Wednesday) I stayed up until almost midnight and cut out about 50 different size red and pink hearts from construction paper and hung them all with string from the ceiling in the livingroom. When Brenna woke up this morning and walked out into the livingroom she had a huge smile on her face and thought it was so cool. They came to right above her head and she ran around the room hitting them all with her hands. I like to do little things like that to surprise her. :) She also had heart shaped waffles for breakfast.
Brendon came home from work and had a beautiful bouquet of flowers, chocolate covered strawberries and a card for me. He also bought Brenna a card and a box of SweetHearts. I still have the hearts hanging in the livingroom. I will probably leave them up until this weekend. It took me about two hours to do it so I want to leave them up for a little while.
Well Brendon is home so I better end this. I will probably post again next week after co-op.
Till keyboard and fingers meet again.....

Tragedy

This morning Brenna and I were supposed to go to Report Day for the Homeschool Group. As we were getting ready I received a phone call that it was cancelled and was told that one of the Dad's from our homeschool group was involved in a helicopter crash. It was an AirCare helicopter and he was the pilot. His body has not been found yet.
If you could please say a small prayer for this family. They just moved here from Michigan not too long ago and have no family here. The mother (Karen)homeschools all three of their boys. I just can not even imagine what she is going through right now.
Thanks.

******UPDATE****** 2/7
I did not think it was necessary to create a new post. Just wanted to let everyone know that Robert was found the next day after the helicopter accident. Him, as well as two others, did not survive. There are quite a few women from our homeschool group that are helping Karen with meals and childcare as well as emotional support. My heart really goes out to her. As a stay-at-home/homeschool Mom I know that this is my worst fear. Please continue to keep her and her boys in your prayers.

Hannah Montana

Today Brenna, Kastine and I went to the Hannah Montana Movie/Concert. It was in 3D and was so, so, so cool!! It was the next best thing to actually going to a live concert. The girls had a BLAST and thought it was great. I took a couple pictures of Brenna posing before the movie.
She wore her "rock star" outfit that PJ and Jenny got her for Christmas.

My Big Brag for the Day

So I forgot to mention in my previous posts....

Brenna is exceeding wonderfully in her reading!! She reads everything now and hardly needs any help. Just the other night she read a book that was a 2nd - 3rd grade reading level all by herself (with the exception of a few words like 'prevention'). I was so proud of her!! She was just beaming when she was finished and was very proud of herself as well. YEAH BRENNA!!

Pictures from our Zoo Trip (post about it below)

Just Some Thoughts....

So my blog now has over 1000 hits and I am so greatful and so happy (and quite surprised to be honest!) that people actually care enough about my boring life to want to read about it. LOL :)

Anyway, nothing really all that new going on with us lately. Brenna is doing FANTASTIC in karate and is sooooooo much better about not talking and paying attention more. I think a little of that might be rubbing off at home too - not much but enough. Maybe *I* should make her give me 10 push-ups when she acts up. Not a bad idea.... :) I'm willing to try anything sometimes. Really though, she is a good kid - just so hyper sometimes. She has an endless supply of energy - as most kids this age have, I am assuming (hoping!) - and she makes me tired just watching her sometimes. Some friends of ours come over quite a bit on the weekends - no children of their own yet, I might add - and are just in awe at how much Brenna just goes and goes and goes. And this is at about 8pm, right before her bedtime, and they wonder how on Earth she falls asleep at night. Sometimes I wonder that too, but she is usually asleep fairly quick - even when she's running around the livingroom five minutes before bedtime. LOL I guess I would be too if I did as much as she does.
Every once in a while I think about how she would be if she did go to school and was expected to sit still for longer than a few minutes?? Oh I laugh just thinking about it!! Her poor, poor teacher. I love it though - I love that she is so creative, goofy, silly and full of energy. I love that we can spend all day outside if that's what she wants to do. I love her imagination and her stories that she makes up and her love for nature. I really could not see her cooped up in a classroom all day.
Speaking of not being cooped up all day -- Brenna and I went to the zoo yesterday afternoon and had such a wonderul time. We practically had it to ourselves and would see somebody else every once in a while. It was a beautiful day and all the animals were out playing. We took a clipboard and some paper with us and did a cool experiment. While we were going through the zoo we categorized all of the animals by which continent they were from. Come to find out, most of the animals in our zoo come from Africa. Brenna also took her colored pencils and drew quite a few masterpieces of some of the animals. One picture she drew was of a spider monkey that was behind glass. While she was drawing, that funny little monkey was right there at the ledge watching her and I swear if it wasn't POSING! So cute!
Ok, we are off to karate pretty soon. As soon as I get a new computer (which will be soon!) I will start posting more pictures.

The Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List

The Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List
From Secular Homeschooling Magazine, Issue #1

1 Please stop asking us if it's legal. If it is — and it is — it's insulting to imply that we're criminals. And if we were criminals, would we admit it?

2 Learn what the words "socialize" and "socialization" mean, and use the one you really mean instead of mixing them up the way you do now. Socializing means hanging out with other people for fun. Socialization means having acquired the skills necessary to do so successfully and pleasantly. If you're talking to me and my kids, that means that we do in fact go outside now and then to visit the other human beings on the planet, and you can safely assume that we've got a decent grasp of both concepts.

3 Quit interrupting my kid at her dance lesson, scout meeting, choir practice, baseball game, art class, field trip, park day, music class, 4H club, or soccer lesson to ask her if as a homeschooler she ever gets to socialize.

4 Don't assume that every homeschooler you meet is homeschooling for the same reasons and in the same way as that one homeschooler you know.

5 If that homeschooler you know is actually someone you saw on TV, either on the news or on a "reality" show, the above goes double.

6 Please stop telling us horror stories about the homeschoolers you know, know of, or think you might know who ruined their lives by homeschooling. You're probably the same little bluebird of happiness whose hobby is running up to pregnant women and inducing premature labor by telling them every ghastly birth story you've ever heard. We all hate you, so please go away.

7 We don't look horrified and start quizzing your kids when we hear they're in public school. Please stop drilling our children like potential oil fields to see if we're doing what you consider an adequate job of homeschooling.

8 Stop assuming all homeschoolers are religious.

9 Stop assuming that if we're religious, we must be homeschooling for religious reasons.

10 We didn't go through all the reading, learning, thinking, weighing of options, experimenting, and worrying that goes into homeschooling just to annoy you. Really. This was a deeply personal decision, tailored to the specifics of our family. Stop taking the bare fact of our being homeschoolers as either an affront or a judgment about your own educational decisions.

11 Please stop questioning my competency and demanding to see my credentials. I didn't have to complete a course in catering to successfully cook dinner for my family; I don't need a degree in teaching to educate my children. If spending at least twelve years in the kind of chew-it-up-and-spit-it-out educational facility we call public school left me with so little information in my memory banks that I can't teach the basics of an elementary education to my nearest and dearest, maybe there's a reason I'm so reluctant to send my child to school.

12 If my kid's only six and you ask me with a straight face how I can possibly teach him what he'd learn in school, please understand that you're calling me an idiot. Don't act shocked if I decide to respond in kind.

13 Stop assuming that because the word "home" is right there in "homeschool," we never leave the house. We're the ones who go to the amusement parks, museums, and zoos in the middle of the week and in the off-season and laugh at you because you have to go on weekends and holidays when it's crowded and icky.

14 Stop assuming that because the word "school" is right there in homeschool, we must sit around at a desk for six or eight hours every day, just like your kid does. Even if we're into the "school" side of education — and many of us prefer a more organic approach — we can burn through a lot of material a lot more efficiently, because we don't have to gear our lessons to the lowest common denominator.

15 Stop asking, "But what about the Prom?" Even if the idea that my kid might not be able to indulge in a night of over-hyped, over-priced revelry was enough to break my heart, plenty of kids who do go to school don't get to go to the Prom. For all you know, I'm one of them. I might still be bitter about it. So go be shallow somewhere else.

16 Don't ask my kid if she wouldn't rather go to school unless you don't mind if I ask your kid if he wouldn't rather stay home and get some sleep now and then.

17 Stop saying, "Oh, I could never homeschool!" Even if you think it's some kind of compliment, it sounds more like you're horrified. One of these days, I won't bother disagreeing with you any more.

18 If you can remember anything from chemistry or calculus class, you're allowed to ask how we'll teach these subjects to our kids. If you can't, thank you for the reassurance that we couldn't possibly do a worse job than your teachers did, and might even do a better one.

19 Stop asking about how hard it must be to be my child's teacher as well as her parent. I don't see much difference between bossing my kid around academically and bossing him around the way I do about everything else.

20 Stop saying that my kid is shy, outgoing, aggressive, anxious, quiet, boisterous, argumentative, pouty, fidgety, chatty, whiny, or loud because he's homeschooled. It's not fair that all the kids who go to school can be as annoying as they want to without being branded as representative of anything but childhood.

21 Quit assuming that my kid must be some kind of prodigy because she's homeschooled.

22 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of prodigy because I homeschool my kids.

23 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of saint because I homeschool my kids.

24 Stop talking about all the great childhood memories my kids won't get because they don't go to school, unless you want me to start asking about all the not-so-great childhood memories you have because you went to school.

25 Here's a thought: If you can't say something nice about homeschooling, shut up!

A little bit of everything...

Merry (belated) Christmas to everyone! I hope everyone had a great holiday. Ours was wonderful - lots of family, food and gifts. :) Brenna made out pretty good this year and got a lot of nice things. Brendon and I got her a lot of cool stuff (no toys from us this year!). She got a new bike from 'Santa', a helmet, telescope, a planetarium, a couple games and her own set of golf clubs. Brendon loves to play and Brenna has really been showing an interest in it and wants to go with him all the time. So I found these cute clubs with a bag just her size. She was so excited and has gone out with Daddy once. They played 9 holes and he said that she got the ball in three of the holes all by herself. :) They are going to start going out to the driving range and the putting practice area every weekend. I will have to go with them and take my camera. Brendon said that she did real good and was very excited. She is our retirement plan. LOL!
So Brenna got a karaoke machine from Grandma and Grandpa too, which she LOVES! You really should see her sing Hannah Montana songs - it is pretty entertaining. Aunt Jenny and PJ got her a "rock star" outfit and she has a blond wig and knows ALL the moves. By the way, Hannah Montana is a pop star that Brenna loves. No more Wiggles or cute little kid songs for her. It is actually kinda sad for me. Makes me realize that she is not a little baby anymore. I can't believe that she will be 6 this year. How the time flies!! I am so ready for another baby - hopefully this year will be our lucky year. :)

Anyways, Brenna is doing GREAT in karate and Brendon and I are so proud of her. Anyone who knows Brenna knows that she LOVES to talk and is a social little butterfly and wants to make friends with everybody! That has really been our biggest obstacle in karate. She just wants to talk to everyone and "be Brenna", as my Mother would say. I finally had a talk with her and told her that karate is not 'social time'. She has been MUCH better and is paying attention a lot more. Her teacher is great with her though. He actually made her do push-ups a couple weeks ago because she would not stop talking. I hate to say this but... I thought it was GREAT! LOL :) She needs that and needs to learn how to pay attention more and focus on things. Right now she is a white belt (beginning belt) but on March 1st she will be take the promotion test for her yellow belt.

Well there's not really much to write about on the homeschooling. We took an extra long Christmas vacation. LOL The Homeschool Group has not met in a while because of Christmas and the New Year. That should all resume sometime pretty soon. In February we will start our Co-op again but this time it will be for two months instead of one and we will be meeting every Wednesday. I will be one of the teachers in the Kinder-1st class and will be teaching them about weather. I will have to start researching things soon and come up with some cool hands-on stuff. I am all about the hands-on learning. Kids learn so much better that way and have so much more fun.
As for OUR homeschooling, we really haven't been doing that much the past month. Brenna came down with two colds/sinus stuff within a month and each one knocked her on her butt for about a week. I was sick too for almost a week and a half so that kinda slowed us down a bit. Neither of us were sick during Christmas though, thank goodness. I really wasn't all that concerned with 'school stuff' during the holidays either. She has been reading though and is getting better and better. We have started reading the Junie B. Jones series. They are about a 5 year old little girl and are so funny and she loves them. They are chapter books, which I like so much better then the books with pictures on every page that you are finished with in five minutes. We incorporate math and science into our days as well - it might not be 'sit-at-the-table' type stuff but what 5 year old wants to do THAT? LOL For example, we were at my Grandma's the other day and I was filling her ice maker and had a few huge chunks that I had to get rid of in the sink. A light bulb went off in my head and I called Brenna in the kitchen. I showed her the ice and asked her what ice was made of and why it was hard, told her what temperature water had to get to in order to freeze, ect.... I had the faucet running and asked her what would happen if I put it under the warm water. She was so interested and was really into it and answered all of my questions correctly. She had a blast holding the ice and watching it melt under the water in her hand. It was a lot of fun and she loved it! Something so simple yet so fascinating to a five year old. I love it!
I would like to start doing more writing pretty soon with her though. She knows HOW to write all of her letters, we just need to perfect them. We will probably accomplish that with pavement and chalk. :) I am also thinking of giving her spelling words every week and having spelling tests on Fridays. Nothing hard - just easy words like 'the', 'girl', 'boy', ect.... She writes all the time and does a pretty good job spelling most things but she writes phonetically (the way things sound) - like 'knock' to her is 'nok'. I have read that it is very good that she is doing that - especially at her age. I think she will have fun with spelling words though. And if not, then that's okay - I will at least try it. I do not want to force her to do anything. That's why so many kids have such a hard time learning or think that learning isn't FUN - because it is FORCED on them. I don't want to force anything on my daughter. If some people think that I am going too easy on her or think that kids are SUPPOSED to be forced to learn or "that's just what they need to do", then so be it. That is one of the reasons why I chose to homeschool. All the books I have read and articles on the Internet all say the same thing when it comes to children learning - it HAS to be fun and enjoyable to them and something that THEY want to do. Is my daughter going to never learn anything unless I make her sit at the table and force her to study and read out of textbooks and do worksheets? Of course not. Children have a natural desire to learn. A lot of times that natural desire is crushed (by the public school system I think) because they are made to do things. Does that mean that I will never make her sit and study something or challenge her? No. But she is only 5 and I want to instill in her at an early age that learning is fun; not a chore or something that has to be dreaded. I want to eventually have a child that craves knowledge and WANTS to learn new things. I, as a mother, do not want to crush that natural desire.

OMG! A month - really???

A whole month has gone by without me updating! Shame on me. I really was trying to be better too. I hope everyone has not given up on me. I guess I should send out another email and let everyone know that I have not forgotten about my blog. I do have an excuse though - a lame one, BUT an excuse no less. LOL My computer crashed and I have been using a laptop that Brendon's Mom gave us. I am very grateful that I at least HAVE a computer (and that I don't have to go out right away and spend hundreds of dollars on a new one! - thank you Dea Jae) but it really stinks typing on a laptop keyboard. So I finally hooked up my regular keyboard to the laptop and - WAH-LA! - now I am posting! :)
So I guess a lot has happened in the past month. Brenna is still in karate and she is doing GREAT! I am so proud of her. She goes twice a week - sometimes three, depending on if she has Girl Scouts that week (Girl Scouts is three weeks out of the month). She loves it and really looks forward to going. Girl Scouts is going pretty good too. Being a Daisy scout is pretty boring though. I didn't start until 2nd grade so I was already a Brownie. Maybe her leader has something to do with that though?? Ok, I will NOT be ugly. Brendon met her the last meeting and totally understands what I have been telling him (read my last post if you haven't and you will understand).
Anyway, homeschooling is going great too. On out last Report Day for the Homeschool Group Brenna finally did a presentation on her tadpoles and it was a big hit. We brought about 5 tadpoles and also the four frogs that we had. All of our tadpoles that we have now came from that same egg sack but they are all different - it's really kinda weird. I guess it is kinda like 'survival of the fittest'. Maybe some get more food than others, I have no idea. At the present moment we have 8 frogs, about 4 in the tadpole tank that will be ready in the next couple days and many others that don't even have legs yet. We still have a plethora (oooo! good word to teach Brenna!!) of tadpoles and now I am at the point that I can not wait to get rid of them ALL! How long have we been doing this?? TOO LONG! I will have to look back on my blog and see when we started. I feel sorry for my next child because I don't think I will ever have tadpoles again. LOL!!
So I am not posting pictures this time because (getting back to my computer crashing) I don't have any on the current computer that I am using. I can download them onto my Mom's computer so I will have to do that next time and post pictures very soon.
As for the updating, I will try harder to update more often. Thanks for dealing with my 'sporadicness' (omg, is that even a word??? ).

Girl Scout Camp

So I must start off by saying that Brenna had a GREAT time at camp! I tell myself that's all that matters. Yes, by my tone you can see that I did NOT have a great time. LOL I am just being honest. (Ooooo! Some drama on the blog!! Finally! LOL!!)
First of all, Brenna and I are the only ones from the troop that went - besides her troop leader and her daughter. I really thought that more girls were going to go. I was stuck all day with a person that has absolutely no personality. Brenna's leader, I found out this weekend, is really not much of a 'kid person' (or much of a 'people person' either LOL). Why is she a troop leader, you ask? I have no idea!
So Brenna and I got there and there were lots of girls and their leaders/parents. It was an over-night thing so everyone was setting up their tents. We were told that the Daisy's (Kinder-1st) were NOT allowed to stay the night. After we got there we found out that they COULD stay the night after all. Her leader was pretty ticked (so was I) that we were not told before hand that they could. I would have LOVED to camp out with Brenna (we are campers so it would have been great!) BUT we did not have our stuff to do it and I am not a very good "last minute" person. So I dealt with the fact that we would just be there for the day and thought we would both have a wonderful time. Getting back to the fact that Brenna's leader is a 'crumb bum' ( a great word I picked up from my mother-in-law!) - for the first couple hours we just SAT THERE and she had no interest in socializing with other people. Why did I just sit there with her? Good question. I guess I just kept waiting for her to take some initiative (she IS the troop leader for goodness sakes!) but it never happened. I have never sat with someone in silence for so long as I did with her. It got to the point where it was uncomfortable conversation..."So what does your husband do?", "How old is your son again?"...blah, blah, blah.... I was trying to come up with anything that I could!! She would answer my question and that was that. The girls were playing real nice together though and Brenna wandered off and met quite a few new girls (my social little butterfly!).
Finally they started the 'organized events' (two hours later!) and split all the girls up into four different groups to do crafts. It really was fun and Brenna got to make some little wooden instruments, a cool little bird hat and some other things. Most of the time though I sat and listened to leaders, as well as Brenna's leader, get after the girls for doing this and that - seemed like boot camp!! Not the fun Girl Scout camp that I remembered as a kid. By this time I had quite a headache. After the craft things they had lunch and again, we sat by ourselves in our little spot and the two girls ate lunch with each other and I had to suffer through absolutely no conversation from Brenna's leader, AGAIN. After lunch all the girls played with all the toys they had (hoola hoops, baseball stuff, frisbies, horse shoes, ect...) By this time I was fed up with just sitting there, so I played with Brenna and the troop leaders' daughter. We threw frisbies, played sack races and kicked a soccer ball around. After a little while we had gathered quite a nice little group of girls and we were having so much fun! All the while Brenna's troop leader was just sitting there. I don't think that girl smiled so much as one time while we were there.
Brenna and I stayed until about 6:30 (we got there at 9:30am). I was going to wait until after we ate dinner but things were not going as planned and dinner was still a little ways off. Brenna was starting to get a little grumpy and I was so ready to go home. We had both been up at 6am that morning. It was about a 30 minute drive home so I figured it was a good time to leave.
I guess next time we have anything like that I will be prepared a little more and reliaze that Brenna's troop leader is NOT going to do much. Hopefully we will have more girls and more Moms go and have a little more fun.
After coming home and telling Brendon all about it, he is so for me starting my own Girl Scout troop. Maybe Brenna's leader will realize that she is not cut out for all this and then I will volunteer to take over. I think it would be a lot of fun. My Mom was my scout leader the whole time I was in scouts and we had such a great time!!
I guess we'll see what happens.
(BTW - no pics cuz my batteries were dead. UGH!)

New Poll

I have a new poll on the right. Don't worry - I can't tell who votes what, so pick what you want. :) I tried coming up with answers that everyone could pick from.
Thanks!

Karate!! (and a note from Miss Brenna)

Brenna did her first karate class last night! She said months ago that she wanted to try it but then changed her mind when I finally told her that we would go. I never could get it out of her as to why she didn't want to until a few nights ago. Poor thing was afraid that she was really going to have to fight people and get beat up! I explained to her that karate class is where you learn and that you really don't fight people. Her eyes lit up and she became very excited about it again and decided that she would do it.
She did great yesterday and really tried her best. A bigger kid even came up to her and said that she was doing good and even better than HE did on his first day. I thought that was real sweet. Her instructor is awesome and really made Brenna feel very comfortable. There were a couple times when she got a little nervous and was scared to try something but he was very good at recognizing that and helped her through it. He gave her a lot of praise and really built up her confidence. I think the discipline is going to be really good for her too. He is strict and does not allow any talking during stretching and any goofing around. Brenna asked him for a break and a drink of water after they finished doing the warm ups. She said that her throat was hurting and he told her that her and her throat will toughen up and then walked away. LOL! (He did give them a break about 15 minutes later.)
I will try to remember to take my camera next time so that I can post some pictures.

Tomorrow we have Girl Scout camp to go to. The older girls get to spend the night but since Brenna is a Daisy Scout we will just be there for the day. I'll post about that this weekend.

So Brenna is sitting right here and asked me what I was doing and after I told her she said that she wanted to write some things. So she will dictate while I type....

Hi! So I really love to do karate. If you have a child why don't you get them in karate. If your child likes karate bring them over to one of the karate classes. Hey and guess what? I know how to read and my Mom taught me! I really like that my Mom is my teacher because she's the best Mom ever and I like spending time with her. Mom and I love to play together because we are family.
I have lots of friends too. One of them is Rhiannon, she is going to be 4 soon. And I have a lot of friends in Girl Scouts. So if you have any girls maybe you should get them into Girl Scouts. I have some friends in karate too. Hi-YA! I love karate!
And I go to a place called the Homeschool Group where all the homeschoolers go. There are lots and lots of kids that are homeschooled. We did a homeschool class too with the other kids and we learned about Indians but now it's over but we're going to do it again. And one more thing about the homeschooling thing. Next Report Day I'm going to do a report on my tadpoles.
Well that's all for now. Hopefully my Mom will let me write again soon. Bye!
Love,
Brenna

Trip to the Firestation

Today we took a field trip with the homeschool group to one of the fire stations. It was so much fun and the kids had a great time! The firemen were wonderful and really showed them a lot of things and it was very 'hands-on'. I have posted quite a few pictures. Brenna got such a kick out of sitting up in the front seat of the truck as well as getting to spray the fire hose. In one picture she was the volunteer to show everyone how to 'get low and get out' when there is a fire. She also demonstrated the stop, drop and roll. I think Brenna and I might make some cookies and take them to the fire station this week as a 'thank you'.
Hope everyone remembered to change the batteries in their smoke alarms with the time change!

Real Life Lessons

Ok, so I guess I didn't go TOO long without posting. LOL I am trying to get on here more often and update. By the way - I have a poll on the right side of my blog if you want to vote real quick. Just something fun I thought I would do. I will change it up and have different things every so often, so make sure to look for it.

So things have been going pretty good. Report Day this past Wednesday was wonderful. Like I said in my last post, we had our local weatherman come and talk to the kids and it was very interesting. He was great with them and made it rather interesting (even to the parents!). He talked with all the kids for about 20 minutes and then the little ones went outside to play while he went into more detail with the older kids. At one point he asked the kids how far away the sun was from the Earth and everyone was shouting out all these numbers. All of a sudden I hear my little Brenna's voice, "One hundred million miles!!!" He looked at Brenna with a huge smile and said, "You are very close!" (the sun is actually 93 million miles away). She just beamed and I was so proud of her (ok, so maybe it was a total fluke that she got it pretty much right BUT we have read this book about space quite a few times so maybe she remembered?? who knows.....) Anyway, Brenna and the kids from her co-op class also got up and did a little song, "Ten Little Indians", with their headdresses and necklaces that they made. It was adorable. Brendon came and was able to see her do it and met some of the families. He said he was pretty impressed by the number of people there. I guess he pictured it as somewhat small. I think we have about 80 people (kids and Moms) in our homeschool group. I have made friends with quite a few of them but have really 'clicked' with one. We sit together at all the get togethers and today we met at the park with the kids (she has 3 kids - 8, 6 and 1). Brenna and her kids get along so good! I finally took my camera to Report Day so I have few pictures....

This Wedneday we are taking a field trip with the homeschool group to the firestation. When I worked at St. Alban's I went with the 4 year old class and had a GREAT time so I am looking forward to it. I think Brenna will have a good time. I'll post some pictures of it next time I get on here.

So as most of you know, I am my Grandpa's caretaker and work for a home health care agency. Brenna and I go to my Grandparent's house Monday through Friday for a few hours a day. About once a month a nurse from the agency comes to the house and updates Grandpa's records and makes sure that he is doing okay. The nurse that comes, Dan, is so nice and just wonderful with Brenna. Every time he comes Brenna gets her doctor stuff that my Grandma bought her and 'helps' Dan with Grandpa. So Dan came to the house today and Brenna was ready with all of her things. She pulls her little wooden chair right next to his and is so serious and listens to everything he says (I swear that she is going to grow up to become a doctor!). I really wish that I would have had my camera today. She helped Dan listen to Grandpa's chest, gave him a pretend shot and took his temperature. Dan even let Brenna check his blood sugar! He pricked his finger and she put the test strip up to the blood and held it there until it read it. She stood there so serious looking waiting until the results came up and told Dan what his blood sugar was. Whenever he talks to us about Grandpa she just sits there and really listens and pays attention to everything. I told Grandma today that THIS is the stuff that I love about homeschooling - the real life things. If she would be going to school everyday then she wouldn't be there for things like that. I just think it is awesome for my daughter to learn that way and to be so involved in things like that. I have read so much about how great it is for children to go to nursing homes and to spend time with people who need to be 'taken care of'. It teaches them empathy and caring. I really try to involve Brenna in things when I go over there. I fix my Grandpa's lunch everyday and she is in charge is taking Papa his insulin shot and his drink. It is minor things but it teaches her responsibilty and for helping and caring for somebody else. I really am so grateful that she gets to spend so much time with her Great Grandparents. And my Grandma spoils that heck out of her so she loves it too! LOL :)

Anyway, Brenna and I have been having a lot of fun with school too. Right now we are working on telling time. She is doing so great with it. We are just concentrating on the hours and half hours. She has pretty much mastered that so soon we will be starting on the quarters (4:15, 5:45, ect...). We have also been learning about putting things in alphabetical order. Today we went around the house and she made a list of things and then we sat at the table and put our list in alphabetical order. We talked about when you would use that (like doctors filing charts, the phone book, dictionary, ect...) and how important it is. She got a 'real life' lesson today (I LOVE those!!!) when Dan (Grandpa's nurse) was looking up a medication in his book. I asked her how she thought he would find it quickly and she said because they were all in alphabetical order. What a proud Mom I was! :)

I was talking to my friend, Michelle, today at the park (the Mom from my homeschool group) and she told me that the most thing that she loved about homeschooling was being the one to teach her kids things and seeing them retain that information and actually USE it. It really is the most rewarding thing in the whole world.

WARNING: Long Blog Ahead! (and lots of pictures)

So I guess I have not been as good at this blog thing as I had hoped when I started it. What did I say once.... that I would post a couple times a week??? HA! My apologies. I have been informed by my Mother though that I need to post more often. LOL :) I really am so busy that I don't have much time to sit at the computer and write. I am lucky if I get to check my email on a daily basis. My poor Grandma Carol too - I used to write to her almost everyday and now she is lucky to get an email from me once a month. Sorry Grandma!! I love you!

Anyway, I finally have time tonight to sit and write - and I better warn you, I have A LOT to write about!! So grab your tea or coffee or wine (depending on the time of day I guess) or whatever and be prepared to be here a while. LOL :)

I guess I will start with the Homeschool Co-op that we have been doing for the past month. Today was actually our last co-op day (for now). We have been going every Friday for the past four weeks. Brenna had a wonderful time and really enjoyed everything that we did. I ended up helping in Brenna's class (Kinder-1st) and all the things that they did revolved around Indians. They made books, head dresses, jewelry and practiced the "Ten Little Indians" song that they will do for Report Day next week. This was the first time that the Homeschool group has done this and it was a HUGE success and so much FUN. We will do it again starting in February but this time it will be for 8 weeks instead of 4 (with a one week break during Spring Break) and will go till noon instead of 11am. I never did get any pictures because, of course, I forgot to take my camera but I will snap some during Report Day next week when Brenna's group gets up and does their song and will post some. Tim Smith (our local weather man) will be there next week talking to the kids about the weather so we are excited about that. I have a few things that we are going to do Monday and Tuesday pertaining to weather to get ready for that. I will also have Brenna watch the news those days as well so she can see "the man on TV" that she's going to get to meet (maybe she'll pay attention more if she thinks he's a real 'TV star'? LOL)

Anyway, Brendon, Brenna and I went to a really cool place last Saturday (Oct. 27th). It was the corn maze that they do here every Fall and we had a BLAST!! I guess they have been doing it for a few years now but we have never gone, which I really regret now! I thought it was just the maze but when we got there they had a playground, hay stacks for the kids to play in, a pumpkin patch, hay ride, train ride, corn box (like a sand box but full of corn!), a farm animal petting place, and loads of great food (my favorite! hahaha!). The maze was so much fun! We were in it for about an hour and yes, we did get lost a couple times but thanks to Brendon's great directional skills we did just fine. I tell you what, if I had to get us through there we might STILL be there! :) This place is open until the end of December so we are planning to go back a couple more times. I have quite a few pictures......

So on to Halloween!!! Brenna was the cutest little witch that I have ever seen! Technically, I guess, she was a witch FAIRY but she was darn cute! We went to one of the church festivals that we go to every year with Nan and like always, we had a wonderful time. Brenna was all about trick-or-treating this year though so we did not stay as long as we usually do. After the festival we went on our hunt for candy with Nan and Kastine (Grandma and cousin) and went in Kastine's neighborhood and our neighborhood. Of course we went to see Grandma Dawn and Grandpa Kim too. Brenna got loads of candy and has been so generous to share it with Brendon and I. I have been having some chocolate for breakfast every morning. YUM! Here are some pictures of Brenna in her costume...........

Anyway, as you can see, we have been having such a wonderful time. I really do feel so blessed to be able to homeschool my wonderful, sweet, funny little girl. :) I just love being able to spend all day with her and to be the one who answers all of her questions and see the 'light bulb' click when she learns something. Besides all of the 'fun stuff' that I have posted about, she is learning how to write, is getting to be a FANTASTIC reader, doing so many fun crafts (we had a BLAST doing Halloween stuff!), mastering addition and subtraction as well as starting to understand the concept of fractions, and she has recently learned how to count to 100 by 10's and 5's. I try to incorporate learning in everything that we do - it is so hard to describe it all. She learns so much just by doing 'real life' things too - like cooking, helping me with yard work, going grocery shopping, ect. I guess I just really love being a Mom. To me it is the best job in the world (if only I got PAID for it!! LOL!!:)

Staying busy

I have not updated in a while because we have been so busy lately. Homeschool is going great and we are starting to 'find our groove' and I am beginning to have a lot more confidence. It has taken me a little over a month to figure out what works good for us. We started out one way and I realized it just was not working so I spent a lot of time thinking about what needed to change. Now we have our weekly schedule that is going great so far. I have also included a lot more art projects and try to incorporate what we are learning about. For example, last week we did the blend sound 'ch' so Friday we got out our huge stack of magazines (I am beginning to realize that when you homeschool you keep EVERYTHING because you WILL find a use for it!) and found lots of things that have the 'ch' sound and made a collage. I have also decorated a part of the wall in our computer room like a bulletin board and that is where I hang some of her work that she does. I put a picture of it at the bottom of the post. She loves it and I really think it gives her incentive to do her best because everyone who comes over sees it. I have also been utilizing the library soooo much more! They have rows and rows of educational videos that are so cool (even I like them!). So we make our weekly trip and stock up on videos and books.

We had Report Day a couple weeks ago with the homeschool group. Brenna got up and read a book all by herself in front of everyone. I was so proud of her and she did such a great job! A lot of the Moms came up to her afterwards and told her what a great job she did and gave me kudos too on what a wonderful reader she is. You could tell that she was very proud of herself. I think next Report Day she will talk about tadpoles and we will take a few of them that we have for the other kids to see. Yes, we STILL have tadpoles. The ones that we hatched from the eggs are starting to get their back legs FINALLY. The first batch we had did not take this long. I did read though that during certain times of the year they take longer to change. My sister-in-law told me that my little set up I have for them is so cool that they don't want to leave. LOL I think once these are gone I will not get anymore for a long, long while. We'll have to think of something else to reside in our tank.

We have also been spending a lot of time with my friend who homeschools and her daughter. Brenna and Rhiannon play so good and we get together about 2-3 times a week. We have taken the girls to the zoo and are planning some other field trips as well. It is nice having someone my age who homeschools and that I can get together with a few times a week and talk about things with.

So tomorrow morning we have our first co-op class for the homeschool group. A lot of the Moms have volunteered and are teaching classes. I have volunteered to help in the pre-school and Kinder-1st classes. We group the kids together by age (Kinder and 1st, 2nd and 3rd, ect...) and meet for about 2 1/2 hours. It will be for four consecutive Fridays. So we are really looking forward to that and Brenna is very excited. I really love this homeschool group - everyone is so nice and all the kids are GREAT!

Brenna started Girl Scouts as well and we meet every Tuesday night for an hour and a half. It is a small troop but the girls get along really good and have a lot of fun together. Next weekend Brenna and I are going to the Girl Scout camp and they are having a Mother/Daughter Day at the Spa. We get manicures, pedicures and the Moms get some facial stuff. I think we will have a really nice time together. I will take my camera and definitely post some pictures when we get back.

So now I guess you can see why I do not have much time to get on the computer. :) I really will try harder to post more. I have had quite a few people ask me when I was going to update. I really am glad that this blog gets read though. When I started it I wasn't sure who all would read it but by the hits on my counter at the bottom a lot of people do.
THANKS to everyone who supports us!! :)



*Brenna's Board*

Pictures

Brenna absolutely loves doing yoga! She has done it with me quite a few times and today when we went to the library she found a Yoga for Kids tape. You would have thought she struck gold! So now while I am cooking dinner, she is in the livingroom doing her yoga tape. I snapped a couple pictures of her. Too CUTE!