Helping Auntie!

We got out the big girl step stool today and SC was very helpful while we were baking for our Birthday cook out tomorrow! She loves to be right up in the midst of everything! I will say though that big stand mixer made her EXTREMELY nervous!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY - My 11 year old!!

Happy Birthday KM!!!

Don't know where the time has gone?
But we have treasured every moment of it!
We love you more than you can imagine!
Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

SC's first trip to MOS!

We made our first trip with SC to the Museum of Science today and had a fantastic time!

They tried to see who was faster.

SC was very excited about the buttons!

She really like the archaeological dig!

KM liked the human body exhibit and SC liked more button pushing!

We then enjoyed a peanut butter and jelly lunch while we watched the musical stairs!

Considering she is only 15 mo. she did an exceptional job during our 2 hour trip!

Final Summer Project - Bee Lapbook

As her final project for our summer session KM decided to complete a lapbook on Bees!

It won't be forever...

We are slowing down for a 2 week break before we get back to full-time schooling on the 29th!

I have been (and will continue) to be very busy trying to get all our lesson plans coordinated, planning out field trips, as well as helping with final prep for our local coop group!

So though I may post some pics here and there -I may be rather quiet for the next few weeks!

Hope you will all still be popping by in the mean time!

What a difference a year can make!

I was at a homeschool workshop yesterday discussing lots of different topics and someone mentioned how at ease I seemed with homeschooling and how it really seems as though I have been doing it forever.

The irony in that statement for me is that exactly one year ago, I was sitting in a large conference room with a group of parents at a PTO hosted "Boo-hoo Brunch". This is an annual meet and greet for parents of the Kindergarten class to meet each other and learn about how they could help out by supporting the faculty and PTO. I was telling people how wonderful the teachers were and how many great activities the PTO sponsors and while these facts are all still true, it is just amazing to think that I am now advocating an entirely different lifestyle all together.

Although I may appear all calm and collected most of the time, I am also very good at disguising my trepidation for the upcoming year. Although I know that I have made the absolute right choice, a very wise friend of mine said "if you weren't nervous, I would be nervous for you." What she meant was all parents are nervous about something for their children. If KM was in school I would be worried about so much more and have so much less control over the outcome of those worries. At least with homeschooling we have control over what, how and when she is learning. If she wants us to spend three months on microscopic antibodies, guess what we will!

Our family has become an entirely different entity than it was a year ago. Our lifestyle is different, our schedule & routines are different, a lot of our friends are different, but by and large our priorities are different. Some people fear change and we used to be like that, but it seems as though these huge changes that have gone on over the past few year are exactly what we needed to make us a stronger more unified family. So for any newbie homeschoolers who may be reading this, please know that it will get calmer. You will become more confident in yourself, your kids and your choices! I have no doubt that you will see a miraculous difference in your children, as we have with ours. We enjoy being with each other, learning, laughing and living everyday just the way WE want to.

We are back from our WONDERFUL trip!!!

We arrived home last night and thank the heavens had a wonderful flight both ways and very little bad weather while we were there! We had some great adventures and learned some pretty cool stuff along the way!

Saturday we went to Pine Island and had a wonderful afternoon on the beach. As you can see it was a bit cloudy, but the most amazing thing happened. Gustaf was passing over the Gulf at this point and as we were sitting on the beach we looked out and saw these things that kept popping out of the water - then we realized they were dolphin fins! A pod of dolphins was swimming less than 50 ft off the shore! It was the most amazing thing! Of course we couldn't get close to them, but still - KM technically got to swim with dolphins!!! How cool is that!
You can't see them in the picture above, but they were swimming just past the landing near the signs.

KM has ALWAYS loved to make sandcastles and dig at the beach, but she decided to turn herself into a mermaid instead!

Sunday we went to the MOSI - in Tampa!

KM, my dad and his wife played a very large game of operation!

We played a few rounds of a great game show!

KM got to experience what it feels like to be in the center of a twister!
The wind speeds went up to 85mph!

We ended our day in their HUGE hands-on activity section called Kids-In-Charge!
This was the greatest kids section of a musuem I have EVER seen. It covered everything from magnets to air pressure, optical illusions to logic puzzles and everything in between!

Monday we hung around the pool area and didn't do much of anything - you just need those days sometimes!
Tuesday we were off to the Lowry Zoo for some close encounters with some amazing animals!

and lots of babies!

The meerkats were so cute!!! It seemed like their was always one watching you!

The lemurs have always been my favorites - I think because we watched soooo much Zoboomafoo when KM was little!
We fell in love with Manatees on our last visit and still think they are amazing creatures! We had the whole Sting Ray pool to ourselves! KM wouldn't touch one, but grampa did!

There were sooo many baby animals. It seemed like every turn we made there was another sign saying "New Arrivals"

All and all it was a great day at the zoo!!!

On Wed we went to do one of Grampa's favorite things - Bowling!
We are used to candelpin, but they don't even know what that is in the south,
so it was off to the big balls - Ten Pin Bowling!

Then we played in the small arcade for a bit!
Thursday was our last day in the tropics! (It was HUMID) so KM wanted to try some Shuffleboard! She did really well.
On the flight home Thursday evening I asked KM what her favorite part of the trip was -

Here response was playing the funny piano at the MOSI - turn on your sound:

Instead of playing different instruments, this keyboard played different bodily functions!

All and all it was a very good, relaxing, enjoyable trip! Just what we needed!

Away We Go!!!

We are off for the week to visit Tampa Grampa!!

We will be back with lots of fun pics!

1st Annual Not Back to School Day!

Living less than a minute from the school that KM used to attend makes it rather difficult to ignore the fact that PS kids are back to school today! We woke up this morning to the sound of the screaming kids on the buses as they rode by. I half expected her to get upset about it, but instead she was very excited as she knew I had a full day planned for us!

SC arrived right on time and we headed out to KM's favorite restaurant for tie-dyed pancakes!

SC has started to figure out what to do with crayons - so that was fun for her! Even when we are trying to not learn something we do!We then headed over to the library to get some videos!

They love the rocking chairs!

And of course the puppet show was a must!

Next we headed to the park! Down the slides...
And up on the swings:

We headed over to the field for some ball play...

and found a shady spot for a snack!
We then headed home for a nap...
lunch and some video games!
When SC went home for the day I realized I had forgotten that I was suppose to make a stop while we were out this morning so off we went again...when we got back CJ was shocked to see his little girl looked soooo grown up!!
In case you can't tell from the earlier photos, KM had about 4-6 inches cut off her hair!!! We were walking passed a salon when I realized it had been quite a while since we had gotten our hair cut - so we did!

This was one of the best, most relaxing days we have had in a LONG time!
It will be the first of many Not Back to School Days in our household!

Our Olympic Lapbook

The Olympics have ended and we had a great time watching it, learning about it and creating a lapbook to remember it!

We used bits and pieces from several different free sites for this one!

We created a game board and pieces to go along with a trivia game we found.

KM took a lot of care with choosing which pieces she wanted to use for this one.

Her favorite part of the whole 2008 Olympics though had to be those cute little mascots!!!

I think we are starting to get the hang of this lapbooking thing!

Fun Sunday Afternoon

CJ had a VERY busy work week and was not home for a full two days & nights trying to cram in some extra side jobs. So today we decided to have a little fun!
We headed to the local mini-golf and go-cart place that we haven't been to in far too long!

KM was very excited that she was FINALLY tall enough to ride the go-cart by herself. She did pretty well up until the end when she didn't know what the attendants hand signals meant and ended up rear ending the entire line of carts! Luckily CJ was right in front of her and took the majority of the blow. We then went out for a late lunch / early dinner at our favorite restaurant. It was a very simple fun afternoon - oh and did you see there is actually proof that I was there!

I Will Survive- Homeschool Version

TURN UP YOUR VOLUME

If it says that it is no longer available click HERE!!

I had posted the original mix lyrics, but I when this got reposted on another list I KNEW I had to put it on here! THIS IS SOOO Well done!

Attached at the Hip!

SC soooooo loves her cousin!
If she had her way they would be like this 24/7!

She has now taken to throwing temper tantrums if for some reason KM has to leave the room for any reason and forget it if she has to go to the bathroom or shuts her bedroom door to get changed! I am wondering how she is going to make it through 9 days when we go away. We have never gone that long without seeing SC, so it should be interesting! I probably won't be able to separate them at all when we get back!

I Will Survive (the first year of homeschooling)

This has been going around a ton of homeschool lists but just in case anyone missed it...

I Will Survive (the first year of homeschooling)

When you click on it turn your volume up!

Try this one:

57 words

Speedtest

I thought I would have gotten better than that, but this stinky laptop keyboard just never feels right to me! I will use any excuse in the book!
Have fun and let me know how you did!