WERE BACK!! thank goodness summer was to long

8-24
 Truth be told we were back Monday but the girls have running  mostly half days so we were just getting back into the swing of things! I'm very excited about this school year. We have decided to try  a year round curriculum; wish me luck!
 For those that speak home school language  we are using Spectrum for science and language arts, SingaporeMath for math (obviously),K-12 reader 3rd grade spelling list, and are giving 6+1 Traits of writing a try. Writing is the only thing the boy does not like to do! We also purchased Carmen Sandiego's great chase through time and The Oregon Trail. Can't wait to start those because Caiden most definitely is mike's kiddo; if it's in video game form he'll try it :)
 He has been reading the Beast Quest series this summer and I don't believe he has any intentions of switching just because school started LOL. That's ok there is something like 60 of them he can read them out loud to me. Should keep him busy for awhile :) I have been reading him The Five Ancestors series for awhile now. We are currently on book four out of six I believe. Nothing beats beasts and warrior monks LOL. Have I mentioned I love having a boy :)
 Speaking of boy for anyone who missed the memo we are now the proud parents of brooklyn also! The official date was August 8th. She however would "rather drop dead than be home schooled" lol
I guess 16 is a little to old to start and we are far to alike to have a teacher student relationship! I'm very proud of all the hard work she has done over the last three years though and very proud she would pick us as parents :)

battleship at Em and Jerry's

play dough lake with an elf in a boat going to the market to but elf fruits; which all had names I can't remember  now :)

 

 

4/25 How we love the library :)

The puzzle is one of the ones he donated :)

Beast Quest IS educational! exhaustion,satisfaction,enchantment.... 4/24/2012

Today started slow with A LOT of reading :) Caiden hit a really good part in Beast Quest and didn't want to put it down. He read me 4 chapters!
Math was introduction to geometry: curved and flat faces and a timed math drill 8.5 min. today. Language arts: lesson 3.12 contractions with will
finishing Helen Keller and writing what he remembers.
S.S.: more of O,say can you see
science: we are heading across the road to decide HOW to plant our butterfly garden! and tonight we are going to talk to daddy about some butterfly houses :)
He is also VERY bouncy today; so we have been going out and riding his bike for 15 min. between every subject. It helps a lot :)

"is school over yet?" which leads to important decisions 4/23/2012

I have repeatedly got the question lately is school over yet? and my brain, not my mouth,immediately replies not till at least your mid 20s! I have a  real issue with this want for school to be "over". Learning should not have stop and start dates; should it? I've thought a lot about this lately and have decided to tackle next year in a whole different way. We are going to do year long school with 2 week breaks through out.  My train of thought here is kids don't enjoy summer break by the end of it anyway! They are complaining of being board and having nothing to do so why not have breaks scheduled in so learning doesn't get stressful, boring, monotonous even. The entire point of homeschooling was we disagreed with the way public schools do things so I ask myself why am I trying so hard to do things the same way they do....ya it doesn't make sense to me either now that I think about it.Wish me luck! I hope I'm right.
 Anyway past my ranting we covered our basic school day: language arts lesson 3.11 contractions with am,is,are. I truly don't know how to make this class more exciting for him :/ The spectrum program is great he is learning the parts of speech, word usage, and capitalization he just would rather not! I suppose we all have a subject we are not fond of.
 Spelling: new word list
bath
math
moth
sloth
breath
mouth
path
cloth
tooth
death
month
hour     he got 10/16 today not bad for a Monday :)

math: we are trying our timed math drills again but with 50 problems not 100 and daddy suggested setting a timer for 25min. and let him start (it's the pressure that gets him) which has worked well he is getting 5-8 min. instead of 12-16. Way to go daddy :) Also doing the exercises in his book which consists of graphs and charts right now.
 social studies: we are reading O,Say Can You See? America's symbols,landmarks and inspiring words bySheila Keenan, illustrated by Ann Boyajian  oh-say-can-you-see .   

sometimes life gets overwhelming;and then you remember why you love it anyway :) 4/16-44/20/2012

 So this week is going to be one post. Otherwise I'm afraid I will be to far behind to catch up :/ I had a hard time concentrating this week and this blog is what got left behind to finish later.We did get the garden turned over and carrots planted IF the birds don't steal the seeds they should be delicious :) 
 I talked to the city manager and he said unless I hear back from him other wise Caiden and I can do our butterfly garden across by the creek!! So excited :) there will be lots of pics. once we get going.
 Caiden also made his goal of $100 and has adopted his sea turtle. The turtles name is Squirt and she is a female off the coast of Australia link to Caiden's turtle's page :) . In 2-4 weeks  he will get his adoption packet and I will post pics.
 Wednesday we had court one day closer to having a big sister :)
 Sundays he has soccer and he is loving it!

making the plan

coach Sue and Caiden getting ready for his first try at being kicker :) 

stealing it from the blue team :)

woohoo! his team got a goal :D

"I LOVE soccer"

Thursday and friday excitment!! 4/12/2012 4/13/2012

Thursday we did a very normal school day language arts, math, science, and grandma showed up? We love those grandmas! Caiden's tiny clown fish is VERY lonely so Grandma Alice showed up to take him to the fish store and buy him a friend :) Clowns,corals and anemones here we come :)

So now baby A has baby B to snuggle with :) Unfortunately later in the day Caiden's tank decided to spontaneously crack and baby A and baby B who where by that point named Tom and Aleena, the main characters in his Beast Quest books, moved to daddy's tank! He's fishy sitting until Caiden gets a new tank; but Tom and Aleena are very happy in Daddy's reef tank so all is good :)

I get ahead of myself though before all our tank excitement we finished our reading. Caiden started

                                    It's fun listening to him read a book written in old english :)
We finished Who was Ben Franklin and he wrote down what he learned from it. I love how different the things we remember are.

and with all the excitement of the day......we completely forgot his spelling list! He reminds me of this at bed time of course :)

4/13/2012
Today is going to be wonderful! Caiden and I won an essay contest at the library; you had to write about how the library has changed your life :). Caiden got $50.00 in chamber bucks (money you can spend at local businesses)  for the kids essay and I got $25.00 for the adults. I was one of 2 winners for the adult category.The really awesome part of this story is what Caiden decided to do with his money and by the end of the day what he got with mine LOL. He took his chamber bucks into Laree's the local toy store and bought the library 3 new puzzles, two wooden ones and a large floor puzzle. Have I mentioned I love this boy? :) That didn't leave him with much so I gave him my 25 so he could get what he wanted. Well he picked out 3 things two of which he put back because he found something he KNEW Levi (his cousin) would love......but then thought about the fact that Kassidy (Levi's sister) would be left out :(  So he put everything back and got a smaller thing for himself and something for both his cousins :) PROUDEST MAMA ever I'm pretty sure :D Here is the link to the library page with a pick of Mister and his Chamber Bucks (there is one of me to but ignore that LOL)
library link

We had done all our school work before going to the library. He got 15/16 on his spelling list which he informed me if he had done it yesterday he would have gotten them all right! and he is probably correct on that fact.. We jumped subjects in science again and read the book a monarch's journey after which we hopped on line to find more facts about their journey and the loss of habitat; which ended in us ordering milkweed seeds and me making a phone call Monday to see if we can plant a large butterfly garden across from us by the creek. Cross your fingers for me and hope the city department thinks it's a good idea too! :) LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my baby's generous caring heart :) and just in case you want to join in http://www.got-milkweed.com/  . If you hit the raise your own button you can get seeds cheap :)

tues./ wed. double feature :)

Tuesday was a ordinary day; Caiden thought! We did our regular work as quickly as I could go and still be productive because I knew our afternoon would consist of science. How to properly acclimate baby clown fish!! Packages arrive and we still have math left to do so while trying to finish his math he is reading the box out of the corner of his eye "liveaquaria? I bet that's for dad." To which I respond "I don't know get your math done and we will find out." So he finishes his math and we open the boxes...and the pictures say it all :)

what?

new crabs! cool

wait a min. what's in here?

a baby clown fish :)

and now the hard part...floating and water exchange..

for those of you who look close this pic. is actually from him testing out large tank( different shirt) but I forgot to take a pic. of him testing his and I LOVE the concentration :)

tada! baby fish in tank :) and one happy boy.

And on to Wednesday.... story time :) they made jelly bean chicks that he ate :) After which we played a game of chess that lasted over an hour! I was in check after 5 min. Never let your guard down just because he is little; he is also vicious! I did end up winning but he is getting good at surveying the board before he moves :) Came home picked up his room and we played legos :) Then planted carrots in the garden.