Catholic Christian Homeschooling

Mealworms!

noreply@blogger.com (SAHMinIL) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:25:00 +0000

So we've completed chapter 3 of our science book "Behold and See 5". The lab works at the end of this chapter suggested we catch some animals, feed them, and observe their behavior for a period of time. Seeing its the dead of winter catching animals isn't the best option right now. The book did suggest if we can't catch any to buy some mealworms or crickets to watch, feed, and observe.

I chose mealworms over the crickets because with the mealworms we can watch metamorphosis take place. The beginning of the chapter dealt with metamorphosis so it seemed to be more fitting. Plus from reading the book taking care of the mealworms seemed like an easier task. Keep them in a jar with some dry oatmeal and with some fruits or vegetables.

I bought the mealworms at a local pet store just over a week ago. I bought 50 of them for just over $3. Several of them didn't "wake-up" after warming up. The pet store keeps them in the refrigerator and I was told to put them back in the refrigerator so they don't move around. Of course moving around is what I wanted so I didn't follow that advice.

We measure several of them last week when we bought them and the average length was about 1 cm. Now the average length is about 2 cm. We think we have lost about 20 of the 50 we started with, but are hopeful that several will make it adulthood. I'll have pictures to share in a future post about our mealworms.

Consuming Kids!

noreply@blogger.com (SAHMinIL) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:03:00 +0000

If you have just over an hour to spare I suggest you watch the video above! I watched it and was amazed on some of the things I was hearing and seeing. Then I started to wonder if my kids were "abnormal".

I say that because my kids still use make believe. They'll grab a stick and pretend it's a wand, sword, or whatever it is they want it to be at the time. However, the video gave me the impression that's abnormal compare to "today's kids". What's your thoughts about the video above? Is there truth in it? What are you doing in you home to help curb any of the effects advertising had on your children?

Digging, Reading, Baking, History.....

noreply@blogger.com (SAHMinIL) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:49:00 +0000

Thankfully Superstar is not sick and even though today is Martin Luther King Day we did school work today. This morning started off rough. Superstar had a bit of an attiude about math. He picked it as is first subject but started to cry over it because it was division. He really loaths division and if he had his way not do any.

I did allow him to pick a different subject to start with so after some science, history, and reading he decided to tackle those division problems. Thankfully the rest of the day for him went well, school was done for him by noon, and he got to enjoy the rest of his afternoon doing other activities.

Seeing I've split the kids up Superstar in the morning and Web-princess in the afternoon, Superstar is free to do other activities in the afternoon. He spent his time digging for dinosaurs bones (a kit he got for Christmas) and making corn bread to go with tonight's dinner.

He did these activities while Web-princess did some reading with the McGuffey reader and online tutor. I've only used the online tutor videos for two days now. I'm not sure if that's the direction I want to go to completely, but so far Web-princess does enjoy it. We've had the readers for a while now and have been using them. The tutor was something a friend of mine told me about. I've had the link for a while now and just started to use it. Web-princess also read some of her history text book while Superstar was busy being a baker!

Oh and if you use currclick and have any times in your wishlist go check them out. I got an email from currclick today saying that some of my items on my wishlist were on sale. One item on my wish list was $25 dollars but it was mark down to $2. So you know I got that today. I'll have to look it over more closely now that I have it, but I'm thinking I can use it for some American History in the near future.

Recap Of Our Week

noreply@blogger.com (SAHMinIL) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:05:00 +0000

Last week I shared how I was going to split the kids up and work with Superstar in the morning and Web-princess in the afternoon. It's only been one week, and Superstar has been sick for 1/2 of it so I haven't been able to really test it out. Although the days that I was able to follow this new schedule/routine it worked out pretty good. The house was quieter, there was less stress for everyone, and the days seemed to be more productive. Of course it will be only a matter of time before we know for sure.

I'm starting to miss my friends and our co-op. I-HOPE, the co-op, has been on break since the beginning of December and won't start back up until February. In the mean time I'm planning to meet up with some of the families before February if my kids are well enough.

Since Christmas we have been battling fevers, runs, vomit, etc. This week just happens to be Superstar's turn. The only symptoms he has had this week is sore throat and fever. Today is temp is closer to normal, but seeing he had a temp of 101-102 the previous 2 days I decided no school again for him today.

It's been a bummer for him seeing yesterday we FINALLY got snow fall and a good amount of snow too. The kids have been itching all winter for snow! Our first snow fall this winter season and Superstar is to sick to go out and play in it. Web-princess on the other hand has been enjoying the snow. I gave her a snow day yesterday and she spent the nearly the whole day outside in the snow. I could have done school, but honestly it would have been an battle seeing I know all they have wished for the last month now is for some snow to go play in.

SAHM ARE LAZY!!

noreply@blogger.com (SAHMinIL) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:55:00 +0000

Clearly I do NOT think that! Seeing I AM a SAHM! However there are some moms that do feel that way:

I'm in shock that we have come to the point where working mothers would label stay at home mothers lazy!! I'm not sure why they would label stay at home mothers as lazy.

The Comedy Mass

noreply@blogger.com (SAHMinIL) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 01:25:00 +0000

My kids and hubby made a video while I was out today. I think it's hilarious and I hope you feel the same way.

New Year, New Schedule, New Routines

noreply@blogger.com (SAHMinIL) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 03:42:00 +0000

Or at least that is the plan. I've been reading, my dear friend, Judy Dudich's book: I Surrender and have been participating in the discussion group on facebook.

Recently Judy mention, in the discussion, how she's been reconstructing her schedule and not doing "school" with a few of her children until the evening. This is because her family structure is such that it's easier for her to give more attention to those children in the evening. With 10 children I'm sure that makes more sense. In response several other moms mention they did similar things.

I may have only 2, but it gets difficult for me. Often Superstar is waiting for me to help him with one thing because I'm helping Web-Princess. Web-Princess has to wait for me because I'm helping Superstar. They get annoyed with each other and impatient. I'm jumping back and forth like a pinball and often feel bad because we get the bare minimum done. That's good, but I would like more. If only I could just focus on ONE.

Out of the two Web-Princess is the child that needs my help more because she's a struggling reader. I don't just want to focus on her I want to be there for Superstar. Jumping back and forth just isn't working. Some subjects go every fast others take longer. There is no way to really plan it well.

Judy's post, in the facebook group, was I light bulb moment for me! Why don't I just restructure our day and focus on just ONE child at the time. I'm not a very good morning person. It's a bit of a struggle for me to get into the grove of things. Superstar like to start first thing in the day and seeing he often doesn't need my help as much I figure I would focus on him in the morning. I can still get other things done, but be available for him when he needs it. So I could not only be there for him but get some housework done.

Then after lunch it will be Web-princess time to start school. By lunch Superstar should be done if not soonner and I'll have the rest of the afternoon to work with Web-princess. I choose to put her in the afternoon because she does require a lot more of my help and in the afternoon we'll have more time. Seeing it will be easier to work up to dinner if needed or pick it back up right after dinner and finish it up.

I don't foresee us going that late all the time but the possibility is there so I thought it was best to put her in the afternoon. The other bonus of putting her in the afternoon is that if Superstar gets done before lunch, whihc I see happening several days, I can start her early

I'm going to start this new schedule tomorrow and see how it goes!

We have some ovaries on our kitchen counter.

noreply@blogger.com (SAHMinIL) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 01:10:00 +0000

We've been working with our science material: Behold and See Science 5. The current topic we are working with is the anatomy of a flower. Our book describes the ovary as the part of the flower that will become fruit.

So my kids, thinking that it's funny, has decided to use the word when asking for the apples, oranges, or whatever other fruit we've had on hand this week. Mama can I have a red ovary? (apple). Mama can I have a orange ovary? (orange). We have NOT discussed human reproductive anatomy yet, so they have NO idea that this is a name of a female reproductive part. They just think it's a funny sounding word and are proud that they have understood the lessons.

They even said it public at the store today. Mama can we buy more red ovaries? I love that my kids are learning and absorbing the materials. It's good that they can look at the fruit and understand that when it was a flower that was the ovary and the seeds inside were the ovules.

However, given the word you can imagine why my face turned flushed at the store while doing a quick look around to see who heard and if they were given me some crazy looks.

It's beginning to look a lot like.....

noreply@blogger.com (SAHMinIL) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 15:47:00 +0000

Christmas! No, not really; or at least not in this house. We don't deck the halls until the 3rd or 4th Sunday of Advent. Seeing this pass Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent we won't decorate the house until Dec 11-18th. It however may end up being a bit later then that seeing the kids and I will be going to TX to visit my sister at Ft. Hood.

As many of my long time readers and friends know my sister was station in Iraq and during the course of her deployment her 3 (now 4 year old) son stayed with us part time. My nephew rotated homes on a 2 month rotation for the length of the deployment. 2 months here-2 months at my mom's house. My sister's deployment ended about month early due to an serious hand injury. In short 500lb fell unto her right hand causing serious damage -- damage that will take AT LEAST 1 year (if not more) to recover from.

She's been state side for little over a month now, perhaps 2 months. She was home for several weeks before my nephew was able to be transported down to TX to stay with her. My nephew has been in TX with his mom for about a month now. The kids are excited to be able to see Auntie and Little Man.

They are excited, but at the same time not thrilled with the idea of doing school work while in TX. My sister was not able to get block leave for when I'm going down; so she'll have to "work" Mon-Friday while I'm there. Seeing we will be on base the kids and I can't really do anything without her or my nephew with us; so I told them we'll do some school work while Auntie is working and Little Man is at school.

They aren't thrilled by it, but I had to reminded them that Daddy is taking nearly 2 week off over Christmas/New Years and we'll have NO School during that time. This is a first for us. Hubby has never had so much time off around Christmas/New Years. We have always done school minus the days that Hubby is home (Christmas Eve, Christmas Day; New Years Eve; New Years Day).

If I didn't make them do school while at Auntie's then it would mean they would have the whole month of December off and I couldn't just do that! I know many homeschooler do, but I can't do that. The more days off we have the harder it is for us to get into the grove again. So I really try to limit the number of days off.

Do you take days off during the month of December? Is your house beginning to look like Christmas? Do you celebrate Advent?

Who doesn't love a good deal?

noreply@blogger.com (SAHMinIL) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:46:00 +0000

Have you heard of nomorerack? I just heard about it this week via facebook. They basically every day have new deals that are posted (noon est) time that stays live till 11:59 (est) time the next day. Unless they sell out of the deal. Many of the products they offer are 75-90% below retail price. In addition to that they have what they are calling their INSANE deals.

Nomorerack insane deals show up on the homepage in a purple box and will have things like Kindle for $15. You never know when those deals will show up you would have to be able to visit the site often at various times through out the day to catch an INSANE deal. I haven't been able to catch an insane deal, but have heard about them after the fact.

Besides checking out the site at various times the best way to catch an INSANE deal is to register with the site that way if you happen to visit the site and see an insane deal you want you don't have to waist time registering. Registration is free. You have to register with the site in order to buy anything including the insane deals. Just thought you would like to know.

Yard Work!

noreply@blogger.com (SAHMinIL) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 22:31:00 +0000

Seeing it's fall and we are having warm weather today, warmer then what is normal for this time of year, the kids and hubby did some yard work. It's 65 outside! Hubby let the kids take control of the leaf blower and needless to say they had a little bit to much fun with it this afternoon. I don't think any real 'work' was accomplished.

Their goal was to get the leafs to the backyard near the burn pit. However the leafs really didn't get any where. At first they were just blowing the leafs with the leaf blower....towards the back yard, but seeing there is only one blower and two children they decided to come up with this lovely but not every practical way to work together.

Web-Princess blowing leaves into the wheelbarrow.

Yep, that's right they decided to blow the leafs into the wheelbarrow. Web-princess was able to get some leafs up into the wheelbarrow.

However after getting a few in she would try to blow more and end up blowing the leafs out of the wheelbarrow. Hubby decided to let them be and after an hour of doing this and getting nowhere they put away all the tools and told hubby they were done for today! HA-HA.

Hubby in his wisdom told the kids that was fine and thanked them for their help. While the kids were ~~playing~~ working I told hubby that in a few minutes you should have them do the work for real. He said no, I'll just let them be today. Sometimes it's just better to see them have fun then worrying about if it's done "correctly". We'll get the yard later. Besides I told Superstar I would play some yu-gi-oh with him and he's already been waiting long enough today for that. I rather do that with him then worry about the yard right now.

Thank-You Vets

noreply@blogger.com (SAHMinIL) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 03:04:00 +0000

Last Sunday coming home from church Superstar, my son, seen a sign that said "Thank-You Vets". In response to the sign he asked us "On what day do we honor veterinarians?". That made us chuckle. We explained to him that's NOT the type of VET the sign was talking about. We explained who the vets are and shared with him that Daddy, my husband, is a vet.

In honor of my husband we did not have school work today. Speaking of my husband my daughter, Web-princess, has a bit of my hubby's humor. Before leaving the house my hubby always tells the DOG to be good, no parties, don't eat the garbage, no girls can be over, etc. Well he does this only if everyone is leaving.

So this week while hubby was at work the kids and I were setting off to leave. My daughter told the DOG to be good, no parties, and no girls can be over especially POODLES!! I had the biggest belly laugh when she said that. I asked her why especially poodles. Her response was that they are especially "dangerous" with their fancy hair cuts, and "poofy" ankles. I guess they are a temptation that male dog can't resist?

Happy Veteran's Day!

Spelling Power

noreply@blogger.com (SAHMinIL) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:15:00 +0000

Spelling Power. Have you heard of it? Have you used it? Do you like it? What are your thoughts of the program? I was able to buy the book used along with the resource CD and quick start DVD. This is our second day of using it and so far so good.

The kids seem to enjoy it. Set up hasn't been to bad. We are still trying to get into the flow of it. I think things will move much smoother then they do now once we are use to the program.

Because of using this program I realized that my daughter doesn't use lower case letter or capital letters in the correct format. For example she'll right things like SEvEnTh. I've, also, noticed that certain letters like B, D, G, E, T are always written in the capital form. She did this before when working with spelling list, but I never really correct that, nor did I really pay attention to how often she did that. Spelling Power wants you to correct those kind of mistakes. So I've been correcting her. Luckily that doesn't bother her much. Hopefully it will stay that way.

We haven't done much "traditional" writing. I've let my kids over the last few years do writing on the computer, because I wanted to build on their computer skills. However now I'm seeing that perhaps that wasn't the wisest thing seeing their true writing and penmanship skills have suffered.

Do any of you have any suggestions for workbooks and activities to improve writing and penmanship for OLDER children?

He really does LOVE her!

noreply@blogger.com (SAHMinIL) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 20:20:00 +0000

My kids being 10 and 9 now! Wow 10 and 9 (Looking back at this blog it's hard to believe seeing when I started this blog and homeschooling they were 7 and 6.)

Anyway Superstar, 10, doesn't always want to admit that he does LOVE and care about his sister. He's never really mean to her, but doesn't want to hug or kiss her when she ask. Web-princess still like to give her brother hugs and kisses, but he hasn gotten to the point where he doesn't want to give back that type of affection, but his LOVE for her does come out. --like today--

Web-princess is sick. She has been complaining about a sore throat for a few days now and this morning starting vomiting. We attempt to make it to Mass seeing Superstar was schedule to serve, but when we arrived Web-princess ask to go to the bathroom and started vomiting (thankfully in the toilet). So I had to get Superstar tell him we are leaving; we can't stay because of Web-princess vomiting. (I also explain the situation to Father.)

We got home and Web-princess was vomiting some more. I'm helping Web-princess out and Superstar comes down to the bathroom and said here Sis. He hands her a small garbage can with a fresh, clean, garbage bag in it. As he handed it to her he said you can use this in the living room so you can watch cartoons and don't have to worry about getting to the bathroom.

See he really does care and loves her. I wish he would be willing to give her a hug every once in while so Web-princess will realize that he does, because that's how she shows love (and how she would like love given back).

Worms For Dinner!

noreply@blogger.com (SAHMinIL) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 00:38:00 +0000

Yuck!!! I know, but it's true we have been having worms for dinner guest for the last 2 nights! They also have been our breakfast and lunch guests as well. You know you're a homeschooler when the jar that hold the worms has been sitting on your kitchen table for the last few days, even during meal times and it doesn't wig you out! (In part because if we put them somewhere else we may just 'forget' about them!)

The kids just finished up chapter 1 of their science book, Behold and See 5. The topic of this chapter? Do you want to take a guess? (I'll give you a glue it has to do with our guests). The topic was the earthworm. We dug up earthworms from our yard Thursday afternoon and place them in a jar so we can observe them.

newspaper covering jar of worms

We decided to keep the jar covered in newspaper to help keep the jar dark and hopefully encourage the worms to tunnel at the edge of the jar were we could observe them. The book suggested this lab experiment. It said to feed the worms lettuce or apple peels and sprinkles of water. The book also suggested the filter on top to allow air in but keep flies and other pest out. The food would atract flies.

Jar without newspaper. The green stuff is lettuce.

We put all the dirt in first and then put the worms on top. We put in about 5-8 worms and had to remove 3 of them this morning because it was clear they didn't make it. We had a few we thought would be iffy on survival, but thought we would give them a shot. We for sure we have 2 left in the jar. Out of the two we have left (maybe more) we only have been able to observe one.

The one we have been able to observe has been hanging out at the edge of the jar. We have been able to see it eat and move along. I tried to get a close up of this worm, but it's a little hard to make out. I did my best to show you by circling where the worm is.

Thing inside the circle is the worm.

You can also see where this worm has been. The moisture trail that follows behind this worm shows you where he has been. In an attempt to show you this I have put red arrows in the picture below to point out the moisture and a purple line to show you the trail.

Archaeological Dig

noreply@blogger.com (SAHMinIL) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 23:51:00 +0000

Last Friday we had the opportunity to go to Shabbona Grove, IL for an archaeological dig. The dig is apart of the Shabbona Grove Archaeological Project. The kids along with other kids from I-HOPE were able to dig, clean artifacts, sift through the dirt, and later catalog items all under the watchful eye of Ms. Croyl.

SS digging on site.

When digging they were told to take small thin layers at a time. This was so they could tell what layer things came from. Also by digging small layers at a time if something clearly unusual pops up then we would see it. Like this red rubbery/plastic thing that we dug out.

unusual red rubbery/plastic thing

When we found something unusual like the red rubbery-plastic thing pictured above then we took measurements of where in the square it was and how deep it was from the surface. We also record it's orination: was it standing up? laying on it's side, etc. All of that data is recorded into a computer that will give a detail picture of the area.

The above are up-close pictures of that mysterious red thing we found. If you, dear reader, have any idea what it could be PLEASE let me know. Sometimes archaeologists find things they aren't exactly sure what it is, and it is the case with this red thing. So if you know please share! This could really help them date other artifacts that were found on the same level, such as a nails and Lincoln log. Lincoln logs go back to the 1916 closer to the time period they were hoping to find. So you never know....

When cleaning artifacts we found coal and bullet shell.

WP in red and friend cleaning artifacts

circled thing is a piece of coal

circled thing is a bullet shell

Side Notes: Yes I know WP (Web-princess)'s hair is SHORT! She had me cut it like that over the summer. It's longer now then it was, but still very short! Also please, if you have facebook, share I-HOPE's fan page with everyone. I'm trying to reach as many homeschoolers I can, especially local homeschoolers! I realize you may not be a local homeschooler, but given how paths can cross, because of social networks, you may know someone locally to me via the internet or your friends may know someone locally to me.

The co-op is new I started it last summer and I'm trying to grow it! Thanks a million for sharing the facebook fan page. Also all of the pictures belong to I-HOPE and were used with permission.

Green Eggs & Ham

noreply@blogger.com (SAHMinIL) — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 23:58:00 +0000

Little Man, my nephew, is going to be here for a few more days then he goes back to my mom's for her 2 months with him. Note For Newer Readers: My sister is serving in Iraq so her son, whose 3, has been living with us for some of the time and living with my mom for some of the time. It's on a 2 months rotation. She's been gone since Christmas 2010 and we hope she'll be home by this coming Christmas.

Seeing he's going back soon one of the many things the kids wanted us to do before he went back was to have green eggs and ham for dinner. So that's what I made tonight! To make the eggs green I added food coloring and spinach. Don't they look YUMMY?

Our Green Egg and Ham dinner!

It's okay if you say NO they don't look yummy, because honestly I didn't even want to eat them at first! However, I sucked it up and ate. Really they didn't taste bad it was just getting pass the visual. Little Man had a hard time getting pass the visual too. He begged me to make them and now that I had he didn't want to eat! So what did we do? Well we played the story for him. I found a clip on Youtube and played it!

Boy did that make a difference! Playing this clip 4 times in a row sure changed my little nephews tune about eating the green eggs and ham! Now that dinner is over he's chanting the story. I would not eat them here or there, not in car, not anywhere....

Not only did Little Man ate his meal but he covered his eyes just like the guy in the movie!! LOL

First Day Of 'School'

noreply@blogger.com (SAHMinIL) — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 21:38:00 +0000

Well our first day went fairly well. We got up this morning, went to Mass (church), then out to breakfast. Well the breakfast part was because the store I wanted to go to wasn't open yet and I needed 10 minutes to kill, so we went to the McD right next door.

After breakfast we went to the grocery store, came home put groceries away. Now putting groceries away at our house is a GAME!!! We shop at Aldi and I don't spend the extra money on bags (nor do I bring bags) everything has to be brought in a few items at a time by hand. The kids generally bring them in the front door, put it on the table, and then run out through the back door...the cycle goes on and on.

Here is a video I made back on April 2011. I made the video for my sister, who is STILL in Iraq, that is why at the end of the video WP said "I love you!" Also seeing the video was for Auntie they hammed it up bit for the camera.

After the grocery game the kids asked if they could go outside for a bit and play blind tiger. I agreed and off they went. Blind tiger is a game they play on the yard trampoline. I'm not sure of all the rules, because I think it was a game they made up, but one person is blind tiger (pulls their hat over their eyes so they can't see) and the others try to stay away from the blind tiger. The blind tiger CRAWLS while the others are free to walk, hop, crawl around. I think they play this on the trampoline, because it keeps the area the blind tiger has to hunt in "small". Especially seeing we have an 1/2 acre yard.

When that was done they came in and did the 3 subjects I had plan today. Math, World History, and Science. Would you believe it if I told you all of this took place BEFORE noon! Mass this morning was at 8 am, the store didn't open up till 9 am. It was 10:30 by the time we got home this morning and I think quarter to 11 when they decided to go out and play blind tiger. I'm not sure but I think they were back in the house by 11 to do the school work. So it took just about an hour to do those 3 subjects. Yes a light day, but we are just starting out this year. It will get longer and 'harder' as the year moves on.

Summer IS Over!!

noreply@blogger.com (SAHMinIL) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 21:46:00 +0000

Today is labor day, thus summer is over!! Well for many summer may have been over for while with the dawn of back to school time. I was going to start school here 2 weeks ago. I was set to go and everything, but hubby told the kids they didn't have to start school till after labor day and well that just trumped mommy's plans! The kids even told me so "Daddy's the principal and the principal is the teacher's boss, so you have to listen to daddy: No school until after labor day!"

We'll be starting off small this week the focus will be math, science, and world history. Next week I'll add in some spelling and grammar, and then a few more weeks after that I'll add some US history, writing, and reading. I'm really looking forward to this school year more so then in years pass. I think it's because I've found my groove in some ways.

I can't believe that summer is over! It went bad pretty fast. Between the 3 kids, weekly gathering with the homeschool group I started and talking to my sister via the computer all the time I just got burned out on blogging itself.

I'm looking forward to this Friday! I've made arrangement for the kids to work at a Real archaeological dig! So exciting! I'm ll be posting pictures and blogging about that for sure!

My Mommy going to be angry with you.....

noreply@blogger.com (SAHMinIL) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 13:42:00 +0000

That is what my nephew told me the other night when we sent him to bed a little early because of his behavior. He tried to play us. The kids asked him several times if he wanted ice cream. He said no. Once the kids were nearly finished their ice cream he right away said I want some. I told him no, because he was given a choice earlier and said no, so no ice cream tonight. He took it fairly well, even Superstar said. "Wow that went better then I thought it would".

Well it went well, because within 5 minutes of that he went to the my bedroom where my hubby was at and asked if he could have ice cream. Not only did he ask, but he told hubby don't tell Aunt Nikki. Well needless to say we don't tolerate those kind of things in this house. We don't tolerate it with our own children and we won't allow our nephew to play us like that either. So we sent him to bed early (20 minutes) as punishment for his behavior. That may seem steep to some, but it is what we did. In the course of getting him ready for bed, changing into PJ, etc. My nephew said to me: "My Mommy is going to be angry with you! When she gets back from work (Iraq) she's going to yell at you for sending me to bed early". I then, very lovely, informed my nephew that mommy left him here because she wanted me to take care of him and that she left me in charge, so that means she's NOT going to be angry at me.

My sister has been in Iraq for the last 6 months. Although she was home for 2 weeks the first part of July . As a matter of fact she went back this last Thursday. So I've only have had my nephew since Thursday. Prior to my sister return he was at my mom's house because it twas her time with him. My sister for this deployment thought it best that he bounce between both homes on a 2 month rotation.

My nephew has also made it clear that he wants back at Oma's house because we make him take naps here. Which from talking to my mom I know to be true. When it's 1 pm here it's nap time. I do go in and check on him 20-30 minutes after laying him down and if he was till awake I would let him up, but he has been out cold every day and has been sleeping till 4 pm.

His feet are still going strong!

noreply@blogger.com (SAHMinIL) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 22:34:00 +0000

Long time followers of my site may remember how Superstar, my son, had to have surgery November 2009 for ITW. He had cast on his feet till about New Years 2010. From New Years 2010 to about October 2010 he had to wear AFO on both of his feet.

I'm sharing that bit of background because we again today had to see the Pediatric Orthopedic Surgeon for another follow up. It has been about 6 months since our last follow up. At today's follow-up we were told to keep things that status quo and see you again in December.

Keeping things status quo means no braces (AFO) for at least the next 6 months! By the time this December rolls around it would have been 25 months post surgery and 14 months of no AFO. Superstar STILL toe-walks, but it's only about 10-15% the time unlike pre-surgery when it was 100% of the time. It's for this reason we have to continue to see the surgeon to monitor his range of motion etc. If Superstar start to loose his range of motion or if he starts to toe-walk majority of the time then he will have to be put back into AFOs.

Edit: I originally said 48 months post surgery... where was my brain? It should have read 25 months. I fixed it!

We've gone mobile and other news.

noreply@blogger.com (SAHMinIL) — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 21:34:00 +0000

I have updated Catholic Christian Homeschooling so that when you visit this blog from a mobile device you will see a mobile version of the blog! I hope that you will enjoy and be sure to give me your feedback on it!!

In other news: We are STILL plugging away with our studies. We have math and spelling work to finish up and if everything goes well we should be done with those subject by the end of the month.

This weekend we are participating in a charity walk: "Rock the Curve Walk" for Scoliosis. The little girl that founded the Northern Illinois Curvy Girl Group is a dear friend of my children. Her family is a member of our church and she and Superstar were in the same 1st grade class when Superstar attended public school. We are very happy to be supporting Julia and all the curvy girls this Sunday via the walk. We raised over $100 in sponsorship for the walk. My family and friends are just awesome! Now we just have to hope for beautiful weather.

Speaking of weather what is it like in your neck of the woods? At the beginning of the week we had temps approaching 100. However we had a huge storm front that came through here Wednesday night dropping the temps down into the 50s! It's been so cold here yesterday and today that I'm actually wearing sweat and a sweater! I'm really not complaining because we do NOT have A/C so I'm truly thankful for the cooler temps! It's wonderful really!!!

Happy Summer!
Nikki

Homeschooling is SO disappointing!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (SAHMinIL) — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 17:01:00 +0000

In the car on the way home from having dinner at my grandparent's house.

Superstar: It's so disappointing.
Me: What's disappointing?
Superstar: Homeschooling!
Me: Why is homeschooling disappointing?
Superstar: There are NO snow days! There is NO reason to watch the news. I remember watching the news waiting for the Rs. My heart would start to race, the thrill of hearing there was no school. It's all gone now!

Yes, we are approaching the summer months and my son is reflecting on the absence of snow days thanks to homeschooling!! LOL

Love A Good Book Sale!!

noreply@blogger.com (SAHMinIL) — Mon, 23 May 2011 16:20:00 +0000

Love a good book sale. My favorite tends to be first day of our local library's book sale. First day it's $5 per grocery bag, second day $3 per grocery bag, and the last day $1 per grocery bag. Of course the last day is the "cheapest" money wise, but the selection is nearly always picked over and I don't get as many books I truly want.

So we went to opening day within the second hour. Selection was still fair. I got a grocery bag full of books for $5. Many of the book would have cost me $5 each new!!!

pile of books I got for $5

Score! However the BIGGEST score we received that day was an 1993 encyclopedia set for $10!!! Yep that's right I got the complete encyclopedia set for the rock bottom price of $10

The blue set is the new ones we got for $10.
The other set below it is from the 1960's and belong to my grandmother.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, IT!!

Giveaway: Math Blaster WINNER!!!

noreply@blogger.com (SAHMinIL) — Thu, 19 May 2011 14:40:00 +0000

Last night the giveaway for Math Blaster-6 month membership ended. It's time to post the winner!!! We had 8 comments on the original post, but only 7 people wanted to be in the drawing. So I put in starting number 1 ending number 7 in random.org number generator and this is what it came up with.

This means the last person that replied "Chip" is the winner!!!!!!

Congratulations Chip!!!!!

I will be emailing you shortly!