Yesterday we got our christmas tree and today was decorating day. Although a wee bit stressful, the tree looks lovely. We are now officially in the holiday spirit.

After some crazies and grumpiness we settled into the day about 1pm. I want to rearranging and cleaning and big daddy was cleaning out his closet. I went down stairs and the monkey was listening to a book on tape looking out the front window drawing a still life of the items on the front porch. For some reason this was a proud moment for me. With my back ground in art it warms me to see my son voluntarily finding an artistic moment and acting on it. It was on a lined notebook and a loose sketch but none the less it was wonderful.

While the monkey was doing this my lovely bean in true form was breaking stuff. Unfortunately today she hurt herself but bounced back quickly.

I am thinking I may be a person who needs to map out my week. I have traditionally been a fly by the seat of my pants kind of gal but that was more conducive to my on-call lifestyle. As I step back from that craziness I am finding that it is easier to plan things and actually preferable. So now I need systems in place to get things going and working. But first I need order and cleanliness. On that note I am off to clean.

I know my limits.

Wednesday I had a fairy playdate for the bean.

We decided to make cookies - me and three 4 year olds making cookies. I am aware that I have control issues occasionally but they are usually not focused on doing things with the kids. Writing, art, even cleaning their rooms - I am pretty chill. But I have met my limit with cooking. I cannot cook with my or other children without getting twitchy. I love to cook and bake. I cannot even cook with my husband most of the time without a little bickering.

There was flour everywhere, everyone wanting to use the rolling pin and roll everything paper thin or cutting out monstrously thick cookies so some burn and some are underdone. Oh my goodness.

Luckily, I was able to identify my twitchies and step away and let the ladies do their thing. I came back to a mountain of flour and some messy ladies but they had fun. And inthe end they were all totally jacked up on sugar from the frosting.

A good day.

Tuesday Free Day

Every other Tuesday I get four hours without my children whom I love dearly but eventually need a break from. Today is my Tuesday.

It has given me something to look forward to everyday. It is like a mini christmas.

Today I am going to go sit in the dry sauna and read (maybe fall asleep since i hardly slept last night). I am going to try to get a chunk of the kids Christmas shopping done. Go to the bank and if there is time slowly peruse the racks at Value World.

Ahhh....quiet sanity for a time.

side note - almost the entire time i have been typing this the monkey has been giving me his dissertation on Playmobil weaponry

Life Learning - I like that better then Homeschooling

This fall seems to have been the season for me to get into my "homeschool" groove. It has helped tremendously to have met some lovely ladies with boys my age and to have found a group that meets weekly for regular activities.

I realized that like most things homeschooling is so much better when you have a tribe, for me and for my kids. I especially have been blessed with a little fairy who has taken my by the hand and made this year so enjoyable and shown me so many resources like this wonderful one. I linked it to the page with the awesome educational card games that I want to start collecting.

We have gotten into the groove of books on tape which has been wonderful. The monkey and I really love them and the Bean.....not so much at this moment. We have listened to The Penderwicks (i loved this one), How to Eat fried Worms (an oldie but a goodie), Pipi Longstocking, Superfudge (i was disappointed to find that they de-bunk Santa but I think the Monkey missed it) , Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great, Ramona Quimbly Age 8, Ramona and her Mother, Toys Go Out (al three of us liked this one), I feel like a am missing a few but right now we are listening to Whittington.

We are also working our way through the Little House series. We started with Farmer boy as suggested by a friend. We are about to finish Little House in the Big Woods and move to Little House on the Praire by Thanksgiving. It is very inspiring to go back to simple living.

I recently made an order to Singapose Math. We got the first math text and work book that was way to simple for the Monkey when we got it so the Bean is working on it. It is going well, she likes ot have her own workbooks. I also ordered their English Grammar book that we are working our way through and seem to like. The Monkey does a journal entry every morning and I pick 2-3 vocabulary words for him to copy from his entry. I really like this exercise but he does not feel so fondly about it to say the least. (oh, the drama) I also picked up a collection of basic science books that is good at covering the basics and filling in some holes that the Monkey may be missing.

We have also found the best website ever for kids - BrainPop and BrainPopjr. We signed up for a year and we have already gotten our moneys worth. We are a family that uses the computer and I feel it is a great tool for learning. The monkey will spend good chunks of time just wandering through learning about this and that. It is a great jumping off point for many topics of discussion. In the Health category there is a section there are many topics that you would think would be there but there are also bits on internet safety, relationships and even divorce. The last topic I really appreciated how they covered this topic. I have talked to the Monkey before about the divorce but it seemed to sink in a bit further with the websites presentation. (it was very well done)

As always the Monkey is asking for more and more science. BrainPop seems to fill that need when he has an itch for new information. This winter will be the season for busting out the microscope and discovering the micro world around us. I am reading Good Germs, Bad Germs by Jessica Snyder Sachs. It has my brain buzzing with amazing information and I am still on chapter one. I am slowly going through this chapter because it covers the initial colonization of the human body at and after childbirth. So cool and fascinating how the system has come up with its own perfect way of working and protecting itself over time evolving with microorganisms. I am taking the time to let it sink in and work through in my head how this process is getting completely thrown out of whack by modern obstetrics. Maybe just maybe it could be one of the reasons we have chronic immune disorders, so many more allergies, and who knows what else. It covers beautifully how the body is built to fight against the infection of Gonorrhea, Clymidia and Group B strep in the newborn at chilbirth - the wonderful Lactobaccili which feed on the sugary glycogen that the vaginal environment starts producing midway through the pregnancy. There is so much more in this book that is opening so many new strains of thought for me. It is mind candy :)

In other exciting kid news we have discovered the wonder of Playmobil. I am in love. One thing that is great is that both kids can have their sets and build on them be it princesses or roman warriors but they can be played with together and interchangeably. We had done that with our mishmosh of toys over the years but it works better when they are all the same kind of toy. I may be a toy snob here but it just flows better. AND they are affordable! I feel like I can pop out and get the kids a treat of a new Playmobil thing for $8.

My plan is to update here on our travels as Life Learners and for the family update thing. I should try to update everyday - I make no promises but I shall try.

(btw- if you read the last post you would have noticed that i did not quite follow my "curriculum" that I came up with- we ditched time4learning and then found BrainPop. This is an ever changing path for us and we seem to be taking awhile to get our sea legs but my homeschool fairy has helped greatly! We did finish the Bone series as far as it is available at this time and are eagerly awaiting the release of book 9 in 2009)