We made it to Arkansas! Had a very nice drive here. The dog traveled much better than I anticipated. As did the kids for the most part.
We had a wonderful Christmas. It turned out to be a white Christmas for us. Started raining late Christmas Eve and continued through Christmas morning. By that afternoon it had turned to snow. Great big flakes of snow! and LOTS of it! In fact, it has been a record snow for this area. My kids are LOVING it! They had never seen snow till now. They are getting their fill of it now. I wanted to post pictures, but the only internet we have access to is moving extremely SLOWLY right now. I guess the pictures will have to wait.
My kids have been spending time playing video games with their cousin and their older cousin's boyfriend. Some of the games they are playing have language that I am not thrilled with. Hoping they will not choose to study vocabulary from those games! If they do they will find themselves in big trouble! We just might have to end up having a homeschool language arts lesson!
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Friday, December 21, 2012
Round 'Em Up an Herd 'Em Out!
Tomorrow is the day we leave on our trip! All week has been a mad scramble to get ready! You might be wondering what in the world we needed to do to get ready. Well, for one thing, we live in sunny FL. We are in shorts and tank tops nearly year round and only have like about 2-3 days out of the year when it is actually cold enough to need a jacket. But we are headed to Arkansas where it is going to be cold. Even to those of you who know what cold is! We needed some winter type clothes before we headed up there. To that end, we have been making frequent trips to the thrift store.
Also, we had doctor appointments for kids who have been coughing for way too long. Two out of my three kids are now on antibiotics. There have also been Christmas meals to attend and shopping to get stuff to make the special recipes to bring to those and the time in the kitchen cooking the special recipes. Not to even mention all the loads of laundry and packing and dropping off critters to be babysat while we are gone. Making special Christmas gifts to bring for family and then wrapping Christmas gifts. Whew! No wonder I'm so tired!
So when you are heading out on a long road trip with three kids and a dog, it's good to have a game plan for the drive. Our game plan is to listen to audiobooks. In particular, "The Lord of The Rings" trilogy. I've been trying to get my family to read these books for years. So this is my chance to finally get them to enjoy them as much as I do! It may or may not increase my kids' reading comprehension, but it will certainly make the drive more enjoyable. My husband says that audiobooks put him to sleep when he is driving, so we will only be able to listen when I am driving. I may have to do most of the driving just so we can listen! LOL I don't plan on there being any roadschooling happening on this trip. Unless it happens accidentally!
Also, we had doctor appointments for kids who have been coughing for way too long. Two out of my three kids are now on antibiotics. There have also been Christmas meals to attend and shopping to get stuff to make the special recipes to bring to those and the time in the kitchen cooking the special recipes. Not to even mention all the loads of laundry and packing and dropping off critters to be babysat while we are gone. Making special Christmas gifts to bring for family and then wrapping Christmas gifts. Whew! No wonder I'm so tired!
So when you are heading out on a long road trip with three kids and a dog, it's good to have a game plan for the drive. Our game plan is to listen to audiobooks. In particular, "The Lord of The Rings" trilogy. I've been trying to get my family to read these books for years. So this is my chance to finally get them to enjoy them as much as I do! It may or may not increase my kids' reading comprehension, but it will certainly make the drive more enjoyable. My husband says that audiobooks put him to sleep when he is driving, so we will only be able to listen when I am driving. I may have to do most of the driving just so we can listen! LOL I don't plan on there being any roadschooling happening on this trip. Unless it happens accidentally!
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Meanwhile, In Our World This Week!
Last week I shared about how we are fighting colds in our house. Things haven't gotten any better so yesterday I took RoboBoy to the doctor. He's been complaining that his ear hurts and is all plugged up. Sure enough, the doctor confirmed that he has an ear infection. I will be taking the other two to the doctor next week. They couldn't get them in any sooner than that. Praying that soon the dueling coughs will stop in our house!
We have also been working to save up and get prepared for a trip to Arkansas to spend the week of Christmas with my family. The plan is to drive with 2 teenagers, 1 pre-teen and a dog! It's doubtful that MyHero and I will have any remaining sanity by the time we arrive at my parents' home. It's a little over 18 hour trip, which we will break up into two days of driving.
In the meantime, I've been trying to get in as many hours of work as I can. With gas prices being what they are, it's going to take all that we can save up to make this trip! Praise God that I am able to help contribute to that! I can't remember if I've mentioned on here that I work from home as a contractor for Time4Learning.com. It's the perfect job for a homeschooling mom.
One of my responsibilities is to author two blogs for them. On one of them, Time4Learning Community Blog, I share the writing responsibilities with two other lovely ladies. The other one, Parenting In An Electronic Age, I author on my own.
In my last post for the Electronic blog, I actually wrote about teaching kids to write! If you are quaking at the thought of trying to teach your kids how to put together compositions that make sense, then you might want to check this post out. I give several suggestions for motivating kids to write including having them take a blog writing course. You might also check out some online writing ideas.
The other way that I have been able to bring in a small bit of income has been via my crochet business. I have been crazy busy working to get orders done before Christmas. I believe that I have all my Christmas orders finished, but am now working on some very special "Look Alike" crocheted dolls for a friend of mine. She asked me awhile ago to make these dolls to match each member of her family. I will eventually post pictures of them. Right now they are bald and Fashionista says they look like monkeys. I'm going to have lots of fun personalizing each of these dolls to match the person they are to look like.
We have also been working to save up and get prepared for a trip to Arkansas to spend the week of Christmas with my family. The plan is to drive with 2 teenagers, 1 pre-teen and a dog! It's doubtful that MyHero and I will have any remaining sanity by the time we arrive at my parents' home. It's a little over 18 hour trip, which we will break up into two days of driving.In the meantime, I've been trying to get in as many hours of work as I can. With gas prices being what they are, it's going to take all that we can save up to make this trip! Praise God that I am able to help contribute to that! I can't remember if I've mentioned on here that I work from home as a contractor for Time4Learning.com. It's the perfect job for a homeschooling mom.
One of my responsibilities is to author two blogs for them. On one of them, Time4Learning Community Blog, I share the writing responsibilities with two other lovely ladies. The other one, Parenting In An Electronic Age, I author on my own.
In my last post for the Electronic blog, I actually wrote about teaching kids to write! If you are quaking at the thought of trying to teach your kids how to put together compositions that make sense, then you might want to check this post out. I give several suggestions for motivating kids to write including having them take a blog writing course. You might also check out some online writing ideas.
The other way that I have been able to bring in a small bit of income has been via my crochet business. I have been crazy busy working to get orders done before Christmas. I believe that I have all my Christmas orders finished, but am now working on some very special "Look Alike" crocheted dolls for a friend of mine. She asked me awhile ago to make these dolls to match each member of her family. I will eventually post pictures of them. Right now they are bald and Fashionista says they look like monkeys. I'm going to have lots of fun personalizing each of these dolls to match the person they are to look like.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Fighting the Creeping Crud
I love this season! Love having our Christmas decorations out and seeing homes lit up with Christmas lights. Love getting cards from friends and loved ones in the mail, watching Christmas movies and spending time with MyHero and our kids.
Unfortunately, this is also the season for colds! It seems that there has been an epidemic of colds in our area and we haven't been spared. My kids have all seem to have come down with the creeping crud. RoboBoy sounds terrible with a croupy sounding cough and Fashionista isn't sounding much better.
When they are sick like this, it makes it very difficult to get them to do school work. I can understand that. When I'm sick, I don't want to do much of anything either. This might be a good time to relax and watch educational videos together or have them do some math games.
Unfortunately, this is also the season for colds! It seems that there has been an epidemic of colds in our area and we haven't been spared. My kids have all seem to have come down with the creeping crud. RoboBoy sounds terrible with a croupy sounding cough and Fashionista isn't sounding much better.
When they are sick like this, it makes it very difficult to get them to do school work. I can understand that. When I'm sick, I don't want to do much of anything either. This might be a good time to relax and watch educational videos together or have them do some math games.
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