Eight Things....

thanks Ang-and look a new post (just want you wanted for Christmas!)
Eight Shows That I Watch:
1. Grey's Anatomy-yum-0!
2. Mythbusters (I'm such a nerd!)
3. Good Eats-(NerdX2).
4. MASH (see the trend!)
5. Private Practice
6. The News
7. Dirty Jobs
8. A Baby Story-ohhhhhhhh
Eight Places I love to Eat:
1. The Indian place in Newtownabbey-too bad it's only like 3500 miles away!
2. Empress of China-can you say Crab Rangoon?
3. Los Compadres
4. Olive Garden (I blame Ang for my addiction to the Alfredo steak with blue cheese)
5. The Melting Pot
6. JOe's
7. Texas Road House
8. Our Best (new fav)
Eight Things that Happened to Me Today
1. I got up!
2. Thanked God for my gifts!
3. Talked to my Mom
4. Went to THREE grocery stores to look for red food coloring (I know, in this house?)
5. Baked 2 (count them-2) red velvet cakes (see above-it's good when a red velvet cake is red-KWIM?)
6. God Mom's gifts.
7. Had lunch at Los Compadres (fed the big kid and myself for all of 8.11)
8. fixed the printer (or something like that!)
Eight Things I look forward to:
1. God blessing us with another babe.
2. Doing little girl hair
3. My child knowing God.
4. grandkids
5. more reading-books, books, books!
6. Getting to know God better and better.
7. Time with friends
8. Being "home" someday.
Eight Things I pray for:
1. That my kid(s) will know God on a personal level and serve him!
2. For those families who do know have what they need.
3. That my son will find a Godly wife (not anytime soon!)
4. Thos who do not know God.
5. For O to come to know God.
6. For my unsaved family members.
7. For peace in Northern Ireland and for Christian love to rein!
8. For forgiveness and better choice making in the future!
Merry Christmas to all!
Michele

Tuesday

Today is Tuesday and election day! We are very excited in our house as we like to watch CNN and follow the political! We went early this AM to vote, only to find a line of people. Maybe this is not odd most places, but in our small little town it is. I took DS with me as I think it is very important for him to learn about the Freedom of our country and its importance.
Tonight for school/afterschooling:
1. Read Ferdinand the final time and review the highpoints of our week.
2. Read about trees and leaves (this fits with our weekend trip to the nature center at Clifty Park) for science.
3. E has a science and a religion test for school tomorrow (CS not HS).
4. Practice the first line in the E's new piano song and practice sight reading the first and second lines.
5. Practice spelling words.
Wow=I can't wait til we can HS fulltime!
Michele

Our Monday

Today was our applied math day. We got (WOW) a really cool Carrickfergus Castle ruler in the mail from our friend Fiona and crew in N. Ireland. (I think it HAD to be a God moment to come today just when I was wondering where to find a ruler in this house for our lesson! PTL!). We read the book again and then talked about the two sides of the ruler and then looked at the inches and the fact that 12 m ake one foot. We measure the book and found it was about eight inches on each side. He wasn't as excited about measuring as I thought he would be.
Til t omorrow.

Well......

here it is Sunday and our HS plans have not gone as planned. Day one went great! Day 2 we did the oral LAs but still need to do the copywork and talk about what type of story Ferdinand is. We will do that today after CCD. Today is art day, so we are going to look at Vista del Toledo by El Greco (Spanish painter) and then after doing our picture study we will try to paint a building with wavy lines and dark colors (just like El Greco). We are also going to look for examples of humor in the artwork in the book. For drama we will act out some of the scenes from various points of view.

Here are our plans for the rest of the week:
Day 4: Science: we will read about cork trees, trees in general (fits with our Cub Scout theme this month), make leaf rubbings, talk about how to tell the age of a tree, visit our local state park and nature center etc.

Day 5: Applied Math:
We are going to learn how to measure things using inches and feet.

Wish us luck!

Our Week With Ferdinand

Wow-we are rowing our very first book from FIAR Volume 2! As we have family living in Spain (a US expat) this seems like a good first choice. Oh, and the fact that we already had this book too!

Day 1: Social Studies
a. We read the book
b. We talked about the capital of Spain, the leaders, 3 major products, looked at pictures of Spain on the internet, found Spain on a map and talked about "neighbour" countries.
This week we will also color a Spanish flag for our lap book (our first one ever!)

Day 2: Social Studies
a. Read the book
b. We have talked about three types of sentences, identified them, made up our own and talked about what goes at the end of each.
c. We talked about repeating words in stories and thought about what repeated in our book this week.

Day 3: Art
1. We will read the book
2. Talk about the art of Dali (Spanish artist).
3. Look at a Dali work and do picture study (our first time!).
4. Talk about Humor in the book's art.

Day 4: Applied Math
1. Read book.
2. We are going to talk about how to measure using feet and inches.

Day 5: Science
1. Read book.
2. Talk about cork trees
3. Talk about treees

The Story About Ping

This week we are "rowing" The Story About Ping. Our activities have been short because we are playing catch-up with 3R school work from CS.
Day 1: Social Studies:
We read the book and then read another book about the Great Wall of China. The second book was in story format and I'm not sure how much DS retained. We talked about China and it's capital, the fact that the Olympics just took place there, the river and why it is yellow. We also talked about clothing and the eyes on the boats. We talked about why Ping got " a spank on the back" and also the kindness of the little boy in the book. We also talked about what it means to live in a free country.
Day 2: Language Arts:
Today we are talking about repeating words and sentences in a story and what they do. We will also look for this topic as we read. We will also review the setting of the story and find China on our map.
Til next time!
Michele

Still icky!

I feel so awful for DS. We are almost 48 hours post T and A and he is still feeling really punk. Poor kid. His ears hurt. His throat hurts. His tummy hurts. He was up and down all yesterday evening and night getting sick. Hard to do when you have not had anything by mouth in a couple of days. We are close to the 48 hour mark where not drinking becomes a massive issue. We do NOT want to end of back at the hospital with an IV again. Still, this child has a will of steel when he doesn't want to do anything. Prayer would be great! He needs to drink and drink lots and soon!
Michele

Not so much candy floss and farrie cakes today

Poor kid. DS had his tonsils out yesterday. He's "fine" but took forever to wake up post op. He does NOT want to drink and is getting "sick". Oh, and the little dear lost a tooth in recovery too! He was a real troupper (sp?). More when I have a chance to sit and write!
Off to poke fluids in the little guy!
Michele

Sunday, Sunday

Good morning! We're off to Sunday School, Mass and then our Church picnic. Before any of this can happen I have to get DS1 out of bed-my bed. You know, one of those nights where before you know it you're bed is taken over by a creature that seems much larger, and must way much more than your child. Said creature kids, rolls and pushes all night. If I was thinking, I would have moved to his bed! As soon as DS is up and dressed, then we are going to Wally World. Mama needs to get stuff to take the the picnic. I'm making our friend Debbie's fantastic fruit salad.

Today is applied math day at our homeschool/afterschool. We are learning about tally marks and counting to 37 (a review). Math class will take place in the sandbox after the church picnic. After math we are going to work on spelling words and piano practice. Finally we are going to my Mom and Dads for tea tonight.
Michele

Day Two With Mike

Today is language arts day with our FIAR book of the week, Mike Mulligan. Today we are talking about the new vocabulary terms in our book. These terms include: coal bunker, constable, and industrial revolution. We are also talking about onomatopoeia and making a list of words from the book and from life that feature this linguistic element. Last night we used our Usborne book of World History to read about factories in the Industrial Revolution. Tonight we are talking about towns and life during this period of history. We are also reading an addition book by the author called "The Little House". In just a bit we are going to go downtown to look at machines and the old caboose. We will also talk about the differences between our town and a big city and compare these to the big city and small town in the book. We are also talking about the repetition in the text.

Mike Mulligan: Day 1

Today I decided that the "perfect" curriculum that I paid WAY too much money for, was just not for us right now. Now, I have NO doubt that we'll read our way through these books at sometime. Sometime is just now right now. So, it's back we go to FIAR. This week we are "rowing" (Five in a Row term for reading a book five days in a row!) Mike Mulligan and His Steam Engine. This week is my "can I do it?" sample week to see how we'd feel about HSing again one day in the future. With the "perfect" curriculum I was worried that DS was missing out on the fun of learning. FIAR is perfect, gentle and enjoyable. We LOVED doing Before Five in a Row as one year of pre-school. We can't wait to see what this sample week brings.

Today we focused on Social Studies/Character traits:

1. We read the book.

2. We talked about personification and looked for signs of personification of Mary Ann. We found that in the illustrations she has a "mouth, eyes, and hair". She also has a name. We also talked about the vocabulary terms: cellar, constable, and coal cellar.

3. Tomorrow we are going into town to see if we can find examples of personification. I think we'll look for boat names at the river. We will also try to see if we can see the old Caboose at the historical society. We're also going to use our sand box to take 37 truck loads of sand and see how big of a pile it makes (making tally marks to keep track). We are also going to "dig" a square cellar in our sand box.

4. This week we are also talking about the Industrial Revolution, steam power, solids, liquids, and gases with water, vocabulary terms from the book, counting and tally marks and much more! Come join us!

Michele

Have A Different Kid by Friday

Okay, so I decided that it is time to do something with Mr. E's 'tude. I'm reading and applying the ideas in this book by Dr. Kevin Leman. Come along for the journey with us! BTW, E is a great kid, he just is a very strong thinker (translation: I'll do it my way!), which is great for an adult, but not so great for a six year old.
Day 1 (Tuesday): While home for a Dr's apt (I have an ear infection :), I decided to stop by my local Christian bookstore to see if they had this book. I read alot of it in the dr's office. The basic idea is be 100 consistant with your child, say things one time, and the one that I really like: make sure your child feels connected. This is really important to me.
In practice:
The first time I asked E to do something he wandered off. 5 minutes later he needed something and I told him no. fit. meltdown (small). I walked off. I asked him: why do you think I said no? I don't like being treated like that. He wandered off. Finally I got the task that I wanted and he got his snack (an hour and a half late). We had a couple of other "issues" last night. This is good practice right?
Day 2: (Part 1):
Ethan was very tired from going out with Nana and Papa last night. I told him he could take his bath this AM. He got up (no fussing!), got in the tub and took his bath. I handed him his clothes and said "go get dressed". He did! WOW! I'll post more later tonight!
xoxo,
Michele

Hard work!

This parenting stuff is hard work! You'd think I would already know that having been a mommy for six years now. I do know this. This AM I was reading Kerrie's Journey to Mommyhood and she was stating this in a far better way. As part of her post she encouraged Mamas to blog about the good and the bad. We've had a tough morning here-not really the stuff that Fairrycakes and Candyfloss is made of! Ethan has such an issue with tooth-brushing that I finally lost it and s tarted to brush his teeth myself. In the process I knocked out a very lose tooth-one that he wanted to save for his beloved Miss Kristy to pull! Miss Kristy is the tooth-puller for the whole of the primary school! Many tears later (and one tooth less) he is more or less okay about things-and glad the tooth fairy will be making a visit tonight. Never did finish brushing those teeth. What is it with ASD kids and their mouths? I am being really awful and letting him watch WonderPets in his room-bad Mama I know. But after fighting him to get dressed (we're half way there), put lotion on, put hair lotion on, brush teeth etc I'm just too t ired! We love our kids all the time-but we can sure get angry at them. I so relate to w hat Kerrie said about others responses to our being tired: You picked this. Would you ever say that to a married couple? To a birth parent ? Agreeing to blog about the good (and there is lots of it) and the bad!
Michele

Middle Name Meme

Thanks Ang! Feel better soon! Okay,, so here are the rules: Take your middle name and come up with something which tells us about you for each letter!
M-mouthy!
I-in need of God
C-cheese lover (cheesy, I know!) How about some good N. Irish cheese?
H-helper
E-educates (or at least tries to!)
L-lover of books (what, did you think I was gonna say?)
E-eater of all things good

Okay, so I tag: Sra, Lori, and anyone else reading this!
Off to take care of the boy-o who is not feeling well-o!
xoxo,
Michele

Here I Am!

Hey Lori and Angie-Note that I've done my homework. Now all the two of you need to do is find me a "sweet" backdrop!