September 11-12

There are days when you question your parenting and days when you rejoice in it. Tuesday was more of the former and less of the latter. We are still trying to drum through our twins’ VERY thick heads that listening to Mommy and Daddy and telling the truth right off the bat is the best choice. We still stand by that if you tell the truth and come to us then the punishment will diminish or in many cases there will NOT be a punishment. Sadly after acting up the day before and losing their computer time they still felt the need to tell fibs, disregard instructions and generally be difficult. The punishment – they lost almost half a day to time outs and went to bed immediately after dinner missing out on popcorn and movies with the 3 littles. 

Movie time

I am very thankful that we managed a productive morning. With Ken freed up from his search and code work he took over the Minnesota unit and they blasted through portions of it. Yours truly is working on talking to other homeschooling families via egroups to find some good affordable/free areas to visit that are not too far away. I have already started talking via email with a lovely and helpful momma here in Minnesota who is a fountain of information. 

Emanuel’s Minnesota colouring page

Trinity practicing her Y’s

I made up a special counting game for Trinity to practice her numbers 1-10. It is a great print out you can find HEREcalled Lickety-Split Numbers Craft. Anything I can find to get her interested and practicing! 

Just need to glue some stiff cardboard to the back

So with our absolute shut down on the twins that was the end of that. I am hoping that the fact that when we punish we follow through and are absolute will lead the boys to altering their behaviour. This is something I really appreciate about homeschooling. When there is an issue I can stop the world and deal with it. Not worry about others and continuing the day. 

Filling the spare time with a kitty picnic

My laundry helper

Wednesday was an overcast and rainy day so really we were stuck indoors. On the plus side the boys kept working on Minnesota with Ken and we FINALLY got in time making our twirling toys science craft! They all had a blast dropping them over the railing.

The lesson

The application

Then there was our trip out to Jo-Ann’s. A homeschool mom alerted me to the fact that as a homeschooling mom I can qualify for the teacher’s discount – 15% off entire purchase, coupons and sales included! All we had to do was take in our intent to homeschool forms and BINGO! That meant that I had a 50% off coupon for a regular priced item and then got stuff on sale and on top of that 15% off. So we got another ball of yarn to complete Ken’s scarf, some Halloween themed stickers (to begin the rebuilding of the Halloween stash), and a Perler bead idea book all for 5.00! Then when we got home the kids set to work with the beads. 

Beading

Ken had ANOTHER set of code to make up Wednesday night… not going to put those eggs all in one basket so until there is a guaranteed job he keeps the looking and code writing and interviewing. I have great faith in Ken and his abilities and really appreciate all the prayers and positive thoughts and networking everyone is doing for and with us! 

I am on the hunt for Fall crafts, ways to get Trinity going and confident and of course… affordable fun! I am hoping to have more links to share! I have added All Kids Network to my links for Homeschooling. They are becoming a great resource for some crafty ideas. As always there are my favourites – Education.com AND Activity Village! If you know of any links you just can’t school/live/craft without – please send them my way!

Our baby and her kitties

Today we worked on what I consider to be a VERY important and relaxing skill – sewing… a basic embroidery stitch really and an opener to next week (I hope) and the big project – a first cross stitch! Can you feel my excitement? There are potentially two more stitchers (immediately at least) in the house ready to go!! Time to pass along what my mom taught me as a child. Want to make your own felt leaves? Try this link!

Leaf making supplies

Busy stitchers

We had our Stuart Little chapter as well in which he is rescued… of course after his brother George goes off on endless tangents! 

Trinitiy's is a mouse making pancakes... not sure on that one!

Emanuel has been practicing his “careful colouring” lately as well… we are ALL working on patience. Some days are definitely harder than others! 

Careful colouring

Are you a mom or dad who collects the Pampers Points? We are, though our points have slowed HUGELY since the twins were out of diapers and we made the leap to cloth for our Echo… wipes and Trinity’s Pull Ups keep them trickling in (though I am hoping the pull ups will ALSO soon be a thing of the past!)… well if you do there is a wonderful site that has a bunch of codes listed that you can use to add to your points. Some ARE expired but be sure to check them out and give it a go! 

I am attempting to tidy through things still… stuff has gone up on Kijiji, other things on Freecycle. I am also starting my “kids need” list… anything they are grown out of… things that aren’t going to work anymore and need replacing… top of the list – a new swimsuit for Emanuel! I will hopefully complete the list by tomorrow… the hope is to find used, on sale or hand-me-downs instead of having to put forth a whole bunch of money on full price new. I shudder when I think of the potential lack of sweaters! 

I have been sorting through links online this week as well to get going on our Christmas crafting. Another year where I want to make everything possible for our friends and family instead of purchasing. The sad thing is that for almost every idea I find online I have maybe one or two of the needed items and not all… Dollarama is certainly calling my name! But then when doesn’t it? I am going to share my ideas and links as I go through them… so be ready!

With the apples Kathy picked up for us at H&W I made applesauce… the bag of apples made enough for some to go in the freezer and the rest to be used… today – applesauce cookies. This is Echo’s first time with them and she LOVES them! I hate to think how many she had today!

Cookie Monster

Are you interested in winning a microscope for your homeschooling family? Check out this SITE for a free giveaway! It sounds like an amazing piece of equipment, I know our boys would go nuts over it. I plan on checking out the site further and if it is as good as it looks in passing I will definitely link it permanently! And the best part? This is open to Canadians too!!

It is a big day for yours truly – I decided to give it up and send out my maternity clothes to new homes. First I had to divide them up into piles – Kijiji, Freecycle, Mom’s work and the pieces that could not be given or sold (ie old undies)… that was an adventure down memory lane! I ended up with a nice pile for each (except the trash which was tiny) and hopefully will be seeing them all out the door in good order. It amazes me the size range I had – XS all the way up to L! Funny how a shirt can fit differently depending on cut, fabric and pregnancy! 

That actually took up most of my evening so there went my crafting time! Oops. I have a new idea to keep our busy kids occupied that is going to take up the rest of my evening – I am looking for fun and different worksheets to put in the binders their Uncle Wayne got for them so that when we hit boredom there is something they can pick and choose from! Here’s hoping this works! I have started my search at education.com. Of course they have plenty of the fairy pictures our Trinity absolutely LOVES.

Now no more procrastination… time to post and then move on!

Sunshine!

Our sunshine girl!