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

The last I checked it was September already… but by the weather we are having today (+30 cel or more!) one would think it was June or July! Talk about a terrific motivation sapper. We managed halfway decently in the morning but without ac in the house the afternoon had us all crawling. Thankfully the twins always have their quiet time in the basement anyway so they just played down there longer than normal.

Tower?? (Zander left)

Trinity did nap but woke up right in the middle of the afternoon. Thankfully she and I always enjoy an episode of Perry Mason at this time anyway (she loves to dance to the theme song for some strange reason!). So a nice big sippy of water, some cheerios and her favourite pillow and she was quite content. Not exactly happy as this cold still has a bit of a hold on her (so much runny nose!), but better than yesterday!

Perry Mason Girl

Emanuel on the other hand slept the afternoon away. Thank goodness we insist he wears a pull up for nap and bedtime. He just sleeps WAY too soundly!

The letter O was of course covered today… with the song about the fox and the box on the computer. Another easy one for Emanuel to trace.

Letter O

We continued our science lesson with the jelly crystals… now all squishy and coloured the boys got to squish them around.

Squish Squish

These were then added to the “baby pop bottles” and are left over night once again to have the colours blend together. We are saving the rest for future fun.

One More Day to Go! (Gavin middle)

We also started another Christmas gift – rock candy… Our dowel seems to be a bit too wide – I figure if we can get some skewers they will work better. It is relatively simple. All you need is water, sugar, a skewer or cotton thread… flavouring and colouring if you want and a jar. (and probably something better than the smooth dowel I have at home)

Supplies

First boil water and add in the sugar slowly, stirring to dissolve.

Did that On Its Own! (dissolving sugar)

After it is completely dissolved remove from heat and add 1 tsp of the extract if needed (we used cherry this time) and 2-3 drops of colouring (again if you want) and set aside for 10 min to cool.

Adding Colour

Mmm Cherry! (Gavin left)

Pour into the jar carefully.

Use a Funnel!

Add in your skewer or weighted cotton thread. Cover with wax paper or plastic and let cool, if nothing happens over time reboil the water and add more sugar.

All Done!

I was SUPPOSED to make cookies tonight – the oatmeal applesauce ones… but with the heat – ugh no stove for this girl tonight. I am sincerely hoping that I can get the energy to get the 5 dozen cookies baked tomorrow. Trinity is rather frustrated with the lack of applesauce flavoured munchies!

Along the same vein of thought – Ken threw down a rather unofficial gauntlet by saying he didn’t think he would need to plug in the apartment sized deep freeze we own. Well I WIN! This weekend we finally had to plug it in – all my cookies and sauce and leather and bread in the freezer – no room for meat and Ken had to go out and buy a box of bulk hamburgers. So now I am determined to fill it full of good food on a small budget. Wish me luck!

We have refilled the pool for the week… well overfilled this morning as I forgot the water was on. With this heat definitely a must – some day I REALLY want ac! The boys spent quite a bit of the morning out there and then again in the late afternoon. Even Trinity got some time in the pool – until she face planted and got VERY angry. But at least all 4 had some time out in the sun.

Splish Splash! (Zander blue)

I got an interesting invitation for next month – a friend who currently lives in the Yukon has her kids moving here to the city and wants to have a playdate! Go figure how crazy is life??? So it sounds like October will be exciting!

Tonight is actually a rather good night for me – granted I am WAY too hot but tonight Ken promised me 2 hours of his time to  get stuff done. Looks like I may just get myself caught up by the weekend… MAYBE. Ken did have another appointment today, this next is Monday. Hopefully this will be the start of a decreasing of appointments. I am so glad that he is doing this and that I am experiencing change but a bit stressed by the amount of time being taken up by his appointments and minor travel time. Patience has worn a little thin I am afraid.

Oh well life is improving, I have ideas a plenty for patterns and the hope that other people will like them too! Wish me luck!

Fingers Crossed and Prayers Said!

Another rough night courtesy of a sniffly sick little girl. Trinity woke up this morning with a horribly runny nose and the sneezes. Of course she made sure to keep me up off and on for most of the night. I am hoping that all the snuggles and a nice warm bath today will help her feel much better tomorrow. Maybe? I would LOVE a good night’s sleep after all.

This morning we were a little rushed – Ken had his dr’s appointment where he moved from the individuals he has been dealing with to the long term care people. This is the group that will help him manage his health issues over the long term. He got the opportunity to meet quite a few people who gave him some wonderful insights as well as some plans for the next 4 months or so (he will be busy for at least a couple hours every Wednesday night it seems). My personal hope is that this will lead to Ken even dealing with his procrastination issues which have been in existence since before I have even known him and I find has affected our family more than I would like. There is a lot of hope in these new meetings and individuals and I like that.

Of course after we saw Daddy off we were off and running with the letter N. Nuts, Noah’s ark, and nails all came up in discussion and activity. Each of the kids has an n in their name so it is a very important letter and on that Emanuel actually enjoyed tracing! We did our computer time and then had to do some of the vowel songs and of course redo a couple of letters (K for kitten is a favourite).

Letter N (Zander right)

The finishing of N led to the request for CANDYLAND! Oh dear I think we need to get another game… we played twice today… Emanuel is finally getting the hang of the twists and turns on the board.

Candyland Candyland Candyland (Gavin middle)

I had each of the boys illustrate yesterday’s story. I re-read it to them and then they picked their elements. Zander drew the corn at the corn maze, Emanuel (with some help from Gavin on the houses) Harley and Mike’s bike, and Gavin Harley and Grandma’s house. All very inspired!

Zander

Emanuel

Gavin

We made more frames today… I am definitely in dire need of brown paint so I can start with the tree shaped ornaments. Green spray paint would not go wrong either. Painting 2-3 coats on green puzzle pieces by hand is so time consuming!

4 More Frames

I did have a minor glitter glue accident – the black was stopped up and when I squeezed… well there you go! I put as much as I could in a plastic baby fruit container – we’ll see if it is sealed enough to be used later!

Glitter Glue Explosion!

The boys spent lots of time outside today – what with Trinity being sick and all a lot of my plans went up in smoke. For the most part they got along though I did have to call them all in for time outs twice (Zander always has the biggest fit when I do!).

Outdoor Fun (Zander red)

Last night we faxed the Canadian Government Loan the forms to reassess our payments, today Ken headed out to pay any back owing from the past month. Fingers crossed THIS division of the government actually feels the urge to be kind! I did notice that they had the wrong number of people in the family (5 instead of 6) so maybe that will even help my case further? They say we should know by next week either way! So fast compared to the last situation!

It was another happy mail day today! Well, other than the mailman ringing the doorbell with two registered envelopes (Trinity was NOT impressed but apparently she is almost the same age as his little one!). No, today a very kind teacher from Texas that I chat with on one of my sewing egroups sent me a wonderful reference book: What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know. I took a brief peek through and found that a lot of the stuff I want to do this year is there as well as some more ideas! What a gift!!

Thank You So Much!

Today’s cooking was contained to 3 trays of apple leather. I love the smell of the applesauce being warmed up like that… the whole house smells like cinnamon and baked apples. MMM This time I put more applesauce on each tray and did not smooth it out as thinly, I am much happier with the results… after all I need some for our trip 3+ hours south next weekend and some for my brother’s family.

We are currently working on ideas for a math lapbook for the boys… so far I have a matchbook style center piece, the numbers 1-100 and the math match game we made previously to go in an envelope pocket. I just got another email from a lovely homeschooling mom chock full of links to check. I signed up to use another site that has free lapbooks and am awaiting to be accepted. It feels good to have a plan – Ken and the boys are going to do insects next – there is a basic lapbook I got for free on Currclick that we are going to add to.

We let the boys eat outside tonight. Figured with the weather holding a little longer they should enjoy every moment they can of it!

Dinner in the Backyard (Gavin orange)

Speaking of Science – the boys started their crystal project with Daddy. Even the test tube they came in was interesting (it is a 2L bottle before the inflate it for pop!)… for tonight they dropped their colour bits into water to dissolve.

Then they added the crystals to take in the moisture. Tomorrow they take those crystals and put them into the test tube and then leave THAT overnight. Heck they were amazed by the fizzing colour and surprised by the growing crystals… tomorrow should WOW them!

Sewing was severely curtailed with a weepy baby on my hands, so tonight I am attempting to make up for lost time. A friend asked Ken and myself to help her adjust an image to stitch so we are definitely getting that done tonight, but my next project is not yet ready for stitching which leaves me the stocking. My goal is to actually have something to show on here tomorrow that will illustrate a definite movement towards finishing this piece. I am quickly getting to the point when I will have to deal with the blending filament. I am a little concerned as to how much of the pearl (032) I have in the house. Seems to be the most popular colour in patterns and of course NOT the cheapest.

So tomorrow should be another interesting day, we are not going to any sort of activities outside the house that are preplanned as Ken needs to get work done and next week we are spending a whole day out of the city. BUT I may see if we can get in a walk and a play time at the park! Wish us luck with our sniffly baby!

Working on Bouncing Back?