School is better

A picture that Leia and I drew as an art project.(NOT for school,just for fun). I think it turned out pretty good.

Things have been much better on the home school front. We've whittled it down to about 7 hours now. YIPPEE.Leia's getting in her groove a little bit more knowing that we have lots of work to do and if she wants to have any fun she better hurry up. We were invited to a pool get together for homeschooling parents and kids this Friday at the base pool. It's at 1. Leia is looking forward to it. I'm excited to meet other people in my situation. I don't have any daycare kids that day so when we get back from the pool she can finish the rest of her work. Not much else is going on around here. School and the daycare kids take up all my time.

One of Leia's art work pictures. She drew one of her dolls front,back and side view. She said the last one included a different depth perspective.

Tomorrows stack of books that we have to do,plus the online assessments for each subject and if we get around to music. We have to learn 3 short songs ,their rhythms, and do some kind of activity. It's on a video and a CD. Thank goodness. She wouldn't want to hear me sing.

We had a wonderful day today. We got our schoolwork done in 8 hours. YIPPEE!!! That's better then 10. Plus we had no arguing. I think the thing that worked best was Math has to be done last. It's our hardest subject for her. We even went to the park today. She did so well I went and rented her a kid movie to watch from the Red Box. I told her all days should be like this and that we need to speed it up by 2 hours. But if things go smoothly I don't care that it takes 8. I just don't get anything done around here. I ran into another homeschooler yesterday. She has 9 kids that she homeschools. Correction 8 she homeschools the other one is a baby. I can't imagine it. But she uses a different program so maybe it's easier. She invited us over for lunch yesterday and we excepted. It was insane how well organized she was and how clean her house was. She was so calm and patient with the all of the kids.I could learn a lot from her.Plus her neighbor was there with her 2 kids and they were watching 2 or 3 other kids. I lost count. Plus add Leia and Ito the group. It was a very full house.Leia and I were the odd ducks,but it was nice to see another perspective of homeschooling.

Tomorrow I'm watching 3 kids. One's Ethan, Jens boy, and the 2 little girls. They are so so so good. They play very well and love to play dolls and dress up with Leia. She had a good time playing with them. I had them for about 5 hours yesterday. Unfortunately I won't have them for very long. Just 4 days out of the 2 weeks. I don't have the twin boys for another 2 weeks. Things are going OK with the day care stuff AND we;re getting a little bit better at the schooling stuff.We have so much to do tomorrow and I say this every time I don't think we'll finish,but I'm cutting it off after 7 hours. I need to get ready for the kids and Leia needs a break.(SO DO I)

Take care. Love you all

bath time

Well one thing about doing day care that I didn't expect was that I have to give all of the animals a bath every 2 weeks. Chevy and "D" are no problem it's the BIG KAHUNA that is difficult. Fist I brushed him for about an hour and had a huge bag of hair enough to make another dog and then bath him. As you can tell he's pretty much fed up with me at this point. I still need to brush him after he dries.

I tried to spike his hair.He's showing off his new studly hairdo.

Chevy has never minded baths. She actually kind of enjoys them. That or she's scared to pieces and just freezes.

Nothing is funnier then seeing a wet cat. It's hilarious.

Hope I made your day. HA HA HA!!!

Projects

We've been doing Science projects tonight. This is some of Leia's creations on how to observe the weather. One's a diorama of a windy day at the beach, a measuring guide which is cool because you pair it up to a compass to see which way the wind is blowing. and an air pressure experiment with the balloons. This is a Beaufort Spinner that we made. It's a guide by watching a flag,trees,or smoke from a chimney to classify the type of wind strength.

This was a pain in the you know where to make. Your supposed to get it to balance.( I know it's not balanced in the picture so don't tell me so) I moved it and it fell. I've lost patience with this project,but it really is a cool experiment. You place it outside and the humidity(water vapor in the air) will cling to the squares. when the thing is balanced it points to the scale of how much humidity is in the air. Cool HUH!!! I think South Carolina is 100 % humidity. Maybe that's why I had a hard time getting it to balance?

Not much else is going on. Leia finished all of her math and extra practice and we are caught up on science projects. History still looms over our head. We'll get to it tomorrow. I need a break.

School Update

Yesterday we had a fabulous day. I used a timer, positive reinforcement ,bribery, and another frank talk with her about school and that she needs to buckle down and do this. We had so much to do yesterday I didn't think we'd finish,but we did. I was even able to squeeze in art and a small writing project . I was on cloud nine that it went so well.Today we're going to have to do a little but more to catch up, but it won't be bad. I have to make 3 science experiments, finish a history lesson from the first day(We forgot to answer the questions in the back of the chapter) after I had already marked everything complete. Since I have to turn in all her work we have to go back and truly finish it. We're also going to review Math and do a few extra worksheets. Besides that and yard work That's all that's planned for today. Chucky Cheese will have to wait for Sunday after church .that was my bribe. I'll get her a few dollars worth of tokens nothing big.

This week has been really hard. We've been putting in 10 hours of school work 3 days out of this week 7-8 hours the other 2 days. plus watch the boys.so I'm sorry that I haven't been able to call much. Her schooling has just been a big adjustment. I really don't know how teachers do it with more then one kid.

I started watching the twin boys. About boys they sure are different then girls.They are full of energy,want to talk about a bunch of gory gross things,and wrestle. 2nd day of having them one jumped on the others back and punched him really hard in the stomach 3 times. I separated them said that wasn't nice we don't hurt our brother, Blah Blah Blah.... Turn my back for a second and the other one picks up his brother and throws him to the ground leaving a big goose egg on his head. It was his revenge of getting punched earlier. I had to fill in an accident report and everything.But yesterday they were as sweet as could be,one even said that they loved me and wanted me to move in with them because we had a small family and we need to make it bigger. I laughed. Then out of nowhere the other one jumps up on me a kisses my check.The one said that when he gets my age he wants me to be his girlfriend. And the Other one chimes in Well I want Leia to be my girlfriend when I'm her age. I'm like good grief.Leia was the same way when she was their age. (wanting to have a boyfriend) They are so cute and sweet 5 year old's,and it's funny because they'll be yes Miss Amanda, yes maim all sweet and being ornery at the same time. But they are so cute and I wouldn't trade them for any other day care kids.Leia doesn't play with them much. She'll do art work with them and she did bring out her Polly Pocket car to race with their Hot Wheel Cars,but she mainly watches T.V. or plays with her dolls. She told me that the boys wrestle too much and she doesn't want any part of it. She was upset because she thought the boys thought that I was cooler then her. They just don't play with dolls. So I have to find some common things that all 3 of them will enjoy. It's hard especially since their attention span is so short. Where Leia could do the same thing for hours. But we'll get through it and figure it out. Leia's up so I need to go fix breakfast. Love to all.

today was better

Yesterday was stressful on both of us being the first day and neither of us knowing what we're doing. We were doing school work until 8 o'clock last night,and still didn't finish it all. I know it will take us awhile to adjust to the new routine so sorry if I vent about it here.It wasn't all bad though. We did have some fun times yesterday.

This is one of my favorite things that we did yesterday.Her art project. She had to use a mirror and do a self portrait. Thank goodness we were able to split up the hard stuff and do something fun.Another fun thing that we did was for her science project.We had to observe the weather ,luckily a storm was on it's way.She got to observe the wind, different clouds,different temps, and she got to see that we received 3 inches of rain. She has to keep a journal of it for the next 3 weeks.So that was another well deserved break.Today wasn't as stressful as yesterday thank goodness. I couldn't be in there while she tested,but it was killing me because I'd see her looking out the window looking at the dog ,twiddling,and I'd have to get after her. That part drove me crazy,but we made it through. I have to get going the dad and the twin boys are going to be here in a few minutes to hand over some paperwork. I better get this place in tip top shape.

I think she did a wonderful job.

1st day of school so far

Leia ready for her first day at homeschooling It is a huge adjustment this is a list of everything that we need to cover today. There are 17 things listed some only take 15 minuets while others take an hour. Her Math today I was about to go insane because it took her 2 hrs and 15 min. I can't keep her focused. I've tried being nice and lets get this done to the complete opposite spectrum the mean screaming raging mom. Which makes it only worse. Then there is the problem of the computer site crashing because there's so many people on the website and it can't compensate. We're now on hour 2 of it being down. I called Jen over for some ice cream. It was that or booze. I know they keep saying it takes 2 weeks to get used to it and adjusted. I know that Leia is just trying to get back into the swing of school and all of this is new to us. So far out of the 17 things that we need to have done we only have 6 finished, and the computer is still down. She's having a long recess.
These are all of her books.

Leia working on her Math.

This is how excited Ruger is for the first day of school.HA HA!!!

At the slow rate that we're going it will be until bedtime when she gets all 17 courses done.Tomorrow she starts her testing. If she doesn't get the stuff done tonight it rolls over for her to do tomorrow. That's a lot for her. It's just so overwhelming and not like I thought it would be like.

Pictures of Leia's new haircut

It looks a million times better.

NOT MUCH IS HAPPENING AROUND HERE

I know that I've not written much in a while. Not much is going on. We've attempted to go out and do fun things but it never fails when we go to do something it storms. Like the pool party that was put on by our church, the pool party put on by the base for back to school, and our zoo trip.I need to find more indoor things to do. HA!!! Leia starts school tomorrow. She is very excited. She will be taking tests most of this week so they can place her at the level that she needs to be in. I'm looking forward to the whole process. I really like all of the books and the materials that she has received.Shoot I'll be learning new things too. The only complaint that I have is that for the history section it's only about South Carolina history. But I guess that will be useful for her state testing. I start watching the twin boys on Tuesday. I know that will go fine. They are very well behaved yes /no maim, pick up their toys, you name it they do it.

I did get Leia's hair cut the other day. I know how bad her hair looked before,I was just to nervous to have anyone else cut it since it was so screwed up. It's a short bob. I'll try to post pictures of it later. She's happy with it so that's what counts. Plus it looks a million times better.

Not much else has been going on. Just setting up for the daycare and yard work which is never ending. I better get going. I'm going to review a little bit with Leia to refresh her memory a little bit. Probably won't help. She has a steel trap memory like Chris and remembers everything. Lucky Girl. I wish I had that.

A Fun Week

Mom, Kelly, and Ashley came down to Shaw to see us. They got here dinner time Monday and left at the crack of dawn on Thursday.Time flew by way to fast. We were having such a good time I didn't want them to leave. Posing at the Tree House Nursery. I love this place. If you come here you have to stop and see this place.

He had a new baby deer. It was so cute. It would lick your finger and let you pet it. The older deer were gone as well as his goats. I'm starting to wounder if his goats were the ones that were on the base the other day. His nursery is near the base.

Leia found a leaky sprinkler and was getting it splashed on her face.

We love coming here feeding the animals.

Ashley feeding the baby deer.

We went swimming at the Base Pool. The water was very refreshing on such a hot day.

We ate at Mariachis, One of my Favorite Mexican Restaurants.

I have a really funny picture of Kelly pretending to drink the Salsas(Yes it's that good). She'd kill me if I posted it. But bug her enough about it and I will. Ha!!!

The girls enjoyed having their own table. They are so cute. Posing at Swan Lake.

It was so hot the Gazebo helped a bit. The girls ran around in circles saying it created a breeze and that we should try it. We told them we were sweaty enough without running.

The swans are not frightened by us.

We went to Swan Lake. It was so so so hot. Today said that the heat index was 108 degrees so I guess it was around that or hotter when we went. I love this park and when it cools off I want to really walk the whole thing. We discovered a kid park tucked in on one of the corners.But we needed air conditioning. It is so peaceful here.This is one of Sumter's nicer places.

This is one of my favorites at the park. It could be a post card.

It was so good to see Mom, Kelly, and Ashley. I wish it could have been longer. Time flew by. I miss everyone so so so much.