Week of October 23

  

What do you get when you mix 2 cups of sand, 2 cups of flour and a tube of elmers glue? A mess that's what...

 We made a concoction - suppose to be Sand Dough-when I first read this from a fellow mom I must have misunderstood and interpreted to be something like Play Doh-well let me tell you this was so NOT play-doh. All I am thankful for is that I had the good sense to mix it up outside. Whoever had this brilliant idea should have mentioned that you would be, in fact, making CEMENT. Would have been fine if I would have known- I did want a stepping stone for our front garden. Oh well by the time I realized it was going to turn into cement it was, mixing bowl and all at the bottom of the trash can outside. As you can see, it was too much for Taylor to take-the kid does not even like to finger paint WHAT! So this was just ridiculous for him. He retreated back to the cleanliness that is his Train Table. As for the girl, she is all about making a mess and getting, dirty, muddy messy and .....cementy.

Wednesday

Outside my window...

I notice a mess that needs to be cleaned up from earlier today when we made "Sand Clay"

I am thinking...

How one peaceful moment can make for a good rest-of- the-day.

I am thankful for..

time.

From the learning rooms...

the books need to be back at the Library by the end of the week and we did not get through half of them yet. This is why I have a high Amazon Bill.

From the kitchen...

nothing at the moment but when the next opportunity arises, I am thinking "brookies".

I am wearing...

lounge pants and a tank

I am creating...

my house to become more "Fall Like"

I am going...

to try to start having dinner in the Formal dining room on Sundays.

I am reading...

Friday Night Knitting Club (still) - book club meeting in 3 weeks-do not think I will make it, still on Chapter 2.

I am hoping...

that Marc has a better day tomorrow and Friday so that we will all have a nice weekend together.

I am hearing...

kids playing together. Sounds like they a pretending to work at an Animal Hospital.

Around the house...

Clean except for the family room and kitchen-really what is the point? 

One of my favorite things...

Werthers candies-YUM can not stop!

A few plans for the rest of the week:

last minute items for Trunk or Treat-working the pre-school craft booth.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

It's all about the goats

So here I am year 2 in my "new" home in Vero Beach. I can not believe that is has been that long-Taylor was just 1 and Carly just turned 4-now she is going on 7 and he will be 4 in a month. When I moved here I was still sulking about not being able to live in Georgia-something about what if hubby can't can't get work blah blah yadda yadda. Anyway, I embraced it here and I am so glad. I have great mommy friends, a beautiful home in a new town. I even started to go to Church and am helping out teaching Sunday School. Yes Me. Anyway this is an Ode to Vero Beach so to speak....

Here are some words I found to describe Vero Beach:

Homey, yet casually elegant,  cultural wealth and inherent natural beauty, rated the “Best Small Town in Florida & 12th in the Nation”,  named one of “The 100 Best Art Towns in America.”,    “Gateway to the Tropics," swaying palms, Citrus Capital of the World, some of the best places in the country for surfing and the most unique places for diving and snorkeling as well as Nature Preserves to explore.

Yes Vero Beach is one of Florida's best kept secrets. Coming from Ft Lauderdale where I have lived most of my adult life, the beach comparison played an important part in our decision to move. 

In Vero Beach not only do we live 6 miles FROM the beach compared to 15 miles in FT Lauderdale the time it takes travel to the beach is MUCH less. Wait let me explain. Vero Beach=no traffic. Vero Beach-6 miles, takes about 10 minutes included getting kids into car, running back because I forgot my tea. Ft Lauderdale - 15 miles = 55 minutes and that is JUST Driving and sitting in traffic. In Ft Lauderdale you have to pay to park, walk about 20 minutes in almost 100 degree heat and if you have kids you will be working extra hard pushing and lugging strollers, buckets, extra clothes, coolers, toys, blankets, towels, beach chairs, your kids and your husband just to wedge between another annoyed family that made it and survived and a supermodel in her thong with her muscle bound boyfriend and his "World Gym" tank top.

Ft Lauderdale Beach

Vero Beach

Other words described to me about VB that I have heard in person:  coastal, country, kid friendly, hillbilly, prestigious, down home, kinda like New Orleans, shabby, beautiful, friendly and boring. Back to the Beaches. What I love about living in Florida in general (esp with kids) is that we go to the beach year round. Not always in the ocean but give a kid a bucket a shovel and a low tide you can spend more time in December at the beach than you can in July. In the summer we hunt for Sea Turtle Tracks and locate their nests, year round we feed the seagulls, collect shells, coral, driftwood, seaweed, crab shells (PU) and any thing else they can get their little hands on. And there is ALWAYS a playground nearby with even more sand and that beautiful coastal breeze. In the summer the Fountains are a hot spot. Kids running around and splashing riverside while moms catch up on the latest gossip. The parks in Vero Beach almost always have a nature trail for exploring. 

Another thing I love about Vero is that I am still finding little treasures. One day last Spring we were on out way to a Co Op at a Church. The church was on the west end of town and when I pulled up it looked like something from Little House on the Prairie - LOVE IT! Anyway I was early as usual so I decided to just ride around a bit and see what neighborhoods were close by. I drove about a half mile from the church and found a little goat farm. Yes Goats. Not open to the public but we saw them, they saw us, they BAAAHED and we shuffled for a snack for them.  We returned last weekend for a revisit-this time we were prepared and as we pulled up we saw another couple feeding them as well. My point- We have been here 2 years and I am still discovering new things that my town has to offer. At first glance one might not think Vero Beach is anything to be impressed by. However, after living here for almost 2 years now, I am happy to say that I have no regrets and that we have chosen the best place for our family to call home.

For Today Oct 23, 2009

Outside my window...
the sun is shining but I am ready for a drop in temperature.

I am thinking...
that I have to get up soon and get ready for tonight.

I am thankful for..
being able to live this life and for having happy and healthy children and family..

From the learning rooms...
we were able to catch up this week with the exception of Art History.

From the kitchen...
cupcakes for Devons Fundraiser Bake sale are complete and ready to go-I hope they are a hit Red Velvet .

I am wearing...
shorts and a t shirt.

I am creating...
nothing at the moment but give me a couple of days.

I am going...
to the fundraiser dinner in about an hour.

I am reading...
Friday Night Knitting Club

I am hoping...
that the weekend is fun yet uneventful.

I am hearing...
Jack (the dog) making a restful moaning noise.

Around the house...
Taylor is sleeping and Carly is having down time watching her favorite movie of the week "Home Alone". 

One of my favorite things...
the sound of my kids laughing and playing together.

A few plans for the rest of the week:
Prepare for next weeks lessons, Inlaws coming Sunday ...

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

Manatee Center Class 2 and Park Day

Today was the second class at the Manatee Center. Todays theme was frogs and they learned about how a Tadpole turns into a frog, went "fishing" for frog cookies with pretzel sticks and peanut butter, made a frog puppet paper bag and set a few tadpoles free in the river. After that we joined our friends at

the park with lunch. The weather is still kind of hot out but we managed to get in 2 hours outside which was needed as we have been in for about a week prior.

Pre-School/ First Grade Combo

I found this really great site: www.abcteach.com. they have age appropriate printouts and worksheets. Taylor loves his numbers and also wanted to get involved with school so from now on I will try to keep him busy with his own pre-school activities. He really tries hard.  Carly started last week doing ABC order. This was a fun way for Carly to figure it out-She still needs some more practice so I am hoping to continue with these worksheets again. 

Week In Orlando

We took a mini vacay this week. We headed up to Orlando for a little getaway while we had some work done on the house. Unfortunately we had little time for the theme parks and regular Disney stuff, as my two sweeties were down with the stomach flu for 2 days. We did manage to slip in a quick boat ride to downtown Disney, explore the hotel and go to Old Town and Arabian Nights. I guess that is what I get for playing hookie all week. Still at least we got away and spent some time with Grandma Dee even if it was from the hospital/hotel room. Luckily everyone is doing a little better.

Need More Time

Well sometimes I might set myself up for disaster. We had so many cool lessons planned this week but that pesty other stuff like Math and Writing got in the way of our good times. We did get into alphabetical order which took longer than I thought. We wrapped up California and Mary Cassatt but we still have our Mooon/Sea Jellies to think about. And we did not even get started on our Manatees. I think next week we will dedicate the whole week to Manatees and Sea Jellies and hold off on our state, as I need to prepare for it anyway.

Night of the Moonjellies

I kept hearing about this book from my HomeSchool FIAR boards. While we do not official subscribe to Five in a row sometimes I steal some of their ideas and lessons. This one was a good find. I do not know if it is because we live in a coastal town, or that I have always been interested in the ocean and beach, but somehow we always linger on with our studies that have to do with this topic. Sea Turtles, Manatees and now Moon jellies-We read this book for the first time today and did not realize the endless possibilities. While at the library, I luckily picked up an extra book about Sea jellies which I was so thankful for. We read the book, had an oral quiz (so much more detail than a written one) and did an last minute art project. After the quiz Carly made up a menu of HER concession stand on the beach and got to name her restaurant and pick the food and prices. We then painted the ocean scene and decorated the page with "sea glass", "moon jellies (foil) and other odds and ends that we had around the house. I will be researching more lessons from this book, at least one more-it is so cute I would hate to return it to the library-this one might be a keeper.

After our book I had a little bit of trouble keeping the "students" motivated. In fact I was just too tired to deal with it since the past two nights I was up with Taylor and the lingering cough. Since they did not want to do school work, I had them CLEAN hee hee. They actually did a really great job.

We ended the day peacefully and Carly read Little Teddy Left Behind which was one of our favorite books from when she was about 3. Still planning our California dinner of Bean Burritos for tomorrow and Golden Gate Bridge activities as well.

Terrific Tuesday and Kids Club

Each Tuesday (when Marc is not home) we go to Church for dinner and Kids Club. I also volunteer here for Sunday School as well. The kids always have fun and are currently practicing for a little performance that will take place next week after dinner. Tonight they practiced.

They colored, played musical-something-to-be-Thankful for -Chairs and played a pretend game on the "Magic Carpet". A good time for all. My sweet Taylor was feeling a bit left out-his sister was wrapped up in her "clique" (man that starts early) and there is only one other boy in the class and he is 7-much too old to hang out with a 3 year old. After this photo Taylor felt much more secure sitting on my lap.

October 5, 2009

We are heading to California this week-Not really but it IS our state-of-the-week. We had a good time learning and reading about California and particularly the Golden Gate Bridge came up quite a few times which was very cool since last night we happened to watch "Homeward Bound 2-Lost in San Francisco". Could be part of the series-watching a kids movie that takes place in said state. HMMMMM. We finished Meet Felicity so now we will continue on with that series-perhaps throw in a movie too. Did a learning comp lesson with Little Red Riding Hood. Carly got 19/20 correct on her spelling test-AWESOME GIRL!

Taylor worked on letters while Carly researched CA. Later in the day Carly taught Taylor all about Color-Categorizing and did a little lesson. I love when she teaches him and he listens too! Finished the day off with Barbies-they are at church BTW-Look at Prince Eric- he is the Pastor.

Mermaids October 2, 2009

Oh How we love Mermaids. I am very excited that when I bring out a book for myself to plan for a unit-study that Mr and Mrs Nosey Body always need to know what I am doing and then they get interested as well. We have a great book called "The Secret World of Mermaids". I love this book, it tells of how a young girl created a journal of pieces of "proof" that her Aunt collected about Mermaids-mermaid scales, jewelry, notes written from sailors who reported they saw mermaids in the deep blue sea. In one chapter it states that perhaps Manatees evolved from Mermaids-How cool is that. Of course that is just a myth but let's go with it for a bit. Anyway I thought that that would be a great lead in to our next Unit Study of Manatees. Look for Mermaids and Manatees-coming soon!

Why bother planning Wed Sept. 29, 2009

Each day or night before a school day I try to sit down and map out a plan of what I would like to accomplish the next day. Somedays is goes as planned while others it flops-sometimes it's good sometimes it's bad-today it was good. Today was our first day in in a while-we have had some visitors, invites and dad home which was a distraction in our

school week-I did not say a bad distraction just a distraction from our normal (whatever that is) week.

I wanted to ease in slowly so I did not start midweek with our State (California) or our animal (Manatee) or our Art History Lesson (Cassatt). So I asked my lovely daughter what she would like to work on-well first she wanted to read her Felicity Book-no problem-that is where I read and she usually listens for a while then gets inspired to draw a picture from the read. Meet Felicity takes place in the late 1700's so there is all kind of

interesting words to learn-for example, Tannery, Stockings and Garter and breeches. We also learned that Felicity herself was homeschooled,

unlike Laura Ingalls Wilder* who I believe studied in a little schoolhouse. We learned that her studies included stitching an apron and writing. Carly made a lovely drawing of Felicity peering out her window. Short break and then my daugther chose Math - word problems of all things-it is a good thing that she picks Math because I sure wouldn't. After some math problems Taylor asked if we could paint on an easel.

This wrapped up school for today-we watched some movies together, made brownies and cleaned up after her new cat (Carly's sole responsibility). All in all we had a very nice, laid back but productive day together.

*Note Laura Ingalls Wilder lived in the late 1800's while Felicity took place about 100 years earlier-When posting I thought they were from the same era.

Art History/Appreciation

Today we did an awesome Art History Lesson and Project from our Make it Pop! Adventures and Activities in Pop Art. We studied "Cartoon It and Amazing Ads" Art Inspired by Roy Lichtenstein. 


Carly created 2 pieces from the Amazing Ads Chapter. First she had to draw a pencil image from an ad, marker it in than outline it with a thick sharpie. I just love this series "Art Explorers by Joyce Raimondo".

Monday Sept 28 Fall Nature Walk Charles Park

So we were all geared up for a busy week of school when we were invited to one of my favorite parks. Since I did not want to turn down the invite, I thought of a way to combine park time with school.
Since we do not have seasons here in Florida and I wanted to do a Unit Study on Fall. I decided to do a Fall Nature Hike-We collected leaves, pine cones, flowers, shells, twigs and anything else they could find.

Later in the week we will either paste them

onto something like a birdhouse or piece of wood or simply press them between two pieces of contact paper and make placemats.

All in all, we had a great day with our friends. I can not wait until playground/park weather. I heard today we are getting a cold front this week- all the way down to the mid 80's brrrrrr.

Finally Here

Ok So I am currently in the process of moving my site from Facebook to Blogspot-Fun? Not so much, but here I am at 1 A.M. determined! Please bear with me while I try to figure this out and once I do, the posts and this site will become much more organized- I hope. Also I am not so thrilled with the name so if any one has a better idea, PLEASE let me know. This is mostly to document Carlys homeschooling lessons but why not make it fun right. So off to bed I go-satisfied for the most-part.

Maryland Dinner

So today we finished up Maryland with some writing etc. We also made our dinner-Maryland Crabs Cakes and New England Clam Chowder. Unfortunately we could not make it to the store today but Carly sent Daddy off to Publix with her list. She whipped up dinner and added a picture she drew which I think is actually of The University of Maryland. Go Terps??

Pick A State-Maryland

We have decided to "pick a state" each week. BOTH of my kids are very interested in the good ole USA! We tried practicing the Pledge in the car. Anyway Carly chose Maryland this week-we read, colored and learned what Maryland is known for-bird, food, flag, location. Tomorrow is the big Maryland Feast! Crab Cakes and N E Clam Chowder YUM- OH Carly made the list, will shop for and prepare dinner-I love Home Ec!!

Manatee Center Sept 14, 2009

Great Visit at the Manatee Center on Wednesday. There was a pre-school class that Carly was able to attend with Taylor-They touched sea stars, urchins and hermit crabs, did a felt board together and did a story and a craft. We will going each month.

Started Lesson July 2009

We studied Sea Turtles during Hatching Season-late summer. Read "Turtle Summer" over and over again. Completed several worksheets, coloring pages and even found turtle nests on the beach. We will go further in this lesson with other Marine Animals, Florida History etc

Reading Comprehension

So Before I created MY OWN reading comprehension list I checked online for a First grade reading list. I was not happy with most of the titles so I kept some and added others. Our First week we read " A Chair for my Mother" great book for read alouds and comprehension. I found a worksheet online and she did great!

Next we read Stone Soup-not sure if she got this one so we might try it again later. She is not a big fan of fables although she does have a pretty good imagination.