30 September 2009

Beans


We have been growing beans in science this year. Bug is learning about what a seed needs to grow. We have glass jars all over our kitchen. Five jars in all, no make that six we just started a corn seed jar yesterday. Two of them are in the refrigerator.

Bug is very much enjoying watching the seeds sprout. Did I say very much! So much so that I have to admit that it is driving Jeff and me a little stir crazy. At least once or even twice an hour or even more- we have to look at it. It starts when she wakes up until she goes to bed. She is obsessive with the plants. Here in a few day we will plant them in the soil. They will still be in the house since it is starting to get colder outside.

Don't get me wrong I am so glad that she is this excited about her science experiment. I will continue to grow other things even after having to look at the plants all day long.

Last week, we dissecting bean and corn seeds. I think every time I soak beans to cook them we will have to open up some of them with Bug. She begs me everyday to soak a few so she can open them up and to see the baby's inside of the seed.

Little man and Sierra think the plants are going to grow into giant bean stalks to climb up to get the the castle up in the sky. Except this story has a monster in it and they have to keep him up in the castle so he won't climb down into the house. Such imagination.

I continue to act very excited every time Bug shows me the plants. Jeff even gets a silly excited with her. I will be very excited when they are gone. Sigh, I know that sounds horrid.



21 September 2009

School days

I think we are finally getting into our school schedule. I just started Little man and Sierra last week also. Sierra has been demanded to do school. I wish my kids had her zeal. I had to laugh at her demanding to start school. She just loves to sit with Bug and listen. Much to Little mans dismay. He trys to pull her out of the classroom to play and he ends up crying when she refusing to go. What am I ever going to do next year when she goes to public school. Little man will be so lost without her.
Bug is still doing good with the workboxes. She gets so excited when she sees the games and crafts that are in the drawers. Major motivation to complete her school work.
We are loving the Hand on History for Core 1 that goes with Sonlight. It is from Handle from the Arts. I hope they make some for the next Cores. We did a cave painting and made a Masai beaded necklace from East Africa out of beans and noddles and all kinds of odds and ends. Then we did an Aboriginal bark painting.
This week we will be making a cuneiform tablet with Mystery of History. I am so glad that I spent the summer preparing everything. It has truly made life easier and much funner for the kids.
Her reading is coming along with the longer stories. I was a bit worried how she would hold up. She has asked me to tag read some. Which, I am okay with. I just point out what I will read and how much when she asks. She doesn't ask me to do it with every story. Yea, for Bug I am so proud of her.
Last Friday we we did and Art/History class with our homeschool support group. I wasn't sure how Bug would do with sitting an hour and half with 18 kids all her age. She did so good. Julie did such a good job with George Washington and presenting the images. Bug remembered so much of it. She told me all about it on the way home. We are using the "Picture of America for the National Endowment of Arts", that 3 of us won the grant. I am one of the three who won the grant. I can't believe the quality of the prints and how large the pictures are. The teachers book is also amazing. I am glad that I was able to see how someone else did it for the first class. Next month, I will be doing Paul Revere. That's bad-I know. I just like to see how others do things first and then build on it and take what works and throw out what doesn't work.
We have another busy week with appointments and field trips. Its been hard to post lately these last few weeks. I thought I would try and get a few things out while they are fresh on my mind.

We have the test results back

We finally got all the results back on the MRI and EEG and a genetic testing we had done in June. The good news is that they seen no tumors, aneurysms, seizure activity or any recent strokes. The blood test on a certain seizure activity didn't show anything also. I am very relieved that it came out the way it did. Bug's Dr. put it, "it still is a big mystery to us, with so many unanswered questions. Bug is just going to remain a mystery in so many ways for now." That's kinda how I feel. You want your questions answered. I like knowing what to expect. We are kinda at a crossroad at this point. Basically, something dramatic has to happen or they find another child that has the same deletion in their chromosome.

Bug did real good being sleep deprived during the whole ordeal. Staying up until midnight was easy. We just got some movies from the libray and watched them all night. She wanted to stay up all night. She had to slept fromm 12-4 that night for the testing. At 4 I got her up and put her in the bathtub to shock her awake. A friend let us use their portable DVD player for the 3 hour drive. She tried to drift off a few times.( I did too, good thing we both did it at different times) The worst part for her was putting on all the buttons for the EEG. The glue and the time putting them on was hard. She fell asleep right away for the sleeping part. We had a heck of a time waking her for the rest of the test and she cried. I don't blame her she had to keep her eyes opened while they flashed this horrible blinking light into your face.
I was laying in her bed the whole time and it helped her alot with all the testing. I almost forgot-to mention that the MRI showed a foreign object in her nose. When we took her in to the Dr. she couldn't see anything. Jeff prayed for her that the object would either go away or come out easy. Our last object up the nose was not very pleasant. I was not looking forward to a repeat.
Praise Yeshua, that the test results where all good. I have to admit some part of me is frustrated with the not knowing. I just need to remember that He is in control.

05 September 2009

First week of school

The first week after having a summer school schedule went good overall. We only did three days this week instead of four. That's okay. I was thinking it would be more of a hit and miss week with me starting off and doing something new-the workboxes. My mother-in-law broke her shoulder this week and we went over to help out one day. I am grateful that I am home to be able to do it. I love homeschooling and the flexabilty.
Next week, we go the the Children's hospital to have the EEG and MRI done on Bug. At first, I was thinking I would start after we came back from the hospital. I am glad I didn't. I figure next week I will only get three days done of school also.
Bug loved the workboxes it made so much sense to her and it motivated her. We even did some crafts and she was able to see them in the drawers and wanted to finish each drawer to get to the crafts. I even had games and puppets. We made some ancient clay pots this week and did a few cut and paste crafts.
School took longer than I expected-around three hours. I was thinking our day would be two hours on a good day. I didn't even start Little man and Sierra this week. Maybe, it's just the new routine and getting adjusted. Time will tell.
The best part was her reading. I had some reading books from last year we didn't use. She fell apart with these readers and we had to put them up. She picked up the book and read the stories like a pro. All three days she did so good. She was excited that she read all by herself. Now she feels like a big girl.
She just needed to mature in that area. That is one thing I am learning with homeschooling is that you don't need to worry yourself if it goes bad the first time-just step back and try again later if it fails the first time. The stories start getting longer here real soon and it will be interesting how she reacts. We will cross that road later.
We are loving the Mystery of History and she likes the notebooking part. I am doing most of the writing at this point until she is ready to do more.
She is so far flying thru All About Spelling. I expected that during the first few steps. I am still using the Tatras "Teach America to Read by Frank Rogers" with the AAS. With Bug's speech issues I mix both programs together when I do the review at the beginning of each lesson of AAS(which is the phonics part of AAS)I actually separate the two. In other words, I do phonics first-then she reads and then I do the step in AAS and don't do the phonics review like they say to in the book at that time.
I think I would get sick of it if I was her with speech therapy weekly and then me drilling her at home. It only adds and extra 10 minutes to our schedule and we go pretty quick. She knows just about all of her sounds it's just saying them the correct way which is hard for her.
Praise the Lord that we had a good week. I will have to tell you more about the other programs later. I don't like reading long post myself. I could keep going but I will spare you the agony.
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