Learning Joy

Nicholas holding his “passport” to Kandoo Land (a place where he can go potty on his own). He’s standing by the bathroom door. 8/22/05 

Today must be a post day. This is my third (or is it fourth?) post! This one is an update. 🙂
~ Daniel’s party went well. We had a good time with all our guests, although we missed those were unable to come. Hopefully we’ll get to see them soon. I’ve got to get Daniel started on Thank You notes. He received a bike & bike helmet (from A. Kamali & A. Tina); three wooden vehicles to put together & paint (from Grandma); a lightsaber, Darth Vader Helmet & Star Wars Legos (from U. Doug, A. Marie, Matthew & Jacob); a game of “Sorry!” (from Granny & Grandfather); a transformer (from his friend Aaron) and a Star Wars lightsaber video game (from Mommy & Daddy). Jonathan got him a really funny card with hamster jokes in it (Jonathan is into jokes right now … Daniel doesn’t always get them). I think everyone had a good time. Daniel has been enjoying his presents a lot. Everyone who comes over has to see all his new stuff! 🙂
~ I went on a search for a minivan. As I posted below, I found one, and we were going to look at it on Sunday. Well, we looked at our finances, and at winter approaching and decided against it. Natural gas prices are rising. I think FOX News said they would be triple this winter. Our heating bill last winter was about $200/mo. So we need to save our savings for those bills – at least until Jef gets some dependable computer jobs.
~ So we’re back to being a one car family. Thankfully, bowling, science classes, and homeschool groups all run in the mornings. 🙂 Praise the Lord! I was worried about the boys being stuck at home all winter.
~ I’ve set Sept. 6 as our first day of school. They’ve been doing school here & there, but I want to have some things that we are working toward.
~ We’re going to study the body for science, and how the world began/ancient civilizations for history. I’m going to buy Math-U-See for their math this year. For English we’ll be learning about punctuation & parts of speech. We’ll copy Bible verses and poems. I always like to see how the boys think, so they will still be writing short stories for me. I’ve found a “budding scientists” class for them to attend on the first and third Wednesdays of the month.
~ Nicholas will be learning letters, shapes, colors & numbers this year. He will be going to a Nature Alphabet each week. He’ll also learn about the body with Jonathan & Daniel.
~ I’ve found a bowling league the older two can join. It is on Wednesdays, too, though. So I have to find out if they have to come every week, or if they can come on the second & fourth Wednesdays. I’ve also found a homeschool co-op that meets on Fridays from 9:30 – 12. It is a little pricey, but I think we can swing it. This is the co-op that Aaron & Charissa attend. 🙂
~ So, hopefully we will be faithful in the training of our children this year. I am more driven this year than I was before because Jonathan will turn 8 in April. That means he will need to be tested. I am not sure if he has to be tested near his birthday or if he has to be tested before we begin the next school year. That is something to look into!
~ Ok, so I told you how the party went, I’ve told you about our school plans & about not getting the minivan. I think that is all our news. We had a pretty good week. I’ve been trying not to be sad. God is faithful. This week I was able to meet an online friend & her family. 🙂 They visited us on Thursday. That was nice. They are really nice people and they might move to the Olympia-area!! 🙂 That would be fun.
~ Oh! I forgot – I started counting calories again. Yesterday was a bomb. I did great until Jef came home. I was at 1672 when he came home, and we had the last pieces of peanut butter pie. That put me at (figuring roughly, since there weren’t any calories listed on the pie) 2124. :p Today I have had 615 so far. 🙂
~ Going to go now, tired of typing. 🙂 Have a great weekend!!

This was a funny e-mail I received from my dad. It made me chuckle. I like the first & fifth suggestions best. 🙂

WAYS TO MAINTAIN A HEALTHY LEVEL OF SANITY

• At lunch time, sit in your parked car with sunglasses on and point hair dryer at passing cars. See if they slow down.
• Page yourself over the intercom. Don’t disguise your voice.
• Every time someone asks you to do something, ask if they want fries with that.
• Put your garbage can on your desk and label It “In”.
• Put decaf in the coffee maker for 3 weeks. Once everyone has gotten over their caffeine addictions, switch to espresso.
• On the memo line of all your checks, write “For smuggling diamonds”.
• Finish all your sentences with “In accordance with the prophecy.”
• Don’t use any punctuation.
• As often as possible, skip rather than walk.
• Order a diet water whenever you go out to eat with a serious face.
• Specify that your drive-through order is “to go”.
• Sing along at the opera.
• Go to a poetry recital and ask why the poems don’t rhyme.
• Have your co-workers address you by your wrestling name, Rock Bottom.
• When the money comes out the ATM, scream “I won!, I won!”
• When leaving the zoo, start running towards the parking lot, yelling “Run for your lives, they’re loose!!”
• Tell your children over dinner. “Due to the economy, we are going to have to let one of you go.”

NEA: Home Schools Run By Well-Meaning Amateurs

This article is funny. The author is so condescending, acting as if regular parents are stupid. He uses the analogy that you wouldn’t do all your own home repair jobs or all the repairs on your cars (Jef would, if they didn’t have stinkin’ computers in them!). We would. I know other people who would. We certainly wouldn’t trust people who had a 25% failure rate to do the job for us.

Jef says that kind of condescension explains the lack of educational reform. If any one of those professions (which happen to be non-government jobs) Mr. Arnold lists had the failure rate (25%?) that public education has, they would be out of a job.

This condescension irks me, yes, but also makes me sad. It is this way of thinking that hurts kids out there. Parents are made to believe they are incapable of teaching their kids, so they send them to a school where their children are given 1/20 of the teacher’s attention (if it is a really good school, otherwise the teacher to student ratio is much higher). My children receive one-on-one attention from both Jef & I, especially when they are having a problem.

My children will also be able to correctly identify points in American history that led us to today. If you ask them who John Hancock was, or what Ben Franklin did, they will be able to tell you! They will also be able to tell you who Arlen Specter is, etc.

Oh, and most importantly, by the time they graduate, they’ll be able to read, write coherently, and do math!!!! Can’t say that for the public schools!

Ok, I am off my rant. Thanks for listening. Going to play “Sorry!” and eat pancakes & sausages and drink coffee (black – back to being good). :o) Have a good day!

1994 mazda mpv

Check out this page. We are going up on Sunday to see this minivan. Might be our next “new” car! 🙂

We had so much fun this evening! We went and bought “Sorry!” for the kids, and played it with them. It was a blast! 🙂 Jonathan ended up winning, Mom came in second, Dad in third & poor Daniel last. He’d gone for a long time not being able to get any of his men out! But he was a good sport about it and we all had fun.
Thank you Granny & Grandfather for the gift certificate!!!

Today I had a dr. appt. Everything checked out okay. I was a bit down, it seems like the end of everything, if you know what I mean. But Jef cheered me up, and the boys did too. 🙂

Tomorrow I get to meet one of my online friends. Her name is Louise & she lives in Montana. But she & her husband are considering a move to WA!! She might move to Olympia!!!! Then I could visit her! 🙂 That would be fun! I’ll fill you in on how things go tomorrow.

Here is a picture of the “binding” of the “book”. :o)  

So here is the game we found! It is the neatest thing. It is set up to look like a book (see picture above)! We bought “Sorry!” and “Yahtzee” today!! This is Daniel’s birthday present from Granny & Grandfather. 🙂

Today we tried playing “Parcheesi” with the boys & Daniel was having a hard time understanding it. (There are so many variations in the rules, you know!!) So we thought we would go get “Sorry!” for him. We asked if he’d like to use his gifr card from Granny & Grandfather to buy it. He said “Yes!”  

Jonathan & Nicholas singing “Happy Birthday” to Daniel. 8/14/05