I'm in charge here!

Or at least I think I am......in fact the cover of my lesson planner carries this written reminder....

I think I'll start holding it up when the kids give me attitude.

They don't tell you when you start homeschooling that there will be days your children decide that they are going test you to the utter limits of the patience God gave you.....I get especially aggravated when they tell me what they are going to do. Don't mistake me.....I am all about them expressing their likes and dislikes. I don't want to be an overlord. But at the end of the day school is non-negotiable.   So with a small amount of grumbling here's what we got done.....

Math tests went very well! I was especially pleased with Stufffie.

                                                          SUPER DUPER!!!

Not to be out done Kung-Fu knocked it out of the park! He got an 89...which is a B...not to shabby! The picture is on my ipod and I have no idea how to post it here.....sorry Kung-Fu!

We are almost done with our first Time Travelers unit.... we finished Explorers....PIRATES are next!

                                                     see ya fellas!

And we colored this nifty Mission. Because the explorers didn't just wipe out the natives with disease they also thought it would be a good idea to kill them in the name of our Lord.....

                                    What a bunch of dummies!

We also made this map that shows where each explorer explored in the New World.....

Cutting out each tiny little head and gluing them was tons of fun! no really....Kung-Fu opted NOT to color his...and that was a decision I was happy to let him make.....

We also made this cool 3D map.....we really like these. And this week they both colored with markers so it matches.....it's the little things that thrill me....

                          Love the temple and the Spaniards prancing around....

Our extremely crappy State Study continues to bore. I'm thinking this week I'll order something different. Because what we're doing it just useless. I know they aren't learning ANYTHING! 

                  

The workbook is really uninspiring....it's a shame....not just the black and whiteness of it...it's the utter YAWN factor.....

I tossed around the idea of using it to the bitter end but at the end of the day it's more important that my kids learn the geography of the US then it is for me to have more fuel to pour on the fire that is Winter Promise publications.

We skipped the 2nd assignment of Picture Studies this week because we are so sick of the 'new' picture from last week that we were ready to cry with boredom. Luckily I have some Come Look With Me books around that I'm going to supplement with. 

Kung Fu continued to enjoy the WP Language arts....color me surprised....

yes I know that some of the nouns aren't nouns and we did talk about what a noun is so relax.

Spelling tests went super...

                                           Kung Fu.

                                           Stuffie.

Here's Stuffie's letter to Jesus.....

seriously the cutest sweetest thing EVER! I can only imagine how Jesus feels.....

Mrs.Lewis the kid's music teacher is going to get the weekly Bible verse as a welcome back to music school gift.....

                           Sorry Leigh...it was music related and you like fish....except to eat.

She also drew another picture inspired by Writing With Ease.

it's Misty of Chincoteague. And according to Stuffie it looks just like her because she knows what she looked like and she wants to go see her stuffed and mounted on Chincoteage Island. We're going to go in a couple of weeks and if I find this stuffed and mounted horse I'm posting that lovely photo of death!

Kung Fu is never inspired to draw a picture after Writing With Ease.....

Apologia Astronomy is, as usual, totally awesome. We studied the Earth this week....

There were the regular pages of fascinating facts, mini-books, what do you remember? But my favorites were the pages where they can draw their own Earth...

                               Wanted earth...I'm not sure what the Earth did to cause it to be wanted but there you have it.

We did a bunch of bike riding this week because the weather is so nice.....

she scares me less and less each time we ride out....

Kung Fu got a new bike because he's to big for kids sized bikes.....

Being a man sized boy has it's perks. He already wiped out and has a nasty scrape on his elbow.  

we met up with our buddy at the AC Moore and made the last summer craft...it involved creasing....

                                        "What do you mean crease?"  Why didn't she just say FOLD???

Behold the CREASERS...it's like greasers only with FOLDING!

And that's our week in a nutshell. 

Tomorrow the public schools are back in session and we're taking the whole week off...because we can. We've got a 5 week head start and like we usually do we're going to go camping. 

I feel sorry for the kids who's mom's can't wait for them to go back to school and I feel sorry for the mom's who miss their kids while they are away. 

I'm am ever thankful that God has blessed us so we can live the homeschooling life and I hope I can be worthy of the gift he has given me in my children.

mid afternoon mini blog from our friend at Two Giggly Girls.

Oddly enough she uses Winter Promise....and she's NOT giggling. She also weilds the profanity paintbrush like a true Picasso so continue reading at your own risk!

                           you may remember her from a previous post as the woman who's to blame...

Here's a day in her WP life......Don't say I didn't warn you.....

So we're here doing school and we get this assignment for the book Material World which reads "Complete Material World Statistics Chart Activity Help 1" So I open the book trying to find this statistics charts, which one would assume would be near the beginning  since this is only our second day and we haven't even opened the book before.  No dice.  So I spend 10 minutes going through every page because, of course, there is no page number.  Nothing. So I double check the IG for notes.  Nothing.  Just that little blurb.  So I started looking through my other books and "notebooking" pages thinking that it might be somewhere else.  Of course not. So I grab the IG and start going through page by page due to the lack of index or any sensible organization.  I find activity help 1 "Material World" Statics Chart worksheet crammed between the last lesson page sheet and the cultural gathering planning sheets.  Apparently they wanted it there because it was page 98 and the last lesson plan was 97 and the title page for the planning sheets was 99. Are they freaking kidding me??  I spent an hour trying to find this crappy piece of busy work.  An hour that I should have been educating my child.    And if that wasn't a big enough kick in the pants, you can't even complete the damed thing because some of the questions asked aren't covered on the pages they told us to read in the book.  So I look through entire book again and the four mystery answers aren't covered in it at all. Stupid, clap-ridden morans.  Are they hiring junkies to write this shit? Oh and at the bottom of the sheet... "You may want to laminate it or copy it onto cardstock so it will serve you well this year." FU Don.  I paid $90 dollars for this pile of slop.  It should've already been on card stock.  (Yes Don, card stock is actually two words not one, ass hat. Sorry that you, and everyone at that crack house you call a business, are stupid.)   You might want to copy this for your blog. ROFL Now I'm going to email Don to find the mystery answers.  Oh Yes my friend I most certainly DO want to copy this for my blog! Please feel free to send your thoughts our way whenever the mood strikes you. Thanks!

I got robbed.

So I woke Kung Fu and Stuffie up this morning and made them eat and jump right in the shower so we could be over at the post office by 9am. My thinking was that people would be at work and the line wouldn't be so long. You can't take pictures in a government building so I don't have any photos of the 18 people on line ahead of us.
I thought the Trades and Craft kit was spread between both boxes so we open the top one with out looking at the label and discover it's the Build A Bear I just ordered Stuffie for Christmas. I'm blaming Don. Luckily she didn't see the actual contents of the box otherwise I would be blogging on my road trip to Michigan. I know I could get a mob together...just sayin'

                                                         actual Trades and Crafts box.....

Here's what I paid $54 for with an extra $5 shipping charge attached......

                                           can you believe this?!?!

                                                              I call SHENANIGANS!!!!!
I am completely blown away that the box has rocks, fabric scraps and crappy paint brushes in it. Guess Don's eating out on me tonight. I hope he chokes. 
As I mentioned there are rocks in the box. These rocks are to play the Plum Stone Game scheduled last week.

See that part that says 'preparation'? That's the part that tells me what else I need to do with the contents of the $64 box and other stuff that I may or may not have laying around the house. Since I throw everything away I had to go to the Dollar Store and buy a basket and a sharpie. I needed the sharpie because I have to color the rocks and draw on them. I kid you not!

Here's the game all set to go. You toss the rocks in the basket and depending on what combo they land in that's how many points you get. The pony beads are to help you keep track. Once the main pile of 100 beads is used then you can start taking beads from your opponent until you have all the beads and you're the winner. 

They played twice. Kung Fu said it was OK and Stuffie said she loved it.
And see that's the thing about WP. They are actually really loving the curriculum. Today they learned about different ships and then did 2 little projects....

The first was to color a ship and cut little doors into it and glue it on top of another page and when you lift the door the ship part is under there to help you identify it.

                                            Stuffie made a very colorful ship...
I used and exacto knife to cut along the lines for the flaps. They also colored smaller ships to go into their big project at the end if the unit. They had to write the name of the ship part on the line. I did the writing for Stuffie because the lines were small and her writing is big ;)

Kung Fu opted for a more traditional ship color while Stuffie went all out and used lots of colors.
We are also still enjoying the Language Arts. He thinks it's neat that he can complete the page and it reveals a clue....this is a major improvement over last year.

I'm still in love with the Astronomy...especially the notebooks. Somehow Kung Fu and Stuffie got different notebooks for the same subject but that has worked out nicely as Stuffie's had more places for drawing which is what she likes to do most of all.......

Today we learned some stuff about the Sun and then they worked in their books. Since Stuffie was feeling a bit under the weather I did the writing in her notebook today as well. She drew the pictures. I love the light bulb.

The only thing that Kung Fu has complained about is Writing with Ease....too bad I don't care if he likes it or not. HA!

I made it through the week with out committing murder...yay me!

We managed to check every box this week. That little fact makes my obsessive compulsive self very happy :)
Winter promise doesn't schedule a 5 day school week so you can use the extra time on Friday to finish anything you didn't get to during the week. For example if you didn't get your Early American Trades and Crafts Kit in time to do it on the scheduled day then you could make it up on Friday unless you NEVER GOT THE KIT!
anyway........because we went to lunch with our buds this week and Stuffie had the art class at the library we had a good bit of work to get done today...

Our chapter book started off with a bang.....the very first sentence of chapter 4 was about how the women and children around camp were aroused....as in woken up....weird wording right? Not after I found out that this is also a Sonlight book....then it made perfect sense that the author would use aroused instead of awoken....I'd like to type the exact sentence here but the kids have misplaced the book for the 2nd time this week. How they can lose a book on the walk from the living room to the bookshelf 2 times in one week is beyond me but there you have it.
They also had their 1st spelling tests....Kung Fu  did OK

Stuffie did pretty good too......

......she spelled Mommy wrong the little stinker!
Papa Bear took Kung Fu to lunch today with the guys....

 And Stuffie and I went to Subway where she got her regular which is a bacon sub....just bacon...hold the everything....except the cookie.

After school they pretty much disappeared until supper time.....guess after all the extra face time they needed a break from Mom. HA! 

Tonight was the last night of VBS. Stuffie was totally in her element. That kid loves to be on stage! Kung Fu  was slightly more reserved opting to view the stage rather than be on it.

                                                      Here's Stuffie 'acting ' crazy

                                          here's my man child...head's too big for the sunglasses

I think the Catholic church is really missing out by not doing VBS. It's a really good opportunity to teach kids about Jesus in a more relaxed setting then CCD. Which any adult Catholic can tell you isn't all too great.....but that's a rant for another time.

Holy Moly!

Look at what was in my email when I got home this afternoon.....

This message was sent to you at the request of WinterPromise, to notify you that they have shipped a package to you. For details about your shipment or to track your package, please refer to the information below.


I am BLOWN away!  Seriously it almost makes up for this....

This absolutely stunning piece of crap is my replacement book for Winter Promise. It was another 'Really Don?' moment. To give you an idea of the crappy content here's the ONE PAGE on Virginia....

I really don't even know what to say. Luckily Stef loaned me a pretty awesome States book and I'm going to use that along with the WP stuff and some other stuff about the US I've been picking up here and there. I don't know why I expected more....but I did.

 Otherwise our day was fantastic.....They  did their Bible over breakfast since they got a late start this morning....apparently all this dancing (or not in Kung Fu's case) at VBS is wearing them clean out. Here they are doing their Horizon's Math...which never lets me down.....

I got the nifty lap desks at Barnes and Noble and they are awesome! They have a place for pencils and a clip on the side to hold papers.....

Stuffie decorated her's with stickers....in the background is her 'cube' it holds all her stuff so we don't have anymore delays looking for pencils or markers. They can only be open during school. That's the idea at least, we'll see how it works out through the year......

I continue to be amazed at how much Kung Fu is enjoying WP's Time Traveler stuff.....we colored a Ptolemaic Map to compare with the map of the world we did on Monday....He was all about doing it and doing it well...I finally had to tell him to move things along or finish it after school....he got moving....nothing like the threat of homework to make the colored pencil fly faster....here are the finished maps....

They also learned about the different flags ships would sail and what they meant...then they had their choice out of 3 flags and they both chose the St.Georges Flag.....Kung Fu was again told to hurry things along...lol...here's his masterpiece.....

After that we cut our day short so we could go out to lunch and then to the library with our friends....we hadn't seen them in 2 weeks so we were ready to play!

                                                                     Together again!

                                                        Gummy worm's have multiple uses.

                                                                  enormous glasses

Don't you just love summer?