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Moving

To a new blog. Find us here from now on - don't forget to updates your bookmarks and feeds!

http://crowderland.wordpress.com/

Thursday

~Kids watched a new Scholastic DVD we borrowed from Blockbuster.com.
~We headed out to art class at our friends' house. (Pictures later)
~M read "Whistle for Willie" to me.
~M and I practiced her speech.

Wednesday

Our house is in chaos this week as my husband rips it apart in preperation to sell lots of extra junk we don't need anymore at the swap meet this weekend. It's driving me nuts, but it is worth it. The downside is that most of the toys and playspace are filled with boxes and piles of stuff.

Also, my website is in transition right now which means I need to spend hours working out kinks and changing links and learning a new blog format.

Added together it means I'm not parenting and educating the way I should be. But part of homeschooling is life and life sometimes gets in the way. And that's OK.

That said we do plan to visit the library this afternoon for a worm storytime and craft. If we succeed, I will post photos.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Changed our minds. We went to the pool instead. It was a blast! Elliott did really well, I was so proud of him! He tried blowing bubbles, kicking and hanging on to the wall. M worked on floating. We had a ton of fun! The news was there doing a story so if we make it into the footage tonight I will link you. Anyone local who might be reading this it was be channel 10 at 6pm. Supposedly.

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During the rest of the day the kids just played while I cleaned out closets. And at 6pm we sat down to watch the news to see if we made the cut and we did! You can click here and watch the story about the South Bay Swim program and you can spot us playing Ring Around the Rosie. Neat! Also neat that they saved the swim program!

Tuesday

All is well around here today. What a weird bug. We do have a lot of catch-up to do, however, because whenever there is sickness there is mess.

~M played with her new beeswax modeling clay.
~M did some Brain Quest cards on her own.
~E and I matched up some Blues Clues sequencing cards.
~Shopping trip! We listened to StoryNory's version of The Emperor's New Clothes, and to My Baby Monsters webcast.
~We stopped by Borders for a few minutes and I read a book about Mr. Happy to Elliott. M poked around at books by herself.
~Kids played on the San Diego Zoo's website.
~M read a book to Elliott while he sat on the potty.
~M and her dad read a book about Easter at bedtime.

Monday - Sick Day

Woke up this morning around 2:30 am exactly one second before my son exploded with puke all over the bed. I have hardly slept since. M joined in on the action a little bit, too. Fun times. They seem to be on the mend (knock wood!) but we have done absolutely nothing today besides play on the computer and watch TV. That does not make for a very fun blog post. So I will leave you with a set of our Fourth of July photographs. Click on the photo to see the whole set.

A Day in The Life (in Photos)

Recently an online community I am involved with had an "assignment" for us to photograph our day and share it with the group. It was a ton of fun to see how people lived their lives and I decided to share it here as well. Click on the photo to see the whole set.

Tuesday

~We went to the library this morning for a Wildlife show. We saw bugs and their predators (since the Reading Program's theme this summer is about bugs). There were millipedes, walking sticks, scorpions, toads, an alligator and a cute fuzzy thing that wasn't an ant eater.
~Before the program we scrambled around gathering books we wanted to check out - some Fourth of July ones and M picked a few that looked interesting to her as well.
~M read to herself while I made lunch.
~At naptime I read Baby Rattlesnake to the kids.
~After naps, the kids ate a snack and listened to the first half of Rikki Tikki Tavi.
~And then Margie requested the second half.
~Kids played together.
~M and I worked on her speech for about half an hour. It's the first time this summer we got to it, but I plan to make it regular again now. Her L's are doing SO well.
~I left for a UU meeting.
~Dad read M a book about ducks at bedtime.

Monday

~M & I finished reading Nim at Sea! Took us awhile, but it was a great book - almost as good as the original!
~M tried reading to E but he was only sporadically interested.
~M had an acu appt today. While she was in the acu room, E and I sat in the midwifery room with the toy box and played with puzzles, shapes and trains. E called the arrow shape a "sign" shape LOL
~M read a board book before we left.
~We listened to the Webkinz Webcast in the car - M did not win their recent contest. Oh well.
~Grocery store to get dinner.
~Home for a rest. Kids watched PBS for awhile.
~M & I began reading The Secret Garden. It's very hard to read while Elliott is (literally) screaming for my attention. *sigh*
~E looked at a book about numbers briefly before screaming again.
~Snack time.
~E screamed for PBS some more. Short nap today did not make his three-year-old-ness any easier to handle. Countdown to bedtime!
~M watched Orangutan Island while eating her snack.
~We took a short walk around the block (or partway) and looked for letters and other things we were interested in.









~Back at home the kids were whiny and shouty so I threw them both in the bath to cool them off. And to wake E up b/c he was soooo tired.
~I read another chapter of The Secret Garden while they splashed.
~After bath they watched a Disney Sing-A-Long and I made dinner.

Fall Schedule

It's not quite July and here I am planning out Fall.

And OMG it's looking stressful. Between three days of speech (divided among two kids), one day of PE, once-a-month field trips, twice-a-month art class, planning on a new Camp Fire club for twice-a-month, weekly park day, and trying to find some sort of other physical class for M (swimming, martial arts, etc) I am feeling a tad panicky about how we are going to fit it all in. And I did not even mention the actual learning part that goes along with, you know, home schooling.

*breathe*

Somebody get me some Rescue Remedy!?

Thursday - Art Class

Some photos from today:

Wednesday

~M read to me two books this morning (To Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street and Inside Outside Upside Down).
~We listened to a good portion of Sarah Plain and Tall on CD in the car.
~We went to the sprinkler park.





~Elliott sat on the potty before we left. But he did not pee.



~We got some groceries and lunch at Trader Joe's.
~Went to the library for storytime and a craft but were turned away due to it being too full. If this is the theme of this summer, I will be ANNOYED.
~M played at her friend's house.
~After dinner M finished the dog bead art thingie.



~At bedtime dad read M a story.

Tuesday

~M practiced counting. She counted to 10, 10 times.
~Lots of PBS this morning as I got caught up on work.
~We walked to the library to see their Mad Science show. Elliott was scared so I left M in there with my very good friend Kathy and her kids.
~Before I left I got to see her picked as a volunteer!



~E and I looked at books, he did a number puzzle, and I grabbed some stuff to check out while M was in there.
~Walked back home for lunch.
~Naptime!
~After naps (M really did nap!) we went to the grocery store to get swim diapers and dinner.
~Home and read 1/2 hour in Nim at Sea. I wanted to finish it, but between M getting antsy and E screaming numbers at me from the book he was looking at, I just gave up.
~M had been antsy because she wanted to work on the bead art project she got from her friend Ashley yesterday.
~Kids played in the back yard with dad before dinner.
~After dinner we walked along Third Avenue looking at the cars in the car show. We then walked over the the pool to go swimming, but it was full! So we had to come back home dry.
~M watched Star Trek with dad while drawing "Sea Lion Circus" posters, presumably to save Selkie from The Professor.


You really need to click over to see it in full-size on Flickr and to read the notes about it.

~Bedtime!

Monday

~M and I read for 30 min. I read Nim at sea to her, she read In the Night Kitchen to me.
~E and I read for 15 minutes.
~M took the blocks and sorted them into piles of 10's.
~Then she spelled with the blocks.
~After naps (during which Margie didn't) we played in the pool a bit.
~After the kids were died I showed the a cool video I'd found online today and we looked at the globe to get an idea of all the different places Matt (from the video) went.
~E played on the computer while M and I built a train track.
~At bedtime Alex read to Margie.

Summer Solstice

I have not been keeping up with our daily lists for several reasons. Partly b/c we are on a break of sorts. Partly because I don't have to keep records for school right now. But also because we were very busy last week preparing for the Summer Solstice on Friday evening.

The most ancient of religions were Earth-based and our ancestors celebrated the beauty in the seasons. The information is just as true today as it was thousands of years ago so we, as a family, follow these celebrations as well. The Summer Solstice, sometimes called Midsummer, or Litha, is the time of year when we say goodbye to the sunlight as the days get shorter and shorter until we welcome the light back at the Winter Solstice. (And I will add here that most religions have a festival of lights at this time of year - Hanukkah, Christmas - humans are innately aware of the changing of the seasons and I find that beautiful.)

We celebrate the Summer Solstiuce by watching the sun set as a way to remember that we are saying goodbye to the light. This year we joined two other families at the bay to celebrate. The kids played in the water for awhile and then we got out and lit some candles, blessing them with sunflower leaves Anne had gathered from her garden. We danced areound the candles in the sand and had some summery snacks - sun-shaped cakes, lemon bars and lemonade. We threw around a sun-shaped pinata filled with sun-colored suckers. We danced near the bonfire, joyful that summer was here and that the weather was warm. We ran out of time to do henna that night but I did a couple of designs on myself the next day.

Click the photo below if you would like to see the whole set. Photos in which the other kids appear are available only to my "friends and family" on Flickr. If you would like to see those, please join Flicker (it's free!) and make me your contact. If I know you, I'll give permission. Soon enough I plan to make all the kids' photos private so you will want to join anyway. :)

Tuesday

So aside from learning about gay marriage, rallies, and watching the news on that subject all day we also...

~Read 2 chapters in Nim
~Read Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.
~Built train tracks and drove trains on them. We talked about trains in other parts of the US that seem to go on for miles.
~Played computer games.
~M & I began a paper mache sun pinata we will use for our Midsummer celebration this week.
~Dad read to M at bedtime.

Marriage Day!

Today is a historic day here in California - today is the first day that marriages between same sex couples will be performed! The local UU church had a small group of people gather outside the courthouse down the street from our home so we joined them to show our support for the newlyweds. They wanted to make sure there was a positive presence there just in case there was anyone protesting. There wasn't - they saved that for the main county courthouse, I guess. But we did get to see a few happy couples. The kids also got to meet some of the people there who we will bet getting to know as we become more involved in the church, so that was nice. They were the only little kids there, though, and they spent most of the time hunting for pandas in the trees.

http://www.cbs8.com/stories/story.131492.html

Monday

I think I forgot to finish updating last week. Off the top of my head I remember we... Looked at my JW Waterhouse book and talked about studies of art, Greek myths, Shakespearean plays, saints & martyrs, not to mention styles of art. We searched for letters in freeway signs. Margie made her dad some Father's Day art and practiced writing "Happy Father's Day". I registered the kids for the summer reading program - turns out they are going by time read instead of number of books. I guess our goal, then, is 24 hours. For Margie. I will be thrilled if Elliott meets the first goal of 6 hours - it's not that he doesn't like books, it's just that he doesn't have the attention span yet.

So. Today.

~M & E played all morning, watching a little TV.
~M & I read for about 20 minutes. She read one book to me.
~Naps. M did not have one.
~After nap time, M caught me looking up Summer Solstice crafts and she poked around on Enchanted Learning a bit while I tended to E.
~M colored some Solstice coloring pages.
~We ran to the grocery store.
~Came back home and pretty much just lazed around. The kids are not feeling well and I can't blame them for being out of whack when they feel sick.

Summertime Schedule!

I am so stinkin' excited about this summer. The library looks to be planning a kickass summer program, we plan to swim a ton, and just generally have a blast this summer. The bits I like best are that it includes walking a lot, staying within my town, and keeping us busy without keeping us committed. By that I mean that there is a ton to do, but we are not signed up for any formal classes so if we need a break one day it's no money lost and no guilt.

Here's the rough draft:

Monday:
10am - Elliott's speech class for 25 min (starts in July)
1pm - Nap time! I've planned in two nap days a week, it will be Heavenly.

Tuesday:
10am - Free movies at Regal Cinemas (we will see what Elliott thinks of this)
We can also decide to drive to the far end of town to run in the sprinklers at our favorite playground.
2pm - Bug-themed storytime and craft.

Wednesday:
11am - Special program at the library (puppet show, magic show, etc)
1pm - Open swim at the pool.

Thursday:
10am - E's speech again
1pm - Naps
7pm - Nighttime swim

Friday:
1pm - Open swim at the pool

Combine that with tons of reading (the last two summers M read - or was read to - 100 books!) and I just can't wait. I'm feeling summery happy!

Friday

~M played on Webkinz for awhile.
~E watched Hi-Five with Dad.
~M used stencils to create a picture which she colored.
~E played on NickJr.com
~M watched A Baby Story on TV.