Lego Beatles

This last year Pooh has gotten really into listening to the Beatles. Evidently Tigger got into it too for a while so he's recreated them here for you-Lego style. :D It comes complete with the guy up front filming them for a video, aka Steve the cameraman. "He has a little mustache." says Tigger.

Love Ringo's drums!



Tigger no longer likes the Beatles but Pooh still loves singing along. Tigger is more into folksy banjo playing country songs now. Hey! It beats those annoying kids' cd's that make you want to pull out your eyelashes!

What are YOU looking at?!?

This is our snowman with a bad attitude. Hee Hee The King helped Tigger get him together and then when Tigger wasn't looking he added some embellishments. I went out to look and started laughing hysterically and was taking photos. Tigger had an absolute COW because he hated the 'hair'. That just made me laugh harder. Sometimes it's just hard to be a parent. Eventually, Tigger did remove the offending parts. Two days later he went out and banged off the head with a stick.


Pooh helped The King do the other snowman and they added this guy's decorations together. There was no bloody ending to this guy.
The snowmen came from a February snow. This week we had another snowfall which was a surprise because we were expecting mostly rain. It was a nice wet snow which allowed some great snowball fighting.





I know Tigger has gotten over his problems with his snowman because he can laugh about it now. He even said it was like him! (bad attitude)

We've been very happy with our many snowfalls this year. It is highly unusual for us to get this many snow storms. We are loving it! Tigger just wants more and more for snowboarding purposes. I'm about ready for spring though. I have gardening to get to and these unusually low temps are messing with my schedule now. Can't have that!!!!

My Baby is Losing His Baby Teeth!

It's so cute and so sad all at the same time. Tigger has three teeth on the top that went loose all at the same time. One is gone and you can see the adult tooth coming in. Boo Hoo.



Both boys had a dentist appointment this week and Tigger has a few cavities to get filled (between molars) and they may have to pull one of those front teeth out if it doesn't come on it's own. I plan to discuss it more with the doctor when we go back next week.

Trying to get him to be still enough for the photo while he flies his Toy Story Lego Spaceship.

Pooh was cavity free!!!

Boo Hoo

(Edited to add: I just heard a crash in the kitchen. Guess who is helping with the dishes? The King just broke a ceramic spoon. Tigger feels so much better about himself now. LOL)

I'm in mourning. My wonderful digital camera through which you may have enjoyed many a blog post (I know I enjoyed blogging them.) hit a rock and ended up in a stream yesterday. Can I just say, "Waaaaaaaahhhhhhhh"? I bought it on Amazon in the spring for $110. I looked last night and another seller (not Amazon itself) is selling them for $277!!! The same camera! Another "Waaaaahhhh".

How did it happen? Well, it was ultimately my fault. I made the choice to allow my little Tigger to take a picture with it. Most of the time when he asks to take a picture I tell him 'No'. This time I thought 'I'm right here. He's wearing the wrist strap. What could go wrong?' Frankly, I don't know how he did it. One minute he had it in his hand, the next it was sailing right by me into the stream. I should have known better.


The boy is like his father, poor thing. When The King and I were engaged, his friends warned me what a klutz he was. I thought they were exaggerating. Hah! They weren't. Two sets of glasses, plates and a couple of souvenirs from France later and I knew they were right. And that's just what I remember! (I love you, Honey! ;D)

Tigger was very upset himself. He even said later when we saw some pretty berries on a bush, "Too bad we can't take a picture of them." He was also horribly offended when I told him I just couldn't let him use my cameras anymore. I explained that this is something he inherited from Dad (Genes are wonderful things aren't they? Heavy sarcasm!) and that until he had better control over himself and his movements, he wouldn't be able to touch them again. (From experience, I'm thinking he won't be ready till he's like, ya know, 35.) I told him that I wasn't really upset with him, I was upset about his camera. He did feel really bad!


I had some wonderful nature things to share too! We had left Pooh at Art and went to a local Bog Garden to look for mushrooms. It's been wet here in the Southeast lately and I thought it would be a good time to see them. We found lots! I was even taking pictures of different bushes with some gorgeous berries on them. I wanted to label them if I could. We found TWO snakeskins in the stream! Tigger was so excited. We fished them out and he was taking a picture of me holding the second one (on a stick) when the fateful event occurred. (Another "Waaaaahhhh". Every time I think about it I want to cry!)

The camera lens wouldn't retract. All the windows were fogged up. The King opened it all up last night and is letting it dry. We'll see what happens. I'm not even sure if I managed to salvage the little card thingy with the pictures on it. I took it out right away hoping it would dry and be ok.

Here is the one I'm looking at if I have to buy a new one. Here is my old one. Opinions are welcomed. I'm a novice photographer, but I've found that I love it. I love snapping photos and hoping for that one that really captures joy and/or beauty. I love the zoom features so I can catch the details of the flowers and plants that I photo. What I really want? That one on the commercials with Ashton Kutcher (spelling?). I know, I'm a sucker for advertising, but MAN! that camera is awesome!

Tigger and I moved on in our walk after the event. We had fun when we found some Touch-Me-Nots beside the path. Some of the seed pods were ready. We touched, they popped and I screamed. Every time. LOL We found some pieces of bread that another lady had left and fed them to the ducks. We saw a chipmunk. By the time we got home, he (at least) was over it. I, on the other hand, am wearing black today.

Waaaaahhhhhh!

(Photos in this post are from ones already loaded into my computer.)

A Reading Lesson

I haven't worked much on reading with Tigger. I've read several things on not pushing reading (like some schools tend to do) due to brain/visual maturity, especially for boys. Charlotte Mason also did not recommend formal lessons before a child was six. Although I still find her reading instructions a bit vague, I am trying to do gentle instruction and have taken some suggestions from others who've used her method a lot longer than I have. Here is one of the clearest explanations I've found.

We have been doing some pre-reading exercises though. He loves to rhyme words now. It took a little for him to understand the concept. He kept trying to give me words that started with the same letter. LOL Now, for the most part, he will rhyme correctly. Tigger is not a memorizer so still will forget the names of letters or forget what sound they make. I think his little brain is too busy. When he is trying to remember something, he sits and says the same thing over and over again trying to keep it in his head. Don't distract him during this time!

Lately he has been really upset when we have family study time or during meeting preparation about the fact that he can't read yet. He said yesterday that "When I learn to read, then I can read the whole bible and can learn about God all by myself."

It's time to teach the boy some formal lessons. So today we started with a very simple 5-10 minute lesson. I used the white board and presented 'at'. Then I simply stated "This is the word 'at'. Now watch what I'm going to do." I then wrote the word 'cat'. Well, once he saw how it worked, he LOVED it! We did 'at' words and then we did 'in' words. He's very ready for his next reading lesson tomorrow.

It will be a review of 'at' and 'in' and then I'll start on 'en' and 'un'.

How exciting! He gave me a hug and said "Thank you Mommy for teaching me how to read!". So Sweet! When Dad came home he had me write words on the board again so he could read them for Dad. I then wrote on the board (just for fun) 'The cat sat on a mat.' (Yes, I know, a very twaddly sentence.) He loved that too. I just told him the three words he didn't know. Then we changed it to 'The cat sat on a hat.' LOL

I guess the phonics tiles will be doing double duty for a while. I have those famous LeapFrog videos to review with him too. He'll be soooo excited!

Bees. Again

It all started last summer. My Latin King had taken the boys into the woods with their axes and machetes to go exploring. A little while later the boys came running back into the house yelling. Pooh had hit a yellow jacket nest with his axe and gotten stung about 6 times. He handled it all really well, but ever since then he's been somewhat afraid of bees.

Then he got stung this summer by a honeybee he stepped on.

Then it was Tigger's turn. Evidently, when he was playing with his soccer ball on the patio the ball hit a wood ramp they use for their bikes. There was a wasp nest under there. Tigger told me that something on his stomach hurt and when I looked, there was evidence of a sting.

Ever since then, Tigger has been terrified to go outside by himself. Last week he had the responsibility of feeding the dog and rabbit and he was too scared to do it. Either Pooh or I had to be standing at the door telling him to keep going because he would see something flying around and get freaked out.

I'm not super sympathetic. I don't want to nourish the fear. I just explain they aren't after him, but after the honey (or whatever-depends on the insect). "Are they attacking you?" No. "Well, then just keep going. They won't bother you if you don't bother them. The only reason the wasp stung you is because he thought you were attacking his nest." So far the reasoning hasn't made much of an impression.

Tigger used to have nightmares about spiders. They have changed to being about bees. He woke up several nights yelling about them. Poor thing. I am a LITTLE sympathetic. :D

A couple of nights ago, Tigger is heading to his room when he says: "I think I saw a bee in the house." Me yelling from my room: "There's no bee in the house!" Me adding: "Besides, if a bee got in your room, the monster would eat him!"

Nope, not expecting that Mother of the Year Award any time soon.

He hasn't had any nightmares since then.

Brotherly Bickering

This time it revolves around a pamphlet for Revolutionary War events. There's yelling going on in the kitchen. Mainly from Pooh. Tigger holds onto the pamphlet as if it means his life.

Pooh comes up the stairs and starts telling me how Tigger needs to learn to share. "You know, Mommy, like on Dragon Tales. Ord had to learn to share his things." Uh-huh. I was just agreeing-trying not to get too involved. I want them to work things out. Pooh expresses more thoughts, "If he doesn't share, I'm not going to be around him. You know, if somebody bothers you, you should just walk away."

Good thinking, Pooh! "Thanks." LOL

Pooh is happy that he expressed himself and Tigger is walking around with some headphones on that look like they belong to an air traffic controller on the strip. "I don't want to hear all this yelling." Little instigator.

Yes, That Was Me

I was only out for one hour. One measly little hour. And somehow we still became a spectacle.

Enter store to look for shirts suitable for pirate costumes. Find some. Decide to look through the books for some goodies. Found Moby Dick, a couple of great field guides and some others. Get ready to check out. Warn the boys three times (get that? 3x!) not to mess with the bikes beside the checkout counter.

Hear the crash. Turn around to find Tigger covered with a wall hanging system designed for hanging dresses. Why? Because he got on the exercise bike. (3X!!!)

Crying and embarrassment ensue. (almost by us both) I fix the mess. Pay for purchases. Leave the store hoping the next time I return it'll be a different cashier.

Yes, that was me at Goodwill today. And yes, it must be time to start a new habit. OBEDIENCE! Although, I daresay, a little someone may have just learned his lesson today.

Kids' Gardens-Starting Seeds

Last week we had a seed planting day. I got things set up for Pooh and Tigger. They each had a tray and some newspaper cups. I had presoaked the seed starting medium so it would be ready.

We then discussed the seeds they wanted to start. Tigger was pretty much set with what he wanted:
2 Sugar Pie Pumpkin, 2 Ali Baba watermelon, 9 Country Gentleman corn. He wanted carrots too but it won't work quite right with the other stuff he's growing. I may convince him to plant some beans seeds around the corn once it gets going. Then he'll have the 3 Sisters (corn, beans, squash).


He ended up filling some cups that I used later.


Pooh had me read off some of the seeds I had and decided from there. He picked some things that "I'll grow it but I won't eat it." 5 spinach, 2 eggplant, 2 zucchini, 2 cucumbers and 6 nasturtium. I'm going to show him that you can eat the flowers of this one. Won't he be surprised!



The way we worked it was:

1. They told me what seed they wanted to plant next.
2. I asked them how many.
3. As they were putting the planting medium into their cups, I marked the required amount of Popsicle sticks with the name of the seed.
4. They placed their markers in.
5. I then either game them the correct number of seeds (more for Tigger) or gave them the packet to plant their seeds (Pooh). They placed 2 seeds in each cup. I did that because these are older seeds and I wanted to make sure they got something to sprout.

See! It wasn't as horrific as you expected, Pooh! ;D


The seed tray is now in the greenhouse. They have a small soda bottle with a special sprinkle top on it so they can water their seeds each morning. The fun part will be when the little green shoots start popping up.

In my tray I planted, yellow squash, pumpkin, petunia, moss rose, african daisy, hyssop, impatiens, nasturtium, scallop squash, 4 o'clocks, hollyhocks, marjoram, zinnias and winter squash. The zinnias are already coming up!

Inculcating

Many of us are familiar with the scripture at Deuteronomy 6:6,7. It discusses inculcating God's laws on your child's heart. The boys and I were discussing that scripture a couple of weeks ago during our daily text. We talked about what the word 'inculcate' means--to repeat, to say again and again, to impress.

Then I explained to them that this is why Mommy and Daddy tell them the same things all the time. It's part of our job. When they say, "I knoooow, I knoooow" I understand that they know, but I'm 'inculcating' so that I know they know. LOL

Anyway, while we were outside this past weekend (glorious by the way!) something happened that caused me to give them a speech. I don't remember exactly what it was. It had something to do with their behavior with the neighbor's grandson. Towards the end of my speech, Tigger lets out with this one:

"Mommy, I think you're inculcating us."

"Yes, Tigger, that's exactly what I'm doing. That's my job."

ROFLOL

Here's Personality in a Picture:

Smokey

We have a rabbit named Smokey. We received him from another family that were tired of taking care of him. We were told that he is a Netherland Dwarf rabbit. He's very sweet. I haven't yet done a 'study' of rabbits with the boys, but when we do we'll have a very convenient specimen to examine.

Pooh is in charge of checking on him every morning. He checks his water, dry food and litter box (he was already litter trained when we got him!). Tigger loves giving him fresh greens from the garden. He loves all those weeds that I need to get rid of. :D

We don't take him out of his cage much because he gets a little jumpy when out of the cage. My plan is to start getting him used to wearing a harness and leash so that we can take him out here and there. The King has a dream of moving the hutch and adding a whole bottom section to it so that he has a play area and the boys can get in the bottom part to play with him.

One really cool thing that he's done is to almost purr when I pet him sometimes. I had no idea rabbits even made noises! (I wasn't really raised as an animal person so I'm getting used to them.)

Tigger has no such reservations! (Isn't he the cutest! (if i do say so myself LOL))

A Picture for Posterity

Tigger had a bump. A very Big Bump this week. This picture ended up highlighting it well once I switched it to Sepia view. You see that nice goose egg on his forehead???

We went ice skating. That should say it all. However, I will give you a few extra details. We went with a group of homeschoolers and I was happily talking with a few of the moms. I did have my skates on just in case I needed to help one of the boys on the ice or they needed me to take a turn with them, whatever. So, somebody suddenly gets our attention and then I heard it--Tigger yelling and crying. I sat with him for maybe about 5 minutes. The whole time he told me he hit his nose. "Um, ok, nose looks good, no blood. You're good to go." Off he skates for another 30 minutes before it was time to leave. (I'm not one of those moms that freaks out at that kind of stuff. Of course if his leg had come off, that might be a different matter.....)

As we're leaving he informs me he feels a bump on his head. It's under his bang area. I look and "Good Grief!" He may have hit his nose too, but what really hit was obviously the kid's forehead. What's that all about???? What you see in the picture is a little less of what I saw. By that time, it had actually gone down a little. We applied the ice pack I had packed for our snacks. He even walked through Lowes Foods carrying it before we got back to the house.

And, as a good mommy should, I Googled "goose eggs on forehead" and got back very helpful information to make sure he didn't have any major brain injury. ;D

Tigger tends to be our accident prone child due to his being so 'bouncy'. The bump is actually in the same spot that as a toddler he went diving off a couch and was stabbed in the forehead by a plastic spiderman finger. That should have had a couple of stitches but me, being a Dr-phobe, applied butterfly bandaids. The spiderman deal was not on my watch by the way. LOL I actually arrived at the sitter's house as it happened. You can imagine my joy to come in when blood was spurting out of his forehead. Sigh...... That's nothing though compared to the poor kid's hand after riding on a homemade go-kart. Another story, another day. Did I mention he was accident prone???

(Yes, that's the Latin King in the picture. Now you know what he looks like!)

Out of the Mouth of Babes

The boys are in the bath and Tigger yells, "Can we have a bubble bath?"

I yell back “No!”

Tigger then talking to Pooh about the situation of not having a bubble bath.

Pooh says: “Mommy says no”

Tigger: “Well, mommy is crazy a lot.”

Pooh: “Yes, sometimes mommy is crazy”

Mommy “Sigh…..”

Term 2......Finally!

Well, due to my being in a 'funk' for a few weeks (which is over for now, thankfully), we were behind schedule as far as our AO Year 1 goes. Pooh had also gotten cranky, probably as a reaction to my crankiness and school was a bit of a struggle. We've been successful lately in getting going with minimal complaints and have officially finished week 13. So, due to this delay, I'm not sure we'll finish Term 2 by the end of February but I'm sure going to try.

During our 'funk', narrations had gotten to be a chore. Pooh wasn't concentrating on the readings and therefore wasn't able to do even a simple narration. I was frustrated and showed it which made him even worse. That has changed as well. The only person freaking out right now is Tigger. He's been having a little trouble with Math. We need to work on counting to one hundred and continuing counting by fives. We use Math U See and he's on lesson 23 now.

I'm anxiously awaiting tax season. I even have my appointment set for the first Friday in February. ;D We usually get a nice chuck of change that enables us to survive the rest of the year. I know they say you shouldn't let the government have that much extra money. You're supposed to change the dependents so that you get more money each month. Whatever. I prefer to use it like a little savings account that I can't touch. Maybe like a CD. I just don't earn interest on it. (which would be negligible anyway.

We have several purchases to make:
1. We'd like to buy a tent for family camping. It's the only way we'll ever be able to go on vacation again. We just can't afford the hotels. We'll also need to get a new cooler a few other odds and ends. Oh, yeah, and sleeping bags. LOL Can't forget those.
2. A bike for Tigger. Last spring was Pooh's new bike due to his finally learning to ride without training wheels. Well, Tigger learned to ride without the training wheels not too long after Pooh. So, now it's his turn for a bike. I'll be scouting Goodwill as well as the sales.
3. Gravel for our garden paths. I've decided to switch to gravel because it doesn't have to be replenished as often as mulch. This will involve a few other purchases as well, like landscape fabric.
4. Some school supplies. We'll need to buy the next levels for math, Sequential Spelling, HWT workbooks for both and a Caps and Punctuation book for Pooh. He needs a little reinforcement besides his regular copywork. I also need a little help with the instruction 'rules'. Explode the Code for Pooh. He'll be going into books 4 and 5. I'm also scouting for any books that I'm missing for AO Year 2.

That's it for now. Hopefully, nothing major will pop up to mess up our plans. (You know, like the King being Laid Off!) I'll be putting some of our Refund into savings as well. Just. In. Case.

Lately I've been trying to weatherproof my Greenhouse. We built a little 10 x 10 one off the side off what used to be our garage (now a big basement family room). I can't really grow anything in there during the winter right now because it needs to be insulated. I've insulated around the door but now the door won't shut like it's supposed to, so that's got to be fixed. Keep in mind that this thing was built out of scrapes. The door is an old storm door I found for $10 at the Habitat for Humanity's Restore. We used old windows for the sides, leftover vinyl siding from someone's house project around the bottom and those poly sheets for the roof and front section. I'll have to take pics and post them so you can get a better idea. Anyway, too much air is getting in there. There's some stuff the King will be doing to the roof to seal up there and I've used Great Stuff around some cracks and seams. We also have to clean it out again. The one bad thing about it being so close to the house is that sometimes it becomes a catch all for storing things quickly. Then they never seem to want to leave.

I'm trying to check for drafts in the house to, to winterize it a little better. There's air coming in around our basement door that needs to be taken care of. I'm putting those foam thingies behind the light switch and outlet panels to keep drafts from coming in that way.

Hopefully, all this work will pay off to save us some money in the long run, the garden stuff included. The King was freaking out a bit about spending money on the garden again so I had to remind him of what we did save this last year.

1. No fear from eating our tomatoes. (Remember the scare from this summer?!?)
2. Plenty of peppers instead of paying $1.50 for one green one. (what's that all about!!!!)
3. We have tomatoes canned and in the freezer.
4. Eggplant--eaten and some in the freezer.
5. Grapes--eaten, made jelly and grape liqueur (i haven't tasted the liqueur yet so hopefully it's drinkable.)
6. Asparagus. I never buy it. Just eat what grows.
7. Buckets of strawberries. For all that we grew and ate it would have cost us a lot more than the $10 i paid for the plants--of which i don't have to buy this year--they'll still produce)
8. Zucchini, squash, beans, herbs, etc, etc.

You get the idea. I had to give him an idea of what we've saved because, frankly, he has no idea of what things cost. All he sees is what it costs in time and money in the garden and doesn't know the long-term savings. It worked. I calmed down his anxieties. ;D

That's what's been going on here. Hopefully, my funk is gone for a while and you guys will here a bit more from me over the next couple of months.

Although, I make no promises. :D

The Great Compromise

Last night I pulled out a little wooden ship kit that I had found for a dollar at Ben Franklin's. The purpose was for the boys to put it together with Dad's help. So last night they did the gluing and know that today Dad will help them finish it. This morning there was a 'discussion' going on in their room about where the ship would be put--on Tigger's shelf or on Pooh's shelf. Here is roughly how their conversation went....

Tigger: Hey Pooh, we have to decide where we're going to put the ship. You always get the ships.

Pooh: No, you have 5 and I only have 4. We should both have 5.

Tigger: Look, you have all those ships. I want it on my shelf. How about the first day you put it on your shelf, the next I put it on my shelf and the next day you get it back.

Pooh: Oh no, that's not a good idea. We'll have to think of another idea. How about we flip for it. I'll get my Lincoln penny. pause pause I can't find my money jar!

Tigger: Poooohhhhh, it's right here. You left it over here.

Pooh: Oh. Ok, I'm heads.

Tigger: I'll be tails.

Pooh: It's heads!

Tigger: Oooooohhhh, you always get all the ships.

Pooh: That's ok, you can get on my bed and look at it. And you can get it down to play with it.

Tigger: Ok.



Momma is so proud. Of myself too. I managed not to butt in when the really neat idea of alternating days came up. I was afraid this was going to turn into one of their all out battles. They managed beautifully to come up with a system on their own where they are both happy. Whether I think it's fair or not doesn't come into the picture. They think it's fair and that's ok by me.

Making Beds

Tigger's New Bed

The King has been home this week busy with making a loft bed for Tigger. The boys share a room and we decided loft beds would be a great way for us to use the space. They can have their own private areas underneath with their books and all the other paraphanalia that kids seem to collect.

A couple of years ago he finished the one for Pooh. We painted Pooh's a navy blue in keeping with their ocean/boat room. Pooh loves it and usually refers to it as his 'ship'.

Tigger wanted us to paint his black and white like a lighthouse. LOL I told him "no way", that would be too cycadelic for me. ;D However, we have agreed to have a red and white striped area just below the railing area.

Making these beds takes The King a lot of time. He finds raw, free wood that a company near here just tosses. It's some type of pallet wood. He then cuts it and puts it together. After that, he takes it apart, shaves it smooth, sands it even smoother, puts on two coats of primer, then finally, two coats of paint.

What we do for our kids!!!

Pooh's Bed

Their new computer desk that sits between their beds. The King made this one too.

Beneath each bed is a short bookcase and one of those convertible chairs. They convert into mini beds. Tigger also has a little dresser under his bed. They each have a shelf above their beds for their boats and whatnot. They are small shelves and we plan on adding more for their little collections. Tigger's bed still doesn't have a real mattress. That will be coming soon. Right now there are these thick pads someone had made for them to sleep/camp on the floor on his bed. He manages to be quite comfy with those.

I really wanted them to learn to share a room. I think that it can teach so many life skills like getting along, compromise and respect. For the most part they do great. Every once in a while someone will complain about a light being on or someone won't stop quoting movies (wonder who that could be lol) or whatever. I love to hear how Pooh will read to his little brother sometimes or how they work things out. All in all, I believe it's working and hope that it continues to do so. We'll take it year by year.


They are both responsible for the appearance of the room and they tidy up daily or it would be a disaster area. Sometimes I have to do a major clear out. That's where I dig up all the little things that crowd in corners and books that are put in the wrong way and I lay them all in the middle of the floor. Then we put things away the 'right' way. I recently had to cull Tigger's drawers because he just couldn't fit all the clothes he had in there and they were a mess. I wash, dry and fold. They put away. It's on their list of morning chores each day to check their baskets. I don't have too many complaints about messes unless I don't check it for several days. Then it's every man for himself in there! ;D

(Note: This post has been sitting as a draft since October. I finally got a few pictures taken to share!)

Tigger's CM Kindergarten

Tigger is 5 1/2 years old and this is his Kindergarten year. I'm keeping in mind the Year 0 as presented at Ambleside Online, but with a bit more structure. The reasons are these:
1. He wants to be doing schoolwork and has asked since he was three.
2. It fits in with what Pooh is doing during the day.
3. I need the structure to ensure I'm providing him what he needs.
4. Nothing he is doing is strenuous and we are following the CM method of short lessons.
5. He was trying to take over during Pooh's readings, so I figured I better ensure he has his own.

I set Tigger up with his own school bin and binder system with weekly planner. It's set up just like Pooh's schedule to mark things off as we finish them. In it he has his own little things he likes to do on his own. He has gone thru one of those animal sticker books where you put the stickers on and read a little about each one. He just finished his 1-25 Dot to Dot book (and is anxiously awaiting another one.) Each day he will do one page of Math-U-See Primer (if he's having trouble focusing, we just close it up and finish that page the next day.) As soon as I get it ordered, he will have the beginning HWT printing book and possibly the Get Set for the Code series.

For Phonics we've been doing a letter a day. I have some letter cards from LetterLand that we go over. They're really cute. They use mnemonics such as Red Robot the theif for R that are supposed to help. (They then go on to include stories about the letter characters like Arthur 'Ar' the apple stealer who works for Red Robot.) I didn't buy the whole kit though, just the cards. Then I have two ABC type books that you find pictures on the page starting with the letter. One is an ABC I Spy book that i used with Pooh. Then he has a coloring book that is a letter per page and you find anywhere from 11-28 items on the page starting with that letter. We just finished Letter Q, so that gives you idea of how far we've come.

We are using several books to rotate reading from each day. They are:

Winnie the Pooh
Shakespeare (a kids book i picked up at B&N.)
Mother Goose
The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel from Thorton Burgess

I borrowed Jump-the stories of Brer Rabbit from the library. I also have two of the Among the ________ People books that we'll go through.

Other than that, he joins in for bible time, composer, artist, nature study, etc. He kept asking me this week to have a painting session to do Van Gogh's Roses because we weren't able to get to it on Tuesday. LOL This Tuesday that's what we'll be doing for sure!!

So that's it! It's a pretty lite schedule for him but satisfies his need to be doing things. Hope this info helps some others looking for a CM Year K.

Why Did Beethoven Go Deaf?

Wait for it.......



Tigger: "Because his hair got in the way."


That's your funny for the day! LOL My King informed me that Tigger gave him this interesting tidbit of information after discussing yesterday's composer. We listened to Beethoven Lives Upstairs. I have no idea why he thought this but it was too funny to forget. Now it's a memory I can cherish through the wonders of blogging. ;D

Nature-Tigger Style

One nice thing about Pooh taking art on his own, is that I have one on one time with Tigger. Forty-five minutes of activity. Tigger wouldn't have it any other way.

When we first started taking Pooh to art, I would take Tigger to a used book store or maybe Target to look around. I still do that every once in a while, but lately have been taking him to a nearby Botanical Gardens park. It has a really nice walkway that's mostly in the shade. It's very windy, so Tigger never knows which route we'll take from time to time but he does recognize certain areas. There's also a foresty type section complete with forest floor full of dropped seed pods and pinecones. Tigger has started a 'collection'. Every time we go he brings home about 5-6 new little things.

On our walks I'll identify a plant here and there, have him smell a flower or herb, watch the bird antics, name the birds, see how close we can get to a bird, rabbit, squirrel or chipmunk and watch Tigger walk the stone walkways for some serious sensory input. (he needs it) None of this is planned. We just go, walk and see what's interesting that day. We even discovered a garden area with a copper music stand and who's music happened to be engraved on it???? That's right, Beethoven! Moonlight Sonata. Tigger got a stick and pretended to be a conductor.

I think for us a combination of a scheduled nature study and casual study works well. I do, sometimes, need the structure of saying "Okay, today we'll study Robins." But what cements those structured studies is the unstructered time of just enjoying what we see. That's what brings it all together.

As we're back in the van, I'm about to turn left to leave the park and I hear Tigger's little voice pipe up from the back, "Nature stuff is cool, Mommy"

Yes, Tigger, Nature stuff is very cool!

Goings On For This Week

First I have to tell a funny. Last night, during our family bible study, we were discussing the story of the Israelites worshipping the golden calf. Towards the end, Tigger starts talking about how a king killed some of the Israelites.

Me: You mean Pharoah?

Tigger: Yes, I mean no. Another king.

Me: (in the interest of trying to figure out which king he meant I proceed to ask) When did this happen?

Tigger: Uh, 1845?

ROFLOL. He is such a hoot, sometimes. Later that night, when they were having their before bed snack, I heard something drop but it didn't sound like breakage, so I didn't think anything of it. Next thing I know, Tigger is snuggling up to me and in a very little voice says, "Pooh broke your cup and he's very very sorry." Then I see Pooh standing there with a very sad face. All was well and I reassured them I wasn't upset.

Thankfully, it was an already cracked cup. LOL

For the rest of the week, I'll be squeezing in some school work with getting ready for this year's District Convention. I have clothes to get ready, food to organize and prepare and keep up with the regular routine as much as possible. Pooh also has an early morning dental appt on Thursday. I found a piece of one of his molars missing last week and it wigged me out. Eeewwww! I hate the dentist anyway but am trying to keep a calm demeanor for his sake.

Well, I must go finish cleaning up all the glass in my kitchen. I just about half an hour ago (in the middle of blogging) heard a crash. I had put my glass pan of freshly made granola bars on an evidently still on burner. Result: a glass explosion. It is swept but needs vacuuming. So toodaloo!!!