Monday, August 24, 2009

First Day of Public School

Today was the first day of school for our district. Last night, I was second guessing myself. Worrying about whether or not we are making the best choice for our kiddos. Is he going to be missing out? Will he get everything from us teaching that he needs to be successful out there? I was just full of questions. This morning, I woke up feeling good. I prayed and pondered and feel like I'm going to be doing the right thing. After we got back from the park, we had some company over and one of the guys had been homeschooled! I asked him how he liked it and he said it was good for him. All of his siblings were homeschooled and he said it worked great for their family. It helped me to see someone that had been through it and wasn't deprived. It made me feel so much better. I look forward to this year and the learning that is going to take place by both of us.
I wanted to do something different for the kiddos since they didn't have to be up for school today when all of their friends did. We finished up school and packed a picnic lunch. We headed over to the new park that was built behind our community center. It is a futuristic-style park. At least that is what the description said. It had some things on it that I have never seen before. It was really neat. Not so much for Kaydence, but it worked out good for Kameron. We played there and then went over to the baseball field and play at the playground there. Then, we sat under the pavilion and had our picnic lunch. We then went back over to the new area and played on the water slab. It has jets of water that shoot up and spray. It was so much fun!! I even joined them playing in the water. We were the only people there, and I look forward to bringing more people and telling our homeschool group about it this Thursday when we meet!!

Monday, August 17, 2009

Another Week Gone By

Well, another week has past. I've learned some things about myself. I need a schedule. I need to know exactly what needs to be accomplished and when. I have to have it organized for myself so I can be organized in the other aspects of my life. I'm excited to start this week off on a better foot!
We are going to be working on the same book again this week. There were some things that I didn't get to cover and do that we will be doing. We have a few trips planned this week, so it is going to work out great.
We did our Muffin Tin Monday today. There wasn't a theme for this week, so I basically just served their meals in the muffin tins. They enjoyed having it served up in those muffin tins. It is fixing to storm here, so I better go make sure everything is closed up. Until next time!

Monday, August 10, 2009

Muffin Tin Monday

I stumbled across a site that posts ideas for making lunch and serving it in muffin tins on Monday. I totally loved the idea. I couldn't wait to get started but started drawing a blank. I didn't know what I was going to do. The week I found it was no theme and I just couldn't think of anything lol. This week's theme was Planes, Trains and Automobiles. I started thinking about traveling in each of those. I decided on the peanuts and root beer because that's what I always had on a plane ride. I wanted to make train or car sandwiches, but didn't have a cookie cutter for it so we got stars! Then I put in some fruit and cheese because we take that a lot with us in the car when we travel. I also put in those animal cracker cookies that come in the red train box. The kids loved it!! They were so excited to have the food in the muffin tray. I had found the star one on clearance after the 4th and the flower one I bought on E-bay. You can check out the site I found here: Muffin Tin Monday. Next week the theme is: No Theme so I guess I will be practicing my creative skills lol. We enjoyed our first week and look forward to many more!!

Friday, August 7, 2009

BlueBell, The Capital, and an Awesome Find!

On our way to our Nanny's house, out in Central Texas, we decided to stop at the Bluebell Creamery and take the tour. It was so neat. We saw how they prepare the ice cream and learned that each machine can make 52 1/2 gallons a minute. We were standing there listening to the tour guide for 10 minutes, which means, we saw 520 1/2 gallons made on 1 machine. (There were 6 machines running!!) At the end of the tour, we received a sample of ice cream. They had 8 choices to choose from, and I tried the newest flavor, Nutty Chocolate. It is so good, worth trying!! We had a lot of fun and it helped to break up the trip. After that tour, we headed into Austin to visit the State Capital. We went to the State Capital Visitor Center first. They gave us a ton of information. I was especially excited about the travel guides. I hope to use those a lot this next year, taking small trips. Texas is so big, and that makes so much to see and do. We were able to see some of the things from the history of Texas. Wagon Carts, paintings showing different battles that were fought, flags from the different missions and they had computers set up to tell the stories too. It was really cool and free!! They also had an area where you could put on some cowboy gear and mount a saddle. The kids thought that was the coolest thing ever. Kaydence couldn't fit in the chaps or gloves, but we put on what we could and got their pictures! Then we walked over to the capital. This thing is huge. It was awesome to walk to the middle and look up into the huge dome. Adam and Kameron went up 4 different flights of stairs and looked back down towards me and Kaydence. It was really neat. We saw the room that the House of Representatives meet it. It was huge, and just really cool to see. It was a great visit that all of us enjoyed. I can't wait to have a Texas History lesson with Kameron. We got back home on Thursday night, so today, I had to go to the store for some groceries. I was shopping and looking around and it is unavoidable that I stop at the clearance section. I saw this long box that had been opened. As I got closer, it was an art easel. It was the kind that you can roll the paper down from the top to use. It was really cool looking. Those things have always been out of budget and I wasn't expecting too much when I grabbed it to go scan the price. I was figuring in my head that I wouldn't pay more then 20 bucks for it. I couldn't justify more, so I knew if it was over, it wouldn't be ours. I did some more shopping and finally got to a scanner. I grabbed the box and scanned.........10 bucks!!!! I put that thing back under my cart so quick lol. I was so excited. It is going to be great. I got it set up and the kiddos had a lot of fun drawing on it. It came with washable markers and everything! I was so excited and can't wait to incorporate it into our schooling. That was my awesome find of the week!