Totally awesome homeschool momma's daily chatter

Valgal

Valgal

New member
Good Monday morning! Last night was looooooooooooong. I've been sloppy in taking one of my medications and since it effects my sleep... I couldn't sleep. Even took a sleep aid but lay there wide awake till I got up and worked on a planner I'm designing till 2am. Crawled in bed and STILL lay there 1/2 out of it for about 30 minutes. I might have to nap later. Not sure yet.

What's on tap for the week? Eden and I are diving into her Africa unit and I've planned all kinds of fun stuff. I can never, ever stick to the basic curriculum. Tuesday we're cooking an African-inspired dinner for the family and watching a highly educational film... Madagascar, lol! Looking forward to it. Family life has been a little tense so I told everyone ahead of time that they must be here Tuesday night. NO EXCEPTIONS.

Also, E is going to make and mail invitations for a book club she's been wanting to organize. I'm going to let her use PS and KCB's Bibliophile kit. I'll make sure to post it.

Gee, I'm a little talkative for so little sleep. Might be able to skip that nap after all.
 
Sounds like you have a fun week planned Val! I have trouble with the extra stuff - like adding on activities. I'm much more of a by-the-plan homeschooler though I always envy those who add more fun stuff!

We have a pretty full week, but it is spring break for us, so no school involved. I'm excited. I still have to work most of the week, but when there is no school it almost feels like a break for me too just because it is far less hectic.
 
Enjoy the break! I didn't know you work as well. Is it away from the house? I'm interested in how you handle this because my sister has been mildly considering homeschooling my niece but thinks she won't be able to do it because she works. She actually works part of her day from home now and I've directed her to some friend's of ours who did both work and hs'ing.

My niece is ADD and has struggled with being the 'bad kid' in school from the get go. So rough!
 
I work at home as a medical transcriptionist. I am able to set my hours for the most part. I try to work early mornings and evenings most of the time, but I do work throughout the day when the kids are doing quiet work, etc.
 
It is definitely hard, but I know that we couldn't make it work without my income, so I just have to make it work! Those early mornings and evenings are key to success though. If I don't get those done, then my days are crazy.
 
That sounds cool, Val! I'm another on the moment schooler, too... haha... If I had to plan, I wouldn't know when to stop planning and start implementing! I'm panic about St. Paddy's day, tomorrow - it's not a holiday my family ever celebrated... I don't know how to introduce about setting a leprechaun trap... I should have started planning this earlier... haha

This week will be a bit off schedule - hubby is traveling this week, not that matters for schooling, but still disrupts the household. Jake is done with dance lessons, but has rehearsal Thursday night and the recital on Saturday - and the family comes for that and I will have to feed then, again... :D
 
kelley said:
Sounds like you have a fun week planned Val! I have trouble with the extra stuff - like adding on activities. I'm much more of a
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this is me too. :) Can't wait to hear about all your exciting Africa activities!

On the docket this week is just the regular stuff. I ended up giving them a mini spring break last week because it was just too off after the hospital and mamaw trips. So it is back to the grindstone this week for us here!
 
We found a caterpillar yesterday, so we're going to be taking care of it until it turns into a moth and watch its life cycle. It's a "pest" caterpillar though so I have mixed feelings on keeping it. We hunted for a caterpillar last year and were only able to find one. On the way back to me from finding it, some kid took it form my boys and squished it though, so we never got to watch it's life cycle.
 
adi&co. said:
On the way back to me from finding it, some kid took it form my boys and squished it though, so we never got to watch it's life cycle.
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:crying:

Darn kid!

I caught a caterpillar when I was little and put it in a jar with a stick and named it Kathy. When she spun her cocoon I got impatient and decided to try to peek inside it to see what she was up to. Strangely enough... she died. :o
 
I keep thinking I should get one of those butterfly garden things so the kids can watch the transformation, but haven't actually followed through with the idea yet.
 
adi&co. said:
We found a caterpillar yesterday, so we're going to be taking care of it until it turns into a moth and watch its life cycle. It's a "pest" caterpillar though so I have mixed feelings on keeping it. We hunted for a caterpillar last year and were only able to find one. On the way back to me from finding it, some kid took it form my boys and squished it though, so we never got to watch it's life cycle.
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You can also order caterpillars from places online that turn into real butterflies. I used this one. http://smile.amazon.com/Insect-Lore-Live-Butterfly-Garden/dp/B00000ISC5/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426536288&sr=8-1&keywords=butterfly+kit It comes with a 'voucher' to buy the larvae. Then you can use the house over and over and over if you buy new butterflies. It is really amazing to watch and when you get real butterflies it's so awesome! :thumbup:
 
We've done insect lore's butterflies and ANTS. :blink: Holy. Those ants were super creepy but it was VERY interesting. Ben kept a little journal about them with drawings. It was fun. We have a lot of butterflies here, so we didn't order the ones from the kit. We did one chrysalis (that we found outside) in our butterfly garden thingie, but it was difficult to see through the netting. Eventually, we just bought some Milkweed from Home Depot that had butterfly eggs on it, planted it in our courtyard and observed the caterpillars outside. Those caterpillars went through a TON of milkweed. I ended up planting a bunch of it to keep them fed that summer!
 
My dd did mealworms in the 2nd grade at school. They weren't as exciting as butterflies or anything, but very low maintenance. All the kids got so attached to their mealworms that most of them named them.

This looks really fun.
 
ugh, all these creepy crawling things has my skin crawling... this is where I fail as a homeschool parent. :huh: I bought a plastic life cycle learning set and J watched a video - he isn't Mr. Nature, either... :o
 
kristijoy said:
You can also order caterpillars from places online that turn into real butterflies. I used this one. http://smile.amazon.com/Insect-Lore-Live-Butterfly-Garden/dp/B00000ISC5/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426536288&sr=8-1&keywords=butterfly+kit It comes with a 'voucher' to buy the larvae. Then you can use the house over and over and over if you buy new butterflies. It is really amazing to watch and when you get real butterflies it's so awesome! :thumbup:
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That is the kind of thing I was thinking about getting!

That is such an awesome idea Brook about getting milkweed plants at Home Depot. We may have to try that before getting a butterfly garden...
 
kelley said:
That is the kind of thing I was thinking about getting!

That is such an awesome idea Brook about getting milkweed plants at Home Depot. We may have to try that before getting a butterfly garden...
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It is so much easier! Just check underneath the leaves to make sure you get one with butterfly eggs on it before you buy. The one I bought had about 7 eggs on it.
 
YepBrook said:
It is so much easier! Just check underneath the leaves to make sure you get one with butterfly eggs on it before you buy. The one I bought had about 7 eggs on it.
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Oh I'll have to try this. I don't dare buy caterpillars through the mail as our mails takes FOREVER to get to us. I swear once it comes on post, they hold it or something. I'd be afraid they'd all be dead by the time they go to us.
 
My neighbor ordered ants once because her dd got an ant farm as a birthday gift. When the ants finally arrived they were all dead, lol! Of course the company sent them more, but needless to say her dd was a little traumatized.

OMG you guys, yesterday was the BEST DAY WE'VE HAD SO FAR. I've had this picture in my head of how I wish things were, but have no idea how to get from HERE to THERE. I'm really trying to get my head to understand that this may never happen and figuring out how to come to terms with this, but I actually saw glimpses of it yesterday. It was amazing. She did not complain about her work (except for fractions which she has dubbed as the new 'F word'). She wasn't in a rush to finish her work. She got all interested in looking at the globe and exploring different parts of Africa.

I can't tell you how blessed I felt. I will have to remember this when we have one of those crappy days, right?

Also, she voluntarily picked up dog poo in the back yard. WHA???? Who is this child?
 
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I cannot stand ants. They gross me out so bad and give me major heebie jeebies!! I can do butterflies..but the ants...*shiver*

YAY for having an awesome day Val!!! I love days like that. Some days are definitely so hard to have a really great day is so awesome! <3 <3
 
Valgal said:
My neighbor ordered ants once because her dd got an ant farm as a birthday gift. When the ants finally arrived they were all dead, lol! Of course the company sent them more, but needless to say her dd was a little traumatized.

OMG you guys, yesterday was the BEST DAY WE'VE HAD SO FAR. I've had this picture in my head of how I wish things were, but have no idea how to get from HERE to THERE. I'm really trying to get my head to understand that this may never happen and figuring out how to come to terms with this, but I actually saw glimpses of it yesterday. It was amazing. She did not complain about her work (except for fractions which she has dubbed as the new 'F word'). She wasn't in a rush to finish her work. She got all interested in looking at the globe and exploring different parts of Africa.

I can't tell you how blessed I felt. I will have to remember this when we have one of those crappy days, right?

Also, she voluntarily picked up dog poo in the back yard. WHA???? Who is this child?
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Aw, that is awesome Val!! Those kinds of days are SO encouraging!
 
crystalbella77 said:
I cannot stand ants. They gross me out so bad and give me major heebie jeebies!! I can do butterflies..but the ants...*shiver*

YAY for having an awesome day Val!!! I love days like that. Some days are definitely so hard to have a really great day is so awesome! <3 <3
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Oh my goodness - I'm so right there with you. I can't even imagine opening a box of ants!! Ewwwwww. I do have to admit those ant farms with the cool blue gel in them look really cool, but witih ants in there it would definitely ruin it for me LOL
 
Mmm... our dinner turned out so good! We made West African chicken, a couscous salad and pita bread with cucumber yogurt sauce. Eden made the salad 100% by herself.

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ooh that food looks good! I should totally do that when my boys are older.

Marcus is having a rough day today. He doesn't want to do anything I'm asking him to do today and keeps trying to get me to let him do the fun stuff. Sorry kid, you gotta buckle down and do the not as fun stuff sometimes too!
 
Sometimes I want to just say, "You wanna go back to public school?!" but... that's not very maternal, so I don't.
 
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